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I n a major climb down, the Centre has proposed that the three controversial farm laws will be kept in abeyance for a minimum of 18 months and it will form a joint com- mittee to look into other pend- ing demands of the agitating farmers, including repeal and legal guarantee to minimum support price (MSP). The Government proposed these initiatives in the 10th meeting between the Government and agitating farmers. But farmer leaders did not immediately accept the proposal and said they will revert after their internal con- sultation on Thursday. The farmers wanted a com- plete withdrawal of the laws as a mere suspension of the laws for some period of time will not bring about any change, farmer leaders said on Wednesday after the 10th round of talks concluded. The next round of meetings will be held on January 22. After the meeting which lasted for five hours, including two breaks, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the Government has proposed to suspend the implementation of the three laws for 1.5 years, during which period a joint committee of representatives from the Government and farmers’ sides can discuss all issues related to the farmers’ agitation so that an appropriate solution can be arrived at and those protesting on Delhi borders in extremely cold weather return to their homes. During the talks the farm- ers’ unions said they will dis- cuss the Government’s pro- posal in detail and will come for dialogue on January 22. The Minister said the talks were held in a cordial atmos- phere despite some “naram- garam” moments (softening and hardening of the stand) and farmers remained adamant on their demand for the repeal of the laws. “I feel that talks are progressing in the right direction and there is a possibility of finding a resolu- tion on January 22,” Tomar said. After the meeting, Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ugrahan) president Joginder Singh Ugrahan said, “The Government proposed to sus- pend the farm laws for one and a half years. We rejected the proposal but since it has come from the Government, we will meet tomorrow and deliberate over it.” T he Supreme Court on Wednesday expressed strong displeasure over the aspersions cast by some farm- ers’ unions on members of the court-appointed committee to resolve the impasse over new farm laws, saying no adjudi- cating authority has been given to the panel of experts who are “brilliant minds in the field of agriculture”. The top court said that it has serious reservations that committee members were called names and branded, which has “become a cultural thing now”. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde said, “You malign people according to public opinion. I am very dis- appointed and sorry to see the kind opinion which has been appearing in this press” and questioned, “How can you malign them just because they have expressed some views in the past?” The bench also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notice and sought response from Centre in two weeks on a separate plea of “Kisan Mahapanchayat”, a farmers’ body from Rajasthan, seeking removal of three remaining members of the apex-court appointed panel and the replacement of Bhupinder Singh Mann, who had recused himself from the panel. Taking note of submis- sions of a lawyer that opinions on the panel members have been formed on the basis of media reports about their pro- farm laws views, the bench said, “You people unnecessarily cast aspersions. Can the people expressing their views in some other context, be debarred from the committee?” T he Delhi Police has sug- gested farmers’ unions to hold their proposed “Tractor rally” on January 26 on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal Expressway, instead of Delhi’s busy Outer Ring Road. However, farmers did not agree to the suggestion. Sources said a meeting will be held again on Thursday with farmers regarding the routes for their tractor rally. On Wednesday, senior police officials of the Delhi Police and its counterparts Haryana and Uttar Pradesh police officials met at Vigyan Bhawan to discuss the route and arrangements of the pro- posed rally on Republic Day. According to sources, SS Yadav, the Joint Commissioner of Police, Northern Range coordinated the meeting from the Delhi Police with Depender Pathak, Special CP, Intelligence and Sanjay Singh, Special CP, Law and order. “The farmers unions were suggested by the police officers to take out their rally on the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway, but they did not agree. A meeting will be held on Thursday again to dig out a solution,” said the sources. J ust when the newly-devel- oped vaccines against Covid- 19 had given some hopes to the world battling the pandemic, a new study pointed out that cur- rent vaccines may not work against future strain of the virus. It also said that some coro- naviruses — the family of viruses which includes the one causing Covid-19 — can evolve to escape recognition by the host immune system. The study, published in the journal eLife, noted that if the novel coronavirus SARS- CoV-2 which causes Covid-19 evolves in the same way as other pathogens, current vac- cines against the virus may become outdated, requiring new ones to be made to match future strains. “Some coronaviruses are known to reinfect humans, but it is not clear to what extent, this is due to our immune memory fading or antigenic drift,” said first author of the study Kathryn Kistler from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the US. Currently, at least 8 coun- tries, including India, have begun or granted approval for vaccinating their people against the virus. “We wanted to investigate whether there is any evidence of coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 evolving to evade our immune responses,” Kistler said. When a person is infected by a virus, or vaccinated against it, cells part of their body’s immune system pro- duce antibodies that can recog- nise and bind to unique pro- teins on the virus’ surface known as antigens. In order to provide immu- nity against the virus, the immune system relies on being able to “remember” the anti- gens that relate to a specific virus, the scientists explained. However, they said in some viruses, such as the sea- sonal flu, the antigens are like- ly to change and evolve in a process called antigenic drift, and the immune system may no longer respond to reinfec- tion. In the current study, the scientists looked at the four seasonal human coronavirus- es (HCoVs) which are related to SARS-CoV-2 but typically cause milder symptoms, such as the common cold. HCoVs, the scientists said, have been circulating in the human population for 20-60 years, meaning their antigens may have faced pressure to evolve against the human immune system. T he anti-Covid-19 vaccina- tion drive has failed to pick up the expected pace even after the fifth day when just 1,12,007 healthcare work- ers received the jab on Wednesday. A total 7.86 lakh health- care workers have been vacci- nated since January 16 when the anti-Covid jab programme was launched with much fan- fare in the country. The Government fears that with such a pace, it will take years to inoculate an estimated 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers that it plans to cover in the first phase. “On Wednesday, 1,12,007 beneficiaries were vaccinated till 6 pm across 20 States and Union Territories,” said Additional Secretary Manohar Agnani at a press conference here. He, however, said that the final report for the day will be complied by late in the night. Ten cases of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) — four in Delhi, two in Karnataka, and one each in Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and West Bengal — have required hospitalisation so far, Agnani said. “Three people were hospi- talised after vaccination in Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. All of them have been discharged. Four benefi- ciaries in Delhi were hospi- talised after vaccination. Among them, one is under observation at Rajiv Gandhi Hospital, while three have been discharged. In Karnataka, one was discharged and one is under observation and in West Bengal, one is under observa- tion,” said the official. “There has been no case of serious/severe adverse event attributable to Covid-19 vac- cination till date,” the official added. C hina’s highest-profile entre- preneur, Jack Ma, appeared on Wednesday in an online video, ending a 2 1/2-month absence from public view that prompted speculation about the future of the e-commerce billionaire and his Alibaba Group. In the 50-second video, Ma congratulated teachers sup- ported by his foundation and made no mention of his dis- appearance or official efforts to tighten control over Alibaba and other internet companies over the past six months. The video appeared on Chinese business news and other web- sites. The normally voluble Ma disappeared from public view after he irked regulators by crit- icising them in an October 24 speech at a Shanghai confer- ence. Days later, regulators suspended the planned multi- billion-dollar stock market debut of Ant Group, a financial platform that grew out of Alibaba’s payments service, Alipay. That prompted specula- tion online about whether the 56-year-old Ma, China’s biggest global business celebrity and a symbol of its tech boom, had been detained or might face legal trouble. Alibaba and the government haven’t responded to questions about him. The Jack Ma Foundation said in a statement on Wednesday: “Jack Ma partic- ipated in the online ceremony of the annual Rural Teacher Initiative event on January 20.” The foundation and Alibaba didn’t respond to questions about Ma’s status and when his next public event might be. New Delhi: A farmer who allegedly consumed a poiso- nous substance at the Tikri bor- der died during treatment at a hospital here on Wednesday, police said. The deceased has been identified as Jai Bhagwan Rana (42), a resident of Pakasma vil- lage in Rohtak district of Haryana. He had consumed Sulphas tablets at the farmers’ protest site at Tikri on Tuesday, they said. In a purported sui- cide note, Rana said he was a small farmer and many peas- ants have taken to the streets to protest against the farm laws. D emocracy has prevailed,” newly inaugurated US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday in his maiden speech as he called on Americans “to defend the truth and defeat the lies”. Speaking shortly after tak- ing oath as the 46th President of the United States, 78-year- old Biden also pledged to repair America’s global alliances, which suffered during his pre- decessor Donald Trump’s four- year regime. “This is America’s day... Democracy has prevailed,” Biden said, apparently referring to Trump’s efforts to deny him victory in the November 3 election won by him. “With unity we can do great things,” he said referring to the challenges ahead of him from fighting the coronavirus to addressing racial injustice. “Unity is the path for- ward,” he asserted, laying out his vision to defeat the pan- demic, build back better, and unify and heal the nation. Hours after being sworn in as the 46th US president, Biden would sign 15 executive orders — including rejoining the Paris climate agreement, a 100-day mask mandate and reversing the Muslim ban — undoing some of the major policies of his predecessor Donald Trump. Biden’s first presidential actions would also include sending a comprehensive bill on immigration to the Congress, incoming White House officials said. The immi- gration bill proposes a eight- year pathway to illegal immi- grants and removing the per country cap for employment- based green cards, a move that would benefit hundreds and thousands of Indian IT professionals in the US, whose current wait period for legal permanent residency runs into several decades. C hhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said on Wednesday that the State BJP leaders had sold their paddy in Government primary centres while the party's top leadership was saying that sale of foodgrains in private agriculture markets will double the income of farmers. Interacting with the media, he said why did not the BJP leaders sell their pro- duce in a private agro-market. They should have proved their point on how income can be doubled by selling the paddy in the private agricul- ture market instead of at the official minimum support price. If the BJP leaders have confidence in the three "black laws" passed by the Central government, they should not have approached the govern- ment facilities to sell paddy, he said. Commenting on the pro- posed agitation of BJP on Friday, Baghel said there is no relevance for any agitation for farmers. It means they are protesting the three laws of the Central Government. The agitation is being done by those who have sold their produce and received the money. On moral grounds, there should be no protest. On gunny bags, the Chief Minister said despite a short- age, the paddy procurement is higher than what was pro- cured during the BJP tenure. Accusing the BJP leaders of shedding crocodile tears for the farmers, he said the Central government is creating hindrance as earlier permission was to procure 60 lakh tonnes but now only 24 lakh tonnes have been lifted. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

 · Taking note of submis- ... tighten control over Alibaba ... billion-dollar stock market debut of Ant Group, a financial platform that grew out of Alibaba’s payments service,

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  • ������������ ��������

    In a major climb down, theCentre has proposed thatthe three controversial farmlaws will be kept in abeyancefor a minimum of 18 monthsand it will form a joint com-mittee to look into other pend-ing demands of the agitatingfarmers, including repeal andlegal guarantee to minimumsupport price (MSP).

