12
H onouring the pact to defuse tension, India and China have carried out pull back of their troops from the stand-off sites at the Pangong Tso (lake) in Eastern Ladakh. The military commanders of the two Armies will meet on Saturday to focus on the other friction points, including Hot Springs, Gogra and the Depsang valley. The upcoming meeting of the Corps Commanders is part of the agreement that stipulates that the two officials will meet 48 hours after the complete withdrawal of troops from the southern and north- ern banks of the Pangong lake. This will be the tenth round of such meeting since the face- offs between the two Armies at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) started over ten months ago. The upcoming round will start at 10 am at the Moldo border meeting point on the Chinese side in the Chushul sector, sources said here on Friday. Confirming that the two sides abided by the agreement to completely withdraw their troops and tanks from the Pangong lake, officials said the process, which began on February 10, was over on Thursday. It is the first step in the long process to restore peace at the LAC in Ladakh, they said, adding local com- manders of the two armies ver- ified the withdrawal.Also, the Chinese pullback was con- stantly monitored via drones and satellite imagery by India round-the-clock, official said. The disengagement will also be reviewed by the Corps Commanders on Saturday. As regards the agenda for the upcoming talks, officials said India is likely to press for faster disengagement of troops from both the sides at the remaining stand-off sites. At present, more than one lakh troops besides tanks and heavy guns are deployed in forward areas at the LAC in Ladakh since the stand-offs began in May last year. On February 11, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament about an agree- ment between India and China on disengagement in the north and south banks of Pangong lake. The agreement mandat- ed both sides to “cease” for- ward deployment of troops in a “phased, coordinated and verifiable” manner. Under the agreement, he said, China will pull back its troops to east of “Finger 8” areas in the northern bank of Pangong lake while the Indian troops will be based at their permanent base at Dhan Singh Thapa Post near “Finger 3” in the region. Similar action would take place on the south bank of the lake, he said. Sources on Friday confirmed that troops from both the sides had gone back to their respective positions agreed upon by India and China. The Indian delegation at Saturday’s talks will be led by Lt Gen PGK Menon, the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps while the Chinese side is expected to be headed by Maj Gen Liu Lin, the com- mander of the South Xinjiang military district of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). In his statement in Parliament, the Defence Minister also said it was agreed to convene the next meeting of senior commanders of both sides within 48 hours of com- pletion of the disengagement in the Pangong lake areas so as to resolve all other remaining issues. He also said talks were on at the diplomatic and mil- itary levels to bring down tem- perature. Rajnath, however, reiterated that India did not concede anything during the talks and subsequent agree- ment. The Chinese military built several bunkers and other structures in the areas between Finger 4 and 8 and had blocked all Indian patrols beyond Finger 4, triggering strong reaction from the Indian Army. In the nine rounds of military talks, India had specif- ically insisted on withdrawal of Chinese troops from Finger 4 to Finger 8 on the north bank of Pangong Lake. The moun- tain spurs in the area are referred to as Fingers. The Chinese insisted during the talks that the Indian troops should pull back from some strategic hilltops on the south- ern ban of the lake. In August last year, Indian troops occupied a number of strategic heights in the Mukhpari, Rechin La and Magar hill areas around the southern bank after the Chinese PLA attempted to intimidate them in the area. F or the first time, China has officially admitted that its soldiers were killed in the bloody brawl with the Indian troops on June 15 last year in the Galwan valley in Ladakh. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) put the number of its casualties to four. The fierce hand-to-hand fight, in which the Chinese used iron rods and sticks stud- ded with nails, claimed lives of 20 Indian Army personnel, including the commanding officer. Acknowledging the casu- alties on its side, China on Friday said four officers and soldiers stationed in the Karakoram Mountains have been recognised by the Central Military Commission of China (CMC) for their sacrifice in the border confrontation with India. This admission was published in the PLA Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese military. Incidentally, the Chinese admission comes at a time when Armies of the two coun- tries are disengaging from the friction points in Ladakh. As regards the casualties, the CMC, the overall high command of the PLA headed by President Xi Jinping, has awarded Qi Fabao, the regi- mental commander from the PLA Xinjiang Military Command, the title of “Hero regimental commander for defending the border,” Chen Hongjun with “Hero to defend the border,” and awarded first- class merit to Chen Xiangrong, Xiao Siyuan and Wang Zhuoran, state-run Global Times quoted the PLA Daily report as saying. According to the report, three PLA soldiers were killed in the combat while another soldier died while crossing the river when he went to sup- port the others. Qi Fabao, the regimental commander of the Chinese military, sustained a serious head injury, it said. The PLA Daily report claimed the Indian soldiers attacked the Chinese military personnel with steel tubes and cudgels and threw stones. This is the first time China has acknowledged casualties and details of these officers and soldiers’ sacrifice, four of whom died when dealing with the Indian military’s “illegal trespassing” of the Galwan Valley Line of Actual Control (LAC), the report said. H earing the contempt peti- tion filed by the Odisha Government regarding the Kotia border dispute with Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court on Friday granted four weeks’ time to Odisha to file its rejoinder to claims of Andhra Pradesh. During the hearing, coun- sel for Andhra Pradesh Mahfooz Nazki argued that by no stretch of imagination can it be stated that there was a breach of undertaking or of any order passed by the apex court and the contempt petition should be junked. Odisha’s counsel senior advocate Vikas Singh sought a four-week adjournment of hear- ing, to which advocate Mahfooz Nazki for Andhra Pradesh said that he had no objection. Later, the court adjourned matter for four weeks. Earlier, the Collector of Vizianagaram of Andhra Pradesh, in his reply to the court, has stated that three concerned villages, Ganjaybadra, Pattuchennuru and Paguluchennuru, fall under Araku Parliamentary con- stituency and Saluru Assembly constituency of Andhra Pradesh. Lok Sabha and Assembly elections have been conducted by Andhra Pradesh Government in villages since 1952 while panchayat polls by AP Government were also held in the villages in 2006 and 2013. After Friday hearing, Odisha’s Advocate-on-Record Sibo Shankar Mishra told media that claims made by Andhra Pradesh in court about having held Parliamentary and Assembly elections in the bor- der areas in Koraput district in Odisha are totally false. This point and other claims of Andhra Pradesh would be proved untrue in the counter- affidavits to be filed along with pictorial evidences by Odisha in the court soon.

The Pioneer...“We always see Krishna with Radha or Rukmini (Laxmi), but in Puri Jagannath Lord Krishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra (Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’s

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Page 1: The Pioneer...“We always see Krishna with Radha or Rukmini (Laxmi), but in Puri Jagannath Lord Krishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra (Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’s

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Honouring the pact todefuse tension, India and

China have carried out pullback of their troops from thestand-off sites at the PangongTso (lake) in Eastern Ladakh.The military commanders ofthe two Armies will meet onSaturday to focus on the otherfriction points, including HotSprings, Gogra and theDepsang valley.

The upcoming meeting ofthe Corps Commanders ispart of the agreement thatstipulates that the two officialswill meet 48 hours after thecomplete withdrawal of troopsfrom the southern and north-ern banks of the Pangong lake.This will be the tenth round ofsuch meeting since the face-offs between the two Armies atthe Line of Actual Control(LAC) started over ten monthsago.

The upcoming round willstart at 10 am at the Moldoborder meeting point on theChinese side in the Chushulsector, sources said here onFriday.

Confirming that the twosides abided by the agreementto completely withdraw theirtroops and tanks from thePangong lake, officials saidthe process, which began onFebruary 10, was over onThursday. It is the first step inthe long process to restorepeace at the LAC in Ladakh,

they said, adding local com-manders of the two armies ver-ified the withdrawal.Also, theChinese pullback was con-stantly monitored via dronesand satellite imagery by Indiaround-the-clock, official said.The disengagement will also bereviewed by the CorpsCommanders on Saturday.

As regards the agenda forthe upcoming talks, officialssaid India is likely to press forfaster disengagement of troopsfrom both the sides at theremaining stand-off sites. Atpresent, more than one lakhtroops besides tanks and heavyguns are deployed in forwardareas at the LAC in Ladakhsince the stand-offs began inMay last year.

On February 11, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh toldParliament about an agree-ment between India and Chinaon disengagement in the north

and south banks of Pangonglake. The agreement mandat-ed both sides to “cease” for-ward deployment of troops ina “phased, coordinated andverifiable” manner.

Under the agreement, hesaid, China will pull back itstroops to east of “Finger 8”areas in the northern bank ofPangong lake while the Indiantroops will be based at theirpermanent base at Dhan SinghThapa Post near “Finger 3” inthe region.

Similar action would takeplace on the south bank of thelake, he said. Sources on Fridayconfirmed that troops fromboth the sides had gone backto their respective positionsagreed upon by India andChina.

The Indian delegation atSaturday’s talks will be led byLt Gen PGK Menon, theCommander of the Leh-based

14 Corps while the Chineseside is expected to be headedby Maj Gen Liu Lin, the com-mander of the South Xinjiangmilitary district of the People’sLiberation Army (PLA).

In his statement inParliament, the DefenceMinister also said it was agreedto convene the next meeting ofsenior commanders of bothsides within 48 hours of com-pletion of the disengagementin the Pangong lake areas so asto resolve all other remainingissues. He also said talks wereon at the diplomatic and mil-

itary levels to bring down tem-perature. Rajnath, however,reiterated that India did notconcede anything during thetalks and subsequent agree-ment.

The Chinese military builtseveral bunkers and otherstructures in the areas betweenFinger 4 and 8 and had blockedall Indian patrols beyondFinger 4, triggering strongreaction from the IndianArmy. In the nine rounds ofmilitary talks, India had specif-ically insisted on withdrawal ofChinese troops from Finger 4

to Finger 8 on the north bankof Pangong Lake. The moun-tain spurs in the area arereferred to as Fingers. TheChinese insisted during thetalks that the Indian troopsshould pull back from somestrategic hilltops on the south-ern ban of the lake.

In August last year, Indiantroops occupied a number ofstrategic heights in theMukhpari, Rechin La andMagar hill areas around thesouthern bank after theChinese PLA attempted tointimidate them in the area.

������������������ ������ ������������������� ������� ������� ������������������� ����������� ��� ���������� �������������� �������

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For the first time, China hasofficially admitted that its

soldiers were killed in thebloody brawl with the Indiantroops on June 15 last year inthe Galwan valley in Ladakh.The People’s Liberation Army(PLA) put the number of itscasualties to four.

The fierce hand-to-handfight, in which the Chineseused iron rods and sticks stud-ded with nails, claimed lives of20 Indian Army personnel,including the commandingofficer.

Acknowledging the casu-alties on its side, China onFriday said four officers andsoldiers stationed in theKarakoram Mountains havebeen recognised by the CentralMilitary Commission of China(CMC) for their sacrifice in theborder confrontation withIndia. This admission waspublished in the PLA Daily,the official newspaper of theChinese military.

Incidentally, the Chineseadmission comes at a timewhen Armies of the two coun-tries are disengaging from thefriction points in Ladakh.

As regards the casualties,the CMC, the overall high

command of the PLA headedby President Xi Jinping, hasawarded Qi Fabao, the regi-mental commander from thePLA Xinjiang MilitaryCommand, the title of “Heroregimental commander fordefending the border,” ChenHongjun with “Hero to defendthe border,” and awarded first-class merit to Chen Xiangrong,Xiao Siyuan and WangZhuoran, state-run GlobalTimes quoted the PLA Dailyreport as saying.

According to the report,three PLA soldiers were killedin the combat while anothersoldier died while crossingthe river when he went to sup-port the others. Qi Fabao, theregimental commander of theChinese military, sustained aserious head injury, it said.

The PLA Daily reportclaimed the Indian soldiersattacked the Chinese militarypersonnel with steel tubes andcudgels and threw stones.

This is the first time Chinahas acknowledged casualtiesand details of these officersand soldiers’ sacrifice, four ofwhom died when dealing withthe Indian military’s “illegaltrespassing” of the GalwanValley Line of Actual Control(LAC), the report said.

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Hearing the contempt peti-tion filed by the Odisha

Government regarding the Kotiaborder dispute with AndhraPradesh, the Supreme Court onFriday granted four weeks’ timeto Odisha to file its rejoinder toclaims of Andhra Pradesh.

During the hearing, coun-sel for Andhra Pradesh MahfoozNazki argued that by no stretchof imagination can it be statedthat there was a breach ofundertaking or of any orderpassed by the apex court and the

contempt petition should bejunked. Odisha’s counsel senioradvocate Vikas Singh sought afour-week adjournment of hear-ing, to which advocate MahfoozNazki for Andhra Pradesh saidthat he had no objection.

