First India Bureau

Jamnagar/Gandhina-gar: Days after he was sworn, Gujarat’s new agriculture minister Raghavji Patel has sug-gested changes to the State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF)--changes, which he says Chief

Minister Bhupendra Patel has already green-lit.

Addressing party workers and leaders in Jamnagar, Raghavji Pa-tel said that the “age-old” standards and aid packages need to be re-vised in order to work out relief for flood-af-fected people. His com-ments follow a meeting to review monsoon damage.

He further cited the actions of then fisher-ies minister Jawahar Chavda, who revised and increased the aid amount provided to

fisher communities in the wake of Cyclone Tauktae. Those relief amounts had remained unchanged for 50 years,

till Chavda changed them, he said. Similarly, SDRF norms are ages old and need to be changed to Turn to P6

Agri Min suggests changes in disaster relief norms

Agriculture Minister Raghavji Patel with fl ood-affected farmers in rural Jamnagar.

LITTLE CHANCE OF NCOV 3RD WAVE: HEALTH MINISTER

Health and Fam-ily Welfare Minister

Rushikesh Patel on Tuesday has stated that there is little chance that the state will see a third wave of COVID-19 infections. “Even if it does, preparations made during the second wave will help meet the health infrastructure require-ments,” he added. Patel and MoS (Health and Family Welfare) Nimisha Suthar visited Sola Civil hospital.

Aid amounts likely to rise, but flood-hit farmers will have to wait for Assembly session

MODI LEAVES FOR US TODAY, TO MEET BIDEN, KAMALANew Delhi: PM Modi will leave for the much-anticipated US visit on Wednesday morning where he will hold sev-eral bilateral meetings including with US Pres-ident Joe Biden and VP-Kamala Harris, Foreign Secretary Harsh V Shringla said.

Shringla informed this will be the PM’s first visit abroad beyond the neighbourhood since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. PM Modi will be accompanied by a high-level delegation consisting of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and senior offi-cials including Shringla.

“The main elements of the programme are bilat-eral meetings with US leaderships, participa-tion at Quad leaders sum-mit and address at the UN General Assembly,” the foreign secretary said. PM Modi would on September 24 participate in the Leaders’ Summit of the Quadrilateral Framework in Washing-ton along with his US, Japanese and Australian counterparts. —ANI

2 Army pilots killed in chopper crash in J&K as training sortie goes awryJammu: A pilot and a co-pilot were killed on Tuesday morning when an Army helicopter crash-landed in a forest area in Udhampur. The deceased were identified as Major Rohit Kumar and Major Anuj Rajput.

“During a training sortie in Patnitop area, an Army Cheetah heli-copter crash-landed in Shiv Garh Dhar area in Udhampur district. The

pilots were critically in-jured and evacuated to the nearest medical fa-

cility, but they died of their injuries” an Army spokesman said.

Uddhav, Maharashtra Governor’s letter war over Mumbai rapeMumbai: Days after Maharashtra Governor BS Koshyari’s letter calling for a special ses-sion of the state assem-bly following the rape and murder of a woman in Mumbai’s Sakinaka, Chief Minster Uddhav Thackeray has hit back saying Koshyari should request the Centre to call a session of parlia-ment to discuss issues concerning the safety of women and growing attacks on them.

In his letter to the gov-ernor written on Mon-

day, Thackeray listed crimes against women in BJP-ruled states includ-ing Uttarakhand, the home state of Koshyari, and said he had “the soul of a political worker”.

He stated that such “instructions” by the governor could stoke a new controversy and are damaging to the democratic parliamen-tary procedures.

NARENDRA GIRI SUICIDE: AIDE HELD FOR ABETMENTPrayagraj: Uttar Pradesh Police on Tues-day lodged a FIR against Anand Giri, the disciple of Mahant Narendra Giri, chief of Akhil Bharatiya Akhara Pari-shad, who was found dead at the Baghambari Math in Prayagraj.

Uttar Pradesh Addi-tional Director General (Law and Order), Prashant Kumar said

that FIR against Anand Giri has been filed un-der IPC Section 306 (Abetment of suicide)

Turn to P6

Sensex jumps 514 points, Nifty follows suitMumbai: Equity bench-mark indices rose on Tuesday despite a vola-tile trading session with IT, metal and realty stocks gaining ground. At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 514 points or 0.88 per cent at 59,005 while the Nifty 50 advanced by 165 points or 0.95 per cent to 17,562.

NIA CONDUCTS 8 RAIDS IN J&KSrinagar: NIA on Tuesday raided and searched eight locations in Jammu and Kashmir in a case related to the recovery of improvised explosive device in Jammu’s Bathindi area. Agency teams conducted searches in Anant-nag, Baramulla, Kulgam, Srinagar, Doda and Kishtwar. Many digital devices and other incriminating materials have been recovered from the premises of the suspects.

UK government discriminating with Covishield vax: IndiaNew Delhi: Foreign Secretary Harsh Vard-han Shringla on Tues-day said that the UK gov-ernment’s decision to not consider people hav-ing received Covishield jabs to be vaccinated is discriminatory, with the policy affecting Indians travelling to the country.

“The non-recognition of Covishield is a dis-criminating policy

Turn to P6

NOW US ENTERS ‘VACCINE DISCRIMINATION’ New Delhi: The United States will reopen in November to all air passengers who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus. India is among the 33 coun-tries from where fully vacci-nated travellers will be allowed to enter. Effectively, Covishield is the only India-made vaccine that is in the list of approved vaccines as of now. —PTI

Channi, Sidhu jettison to Delhi in chartered plane; Oppn cries Gandhi’s ‘Darbar culture’Chandigarh: Punjab’s new chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Congress state president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday reached Delhi in a private chartered flight drawing much criti-cism from the Opposition for the ruling Congress. Sharing the photo which shows the leaders Turn to P6

CAPT HAS TO TAKE CALL TO JOIN: BJPNew Delhi: BJP National General Secretary and the party’s in charge of Punjab Dushyant Gautam said former state Chief Min-ister Captain Amarinder Singh has a voice of his own and will decide for himself whether he wants to join the BJP Turn to P6

Uddhav Thackeray with Govenor BS Koshyari.

The crashed helicopter in the Patnitop area in which two Indian army pilots died, in Jammu on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

PM TO SPEAK ON TERRORISM, REGIONAL SITUATION

MACRON, PM MODI DISCUSS COOPERATION IN INDO-PACIFIC

QUAD AND AUKUS NOT SIMILAR, AUSTRALIA WON’T HAVE NUKES

New Delhi: During his ad-dress at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 25, PM Narendra Modi will speak on various important issues including cross-border ter-rorism, regional situation, global efforts to combat COVID-19, climate change and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reforms, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said.

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron discussed on Tuesday co-operating over the Indo-Pacifi c region with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as France deals with the fallout from Australia’s cancellation of a $40 billion French submarine order. The two leaders held a phone conversation on Tuesday, during which they also discussed issues such as the crisis in Afghanistan.

New Delhi: The Quad and Australia, the UK and the US (AUKUS) are not similar groupings and Australia would not have any nuclear weapons through its fresh grouping with the US and UK, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla confi rmed on Tuesday.

NEVER BACK DOWN!T he Annual Field Firing of Sapta Shakti

Command units has been underway at MFFR wherein artillery, armoured, mecha-

nized infantry units have been training and hon-ing their individual and collective skills wherein Arty Guns including K9 Vajra, Armoured Tanks and BMPs conducted their shoots on 20-21 September 2021 while an integrated fi ring was also carried out alongwith Air Force helicopters. Lieutenant General Amardeep Singh Bhinder, AVSM, VSM, General Offi cer Commanding-in-Chief, Sapta Shakti Command visited Mahajan Field Firing Ranges and witnessed the fi eld fi ring and reviewed the operational readiness of the under command formation units.

—PHOTO BY SANTOSH SHARMA

Punjab CM Charanjit Singh Channi with Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu and one of the Deputy Chief Minister, Sukhjinder S Randhawa before their departure.

CORONA CATASTROPHE

GUJARATINDIA

21,390new cases

283new fatalities

14new cases

00new fatalities

OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD,

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AHMEDABAD l WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/79050 l Vol 2 l Issue No. 296

CRUCIAL READCBI REGISTERS ANOTHER FIR IN MURDER OF WEST BENGAL BJP SUPPORTER

RAJ KUNDRA WALKS OUT OF MUMBAI JAIL AFTER BAIL IN ADULT FILMS CASE

New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday registered another FIR in a death case of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supporter during post-poll violence in West Bengal. The complainant Purnima Dey, wife of the deceased alleged that her husband Narayan Dey who was a BJP supporter was killed by Trinamool Congress (TMC) goons in Nadia district.

Mumbai: A day after a metropolitan magistrate’s court granted bail to Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s husband Raj Kundra, who was arrested in a pornography racket case, the businessman walked out of Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail on Tuesday. Kundra was released from the Mumbai jail shortly after 11:30 am.

AIR MARSHAL VR CHAUDHARI NEXT IAF CHIEFNew Delhi: Ace fi ghter pilot Air Marshal Vivek Ram Chaudhari has been

appointed as the next chief of the Indian Air Force (IAF) succeeding Air Chief

Marshal RKS Bhadauria who retires from service on September 30. Chaud-hari is presently the Vice Chief of Air Staff and has been an ace MiG-29 pilot expert in major MiG-29 fi ghter aircraft.

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: A re-cruitment drive will kick-off to fill around 16,400 posts lying va-cant in the state pan-chayat department. The new cabinet plans to recruit office-bearers for all village, district as well as taluka pan-chayats in a year.

Minister of State for Panchayat and Employ-ment (independent charge) Brijesh Merja on Tuesday chaired a department meeting and also interacted with district develop-ment officers virtually. He assessed the status of various programmes and scheme implemen-tation by local panchay-ats. Later, Merja told media persons that various posts in the

panchayat depart-ments, including tala-tis, deputy district de-velopment officers, block officers, district medical health officers are vacant. “These posts will be filled on a

priority basis. Recruit-ment for over 15,000 posts will be rolled out through the Gujarat Panchayat Parishad,” he said.

Talking about the virtual meeting, Merja

stated, “District devel-opment officers were given strict instruc-tions to work with elect-ed members and pan-chayat office-bearers as a team. If they prior-itize public-oriented

projects, they will be completed well in time. However, if any officer is found lacking in his/her duties, they will not be spared and depart-mental action will be initiated against them.”

NEWSAHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

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CONGRESS TO RAISE SEVERAL ISSUES IN ASSEMBLY SESSION

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: Ahead of the two-day mon-soon assembly session slated for later this month, the Congress party passed several resolutions on Tues-day in the presence of all state Congress MLAs. The opposition party plans to attack

and showcase the gov-ernment’s failure on different fronts.

One of the resolu-tions passed was to reinstate the name of Motera Stadium to its original name Sardar Patel Stadium. Ac-cording to Congress leaders, CM Bhupen-dra Patel, who is Patidar leader of eight

different organiza-tions, will hear their plea and act on it.

A resolution to pro-tect the sanctity and identity of the Sabar-mati Ashram was also passed.

“A national-level leader will soon be in-charge of the state. We will receive the guidance of an experi-enced leader and for the upcoming 2022 state assembly polls, we plan to engage the help of different ex-perts,” said Paresh Dhanani, leader of op-position.

