Actor Priyanka Chopra describes late fatherAshok Chopra, on his 70th birth anniv,as her forever cheerleader

DADDY’S GIRL

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Massive wildfires continue to wreakhavoc across the US state ofCalifornia

CALIFORNIA BURNS AGAIN

INTERNATIONAL | P10

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 143 | www.orissapost.com

LEISURE | P2

45 districts of UP have been included inMinistry of Agriculture’s ‘One District,One Product’ scheme TWO STATES | P7

‘1 DISTRICT, 1 PRODUCT’

12 PAGES | `4.00

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I’m all for a non-Gandhi asparty chief. Just waiting forGandhis to decide whom!

WEATHERBHUB

31.7° 31.8°CTK

24.6°MAX

MINTE

MP

Humidity 98% 79%Rainfall 6.8mm Nil

Forecast

Light rainlikely

26.5°

SHORT TAKES

Petrol prices hikedfor 4th straight dayNew Delhi: Petrol prices acrossthe four metros rose for thefourth straight day Sunday. InBhubaneswar, petrol price washiked from `82.10 to `80.09/litre, while diesel priceremained stable at `80.09/litre.In Kolkata, petrol was sold for`83.01, higher by 14 paise fromits previous level of `82.87 perlitre. Similarly, in Delhi andMumbai, price of the fuelincreased by 14 paise to `81.49and `88.16 per litre,respectively on Sunday. Theprice of the transportation fuelin Chennai was at `84.52 perlitre, higher by 12 paise from`84.40 Saturday. Diesel pricesare, however, same across themetros. In the national capital,diesel prices have remainedstable since the Delhigovernment announced a 13.25per cent reduction in the ValueAdded Tax July 30, which hadcaused the price to fall by `8.36per litre.

BHUBANESWAR | MONDAY, AUGUST 24 | 2020

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 23:The Bhubaneswar-Meteorological Departmenthas predicted heavy rainsover the next three days inparts of Odisha due to build-up of a low pressure area inthe Bay of Bengal. It is an-ticipated that different partsof the state may see en-hanced rains in the comingdays, starting Monday.

The MET department saidthat heavy to very heavy rain-fall is likely at one or twoplaces over Balasore, Bhadrak,Jajpur, Kendrapada,Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack,Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar andDhenkanal districts.

“Light to moderate rainor thundershower is likelyto occur at most places overall districts of North Odishaand at many places overSouth Odisha August 24,”the MET department bul-letin said.

On August 25, light tomoderate rain or thunder-shower is predicted at mostplaces over Odisha.“However, heavy to veryheavy rainfall and extremelyheavy rainfall is likely tooccur at one or two placesover Balasore, Bhadrak,Jajpur, Kendrapada,Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack,Mayurbhanj, Dhenkanal,Sambalpur, Deo g arh,Keonjhar and Angul dis-tricts,” the department said.

On the third day, August26, heavy to very heavy rain-fall is predicted at one ortwo places over Jharsuguda,Bargarh, Sundargarh,Deogarh, Sambalpur, Angul,Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj,Sone pur, Boudh andBolangir districts.

The department has al-ready issued OrangeWarning for the next threedays in the light of heavyrainfall in different partsof the state.

Projects worth `20L cr show cost overruns of `4.11 trn

Malkangiri: A Maoist, MahadevMadkami, carrying a cashreward of `2 lakh on his headand allegedly involved in severalincidents of crime, surrenderedbefore the police in Malkangiridistrict, Sunday, Superintendentof Police Rishikesh Khilari said.The Red rebel now desires toreturn to the mainstreamsociety, Khilari added.Madkami, a resident ofKankerapra village ofDantebada district inChhattisgarh district, was in-charge and area committeesecretary of Darvha divisionand Chaitu SurakhyaCommittee. He was activemostly in Malkangiri andnearby areas in Odisha andhe carried a cash reward of`2 lakh announced by theGovernment of Odisha, theSP said. P5

Maoist surrenders

AGENCIES

New Delhi, August 23: Congressinterim president Sonia Gandhihas reportedly conveyed her aidesthat she would step down from theparty’s top post after a letter signedby more than 20 top leaders, seek-ing “full-time”, “visible” leader-ship, became public.

According to sources, Sonia hassent a formal reply saying that herstint as interim president for oneyear is complete and she wouldlike to step down from the party toppost. Hence, the party should choosea new president.

Earlier, 23 Congress leaders wrotea five-page letter, dated August 7, toSonia seeking reforms in the partyand a full-time president. The sig-natories, however, made it clearthere is no criticism of RahulGandhi. “We have not criticisedSonia Gandhi or Rahul Gandhi,but we want a complete overhaul ofthe Congress party in its manage-ment and style,” sources said.

Meanwhile, a meeting of theCongress Working Committee (CWC)has been called Monday. Sourcesadded that this meeting was called inresponse to the letter to discuss theorganisational issues pointed out byCongress leaders.

All India Congress Committee(AICC) spokesperson Randeep SinghSurjewala responded to reportssuggesting that Sonia Gandhi hasdecided to step down as the party’sinterim president. Surjewala said,“Mrs Gandhi has not spoken toany leader, nor written a letter toanyone, we completely deny this.”

However, a number of Congressleaders, including Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singh, saidthat this internal deliberation is

ill-timed and has further strength-ened the BJP. He and severalCongress Chief Ministers felt thatthe Gandhis had contributed to theparty’s development for decadesand, hence, they need to be at thehelm to strengthen the organisationin this crisis. Already, a strategy tocounter the letter that has indi-rectly questioned the present lead-ership is already on the cards.Various state units of the party

have started gathering and a reso-lution will be passed condemningthe signature campaign of the vet-erans on the said letter.

Many Congress members feelthat the letter is more of a last-ditch effort by certain leaders to savetheir own political future, termingit the decision to choose self-in-terest over the interests of theparty. CWC members Jitin Prasada,Mukul Wasnik and several otherswho signed the letter never men-tioned these issues during the threemeetings held during the lock-down. However, they chose to signthe letter questioning the role of theCWC itself.

Meanwhile, a lot of speculationis in the air as far as the signaturesof Congress Members of Parliamentare concerned and also regardingwho would succeed Sonia Gandhiif she eventually steps down.

FIND A PRESIDENT,SONIA TELLS CONG

A letter signed by 23 Congress leaders call for elections to pick members of the CWC - highest decision-making body of the party

LETTER ROW

23Cong leaders wrote the 5-page letter, dated August

7, to Sonia seeking reforms inthe party and a full-time prez

Ameeting of the CWC hasbeen called Monday to

discuss organisational issuespointed out by party leaders

Trump campaign releases first video featuring PM ModiTHE VIDEO COMMERCIAL AIMS TO WOO THE INFLUENTIAL INDIAN-AMERICAN VOTERS NUMBERING OVER 2 MILLIONPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, August 23: Aimingto woo the influential Indian-American voters numbering over2 million, the Trump campaign hasreleased its first video commercialthat has short clips from PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s speechesand US President Donald Trump’shistoric address in Ahmedabad.

Modi and Trump addressed ahuge crowd in Ahmedabad duringthe US President’s visit to India inFebruary this year. Trump was alsoaccompanied by his wife Melania,daughter Ivanka, son-in-law JaredKushner and top brass of his ad-ministration on his trip to India.

“America enjoys a great rela-

tionship with India and our cam-paign enjoys great support fromIndian-Americans!” KimberlyGuilfoyle, national chair ofTrump Victory FinanceCommittee said in a tweetreleasing the video com-mercial.

The President’s sonDonald Trump Jr, whois leading the cam-paign and is wellconnected withthe Indian-American com-munity, also re-tweeted it asthe commercialsoon becameviral on social

media with over 66,000 views onTwitter in the first few hours.

Titled “Four More Years” the107-second video starts with the

iconic footage of Modi andTrump walking hand in handat the NRG Stadium

in Houston dur-ing the prime min-ister’s visit tothe US last year

wherein theleaders of

the world’stwo

largest democracies made a joint ad-dress before a strong crowd ofIndian-Americans numbering morethan 50,000. Amidst cheering ofthousands of his supporters in theUS, Modi is seen as saying thatTrump “needs no introduction”and that “his name comes up in al-

most every conversation.”He is the President of the United

States of America “Mr DonaldTrump”, the prime minister saysat the start of the video that has

been conceptualised by AlMason, co-chair of the TrumpVictory Indian AmericanFinance Committee.

Modi is highly popularamong Indian-Americans.His star appeal has at-

tracted record crowds. His addressat the Madison Square Garden in2015 and then in the Silicon Valleytwo years later, both attracting morethan 20,000 people, making the primeminister perhaps the only foreignleader in recent memory to haveaddressed such huge rallies in theUS.

His “Howdy Modi” address inHouston last September was at-tended by a record 50,000 people.Trump made a solo trip to Houstonto join Modi in addressing the his-toric rally. After Modi introducesTrump to “my family”, the secondpart of the commercial has clipsfrom Trump’s address inAhmedabad this February.

“America loves India. America re-

spects India. And America will al-ways be a faithful and loyal friendto the Indian people,” Trump saysin the commercial in which hepraises the contribution of fourmillion Indian-Americans.

“They are truly spectacular peo-ple,” the President said.

The commercial comes follow-ing a research by Mason in battle-ground States according to whichthe Indian-Americans, who tradi-tionally vote for the Democrats, areswitching over to the RepublicanParty in significant numbers be-cause the friendship that Trumphas with Modi and the latter’s highpopularity among a large section ofthe community, of which 2.5 millionare eligible to vote.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Sambalpur, August 23: ‘Nuakhai’, a majorharvest festival of western Odisha, was cele-brated in a low-key manner Sunday due to theprevailing COVID-19 situation.

People had to give ‘Nuakhai Bhet’ or social gath-ering on the occasion a miss due to the out-break of the pandemic.

Authorities of the renowned Samaleswaritemple here made arrangements to live streamthe rituals as people were not allowed to enterthe place of worship. Similar restrictions wereimposed in other temples as well.

Though the state government relaxed theweekend shutdown in Rourkela city on the oc-casion, it advised people to celebrate the festi-val indoors without congregating. Shops in thecity remained closed during the day, officials said.

Farmers offered their first grains to theirhousehold deities, before distributing 'prasad'among other members of their families.

All family members eat together on the occasionand people working outside visit their homes tocelebrate the festival.

“Socio-cultural aspect of the festival, how-ever, was missing this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Sambalpur-based writer SiddharthPanda said, adding many people could not visittheir homes due to the pandemic.

Extending his greetings on the occasion, theVice-President tweeted: “Nuakhai Juhar! Anancient festival for the worship of foodgrain,#Nuakhai celebrates our farmers’ hard labourand their joy of new harvest season... It reflectsman's close relationship with nature. May thisfestival bring peace, prosperity and happinessin everyone’s life.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the na-tion is fed due to the farmers’ efforts.

“The special occasion of Nuakhai is about cel-ebrating the hard work of our farmers. It is dueto their efforts that our nation is fed. May thisauspicious day bring prosperity and good healthfor everyone. Nuakhai Juhar!” he tweeted.

COVID-19 cloud on‘Nuakhai’ festivity

THE MINISTRY OF STATISTICS AND PROGRAMME IMPLEMENTATION MONITORS INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS WORTH `150 CR AND ABOVE

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 23: As manyas 412 infrastructure projects, eachworth ̀ 150 crore or more; have beenhit by cost overruns of over ̀ 4.11 tril-lion owing to delays and other rea-sons, according to a report.

The Ministry of Statistics andProgramme Implementation mon-itors infrastructure projects worth`150 crore and above. Of the 1,683such projects, 412 reported costoverruns and 471 time escalation.

“Total original cost of imple-mentation of the 1,683 projects was`20,65,336.20 crore and their antic-ipated completion cost is likely tobe ̀ 24,77,167.67 crore, which reflectsoverall cost overruns of ̀ 4,11,831.47crore (19.94 per cent of original

cost),” the ministry’s latest reportfor June 2020 said.

The expenditure incurred onthese projects till June 2020 is`11,21,435.29 crore, which is 45.27per cent of the anticipated cost.

However, it said that the num-ber of delayed projects decreases to418 if delay is calculated on thebasis of latest schedule of completion.

Further, it said that for 979 proj-ects neither the year of commis-sioning nor the tentative gestationperiod has been reported.

Out of 471 delayed projects, 127have overall delay in the range of oneto 12 months, 112 have delay of 13to 24 months, 127 reflect delay in therange of 25 to 60 months and 105 proj-ects show delay of 61 months and

above. The average time overrun inthese 471 delayed projects is 43.34months.

The brief reasons for time over-runs as reported by various projectimplementing agencies are delay in

land acquisition, delay in obtainingforest/environment clearances andlack of infrastructure support andlinkages.

Besides, there are other rea-sons like delay in tie-up of proj-ect financing, delay in finalisa-tion of detailed engineering,change in scope, delay in tender-ing, ordering and equipment sup-ply, law and order problems, ge-olo gical sur prises,pre-commissioning teething trou-bles and contractual issues, amongothers, the report said.

It also observed that project agen-cies are not reporting revised costestimates and commissioning sched-ules for many projects, indicatingthat time or cost overrun figures areunder-reported.

Heavy rains predictedfor next three days

Motorists move through a waterlogged street at Rasulgarh inthe Capital after a spell of heavy rain, Sunday PHOTO: BIKASH NAYAK

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bijepur, August 23: In a tragic in-cident, a man allegedly gave poi-son to his wife and daughter beforeconsuming the toxic substance toend their lives, police said Sunday.

The incident was reported fromBeniachal village under Bijepurpolice limits in Bargarh district.

The deceased have been iden-tified as Ratha Mahananda, 45,his wife Kumudini Mahananda, 40,and their daughter KavitaMahananda, 12.

Police said theincident is fall-out of a severequarrel betweenthe couple oversome issue on theeve of ‘Nuakhai’,Saturday. Rathalost his cool dur-ing the fight andforcefully fed poi-son to his wife.

He also did notspare his minor daughter andforced her to consume poisonwhen she tried to resist. After thisRatha himself consumed poisonseeing his wife and daughterwreathing in pain.

On being informed, they wererescued by their kin in a criticalcondition and admitted to Bijepurcommunity health centre (CHC).Doctors there pronounced the girlbrought dead and shifted the cou-ple to the district headquartershospital (DHH) in Bargarh.

As their conditions deterio-rated, they were referred them toVSS Institute of Medical Sciencesand Research (VIMSAR) in Burla.

However, the duo breathed theirlast while undergoing treatmentat Burla.

Man kills selfafter poisoningwife, daughter

Police saidthe incidentis fall-out ofa severequarrelbetween thecouple oversome issueon the eve ofNuakhai

Los Angeles: ActressPriyanka Chopra is miss-ing her father, Ashok Chopra,on his 70th birth anniver-sary, and described him as

her forever cheerleaderThe actress took to

Twitter andInstagram to re-member her fatherby sharing an oldvideo of him ac-cepting an awardon her behalf.

“My forevercheerleader. Youwould have been70 today. Missyou dad,” shewrote alongwith the clip.

In the video,Priyanka’s fa-ther is seenaccepting an

award on her behalf, as shewas running late to the cer-emony. Expressing pride ather achievements, he said: “Idedicate this award to thoseartists who come from smalltowns. They believe in Godand they believe in them-selves, and by their meregrit, determination and tal-ent, they make their mark.God bless you, Priyanka.”

Priyanka, who lost her father in 2013 to cancer, incidentally has a tattooon her forearm thatreads, “Daddy's lilgirl”.

IANS

P2 ROBERT PATTINSON EMBRACES DARKNESS IN THE BATMAN TRAILER

leisure Filmmaker Matt Reeves has unveiled the first trailerof his film, The Batman, which shows actor RobertPattinson taking on the avatar of the caped crusaderfor vengeance. The teaser shows a new dark, gritty,and violent take on the iconic superhero.

Filmmaker James Wan is working on expanding the worldof Jason Momoa-starrer Aquaman, and says the secondchapter will come with more serious and relevant tones.Aquaman 2 also stars Amber Heard and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. It is slated to open in December 2022.

MONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSYour will finally end todayand you will enjoy thefruits of your hard-work.You are very good a con-sidering all the pros and cones of everysituation/project, drawing a plan onpaper and distribution of responsibilities,however, execution of those plans is aproblem area for you.

PISCESYou will come up trumpsagainst your competitiontoday. This will make youenthusiastic about yourfuture prospects. You shy away from thespotlight usually, but today you will findyourself thrust into the role of a leader, asyou take on new assignments.

SAGITTARIUSYour stars are mightytoday and plan a pleas-ant day for you, saysGanesha. You are a thor-ough professional and garner compli-ments for this attitude. You also have aknack to sail through all the troubles atwork. This approach of yours is sure towin hearts of people and add somenames in your friends' list

LIBRAGanesha says that todaywill be a day where youwill want to look goodand feel good too. Youwill be able to attract people with yourspeech and your impressive personalitytoday at social gatherings. Your socialstature will also rise today. Romanticliaisons may take a serious turn today.

SCORPIOToday, you must spendmost of the time in medi-tation and introspection.If you do not meditate,you will be surrounded by negativethoughts and bitterness for others.According to Ganesha, this may hinderyour progress and growth in career.

LEOYou will spend the daywith your family andfriends today and feelcloser to them. You willtry to help others, as always. You willlike to guide someone if your own situa-tion is comfortable today. You will beable to fulfill the expectations placedupon you by someone and will garner alot of well-wishes, says Ganesha.

GEMINIYou will be able to put for-ward your proposal andexplain your feelings tosomeone dear to you, and can expect apositive response from them. You willcome across as honest and sincere andhence will be accepted. An auspicious andjoy-filled day awaits, says Ganesha.

CANCERYou will help others andbe cheerful, feelsGanesha. you willinspire and encourageothers. Closeness with beloved will glad-den you. You will be attracted to specialperson, and it could benefit you.

ARIESSomeone new in yourlife is going to make yousmile; remember, how-ever, that it doesn't always have to befur and diamonds. A song sung straightfrom the heart makes a greater impact,says Ganesha.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSToday, Ganesha sees yourfeelings and emotionsrunning high. There is astrong possibility of an emotionalencounter with some close to you. You arelikely to be swayed and influenced by theother in course of this meeting.

CAPRICORNNormally, others, espe-cially colleagues get jeal-ous of one's success, butyours is a different case.They will not only motivate you, butalso guide you while you take up newprojects and assignments.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORDSUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

post To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to E.

MOMOA’S AQUAMAN 2 TO BE MORE RELEVANT

VIRGOYou will be the flag-bearer for peoplearound you, spreadinghope and inspiration.Ganesha advises you to be the idealfamily man today. By doing this youwill radiate affection and love. Thiswill, in turn, work remarkably in culti-vating positive relationships.

Priyanka remembers her biggest cheerleader

New Delhi: Actor Siddhant Chaturvediroared as the rap star MC Sher in GullyBoy last year, and life has never been thesame. The talented actor, who has hadhis share of struggles to reach where heis today, says in his head he has alwaysbeen a star even when he was standingin the audition lines.

Today, Siddhant has a fan followingof over 31.5k on Twitter and a whopping1.5 million on Instagram.

With so much love pouring in for per-formance as an actor and for his singleDhoop, which he released during lock-

down, does he consider him-self a star yet?

“Star toh nahi(not a star)... I used

to say one thingto myself al-ways when I was

nothing and usedto go for auditions-- whenever I used todream, or beforegoing to sleep, Iwould say ‘I am astar already and it

is just that the worlddoesn’t know’,”

Siddhant said.The 27-year-old actor

doesn't want his work to belimited just to India and

is confident of creatingwaves with his up-

coming per-formances.

IANS

‘IN MY HEADI’VE ALWAYSBEEN A STAR’

Mumbai: Actress Yami Gautam hastried to give proper time to her fitnessand well being during the lockdown.

Yami took to InstagramSunday and shared how shedealt with the serious neck injury.

“This lockdown, I got toexplore something which Icouldn't before! EverytimeI would try practising Yoga,I would be left more inpain owing to my con-dition, hence my expe-rience never encour-aged me to continue..but this time I self-tutored my waythrough and allowedmy body to heal it-self inside out andit has worked likenever before!”shewrote.

“This lockdownwas not about ‘look-ing fit’ or ‘a work-out of the day’ ...it was the timewhere I listened& just went withthe flow! I amno expert ! Itook my firstbaby step to-wards thisjourney,which shallnot stop.”

On thework front,Yami will beseen oppositeVikrant Massey in Ginnyweds Sunny. IANS

Yami self-tutors toovercome neck injury

Virtual celebrations of Ganesh Puja, NuakhaiPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar: Viswa OdiaMahasangha(VOM), a non-profitorganisation working on varioussocial issues, Sunday celebratedGanesh Puja and Nuakhai, the mostimportant socio-religious event ofWestern Odisha. The organisation,on the occasion, also felicitated twomembers of Odisha LegislativeAssembly (OLA) for their good per-formances. With ban on publicgatherings, the event was organ-ised through video conferencing.

OLA Speaker Surya NarayanPatro joined the programme asChief Guest and lighted the lamps.

Among others who attended thevirtual conference includedAgriculture and Higher EducationMinister Arun Sahoo, Science andTechnology Minister Ashok Panda,Bolangir MLA Narasingha Mishraand Debashis Samantray, formerMLA of Cuttack(Barabati). DejalinMahapatra, member, Mo Parivarwas also present.