Later, the court adjournedmatter for four weeks. Earlier,the Collector of Vizianagaram ofAndhra Pradesh, in his reply tothe court, has stated that threeconcerned villages,Ganjaybadra, Pattuchennuruand Paguluchennuru, fall underAraku Parliamentary con-stituency and Saluru Assemblyconstituency of AndhraPradesh. Lok Sabha andAssembly elections have been

conducted by Andhra PradeshGovernment in villages since1952 while panchayat polls byAP Government were also heldin the villages in 2006 and 2013.

After Friday hearing,Odisha’s Advocate-on-RecordSibo Shankar Mishra told mediathat claims made by AndhraPradesh in court about havingheld Parliamentary andAssembly elections in the bor-der areas in Koraput district inOdisha are totally false. Thispoint and other claims ofAndhra Pradesh would beproved untrue in the counter-affidavits to be filed along withpictorial evidences by Odisha inthe court soon.

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Page 2: The Pioneer...“We always see Krishna with Radha or Rukmini (Laxmi), but in Puri Jagannath Lord Krishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra (Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’s

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It is indeed great news forOdia movie lovers as ‘Kalira

Atita’, directed by Nila MadhabPanda, has made its entry intothe race for Oscars.

“In a year full of chal-lenges, feel extremely happy toannounce Kalira Atita hasmade its entry into the Oscarrace in general entry categoryfor best picture, best actor,best director and many othercategories,” Tweeted Panda.

“It’s being made availablefor academy screening,” headded.The movie, starringPitobash Tripathy, revolvesaround a young man fromSatabhaya village in

Kendrapada district whoreturns to his village to finddevastation caused by climatechange. The character Gunu,the protagonist essayed byPitobash, symbolises the strug-gle of innumerable hapless vil-lagers who were at the receiv-ing end of nature’s fury.

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Scaling up its credibility, theInternational Institute of

Information Technology (IIIT,Bhubaneswar), established bythe State Government in 2006,has grown into an institute ofnational and internationalrepute with improved qualityof students, faculty, academiceco-system and higher place-ment records.

This was known at aBoard of Governors (BoG)meeting of the institute heldunder the chairmanship ofChief Secretary SureshChandra Mohapatra onFriday.The Chief Secretarythanked IIIT Director ProfGopal Nayak and Registrar

Prof Ajit Dash for their effortsin developing the institute toits present level. He wantedfurther improvement in thequality of teaching, learning,research and incubation so asto match the IIIT with otheradvanced institutes in the sec-tor. Director Prof Nayak said,“The IIIT, Bhubaneswar hasjoined JoSAA/CSAB counsel-ing conducted for NITs andIIITs from OTA-ranked stu-dents. All seats for the currentacademic session have beenfilled up.

This year the average qual-ity of the students at the entrystage has improved signifi-cantly.” The students above theranking of 51,490 in OTA cat-egory have preferred admis-

sion in the institute. In the lastyears, the students with OTAranking of around 61,000 inOTA category were admitted.Along with students of Odisha,those from other States andcountries have also preferredadmission in the IIIT,Bhubaneswar.

The IIIT, Bhubaneswarhas maintained a high place-ment record of around 95%tduring last five years. Thisyear, 39 companies, includingAmazon, Informatica, Juspay,Dell, Turtlement, have visitedthe campus.

The recruitment processof nine more companies is on.It is expected that the place-ment position would cross90% this year.

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Bollywood actress KanganaRanaut visited the

Jagannath Temple here amidtight security early on Fridaymorning and paid obeisance tothe deities.

She said, “I had a wish tovisit the temple this year and itgot fulfilled today. I prayedbefore the Lord that this yearbrings good fortune and peacefor everyone in the world.”

“I visited the temple for thefirst time. I don’t know why ittook me so many years tocome here. Everything happensas per His wish,” said Kangana.“We always see Krishna withRadha or Rukmini (Laxmi),

but in Puri Jagannath LordKrishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra(Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’smom) pulsating with the ener-gy of His heart chakra wholeplace has a healing and sooth-ing sweetness to it, enchanted,”Kangana tweeted after visitingthe temple.

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The second day of theBudget Session of the State

Assembly on Friday also wit-nessed noisy scenes asOpposition BJP and Congressmembers continued to high-light farmers’ issues, includingirregularities and corruption inpaddy procurement.

Speaker Surjya NarayanPatro adjourned the Housefirst till 11.30 am and then till4 pm, In course of the day, theproceedings were adjournedfor seven times. , that ministerconcern will give a statement inthe House on Saturday.As the

House assembled for the day,the Congress sought to movean adjournment motiondemanding discussion on thefarmers’ issues. The BJP alsowanted a debate on the sameissues. The Speaker, however,wanted continued discussionon the Motion of Thanks to theGovernor for his address to theHouse on the opening day.

This enraged theOpposition members, whotrooped into the Well of theHouse, where Congress mem-bers shouted slogans and theirBJP counterparts displayedposters along with raising slo-gans. The Speaker called an all-party meeting to ensuresmooth running of the Housebut in vain. Then, the Speakerruled that the Minister con-cerned would make a statement

on the farmers’ issues onSaturday. But the Oppositiondid not relent on its stand andcontinued it uproar.

Congress membersTaraprasad Bahinipati andAdhiraj Panigrahy went up tothe Speaker’s podium andsnatched papers and pulledthe fibre glass. CongressLegislature Party LeaderNarasingha Mishra said hisparty would not cooperate torun House as its adjournmentmotion was not accepted.

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In the 18th CSI SIG AwardCeremony held in Lucknow

on Febuary 12, the project"Smart Water ManagementUnder Drink From Tap in PuriCity" of the State Housing andUrban DevelopmentDepartment bagged the "Awardof Excellence." The award wasgiven to the HUD Departmentand its technology partner,

National Informatics Centre(NIC), Odisha. The NIC hasbeen providing consultancyand technical assistance toWATCO, HUD Departmenttowards real time data acqui-sition by use of automation andIndustrial Internet of Thingsforwater supply services such as24x7 water supply with con-stant pressure and proper waterquality.

The Real time Smart WaterManagement application whichhas been implemented in fourzones of Puri city (such asMasani Chandi, Baliapanda,Badadanda and Jagannath tem-

ple) has benefitted the con-sumers of Puri city towards get-ting adequate water, pure andsure water reducing the watersupply related complaints andmaintaining proper standardsof quality.

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While Odisha has taken alead in initiating

reforms to attract investment,it continues to ignore adop-tion of other three citizencentric reforms, which will notonly help out the citizens,but also attract bigger bor-rowing limits as stipulated bythe Centre.

In fact, it was expectedthat Odisha will be adoptingall four citizen centric reformsas the State has been appreci-ated for fiscal responsibilityapproach and transparencyin administration. Odisha wasone of the first few States,which opted for Ease of DoingBusiness (EoDB) for indus-trialisation and investment.

The EoDB is an importantindicator of the investmentfriendly business climate inthe country. Improvementsin the EoDB will enable fasterfuture growth of the Stateeconomy.

Odisha has been able toget only Rs 1,429 crore addi-tional borrowing permission,whereas Rs 86, 417 crore ofadditional borrowing permis-sion has been issued to Statesfor adopting other reformsalso.

In view of the resourcerequirement to meet the chal-lenges posed by the Covid-19pandemic, the Government ofIndia had on May 17 lastenhanced the borrowing limitof the States by 2 per cent oftheir GSDP. Half of the specialdispensation was linked to

undertaking citizen centricreforms by the States.The fourcitizen centric areas forreforms identified were (a)implementation of OneNation One Ration CardSystem, (b) Ease of doingbusiness reform, (c) Urbanlocal body/ utility reformsand (d) Power sector reforms.

Therefore, theGovernment of India had inMay last decided to link grantof additional borrowing per-missions to States who under-take the reforms to facilitateease of doing business.

Odisha adopted the EoDBand the reforms stipulated inthis category include comple-tion of first assessment of‘District Level BusinessReform Action Plan.' It alsoprescribes elimination of therequirements of renewal ofr e g i s t r a t i o ncertificates/approvals/licencesobtained by businesses undervarious Acts.

And implementation of acomputerised central randominspection system under theActs wherein allocation ofinspectors is done centrally;the same inspector is notassigned to the same unit insubsequent years; priorinspection notice is providedto the business owner; andinspection report is uploadedwithin 48 hours of inspection.

Till now, 18 States havecarried out at least one of thefour stipulated reforms andhave been granted reformlinked borrowing permissions.

Out of these, 13 Stateshave implemented the onenation one ration card system,six States have done localbody reforms and two Stateshave undertaken power sectorreforms.

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An educated woman ofBargarh town staying in

New Delhi has brought seriousallegations against the State Bankof India Bargarh branch that ahuge amount of gold she kept inthe bank locker has vanishedfrom it. The matter has finallyreached the local police whichare investigating into it. SnigdhaTripathy of Mohantypada atBargarh had come to her native

place and wanted to check herbank locker. She was dismayedwhen she saw that it was totallyempty. “Gold jewellery wortharound Rs 50 lakh is missing,”she alleged before the police.

The jewellery includes eightgold necklaces, 12 gold rings, twogold bangles, six gold bangles ofother variety, 10 pairs of earrings,a gold locket and two goldchains. Besides, there were alsosilver ornaments which are miss-ing. Bank Manager RP Das said,

“It is also an astonishing matterfor us. We are investigating howit could take place.”But policesaid the locker couldn’t beopened unless two keys, one ofthe owner and other of bank, areused.

So, investigation is on intothe case and police are hopefulof getting facts soon. More inter-estingly, Tripathy is the sister ofan Andhra-Cadre Odia IPS offi-cer, for which police are partic-ularly keen to crack case.

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Close friends and relatives ofBritish citizen Derek

Moore established a school atNanpur in Jajpur district in hismemory as Derek was cremat-ed after his death in the villageas per his last wish.

The art and culture schoolwas inaugurated recently by hisassociate and noted writer andartist Prafulla Mohanti on theoccasion of the death anniver-sary of Derek.Mohanti is theauthor of books like 'MyVillage, My Life’, ‘Indian Village

Tales’, ‘Changing Life’ and‘Through Brown Eyes.' Mooreis an ex-Army man who wasstationed in India during theSecond World War and workedas a lawyer in London. Mohantimoved to England in 1960with an architecture degreefrom Mumbai.

In 1964 he earned a diplo-ma in town planning at Leeds,and also held his first solo exhi-bition of paintings in London.There he came in contact withMoore in 1964 and since thenboth Mohanti and Moore hadbeen coming to Nanpur.

"Moore was ill in England forwhich I decided to visit lastwinter to my village Nanpuralone. But Moore told me thathe had a last wish to die inOdisha for which he came toNanpur with me on December18, 2011. But he fell ill and diedon February 15 in a privateNursing home in Bhubaneswarat the age of 84. His body wascremated near our house in

Nanpur where he used to spendhis times. I was completely dev-astated after his death. We builta school in the memory of theman who loved rural Odishaand dedicated his life for theupliftment of the villagers ofNanpur. My village was hissecond home," said Mohanti.Children will learn arts, paint-ings and dances in this school.

I also provided four com-puters to the school as manychildren are interested to learncomputers. We spent about Rs10 lakh to build the school,"added Mohanti.

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Iron ore theft in Keonjhar isgoing on unabated by fraud-

ulent use of transit pass. Andbehind the scene is the nexusof mines owners, miningmafias and Government offi-cials. On Wednesday night vil-lagers of Jajang under theBamebari police station ofKeonjhar district intercepted atruck having Registration No.OR- O5AC- 1927 and handedover the vehicle to the localpolice which was lifting illegallyhigh grade iron ores from thenearby SG Pandya mines, amine owned by the StateGovernment.

However, one GurupreetSingh, a native of Joda, came tothe police station and wantedto free the truck by showing atransit permit. The permitshows that on February 15, thedisputed truck had loaded 19.9mt of iron ore from the JSWNuagaon mines and was orig-inally destinated to reach ShivShankar Sponge Iron Pvt Ltd ofPurulia of West Bengal throughNalda gate of Odisha latest byFebruary 19.

But the truck got divertedand reached Jajang instead ofgoing through Nalda withsome ulterior motive. JointDirector Mines, Joda, SalilKumar Behera told that hewould inquire into the matterand take action accordingly.

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The State Government, con-tinuing its zero tolerance to

corruption, has shown the doorto several bureaucrats accusedof either graft or ineptitude.

Also, all the departmentshave been asked by theGovernment to form a com-mittee each to review the per-formances and service recordsof all employees every threemonths.Meanwhile, 113 taint-ed officials of various depart-ments were given prematureretirement. The Government’s

drive against corruption hasbeen praised by the people andtriggered terror among thetainted officials. Besides, for thefirst time the State Governmenthas sought the forced retire-ment of an all India service offi-cer, Abhay Pathak on corrup-tion charges.

But of late, it has come tolight that the Odisha StatePollution Control Board(OSPCB) authorities are mak-ing a mockery of the 5T ini-tiative of Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik by shielding atainted official and trying topromote him despite his dubi-ous track record.