He added, “The par-

ty is committed to raising several issues like inflation, unem-ployment, atrocities by the government, corruption, refunding fines levied during the lockdown, school fees waiver for the academic year, among others.”

We have passed a resolution to stop the exploitation of fixed pay employees. Our team of 65 members will move forward to expose the govern-ment. We will form a shadow ministry for 26 state departments, asserted the LoP.(L to R) Cong state prez Amit Chavda, LoP Paresh Dhanani, senior leader Arjun Modhwadia at the meeting on Tuesday.

Minister of State for Panchayat and Employment Brijesh Merja, Additional Chief Secretary (Panchayat) Vipul Mitra and Development Commissioner Sandip Kumar at the panchayat dept meeting on Tuesday.

OPPOSITION PARTY PLANS TO HOLD THE GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABLE FOR COVID-19 DEATHS, FINES IMPOSED, INFLATION, UNEMPLOYMENT

Panchayat dept to fill 16.4K vacant posts across Guj: Merja

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: The Gu-jarat High Court on Tuesday directed the Indian Railways to file a detailed affidavit on the impact of the proposed broad-gauging and elec-trification of railway track passing through the Gir Sanctuary on the Asiatic lions and other wildlife in the re-gion. It has also asked the state government to

make its stance clear on the permission secured for the railway track conversion and lion safety.

The division bench of Justices NV Anjaria and AP Thaker is hear-ing a public interest liti-gation (PIL) that has challenged the proposed broad gauging and track electrification of the railway lines and laying of pipelines for gas, oil and optical fi-

bres through the Gir Sanctuary. Petitioners’ grievances are that these activities can put the lions in danger and instances of their un-natural deaths may in-crease significantly.

The court also ques-tioned the government on whether it had grant-ed permission for the railway electrification and also the measures being taken for the safe-ty of lions. “These lions

are just not the pride of Gujarat or the nation, pride but of Asia. They should be protected,” the bench observed.

The proposal for elec-trification of the Rail-way line is under re-view by the Gujarat State Wildlife Board. So far, it has not granted any permission for the railway line, said the government, in re-sponse to the court’s query.

HC asks Railways to file impact report on track electrification IN THE LINE OF FIRE

Lions may be in danger of unnatural death, says PIL.

lll

It has also asked the

government to make its

stance on permission for the conversion

clear

First India Bureau

Rajkot: After the state inducted new Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel a few days ago, Gujarat Pradesh Con-gress Committee (GPCC) working presi-dent Hardik Patel has hit back by stating that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was en-gaged in caste-based politics and that CM Patel will not last a month.

On Tuesday, the GPCC working presi-

dent was addressing media persons in Ra-jkot for the opposition party’s ‘Nyay Yatra’ programme. “The Gu-jarat government,

which is run from Del-hi, will not run any fur-ther as it has failed to serve the people of Gu-jarat. That is why it changed its face to di-

vert their attention. I do not have any expec-tations from this gov-ernment. They are nei-ther experienced nor educated and they do

not have a plan in place to run the state,” he said.

Speaking to First In-dia, Patel further add-ed, “Based on the Utta-rakhand incident (res-ignation of CM Tirath Singh Rawat earlier this year), I doubt the new chief minister will stay in office for even a month. The expecta-tions of 6.5 crore peo-ple of Gujarat will not have any importance when BJP engages in caste-based politics for the sake of power.”

Governor Acha-rya Devvrat has

appointed Bharuch MLA Dushyant Patel as the acting speaker until a new speaker is elected. Patel will discharge duties un-der the title of acting speaker. Next week, two days of the state assembly’s monsoon session will be held, when a new speaker is likely to be elected.

DUSHYANT PATEL IS ACTING SPEAKER

New CM may not last a month in office: Hardik

GPCC working prez Hardik Patel (centre) with Congress members in Rajkot on Tuesday.

Inamdar attends meetings over Baroda Dairy issue

First India Bureau

Vadodara: A day af-ter Savli MLA Ketan Inamdar threatened to convene all milk producers from Va-dodara and Chhota Udepur districts at Baroda Dairy over the price rise issue, Va-dodara district Bharatiya Janata Par-ty (BJP) incharge Par-akramsinh Jadeja, MP Ranjan Bhatt met with the Congress leader at the Circuit House on Tuesday.

The MLA has re-volted against the Dairy authorities on behalf of the dis-trict’s milk produc-ers, who have de-manded a rise in milk rates. On Monday, In-amdar had threat-

ened to gather milk producers from the entire district at the dairy on September 23, if the prices are not altered by Wednesday night.

Waghodia MLA Madhu Srivastava, Dabhoi MLA Shailesh Mehta and Karjan

MLA Akshay Patel also reached the ven-ue to support Inamdar with the cause. Later in the day, Inamdar and the other MLAs were called to Gandhi-nagar for a meeting to resolve the issue.

Earlier in the day, milk producers from Gothda, Manjusar and Savli, who had set out to hand over an application form with their demands to the Vadodara district col-lector, were detained by police at Dumad Chokdi near Va-dodara. Police bando-bast was also set up on the premises of Baroda Dairy. A few milk producers even reached the Circuit House during the meeting of MLAs.

Police detaining milk producers at Dumad Chokdi in Vadodara.

Accompanied by Waghodia,

Dabhoi & Karjan MLAs, he sat down

with BJP leaders in

Vadodara & Gandhinagar

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

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2 DEAD, 2 INJURED AFTER BUS RAMS TRUCK IN SURENDRANAGAR

5.5-FOOT CROC RESCUED FROM VADODARA CONSTRUCTION SITE

Surendranagar: Two persons were killed and two others critically injured after a private bus they were travelling rear-ended a truck in Surendranagar district in the early hours of Tuesday, police said. “The bus was on its way to Rajkot from Mumbai, when it rammed into a truck near Kanpara village on a national highway connecting Ahmedabad and Rajkot around 7 am,” an offi cial from Panshina police station said. Valiben Prajapati (65) died on the spot due to the impact, while Lilabhai Karejiya (45) succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in Limbdi while two others were undergoing treatment after sustaining serious injuries. Thirty passengers escaped unhurt.

Vadodara: Volunteers of Gujarat SPCA and Wild-life SOS rescued a 5.5-foot-long crocodile from a construction site near Kalali Talsat road in Vadodara. The team of 10 volunteers took about seven hours to remove the crocodile from the pit fi lled with rainwater, and hand it over to the forest department. “We used pumps to remove some of the water and then went in with a big net. We started at about 10 am and took seven hours to complete the rescue,” Gujarat SPCA and Wildlife SOS chief Raj Bhavsar said, adding that the animal will later be released in its natural habitat.

BRAIN-DEAD ORGAN DONOR GIVES NEW LIFE TO 6 PEOPLESurat: COVID-19 survivor Manish Pravinchandra

Shah has given six people a new lease on life after his lungs, kidneys, liver and eyes have been donated to needy persons, doctors said on Tuesday. Shah (53), who

ran an embroidery unit in Surat’s Bhatar area was rushed to the hospital after complaining of pain in his head and left arm late Thursday night. On September 17, he was diagnosed with a 100% blockage in his heart for which he underwent an angioplasty in which surgeons inserted a stent. Later, however, doctors discovered he had devel-oped a blood clot in the brain as well as swelling due to a brain haemorrhage. He was eventually declared braindead on Sunday.

CRUCIAL READ

V’dara lake nearing danger level even as IMD predicts heavy rain

First India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Even as Saurashtra and South Gujarat con-tinue to deal with the aftermath of exces-sive rain earlier this month, the India Me-teorological Depart-ment has predicted heavy rain for the state, especially cen-tral Gujarat.

According to the me-teorological depart-ment, the districts of Vadodara, Panchma-hal, Chhota Udepur, Narmada, Tapi and Su-rat are likely to see rain in the next 24 hours.

Heavy rains have also been forecast for Anand, Ahmedabad, Junagadh, Amreli, and Gir Somnath.

The intensity of rain could decrease from Wednesday but is likely to pick up again on Fri-day, Manorama Mohan-ty, director of the mete-orological department

here in Ahmedabad, said. Heavy rains are expected in the state on Tuesday and Wednes-day, she added.

On Tuesday, 165 talu-kas of the state received rainfall between 6 am to 6 pm, with Jambughoda in Panchmahal receiv-ing the maximum, with 162mm rain during this

time period. Meanwhile water in

the Wadhwana lake—located about 30km from Vadodara and which supplies water to nearby villages for irrigation across 17,000 hectares—reached a height of 54.83m, bare-ly 80cm from its danger mark of 55.63m.

The marker in the lake, which is known as a popular nesting ground for migratory birds, on Tuesday.

Locals detained in protest to expedite work on overbridgeFirst India Bureau

Ahmedabad: About 20 residents marched in protest against the Ahmedabad Mu-nicipal Corporation on Tuesday, calling for the authorities to expedite work on a railway bridge in the city’s Khokhra area. They were later de-tained near Anupam Cinema.

Area residents had asked the Railway au-thorities to repair the bridge when a section of the bridge collapsed a few years ago. How-ever, city officials de-cide to build a new overbridge instead. The work was to have been completed within a span of two years.

“It has been five years since the work

was sanctioned. Yet the bridge is still in-complete, making life difficult for locals. Ever since the AMC elections got over, peo-ple here been left to the mercy of God,” former municipal councillor George Dias said.

Dias also alleged that the AMC only works for the western part of the city, while ignoring the eastern part.

“Because this bridge is unfinished, commuters have to take a detour of about

2.5km. AMC authori-ties come to the east-ern part of the city only to inaugurate work, but never bother to finish them. We have made several rep-resentations, asking them to complete the bridge,” Dias said.

Protesters marched from Kankaria to Khokhra on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Water level in Wadhwana lake reaches 54.83m; danger mark is at 55.63m

Man sentenced to life in prison for rape and murder of 3-yr-oldHe kidnapped the child and tried to rape her; when she cried, he slit her throat & dumped her body First India Bureau

Silvassa: A special POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) court in Dadra and Nagar Haveli has sentenced Santoshkumar Rajak (30) to life in prison for kidnapping, rap-ing, sodomizing and murdering a three-year-old toddler in March this year.

The seven-month trial came to a close when Judge Ujwala Nandesh-war found the accused guilty and sentenced him to a life term of rig-orous imprisonment.

While passing sen-tence, the court noted, “Santosh is not fit to live

in a cultured society, and so he will remain in jail until his last breath. He is sentenced to life term for all offences in-cluding rape, unnatural sex, kidnapping, mur-

der and tress passing, with all sentences to run concurrently. The con-vict is also fined Rs32,000.”

Rajak had kidnapped the child in Naroli vil-

lage in the Union Terri-tory of Dadra and Na-gar Haveli and Daman and Diu on March 12, while she was playing outside and took her to his apartment, where he

tried to rape her. When she started crying, he slit her throat, stuffed her body in a sack and threw it away. After fam-ily members lodged a missing person’s com-

plaint, the police searched around 40 flats in the residential build-ing where the girl lived.

“The police found blood stains in the bath-room of Rajak’s apart-ment. A sack with the body was found in the shaft attached to the toi-let,” DNH superinten-dent of police Haresh-war Swami had said at the time.

