ASSAM: CONG TO GIVE 200 UNITS OF FREE ELECTRICITY PG5

DEFENCE LAWYERS FACE AN OPAQUE PROSECUTION & AN UNCOOPERATIVE PROBE AUTHORITY PG2

‘PREMATURE,’ ‘UNREALISTIC’ TO THINK COVID-19 WILL END SOON PG8

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Tuesday directed states to utilise the full capacity of private hospitals to oper-ate as vaccination sites, as India entered Day II of the third phase of the inocula-tion drive on Tuesday. All private hospitals that are not empanelled under the Cen-tral government schemes are now permitted to operate as vaccination sites.

The cumulative number of Covid vaccine doses admin-istered in the country crossed 1.54 crore on Tuesday. As per the provisional report of the Union Health ministry, a total of 1,54,61,864 vaccine doses have been given till 7 pm.

“Of the total, 67,32,944 healthcare workers have been administered the first dose and 26,85,665 HCWs have taken the second dose, while 55,47,426 FLWs have been administered the first dose and 828 FLWs have been given the second dose,” it said, adding that 4,34,981 beneficiaries belonging to more than 60 years and 60,020 beneficiaries are aged 45 and above with specific co-morbidities.

In a single day, a total of 6,09,845 vaccine doses were given till 7 pm on the 46th day of the nationwide Covid-

19 vaccination drive. India’s COVID-19 cases

rose to 1,11,24,527 with 12,286 new infections being reported in a day, while the recoveries have surged to 1,07,98,921, according to data

updated by the ministry on Tuesday.

The death toll increased to 1,57,248 with 91 new fatali-ties, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The number of peo-

ple who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,07,98,921 which translates into a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 97.07 per cent, while the case fatality rate has dropped 1.41 per cent.

The active caseload was recorded at 1,68,358 which accounts for 1.51 per cent of the total infections, the data stated.

Five states accounted for 84.16 per cent of the active infections, while six states and UTs have a weekly pos-itivity rate higher than the national average of 2 per cent, the ministry added. Maha-rashtra and Kerala alone account for 67.84 per cent of total active cases, it said.

Six states and UTs, includ-ing Maharashtra, Kerala,

Goa, Chandigarh, Punjab and Gujarat have a weekly positivity rate higher than the national average of 2 per cent. Maharashtra leads all the states with a weekly posi-tivity rate of 10.02 per cent, the ministry said.

The ministry said 80.33 per cent of the new cases are from five states.

Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 6,397. It is followed by Kerala with 1,938 while Pun-jab reported 633 new cases.

Meanwhile, about 50 lakh people have registered them-selves on the Co-WIN portal, without any system glitch, since the window opened on Monday morning, the Cen-tre said on Tuesday.

Continued on P6

millenniumpost.in RNI NO.: DELENG/2005/15351REGD. NO.: DL(S)-01/3420/2018-20

PUBLISHED FROM DELHI & KOLKATA NO HALF TRUTHS

KARNAL: Fifty-four stu-dents of a school near here have tested COVID-19 pos-itive leading to the suspen-sion of classes and other academic activities, an offi-cial said on Tuesday.

Karnal Chief Medi-cal Officer (CMO) Yogesh Sharma said three students of Sainik School Kunjpura had tested positive for the virus on Monday following

which the health depart-ment took samples of 390 students and staff members of the school for testing.

“The reports revealed that 54 students are COVID-19 positive,” Sharma said.

Deputy Commissioner Nishant Kumar Yadav said the school building and its hostels have been declared as a containment zone. MPOST

54 students test +ve in Karnal

VOL.16, ISSUE 62 | Wednesday, 3 March, 2021 | New Delhi | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00

INDIA RECORDS 12,286 COVID INFECTIONS, 91 FATALITIES

Centre directs states to operate all pvt hospitals as vaccination sites

Shocked to see manner of arrest of IRP for Jaypee Infra: SC

Orders immediate release, issues show-cause to errant cop

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday was “appalled” over the arrest of court-appointed Interim Res-olution Professional (IRP) for managing the affairs of debt-ridden Jaypee Infratech Lim-ited (JIL) in a criminal case by Uttar Pradesh police and ordered his forthwith release while issuing a show-cause notice to an erring cop.

The Apex Court observed that the police official dealing with the case is not familiar with the provision of privilege of interim resolution appointed by the court under the IBC.

Anuj Jain was appointed by the top court under the Insol-vency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) and was entrusted with the task to ensure functioning of Jaypee Infratech till the reso-lution process to resurrect the ailing company is decided.

He was arrested on Monday from Mumbai by the Greater Noida police in connection with an FIR alleging that the Jaypee Infratech Limited (JIL), the operator of the 165-kilome-tre-long Yamuna Expressway, and its IRP Anuj Jain have not taken up safety measures sug-gested by the IIT in its safety audit conducted in 2018 to

reduce road accidents.Ordering Greater Noida

police and the Magistrate con-cerned to release Jain without imposing any condition upon receiving its order through e-mail, a bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and Dinesh Maheshwari asked the office of the Registrar General (Judi-cial) of the Apex Court to make a call to the office of the Judicial Magistrate to ensure immedi-ate compliance.

“We are appalled to see that the manner in which the Uttar Pradesh Police has han-dled this case emanating from FIR No.0098/2021, registered at Police Station Beta-II in Dis-trict Greater Noida, including to take the extreme step to arrest the IRP, Anuj Jain, who was working in that capacity pursuant to the order passed by the court and entrusted with the functioning of the com-pany in question,” the bench ordered. Continued on P6

IMPHAL: Days after Centre’s new rules and regulations for digital platforms, an online news portal in Manipur became its first ‘victim’. However, the notice has since been withdrawn.

On Monday, the Manipur government issued a legal notice to Khanasi Neinasi, a weekly show of The Fron-tier Manipur (TFM), an online news portal based in Imphal, according to reports. The government directed the media outlet to furnish all relevant documents to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Informa-tion Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code), Rules, 2021.

Hosted by Kishorechandra Wangkhemcha, an asso-ciate editor of TFM, the online show ‘Khanasi Neinasi’ (Let’s discuss and analyse) produced four episodes. In the first episode, a panel discussion on the theme ‘Fron-tier and The Freedom of Expression’. It was uploaded on the site’s Facebook page on January 31.

Ironically, the last episode of the show uploaded on the Facebook page of TFM on February 28 under the topic “Media under siege: Are journalists walking a tightrope” discussed new digital ethics.

The panelists were Paojel Chaoba, the executive edi-tor of TFM, Grace Jajo, an independent journalist, and Ninglun Hanghal, a columnist and freelance journalist.

During the discussion, Grace Jajo shared her ordeal during the recently-concluded Budget session. Jajo was denied entry on the last day of the 12th session of the 11th Manipur Legislative Assembly.

Paojel Chaoba said that around six to seven police personnel came to the office on Tuesday morning and handed over the notice. Continued on P6

Manipur portal becomes first ‘victim’ of new digital media rules

BJP sweeps local body elections in Gujarat

AHMEDABAD: The ruling BJP recorded a massive victory in the local body polls in Gujarat on Tues-day by winning a clear majority in all 31 district panchayats as well as in 196 out of 231 taluka panchay-ats and 74 out of 81 municipalities.

The Congress, the main Oppo-sition party in the state, won a clear majority in only one municipality and 18 taluka panchayats, while AIMIM and AAP also made their presence felt.

In six municipalities and 15 taluka panchayats no party has got a clear majority.

The BJP’s success followed its victory in all six municipal corpo-rations where polls were held in the first phase of local elections on February 21.

In the second phase where poll-ing was held for district and taluka panchayats as well as municipali-ties on February 28, the BJP again left the Congress far behind by winning 6,236 out of 8,470 seats for which results were declared. The position was not yet clear on the four remaining seats.

The Congress could win 1,805 seats, while the new entrants Aam Aadmi Paty (AAP) and All India

Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) won 42 and 17 seats, respectively.

Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM won nine seats in Modasa munic-ipality in the Aravalli district, one in Bharuch, and seven in Godhra in Panchmahal.

The AAP won 31 seats in taluka panchayat, two in district pan-chayat and nine in municipality bodies.

With the BJP emerging stron-ger in rural and semi-urban areas, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Results of the Nagar Palika, Taluka Panchayat and Dis-trict Panchayat polls across Guja-rat give a crystal clear message - Gujarat is firmly with the BJP’s agenda of development and good governance.

“I bow to the people of Gujarat for the unwavering faith and affec-tion towards BJP.” AGENCIES

Manmohan Singh blames ‘ill-considered demonetisation’ for

unemployment, informal sector crisis Former PM slams Centre for undermining federalism

by not holding regular consultations with states OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI/THIRUVANA-NTHAPURAM: Attacking the Centre, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said unemployment is high in the country and its informal sector is in shambles following the “ill-considered demoneti-sation decision” taken by the BJP-led government in 2016.

He also criticised the Cen-tral government for not hold-ing regular consultations with the states. Inaugurating a development summit vir-tually organised by the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Develop-ment Studies, an economic

think tank aligned to the Con-gress ideology in poll-bound Kerala, Singh said temporary measures by the Central gov-ernment and the RBI to paper over the credit problem cannot blind us to the looming credit crisis ahead that could affect the small and medium sector.

“Unemployment is high and the informal sector is in shambles, a crisis precipitated by the ill-considered demoneti-sation decision taken in 2016,” he said at ‘Pratheeksha 2030’.

The summit was organised to launch a ‘Vision Document’, a framework of ideas for the development of Kerala, well in advance of the state elections.

He observed that in Kerala and many other states, pub-lic finances were in disarray with states having to resort to excessive borrowing, which creates an intolerable burden on future budgets.

“Federalism and regular consultation with states, which was the cornerstone of India’s economic and political philos-ophy as enshrined in the Con-stitution, no longer finds favour with the present Central gov-ernment,” he said.

Singh said while Kerala’s social standards are high, there are other sectors that need strong attention in the future.

Continued on P6

Highlights » The cumulative number of Covid vaccine doses adminis-tered in the country crossed 1.54 crore on Tuesday. As per the provisional report of the Union Health ministry, a total of 1,54,61,864 vaccine doses have been given till 7 pm

» India’s COVID-19 cases rose to 1,11,24,527 with 12,286 new infections being reported in a day, while the recoveries have surged to 1,07,98,921, according to data updated by the ministry on Tuesday

» Five states accounted for 84.16 per cent of the ac-tive infections, while six states and UTs have a weekly positivity rate higher than the national average of 2 per cent, the ministry added

WASHINGTON: The Biden administration announced sanctions of Russian officials and businesses on Tuesday for a nearly fatal nerve-agent attack upon Opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his subsequent jailing. Senior administration officials did not immediately identify the Russian officials targeted. The Biden administra-tion also announced sanctions under the US Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act for 14 businesses and another enterprise, most of which it said were involved in the produc-tion of biological and chemi-cal agents.

The US intelligence com-munity concluded with high confidence that Russia’s Fed-eral Security Service used the Russian nerve agent Novichok on the dissident last August, a senior administration offi-cial said. Tuesday’s sanctions would be the first of several steps by the Biden administra-tion to respond to a number of destabilising actions, said one of the administration officials, who briefed reporters on the condition they not be identi-fied further.

The sanctions are the first against Russia by the Biden administration, which has pledged to confront President Vladimir Putin for alleged attacks on Russian Opposition figures and hacking abroad, including of US government agencies and US businesses. AGENCIES

US sets sanctions over Russia Oppn leader’s poisoning

MUMBAI: The Central Rail-way has increased the price of platform tickets at some key stations in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to avoid over-crowding dur-ing the upcoming summer season in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, an official said on Tuesday.

A platform ticket now costs Rs 50 instead of the previous rate of Rs 10 at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, Dadar and Lok-manya Tilak Terminus in Mumbai, and neighbouring Thane, Kalyan, Panvel and Bhiwandi Road stations, CR’s Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said. The new rate came into force from March 1 and will remain effective till June 15 this year, the official said. AGENCIES

Platform ticket price raised to Rs 50 at key

stations in MMR

Senior citizens stand in a queue as they wait to receive the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, at Nair Hospital in Mumbai, on Tuesday PTI

TAYLOR TAKES A JIBE AT ‘NETFLIX’ FOR USING ‘DEEPLY SEXIST JOKE’ PG12

NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only

Printed and Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at The Indian Express Pvt. Ltd., A-8, Sector-7, Noida-201 301 (U.P.) and published from First Floor, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002. Editor: Durbar Ganguly. Email: durbarganguly@gmail.com, Tel. No. 011-47777500

mp city2ONE YEAR SINCE THE N-E DELHI RIOTS

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A court here on Tuesday granted a week's time to the Delhi Police to file a reply to the anticipatory bail plea of Nikita Jacob, a co-accused along with Disha Ravi in connection with allegedly being involved in sharing a "toolkit" on social media related to the farm-ers' protest.

Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana allowed the police plea to grant it time till March 9 after the public prosecu-tor said the agency needed time to file a detailed reply to Jacob's plea.

The court is scheduled to hear the anticipatory bail plea of another co-accused, Shantanu Muluk, on March 9. During the brief hearing held through video con-ferencing, senior advocate Rebecca John, appearing for Jacob, said she wanted to argue on her plea as a stand alone case and not with Muluk's.

The court said she could argue on March 9.

The court also directed the Delhi Police to hand over a copy of its reply to Jacob's bail plea to her counsel.

Jacob had got transit anticipatory bail from Bom-bay High Court on February 17 for three weeks, so that the accused could approach the court concerned in Delhi, where the case is lodged.

Court grants police 1 week to respond to Nikita Jacob

ARNABJIT SUR

NEW DELHI: In the one year since the north-east Delhi riots last February, while thousands of accused have been arrested based on what courts have called flimsy evidence and in some cases, nonsensical theories, scores of young lawyers have stepped up to represent these accused per-sons and try and get them some semblance of due process.

Lawyers, representing these accused pro-bono, spoke to Millennium Post about what they thought they were sign-ing up for, what the process of dealing with the Delhi Police and the prosecution has been and the challenges they have faced.

Starting from defence law-yers fighting months-long court battles just to get a copy of a chargesheet against their cli-ents to what they have called intentional opacity on the part of the prosecution and investi-gative agency — these defence lawyers have said even basic due process has been hard to access for many of their clients. They added that the pandemic had only complicated things further.

Advocate Chandan Gos-wami, representing two riots accused, claimed that getting access to chargesheets of cases is an arduous task with it tak-ing months to be provided to the counsels after being filed by police.

“One of my clients was accused in a murder case and the road to bail him out was a long one... police had arrested him in a different matter which we weren’t aware of, so we had to fight that case too,” Goswami, who started practicing in 2015, told Millennium Post.

On the conduct of police, he said: “The investigation is still underway in most cases. Facts differ in each case. There can't be a sweeping generalisation. But many accused, including my client, got bail because the evi-dence was thin and flimsy against them. In one case chargesheet was filed in June and we still haven’t received a copy,” he said.

Advocate Abdul Gaffar, originally from Western Uttar Pradesh, has argued more than 100 cases where bail was granted to his clients. He said he pre-ferred taking pro-bono cases as "his clients already have the bare minimum to make ends meet".

"You get to know after talk-ing to these people that they have nothing to give back…as a humanitarian move, I thought I must not take money from them,” Gaffar, who hails from West UP, said. “Right after the riots broke out, I was among the few persons who were provid-ing free legal aid to victims and accused persons but now thank-fully many NGOs have taken up the mantle and are providing pro bono help.”

Defending around four to five accused, Advocate Tara Narula said lawyers aren’t given sufficient information as to when their clients will be produced before a particular judge which acts as a “humongous issue” before defence counsels.

“There is a complete lack of transparency on the part of the prosecution in these cases...many of the boys have been accused in multiple cases and informa-tion about most of these cases isn’t available with their lawyers,” Narula said.

Referring to one of her cases pertaining to a riot accused, Narula said that while she was arguing his 4th bail application, she got to know through the police status report that he was accused in another FIR lodged by the police.

30-year-old Anas Tanwir, founder of the Indian Civil Lib-erties Union (ICLU), acknowl-edges that there is intimidation of lawyers who have been fighting Delhi riots cases. “The stuff which should be the duty of the state isn’t served to us! After a huge delay, we get to know that our clients are implicated in several other cases than what we initially knew,” Tanwir claimed. Tan-wir said that through ICLU, he and 30 other lawyers have been actively providing legal aid to riot victims and accused persons.

Meanwhile, Advocate Mishika Singh (29), fighting most of the compensation cases of riot victims, listed out the array of problems she faces while getting her clients, most of whom had their livelihoods destroyed after the riots, the due they deserve.

Singh said she is currently working on compensation cases of over 100 victims. “We have approached the Delhi High Court for around 20 of them through different writs,” she said.

“Clubbing of FIRs is an issue...SDM offices do not have a clear procedure to be followed after one files a compensation form...there are several cases where police is not convert-

ing complaints into FIRs or not taking MLC reports into consideration while register-ing FIRs,” she further alleged, adding that it is important to fight these cases for free as “the people who we are representing don’t have anything to start with or have lost whatever little they had during the riots”.

Lawyer Tamanna Pankaj (27), representing at least five riots accused, alleged intimida-tion on the part of police and said that apart from activists, lawyers involved in these cases have been specifically targeted by law enforcement agencies.

“Many lawyers have been interrogated in connection with the cases... one of the officers in the Crime Branch once asked me as to why am I wasting my time on these accused persons despite being well educated... they are concerned about the fact that where are so many lawyers coming from… I think women lawyers have faced most of the flak”, she claimed.

26-year-old lawyer Nitika Khaitan, representing around five accused persons, claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic played a huge role in delaying bail hearings on urgent mat-ters. “Courts were closed, so the bail proceedings were deferred which further delayed the whole process,” she said. She further pointed to a March 11 letter addressed to the Chief Justice of

the Delhi High Court and signed by six law-yers, which highlighted the “arbitrary police actions” in the form of “illegal summon-ing and detaining” of residents of Northeast

Delhi especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Another lawyer, speaking on the condition of anonym-ity, said that there is an appar-ent targeting of poor persons of the minority community which is visible in the conduct of the police. “It is very obvious that innocent Muslim men are being carefully picked and chosen dur-ing the investigation,” she said.

Advocate Saroj Kumar Jha, representing more than five Hindu accused persons, said that he has helped several of his clients by reducing their bail bonds and apart from profes-sional obligations, he “believes in their innocence”. “They are implicated in so many cases so it naturally becomes difficult for them to pay up the money, so I have got them reduced on sev-eral occasions,” he said.

(This is the fifth part in Millen-nium Post's series on the one year since the north-east Delhi riots)

Defence lawyers face an opaque prosecution & an uncooperative probe auth

ONE ARRESTED FOR 12 ATM BREAK-INSNEW DELHI: A person was arrested for 12 ATM break-ins and siphoning off cash amounting to Rs 1.35 crore, along with his associates. Police have ar-rested the accused near a bus stand at Nelson Man-dela Road. Police identified the accused as Vakeel, who used to spray black paint at CCTV cameras. They used to open the ATMs with the help of gas cutter and remove the cash cabins. They used to identify and target ATMs in isolated and less lit areas where no guards were on duty.

IPU TO ORGANISE YOUNG RESEARCHERS CONFERENCE 2021 ON MARCH 4 AND 5NEW DELHI: Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha Univer-sity in collaboration with JNU Jean Monnet Module, Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies and Jawaharlal Nehru University is organis-ing an online Young Researchers Conference 2021 on the theme “Global Dynamics and Emerging Trends: India and Europe” on March 4 and 5. The genesis of this conference lies in the idea that innovative vision and spectrum of global events be brought before the audience from the perspective of young researchers. This conference intends to deliberate upon the emerg-ing trends, global changes and current socio-economic and political crises in changing landscapes and how these crises pose challenges to India, and Europe.

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Several lawyers representing riots accused pro-bono talk about the challenges they faced in getting due process for their clients

a mille

nnium post

INVESTIGATION

'... a hundred suspicion don't make proof', Court quotes Dostoevsky to grant bail

HC seeks Delhi govt's response on inadequate aid for children's death

'Reporting contents of chargesheet before cognizance unfair, unjustified'

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Tuesday sought the response of the Delhi govern-ment on a plea by parents of two children, who lost their lives during the communal violence in northeast Delhi last year, chal-lenging an assistance scheme to help the riot victims as it provides inadequate compensation for the death of minors.

Parents of the two minors have challenged the fixing of a maximum compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the death of a child in riots while the maximum com-pensation for the death of an adult has been fixed at Rs 10 lakh.

Justice Prathiba M Singh issued notice to the Delhi govern-ment and sub-divisional magis-trate of Seelampur on the petition, which has also been filed on behalf of CPI (M) leader Brinda Karat, who has also been instru-mental in securing scholarships for some of such victims of the North-East Delhi violence.

The high court asked the authorities to file their replies within four weeks and listed the matter for further hearing

on April 26.While petitioners Ram Suga-

rat is the father of a 15-year-old boy, who died after being hit by a tear-gas shell on February 26 last year in Gokulpuri area, Rihana Khatoon is the mother of a 17-year-old boy who lost his life due to a gunshot injury on his head on February 25, 2020, near Jafrabad metro station.

Both the victims were school-going children and had gone to the nearby market to buy house-hold items when the incidents took place.

Advocate Karuna Nandy, representing the petitioners, submitted that fixing the max-imum compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the death of a minor during riots while the families of adult victims receive Rs 10 lakh compensation is arbitrary and unreasonable.

The plea sought direction to the authorities to award an equal compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of all deceased riot victims under the 'Delhi govern-ment assistance scheme for the help of riot victims', irrespec-tive of whether they are minors or majors.

ARNABJIT SUR

NEW DELHI: Noting that “there is a world of differ-ence between an accused and a convict”, a Delhi court on Tuesday said that media reporting of exact contents of the chargesheet before cogni-zance is taken or counsels are provided a copy of the same is “grossly unfair and unjustified” and that it is the fundamental right of the accused to defend himself.

Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat made these observations in response to grievances raised by several accused persons in the case of “larger conspiracy” behind the Delhi riots with regard to the “media trial” being carried out against them. Advocate Adit Pujari, on behalf of Pinjra Tod activists Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, told the court

that the third supplementary chargesheet filed by police last week before the court has been leaked to various news outlets.

In his order, ASJ Rawat noted that: “...there should, at least, always be a disclaimer when reporting, whether it is the version of the police/pros-ecution or the accused instead of presenting as if it is the order of the court”. The court went on to add that, “Labelling the police as completely unfair or accused as a convict itself, is not a healthy sign and which impacts the process of the criminal justice system. The principle and the tenets of free and fair trial, are sacrosanct and inviolable”.