    The Government proposedthese initiatives in the 10thmeeting between theGovernment and agitatingfarmers. But farmer leadersdid not immediately acceptthe proposal and said they willrevert after their internal con-sultation on Thursday.

    The farmers wanted a com-plete withdrawal of the laws asa mere suspension of the lawsfor some period of time will notbring about any change, farmerleaders said on Wednesdayafter the 10th round of talksconcluded. The next round ofmeetings will be held onJanuary 22.

    After the meeting whichlasted for five hours, includingtwo breaks, Union AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar said the Governmenthas proposed to suspend theimplementation of the threelaws for 1.5 years, during whichperiod a joint committee ofrepresentatives from theGovernment and farmers’ sides

    can discuss all issues related tothe farmers’ agitation so that anappropriate solution can bearrived at and those protestingon Delhi borders in extremelycold weather return to theirhomes.

    During the talks the farm-ers’ unions said they will dis-cuss the Government’s pro-posal in detail and will comefor dialogue on January 22.

    The Minister said the talkswere held in a cordial atmos-phere despite some “naram-garam” moments (softeningand hardening of the stand)and farmers remainedadamant on their demand forthe repeal of the laws. “I feelthat talks are progressing in theright direction and there is apossibility of finding a resolu-tion on January 22,” Tomar

    said.After the meeting,

    Bharatiya Kisan Union(Ugrahan) president JoginderSingh Ugrahan said, “TheGovernment proposed to sus-pend the farm laws for one anda half years. We rejected theproposal but since it has comefrom the Government, we willmeet tomorrow and deliberateover it.”

    ���� ��������

    The Supreme Court onWednesday expressedstrong displeasure over theaspersions cast by some farm-ers’ unions on members of thecourt-appointed committee toresolve the impasse over newfarm laws, saying no adjudi-cating authority has been givento the panel of experts who are“brilliant minds in the field ofagriculture”.

    The top court said that ithas serious reservations thatcommittee members werecalled names and branded,which has “become a cultural

    thing now”.A bench headed by Chief

    Justice SA Bobde said, “Youmalign people according topublic opinion. I am very dis-appointed and sorry to see thekind opinion which has beenappearing in this press” andquestioned, “How can youmalign them just because theyhave expressed some views inthe past?”

    The bench also comprisingJustices AS Bopanna and VRamasubramanian issued

    notice and sought responsefrom Centre in two weeks ona separate plea of “KisanMahapanchayat”, a farmers’body from Rajasthan, seekingremoval of three remainingmembers of the apex-courtappointed panel and thereplacement of BhupinderSingh Mann, who had recusedhimself from the panel.

    Taking note of submis-sions of a lawyer that opinionson the panel members havebeen formed on the basis of

    media reports about their pro-farm laws views, the benchsaid, “You people unnecessarily cast aspersions.Can the people expressing their views in someother context, be debarredfrom the committee?”

    �������������� ��������

    The Delhi Police has sug-gested farmers’ unions tohold their proposed “Tractorrally” on January 26 on theKu n d l i - Ma n e s a r- Pa l w a lExpressway, instead of Delhi’s

    busy Outer Ring Road. However, farmers did not

    agree to the suggestion.Sources said a meeting will beheld again on Thursday withfarmers regarding the routesfor their tractor rally.

    On Wednesday, seniorpolice officials of the DelhiPolice and its counterpartsHaryana and Uttar Pradeshpolice officials met at VigyanBhawan to discuss the routeand arrangements of the pro-posed rally on Republic Day.

    According to sources, SS

    Yadav, the Joint Commissionerof Police, Northern Rangecoordinated the meeting fromthe Delhi Police withDepender Pathak, Special CP,Intelligence and Sanjay Singh,Special CP, Law and order.

    “The farmers unions weresuggested by the police officersto take out their rally on theKu n d l i - Ma n e s a r- Pa l w a l(KMP) Expressway, but theydid not agree. A meeting willbe held on Thursday again todig out a solution,” said thesources.

    ����� ��������

    Just when the newly-devel-oped vaccines against Covid-19 had given some hopes to theworld battling the pandemic, anew study pointed out that cur-rent vaccines may not workagainst future strain of thevirus.

    It also said that some coro-naviruses — the family ofviruses which includes the onecausing Covid-19 — can evolveto escape recognition by thehost immune system.

    The study, published inthe journal eLife, noted that ifthe novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes Covid-19evolves in the same way asother pathogens, current vac-cines against the virus maybecome outdated, requiringnew ones to be made to matchfuture strains.

    “Some coronaviruses areknown to reinfect humans, butit is not clear to what extent,this is due to our immunememory fading or antigenic

    drift,” said first author of thestudy Kathryn Kistler fromthe Fred Hutchinson CancerResearch Center in the US.

    Currently, at least 8 coun-tries, including India, havebegun or granted approval forvaccinating their people againstthe virus.

    “We wanted to investigatewhether there is any evidenceof coronaviruses related toSARS-CoV-2 evolving to evadeour immune responses,” Kistlersaid.

    When a person is infectedby a virus, or vaccinatedagainst it, cells part of theirbody’s immune system pro-duce antibodies that can recog-nise and bind to unique pro-teins on the virus’ surfaceknown as antigens.

    In order to provide immu-nity against the virus, theimmune system relies on beingable to “remember” the anti-gens that relate to a specificvirus, the scientists explained.

    However, they said insome viruses, such as the sea-sonal flu, the antigens are like-ly to change and evolve in aprocess called antigenic drift,and the immune system mayno longer respond to reinfec-tion.

    In the current study, the

    scientists looked at the fourseasonal human coronavirus-es (HCoVs) which are relatedto SARS-CoV-2 but typicallycause milder symptoms, suchas the common cold.

    HCoVs, the scientists said,have been circulating in thehuman population for 20-60years, meaning their antigensmay have faced pressure toevolve against the humanimmune system.

    �������������� ��������

    The anti-Covid-19 vaccina-tion drive has failed topick up the expected paceeven after the fifth day whenjust 1,12,007 healthcare work-

    ers received the jab onWednesday.

    A total 7.86 lakh health-care workers have been vacci-nated since January 16 whenthe anti-Covid jab programmewas launched with much fan-fare in the country. TheGovernment fears that withsuch a pace, it will take yearsto inoculate an estimated 3crore healthcare and frontlineworkers that it plans to cover

    in the first phase.“On Wednesday, 1,12,007

    beneficiaries were vaccinatedtill 6 pm across 20 States andUnion Territories,” saidAdditional Secretary ManoharAgnani at a press conferencehere. He, however, said that thefinal report for the day will becomplied by late in the night.

    Ten cases of adverse eventsfollowing immunisation(AEFI) — four in Delhi, two inKarnataka, and one each inUttarakhand, Chhattisgarh,Rajasthan and West Bengal —have required hospitalisationso far, Agnani said.

    “Three people were hospi-talised after vaccination inUttarakhand, Chhattisgarh andRajasthan. All of them havebeen discharged. Four benefi-ciaries in Delhi were hospi-talised after vaccination.Among them, one is underobservation at Rajiv GandhiHospital, while three havebeen discharged. In Karnataka,one was discharged and one isunder observation and in WestBengal, one is under observa-tion,” said the official.

    “There has been no case ofserious/severe adverse eventattributable to Covid-19 vac-cination till date,” the officialadded.

    ���� ����

    China’s highest-profile entre-preneur, Jack Ma, appearedon Wednesday in an onlinevideo, ending a 2 1/2-monthabsence from public view thatprompted speculation aboutthe future of the e-commercebillionaire and his AlibabaGroup.

    In the 50-second video,Ma congratulated teachers sup-ported by his foundation andmade no mention of his dis-appearance or official efforts totighten control over Alibabaand other internet companiesover the past six months. Thevideo appeared on Chinesebusiness news and other web-sites.

    The normally voluble Madisappeared from public viewafter he irked regulators by crit-icising them in an October 24speech at a Shanghai confer-ence. Days later, regulatorssuspended the planned multi-

    billion-dollar stock marketdebut of Ant Group, a financialplatform that grew out ofAlibaba’s payments service,Alipay.

    That prompted specula-tion online about whether the56-year-old Ma, China’s biggestglobal business celebrity and asymbol of its tech boom, hadbeen detained or might facelegal trouble. Alibaba and thegovernment haven’t respondedto questions about him.

    The Jack Ma Foundationsaid in a statement onWednesday: “Jack Ma partic-ipated in the online ceremonyof the annual Rural TeacherInitiative event on January20.” The foundation andAlibaba didn’t respond toquestions about Ma’s statusand when his next publicevent might be.

    New Delhi: A farmer whoallegedly consumed a poiso-nous substance at the Tikri bor-der died during treatment at ahospital here on Wednesday,police said.

    The deceased has beenidentified as Jai Bhagwan Rana(42), a resident of Pakasma vil-lage in Rohtak district ofHaryana. He had consumedSulphas tablets at the farmers’protest site at Tikri on Tuesday,they said. In a purported sui-cide note, Rana said he was asmall farmer and many peas-ants have taken to the streets toprotest against the farm laws.

    ���� ��������

    Democracy has prevailed,”newly inaugurated USPresident Joe Biden said onWednesday in his maidenspeech as he called onAmericans “to defend the truthand defeat the lies”.

    Speaking shortly after tak-ing oath as the 46th Presidentof the United States, 78-year-old Biden also pledged to repairAmerica’s global alliances,which suffered during his pre-decessor Donald Trump’s four-year regime.

    “This is America’s day...Democracy has prevailed,”Biden said, apparently referringto Trump’s efforts to deny himvictory in the November 3election won by him.

    “With unity we can do

    great things,” he said referringto the challenges ahead of himfrom fighting the coronavirusto addressing racial injustice.

    “Unity is the path for-ward,” he asserted, laying outhis vision to defeat the pan-demic, build back better, andunify and heal the nation.