Unable to bear the loss, the child’s father committed suicide the next day.

Rajak, a native of Dhanbad in Jharkhand, had been living in Naroli for about four years. He was arrested within 24 hours and charged with in 10 days, officials said.

UNFIT FOR SOCIETY

10 days’ remand for couple held in 3,000 kg drug bust

No new nCoV cases in A’bad again, as Gujarat reports 14

First India Bureau

Bhuj: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials were granted remand of a couple arrested in connection with the seizure of 3,000kg of heroin at Mundra Port by a Bhuj Special Court. The accused will be questioned about the importer, fi-nancier of the opera-tion. It is still unclear as to whether they are the importers or only the shipping agents.

A team had produced accused Machhavaram Sudhakar Subbarao, and his wife Govind Raju Durga Purna Vaishali before the Spe-cial Court on Monday. Public prosecutor Kalpesh Goswami had demanded 14 days’ re-mand of the couple, to enable police to ques-tion them about the drug operation.

“The agency wants to secure the bank account details, ascertain in-

volvement of any other accomplices. The total quantity of drugs seized is 2,989 kilograms,” stat-ed prosecutor Goswami in his argument.

Interestingly, the agency has not men-tioned the value of the drugs or its market value in its remand ap-plication. But, as per

speculations, the calcu-lated value of the seized heroine has been put at Rs5 crore per kilogram, which would mean that the stock seized has an evalua-tion of Rs15,000 crore.

The consignment was imported by a trading company registered in Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. It was declared as semi-processed talc stones in Afghanistan, and shipped from the Bandar Abbas Port in Iran to Mundra Port in Gujarat, said a Chennai-based DRI officer.

First India Bureau

Gandhinagar: A in Valsad has been shut down after a teacher tested positive for COVID-19. Although the teacher had start-ed showing symptoms a few days ago, the management had asked her to remain present, sources said.

Meanwhile, Gujarat reported 14 new cases of COVID-19 in the 24 hours ended 5 pm on Tuesday, taking the total case load to 8,25,751. With no new deaths, the death toll re-mained steady at 10,082, an official of the health department said.

There are now 133 ac-tive cases in Gujarat, af-ter 14 people were dis-charged from hospitals around the state, taking the total number of re-coveries to 8,15,536 since the first cases were re-ported in March 2020.

Surat had the most new cases on Tuesday, with four, while Rajkot and Vadodara had three

each, Valsad had two, and Gandhinagar and Navsari had one each.

Ahmedabad reported no new cases for the third time this month.

Offi cials have seized 2,989 kg of heroin in Mundra.Security personnel at the Kankaria Lake Front check visitors’ vaccine status on Tuesday, a day after the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation implemented a ‘No Vaccine No Entry’ policy on Monday. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

13304 MAX

CASES IN SURAT

ACTIVE CASES

8,15,536TOTAL RECOVERED

14 RECOVERED

IN A DAY

10,082TOTAL DEATHS

00 DEATHS IN A DAY

8,25,751TOTAL CASES

14 CASES IN A DAY

COVID-19 UPDATE

Consignment was declared as semi-

processed talc stones in Afghanistan

PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

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l Vol 2 l Issue No. 296 l RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/79050. Printed and published by Anita

Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Ex-press Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar

Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. San-and, Dist. Ahmedabad. Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka,

Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra.

Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

SPIRITUAL SPEAK

He who is everywhere non attached, neither joyously

excited by encountering good nor disturbed by evil, has an

established wisdom. — Bhagavad Gita

IN-DEPTH

Nitin Gadkari @nitin_gadkari

Attended the Introductory Meeting of new members nominated in the National

Road Safety Council (NRSC) in the presence of Union Minister Gen. Shri @

Gen_VKSingh Ji in Delhi today. Have now directed the Council to meet in every two

months and share their updates.

Dr Jitendra Singh @DrJitendraSingh

Met Minister for Animal Husbandary & Dairying,Sh Parshottam Rupala.Briefed him about Aroma Mission launched in #JammuAndKashmir by CSIR, Union

Ministry of Science & Technology. Proposed to him an integrated

#AromaDairy Entrepreneurship plan for J&K to increase livelihood avenues.

TOP TWEETS

LEARN FROM HISTORY, GO SELF-RELIANT IN DEFENCE TECHNOLOGY

wo of the world’s big-gest democracies are so close, yet so far. In a rare move the US has agreed to arm

Australia with nuclear-powered submarines under an agree-ment between Australia, UK and the US (AUKUS) but declined to equip India with the sub using the same high-end technology. The US will also share the de-sign and technology for building eight nuclear-powered attack submarines (SSN) to counter China in the Pacific Ocean. In-dia, which also has to defend its maritime territory against Chi-na, has been eyeing the technol-ogy for the last 15 years but the US has been refusing to part with it. Strangely, the US does not consider India important enough for technology sharing even when it is part of the quad-rilateral security dialogue.

History is a big teacher. In 1987 when the US refused to sell the Cray supercomputer to In-dia, Rajiv Gandhi’s initiative made India one of the world’s three countries to develop its own supercomputer. What we need is a made-in-India SSN.

T

n 2009 the Supreme Court of India had directed all state governments to ensure that no il-

legal religious place was al-lowed to be constructed at pub-lic places. In September 2021, the Karnataka High Court di-rected the state government to ensure compliance of the Su-preme Court’s order. In pursu-ance to the high court’s direc-tion the Mysuru district offi-cials demolished an illegally constructed temple in Nanjan-gud area. This was the first of the 93 illegal structures which the Mysuru authorities planned to demolish. This gave Congress’ Siddaramaiah the chance to attack the Basa-varaj Bommai government for “hurting religious sentiment”.

The demolition drive came

to a sudden halt as along with the opposition parties, the Hindu Mahasabha also mount-ed pressure by issuing death threats to Chief Minister Bom-mai. Congress was paying back to the BJP in the same coin of religious politics. But the Hindu Mahasabha went to another extreme. Its members warned the government that

anybody going against the “culture and tradition” of Hin-dus will not be spared. In a di-rect threat to Bommai the out-fit’s leader Dharmendra said, “We didn’t spare Gandhiji. You’re no match for us.”

That is a reprehensible statement and goes to prove that he who rides a tiger can-not dismount, is aptly appli-cable to the BJP in the pre-sent case. By moving a Bill against razing of illegal reli-gious places occupying pub-lic spaces the Bommai gov-ernment has caved in to threats from extremist right wing elements undermining the court’s authority.

These illegal structures are means to grab public property and all political par-ties must come together to stop the practice.

POLITICS LET’S JUDICIARYDOWN IN KARNATAKA

By moving a Bill against razing of illegal religious places

occupying public spaces the Bommai government has caved in to threats

from extremist right wing elements undermining the

court’s authority

I

t is yet to be ascertained whether the forthcoming Biden-Modi summit sched-uled on September 24 would script any new ‘deal’ for coop-eration between India and USA, but US President Biden might find an opportunity to refurbish its international image which, perhaps, is at the lowest ebb during the past 40 days since his inaugu-ration in January this year.

Biden decides to withdraw American troops from Af-ghanistan by reeling out a ‘false narrative’ that the Af-ghan forces were not ready to fight, quietly concedes Af-ghanistan to the Pakistani proxies and China to sup-press the valiant forces in the Panjshir Valley. His adminis-tration could have claimed ‘helplessness’ under the pre-text of the growing nexus among the three powers, Rus-sia, China and Pakistan.

During the past nine months of his tenure neither Biden nor his deputy Vice President Kamala Harris cared to talk to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra

Modi regarding the key is-sues. Ms Harris did commu-nicate to Modi that the USA would be donating some vac-cines to India, but there were no indications that America would insist for an independ-ent probe regarding the leak of the Corona Virus from the Wuhan laboratory of China; and the American funding of the related research.

Biden, who had missed the presidential nomination in 2016 due to the reported murky deals of his son in Ukraine, could barely reach the White House amidst un-ending controversies, fur-ther exposed the vulnerabil-ity of his administration, when he signed a nuclear submarine deal with Austral-ia during the third week of September. Both America and Britain decided to ‘ditch’ France, which was going to get a huge order for supply-ing conventional submarines to Australia. Britain might get a small cake in this deal estimated to the tune of 347-billion USD, but since the British harbour perennial apathy towards France, they have now formed a newtrilat-eral defence alliance with USA and Australia, now called AUKUS.

The US-Australia subma-rine deal has caused disillu-sionment among the NATO countries. It appears that

America would never hesi-tate to ‘ditch’ its allies for its immediate financial or stra-tegic interests. The defence contractors of America are so powerful that they could manipulate the American es-tablishment. Professor Charles Tiefer of the Balti-more University, who had served as the Commissioner on the Congressionally char-tered Commission to report their activities, has already exposed the profits earned by the war contractors. There-fore, AUKUS could just be their brainchild.

Under the shadow of AUKUS, Biden-Modi would be discussing the future and effectiveness of QUAD com-prising an informal alliance among the four powers, India, Australia, Japan and USA. Except for a few joint exer-

cises, it has failed to take off. The US-led defence alliance, ANJUS, a joint security plat-form of USA, Australia, New Zealand and Japan too ap-pears to have been forgotten.

It appears that the Modi-Biden summit would be an opportunity for Biden to reel out a new narrative ‘without much substance’. It may also boost the sagging image of this octogenarian chief exec-utive of the world’s most pow-erful country. Biden’s ‘help-lessness’ reminds us of the last Mughal Emperor, Baha-dur Shah Zafar. The Chinese already have a powerful pres-ence in the USA’s money mar-ket, its penetration is deep, now the recent exposure of manipulating data in the World Bank also reveals that dragons have become too for-midable to be contained, espe-cially by leaders like Biden.

The investigation has re-vealed that Kristalina Geor-gieva, the bank’s former chief executive, who now leads the International Mon-etary Fund, directed staff to alter data to placate China. The findings of the investiga-tion are now in public do-main and show how Geor-gieva during her time at the World Bank had pressurised the bank officials to accom-modate China, its third-larg-est shareholder. The two oth-er shareholders are America and Japan. The bank survey regarding ‘the Doing Busi-ness’ had boosted China’s standing in its 2018 report.

Earlier, Biden meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin was almost a non-starter. The contents of his telephonic conversation with the Chinese president Xi Jinping are not known. However, in this backdrop, the Biden-Modi could be much more substantial pro-vided the two leaders avoid rhetoric and false narratives. In spite of the manipulated reports of the World Bank and other institutions, India offers a coveted destination. India should emphasize on seeking more investment from the west and USA in particular. There is no need to discuss strategic alliances. The message is loud that there is a trust deficit among the western powers.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

MODI-BIDEN

SUMMITONLY INDIA MAY RESCUE AMERICA’S SAGGING INTERNATIONAL IMAGE

IUnder the shadow of

AUKUS, Biden-Modi would be discussing the

future and effectiveness of QUAD comprising an

informal alliance among the four powers, India,

Australia, Japan and USA. Except for a few joint

exercises, it has failed to take off. The US-led defence

alliance, ANJUS, a joint security platform of USA,

Australia, New Zealand and Japan too appears to

have been forgotten

It appears that the Modi-Biden summit would be an opportunity for

Biden to reel out a new narrative ‘without much substance’. It may also boost the sagging

image of this octogenarian chief

executive of the world’s most powerful country

GOPAL MISRAThe writer is accredited as a Journalist

of Long and distinguished service with the Press Information Bureau of the Information

and Broadcasting Ministry

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Anita Hada

New Delhi: The BJP sets a target before the assembly elections in every state and it has been observed that this goal is often so big that the party is unable to achieve it. But this time in UP, Akhilesh Yadav has gone two steps ahead of the BJP and has set such a big goal, which no one has

been able to achieve till date.