Further, with regard to the leakage of chargesheet even before its cognizance is taken or before it is provided to the accused or their counsels, the court stated that “it is one thing

to report generally about the chargesheet but quite another to reproduce it as it is and thus, obviously, the question of leak-age would arise”.

During the hearing, JNU student and UAPA accused Umar Khalid told the court that reporting done in the media “paints the accused as guilty even before the trial”. “If it (leakage of chargesheet) con-tinues like this, for an accused it's very difficult when such adverse reporting is being done in the press which paints the accused as guilty even before the trial...the constitu-tion allows us a fair and free trial...it is happening again and again where our right to a fair trial is curbed by this kind of reporting”.

United Against Hate founder Khalid Saifi too, told the court that allegations are being made against him saying that he was a terrorist because of his name.

Advocate Adit Pujari argued before court that because of such leakages by the police, the accused persons have to undergo a media trial.

Refuting the allegations, Special Public Prosecutor Amit Prasad said that police is not responsible for the leak-age of documents and that the accused were trying to build a narrative to prove their innocence.

Ghazipur border reopened briefly, commuters' relief short-lived

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NOIDA: Two Swiggy delivery executives have been arrested by Noida Police in con-nection with thefts in posh sectors of Noida. Cops said that the accused persons used to mark the houses and identify the entrance from where they could sneak into them for robbery. As per police, the arrested accused have been identified as Kafil and Ravi Shankar, both natives of district Bulandshar and lived in a rented house in Sector 126 of Noida.

“The accused have been employed with the food delivery app for past few months and we are investigating their involvement in other similar

incidents,” said police.“Working out a case of theft in Sector 46

area of Noida, police investigations rounded up on the two accused. Both were delivering food in the Golf Course area of Noida, based on the orders through the Swiggy app,” said Kumar Ran Vijay Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Noida.

While detailing over the modus operandi of gang, the officer further said that the two used to conduct a recce of the houses while deliver-ing the food orders. Police have recovered LED TV, watches, a motorcycle which they have pur-chased from the stolen money and tools they used to break into the houses.

NEW DELHI: A 21-year-old man who befriended a fraud-ster through PUBG was arrested for card swapping. Police said one Sadab Khan, an advocate complained that he had got an SMS on his mobile to redeem his Kotak Mahendra bank and RBL Bank credit cards, as soon as he clicked on the given web link and entered his card cre-dentials he lost Rs 1 lakh from his credit cards.

During the investigation, it was revealed that the accused had used spoofed SMS services to send phishing messages of points redemption. Thereafter, the beneficiary accounts and wallets were investigated which revealed that the cheated amount had been credited to a Paytm account at first and then it was used for Croma gift voucher accounts. Later, police arrested

one Tusar Tyagi (21) from Kota. The team under inspector (cyber) Ajit Kumar made the arrest.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said Tusar, during the lockdown, came into contact with one Vishal during playing PUBG. Gradually, they became friends. Initially, Shubham started to provide UC game accessories to Tusar and talking him through VOIP calls. "When they became friends, Shubham informed him that he works in credit, debit card phishing and has good knowl-edge to earn easily in cyberspace.

"He offered Tusar 20 per cent commission on the sale of his purchased items. In January, Shubham contacted Tusar and asked him to collect his smart mobile phones from Croma stores and to sale them in the open market," he said. MPOST

KRISHANGI SINHA

NEW DELHI: The Ghazipur border which is a key route con-necting the national capital to Uttar Pradesh had been momen-tarily reopened for vehicular movement on one side on Tues-day morning but shut again hours later. The border had remained closed since the Republic Day violence.

Ghazipur border is among the three main borders where farmers have been protesting.

The one side of the national highway opened for traffic around 2 am on Tuesday. The movement was however lim-ited only to those entering UP from Delhi. The movement of vehicles from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi via the Ghazipur border

is still not allowed. However, the Delhi Police on Tuesday afternoon closed the border again.

Following the reopening of the border, a commuter Priyam Aggarwal has her office in Vas-ant Kunj and stays in Vaishali, Ghaziabad said, “Since the last one month I had to take the lon-ger route to cross the border to

reach work and, in the evening, it used to get late to get back, but with the border reopening though it's one way but at least coming from Delhi in the eve-ning I won’t get very late.”

Another commuter said, “Till yesterday, we had to use the Delhi Noida Direct Flyway or take a different route. Now our time will be saved. Also, the other

routes weren’t very safe in the evening to drive alone.”

One of the farmers, Lakinder Singh at the protest site on the Ghazipur border said, “We will continue our protest as long as the government doesn’t take back the three laws. We do not want to cause any problem to the general public. We are here peacefully protesting for our rights and we shall continue to do so.”

After the violence that had erupted on Republic Day in the national capital during the farm-ers’ tractor rally led to security at the Ghazipur border increas-ing. The Delhi Police had further also cemented nails near barri-cades at the Ghazipur border as well as the Tikri border which connects Delhi and Haryana.

Two delivery boys arrested for theft in Noida

Man befriends fraudster through PUBG and gets

arrested for card swapping

ARNABJIT SUR

NEW DELHI: Quoting Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment”, a Delhi court on Monday, while dropping attempt to murder charges against two accused in Delhi riots, said that “from a hundred rabbits you can’t make a horse, a hundred suspicion don’t make a proof”.

On the prosecution’s con-tention that the accused were part of the rioting mob and thus it must be presumed that they committed the offence of shooting at the victim, one Rahul, and that “suspicion points towards the accused persons”, Additional Sessions Judge Amitabh Rawat in his order noted: “The criminal

jurisprudence says that there must be some material against the accused persons to frame a charge,” adding that “presump-tion can’t be stretched to take the shape of proof/evidence”.

The court said that the chargesheet filed in the case depicted nothing for charging the accused persons under sec-

tion 307 of IPC or Arms Act.The case pertains to accused

Babu and Imran alias Teli, rep-resented by advocate Salim Malik, who police allege were part of an unlawful assembly armed with weapons and par-ticipating in the rioting on Feb-ruary 25 near Maujpur red light. Police have further claimed that

despite warning by the police to leave the area in the wake of section 144 CrPC imposed in the area, they refused to leave.

Regarding the charges lev-elled against the duo, the court questioned as to why the state-ment of Rahul, who allegedly received the gunshot injury, has not been brought on record.

ASJ Rawat further noted that the alleged victim has never been seen by the police nor has given any statement about any gunshot injury or about the mob or rioters. “So how is Section 307 of IPC made out against the accused per-sons when the victim is absent from even the police inves-tigation. How is the gunshot injury established. There is

no murmur of that,” the order read.

ASJ Rawat further observed that there is only one police wit-ness, however, even he does not make “any direct or even tan-gential reference” to the firing by rioters or gunshot injury caused to the alleged victim Rahul or even to the accused persons causing injury to the victim.

Noting that in the case of the prosecution as it is, section 307 of IPC is out of bounds, ASJ Rawat stated that, “With noth-ing in the chargesheet to dig in, no case under Section 307 of IPC is made out and there is no ground for presuming that these two accused persons have committed the offence of attempt to murder…”.

Clockwise from top-left: Tamanna Pankaj, Mishika Singh, Chandan Goswami, Anas Tanwir and Abdul Gaffar

mp city 3

RFID TO BE INSTALLED AT ALL 124 ENTRY POINTS IN DELHI: SDMCNEW DELHI: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation is set to install RFID systems at all 124 entry points, Mayor Anamika Mithilesh Singh said on Tuesday. Ear-lier, SDMC had installed RFID systems at 13 key points in the first phase of the installation process. Now, the remaining 111 toll points will also be updated with this technology.

DELHI CONGRESS HOLDS PROTESTNEW DELHI: Delhi Congress leaders and workers on Tuesday staged a protest near the BJP headquarters here against the rising petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices. The protesters, raising slogans against the BJP-led central government, took a march from the Delhi Congress office but were stopped by police before the BJP headquarters on DDU Marg.

NEWS AT A GLANCE

millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021

DJB OFFICE VANDALISM CASE

HOME ISOLATION777

POSITIVITY RATE0.33%DEATH TOLL10,911

ACTIVE CASES1,543

DELHI COUNT

COVID-19

Budget Session from Mar 8-16; new taxes unlikely, say sources

AAISHA SABIR

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Cabi-net met on Tuesday and cleared the way for the Assembly's Bud-get Session to start from March 8, Deputy Chief Minister Man-ish Sisodia announced on Twit-ter, adding that the session is expected to end on March 16.

While sources have said that no new taxes are likely to be introduced, Millennium Post had earlier reported that health expenditure is expected to see a significant boost with Rs 25-30 crore set aside for the Covid-19 vaccination programme. In addition, education spending will also be a key focus.

The government had pre-sented a Rs 65,000 crore budget for 2020-2021 that was around 10 per cent more than that in the previous fiscal year.

In addition to this, Delhi government officials said that a slew of proposals was passed by the Cabinet in its Tuesday meet-ing, including the merger of 10 Delhi government institutes into the BR Ambedkar University, the release of scholarship funds for SC/ST/OBC communities, funds under the Ladli scheme, and aid and equipment for chil-dren with special needs and aug-mented library infrastructure in the government schools.

Moreover, the Cabinet also cleared Rs 50 crore for the con-struction and development of the Delhi Archives buildings.

Delhi government approved Rs 100 crore for the Ladli Scheme which will benefit school-going girls.

For different scholarship schemes for the benefit of SC/ST/OBC students, the Cabinet released Rs. 75.98 crore which will impact pre-matric scholar-

ship, post-matric scholarships and merit scholarships for SC/ST/OBC/Minority students from Class I to XII.

In addition, it also approved an amount of Rs 2 crore for the Talent Promotion Scheme for Children with Special Needs and Children with Disabilities.

And in a bid to improve and secure valued library books in the Delhi government Schools, the Cabinet directed the respec-tive department to procure 4,178 Steel Almirahs, which will cost Rs 7.2 crore.

The Cabinet meeting was chaired by CM Arvind Kejri-wal and with his deputy Man-ish Sisodia, who spoke on the merger of skills institutes in the BR Ambedkar University, “Delhi Government is com-mitted to expand the skilling opportunities for our youth.

These mergers will make the skilling ecosystem more efficient and raise the employ-ability and skilling prospects of our youth.”

The Government Institute of Technology, Delhi Institute of Tool Engineering (Wazirpur and Okhla Campus) and Gov-ind Ballabh Pant Engineering College (GBPEC) and bring them under the ambit of the Delhi Skill and Entrepreneur-ship University (DSEU). Along with that Delhi University’s Col-lege of Arts, functioning under the Directorate of Training and Technical Education, and Delhi Institute of Heritage Research and Management (DIHRM) affiliated with GGSIP University functioning under Directorate of Higher Education will now be part of Dr BR Ambedkar University.

Walk-ins get shots faster; experts say adverse events for sr citizens normal

CHHAVIANSHIKA SINGH

NEW DELHI: The second day of the COVID-19 vaccine being made available to members of the general public in hospitals across Delhi went by with minor hiccups.

Walk-in registrations seemed to be more effective than those done via the CoWIN app. Hospital staff as well as senior citizens lined up for the vaccine experienced some tech-nological failures, with some having to wait till lunchtime before their registrations could be processed. Comparatively, those who walked into vacci-nation centres with required documentation in hand were able to get the jab with a con-siderably shorter waiting time.

Speaking about adverse events following immunization (AEFI), doctors said that it was expected that those currently eligible for the vaccine, mean-ing people either over 60 years old or 45-year-olds with comor-

bidities, are more susceptible to mild AEFIs than the youth.

At North MCD-run Hindu Rao Hospital, a senior doctor said, “Mild fever, body ache and similar mild after-effects are normal and to be expected till at least 2-3 days post immuni-sation. After a couple of days it settles on its own. However, one should not take any medication, except mild painkillers such as a paracetamol. Stronger medicine, such Diclofenac, will suppress the body’s immune response”.

Notably, mostly CRPF and Delhi Police received the Covaxin vaccine at Hindu Rao on Tuesday, while the hospital’s

own nursing, paramedical and class 4 employees were appre-hensive about getting the shot.

The CoWin app too, was not functioning till late afternoon at the hospital due to techni-cal difficulties leading to lesser vaccinations in the first half of the day. “It is more efficient for those above 45 and with comor-bidities to bring physical copies of required documents and get themselves registered in person”, the senior doctor said. On the other hand, Dr Suresh Kumar, Medical Superintendent of Lok Nayak Hospital, where Cov-ishield is being administered, insisted that the CoWIN app was “functioning well at LNJP hospital and the vaccination drive went smoothly”. Another couple, both above 60 years of age, who visited the hospital to get themselves vaccinated, said that they had to take a younger family member's help to register themselves on the app since “he knew more about phones and apps and such things”.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Delhi witnessed no Coronavirus death in a day, the Health Department said on Tuesday, the fifth time within a month that there was not a single daily fatality from the pathogen in the city.

The infection tally rose to 6,39,681 with new 217 cases the previous day and 78 more peo-ple recuperated from the virus, taking the number of recov-eries to 6.27 lakh, the depart-ment said.

The active cases rose to 1,543 from 1,404 and the posi-tivity rate came down from 0.44 per cent to 0.33 per cent. As many as 66,624 samples were tested, higher than 39,733 tests conducted on Sunday, accord-ing to a health bulletin.

The cumulative positivity rate and fatality rate stands at

5.12 per cent and 1.71 per cent respectively. The number of people under home isolation rose to 777 from 739, it said.

Delhi had reported 175 new cases of COVID-19 on Mon-day and the death toll stands at 10,911.

Earlier, no fatality was reported on February 9, 13, 17 and 25. February 9 was the first time when the daily death count was zero after a gap of nearly nine months. There was no death from the virus on May 11, as per the official data.

66,624 tests, 217 +ve, 0 deathsOUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The national Capital recorded a minimum temperature of 15.3 degrees Cel-sius on Tuesday, two notches above the season's average, the India Meteorological Depart-ment said.

According to MeT Depart-ment officials, the maximum temperature was 28.8 degrees Celsius and the relative humid-ity was recorded at 62 per cent.

The weatherman has pre-dicted clear sky for Wednesday with mist in the morning.

Maximum and minimum temperatures are expected to be around 30 and 14 degrees Celsius respectively.

The air quality in the national capital was recorded in the moderate category. The air quality index was 174, real-time data of the CPCB showed.

Min temp settles above normal

Delhi court asks police to collect all CCTV footage, conduct impartial probe

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has directed the police to collect all CCTV footage of the alleged vandalism of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) office in December last year and conduct an investiga-tion in an impartial manner to unearth the truth.

The court's directions came after two CCTV footage were played one showing the police officials along with the SHO trying to protect the gate of DJB office and another show-ing police officials not resisting any member of the mob from entering the main building.

It was hearing a plea filed by Delhi Jal Board vice chair-man and AAP MLA Raghav Chadha seeking a court-mon-itored investigation in the case of alleged vandalism and attack on staff members.

ACP (Assistant Commis-sioner of Police), DIU (District Investigation Unit), is directed to collect all the CCTV foot-age, analyse the same and take appropriate action in the pres-ent matter. Investigation would be conducted in impartial man-ner to unearth the truth of the matter, said Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ganjender Singh Nagar in his order passed on March 1 (Monday). The court directed the police to file a prog-ress report on March 9.

The application filed by Chadha has alleged that the attack was orchestrated by BJP Delhi president Adesh Gupta and party leaders Yogendra Chandoliya, Ravi Tanwar Upad-hyaksh and Vikas Tanwar.

Advocate Prashant Man-

chanda, appearing for Chadha, contended that a fresh FIR may be directed to be registered on the complaint.

The court's order noted that CCTV footage of main iron gate was played, from which it was apparent that police officials along with SHO trying to pro-tect the gate, however, few per-sons from the mob scaled up the gate, jumped inside the prem-ises, open the gate forcefully from inside, thereafter persons standing outside the gate came inside the premises despite there being resistance from the police.

Another CCTV footage has been shown wherein it can be seen that the mob is entering the main building of varuna-laya. This time police is there, but police officials are not resist-ing anybody, it said.

It also noted that ACP had pointed out that sections of riot-ing and unlawful assembly have been added in the charge sheet and the police was doing appro-priate investigation in the case.

The court had earlier directed the concerned DCP to file a report on why appropriate sections have not been added in the FIR despite there being vid-eos and photographs in which more than five persons involved in the alleged vandalism.

It had also directed the police to file the report on why for the period of one month, no witnesses present at the spot have been examined, why videos and photographs were not seized promptly when things were very much clear from them. MPOST

CHHAVIANSHIKA SINGH

NEW DELHI: The South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s Stand-ing Committee approved a pro-posal on Monday to change the category and rent of sev-eral community halls under its jurisdiction.

As many as 21 non-air con-ditioned community halls were shifted down by one category, effectively reducing their per-day rent and making them more affordable. Of these, 11 commu-nity halls were given permission to rent out their first and second floor as separate venues, hoping that such an arrangement would be profitable to both, the gen-eral public and the civic body. The proposal’s draft mentioned that in case these changes have a positive result, more commu-nity halls might be considered for a similar treatment.

At present, SDMC has 97 community halls under its juris-diction, out of which only 10 are air-conditioned. In a recent ruling, SDMC had decided to revise (reduce) booking rates of air-conditioned halls and made the AC facility optional. Accord-ing to the occupancy details of SDMC-run community halls for the last three years, it was found that there are 21 non-AC com-munity halls with less than 10 bookings in one year on average. Besides this, 11 such halls with a first or second floor venue, also

had less than 10 bookings even though their ground floor venue was booked more than 10 times in the same time period.

Speaking about the issue, Councillors Shikha Rai and Nar-endra Chawla said that there are several cases where a com-munity hall is situated within village limits, but due to being surrounded by posh localities, they have been put under ‘cat-egory A’, raising the rent to Rs 25,000 per day (with an addi-tional Rs 10,000 security deposit to be paid upfront). Thus, mak-ing them unaffordable for the villagers who are the ones actually using the facility. Sim-ilarly, permitting larger com-munity halls to rent out multiple floors as separate floors will result in more revenue for the corporation and more afford-ability for residents, the coun-cillors said.

Rai also gave the example of a community hall in Shahpur Jat village which has become unaf-fordable for local residents due to being listed in the ‘A’ category since it is near more affluent areas such as Panchsheel Park.

SDMC Commissioner Gyanesh Bharti said that the matter should be examined closely by a committee of Dep-uty Commissioners. Once the proposal is passed by the SDMC House, rents will drop by any-where between Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

SDMC clears proposal to slash rates of 21 community halls

Slew of other proposals okayed in Cabinet meet

CLOSER LOOK » Delhi government is committed to expand the skilling opportunities for our youth: Sisodia

» Rs 100 crore for the Ladli Scheme which will benefit school-going girls

» Rs 50 crore for the construction and develop-ment of the Delhi Archives buildings

» Millennium Post had ear-lier reported that health expenditure is expected to see a significant boost with Rs 25-30 crore set aside for the Covid-19 vaccination programme

» Cabinet also approved an amount of Rs 2 crore for the Talent Promotion Scheme for Children with Special Needs and Chil-dren with Disabilities

PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

PIC/NAVEEN SHARMA

'Mild fever, body ache and similar mild after-effects are normal and to be expected till at

least 2-3 days post immunisation'

NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmp nation4

Rajnath, Harsh Vardhan and other ministers take first dose of vaccine

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minority Affairs Minister Naqvi also got inoculated

OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: With 154 Tibetan monks being tested positive at famous Gyuto Tantric monas-tery near Dharamshala, Him-achal Pradesh is fearing a fresh spurt in the Covid-19, mainly due to non-adherence of restrictions and facemasks use.

Deputy Commissioner Kangra, Rakesh Prajapati, confirmed about monks hav-ing been tested positive despite monasteries being remained close during the entire pan-demic time.

Reports said more than 330 monks living in the monastery were tested for Covid-19 fol-lowing reports about some of the them developing symptoms of the infection

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Kangra, Dr Gurdar-shan Gupta said “we have taken all precautions and all the monks, barring those who con-dition was critical, have been kept under home quarantine and their health parameters are checked regularly.” He claimed the condition of one reported critical has been shifted to Tanda Medical College.

The monastery is located at Sidhbari on the outskirts of Dharamshala.

The Tibetan monks tested positive and have no travel his-

tory but now those arriving at Dharamshala and McLeod-ganj have been told to observe a mandatory quarantine period as precaution.

Though Himachal Pradesh has seen a drop in the cases upto 300 till last week but fresh spurt has raised the numbers to 418.

Already 15 nursing students at Government Nursing Col-lege (IGMC) Shimla have been tested positive.

Shimla‘s SDM Manjit Sharma has declared the entire college campus as a contain-ment zone.

Meanwhile, worried over the rise in the cases, Chief Min-ister Jai Ram Thakur has con-vened a meeting of the cabinet

here on March 4 to take stock of the situation and announce fresh measures to prevent fur-ther spread of the infection.

Though the state govern-ment has already lifted most of the restrictions including social and political gatherings, also allowing opening of the schools and colleges, the change in the conditions may force imposi-tion of the restrictions.

Two biggest upcoming fairs –Maha Shivratri at Mandi and Nalwar mela in Bilaspur have also come under shadow fol-lowing rise in the fresh cases.

The tourist arrival in Him-achal Pradesh has seen an upward trend and transport services are running in full capacity.

154 monks test Covid positive at monastery in Dharamshala

PUNE: Pune Police probing the Army paper leak case has arrested four more persons, including two Army personnel, a senior officer said on Tuesday, adding that the scope of the case looked like the "tip of the iceberg". With this, the number of persons arrested in connec-tion with the paper leak case so far has reached seven, includ-ing an ex-serviceman.

On February 18, the Army cancelled Army Relation Recruitment exam, which was scheduled to be held on Febru-ary 28 at BEG centre in Pune, after the paper was found to be leaked.

Police are now investigating the source of the leaked paper and the exact number of candi-dates who had received its cop-ies before the date of the exam.

"The said exam was sched-uled on February 28. We had received intelligence that some people were approaching can-didates and promising them to hand over the question paper in return of money," Joint Com-missioner of Police (JCP) Ravin-dra Shisave told reporters on Tuesday. He said the police had formed two teams and appre-hended some people who were found to be in the possession of a question paper and were planning to sell it to aspirants.

"We then approached Army officials and cross-checked the question paper. We came to know that the question paper found in the mobile phones of those detained by us was the same that was set for the Feb-ruary 28 exam," he said, adding that the exam was subsequently cancelled by the Army. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: A day after the start of the second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, senior Union ministers, includ-ing Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Defence Minis-ter Rajnath Singh, got them-selves inoculated on Tuesday and appealed to all eligible peo-ple to take the jab.

Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi also got inoculated on Tuesday, taking their first dose of anti-coronavirus vaccine at Patna and Rampur respectively.

Vardhan and his wife took the first dose of indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin at the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute. They paid Rs 250 each for the vaccine jab.

Completing the observa-tion period of half an hour after taking the first dose of the vac-cine, Vardhan addressed the media and appealed to eligi-ble people to get themselves vaccinated.

"Today, I and my wife took the first dose of Covid-19 vac-cine at Delhi Heart and Lung Hospital. The observation time of half an hour is completed. Hospital authorities have informed me that I and my wife have been given Covaxin. In the last half an hour, I and my wife did not face any kind of difficulty," he told reporters.

"On this occasion, I would like to urge all the citizens of this country whose age is above 60 or if they are in the age bracket of 45-59 having speci-fied co-morbidities to take the

vaccine," he said.Defence Minister Singh

took the first dose of the coro-navirus vaccine at the Army's Research and Referral Hospi-tal here. Dispelling apprehen-sions, he said the vaccine is completely safe.

"The first dosage of COVID-19 vaccine was administered to me at RR Hospital today. India's resolve for making the country COVID-free has been strengthened by this inocula-tion drive. The vaccine is com-pletely safe and hassle free. #LargestVaccineDrive," the minister said in a tweet.

"I salute the efforts of India's scientists and doctors who developed the vaccine in a short span of time. I also thank the doctors and paramedic staff at the RR Hospital for the vac-cination. I urge everyone who is eligible to take the vaccine and make India COVID-free," he added.

Union minister and senior BJP leader Prasad was admin-istered the first dose of anti-coronavirus vaccine in Patna for which he paid Rs 250.

He said all the Union minis-ters have decided to voluntarily pay the price fixed for the vac-cine. "I also got myself adminis-tered the made in India vaccine –Covaxin –at AIIMS Patna," Prasad tweeted.

"Though the coronavirus vaccine is free in Bihar, I paid Rs 250 to the hospital as price for the shot," he said.

Union Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi took the first dose of the coro-navirus vaccine at Rampur's K D Dalmia Eye Hospital and was

administered Oxford-Astra-Zeneca's Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.

After getting inoculated, the minister thanked the med-ical staff at the hospital and urged all those eligible to get themselves vaccinated against

COVID-19.Meanwhile, National Con-

ference president Farooq Abdullah, who is the Lok Sabha member from Srinagar, also got his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Sri-nagar. Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal

Haasan was also administered with the COVID-19 vaccine at a Chennai hospital.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu were among the host of top leaders who took the first dose of the coro-

navirus vaccine on Monday.Odisha Chief Minister

Naveen Patnaik and his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar, External Affairs Minister S Jais-hankar, Assam Health Minis-ter Himanta Biswa Sarma and NCP president Sharad Pawar also took the jab on Monday.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday demanded that the Centre should immedi-ately reduce the domestic LPG and fuel prices to the level at which they stood at under the UPA government, assert-ing that international prices of these commodities are pres-ently much lower than at the time of its rule.

Congress’ chief spokes-person Randeep Surjewala said that despite opposition by the common people, there has been a steep rise of Rs 125 within a month in the prices of subsidised, non-subsidised and Ujjwala Yojana gas cylinder.

After ending of subsidy on cooking gas, the CNG-PNG gas prices have now been increased, bringing the anti-poor and anti-middle class face of the Narendra Modi gov-ernment to the fore and it is a living example of the Prime Minister’s arrogance, Surjewala said in a statement.

“Today the international prices of LPG gas and crude oil are much lower than the time of Congress, so our clear demand is that the prices of subsidised LPG gas, petrol, die-

sel, CNG, PNG gas be imme-diately reduced and brought back to the level at which they existed during the Congress government," he said.

“The international price of LPG in the UPA government was USD 885.2 and 880.5 in 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 respectively, but the UPA gov-ernment would buy LPG at an expensive price and give a huge subsidy to the general public making it available for them at a price of Rs 399-414 per cyl-inder,” the Congress spokes-person said.

The UPA government used to buy LPG at an international price which is more than 50 per cent of the present price but gave it to the people at half the price at which they are getting by giving a huge subsidy, he said.

Cooking gas LPG price was on Monday hiked by Rs 25 per cylinder across all cat-egories, including subsidised fuel and those availed by Ujj-wala scheme beneficiaries - the fourth increase in rates in a month’s time. LPG prices have gone up by Rs 125 per 14.2-kg cylinder since the beginning of February, price data from state-owned oil marketing compa-nies showed.

‘Bring down LPG, fuel prices to level that existed under UPA’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Infrastructure projects in the pipeline will help boost tourism as well as cre-ate opportunities for MSMEs, according to Union Minister for MSME and Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari. The Union Minister has also urged car manufacturers to give priority to the indigenous pro-duction of flex engines, which can be used in vehicles using alternative fuels such as ethanol.

According to a statement released by FICCI, Gadkari said, “The infrastructural proj-ects in the pipeline as part of the central government’s plans have laid the foundation of ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ and will also boost domestic tourism in the country. Innovation is key to the revival of the travel and hospitality sector.”

At an another event on Tuesday, the Union Minister

said that, with ethanol begin-ning to be easily available in the country, and more than 70 per cent of gasoline consump-tion being done by two-wheel-ers, there is a need to develop indigenous technology for flex fuel vehicles.

Discussions were also held regarding the request by SIAM to postpone implementation of BS6 CAFÉ Phase II regu-lations to April 1, 024, on the grounds that the industry is still recovering from the impact of COVID due to which there is a slow consumer demand.

While agreeing to examine the request, Gadkari made it clear to them that Indian auto-mobile industry has to have world-class quality, and that if the industry is meeting strin-gent anti-pollution standards in countries to which they are exporting vehicles, the same standards must be adhered to in India as well.

Infra projects to boost tourism: Gadkari

AT WORK

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal addressing a Press conference at Chandigarh on Tuesday MPOST

FROM TOP LEFT: A medic administers the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine to Nutan Goel, wife of Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan (L), at Delhi Heart and Lung Institute in New Delhi; Defence Minister Rajnath Singh being administered the first dose of vaccine, at RR Hospital in New Delhi; Union Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad receives the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), in Patna; A medic administers the first dose of vaccine to Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) founder Kamal Haasan, at Ramachandra Hospital in Chennai, on Tuesday

BENGALURU: Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala, state Ministers B C Patil, K S Esh-warappa and Wipro founder chairman Azim Premji were among those who received the coronavirus vaccine in the state on day two of the inocu-lation drive for senior citizens and others on Tuesday.

A controversy broke out after Agriculture Minister Patil and his wife took the vaccine at their home with Health Minister K Sudhakar and others criticising him for doing so instead of visiting the designated hospital.

The health department said 10,046 people, includ-ing 6,313 senior citizens and people with comorbidi-ties, were inoculated in the state on Tuesday, taking the total number of those vacci-nated to 8.35 lakh since Jan-uary 16 when the first phase started for health and front-line workers.

There were no instances of adverse event following immunisation (AEFI), it said in a release.

Governor Vala received the vaccine shot at the K C General Hospital at Malleswaram.

A press communique issued by the Raj Bhavan said Vala appealed to all eligible people to take the vaccine and make the country COVID-19 free.

He also lauded the doctors and scientists who worked in a short time to fight against the virus.

Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Esh-warappa took the vaccine at Shivamogga Ayurveda Col-lege and later posted a photo-

graph on his Twitter handle.Wipro founder Azim

Premji took the shot at Nara-yana Health City, according the hospital sources.

Minister Patil tweeted, “Took the #COVID19Vac-cine with my wife, at my Hirekerur house from the Govt. doctors today.

While ‘Made In India’ vaccines are being immensely appreciated by many coun-tries, some vested inter-est groups are spreading false information about the vaccines.

As several social media users questioned his decision to take the vaccine at home, Sudhakar said the protocol is to get it in the hospital.

Patil defended himself, saying he has not commit-ted any crime and wanted to avoid trouble for the public.

“Have I done any theft or robbery? I have only taken the vaccine at home, which is not a crime,” the Minister told reporters.

The Health Minister said he would issue a circular to the doctors not to administer the vaccine at home.

The vaccination drive for people aged above 60 and those over 45 with comor-bidities started on Monday with Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi taking the vac-cine at the AIIMS in Delhi and thousands of others get-ting it in various parts of the country.

Tech giant Infosys co-founders N R Narayanamur-thy and Kris Gopalakrishnan and a 97-year old man were among those who got the vac-cine shots here on first day of expanded coverage. AGENCIES

Guv Vala, K’taka ministers, Wipro founder chairman Azim Premji take vaccine

Paper leak case: 2 Army personnel

among 4 more held in Pune

NEW DELHI: January and February were the third and second warmest winter months in 121 years in terms of mean and minimum temperatures respectively, an India Meteo-rological Department (IMD) report said on Tuesday.

Both the minimum and mean temperatures in Febru-ary for northwest India were warmest since 1901, the report added.

In terms of mean tempera-ture in January-February, 2016 recorded 21.80 degree Celsius, followed by 21.58 degree Cel-sius in 2009 and 21.43 degree Celsius in 2021. The other two years with an all-India mean temperatures for the two months are 2006 (21.39 degree C) and 2017 (21.37 degree C).

In terms of minimum tem-perature, the two months in 2021 recorded 15.39 degrees Celsius. The other four years with warmest January-Febru-

ary since 1901 are: 2016 (15.53 degrees C), 2009 (15.30 degrees C), 1926 (15.29 degrees C), 1912 (15.28 degrees C).

In its report for January released last month, the IMD had said the minimum tem-perature recorded in the coun-try during the month was the warmest for the month in 62 years.

Spatial temperature pat-tern over India shows average monthly maximum temper-atures in January were below normal by 2-4 degree Celsius across the Indo-Gangetic plain and pockets over south Pun-jab and north Haryana at its west, and over Bihar at east had significantly below normal temperature with 3-4 degree Celsius lower than normal.

South India was particu-larly warm. The region was the warmest in January in 121 years, with 22.33 degrees Cel-sius in south India, followed by

22.14 degrees Celsius in 1919 and 21.93 degrees Celsius in 2020 as the second and third warmest months.

Central India was the warmest (14.82 degrees Cel-sius) in the last 38 years after 1982 (14.92 degrees Celsius), while 1958 with 15.06 degrees Celsius was the warmest in the 1901-2021 period.

However, the maximum temperatures in January were below normal, the IMD said.

An analysis for 1901-2021 shows that the all-India aver-age minimum temperature in January 2021 was 14.78 degrees Celsius. The January of 1958 recorded a similar monthly minimum temperature.

The January of 1919 recorded 15 degrees Celsius and it remains the warmest Jan-uary so far. "So January 2021 has also become the warm-est in 62 years after 1958," the IMD said. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: Terming the Emergency that was imposed by former prime minister Indira Gandhi a "mistake", Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tues-day said what happened during that period was "wrong", but it was fundamentally different from the current scenario as the Congress at no point attempted to capture the country's institu-tional framework.

In a conversation with Kaushik Basu, professor in the Cornell University in the US and India's former chief eco-nomic advisor, Gandhi said he is all for internal democracy in the Congress, which fought for India's independence, gave the country its Constitution and stood for equality. Asked about his views on the Emergency, he said, "I think that was a mistake. Absolutely, that was a mistake. And my grandmother (Indira Gandhi) said as much."

Asked about Indira Gandhi announcing elections at the end of the Emergency and Pranab Mukherjee telling Basu later that she did so as she thought she might lose and wanted to put that to test, the former Congress chief said there is a fundamental difference between what hap-pened during the Emergency, which "was wrong", and what is happening in the country now.

"The Congress party at no point attempted to capture India's institutional framework and frankly, the Congress party does not even have that capabil-ity. Our design does not allow us that and even if we want, we cannot do it," he said.

Gandhi alleged that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is doing something "fun-damentally different" and filling up the institutions of the coun-

try with its people."So, even if we defeat the BJP

in the election, we are not going to get rid of their people in the institutional structure," he said. Gandhi recalled a conversa-tion with former Congress chief minister of Madhya Pradesh Kamal Nath before his govern-ment was overthrown. Nath told him that senior bureaucrats in his government would not listen to him as they were RSS people and would not do something that they were asked to do. "So, it is fundamentally different what is going on," he said.

The Emergency was imposed by Indira Gandhi for a 21-month period from 1975 to 1977, when curbs were imposed on the fundamental rights of citizens.

On internal democracy within the Congress, Gandhi said he is the one who pushed for elections in the party at the Youth Congress and NSUI levels, but was criticised and attacked by his own party lead-ers. He wondered why nobody raises questions on why there is no internal democracy in the BJP, the BSP and the SP and said such questions are asked about the Congress as it is an "ideolog-ical party" and has the ideology of the Constitution. "Therefore, it is more important for us to be democratic," he said. AGENCIES

Emergency was a mistake: Rahul

Jan-Feb second warmest winter months in terms of minimum temps since 1901

millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021mp nation 5

In Assam, Cong pledges 200 units of free electricity, new law to ‘nullify’ CAAPriyanka Gandhi said her party will dole out Rs 2,000 every month to

homemakers across state, if given a chance to form the govt

Kerala’s social harmony under stress; new devp strategy needed: Sonia

HARYANA DGP MANOJ YADAVA GETS ONE-YEAR EXTENSION CHANDIGARH: Haryana Director General of Police Manoj Yadava was on Tuesday granted one-year extension by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. Ya-dava, a 1988-batch Haryana cadre IPS officer, was appointed as the state DGP on February 21, 2019 for a term of two years. Reacting to it, CM Manohar Lal Khattar told reporters here that the “DGP has been given one-year extension till further orders”.

IN A FIRST, IAF TO PARTICIPATE IN EXERCISE DESERT FLAG VI IN UAE NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) will participate in the Exercise Desert Flag-VI along with the air forces of the UAE, the US, France, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Bahrain for the first time, it said on Tuesday. The exercise is scheduled from March 3 to 21 at the Al-Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Exercise Desert Flag is an annual multi-national large force employment warfare exercise hosted by the UAE Air Force. “The IAF is participating for the first time in Exercise Desert Flag-VI along with air forces of United Arab Emirates, United States of America, France, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Bahrain,” a statement issued by it said.

AIR CARGO SERVICE LAUNCHED IN NAGALAND DIMAPUR: Air cargo service was launched in Naga-land on Tuesday with CM Neiphiu Rio flagging off 111 cartoons of perishable and non-perishable fruits and vegetables including some finished products at Dimapur Airport, only airport in state. The CM termed introduction of Air Cargo Services as a historic occa-sion for state. The service would help farming commu-nity and will ensure timely and efficient transport of their produce to other parts of the country, he said.

BRIEFSNATIONKARACHI/NEW DELHI: An Indigo flight from Sharjah to Lucknow made an emer-gency landing at the Karachi airport in Pakistan on Tuesday morning after a passenger on board fell sick and later died.

An official of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority said the landing permission was granted to the Captain of the

Lucknow-bound IndiGo flight 6E1412 after an elderly passen-ger identified as 67-year-old Habib ur Rehman - fell seri-ously ill.

"The passenger unfortu-nately expired on the plane even though the Indian air-craft was given permission to land at the Karachi airport," the official said.

In a statement, IndiGo said the passenger who had the medical emergency could not be revived and was declared dead on arrival by the airport medical team. "We are deeply saddened with the news and our prayers and wishes are with his family," it added.

The airline said the flight coming from Sharjah to Luc-

know was diverted to Karachi.The Pakistani official said

that the request for an emer-gency landing was received as soon as the aircraft entered Pakistani airspace via Iran at 4 in the morning.

"The Captain contacted the air control tower and requested the aircraft be allowed to make an emer-

gency landing on humanitar-ian grounds," he said.

The permission was granted and the aircraft landed around 5 am, he said.

The official said that by the time the medical team boarded the flight to treat the passenger, he had died.

"The flight was allowed to take off around 8.36 am for

Ahmedabad after completion of all formalities," the official added.

Pakistan reopened its airspace to international civil aviation in July, 2019 after months of restrictions imposed because of tensions with India, which forced long detours that cost airlines mil-lions of dollars. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday conducted search operations at several places in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh in connection with an alleged illegal coal mining and transportation case in the Asansol-Raniganj belt of West Bengal, sources said.

The anti-corruption branch of the CBI raided premises of people in the two states, who it suspected have links with Anup Majee alias Lala, the prime accused in the case, sources in the investigating agency said here.

Majee, the director of a company engaged in pur-chase and sale of the dry fuel, has been evading arrest. The CBI has also issued a look-out notice against him.

CBI sources said that the agency is keeping a close watch on businessmen who have a

close connection with Majee.The investigating agency on

November 28 last year carried out a massive search operation in a number of locations in four states -- West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh - after registering a case against Majee.

The CBI had acted on infor-mation from "reliable sources" indicating illegal excavation and theft of coal in the lease-hold area of Eastern Coalfields Limited in "connivance" with the officials of ECL, CISF and Railways.

The CBI team on February 23 visited the residence of Trin-amool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee and examined his wife Rujira in connection with the case. The agency also examined Rujira's sister Menaka Gamb-hir on the previous day on the same matter.

The MP is West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee's nephew.

Coal pilferage case: CBI raids places in UP, MP

JAIPUR: BJP chief J P Nadda on Tuesday asked party leaders in Rajasthan to do self-analysis about their contribution to the organisation and work to take everyone along, remarks which come in the backdrop of rising factionalism in the state unit.

Addressing a state execu-tive committee meeting here, Nadda said that leaders who have been in the party for long tend to stop doing self-analysis.

"Knowingly or unknowingly, we assume that we know every-thing. This is the beginning of stagnation... the truth is our pro-ductivity decreases...," he said. "I request everyone here to do self-analysis. What is your com-mitment, your relevance? Poli-tics is a place where you have to relevant. Relevance means how much are you contributing to the party... how much are you acceptable. As a leader, you will have to develop the quality of

taking along everyone which will increase your acceptance, he said in a candid address.

The meeting was attended by the party's central office-bearers from Rajasthan and functionaries of the state unit.

BJP national general secre-tary and state in charge Arun Singh, union ministers Gajen-dra Singh Shekhawat, Arjun

Ram Meghwal and Kailash Chaudhary, former chief min-ister Vasundhara Raje, leader of opposition in state assembly Gulabchand Kataria, deputy leader of opposition Rajendra Rathore and other leaders were present on the stage.

Nadda's visit assumes sig-nificance as it came ahead of Raje's planned 'dharmik yatra'

next week, seen as an attempt to re-assert her influence in the state unit after maintain-ing a low profile since the BJP's defeat in 2018 assembly polls.

The party, which will soon be facing bypolls in four assem-bly seats, has distanced itself from Raje's 'yatra', saying it was a "personal matter".

In signs of growing fac-tionalism in the party, Raje's supporters have raised the demand to declare her as the CM candidate for the next elec-tions. A 20-odd MLAs recently expressed resentment against the state leadership for allegedly not being allowed to raise public interest issues in the assembly.

Are we working with matu-rity? There should be self-anal-ysis, Nadda said at the meeting while stressing that the lead-ers should keep on striving to enhance their relevance, accep-tance and maturity.

Self-analyse your contribution & acceptability: BJP chief to party leaders in faction-ridden Rajasthan

THIRUVANANTHA-PURAM: Kerala's social har-mony and amity have come under stress and strain, Con-gress President Sonia Gandhi said on Tuesday as she advo-cated for a new development strategy for strengthening the bonds of brotherhood among people and overall develop-ment of the southern state.

"Kerala has been a lesson to other parts of the country and indeed the world on how to preserve and promote social harmony and amity.

"This has come under stress and strain and future devel-opment strategy must have, as one of its basic objectives, the strengthening of the bonds of brotherhood (and sister-hood) that have been the hall-marks of Kerala's wonderfully diverse society," Gandhi said in a message to a virtual sum-mit organised by Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Development Stud-ies (RGIDS) here.

RGIDS is an economic think tank aligned to the Con-gress ideology, in the poll-bound state.

The summit, Pratheeksha 2030, is the culmination of the RGIDSs elaborate and exten-sive consultations in India and abroad to prepare an action plan for Keralas development over the next decade.

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the summit.

Referring to the much

talked about Kerala Model of Development, Gandhi said today the state faces new, unprecedented challenges and it has been accentuated by COVID-19 pandemic and called for fresh thinking on economic growth and social security in the southern state.

"It's clearly time for fresh thinking on economic growth that will revive investments, create productive jobs, protect the environment, build resil-ience to climate change, miti-gate natural disasters, enhance social security for organized and unorganized labor and improve, the well-being of farmers and their families", she said in the message read out in the summit.

The Congress president said over the past six decades and more, the Kerala Model of Development has resulted in many impressive achievements for the state in areas like pub-lic health, education and liter-acy, gender empowerment and social justice. But Kerala faces new, and I may so, unprece-dented challenges. AGENCIES

Passenger dies on board, Indigo flight makes emergency landing in Karachi

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: With senior Congress leader Anand Sharma ‘questioning’ the “decisions” of the party over forging political alliances in poll-bound state West Bengal, it seems the differences among leaders are widening in the Grand Old party as the inter-nal fight of ideology among party veterans has now come out in open and leaders are preferring social media plat-forms such as Twitter to raise their dissents over the party’s internal forums.

Hitting out at Anand Sharma for questioning the party’s decision to forge an alliance with the Indian Secu-lar Front (ISF) led by Muslim cleric Abbas Siddiqui in West Bengal, the state Congress unit president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has accused him of “undermining” the party’s interest by making remarks “in tune with the BJP’s agenda”.

Notably, Sharma had on Monday had slammed Con-

gress for its alliance with ISF by contending that it was against the “Gandhian and Nehru-vian secularism” and the party cannot be selective in fighting “communalists”.

In reply, the West Bengal Congress chief said, “Those who are committed to fighting against BJP party’s venomous communalism should support the Congress and campaign for the party in five states rather than attempting to undermine the party by remarks in tune with BJP’s agenda.”

“Would urge a select group of distinguished Congressmen to rise above always seek-ing personal comfort spots and stop wasting time sing-ing praises of PM. They owe a duty to strengthen the Party & not undermine the tree that nurtured them,” Chowdhury added.

Hitting out at Sharma, senior Congress leader Jitin Prasada, who is also party’s in-charge of West Bengal, said, “Alliance decisions are taken keeping in mind the best

interests of the party and the workers. Now is the time for everyone to join hands and work towards strengthening the prospects of the Congress in the poll-bound states.”

Notably, Prasada was also part of the ‘G-23’group of lead-ers who had written to interim party president Sonia Gandhi last year demanding a com-plete overhaul of Congress.