    Hours after being sworn inas the 46th US president, Bidenwould sign 15 executive orders— including rejoining the Parisclimate agreement, a 100-daymask mandate and reversingthe Muslim ban — undoingsome of the major policies ofhis predecessor DonaldTrump.

    Biden’s first presidentialactions would also includesending a comprehensive billon immigration to theCongress, incoming WhiteHouse officials said. The immi-gration bill proposes a eight-year pathway to illegal immi-grants and removing the percountry cap for employment-based green cards, a move

    that would benefit hundredsand thousands of Indian IT

    professionals in the US, whosecurrent wait period for legal

    permanent residency runs intoseveral decades.

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    Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghelsaid on Wednesday that theState BJP leaders had soldtheir paddy in Governmentprimary centres while theparty's top leadership wassaying that sale of foodgrainsin private agriculture marketswill double the income offarmers.

    Interacting with themedia, he said why did notthe BJP leaders sell their pro-duce in a private agro-market.They should have provedtheir point on how incomecan be doubled by selling thepaddy in the private agricul-ture market instead of at theofficial minimum supportprice.

    If the BJP leaders have

    confidence in the three "blacklaws" passed by the Centralgovernment, they should nothave approached the govern-ment facilities to sell paddy,he said.

    Commenting on the pro-

    posed agitation of BJP onFriday, Baghel said there is norelevance for any agitation forfarmers. It means they areprotesting the three laws ofthe Central Government.

    The agitation is beingdone by those who have soldtheir produce and receivedthe money. On moralgrounds, there should be noprotest.

    On gunny bags, the ChiefMinister said despite a short-age, the paddy procurement ishigher than what was pro-cured during the BJP tenure.

    Accusing the BJP leadersof shedding crocodile tears forthe farmers, he said theCentral government is creating hindrance as earlierpermission was to procure 60lakh tonnes but now only 24lakh tonnes have been lifted.

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    Punjab’s two CabinetMinisters —Tript RajinderSingh Bajwa and SukhbinderSingh Sarkaria — onWednesday joined the ongoingprotest dharna by the CongressMPs at Jantar Mantar in sup-port of the agitating farmers.

    They demanded that theUnion Government shouldimmediately withdraw thethree black laws imposed onthe farmers.

    “For the last two months,farmers from across the coun-try have been struggling in thebitter cold on the Delhi border.So far, more than 100 farmershave lost their lives during theprotest. Despite this, the UnionGovernment is still not takingany concrete steps to resolvethe issue of farmers,” they said.

    They added that the UnionGovernment is even sendingnotices to the farmers andsupporters of farmers to sup-press the agitation.

    Bajwa and Sarkaria haveappealed to the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi not to makethis an issue of ego and comeforward to repeal the anti-farmer agriculture acts. Theysaid that Punjab Chief MinisterCapt Amarinder Singh hadalready convened a special ses-sion of the Punjab VidhanSabha and the House hadunanimously repealed the newagriculture laws forced by theUnion Government.

    Union Government shouldalso come out of the pressureof big corporates and immedi-ately repeal these laws, theyadded.

    ������������ � +������

    Agiant 24-metre-tall airpurifier tower will beinstalled in the Union Territoryof Chandigarh to combat airpollution. The country’s tallestair purifier tower is expected totreat air within a circumferencearea of almost 500 meters.

    The Central PollutionControl Board has notifiedChandigarh as one of the non-attainment cities, where the airquality is worse than the pre-scribed standards.

    “With an aim to improveair quality in the city, a 24metres (78 feet) tall air purifi-er will soon be installed here.The tower is fitted with a sys-tem to suck polluted air, pass itthrough a filter which separatesthe particulate matter (PM 2.5and PM10) and release theclean air,” said Debendra Dalai,Director, UT Department ofEnvironment, while talking to

    The Pioneer.He said, “A company

    named Pious Air Pvt Ltd hasproposed to install the air puri-fier tower for free of cost on apilot basis in the city. The totalcost of the project i.e. Rs 1.5crore would be borne by thecompany and it would beinstalled in next two months.”

    “The company has pro-posed five locations includingtwo sites in Sector 17, TribuneChowk, Transport Chowk andIndustrial Area for the instal-lation of air purifier tower.One location among them willbe finalized soon for the instal-lation,” he added.

    Apart from a giant airpurifier tower, the UTAdministration has plannedto install ten small towers at dif-ferent locations with poor airquality in the union territory.

    Giving details, Dalai said,“10 small air purifier towersstanding at 2-3 meters will be

    installed at crowded places orwhere exposure to vehicularemissions is high in the city.”

    This would be done underCentral Government’s NationalClean Air Programme (NCAP)to tackle the air pollution. Theinstallation of each tower willcost around Rs 2-3 lakh andaims at reducing pollutants atspecific spots and help improveair quality, he said.

    He added, “Chandigarhhas also been selected as one ofthe cities for the SourceApportionment study, to beconducted by the CentralPollution Control Board(CPCB). The study would beconducted for establishing thesources of pollutants in thecity.”

    The Chandigarh PollutionControl Committee (CPCC)has also planned to launch amobile based app for the citydenizens for redressal of theirgrievances related to the poor

    air quality.In the past few years,

    Chandigarh has recorded ahigh concentration of PM 10-(particulate matters with diam-eter of 10 microns or less) andPM2.5 (particulate matters lessthan 2.5 microns)-form of airpollution, which is consideredmost serious.

    Notably, the air qualityindex (AQI) was recorded at itsworst ever in November 2019in Chandigarh. The AQI wasrecorded between 300 and 400in the city, according to theCPCC data.

    An AQI between 0-50 isconsidered good, 51-100 satis-factory, 101-200 moderate,201-300 poor, 301-400 verypoor and 401-500 severe.

    As per the general analysisby CPCC, stubble burning,vehicle emissions, industriesemissions and constructionworks are the major factors forair pollution in the city.

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    Amid reports of vaccine hes-itancy among doctors andhealth workers, HaryanaNational Health Mission(NHM) director, Dr VK Bansal,on Wednesday, said that thehealthcare workers have noreason to doubt as except fewmild cases, no serious adverseevents have been reported so farafter immunization.

    Four days into the Covid-19 vaccination drive, almost30,000 healthcare workers havereceived the shot in about 250sessions across the State. Noserious adverse event hasoccurred yet due to the vaccine,he reiterated. Bansal said thatthe Health Department willconduct a vaccination drive onThursday at all the PrimaryHealth Centres (PHCs) of theState to facilitate the healthworkers. All districts havepicked four days in a week tohold Covid-19 vaccine ses-sions according to theirarrangements, he added.

    In an exclusive interviewwith ‘The Pioneer’ over thephone, Bansal talks about

    ongoing Covid-19 vaccinationdrive and steps being taken tocomplete the vaccinationprocess in the State: Excerptsfrom the interview:

    The turnout of health-care workers has been lowerthan expected over fearslinked to the safety of vac-cines. How would you reachout to those health workerswho have not turned up forvaccination so far?

    No serious adverse eventhas occurred yet due to the vac-cine. We are trying to allay theirfears saying that the concernsabout adverse effects and seri-ous problems, as of now, seemto be unfounded, negligible andinsignificant and that theadverse events following

    immunisation reported “werefairly low in the first four daysof the vaccination drive in theState. We urged healthcareworkers not to hesitate to getthe Covid-19 vaccine as it wasalso their societal responsibil-ity to get inoculated apart fromsafety from coronavirus.

    How many reports ofadverse events followingimmunization have beenfound so far in Haryana?

    So far 250 vaccine ses-sions have been held in theState and Covishield vaccineshots have been given to about30,000 beneficiaries since thevaccination drive started.Officials are collecting data. Asper report on Monday, theState reported 52 adverseevents following immuniza-tion. But all are mild cases sofar. We are repeatedly sayingthat no serious adverse eventhas occurred yet due to the vac-cine.

    Have you set the timelinefor vaccination of healthcareworkers in the State?

    About 1.80 lakh healthcareworkers will be administeredthe vaccine in the first phase.

    All districts have picked fourdays in a week to hold Covid-19 vaccine sessions accordingto their arrangements. TheHealth Department will con-duct a vaccination drive onThursday at all the PrimaryHealth Centres (PHCs) of theState to facilitate the healthworkers. All the health work-ers have been directed to go toPHCs concerned to get them-selves vaccinated. The seconddose of the vaccine would beadministered to these recipientson the 28th day of the firstdose. For this, the ChiefMedical Officers (CMO) havebeen directed to ensure that thesecond dose of vaccine is keptsafe for the beneficiaries. Afterthe health workers, the vaccinewill be administered to thefrontline workers, includingpolicemen, paramilitary forces''personnel, sanitation workersand disaster management vol-unteers. Thereafter, peopleabove 50 years of age andthose aged below 50 years withco-morbid conditions will becovered under the inoculationdrive.

    Will the Health

    Department conduct a moti-vational programme amonghealth workers to completethe vaccination drive at theearliest?

    I along with DirectorGeneral Health Services SurajBhan Kamboj, AdditionalDirector General HealthServices, Dr Veena Singh, CivilSurgeon, Panchkula Dr JasjeetKaur, State ImmunizationOfficer Dr. Virender Ahlawat,were among the few who cameforward and got themselvesvaccinated so as to infuse con-fidence among other healthworkers of the State towards thevaccination. No deadline hasbeen fixed for the vaccinationas it would continue till all arevaccinated. Immunization siteswill be increased. Self- moti-vation among health workersare needed to complete the vac-cination process earliest.Moreover, we are not fulfillingour societal responsibility if avaccine assigned to us is notbeing taken. The whole worldis clamouring for a vaccine. Werequest all to accept the jab.Vaccine hesitancy should extin-guish because Covid-19 inoc-

    ulation is taking us towards theelimination of this calamity. Weare very fortunate that we arerunning this vaccination driveat a time when the pandemiclooks like to be in a controlledsituation. So in this period, bytaking the jabs, we have to cre-ate a wall of vaccine inducedimmunity and be ready for anykind of eventuality in future.

    Persons having multiplediseases seem to be victims ofCovid-19. When would theybe able to secure vaccines?

    Definitely, such personsare at high risk of developingthe infection and progressingtowards severe illness. Thevaccine will be safe for themand they are among the prior-ity groups.