Minister Panda felicitated PranabPrakash Das and Tara PrasadBahinipai – MLAs from Jajpur andJeypore respectively - as Best MLAs

of the year. He also appreciatedVOM for organising such a pro-gramme to encourage the law-makers.

Das, while dedicating the hon-our to the people of the state, saidhe has reached this stage due to theguidance of Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik. On the other hand,Bahinipati appreciated VOM mem-bers for recognising the role of thepeople’s representatives and pro-moting harmony in the society.

The guests spoke on the low-key

celebration of Ganesh Puja thisyear and elaborated on the signif-icance of Nuakhai for the farmersand agricultural community.

Manas Patnaik, treasurer, VOM,spoke briefly on the objective ofthe programme while organisa-tion’s president SurendranathMohapatra moderated the digitalevent.

Organisation’s other membersPrakash Ranjan Mallick, SanjayMahakud, Ramakrushna Padhi,Rudranarayan Das and JitendraPanda were also present on the oc-casion. VOM’s social media plannerSaumya Swapna Sarit Ratsingh de-livered the vote of thanks.

VISWA ODIA MAHASANGHA HONOURS LAWMAKERS FROM JAJPUR, JEYPORE

Siddhant Chaturvedi

P3

downtown

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MONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR HUNT FOR FOOD

Ducks search for foodat a pond inPotapokhari area ofCuttack, Sunday

POLITICKLE MANJUL

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, August 23: The row overthe alle ged sale of Bag alaDharmashala land in the Holy Cityhere refused to die down even thoughthe administration issued a clari-fication in this regard Saturday.

The youth wing of BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) and the Puridistrict unit of CPI (M) Sundayheld separate demonstrations toprotest the alleged sale of BagalaDharmashala land to a few lodg-ing house owners who had beenevicted for the construction of aheritage corridor around Srimandir.

BJP Yuva Morcha activists led bytheir Puri district president JayantaDash held a protest meet in front ofBagala Dharmashala. Participatingin the meeting, BJP state unit vice-president Pravati Parida criticisedthe state government and the dis-trict administration for selling theshelter house land to lodging houseowners.

“Kanheiyalal Bagala, a benevo-lent person, had set up the dhar-mashala for providing shelter facilityto poor devotees who come to Purito visit Srimandir. Bagala had do-nated the dharmashala to the ad-ministration. The state govern-ment and the district administrationhave no right to sell the donatedproperty,” Parida said.

She also asked the district ad-ministration to cancel its land saledeeds with the lodging house own-ers. Among others, BJP’s Puri dis-trict unit president Ashrit Patnaikand his predecessor PravanjanaMahapatra were present at theprotest meet.

Similarly, CPM activists led byparty’s Puri district secretary SaratRayguru held a demonstration infront of Bagala Dharmashala andvowed to intensify their agitationover the alleged land sale. “A PIL onBagala Dharmashala is pendingin the High Court. How could theadministration sell the dharmashala

land to private parties? It should im-mediately cancel its sale deeds withthe private parties,” Rayguru said.

Among others, CPM leadersJagannath Deo, PurnachandraMuduli, Yamini Mishra and BibhutiRoutray participated in the demon-stration.

Meanwhile, Biju Janata Dal (BJD)youth wing leader SubhashisKhuntia urged political parties tocooperate with the state govern-ment for its plan to make Puri aheritage city. “The state govern-ment is moving ahead with its de-velopmental plan for Puri. Partiesshould not do politics on the issue.The state government is makingall arrangement to provide shelterfacilities to poor devotees,” he said.

Earlier, the district administra-tion claimed that it had not soldthe shelter house land to anyone. Ina press statement, the administra-tion Saturday claimed that it hasonly rehabilitated a few evictedSrimandir servitors and other in-dividuals on the dharmashala landfor smooth implementation of theheritage corridor project.

Row over Bagala land continues BJP, CPM DEMONSTRATE SEPARATELY TO PROTEST THE ALLEGED SALE OF DHARMASHALA LAND

PRAVATI PARIDA | VICE-PRESIDENT, BJP-ODISHA

SARAT RAYGURU | DISTRICT SECRETARY, CPI(M)- PURI

The youth wing of BJP sits in protest, Sunday

POST NEWS NETWORK

Cuttack, August 23: The districtadministration is facing criticismfrom several quarters for its al-leged failure to find a suitable placeon Kathajodi riverbank here forthe installation of a 3D bronze sculp-ture on Mahatma Gandhi.

The sculpture would be installedon Kathajodi riverbank to com-memorate Mahatma Gandhi’s visitto the Silver City in 1921. Gandhijihad addressed a public meeting onKathajodi riverbank March 23 thatyear. The district administrationhad earlier decided to install a 3Dbronze sculpture on Gandhiji to ob-serve the centenary of his publicmeeting on Kathajodi riverbank. Ithad made a budgetary provision ofRs 32 lakh for the project, sources said.

However, construction of the 20ft wide and 10 ft high bronze sculp-ture has been stopped in the mid-way due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Moreover, the administration isfacing a tough task to find a suitableplace on Kathajodi riverbank to in-stall the sculpture, sources added.

It is learnt that the administra-

tion had identified a place nearNetaji Subhas bridge for installationof the bronze sculpture. However,the place on Kathajodi riverbank hasalso been selected for the con-struction of a public park.

“The place near Netaji Subhasbridge was earlier identified forthe construction of a public park.Though the administration wasquite aware of the park project, it

had selected that particular placefor installation of the bronze sculp-ture on Gandhiji,” said a source.

A few days ago, a 14-memberteam of the state Culture departmenthad visited the place selected for theinstallation of the bronze sculp-ture. A few members of the team re-portedly expressed their unhappi-ness over construction of a publicpark on the place. Subsequently,

the administration had proposedto identify a new place in the samelocality for displaying the 3D artwork on Gandhiji, sources said.

“The sculpture was supposed tobe installed at the identified placenear Netaji Subhas bridge March23 this year. At present, the con-struction work for the public parkis going on at the place. But, thesculpture project is likely to be de-

layed further due to the prevailinguncertainty over the identificationof a suitable place for it,” said asocial activist.

However, Culture departmentdeputy director Debanand Bariharuled out any uncertainty over thesculpture project. “The 3D sculptureon Gandhiji would be installed in-side the proposed public park nearNetaji Setu. The issue has been re-solved,” he said.

Where the admin will place Bapu’s 3D sculpture CUTTACK DISTRICT HAD MADE A BUDGETARY PROVISION OF RS 32 LAKH FOR THE PROJECT

Construction for the public park underway on Kathajodi riverbank in Cuttack OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 23: Schooland Mass Education minister SamirRanjan Dash Sunday said, “Lookingat the rapid cases of coronavirus inthe state, the government will takethe decision of reducing the schoolsyllabus of students for the aca-demic year 2020-21 by August last.”

Dash said that the principal sec-retary is looking after the expertcommittee proposals sent by highersecondary committee and by Augustend they will take the decision. Thepercentage of the syllabus reductionwill be taken looking at the situa-tion, he added.

The schools are closed till August31 and after that the Centre willtake the decision on their reopen-ing. The state government will takethe decision after analysing theCentre’s decision.

Earlier in July, considering theloss of classroom teaching timedue to COVID-19 pandemic andlockdown, Odisha School and MassEducation department (S&ME) haddecided to reduce the syllabus forClass I to XII students with the helpand suggestion from SCERT ex-

pert committee and CHSE officialsfor the academic year 2020-21.

“To reduce the syllabus of ClassI to X students, the SME depart-

ment will take the help of StateCouncil of Educational Research &Training (SCERT) and to finalise thereduced Class XI to XII syllabus,the department will take sugges-tions of Council of HigherSecondary Education.”

On being asked about the extentof reduction in syllabus, the min-ister said, “At this point of time, wecannot confirm how much syllabuswill be reduced because we are yetto decide on reopening of schools.”

Notably, all schools across Odishahave been closed till August 31 inview of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier, the Central Board ofSecondary Education (CBSE) hadeased the syllabus for Class IX to XIIby up to 30 per cent amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Decision on reduction of syllabi ‘by Aug-end’

THE ADMIN HAD IDENTIFIED APLACE NEAR NETAJI SUBHAS

BRIDGE FOR INSTALLATION OFTHE BRONZE SCULPTURE

HOWEVER, THAT PLACE ONKATHAJODI RIVERBANK HAS

ALSO BEEN SELECTED FOR THECONSTRUCTION OF A PUBLIC

PARK

NOW, THE ADMIN SAYS THATTHE SCULPTURE WOULD BE

INSTALLED INSIDE THEPROPOSED PUBLIC PARK NEAR

NETAJI SETU

Representative pic

To reduce the syllabi of ClassI to X students, the S&ME

dept will take the help of SCERT To finalise the reduced Class XI to XII

syllabi, the dept will take suggestionsof Council of Higher Secondary Education

At this point of time, wecannot confirm howmuch syllabus will bereduced because we areyet to decide on reopening of schools,says S&ME minister

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 23: A gangof vagrants roaming across thecity have turned to theft due to theeconomic distress caused by theCovid-induced lockdown, sourcessaid. Many incidents of theft per-petrated by such distressed fami-lies have come to fore at differentparts of the city recently, sourcesadded.

The accused miscreants used tosell stationary items, toys and bal-loons at busy traffic junctions oralongside the city roads before theonset of the pandemic. However,they have lost their means of liveli-hood due to the lockdowns andshutdowns during the past fewmonths.

As a result, they have been roam-ing across various localities on thepretext of collecting waste productsand scraps as rag pickers. Sourcesexplained their modus operandi: thewomen members and their kidsenter the victims’ houses wherethey find the doors and windowsopen. They decamp with mobiles,wallets and other valuables from thehouse. Recently, locals in Nayapallicaught a lady and her childrenwhile stealing a mobile phone froma house. They were later handedover to the police. Similarly,Saturday, a gang of such vagrantsstole a purse and a mobile phonefrom the house of one BatshalMansingh at Bhimtangi in Airfieldpolice limits. These are not someisolated incidents but ubiquitousoccurrence in the capital.

Beware of vagrants’ gangs operating in BhubaneswarThese vagrants used to sell stationary items, toys and

balloons at busy trafficjunctions or alongside thecity roads before the onset

of the pandemic

People immersing a clay idol of Lord Ganesh in Kuakhai river in Bhubaneswar, Sunday. This year the civic authoritiesput restrictions on community celebrations of Ganesh Puja due to the Covid-19 pandemic (PIC: BIKASH NAYAK)

BIDDING ADIEU

STATE SCHOOLS ARE CLOSED TILL AUGUST 31 AND ANY FURTHERDECISION WILL BE TAKEN DEPENDING UPON CENTRE’S MOVE

Puri district unit of CPI (M) holds demonstration OP PHOTOS

INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 2,34,65,552 1,59,88,517 8,10,178

India 30,46,862 22,81,982 56,865

Odisha 78,530 54,406 409

COVID-19 TRACKER

downtownMONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP4

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 23:Fisheriesand Animal Resources Department,Government of Odisha, has broughtout a new scheme for promotingaquaculture through bio-floc tech-nology. This is an advanced fishfarming technology introduced inthe state to provide livelihood sup-port to entrepreneurs, unemployedyouth and interested progressive fishfarmers of the state, aimed at in-creasing fish productivity and makethe state self-sufficient in fish pro-duction, officials said.

Introducing the scheme, the stategovernment provides a subsidy of40 per cent while 60 per cent subsidyis provided to SC& ST beneficiaries.

Bio-floc based farming systemis a new technology for promotionof intensive fish or shrimp pro-duction in a limited area without sig-nificantly increasing the usage ofthe basic natural resources of waterand land. A person having smallland holding, as small as 150-200square meter of land, and havingeither municipal piped water sup-

ply or bore well water supply canestablish business with small in-vestment, they added. This pro-gramme aims to support fish farm-ers and young entrepreneurs forgeneration of income and liveli-hood support, added another official.

Bio-floc system is suitable forgrowing freshwater fish speciessuch as GIFT Tilapia, Magur,Pangasius, Anabas and Common

Carp among others depending onlocal market demands. In bio-floctechnology, the waste organic mat-ter in the tank such as feed waste,are digested using pro biotics (help-ful bacteria) and carbon sourcesuch as molasses and gets convertedto fish feed.

In normal pond based farmingsystem, one acre of earthen tank(4,000 square meter area) produces

about 2,000 kg of fish in six months;while in bio-floc fish farming sys-tem, the two same 2,000 kg fish canbe produced only from four smalltanks of each four meter diameterand 1.2 meter depth installed in afloor area of about 100-150 square

meter.Each bio-floc tank is stocked with

about 1,000-1500 numbers of qual-ity fish fry (2-3 cm) or fingerlings (8-10 cm) with a target of 500 kg fishproduction over six months period.Fish grows to about 200 gramswithin three months and 700-800grams within six months. Therefore,depending on the local market de-mand, fish can be partially har-vested on daily basis to generatedaily income for farmers.

Bio-floc farming system is alsosuitable for urban and semi-urban areas. It can be set upeven on terraces building ter-race and backyard. It offers liveor fresh fish to surrounding cus-tomers thus fetching higher mar-ket prices for the producer. Theunit cost for installation of abio-floc unit of two tanks is Rs1.50 lakh, while a unit of sixtanks costs approximately Rs.4.00lakh, officials informed.

Introducing the scheme, the stategovernment provides a subsidy of40 per cent while 60 per cent subsidyis provided to SC& ST beneficiaries.

State launches scheme on bio-floc fish farming

% subsidy to SC& ST beneficiaries

ECONOMICAL &INNOVATIVE The technology aims to promoteintensive fish or shrimpproduction in a limited areawithout significantly increasingthe usage of the basic naturalresources of water and land. Aperson having small landholding, even as small as 150-200 square meter of land, andhaving either municipal pipedwater supply or bore well watersupply can establish business.Each bio-floc tank is stockedwith about 1,000-1500 numbersof quality fish fry (2-3 cm) orfingerlings (8-10 cm) with atarget of 500 kg fish productionover six months period

% subsidy in general

Representative pic

PNN & AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, August 23: Thestate Sunday registered its high-est single-day spike of 2,993 COVID-19 cases and 10 more deaths due tothe infection, an official of Healthand Family Welfare (H&FW) de-partment said.

With this, Odisha’s COVID-19death toll has mounted to 409 andthe infection tally reached 78,530,added the official.

The official added that 53 othercoronavirus patients have also died,but the cause of their deaths hasbeen attributed to some other rea-sons.

Of the fresh 2,993 cases, 1,879were reported from different quar-antine centres, while the remaining1,114 were detected during contacttracing exercise.

The state had last reported itshighest single-day surge of 2,924cases August 15.

The fresh cases were reportedfrom all the 30 districts. Khurdadistrict reported the highest 606cases, followed by Ganjam (271).

Nayagarh reported 153 cases,Rayag ada (137) ,Mayurbhanj (120) ,Balasore (115) ,Sambalpur (104) ,Koraput (95),Bargarh(98),Bhadrak(92) and

Malkangiri (85). Nine districtsreported new cases above 100, saidthe official.

“Regret to inform of the demiseof ten COVID positive patientswhile under treatment in hospi-tals,” the H&FW department saidin its official Twitter post.

Three of the 10 new fatalities

werere-

portedfrom Ganjam dis-

trict, two each fromCuttack and Rayagada and

one each from Bolangir, Gajapatiand Nayagarh districts, the offi-cial said.

Odisha, meanwhile, also regis-tered its highest single-day recov-ery of 2,129 COVID-19 cases, Sunday.

317 fresh cases take City’s case-load to 7,332

The COVID-19 tally increased to7,332 in Bhubaneswar with another317 positive cases being detectedin the city, Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) tweeted.

Of new 317 cases, 206 were quar-

antine cases including one withtravel history and 111 are local con-tact ones. With fresh cases, the num-ber of active cases in the Capital citynow stands at 2,901.

Besides, 170 COVID-19 patients re-covered from the disease Sunday, tak-ing the total recoveries inBhubaneswar to 4,389.

The virus has so far claimed 33lives in Bhubaneswar.

2,993 nCoV cases in one dayODISHA SEES ITS HIGHEST SINGLE-DAY RECOVERY OF 2,129 COVID-19 CASES, SUNDAY

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 23: Thesecond COVID hospital in Cuttack,with a capacity of 150 beds, willsoon start functioning, the districtadministration said Sunday.

In a virtual conference, CuttackDistrict Collector Bhabani ShankarChayani said that this would beaddition to the Ashwini COVIDHospital in the city. The new COVIDHospital-Sadguru is likely to offer24 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bedsand a total of 11 dialysis beds.

“This will ensure general bedsfrom 116 to 223. The numbers ofICU will be increased from 34 to 58.Sadguru Hospital is likely to have11 dialysis facilities and also makeavail the gynecology ward. The oc-cupancy of Ashwini COVID Hospitalas per latest information stands at66 per cent,” Chayani said.

He also said that the district hasa dedicated COVID Health Centreat the 150-bedded GIMSAR which isrunning at 79 per cent occupancy.The Collector added that there arearound eight COVID Care Centreswith total bed capacity of 1,230 beds.

“We are trying to increase thenumber of COVID patients under

home isolation. A total of 542 COVIDasymptomatic patients are availingthe facility of home iso-lation in the district,”he said.

The official alsosaid that the districtadministration hasbeen able to conducta total of 69,217 sam-ple tests by now.Majority of the posi-tive cases are, as perthe government data,have been reportedfrom Cuttack city.

“62.18 per centcases were reportedfrom Cuttack citywhile 37.82 per centcases were from rural areas. In thelast one week, we have seen 65.77 percent recovery rate while 33.51 percent cases are active in the district.The mortality rate in the districtnow lies at 0.39 per cent,” he said.

Chayani said that the govern-ment was able to conduct more

testing this week (21,486) comparedto last week (17,435). He said that theSCB Medical College has conducted

a total of 1,44,782sample tests tillnow from 21 dif-ferent districts outof which 5,174 (3.6per cent) samplestested positive.

He said that thedistrict adminis-tration has identi-fied 155 villages inrural areas fromwhich it sawCOVID cases andincreased surveil-lance in such areasand door to door

campaign was organised accord-ingly.

“There have also been 168 plasmadonations at SCB Medical Collegeand out of this a total of 336 plasmaunits were prepared. A total of 287plasma units have also been utilisedtill now,” he concluded.

Cuttack’s second COVIDhospital to start ops soon The new COVID Hospital,Sadguru, is likely to offer24 ICU beds and a total

of 11 dialysis beds

With 10 more fatalities,Odisha’s COVID death toll

mounts to 409

3of the fresh 10 COVID deathsreported from Ganjam, two

each from Cuttack and Rayagadaand one each from Bolangir,Gajapati and Nayagarh

Infection tally reaches 78,530

Khurda reports the highest 606cases

IT WORSENS

62.18 per cent caseswere reported fromCuttack city while

37.82 per cent caseswere from rural areas. Inthe last one week, wehave seen 65.77 per centrecovery rate while 33.51per cent cases are activein the district. Themortality rate in thedistrict now stands at0.39 per centBHABANI SHANKAR CHAYANI |COLLECTOR, CUTTACK

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 23: TheCuttack Municipal Corporation(CMC) Sunday said that 30 per centof the active cases in the city are nowunder home isolation while ma-jority of the cases are in COVIDCare Centres.

CMC Commissioner Ananya Dassaid that while 30 per cent casesare under home isolation, 64 percent of them were from the COVIDCare Centres while only six percent of them required hospitalisa-tion and critical care in COVIDHospitals.

Cuttack city saw testing of 26,748samples while a total of 1,560 testedpositive. The positivity rate in thelast week stood at 5.97 per cent.

“Up to 60 per cent tests done forCOVID 19 are RT-PCR tests. We aretrying to increase the testing. Wehave observed that the maximumcases of patients of COVID-19 arefrom the working group between 21to 40 years. Out of the total 953cases detected this week, 442 werefrom this group,” Das said.

Das also said that mortality isoften reported from the elderly

group. “I request people to keepthe elderly under isolation andaway from the middle aged familymembers,” Das said. The officialsaid that a total of nine UrbanPublic Health Centres (UPHC) andCommunity Health Centres (CHC)are conducting antigen tests forsymptomatic persons while RT-PCR tests are done at two hospi-

tals in the city.“Our risk analysis of the positive

reports concluded that the highestrisk groups against COVID-19 werethe healthcare workers. We are try-ing to comply with all norms andprotocols at healthcare institutions.We are emphasising on testing ofsymptomatic patients,” she said.

The official also said that the

CMC is regularly conductingtesting camps at Malgodown andChhatra Bazar areas which areother risk areas. The third riskareas, she claimed were thedensely populated slums andsahi areas.

“We are roping in the MobileTesting Units, testing at PrimaryHealth Cenres to screen the vul-nerable population in a better way.We are also regularly conductingtesting of elderly and pregnantwomen,” she concluded.

Silver City’s 30% active cases in home isolation THE POSITIVITY RATE IN THE LAST WEEK STANDS AT 5.97 PER CENT

We are trying toincrease the testing.