Another senior leader and party’s general secretary Tariq Anwar has also criticised Sharma for flaying the party’s decision. “Sharma is a senior leader of the party and he has been associated with the party for a long. Raising any issue related to party on open plat-forms is not a welcome step. He can raise any of his issues on the party’s forums,” said Anwar, who is the party’s in-charge of Kerala.

Meanwhile, sources close to Ghulam Nabi Azad have said that the comments of Azad regarding praise for Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been “misunderstood”.

Cong leaders slam Anand Sharma for questioning party’s decision

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to woo a major chunk of middle-class voters in the poll-bound Assam, senior Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Tuesday asserted that her party, if voted to power in Assam, will bring a new law to “nullify” the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the state and provide free electricity up to 200 units to all households.

Gandhi, during a public meeting in Assam’s Tezpur, launched the ‘Five Guarantees’ campaign, and said her party, if given a chance to form gov-ernment in the northeastern state, will dole out Rs 2,000 every month to homemakers across the state. The All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary, who is in poll-bound Assam on a two-day visit, also claimed that her party will hike daily wages of tea garden workers to Rs 365 from the existing Rs 167, and provide at least 25,000 govern-ment jobs to youth.

“People of Assam were cheated by a party (BJP) five years ago that promised them 25 lakh jobs but gave them CAA instead. Our party is not making empty promises but

undertaking five guarantees,” said Gandhi, who sported a tra-ditional ‘gamocha’ around her neck which had the letters CAA crossed out on it.

The Congress leader also promised to provide 5 lakh jobs for the youth of the state if the party forms government in Assam.

Slamming BJP-led govern-ment at the Centre for not pay-

ing heed to farmers’ concerns over the new agricultural laws, the Congress leader said that its policies are designed to benefit only the rich.

Interacting with women tea workers, she said that farm-ers have been protesting in and around the national capital for months, but Prime Minister Narendra Modi is yet to meet them and end the impasse.

“More than three lakh farm-ers are sitting on a dharna for the last two months, just a few kilometres away from where the PM stays, but he has not gone to meet them,” she said.

Elections to 126 assem-bly constituencies in the state will be held in three phases on March 27, April 1 and April 6. The counting of votes will be on May 2.

NEW DELHI: Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), which is spear-heading anti- farm law protests in Delhi, will send its leaders to poll-bound states to appeal to farmers there to defeat the BJP in assembly elections, leaders of the outfit said on Tuesday.

The protesting farmers will also block the KMP (Western Peripheral) Expressway on March 6 as the anti-farm law protest at Delhi borders com-pletes 100 days. The express-way will be blocked at various points for five hours from 11 am on March 6, SKM leader Yogendra Yadav said.

He said SKM leaders will hold a public meeting in Kol-kata on March 12 to appeal to the farmers of poll-bound states to punish the BJP.

SKM leader Balbir Singh Rajewal said that SKM teams will visit poll-bound states, including West Bengal and Kerala, to appeal to farmers to defeat the BJP.

"We will not seek votes for any party. We will appeal to them to vote for those candi-

dates who can defeat the BJP which has failed to address farmers' issues," Rajewal said at a joint press conference of the SKM at Singhu border.

Those who are sitting in power do not understand the language of justice, Constitu-tion or good and bad, Yadav said, adding that they only understand the language of power, elections and votes.

"So, the farmers have decided to hurt them through votes. We are appealing to vot-ers in five poll-bound states to punish this party (BJP) and its allies who enacted anti-farm-ers laws, repressed farmers and

tried to humiliate them," Yadav said.

The morcha leaders will also visit Karnataka where farmers are getting at least Rs 1000 less than MSP on various crops, Yadav said.

Farmers will also visit man-dis, beginning from Gulbarga on March 5, to seek minimum support price for their produce.

On Womens' Day on March 8, women protesters will lead the protest at Delhi borders and other places across the coun-try, Yadav said. The SKM held a general body meeting of its constituents at the Singhu bor-der on Monday, preparing its action plan for taking forward the movement.

The SKM has given a call to the people to install black flags at their houses and wear black armbands as a mark of support to the movement as it com-pletes 100 days on March 6.

The Samyukt Kisan Mor-cha has decided to support the central trade unions which are observing March 15 as 'anti-privatisation' day. AGENCIES

NEW DELHI: The Congress constituted screening com-mittees for the Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and West Bengal polls on Tuesday, appointing senior leader Digvi-jaya Singh as the panel head for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

Another senior party leader, H K Patil, will chair the panel for Kerala.

The screening committee of the Congress for the eight-phased West Bengal Assem-bly polls starting March 27 will have Delhi leader J P Aggarwal as its chairman. The Assem-bly elections in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala will be held in a single phase on April 6 and the counting of votes will be taken up on May 2.

"Congress president has constituted the screening committee for the forthcom-ing Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry with immediate effect, with Digvi-jaya Singh as its chairman," a statement issued by the party said.

Other members of the panel are former Goa chief minister and Lok Sabha MP Francisco Sardinha and Lok Sabha MP Kodikunnil Suresh.

The other ex-officio mem-bers of the committee are AICC in-charge for Tamil Nadu Dinesh Gundu Rao, PCC presi-dent of Tamil Nadu K S Ala-giri, Puducherry PCC chief AV Subramanian, Tamil Nadu CLP leader KR Ramasamy, former Puducherry chief minister and CLP leader V Narayansamy, besides the AICC secretaries in-charge for Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

"Congress president has constituted the screening committee for the forthcom-ing Assembly election in Ker-ala with immediate effect, with H K Patil as its chairman," another statement from the party said. The other members of the panel for Kerala include Duddilla Sridhar Babu and Praniti Shinde.

Besides Aggarwal, the other members of the screen-ing committee for West Bengal are Mahesh Joshi and Naseem Khan. The ex-officio mem-bers include AICC in-charge for West Bengal Jitin Prasad, state PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and CLP leader Abdul Mannan, besides the AICC secretaries in-charge for West Bengal. MPOST

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) on Tues-day announced a reduction in the notice period for the reg-istration of new political par-ties in the four poll-bound states and the Union Territory of Puducherry from 30 days to seven days, keeping in view the difficulties caused by the restrictions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the existing guidelines, a political party seeking registration has to sub-mit an application to the com-mission within 30 days of the date of its formation.

The applicant is asked to publish the party's proposed name in two national dailies and two local dailies on two days. Objections, if any, with regard to the proposed regis-tration of the party have to be submitted within 30 days of the publication of the notice.

"It has been brought to the notice of the Commission that in view of prevailing restric-tions on account of COVID-19, there was dislocation and delay in moving applications

for registration, which in turn led to delay in registration as a political party," the EC said in a statement.

After considering all aspects, the poll panel has given a relaxation and reduced the notice period from 30 days to seven days for the political par-ties that have published their public notice on or before Feb-ruary 26.

"For all parties, includ-ing those parties which have already published the public notice in less than seven days prior to February 26, objection, if any, can be submitted latest by 5.30 pm on March 2 or by the end of the originally pro-vided 30-day period, which-ever is earlier," the statement said

The relaxation will remain in force till March 19, the last date for filing of nominations for the elections to the legisla-tive assemblies of Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry, and April 7 for West Bengal, the last date for filing of nomi-nations for the Assembly polls in the state. MPOST

Cong forms screening panels for TN, WB and Kerala polls

SKM will ask farmers in poll-bound states to defeat BJP: Outfit leaders

EC eases timeline for objections to registration of parties

All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra interacts with tea workers at Sadhuru tea garden in Biswanath, Assam

BJP National President Jagat Prakash Nadda being welcomed by party workers on his arrival in Jaipur, on Tuesday

mp nation6

OUTCRY

Police personnel keep vigil as Congress party workers raise slogans during a protest against hike in fuel and LPG prices in Bengaluru on Tuesday PIC/PTI

NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

WOMAN FOUND HANGING FROM FAN MUZAFFARNAGAR: A 22-year-old woman was found hanging from the ceiling fan of her house here, police said on Tuesday. The victim, a resident of Rampuri locality under Kotwali Police Station, was found dead on Monday night, they said. According to Circle Officer Kuldeep Kumar, prima facie it appears to be suicide, however, a probe has been launched. No suicide note was recovered from the spot and the body has been sent for a post-mortem examination, police said.

MAHA: MAN HELD, TWO MINORS DETAINED FOR MURDER, ROBBERIES PALGHAR: A 30-year-old man was arrested and two minors detained on Tuesday in connection with a mur-der and two robberies in Nalla Sopara of Maharash-tra’s Palghar district, police said. The MBVV police have nabbed Hitesh Bhosale for allegedly stabbing Sailesh Phatak (44), a security guard, to death at Sankeshwar Nagar in the early hours of Monday, senior inspector of the Tulinj police station said.

BRIEFSNATIONTRP SCAM

OUR CORRESPONDENT

AURANGABAD: Aye-sha Shaikh, who became the eight croreth beneficiary of the national scheme to pro-vide LPG connections to BPL women and received Ujjwala certificate by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in September 2019, is finding it difficult now to pay for a cooking gas cylin-der in view of the frequent hike in rates.

Like Shaikh, another ben-eficiary Mandabai Pable, who hails from Lohgaon in Aurang-abad district of Maharashtra, is also struggling to buy the cylin-der for cooking gas.

Videos of Shaikh and Pable using firewood for earthen stoves in their respective kitch-

ens are being aired by a Marathi news channel they spoke to.

On September 7, 2019, PM Modi handed then 30-year-old Shaikh an Ujjwala certificate, making her the 'Beneficiary No.

8 crore' of the country-wide scheme to provide LPG con-nections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL).

"The cost of an LPG cyl-inder has exceeded my room rent now. I pay Rs 600 in rent whereas the price of the cook-ing gas cylinder has crossed Rs 700. What should we do? Should we pay for the gas cyl-inder or take care of the house-hold expenses?" Shaikh asked in anguish while speaking to ABP Maza. Shaikh, a daily wager and the mother of five, is a resident of Indiranagar in

Ajanta village of Aurangabad district. For Shaikh, the new gas connection had proved to be a boon as it spared her the labour of gathering firewood for her earthen stove. She had also started spending some more time with her children.

However, the frequent hike in the rates of cooking gas seems too much for Shaikh.

On Monday, cooking LPG price was hiked by Rs 25 per cylinder across all catego-ries, including subsidised fuel and those availed by Ujjwala scheme beneficiaries - the fourth increase in rates in a month's time. LPG prices have gone up by Rs 125 per 14.2-kg cylinder since the beginning of February, as per price data from state-owned oil market-

ing companies.A 14.2-kg cooking gas

cylinder now costs Rs 828 in Aurangabad while the rate of a 19-kg commercial gas cylinder is Rs 1,642, a gas agency official said. "We had received the new gas connection for free. After using the cylinder for a month, we failed to refill it.

After one month, we com-promised on our room rent and somehow managed to buy the gas cylinder," Shaikh said. She said her room owner asked her family members to vacate as they failed to pay the monthly rent. "We then stayed at our sister's place," she added. Unlike Shaikh, Pable was caus-tic when asked about the rise in the price of cooking gas cylinders.

MUMBAI: After spending over two months in jail in the alleged TRP rigging scam, ex-Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) CEO Partho Dasgupta was given bail on Tuesday by the Bombay High Court which said his detention was not necessary and there was no propriety in keeping him behind bars.

Justice P D Naik granted bail to Dasgupta (55) on a per-sonal bond of Rs 2 lakh and two solvent sureties of the same amount. The former BARC CEO, a key accused in the alleged Television Rating Points (TRP) rigging scam, was the only one among the 15 per-sons arrested in the case to be currently in jail. AGENCIES

'Ujjwala': Eight croreth beneficiary from Maharashtra struggles to buy gas cylinder

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday expressed dis-pleasure over the Centre for dragging its feet by seeking more time on the issue per-taining to installation of CCTV cameras in the offices of inves-tigating agencies including CBI, ED and NIA.

A bench headed by Justice R F Nariman, which observed that this issue concerns the rights of citizens, said it is not accepting the excuses given in the letter filed by the Centre seeking adjournment in the matter.

We are getting a distinct impression that you are drag-ging your feet, the bench, also comprising Justices B R Gavai and Hrishikesh Roy, told Solici-tor General Tushar Mehta who was representing the Centre.

The apex court had on

December 2 last year directed the Centre to install CCTV cameras and recording equip-ment at the offices of inves-tigating agencies -- the Central Bureau of Investiga-tion, National Investigation Agency, Enforcement Director-ate, Narcotics Control Bureau, Department of Revenue Intel-ligence, Serious Fraud Inves-tigation Office and any other agency which carries out inter-rogations and has the power of arrest.

During the hearing con-ducted through video-confer-encing on Tuesday, Mehta told the bench that adjournment has been sought as the matter may have ramifications.

This concerns the rights of citizens, the bench said, add-ing, We are not accepting the excuses .

We are not concerned about the ramifications, the bench

said.The top court asked Mehta

about the allocation of funds for installation of CCTVs in the offices of these investigat-ing agencies.

Mehta sought some time from the bench to file an affi-davit in the matter.

The apex court granted

three week time to the Centre to file an affidavit on the issue, including on the aspect of allo-cation of funds and the time-line for installation of CCTV cameras.

The bench also examined the report placed before it by senior advocate Siddharth Dave, who is assisting it as

an amicus curiae in the mat-ter, on the timeline of differ-ent states to comply with the court's direction.

In its last year order, the apex court had said that states and Union Territo-ries (UTs) should ensure that CCTV cameras are installed at each and every police sta-tion, at all entry and exit points, main gate, lock-ups, corri-dors, lobby and reception as also areas outside the lock-up rooms so that no part is left uncovered.

The top court had earlier ordered installation of CCTV cameras in police stations to check human rights abuses.

It had said that it had impleaded all the states and UTs in the matter to find out the exact position of CCTV cameras in each police sta-tion as well as constitution of Oversight Committees in

accordance with the April 3, 2018 order.

The apex court, while deal-ing with a matter related to cus-todial torture, had in July last year taken note of a 2017 case in which it had ordered instal-lation of CCTV cameras in all the police stations to check human rights abuses, videog-raphy of crime scene and set-ting up of a Central Oversight Committee and such a panel in every states and UT.

It had said that authori-ties would implement its order both in letter and in spirit as soon as possible.

The bench had said in its December last year order that affidavits be filed within six weeks by principal secretary or cabinet secretary or home secretary of each states and UTs giving a firm action plan with exact timeline for compliance with the order.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: A 50-year-old man was allegedly shot dead in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras district by an accused out on bail in a case of molestation lodged in 2018 against the victim’s daugh-ter, police said on Tuesday.

“The incident took place in Nozarpur village of Sasani area in Hathras on Monday after-noon when the daughters of Ambrish Sharma (50) had gone to a temple, where the wife and aunt of accused Gaurav Sharma were present. The women had heated arguments with each other after which both Gaurav and Ambrish also reached there,” Hathras Superintendent of Police Vineet Jaiswal said.

Both Gaurav and Ambrish also had an argument after which the accused called some members of his family and shot Ambrish in a fit of rage, the SP said.

Ambrish was rushed to the hospital where he was declared brought dead, the SP added.

According to an FIR lodged by the victim’s daughter, how-ever, the incident took place in their family potato field.

The Hathras SP said the FIR had been registered against Gaurav Sharma, Lalit Sharma,

Rahitash Sharma, Nikhil Sharma and two others. Out of them, Lalit has been arrested while the main accused Gaurav is absconding.

In the FIR, it was alleged that the girl was there in her family potato field with her

father Ambrish when Gaurav came in a white car with his accomplice and asked Ambrish to take back the case lodged against him.

“Before my father could say anything, he opened fire on him. We rushed him to the

hospital, where he died,” the girl said in the FIR.

The victim had lodged a case of molestation of his daughter two and a half years ago against Gaurav, who was jailed. Gaurav, then, came out on bail after a month and he had animosity with Ambrish since then, the SP added.

Taking note of the incident, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has ordered strict action to be taken against the accused and directed officials to invoke pro-visions of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against them.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party reacted to the incident with its president Akhilesh Yadav alleging that women in UP have lost hope of justice from the state government.

“After ‘Hathras ki beti’, mur-der of a father who had com-plained of molestation of his daughter has taken place. UP’s women has not lost hope from the government has stopped seeking justice from it,” Akh-ilesh said in a tweet in Hindi.

“Enough of the atrocities on women, this time BJP is out,” he added. Akhilesh also tagged a video of a girl, said to be the victim’s daughter along with his tweet.

ALIGARH (UP): The post-mortem report of the teenage Dalit girl, whose body was found here on Sunday, has not indicated any clear evi-dence of rape and found that she was strangulated to death, a senior official said here.

Five persons have been picked up by the police for questioning in the case, Senior Superinten-dent of Police (SSP) Muni-raj G told mediapersons on Monday night.

The body of the 16-year-old girl was found in a field in Akrabad area here following which villagers clashed with police and indulged in stone pelting.InspectorPranendra

Kumar was injured in the attack.

The postmortem report has not indicated any clear evidence of rape, the SSP said.

He said that in view of the inconclusive evidence the police has decided to conduct further microbiological tests using vaginal swabs.

"The proceedings of the postmortem were video-graphed. There were multi-ple injury marks on the body of the victim who died due to strangulation," the SSP said.

An FIR has been regis-tered under IPC 302 (mur-der), 376 (rape) and POCSO Act. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

BHOPAL/ NEW DELHI: Nand Kumar Singh Chau-han, BJP Lok Sabha member from Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh, died at a Gurugram hospital, family sources said on Tuesday.

The 69-year-old six-term MP had tested coronavirus positive and was airlifted to the hospital in Gurugram last month in a critical condition.

Chauhan, who died late Monday night, is survived by wife, a son and two daughters. The last rites will take place at his ancestral place Shahpur in Burhanpur district.

Starting his political career in 1978 from the Shahpur Municipal Council, Chauhan was elected as member of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly and was an MLA during 1985-96.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 and won again in 1998, 1999, 2004, 2014 and 2019 polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his anguish at

Chauhan's demise, and said the former Madhya Pradesh party president will be remembered for his contributions to par-liamentary proceedings and organisational skills.

Other top BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah and its national president J P Nadda, also expressed their condolences.

"Saddened by the demise of Lok Sabha MP from Khandwa Shri Nandkumar Singh Chau-han Ji. He will be remembered for his contributions to parlia-mentary proceedings, organ-isational skills and efforts to strengthen the BJP across Mad-hya Pradesh. Condolences to his family. Om Shanti," Modi tweeted.

Shah said Chauhan's entire life was dedicated to serving people and Nadda also echoed similar views.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu condoled the death of Chauhan, saying the latter always championed the cause of the farmers, poor and the downtrodden.

NEW DELHI: The presiding officers of both houses of Par-liament have set the ball rolling for the merger of Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV into a sin-gle entity, SANSAD TV, which will soon move to seek requisite government license. According to a circular issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat, retired IAS officer Ravi Capoor has been appointed the CEO of the new integrated channel for a period of one year, beginning March 1.

Consequent upon the joint declaration of the Rajya Sabha Chairman and Lok Sabha Speaker to merge RSTV and LSTV into Sansad Television (SANSAD TV), Ravi Capoor has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer, SANSAD TV, on contract basis, for a period of one year with imme-diate effect, the circular reads.

Sources said though the channels are being integrated into single entity, it will func-tion on two platforms during the parliament sessions -- one

to telecast live proceedings of Lok Sabha and the other of Rajya Sabha.

During the inter-session period, the channel will be on one single platform having enriched bilingual contents (Hindi and English), senior officials of the two secretari-ats said. The integration of two channels will lead to sub-stantial savings and improved efficiency with pooling of resources and synchronisation of assets, they said. Sources said it has yet not been decided whether the new channel will come under the ambit of Rajya Sabha or Lok Sabha secretariats or will be administered by both.

In November 2019, after deliberations between Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and Rajya Sabha Chairman Ven-kaiah Naidu, a commit-tee headed by former Prasar Bharati Chairman Surya Prakash was formed to work out integration of the two chan-nels. AGENCIES

CCTVs in offices of probe agencies: Top court expresses displeasure

LSTV, RSTV merger begins to create SANSAD

TV, CEO appointed

Father of molestation victim shot dead by accused‘Dalit girl strangulated,

no clear evidence of rape’

MP: Khandwa BJP MP Nand Kumar

Singh Chauhan dead

HC grants bail to BARC's ex-CEO

Partho Dasgupta

We are getting a distinct impression that you are dragging your feet, says Supreme Court tells Centre

SHAHJAHANPUR (UP): Three minor girls who had gone missing after leav-ing home for their school were traced to a hotel in Uttarakhand’s Rishikesh on Tuesday evening, police said here. Two of the girls aged 15 and one 10, from separate localities in the Sadar area but studying in the same school, had left home on Monday, Assistant Superintendent of Police (City) Praveen Kumar had said.

He said one of them was carrying Rs 2,500 and another had taken Rs 2,700 and clothes with her. A police team sent to Uttarakhand traced them to a hotel room in Rishikesh.

The girls told police that they left home as they wanted to achieve something and make a name for themselves, SP S Anand said, adding that their family members have identi-fied them. The SP said the girls told police that they had first gone to the railway station in Shahjahanpur but as there was no train available at that time, they boarded a bus for Harid-war from where they reached Rishikesh. AGENCIES

UP: Missing minor girls found

in Rishikesh

From Page 1“In the meantime, we direct

immediate release of the appli-cant, Anuj Jain, who is presently in the custody of Police Station, Beta-II, District Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh and had been produced today… before the Court of Chief Judicial Magis-trate, Gautam Buddh Nagar,” it said. The bench expressed sur-prise over the response of the state government that Investi-gating Officer, Bijendra Singh, was of the view that the IRP may leave India at any time to avoid the prosecution and for securing his presence thought it necessary to arrest him from Mumbai.

“We will examine this aspect of the matter elaborately at appropriate time by treat-

ing this application as substan-tive writ petition filed by the applicant under Article 32 of the Constitution of India and to be numbered accordingly,” it ordered.

“We further direct the Investigating Officer not to take any coercive action against the applicant in connection with the subject FIR until further orders,” it ordered. Issuing notice to IO Bijender Singh, the bench asked as to why appropriate action be not taken against him for taking such “drastic action” against Jain. “He shall file his personal affi-davit explaining the position within two weeks from today (Tuesday). List the writ petition after two weeks,” it said.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS

From Page 1“There are many road-

blocks ahead that the state has to overcome. The global downturn of the last two or three years, aggravated by the pandemic, has made the global interface of Kerala more fragile.

“While the increased use of digital modes of work may keep the IT sector afloat, tour-ism has been hit badly and the rate at which the pandemic is galloping in Kerala poses chal-lenges for this industry,” Singh said.