    Is it necessary for a recov-ered person to take the vac-cine?

    A recovered patient willhave a good amount of anti-bodies for at least three months.With the passage of time, theantibodies will begin todecrease. Vaccination afterthree months of recovery cansupplement the formation ofantibodies.

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    To eradicate corruption,Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar onWednesday announced revi-sion of Haryana Schedule Rates(HSR) which remainedunchanged since 1987. As perthe announcement, new HSRwill come into force fromMarch 1, 2021.

    Besides this, once the newHSR becomes effective, all theitems will be included in theHSR, putting an end to inclu-sion of non-scheduled items.The revised HSR will act asbase for inviting new tendersand evaluating work perfor-mance. The HSR will be revisedafter every five years,announced the Chief Minister.

    Presiding over the first ofits kind meeting withAdministrative Secretaries andCivil Engineer Contractorsheld here, Khattar alsoannounced that from nowonwards, State-level IT solu-tions will be introduced forworks pertaining to civil engi-neering. This IT system will beimplemented from April 1,2021. Under this system, con-tractors will have to get them-selves registered. Apart fromthis, the registered contrac-tors will not have to give bidsecurity. However, at the timeof registration they will nowhave to fill a bid security dec-laration form, announcedKhattar.

    Bringing in more trans-parency in the tendering works,

    Khattar announced that fromnow onwards, e-tendering of allthe civil works will be done,thereby putting an end to themanual tendering process.Along with this, IT-based tech-nical evaluation and allotmentof work will too be done onlineby the concerned departments.Besides this, manual filling upof Measurement Books (MB)by the contractors will bereplaced to the ‘e-medium’.TheChief Minister announced thatnow the payment of bills will bemade within a period of 30days, from the date the bill ispassed. If any department caus-es delay in payment of any con-tractor, then the concernedcontractor will be paid aninterest amount at the rate of 10percent per annum for the

    delayed period. However, ifthe payment is made within thefixed period of 30 days, thenthe State Government willdeduct the interest amount atthe rate of 10 percent perannum from the bill payment.

    The technical evaluationwill be done for the civil worksabove rupees one crore and thetechnical report of these workswill be uploaded on the State-level IT system.

    The objections regardingthis report will be invited with-in a period of seven days andthe same should be resolvedwithin a period of 15 days.Furthermore an Integrity pactwill be included in all the ten-ders amounting above rupeesone crore, announced the Chief Minister.

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    Bird flu — that has alreadyhit nearly 12 States acrossthe country including neigh-bouring Himachal Pradesh andHaryana — has perched inPunjab also with the Statereporting three cases of theavian influenza in the past 24hours.

    The State recorded its firstcase on Tuesday when a goose,found dead a week ago atSiswan dam reservoir inMohali district, tested positivefor the H5N1 strain.

    On Wednesday, samplesfrom two poultry farms ofDera Bassi’s Behra village test-ed positive for the H5N1 strainof bird flu at the Bhopal labo-ratory. Besides, a sample of adead crow, taken in Mohali, hasalso tested positive.

    Notably, the H5N1 strainprimarily infects birds causinga highly infectious, severe res-

    piratory disease. But, it canalso be transmitted to humans.As per reports, the human casesof avian influenza occur occa-sionally with 60 percent mor-tality rate.

    “We have been sending 50samples of the bird droppingseveryday for testing from thestate’s different poultry farmssince the outbreak of bird flu.The report of samples takenfrom two poultry farms atDera Bassi in Mohali wasreceived this morning and test-ed positive,” a senior govern-ment official told The Pioneer.

    The samples from DeraBassi’s Alpha Poultry farm —having 55,000 livestock, andRoyal Poultry farm — with60,000 livestock — have beentested positive for the influenza.

    The officials maintainedthat culling would be under-taken in the two poultry farms.

    Mohali DistrictAdministration, on January

    15, had sent a suspected case ofbird flu from the area to aNorthern Regional DiseaseDiagnostic Laboratory(NRDDL) in Jalandhar. It wasthen sent to the NationalInstitute of High SecurityAnimal Diseases (NIHSAD),Bhopal, for further investiga-tion.

    Earlier, the goose wasfound dead near the SiswanDam reservoir in Mohali andits samples were sent to theNorthern Regional DiseaseDiagnostic Laboratory(NRDDL) in Jalandhar for test-ing on January 8.

    The samples were thensent to the Bhopal-basedInstitute of High SecurityAnimal Diseases testing afterthe NRDDL found it to be asuspected case of bird flu.

    The official said that ateam of the Animal HusbandryDepartment had also visitedthe reservoir area.

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    Four more persons died ofCOVID-19 in Punjab, tak-ing the toll to 5,520, while 199fresh coronavirus cases tookthe infection count to 1,71,136on Wednesday, according to amedical bulletin. There are2,405 active COVID-19 casesin the State now, it said.

    Among the fresh cases wit-nessed in the state, Ludhianaaccounted for 38, Mohali 37and Bathinda 25. A total of 202patients were discharged afterrecovering from the infectionin a 24-hour period, taking thenumber of recoveries to1,63,211, as per the bulletin. Atotal of 42,92,764 samples havebeen collected for testing so farin the state, it said.

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    With an RTI responseexposing the “lie” of theCentre’s claim on the farmlaws having been approved bythe high-powered committeeon agricultural reforms, PunjabChief Minister Capt AmarinderSingh on Wednesday said thatit was now obvious that theAkalis and the Aam AadmiParty (AAP) had been spread-ing a carnage of lies at thebehest of the BJP-led CentralGovernment, with whom thetwo parties were working incollusion to damage the farm-ers’ interests.

    Reports, citing a reply bythe Planning Commission to aRight to Information (RTI)query, suggest that the farmordinances were promulgatedand introduced in theParliament in June 2020 without the report of theChief Ministers’ committeebeing ever appraised by the Governing Council of

    NITI Aayog.“This is in stark contrast to

    the claims of the CentralGovernment, which both SADand AAP had been shameless-ly parroting in an apparent bidto promote the BJP’s anti-farmer agenda,” said the ChiefMinister.

    Notably, the Union Ministerof State for Food DanveRaosaheb Dadarao had claimed,before the Lok Sabha, that thehigh-powered committee hadapproved the EssentialCommodities (Amendment)Bill, which Capt Amarinderhad categorically rejected andwhich has now been provedwrong by the RTI reply.

    “Far from basing the farmlaws on the discussions anddecisions of the committee, thefact, as validated by the RTIresponse, is that the Committeereport had not even been placedtill now before the GoverningCouncil of the NITI Aayog,”Capt Amarinder pointed out.

    Once the report is made

    public, everyone will now knowwho said what in theCommittee meetings, wherePunjab was not even a part inthe first one, while the seconddiscussed some financial issueswith Finance MinisterManpreet Badal in attendanceand the third only participat-ed by Secretary-level officials,he added.

    The Chief Minister lam-basted the state’s oppositionparties over their campaign oflies, deception, and misinfor-mation to promote their col-lective agenda of instigating thepeople against the democrati-cally-elected CongressGovernment in the State.

    “Their bundle of lies havebeen completely exposed bythe RTI response,” he added,slamming the BJP, the SAD andAAP for shamelessly misleadingthe nation on such a sensitiveissue which had triggered mas-sive unrest and had the poten-tial of disturbing the peace of hisstate and the country.

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    The union territory ofChandigarh on Wednesdayreported 28 fresh COVID-19cases taking the total infectionsto 20,623. No COVID-19 relat-ed death has been reported inthe city in the last six days.2,03,275 samples have so farbeen tested in the city. A totalof 830 tests were conducted inthe last 24 hours.

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    Haryana on Wednesdayreported four coronavirusfatalities which pushed thedeath toll to 2,997, while 105fresh cases took the State'sinfection tally to 2,66,686.Ofthe new cases of infection,Faridabad reported 18 while 16from Gurugram. Haryana has1734 active cases at presentwith 2,61,955 patients discharged so far after recovery.The State has a recovery rate of 98.23 per cent, the bul-letin stated.

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    The ICAR- Indian Instituteof natural resins and GumsNamkum , Ranchi organizedon Farm Training cum FieldDay on “Calliandra calothyrsus- A good host in Lac IntegratedAgroforestry system” to pro-mote the necessary awarenessamong farmers at Mungadhi,Angara block, Ranchi districton Wednesday.

    The event was organisedunder the ICAR-ICRAFProject. The main aim of theevent was at improvingfarmer’s technical knowledgeand encourages a change oftheir farming methods. Dr. DrR K Yogi Sc. & Co-PI IINRG,Namkum, welcomed thegathering during the inau-gural session. Director, Dr.Nirmal Kumar ICAR-IINRG,Chief Guest of the pro-gramme addressed the farm-ers and gave his openingremarks and emphasized toadopt new technologicalinterventions for livelihoodsecurity.

    He also appreciated theadopter farmers for theirinterest in lac integrated farm-ing system. Mukhiya TatiPanchayat, Kunti DeviRamanand Bedia appreciat-ed the work and effort ofICAR-Indian Institute ofNatural Resin and Gums and

    ICRAF, Nairobi, Kenya. Shealso pointed out the issuesrelated to marketing of agri-culture produce includingvegetables, fruits and lac.

    Dr N. K. Sinha Pr. Sc,IINRG, Namkum highlightedthe importance of Raisingand management of Lac hostplantations. Addressing tothe farmers, Dr. S. Ghosal,Head LPD division &Principal Scientist(Agronomy), ICAR-IINRG,Namkum , Ranchi highlight-ed the importance of nutrientmanagement for Lac hostplants. Dr. V. D. Lohot Sr. Sc.briefed about the Calliandracalothyrsus - A Multipurposebusy host . Dr. A.Mohanasundaram Convener,Sc. & Co-PI elaborated onimportance of scientific laccultivation on Calliandracalothyrsus.

    While addressing to thefarmers Dr. J. Ghosh, Co-Convener, Pr. Sc. & PI briefedabout the scientific lac culti-vation on kusum, palas andSemialata. Rajgopal N N Sc.elaborated about Lac associ-ated fauna and pest manage-ment in Kusmi and RangeeniLac crop. Miss Chanu, Sc.IINRG explained about theintegrated cultivation of veg-etables and fruits with lachosts . Dr. NandkishoreThombare Sc. IINRG, PPD

    division, explained about pro-cessing and value addition oflac. Dr R K Yogi, Co- con-venor Sc. & Co-PI briefedabout opportunities and chal-lenges of marketing lac intribal areas and also high-lighted the benefit cost ratio(3.11) of C. calothyrsus.