We’ve observed that themaximum cases ofCOVID-19 are from theworking group between21 to 40 years. Of thetotal 953 cases detectedthis week, 442 werefrom this groupANANYA DAS I CMC COMMISSIONER

Active surveillance is underway at New Nimba Sahi in Chauliaganj, Cuttack.The CMC is regularly conducting testing camps at Malgodown and ChhatraBazar areas which are other risk areas. The third risk areas are said to be thedensely populated slums and sahi areas

RAIN AND THE CITY

Vehicles ply on a waterlogged road near the Iskcon temple in Bhubaneswar as heavy rain lashed the Capital city,Sunday (PIC: MAUSAM NANDA)

Numbers vis-à-vis national data

Active casesin state

POST NEWS NETWORK

Cuttack, August 23: Althoughnorms mandate proper disposalof biomedical waste, a few dis-carded Personal ProtectiveEquipment (PPE) kits were foundto have been dumped on the roadnear Satichoura dump yard here.This has sent shivers down thespine of the locals as they fearspread of COVID-19.

The localities under CuttackMunicipal Corporation (CMC) havereported more than 3,000 cases ofnovel coronavirus and 14 fatali-ties. In a bid to curb spread of thevirus, the district administration,along with the civic body, has un-dertaken a slew of measures likedoor-to-door sanitisation and main-tenance of hygiene on a regularbasis.

However, a few vehicles engagedby the CMC in ferrying trash toSatichoura dump yard were seendumping garbage containing dis-

carded PPE kits on road near thedump yard in the wee hours ofSunday.

“Frontline doctors and supportstaff of healthcare facilities areusing PPE kits to minimise therisk of contracting the infection.Although guidelines mandateproper disposal of biomedical wasteincluding PPE kits in colour codedbags, the trash-carrying vehiclesdumping those in open shows howcareful the administration is,” saida local of Satichoura area, pointingout that many rag pickers can getinfected by it.

Asked, CMC deputy commis-sioner Sanjeebita Ray said manyagencies have been roped in to en-sure proper disposal of PPE kitsfrom several COVID hospitals andCOVID Care Centres.

“They were ensuring proper dis-posal of the discarded PPE kits.PPE kits were not being dumped inopen,” Ray said brushing aside theallegation.

PPE kits being dumped in open in Cuttack city

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NUAKHAI FEST

As celebrations of Nuakhai festival in western Odisha kick off, priests are on their way to offer ‘nabanna’(new rice)to deities at Samaleswari temple in Sambalpur, Sunday OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bolangir, August 23: The farmingcommunity is already battered bythe Covid-induced restrictions anderratic monsoon. At this time, shortsupply and black marketing of fer-tilizer have added to their woeswhen the farming season is at itspeak in Bolangir district. This is insharp contrast to the state and thecentral governments’ stress onfarming to tide over the afteref-fects of the pandemic.

The government laid stress on ex-tending cooperation in supply ofseeds, pesticides, fertilizers andagriculture implements. But theground reality in the district is thereverse.

Like previous years, farmers inmany parts of the district havebeen facing difficulties in availingfertilizers amid allegation of blackmarketing.

At this time, paddy farmers badlyrequire urea and other fertilizersfor growth of plants. “Urea is notavailable with the dealers and theprimary agricultural co-operativesocieties (PACS) in the district.Wholesalers and dealers are de-liberately creating artificial short-age of fertilizers,” a farmer alleged.

All such illegality is going on inthe knowledge of the administra-tion and officials of the agricul-ture department, farmers lamented.

They pointed out that black mar-keteers are ruling the roost in thedistrict where only three percent ofthe land is said to be irrigated.

The farmers said the govern-ment has made a provision to sup-ply fertilizers at subsidized ratesthrough the agriculture depart-ment and the cooperative societies,but this has become a farce.

“As farmers fail to get fertiliz-ers at PACSs, they have to buy fromtraders at prices much higher thanRs 266.50 per packet (governmentrate),” the farmers said. ZillaKrushak Sangh and farmers havesubmitted a memorandum to the

Chief Minister about black mar-keting and short supply of urea.

“The district agriculture officerhas failed to contain the black mar-keting. The Collector and the Sub-collector should take immediate ac-tion against the illegal hoarders,”lamented MLA Narasingha Mishra.

It was learnt that this year, the dis-trict requires 22,300 tonnes of urea,but by July 13, the district was sup-plied with 19,654 tonnes of fertilizers.

Radhakant Pradhan, a farmer

of Uparjhar, had talked to the dis-trict agriculture officer in this re-gard a few days ago.

District agriculture officer AshokKumar Mohanty said, “Followingthe allegation, I had visitedTitilagarh, Saintala and Kantabanjiareas and took stock of the blackmarketing of urea. But urea is wellstocked in those areas. 158 PACSsin the district have short supply offertilizers. The shortage will beplugged in a few days.”

Fertilizer crunch takes toll on farming in BolangirPOST NEWS NETWORK

Hinjilicut, August 23: Tensionran high near Hinjili police sta-tion in Ganjam district after po-lice lathi-charged residents ofKolidaspur village who were stag-ing a demonstration outside thepolice station, Sunday.

The agitators had gheraoed the po-lice station demanding the releaseof five persons who were detainedby the police for allegedly torchingvehicles engaged in illegal sandmining and transport in the area.

The irate locals of Kolidaspurhad torched seven vehicles, in-cluding three trucks, a tractor, twobikes and a JCB earthmover Friday.

A villager Sanjay Polai was crit-ically injured during the incident.Rama Krushna Barad of Sikiri vil-lage had lodged a complaint against10 persons of Kolidaspur for theattack on Polai and torching of thevehicles.

It is alleged that the vehicleswere used in illegal transport ofsand from Rushikulya riverbed.Police swung into action and pickedfive persons from Kolidaspur anddetained them in the police stationSaturday.

The vandalism was the outcomeof the people’s anguish over theinaction of the administrationagainst the illegal activity, sourcessaid.

The police action sparked ten-

sion among the locals followingwhich hundreds of villagersgheraoed the Hinjili police stationdemanding immediate release ofthe detainees.

According to the villagers, thoughthe vehicles were set on fire byunidentified miscreants, policeunder the pressure of some influ-ential persons of the area arrestedthe five innocent villagers.

The villagers further allegedthat though they have been com-plaining to the local administra-tion about the illegal sand miningin the area for years, the adminis-tration is not taking any steps to stopthe illegal activity.

Aska SDPO Suryamani Pradhan,Patapur IIC Ajay Barik, Aska IICPrasant Kumar Sahu and SheragadIIC Ramesh Chandra Das rushed tothe spot with armed police and triedto placate the agitating villagers.However, they insisted on their de-

mand and refused to listen. Police tried to disperse the agi-

tators and drove them till BijuSquare in the area. Protesting thealleged police excesses, the vil-lagers squatted on the road andstaged a dharna.

Later, Hinjili BDO PrasannaKumar Patra and SDPO Pradhantried to diffuse tension by holdingtalks with a delegation of the vil-lagers in the police station.

However, talks failed after vil-lagers insisted on unconditionalrelease of the five detainees. Astension mounted, the police startedlathi-charge following which manyvillagers fled from the spot.

Sensing further trouble, the ad-ministration again held talks withZilla Parishad member (zone no-35)P Narayan Rao and others andhanded over the five detainees toRao. Tension was palpable in thearea when reports last came in.

POLICE ACTION TRIGGERSTENSION IN HINJILICUT

POST NEWS NETWORK

Dhenkanal, August 23: In an un-precedented development inDhenkanal district, 39 elephantsare now unable to return to theirwild habitat.

The absence of elephant corri-dors, a swollen river Brahmani anda flooded Rengali south canal havehindered their way back to forests.

Notably, these jumbos of Parjangforest range had entered nearbyhuman settlements in Rasasingharea under Jharagadia outpost inSadar police limits a few days backafter crossing Brahmani.

According to reports, the pachy-derms have divided themselves intotwo groups and are wandering hereand there. Local villagers remain inpanic as the herd of elephants hadrampaged farmlands at Rasasingh

village after crossing national high-way (NH-55) two days ago. This hadwreaked havoc among residents ofnearby riverside villages. The ele-phants were seen returning back toMatharagadi reserve forest Saturday.

In two separate herds, the pachy-derms again went to Rasasingharea to feed on palm fruits.

Even as 21 elephants were seenwandering near Brahmani, 18 oth-ers have been trying to move out

from Matharagadi reserve forest. Gadashila section forester

Rabinarayan Nayak said, “One herdis wandering in the nearby area of

Brahmani and the other herd islooking for a way out to forest, afterthe groups split. We are watchful oftheir movements.”

Jumbos look for ‘corridor’ to return to their habitatAILING JUMBO CALF RESCUEDBaripada: Forest officialsrescued an ailingelephant calf inBhaliapada forest underRasgobindapur range inMayurbhanj districtSunday. It is aged abouttwo years. A team ofofficials comprising DFOShyam Mallick, honorarywildlife warden Bhanupitra Acharya, the ranger and a wildlife doctorprovided treatment to the calf and shifted it to a safe place. The DFOsaid that if necessary, the calf will be provided with further medicalcare. For the last few days, a herd of elephants was seen moving inRasgobindapur. The herd had left behind the sick elephant calf.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Dhenkanal, August 23: Around40 Dalit families were subjected tosocial boycott for over a fortnightafter a 15-year-old girl plucked flow-ers from the garden of an upper-caste man in Dhenkanal district, of-ficials said Sunday.

Their ordeal ended following theintervention of police and admin-istration, a police officer said.

The incident took place in KantioKateni village in Tumusinga po-lice station area, he said.

“The two groups were at log-gerheads for a long time due to anold rivalry and it snowballed intoa major controversy after the girlplucked flowers from the gardenof an upper-caste man,” Tumusingapolice station inspector in-chargeAK Dungdung said.

The Dalit families were then sub-jected to social boycott. They weredenied ration from a local shop andbarred from attending social events,he said.

Steps were taken to resolve theissue after representatives of theDalit families approached the policeand the district administration a fewdays ago, sub-collector ofKamakhyanagar sub-division, B PAcharya, said.

They also submitted memorandato the administration and the police,he said.

The village comprises over 700families, of which 40 belong to theScheduled Caste Naik community,the official said.

The girl’s father claimed thatthe Dalit representatives had alsotendered an apology following theincident but still they were sub-

jected to the social boycott, he said.Sarpanch Pranabandhu Das ad-

mitted that the villagers were askednot to communicate with the Dalitfamilies but claimed that the re-strictions were limited to only that.

He said the matter between thetwo groups was bound to be re-solved in due course of time, addingthat members of the majority com-munity did not intend to ‘invitetrouble’ keeping in mind the pro-visions of the SC/ST (Preventionof Atrocities) Act.

Acharya said a peace meetingwas held between the two groupsin the village in the presence ofsenior district administration andpolice officials Friday and the issuewas resolved.

Both groups arrived at a com-promise forgetting the bitterness ofthe past and normalcy has beenrestored in the village, he said.

Dundung said police did not filean FIR over the issue as both sideswanted to arrive at a compromiseand sort out the matter.

40 Dalit families ostracised

POST NEWS NETWORK

Kaniha, August 23: A manhacked his elder brother to deathwith an axe over a family feud atShipur village under Samal po-lice limits in Angul district Sunday,police said.

The deceased was identified asRanjan Barik, elder brother of theaccused Niranjan Barik.

According to locals, the twobrothers had a fight over some fam-ily issue. Niranjan and Ranjan hada duel Saturday 11:30 pm. Later,Niranjan lost his cool and plannedto kill his elder brother. WhileRanjan was sleeping after the fight,Niranjan attacked him with an axeat about 1:00am.

Ranjan died on the spot due to ex-cessive bleeding.

After committing the crime

Niranjan walked to the local po-lice station and surrendered, policesaid.

After arresting Niranjan, a po-lice team reached the village andrecovered the body. The body waslater sent for post-mortem to the dis-trict headquarters hospital.

A case was registered and thebody was handed over to the fam-ily members after post-mortem.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Sundargarh, August 23: Two per-sons, including a woman, werekilled and two others sustainedcritical injuries after a truck hit avan in which the victims were trav-elling near Sukha Bandha underLahunipada police limits inSundargarh district in the weehours of Sunday.

The deceased were identified asHemelata Patra and NarottamPatra, a minor, of Lasmi village.

Sources said the victims weregoing to a hospital as one of themhad consumed poison. Suddenly,a truck hit the van from the rear.The woman who consumed poi-son and the minor boy died on thespot. The driver of the ambulanceand another family member sus-tained critical injuries.

After rescuing the injured, the

locals admitted them to LahunipadaHospital. However, doctors in thehospital referred the injured duoto Ispat General Hospital (IGH) inRourkela as their condition dete-riorated.

Police recovered the bodies andsent them for post-mortem. Policealso seized the truck from the sceneof the accident while the truckdriver is absconding.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Malkangiri, August 23: A Maoist,carrying a cash reward of Rs 2lakh on his head and allegedly in-volved in several incidents of vio-lence, surrendered before the policein Malkangiri district, Sunday,Superintendent of Police RishikeshKhilari said.

The ultra did this with a desireto return to the mainstream, Khilariadded.

Mahadev Madkami, a resident ofKankerapra in Dantewada districtof Chhattisgarh, was a member ofthe Darvha division of the banned

CPI(Maoist). He was active mostlyin Malkangiri and nearby areas.

Madkami told the police that hedecided to give up the path of vio-lence as he was disillusioned bythe Maoist leaders.

Madkami saw various develop-mental activities being undertakenby the government in this area and

realised the futility of the violentpath of Naxalism before decidingto join the mainstream of the society,Khilari said.

Madkami will be provided mon-etary assistance as per theSurrender and RehabilitationScheme of the Odisha government,the SP added.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, August 23: TheIndustrial Training Institute (ITI)in Berhampur has registered threeof its innovative products developedto fight Covid-19 in the patent jour-nal, a press release of the UnionMinistry of Skill Developmentand Entrepreneurship said.

The sanction has been given toUVC Robo Warrior, UVC shoe solesanitiser and mobile sample col-lection kiosk.

The DG of Empower-ment andTraining twitted this. The filing ofthe patent rights has also been in-cluded in the Atmanirbhar Bharatscheme of the Centre. This will givepriority right to the institute overinvention.

Notably, this ITI manufacturedface shield, mobile sample col-lection kiosk, UVC shoe sole sanitiser, and UVC Robo Warriorreceived recognisation from the Centre.

Missing man’s bodyfound in jungle

ITI, Berhampur filesfor three patents Man hacks elder

brother to deathWanted Maoist lays down arms

Madkami told the policethat he decided to giveup the path of violence ashe was disillusioned bythe Maoist leaders

Two killed as truck hits van

POST NEWS NETWORK

Patna, August 23: Police recov-ered the body of a 45-year-old manfrom Karanjiapada reserve forestby the side of Kapundi-Tenderaroad under Patna police limits inKeonjhar district Sunday morning.

The deceased was identified asGovind Poida, a resident ofNuagaon in Tendera panchayat.

According to his family mem-bers, Govind left home Saturdayevening and never returned. Theysaid they had since been search-ing for him at every possible place.They were shocked to hear hisbody was found in the forest.

The family members allegedthat miscreants might have killedhim and dumped his body in thejungle. They demanded an inves-tigation with the help of a foren-sic team and sniffer dog.

Patna IIC Somnath Jena and ateam reached the spot and recov-ered the body for post-mortem.The police said they have startedan investigation from murderangle. The investigation wouldproceed further after the arrivalof a forensic team.

The incident has spread shock-waves in the area.Locals have de-manded a proper investigation tounravel the mystery behind themissing man’s death.

TRAGIC INCIDENT

The ground reality inBolangir district is just theopposite when thegovernment lays stress onextending cooperation insupply of seeds, pesticides,fertilizers and agricultureimplements

The farmers said thegovernment has made aprovision to supply fertilizersat subsidized rates throughthe agriculture departmentand the cooperativesocieties, but this hasbecome a farce

The district agricultureofficer has failed to containthe black marketing. TheCollector and the Sub-collector should takeimmediate action against theillegal hoarders, lamentedMLA Narasingha Mishra

AGRI-WOES

Family members allegedthat miscreants mighthave killed him anddumped his body in thejungle. They demandedan investigation with thehelp of a forensic team

power post P6

T he 2014 General Election was proof enough that the average Indianvoter had become sick and tired of a corrupt and inefficient Congress-led UPA government at Delhi. That vote catapulted Narendra Modi,

an unknown entity outside Gujarat state, to the national political playground. It was not as if the BJP had a strong organizational base everywhereacross the country. No one can claim the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh pos-sesses the ability and wherewithal to make major political inroads throughthe electoral politics. In reality, that is a socio religious organization that doesnot have political clout except within the BJP. It is the people who loathednot only those terrible individuals within the Congress but also detested thosecow belt leaders and political outfits who fooled around and depended on castefor political existence. The same people had tolerated a person like ManmohanSingh who was incapable of speaking up for himself or standing up for anyideas, for a whole decade. Those 10 long years of utter mismanagementmade the people rethink. They searched and the only alternative availablewas in the flamboyant and smooth talking Narendra Damodardas Modi. Thevote in 2014 can, thus, be termed as more of anti Congress than pro BJP. Thatsituation was changed in 2019 when people trusted Modi and believed he coulddeliver so have given him time. They had done the same for Manmohan Singhafter he made the US-India Nuclear Treaty drama in 2009, the trust that hecould not hold or re-ignite in 2014.

Now, there might be signs of change in the Congress which seems tohave been pulverized by its own mistakes of the past. Indications on Sunday,in what was seen as a build-up for rejuvenation of the Congress party, werethat a consensus is emerging for a change of leadership. Word spread thatSonia Gandhi is in a mood to discuss options or proposals for her replace-ment for the presidential post that she held on an interim one-year periodafter her son, Rahul Gandhi, relinquished the party’s top post after the lastelectoral debacle. The party’s top policy-making body, the Congress WorkingCommittee (CWC) is set to meet on Monday, a fortnight after her present termended. Two options are apparent. One, Rahul Gandhi gets back to the postwhich possibly is unlikely. Two, of a non-Gandhi family face leading the grandold party as the official president.

The second option was precisely andloudly what Rahul Gandhi had proposedand the leadership rejected a year ago. A lackof readiness for this, and a false hope by eld-ers that Sonia Gandhi could still lead the partyeffectively, had held back efforts at revital-ization of the Congress ever since the 2019Lok Sabha elections. The LS polls had sentthe party packing from the Hindi belt andfrom most other states. Even in Maharashtra,where it held fort for long, the party is today faced with a shameful scenarioof being the junior third partner in government, below two regional enti-ties. Many in the Congress began getting worried that their own politicalsurvival was at stake. Then came shocks from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

This hopelessness, probably, has given birth to a new spirit, as reflectedin the taunts on leadership by former party spokesperson Sanjay Jha andothers. What they sought from the leadership was a reconciliation of the sit-uation. Those like Kapil Sibal called for ‘reforms’ for the party, ShashiTharoor proposed an elected leadership. However, it must be kept in mindthat the likes of Jha, Sibal or Tharoor are all complete empty vessels. Theydo not possess any political weight or are not known as persons of any ide-ological convictions. While their opinions might sound timely, these indi-viduals are not competent to achieve any political goal as people can nevertrust them because of their past activities. On the other hand, Congress lead-ers like Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh and former Union MinisterSalman Khurshid are openly batting to retain the Gandhi name as theleader of the party.

The Congress ‘culture’ is known to everyone in this country. Undoubtedly,every democracy deserves a strong, determined and intelligent Oppositionto hold the balance in any country. India is no exception. Yet those who pop-ulate the Congress, like every other political outfit in this country, can neverbe expected to speak the bitter truths when the time comes. It is usually light-weights like Tharoor or Jha or Sibal who flutter around and very gently van-ish from the scene.

With Priyanka Gandhi now backing Rahul Gandhi in his original call foran outsider as party chief, it might seem as if the die is cast. Sonia Gandhi’sopening up followed on Sunday. Put together, the chimes are for a new wayforward.

The First Family in the party, or the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, is a paleshadow of its former self, having undergone tectonic shocks one after an-other. Sonia Gandhi might have had her strengths while her weaknesses werewell-known. It is primarily her incapability to understand the basic Indianethos that deprived her of leadership qualities. Of course, not everyone isborn a leader! It is this unIndianness of Sonia that created the atmospherewhich brought in the ‘nationalist’ Sangh Parivar in a powerful mode on thepolitical firmament. That situation creates leaders and a strategist is aknown fact. The 2014 situation created a strategist like Narendra Modiadding punch to the BJP’s push. Sonia Gandhi should have realized that shewas no more the answer to Saffron offensives as her feelings for India cannever be the same as someone belonging to the soil. The stigma of corrup-tion of the UPA terms did dent her image but the bigger damage to the Congresswas the corrosion from within. That made it look and feel like a superficialparty, distanced from the people and their emotions.

Even with a new leader, revival of the Congress party is easier said thandone, considering the depths to which it has sunk in recent years from whatwas a behemoth of the post-Independence years. While many thought it washeading for a dead end, here comes an iota of hope and some fresh energythrough a push to save the party and its large army of workers and leadersfrom extinction.