Noting that the focus on health and education has enabled Kerala to take advan-tage of job opportunities else-

where in the country and in all parts of the world, Singh said this has led to a grow-ing stream of remittances from abroad which created a booming real estate sector and sharp growth of the services sector, led by tourism and information technology.

The former Prime Minis-ter also hailed the decision of the leadership of Kerala’s Con-gress-led UDF to incorporate “radical ideas” like ‘NYAY’ in its Assembly election mani-festo, saying the scheme out-lined in the Congress manifesto of 2019 Lok Sabha polls, will provide direct benefit transfer to the poorest among us.

WITH AGENCY INPUTS

Shocked to see manner of arrest of IRP for Jaypee...

Manmohan Singh blames ‘ill-considered demonetisation’

for unemployment, informal...

From Page 1R S Sharma, the Chairman

of the Empowered Group (EG) on COVID-19 Vaccine Admin-istration, said there were no glitches in the system.

What happened was that people were looking for an App on Playstore which appeared similar to Co-WIN and started using that when no mobile app meant for registration is actu-ally present right now, he said.

Citizens can register and book an appointment for vacci-nation, anytime and anywhere, using the Co-WIN 2.0 portal or through other IT applications such as Aarogya Setu, he said.

He said the government is watching the system closely as it has to be “highly scalable”.

“It should be able to take care of a huge amount of load.

After all, it is a program with which we will be vaccinating 1/6th of humanity and this pro-gram has to cater to millions of people at the same time,” he said.

The number of transactions and data transmission will be very large, he said.

“We want data to be secure and free from cyber-attacks. We are taking best security practices. We are only collect-ing data in the form of name, age and gender as we need to monitor the second dose,” he said.

He added that state gov-ernments are coordinating with hospitals and supply-ing vaccines to them and “we are encouraging them to involve more and more private hospitals”.

Centre directs states to operate all pvt hospitals...

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chan-del have moved the Supreme Court seeking transfer of cases pending against them in Mum-bai to a court in Shimla, alleg-ing there would be threat to their lives if the trial proceeds there because of personal ven-detta of Shiv Sena leaders against them.

The actress and her sis-ter said they apprehend that if trial in these cases are con-ducted in Mumbai, there would be a material threat to their life and property as the Shiv Sena-led Maharashtra gov-ernment has been harassing them.

The petitioners face a threat unto life if the trials pro-ceed in Mumbai, because of personal vendetta of Shiv Sena leaders against the petitioner herein, said the plea, filed recently through advocate Neeraj Shekhar.

Kangana moves SC seeking transfer of cases from

Mumbai to Shimla

From Page 1“This is a direct attack on

freedom of expression and the law…the power has been mis-used by the District Magis-trate,” said Chaoba.

“How can they notify me and then retract it as per their whim?” he asked.

“This is a selective target, nothing else, especially when they mentioned Khanasi Nei-nasi… I am not happy with the last sentence where it says ‘fail-ing which steps as deemed fit shall be initiated without fur-ther notice’. This is intimida-tion, a threat, and we are going to take legal action against the DC,” said Kishorechandra Wangkhemcha, the host of the show. AGENCIES

Manipur portal becomes first

‘victim’ of new...

According to the data for the third quarter of the current finan-cial year released by

the National Statistical Office (NSO) on February 26, 2021, the gross domestic product (GDP) has grown at a rate of 0.4 per cent against the minus 23.9 per cent in the first quar-ter. There was a decline of 7.5 per cent in the second quarter. GDP can be seen to decline at 8 per cent in FY 2021 and GVA by 6.5 per cent, while GDP may grow at 11 per cent and nomi-nal GDP by 15 per cent during FY 2022.

The unusual high dif-ference of 148 bps between annual GDP and GVA in FY 2021 is mainly due to the steep decline in net indirect taxes. The nominal loss in the first half of the current financial year was Rs 13.2 lakh crore, which increased to Rs 2.7 lakh crore in the third quarter and is expected to be around Rs 2.8 lakh crore in the fourth quarter. Significantly, the nominal loss for the entire financial year can be around Rs 7.6 lakh crore.

As expected, the agricul-ture and allied sector grew at a rate of 3.4 per cent in the third quarter of the current finan-cial year against the 3.9 per cent growth in FY 2019-20. The sector is expected to grow at a rate of 3.0 per cent in FY 2021 against the 4.3 per cent FY 2020.

The industry sector also grew positively in the third quarter of FY 2021, while it grew at minus 35.9 per cent in the first quarter. The 2.7 per cent growth in the third quar-ter is due to a growth of 7.3 per cent in electricity, gas, water supply and other utility ser-vices. The construction sec-tor also grew at a rate of 6.2 per cent during this period. However, the growth rate in the mining and quarrying sector is still negative. Due to the mixed performance of the industry subdivisions, the industry sector may grow at the rate of minus 8.2 per cent in FY 2021. It is noteworthy that in FY 2020, the growth in the industry sector was minus 1.2 per cent.

The services sector grew at a rate of 1.0 per cent in the third quarter of FY 2021, com-pared to minus 21.4 per cent in

the first quarter and minus 11.3 per cent in the second quarter. Financial, real estate and busi-ness services grew at 6.6 per cent, mainly due to growth in the services sector in the third quarter.

There has been a growth in GDP in the third quarter of FY 2021 but a negative growth in final consumption which is expected to increase posi-tively in the fourth quarter of FY2021 due to the increased government spending. Private final consumption expenditure is also projected to grow at 3.1 per cent in the fourth quarter of FY2021.

The gross fixed capital for-mation rate turned positive in both real and nominal terms in the third quarter. This is a positive sign for the econ-omy. However, the export and imports have declined in the third quarter and are expected to decrease further in the fourth quarter as well.

The YOY credit incre-mental figure of all scheduled commercial banks (ASCBs) reached 6.6 per cent by Feb-ruary 12, 2021 in the current financial year, as against 6.4 per cent in the same period of last year. The credit growth of ASCB based on YTD was

3.2 per cent till February 12, 2021, which was Rs 3.3 lakh crore in amount. At the same time, incremental credit grew at a rate of 2.8 per cent till Feb-ruary 12 in FY 2020, amount-ing to Rs 2.7 lakh crore, 23 per cent higher than the previous fiscal year.

According to the Reserve Bank of India’s recent quarterly figures for deposits and credit of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), credit growth on a YOY basis increased to 6.2 per cent in December 2020 from 5.8 per cent in the previ-ous quarter. Nevertheless, it is less than 7.4 per cent of the same period of last year.

In the case of rural, semi-urban, urban, and metropoli-tan cities, there has been less credit growth than last year. The credit of private sector banks stood at 6.7 per cent in December 2020 as against 13.1 per cent in the same period of the previous fiscal year, while the credit growth rate of public sector banks increased to 6.5 per cent from 3.7 in Decem-ber 2019.

According to the sector-wise data released in January 2021, 33 SCB’s incremental credit improved significantly in almost all major sectors

including agriculture, ser-vices, industry and personal loans. Industry and NBFCs are exceptions. Credit flow in mining and quarrying, food processing, textiles, gems and jewellery, petroleum, coal products, nuclear fuel, paper and paper products, leather and leather products, vehicles, vehicle parts and transport equipment etc has increased in January 2021 in comparison to January 2020. However, credit growth has not been much in sectors like rubber, plastics and plastic products, bever-ages, tobacco, chemicals and chemical products, metal and metal products, construction, infrastructure etc.

Corporates’ financial results in the third quarter have also improved from the last year. An analysis of the finan-cial results of over 3,000 listed companies, excluding BFSI and refineries, shows that the top line grew by about 5 per cent, while EBIDTA grew by about 40 per cent. There has been a 60 per cent increase in profit after tax (PAT) in the third quarter of FY 2021 com-pared to the third quarter of FY 2020. The sectors like automo-bile, FMCG, pharma, cement, steel, consumer durables, etc.

have also performed well dur-ing this period.

Interest liability of compa-nies has come down due to a decrease in their debt portfo-lio. Debt and interest liability of companies decreased by 20 per cent in September 2020, com-pared to a decrease of 26 per cent in September 2019 and 37 per cent in March 2020. This has enabled the companies to repay the loans of the banks and manage their finances efficiently.

The third quarter saw 23 per cent more tenders being invited than in the second quarter, while the amount increased by 16 per cent. A total of 12,240 tenders were invited in the third quarter amounting to a total of Rs 2.40 lakh crore. There has been an increase of 58 per cent in the number of tenders invited, while a 17 per cent decline has been recorded in terms of the amount.

An analysis of ratings of various corporates shows that their debt ratio has been improving since August 2020. The ratings of 26 key sectors have improved from Septem-ber 2020 to January 2021 as compared to April 2020 to August 2020. Overall ratings of 899 corporates have been upgraded from September 2020 to January 2021, while ratings of 4,998 corporates have come down. At the same time, the ratings of 462 corporates were upgraded from April 2020 to August 2020, while the ratings of 5,732 corporates declined.

India is one of the major economies in the world which has a positive GDP growth rate in the last quarter of the calen-dar year 2020. It is noteworthy that the GDP growth rate in the last quarter of the calendar year 2020 of most European countries has been negative and their GDP is expected to contract further in the fourth quarter of the current finan-cial year. It can be said that all the figures of the economy are shining, and the Indian economy is coming out of the Corona pandemic.

The writer is the Chief Man-ager in the Department of

Economic Research at the Cor-porate Centre of State Bank

of India, Mumbai. Views expressed are personal

mp editorial 7

DEBORAH FULLER

SATISH SINGH

Log on to write letters to the editor or send them to letter2editor.mp@gmail.com. You can also send your comments to The Editor,

Millennium Post, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002

millenniumpost.in

WAKE UPDear

Editor

It was heart-wrenching to watch the video that is being circulated on social media which showed the girl named Ayesha committing suicide due to her husband’s cruelty and violence. She didn’t express any reason for her suicide and had not accused anyone. She just said that she wanted to meet God. But the reason for the suicide as per Ayesha’s father Liaqat Ali is the demand for dowry. Ayesha’s story is similar to the stories of many women who are persecuted by their husbands and mothers-in-law. Ayesha’s husband has been arrested in Rajasthan. He allegedly used to complain about dowry and when he did not get anything, he would leave Ayesha with her parents in Ahmedabad. Ayesha often threatened to commit suicide and she ultimately jumped into the river Sabarmati. The viral video shows that she was in love. She loved her husband but he had been cruel to him. This is the story of an Ayesha who has come to light. There are so many Ayeshas in this country who don’t make headlines. They have no choice but to remain silent, they can neither fill the pockets of corrupt officials nor pay the lawyers. Such incidents have become increasingly common in society. Do they have statistics on how many Ayeshas have committed suicide? How many girls are left unmarried because their parents cannot pay the dowry? I don’t think anyone has answers to these questions. On the contrary, I am convinced that our organizations, parties and boards will not even consider these questions in detail. The Muslim Personal Law Board can take women to the streets in support of triple talaq but will take no stringent action to punish dowry-greedy people. In the name of reforming society, our parties spend lakhs of rupees on programmes but these programmes are useless. Practically, nothing happens. The groups of the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, the Muslim Personal Law Board, the Emirate of Sharia and other Muslim parties must now wake up. If they don’t wake up now, these suicides will keep continuing. So, I request the Indian Government to take strict action against people who demand dowry.

So you’ve gotten your Coronavirus vaccine, waited two weeks for your immune system

to respond to the shot and are now fully vaccinated. Does this mean you can make your way through the world like the old days without fear of spreading the virus? The science explains the transmission post-vacci-nation – and whether new variants could change this equation.Absolute prevention?

The short answer is no. You can still get infected after you’ve been vaccinated. But your chances of getting seri-ously ill are almost zero.

Many people think vac-cines work as a shield, block-ing a virus from infecting cells altogether. But in most cases, a person who gets vaccinated is protected from disease, not necessarily infection.

Every person’s immune system is a little different, so when a vaccine is 95 per cent effective, that just means 95 per cent of people who receive the vaccine won’t get sick. These people could be completely protected from infection, or they could be getting infected but remain asymptomatic because their immune sys-tem eliminates the virus very quickly. The remaining five per cent of vaccinated people can become infected and get sick but are extremely unlikely to be hospitalized.

Vaccination doesn’t pre-vent you 100 per cent from get-ting infected, but in all cases, it gives your immune system a huge leg up on the Coronavi-rus. Whatever your outcome – whether complete protection from infection or some level of disease – you will be bet-ter off after encountering the

virus than if you hadn’t been vaccinated.Infection = transmission?

Transmission happens when enough viral particles from an infected person get into the body of an uninfected person. In theory, anyone infected with the Coronavirus could potentially transmit it. But a vaccine will reduce the chance of this transmission.

In general, if vaccination doesn’t completely prevent infection, it will significantly reduce the amount of virus coming out of your nose and mouth – a process called shed-ding – and shorten the time that you shed the virus. This is a big deal. A person who sheds less virus is less likely to trans-mit it to someone else.

This seems to be the case with Coronavirus vaccines. In a recent preprint study which

is yet to be peer-reviewed, Israeli researchers tested 2,897 vaccinated people for signs of Coronavirus infection. Most had no detectable virus, but people who were infected had one-quarter the amount of virus in their bodies against unvaccinated people tested at similar times post-infection.

Less Coronavirus virus means less chance of spreading it, and if the amount of virus in your body is low enough, the probability of transmit-ting it may reach almost zero. However, researchers don’t yet know where that cutoff is for the Coronavirus, and since the vaccines don’t provide 100 per cent protection from infection, the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention recom-mends that people continue to wear masks and practice social distancing even after they’ve

been vaccinated.Against new variants

New variants of Corona-virus have emerged in recent months, and studies show that vaccines are less effective against certain ones like the B1351 variant, first identified in South Africa.

Every time SARS-CoV-2 replicates, it gets new muta-tions. In recent months, researchers have found new variants that are more infective – meaning a person needs to breathe in less virus to become infected – and other variants that are more transmissi-ble – meaning they increase the amount of virus a person sheds. According to early data, researchers have also found at least one new variant that seems to be better at evading the immune system.

So how does this relate to

vaccines and transmission?For the South Africa vari-

ant, vaccines still provide greater than 85 per cent pro-tection from getting severely ill with COVID–19. But when you count mild and moder-ate cases, they provide, at best, only about 50-60 per cent pro-tection. That means at least 40 per cent of vaccinated people will still have a strong enough infection – and enough virus in their body – to cause at least moderate disease.

If vaccinated people have more virus in their bodies and it takes less of that virus to infect another person, there will be a higher probability a vaccinated person could trans-mit these new strains of the Coronavirus.

If all goes well, vaccines will very soon reduce the rate of severe disease and death worldwide. To be sure, any vaccine that reduces disease severity is also, at the popula-tion level, reducing the amount of virus being shed overall.

But because of the emer-gence of new variants, vac-cinated people still have the potential to shed and spread the Coronavirus to other peo-ple, vaccinated or otherwise. This means it will likely take much longer for vaccines to reduce transmission and for populations to reach herd immunity than if these new variants had never emerged. Exactly how long that will take is a balance between how effective vaccines are against emerging strains and how transmissible and infectious these new strains are. DTE

The writer is a Professor of Microbiology, School of Medicine, University

of Washington. Views expressed are personal

If vaccinated people have more virus in their bodies and it takes less of that virus to infect another person, there will be a higher probability a vaccinated person could transmit these new strains of the Coronavirus

Vaccines aren’t a shield against the virus but protect us from the disease if not the infection

Necessary precaution

Shining figuresIndia’s synergetic growth sets it apart from other major economies

which continue to reel under the pandemic

India is one of the major economies in the world which has a positive GDP growth rate in the last quarter of the calendar year 2020

EDITORIAL

Failure to launch?

Did Joe Biden overpromise when he vowed to bring journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s killers to the light? Making tall claims during the campaign trail is common enough. The reality of being in the office

often clashes with the idealism and wishful thinking that char-acterises many campaign promises. After the release of an explosive report that implicates Saudi Crown Prince Moham-med bin Salman in the 2018 murder of one of his biggest critics, the US announced new sanctions on many of MBS’s support-ers and his retinue. But, once again the Prince has walked away with no punishment or reprimand.

Now, the White House is facing increasing pressure from Democrats to hold MBS responsible as Biden had promised. The White House has defended itself saying that the US does not normally sanction foreign leaders, particularly in the case where the US has diplomatic ties with the country in ques-tion. White House Press Secretary Psaki has said that there is a better way to make sure such an incident doesn’t happen again while also leaving room to cooperate with the Saudis in other areas. “This is what diplomacy looks like”, was her assertion. Yes, this may well be what diplomacy does look like. Most times the unpopular but realistic option wins. But Biden should have known that. Biden is a Washington work-horse so to speak. He has a level of experience around politics and diplomacy that few US presidents in recent history could come even close to matching. Biden should have known bet-ter than to overpromise on something that he would have to walk back if he is pushed to commit.

In the current situation, it is unknown what direction the US actually plans to take Saudi relations. What was the point in releasing the report at this point? Many legal experts say that the case presented by the report release is no stronger or weaker in terms of convicting MBS than it was before dur-ing Trump’s time.

True, if one were to realistically consider the idea of sanc-tioning or punishing the next ruler of Saudi Arabia, it is hard to see how the US would have meaningfully done so. As men-tioned in this column and many others, the US just doesn’t have the clout to punish MBS in any big way and sideline him in the process of succeeding his father the king. If the US were to be serious about any kind of punishment that would stick and actually make a difference for MBS, then it would have to risk much more than a simple reset of the relationship with Saudi Arabia. If the US plans to retain control of the region and keep an eye on Iran, then Saudi Arabia is vital to current US plans. Pushing the nation too hard on sanctioning or censuring their crown prince is only likely to damage relations, making room for interested third parties to come in and occupy the void. China, for instance, would find it a lot less problematic to supply MBS the weapons he needs to continue the war in Yemen, with or without US aid. If the US plans truly bring an end to the war in Yemen, playing nice with Saudi Arabia may just be a necessity at this point.

Where does this leave Biden? Some have suggested that two perceived failures in the region — bringing justice for Khashoggi and restraining the Iran nuclear deal — have dampened the hopes and expectations placed on the Biden administration. This is a bit of a jump. It is too early to call definitive defeat for Biden when it comes to such complex tasks. Was anyone expecting such matters to be resolved in a single month? It is still unknown as to what Biden actually planned as an outcome of the release of the report? Shame the prince and build pressure on him to keep his act straight? Maybe. That said, the release of the report places equal or even greater pressure on the Biden administration to act than it does on MBS and Saudi Arabia.

The GDP has grown at a rate of 0.4 per cent in the third quarter of FY 2021

....ASIM SOHAIL NADWI, ARARIA via email

KAVITA KRISHNAN @Kavita_krishnan

How can I have anything but contempt for a CJI who asks a man who violently, repeatedly raped a minor girl, pushed her to attempt suicide, if he will marry his victim. How can any girl or woman in India be safe with CJIs like Gogoi & Bobde?

tweet OF THE DAY

millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021

Vaccines don’t provide complete prevention against Coronavirus but are extremely important to boost immunity

The Executive Engineer Jawali Division HP PWD Jawali on behalf of the Governor of Himachal Pradesh invites the item rate bids,in electronic tendering system from the eligible class of contractors registered with HPPWD for the work as detailed in the table. 1 Construction of Cow Sanctuary at

Khabbal Near G.P Haar(SH:- Construc-tion of shed No. 5 for wheat straw).

1923210/- 22.03.2021 36348/- 17.04.2021 Two months 500/ D&C

The bidders are advised to note other details of tenders from the Department website www.hptenders.gov.in opened on 19.04.2021. Executive Engineer, Jawali Divn. HP PWD Jawali- 176023

Telephone No. 01893264186 e-mail ee-jaw-hp@nic.inNo 6204/2020-2021 For on behalf of Governor of H.P

HIM SUCHANA AVAM JANSAMPARK

HIMACHAL PRADESH PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT INVITATION FOR BIDS (IFB)

DELHI JAL BOARD: GOVT OF NCT OF DELHIOFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (EAST) -I

M 16 MAYUR VIHAR PKT E PHASE II NEW DELHI-91

"STOP CORONA: WASH YOUR HANDS WEAR MASK MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCE" PRESS NOTICE TENDER NIT No- 39/East-1/(2020-21)

Further details in this regard can be seen at https://govtprocurement.deihi.gov.inIssuded By PRO (Water) Sd/- Pratap SinghAdvt. No. J.S.V./2020-21/459 Executive Engineer (EAST)-I

NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpostmp world8

WHO: ‘Premature,’ ‘unrealistic’ to think COVID-19 will end soonGENEVA: A senior World Health Organisation official has said it was "premature" and "unrealistic" to think the pandemic might be stopped by the end of the year, but that the recent arrival of effective vac-cines could at least help dramat-ically reduce hospitalisations and death.

The world's singular focus right now should be to keep transmission of COVID-19 as low as possible, said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO's emergencies programme, on Monday.

"If we're smart, we can finish with the hospitalizations and the deaths and the tragedy associ-ated with this pandemic" by the end of the year, he said at media briefing. Ryan said WHO was reassured by emerging data that many of the licensed vaccines appear to be helping curb the virus' explosive spread.

"If the vaccines begin to impact not only on death and not only on hospitalization, but have a significant impact on transmission dynamics and

transmission risk, then I believe we will accelerate toward con-trolling this pandemic."

But Ryan warned against complacency, saying that noth-

ing was guaranteed in an evolv-ing epidemic.

"Right now the virus is very much in control," he said.

WHO's director-general,

meanwhile, said it was "regret-table" that younger and healthier adults in some rich countries are being vaccinated against the Coronavirus before at-risk

health workers in developing countries.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebr-eyesus said immunizations provided by the U.N.-backed effort COVAX began this week in Ghana and the Ivory Coast, but lamented that this was hap-pening only three months after countries such as Britain, the U.S. and Canada began vacci-nating their own populations.

"Countries are not in a race with each other," he said. "This is a common race against the virus. We are not asking coun-tries to put their own people at risk. We are asking all countries to be part of a global effort to suppress the virus everywhere."

But WHO stopped short of criticizing countries who are moving to vaccinate younger and healthier populations instead of donating their doses to countries that haven't yet been able to protect their most vulnerable people.

"We can't tell individual countries what to do," said Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior WHO adviser. AGENCIES

The world's singular focus right now should be to keep transmission of COVID-19 as low as possible, said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of WHO's emergencies programme

Seniors wait for their COVID-19 vaccinations as Quebec begins mass vaccinations based on age across the province, in Montreal PTI

Myanmar police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at protesters

YANGON: Police in Myanmar repeatedly used tear gas and rubber bullets Tuesday against crowds protesting last month's coup, but the demonstrators regrouped after each volley and tried to defend themselves with barricades as standoffs between protesters and security forces intensified.