The controversial official isidentified as Regional OfficerHadibandhu Panigrahi.In 1997,Panigrahi was suspended till2000 for providing a fake No

Objection Certificate (NOC) toa Jagatpur-based firm, MahabirCarbon Limited. It was allegedthat he had forged signatures toprovide the NOC, followingwhich departmental proceed-ings were initiated against him.In 2018, Panigrahi, while post-ed as Regional Officer inKalinganagar, was caught red-handed while taking bribe andwas suspended. Besoides, sev-eral other allegations are pend-ing against him.

According to the 5Tnorms, Panigrahi should havebeen given premature retire-ment for his continuouswrongdoings. But surprisingly,he is presently posted asAssistant EnvironmentScientist in the OSPCB and theboard members are alleged tobe conspiring to promote him.

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Putting the speculationsabout a change of guard in

the State Congress to rest,party State-in-charge AChella Kumar has said thereis no such a possibility at leastfor the near future. He toldthe media that there is nopoint of the dissidents hold-

ing meetings frequently asthere is no chance of a changein the Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) leadershipnow.

Chella Kumar’s statementcame in the backdrop of aseries of meetings held by thedissidents in Bhubaneswarand New Delhi.

“Odisha Congress is per-forming well under the lead-ership of (PCC president)Niranjan Patnaik. The recentOdisha Bandh called by the

PPC chief against fuel pricehike was successful,” Kumarstated. Chella Kumar attend-ed a meeting of the CongressLegislature Party meetingheld at the Congress Bhawanon Thursday in the presenceof its leader NarasinghaMishra.

Political observers are ofthe view that in the context ofChella Kumar’s statement onthe PCC leadership issue, it isfutile for the dissidents to goahead with their planned trip

to New Delhi to meet theparty high command.

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Good news for parents in theState as the high school stu-

dents can now avail certificatesonline without rushing to theboard office frequently for schooldocuments. As part of the ongo-ing reforms in school education,the State Government has decid-ed to provide various certificatesand documents online.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik informed it on hisTwitter handle on Friday.Thefacility would be available fromMarch 20, 2021. Initially, the stu-dents from Classes-IX to XII canget certificates online at all JanSeva Kendras.

Later, the students of otherclasses would avail benefit. Withavailability of facility, studentscan get their documents liketransfer certificate (TC) andconduct certificate (CC) online.

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The city police have arresteda middle-aged Hindu man

for allegedly marrying fourwomen on different occasionsdeceiving each one of themwithout being legally gettingseparated from the previousones. Interestingly, during theshutdown and lockdown peri-ods of nine months last year dueto the Corona pandemic, the 45-year-old man had managed tomarry two women.

When the first two wiveslearnt this, they approached theMahila police station here andon Friday police arrestedKrushna Chandra Naik, whoworks as a teacher in aGovernment High School of thedistrict. “We arrested theaccused from his school at

Gopinathpur on the basis of acase registered against him lastmonth,” informed PoliceInspector Anasuya Nayak.

Police on investigationlearnt that the teacher had firstmarried in 2001 and after stay-ing with his first wife for overeight years, he married anotherwoman in 2009 without givingdivorce to his first wife. He alsospent another three years withhis second wife and left her inlurch escaping with her jewelleryand the dowry articles he hadreceived during the marriagetime.

“Last year, the accused alsomarried two other women; andwhenfirst wife learnt about it, shesubmitted a complaint with usin January this year,” the PoliceInspector said, adding thataccused has forwarded to court.

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The State registered 53 newCovid-19 cases in 17 dis-

tricts, with which the totalpositive tally rose to 3,36,513on Friday.Out of the new cases,31 were from quarantine and22 were local contacts.

The day’s highest 11 caseswere registered in Sambalpurdistrict. The number of activecases stood at 658 and thecumulative sample tests were8,12,2,325. However, 92 per-sons recovered on the day,taking the total recoveries to3,33,980 in the State.

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The Utkal Sammilani mem-bers led by its president

Adwaita Kumar Patra held adharna here on Fridaydemanding stopping ofencroachment of Odisha’s bor-der areas by the neighbouringStates.

In a letter to the ChiefMinister and the State’s MPs,the Sammilani requested themto ensure that Kotia is declaredan integral part of Odisha inParliament as per the 2006Supreme Court judgement.Besides, a cell or departmentshould be formed under aSpecial Secretary-rank officer,

who should frequently interactwith the Collectors and RDCsof the disputed border areasand solve them in consultationwith their counterparts ofneighbouring States.

The Sammilani alsodemanded that a ‘Kotia Utsav’be held. Samiilani secretaryAnnant Prasad Jena, treasurerBimal Chandra Sarangi, ShibaSundar Sarangi ,Puri presidentBhimsen Mahapatra,Bhubaneswar president AshokDas, Khordah presidentShaktisewar Mishra , NilimaMishra,Akshay Das, NaryanBiswal, Dhaneswar Sahu , AkulSangram Sethi and NandaKishore Samal were present.

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Awebinar on “Prospects ofresearch in yoga in 21st

century” was held by SivanandaYoga Vedanta Academy, GautamNagar, Bhubaneswar, on Friday.Over 150 people, including stu-dents, ex-students, MPhil stu-dents and intellectuals, fromacross country participated inprogramme. The dignitaries pre-sent were of a unanimous opin-ion that value-based research inyoga is essential for bettermentof human civilisation.

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Page 3: The Pioneer...“We always see Krishna with Radha or Rukmini (Laxmi), but in Puri Jagannath Lord Krishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra (Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’s

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The Odisha DevelopmentForum (ODF) along with

several social organisationssubmitted a memorandum toall 13 MLAs of Ganjam districtand related departmentSecretaries of Government ofOdisha through a letter cam-paign for early steps to estab-lish an airport at Brahmapur,besides rapid industrialisa-tion, development of tourismdestinations, roads and rail-ways in Ganjam district.

ODF secretary RamaPrasad Tripathy said this herein a Press release. Notablyduring a recent meeting withthe Assembly Speaker about

the establishment of an airportat Brahmapur, the Speakerreportedly had suggested thedelegation to meet all MLAs ofGanjam district to raise thelong standing issues in theupcoming Assembly meetingfor discussion and for further

action. Significantly, seniorleader of the district and for-mer Assembly Deputy SpeakerRama Chandra Panda alsorecently had backed the air-port demand made by thepublic and different sociopolitical bodies. Forum vice-

president Babita Patra, execu-tive members, Prakas Pradhan,Laxmi Narayan Padhy, VSomeshwar Rao, coordinatorof United Forum Manas Patra,‘Utkal Samaj’ State secretarySaroj Pattnaik, PritishPanigrahi, Ravi Kumar, KArun Rao of ‘BahumukhiSamaj Mangal Kendra’, formerArmy Officer PadmacharanSahu, Sudam Bhai,Balakrishna Samantaraya,Jagadish Bhai, GauriSamantaraya, Ravi Sahu, TutuGowda, Loknath Acharya, LSuryanarayana, K Srinivasan,Niranjan Sahu, M Mararaka,Suresh Kumar and severalintellectuals participated inthe campaign sent to allMLAs of the district.

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The State Government hasannounced Samaleswari

Temple Area Management &Local Economy Initiatives(SAMALEI) in Sambalpur tooffer divine experience totourists and devotees.

The project would be car-ried out under the Mo Sarkarand 5T initiatives of the StateGovernment and focus onbeautification of the temple aswell as on economic develop-ment of local people.

A sum of Rs 200 crorewould be spent during 2021-22 to develop 108 acres of land

in and around the SamaleswariTemple. The project wouldinclude development ofamenities for devotees in the12-acre temple premises anddevelopment of four tall her-itage welcome gates. The planalso includes development ofa heritage corridor, tourist

amenities, road connectionfrom the temple to the river-bank, decks for Alati, river-front and lake shore. It alsoincludes food parks, an archi-tecture park, an open-air the-atre and vending arrangementfor sale of various souvenirs.

Other works includewidening of the road from therailway station to the northside of temple and reorgani-sation of the cemetery. A pack-age is being prepared for reha-bilitation of the people to beaffected by the scheme. Peoplecan send feedback on the planby March 15 at [email protected].

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The Kalinga InternationalYouth Foundation (KYF)

organised an internationalwebinar on the theme “Odishaas a Tourism Destination in theGlobal Tourism Map:Opportunities and Challenges”here. It was an initiative by KYFto promote “Odisha Tourism”at global level.

Eminent personalities fromtourism and hospitality indus-try across the nation joined theevent as speakers and gavetheir constructive ideas to fur-ther strengthen the initiativeand how to seize the opportu-nities to enhance the scope ofattracting tourism to Odisha.

Thailand Tourism Council vicepresident and Indo-Thai cham-ber of Commerce vice presi-dent Somsong Pashapimukhjoined as chief guest, whileIndonesia Tourism PromotionBoard, Bali chairman AgusMaha Usadha joined as specialguest. , Executive Chairman,Paradise Group ofCompaniesPardip KumarKukreja who has 45 years expe-rience in tourism and hospi-tality sector Pardip KumarKukreja joined as keynotespeaker.

Group CEO, Sevak GroupLtd and Vice Chairman,Singapore Indian Chamber ofCommerce and IndustriesManeesh Kumar, Director and

CEO, Kamat Group LimitedVishal Kamat joined as speak-ers. Many esteemed partici-pants across the globe joinedthe webinar and discussed thefuture plan and action for thetravel, tourism and hospitalityindustry post Covid scenario.

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The town of Bargarh is nowshort of timber for crema-

tion of bodies. As a result, peo-ple have to scramble for woodfor the ritual.

Concerning the issue, theAam Aadmi Party (AAP)Bargarh has demanded open-ing of a permanent crematori-um in Bargarh.

It has also been demandedthat the supply of timber at adiscounted price be arrangedimmediately as the bridge con-necting the Bargarh ZiraNadiSwargadwar is demolished.The party also demanded therestoration of the crematorium

in Govindpali and extention ofbenefits under Harischandrascheme to larger number ofpeople. A delegation from theAam Aadmi Party on Thursdayhanded over a memorandumto the district Collector regard-ing the demands.

Additional DistrictCollector Mirdha Topporeceived the memorandum.Aam Aadmi Party district hostBhavani Prasad Sahu, AmitabhPatra, Asit Sahu, SwamidhyanDeepak were present.

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WhiteHat Jr a leadingEdTech company has

made inroads in multiple inter-national markets by teachingcoding to students through itslive online format, has expand-ed its offerings by launching the‘Create with Math’ curricu-lum. This foray marks the firstof multiple new subjects thatthe company is targeting tolaunch over the next fewmonths.

Currently, WhiteHat Jr’s11,000 strong women-onlyteacher workforces from India

conduct more than 40,000+ 1:1 LIVE online class every dayon its proprietary platform.“AtWhiteHat Jr, our core philoso-phy has always been to empow-er the next generation tobecome creators rather thanconsumers by channelizingtheir natural creativity withan engaging curriculum andpersonalized live 1:1 teacherattention, the ‘Create withMath’is to make each child fallin love with learning,”WhiteHat Jr Founder and CEOKaran Bajaj.

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The Sahadevkhunta police inBaleswar district arrested

hardcore criminal NabakishoreDey and forwarded him tocourt on Friday.

Police have recovered fourrevolvers, five rounds ofammunition and some cashfrom Dey’s possession. Dey, aresident of Patrapada under theChandipur police station, is ahistory-sheeter and involved inseveral crimes including mur-der, extortion and highwayrobbery.

As many as eight cases arepending against him in threedifferent police stations includ-ing five in Sahadevkhunta, twoin Town and one in Industrial

police station area. Dey is anactive member of Papa Pandagang and was involved in themurder of gangster Khasua .Besides, looting the highwaycommuters, Dey also used tocollect extortion money by ter-rorising people associated withreal estate, sand lifting andother businesses .

The police nabbed himfrom the highway after receiv-ing a complaint from a com-muter that he was robbed bythe accused Dey.

Following the complaint,some plain clothes policemenconducted a raid when heplanning to commit anotherrobbery.

Following receiving infor-mation plain cloth policemenapprehended him from high-way when he was readying toloot , said reports .

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The Odisha MiningCorporation (OMC) has

finalised the tender forengagement of mining opera-tor for its Guali and JillingLangalakota mines.

The Thriveni EarthMovers Pvt Ltd has beenawarded the job work for theGuali iron mines while theKalinga Mining Corporation(KMC) has won the tender forJhilling block as the lowestbidder. The Guali iron mines

was earlier held by RP Sao.The Jhilling mines was held byEssel Mining Industries as thehighest bidder, but it had tosurrender the leases as it wasnot possible for the companyto operate it at the quoted pre-mium rates.

Both the mines were keptunder state owned OMC andfresh tenders were invited formining operators to run themines. Both Thriveni andKMC are already working asmining operators in severalmines in the area.