But Yadav has set a target of winning 400 seats out of 403 seats in UP. When he said this for the first time a few days ago, it seemed that he had said this in jest or inadvertently. But now he is repeat-ing the same thing eve-rywhere. While it can not be known for sure who gave him this ad-

vice, it is basically a silly thing. He should boast loudly to boost the morale of his party workers, leaders, there is no doubt about it. But this does not mean that he should claim that his party will win all the seats in Assembly. Such a claim makes him something of a non-sincere poli-tician & certain-

ly no one in his p a r t y w o u l d take it s e r i -

ously. He should stake a claim to form govt of majority achieved ear-lier or with two-thirds

majority, but he should stop claiming to win 400 seats, as soon as possible.

RUN UP TO 2022 UP POLLS

BJP's 'OLD BET' on Jats yet again!Vishal Srivastav

New Delhi: The BJP is facing difficulties in the Jat-dominated areas of western UP. Jats have been very committed voters of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). They have helped the BJP with full devotion in the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tions and 2017 assembly elections, but since then they have become disillusioned with the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) due to various reasons. That’s when they started showing displeasure before the 2019 elections. Remem-ber then an audio went viral, in which the then BJP National President Amit Shah had made the prominent people of the Jat community sit at one place and ex-plained to them that if they would not vote for the BJP then whom would they vote for.

IN THE COURTYARD

SC: Necessary to end sham litigation to save court timeNew Delhi: The SC Tuesday said though ter-

mination of a civil case is a ‘drastic’ action, but the courts cannot per-mit a litigant to pursue a lawsuit if it does not disclose a cause of action

as it is necessary to put an end to ‘sham litiga-tion’ to ensure that judicial time is not wasted further.

Court pulls up Maha govt over death of childrenMumbai: Bombay HC on Monday pulled up the state govt over malnutrition deaths of children

in tribal areas of Maha & asked it to focus on stopping them. The Bombay HC said, “We don’t want any more children dying due to malnutrition”. The court further said that from now onwards, it

will monitor the steps taken by the government to curb malnutrition deaths twice a month.

Denied bail, Yes Bank founder’s wife moves HC

Notice seeking power for Pak Hindu migrants

Mumbai: Yes Bank founder Rana Ka-poor’s wife Bindu and daughters Roshni and Radha on Monday ap-proached Bombay HC challenging a special court’s order refusing them bail in cheating case involving DHFL. They said CBI had gravely erred in ob-serving that accusa-tions against them, prima facie, show complicity in co-fraudulently receiv-ing loans as quid pro quo for favours shown by Yes Bank to DHFL.

New Delhi: The HC on Tuesday issued no-tice to Centre, DERC & others on PIL seek-ing electricity connec-tion for 200 “Hindu minority migrants families” currently living in north Delhi without electricity for past few years. The bench sought reply from Centre through its concerned mins, DERC, North Delhi Mun Corp and Elec-tricity Provider com-pany and listed mat-ter for further hear-ing on October 22.

PARTYS’ TARGETS...BJP sets goals which it is not able to achieve

but which are worth achieving. Like it has set a target of 50 out of 70 seats in Delhi or 65 out of 81 seats in Jharkhand. It is a different matter that the party has been far away from this goal but these goals are worth hoping for. After all, the AAP has won more than 60 seats in Delhi 2 times.

BEST FOOT FORWARD...

TO WOO JATS, IT WAS DECIDED TO LAY FOUNDATION OF VARSITY

However, to woo the Jats, it was

decided to lay the foundation of the university in the name of Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh before the election as Jats have been very com-mitted voters of the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP). Keep in mind that Raja Mahendra

Pratap Singh had fielded

Bharatiya Jana Sangh candidate Atal Bihari Vajpayee from Ma-thura seat in the 1957 Lok Sabha elections. Also that according to an audio that went viral, Amit Shah had questioned the Jats if they would vote for those, because of whom it is difficult for

the women of their homes to leave

the house; those who do

love jihad and molest

women?

HIGH LEVEL WEEK BEGINS

New York: External Affairs Minister S Jais-hankar, who arrived in New York for the UN General Assembly high level week, held a bilat-eral meeting in the new UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and ex-changed views on the developments in Af-ghanistan and Indo-Pa-cific, and also urged for an early resolution of UK’s quarantine regu-lations for vaccinated Indian travellers.

Truss was named Foreign Secretary on September 15. She was UK’s International Trade Secretary, and

has taken over from Dominic Raab. During her talks with Minister

of Commerce & Indus-try Piyush Goyal on Sept 13, India & UK

agreed on way forward to launch negotiations later in year on bilater-

al FTA, including kick-ing off series of trade groups from Sept. —ANI

EAM EXCHANGED VIEWS ON...

z AFGHANISTAN DEVELOPMENT VISION

z UK’S QUARANTINE REGULATIONS

z INDO-PACIFIC ISSUES WERE DISCUSSED

z ROADMAP 2030 WAS ADOPTED IN MAY

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar meets United Kingdom (UK) Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, in New York on Tuesday. —PHOTO BY ANI

Pleased to meet new UK Foreign

Secretary @trussliz. Discussed the prog-

ress of Roadmap 2030. Appreciated her contribution

on the trade side. Exchanged views

on developments in Afghanistan and the Indo-Pacific. Urged early resolution of quarantine issue in

mutual interest.

—DR. S. JAISHANKAR @DrSJaishankar

COVID TRAVEL POLICY ISSUE

AMBITIOUS ROADMAP

Last week, the UK issued a list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in England, which does not include India. It places Indians who are vaccinated with Covishield as ‘unvaccinated’.

In May this year, India and the UK adopted

an ambitious road-map 2030 during the virtual bilateral summit between PM Narendra Modi & British counter-part Boris Johnson to elevate the bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

JAISHANKAR ALSO MEETSz Minister of

Foreign Affairs of Iraq Fuad Hussein

z Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway Ine Eriksen Søreide

Major incident averted as IED detected in J-KSrinagar: Security forces averted a major incident with the time-ly detection of an IED in high security Gogo area of Budgam district in J&K, officials said on Tuesday.

The area is close to several sensitive de-fence and civilian in-stallations, including Srinagar airport, Tech-nical airport, head-quarters of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry of the Army. The Army and police had launched a cordon and search op-eration in Gogo area Monday night following information about pos-sible subversive activi-ties there, they said.

The IED was detected during the search oper-ation. A bomb disposal squad was summoned and the device was later also destroyed. —ANI

SCOPE EFFORTS: PSUs to reduce carbon footprint

Rakesh Ranjan

New Delhi: Amid the several initiatives tak-en by India to fulfill its commitment to reduce its carbon footprint as part of the Paris accord on Climate Change has come the efforts by the SCOPE to inspire and train PSUs in contain-ing emissions from their factories. The organization en-tered into a collabora-tion with the official German development agency GIZ and has pro-duced a comprehensive & implementable re-port. The report lays down the direction on ‘Low-Carbon and Cli-mate-Resilient Path-ways for Indian Public Sector Enterprises- Training and Capacity Needs Assessment.

Given the fact that PSEs are involved in hard-to-abate sectors creating an inherent impact on the environ-ment, SCOPE has col-

laborated with GIZ to inform and guide the PSEs on how they should proceed in their respective areas.

Gurdeep Singh stat-ed that Climate Change is invariably one of the most pertinent topics today and enunciated that though PSEs are undertaking individu-al actions, there is a need for synergized ef-forts for which SCOPE can create a confluence of ideas by PSEs to-wards achieving vari-ous sustainability tar-gets as a nation.

Atul Sobti described the report as a game-changer and not a mere desk study. He emphasized that be-sides skill enhance-ment, a pipeline of ac-tivities in the form of Compendium and short features to high-light the innovations and initiatives towards reducing carbon foot-print by PSEs is also being developed.

‘Mechanism to induct women cadets into NDA by May 2022’New Delhi: The govt has informed SC that it proposes to have the ‘mechanism’ to induct women cadets into NDA for entry into Armed Forces to be ready in May 2022. Ministry of Defence told court that UPSC would include women in its NDA exam notification expected to be published in May,

2022. ASG Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, had told that a decision has been taken at top level of armed forces and others. —ANI

AN AFFIDAVIT The GoI, in line with its commitment, hereby place on record its clear and categorical stand that the women candidates shall be considered for entry in the three defence services, in the existing streams, through NDA.

Now, once again BJP is trying its best on this community and this time PM Narendra Modi

himself has said this. He had recently gone to lay the foundation of a university in Aligarh named after Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh. He said that before 2017 UP was ruled by goons and mafia. He further said that women did not leave their homes. In the evening, people started worrying whether their girl would return home or not. This is the same fear which was shown during the last Lok Sabha elections.

The SCOPE and GIZ collaborative report was released in the presence of Gurdeep Singh, Agrim Kaushal, Dr Steffen Koch, Mohamed El-Khawad, OP Singh, Santanu Roy, Atul Sobti and others.

IS AKHILESH’S CLAIM OF 400/403 IN THE ELECTION, A PAGE FROM BJP’S OLD BOOK?

Akhilesh Yadav

Amit ShahNarendra Modi

INDIAAHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

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13 High Courts to get new CJs; 17 High Court judges transferredNew Dekhi: The Su-preme Court collegium has recommended ap-pointment of Chief Jus-tices for 8 High Court besides transfer of 5 High Court Chief Jus-tices and 17 High Court judges.

As per the resolu-tions, which were up-loaded on the Supreme Court’s official webpage Tuesday, the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India N V Ramana, which met on Septem-ber 16, has recommend-ed elevation of Acting Chief Justice of Calcut-ta High Court Justice Rajesh Bindal as CJ of Allahabad HC and Mad-hya Pradesh HC judge Justice Prakash Shriv-

astava as CJ of Calcut-ta. Acting Chief Justice of Chattisgarh HC Jus-tice Prashant Kumar Mishra has been recom-mended as the new CJ of Andhra Pradesh HC while Justice Rituraj Awasthi, who is now with the Allahabad HC, has been recommended

as Karnataka HC Chief Justice.

The collegium also zeroed in on Justice Sat-ish Chandra Sharma of Karnataka HC for the office of Telengana HC Chief Justice, and Jus-tice Ranjit V More of Bombay HC as Megha-laya HC CJ.

Justice Aravind Ku-mar of Karnataka HC has been recommended as Gujarat HC CJ while Acting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh HC R V Malimath has been recommended as Mad-hya Pradesh CJ.