Myanmar authorities have escalated their crackdown on the protests in recent days, mak-ing mass arrests and firing into the crowds. The United Nations said it believed at least 18 people were killed on Sunday by secu-rity forces. Foreign ministers from Southeast Asian countries were meeting Tuesday to discuss the increasingly volatile crisis.

Despite the crackdown, demonstrators have contin-ued to flood the streets and are beginning to more rigorously resist attempts to disperse them. Hundreds, many wearing con-struction helmets and carrying makeshift shields, gathered in Myanmar's largest city of Yan-gon, where a day earlier police had fired repeated rounds of tear gas. They dragged bamboo poles and debris to form bar-ricades, chanted slogans and sang songs at the police lines. They even threw banana skins onto the road in front of them in a bid to slow any police rush.

The mainly young demon-strators fled in panic each time tear gas canisters were fired but soon returned to their barri-cades. Videos posted on social media showed similar chaotic scenes in the Insein neighbor-hood of northern Yangon.

Protesters also took up their flags and banners to march through the streets of Dawei, a small city in southeastern Myan-mar that has seen almost daily large demonstrations against the coup. One group of demonstra-tors was targeted by the security forces as it entered a narrow street on its way to pay respects at the house of a man killed in

Sunday's crackdown. Another was attacked on the main street in the city's center. Yangon and Dawei were among the cities where security forces report-edly fired live ammunition into crowds Sunday, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office. There were reports that they also fired live rounds Tuesday, but they could not immediately be confirmed. Some fear the junta's escalating use of force is meant to provoke a violent back-lash by the demonstrators who have largely remained nonvio-lent in order to discredit them and justify an even harsher crackdown. AGENCIES

An anti-coup protester uses a sling-shot and against advancing riot policemen in Mandalay, Myanmar, Tuesday PTI

Germany plans to extend lockdown to March 28: ReportsBERLIN: Germany's national government and states are set to extend the COVID-19 lock-down by three weeks, to March 28, according to media reports on Tuesday.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and the heads of Germany's states will hold discussions on

Wednesday. However, it's been fairly common in recent months for parts of their plans to be floated in the press ahead of time, DW reported.

Merkel and the state pre-miers are working on a draft agreement to allow shops to reopen in areas where the num-

ber of Coronavirus infections is considered reasonably low.

Coronavirus cases would have to fall to a seven-day aver-age of 35 per 100,000 people.

Some outlets, such as flo-rists, book and gardening shops would be able to re-open even if rates are higher. A relaxation on

the number of people allowed to gather from different house-holds may also be on the cards from March 8.

The German government is also expected to appeal to citizens to avoid domestic and foreign travel over the Easter period. AGENCIES

Pfizer, Oxford vaccines reduce severe COVID-19 in elderly, finds study

LONDON: The Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines for COVID-19 are highly effective in reducing severe Coronavirus infection among people aged 70 years and above, according to a study.

The research, posted as a pre-print and yet to be peer-reviewed, estimated the effect of both the COVID-19 vac-cines on laboratory confirmed symptomatic disease in indi-viduals aged 70 years or older in England.

The researchers, including

those from Public Health Eng-land (PHE), compared the rate of hospitalisation and deaths in confirmed COVID-19 patients aged over 80 who were vacci-nated more than 14 days before testing positive, with unvacci-nated cases.

Data suggests that in the over 80s, a single dose of either vaccine is more than 80 per cent effective at preventing hospitalisation, around 3 to 4 weeks after the jab, PHE said in a statement.

Evidence for the Pfizer vac-

cine suggests that it leads to 83 per cent reduction in deaths from COVID-19, it said.

The data also shows symp-tomatic infections in over 70s decreased from around three weeks after one dose of both vaccines. "Vaccination with either a single dose of Pfizer or Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccination was associated with a significant reduction in symptomatic SARS-CoV2 positive cases in older adults with even greater protection against severe disease," said the

authors of the study, adding both the vaccines show simi-lar effects.

They said the protection was maintained for the dura-tion of over six weeks of follow-up, and there is a clear effect of both the vaccines against the UK variant of concern.

Experts say the new analy-sis adds to growing evidence that the vaccines are work-ing, and are highly effective in protecting people against severe illness, hospitalisation and death. AGENCIES

279 kidnapped schoolgirls

are freed, says Nigerian governorGUSAU (Nigeria): Hun-dreds of Nigerian schoolgirls abducted last week from a boarding school in the north-western Zamfara state have been released, the state's gov-ernor said Tuesday.

Zamfara state governor Bello Matawalle announced that 279 girls have been freed.

Gunmen abducted the girls from the Government Girls Junior Secondary School in Jangebe town on Friday, in the latest in a series of mass kid-nappings of students in the West African nation.

An Associated Press reporter saw hundreds of girls dressed in light blue hijabs and barefoot sitting at the state Government House office in Gusau.

After the meeting, the girls were escorted outside by offi-cials and taken away in vans. They appeared calm and ranged in ages from 10 and up.

Alhamdulillah! (God be praised!) It gladdens my heart to announce the release of the abducted students of GGSS Jangebe from captivity. This follows the scaling of sev-eral hurdles laid against our efforts. I enjoin all well-mean-ing Nigerians to rejoice with us as our daughters are now safe, Matawalle said in a post on Twitter early Tuesday.

At the time of the attack, one resident told AP that the gunmen also attacked a nearby military camp and checkpoint, preventing soldiers from responding to the mass abduc-tion at the school. AGENCIES

Biden admin ‘undecided’ on ending Trump-era H-1B visa banWASHINGTON DC: The Biden administration has indi-cated that it is still undecided on ending the Trump-era ban on issuing new H-1B visas, with the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayor-kas asserting that the US gov-ernment's top priority is the acute needs of individuals flee-ing persecution.

The H-1B visa, the most sought after among Indian

IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupa-tions that require theoretical

or technical expertise.Technology companies

depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

In January, then-President Donald Trump had extended the ban on issuing new H-1B visas till March 31, arguing that the country is having a very high unemployment rate and the US cannot afford to have

more foreign workers.His successor President Joe

Biden has revoked dozens of the executive orders of Trump including several of those related to immigration like the lifting the Muslim visa ban or those related to Green Card, the one that imposed ban on issuing H-1B has still not been lifted. It will expire on March 31, if Biden does not issue a fresh proclamation. AGENCIES

mp business � 9

GST OFFICERS ARREST ONE FOR RS 39 CR INPUT TAX CREDIT FRAUDNEW DELHI: GST officers have arrested a person for creating a fake firm and fraudulently passing on input tax credit (ITC) worth Rs 38.91 crore, the Finance Ministry said on Tuesday. Investigation revealed that the multilayered network was being operated by one Nihaluddin who has confessed to having created a fake firm in his own name and also arranging ITC from 38 other fictitious firms on commission basis to pass on fake ITC to multiple beneficiaries.

FLIPKART PLANS TO EXPAND GROCERY SERVICES TO 70 CITIES IN 6 MONTHSNEW DELHI: Flipkart on Tuesday said it plans to expand its grocery services to more than 70 cities in the next six months as the Walmart-owned company looks to cash in on the burgeoning e-grocery segment in the country. Flipkart, which competes with US e-commerce major Amazon and billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance in the country's digital commerce space, has expanded its grocery services to more than 50 cities, including Kolkata, and Ahmedabad.

JAIPRAKASH POWER VENTURES PLANS TO SELL 74PC STAKE IN JPL TO PGCILNEW DELHI: Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd (JPVL) on Tuesday said its board has approved disinvestment of 74 per cent stake in Jaypee Powergrid to PGCIL. Jaypee Powergrid Ltd (JPL) is a joint venture of Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCIL) and JPVL. "Board of Directors of the company, in its 131st Meeting held on 2nd March, 2021 has approved disinvestment of 74 per cent shareholding in Jaypee Powergrid," a BSE filing said. The company said the stake sale is expect-ed to be complete by March 31, 2021. The amount of consideration shall be informed on execution of Share Purchase Agreement, it stated.

BRIEFSBUSINESS

millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: After recording positive growth for two months in a row, India's exports dipped marginally by 0.25 per cent to $27.67 billion in February and trade deficit widened to $12.88 billion, according to prelimi-nary data released by the gov-ernment on Tuesday.

Imports grew 6.98 per cent to $40.55 billion during the month, the data showed.

The trade deficit stood at $10.16 billion in February 2020.

Exports during April-Feb-ruary 2020-21 were $255.92 billion, compared with $291.87 billion during the same period of last year, exhibiting a nega-tive growth of 12.32 per cent.

Imports during April-Feb-ruary this fiscal also dipped 23 per cent to $340.88 billion.

In February, oil imports declined 16.63 per cent to $$8.99 billion. It was down by 40.18 per cent to $72.08 billion during 11 months period of the current fiscal.

Major commodities of export that have recorded pos-itive growth during February include oil meals, iron ore, rice, meat, dairy and poultry prod-ucts, carpet, spices, pharma-ceuticals, and chemicals.

The sectors that recorded negative export growth in Feb-ruary include petroleum prod-ucts (-27.13 per cent), leather (-21.62 per cent), cashew (-18.6 per cent), gems and jewellery

(-11.18 per cent), engineer-ing goods (-2.56 per cent), tea (-2.49 per cent), and coffee (-0.73 per cent), it added.

Key import goods that reg-istered healthy growth include gold, dyeing/tanning/colouring materials, chemicals, electronic goods, iron and steel, and tex-tile yarn fabric, made-up arti-cles. Sectors that recorded negative import growth include silver, newsprint, fertiliser, coal, leather, transport equipment, petroleum, pulses, machine tools, cotton raw and waste, pearls, and precious and semi-precious stones.

Gold imports in February jumped to about $3 billion.

Growing for the second consecutive month, the coun-try's exports rose 6.16 per cent

year-on-year to $27.45 billion in January 2021.

Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Presi-dent S K Saraf said they con-tinue to see signs of further revival not only in the order booking positions but also in the demand from across the globe, paving way for much better days and months for the sector.

However, he said rising exports from China have led to the shortage of containers in the region, as most of the empty containers are available only for exports from China. The shipping lines and con-tainer companies are being paid hefty premiums for bring-ing empty containers back to China.

Exports dip 0.25% to $27.67 bn in FebImports grow 6.98% to $40.55 billion; trade deficit widens to $12.88 billion

MUMBAI: Benchmark BSE Sensex spurted by 447 points to close above the psychologi-cal 50,000-mark on Tuesday following hectic buying in auto and IT counters amid positive domestic and global cues.

The 30-share index swung nearly 633 points during the session before ending at 50,296.89, showing a rise of 447.05 points or 0.90 per cent.

Likewise, the NSE Nifty climbed 157.55 points or 1.07 per cent to settle at 14,919.10, extending gains to a second day.

Among Sensex stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra was lead gainer rising by 4.98 per cent. NTPC rose by 3.83 per cent, Bajaj Auto by 3.53 per cent, and Tech Mahindra by 3.44 per cent. TCS, Maruti, Infosys, HCL Tech, Nestle and Bharti Airtel were among the gainers.

On the other hand, ONGC, HDFC, Dr Reddy's, PowerGrid

and SBI suffered losses.Of the Sensex constituents,

25 shares ended with gains.Sectorally, BSE auto surged

the most with 3.18 per cent gains, followed by IT (2.85 per cent), teck (2.84 per cent) and industrials (2.20 per cent). All the 19 sectoral indices closed in the green.

Broader smallcap, midcap

and largecap indices too ral-lied 1.60 per cent, 1.55 per cent and 1.11 per cent, respectively - outperforming the benchmark.

Analysts said investor sen-timent remained upbeat due to encouraging GDP numbers for the third quarter as well as returning of calmness in global bond markets after the last week's turmoil. MPOST

Sensex rises for second day, reclaims 50,000-levelIntra-day on March 2, 2021

KBK graphicsInfo

Intra-day on March 2, 2021

9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4 9am 10 11 12 1pm 2 3 4

Previous close:

14,761.55

High:

14,959.10

Previous close:

49,849.84

Close:

14,919.10157.55

(1.07%)

Close:

50,296.89

Low:

14,760.80

Open:

14,865.30

Open:

50,258.09

NSE NIFTY BSE SENSEX

447.05

(0.90%)

High:

50,439.82

Low:

49,807.12

Rupee rises 18 paise to 73.37; ends three-day losing streakMUMBAI: The rupee rose by 18 paise to close at 73.37 against the US dol-lar on Tuesday, ending its three-day losing streak on the back of gains in domestic equities amid improving risk appetite.Dollar demand eased after a pullback in crude oil and bond yields which sup-ported the rupee senti-ment, analysts said. At the interbank forex market, the local unit opened at 73.32 against the greenback and witnessed an intra-day high of 73.31 and a low of 73.48. It finally ended at 73.37 against the American currency, registering a rise of 18 paise over its previous closing. MPOST

KBK graphicsInfo(Inverted scale)

Rupee Dollarvs

23 24 25 26 1 2

February 2021 March

` per

US $

`$`$

73.47

-104p

73.55

-8p

73.37

+18p

72.46

+3p

72.35

+11p 72.43

-8p

MUMBAI: Only private invest-ment is “missing in action” at a time when all engines of aggre-gate demand are starting to fire to boost economic growth, according to a Reserve Bank article.

Observing that there is lit-tle doubt today that a recovery based on a revival of consump-tion is underway, the RBI in the recent article said, “the jury leans towards such recoveries being shallow and short-lived”.

The key to whet the appe-tite for investment, it said, is to rekindle the animal spirits, a spontaneous urge to action rather than inaction, and not as the outcome of a weighted average of quantitative bene-fits multiplied by quantitative probabilities.

“All engines of aggregate demand are starting to fire; only private investment is missing in action. The time is appo-site for private investment to come alive,” said the article pre-pared by RBI Deputy Gover-nor Michael Debabrata Patra and other officials. The arti-cle published in the RBI Bulle-tin- February 2021 further said “the time is apposite” for private investment to come alive.

Fiscal policy, with the largest capital expenditure (capex) bud-get ever and emphasis on doing business better, has offered to crowd it in. “Will Indian indus-try and entrepreneurship pick up the gauntlet?,” it said.

The Indian economy is esti-mated to contract by 8 per cent during the current financial

year on account of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The economy is expected to stage a V-shape recovery in the next fiscal and record double-digit growth.

An another article ‘’Sectoral Deployment of Bank Credit in India: Recent Developments’’ published in the Bulletin said that the muted credit offtake in the recent past needs to be seen in the context of economic slow-down coupled with the COVID-19-induced lockdown.

The RBI said the views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Reserve Bank of India.

Bank credit growth, which had already started decelerating in 2019-20, experienced a fur-

ther setback in 2020-21 in the wake of the pandemic.

However, with the grad-ual resumption of economic activity, credit to agriculture and services sectors has reg-istered accelerated growth in the recent period, it said. Even in the industrial sector, credit growth to medium industries has accelerated, indicative of positive impact of several mea-sures taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

“However, contraction in credit to large industries and infrastructure remains a cause of concern,” it said.

The Reserve Bank has taken several measures to facilitate credit flow to various sectors of the economy, especially to

the MSME and NBFC sectors.Credit offtake is expected

to pick up as the economy is poised to stage a smart recov-ery in 2021-22 on the back of decline in coronavirus infec-tions and swift roll-out of the vaccination programme. This is in addition to a number of mea-sures announced by the gov-ernment in the Union Budget 2021-22 to accelerate the growth momentum, the article said.

As per the article, the recent decline in credit growth was mainly due to large industries.

“Owing to the stressed assets in large industries, there was a general reluctance on the part of bankers to lend to these indus-tries, with the problem getting compounded by the pandemic,” it said. PTI

Private investment missing in action: RBI article

MUMBAI: The share of cesses and surcharges in the gross tax revenue of the Centre has nearly doubled to 19.9 per cent in 2020-21 from 10.4 per cent in 2011-12, leading to the 15th Finance Commission to rec-ommend a higher grant-in-aid and lower tax devolution to the states, according to a report.

Under the existing Finance Commission (FC) framework, the cesses and surcharges col-lected by the Centre are not part of the tax devolution. And, the massive spike in the same has forced the FC to sug-gest higher grant-in-aid to the states to compensate for the low growth in tax devolution which is pegged at 41 per cent during the operation of the 15th FC award, India Ratings said on

Tuesday in the report.The key reason for higher

growth in grants-in-aid and lower growth in tax devolu-tion to the states is the increase in the proportion of the cen-tral cess and surcharges as they are not part of the tax devolu-tion to the states, said the agen-cy's Principal Economist Sunil Kumar Sinha.

As a result, the transfer from the Centre to the states includ-ing non-finance commission transfers declined to 48.6 per cent in 2019-20 from 53.4 per cent in 2011-12, he said.

The the Centre is yet to accept the proposals on grants to the states totalling Rs 1.8 lakh crore, said the report.

According to the latest FC award, the share in central taxes

has declined for eight states. Andhra Pradesh saw a decrease of 35 basis points (bps) to 4.05 per cent, Assam by 24 bps to 3.13, Karnataka by 118 bps to 3.64 per cent, and Kerala by 60 bps to 1.93 per cent, it added.

Odisha saw a decline of 22 bps to 4.53 per cent, Tamil Nadu by just 2 bps to 4.08 per cent, Telangana by a sharp 40 bps to 2.10 per cent, and Uttar Pradesh by 27 bps to 17.94 per cent.

This makes Karnataka the biggest loser with of a loss of 118 bps, followed by Kerala losing 60 bps of the share and Telangana by losing 40 bps, the report said.

The biggest gainer was Maharashtra with an increase of 64 bps to 6.32 per cent share in central taxes, followed by Rajasthan 38 bps to 6.03 per

cent, Arunachal Pradesh 33 bps to 1.76 per cent, and Gujarat gaining 31 bps to 3.48 per cent share, it added.

The report has recom-mended a whopping 92.3 per cent rise in grants-in-aid to the states during award period of FY22-FY26 over gthe 14th FC report. But, the increase in tax devolution is only 7 per cent, or an overall 17.2 per cent growth in transfers to the states.

Accordingly, the top-five states in central tax share and grants-in-aid are Uttar Pradesh at 16.3 per cent, Bihar (9.1 per cent), Bengal (7.7 per cent), MP (7.3 per cent) and Maharashtra (6.4 per cent).

On the revenue deficit grants to the states, the report has recommended allocating 1.92

per cent of the gross revenue receipts of the Union worth Rs 2,94,514 crore as revenue defi-cit grants to 17 states till 2025-26. These states are Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Pun-jab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand and Bengal.

The latest FC report comes against the background of the coronavirus pandemic, which has ravaged the finances of the Union and the states. Thus, it lays down a realistic fiscal con-solidation path offering three scenarios for fiscal deficit at the Union level and a range for aggregate state fiscal def-icits over its award period of

FY22-FY26, instead of the ear-lier practice of putting a num-ber to fiscal consolidation, the agency added.

Despite this, the fiscal arith-metic of the states will alter sig-nificantly in 2022-23 with the ending of the GST compensa-tion and the FC report is not clear whether this particular aspect has been considered while projecting the range for aggregate state fiscal deficits for FY22-26, Sinha said.

The report suggests the share of the states in the divisible pool of central taxes at 41 per cent during the award period, down from 42 per cent in the 14th FC award period of FY16-20. The reduction is due to the conver-sion of Jammu and Kashmir into a Union territory. MPOST

Cess, surcharge share doubles to 19.9% of central taxes in FY21: Report

NEW DELHI: The Maritime India Vision-2030, a 10-year blueprint with the aim of overhauling the Indian mar-itime sector, envisages Rs 3 lakh crore investment in port projects that in turn promises to generate employment for 20 lakh persons.

"Maritime India Vision 2030 would involve an invest-ment of over Rs 3 lakh crore, which would generate more than 20 lakh jobs and unlock annual revenue potential for major ports worth over Rs 20,000 crore," accord-ing to the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways' document.

As per the document, Rs 1-1.25 lakh crore invest-

ments are planned in aug-menting the infrastructure of major ports, which would help in creating 7-10 lakh jobs.

It envisages developing mega capacity ports in high potential areas of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Odisha-West Bengal Cluster at an investment of over Rs 80,000 crore.

The government plans to increase the transshipment volumes of Indian cargo at Indian ports from 25 per cent in 2020 to more than 75 per cent by 2030 by operationali-sation of Vizhinjam port and development of Transship-ment zone in Kanyakumari and Champbell Bay. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India will invest $82 billion in port projects by 2035, raise share of clean renew-able energy source in maritime sector, develop waterways, aug-ment seaplane services and boost tourism around light-houses, Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi said on Tuesday urging global players to make India a "preferred investment destination".

As many as 400 projects with investment potential to the tune of $31 billion are ready for inves-tors, who can be a part of India's growth trajectory, Modi said inaugurating the Maritime India Summit. "More than 574 proj-ects at a cost of $82 billion or Rs 6 lakh crore have been identified under the Sagarmala project for implementation during 2030 and 2035... We will encourage private investment in the port

sector... India's long coastline awaits you. India's hardwork-ing people await you.

"Invest in our ports. Invest in our people. Let India be your preferred trade destination. Let Indian ports be your port of call for trade and commerce," the Prime Minister said as he invited players to invest in Indian ports, shipyards and waterways.

The Ministry of Ports, Ship-ping and Waterways is ready with a list of 400 investable proj-ects with investment potential of $31 billion or Rs 2.25 lakh crore, Modi said adding, this

will further strengthen India's commitment of overall devel-opment of its maritime sector.

"Through this Maritime India summit, I want to invite the world to come to India and be a part of our growth trajec-tory. India is emerging as a lead-ing blue economy of the world. Our leading focus area includes upgrading current infrastruc-ture, creating next generation infra, boosting the reform jour-ney. Through these steps we aim to give vision to our Aatmanirb-har Bharat," he said.

Modi further noted that "ours is a government that is investing in waterways in a way that was never seen before. Domestic waterways are found to be cost effective and environ-ment friendly ways of transport-ing freight. We aim to operate 23 waterways by 2030."

He said this will be done through infrastructure enhance-

ment, fairway development, navigation aid and river infor-mation system provisions and focus will also be given on augmenting regional connec-tivity to Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar. New Maritime Infra will usher in ease of liv-ing through launch of roll-on, roll-off and other projects for harnessing rivers.

"Waterdromes at 16 loca-tions are being developed to enable seaplane operations... River cruise terminal infra and jetty are being developed on five national waterways. We aim to develop domestic and inter-national cruise terminals by 2023," the Prime Minister said. Asserting that the government is working towards holistic mari-time development that is not in silos, he said plans have been drawn for developing tourism on land adjacent to 78 out of 189 lighthouses on Indian coastline.