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Atwo-day children festivalwill be jointly organised by

the Odisha Sangeet NatakAkademi, Jharsuguda DistrictCulture Society and BelpaharMirror Theatre at Belpahar onFebruary 22 and 23.

The first play "Jhainre" ofBelpahar Mirror Theatre andsecond play "Mundapota KelaKahuchhi Gapa" ofBhubaneswar Rangaloka willbe played in the two days.Likewise, in the second evening

, the Bargarh Loo, Padampurwill stage "Lengda Raja" andBalasore Kalakar will stage"Rinara Swapna”. On the occa-sion, a Press meet was held onWednesday in BelpaharMunicipality under the chair-manship of MunicipalAdministrator Siba Toppo.

The district administra-tion has taken the step for theentertainment of general pub-lic to remove Covid fear fromtheir mind. MunicipalityExecutive Officer LoknathTiwari, Belpahar Mirror

Theatre director-cum-actorSubas Chandra Pradhan, actorGouri Sankar Kumbhar,Santosh Sahoo, SoubhagyaRanjan Sahoo, Surendra Sahoo,Saroj Mirdha, Binay Pradhan,Dubraj Kishan were present.

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Development of agricultureand farmers would

strengthen the financial back-bone of the country.

Without the developmentof farmers, the country’sgrowth is not possible, saidBengaluru-based HydroEnergy and MetrologySolution CEO BhaskaranRangarajan at a workshop atBalipatna near Bhubaneswaron Friday.

The workshop was hostedby local social organisationNHRDI and Hydro Energyand Metrology Solution.

Shraddhanjali Agri ProductsCompany chief Shraddhanjalipresided over the event.

Among others, Odishahead Shiba Prasad, vice-pres-ident Rakesk Khuntia, NHRDIdirector Bhagirathi Pradhan,Agriculture Officer TarunPatnaik, Assistant AgricultureOfficer Bibhdata Sahu and

social workers Ramesh Sahuand Ajit Ranjit Sahu were pre-sent. They assured of techno-logical knowhow and financialhelp to local farmers.

Over 1,500 farmers ofNimapada, Balipantna, Kanasand other clusters attendedthe workshop. Umesh Swaindelivered a vote of thanks.

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Kendrapada SP MadkarSandeep Sampat won

accolades from the denizensfor saving life of a criticallyinjured youth, who had met aroad accident.

Sampat arranged a vehicleto send the injured youth forthe much required medicaltreatment on Tuesday. Sampatwas on his way to Tantiapalamarine police station on

Tuesday when he came acrossthe accident victim bleedingprofusely. He rescued theyouth from road and tookhim to Pattamundai hospitalon his official vehicle. The

youth was identif ied asManoranjan Nath ofKathiapada village underPattamundai police station.The locals have praised thegesture of SP Samapat.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Friday

announced Rs 2 lakh ex-gratiaeach for next of the kin of thefive deceased, who were killedin a road mishap on February17 in Mayurbhanj district.

Patnaik also expressed hisdeep condolence for bereavedfamily members of the fivedeceased. On the fateful day, amusical troupe was returningto Bagabuda village in a trac-tor after performing atDamanasahi. Near Dhipasahi,the driver lost control, follow-ing which the vehicle skiddedoff the road and overturned

into a roadside farmland,around 15 ft below the road.While one person died on thespot, around 40 others sufferedinjuries in the road mishap.Later, four others succumbed tothe injuries. The deceasedincluded four persons fromOdisha and one fromJharkhand.

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The Thelkuli police onThursday arrested 15 per-

sons and forwarded them tocourt in connection with theviolence at the AdaniEnterprise office in Sambalpurdistrict.

The violence had been trig-gered following the disengage-ment of 47 workers engaged bya contract agency, KejriwalMining Private Ltd, in TalabiraII and Talabira III coalminesof the Neyveli Lignite

Corporation (NLC) IndiaLimited Adani Enterprises hassigned a coalmining agree-ment with the NLC for devel-opment and operation ofTalabira II and III coal block.

Extensive damage is causedin Adani Enterprises’ officeover the retrenchment of theworkers. The agitators alsomercilessly beat officials andsecurity personnel. Around40-50 persons allegedly man-handled the senior officialsand security personnel.Sambalpur SP B Gangadhar

said some retrenched workersattacked the Adani office andcaused damages. Investigationwas being conducted on thebasis of an FIR and actionwould be taken against theguilty.

The villagers of Khinda,Talabira, Matulu, Kemp ofKhinda panchayat, who havebeen displaced, are demandingemployment in the mines Theyallege that outsiders are beinggiven opportunities thoughthey have lost their lands,houses and livelihoods.

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Ateacher of an Upper PrimarySchool in Nabarangpur dis-

trict, who was wanted in con-nection with a fake certificatecase, was nabbed from Bhadrakdistrict on Thursday.

The accused was identifiedas Srikant Dalei. He was bookedfor allegedly producing fake cer-tificate for job in Project UPSchool in Baktiguda villageunder Kosagumuda block inNabarangpur district. Accordingto reports, Dalei was posted asthe Sikhya Sahayak in2013. After

completion of six years in service,his fraudulent act was detectedduring verification of docu-ments.Source said that the BEdcertificate submitted to theauthorities for appointment wasfound duplicate during verifica-tion.

Later, the BEO ofKosagumuda had lodged a com-plaint at the Kodinga police sta-tion on March 7, 2020. Sincethen, Dalei was absconding.After one year, the accused wasnabbed from Banasar villageunder Dhamanagar police sta-tion in Bhadrak district.

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Page 4: The Pioneer...“We always see Krishna with Radha or Rukmini (Laxmi), but in Puri Jagannath Lord Krishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra (Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’s

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has

attached properties worth�281.42 crore of variousaccused and their associates inconnection with Gurgaon landscam.

The attached assets include54 per cent portion of projectin the name of DoveInfrastructure Pvt. Ltd. per-taining to Atul Bansal/ Groupcompanies at Faridabadamounting to �108.86 crore, 50per cent of the portion of“Business Bay Project” in thename of company SeriatimLand & Housing Pvt. Ltd per-taining to Atul Bansal/ Groupcompanies amounting to �78.09 crore and flats and FDRpertaining to AngliqueInternational Ltd. amounting to�3.39 crore.

Other attached assets are� 25.53 crores refund fromHSIIDC sanctioned to GuruNanak InfrastructuresDevelopers Pvt. Ltd., 13.77

acres and 5.65 acres of land val-ued at �29.48 crore pertainingto Frontier Home DevelopersPvt. Ltd., 20 flats valued at �22.72 crore pertaining toFrontier Home DevelopersPvt. Ltd. and 95.09 bighas ofagricultural land at Behrorand Neemrana (Both inRajasthan) valued at �� 13.31crore pertaining to Lalit Modi.

The ED had initiatedinvestigation by recordingECIR on the basis of an FIRNo. RCCHG2015A0019 datedSeptember 15, 2015registeredby the CBI, ACB, Chandigarhunder section IPC Sectionrelating to criminal conspira-cy, cheating and forgery amongothers besides provisions of thePrevention of Corruption Actagainst unknown public ser-vants of GovernmentofHaryana and unknown privatepersons.

It was alleged in the FIRthat the Government ofHaryana had issued notifica-tion under section 4 of theLand Acquisition Act, 1894 on

August 27, 2004 and hadissued notification under sec-tion 6 of the said Act onAugust 25, 2005 for acquisitionof land measuring about 912acres for setting up anIndustrial Model Township invillages Manesar, Naurangpurand Lakhnoula of district,Gurugram.

A large number of landowners, in distress, had to sellabout 400 acres of their land atthrowaway prices to privatebuilders and caused a wrong-ful loss to the land owners ofthese villages.

“PMLA investigationrevealed that the land waslater freed from compulsoryacquisition by the StateGovernment as a result ofconspiracy by politicians,bureaucrats and privatebuilders causing huge loss tothe land owners andGovernment exchequer.

Further, investigationrevealed that mostof the landwas purchased by ABWILGroup controlled by AtulBansal and after obtaininglicences, ABWIL had sold thelicensed/ unlicensed land andlicensesto the other private per-sons/ developers, thus makingprofit worth crores of rupees.

The ED investigationrevealed that the above prop-erties worth �281.42 crores areProceeds of Crime underPMLA, 2002.

Two ProvisionalAttachment orders amountingto �08.76 have already beenissued and stand confirmed bythe Adjudicating Authority.

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On a day its vaccinationnumbers crossed the

one-crore mark making Indiathe second-fastest country inthe world after the US toreach the milestone, UnionHealth Minister HarshVardhan on Friday appealedto the healthcare and frontlineworkers to get vaccinatedagainst Covid-19.

Vardhan further said thatno severe adverse event post-immunisat ion has beenrecorded in the country andthose reported are also 0.0004per cent. “No death has beenrecorded due to COVID-19vaccination. All state gov-ernments have been asked tovaccinate every healthcareand frontline worker,” he said.

The cumulative numberof Covid 19 vaccine dosesadministered to healthcareand frontline workers reached1,04,49,942 through2,20,877sessions, as per theprovisional report till 6 pm on

Friday.These include 62,95,903

healthcare workers who havetaken the 1st dose and7,56,942 healthcare workerswho have taken the 2nd dose,along with 33,97,097 frontlineworkers with 1st dose.

While the countrywidevaccination drive was rolledout on January 16, 2021, vac-cination of the frontline work-ers was started from February2, 2021.

A total of 6,58,674 vacci-nations were administeredon 18th February 2021. Thisconstitutes the highest singleday vaccinations during theon-going COVID-19 vacci-nation drive.

Dr Harsh Vardhan saidthat the vaccines were safe

and fill all the criteria ofimmunogenicity. “I want toappeal to all healthcare andfrontline workers to get inoc-ulated with COVID-19 vac-cine doses as per schedule.The vaccines are safe. Don’tbelieve any rumour and mis-information,” he said.

Every state/union territo-ry has been asked to scheduleall healthcare workers forvaccination at least oncebefore Februar y 20 andimmediately thereafter organ-ise mop-up rounds for them.

The Minister alsoapplauded the country forcrossing the one crore markin Covid vaccination saying:Congratulations India oncrossing a major milestone!

According to the Unionhealth ministry, India’s vacci-nation coverage ranks third inthe world, after the US with55.2 million doses and the UKwith 16.12 million doses.Both, the US and the UK havecompleted over 60 days ofvaccination.

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Pharma major DrR e d d y ’ s

Laboratories on Fridaysaid that it has initiat-ed the process with theDrugs ControllerGeneral of India(DCGI) for emergency useauthorisation (EUA) of humanadenoviral vector-based plat-form vaccine candidateSputnik V.

As part of the reviewprocess, Dr Reddy’s will pre-sent the safety profile of phasetwo study and interim data ofphase three study which isexpected to complete byFebruary 21.

“The efficacy of Sputnik Vwas reported to be 91.6 percent by the Lancet, which is animpressive development inthe fight against Covid-19,”said Cochairman andManaging Director G VPrasad.

“The initiation of theemergency use authorisationprocess will be a critical stepforward for us in ensuringspeedy access to the SputnikV vaccine in India,” he said ina statement.

In September 2020, DrReddy’s partnered with theRussian Direct InvestmentFund (RDIF) to conduct clin-ical trials of Sputnik V and forits distribution rights in India.

Sputnik V has demon-strated an efficacy rate of 91.6

per cent in interim analysis ofphase three clinical trial whichincluded data on 19,866 vol-unteers in Russia, whoreceived both the first and sec-ond doses of the vaccine.

Sputnik V maintained aconsistent efficacy at 91.8 percent even among the group of2, 144 volunteers over 60years old. The vaccine devel-oped by the GamaleyaNational Research Instituteof Epidemiology andMicrobiology was registeredby the Ministry of Health ofRussia on August 11 last yearand became the world’s firstregistered vaccine againstCovid-19 based on the humanadenoviral vector platform.

More than 250 clinicalstudies over two decades haveproven the safety, efficacy andlack of negative long-termeffects of adenoviral vaccines.

Sputnik V is one of onlythree vaccines in the worldwith an efficacy of 91.6 percent and has most authorisa-tions granted with 26 coun-tries globally. The vaccine hasalready been administered tomore than 20 lakh peopleworldwide.

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Amid farmers’ protests, theModi Government on

Friday reiterated that it has nointention to eliminate arthiyas(middlemen) in Punjab andHaryana and no directionshave been issued to eliminatearthiyas from the mandi sys-tem and adding that boththese States will compulsori-ly have to use electronicmodes to pay crop price(MSP) to farmers. The min-istry of consumer affairs andfood said that � 1,16,653.96crore reflected in Public

Financial ManagementSystem (PFMS) towardsPunjab and � 24841.56 crorein respect of Haryana. TheGovernment further said thatit will release nearly �3 lakhcrore more food subsidy inthe remaining two months ofthe current fiscal as it looks toclear all previous backlogs.