The five CJs recom-mended for transfer are Justice Arup Kumar Goswami from Andhra Pradesh to Chhattis-garh, Justice Moham-mad Rafiq from Madhya Pradesh to Himachal Pradesh, Justice Akil Kureshi from Tripura to Rajasthan, Justice In-drajit Mahanty from Rajasthan to Tripura and Justice Biswanath Somadder from Megha-laya to Sikkim. —ANI

CRUCIAL READ UK ROW OVER COVISHIELD

GOVT WARNS OF ‘RECIPROCAL MEASURES’ (C) Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla with other officials addressing meeting on Tuesday.

Travel picks up: Airlines allowed to operate up to 85% of capacity

New Delhi: The de-mand for air travel has picked up since the civil aviation ministry last week allowed airlines to operate up to 85% of their pre-Covid capaci-ty domestically, accord-ing to airlines and in-dustry experts. Airlines expect the air traffic to be back to pre-Covid levels by the end of this year as the fare cap has been being removed and travellers are start-ing to fly more. —ANI

New Delhi: The United Kingdom gov-ernment’s decision to not recognise Cov-ishield vaccine as a legitimate anti-Cov-id vaccine is “dis-criminatory” and it is within the coun-try’s “right to take reciprocal meas-ures” if the matter was not resolved, In-dia’s Foreign Secre-tary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Tuesday that this move impacts Indian citizens travelling to that country. —ANI

The UK has said it is engaging with India to resolve the matter of Covishield not being recognised

as a legitimate vaccine

NEW TRAVEL RULES...According to these new rules, Indian trav-

ellers who have received both doses of the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) will be consid-ered unvaccinated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days.

The non-recogition of Covishield

is a discriminating policy and impacts our citizens travelling to the UK. The Exter-nal Affairs Minister has raised the issue strongly with the new UK foreign secretary. I am told that certain assurances have been given that this issue will be resolved.

—Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign

Secretary

We urge the government to allow more bub-ble flights with fewer travel restrictions to more and more countries. As an industry,

our objective should be to be at full scheduled service by summer for all international destinations. It will require a lot of heavy lifting by the government to get us there. —IndiGo, spokesperson

INDIA’S VAX COVERAGE EXCEEDS 81.85 CR...

96,46,778

80,35,135

VACCINE DOSES ADMIN-ISTERED ON TUESDAY

SESSIONS FORMED

SWAMINATHAN LAUDS VACCINE EXPORTS...New Delhi: Chief scien-tist of WHO Dr Soumya Swaminathan on Tuesday welcomed India’s decision to restart Covid vaccine exports. She said that the decision will go long way to achieve global Vaccine Equity. “COVAX welcomes the decision to restart Covid vaccine exports. Will go a long way to achieve global Vaccine Equity,” Soumya Swaminathan said in a tweet. Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday announced that in 4th quarter this year, GoI will resume Vaccine Maitri, an initiative to pro-vide vaccines to countries around world & also fulfil its respon-sibility under Covax.

81.85 CR VAX COVERAGE EXCEEDED

UK government...and impacts our citi-zens travelling to the UK. The External Af-fairs Minister has raised the issue strong-ly with the new UK for-eign secretary. I am told that certain assur-ances have been given that this issue will be resolved,” Shringla was quoted as saying by news agency. —ANI

Narendra Giri’s...in connection with Mahant Giri’s death. Kumar also informed that the accused Anand Giri was taken into police custody on Monday after his name

surfaced, along with two other names, in a suicide note found in the revered saint’s death case. —ANI

Channi, Sidhu...standing in front of the aircraft, Sidhu captioned it, “In line of duty!!” Accompany-ing Sidhu were also two new deputy Chief Ministers Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and OP Soni, besides Chan-ni who also boarded the flight to Delhi.

Notably, Sidhu and Channi had come to Delhi to discuss the ex-pansion of the new Cabinet with the par-

ty’s central leadership.However, the show-

off did not go well with the opposition Shirom-ani Akali Dal taking a swipe at the ruling Congress. “After say-ing that they stand with the common man, INC leaders take pri-vate jets to travel just 250 KMs from Chandi-garh to Delhi. Are there no normal flights or cars that can be used? Or is this chest thumping aimed at propagation of Gandhi family’s Delhi Darbar culture?” it said on Twitter.

AAP MLA Kultar Singh Sandhwan also

took a dig at the Con-gress over cabinet ex-pansion. “Many Con-gress MLAs have se-vere corruption charges on them and if they are chosen for Cabinet then it will re-veal the false inten-tions of Channi. Changing the ‘Aliba-ba’ will not solve the matter, his ’40 Chors’ also need to be changed,” he said.

Meanwhile in Delhi, the team met AICC general secretary Har-ish Rawat, who is the Punjab affairs in-charge.

‘Capt has...

after his “humiliation” by the Congress, which elected a new Chief Minister recently, ahead of upcoming as-sembly in the state. Putting a halt to specu-lations about Captain Amarinder Singh’s po-litical future, Gautam said the former Chief Minister will decide if he wants to join the party or not.

Agri Min suggests...

give justice to victims of natural disasters, es-pecially farmers, he added.

Those familiar with the issue told First India that, so far, the state

compensation for the loss of a buffalo has been Rs30,000. Now, it has been suggested that the compensation be in-creased to Rs50,000. Also, while the govern-ment so far capped com-pensation at three heads of cattle, it will now compensate dairy farm-ers for up to five heads of cattle.

Likewise, the com-pensation amount per acre of standing crops damaged is likely to be increased, but flood-af-fected farmers will have to wait at least until next Monday, when the state Assembly session begins.

FROM PG 1

Mumbai plans to identify fully vaccinated premises

Mumbai: State Envi-ronment Minister Adi-tya Thackeray on Mon-day asked BMC to de-sign a special logo with a QR Code to identify buildings in Mumbai where all eligible resi-dents have been fully vaccinated. During the meeting, the issue of providing second dose due shots to university students and increasing coverage of the 2nd vac-cination was also dis-cussed. Thackeray was speaking at a meeting

held to review Mum-bai’s strategy to tackle Covid-19, increase vac-cination in the city. —ANI

Aditya Thackeray in a meeting with BMC officials on Tuesday.

THE QR CODE WILL WORK LIKE...A statement issued by the minister’s office said that the QR Code will be displayed at the entry gates of residential and commercial buildings and offices. It would help in verifying that residents of housing societies & of-fices are fully vaccinated.

New Delhi: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday met Union HM Amit Shah and apprised

him of the progress in the implementation of various central schemes. He also updated the Union Home Minister on the state’s “war against

drugs.” After his meeting with Shah in Delhi, he told that discussions were held over the ongoing peace efforts within northeastern states and some other issues of Assam.

New Delhi: Former Union Minister Babul Supriyo, who moved from the BJP to TMC in the past few

days, reiterated that he wants to be part of a team that embraces him warmly and makes him part of the playing 11. Once again deploying sports meta-phors, Bollywood sing-er-turned-politician’s move has reportedly created a

buzz on WB political circles days after his move, WB BJP chief Dilip Ghosh was replaced with Sukanta.

Patna: The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav on Monday said it did not matter

to him if any insignificant person filed a case against him. His reaction comes after a Patna court ordered registration of FIR against him for allegedly accepting money in exchange for an election ticket. “It does not matter to me if any Tom,

Dick or Harry files a case against me. But the ques-tion is from where the complainant got Rs 5 crore?” questioned Tejashwi. He demanded a fair probe.

Chandigarh: Nine IAS and two PCS officers were transferred in the second administrative reshuffle on the second day of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi assuming office. Isha, a 2009 batch IAS officer, currently posted as Director General, School Education and Secretary, Punjab School Education Board, will take over the charge of Mo-hali Deputy Commissioner from Girish Dayalan. The transfers affected are mainly to fill in the vacancies in departments where the new officers in the Chief Minister’s Office were posted initially.

New Delhi: I-T dept has carried out search opera-tion on a leading business house of India involved in manufacture of textile & filament yarn having corporate offices in Delhi, Punjab and Kolkata, said Ministry of Finance on Tuesday. On Saturday, many incriminating documents, diaries, digital evidence, among other things have been recovered which indicate involvement of group in routing of unac-counted funds back in its Indian entities, posses-sion of bank accounts unreported to Department.

New Delhi: The I-T Department has carried out a search and seizure operation on September 17 in the case of a prominent public figure and his family members in Maharashtra’s Nagpur, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. According to the statement issued the group is having wide business interests spanning the fields of Education, Warehousing & Agri-business in Nagpur & parts of Maha.

ASSAM CM APPRISES AMIT SHAH ABOUT PROGRESS OF SCHEMES BY THE CENTRE

BABUL SUPRIYO ON QUITTING BJP: “EVEN MESSI DIDN’T WANT TO EXIT BARCELONA”

DOESN’T MATTER IF ANY TOM, DICK OR HARRY FILES CASE AGAINST ME: YADAV

2ND DAY OF CM CHANNI: 9 IAS, 2 PCS OFFICERS TRANSFERRED IN PUNJAB

TAXMEN SEARCH TEXTILE FIRM’S NEW DELHI, PUNJAB, WEST BENGAL OFFICES

SEARCH OPERATIONS IN NAGPUR IN CASE OF PROMINENT PUBLIC FIGURE

3 of family die in WB trying to charge phoneKolkata: Three mem-bers of a family, includ-ing a 10-year-old boy, were found dead in a waterlogged home at Khardah near Kolkata on Tuesday after a day of heavy rains, with au-thorities suspecting electrocution was the cause of death. While one of the victims, a man, appeared to have been killed while trying to plug his cell phone into an electrical socket to charge it, his wife and son may have died trying to save him.

TALIBAN BAN IPL 2021 BROADCAST

HEROIN WORTH RS 21,000 CR SEIZED

New Delhi: In its latest issuance of orders the Taliban-ruled Afghani-stan has banned the broadcast of the hugely popular IPL in the country, as per them they have taken this decision over the pres-ence of “female audi-ence and spectators” in stadiums.

Ahmedabad: Suspect-ing that a consign-ment contained heroin originally sourced from Afghanistan, valued at Rs 21,000 crore in the world market, DRI seized the drugs at Mundra Port.

INDOOR AIR IS NATURALLY

MORE UNSAFE THAN OUTDOOR

As opposed to outdoor air which has natural circulation, unfortunately, in-

door air doesn’t have the same ad-vantage. In India, the outdoor air

itself isn’t healthy enough for the human respiratory and health system due to the high amount of PM2.5, PM1.0 and other pol-lutants. So, without timely ven-tilation and purification, the chances of indoor air getting stale and unhygienic and there-by becoming more conducive to

the ‘designs’ of coronavirus be-come very high. Add to this, there

are recent studies that prove the possibility of PM2.5 particles being potential carriers of coronavirus, carrying them too much larger distances in the air. The high tem-perature and humidity which often

characterizes our tropical climate add to the woes.

We must remember that a lot of our daily natu-ral and basic activities are conducted in our in-door spaces many of which involve active and oral expulsion of particles. From talking to shouting to sneezing and coughing to even sing-ing, every one of these acts and others creates

aerosols in the air which whether we like it not, continue to be exchanged with the oth-

ers. In fact, many of these activities create more aerosols than even breathing. So, if we do not repeatedly ventilate the room and purify the air within, we can always be susceptible to be infected by others. Even if a house has no Covid patient, the

risk of the virus being transmitted through the air from the neighbours or tempo-

rary staff can never be ruled out.

here is no exaggeration in saying that Covid-19 has literally taken over our lives. Whether vaccinat-ed or not, most of us are still living in the shadow of fear and anxiety. In fact with breakthrough in-fections showing up for some, even the vaccinated do not

feel completely safe from a possible assault of the vi-rus. The finding that the virus can be airborne is scary enough, research also shows that the transmission of the coronavirus is higher indoors than outdoors. This means that even if you don’t step out and think that the virus can’t get to you because you are ensconced safely and comfortably indoors, the bad news is that you can still get infected. So, what should you do to keep the virus at bay while being confined indoors? While tak-ing other precautions, keeping the indoor air sanitized, and constantly so, is one big answer to this.