The Congress party had occasions to have those outside the Nehru fam-ily as president, as in the case of DK Baruah and later Sitaram Kesari. Bothcould not stand on their own, proved to be weaklings, and the Family provedto be the only glue that could keep the Congress flock together.

Clearly, having gone through a bad patch, the Congress leadership, or theFamily, is willing to opt for change. If the party accepts transition, good forit. It will also be good for the nation and good for the cause of democracy.The Congress should try for party legacy, which should keep it in good steadthrough generations. The weak positioning of the Opposition in national pol-itics is detrimental to a healthy democracy. But, who can lead the Congressas of now, is a big puzzle.

T he Indian economy is onlife-saving policies such asincentives, special pack-

ages and lending. Even the dailywage workers and small farmers arebeing considered to be broughtunder bank-funded credit schemes.RBI hints at severe inflation risk andthe Index of Industrial Production(IIP) shrinks by 36 per cent in thefirst quarter, 16.6 per cent in Junealone.

In May, World Bank had saidthat the economy was to contractby 3.2 per cent in 2020-21. Now it saysthe contraction would be steeper andfiscal deficit to rise to 6.6 per cent.Consumer durables, electronics,fashion and lifestyle are amid steepdemand slump. Apparel vendorssee about 30 per cent fall in orders.In some other items the demandcrash by about 50 per cent.

The Modi government needs totake bold steps to open up the econ-omy to the village weekly localmarket level. The economy hasnever been at such a nadir sinceWorld War II. The shutdown hascrippled the economy. The exportmarket is dull as destinations areeither in lockdown or in abysmaleconomic situation with their owndemands plummeting.

Though the government is work-ing on various strategies, mostplans are time-consuming. The na-tion is in need for immediate reliefat the grassroots level. Depressingincome of farmers, small busi-nesses, white collar and tiny work-ers hits hard and if nothing else thegovernment needs to find out atwo-minute noodle solution.

The divestment in BPCL andthe privatisation of Air India havebeen stalled due to the pandemic.The disinvest plans in 18 strategicsectors are being reworked. It seemsthe government is caught in adilemma. On the one hand, we arebanning imports of over 100 de-fence items to boost indigenisedproduction and on the other thesickness of the Steel Authority ofIndia and various other public sec-tor units is causing concern. Andthen banning Chinese apps is agood move but indigenous manu-facturing is yet to pick up.

Concern is being expressed overthe apathy to revive Indian Railwaysand instead steam ahead with “pri-vatisation” of prime trains, whichin all likelihood shall add to itswoes. The higher recovery rate inCovid-19, in some areas up to 90per cent or more, calls for re-

sumption of public transport, rail-ways, metro, tourism and hotel in-dustry employing about 10 crore peo-ple. Similarly, normal air traffictoo needs to be restored. Local pas-senger air traffic in July fell by82.3 per cent in the year, which isneither good for airlines nor the peo-ple and strained finances can risksafety of aircraft as well!

The fear of the pandemic shouldnot lead to creating a non-produc-tive nation. The government has abit of anxiety but it would havepeople’s support if normality isactively considered and restored.According to filings of 40 leadingBSE 100 companies’ results tillJune 2020, every sector is undersevere stress. It has hit aviation toautomobiles, capital goods, con-sumer items including alcoholicbeverages. The deepest impact isseen on non-essential manufac-turing and services. Even the ed-ucation sector is hit. Many have re-duced agg re g ate employeeexpenditures – United Spirits 12.7per cent; Bajaj Finserv 14.8 percent; Suzuki India 15 per cent;HDFC Life 21 per cent; Tata Motors26 per cent; Havells India 27 percent and Mahindra 36.7 per cent.

In urban India, hi-tech firms of

Bangalore have sacked, reducedwages or not paid salaries for thepast many months. The rural sec-tor is equally hit. Despite directbenefit transfers, cash is in short sup-ply and rural workers are withoutjobs. Distressed people are hit by ris-ing retail inflation, which shot to 6per cent in April and almost 7 (6.93)per cent in July against 3.15 percent last year. The CPI data in Junewas 6.23 per cent due to rising food,personal care and transportationcosts owing to high fuel prices.

The National Statistical Officenotes 9.62 per cent inflation in veg-etables, pulses, spices, meat, fish,fruits and other food items. In June,the food inflation was 8.72 per cent.Higher inflation is due to supply sidedisruptions. It is abetted by highertransportation costs. Disruptionsin economic activities and localisedlockdown have affected free move-ment of goods.

Modi must intervene to correctthis anomaly. If people pay hightaxes, they are forced to compromiseon their demands. Modi has donewell in ensuring transparent tax en-vironment. Exempting interest ac-crual from I-T would go a long wayin fast revival of the economy as wellas the banking sector. INFA

Needed: A two-minute noodle solution

A BLAST & A GAS BONANZAT

he mother of all blastsat the Beirut port August4 would have qualified asthe West Asian 9/11

though the objective circumstancesare totally different. But 9/11, thegreat tragedy though it was, hap-pened just when a muscular US, vic-torious in the Cold War, was spurredon by the neo-cons towards a goalof comprehensive global domi-nance. Osama bin Laden becamethe rabbit in that greyhound race.The hounds are still parked intheir Afghan kennel.

The Beirut blast happened whenthe US is a shadow of what it wastwo decades ago, President DonaldTrump is shuffling his feet in thering but has no punch, Israel’sPrime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu is dancing around aminefield of corruption charges.French President EmmanuelMacron, facing massive popularprotests, looked pathetic turningup in Beirut barely two days afterthe event, walking around the portarea with the authority of oldMasters.

The French are prone to weartheir colonialism on their sleeve.In 1992-94, when Left Liberals inParis were writhing in pain atEurope’s indifference towards theBosnian carnage, a brief exchangewith a senior French official has re-mained with me: “The balance ofpower shifted against the Christiansin Lebanon; it is shifting against theMuslims in Bosnia.” The restora-tion of that balance may havecrossed Macron’s mind, after sur-veying the scene. Macron was forth-right: “What is now needed is po-litical change; the explosion shouldbe the start of a new era.”

The most respected of journal-ists in Beirut, Robert Fisk has,after talking to many witnesses,distributed damages in appropri-ate proportion. The sea took 70 percent of the blast. That’s a revealingfigure. In other words only 30 percent of the blast killed 300 people,left 6,000 injured, and 3,00,000 home-less in a population of a million.

According to the distinguishedPalestinian columnist, once a reg-ular on BBC discussions, AbdelBari Atwan, “the angry demon-strations and protests in Beirutand the hanging of an effigy ofthe Hezbollah leader, Hasan

Nasrallah, are telling: it isNasrallah’s head they want.”

How does an opponent like Israelgo for Nasrallah’s jugular, pro-tected as he is by a cavernous se-curity system? Well, in sheer des-peration, the war cry could well be:to block that leak let’s sink theship. This is not the yearning of de-ranged enemies: this is the head-line of an article made availableby Carnegie, Middle East Centre-- the headline itself is the story:Destroying Lebanon to Save It.

It remains a whodunit .Whichever direction the needleof suspicion goes, yields a con-spiracy theory. The blast wouldprovoke Hezbollah-Iran into ac-tion which would help Trump’sdwindling fortunes. The absurdityof this thesis is exposed by theUAE’s Mohammad bin Zayed turn-ing up in Washington to embraceNetanyahu. If there were to be a‘retaliation’ to the port blasts, hismagnificent towers would be thefirst in line of fire. So, no one islikely to rush into battle until allof Trump’s beneficiaries are centper cent sure that he is losing.

What is all this adding up to? Sofar all the major post 9/11 US mil-itary engagements in West Asia

have been in theatres endowedwith hydrocarbons or gas pipelines.It is generally forgotten that US in-volvement even in Afghanistan,after Soviet departure, was to pushfor TAPI, the Turkmenistan-Afghan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline.The Taliban would controlAfghanistan; Americans wouldcontrol the Taliban. This reporterwas witness to the collapse of thatscheme on which more later Osamabin Laden provided the US with areason for entering Afghanistan.But Iraq, Syria, Libya, even Sudan(remember how George W. Bushpronounced Janjaweed in Darfurwith expert ease) attractedAmericans for their oil, gas andpipelines.

How does Beirut fit into thisframework? That Nasrallah’s mes-meric hold on the region’s nonGCC Muslims, his unquantifiablearsenal of missiles, his reliablesupport structure in Iran givesIsrael nightmares, is the narra-tive being sold. But there has to besomething more compelling inthe mix. Global energy giants arefocused on the world’s biggest re-serves of gas in the EasternMediterranean. Names like DickCheney, Ruper t Murdoch,

Rothschild and all others in thisclub leap out of the documents. Thegas bonanza is in the territorialwater of Israel, Syria, Lebanonand Cyprus. Note, therefore, the en-ergy in Tayyip Erdogan’s swag-ger, his eye keenly settled on north-ern Cyprus, under Turkey’soccupation and stretching the gasfields to Adana.

Meanwhile, the London-basedWorld Energy Council has forquite some time been research-ing the 250 billion barrels of oilfrom the Shfela basin south ofJerusalem and extending into thesea. The Wall Street Journal hasquoted Howard Jonas, CEO of USbased IDT Corporation, whichowns Shfela basin that, “there ismuch more oil under Israel thanunder Saudi Arabia.”

While British Petroleum is busyin Egypt, the French giant, Totalis in Beirut. Little wonder Macronwas navigated expertly across theport area devastated by the blast.In addition to the hydrocarbons,there is now the possibility of re-designing the entire Beirut port,not just for trade and transportbut for gas explorations on thehorizon.

Russia, Iran, Qatar, in that order,have the world’s largest reservesof gas. This formidable line-upnow has, in its opposition, a teamwith rich prospects in oil and gas.This latter group is what the UAE’sZayed has joined. It will pleaseTrump before the election. FormerSaudi Ambassador, Bandar binSultan, was so identified withBush as to acquire a nickname,Bandar Bush. The UAE’s power-ful ambassador Yousef al Otaiba,in Washington since 2008, is bycomparison more nimble. ShouldJoe Biden win, Otaiba will be wellplugged in there too.

Who knows, an oil and gas richIsrael may in the future be nice toa people it has been particularlynasty with: the Palestinians. Thecredit for affecting a change ofheart will go to a GCC countrywhich will, to that extent, havehelped weaken the Iran-Nasrallahticket in the region.

The writer is a senior commentator on political

and diplomatic issues.IANS

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

Who knows, an oil and gas rich Israel may in the future be nice to a people it has been particularly nasty with: the Palestinians. The credit for affecting a change of heart will go to a Gulf Cooperation Council countrywhich will, to that extent, have helped weaken the Iran-Nasrallah ticket in the region

Can Congress Change

Scientist & philosopher

Ascientist and a philosopher arebeing chased by a hungry lion.

The scientist makes some quickcalculations and says, “It’s no goodtrying to outrun it. It’s catching up!”

The

philosopherkeeps a little

ahead and replies,“I’m not trying to outrun the lion, I’mtrying to outrun you!”

MONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Change yourself if you wish tochange the world.

THE MOTHER

ECONOMY

OPiateTathagata

Satpathy

GLOBAL ENERGYGIANTS ARE

FOCUSED ON THEWORLD’SBIGGEST

RESERVES OFGAS IN THE

EASTERNMEDITERRANEAN

WISDOM CORNERThere is no love sincerer than the love of food.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand –relax. If you relax it comes, if you relax it is there. If you relax, youstart vibrating with it.

OSHO

Success needs action. Action needs initiative.ARTHASASHTRA

EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

Readers of Orissa POSTare most welcome to contribute letters(200 words), articles andcolumns (between 750-1250words). Contributors arerequested to send theircontact numbers and fullpostal address/email ID. They may alsosend in their valuable comments, opinionand suggestions, preferably by email, to: edit@orissapost.com

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

EXEMPTING INTEREST

ACCRUAL FROM I-T WOULD GO A

LONG WAY IN FAST REVIVAL OF

THE ECONOMY ASWELL AS THE

BANKING SECTOR

Shivaji Sarkar

We can; why import?

Sir, Though it is not easy to regain momentum vis-à-vis an infrastructure-linked and in-dustrial economy here without help from China, the Indian administration is taking boldsteps through scrapping of several deals with China, and in a sequence. Xi Jinping’s ex-pansionism principle based on China’s defence and economic might in the south-east Asiaregion is not that smooth as China perceives it to be. Moreover, the defence rows with Indiain Ladakh had given the Communist dictator a jerk, and this might prompt him to redesignhis strategy. India’s steps for a ‘self-reliant strategy’ and ‘Make in India’ programme arewelcome. In the latest move, the Union government has scrapped a tender for making of44 ‘Vande Bharat’ semi-high-speed trains with China. The project was inked in 2015 andit was to be a joint venture of China’s CRRC Yongji Electric Company Ltd and India’s PioneerFil-Med Private Ltd. The project would now be given to an India-based company. Prior tothis, a number of contracts with China such as relating to 59 Chinese apps, thermal cam-eras for railways for Covid-19 surveillance, the Rs 470 crore contract for the Dedicated FreightCorridor Corporation of India Ltd have been cancelled. All the same, the citizens herehave a major role to play in the current days by enhancing cooperation with our governmentand bolstering support to launch more and more of start-ups here so as to strengthen themanufacturing sector and use local products. Why import, when we can?

Santosh Kumar Satapathy, PARALAKHEMUNDI

Monitoring plantations

Sir, The Ministry of Road Transport & Highwayshas launched ‘Harit Path’, a mobile applica-tion to monitor plantations through geo-tag-ging and web-based GIS-enabled monitoringtools. The app is developed by the NationalHighway Authority of India to monitor location,growth, species details, maintenance activi-ties, targets, and achievements of each of its fieldunits for each and every plant under all plan-tation projects. It seems to be a good move to-wards reducing carbon emissions and main-taining a healthy environment. The commonpeople, NGOs, self-help groups and forest de-partment should also make efforts for increas-ing plantations and protection of trees. This kindof collective approach will build a green Indiawhich will be safe for all.

Amit Singh Kushwaha, SATNA

cmyk

cmyk

Saeed Naqvi

cmyk

cmyk

UTTARPRADESH

MONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7

DELHI

AGENCIES

New Delhi/Lucknow, August 23:The Delhi Police has recovered alarge quantity of explosives andan ISIS flag from the house ofMohammad Mustakim Khan inUttar Pradesh’s Balrampur twodays after he was arrested in the na-tional capital, officials said Sunday.

An alleged ISIS operative, Khan,armed with two pressure cookerIEDs, was arrested in central Delhi'sRidge Road area Friday night fol-lowing a brief exchange of fire.

A Delhi Police Special Cell teamtook him to his Badhiyaa Bhaisaahivillage in Balrampur district.

A brown jacket containing threeexplosive packets and a blue-checkjacket containing four explosivepackets were recovered from hishouse, a senior Delhi Police offi-cer said.

“Each explosives packet, removedfrom the jackets, was wrapped withtransparent tape which containedexplosives and cardboard sheetpasted with ball bearings, and elec-

tric wires were coming out from it,”Deputy Commissioner of Police(Special Cell) P S Kushwah said inDelhi.

Police Sunday conducted raids atseveral places. Two bicycle shopowners were among those ques-tioned in Uttar Pradesh, possiblyover the origin of the ball bearingsfound by police.

Khan’s father Kafeel Ahmed andwife Ayesha were also questioned,an official said.

Ayesha told a television chan-nel that she had told Khan not to in-dulge in "wrong activities" but hedid not listen to her. She appearedto be referring to activities that in-dicated he was being radicalised.

Ahmed said people knew his sonas a good, polite person and neverimagined that he would take the pathof terrorism. He claimed he hadnever gone into his son's roomwhere the explosives were found.

Mustakim Khan had planned tocarry out a "lone wolf" strike at aheavy footfall area in the nationalcapital, police said.

"One ISIS flag, one leather beltcontaining around three kilogramexplosives, eight to nine kilogramexplosives in four different poly-thenes, three cylindrical metalboxes containing explosives andelectric wires wrapped with trans-parent tape and two cylindricalmetal boxes in which ball bearingswere pasted were recovered from his

house," the DCP said.Other material recovered from his

house included:"One wooden bro-ken box (for target practice), 30 ballbearings of different diameters,one packet containing 12 smallboxes of ball bearings, three lithiumbatteries -- two of 4V and one of9V, two cylindrical metal boxes,one ampere meter, yellow colour."

Security was stepped up in thenational capital and neighbouringUttar Pradesh following the arrest.

Khan, 36, planned to strike inthe national capital August 15, butcould not do so due to heavy secu-rity arrangements, police said.

He had been under the watch ofsecurity agencies for the last year.

GREAT DAY TO RIDE

Youngsters pose with their bicycles at Raisina Hills, during Unlock 3.0, in New Delhi, Sunday PTI

ISIS PLAN FOILED

LONE WOLF’S DEN BUSTED

KHAN, 36, PLANNED TOSTRIKE IN THE

NATIONAL CAPITALAUGUST 15, BUT COULDNOT DO SO DUE TO HEAVYSECURITY ARRANGEMENTS

SECURITY WAS STEPPED UP IN THE NATIONAL

CAPITAL ANDNEIGHBOURING UTTARPRADESH FOLLOWING THE ARREST

KHAN WAS FIRST HANDLED BY YUSUF-AL

HINDI, ISIS CHIEF OF INDIAOPERATIONS, WHO WASKILLED IN SYRIA IN 2017

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lucknow, August 23: The Ministryof Agriculture and Farmers Welfarehas announced that it will imple-ment 'One District, One Product'(ODOP) scheme for the farmers,for which 45 districts of UttarPradesh have been included. Thesuccessful implementation of thescheme is expected to benefit lakhsof the farmers of the state.

Agricultural products will be se-lected on the basis of agro-climaticzone, product quality, taste, aroma,nutritional and medicinal proper-ties, and export potential. Farmersof the respective districts have beenrecommended about growing spe-cific crops.

Additional Chief Secretary for

Small , Micro and MediumIndustries, Navneet Sehgal, said,“Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath isworking for the betterment of thefarmers. The products of many dis-tricts included in the ODOP schemeare related to farming only. With thehelp of the Centre, we will imple-ment the scheme in a better way.”

The scheme will help in makinggram of Bundelkhand, Chitrakoot,Hamirpur, Mahoba and Sonbhadrafamous across the country. Apartfrom this, the millet of Badaun willalso gain popularity and fresh veg-etables of Ghaziabad and GautamBuddh Nagar will be made availableto the people of Delhi.

The prospects for the farmerscultivating green chillies inVaranasi, the constituency of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, and forthose who are producing black saltin Gorakhpur, the home district ofChief Minister Yogi Adityanath,will also improve.

The CM had announced the ODOPscheme in January 2018. Productslike 'Kalanamak rice ' ofSiddharthanagar, banana fibre ofKushinagar, banana of Kaushambi,jaggery of Ayodhya, aamla ofPratapgarh, pulses of Balrampur andGonda, desi ghee of Auraiya, hand-icraft made of wheat stalk inBahraich, wooden toys of Chitrakoot,wooden artifacts of Saharanpur,Basti, Bijnor, Rae Bareli etc. are in-cluded in the ODOP scheme.

‘1 district, 1 product’ to benefit farmers

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lucknow, August 23: SamajwadiParty MLC, Sunil Kumar Sajan,has alleged that UP minister and for-mer cricketer Chetan Chauhan,who succumbed to Covid-19 in aGurugram hospital, died due tocarelessness in his treatment ear-lier at the state-run Sanjay GandhiPost Graduate Institute of MedicalSciences (SGPGIMS) here.

Sajan raised the issue in the UPVidhan Parishad Saturday and hisrecorded speech has been put on thesocial media.

The upper house member, whowas also admitted to SGPGIMS withcorona at the same time as ChetanChauhan, said in the house, “Onceduring a round, a doctor and a nurseasked 'Who is Chetan?', to whichthe minister raised his hand sincehe was a simple person.

He was asked as to when he gotinfected with the virus, to which heexplained the entire matter to thehospital staff. At that time, anotherpersonnel asked Chauhan what doyou do, to which he said he is aminister in the Yogi Adityanathgovernment."

“When I could not control myanger, I told the doctor that Chauhanhad played cricket for India, to

which the doctor said 'Oh, he isthat Chetan'. After this, the doctorand the other staff left.”

Chauhan, 73, who was admittedto the SGPGIMS after he tested pos-itive for Covid-19, was shifted tothe Medanta hospital in Haryana’sGurugram when his condition de-teriorated.

The cricketer-turned-politiciandied last week due to Covid-relatedcomplications, after being put on lifesupport for nearly 36 hours.

Contacted for comment,SGPGIMS Director, Dr R.K. Dhiman,expressed surprise at Sajan's statement.

"During treatment, I had spokento Chauhan a number of times,but he never brought up the incident.He went to the Medanta hospital inGurugram citing family reasons. Ifthere were any complaints, it shouldhave been conveyed. The incidentwill be probed," he said.

Meanwhile, SP PresidentAkhilesh Yadav tweeted, “Whilecomparing the so-called betterpreparations for Covid-19 to thatof the USA, the UP Chief Ministerhad forgotten the kind of behaviourhis cabinet colleague ChetanChauhan experienced at a gov-ernment hospital.”