The Government saidthat electronic mode of pay-ment ensures that all partic-ipants including farmers,Arthiyas and mandis receivetheir payments directly onlinein order to ensure trans-parency and trail of pay-

ments.“This is not a replacement

of the current APMC system.It only strengthens trans-parency and elimination ofleakages,” it added.

Stating that e-mode ofMSP payment is already inforce across India, the min-istry said the Centre has beentrying to ensure the same inPunjab and Haryana at leastsince 2015-16.

“ The CentralGovernment is regularly pur-suing with Punjab andHaryana Governments forensuring direct online pay-

ment into farmer’s accountssince 2015-16. However, boththe state Governments havebeen routinely approachingthe Centre for grantingexemption/seeking time forimplementation of directonline payment initiative.

“The Government ofIndia has therefore, directedState Government of Punjab and Har yana toensure online payment tofarmers through e-mode fromupcoming season and thatno further relaxation on thisaccount will be accorded,”the ministry said.

The ministry informedthat e-mode of payment hasalready been adopted par-t ia l ly by Haryana and Punjab.

A part of payment for thispaddy procurement was donethrough the e-mode only.

“Direct online payment tofarmers predates the threefarm laws. In Punjab, pay-ment of MSP was paid to thefarmers through Arthiyas and in Haryana, FCImade payment of MSP direct-ly to farmer’s bank accountsthrough online mode, where-as State agencies made pay-

ment of MSP to the farmerspartly through Arthiya andpartly directly to farmer’saccount through online modeas per option given by thefarmers in e-Kharid portal,”the statement said.

The three new farm Actswere enacted in Septemberlast year. Thousands of farm-ers, mainly from Punjab,Haryana and Western UttarPradesh, have been protesting at Delhi bordersfrom over two months now,seeking repeal of three farmlaws and a legal guarantee ofthe MSP.

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The Agriculture Ministryhas been permitted to use

drones for remote sensing datacollection under PradhanMantri Fasal Bima Yojana(PMFBY). This will allow theagriculture ministry to usedrones for remote sensing datacollection in agricultural areasof 100 districts of the countryfor gram panchayat level yieldestimation, under PMFBY.

“The Ministry of CivilAviation and DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation havegranted conditional exemp-tion for Remotely PilotedAircraft System (RPAS) usageto the Ministry of Agricultureand Farmers Welfare(MoAFW),” an official state-ment said on Friday.

Union AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar has earlier tweeted

that use of UAV data in thescheme will add new dimen-sion to ensure timely settle-ment of claims in the schemeas well as for crop area esti-mation, losses due tolocalised calamities and toresolve yield dispute betweendifferent stakeholders underthe scheme. “The use of highspatial resolution UAV datamay also be explored in otheragriculture-related schemesin India”, stated the Minister.

The conditional exemp-tion will be valid for one yearfrom the date of issue of thepermission letter or until theoperationalisation of theDigita l Sky Plat form,whichever is earlier, thestatement by the civil aviationministry said. This exemp-tion shall be valid only if allconditions and limitationsare strictly adhered to, itsaid.

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Amid the rising fuel prices,Congress on Friday called

upon the Centre to reduce theexcise duty on petrol anddiesel to provide relief to130 crore citizens. Lamentinghow can the ModiGovernment pass the buck ofrising fuel price to CongressGovernments which was sixyears ago, the Oppositiontermed the BJP led govern-ment as nothing less thanIndhan Tax Jivi Sarkar (FuelTax Goverment and is aBhayankar Janloot Sarkar.

AICC chief spokesmanRandeep Surjewala pointedthat the Centre had increasedthe price of petrol and dieselper litre by �15.21 and �15.33respectively after assumingpower in May 2019.

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ACalicut-bound Air IndiaExpress flight with 104

passengers on board made aprecautionary landing at theTrivandrum InternationalAirport at noon on Fridaydue to a technical snag in thehydraulic system of the aircraft.

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The CPI(Marxist) receivedover �19.69 crore from 239

donors as donations exceeding�20,000 in 2019-20. Agitatingfarmer union leader HannanMollah, DMK and CPI(M)leaders are among the contrib-utors. The Desiya MurpokkuDravida Kazhagam (DMDK)party has shown ‘nil’ donationsabove �20,000 in the year 2019-20.

According to the ElectionCommission’s website, theCPI(M) received a total of Rs19,69,36,150 as donations fromentities, individuals and theDMK. Mollah donated �4 lakhin eight installments of �40,000each.

The DMK had contributed�10 crore to the Left party dur-ing the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions. The party’s contributionwas reflected in its poll expen-diture report submitted to theEC after the elections.However, this was not reflect-ed in the last contributionreport of the CPI(M). The Leftparty has now shown the con-tribution in its report for 2019-20. The contribution by theDMK was made in April 2019in multiple installments. SeniorCPI(M) leader and party gen-eral secretary Sitaram Yechurycontributed �2.28 lakh,Mohammad Salim Rs 1 lakh,Brinda Karat �1.38 lakh,Elaram Karim �13.2 lakh andSuhasini Ali �1.44 lakh.

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Page 5: The Pioneer...“We always see Krishna with Radha or Rukmini (Laxmi), but in Puri Jagannath Lord Krishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra (Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’s

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Amaravati: Senior Yuvajana SramikaRythu Congress Party (YSRCP)leader and Rajya Sabha MP V.Vijayasai Reddy on Friday lambast-ed Telugu Desam Party (TDP)National President N. ChandrababuNaidu alleging that he orchestratedthe sale of 54 government compa-nies.

“Who sold Nizam SugarsLimited, dozen cooperative sugarfactories, Allwyn watches, spinningmills and paper mills, all together 54companies,” Reddy alleged.

He doubled down on the TDPSupremo following his censure of the state governmentand Chief Minister Y. S. JaganMohan Reddy for failing to stop theCentral government's decision of pri-vatising Visakhapatnam Steel Plant(VSP).

“Further, who emptied 100 morecompanies and sent lakhs of employ-ees home with voluntary retirementservice (VRS)? Don't people knowyour crocodile tears Babu,” Reddyclaimed attacking Naidu.

According to the Rajya SabhaMP, the ruling YSRCP party leaderswould undertake a 25-km 'padaya-tra' (walkathon) on Saturday inVisakhapatnam, starting from theMahatma Gandhi statue at the citycivic body office and terminating atthe steel plant arch.

He ridiculed that a leader like N.Chandrababu Naidu, who allegedlysold away 54 government companies,is now claiming to fight for the steelplant.

“He (Naidu) spewed venom themoment it was announced thatVisakhapatnam would be made theexecutive capital. Using media hous-es favouring him, he propagated thatVizag is prone to tsunamis andearthquakes,” Reddy alleged.

The 'padayatra' will traversethrough Asilmetta Junction, SangamSarath, Kali Temple,Thatichetlapalem, Kancharapalem,Urvasi Junction, 104 area,Marripalem, NAD Junction, air-port, Sheela Nagar, BHPV, OldGajuwaka and Srinagar.

Commenting upon the pan-chayat poll results, the YSRCP leaderclaimed that the ruling party alignedcandidates won more than 85 percent 'sarpanch' posts in the thirdphase of the polls.

He alleged that people wouldremove oxygen support for TDPwhich is already on ventilator andclaimed that the opposition leaderfiled petitions in the courts to stall'Amma Vodi' and public housingschemes for the poor.

Meanwhile, Naidu alleged thatthe panchayat polls were 'lawless' andit was democracy which got defeat-ed.

“TDP and its allies have postedgood results and got 41.41 per centseats in the third phase of panchay-at polls. They have won more than1,093 panchayats as the final resultsare emerging. The TDP has alreadywon 38.74 per cent seats in the firstphase and 39.52 percent seats in thesecond phase,” Naidu claimed. IANS

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Panaji: Maratha emperor Shivajiand his son Sambhaji helped pre-serve Hindu culture in Goa at thetime of religious conversion, ChiefMinister Pramod Sawant said at aShiv Jayanti function held here onFriday.

Sawant also said that likePrime Minister Narendra Modi'scall for 'Make in India' and 'SkillIndia', the Maratha king had alsobelieved in a similar philosophy,especially when it came to locallymanufacturing arms used to fightthe brutal oppressive regimes.

“Not just in Maharashtra,Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj tookefforts to preserve Hindu dharmaand the concept of Swadharma inGoa too. The biggest contributionto preserving Hindu religion andSwadharma (in Goa) was made byShivaji Maharaj and Sambhajimaharaj. He (Shivaji) played amajor role in preserving Hinduculture at a time of conversion,”Sawant said.

Born in the 17th century,Shivaji's regime coincided with thecolonial Portuguese rule in Goa,early part of which witnessedlarge-scale conversion of the nativepopulation.

Sawant in his speech said thatPrime Minister Narendra Modi'scalls for an 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' intimes of an adversity like Covid-19,as well as other missions like'Make in India', 'Skill India' mir-rored similar initiatives launchedby Shivaji in his era.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi advocates 'Make in India','Skill India', concepts whichChhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj hadidentified then. If you go back inhistory, during Shivaji's fightagainst injustices and brutalregimes of the time, the weaponsused by his army were locallymade. If the Make in India conceptis in vogue now, its foundationswere laid by Shivaji Maharaj,”Sawant said. IANS

)��;�@���� � �; ������*� ��!�������2����������; �����:�)�9�� Patna: Rashtriya Janatad Dald leader Tejashwi Yadav on

Friday said the class 10 exam paper of the Bihar SchoolExamination Board was leaked and Chief Minister andEducation Minister of Bihar do not have any knowledgeabout it.

After the conclusion of day one of the budget sessionin the Bihar assembly, Yadav said it is a reflection on theNDA government in Bihar. “It is simply unimaginable thatthe Social Sciences question paper of class 10 leaked at sev-eral places and the Chief Minister and the education min-ister do not know about it. What kind of government isNitish Kumar running in Bihar? If they were aware of it,why are they hiding it?” asked Yadav.

“When I informed the assembly about the paper leak,neither Chief Minister Nitish Kumar nor or EducationMinister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary clarify the matter in theHouse,” Yadav further said.

“Papers of every examination in Bihar are leaking thesedays and the mentors of education are doing nothing. Infact they are playing with the lives of students,” Yadav said.He further claimed that during his speech, Governor PhaguChauhan said the state government is buying paddy on MSPbut there is no buying on the ground. Farmers are sellingpaddy in Rs 700 to 800 in several districts.

“Over 260 farmers have died during the last threemonths during the agitation. When we asked to pay respectsto the farmers in the house, our request was turned down.It that the BJP and Nitish Kumar are anti-farmer.” IANS

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Even as the battle for Bengal’s masnadheated up, a Kolkata court on Friday

issued summons to Union Home MinisterAmit Shah in a defamation case lodged byAbhishek Banerjee, Trinamool CongressMP and nephew of Chief Minister MamataBanerjee.

Shah has been asked to appear beforethe court meant of MLAs and MPs atMayukh Bhawan in Salt Lake personallyor through a representative on February22, lawyers of Banerjee said.

The case relates to some alleged“defamatory” speeches given by the HomeMinister in August 2018 when he used theterm “Bhaipo” (nephew in Bengali) toattack Banerjee.

Shah had allegedly said that Bhaipowas linked to Narada, Sharada and RoseValley scams. He has also alleged that mostcentral funds meant for public welfare werebeing siphoned off by Bhaipo’s men whoacted through syndicates.

Banerjee had subsequently slapped alibel suit against Shah and the case cameup for hearing on Friday when the desig-nated special court judge directed the

defendant to appear before him “in per-son/by pleader” at 10 am on February 22.

Meanwhile, Shah on Friday attendedthe “Shauryanjali” programme at theiconic National Library where he onceagain invoked Netaji Subhas Chandra Bosesaying “his bravery and valour would beremembered by the country for ages.”

He said that the people of the coun-try should once again start looking up toNetaji for inspiration saying “the com-mittee formed by Prime Minister NarendraModi will ensure that the people will paytheir homage to the great leader genera-tion after generation.”

Shah who flagged off a cycle rally inthree routes that will reach the homes ofthe crores of Indian freedom struggle saidthat the youth of the country should startreading about Bose a lot as “it will teachyou a lot.”

Elsewhere Bengal would soon startreceiving central forces for the coming elec-tions. The first 125 companies of the total1000 companies would reach the statesoon. Five companies were likely to reachthe State and start patrolling duty from asearly as February 25, sources said.

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The sinister plot hatched bythe Pakistan based

Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) terroroutfit to disturb peace and thetourist related activities in theKashmir valley has beenexposed by the Jammu &Kashmir Police with the arrestof three terrorists involvedbehind the attack on KrishnaDhaba on February 17. AkashMehra, son of an eatery owner,had received gunshot injurieson his chest during indiscrim-inate firing.

According to Jammu andKashmir police the attack wasaimed at terrorising the nonlocals living in the valley andto disrupt the tourist activitywhich has seen an upsurgefrom past two months as thefood outlet was very famousand popular among the touristsvisiting the valley.