    A f ield visit of theMungadi village conductingOFT of the existing success-ful lac integerated agroforestry farming model (Semialata+ Vegetables +Papaya + Calliandra + Ber)conducted .

    Around 150 farmers from10 different villages participat-ed in the field day cum train-ing program which includedposter and stall display of laccultivation on C. calothyrsusand display of lac cultivationand pest management. Foldersof lac cultivation on C.calothyrsus, F. semialata, Kusm,Ber and Palas distributed to thefarmers. With the successfulmodel of Mungadhi villagefarmers and majority wereimpressed with the last twoyears yield. Selected farmersinterested in perusing lac inte-grated agro forestry farmingwere distributed Calliandraplants, tree pruner, Rocker(Gatur) sprayer. All the farm-ers were pleased with the factthat they had learnt about newfarming techniques.

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    Director General of Police(DGP) MV Rao onWednesday directed police per-sonnel across Jharkhand totighten the noose aroundopium cultivators, identify drugpeddlers and bust racketsinvolved in selling illegal nar-cotics and liquor in the State.Chairing a closed door meet-ing with cops from all the 24districts via video conferencing,Rao also asked police person-nel to intensify anti-Maoistoperations across the state.

    Rao’s focus on busting rack-ets of drug peddlers and opiumtraders assumes significance asseveral investigations in thepast have revealed the involve-

    ment of Left Wing Extremist(LWE) groups in cultivation andsupply of opium in the farflung villages of Jharkhand,officials present in the meetingsaid.

    In the past one month, sev-eral incidents of LWE rebelskilling innocent villagers havebeen reported in Jharkhand.Security forces had last monthneutralized two dreaded PeoplesLiberation Front of India (PLFI)rebels, and the combing oper-ations were ongoing, policesaid.

    “All opium plantationsacross the state should bedestroyed. People involved inselling illegal narcotics shouldbe identified and put behind thebars,” said Rao.Besides directing

    his men to intensify operationsagainst drug traffickers andLWE rebels, the DGP askedthem to identify and nab crim-inals who were roaming freedespite arrest warrants issuedagainst them, sources whoattended the meeting said,claiming that Rao wanted tolaunch an all round campaignagainst offenders in cities as wellas villages in order to put acheck on the deteriorating lawand order situation in the state.

    A press communiquéreleased by the police head-quarters later in the day statedthat Rao spoke to the police per-sonnel about the challenges inimplementation of weekly offdays for policemen deployed invarious police stations.

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    State BJP has filed a petitionagainst Mandar MLABandhu Tirkey and PoreyahatMLA Pradeep Yadav on anti-defection charges under the10th schedule of Constitutionin Speaker Court. The petitionhas been filed by State BJP VicePresident Vinod Sharma withthe plea that these two leadershave won the election of JVM(P) symbol, but later switchedsides to Congress.

    Sharma said, “BothBandhu Tirkey and PradeepYadav have won the election onJVM(P) ticket but later theyswitched side to Congressdespite the fact that ElectionCommission has consideredthem as independent in RajyaSabha election.”

    Sharma said, “In the RajyaSabha election held last year,the Election Commission goingby the anti-defection provisionit has considered Tirkey andYadav as independent, whileBabulal Marandi was consid-ered as BJP member.”

    Sources said this is the firstpetition filed by BJP againstthese two MLAs on anti-defec-tion. The BJP by filing morepetitions aims at creating ‘prob-lem’ for these two MLAs inSpeaker Court. Sources saidthat several Congress legislatorshave filed a petition against BJPleader Babulal Marandi onanti-defection charges.

    Speaker Rabindra NathMahato had initiated proceed-ings suo motu under the 10thschedule of the constitution(anti-defection laws) to decideif the merger of JharkhandVikas Morcha-Prajatantrik(JVM-P) led by its chiefMarandi into the BJP inFebruary.

    Marandi had moved theJharkhand high court chal-lenging the Speaker's notice thatwas stayed by a judicial orderlast month.

    The Jharkhand high courton Tuesday vacated its earlierorder staying the Speaker'snotice against leader of oppo-sition Babulal Marandi of theBJP after the former stated thathe would not continue withanti-defection proceedings thatwere initiated suo motu againstMarandi.

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  • RAIPUR | THURSDAY | JANUARY 21, 2021chhattisgarh 03

    On the occasion of Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti, ‘Shabad Gurbani Kirtan’ was held at the Pandri- based Gurudwara. Devotees offered special prayers in Raipuron Wednesday. Pioneer Photo

    STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

    Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghelon Wednesday directed offi-cials to launch a “CG Mart” todisplay and sell products man-ufactured by women groups inGauthans and self-help groupsin forest areas under one roof.

    These would includehoney, herbal medicines,Bastar artefacts, handloomfabric and kosa textile, an offi-cial statement said. Thiswould help in the better sale ofthe products, benefitting thewomen and self-help groups.

    Baghel said CG Martsshould first open in Raipurand then at Division andDistrict-level. Mustard seedsand flaxseeds from Telghanishould also be kept for sale in

    the CG Mart, he said.The Chief Minister was

    addressing the beneficiaries ofGodhan Nyaya Yojana at aceremony held at his resi-dence-cum-office. On the

    occasion, he transferred the11th and 12th installmentsunder the Yojana to the bankaccounts of the beneficiaries.

    A total of `4.51 crores waspaid as the 11th installment

    for cow dung procuredbetween December 16 andDecember 31. The paymentfor dung procured betweenJanuary 1 and January 15amounted to `3.02 crores.

    Adding this, nearly `71crores have been paid so far tothe farmers and livestock owners.

    Baghel said that more than57,000 of the beneficiaries arelandless farmers. There are3,851 active Gothans in thestate, wherein women self-help groups are preparingvermi compost from cow dung.

    He said that nearly 8,800women have got employmentin community ‘Baari’. Womengroups in 150 gauthans areengaged in mushroomproduction, 238 in fisheries,210 in goat rearng, 395 inpoultry farming and 618 inother economic activities.

    About 60,000 womenhave got direct employmentfrom these activities, he said.More employment would becreated as more gauthans goactive.

    STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

    Astrong network to pro-vide agricultural educa-tion is ready inChhattisgarh, ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghelsaid on Wednesday, as heinaugurated four horticul-ture colleges and a KrishiVigyan Kendra.

    The new collegesopened in Saja (Bemetradistrict), Arjunda (Balod),Dhamtari (Jashpur) andLormi (Mungeli district).The new Krishi VigyanKendra opened inKondagaon.

    Speaking from hisresidential office, Baghelsaid that when Chhattisgarhwas formed, it had only oneinstitute to impartagriculture education:Indira Gandhi AgricultureUniversity.

    "Today the state has 46

    colleges of agriculture andhorticulture education, eightresearch centres and 27 agri-culture science centres oper-ating under this university,"he said.

    The opening of agricul-tural colleges and agricul-tural science centres willbenefit the farmers withadvanced technology anddeveloping agriculture relat-ed economic activities,which would raise their

    standard of living, he said.Wednesday's event was

    organized through videoconferencing on the 35thFoundation Day of IndiraGandhi AgriculturalUniversity.

    The Chief Ministerinaugurated and laid foun-dation for infrastructuredevelopment works worthRs 115 crores in the agricul-tural colleges, agriculturalscience centres and new

    agricultural colleges.These works include

    construction of agriculturalcollege buildings, boys' hos-tels, research centres, hi-technurseries, seed processingbuildings, hatcheries,administrative buildings inthe science centres andfarmers' hostels.

    Baghel also released aDigital Krishi Panchang andKrishi Darshika 2021 pre-pared by the Indira Gandhi

    Agricultural University."We have sanctioned

    funds for the agriculturalcolleges which did not havecollege buildings and hos-tels," Baghel said.

    "We are looking forwardto establishing new agricul-tural science centres inGaurela-Pendra-Marwahiand Saja. A proposal hasbeen sent to the Centre," headded.

    Baghel said theChhattisgarh government ispaying special attentiontowards expansion ofagricultural education.

    Agriculture MinisterRavindra Choubey, FoodMinister Amarjeet Bhagat,Industries Minister KawasiLakhma, Women and ChildDevelopment MinisterAnila Bhendia and IndiraGandhi AgriculturalUniversity Vice ChancellorDr. S. K. Patil were presenton the occasion.

    STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

    With the arrest of ninepersons including themastermind and a companyemployee, ChhattisgarhPolice on Wednesdayclaimed to solved the loot-ing of `31 lakh from thecashier of a steel firm ofRaipur.

    Raipur SeniorSuperintendent of PoliceAjay Kumar Yadav told ThePioneer that the nine werecompany employeeHinchharam Sahu (38),mastermind Hemant Sahu(24) and accomplicesTikendra Sen (18), BhushanVerma (32), Likesh Patel(20), Hemkalyan Kosle (20),Harish Patel (19), DomeshSahu (28) and Bhupendra

    Patel (32), all residents ofRaipur district.

    On Saturday morning,three bike-borne maskedturbaned men robbed andinjured the cashier of a steelcompany, NityanandaChhura alias Amit (32), of

    `31 lakh near Sarora in Urlaindustrial area.

    During investigation,employee Hinchharam keptchanging his statementsregarding the incident.Later, he confessed to hisinvolvement in the crime

    and named the others.The employee told the

    police that he tipped off themastermind that the cashieralways carried a lot of cashand that no police com-plaint would be made sinceit was black money.

    The police learnt that themastermind had asked apolice informer to take partin the robbery. On December14 too, the accused had triedto loot the cashier but couldnot succeed.

    After coming to knowabout the arrest of theemployee, the others fled toGoa in a rented car.

    Based on CCTV footageand telephone call records,the police held the master-mind and four men fromAnuppur in MadhyaPradesh and the others fromtheir villages in Raipurdistrict.

    The police have seized`25 lakh cash, seven mobilephones, two bikes and asteel rod used in the crimefrom them.

    STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

    On the third day of Covidvaccination inChhattisgarh, the ICUin-charge of Dr BRAmbedkar MemorialHospital, Dr O.P. Sundarani,and its pulmonary medicinechief Dr R.K. Panda took thevaccine shots on Wednesday.

    Both doctors are healthyand have returned to workafter vaccination. They haveurged the people of the stateto get themselves vaccinated,a press release said.

    “During the Covid crisis,doctors had not taken anyweek off. We had to workeven during festival so thatpatients could remainhealthy and it makes mehappy,” Dr Panda said in the

    press release.Meanwhile, health

    experts said despite takingCovid vaccines, one shouldfollow Covid protocol andmaintain hygiene/physicaldistancing. After vaccinationit takes 14 days for the bodyto generate immunity against

    corona.That the numbers of

    corona cases are decreasingdoesn’t mean it cannotspread again, they said.

    Covid vaccination ishappening in Chhattisgarhon pre-decided sites from 9am to 5 pm.

    STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

    The second batch of coron-avirus vaccine Covishieldreached the Swami VivekanandaAirport Raipur on Wednesday.

    The 23 boxes of vaccineweighing 739 kg reached inIndigo flight 464. The flight wasgiven a water cannon salute, aRaipur airport official said

    Chhattisgarh received 3.32lakh doses of Covishield vaccineson January 13. It was shifted todifferent districts and on January16 the vaccination started.

    Covid vaccination is beingconducted in pre-decided spotsfrom 9 am to 5 pm. Vaccination isnot done on Tuesday, Friday andSunday.

    2,896 to faceinterview for1,372 AssistantProfessor postsR A I P U R : T h eChhattisgarh PublicService Commissionon Wednesdayannounced that 2,896candidates have beenselected after the writ-ten exam for interviewfor the posts of 1,372Assistant Professors invarious disciplines.

    The candidatescan visit theCommission's websitewww.psc.cg.gov.in tosee the results of theAssistant Professor(Higher EducationDepartment) Exam2019, a press releasesaid.

    ‘CG Mart' to sell productsof women groups: Baghel

    Ambedkar Hosp ICUhead, pulmonaryexpert get Covid shots

    Second batch ofCovishield reaches Raipur

    Strong network of agricultural education ready in C’garh: CM

    STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

    For the first time, a successfulopen heart surgery was con-ducted at the Advance CardiacInstitute (ACI) of Pt JawaharlalNehru Memorial MedicalCollege in Raipur.

    This is the first time thatopen heart surgery has beensuccessfully done in any govern-ment hospital in Chhattisgarh, apress release said.

    The patient was a 42-year-old woman from Uttar Pradesh.She is fine and will be dischargedafter six days, said DrKrishnakant Sahu, Head ofDepartment at ASI who led theprocedure.

    Health Minister T.S. SinghDeo later met with the patient andcongratulated the team of doctorswho performed the surgery.

    “This is a beginning and wehave to improve the services

    here. When it comes to facilitiesin government hospitals, here wehave multiple world class med-ical machines. In the comingfuture, the number of beds atACI will be increased,” he said.

    The patient had a hole in herheart about which she wasunaware. A few days back shedeveloped breathing trouble,leading to the discovery.

    The woman, hailing from afinancially weak background,reached ACI Raipur wheredoctors found out that she had‘atrial septal defect’ of 5X3centimetres.

    The surgery took aboutthree and a half hours and thepatient was on ventilator for sixhours. Later, her conditionstabilized.

    Open heart surgery held in ACI Raipur Nine held for `31L robbery in Raipur

    STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

    The Chhattisgarh PoliceHeadquarters will conductPhysical Efficiency Test (PET)from January 28 for recruit-ment of 2,259 constables (GD),it was announced onWednesday.

    Only those candidateswho appeared in the writtenexamination held onSeptember 30, 2018 will be eli-gible to appear in the test, thepress release said.

    A roll number wise sched-ule has been released for thePET of a total of 48,278 candi-dates for filling 2,259 vacantposts of constable (GD) cadre,it said.

    The PET test will be heldfrom January 28 to February15 at five centers: Swami

    Vivekananda Stadium (Kota,Raipur), CAF second battalion(Sakri, Bilaspur), CAF fifthbattalion (Kangoli, Bastar),Government Post GraduateCollege Ground (Ambikapur)and CAF first and seventhbattalion (Bhilai, Durg).

    Race for 800 meters and100 meters, long jump, shotput (ball throw) and high jumpwill be conducted in the PET.

    The marking pattern andother detailed informationregarding the competition isavailable on ChhattisgarhPolice website https://cgpo-lice.gov.in

    The candidates for PETcan download their admit cardfrom the website from 10:30am on January 22. Thecandidates are being informedvia SMS too.

    Physical Efficiency Test forconstables to start on Jan 28

    Security forcesdefuse 30kg IEDin DantewadaDANTEWADA: Securityforces diffused a powerfulIED weighing 30 kg inChhattisgarh's Dantewadadistrict, police said onWednesday.

    The IED was planted inthe under constructionAranpur-Nilawaya road. Itsdetection averted a majortragedy, a senior policeofficial said.

    The IED was foundwhile security forces wereon a combing operation inthe Maoist affectedDantewada district,Dantewada Superintendentof Police Abhishek Pallavasaid.

    Aranpur-Nilawaya isthe same region whereDoordarshan camerapersonalong with three securitypersonnel were killed in aNaxalite ambush last year.

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    The Supreme Court onWednesday said it woulddecide on February 5 theschedule of hearing on thepleas pertaining to the 2018Maharashtra law grantingreservation to Marathas ineducation and jobs after thestate government said a caseof this nature be heard oncephysical hearing commences.

    The apex court is present-ly hearing matters throughvideo-conferencing sinceMarch last year amid theCOVID-19 pandemic.

    A five-judge constitutionbench headed by JusticeAshok Bhushan was told bysenior advocate MukulRohatgi, who was appearingfor Maharashtra, that the stateis requesting for an adjourn-ment and the matter be heardin March.

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    The Congress on Wednesdayupped the ante on Centreand journalist Arnab Goswamifor his explosive WhatsAppchats saying the leakage ofsecret military operations wastreason and those who wereparty to the act deserved nomercy and must be punished.

    Led by former DefenceMinister AK Antony, theCongress demanded an enquiryto determine the source of theleak and whether the leak com-promised the Balakot opera-tions. Antony was joined by for-mer home minister SushilKumar Shinde, former externalaffairs minister SalmanKhurshid and Leader ofOpposition in Rajya SabhaGhulam Nabi Azad

    The attack on Centre andGoswami comes a day after for-mer party chief Rahul Gandhitermed the leakage a criminalact and action to be taken withutmost importance. Rahul’s sib-ling and party general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi too took tosocial media to express her dis-appointment the wayGoverment is handling the cur-rent defence related leakageand said how can the Modi gov-ernment remain a mute spec-tator in this criminal act whenlives of nation’s brave soldierswere lost in the Pulwama attack.

    Expressing his shock onGoswami’s remarks to ex-BARCchief Partho Dasgupta threedays before the IAF strike inBalakot that “something big isgoing to happen”, Antony said

    leaking official secret is a crimebut leaking information on mil-itary operations was an antinational act and those involvedmust be punished.

    Antony also said only fourto five civilians in the top ech-elons of the government had theBalakot strike information and“someone from among themhas leaked it.”

    “Having worked with themilitary people I am sure no onefrom the military could everleak such information,” the for-mer defence minister said.

    “One of the top five civiliansin the government is suspect. Ithas to be enquired immediate-ly on war footing as to who thatperson is. Whoever is respon-sible for the leakage must bepunished for treason and thisjournalist who was in possessionof sensitive military operationshe has to be punished. TheGovernment must order a prop-er enquiry. Whoever is respon-sible, whoever is party to theleakage of this sensitive militaryoperation deserves no mercy.He has to be punished,” saidAntony.

    Shinde said that “leaking ofofficial secret is a criminal actbut leaking of official secretabout military operation, anational security matter, that toosensitive military operationsespecially a military strike istreason, anti national.”

    It is not just criminal actionit is anti national activity, saidAntony. He said only three orfour or five ministers and offi-cials could have known of theoperation.

    ����� ��������

    Stressing that ownershiprights were being given towomen, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Wednesdayreleased a financial assistanceof around �2,691 crore to 6.1lakh beneficiaries in UttarPradesh under the PradhanMantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin(PMAY-G).

    “Owning a house givesconfidence,” the Prime Ministersaid and pointed out that underthe scheme two crore houseshave been built in the ruralareas.

    Referring to the progress ofhousing scheme in UP, he said“this shows UP Government isactive” and under BJPGovernment “UP ko nayipehchaan aur nayi udaan milihai”.

    Assembly polls are due inUP, electorally the most impor-tant State in the country, nextyear with the political scenealready heating up. BJPPresident JP Nadda is on a two-day tour of the state fromThursday.

    Modi said expressways inthe state would be speeded upand completed soon.

    The Modi-Governmenthas promised ‘housing for all’by 2022 under PMAY scheme.

    Union Rural DevelopmentMinister Narendra Tomar and

    Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterAdityanath were also present atthe launch, which was held viavideo conference.

    The assistance wouldinclude the release of a firstinstallment to 5.30 lakh bene-ficiaries, and a second install-ment to 80,000 beneficiarieswho have already availed thefirst installment under PMAY-G.

    “In the past few years,around 2 crore houses havebeen built in rural areas alone,”Modi said during the launch.

    “Under Pradhan MantriAwas Yojana, keys of 1.25 crorehouses have been handed overto people. Around �1.50 lakhcrore has been given by theCentral Government alone, tobuild these houses,” he said.

    The Prime Minister com-pared these figures with that ofthe Opposition’s, and said thatpeople of Uttar Pradesh willnever forgive the previousGovernments for their wrongpolicies.

    “I am talking aboutUttarakhand Pradesh especial-ly, the poor didn’t believe thatthe Government can help them

    in constructing a house,” headded. “The previous Awaasschemes, the kind of housesbuilt under them were nothidden from anyone.”

    The Prime Minister saidunder the housing scheme hisgovernment has made specialemphasis on giving ownershipof houses to women.