‘Who is Chetan?’ asked docs

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 23: In a scenestraight out of Bollywood, a jewellerin central Delhi's Chandni Mahalconspired with two of his associ-ates to fake a robbery at his ownshop as one of them donned a burqaand brandished a dummy pistol. Allthree have been arrested.

According to police, the jewellernamed Abhijit Samanta alsoarranged fake jewellery in an at-tempt to get the insurance moneyand dodge the police.

The police received a call Fridaythat a woman had robbed 2.6 kg ofgold after making the caller un-conscious. The police reached thespot at Gali Jatwara, ChandniMahal and recorded the statementsof the complainant. The com-plainant supplied prepared goldjewellery to other jewellers.

“He stated that at about 8:35 PMhe collected a payment of `50,000from a jeweller and came to his of-fice. As he entered his office a‘woman' in a burqa also came in-side and put a gun to his head. Heclaimed the ‘woman' slapped himand also snatched `50,000 and keysof the locker from him. She thenforced him to open the locker andtied his hands, legs and stuffedhis mouth with cloth and tookaway all the gold jewellery kept inthree plastic boxes weighing about1.6 kg and a 1 kg gold bar fromthe locker," said DCP (Central)Sanjay Bhatia.

Accordingly a case at ChandniMahal police station was regis-tered. However, soon the policefound several discrepancies in hisstatement.

"During the investigation, theCCTV footage of three hours from

three different cameras wereanalysed and it was noticed that theentry of the alleged woman wasfriendly and behaviour of the com-plainant was also suspicious dur-ing the commission of the allegedcrime," Bhatia said.

Samanta broke down after a six-hour prolonged interrogation and ad-mitted that he had hatched the wholeconspiracy along with co-accusedFarhan, a resident of Darya Ganj andMunna, a resident of Narela.

The accused Samanta in orderto get his loan amount waived,which he had availed from three dif-ferent banks against the gold stock,hatched the conspiracy of a fake rob-bery of gold jewellery from hisown office.

Samanta arranged the artificialgold bar and jewellery, co-accusedFarhan arranged the toy gun andburqa and the other co-accusedMunna executed the alleged robberywearing the burqa.

Jeweller fakes robbery to escape paying EMIs

AGENCIES

New Delhi, August 23: From thenext summer season, the Delhigovernment’s Child DevelopmentDepartment has planned to replacejaggery with sweet candy (mishri)from its Supplementary NutritionFood (SNF) menu for children andpregnant and lactating women.

The decision was taken on thebasis of feedback that jaggery meltsin the summer while packing andafter some time it might even getinfected by bacteria.

To keep the food items dry andhealthy, it was decided to replacejaggery with sweet candy (mishri)and will continue till the presentSNF menu exists, while the quan-tity would be decided by theDepartment as per requirement.

"From the next summer season(for month of May, June and July)the sweet candy would be distrib-uted in place of jaggery," DelhiWomen and Child Development(WCD) Minister Rajendra PalGautam said here Sunday.

The Minister said the function-ing of the Aganwadi Centres inDelhi, which is responsible for dis-tribution of nutritious food to preg-nant women and children, was sus-pended temporarily in the firstweek of March this year in the

wake of the coronavirus pandemic.Anganwadi Centres were re-

newed last year in March with anaim of ensuring regular supply ofnutritional supplements that in-cluded "Panjiri or Pushtik Laddoo"to the registered beneficiaries in thenational capital.

The laddoos given to per bene-ficiaries every day contains 500calories and 12-15 gms of protein.

Gautam informed that the menuof SNF was revised from May 20 thisyear and Panjiri or Pushtik Laddowas replaced with wheat dalia,black raw gram, jaggery and roastedblack gram in different quantitiesfor different types of beneficiar-ies under the existing system ofgiving THR (Take Home Ration).

It was delivered at the doorstepsof beneficiaries through the re-spective Anganwadi centers, theMinister said.

Around five lakh citizens bene-fit from this scheme.

Sweet candy in SNF menu

While comparing UP’spreparations for

Covid-19 to that of theUS, the CM had

forgotten the kind ofbehaviour his cabinet

colleague ChetanChauhan experienced

at a govt hospitalAKHILESH YADAV I PRESIDENT, SP

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Agra, August 23: With the Yamunastill continuing to remain in spatein Agra, the rear view of the TajMahal stands transformed as theriver is full of life-sustaining water,following incessant rains, provid-ing a magnificent view from theMehtab Bagh.

From a “sickly sewage canal”the Yamuna river stands as a vibrantand attractive water body whichis said to be the lifeline of the city.

Heaps of garbage that had ac-cumulated along the banks havenow been swept away.

“The banks are now cleaner andgreener thanks to the monsoonrains. The chirping birds are backand people stop by for a while toenjoy the spectacle of the Yamunain its pristine glory,” said NandanShrotriya, a temple priest of theYamuna Kinara road.

Though the Taj Mahal remainsclosed for visitors due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ambience of thearea stands transformed as theYamuna at the rear of the monu-ment provides a magnificent viewfrom the Mehtab Bagh. Emperor

Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahalbecause of the Yamuna river, butin the past few decades, the river hasbecome a dying lifeline. For mostpart of the year “it remains a sicklydrain,” said a river activist ShravanKumar Singh.

Right now the river is full ofwater, but for how long?

“For almost eight months in ayear, the Yamuna remains dry and

polluted as upstream barrages fromHathini Kund to Wazirabad, Okhlaand Gokul hold back all the water.The downstream cities suffer as aresult.

The need is to ensure a mini-mum flow of water round the yearso that the river remains alive andthe aqua-life is not disturbed,” saysenvironmentalist DevashishBhattacharya.

Over 500 years ago, it was thegrandeur of the Yamuna that hadattracted the founder of the Mughaldynasty to open shops in Agra.

In later years, his descendentschose to build some of the finestmonuments like the Taj Mahal andthe Etmaduddaula along its banks.

While the younger folk have gen-erally stayed away from the stink-ing river which holds no charm for

them, people of the older generationsdo occasionally venture out to con-duct ritualistic pujas and baths.

The dozen-odd ghats along theriverfront, which once was the cen-tre of a thriving commercial ac-tivity and river culture, have dis-appeared without a trace, reducingthe 20 km-long riverfront to a vastwasteland.

From the Kailash temple to theDussehra Ghat adjacent to the Taj,there were more than a score ofpermanent ghats, some of red sand-stone and others of marble.

Behind the Red Fort there werepermanent ghats with highly dec-orative canopies for the royal fe-males of the Mughals.

Today, the river of decadenceis an eyesore. Those who takethe Yamuna Kinara road are oftenseen covering their noses to keepaway the foul odour of the stink-ing mess.

"Modi's minister Nitin Gadkirihad promised steamers inYamuna will bring tourists fromDelhi to Agra. Now he seems tohave forgotten or has given upthe project," commented WakeUp Agra president Shishir Bhagat.

Taj Mahal dazzles with Yamuna in spate

FOR ALMOST EIGHTMONTHS IN A YEAR, THE

YAMUNA REMAINS DRY ANDPOLLUTED AS UPSTREAMBARRAGES FROM HATHINIKUND TO WAZIRABAD,OKHLA AND GOKUL HOLDBACK ALL THE WATER

THE DOWNSTREAM CITIESSUFFER AS A RESULT.

THE NEED IS TO ENSURE AMINIMUM FLOW OF WATERROUND THE YEAR SO THATTHE RIVER REMAINS ALIVEAND THE AQUA-LIFE IS NOTDISTURBED

The jeweller namedAbhijit Samanta alsoarranged fake jewellery in an attempt to dodgethe police

During the investigation,the CCTV footage of threehours from three differentcameras were analysed

It was noticed that theentry of the allegedwoman was friendly andbehaviour of thecomplainant was alsosuspicious

CAREFUL PLANNING

PRISTINE GLORY

P8

nationalMONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Former ChiefJustice ofIndia, Ranjan

Gogoi, who headedbenches thatpronounced severalkey judgementsincluding in the Ayodhya landdispute case, might be the BJP'schief ministerial candidate inAssam in the Assembly electionnext year

TARUN GOGOI | CONGRESS LEADER

of theday uote

A decision onallowing alljournalists to

travel in suburbantrains in Mumbai,currently beingoperated for thoseemployed in essential services, willbe taken in the next two days

VIJAY WADETTIWAR | MAHARASHTRA RELIEF

AND REHABILITATION MINISTER

Thegovernment isensuring that

policies andprogrammesinitiated by it reachthe intendedbeneficiaries for their socio-economic uplift

JAI RAM THAKUR | HIMACHAL CM

Urge CM tounshackle political

caging/chaining of policeand administration.... Thismenacing stance of policeand administration wouldgenerate consequencesJAGDEEP DHANKHAR | WEST BENGALGOVERNOR

A 2.8 magnitude earthquakewas recorded in Palghar districtof Maharashtra Sunday, anofficial said. No casualty ordamage to property wasreported, he said

MILD QUAKE HITS PALGHAR

Man kills sister-in-law Gaya (Bihar): A manallegedly stabbed his wife’selder sister to death inBihar's Gaya town Sunday,police said. He then stabbedhimself in the stomach,causing serious injuries, asenior police officer said. Theman's two children alsoreceived injuries when theytried to save the woman,Deputy Superintendent ofPolice, Raj Kumar, said.

400 familiesevacuated Howrah/Kolkata: Around 400families of Aima and Aliporevillages of Shyampur block inWest Bengal's Howrahdistrict have been evacuateddue to floods triggered byheavy rains during the pastthree days and high tide, adistrict official said. Thesefamilies have been put up ina local primary schoolbuilding, the official said. Thesituation has beenaggravated in the absence ofa concrete guard wall on theembankment of the twovillages which are located onthe mouth of Hooghly andDamodar rivers, localpanchayat official LutfarRahman Khan said.

Cop killed Bijapur: A police jawan washacked to death with an axeby two unidentified men at avillage market in the Naxal-hit Bijapur district ofChhattisgarh Sunday, anofficial said. Police suspectthe involvement of Maoists,but a probe is being carriedout to know if the murderwas fallout of a personalenmity. "The incident tookplace when the deceased,Assistant Constable SureshKomra (42), had gone to theweekly market in Kutruvillage to buy essentials," apolice official said.

Man heldJabalpur: A man has beenarrested here in MadhyaPradesh for allegedlyposting morphedphotographs of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andobscene comments on asocial media platform, policesaid Sunday. Parvez Alam,aged around 28, has beenbooked under Indian PenalCode Sections 292 (sale ofobscene books, etc), 504(intentional insult withintent to provoke breach ofpeace) and the InformationTechnology Act Section 67(publishing or transmittingobscene material inelectronic form), Gohalpurpolice station's inspectorRavindra Goutam said.

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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 23: UnionHealth Minister Dr Harsh Vardhanhas said that if everything goeswell, India would get a vaccineagainst the novel coronavirus by theend of this year.

Three COVID-19 vaccine candi-dates, including two indigenousones, are in different phases of de-velopment in India. The phase-onehuman clinical trials of the twoindigenous COVID-19 vaccine can-didates, one developed by BharatBiotech in collaboration with ICMRand the other by Zydus Cadila Ltd,have been completed and the trialshave moved to phase-two, ICMRDirector General Dr BalramBhargava had said recently.

The Serum Institute of India,which has par tnered withAstraZeneca for manufacturingthe COVID-19 vaccine candidate

developed by the University ofOxford has been permitted for con-ducting its phase two and threehuman clinical trials in India. It islikely to start the trials next week.

In a tweet in Hindi, Vardhan saidon Saturday, "I hope that if every-thing goes well, India will get acoronavirus vaccine by the end ofthis year."

Meanwhile, the apex health re-search body, ICMR, is in the processof developing an online vaccineportal which will provide infor-mation related to COVID-19 vac-cine development in India andabroad, with the majority of the up-dates in several regional languagesin addition to English.

The aim of creating the websiteis to provide all information and up-

dates relating to the COVID-19 vac-cine development on one platformas all the information in this re-gard is scattered as of now, SamiranPanda, Head of Epidemiology andCommunicable Diseases at ICMR,said Saturday.

The idea behind making the updates available in regional languages is to make sure thatevery citizen is able to access the in-formation. The portal is likely to befunctional by next week, Pandasaid.

With a single-day spike of 69,239infections, India's COVID-19 case-load mounted to 30,44,940 on Sunday,while the death toll climbed to 56,706with 912 fatalities being reported in24 hours, the data updated at 8 amshowed.

‘Covid vaccine likely by year-end’GOOD NEWS SOON?

Three COVID-19 vaccinecandidates, including

two indigenous ones, arein different phases of development in India

IT RAINED WOES

A cyclist rides through a flooded locality in Kolkata, Sunday PTI PHOTO

PAK TO USE DRONESTO DROP BOMBS: BSFINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 23: Pakistanwill use drones to bomb securityestablishments near theInternational Border in Jammuand Kashmir's RS Pura and Sambasectors, the intelligence wing of theBorder Security Force (BSF) hasalerted.

The security establishments,including the Indian Army, havebeen informed about the plans ofPakistan's Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI) to carry out theattacks in Indian Territory. TheBSF had alerted other securityforces about Pakistan's activitiesearlier this week.

Pakistan has increased bom-bardment in the Indian territo-ries, while China has started trans-gression in Eastern Ladakh bycreating a two-front war like sit-uation. The BSF, India's first lineof defence with Pakistan andBangladesh, has also alerted that"ISI plans to pump in consign-ment of drugs/arms/ammuni-tions inside India with the help ofdrones".

It guards around 2,280 kms of thefront with Pakistan and the 4,096-km-long Indo-Bangla border. Asenior BSF officer said that ac-tivities have increased across theInternational Border with Pakistanin Jammu and Punjab after ter-rorists were unable to infiltrateacross Line of Control in Kashmir.

Top seer bodyseeks CBI probe INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh),August 23: The Mumbai Police isnow facing flak from an unex-pected quarter, with an apex bodyof saints now demanding a CBIinquiry into the Palghar lynch-ings.

The Akhil Bharatiya AkharaParishad (ABAP) said that theSupreme Court's decision to en-trust the probe into actor SushantSingh Rajput's death to the CBIhad proved the "incompetence" ofthe Mumbai Police.

The ABAP demanded the CBIprobed the lynching of two sad-hus in Palghar, Maharashtra, onApril 16. ABAP President MahantNarendra Giri said: "The ABAPis holding an important meetingon August 26 in Haridwar in which,besides discussing preparations forthe Kumbh next year, it will alsopass a resolution for a CBI inquiryin the killings in Palghar."

If the need arises, the AkharaParishad would also go to thecourt, he added.

On the night of April 16, twosadhus and their driver travellingfrom Kandivali in Mumbai toSurat in Gujarat for attending afuneral amid the nationwide lock-down were brutally attacked andkilled by a mob in Gadchinchilevillage in the presence of policeofficials.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 23:With humantrafficking across the India-Bangladesh borders an area ofmajor concern for authorities onboth the sides, the BSF has caught915 women while they were ille-gally crossing the borders betweenthe two countries till mid-August this year.

Those arrested included womenwho tried to enter India as well asthose who attempted to cross overto Bangladesh between January 1and August 15 with the help of touts,data collated by the Ministry ofHome Affairs reveals.

The numbers are significantsince it could break the past fewyears' record by the time 2020 ends.As per an estimate, if the numberof women caught during traffick-ing has crossed 900 in seven-and-a-half months, it could cross the 1,400-mark by the end of this year.

The number of women caught onthe International Border betweenIndia and Bangladesh was 936 in2019, a record 1,107 in 2018, and 572in 2017. Of the total 915 women ap-prehended on the borders this year,a maximum of 888 were caught

from south Bengal, 14 from Tripura,six from Guwahati in Assam, fourfrom north Bengal, two fromMizoram and Cachar, and one fromMeghalaya.

India and Bangladesh share4,096.7-km-long International Borderin West Bengal (2,216.7 km), Assam(263 km), Meghalaya (443 km),Tripura (856 km), and Mizoram(318 km). The report mentions thatmaximum women trafficking caseswere registered from south Bengal,from where 850 women were caught

while crossing over to Bangladeshor entering India. These figureswere 620 in 2018 and 462 in 2017.

The data shows that Tripura hasbeen in second position in womentrafficking through India's borderswith Bangladesh in 2019, report-ing 52 such cases. A total of 47women were caught on the Tripurafrontier in 2018 and 14 in 2017.

Guwahati in Assam was in sec-ond place in 2018 after south Bengal,reporting the arrest of 394 womenwhile crossing the border. The fig-

ures were eight in 2019 and six in2017. Cases of women's traffickingthrough the north Bengal frontierthough has registered a drastic de-cline in the last few years. The fig-ure was 87 in 2017, but went downto 39 in 2018, 12 in 2019 and onlyfour till August 15 this year.

Only one case of a woman's traf-ficking was registered till August 15from Meghalaya frontier, from where11 women were caught last year.Six women were caught from the saidfrontier in 2018 and three in 2017.

The lowest women traffickingcases were registered in Mizoramand Cachar in Assam. Only twowomen were caught from theseareas till August 15 this year. Thecases were three in 2019 and one in 2018.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, August 23: CBI sleuthsSunday questioned actor SushantSingh Rajput's friend SiddharthPithani, cook Neeraj Singh and do-mestic help Deepesh Sawant at theDRDO guest house here in con-nection with his death case andlater visited the actor's flat in Bandraalong with them, an official said.

In the morning, Pithani, Neerajand Sawant arrived separately atthe DRDO guest house in Kalina areof Santcaruz, where the CentralBureau of Investigation's (CBI) of-ficials probing the case are staying,an official said.

These three persons, who werepresent in the flat when Rajput (34)was found hanging in his room onJune 14, were questioned for aboutfive hours following which the CBIsleuths took them to the late actor'sresidence at Mont BlancApartments in suburban Bandraaround 2.45 pm, he said.

Forensic science experts werealso part of the CBI team which vis-ited Rajput's residence, the officialsaid. Mumbai Police officials werealso present at the actor’s house, headded. On Saturday also, the CBIteam accompanied by Pithani,Neeraj and Sawant visited the lateactor's house in Bandra to recon-

struct the sequence of events beforehe was found dead.

Another CBI team on Saturdayvisited the state-run Cooper Hospitalin the city, where autopsy had beenperformed on Rajput's body. A thirdCBI team had visited the Bandra po-lice station to meet Mumbai Policeofficials who were investigatingRajput's alleged suicide earlier.

Friday, the CBI officials recordedthe statements of Pithani and Neeraj.The Supreme Court Wednesday up-held the transfer of an FIR, lodgedby Rajput's father in Patna againstactor Rhea Chakraborty and othersfor allegedly abetting his suicide, tothe CBI. After Rajput was foundhanging in his apartment in June,the Mumbai Police registered acase of accidental death. Later,Rajput's father filed a police com-plaint in Patna, accusingChakraborty and her family ofabetting the actor's suicide andmisappropriating his money.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, August 23: The BJP willnot project any chief ministerialcandidate for West Bengal Assemblypolls and bank on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's development plankto fight against the TMC, the party'sBeng al minder, KailashVijayvargiya, said. The saffroncamp will pick its chief minister,once voted to power, he said Sunday.

"As of now, it has been decidedthat we won't project anyone asour chief ministerial face. We willfight under the leadership of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and winthe election. Once voted to power,the legislative party in consultationwith central leadership will de-cide on its chief ministerial choice,"Vijayvargiya said. Asked if theparty has anyone in mind for thepost, he said that "time has the answer".

"Right now, our target is to win220-230 seats in the 294-memberAssembly. We will achieve our tar-get as we did in the Lok Sabhapolls. The issue of projecting a CMface won't be a factor,” he said.

Incidentally, in 2016, too, the BJPhad fought the Assembly polls with-out any CM face. But a lot of water

has flown under the Howrah Bridgeover the last four years, with the saf-fron party having emerged as theprime challenger of the rulingTMC in Bengal, by pushing thetraditional opposition parties -- theCPI (M) and the Congress -- to dis-tant third and fourth positions.

The saffron camp reached itsall-time high in Bengal politics lastyear when it stunned political pun-dits by bagging 18 of the 42 LokSabha seats in the state, four lessthan the ruling TMC, and with a staggering vote share of 41 per cent.

According to BJP sources, the de-cision of anointing a chief minis-terial face before elections could bea double-edged sword for the party,so it would "be wiser to rely on thenegatives of the opposition camp"to win the elections.

"We will fight elections on the de-velopment plank of Narendra Modiand by highlighting the failures ofthe TMC government. Electionsare won and lost depending on theperformance of the incumbentgovernment. That is what had hap-pened in 1977 and 2011 when the LeftFront was voted to power and alsowhen it lost the polls," a seniorBJP leader said.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Dehradun, August 23: Flooded'nallahs', broken routes, land-slide-prone areas, 40 kms and 15hours on a stretcher, the'Himveers' of Indo-TibetanBorder Police (ITBP) rescued aninjured woman from a remote vil-lage in Uttarakhand'sPithoragarh district and saved

her life by providing her cru-cial medication at a hospital.

A group of 25 ITBP men tookthe initiative to save the life of thewoman when the chopper couldnot land to rescue her for twodays. In an immense effort insaving the life of the injuredwoman, who accidentally fell offa hillside near a remote villagein Pithoragarh, the 14th BattalionITBP personnel braved all odds

to rescue and evacuate her tothe nearest road head facing allhardships in a monsoon-hit area.