Briefing media personsabout the daring terror strikewhich coincided with the visit

of the foreign diplomats from24 countries IGP, KashmirVijay Kumar on Friday saidsoon after the terror attack dif-ferent police teams were set upto investigate the attack.

He said crucial leads weredeveloped after screeningCCTV footage and other cru-cial data based on human intel-ligence

The police teams fromSrinagar, Pulwama andAnantnag were roped in andseveral raids were conductedwhich led to the arrest ofVilayat Aziz Mir son of AbdulAziz Mir resident of HaniporaWampora Pulwama.

Similarly, Suhail AhmadMir son of Fateh Mohd Mirand Owais Manzoor Sofi son ofManzoor Ahmad Sofi, bothresidents of Dangerpora werearrested during the raids by thepolice teams, IGP told reportersduring the press conference.

IGP Kashmir also claimed,during the course of investiga-tion, it was learnt that Vilayat

was in contact with one Ghazi,an active terrorist who hadtrained him locally a monthbefore.

He performed the recce ofDalgate Durganag area alongwith other terrorist associatesten days prior to attack.

“On 17/2/2021 the trio onthe bike of Suhail Ahmed Mirson of Fateh Mohd Mir residentof Dangerpora, at around 7:15reached Krishna Dhaba andfired indiscriminately on thestaff, injuring critically AakashMehra S/O Ramesh KumarMehra”.

According to the policerecords, “Owais Manzoor waspreviously involved in caseFIR No 46/2018 under section148, 149, 336, 152 RPC of PSNowgam.

The case was challaned on4/12/2018 at district & sessionsjudge Budgam.

According to a policespokesman,”The Pak based ter-rorist organisation have adopt-ed new strategies by recruitinglocal youths who are in their

teens and allowing them to mixup with the family friends andlive normally and trainingthem for a day or so. They aregiven tasks by their masters andin case they get caught a pub-lic opinion is generated thatthey were not active militantsand joined only on the day ofthe incident”.

Police has also recoveredweapon of crime (pistol) andgrenade along with otherincriminating material includ-ing bike used by terrorists'

According to IGP Kashmir,the trio during interrogationhave confessed their involve-ment in the crime. A case hasalready been registered in thisregard under relevant sectionsof law and further investigationis on.

IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumaralso complimented theSrinagar, Pulwama andAnantnag Police who speedilycarried out the investigationjointly under the close super-vision of DIG Central Kashmirrange Amit Kumar.

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-.��������� ���������������/���� ��������� Mumbai: Sending alarm bells ringing,

several Maharashtra leaders acrosspolitical parties have been infected byCovid-19, including two who havetested positive for the second time,officials said here on Friday.

The infected dignitaries includeNationalist Congress Party StatePresident and Water ResourcesMinister Jayant Patil, Health MinisterRajesh Tope, Food & DrugsAdministration Minister Dr. RajendraShingne, Minister of State for Labourand Prahar Janshakti leader BachchuKadu. Maharashtra CongressPresident Nana F. Patole has gone intoisolation after two of his staffers test-ed positive and his test reports areawaited, said a party source.

Besides, Home Minister AnilDeshmukh is also in isolation at hisNagpur residence after testing positiveearlier this week, and senior NCPleader Eknath Khadse is also infect-ed.

Both Kadu and Khadse have test-ed positive for the second time, whilethe latter's daughter-in-law and BJPMP from Raver Raksha Khadse hasalso been infected.

Khadse had been infected inNovember last year which had led to

a delay in attending to theEnforcement Directorate summons,displayed Covid-19 symptoms againin December and first week of Feb, andhas not tested positive.

The concerns are further com-pounded by the upcomingMaharashtra Legislature's BudgetSession starting here on March 1 withthe Budget likely to be presented onMarch 8. The Maharashtra LegislativeCouncil Chairman Ramraje Naik-Nimbalkar has urged the Centre andState governments to ensure priorityvaccination drive for all legislators andLegislature staffers.

“We have 287 MLAs, more than60 MLCs Plus, around 700-800 peo-ple work in the Legislature complex,besides officials from Mantralaya andministries set up camp offices hereduring the sessions,” Naik-Nimbalkarpointed out.

In the past 11 months since theonset of the Covid-19 pandemichavoc, around 15 state ministers havebeen infected, besides several MPs,MLAs, MLCs, senior leaders of dif-ferent political parties, close aides orsecurity personnel of various bigwigsincluding Chief Minister UddhavThackeray. IANS

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Varanasi: A Kabir Mahotsav will be held in Varanasiat the end of February, showcasing the life of 'Sant'Kabir, the 15th-century Indian mystic poet and seer,whose writings influenced the Bhaktimovement.

The Mahotsav will also focus on other Bhakti cultmystics, including Guru Nanak, Gorakhnath andRahim Das, who were contemporaries of the 'sant'poet. The district administration has forwarded a pro-posal on holding Kabir Mahotsav between February23 and 25.

District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said: “Onthe state government's directive, we have prepareda proposal for holding a three-day Kabir Mahotsavand have forwarded it to the culture department toseek state government's approval.”

As per the plan, the festival will showcase thejourney of Kabir's life.

With the inauguration of the event, a Yatra willalso be flagged off from Varanasi, where the mysticpoet was born, and culminate at Magahar village inSant Kabir Nagar district, where he attained salva-tion. Many cultural events, exhibition and other activ-ities will also be organized in Kabir Math in KabirChaura and areas around Lahartara -- a historicalpond associated with Kabir's birth.

“It has also been planned to link the Mahotsavwith Sant Kabir's contemporary poets and saints, likeGuru Nanak, Gorakhnath, Rahim Das, Dadu Dayal,Ghasi Das and others, who had connections withUttar Pradesh, by holding separate events on themas a part of this festival. The government's approvalon it is awaited,” Sharma said.

The traditional celebrations at the birthplace ofSant Ravidas in Shri Govardhanpur area will be com-paratively subdued this year due to the pandemic.

Trustee Kishanlal Saroa said NRIs will not becoming this year and the special trains for bringingthousands of pilgrims from different states, have alsonot been booked this year due to thepandemic. IANS ���� ��������������*���$��7�� ����)�����9�������$��������-����������������, �<�

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Jaipur: Seven migrants fromPakistan, including three cou-ples, who have been living inRajasthan, were on Friday granted Indian citizen-ship by Jaipur's DistrictCollector Antar Singh Nehra inhis office.

Those who received thecertificates included JawaharRam, Sonari Mai, Gojar Mai,Gordan Das, Ganesh Chand,Basan Mai and Arjan Singh.

Gordan Das, who has beenliving as a Pakistani migrant for9 years in Mansarovar, said thathe came here from Punjabprovince' Rahimayar Khan sit-uated in Pakistan.

“We came to India becauseof insecurity looming largeover us as we could not see thefuture of our children there,” hesaid.

After receiving the citi-zenship certificate, these newIndian citizens expressed con-fidence of ensuring all therights to their children. Besides,they will also enjoy the bene-fits of all the employment andgovernment facilities andschemes, officials said.

Additional DistrictCollector Dakshin ShankarlalSaini was also present on theoccasion.

The Pakistani migrantswho were granted citizenship,settled here between 7 and 15years ago. IANS

Lucknow: The Congress suf-fered a jolt in Uttar Pradesh onFriday when it lost anotherbatch of senior leaders -- thistime to the Samajwadi Party.

Two former ministers, R.K.Chaudhary (Lucknow) and JaiNarain Tiwari (Sultanpur) leftthe party to join the SamajwadiParty.

R.K. Chaudhary was a cab-inet minister in the BahujanSamaj Party government andhad later joined the Congress.

Jai Narain Tiwari was aminister in the Kalyan Singhgovernment and member ofthe breakaway BSP groupcalled Jantantrik BSP.

Talking to reporters, theformer ministers said that theCongress had become direc-tionless and 'delusional'. Theysaid they were feeling 'suffo-cated' in the party. IANS

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Shiv Sena MP PriyankaChaturvedi on Friday won-

dered that since many coun-tries had benefited from the“Vaccine Maitri” initiative bythe Ministry of External Affairs(MEA), was it not high time forthe Centre to make vaccine eas-ily available for all the Indians,especially at a time when theCovid-19 vaccine supplies areunder-utilised in the country.

In a letter shot off to UnionHealth Minister HarshVardhan, Priyanka said, “Indiais once again seeing an increasein Covid-19 cases and the var-ious strains of the virus havealso been detected. As per theHealth Ministry data, Covid-19vaccine supplies are under-utilised.…. If this is the casethen shouldn’t we reconsiderour policy of regulating theavailability of vaccines?”.

Substantiating the under-utilisation of Covid-19 vaccinesupplies, the Sena MP said: “…the data of vaccine suppliesshows that only 31.45 per cent

of Covishield and 11.75 percent Covaxin have been admin-istered to frontline workers”.

Alluding to the shortfalls inthe implementation of the firstphase of vaccination acrossthe country, Priyanka said:“The CoWin App has been fac-ing glitches with data. Also,there are loopholes that existfor those who have access tonetworks and money to getvaccine shots on priority, whilethose who are from the weak-er section of society suffer theconsequences of such govern-ment regulation”.

“Many countries have ben-efitted from the Vaccine Maitriinitiative by the Ministry ofExternal Affairs, isn’t it hightime that Indians get the samebenefits of having a vaccineeasily available for them?,” sheasked.

Making a strong case for arapid voluntary vaccinationfor senior citizens, citizenswith co-morbidities and amass-scale administration torest of the population, Priyankasaid: “All states are adminis-tering it to our frontline war-

riors and many have started thesecond round of dosage too;however our population is largeand the fear of another wavethat can have tremendousimpact on our economy henceit becomes our responsibility toensure rapid voluntary vacci-nation for senior citizens, citi-zens with co-morbidities andthe rest on a mass scale so thatlife resumes to safety soonerthan later”.

The Sena MP urged theUnion Health Minister to ropein private hospitals in theimmunisation drive, consideropening up more mobile vac-cination centres and plug theissues faced on CoWin App.

“I would request you tokindly consider de-regularisingthe sale of vaccines and cappingthe cost of the same to ensurethat there is no heavy cost forthe citizens to bear or the fearof hoarding. It would be unfairto the country that we do notuse our own strength andleverage all our availableresources to help the society riditself of the virus,” shestated.

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The CBI on Friday laid a trap and caught an offi-cer of Standard Chartered Bank red handed while

accepting a bribe of Rs 3 lakh from the complainant.

The agency also conducted searches in Chennaiat the premises of the accused officer of the privatebank, Rajendran, Authorized Officer, StandardChartered Bank, Group Special Assets Management,Rajaji Salai, Chennai and recovered Rs 18 lakh in cash,property documents and locker keys in a case relat-ed to bribery of Rs three lakh.

A case was registered against the accused officeron the allegations of demanding undue advantage ofRs 3,00,000 from the complainant (representative ofborrower firm) to help and support for favourable set-tlement of the case pending in Debts RecoveryTribunal (DRT) in the matter of immovable

properties offered as collateral securities inthe loan availed from Standard Chartered Bank, theCBI said.

“It was further alleged that the complainant’s firmhad availed OD/Term Loan facilities from StandardChartered Bank, D B Branch, Coimbatore for a totalamount of Rs 27,70,00,000 during the period from2005 to 2016 with sufficient collateral.

The bank accounts became NPA with the out-standing of Rs 26,37,12,444 as on 30.04.2017. It wasalso alleged that the Standard Chartered Bank initi-ated action Under SARFAESI Act, 2002, and theaccused was the Authorized Officer to dispose of theimmovable properties of the borrowers which weremortgaged as collateral,” it said.

The properties were allegedly sold by auction fora total amount of Rs 22,11,00, 000 in January 2021against market value of Rs 61.5 crore as claimed bythe borrower. Aggrieved by the sale, the borrower fileda case before the Debts Recovery Tribunal court,Coimbatore during February, 2021 and got a stay orderagainst the sale. Since the matter was pending beforethe DRT, the accused demanded undue advantage ofRs 3,00,000 from the complainant to help and sup-port the borrower.

The accused was produced before the court ofPrincipal Special Judge for CBI Cases, Chennai andwas remanded to judicial custody till March 3.

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The CBI on Friday arrested a Sub-Divisional Officer-I working in

Defence Estates Office, AhmedabadCantonment (Gujarat), Hasmukh Parmarand two officials including a Manager ofFCI, Ludhiana, Punjab in two separatecases of bribery.

The first case was registered againstParmar on the allegations of demandinga bribe of Rs 50,000 from the complainanttowards releasing his three vehicles whichwere confiscated by the accused.

The CBI laid a trap and caught theaccused red handed while demanding andaccepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from thecomplainant.

Searches were conducted at thepremises of the accused which led to recov-ery of some incriminating documents,including property documents and detailsof bank accounts.