THAN OUTDOORAs opposed to outdoor air which has natural circulation, unfortunately, in-

door air doesn’t have the same ad-vantage. In India, the outdoor air

itself isn’t healthy enough for the human respiratory and health

the ‘designs’ of coronavirus be-come very high. Add to this, there

are recent studies that prove the possibility of PM2.5 particles being potential carriers of coronavirus, carrying them too much larger distances in the air. The high tem-perature and humidity which often

characterizes our tropical climate add to the woes.

We must remember that a lot of our daily natu-ral and basic activities are conducted in our in-door spaces many of which involve active and oral expulsion of particles. From talking to shouting to sneezing and coughing to even sing-ing, every one of these acts and others creates

aerosols in the air which whether we like it not, continue to be exchanged with the oth-

ers. In fact, many of these activities create more aerosols than even breathing. So, if we do not repeatedly ventilate the room and purify the air within, we can always be susceptible to be infected by others. Even if a house has no Covid patient, the

risk of the virus being transmitted through the air from the neighbours or tempo-

rary staff can never be ruled out.

means that even if you don’t step out and think that the virus can’t get to you because you are ensconced safely and comfortably indoors, the bad news is that you can still get infected. So, what should you do to keep the virus at bay while being confined indoors? While tak-ing other precautions, keeping the indoor air sanitized, and constantly so, is one big

here is no exaggeration in saying that Covid-19 has literally taken over our lives. Whether vaccinat-ed or not, most of us are still living in the shadow of fear and anxiety. In fact with breakthrough in-

TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

07www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

Not outdoors, it is indoors that you endanger

your lungs more and sanitization of our

indoor spaces with suitable air purification

systems must become a priority

INDOOR

OUTDOORAIR

WHICH IS MORE

HARMFUL?

Unlike the earlier dominant belief that only res-piratory droplets could spread infection, it has been established now that the tiny aerosols in the air can carry the coronavirus. These aero-sols which are smaller and lighter than respira-tory droplets can not only stay longer in the air but also carry the virus farther and for a longer time. The assumption that only by making con-tact with a contaminated surface one can get the virus, is no more valid.

INDOOR AEROSOLS A CARRIER OF CORONAVIRUS

SEVERAL NATURAL HUMAN ACTIVITIES

CARRIED OUT INDOORS

T

Amid the rain...there will be a rainbow and in the darkest of the nights we can find a twinkling star ... such is life, we can always

find hope and joy amid despair and strife!—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, First India

AHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia082NDFRONT

MSMES HAVE HOPES FROM NEW GUJ CMFirst India Bureau

Ahmedabad: Micro, small, and medium en-terprises (MSMEs), con-sidered to be backbone of Gujarat’s economy, has several expecta-tions from the newly sworn-in Chief Minis-ter Bhupendra Patel.

For the uninitiated, the 59-year-old first-time MLA Bhupendra Patel is the 17th Chief Minister of Gujarat who comes from the dominant Patidar com-munity in Gujarat. He had earlier served as the Chairman of Ahmedabad Urban De-velopment Authority from 2015 to 2017 and before that, he was the Standing Committee Chairman of Ahmedabad Municipal

Corporation.Patel holds a diploma

in Civil Engineering and has been a real es-tate developer. Gujarat had slipped to the 10th rank in last year’s Ease of Doing Business rank-ings from the top in 2015. However, MSMEs are hopeful of further reforms in the state un-der Bhupendra Patel-led government.

“Much like the entire country, Gujarat is also driven by the service sector. While there is an industrial policy in the state but there is no sep-arate service policy yet. So, this is one area where we want the gov-ernment to pursue as it would help MSMEs and other businesses to en-hance growth. Moreo-ver, with the expansion

of the MSME definition, focus on micro units have been narrowed as more businesses have come under the MSME

ambit while a lot of mi-cro and small enterpris-es, which haven’t raised any credit in their life, have not been able to

benefit from the ECLGS scheme,” Pathik Pat-wari, owner of roofing sheets manufacturer Nexus Infratech says.

Patwari is also the Sen-ior Vice President at the Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Indus-try. “At least the state

government under the new CM should take some steps for financial support to micro and small businesses or

come up with some in-terest subsidy where it becomes compulsory for banks to lend to these entities,” Patwari added.

The increase in the cost of raw materials including steel, iron ore, plastics, copper, aluminum, etc., post-Covid had impacted the working capital of MS-MEs across India and consequently their businesses too even as the demand had also de-clined. For instance, pig iron, steel, and copper saw up to 50 per cent rise in prices while ce-ment and PVC pipes witnessed an increase between 50-100 per cent. The price jump had ren-dered MSMEs ineffec-tive in production and revenue generation.

THE MSME SECTOR SAYS IT HAS BEEN FEELING NEGLECTED, BUT HAS EXPECTATIONS FROM NEW CM

New Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel (left)

Drunk head constable caught in compromising position

First India Bureau

Rajkot: Local people caught a drunk head constable in intimate relations in a police ve-hicle on Dholra road falling under the Shapar Veraval police station area.

The head constable tried to beat citizens with his belt as the po-lice station received

messages of police caught by citizens. A Police Sub-Inspector and even a Police In-spector reached the spot and took the mo-bile phones of` the peo-ple there in their pos-session so the video clip is not circulated.

It started on Tuesday when people passing on Dholra road in the Ra-jkot rural area found

something unusual with a police vehicle. A few of them got down from their vehicle and

peeped in the police van. They found the po-lice constable in physi-cal relation with a

woman and recorded the scene on their mo-bile phone. This irked the police head consta-ble, who was half na-ked.

The police constable pulled out his belt and started beating people with his belt, the police van driver informed Shapar-Veraval police station about the inci-dent, immediately a team lead by Police In-spector, Police Sub In-spector reached to the spot and instead of tak-ing action against head

constable Ashwin Mak-wana, they took away phones of citizens, so that video clip is not circulated.

When the matter was taken up by the media with Rajkot Rural Su-perintendent of Police Balaram Meena, he has assured that inquiry is conducted in the allega-tions, FIR is being lodged and if there is any substance of police constable violated ser-vice rules, he will be suspended by the end of the day.

First India Bureau

Mysuru: The Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), Mysuru, has asked the Deputy Conservator of Forest (Mysuru – Wildlife) to certify the health con-dition of four palace

elephants that are in the custody of erst-while Mysuru royal family which has pro-posed to shift them to Gujarat.

DCF K. Karikalan has been told to check the health status of the four elephants out of

six, which have been identified for shifting to a temple in Gujarat, and submit a status report to him.

The six female palace elephants – Seetha, Ruby, Gemini, Rajesh-wari, Chanchala and Preethi – were report-edly rescued from a cir-cus many years ago andwere given to the royal family as it volun-teered to take care of them. Some of them were used for “elephant safari” within the pal-ace premises for tour-

ists visiting the palace.The consent of the

Chief Wildlife Wardens

of Karnataka and Guja-rat are a must to trans-port the elephants as

per the rules. The jum-bos are said to be aged between 42 and 50, and were handed over to the palace when Srikanta-datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar was alive.

Pramoda Devi Wadi-yar had written to the senior Forest officials expressing the family’s wish to hand over the four elephants to a tem-ple in Gujarat that had come forward to take care of them. Accord-ingly, the DCF has been told to submit a fitness report of the four jum-

bos – Seetha, Ruby, Gemini and Rajesh-wari.

Karikalan told me-diapersons that he had received instructions from the CCF for certi-fying the four elephants based on their health status. “I have told the respective RFO and vet-erinarian to follow pro-tocols and check their health condition. Thereafter, I will sub-mit a report to the CCF who is expected to com-municate the same to the PCCF Wildlife for a

decision,” he said.If the Chief Wildlife

Warden grants permis-sion for transporting the animals based on the DCF’s report, the CCF and the DCF would once again be told to make arrangements for shifting the animals. However, the cost of transportation and oth-er expenses have to be borne by the caretak-ers or those who are receiving the jumbos. The DCF is expected to submit his report this week.

Forest Depts argue over shifting elephants to GujaratDCF K Karikalan has been told to check the health status of the four elephants out of six, which have been identified for shifting to a temple in Gujarat

—FILE PHOTO

EXPRESSING CONCERN

Independent Dalit MLA Jignesh Mevani met offi cials of Ford Motors after complaints over closing of its Sanand plant. —PHOTO BY HANIF SINDHI

Removal of inverted duty to dig `1,200 cr hole in weavers pocketFirst India Bureau

Surat: The decision to remove the inverted duty structure in the textile industry and keep a uni-form tax slab was taken at the GST Council meet-ing on Monday. This is expected to increase the burden on city weavers by Rs 1,200 crore a year and the Surat textile in-dustry has opposed it.

At present 12% duty is levied on yarn and 5 % on cloth. However, the new slab will be implemented after January 1, 2022 will make them on one plat-form.

The meeting was or-ganized by the GST Council. The amend-

ments were added after the meeting discussed different issues related to GST. It was decided at the meeting that a uniform tax slab would be intro-duced by removing the inverted duty structure from the textile industry. The announcement has raised concerns among the city’s textile industry, especially Weavers. Be-cause the price of textiles made in Surat will go up, which will have a direct impact on the consumer.

City weavers, on the

other hand, will lose Rs 1,200 crore a year. Yarn is currently charged 12 per cent GST and 5 per cent GST on finished fabric. Which will be removed and made an equal slab. This new change will take effect on January 1, 2022. As a result, the fab-ric is estimated to be as expensive as 5 per cent.

Chairman of FIASVI Bharat Gandhi said in-verted duty structure is being removed, a bad de-cision. This will make the fabric price up to 5 per cent more expensive, which will ultimately hurt consumers. Weav-ers, on the other hand, will lose Rs 1,200 crore a year.

Collector asks SMC to cancel construction permit of private property

First India Bureau

Surat: The Surat Dis-trict Collector has asked the Surat Mu-nicipal Corporation to dismiss the con-struction permission of Rehan Heights lo-cated at Adajan Pati-ya.

The owner of the building had submit-ted documents stat-ing that the building is made in partner-ship with a Hindu person and he wanted permission under Disturbed Areas Act, which was later on waved off by the Col-lector.

As per the informa-tion from the collec-torate, Rehan Heights was 5040 square me-ter of land, final plot number 82 and block number 438 of TP number 11. The pro-posed plan has three

towers. The construc-tion work of all the towers of the project and the owner had ap-plied for transfer of property under dis-turb area act. Howev-er, the district collec-tor Ayush Oak can-celled the application.