The woman fell and broke herlegs on August 20. She hails froma remote village Laspa ofMunsiyari division inPithoragarh district. On receivinginformation, the ITBP personnelwent to the village from theirBorder Outpost to rescue the

woman whosecondition wasworseningevery passingday due to lackof treatment.The ITBP per-sonnel reachedthe village --which is 22 kmsfrom theirMilam base -- on

Saturday (August 22) coveringmost of the stretch on foot.

After reaching the village, the25 ITBP men carried the womanon stretcher one by one for 15hours through flooded nallahs,landslide zone areas and slip-pery slopes to take her 40 kms toa distant road head from whereshe was further evacuated to thehospital where her condition isstated to be stable now.

915 women caught crossing border in 2020 As per an estimate, if thenumber of women caughtduring trafficking hascrossed 900 in seven-and-a-half months, it couldcross the 1,400-mark bythe end of this year

POLL PLANK

BJP to fight Bengalpolls sans CM face

HEROIC RESCUE

PALGHAR LYNCHINGS

CBI grills Sushant’sfriend, house helps

MAJOR CONCERN

Many waiting forgubernatorial post

With the induction of ManojSinha as new L-G of Jammu

& Kashmir, talk of gubernato-rial changes has gained mo-mentum in the ruling BJP. Infact, many aspirants are alreadyin the waiting lounge after thedeath of Madhya PradeshGovernor Lalji Tandon lastmonth. Anandiben Patel, UPGovernor was given additionalcharge of Madhya Pradesh.Interestingly, the tenures ofDraupadi Murmu (Jharkhand)and Vajubhai Vala (Karnataka)have also ended. Now Goa willalso need a Governor as Satya PalMalik has been transferred toMeghalaya. But Murmu and Valawere appointed Governors inthe first tenure of PM Modi. ThePresident has not issued any for-mal order extending their tenureseither. Kiran Bedi and Anil Baijal,Lieutenant Gover nors ofPondicherry and Delhi respec-tively, are also sitting in the exitlounges.

Desperate searchfor vaccine

A fter the Prime Minister gavea clarion call for a Covid

vaccine from the ramparts ofthe Red Fort August 15, bureau-

crats have been running for cover.The Prime Minister's own taskforce on vaccine headed by Dr VKPaul swung into action andstarted scouting to procure thevaccine. Though the task force onvaccine was created in earlyMarch this year, it virtually madeno progress. India is the globalhub for producing vaccines forleading drug companies, but noeffort was made to talk to them.It may be mentioned here thatthere are seven leading vaccinemanufacturers in India whichhave a capacity to produce threebil l ion doses per annum.Considering that the Covid pan-demic has affected almost 20% ofthe world’s population and a min-imum of 5% population may re-quire the vaccine, there is a hugedemand globally.

Modi’s message to RSS

The Prime Minister is under-stood to have conveyed to the

top RSS leadership that full focusbe given on the construction ofthe Ram temple. Having deliv-ered the Ram temple, for whichthe RSS was fighting since 1949and the Hindus were fighting for500 years, the focus should be onconstruction of the temple inthe shortest possible time. Themost contentious issue of Ramtemple has been resolved in ahistoric way. Even the Muslimshave broadly maintained peace.A few saints and hardliners in theRSS now want Mathura andKashi to be restored. They havestarted issuing statements to thiseffect. But Modi wants Ayodhyato be made a model global reli-gious township.

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nationalMONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

We need toshow in action and indeeds that genderdiscrimination nolonger exists. Thatshould be our goalM VENKAIAH NAIDU | VICE PRESIDENT

Prime Minister Narendra ModiSunday posted a video on hissocial media accounts in whichhe is seen feeding peacocks athis residence during hismorning exercise routine

PM FEEDS PEACOCKS

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The move bythe Congressleaders to

demand a rehaul ofthe party at thiscritical juncturewould bedetrimental to its interests, and theinterests of the nation

AMARINDER SINGH | PUNJAB CM

of theday uote

Salute theunity andcourage of six

mainstreamOpposition partieswho came togetheryesterday(Saturday) to fight the repeal ofArticle 370

P CHIDAMBARAM | CONGRESS LEADER

During LaluPrasad'sregime, Bihar

was tagged as acrime state in thecountry. I appeal tothe BJP workers topoint it out to the voters during thedoor-to-door poll campaign

DEVENDRA FADNAVIS | BJP LEADER

Property dealergunned down Patna: Six unidentifiedcriminals gunned down aproperty dealer and injuredthree others this morning inPatna's Beur locality, anofficial said Sunday. Theattackers used a carbine forcommitting the crime. Areapolice recovered many spentcartridges from the crimescene. The accused arrived atthe spot on threemotorcycles at around 11.30am and barged into the officeof property dealer RajeshYadav, firing indiscriminately.

Man arrestedPanaji: A 30-year-old manwas arrested by the northGoa district police Sunday forallegedly raping a differently-abled 13-year-old girl, anofficial said. The accusedVarun Nayyar has beenarrested by officials of thePorvorim police station aftera complaint was filed by thevictim's parents. "Nayyar hasbeen booked under sectionsof the Prevention of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences Act andrelevant sections of the GoaChildren's Act," Inspector in-charge of the Porvorim policestation Ninad Deulkar said.

Drone recoveredNew Delhi: The Delhi Police hasrecovered a drone from nearthe residence of an official ofthe Israeli embassy insouthwest Delhi's Vasant Vihararea, officials said Sunday. Thepolice, however, do not suspectany foul play in this matter andsaid the drone was beingoperated by a child. It went outof range and landed near theresidence of the official, theysaid. A staff of the residence ofthe official made a PCR call onSaturday following which apolice team visited the spotand recovered a drone. "Afterverification, we found that thedrone was operated by a childand it went out of range," asenior police officer said.

SHORT TAKES

KuruKolumn

WAR AGAINST VIRUS

Homeopathic drug given to half of Gujarat PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Ahmedabad, August 23: TheGujarat health department has saidit distributed homeopathic drugArsenicum Album-30 to more thanhalf of the state's population asprophylaxis since March after theoutbreak of COVID-19.

In its presentation made beforethe World Health Organisation onAugust 20 on Gujarat's COVID-19 pre-vention strategy, the health de-partment said it distributedArsenicum Album-30 to 3.48 crorepeople, which is more than half ofthe state's population of 6.6 crore.

There is no scientific evidence thatthe drug works against COVID-19,a fact stressed not only by medical

scientists but by some homeopathicpractitioners themselves. The stategovernment also claimed that 99.6per cent of people who availedAYUSH (Ayurveda, Yo g a &Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha andHomeopathy) remedies as prophy-laxis during their quarantine periodtested negative for coronavirus.

In its presentation, which wasshared with the media, the healthdepartment said "AYUSH inter-ventions have proven to be immu-nity boosters, and the AYUSH treat-ment protocol was developed and aresearch carried out for assessingefficacy of treatment."

"As many as 33,268 people bene-fited from AYUSH medicines in thequarantine period, half of whom

availed homoeopathic medicines," itsaid. The state government claimedthat 99.69 per cent of people whoavailed AYUSH remedies as prophy-laxis during their quarantine periodtested negative for coronavirus.

However, a clinical trial relatedto the prophylaxis nature ofArsenicum Album-30 for coron-

avirus in the state has not yet yieldedany conclusive result, an officialsaid. Gujarat Principal Secretary,Health, Jayanti Ravi on Sundaysaid the government has some rea-son to believe about the efficacy ofArsenicum Album-30 medicine, asout of thousands of quarantined peo-ple who were given the dosage ofArsenicum Album-30, "99.69 percent eventually tested negative forcoronavirus".

"Even 0.3 per cent who testedpositive had only mild symptoms.We have prima facie reason to be-lieve in some effectiveness ofArsenicum Album-30 against coro-navirus. But to actually establishthis, we need more rigorous analy-sis," Ravi said.

The government has so far dis-tributed 3.48 crore dosages ofArsenicum Album-30 startingMarch, including repeat dosagesas the medicine remains effectivefor 1.5 to two months, she said.

As per Bhavna Patel, director ofstate AYUSH department, the re-sult of a clinical trial on AresnicumAlbum-30 going on at a private clinicin Bhavnagar as prophylaxishashas not yet shown any clear result.Patel said the homeopathic medicinehas been distributed since Marchon the recommendation of an expertcommittee, including homeopathicdoctors, and a repeat order has alsobeen given by the state health de-partment for people who used itover a month ago.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, AUGUST 23: All thethree NDA constituents in Bihar -the BJP, the JD(U) and the LJP - willtogether fight the coming assemblypolls in the state with Chief MinisterNitish Kumar as the face of the al-liance, BJP president J P Naddasaid Sunday and expressed confi-dence that they will emerge victo-rious.

Nadda's remarks at a virtual ad-dress to the Bihar BJP executivemeeting come amid a bitter war ofwords between Kumar's Janata Dal(United) and Chirag Paswan-headedLok Janshakti Party. Whenever thethree parties have fought together,their National Democratic Alliancehas notched up a big victory, hesaid.

The coming polls will be the firsttime when the three parties fight to-gether in an Assembly electionafter their superlative show by win-ning all but one seat in the state inthe 2019 Lok Sabha election as al-lies. "We are going to the polls underthe leadership of Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar. Our victory is cer-tain," Nadda said.

While Chirag Paswan has oftenquestioned the Nitish Kumar-ledstate government over a host of is-sues, the BJP has done the bal-ancing act and maintained thatthe ruling NDA is intact in thestate.

It has also been endorsing Kumaras the alliance's chief ministerialface.

In his address from the nationalcapital where he was joined by sev-eral Union ministers elected fromBihar, Nadda also claimed that theopposition in the state as well as else-where has become a "spent force"and asserted that the BJP is theonly party which is being looked atby people with hope.

The opposition has neither ide-ology nor vision nor any spirit toserve people, and it can't rise above

petty politics, he added. He praisedthe Bihar government's handlingof the COVID-19 pandemic andfloods in the state, while notingthat the assembly elections are ex-pected at a time when the statefaces the twin challenges.

The Election Commission is yetto announce the election schedule,but there have been indicationsthat it will be held on time.

The assembly elections in thestate are due in October-November.Nadda asked party leaders to or-ganise small meetings and door-to-door campaign in line with theCOVID guidelines while prepar-ing for the polls.

He said the special package an-nounced by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for the state hasbeen implemented in "letter andspirit" and asked party members togo to the people with its details.Nadda also shared highlights ofthe Modi government's work toboost health care measures to bat-tle the pandemic and to provide re-lief to people, especially the poor,with several packages.

BJP, JD(U), LJP to fight Bihar polls jointly: NaddaThe coming polls will be the first time when the three parties fight together in an Assembly election after

their superlative show by winning all but one seat in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha election as allies

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 23: The CentreSunday announced standard op-erating procedures (SOPs) for re-suming shooting of films and TVprogrammes, and these includemeasures such as social distanc-ing and mandatory use of facecover or masks for cast and crew,except for actors in front of camera.

The guiding principles and SOPson preventive measures for mediaproduction to contain the spread ofCOVID-19 were announced byInformation and BroadcastingMinister Prakash Javadekar. Heasserted that these measures willfacilitate resumption of shootingand provide employment to scoresof people impacted due to the filmindustry being hit in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

These SOPs have been finalisedafter consulting the health andhome ministries, Javadekar said.Shooting of films and TV serials canbe started using these SOPs issuedin the wake of the pandemic, theminister said. Sharing details ofthe SOPs, Javadekar said barringthose who are in front of cameras

all others will have to wear masks."We are laying down SOPs as per

international experience, and with theconsultation of the health ministryand the home ministry, we have issuedthese SOPs," he said."This is an im-portant aspect of the economy and itemploys millions of people, there-fore, we have issued this to facilitatenow the production activity to re-sume. I am sure everyone will welcomethis and all states will implementthis," Javadekar said.

The I&B document also empha-sised on the health and family wel-

fare ministry's guiding principleswhich state that non-essential ac-tivities will not be allowed in COVID-19 containment zones.

The guiding principles alsosaid that employees who are athigher risk, such as older em-ployees, pregnant employees, em-ployees who have underlying med-ical conditions, should take extraprecautions. They should prefer-ably not be exposed to any front-line work requiring direct contactwith the public, according to thehealth ministry guiding principles.

Civic workers carry idols of Ganesha for immersion in an artificial pond at Dadar in Mumbai, Sunday PTI PHOTO

BIDDING ADIEU GUIDELINES RELEASED

Films, serials to resume shooting

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 23: TopCongress leaders, including RahulGandhi, Sunday requested the gov-ernment to defer the all-India med-ical and engineering entrance ex-aminations taking intoconsideration the concerns raisedby a section of students and parentsamid the coronavirus pandemic.

Rahul Gandhi said the govern-ment must listen to the 'mann kibaat' of students and arrive at "anacceptable solution", while partygeneral secretary Priyanka GandhiVadra sought the postponement ofthe National Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET) and the JointEntrance Examination (JEE) till thecoronavirus situation improves inthe country.

Congress leader in Lok SabhaAdhir Ranjan Chowdhury wrote toPrime Minister Narendra Modisuggesting that the exams be de-ferred, while Kapil Sibal said theseneeded to be postponed.

"GOI must l isten to the#StudentsKeMannKiBaat aboutNEET, JEE exams and arrive atan acceptable solution," RahulGandhi tweeted. In a tweet in Hindi,Priyanka Gandhi said, "The COVID-

19 situation in the country is yet tonormalise. In such a situation, if stu-dents who are taking NEET andJEE, and their parents have raisedconcerns, then these should betaken into consideration by thegovernment and those conductingthese exams."

Chowdhury requested PM Modito intervene and postpone theexams."The aspirants of nationalexamination are under tremen-dous mental pressure as to howthey could be remain immune tothe infection while attending theexamination physically. Right at thispandemic situation their concernsshould be given due considera-tion. The spectre of corona willbe haunting the students during theexamination period stretchingfrom September 1 to 6," he said inhis letter.

EXAMS AMID PANDEMIC

Defer NEET, JEE: Cong

DIFFERENT THERAPY Fighting Covid with music

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Bangalore, August 23: In additionto the regular Covid-19 treatment,patients in Karnataka's Ballaridistrict are also being helped withmusic therapy, an official saidSunday.

"We are offering music therapyfor all patients," Ballari DeputyCommissioner S. S. Nakul said.In a video shared by Nakul, pa-tients in a Covid hospital in thetown were seen joyfully clapping,snapping, dancing and going inrounds inside the hospital.

Most of the patients came out oftheir beds, including some old menand women to clap around to aBollywood song. To make the musictherapy more participative, pa-tients have also been given an op-portunity to croon.

A young man was seen singinga Kannada song, holding a mi-crophone as he stood. The med-ical staff provided the patient witha microphone right up to his bed,located in the middle of a row of

beds, enabling him to sing fromhis bedside even as the medicalstaff were seen encouraging himfrom outside the treatment room.

Along with music therapy, thehospital authorities are also guid-ing the patients to do yoga andbreathing exercises. A yoga in-structor speaks through a publicaddress system from outside thetreatment room as the patients siton their beds to practice the breath-ing technique which he explainsin Kannada.

Lead by Nakul, Ballari districthad already become famous foremploying innovative techniquesto hasten the healing process ofCovid patients. Earlier on theIndependence Day, doctors at Ballaritown's Trauma Care Hospital,

which has been designated as aCovid hospital had played the na-tional anthem to give the patientsan opportunity to celebrate in asmall way. Doctors distributedfruits to the patients as part of thecelebration. In the first week ofAugust, a 28-year-old orthopedic doc-tor, Inamdar, had celebrated hisbirthday with coronavirus patientsto cheer them up and shatter theirgloomy isolation for some time.

Prior to that, viral videosemerged from a Ballari hospitalwhere patients were seen dancingaway to a Kannada song from themovie Upendra. Ballari is the sec-ond most coronavirus infectedplace in the southern state afterBengaluru Urban, accounting for17,273 Covid cases, out of which6,064 are active.

After Bengaluru Urban's 34,224 ac-tive cases, Ballari has the secondhighest number of active cases.Likewise, the district has also beenconsistently reporting the secondhighest number of Covid infectionsafter Bengaluru on a daily basis.

To make the music therapy more participative, patientshave also been given an opportunity to croon

1.78 crore railwaytickets cancelled NEW DELHI: The Railways has can-celled more than 1.78 crore ticketssince March this year due to the coro-navirus pandemic and refunded anamount to the tune of Rs 2,727 crore, aRTI has found. The RTI has found thatthe Railways, which had suspended itspassenger train services since March25, cancelled 1, 78, 70,644 tickets. Lastyear, while the Railways had refundedRs 3,660.08 crore for the April 1-August11 period, it also earned Rs 17,309.1crore in the same period. This is thefirst time when the refunds were morethan the amount earned by theRailways from sale of tickets. An offi-cial explained that due to the suspen-sion of services, tickets booked fortravel in April, May and June wereoffered refunds.

AGENCIES

San Francisco, August 23: Wearyfirefighters in California racedSaturday to slow the spread of wild-fires that burned nearly one millionacres statewide in a week and de-stroyed hundreds of homes aheadan expected weather change thatcould bring more lightning strikeslike the ones that sparked many ofthe blazes.

Responding to the emergency,President Donald Trump issued amajor disaster declaration to pro-vide federal assistance. Gov. GavinNewsom said in a statement that thedeclaration will also help peoplein counties affected by the fireswith crisis counseling, housing andother social services.

Two clusters of wildfires in theSan Francisco Bay Area grew tobecome the second- and third-largestwildfires in recent state history bysize. Light winds and cooler andmore humid nighttime weatherhelped fire crews make progresson those fires and a third group offires south of San Francisco aheadof the forecast of warm, dry weather,erratic wind gusts and lightning,state fire officials said.

The National Weather Serviceissued a red flag warning of highfire danger across the Bay Areaand along the Central Coast, be-ginning from Sunday morning toMonday afternoon. “The worst isnot behind us. We are in a battle

rhythm,” California Departmentof Forestry and Fire Protection(Cal Fire) Chief Thom Portertweeted. Since thousands of light-ning strikes began on Aug. 15, thestate reported 585 wildfires thathave burned nearly a million acres,or 1,562 square miles (4,046 squarekilometers), according to Cal Fire.

Many were small and remote.The bulk of damage was from threefire “complexes” that were rav-aging forest and rural areas in andaround the San Francisco Bay Area.They have burned 1,045 squaremiles (2,700 square kilometers).The fires have killed five people,torched nearly 700 homes and otherstructures and forced tens of thou-sands from their houses. “Tuesdaynight when I went to bed I had abeautiful home on a beautifulranch,” said 81-year-old HankHanson of Vacaville.

“By Wednesday night, I havenothing but a bunch of ashes.” InSanta Cruz County, the fire wasthreatening Boulder Creek, an oldlogging community of about 5,000in the Santa Cruz Mountains onthe edge of California's oldest statepark -- Big Basin Redwoods. Fireofficials said they expected the blazeto reach the community, but theytook advantage of recent goodweather to try to “herd” flamesaround the town.

Earlier in the week, fire officialsin charge of each of the three majorwildfires said they were strapped for

resources. Some firefighters wereworking 72-hour shifts instead of theusual 24 hours. By Friday, the ap-

proximately 13,700 firefighters onthe line began to get help on theground and with aircraft from 10

states, along with the NationalGuard and US military.

Those fires were a top priority. Butin a sign of how overburdened thestate's firefighting agency is, fireofficials said only 1,400 firefight-ers were assigned to battle the LNULightning Complex fire in winecountry north of San Francisco,which was only 15% contained.

In comparison, about 5,000 fire-fighters were assigned to theMendocino Complex fire in 2018,the largest fire in recent state his-tory. “All of our resources remainstretched to capacity that we havenot seen in recent history,” saidShana Jones, the chief for Cal Fire'sSonoma-Lake-Napa unit.

P10MONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalIf you don’t believein climate change,come to CaliforniaGAVIN NEWSOM | CALIFORNIA GOVERNOR

North Korea has launched ananti-smoking Website on itsdomestic-only Internetnetwork, a state-mediaoutlet reported Sunday, eventhough leader Kim Jong-unwas yet to ditch the habit

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‘Navalny was underpolice surveillance’Moscow: Kremlin critic AlexeiNavalny, who fell gravely illThursday after what his alliesbelieve was a poisoning, wasunder intense policesurveillance in precedingdays, a Russian tabloidnewspaper cited lawenforcement sources assaying. Before he collapsedon a flight during a trip toSiberia Navalny was followedby plainclothes FSB officersand his movements were closelymonitored via CCTV, thereport in the MoskovskyKomsomolets newspaper said.

Black man’s killingsparks outrageLafayette (US): The motherof a man fatally shot byLouisiana police said her sonwas intelligent, shy and hadsought therapy for socialanxiety. Her lawyers said theyplan to sue over the death ofTrayford Pellerin, who policesaid had a knife and wastrying to enter a conveniencestore. The shooting Fridaynight was captured on video,and the state ACLUcondemned what it describedas a “horrific and deadlyincident of police violenceagainst a Black person.” Boththe ACLU and the SouthernPoverty Law Center quicklycalled for an investigation.