$82 billion being invested in Indian ports: PM ModiInvites international companies to be part of India’s growth Maritime Vision 2030 envisages

Rs 3 lakh crore investment in port projests and 20 lakh jobs

NEW DELHI: The offer for sale (OFS) for up to 16 per cent government stake at a floor price of Rs 88 per share in rail-way PSU IRCON will open on Wednesday.

The base issue size of the OFS is 10 per cent or over 4.70 crore equity shares, with a green-shoe option to retain over-subscription of 6 per cent or over 2.82 crore shares.

The total issue size, includ-ing green-shoe option, comes to 16 per cent or over 7.52 crore shares.

The government holds 89.18 per cent stake in IRCON, which is under the Railways Ministry and into construction of trans-portation infrastructure.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) Secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey on Tuesday tweeted: "Offer for Sale in IRCON opens tomorrow for Non Retail Inves-tors. Day 2 for Retail Investors. Govt. would divest 10% equity with an additional 6% as Green Shoe option".

In a regulatory filing to

stock exchanges, IRCON said the floor price for the offer shall be Rs 88 per equity share.

At the floor price, a 16 per cent stake would fetch over Rs 600 crore to the exchequer.

Shares of IRCON closed at Rs 97.85, up 1.87 per cent over the previous close on the BSE. The floor price of Rs 88 is at a 10 per cent discount over Monday's closing market price of IRCON. The government has set a dis-investment target of Rs 32,000 crore in the Revised Estimates for the current fiscal. PTI

Centre to sell up to 16% stake in IRCON, issue opens Wednesday

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment will hold a workshop on Wednesday seeking to ease the compliance process for obtain-ing quality certificates from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS).

The workshop on 'Easing Compliance for Certifications' is being organised on March 3 jointly by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, along with the Department of Consumer Affairs and Bureau of Indian Standards, an official statement said.

Piyush Goyal, Union Min-ister for Consumer Affairs & Food and Public Distribu-tion, Railways and Commerce and Industry will address the workshop.

"With an aim to promote Ease of Doing Business, the government is going to facili-tate simplification of the pro-cess of compliances that are required to be completed for obtaining certification at BIS," it added.

This workshop will facilitate closer interaction between var-ious sectors of industry and the apex national standards body.

The workshop, which is being held at BIS headquarters, will focus on various aspects of standards formulations, con-formity assessment processes and requirements of testing.

"Workshop will also focus on making Indian Stan-dards attain global standards in all spheres so as to ensure that 'Make in India' mission achieves its objectives," the statement said. MPOST

Centre looks to ease compliance process for BIS certifications

BEIRUT: The Lebanese pound hit a record low against the dol-lar on the black market on Tues-day as the country's political crisis deepens with no pros-pects of new Cabinet in the near future and foreign cur-rency reserves dwindle further.

The dollar was trading at 9,975 Lebanese pounds around noon Tuesday. The previous record was registered in July, when the dollar briefly sold for 9,900 pounds on the black mar-ket. The official price remains 1,520 pounds to the dollar. Leb-

anon has been hammered by one crisis after another, start-ing with the outbreak of anti-government protests against the country's corrupt political class in October 2019. That has been compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and a massive, deadly blast in Beirut's port last August.

In neighbouring Syria where the economy has been hit by the 10-year conflict, corruption and Western sanctions the dol-lar also hit a record on Monday, reaching nearly 3,900 Syrian pounds. PTI

Lebanon currency hits record low as country's crises worsen

NEW DELHI: New and Renew-able Energy Minister R K Singh on Tuesday advised industry stakeholders to enhance the use of clean energy and reduce their energy cost to become more competitive. Singh chaired a session with top management of energy intensive industrial units through video conference, a statement issued by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) said.

BEE, under the Ministry of Power, assists in developing pol-icies and strategies with the pri-mary objective of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy.

India stands at the forefront of addressing global challenge of climate change and has com-mitted to an ambitious Nation-ally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of reducing emission intensity by 33-35 per cent in 2030 against the levels of year 2005, Singh said. PTI

Enhance green energy usage, says RK Singh

PFC EXTENDS FINANCIAL SUPPORT

Power Finance Corporation Ltd (PFC), the leading NBFC in the power sector, has extended its financial support for the construction of stilt plus two-storied School building at Dr K B Hegdewar School premises, in Bambolim, Goa as part of its CSR activities. Goa Chief Minister Pramod P. Sawant with PFC CMD Ravinder Singh Dhillon and other dignitaries during inauguration of extension building

mp business10SPECTRUM AUCTION

NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

NEW DELHI: India's fuel con-sumption is likely to rise nearly 10 per cent in the fiscal year beginning April 1, as a reflating economy drives petrol and die-sel demand, according to Oil Ministry's projections.

Petroleum product con-sumption in 2021-22 could hit 215.24 million tonnes, com-pared to the revised estimate of 195.94 million tonnes con-sumption of the current fiscal year ending March 31, the min-istry's Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) said.

This will be the fastest pace of fuel product consumption in six years.

As the economy rebounds from its worst contraction on record and industrial activ-ity picks up, fuel consumption is projected to rise. An over two-month-long lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic had shrunk demand to less than half as most vehicles went off roads, trains stopped plying and airlines halted operations.

The reopening of the econ-omy has brought demand back but diesel - the most consumed fuel in the country - is yet to reach pre-pandemic levels.

This, industry officials say, is mostly because of not all

public transport coming back on roads and trains operating at a lower capacity.

Two successive quarters of shrinking GDP saw fuel con-sumption drop by 13.5 per cent during April-January period of the current fiscal year.

PPAC projected a 13.3 per cent rise in petrol and diesel sales while jet fuel (ATF) con-sumption is seen rising 74 per cent. Cooking gas LPG demand is seen expanding 4.8 per cent to 29 million tonnes.

Petrol sales are expected to climb to 31.3 million tonnes in 2021-22 while diesel sales would grow to 83.67 million tonnes.

Naphtha sales at 15.25 mil-lion tonnes will be an improve-ment over 14.9 million tonnes consumption in the current fiscal year. Consumption of bitumen, used in road con-struction, is seen rising to 7.1 million tonnes in the next fiscal year from 6.4 million tonnes. PTI

MUMBAI: Forty Indians entered the billionaires' club in the pandemic-stricken 2020 to take the number of those in the coveted list to 177 people, a report said on Tuesday.

Mukesh Ambani continued to be the wealthiest Indian with a networth of $83 billion. The head of Reliance Industries wit-nessed a 24 per cent jump in for-tunes and climbed up one spot to be the eighth richest glob-ally, as per the Hurun Global Rich List.

Gautam Adani from Guja-rat, who has had a spectacular rise in fortunes in the last few years, saw his wealth almost doubling to $32 billion in 2020 and climbed 20 places to be the 48th richest person globally and the second wealthiest Indian. His brother Vinod's wealth grew 128 per cent to $9.8 billion.

The report compiles indi-vidual or family wealth in the year to January 15. It can be noted that the Indian econ-omy is set to contract by over 7 per cent because of the impact of the pandemic, which had forced governments to go for

lockdowns that had a debili-tating impact on the poor. The report comes at a time when concerns are being raised about a 'K-shaped' recovery being underway, where a select few prosper.

Hurun India's Managing Director and Chief Researcher Anas Rahman Junaid said Indian wealth creation is domi-nated by cyclical or traditional industries compared to tech-driven wealth creation in the US and China.

"When the tech-driven wealth creation reaches full potential, India could poten-tially beat USA in terms of the

number of billionaires," he added. IT company HCL's Shiv Nadar was the third wealthiest Indian with a fortune of $27 bil-lion while some peers in the tech industry dominated the list of fastest growing wealth.

Jay Chaudhry of software company Zcaler saw a 274 per cent rise in networth to $13 billion during the year while Byju Raveendran and family saw a 100 per cent increase in its wealth to $2.8 billion, the report said. Diversified corpo-rate house Mahindra Group's head Anand Mahindra and family also saw a 100 per cent increase in wealth to $2.4 bil-

lion, it said.Among those who saw a

decline in their networth during the year was Acharya Balkrishna of Patanjali Ayurved at USD3.6 billion, down 32 per cent.

The financial capital contin-ues to lead in the country from a concentration perspective, being home to 60 of the 177 Indian billionaires, followed by New Delhi at 40 and Bengaluru at 22 billionaires, it said.

From a gender perspective, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Bio-con leads with a networth of $4.8 billion (up 41 per cent), Smita V Crishna of Godrej at $4.7 billion and Lupin's Manju Gupta at $3.3 billion.

A majority of 118 billion-aires were classified as self-made ones in the ranking, as against 932 of the 1,058 billionaires in neighbouring China, which is home to the highest number of billionaires. Globally, the list is led by Elon Musk of Tesla with a fortune of $197 billion followed by Amazon's Jeff Bezos at $189 billion and Frenchman Bernard Arnault of fashion house LVMH at $114 billion. PTI

India adds 40 billionaires in pandemic year; Adani, Ambani see rise in wealth

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Tuesday held that amounts paid by resident Indian end-users or distributors to non-resident foreign manufacturers as consideration for the use of the computer software is not taxable as 'Royalty'.

A bench of Justices R F Nariman, Hemant Gupta and B R Gavai said the amount paid is not the payment of royalty for the use of copyright in the computer software and does not give rise to any income tax-able in India.

"The amounts paid by resi-dent Indian end-users/distrib-utors to non-resident computer software manufacturers/sup-pliers, as consideration for the resale/use of the computer soft-ware through End-user license agreements/distribution agree-ments, is not the payment of royalty for the use of copyright in the computer software, and that the same does not give rise to any income taxable in India ," the bench said adding that the persons were not liable to

deduct any TDS.The apex court, while hear-

ing a bunch of appeals, dis-missed the appeal filed by the Income Tax Department and allowed the appeals filed by assesses.

In one of the cases, Engi-neering Analysis Centre of Excellence Pvt. Ltd, a resident Indian end-user of shrink-wrapped computer software, directly imported from the United States of America.

The Assessing Officer found that what was in fact transferred in the transaction between the parties was copy-right which attracted the pay-ment of royalty and thus, it was required that tax be deducted at source by the Indian importer and end-user, EAC and it was held liable to pay the amount of Rs 1,03,54,784.

The High Court of Kar-nataka had held that resident Indian importers were liable for deduction of tax at source which was set aside by the apex court. MPOST

Payments by resident Indian end-users to foreign software cos not taxable as royalty: SC

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka announced on Tuesday that it has approved a proposal to develop the strategic Colombo Port's Western Container Ter-minal (WCT) under a joint ven-ture with India and Japan, weeks after it scrapped a trilateral deal with both countries to develop another terminal at the same port. "Cabinet approval has been granted on 01-02-21 to develop the West Container Terminal of Colombo South Port as a pri-vate public limited company in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and par-ties nominated by Indian and Japanese government," said a Cabinet memorandum.

It said the Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) proposal approved by a negotiating com-mittee had been forwarded to both the Indian High Commis-sion and the Japanese embassy here. The Cabinet memoran-dum said that the proposal presented by Adani Ports and APSEZ Consortium has been approved by the Indian High Commission. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India’s first auc-tion of telecom spectrum in five years ended on Tuesday with Rs 77,814.80 crore of air-waves being acquired, mostly by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio which picked up spectrum for Rs 57,122.65 crore.

About 2,308.80 MHz of spectrum, that carry telecom signals in seven bands worth nearly Rs 4 lakh crore at the reserve price, was up for bid-ding in the auction.

Although the spectrum finally acquired by telcos fell woefully short of this overall kitty and was acquired only at the reserve price, the Telecom Department said it is satisfied with the outcome as the num-bers had exceeded internal esti-mates despite the pandemic and stress in the telecom industry.

Of the total proceeds, the government would get Rs 19,000-20,000 crore in the current financial year and Rs 6,000-7,000 crore would accrue in the next fiscal as the auc-tion offers bidders the option of upfront and deferred pay-ment (in annual installments).

Jio cornered more than half of the telecom spectrum that was finally auctioned by the government over the past two days, offering about Rs 57,123 crore to consolidate its holding of the scarce resource that are used to carry mobile call and data signals.

Jio bagged 488.35 MHz spectrum in bands such as 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz.

Telecom giant Bharti Airtel bid about Rs 18,699 crore to pick up 355.45 megahertz (MHz) out of the total 855.60 MHz of radio frequency acquired by telcos, giving it “most formi-dable” spectrum holding in the country.

Vodafone Idea Ltd, which is facing a huge liability of unpaid statutory dues of past, bought 11.80 Mhz of spectrum worth Rs 1,993.40 crore.

However, airwaves in the premium 700 MHz and 2,500 MHz bands went unsold.

Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash said 855.60 MHz of spectrum was bought for Rs 77,814.80 crore in the two-day auction.

Airwaves come in different bands which support different propagation characteristics for transmission of voice and data. For instance, lower bands like 800 MHz and 900 MHz support a good indoor coverage while higher bands like 2300 MHz have a good carrying capacity.

The airwaves are also sold in quantities measured as MHz. The auctions allows companies to use Government owned air-waves for carrying signals for data and voice, for a particular period of time.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd said it acquired the right to use spectrum in all the 22 circles or zones across India. In all it won 488.35 MHz of spectrum, taking up its spectrum footprint by 55 per cent to 1,717 MHz.

Jio raced to become the leading telecom operator in the country within four years of launching services in 2016 offering free voice calls and data at dirt cheap prices, and its sub-scriber base stood at 408.7 mil-lion subscribers as on December 2020.

Bharti Airtel said it won spectrum across Sub GHz, mid-band and 2300 MHz bands, giving it a secured pan-India footprint will help improve its deep indoor and in building coverage in every urban town.

Moreover, the spectrum will also help improve its coverage in villages, an Airtel statement noted.

Airtel pointed out that despite a large amount of spec-trum made available, the 700 MHz band did not get any bid from the operators as it made “no economic case” for them due to the high reserve prices.

Breifing reporters, the tele-com secretary said that quality of service and customer expe-rience is expected to improve with deployment of additional spectrum acquired in networks of telecom service providers.

While the first day of auction fetched bids of Rs 77,146 crore, over Rs 668 crore of incremental bids came in on Tuesday.

Excluding spectrum in 700 MHz and 2500 MHz bands, this is about 60 per cent of the spec-trum that was put to auction. In the 2016 spectrum auction, where there were seven bidders, the spectrum sold was 41 per cent by quantity and 12 per cent

by value of the total spectrum put to auction. The correspond-ing figures in the 2021 spectrum auction were 37 per cent and 19 per cent respectively, with just three players.

The bands of 2300 MHz and 800 MHz saw maximum interest from bidders. In the 800 MHz band, the quantity acquired by telcos is 65 per cent of the total 230 MHz that was on the block; in the 2300 MHz band, over 89 per cent of radiowaves offered were eventually acquired.

Players will also have to pay Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) at the rate of 3 per cent of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), excluding revenue from wire-line services.

The outcome of the auction will be scrutinised by an Inter Ministerial panel and will there-after be approved by Commu-nications Minister and Finance Minister; the entire exercise is expected to be completed in the next 10 days or so.

For spectrum that was auc-tioned and is available imme-diately, payments from players will come in before the end of the current fiscal. A portion of spectrum will also be made available during the year.

On the future course for 700 MHz band, Prakash said considering the fact that no bid has come “it is something we will see”.

“There is a possibility that with 5G technology coming, and the fact that in 700 MHz 5G ecosystem is also developing...there is every possibility that in next auction, the 700 MHz band will also be used,” Prakash said.

NEW DELHI: Privatisation-bound Bharat Petroleum Cor-poration Ltd (BPCL) may use Rs 9,876 crore proceed from stake sale in Numaligarh Refin-ery to pay a special dividend to shareholders, the biggest being Government of India, BPCL director (finance) N Vijayago-pal said on Tuesday.

The Board of BPCL on Monday approved the sale of the company's 61.65 per cent stake in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) to a consortium of state-owned Oil India, con-sultancy firm Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and Government of Assam for Rs 9,875.96 crore.

The offer by the OIL-led consortium was "above the reserve price we had set for the stake sale," he told reporters.

BPCL will seek approval of the shareholders at a meeting on March 25 and plans to sign the sale pact within two days of that and conclude the transac-tion before month-end, he said.

The proceeds from the stake sale will be used to buy out Oman Oil's stake in Bina refin-ery, pay capital gains tax and pay a dividend to sharehold-ers, he said. "Definitely a por-tion (of the proceeds) will go to the shareholders as dividend as we have a healthy tradition of rewarding shareholders." PTI

Centre nets ̀ 77,815 crore; Jio top buyer with ̀ 57,122 crore

Airtel buys radiowaves worth Rs 18,699 cr; VIL says spectrum acquired in 5 circles

India’s fuel demand to rebound with 10%

growth in 2021-22

Highlights » In all, some 60 per cent of the spectrum of-fered was sold

» The government offered 2,308.80 MHz of spectrum in seven bands, at a reserve price of nearly Rs 4 lakh crore

» Airwaves in the premium 700 MHz and 2,500 MHz bands went unsold

» Telecom giant Bharti Airtel bid Rs 18,699 crore to pick up 355.45 megahertz (MHz) out of the 855.60 MHz of radiofrequency

» Vodafone Idea Ltd, which is facing a huge liability of unpaid statutory dues of past, bought spectrum worth Rs 1,993.40 crore

MUMBAI: After jumping to an 11-month high at 7.19 per cent at the last auctions, states' cost of market borrowing moderated on Tuesday at the latest round of state development loan auc-tions wherein 13 states raised Rs 23,378 crore at an average price of 6.92 per cent.

With 13 states collectively raising Rs 23,378 crore at the latest auction, 28 states and two Union territories have cumula-tively raised Rs 7.14 lakh crore from the market so far this fiscal. The latter amount is 31 per cent more than the year-ago period when it stood Rs 5.45 lakh crore. The states have so far raised 87 per cent of the scheduled mar-ket borrowings, according to Care Ratings.

Significantly, the yields on the bonds moderated from a near record high last week to 6.92 per cent, down 27 basis points. The weighted average cost of borrowings across states

and tenures stood at 6.92 per cent, which is cheaper by 27 bps compared to 7.19 per cent on February 23, the agency said.

However, the yields for lon-ger tenure securities (10-year bonds) continues to be elevated, having risen in tandem with the GSec yields in recent weeks. Low demand for government securi-ties (issued by both the Centre and states) amid the surge in supply of these securities have been pushing up the yields.

Despite the prevalence of surplus liquidity in the bank-ing system and OMOs (Open Market Operations), bond yields have been high, indicative of the low investor appetite for these

securities, as per Care Ratings.The weighted average yields

of the 10-year state bonds across states stood at 7.18 per cent, nearly stable at week ago levels (7.19 per cent) and continued to be at levels seen last in mid-April 2020.

The spread between the 10-year state bonds and GSecs declined marginally by 1 bp from week ago levels of 113 bps.

Meanwhile, there has been a notable year-on-year increase in the market borrowings of large states like MP (112 per cent), Rajasthan (57 per cent), Maha-rashtra (54 per cent), Karnataka (43 per cent), Tamil Nadu (37 per cent), Telangana (36 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (28 per cent).

Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Andhra have been the top six borrowers accounting for 53 per cent of the total borrowings so far. MPOST

After soaring last week, states' debt cost falls below 7%

Numaligarh stake sale: BPCL may use ̀ 9,876 cr to pay shareholders

M Venkata Rao joined as MD & CEO of Central Bank of IndiaMUMBAI: Matam Venkata Rao has taken over charge as Managing Director & CEO of Central Bank of India with effect from 1st March, 2021. Prior to joining the current assign-ment, Rao was Executive Director, Canara Bank for more than three years where he played a pivotal role in the Bank’s progress and in amal-gamation of Syndicate Bank with Canara BankMr. Matam Venkata Rao is a Post Graduate in Agriculture from Sri Venkateshwara Agriculture College, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh. He is a Cer-tified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers. A seasoned banker with varied experience, Rao joined Allahabad Bank as Agricultural Field Of-ficer in 1988 and worked in various capacities in different geographical areas of the country. MPOST

HYDERABAD: NMDC, the country's largest Iron Ore pro-ducer, has witnessed a spectac-ular growth during the month of February 2021 both in pro-duction and sales performance over the CPLY.

Iron ore production for the month of February 2021 stands at 3.86 MT as against the 3.24 MT of ore mined in the corre-sponding month in February 2020, and registered a growth of 19 per cent over the same.

Sales during the period of February 2021 increased by 12 per cent at 3.25 MT as against the 2.91 MT done in the month of February 2020. The Bailadila Projects at Chhattisgarh has produced 3.15 MT in February 2021 as compared to last year’s production of 2.93 MT in the month of February, and regis-tered a growth of 8 per cent in production.

The total sales of iron ore from Bailadila projects in the month of February 2021 is 2.62 MT against 2.42 MT in Febru-ary 2020, which is 8 per cent higher than the previous year.

Speaking about the produc-tion and sales numbers of Feb-ruary 2021, Sumit Deb, CMD, NMDC, commented, “These production and sales figures definitely display NMDC’s strong character to bounce back in spite of operational challenges. This achievement

is possible only due to the hard-work and commitment dem-onstrated by the employees. We foresee a gradual rise in num-bers and will continue to set new records.”

NMDC has recently restarted the operations at Donimalai mines. The mines have a capacity to produce a minimum of 0.5 MT of iron ore per month and the overall performance of the company will be further enhanced with the resumption of operations in Donimalai. MPOST

NMDC achieves best-ever output, sales in FebruaryProduction and sales rise by 19% and 12% over CPLY, respectively

NMDC has recently restarted the operations at Donimalai mines. The mines have a capacity to produce a minimum of 0.5 MT of iron ore per month

MUMBAI: RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das expressed optimism about the overall COVID-19 situation following the rollout of the vaccines and complimented all the SAARC central banks for their efforts in combating the pandemic, the central bank said in a state-ment on Tuesday.

Das made these remarks in his opening speech at the 41st Meeting of the SAARCFI-NANCE Governors' Group in virtual format on Monday. Das chaired the meeting.

Das led the discussions on progress made under the SAARCFINANCE initia-tives, achieved with the all-round cooperation of the SAARC central banks and launched the maiden issue of the annual SAARCFINANCE e-Newsletter.

While the Governors agreed that the pandemic had an adverse impact on their economies, they recognized the importance of leveraging technology to spur growth, the RBI said.

The meeting was attended by the Governors from other SAARC central banks Ajmal Ahmadi, Da Afghanistan Bank; Fazle Kabir, Bangladesh Bank; Dasho Penjore, Royal Monetary Authority of Bhu-tan; Ali Hashim, Maldives Monetary Authority; Maha Prasad Adhikari, Nepal Ras-tra Bank; Reza Baqir, State Bank of Pakistan; and W D Lakshman, Central Bank of Sri Lanka.