In another case, the agency has arrest-ed Manager (Quality Control), PremKumar and a TA, Raj Karan, both of FCIin a bribery case of Rs 50,000. A case wasregistered on a complaint alleging there-in that the Manager (Quality Control) wasdemanding a bribe of Rs 50,000 for check-ing and stacking of complainant’s rice con-signment at PSWC Godown, Kailpur,Ludhiana.

The CBI laid a trap and caught theManager Karan Kumar while demandingand accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000.

During investigation, it was revealedthat the bribe amount was to be sharedwith TA, FCI, leading to his arrest.Searches were conducted at the residencesof both the accused at Ludhiana.

The accused were produced in theCourt of Special Judge, CBI Cases, Mohali(Punjab) and remanded to one-day policecustody.

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Page 6: The Pioneer...“We always see Krishna with Radha or Rukmini (Laxmi), but in Puri Jagannath Lord Krishna is placed with His sib-lings Balram n Subhadra (Arjun’s wife, Abhimanyu’s

nessed on February 17 hun-dreds of thousands of peopleattend the largest single rallysince the beginning of theprotest movement. The move-ment has united nearly 7,50,000doctors, lawyers, civil servants,railway workers, electricityproviders and others, includingGovernment employees work-ing in tax offices and the gen-eral administration. Both trainservices and power supplyhave been disrupted. Businessinterests of the Tatmadaw andthe Government functionsessential to military rule havebeen targeted.

Meanwhile, Hannah Beechpoints out in a report in TheNew York Times of February 17that the atmosphere in the dailyprotest rallies in Myanmar’smajor cities is that of a cultur-al carnival. “Graffiti artists,” sheadds, “have spray-painted mes-sages mocking Senior GeneralMin Aung Hlaing, the Armychief who staged the coup.Poets have declaimed in angryverse. A cartoonists’ unionmarched holding hand-drawnfigures. Street dancers twirledwith abandon.”

The Tatmadaw, however,refuses to concede the civil dis-obedience movement’sdemand to undo the coup,release Aung San Suu Kyi andothers arrested and allow her

party, the National League forDemocracy, which swept theNovember 2019 parliamentaryelection, to form aGovernment. On the otherhand, it seems set on pursuinga course of keeping her underdetention by levelling utterlyspurious charges of illegallyimporting and possessing sixwalkie talkie radios and violat-ing the country’s natural dis-aster laws. Also, it continuestrying to crush the civil disobe-dience movement with repres-sion, though it has not yetresorted to the kind of savageviolence it used to crush pro-democracy protesters in 1988and Buddhist monks, pro-democracy activist and otherswho, in August and Septemberof 2007, peacefully demon-strated against the Junta’s near-ly two decades of dictatorialrule and economic bungling.

Three questions arise here.Why has the Tatmadaw notunleashed that kind of murder-ous violence this time? Is it like-ly to do so? How can the restof the world prevent such aneventuality? As to the first, itclearly did not anticipate thekind of nationwide upsurgetheir coup has provoked.Second, it is worried about theeconomic consequences ofsuch a bid. The Generals haveextensive involvement in eco-

nomic ventures which will beaffected if the economy faltersas a result of domestic disorderand sabotage, and sanctionsspecifically targeting them.

The Tatmadaw may resortto a savage crackdown if it feelsthat it could afford the costs.Hence the democracies mustdisabuse it of any such idea,and make it clear that theGenerals and their families willpay a very heavy price for anysuch misadventure. The UShas slapped sanctions on 10current and former Generalswho led the coup and threeeconomic ventures. It has alsotaken steps to prevent theGenerals from improperlyaccessing more than one bil-lion dollars in BurmeseGovernment funds held in theUS, and immediate action tolimit exports of sensitive goodsto the Burmese military andother entities associated withthe recent coup. This is agood beginning. While con-demning the coup andproposing resolutions criticalof it, and supportive of democ-racy and Suu Kyi, theEuropean countries have nottaken comparable measures.They must put their moneywhere their mouth is.

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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&���� ������ ������� ��� ��The coup by Myanmar’s

rogue military, official-ly called Tatmadaw, hasclearly triggered a grow-

ing confrontation between itand almost the entire people ofthe country. Except large-scalekilling of civilians, in which it hasa record not many uniformedforces can match, it has resort-ed to almost every repressivemeasure in the book for stamp-ing out mass upsurges. It hasproclaimed a state of emergencywhich is to last for a year andamended the penal code pre-scribing 20 years’ imprisonmentfor inciting hatred for theGovernment or the Army orhindering efforts of the securi-ty forces to ensure State stabili-ty. Seven years in prison is thepunishment for preventing thesecurity forces from performingtheir duties, and three years forspreading fear, “fake news” oragitating against Governmentemployees. All this was besidesthe power given to the Tatmadawto detain people indefinitelyand/or search private property,besides revalidating a law requir-ing people to report overnightvisitors to their homes.

The steps on the groundinclude the deployment of troopsand armoured vehicles on theroads of Yangon, Myitkyina (cap-ital of Karen State) and Sittwe (thecapital of Raknine State), firing ofrubber bullets, the use of watercannons against demonstrators,arrests during night curfew hoursand detention of a wide range ofpeople including political leaders,Government officials, activists,journalists, student leaders andmedical personnel. According tothe Myanmar’s AssistanceAssociation for Political Prisoners,the number of people arrestedsince the coup reached 495 onFebruary 17 and was growing.Further, the Tatmadaw hasannounced that it had issued war-rants for the arrest of six celebri-ties, including a film director,actors and a singer, under an anti-incitement law for instigatingcivil servants to join the protests.Gatherings of five or more per-sons have been banned.

All this notwithstanding, thecivil disobedience movementcontinues to swell. Yangon wit-

SOUNDBITE����������� ������������� �������Sir—This refers to the editorial ‘Ignominiousrecord’ (February 19). We must understandthat a crime is a crime, whether commit-ted by a man or woman. Both men andwomen deserve the same quantum of pun-ishment for committing similar crimes.

Such judgments strengthen our faithin the judiciary and constitutional institu-tions. Shabnam was convicted along withher lover Salim of axing seven of her fam-ily members to death in 2008. The Amrohadistrict court had sentenced them both todeath. The convicts appealed their sentencefirst at the Allahabad High Court and thentook their plea to the Supreme Court, butboth courts refused to reduce their sentence.They then sent a mercy petition to thePresident but it too was rejected.

A woman cannot be pardoned for suchheinous crime just because of her gender,nor the quantum of punishment should bemade lesser for her. It is only under extra-ordinary circumstances, like when she ispregnant or have a deadly disease that thequestion of pardoning arises. The hangingwill be justice for those who have been slainby the psycho duo. We must also keep inmind that being educated doesn’t mean thata person will likely not commit a brutalcrime. Shabnam holds Masters degrees intwo subjects and taught at the village pri-mary school. She initially pretended that herhouse was attacked by unidentifiedassailants. However, she later confessed thatshe had abetted Salim in the crime andmade her family members drink milk lacedwith sedatives and thereafter throttled herlittle nephew. What a shame!

Azhar A Khan | Rampur

������������������ �������������Sir —Facebook has blocked many sourcesof news for its users in Australia, leavingthem in a tizzy. Many people get all of theirnews from Facebook and are now feelinguninformed by this step. The AustralianGovernment is enacting a legislation thatwould require digital companies, includ-ing Facebook and Google, to pay for newscontent. Although most of these news sto-

ries can be obtained from their home sites,the blocking of any media and newsreporting by anyone is worrying. It couldbe that this is Facebook’s way of saying thatif you want us to pay for your journalism,we are not going to play the game at all.

It is a matter of concern that Facebookpages that have been blocked include StatePolice, health sites and even the Bureau ofMeteorology. The spread seems overlybroad at this stage, with commercial andcharity pages blocked from new postings,perhaps any area they says “News.”Facebook should have thought twicebefore taking the action. It is not that onlyAustralia will suffer but it adds no feath-ers to the Facebook’s reputation either.

Dennis Fitzgerald | Australia

����������������� ������������Sir —Maharashtra Congress chief NanaPatole has rightly admonished Bollywoodactors Amitabh Bachchan and AkshayKumar for not speaking out against theCentre even when the price of petrol has

touched �100 in the country. He haswarned that he would stop the shootingof their films.

Actors like Bachchan and Kumar arejust flatterers who toe the line of the BJP,which rules the Centre, for their selfishgains. They are not concerned with theMumbaikars at all and are only worriedabout their films.

They live in luxury bungalows andcommute in high-end cars and the spikein fuel prices is hardly a cause of concernfor them. They have more than dozen carsand some of them are imported. AmitabhBachchan must have received a huge sumfor the advertisement in which he can beseen teaching others to wear a mask andsanitise their hand, or he must have doneit for popularity. But the common mancontinues to reel under the rising petroland diesel prices.

Bhagwan Thadani | Mumbai

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The recent Supreme Court directive orderingvirtual recording of testimonies of child traf-ficking survivors and prosecution witness-

es, who are required to depose in courts which arefar from their place of residence, will be a giantleap forward in ensuring that survivors obtain jus-tice. Despite being illegal in India, the malaise offorced and bonded labour is widespread and com-mercial sexual exploitation of children and childtrafficking persist, often with impunity for the per-petrators of the crime and limited legal recoursefor the survivors. Children, both girls and boysfrom marginalised families in the country, are traf-ficked to engage in various exploitative situations.While minor boys are subject to child labour,forced labour, bonded labour, most of the girls endup serving as domestic help and sex slaves, wherethey are commercially exploited for sex. Sadly, childtrafficking is a demand-driven problem. There isa demand for children in the labour and commer-cial sex market, so there is a supply. In fact, thereare industries which primarily run on the nim-ble fingers of children such as bangle-making, zari-making, firecracker production and also cottonfarming. Children are engaged in cotton farmsbecause of their short height that enables fasterplucking of cotton.

Shockingly, the crime of human traffickingthrough Section 370 of the Indian Penal Code(IPC) was codified post the 2012 Nirbhaya gan-grape-cum-murder incident, although it hasbeen termed unconstitutional in the country fromthe time the Constitution of India became effec-tive. According to the National Crime RecordsBureau (NCRB) figures released in 2018, therewere 1,830 reported cases of human trafficking inthe nation. However, activists say that the actualfigure could be much higher as many victims donot register cases with the police, largely becausethey do not know the law or fear the traffickers.

In the same year, the Government complet-ed prosecution in 545 cases, convicted 322 traf-fickers in 95 cases and acquitted 1,124 suspects in450 cases. The acquittal rate in trafficking casestouched 83 per cent in 2018. Poverty, involvementof huge money and an extremely low rate of con-viction contribute to child trafficking becominga huge problem in the country.

After victims are rescued and a criminal caseis lodged, often the subsequent police investiga-tion and prosecution does not result in a convic-tion as a majority of cases are inter-State and thereis a weak mechanism for coordination among theStates to deal with such crimes. Survivors or wit-nesses are either taken to the court by the traffick-ers to speak in their favour or the victims fail toappear in the court because they do not have time,money and the energy to pursue the case.Consequently, the traffickers often get away withthe crime with impunity. On the other hand, sur-vivors are often harassed, intimidated and becomevulnerable to social stigma, on top of poor inves-tigations and slow trials resulting in the victim feel-ing further victimised.

Cases of intimidation of the witnesses and theirfamilies are very high. A perfect example of thisis the Raushan case (not his real name). Raushanalong with four other children, all natives of Gaya,Bihar, was rescued from one of the bangle-mak-ing factories of Jaipur, Rajasthan, in 2016.

Afterwards they appeared in theJaipur court and recorded their tes-timonies against the alleged traffick-er. They had to face severe threatsand intimidation upon arrival intheir home State. After threemonths, Raushan, his mother andthe mother of another child labour-er who had also testified against thetrafficker, were kidnapped. Theywere being taken to Jaipur by a trainto turn hostile in the court caseagainst the traffickers when theywere rescued just 110 kms awayfrom Gaya. This was done throughthe swift intervention of the ADG-CID who was approached for helpby social workers. Consequently, asecond FIR of kidnapping of threepersons was lodged against thesame trafficker and his accom-plices in Gaya. In the absence of astrong protection mechanism, re-trafficking is another major chal-lenge in the fight against child traf-ficking. This is because traffickedchildren become skilled over aperiod of time and become assets forestablishments that require their ser-vices. That’s why they become sub-ject to re-trafficking upon being res-cued or soon after reintegration withtheir families.

For instance, during the lock-down necessitated by theCoronavirus pandemic, a 12-year-old boy Shailendra (not his realname) was rescued from a bangle-making factory in Jaipur alongwith other children. However, his13-year-old elder brother Narendra(not his real name), was hidden bythe traffickers during the rescue

operation. After Shailendra wasre-united with his family in Gaya,he revealed the shocking nature ofthe torture that he along with otherchildren had been going through atthe hands of the factory owners.