13 die in Perudisco stampede Lima: Thirteen people died ina stampede at a disco inPeru after a police raid toenforce the country'slockdown during thecoronavirus pandemic,officials said Sunday. Thestampede happened at theThomas disco in Lima, whereabout 120 people hadgathered for a party onSaturday night, the InteriorMinistry said. People tried toescape through the only doorof the second-floor disco,trampling one another andbecoming trapped in theconfined space, according toauthorities. After thestampede, police had toforce open the door.

Portland protestturns violentPortland: Federal authoritiesSaturday forceddemonstrators away from aplaza near a federal buildingas dueling demonstrations inPortland by right-wing andleft-wing protesters turnedviolent. The area includescounty and federal buildingsand has been the site ofnumerous recent protests.Department of HomelandSecurity officers movedthrough the plaza acrossfrom an 18-story federalbuilding.

SHORT TAKES

A firefighter watching the fires spread through the Berryessa Estates A plume billows over HealdsburgFirefighters make a stand in the backyard of a home

CALIFORNIA BURNS AGAIN

This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows an overview ofthe SCU Lightning Complex wildfires August 22, 2020, in California. PTI PHOTO

High temperatures and erraticwinds challenge firefighting

efforts as the governor calls forbackup from other states.

Fires now burn hotter and withmore intensity. Climate change is

increasing temperatures anddrying out vegetation earlier.

Dry lightning, extreme heat,and Covid-19 are all shaping

California’s efforts to contain the deadly blazes.

Smoke, soot, and ash from the firesalso shrouded Northern California

in the dirtiest air in the world atseveral points during the week.

In comparison, about 5,000firefighters were assigned to

the Mendocino Complex fire in2018, the largest fire in recent

state history

GLOBAL COVID-19DEATHS EXCEED 8LREUTERS

Vienna, August 23: The globaldeath toll from the coronavirussurpassed 800,000 Saturday, according to a Reuters tally, withthe United States, Brazil and India leading the rise in fatalities.

Nearly 5,900 people are dyingevery 24 hours from COVID-19on average, according toReuters calculations based ondata from the past two weeksthat ended Friday.

That equates to 246 peopleper hour, or one person every 15seconds. The rate of deaths isholding steady with it taking17 days to go from 700,000 to800,000 deaths — the same timeit took to go from 600,000 to700,000. The US death toll sur-passed 170,000 Sunday, the high-est in the world. While the num-ber of new cases is down froma peak in July, the country is stillseeing over 360,000 new cases aweek. Many public schools anduniversities reopened class-rooms to students despite pos-itive test rates of nearly 20%in some parts of the country.Less than a week after wel-coming students, some schoolsare switching to online-onlylearning due to a spike in in-fections. Case fatality rates areabout 3% in the United Statesand Brazil.

Health experts have raisedthe alarm that Brazil and theUnited States still have no co-ordinated plan to fight the pan-demic, as many officials focus onreopening schools and busi-nesses, which is likely to worsenthe outbreak. Brazil’s death tollfrom COVID-19 passed 100,000on Aug. 8 and continues to climbas most Brazilian cities reopenshops and dining even though thepandemic has yet to peak there.

BUSINESS IN DOLDRUMS

As shoppers stay away, small stores seek refuge onlineASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, August 23: For smallretailers across the country, thecoronavirus outbreak has turned analready challenging business en-vironment into never-ending un-certainty.

Small retailers, especially thoseselling non-necessities like apparel,are still struggling months afterstate and local governments liftedshutdown orders aimed at con-taining the virus. With the virus farfrom under control in many areas,however, consumers worried aboutgetting sick are staying home anddoing their purchasing online or, ifthey venture out, going to big storeslike Walmart and Target wherethey can do one-stop shopping.

The weak sales and erratic cus-tomer traffic have forced store own-ers to be creative in hopes of per-

suading customers to stop in ratherthan order from a big online re-tailer. But for some owners, disap-pointing sales and an uncertainoutlook have forced them to closetheir stores for good and stake thefuture of their businesses on the in-ternet. Washington was one of thefirst epicenters of the virus, and oneof the first states to shut down its

economy. The most recent retailsales tallies from the governmentshow sales at clothing sellers, whichtend to have physical locations, fellnearly 36 per cent from May throughJuly. But online and other non-tra-ditional retailers saw their salessoar 26 per cent. Small retailershave also learned to be more cus-tomer-friendly. The internet has

been a lifeline for Antonelli's CheeseShop. The Austin, Texas, store re-mained open during the govern-ment-ordered shutdown, but manyconsumers stayed home, sharplyreducing store traffic.

The shop also sells to restau-rants, which stopped ordering asthey were forced to close. The shop'sbusiness is still down 20 per cent.Owners John and Kendall Antonellisay they've managed to survive bytaking the events they normallyrun on their premises, like cheesetastings, and putting them online.

They've had as many as 150 peo-ple take part in a tasting, with manypeople ordering cheese in advanceand picking it up curbside. More re-cently, with fewer people shelter-ing at home, they've been morelikely to get 50 people, but that is stillabout double the number of atten-dees they had pre-pandemic.

The Antonellis revamped theirwebsite so local customers can ordera la carte instead of pre-selectedpackages — that's more expensivefor the store, but it keeps peoplehappy and shopping. The Antonellishave learned that several cheeseshops in other cities have gone outof business, so they know they toocould be at risk.

Business has been slow sinceMallory Shelter's Washington, D.C.,jewelry store reopened in June.Shelter, whose store bears her name,responded to the pandemic andshutdown by pouring her market-ing efforts into her website. It nowaccounts for 75 per cent of her rev-enue, up from 8 per cent before thevirus struck, but her overall revenueis down by half. She also has changedher product mix, focusing more oncustom items that can have a morepersonal meaning for buyers.

Sharif an ‘absconder’;UK approached for hisextradition: PM aidePRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Islamabad/Lahore, August 23:The Pakistan government has de-clared former prime ministerNawaz Sharif, currently in Londonfor treatment, an “absconder” andapproached the UK government forhis extradition.

Adviser to the Prime Minster onAccountability and InteriorShahzad Akbar said that Sharif'sfour-week bail on medical groundsexpired in December last year.

“The government is treatinghim (Sharif) as an absconderand has already sent a request tothe British government to ex-tradite him,” Akbar was quotedas saying by the Dawn NewsSaturday.

The 70-year-old three-time pre-mier, who was sentenced in agraft case by an accountabilitycourt, informed a court in Lahorelast month that he is unable toreturn to the country as his doc-tors have told him not to go outdue to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sharif submitted his medicalreport to the Lahore High Court(LHC) through his counsel andsaid doctors have recommendedhim to avoid going outside dueto the coronavirus as he has lowplatelet counts, diabetes, heart,kidney and blood pressure re-lated problems.

Akbar said the governmentwould request the NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB)to pursue Sharif's extraditionas well and it was also lookinginto legalities of guarantees ofShahbaz Sharif, who was sup-posed to escort his elder brotherback to Pakistan after his med-ical treatment.

His comments came after anew picture was shared on socialmedia which shows Sharif walk-ing on the streets of Londonwith his son, Hassan Nawaz hold-ing an umbrella.

Iran ready to pay compensations AGENCIES

Tehran, August 23: Iran is readyto pay compensations pertaining tothe case of the Ukrainian passen-ger plane that crashed near Tehranin January, a top official said.

Touraj Dehqani Zangeneh, headof Iran's Civil Aviation Organisation,made the remarks Saturday aheadof a new round of talks between thetwo countries' aviation officialsslated to be held in October inTehran, reports Xinhua newsagency. “What is evident is thatIran has accepted the responsibil-ity for its mistake and thereforethe country is ready for negotia-tions on paying full compensationfor what has been done,” Zangenehwas quoted as saying.

"Compensations will be paid withininternational laws and without dis-crimination,” he said, adding that“it will include any group that hasbeen affected in the incident”.

The Ukraine passenger planewas hit by Iranian missiles after tak-ing off from Tehran January 8,killing all 176 people on board. Iransaid that its forces "accidentally" shot

the plane down. On July 24, an international team in Paris com-pleted preliminary investigativeanalysis of the data extracted fromthe black boxes of the plane.

On August 9, Iran's Minister ofTransport and Urban DevelopmentMohammad Eslami said that thefinal report on the Ukrainian planecrash will be published soon.

Respiratory issues troublingCovid-19 recovered patientsINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New York, August 23: A teamof health experts, including thoseof Indian-origin, has found thatpeople who recovered from theCovid-19 disease are being com-monly readmitted to the hospi-tal within 14 days of being dis-charged majorly for respiratorycomplications.

Researchers found the most com-mon cause for a patient's early hos-pital readmission after dischargewas for respiratory distress.

These patients were also morelikely to have other ailments in-cluding chronic obstructive pul-monary disease and hypertension,said Girish Nadkar ni and

Anuradha Lala from the IcahnSchool of Medicine at Mount SinaiHospital in the US.

"This study shows that manypatients have lingering effectsfrom hospitalisation for Covid-19 and thus, there is opportunityfor longitudinal studies that couldfurther assess the long-term ef-fects of Covid on patient out-comes when they are discharged,"Nadkarni said.

Of the nearly 2,900 dischargedpatients, more than 100 returnedfor emergency care after about 4.5days and 56 of those returning pa-tients required readmittance intothe hospital. Half the patientsreturned for respiratory com-plications.

PANDEMICADDING A WALLOP

The Covid-19 pandemic has rattledevery part of society, andfirefighting efforts are not immune.California often relies on prisonlabor to bolster its firefightingefforts, with almost 200 inmate firecrews. Inmates are paid between $2and $5 a day, plus $1 per hour whenfighting a fire. But with severeCovid-19 prison outbreaks in thestate, some inmates were releasedto relieve overcrowding. Otherswere hampered by infections, andmany remain under quarantine. Thenumber of available inmate firecrews has been nearly halved.

UKRAINIAN PLANE CRASH

P11

businessMONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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world is inversely relatedto the rise in the caseloads in itsexport destinations. Stateddifferently, exports are flowingback to economies that havechecked the afflictionPANKHURI TANDON | ECONOMIST AT CRISIL LIMITED

Diversified firm Nesco has said it isplanning to invest over `2,000 crore inthe next 5 to 7 years to foray into thehospitality segment as well as expandits existing IT space offerings and addnew exhibition centres

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‘Housing financenext key focus’Mumbai: Having stabilised theship after some reverses on itsflagship micro loans due todemonetisation and thehumbling experience withlarge corporate exposures,Bandhan Bank now wants tofocus on the home loansegment, a top executive hassaid. The housing finance bookis targetted to grow five timesto `1 lakh crore in the next fiveyears from the present level ofnearly `20,000 crore, its CEOand MD Chandra ShekharGhosh said.

PSBs may gofor share saleNew Delhi: As many as fivelarge banks, including SBI,PNB and BoB, are likely to sellshares to institutionalinvestors in the second halfof this fiscal as they look toshore up their capital baseamid the coronaviruspandemic impacting theeconomy. QualifiedInstitutional Placement wouldbe the most preferred wayand public sector banks(PSBs) are likely to take a callon taking this route afterfinalisation of their secondquarter results, merchantbanking sources said.

FPIs invest `41K crin Aug so farNew Delhi: Overseasinvestors have put in `41,330crore in Indian markets onnet basis in August so far asthe excess liquidity in globalmarkets found its way toemerging markets like India.According to the depositoriesdata, foreign portfolioinvestors (FPI) pumped in`40,262 crore into equitiesand `1,068 crore in the debt segment betweenAugust 3-21. Prior to this, FPIs were net buyers for twoconsecutive months.

Auto demandpicking up: TKMNew Delhi: Automobiledemand is picking up but theover-sensitivity and jitterinessof financial companies such asbanks and NBFCs aredampening the real conversionof orders to deliveries,according to a senior official ofToyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM).With the kicking off of festiveseason, TKM has witnessed up to 30% higher flow oforders in August compared to July, although in the lastfour months it has ensuredthat 25% of wholesale isreduced every month in order to avoid inventory pile-up at its dealers.

SHORT TAKES

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 23: India’seconomy which is already reelingunder immense turbulence un-leashed by the COVID-19 pandemic,now faces an ever increasing riskof stagflation, experts opined.

The economic trend of stagflationis marked by rising inflation andfalling GDP growth.

"In our opinion, the risks ofstagflation which is a painful phaseof low or negative growth and highinflation have visibly increased forthe Indian economy," SumanChowdhury, Chief Analytical Officerat Acuite Ratings and Research,told IANS.

"Unless food inflation is con-trolled in the short term, such an en-vironment may set in where mon-

etary and fiscal policies may noteasily be effective, aggravating thechallenge for the policy makers."

Experts have blamed intermittentlocal lockdowns and higher moneysupply for the flare-up in infla-tionary pressures.

"Current set of data showinghigh retail inflation and a con-traction in growth. This is akin tothe phenomenon of stagflation.However, the current situation hasemerged due to the impact of pan-demic and is more cyclical in nature,"Sunil Kumar Sinha, PrincipalEconomist, India Ratings &Research, told IANS.

"Nevertheless, if these data trendscontinue in the medium term thenthe economy runs the risk of en-tering into stagflation."

The local lockdowns have espe-

cially been cited as a key factor forthe supply side disruptions, par-ticularly for perishable agricul-tural products which have mas-sively contributed to the rise ininflation of certain food items.

Consequently, the rise in retail in-flation in the short term led the

RBI's MPC to holdthe interest rates inAugust and has di-minished the likelihood ofany further rate cut in the nearterm.

"At present, supply disruptionscaused by localised lockdowns and

intermittent heavy rainfall, as wellas taxation changes and mod-

ifications necessitatedby social distancing,

are outweighingfaltering demand,

which is raisingthe unpalatablelikelihood of astagflation-likescenario aris-ing," said Aditi

Nayar, PrincipalEconomist, ICRA.

According toMadhavi

Arora, LeadEconomist, FX

and Rates for Edelweiss Securities:"Amid consistent supply shocks,we now see inflation hovering above6 per cent in the near term, and av-

eraging over 5.5 per cent in FY21.""Headline CPI inflation will likely

be below 4 per cent by year-endwith rebalancing of effective de-mand-supply dynamics, sharplywidening output gap and favourablebase effect. We maintain furtherscope for upto 50 bps cut in the cur-rent cycle, but with MPC's desire forstatistical reflection of durably lowinflation, near term cuts may beruled out. Irrespective of the policystance, RBI's yield curve manage-ment in the form of outright OMOsand operation twist will continue."

However, M Govinda Rao, ChiefEconomic Advisor, BrickworkRatings, said: "What we see now is a recession combined with inflation. The decline in the GDP two successive quarters is calledrecession."

Rising risk of stagflation hovers over Indian economyLiquidity

is not the reasonfor the recession. The

economy was deceleratingeven before the crisis but afterthe pandemic struck, there is adecline in GDP which is mainlydue to the lockdown that hascaused both the demand and

supply to contractM GOVINDA RAO I CHIEF ECONOMIC

ADVISOR, BRICKWORK RATINGS

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 23: AarogyaSetu has rolled out a new featurethat will enable organisations toget the health status of their em-ployees or any other user with-out violating their data privacy, saidan official release.

Aarogya Setu has now emergedas the most downloaded contacttracing app in the world, withmore than 15 crore users, it said.

The new feature called 'OpenAPI Service' will help people, busi-nesses and the economy to returnto normalcy, and aims to addressthe fear/risk of COVID-19 infection.

The service can be availed by or-ganisations and business entities,who are registered in India withmore than 50 employees, and theycan use it to query the Aarogya Setuapplication in real-time and getthe health status of their employeesor any other Aarogya Setu user,who have provided their consentfor sharing their health statuswith that entity, the release added.

"In order to help businesses andeconomy to start functioning whilebeing safe, the Open API Serviceenables organisations to checkthe status of Aarogya Setu andintegrate it into its various Workfrom Home features," the releaseby Ministry of Electronics andIT said.

The Open API (application pro-gramme interface) shall only pro-vide the Aarogya Setu status andname of the Aarogya Setu Userwith their consent. No other per-sonal data shall be providedthrough the API, the release added.

AAROGYA SETU’sNEW FEATURETO HELP BIZ

RINL, POSCO to form JWGNew Delhi: The Ministry of Steel hasasked RINL and South Korean playerPOSCO to form a joint working groupto oversee their plans of setting agreen-field project in Andhra Pradesh.The South Korean steel major andstate-owned RINL have been in talksfor quite some time over their plans toset up a joint venture (JV) for manufac-turingvalue-added spe-cial gradeof steel.Accordingto a ministry update, "The way forwardfor the proposed greenfield investmentproject by POSCO Steel atVisakhapatnam was discussed withthe representatives of POSCOSteel...through a video conference. “Itwas agreed to set up a Joint WorkingGroup (JWG) consisting of representa-tives from POSCO and RINL to facilitatethe implementation of MoU signedbetween the two companies regardinginvestment on land owned by RINL.”

Gadkari to inaugurate 35 highway projectsNew Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transportand Highways Nitin Gadkari will Tuesdayinaugurate and lay the foundation stones of35 highway projects in Madhya Pradesh.These projects for inauguration and founda-tion-laying account for a road length of 1,139km, and involving construction value of morethan `9,400 crore, an official statement said.The projects include construction of a four-lane road over bridge (ROB) on the Katin-Beena section of NH-934 and a two-lane ROB on the Sagar-Khuraj-Bina section ofNH-934, both under EPC mode. The "construction of a major bridge at Betwa river(436 metre) at km 81/2 on NH-539 on EPC mode and construction of high-levelbridge across Kshipra river at Km 20/2 on Indore Betul section of NH-47 on EPCmode" are also among the planned projects to be inaugurated Tuesday.

‘Jindal Aluminium increasing focus on defence’Mumbai: Jindal Aluminium, which controls over 30% of the domestic market, isincreasing its focus on the defence and aerospace segments as it expects these sec-tors to be more active given the policy changes allowing private players, says a sen-ior company official. The `3,000-crore Bangalore-based company is also the secondlargest maker of aluminium flat rolled products, producing 50,000 million tonnes of

rolled products, giving it 10-12% of the market; and1,20,000 million tonnes of extruded products per annum.Its products reach 42 countries globally, contributing 15-20% of its topline annually, says vice-chairman and MDPragun Jindal Khaitan, the grandson of the groupfounder and chairman Sitaram Jindal.

BIZ BUZZ

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, August 23: Calling'green shoots' of economic revivalas a mechanical rebound, formerReserve Bank of India (RBI)Governor D Subbarao says India’sshort and medium term growthprospects continue to remain grimand the government should notread too much into the economic ac-tivity coming back from the de-pressed base of lockdown.

Indian economy was in a trou-bled state when the pandemic hitthe world. Before the COVID-19crisis hit India, the real GDP growthhad moderated from 7% in 2017-18to 6.1% in 2018-19 and to 4.2% in2019-20.

"I don't believe we should read toomuch into the green shoots thatyou refer to. What we’ve been see-ing is just a mechanical reboundfrom the depressed base of the lock-down; it will be misleading to seeit as a signal of a durable recov-ery," Subbarao told PTI.

He said the "short-term as well asmedium-term prospects (for Indianeconomy) continue to be grim".

"The pandemic is still spiralling,the number of daily cases is ris-ing and it is spreading to newer re-gions," he added.

On India's medium-term growthprospect, the former RBI governorsaid that the economy was in a trou-bled state when the COVID-19 cri-sis hit India.

"When the crisis is behind us –and I hope that is soon enough –these problems are going to be muchbigger. Fiscal deficit is going to bemuch higher, the debt burden much

larger and the financial sector in aworse shape," he said.

The World Bank last week pro-jected India's fiscal deficit to rise to6.6% of GDP in 2020-21 (April 2020to March 2021) and remain elevatedat 5.5% in the following year. Thiscompares to the 3.5% target set bythe government.

"Our medium-term prospectswill depend on how effectively weresolve these challenges," Subbaraosaid.

With India's economic growthin pre-COVID 2019-20 fiscal slip-ping to the lowest in a decade, globaland domestic agencies have indi-cated a sharp contraction in theGDP in the current fiscal. The es-timated contraction ranges from

3.2% to 9.5%. This will be the firstcontraction in four decades.

Asked whether he sees any pos-itive at all in this grim scenario,he noted that the rural economyhas recovered better than the urbaneconomy helped by several factorsand the expanded MNREGA pro-vided a lifeline when most needed.

Subbarao said that another bigalthough less acknowledged positiveis that the economy today has somebasic safety-nets in place.

Citing an example, Subbaraosaid that 40 million urban labourwent back to their villages postCOVID-19 induced lockdown and despite that there have beenno reported cases of mass starva-tion or hunger.

‘DON’T READ TOO MUCH INTO GREEN SHOOTS’BEFORE THE COVID-19 CRISIS HIT INDIA, THE REAL GDP GROWTH HAD MODERATED FROM 7% IN 2017-18 TO 4.2% IN 2019-20

D Subbarao, former RBI Governor

Centre issues ‘Rules of Origin’norms for imports under FTAsAGENCIES

New Delhi, August 23: The Uniongovernment has come up withguidelines for the enforcement of the'rules of origin' for imports undertrade agreements. The Customs(Administration of Rules of Originunder Trade Agreements) Rules,2020 (CAROTAR) will come into ef-fect September 21, 2020.