The officials have stated that, in order to get permission in dis-turbed area one has to go to the SMC and po-lice and its a lengthy process. So in order to bypass this, they had made a dummy firm by the name of Ever-green corporation in which Maksood Godi-la, Mohammad Irfan, Mohammad Munir, Shabnam Junaid, Ahmed Junaid, Dhol-ariya Prakash. They had put hindu names on record. Prakash Dholariya was the owner on record with 10 percent of share.

The constable being moved out.

The head constable tried to beat citizens with his belt as the police station received messages of police caught by citizens.

HIGH HOPES

Surat District Collector Ayush Oak

ity First engaged in a tête-à-tête with Pratika Sood, where she spilt the beans about her career trajecto-ry, aspirations and what’s next on her bucket list.

Q: What has your journey been like?A: So, it all started with a dream that I wanted to be on stage, lead-ing my life. I have always been very determined and now, I am

unstoppable. Victory was des-tined.

Q: Who served as your biggest in-spiration? A: Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, JLO, Rihanna, Beyonce and Priyan-ka Chopra.

Q: What struggles did you face after coming into the entertain-ment industry? A: I had people asking me to find a stable job saying that it’s tough for me to establish a place for myself in such a competitive field.

Q: What was your family’s reac-tion? A: Not really, but, I created a niche for myself.They were left with no other option than to accept it.

Q: Why is travel so pivotal to your life?A: I would rather die than live with-out travelling. I live to travel and I earn to travel. There’s no other dream than to explore this wonderful world.

Q: What message would you give to the girls who look forward to coming into this field?A: Dream, believe, dare and just do it!

Q: What’s the most interesting incident that has happened with you since you became an emcee?A: Since I host a lot of wedding ceremonies, I have been getting thousands of marriage propos-als on an everyday basis.

Q: What’s your favourite ‘pinch me’ moment of your career? A: Celebrities recognising and appreciating my work.

Q: What’s the next thing on your bucket list?A: It will be on social media once it’s out of the bucket!

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 09

AHMEDABAD, WEDNESDAYSEPTEMBER 22, 2021

LIVING THE LIVING THE DREAM LIFEDREAM LIFE

A DREAMER AT HEART, PRATIKA KNEW HER CALLING RIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING. AN ACE EMCEE AND ASTOUNDING MODEL, SHE HAS CREATED HER NICHE IN THE INDUSTRY AND HOW! _

CPOORVI SINGHAL cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

FACE

OF TH

E DAY

VANSHIKA DUBEY, Model

LEOJULY 24 - AUGUST 23

You will need to adhere to strict dietary control to keep good health. Previous investments promise to

keep some cozy on the fi nancial front. Avoid risks on the road today. Stars are strong for either buying a house or constructing one. A long-term relationship may end with wedding.

LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

You may remain in celebratory mood on the social front as you enjoy your popularity within your

circle of friends. Starting something new on the professional front is likely to have better fi nancial prospects. Encouraging developments on the career front are foreseen for some.

ARIESMAR 21 - APR 20

You will fi nd things moving the way you want them at work. Your focus can be health at this juncture and

taking up an exercise regimen just to come back in shape cannot be ruled out. Tensions on the family front cannot be ruled out. A property issue is best left untouched today.

SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22

Things begin to look up on the fi nancial front as gains accrue.Those staying separated from the family

are likely to get a chance to visit home. Suitable accommodation is likely to be taken on rent. Volunteering for a cause on the social front is likely to give you an immense sense of satisfaction.

GEMINIMAY 21 - JUNE 21

A satisfying day is foreseen for professionals. Keeping good health may become your motto soon. Financial

position will remain satisfactory, but overspending should be guarded against. A marriage proposal for the eligible in the family can be received. A marriage proposal for the eligible.

AQUARIUSJAN 21 - FEB 19

Health front looks healthy. You will need to do some fi nancial planning before putting money in your

dream project. A chance to become part of a prestigious organization is on the horizon for some. An evening out planned with lover will turn out to be most fulfi lling.

TAURUSAPR 21 - MAY 20

A bonanza on the fi nancial front cannot be ruled out. You are likely to take a break from your hectic

work schedule. Your actions may arouse suspicion and get parents on your back. Something that had been worrying you in the past is likely to get resolved.

CAPRICORNDEC 23 - JAN 20

Cutting corners and tightening belts will help you save a lot. Eating right and remaining active are

the only ways for you to keep good health. Carelessness at work can get you on the wrong side of a senior. A family gathering is likely to provide you a chance to meet everyone.

VIRGOAUG 24 - SEP 23

You will be able to effectively curb expenses by taking some drastic measures. You are likely to

enjoy good health as you resolve to take up some physical activity. You will have to put your trust in people, if you want to establish yourself on the professional front.

CANCERJUNE 22 - JULY 23

A small fi nancial crisis may threaten you, but you will steer through it successfully. Much caring

and sharing at home is likely to keep you happy and contented. Something that you had wanted to initiate on the home front may face delays, but will ultimately be done.

PISCESFEB20 - MARCH 20

Your professional stars are on the ascendant and will help make your mark on the career front. Some of

you may get a step closer to coming back in shape. Despite your efforts, a decision regarding property may not go in your favour. Marriage is on the anvil for the eligible.

SCORPIOOCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

A source of income threatens to dry up and may require your personal attention. You will remain

careful of your health to prevent recurrence of an old ailment. Satisfaction on the professional front may elude you, but it will not deter you to perform well.

YOUR DAY

Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

lzheimer’s disease is the commonest form of dementia, a syndrome char-acterized by gradu-al deterioration in memory, thinking

and behaviour along with reduced ability to perform day to day tasks. These pa-tients also face a problem with language, comprehen-sion, learning capacity, ori-entation, calculation and judgment. Almost 55 mil-lion people worldwide suf-fer from dementia. The esti-mated number of people with dementia above the age of 60 years in India is about 5.3 million.

FACTSThe estimated number of dementia cases worldwide is about 55 million. It is es-timated that 5.3 million peo-ple above the age of 60 years have dementia in India. Each year almost 10 million new cases of dementia are added worldwide. Alzhei-mer’s disease is the most common form of dementia contributing 60 to 70 per cent of cases.

WARNING SIGNSMemory Loss: Difficulty in simple calculation, Dif-

ficulty accomplishing fa-miliar tasks, Misplacing things and inability to find them back, Problem with written or verbal communi-cation Changes in mood and behaviour: Difficulty in making the decision, Prob-lem understanding images spatial relationship, Confu-sion with time, place or a person, Decreased interest in work and social activities with gradual withdrawalRisk factors : Advancing age, Obesity, Cardiovascu-lar Disease, Smoking, Head trauma, Low education, Diabetes, Hypertension With the advancing age, certain problems associat-ed with cognitive function including memory takes place. However, it needs to be differentiated from de-mentia Normal ageing, Demen-tia, Forgetfulness is more about remote events, Re-cent events are forgotten more frequently, May not remember the name of a familiar person, May not even recognize a familiar person, Occasional forget-fulness of things or events, Frequent forgetfulness of things and events The occasional difficulty in finding words., Frequent pauses or even substitu-tion, Acknowledges his problem, Not aware of the problem, Sometimes disin-terested and avoiding social and family responsibilities Gradual Withdrawal from social and family responsi-bilities Sometimes feeling trou-ble in decision making Gradual deterioration in decision making

TIPS FOR CAREGIVERS Use simple language and

keep sentences short

Project a positive attitude during interaction

Remind patient to eat, for medication

Tap their arm, hands or shoulder to make them feel comfortable

Encourage them to continue what they are still able to do

Put identifi cation tags on places of frequent use to en-able them to locate easil

Ask or tell one thing at a time

Respond with affection and positivity

Give them a diet rich in unsaturated fats, antioxidants

Avoid distracting noises like television or radio, while conversing

Schedule their routine activi-ties

Bright coloured fruits like car-rots, peaches, watermelon and dark green leafy vegetables

Be patient and give them time to fi nd words

Keep them aware of date and time by using clock and calendar

Avoid alcohol, smoking

If needed use close-ended questions rather than open-ended

Help them in planning and money management

Give yourself time to relax and seek out help

Early diagnosis and interven-tion is important allowing the patient to compensate for the disability

minimizing disease and medi-cation associated complica-tions

improving quality of life

The positive attitude amidALZHEIMER

DR AKHILESH JAINHOD, Psychiatry, ESI Model Hospital, Jaipur

A

*You are not alone*Throughout her life she was, so gleeful and convivial.Until I found her struggling, with daily issues so trivial.She always ruled the crowd, with her brilliance and wile.Why did she become so timid, and lost her smile?

Remembering the days of her prudence, when she would outwit us all.It feels very painful when she fails anything to recall.

Losing her adroit and elo-quence, she was known to deliver the best.I’m surprised to see how gradually, her skills have

come to rest.

Her calm and composed, the gesture was always so mesmerizing.Whimpering and whining every time now, looks so surprising.

Swaggering in snazzy attire, she was the talk of the townDiffi cult to fathom her gro-tesque garb, memory going down.

Still, I accept her, adore her like before.It’s none of her faults, know-ing it for sure.

Affl icted with Alzheimer’s,

growing old and fragile, She needs me to support her, rejuvenating life with a smile.

You are not alone, I will always be there for you.Wouldn’t let you feel lonely, our bonding is so beautiful, so true.

Such is the story with mil-lions in the worldLeft alone in anguish, cries never heard.

Let’s all pledge to help those, abandoned in oblivion,Holding hands with soft-touch, miseries are far gone.

On World Alzheimer’s Day

10ETC

AHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

Kareena Kapoor Khan celebrates her 41st birthday

on Tuesday and the lovely actress is vaca-tioning with her family in the Maldives. To mark the occasion, Be-bo’s elder sister Karis-ma Kapoor wished her on social media with an adorable childhood photo. Sharing the pho-to, Karisma wrote, “Will always be by your side. Happy birthday to the best sister in the world... my lifeline, love you the most.” Both the sisters can be seen twinning in

pink frocks and ribbons in their hair. Two of her BFFs, Malaika Arora and Amrita Arora com-mented with heart emo-jis, while sister-in-law Saba Pataudi wrote, “Happy birthday bhabs”. On the work front, Bebo is now gear-ing up for ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ and ‘Takht’. ‘Takht’ will be Khan’s second collaboration with Karan Johar where he directs the ac-tress. This period dra-ma has now been post-poned. —Agency

Karisma wishes Kareena

A nushka Ramesh sounds excited talking about her

participation at the In-dian Bowling League, held in Bengaluru in August. This year the league was organised at the ITA Mall by the Kamar Film Factory, a premiere production house in Bengaluru. “It was a unique experi-ence because this is the first time that a bowl-ing league was held in India. Around eight teams were represent-ing different parts of Karnataka. Each team consisted of around 10 players, 6-7 stars of the S a n d a l w o o d film in-

dustry and 1-2 actors from other industries participated in the same. It was great com-peting with top Kan-nada actors like Di-ganth Manchale, Raghu Mukherjee, Pri-yanka Upendra, Tarun Chandra. Srinagar Kitty was our team cap-tain,” says the actor, known for her Punjabi films, Mangal Ho, Can-ada Di Flight, among others. Anushka was a part of the Ben-galuru Dragons Team.