    PMAY-G is an extension ofthe Indira Awas, which waslaunched by the CongressGovernment in the 1980s. Itgave �70,000 as cash incentivesto rural families in need ofpucca homes.

    Modi’s PMAY hasincreased the amount to Rs 1.2lakh per house in plain areasand �1.3 lakh in hilly or remoteareas. Each house needs to beat least 270 sqft in size.

    Popularly known as the“housing for all” mission,through the scheme, the gov-ernment aims to subsidise theconstruction of 2.95 crore ruralhouses and 1.2 urban houses by2022. So far, 1.26 crore houseshave been built across thecountry under the scheme,according to a release by thePrime Minister’s Office.

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    The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) onWednesday said it has arrestedSrinivas Raju Mantena, founderand chairman of MantenaConstructions and his associ-ate Aditya Tripathi of ArniInfra who is a resident ofBhopal under Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA).

    They are accused in themoney laundering investiga-tion into the e-Tender Scam inMadhya Pradesh where a largenumber of infrastructure com-panies, mostly based inHyderabad, have conspiredwith few senior Governmentofficials and IT serviceproviders of MPSEDC to tam-per the eTenders and to illegallyobtain large value contracts.

    The accused were pro-duced before the PMLACourt, Bhopal and have beenremanded to judicial custodytill February 3, officials said.

    The ED had initiatedinvestigation based on theEOW, Bhopal FIR No 12/2019dated April 10, 2019, where inMax Mantena Micro JVHyderabad and GVPREngineers Ltd., Hyderabadare named as the main bene-ficiaries of this scam.

    As per the FIR, the MP e-Procurement Portal is man-aged by MPSEDC and AntaresSystems Limited, Bangalore

    and Tata Consultancy Services(TCS). They are given a con-tract for 5 years for the main-tenance and operation of thesaid portal.

    EOW, Bhopal has alreadyfi led a preliminar ychargesheet and it has beenestablished from the IP accesslogs that Osmo IT SolutionsPvt Limited of VinayChoudhar y and VarunChathurvedi had misused thelogin credentials provided byAntares and had illegallyaccessed and tampered the e-tenders and changed the bidvalues of certain companies tomake them L1, the ED said ina statement.

    “In return they had takenillegal gratification from thebidding companies. MaxMantena JV Hyderabad hadillegally won the tender No.10030 worth �1,030 crore inthis fashion. There arelargenumber of other tenderswhich are also under scrutinyand are suspected to have

    been won by using the samemodus operandi,” it said.

    During the investigationunder PMLA, search opera-tions were conducted inHyderabad, Bhopal andBangalore at more than 20locations at the residence andoffice premises connected withMantena Constructions, MaxInfra, GVPR Engineers, ArniInfra, Osmo IT Solutions andAntares and large amount ofincriminating documents anddigital devices were seized.

    Mantena group has seen abig spurt in successful bids inthe last few years either direct-ly or in association with otherHyderabad-based companies,it said.

    Investigation conductedso far revealed that SrinivasRaju Mantena, has played acrucial role in the entire scam.With the assistance of hisfriend Aditya Tripathi he setup a front entity Arni Infra inBhopal and used it to routefunds for hawala activities.

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    Almost a year after directingoil companies to ensurefuel stations are at least 50metres away from schools, hos-pitals and residential areas, theCentral Pollution Control Board(CPCB) has now asked them tomaintain similar distance fromwater bodies too. The move isaimed at protecting the waterbodies from getting any possi-ble contamination due to seep-age of diesel or petrol, if any.

    The draft guidelines comein the backdrop of opposition byresidents and environmentalistsin Haryana over theGovernment’s plan to allot15,000 square metres of forestland in Chakkarpur village toIndian Oil Corporation to set upa fuel station, which they allegedwould contaminate a nearbywater channel in the fragile area.

    The CPCB draft guidelinessaid that all the surface waterbodies irrespective of utilityshall be protected from any pos-sible contamination. “Theseinclude lakes, ponds, streams,rivers, wetland, sea and anyother. Retail outlets shall not belocated within a distance of 50metres from the nearest point ofwater bodies. In case of streamsand rivers, the distance shall beconsidered from flood plain.”

    As a preventive measure,retail outlets coming within 50meter to 100 metre from thenearest point of surface water

    body shall have secondary con-tainment by way of doublewalled tanks or concrete pro-tection walls so as to minimisegroundwater soil contamina-tion, said the guidelines whichhave been posted on the CPCBwebsite for comments and sug-gestions by February 2, 2021.

    It further said that groundwater quality monitoring ofretail outlets within 100 meterfrom the nearest point of surfacewater bodies shall be conduct-ed by the OMCs once in everyquarter.

    Last year, an expert com-mittee comprising membersfrom IIT Kanpur, NationalEnvironmental EngineeringResearch Institute (NEERI),The Energy and ResourcesInstitute (TERI), Ministry ofPetroleum and Natural Gasand CPCB had framed theguidelines for setting up of newpetrol pumps in the country. Ithad prohibited setting uppetrol pumps close to theschools, hospitals and resi-

    dences citing health hazards.The expert committee was

    set up on the directions of theNGT which is seized of a pleaseeking a cap on the numberof petrol pumps so as to avoidtheir adverse effects on theenvironment.

    As per the guidelines,“Retail outlets shall not belocated within a radial distanceof 50 meters from schools, hos-pitals (10 beds and above) andresidential areas designated asper local laws. In case of con-straints in providing 50 metersdistance, the retail outlet shallimplement additional safetymeasures as prescribed byPESO(Petroleum andExplosives SafetyOrganisation).

    “In no case, the distancebetween new retail outletsfrom schools, hospitals andresidential areas shall be lessthan 30 meters. No high ten-sion line shall pass over theretail outlet,” the CPCB guide-lines said.

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    The Centre on Wednesdaystressed upon the need formaking the public transportpeople friendly, safe, affordable,accessible, cost effective andpollution free. Union Ministerfor Road Transport andHighways Nitin Gadkari saidthere is a need of implement-ing the Intelligent TransportSystem (ITS) in the operationas well as the NationalCommon Mobility Card inorder to make its operationfully digitised and efficient.

    Addressing the 40thMeeting of TransportDevelopment Council lastevening, Gadkari said thatStates must increasingly adoptthe alternative fuels in theoperation of busses andstressed the use of CNG, LNG,Electric vehicles and ethanolblended fuels.

    Transport Ministers fromseveral states including Assam,Aandhra Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi,Haryana, Maharashtra,Rajasthan, Goa, Madhya

    Pradesh and Mizoram partici-pated in the meeting, along withtheir Transport Secretaries andTransport Commissioners.

    Gadkari assured the statesof his full support and cooper-ation in their endeavours tomake public transport modernand efficient gave the exampleof the model of Transport forLondon. He said that state mustavail all the schemes of centralgovernment such as FAME-II togradually shift to electric vehi-cles as their cost would comedown drastically in near future.

    The Union Transport min-ister also stressed upon theneed of innovation by the statesand the need for improving thequality of buses and the publictransport so that peoples areattracted to avail their servicesby shunning the personal vehi-cles.

    Union Minister of State forRTH Gen (Retd) Dr V K Singhstressed upon the adoption ofalternative fuels such as CNG,LNG and ethanol etc. which willnot only reduce the vehicularpollution but would also savethe precious forex.

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    The iconic bronze statue ofa seated Mahatma Gandhiat the Parliament complex wason Wednesday relocated fromits place facing the main gateto a space near Gate number 3,to make space for the ongoingconstruction of the newParliament building.

    The 16 feet high bronzestatue of a seated Bapu hasbeen a constant and mostpreferable site of protests byopposition leaders to protestagainst the Government’s poli-cies. Sculpted by Ram Sutar,the statue was unveiled onGandhi’s birth anniversary in1993 by then PresidentShanker Dayal Sharma.

    Initial plan was to do soduring the one-month gapbetween the first and the sec-ond part of Budget Session thatbegins on Jan 29

    The space in front of thestatue has been a preferredlocation for the Oppositionlawmakers to protest againstthe government policies andproposed laws. During the last

    monsoon session, someOpposition lawmakers campedovernight in front of the stat-ue to protest against the hur-ried passage of the farm bills.

    Officials added theGandhi statue is eventuallyplanned to installed just out-side the current Parliamentbuilding, where that of late for-mer Union home ministerGovind Ballabh Pant current-ly stands. Pant’s statue isplanned to be shifted to NewDelhi Pant Marg named afterhim.

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    The Skiing resort of Gulmargin Kashmir valley has beenturned into a big canvas by thebudding artists assembled thereto create “ice sculptures” andother art forms. Braving subzero temperature conditionsthese artists have already start-ed working on different themesto give shape to their imagina-tion.

    To facilitate these artists theDepartment of Tourism hascome forward to ensure theyget a stimulating environmentduring the four day long com-petition. The department has

    also kept ready large ice blocksfor the participants to ensurethey are able to carve out theshape as per their chosenthemes.

    In the competition over 30participants drawn from vari-ous districts of the Kashmir val-ley, both amateur and profes-sional sculptures, are partici-pating. On WednesdayDirector Tourism, KashmirNisar Wani flagged off theparticipants from TRC,Srinagar. The special campwas organised to attract touristsand promote the rich cultural heritage of Jammu &Kashmir.

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    The frightening “Goli maroslogan…” (shoot them) hastraveled out of Delhi and con-tinues to ride the poll bound airof Bengal with both theTrinamool Congress and theBJP mimicking the haterhetoric coined by a UnionMinister an year ago.

    A Suvendu Adhikari-ledsaffron rally in Hooghly districtpicked up on Wednesday fromwhere the TMC workers left inSouth Kolkata a day before call-ing upon the listeners to shootdown the traitors.

    Even as the BJP supportersthat walked the triumphantroad show that ended at CircusGround at Chandannagarshouted “Desh ke Gaddaron koGoli Maaro Salon ko (shoot thetraitors)” Suresh Sahoo thelocal BJP leader who led the

    slogan said “there is nothingwrong in the slogan as it wasintended at persuading thearmy to shoot down the peo-ple who conspires against ourmotherland.”

    His superior leader andState BJP spokesperson SamikBhattacharya however politelydissociated the party from suchslogans saying “the BJP neversupports such things,” only toquickly tell between the “GoliMaro...” of TMC and BJP.