The Department of Revenue cir-cular noted that the ‘Rules of Origin',by virtue of which a good attainsorigin of a country, have evolvedwith subsequent reviews of tradeagreements and most trade agree-ments have moved from single gen-eral rule to specific rule for most ofthe tariff lines, with inclusion ofvast array of processes which canconfer origin.

Section 28DA of the CustomsAct, 1962 makes it incumbent uponan importer to possess sufficient in-formation as regards the mannerin which country of origin criteria,including the regional value contentand product-specific criteria, spec-ified in the Rules of Origin in thetrade agreement, are satisfied.

For this purpose, CAROTAR,2020 has provided a form, contain-ing a list of basic minimum infor-mation which an importer is re-quired to obtain while importing

goods under claim of preferentialrate of duty.

"Therefore, in case there is adoubt with regard to origin of goods,information should be first calledupon from the importer of thegoods, in terms of rule 5 read withrule 4 of CAROTAR, 2020, before ini-tiating verification with the part-ner country in terms of rule 6,"said the circular dated August 21.

The CAROTAR, 2020 and 'Rulesof Origin' notified for a trade agree-ment in terms of sub-section (1) ofsection 5 of the Customs Tariff Act,1975, broadly provide the followinggrounds for verification including-- in case of a doubt regarding thegenuineness of the Certificate ofOrigin (CoO) such as any deficiencyin the format of the certificate or mismatch of signatures or sealwhen compared with specimenson record. Verification requestsshould be forwarded to the CentralBoard of Indirect Taxes and Customs(CBIC) based upon standard oper-ating procedures.

In case several certificates per-taining to identical items are underreview or scrutiny, only represen-tative certificates should be for-warded to the board to cause veri-fication along with a list of allCertifications of Origin to which thefield formation aims to apply the re-sult of such verification.

Representative CoOs may beselected in such a manner to en-sure that they cover each ofthe exporters, importers andthe prescribed originating cri-teria. Similarly, should theproper officer feel the need toverify documents to establishcompliance of direct consign-ments, the circular said.

US-based WeChatusers sue TrumpAGENCIES

Los Angeles, August 23: Some US-based users of WeChat are suingPresident Donald Trump in a bidto block an executive order thatthey say would effectively bar ac-cess in the U.S. to the hugely pop-ular Chinese messaging app.

The complaint, filed Friday in SanFrancisco, is being brought by thenonprofit U.S. WeChat UsersAlliance and several people who saythey rely on the app for work, wor-ship and staying in touch with rel-atives in China.

The plaintiffs said they are notaffiliated with WeChat, nor its par-ent company, Tencent Holdings.

In the lawsuit, they asked a fed-eral court judge to stop Trump's ex-ecutive order from being enforced,claiming it would violate its U.S.users'' freedom of speech, free ex-ercise of religion and other consti-tutional rights. Trump August 6 or-dered sweeping but vague bans ontransactions with the Chinese own-ers of WeChat and another popularconsumer app, TikTok, saying theyare a threat to US national security,foreign policy and the economy.

The twin executive orders —one for each app — is expected totake effect Sept. 20, or 45 days fromwhen they were issued. The or-ders call on Commerce Secretary

Wilbur Ross, who is also named asa defendant in the U.S. WeChatUsers Alliance lawsuit, to define thebanned dealings by that time.

It remains unclear what the or-ders will mean for the apps'' millionsof users in the U.S., but expertshave said the orders appear in-tended to bar WeChat and TikTokfrom the app stores run by Appleand Google. That would make themmore difficult to use in the U.S.

WeChat, which has more than 1billion users, is less well-knownthan TikTok to Americans withouta connection to China.

Mobile research firm SensorTower estimates about 19 million U.S.downloads of the app. But it is cru-cial infrastructure for Chinese peo-ple in the US to connect with friendsand family in China and for anyonewho does business with China.Within China, WeChat is censoredand expected to adhere to contentrestrictions set by authorities. TheCitizen Lab internet watchdog groupin Toronto have said WeChat mon-itors files and images shared abroadto aid its censorship in China.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, August 23: IndianRailways generated over 6.4 lakhman-days of work under GaribKalyan Rojgar Abhiyan in six states.Odisha is among six states to getman-days along with Bihar,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

According to Union Ministry ofRailways around 165 railway in-frastructure projects are being ex-ecuted in these states.

About 12,276 workers have beenengaged in this Abhiyaan till August21, 2020, and the payment of Rs1,410.35 crore has been released tothe contractors for the projectsbeing implemented.

Railways has appointed nodalofficers in each district as well asin the states to ensure close coor-

dination is established with thestate government.

This Abhiyaan of 125 days, isbeing undertaken in mission mode,and involves focused implemen-tation of 25 categories of works/ac-tivities in 116 districts, each witha large concentration of returneemigrant workers in 6 states ofBihar, Uttar Pradesh, MadhyaPradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhandand Odisha. Public works is beingundertaken during this campaign,will have a resource envelope ofRs 50,000 crore.

The Department of Revenuecircular noted that the ‘Rules

of Origin', by virtue of which agood attains origin of a country,have evolved with subsequentreviews of trade agreements

Section 28DA of the CustomsAct, 1962 makes it incumbent

upon an importer to possesssufficient information asregards the manner in whichcountry of origin criteria,specified in the Rules of Originin the trade agreement

PTI/PNN

New Delhi, August 23: Odisha-based dairy firm Milk Mantra isplanning to set up a new plant forcurd at its existing facility inOdisha.

According to Firm’s founderSrikumar Misra the company willset up a curd manufacturing plantat its existing factory in Odisha atan investment of `30 crore.

In addition, the company isalso planning to acquire a plantin Kolkata. Misra said the com-pany is in discussion with a fewplayers to acquire a dairy plantin Kolkata.

"We are looking to expand pres-ence in new markets in easternstates. We are in talks with fewdairy owners to acquire an ex-isting plant with up to 1 lakhlitre processing capacity," Misrasaid. “The total investment in ac-quiring the plant and then mod-ernising with state of the artequipments is estimated at around`40 crore, he said.

MILK MANTRA TOSET UP CURDPLANT IN STATE

GARIB KALYAN ROJGAR ABHIYAN

ODISHA, FIVE OTHERS GETMAN-DAYS FROM RAILWAYS

Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/371591

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sportsMONDAY | AUGUST 24 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Backing IPL toshow right way New Delhi: Top Indianwrestler Bajrang Punia hassaid that the start of the IPLwill bring positivity among allthe sports disciplinesworldwide. He said that if theUAE manages to host thelucrative league without anyhassles then other sportsdisciplines can also think ofresuming events. “Safety ofeverybody is important. If theIPL finishes without any badnews of coronavirus, then Ithink other sports organiserscan also plan on holding theevents (with all precautions)in future,” Bajrang said.Former World Championshipbronze medallist boxerGaurav Bidhuri had alsoshared the same sentiment.“Yes, it would be good for usonce the IPL begins. We allwill get an idea of whatprecautions and steps weneed to take,” Bidhuri stated.

3 honoured Dubai: Legendary SouthAfrican all-rounder JaquesKallis, Pakistan batting greatZaheer Abbas and Pune-bornformer Australian captainLisa Sthalekar were Sundayinducted into the Internat-ional Cricket Council’s (ICC)Hall of Fame in a virtualceremony. Kallis representedSouth Africa in 166 Tests, 328ODIs and 25 T20s between1995 and 2014. He is the onlyplayer to score at least 10,000runs and take at least 250wickets in both Test and ODIformats. The ICC conductedthe ceremony virtually owingto the COVID-19 pandemic. “Itis something that I neverexpected when I startedplaying. I certainly did notplay for any accolades. I onlywanted to win games forwhoever I was playing for,”said Kallis in an ICC release.

Stay extended Chennai: Two-time ISLchampion Chennaiyin FCannounced Sunday that Indianmidfielder Germanpreet Singhhas extended his stay at theclub by signing a new multi-year contract. The 24-year oldplayer from Punjab will befeaturing for the club for afourth straight season. “I amincredibly proud to continueplaying for Chennaiyin FC. Ihave witnessed three greatyears here already, and thejourney so far has beenamazing with lots of learningand development,”Germanpreet was quoted assaying in a release. “But Ibelieve the best is ahead ofme. Chennai is my adoptedhome with CFC. Ourpassionate fans are my family.I view this as a new start of anexciting journey,” he added.

Some relief Athens: Manchester Unitedcaptain Harry Maguire’s trialon charges of assault andattempted bribery has beenpostponed until Tuesday afterhe testified before aprosecutor.The threedefendants are not obliged toattend the trial and are freeto return home, a source fromthe prosecutor’s office saidhere Sunday. The footballerleft the court building in a vanfor an undisclosed place. Heand two others were chargedwith multiple instances ofassault and battery in regardto a fight they had withothers on Mykonos, an islandin the Aegean Sea. They havealso been charged withattempted bribery andassault against a policeman.

Missing fans Sydney: The Australiancricket team departed Sundayfor a tour to England like noother in the long historybetween the two nations. Theteams will meet in three one-day and three T20 games instadiums without fans, playedunder strict bio-securityprotocols. Australia haven’tplayed a match since March13. England however haveplayed a series against WestIndies and are currentlyplaying against Pakistan.Steve Smith who is back atthe helm as skipper said he iseager to play again, but willmiss crowds. “I do likebatting there (England),”Smith said at the airporthere. “But unfortunatelythere’s no crowd there to eggme on and give me a bitmore motivation. I will missthe booing of the fans,” headded. AGENCIES

SHORT TAKES

AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, August 23:Her personal best is not yetenough to make the cut for theTokyo Games. However, India’stop sprinter and nationalrecord holder in the 100 metres,Dutee Chand has said her se-lection for the Arjuna Awardhas come at the right time. Itwould motivate her to breachthe ‘difficult’ Olympic quali-fication mark.

The 24-year-old Dutee, sil-ver medallist in both the 100mand 200m in the 2018 AsianGames, was Friday selected forthe honour along with 26 others. She has a personal bestof 11.22 seconds which sherecorded last year. The Olympicqualification mark is set at11.15 seconds.

“The Arjuna has come at theright time. Any recognition bythe government for your per-formances and achievements al-ways boosts the confidence ofan athlete,” Dutee stated Sunday.

“This should give me morestrength and confidence in myef for ts to do wel l in theOlympics. I hope to qualify formy second Olympics in Tokyonext year and do my best there.It will be tough (to breach 11.15seconds), but I am confidentto breach it. This award will give

me the boost in my efforts,”added Dutee.

Currently, however, the pan-demic has affected her train-ing schedule. However, she isdoing the best she can as theplace she stays here has allthe training facilities.

Dutee, the reigning WorldUniversity Games 100m cham-pion, said she does not mind

missing out on receiving theaward from President RamNath Kovind. This time theceremony will be held online,August 29 due to the COVID-19pandemic.

“An award or an honour fromthe government is always wel-comed any time. Of course, itwould be have been a great oc-casion to receive the awardfrom the president in a (phys-ical) ceremony. But it is allright, I am happy that I havebeen chosen for the award,”Dutee informed. “My achieve-ments through hard work havebeen recognised by the gov-

ernment, Ido not re -quire any-thing else,”she added.

Dutee iskeenly waitingto start the full-in-tensity trainingwhich she can’t un-dertake at present

due to coronavirus-forced restrictions.

“I don’ t have aphysio, no masseur.They cannot be heredue to the pandemic.My coach (N Ramesh)can only tell throughWhatsApp video what Ihave to do. But that is notenough,” Dutee informed.

“I don’t think any athletecan do intensive training till thepandemic is there. I reallywant to start full-fledged train-ing, but I don’t know whenthat is possible,” the athletesigned off.

STAR SPRINTER FEELS AWARD WILL MOTIVATE HER TO QUALIFY FOR TOKYO OLYMPICS

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, August 23: Olympicbronze medallist Sakshi Malik ex-pressed Sunday her displeasure atmissing out on the Arjuna Awardthis year in a tweet. It has beentagged also to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Sports MinisterKiren Rijiju.

“I am proud to have been con-ferred with the ‘Khel Ratna’. Everysportsperson dreams of winning allthe awards. A sportsperson putslife at risk for it. I also dream of see-ing Arjuna Award winner tagagainst my name,” the 27-year oldwrestler wrote.

“Which other medal should Iget for the country to be honouredwith the Arjuna Award? Or in thiswrestling life, I would never havethe good luck of winning thisaward?” Sakshi, who has also wonthe Padma Shri, said.

The Justice (retd) MukundakamSharma-led selection committeehad recommended 29 names forthe Arjuna Award to the SportsMinistry. The list included Sakshi

and 2017 weightlifting WorldChampion Mirabai Chanu, but thedecision of bestowing the Arjunaon them was left to the discretionof the Sports Ministry.

The Ministry decided againstbestowing the Arjuna on Sakshiand Mirabai as the two have al-ready been conferred with the‘Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award’.

It should be stated here thatsince winning the bronze medalat the Rio Olympics in 2016, thewrestler has not done much ofnote save getting a medal of thesame colour at the Gold CoastCommonwealth Games. Her formhas been on the downslide for thelast couple of years.

TAGS MODI, RIJIJU IN TWEET

Sakshi miffed atnot getting the nod

A sportspersonputs life at risk forachieving success.I have dreamt of

seeing the Arjuna Awardwinner tag against my name always SAKSHI MALIK

For any athlete governmentrecognition is important. Thesame holds true for me. It will betough to qualify (for Olympics),but I am confident I will do itDUTEE CHAND

Arjuna, a hugebooster: Dutee

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, August 23: AndyMurray wore a coronavirus-conscious mask on his way to theunusual, no-spectators setting andavoided handshakes when he left.In between, the three-time GrandSlam champion offered his usualmix of hustling and muttering.

Murray’s first match in ninemonths as he resumes his climbback from two hip operations cameat the first ATP tournament foranyone in five months. In the matchMurray achieved a 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-1 victory over Frances Tiafoe atthe Western & Southern Open hereSaturday.

“Physically, I thought I did prettywell,” said Murray, who wonWimbledon twice and the US Openin 2012. “I moved maybe better thanwhat I expected to,” the formerWorld No. 1 added.

The men’s tennis tour had beensuspended since March because ofthe COVID-19 pandemic.

Murray moved into a second-round test against No. 5 seedAlexander Zverev. Other men ad-vancing Saturday included two-time Grand Slam runner-up Kevin

Anderson, Canadians Milos Raonic,Felix Auger-Aliassime and DenisShapovalov, and Americans TaylorFritz and Reilly Opelka.

“To have no sound during thewhole match, it was really odd,”said No. 15 seed Auger-Aliassime, the

first winner of an ATP match sinceMarch, 6-4, 6-1 against NikolozBasilashvili.

Shapovalov had a similarlystraightforward victory over 2014 USOpen champion Marin Cilic, win-ning the day’s last match 6-3, 6-3.

BFI not surprisedat ministry rebuff for Bardhan, Sarkar INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Kolkata, August 23: The BridgeFederation of India (BFI) is not sur-prised by the omission of 2018Asian Games gold medal winnersPranab Bardhan and ShibnathSarkar from the Arjuna Awards listthis year. Officials of the BFI saidthey knew that the recognitionwill take time to come.

Sarkar and Bardhan were nom-inated for Arjuna by the BFI buttheir names were not there in thelist of 27 recommended to theSports Ministry.

The names picked for the na-tional sports awards this time how-ever, have raised a few eyebrows.The name that has evoked the max-imum amount of surprise is thatof paddler Manika Batra. She wasrecommended for the Rajiv GandhiKhel Ratna award despite her win-ning the Arjuna in 2018.

BFI general secretary Anand(KS) Samant was asked if Sarkarand Bardhan had got a raw deal.“There is a process where an ath-lete’s performance is measuredover a period of four years and notjust just by one achievement.Unfortunately, Bardhan and Sarkarhave not won anything signifi-cant after the 2018 Asian Gamesgold. To be fair to them, this COVID-19 pandemic has also played a bigpart in curtailing their chances,”said Samant.

MEN’S TENNIS RESTARTS AFTER A FIVE-MONTH HIATUS

Murray grinds to firstvictory in nine months

WINNING RETURN: Andy Murray clenches his fist after winning a point during his encounter Saturday against Frances Tiafoe at New York PTI PHOTO

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Chennai , August 23 : RPraggnanandhaa and DivyaDeshmukh starred with crucialwins as India stunned Sunday aformidable China 4-2 in the ninthand final preliminary round tomake the quarterfinals of the FIDEOnline Chess Olympiad. The Indianteam, finished at the top of Pool A.They will play the quarterfinalsagainst a yet-to-be-decided oppo-nent August 28.

Four draws and two wins onunder-20 boards helped India pulloff the victory against China. The15-year-old Praggnanandhaa ap-peared to be on the ropes, but man-aged to turn the tables on Liu Yanand finished with a perfect 6/6

score. Divya, a former World under-10 and 12 champion beat Jiner Zhuto underline her potential.

Vidit Gujrathi, the Indian captain,then held World No.3 Ding Liren toa creditable draw on the top boardwhile P Harikrishna also shared ho-nours with Yangyi Yu. Then KoneruHumpy signed peace with thewomen’s World No.1 Yifan Hou asdid D Harika against the currentWorld Champion Wenjun Ju.

India claimed the top spot inPool A with 17 points and 39.5 boardpoints and became the first team toqualify for the quarterfinals. Chinawere second with 16 points.

Harikrishna said he was de-lighted with the win over Chinaand credited youngsters –Praggnanandhaa and Divya for it.

FIDE ONLINE CHESS OLYMPIAD

Praggna, Deshmukh helpIndia overpower China

GOOD SHOW: RPraggnanandhaaachieved a vitalwin for the Indianchess team

AGENCIES

Dubai, August 23: For India andcaptain of the Royal ChallengersBangalore (RCB) teams Virat Kohlithe word ‘rest’ doesn’t exists. Kohlihas reached here with other mem-bers of the RCB team Friday. Sincethen, he is keeping himself busy inisolation by doing strenuous work-outs. It should also be stated herethat RCB’s South African crick-eters – AB de Villiers and DaleSteyn reached here Saturday.

All the players will be in quar-antine for the next few days and theywill undergo multiple coronavirustests. Only after their reports comeout negative they will be allowedto enter the training arena. Butfor Kohli the quarantine perioddoes not mean ‘rest’.

Kohli posted a picture of hisSunday on his Instagram accountafter a strenuous workout ses-sion. He captioned the picture,“Keep putting in the work.” Laterin the day RCB shared the samepicture on their official Twitterhandle captioning it, “No days off

for captain Kohli.”IPL-2020 is crucial for RCB. Kohli

and his mates will be very keen tobreak their IPL jinx. RCB hasreached the final of the event anumber of times, but have not beenable to lay their hands on the trophy.This year, they will certainly put intheir very best to get the title.

The IPL-13 matches will be playedacross three venues in the UAE –Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai.The tournament will last 53 days.

No ‘rest’ for skipper Kohli PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Dubai, August 23: Wearing masksand face shields, Delhi Capitals(DC) and Sunrisers Hyderabad’s(SRH) Indian players and supportstaff arrived Sunday here for the up-coming IPL-13. The tournamentwill be played in the UAE fromSeptember 19 to November 10.

The Hyderabad-based franchiselanded in the city first. They weresoon followed by the team from theIndian capital, which flew into theUAE via Mumbai. The players willbe undergoing a mandatory six-day quarantine which is in linewith the standard operating pro-cedure (SOP) issued by the BCCI.

RT-PCR tests will be performedon everyone on day one, three andsix of the quarantine period. All theplayers who return negative for allthe three tests will be entering thetournament bio-bubble.

Delhi Capitals chief executiveofficer Dhiraj Malhotra and assis-tant coach Mohammad Kaif shared

their thoughts, having met theirplayers after a long time.

“We are all really excited thatcricket is back, and that the teamare together again. It is like meet-ing your own family, meeting yourlong lost friends. So it is just a re-ally overwhelming phase for all of

us,” Malhotra was quoted as sayingin a press release.

“We will be undergoing threemore tests, and hopefully every-one’s reports will come out negative,and then we can get back on to thefield to start practicing,” addedKaif.

DC, SRH last teams to arrive in UAEALL PLAYERS TO UNDERGO SIX-DAY QUARANTINE

ShikharDhawan of DCwith a healthworker uponhis arrival inDubai, Sunday

Azhar scriptsPak fightback AGENCIES

Southampton, August 23:Pakistan fought back to reach 158for five at tea on the third day ofthe third and final cricket matchagainst England at the Rose Bowlhere Sunday. Skipper Azhar Ali (82batting, 183b, 12x4) held the in-nings together with an 83-run forthe sixth wicket with MohammadRizwan (13 batting). England intheir first innings had scored amammoth 583 for eight declared.

Earlier, resuming at theirovernight score of 24 for three,Pakistan lost Asad Shafiq (5) earlyon. The batsman was dismissed byJames Anderson, his fourth wicketof the innings. It took Anderson’stally to 597 wickets in Tests, just threeshort of the magic 600-wicket mark.However then first with FawadAlam (21) and then with Riwan afightback was scripted by Ali. Brief scores: England 583 for 8 declared, Pakistan 158 for 5 (Azhar Ali 82 batting, JamesAnderson 4/38).

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