—CITY FIRST

Kylie Jenner is all set to wel-come her sec-

ond baby with Travis Scott and the mommy-to-be is not shying away from flaunting her growing baby bump. Jenner was seen posing in a long grey coat while caressing her baby bump in the dressing room. Ky-lie looked stunning with her pregnan-cy glow and gor-geous open tresses that were styled messily. —Agency

KYLIE’S BABY BUMP!

The upcoming series, Breakpoint, directed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari and

Nitesh Tiwari unfolds the journey of the players Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes. Their series further foretells their life on and off ground. A virtual roundtable conference was organised on Tuesday where Mahesh Bhupathi shared, “What the spectators will be noticing will be any-thing but fiction, our cordial relationship which has grown over time and our shared vic-

tories for our country. Some of the footage from our live matches will also be shared. I am looking forward to it as I have just seen snippets, not the entire series. I be-lieve that A s h w i n i and Nitesh have drafted it beautifully.” The series is yet to release on the OTT p l a t f o r m ZEE5 in the first week of O c t o -ber.

Payal Ghosh was re-cently attacked when she was re-

turning home in And-heri in Mumbai. She was going to get in her car and someone with a mask on his entire face tried to attack her and snatch her belongings and had acid with him. She stood strong and did not relent. She has some minor injuries but it has left a scar on the mental aspects. She added that “I know I screamed for help and that’s the rea-son they ran away”.They did hit her with a rod on her head but luckily no injuries on the head, and

got injuries on her hands also. Payal is working round the clock and she would be travelling for work soon. “Incidents like these leave a scar and leave us unsure of our security, belongings and our near and dear ones,” Payal said. Payal is well and safe and that’s what matters. —CITY FIRST

A riana Grande has joined as the new coach on The

Voice’s new season and will be competing against coaches John Legend, Blake Shelton and Kelly Clark-son. According to John Legend’s wife, it’s going to be an “awkward” situation for the All of Me singer as he will have to deal with Arinators at home. The Cravings author further maintained that she will try to re-main “unbiased” while watching The Voice but ended her video say-ings she will support her husband with a hint of doubt. —Agency

ETCAHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021

11

T he one who is known to sing high-octane dance tracks, sing-er Mika Singh becomes the rich-

est singer in Bollywood with the max-imum number of songs and hits un-der his belt. Amid the pandemic, it is Mika Singh who has kept us going. Some tracks have lured the audiences to the theatres in the past, the world of music recognises him as the most prominent and prolific singer. Apart from his professional achievements, he is a notable humanitarian and phi-lanthropist, donating and raising money for beneficial causes and sup-porting charities. —CITY FIRST

Actress Ish-wari Desh-pande passed

away in a car acci-dent in Goa on Monday morning near Arpora vil-lage in the Bardez taluka and the car plunged into Baga Creek. The 25-year-old actress was with her friend Shubham Dadge, who also died on the spot. It’s heard that Shubham and Ishwari were plan-ning to get engaged next month. The two had travelled to Goa on Wednes-day, September 15.

—CITY FIRST

SAD Demise

atrina Kaif and Sal-man Khan are cur-rently in Austria for the last leg of Tiger 3’s international shooting schedule. Over the past couple

of days, Katrina and Salman have been shooting several parts of Austria. From Salz-burg to Altaussee, the duo has been filming for the last leg of the International shoot of their actioner. Sharing the photo, Katrina wrote, “Sweat-er Weather” as she beamed with joy amid the gorgeous green mountains. Previously, Salman and Katrina were shooting in Turkey and be-fore it, they were in Russia. The duo began shooting last month internationally for the actioner’s third part and reportedly, will be back by the end of the month. Tiger 3 is being directed by Maneesh Sharma and reportedly also

stars Emraan Hashmi as the antagonist. It is be-

ing backed by Yash Raj Films.

—Agency

MELLOW YELLOW

IS CHRISSY IS CHRISSY ARINATOR?ARINATOR?

KBREAKPOINTBREAKPOINT

SUSHMITA AINDsushmita.aind@firstindia.co.in

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King Mika Singh becomes the richest singer in Bollywood

PAYAL GHOSH IN TRAUMA

INDIAN BOWLING LEAGUE 2021

Ariana Grande Katrina Kaif

Kylie Jenner

Aanushka Ramesh

Payal Ghosh

Mika Singh

Karisma’s Post

Kylie’s Post

Late Ishwari Deshpande

Leander Paes andMahesh Bhupathi

Kareeena Kapoor

...her post

very great dream begins with a dreamer. Hatfield defines passionate love as a state of in-tense longing for union with another.

Gori, an original love song by the Indian playback and folk singer Mame Khan de-picts true love and how one can describe a woman with sheer simplicity and grace.

The song ‘Gori’ stands out of the box with its magical twist in the plot which will be released on September 24, Friday officially on YouTube.

Jagdeesh Chandra launched the poster of the music video on Tuesday. A cake-cutting ceremony was done on the occasion. IAS Dr Lalit K Panwar, Famous play-back singer Ravindra Upad-hyay, , Singer and Folk Art promoter Manesha A Agar-wal, Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Founder & CEO Event Craft-er, Festival Producer- Taalbe-lia, Swati Jangid, Mame Khan, Deepesh Tanwar (Bunty), Elite Miss Rajasthan Director Gaurav Gaur, model Himani, Nikita Nagpal were present on the occasion.

The upcoming video of the song features Swati Jan-gid, Miss India 2018 Queen of Desert, model and actress in the backdrop of the magi-cal Chunda Palace of Udaipur, starring Deepesh

Tanwar among others. A screenplay and creative di-rection by German art man-ager Anjuli Chakraborty invite the audience to dream. The video has been beautifully created by the team of Megapixel Films under the direction of Prit Fadadu. Music has been cre-ated by Mame Khan and Pintu Mallick and the lyrics are originally written by

Mame Khan in the Hindi/Rajasthani language. Pro-duction management is done by Tushar Boricha.

As much as the chemistry of being in the same room is often irreplaceable, often the most innovative kind of art is born out of the great-est challenges. “We were thrilled with the location and greatly inspired and aided by technology. Per-

haps the gumption of put-ting a Mame Khan (Ra-jasthani folk singer) in the backdrop of harmonic changes stemmed from the fact that we were tethered by technology and the possi-bilities were limitless,” ex-plained Ravindra Upadhyay. He further added, “Mame Khan is a remarkable artist. His talent speaks for him-self. I am eagerly waiting for

the video to release and I’m sure the audience will love the fusion and fall in love with the magic of his voice.” “The colliding of ar-tistic cultures is the only way forward for the survival and flourishing of the art form,” said Mame Khan in conclusion.

MITALI DUSADmitalidusad01@gmail.com

12AHMEDABAD | WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

CITY BUZZGET VACCINATED

STAY MASKED

GORI: ALBELI SAJNI.. HIVDE RI KOYAL..

The upcoming song, ‘Gori’ by Mame Khan is all set to be released with a lovely concept and twist on September 24. A poster launching ceremony for the same was held on Tuesday!

E

Jagdeesh Chandra with Hemant Nautiyal, Founder, Owner Goa Gossips & Three cheers production and Luv Dhingra, CEO MettalliczMedia, during a courtesy visit by them at his residence on Tuesday evening.

City First brings to you the ace make-up artist Jassi Chhabra who won the hearts of many at The First India Fashion Tour showcased at Srinagar on September 16, the event which made a splash across India sending a message of positivity emanating from the Valley!

The organisers of Miss Rajasthan, Yogesh Mishra and Nimisha Mishra celebrated their birthday on September 20 and 21 respectively. Jagdeesh Chandra greeted the couple and wished them all the success for their future. Himadri Bhatnagar, Sapna Singh, Mansi Bainada and Shahrukh Khan among others were a part of their birthday celebration.

Under the aegis of Eventsthan 7th edition by Forum-Federation of Rajasthan Event Managers, an Annual Forum Convention was organised at Hotel Fairmont on September 19 & 20. Rajiv Kapoor, General Manager at Fairmont Jaipur and his wife Nupur Kapoor welcomed the guests and paid immense gratitude on the occasion for the successful show.

MEET & GREET!

JASSI JAISA KOI NAI! WHAT’S HAPPENING!

CELEBRATIONS!

GRATITUDE!

CITY FIRST

D epartment of Elec-trical Engineering (EE) of Swami

Keshvanand Institute of Technology (SKIT) Jaipur was privileged to organise a Faculty Development Pro-gramme (FDP) on Tech-no-Economic Assess-ment of Flexibility Competency in Deregu-lated Power System (TEAFCDPS) in associ-ation with IEI student chapter EE Deptt., SKIT through Cisco WebEx platform. The pro-gramme was conducted under the guidance of Dr Suman Sharma, Ji-tendra Singh, Jinendra Rahul, and Baibhav Bishal. The Chief Guest

was Prof. (Dr.) Bhim Singh, Chair Professor (CEA, National Sci-ence) IIT Delhi. The Guest of honour were Prof. (Dr) Sukumar Mishra, Professor, EE Department, IIT Delhi and Dr Jean-Michel Clairand (Associate Prof. UDLA, Quito, Ec-uador, South America).

A heartful welcome note and about the In-stitute was given by Principal Prof. (Dr.) Ramesh Pachar. Dr Su-man Sharma elaborates

on the Five-day FDP programme.

The chief guests pre-sent their views on the importance of power in life, the importance of technology, the scope of innovation in the power sector, and the usage of electric vehicles and other appliances.

In the end, Dr Dhanraj Chitara (HOD EE de-partment) presented a vote of thank on behalf of the SKIT family to all the guests and partici-pants. cityfirst@firstindia.co.in

Faculty Development Programme @SKIT

MLA Kalicharan Saraf planted an Ashok tree at the 52nd booth in Ward No. 127 Malviya Nagar Sector 1 Park, under ‘A tree at every booth program’. While addressing the gathering, he said that every person should plant a tree and take the responsibility of taking care of it. On this occasion, former chairperson of Women’s Commission Suman Sharma, board president Narendra Singh, among others were present.

A consecration event was organised, for spiritual awareness, and forgiveness, on Tuesday in Digambar Jain Chaityalaya, Bapu Nagar. According to Jain Agam, the best month of Jain society is Bhadrapada month, which involves asking for forgiveness from all the people, whom they may have hurt in the past or present life. During the event, Lord Mahavir was anointed with water, ghee, curd, saffron etc. —PHOTO BY MUKESH KIRADOO

During the session

—PHOTOS BY MUKESH KIRADOO

(L-R) Fazil, Pradeep, Ishan, Mansi Bainada, Nimisha Mishra, Yogesh Mishra, Shahrukh Khan, Sudhir, Gaurav and Vicky

Jagdeesh Chandra greeted Yogesh Mishra and Nimisha Mishra

(L-R) Sapna Singh, Yogesh Mishra, Nimisha Mishra and Himadri Bhatnagar

(L-R) Deepesh Tanwar, Swati Jangid and Mame Khan

Jagdeesh Chandra with (L-R) Deepa Bafila, Deepesh Tanwar (Bunty), Manesha A Agarwal, Ravindra Upadhyay, Swati Jangid, Mame Khan, Lalit K Panwar, Siddhartha Chaturvedi, Himani and Gaurav Gaur

(L-R) Pintu Mallick, Swati Jangid and Mame Khan

Poster of the song

Swati Jangid