    “Though the BJP does notpromote such kind of sloganswhich might have been givenin the heat of the moment …

    but this slogan cannot be equat-ed with the one raised by theTMC leaders as our supporterswere shouting the slogan con-demning the people who areinvolved in anti-national activ-ities whereas there slogan wasaimed at the people who haveleft the Trinamool to join theBJP … this indicates provoca-tion of violence.”

    On Tuesday another rallyof the Bengal ruling party ledby senior leaders like ArupBiswas and SobhandebChattppadhyay both Ministersshouted “Bangal ke gaddaronko Goli maro salon ko (shoot

    the traitors of Bengal).”Much like Bhattacharya

    his TMC counterpart too dis-tanced his party from such“avoidable coinages” but added“the BJP is doing the samething today after teaching theTMC the moral conduct yes-terday,” asking “who are theyasking the so-called army toshoot … aren’t they asking theIndian citizens to be shot down… is this the kind of politicalchange they are planning tobring in Bengal.”

    Meanwhile, Adhikari wholed his fourth consecutive“house-full” road show onWednesday once again chal-lenged Chief Minister MamataBanerjee to compete fromNandigram as she earlierpromised saying “let me tellyou madam (Banerjee)! I per-sonally undertake to ensureyour defeat at Nandigram irre-spective of whosoever con-

    tests from BJP against you.”Hailing Prime Minister

    Narendra Modi as the“strongest Prime Minister witha definite vision … who hastaken bold steps which manyGovernments would not takefor years,” Adhikari said “on theother hand TMC has beenreduced to a private limitedcompany with the ChiefMinister as its Chairperson, hernephew (Abhishek Banerjee) asits Managing Director and anoutsourced company (read theone of Prashant Kishore) as itselectoral advisor.”

    Saying that he could nottake decisions despite holdingthree ministerial posts in theTrinamool Government theformer Bengal minister saidthat “in that party there is onlyone post and rest are lampposts and I too was one ofthem.”

    Attacking the junior

    Banerjee he said “the Tolabaz(extortionist) nephew has toexplain why he appointedVinay Mishra as the vice pres-ident of TMC Yuva (partyyouth wing)” adding howMishra — currently at large —is being frantically looked forby the CBI in cow, coal andsand smuggling cases.

    “There is one step for theCBI before it reaches the doorsteps of the ‘nephew’ … it hasonly to arrest Vinay Mishra,” hesaid.

    Attacking the ChiefMinister for mimicking theCentral schemes and imple-menting them in Bengal bychanging their names, Adhikarisaid “this Government talks ofproviding jobs whereas it hasgobbled up three Departmentsending more than 5.5 lakhjobs… in lieu of which she hascreated 25,000 contractualworkers only.”

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    There was more erosion inthe Trinamool banks withparty’s MLA from Shantipur,Arindam Bhattacharya joiningthe saffron party in Delhi.

    Bhattacharya who joinedthe BJP in presence of party’sBengal observer KailashVijaybargiya said the “MamataBanerjee Government hasdone nothing for Bengal in thepast several years of its rule….There is no industrialization,no future vision … we couldnot work for the party or thepeople as eligible people werenot given responsibilities andonly corrupt and sidekickswere decorated with higherposts.”

    Bhattacharya had won the

    Shantipur seat in Nadia districtas a Congress candidate withLeft support but changed overto the TMC though he wouldnot resign after that. On Wednesday he joined theBJP.

    On whether more peoplewill join the saffron outfit inthe coming days, Vijabargiyasaid “indeed there are many ofthem who are coming to us …and will join the party whenour Home Minister Amit Shahwill visit Bengal on January 30and 31.”

    Incidentally at least twoministers and three MLAs ofthe ruling party had beenspeaking incoherently, sourcessaid. Last week Vijayavargiyaclaimed that over 40 morewere ready to jump ship.

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    Amid protests by theOpposition BJP, theMumbai Police registered anFIR against the team membersof web serial “Tandav”, includ-ing Bollywood actor Saif AliKhan, serial director Ali AbbasZafar and others.

    A day after the BJP’sspokesperson Ram Kadam andhis supporters staged a protestmarch to the Ghatkopar policestation in north-east Mumbaiand lodged a complaint, thepolice lodged an FIR againstthe team members of “Tandav”which is currently being shownon the OTT platform AmazonPrime Video.

    The “Tandav” membershave been booked under sec-tions 153-A (promoting enmi-

    ty between different groupsunder religion, race et) 295-A(Deliberate and mischievousacts intended to outrage religiousfeelings) and 505 (2) (state-ments creating or promotingenmity, hatred or ill-feelingsbetween classes) of IPC.

    Apart from Saif and direc-tor Ali Zafar, the others whohave been named are the webserial’s producer HimanshuMehra, writer Gaurav Solanki,Amazon’s top officials likeAparna Purohit and AmitAgarwal.

    The registration of an FIRby the Ghatkpar police coin-cided with the arrival of aUttar Pradesh Police team toinvestigate the complaintsagainst the web series.

    Maharashtra HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh

    assured the visiting team thataction would be taken in the“Tandav” matter.

    Earlier on Sunday, theMinistry of Information &Broadcasting had sought anexplanation from the AmazonPrime Video on the contro-versial portions in the webserial.

    On its part, the “Tandav”team tendered an apology say-ing: “The web series ‘Tandav’ isa work of fiction and anyresemblance to acts and per-sons and events is purely coin-cidental. The cast and crew didnot have any intention tooffend the sentiments of anyindividual, caste, community,race, religion or religious beliefsor insult or outrage any insti-tution, political party or person,living or dead.”

    ����� �55�

    After a long wait the UnionCabinet headed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hasfinally approved construction of850 MW Ratle HydroelectricProject in Jammu & Kashmir atan investment of �5,282 crore.On its completion the Unionterritory of Jammu & Kashmirwill become power surplus,will create 4,000 jobs in J&K,directly & indirectly, and willcontribute to overall socio-eco-nomic development of the UT.

    While thanking the PrimeMinister Lt- Gov Manoj Sinhatermed it a historical decisionas it will go a long way in ensur-ing unprecedented develop-ment in Jammu & Kashmir.

    Mentioning the lacklustreapproach of the successiveGovernments towards the exe-cution of this important

    Hydroelectric Power Project,the Lt Governor said thatJammu & Kashmir was deprivedof this mega project for so longbecause the previous regimeswere scared to move ahead dueto Pakistan’s threats of going toInternational court for arbitra-tion, and making representationin the World Bank.

    He also observed, “nowJ&K is witnessing unprece-dented growth and develop-ment in every sector; we areunlocking J&K’s potential to beself-reliant in the energy sector

    within a short span of time”.Highlighting the key fea-

    tures of the mega project, theLt Governor said that apartfrom making J&K energy suf-ficient, the project will create4,000 jobs in J&K, directly &indirectly, and will contributeto overall socio-economicdevelopment of the UT. Inaddition, the Kwar project (540MW) has been decided to betaken up. This will result in aninvestment of �4,264 crore andcreate more than 2000 jobs inthe UT, he added.

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    On the eve of the visit ofCongress supremo RahulGandhi to western Tamil Nadu,chinks in the party’s alliancewith DMK surfaced as theDravidian major entrusted SJagathrakshakan MP to form awinnable alliance in the unionterritory of Puducherry whichgoes to the polls along withTamil Nadu to elect a new leg-islative assembly.

    Puducherry is adminis-tered as on today by a coalitionGovernment headed by VNarayanasamy of the Congresswith the support of the DMK.Jagathrakshakan, a diehard loy-alist of the Karunanidhi fami-ly, told the executive commit-tee members of the DMK’sPuducherry, to get ready tofight in all the 30 Assembkyconstituencies in the UnionTerritory.

    “An alliance under the

    leadership of DMK will beformed here. Party president MK Stalin will announce thecourse of action the partywould follow in Puducherry.He wants you to ensure victo-ry in all 30 constituencies,” saidJagatrakshakan who heads anindustrialist family with inter-ests ranging from alcohol topower production.

    The DMK had contestedthe last assembly election inPuducherry as part of analliance led by the Congress.“The development ofPuducherry has taken a beat-ing for long. The mills havebeen shut and nothing hasbeen done to revive the airportand port during the last ten

    years,” Jagatrakshakan pointedout.

    KS Alagiri, president,TNCC was visibly upset overthe development arising out ofthe DMK’s stance onPuducherry. “We do not expectany major changes in the pol-icy of DMK. But if need aris-es, we are always ready with analternate course of action,” saidAlagiri while speaking toreporters at Tirupur.

    Stalin, while speaking to alocal newspaper in Chennaihad ruled out any possibility ofthe DMK forming a coalitiongovernment in Tamil Nadu.“My earlier assessment wasthat the DMK would win 200seats of its own.

    Now I feel our prospectshave increased in all 234 con-stituencies. The alliance part-ners are working hard with thecommon objective of forminga DMK Government,” Stalinsaid.

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    Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha mem-ber Priyanka Chaturvedi onWednesday asked the Centreseveral pertinent questionsregarding the Chinese occu-pation of Indian territory,including whether India hadgiven up its claim on the landoccupied by China and whatwas the extent of the Beijing-occupied land recovered bythe Narendra ModiGovernment ever since it cameto power in 2014.

    Alluding to media reports— based on the satellite imagesavailable in public domain —about the construction of newsettlements by China in IndianTerritory of Arunachal Pradeshduring the past one year,Priyanka shot off identical let-ters to Defence MinisterRajnath Singh and ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar,

    seeking answers to severalquestions regarding theChinese troops’ occupation inthe Indian territory.

    Among other things,Priyanka asked as to “howmuch of our land at present hasbeen illegally occupied byChina since 1947 onwards asper GoI records the chronolo-gy of occupation of theseparcels of lands”.

    “What is the change in thestatus quo since 2014? Have werecovered any land illegallyoccupied by China or have wegiven up claim on them as jus-tified by cabinet ministers andleaders? What is theGovernment of India doing torecover these occupied territo-ries and have we lost any newterritory since 2014?,” the SenaMP asked.

    Priyanka wanted to knowas to what was stopping Indiafrom seeking accountability

    from China, “considering thatthe current government cameon the plank of prioritisingnationalism & border security”.

    “I look forward to yourresponse conside


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