With the RBI's tenure com-ing to a close, Governor Das handed over the SAARCFI-NANCE Chair (effective from April 01, 2021) to the Gov-ernor, Maldives Monetary Authority and assured him of the Reserve Bank's continued commitment to the SAARC-FINANCE initiative.

SAARCFINANCE is a net-work of central bank governors and finance secretaries of the SAARC region. The Reserve Bank of India is the present chair of the SAARCFINANCE from October 2019 to March 2021. MPOST

RBI Guv expresses optimism about Coronavirus situation

following roll-out of vaccines

Sri Lanka okays proposal to develop Colombo WCT with

India and Japan

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWB HIDCO

NOTICE INVITING TENDERN.I.T No.55 of G.M. (Elect) of 2020-21

Sealed Single Part tenders on Percentage basis are invited for the work of “Comprehensive and Non-comprehensive AMC for A.C. system, Fire-fighting at Hidco Bhaban, Utility Building, Finance Centre, PA system, CCTV, 500 KVA Deutz DG, 320 KVA DG set of Nazrul Tirtha, Hidco Bhaban, etc.” from the agencies having ability in execution for similar nature of work. Last date of receiving application 08-03-2021 upto 3.00 P.M. Detailed may be seen in our website at www.wbhidcoltd.com www.wbhidcoltd.com

DELHI JAL BOARD: GOVT OF NCT OF DELHIOFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER (EAST) -I

M 16 MAYUR VIHAR PKT E PHASE II NEW DELHI-91

"STOP CORONA: WASH YOUR HANDS WEAR MASK MAINTAIN SOCIAL DISTANCE" PRESS NOTICE TENDER NIT No- 39/East-1/(2020-21)

Further details in this regard can be seen at https://govtprocurement.deihi.gov.inIssuded By PRO (Water) Sd/- Pratap SinghAdvt. No. J.S.V./2020-21/459 Executive Engineer (EAST)-I

mp sports 11millenniumpost|NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021

Federer out of Miami Open; will train to ‘work his way back’

MIAMI: Roger Federer is with-drawing from this month's Miami Open so he can spend extra time preparing to work his way back out on tour, his agent told The Associated Press.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion has not competed in more than a year after hav-ing two operations on his right knee during last season.

Federer, who turns 40 in August, is scheduled to make his return to the tour next week in a hard-court tournament at Doha, Qatar. He posted a photo of himself on Twitter last Friday with the caption: The count-down to Doha begins.

That will be his first event since he reached the semifinals at the Australian Open in Feb-ruary 2020.

As of now, he also is slated to participate in the hard-court tournament at Dubai, United Arab Emirates, that begins March 14.

Federer also had been on the entry list for the Masters 1000 stop in Miami, where play

starts on March 24.But his agent, Tony God-

sick, wrote Monday in an email to the AP that Federer will not play there.

After Doha and maybe Dubai, (Federer) will go back

and do a training block to con-tinue to slowly work his way back out on tour, Godsick wrote.

Miami Open tournament director James Blake said he hopes Federer will return in

2021 to an event he has won four times, including two years ago.

We certainly would have loved Roger to return to Miami to defend his title.

However, as a former

player, I understand that you need to tailor your travel and playing schedule to properly work your way back to 100 per-cent fitness when coming off an injury, Blake said. Roger is an incredible ambassador for the sport, so the longer he is able to play on tour, the better it is for all of tennis.

Federer beat John Isner 6-1, 6-4 in the 2019 final to win the Miami Open the last time it was held. The tournament was one of dozens that were called off last year when the profes-sional tennis tours went on hia-tus for several months because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

Federer also won trophies at the hard-court event in 2005, 2006 and 2017.

He is currently No. 5 in the ATP rankings. He has spent 310 weeks total at No. 1, an ATP record tied by Novak Djokovic on Monday.

Federer's 103 tour-level titles are the second-most in the professional era of men's tennis, trailing only Jimmy Connors, who won 109. AGENCIES

ICC ‘Player of the Month’: Ashwin, Root, Mayers in contention among men

DUBAI: Seasoned India off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin along with England captain Joe Root and West Indies' new batting sensation Kyle Mayers were on Tuesday nominated for the ICC 'Player of the Month' for their exceptional perfor-mances in February.

Ashwin played three Tests against England and scored 106 in the second innings of India's second Test victory at Chennai and took his 400th Test wicket in the third Test vic-tory at Ahmedabad.

"Scoring a total of 176 runs across these games with taking a total of 24 wickets, Ashwin is the deserving candidate to be nominated in the men's cat-egory for February," the ICC release stated.

"England Test captain Joe

Root makes it to the list of nominations again this month for his outstanding perfor-mance with the bat and the ball. He scored a total of 333 runs and took 6 wickets over-all in the 3 Tests that he played against India," it further stated.

Root started the series with a superb 218 in the opening Test.

From the West Indies, Test debutant Mayers played two matches against Bangladesh and had a match-winning knock of 210 to help his team successfully chase a target of 395 at Chittagong.

In the women's sec-tion, Tammy Beaumont and Nat Sciver of England along with Brooke Halliday of New Zealand have been nominated. AGENCIES

Liverpool great Ian St. John dies at 82LIVERPOOL: Ian St. John, the former Liverpool forward who scored the winning goal to seal the club's first FA Cup title and was a key player in its rebuild under Bill Shankly in the 1960s, has died. He was 82.

St. John died on Monday following illness, Liverpool said on Tuesday.

A Scotland international who later fronted the popu-lar British TV show Saint and Greavsie alongside another former player, Jimmy Greaves, St. John played 425 games for Liverpool from 1961-71 and scored 118 goals.

No goal was bigger than the one he scored in extra time to clinch a 2-1 win for Liverpool over Leeds in the 1965 FA Cup final.

St. John joined for a club-record fee from Scottish team

Motherwell while Liverpool was in the second division and, alongside Ron Yeats, was part of the spine of a team which earned promotion then won the English league title in 1964

and '66. Liverpool described St. John as a legend and described his FA Cup final winner against Leeds as one of the most iconic goals in Liverpool's history." AGENCIES

Mandhana slips 2 places to 6th among batters; Goswami at 5th among bowlers

ODI RANKINGS

DUBAI: Indian opener Smriti Mandhana slipped two places to sixth among batters but Jhulan Goswami retained her fifth spot among bowlers in the latest ICC women’s ODI Players’ rankings issued on Tuesday.

Another veteran Mith-ali Raji -- with 687 points -- remained at 9th to be the second Indian batswoman in the top 10. Mandhana has 732 points.

England opener Tammy Beaumont has rocketed five places to grab the top position after an excellent display in the three-match series against New Zealand which her team won 2-1.

Beaumont has overtaken the likes of West Indian Sta-fanie Taylor and New Zea-land’s Amy Satterthwaite to top the list and now leads Aus-tralia captain Meg Lanning by 16 points.

Besides Goswami (691), Poonam Yadav (679), Shi-kha Pandey (675) and Deepti Sharma (639) are the other Indian bowlers in the top-10. All of them retained their previous ranking spots.

Jess Jonassen of Australia continued to top the bowl-ing chart with 804 points, fol-lowed by compatriot Megan Schutt (735).

Among the all-rounders, Deepti Sharma retained her fourth spot with 359 points in the list headed by Ellyse Perry of Australia with 460 points. AGENCIES

Hat-trick of defeats: Indian women lose 0-2 to Germany

DUSSELDORF: The Indian women’s hockey team’s defence resisted well but formidable Germany walked away with a 2-0 win in the third game, tak-ing an unassailable 3-0 lead in the four-match series, here.

Sonja Zimmermann (26’) and Franzisca Hauke (42’) scored the goals for Germany, who won their third consecu-tive match on Monday.

The hosts were unable to create any early momentum and had a penalty corner saved in the first quarter. While Ger-many pushed forward to break the deadlock, the Indian back-line stood firm yet again.

Germany were awarded a penalty corner early into the second quarter but still couldn’t find a way past India’s

defence. The team managed to keep

out three penalty corners in the previous game too.

The hosts ended India’s resis-tance in form of a goal from the third penalty corners. AGENCIES

Sania Mirza returns to WTA circuit with winDOHA: Sania Mirza made a winning return to the WTA circuit as she and her Slove-nian partner Andreja Klepac beat Ukrainians Nadiia Kiche-nok and Lyudmyla Kichenok to reach the doubles quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open here.

The Indo-Slovenian pair won 6-4 6-7(5) 10-5 against the duo of Kichenok and Kichenok in the opening round of the WTA 500 tournament Monday night. It was Sania's first match in 12 months and incidentally it was at the Doha Open where she played last in February 2020 before pandemic halted the tennis competitions across the world. Sania herself had recov-ered from COVID-19 in Janu-ary this year. It was Nadiia with whom Sania had paired when she returned to competitive ten-nis after maternity leave and won the Hobart Open in January last year. AGENCIES

Manika, Sreeja advance into final round of singles

qualifiers at WTT ContenderDOHA: Star paddler Manika Batra and young Sreeja Akula moved to the final round of the women's singles qualifiers at the WTT Contender after win-ing their respective matches, here on Tuesday.

The world number 150 from Hyderabad, Sreeja pre-vailed over world number 74 Vega Paulina of Chile before she sent packing Thailand's 87th-ranked Orawan Paranang packing 11-5 11-5 11-6 in the third round.

She will now take on Rus-sia's Mariia Tailakova in the final round. Tailakova entered the last round with a 14-12, 11-8, 11-8 win over India's Archana Kamath.

Living up to her reputation, Commonwealth Games gold medallist Manika got the bet-

ter of Romania's Irina Ciobanu 11-7, 15-13, 11-8 comfortably in the third round of women's singles qualifiers and will face Ganna Gaponova of Ukraine in the last round.

Earlier in the final round matches of mixed doubles qualifiers, Indian pair of Sathi-yan Gnanasekaran and Sutirtha Mukherjee grabbed a spot in the main draw after a 11-5, 11-7, 11-5 straight-set victory against Puerto Rico's Daniel Gonzalez and Melanie Diaz.

However, the country's other mixed doubles pair of Achanta Sharath Kamal and Batra failed to take advan-tage of an early game lead and lost out to Russia's Alexander Shibaev and Polina Mikhailova by a 11-9, 11-13, 11-13, 3-11 scoreline. AGENCIES

World Cup qualifying revised

in Asia again amid pandemic

KUALA LUMPUR: Australia's World Cup qualifying match against Nepal on March 30 has been postponed, leaving only three games to be played in Asia this month as organizers con-sider central locations to finish the second round by mid-June.

The Asian Football Confed-eration announced last month that all but four of the region's remaining second-round quali-fiers for the 2022 World Cup had been postponed to May and June.

With AFC's latest revision on Tuesday, it's now down to three. Mongolia is set to play Tajikistan on March 25 in Group F before traveling to Tokyo to play Japan on March 30. Saudi Arabia is scheduled to host Palestine in Group D, also on March 30. The race is now on to finish the round before the June 15 deadline. Most coun-tries have played five of their scheduled eight group games.

The AFC said it has opened the invitation to member asso-ciations to host their respective groups in a centralized format.

No second-round qualify-ing matches have been played since November 2019, with mul-tiple postponements caused by travel restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Football Australia chief executive James Johnson said his organization wanted to play a constructive role in the resumption of inter-national football in Asia" and would negotiate with Group B rivals Nepal, Jordan, Kuwait and Taiwan on nominating a central venue. Australia leads the group after four wins from four matches, two points ahead of Kuwait and Jordan.

The South Korean soccer association last month said it was interested in hosting the remaining matches in Group H and was planning to submit an application to the AFC by March 5. AGENCIES

Mary Kom, Amit Panghal among 12 in quarters of Spanish boxing tourney as draws unveiled

NEW DELHI: Six-time world champion M C Mary Kom and Asian Games gold-med-allist Amit Panghal are among 12 Indian boxers who stand just a win away from securing medals at the Boxam Interna-tional Tournament in Castellon, Spain after finding themselves in quarterfinals when draws for the event were unveiled.

The tournament features all of India's nine Tokyo Olym-pics-bound boxers along with five others.

Mary Kom (51kg), compet-ing for the first time since quali-fying for the Olympics last year, will take on Italian Giordana Sorrentino in her opening bout on Wednesday.

Panghal (52kg), who won a gold medal at the Cologne World Cup in Germany in

December last year, will be facing local favourite Gabriel Escobar in his quarterfinal clash after getting an opening-round bye.

Vikas Krishan (69kg), another strong medal con-

tender for Tokyo, is also in the quarters after getting a bye and will take on Vincenzo Mangia-capre of Italy.

Also through to quarters due to the relatively small size of the draw were Asian silver-medallist Ashish Kumar (75kg), and Sumit Sangwan (81kg), who is returning to competi-tion after enduring a period of turmoil due to a doping suspen-sion that was later lifted after he was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Of the two, Ashish is bound for Tokyo along with Satish Kumar (+91kg), the first super heavyweight from the coun-try to qualify for the quadren-nial showpiece. Satish is also in quarters at this tournament.

Joining them in the last-eight stage is Sanjeet (91kg), a promising name coming up

who found spotlight with his India Open gold in 2019.

Among the women, Jasmine and Manisha, in the 57kg cat-egory, are also through to the quarters after getting byes.

The Olympic-bound trio of Simranjit Kaur (60kg), Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Pooja Rani (75kg) will also be com-peting in the quarterfinal stage on Wednesday.

Manish Kaushik (63kg), assured of a Tokyo spot and making a comeback after an injury layoff, did not get a bye and will fight Spaniard Abdel-laoui Raddouane for a place in the quarters on Tuesday.

Also in action would be Mohammed Hussamuddin (57kg), who will be up against another local hope in Joan Manuel Torres. AGENCIES

Pitch will be similar to last two Tests, we never complain of

damp wickets abroad: RahaneAHMEDABAD: India's Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rah-ane on Tuesday said there is no need to take criticism of the spin-friendly pitches in the country "seriously" as not a word is spoken about the "damp" tracks elsewhere and England can expect another turner in the fourth Test.

There has been a lot of talk about the spinning tracks in the second Test at Chepauk and the pink ball game at Motera which ended inside two days. The fourth and final Test starts on March 4.

"I think the wicket will be similar to the second Test match in Chennai, spinning track. Yes, pink ball made the difference and it came much quicker off the wicket com-pared to red ball and we had

to make adjustments," Rah-ane said during a virtual media conference here.

"Wicket will be a lot simi-lar to last two test matches," he added.

Rahane, for the first time in many years, shed his reticence when asked to respond to the criticism from former Eng-land players that the pitches have not been ideal. Some have even urged the ICC to act against India for prepar-ing a turner.

"See, let people speak what they want to. The wick-ets, when we tour abroad, no one speaks about how seam-ing they are. They always speak about the technique of the Indian batsmen, I don't feel we need to take seriously what people say," Rahane was sharp in his response. AGENCIES

Roger Federer, who turns 40 in August, is scheduled to make his return to the tour next week in a hard-court tournament at Doha, Qatar

mp entertainment12 NEW DELHI|WEDNESDAY, 3 MARCH, 2021|millenniumpost

Akshay Kumar took to his ‘Twitter’ handle and shared the first poster of the debut

film of fellow actor Suniel Shetty’s son Ahan.

“It is a big day for you Ahan. I still remember seeing your father, Suniel Shetty’s first film Balwaan’s poster and today I’m presenting yours. I’m so happy and proud to

share the poster of Sajid Nadi-adwala’s ‘Tadap’ starring Ahan Shetty and Tara Sutaria. It is releasing in cinemas on Sep-tember 24,” wrote the actor.

The poster shows Ahan Shetty holding Tara Sutaria’s face and planting a kiss. His face is hidden while she has her eyes closed as they are caught in a whirlwind of emotions.

The film will be produced by Sajid Nadiadwala.

Later, Ahan shared another poster and wrote: “He is fierce, he is rebellious and he is a lover!” I’m beyond grateful for this Sajid Nadiadwala sir. Thank you Milan Luthria for helping me bring this character to life. ‘Tadap’ releases on September 24, 2021.” AGENCIES

Bollywood director Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra has started

working on his next directorial with writer Kamlesh Pandey, who has worked with him on ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Delhi-6’ and is penning the script.

“I am working on some-thing for Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra. He will be directing and producing this film. The story revolves around the plight of farmers, the issues they face and the agricul-tural crisis as a whole,” said Kamlesh.

He added, “In between, Rakeysh had got busy with ‘Mirzya’, ‘Fanney Khan’ and ‘Mere Pyare Prime Minis-ter’, but a few months ago we decided to revive it. The only film that I remember which

is made on farmers’ issues is Bimal Roy’s ‘Do Bigha Zamin’ and hopefully, we will be able to make a difference with our story too. I come from a

farmer family, farming is in my blood, in my DNA and I have always felt that we as a nation have been unfair to our farm-ers due to our misplaced prior-

ities. I am currently in the final stage of scripting. However, I would like to clarify that our story has nothing to do with the ongoing farmer protests.”

“Rakeysh will look into that once we lock the final script. I do not get into that aspect of filmmaking,” stated Pandey. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

After a successful inaugural program of ‘Aavartan’ at the Stein Auditorium on Febru-

ary 25, India Habitat Centre (IHC), Embassy of Mexico kick-started new events to promote its culture

through films and food. The 8-days cultural event will also have Indian music and dance performances.

With inter-nationally-acclaimed cinema touring pres-tigious fes-tivals such as Locarno, Venice and Gothenburg in the city, film lovers enjoyed watching ‘Visa to Paradise’ (2009)

and ‘Our Time’ (2018) on March 1 to March 2.

IHC has also heralded the Inter-national Working Women’s day with a fine selection of features and docu-mentaries from all around the coun-try, which pay an ode to their spirit of resilience. ‘Run Kalyani’ (2019), ‘Begamon Ka Bhopal’ (2018), ‘The Day I Became a Woman’ (2019) and many more films will be a part of the ‘FFSI Women’s Film Festival’ (Federa-tion of Film Societies of India) to be held on March 8.

Apart from film watching, guests can also enjoy del-

icacies at the ‘Mexican Food Festival’ hap-pening at the ‘All American Diner’.

On March 6, Mohan Rakesh’s classic play

‘Ashadh Ka Ek Din’ will take a

new shape with K. K. Kohli’s rendi-tion. Set in the Himalayas, the play evokes some of the tender human emotions of love, separation and dis-illusionment through the romance between Kalidasa and Mallika.

From March 3 to March 4, the fes-

tival will also have music and dance programmes including Moumala Nayak’s Kathak recital that celebrates the onset of spring, Shivaratri and Holi and vocalist Rashmi Agarw-al’s performance of Bhakti and Sufi poetry.

‘DHAMAKA’ TEASER

TASTE OF MEXICO

Kartik Aryan plays a ‘frustrated ex-anchor’

Akshay shares poster of Ahan Shetty’s debut film

Rakeysh’s next directorial to be about farmers’ plight

Kamlesh Pandey, who has worked with him on ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘Delhi-6’ is penning the script

The poster shows Ahan Shetty holding Tara Sutaria’s face and planting a kiss. The film will be produced by Sajid Nadiadwala

Melting pot of Mexican culture, art

The teaser of Kartik Aaryan-starrer ‘Dhamaka’ came out, in which the Bollywood actor

will be seen playing the role of a ‘frus-trated ex-anchor’. ‘Dhamaka’ will release on ‘Netflix’.

The short teaser shows the actor in a newsroom, who seems to be nervous beyond help about a story he has to present. Soon he screams, tells the cameras to shut down and violently vomits on the table, but finally regains his composure enough to go back to work with confi-

dence. Amruta Subhash of ‘Gully Boy’ fame plays his boss, who encourages him to continue his job.

As a news anchor, Kartik is report-ing an incident of a bomb-blast in

real-time.The film also stars Mrunal Thakur,

Vikas Kumar and Vishwajeet Pradhan in pivotal roles. It is directed by Ram Madhvani and produced by Ronnie Screwvala’s production house ‘RSVP Movies’ and ‘Ram Madhvani Films’ in association with ‘Lotte Culture-works’, ‘Globalgate Entertainment’ and ‘Lionsgate’.

“Dhamaka has been a very excit-ing and enriching experience for me as an actor. Working with a maverick like Ram Madhvani has allowed me to explore and showcase a new facet of my personality. I am thrilled that the film will reach audiences and my fans all around the world on ‘Netflix’,” said Kartik. AGENCIES

LOS ANGELES: ‘Grammy’ winner Taylor Swift lashed out at the streaming giant ‘Netflix’ after the series ‘Ginny and Georgia’ took a tasteless jibe at the pop singer’s dating history.

The singer shared a screenshot of the dia-logue that read, “What do you care? You go through men faster than Taylor Swift” on ‘Twitter’.

“Hey ‘Ginny and Georgia’, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back. How about we stop degrading hardworking women by defining this useless work as funny,” Swift wrote in the caption.

The 31-year-old singer-songwriter, whose documentary ‘Miss Americana’ premiered on the streamer in 2020, directly addressed ‘Netf-lix’ for its apparent hypocrisy.

“Also ‘Netflix’, after ‘Miss Americana’, this outfit does not look cute on you. Happy Wom-

en’s History month I guess,” she added.Swift is known for sharing her dat-

ing life moments with her songs that often present an insight into her

relationships.She had been dating British

actor Joe Alwyn for over four years. PTI

Bollywood actor Bobby Deol, who was earlier approached to play Kulb-

hushan Kharbanda’s role in the remake of Mahesh Bhatt’s directed film ‘Arth’, confirmed the news that he is ‘in talks but have not signed it as yet’.

To be directed by actor-direc-tor Revathi, the film is likely to go on the floor this year. The film is being produced by Ajay Kapoor and Sharat Chandra.

However, the makers have yet to finalise the leading ladies for the film. According to some sources, there were reports that Swara Bhasker and Jacqueline Fernandez will play as the two leading ladies, but it is yet to be confirmed. Taapsee Pannu was also approached by the produc-ers to play Shabana Azmi’s role,

which she refused due to her work commitments.

Revathi had played Sha-bana Azmi’s role in the Tamil remake of the film ‘Marupadi-yum’. She said that when she was approached to direct the remake she was not sure if she could do it. However, she agreed to direct it after speaking to director Mahesh Bhatt. AGENCIES

Taylor takes a jibe at ‘Netflix’ for using ‘deeply sexist joke’

Bobby ‘is in talks’ for the remake of ‘Arth’

According to sources, there were reports that Swara Bhasker and Jacqueline Fernandez will play as the two

She shared a dialogue that read, ‘You go through men faster than Taylor Swift’