“If we did not do the work prop-erly, or accidentally broke a bangle,we were thrashed mercilessly. Afterlong working hours when we dozedoff late in the night chilli powderwas sprinkled into our eyes aspunishment for sleeping. They hada music system in the room andwhenever they would beat us theywould play the music at full volumeto drown out our cries, so that noone could know what was happen-ing in the factory,” Shailendra toldhis parents.

However, within a week of therescue, the trafficker arrived attheir home asking for Shailendra tobe taken back to the factory inJaipur. This was vehementlyopposed by the parents and theyinsisted that their older son,Narendra be sent home, too. But thetrafficker kept mounting pressureon them to allow the child to goback to Jaipur with him. He told theparents that if they did not complywith his wishes their elder childwould be killed. The mother spokewith Vijay Kewat, a social workerassociated with a non-governmen-tal organisation fighting againstchild trafficking, who took her to anearby police station to lodge an FIRagainst the trafficker. The FIR wasregistered and Narendra was final-ly brought back home by Gayapolice in December 2020. A witness

protection application with thesupport of an NGO has been movedto the competent authority in thedistrict in this regard.

Given the grim scenario sur-rounding child trafficking, record-ing of testimonies through video-conferencing will have a hugeimpact on the thriving racket in thecountry. There are around 12 to 15child traffickers in a few cities ofBihar who have been active for along time and are still involved inaiding and abetting of trafficking ofchildren. Over the last three years,922 children, all natives of Bihar,have been rescued from Jaipur.

After the apex court’s order, twocases have been identified on a pilotbasis for the recording of the testi-monies virtually. One is to be donebetween the Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences (POCSO)Court-2, Jaipur, and the POCSOCourt, Gaya in Bihar and the otherwhich has already been put inmotion, is between the AdditionalSessions Court, Karkardooma,Delhi, and the POCSO Court,Sitamarhi in Bihar.

The traffickers often belong tothe neighbouring or same village asthe survivors, and are well-off andpolitically well-connected. The traf-fickers are always in a position toinfluence survivors or their familieswho usually hail from margin-alised communities. Hence, they areresourceless and powerless and ifthey are not provided proper careunder the witness protectionscheme, the whole exercise willprove futile.

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In a country where the Sunis worshiped, solar power isjustly considered the energy

of the future. Solar power’sabundant availability in Indianot only ensures scalability butalso bolsters our energy secu-rity. India can generate 748 GWof solar energy provided threeper cent of the waste land is cov-ered with solar photovoltaic(PV) modules. Pursuing thisgoal is the Government’sNational Solar Mission (NSM)which is mandated to developIndia as a global solar energyleader. The NSM’s purpose is toinstall 100 GW grid-connectedsolar power plants by 2022and assist India to realise theIntended NationallyDetermined Contributions(INDCs) target of achieving 40per cent cumulative electricpower installed capacity fromnon-fossil fuel-based energyresources and to reduce theemission intensity of its GDP by

35 per cent by 2030.But these lofty ambitions

do not match the develop-ments on the ground and theslowdown in capacity additionin recent years is a proof of thesame. The cause of this slug-gishness is the presence of avariety of unaddressed hurdlesthat have been allowed to growby a lethargic Government pol-icy regime. This is further evi-dent by the state of PV cell pro-duction which is yet to becometruly competitive. Adding tothese challenges are the trans-mission losses at approximate-ly 40 per cent, which make solarpower generation highly unfea-sible. These conditions are fur-ther made worse by the scarci-ty of per capita land availabili-ty in India, especially near sub-stations for exclusive installationof solar cells.

On the other hand projectcosts are increasing, debt ismounting while nearly a third

of the 23,600 MW renewablepower projects, won by variousplayers after quoting the lowestrates in reverse auctions con-ducted by the Solar EnergyCorporation of India (SECI) forthe Inter-State TransmissionSystem (ISTS), are staring at anuncertain future as the agencyhas not yet found buyers forpower from these solar/windenergy generation units.

There are systemic issues aswell. For instance, on the sup-ply side the main grouse forsolar power suppliers are therock bottom tariffs which areamong the world’s lowest. Ontop of this, State governmentsinsist that companies sell powerto discoms at cheap priceswhich hurts these firms’ profitmargins and negatively affectsfocus on quality and innova-tion. Low tariffs combined withchronic delay in paymentsmean that even the banksbecome reluctant to lend to

these firms, because they areunsure of profit sustainability.The lack of Government inter-vention in these conditions isdisturbing enough but whatmakes it even more concerningis when State Governmentsrenege on the terms of PowerPurchase Agreements (PPA)and demand tariff renegotiationat the time of payment. Theseunhealthy practices must becurtailed by the Centre if thesolar power sector is to flour-ish. The recently-announcedBudget was a fantastic oppor-

tunity to address these concernsand put the sector firmly backon track, but somehow that didnot happen.

The Budget left the renew-able energy sector feeling letdown as not only have itsrequirements not been met butsome of the existing benefitshave been taken away, too. Anunwelcome change in thisregard relates to the customduty for machinery, instru-ments, appliances, componentsor auxiliary equipment, includ-ing those required for testingand quality control of solarpower generation projects,which was capped at five percent previously. This exemptionhas been taken away.Developers would now be bur-dened by the increased costs ofimport and this would also leadto litigation under the PPAs forchange in law claims.

Instead of a lacklustreattempt to support the solar

power industry, theGovernment would have donewell to address the challenges.The complexity of the subsidystructure and involvement oftoo many agencies, electricityboards and the electricity reg-ulatory commission makes thedevelopment of solar PV pro-jects difficult. The Budgetshould have demolished allthese complex structures andfocused on critical issues suchas financing, which is a majorissue for PV manufacturers.

The Government shouldhave installed a robust financ-ing infrastructure, models andarrangements to spur the PVindustry and consumption ofPV products, besides trainingand development of humanresources to drive industrygrowth and PV adoption.

This would have had apositive cascading effect andimproved intra-industry coop-eration for expanding the PV

supply chain as well, whichwould have contributed in low-ering costs.

Additionally, the Centrecould have focused on the needto build consumer awarenessabout the technology, econom-ics and right usage of PV prod-ucts and modules. At the man-ufacturer end, the awarenesscould have been driven bysharing technical informationthrough conferences and work-shops, in collaborating with bal-ance of systems manufacturersand in gathering and publish-ing accurate market data, trendsand projections. Finally, theGovernment should havelinked the solar energy targetswith ‘Make in India’, the ‘SmartCity Mission’ and ‘Digital India’.This would have given thispromising sector a fresh per-spective and ensured the devel-opment and transformation ofthe entire renewable powersystem in the country.

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Nairobi (Kenya): The scale ofviolence in South Sudan is “alot worse” than during thecountry’s five-year civil war, aUnited Nations commissionannounced on Friday, accusingsenior officials of supportingarmed groups that at timeshave included tens of thou-sands of fighters.

The new report by theCommission on Human Rightsin South Sudan was a sharpwarning that civilians are asmuch at risk as ever for atroc-

ities including gang rapes,forced displacement andabductions.

The civil war that ended in2018 killed an estimated near-ly 4,00,000 people, and millionsof people are still struggling torecover. “The violence is con-tinuing because people knowthey can get away with it,” com-mission chair Yasmin Sookatold reporters in Geneva. Thereis “no doubt that the coordi-nation is really coming fromthe top.” AP

Washington: The United Statesis back in the Paris climateaccord, just 107 days after it left.

While Friday’s return isheavily symbolic, world leaderssay they expect America toprove its seriousness after fouryears of being pretty muchabsent.

They are especially antici-pating an announcement fromthe US in coming months on itsgoal for cutting emissions ofheat-trapping gases by 2030.

The US return to the Parisagreement became officialFriday, almost a month afterPresident Joe Biden told theUnited Nations that America

wants back in. “A cry for survival comes

from the planet itself,” Bidensaid in his inaugural address.“A cry that can’t be any moredesperate or any more clearnow.”

Biden signed an executiveorder on his first day in officereversing the pullout orderedby his predecessor, PresidentDonald Trump.

The Trump administrationhad announced its withdrawalfrom the Paris accord in 2019but it didn’t become effectiveuntil Nov. 4, 2020, the day afterthe election, because of provi-sions in the agreement. AP

San Diego: After waitingmonths and sometimes years inMexico, people seeking asylumin the United States are beingallowed into the country start-ing Friday as they wait forcourts to decide on their cases,unwinding one of the Trumpadministration’s signature immi-gration policies that PresidentJoe Biden vowed to end.

The number of asylum-seekers coming in initially willbe very limited, beginningFriday at a border crossing inSan Diego and expanding toBrownsville, Texas, on Mondayand El Paso, Texas, next Friday.

US officials are warningpeople not to come to the US-Mexico border, saying an esti-mated 25,000 people with activecases in the “Remain in Mexico”program and several hundredwho are appealing decisionsshould register on a website thatthe UN High Commissioner forRefugees is launching early nextweek. The InternationalOrganisation for Migration, theUN migration agency, plans totest asylum-seekers for COVID-19 and will quarantine anyonewho tests positive for 10 days

before they enter the UnitedStates.

Friday marks a key mile-stone in unraveling one of for-mer President Donald Trump’scornerstone policies to deterpeople from seeking protectionfrom persecution and returnsthe US asylum system to the wayit worked for decades.

But there are unansweredquestions, including howCentral Americans whoreturned home will get back tothe US-Mexico border.

It’s also unclear how long itwill take to work through morethan 25,000 active Remain inMexico cases, with the oldestgoing first. US officials say twoof the border crossings can eachhandle up to 300 people a dayand a smaller crossing can takefewer, but they will start wellbelow those numbers. The offi-cials didn’t specify the crossings.

Biden is quickly makinggood on a campaign promise toend the policy known officiallyas “Migrant ProtectionProtocols,” which Trump saidwas critical to reversing a surgeof asylum-seekers that peaked in2019. AP

Washington: The Bidenadministration has said it iswilling to sit down for talkswith Iran and world powers todiscuss a diplomatic way for-ward on Tehran’s atomic pro-gramme, in the first majorstep aimed at reviving the 2015nuclear deal that was close tofalling apart after the previousTrump regime withdrew fromit.

Former president DonaldTrump pulled the US out of thedeal in 2018.

Under the deal, Iran hadagreed to greatly limit itsnuclear programme through2025. However, Trump arguedthat this gave the Iranians apathway to nuclear weapons.

President Joe Biden and hisadvisors have said that they willrejoin the deal if Iran returns tocompliance with the agree-ment.

“The United States wouldaccept an invitation from theEuropean Union HighRepresentative to attend a meet-ing of the P5+1 and Iran to dis-cuss a diplomatic way forwardon Iran’s nuclear programme,”State Department SpokespersonNed Price said on Thursday.

P5+1 include the five per-

manent members of theSecurity Council — namelyChina, France, Russia, theUnited Kingdom, and theUnited States — plus Germany,who during the Obama admin-istration had entered into anagreement with Iran.

The announcement onIran came after Secretary ofState Antony Blinken met vir-tually with his counterpartsfrom the three European co-signers (E3) of the deal.

A senior administrationofficial told reporters thatPresident Biden is committedto resuming an American mul-tilateral diplomatic role in try-ing to resolve the issues thatthey have with Iran.

The US wants “to seewhether we could get to a sit-uation where Iran is back incompliance with the JCPOAand the US is back in compli-ance with the JCPOA, and usethat as a platform to then nego-tiate a longer, stronger deal, andalso to deal with some of theregional security concerns thatthe US and its partners in theregion have,” the official said.

The Joint ComprehensivePlan of Action (JCPOA),known commonly as the Iran

nuclear deal or Iran deal, is anagreement on the Iraniannuclear programme reachedin Vienna on July 14, 2015,between Iran and the P5+1together with the EuropeanUnion.

In a joint statement, the USand E3 expressed their sharedfundamental security interestin upholding the nuclear non-proliferation regime and ensur-ing that Iran can never devel-op a nuclear weapon.

In this context, the con-clusion of the JCPOA was a keyachievement of multilateraldiplomacy.

“The E3 welcomed theUnited States’ stated intentionto return to diplomacy withIran as well as the resumptionof a confident and in-depthdialogue between the E3 andthe United States,” the jointstatement said.

The ministers affirmedstrong interest in continuingtheir consultations and coor-dination, including with Chinaand Russia, on this key securi-ty issue, recognising the role ofthe High Representative of theEuropean Union asCoordinator of the JointCommission, it said. PTI

Washington: A bicameral USCitizenship Act of 2021 propos-ing a pathway to citizenship to11 million undocumentedworkers, elimination of percountry quota for employment-based green cards and workauthorisation for dependents ofH-1B foreign workers, wasintroduced in the Congress.

The bill, if passed by boththe chambers of the Congress– House of Representatives andthe Senate – and signed into lawby President Joe Biden wouldbring citizenship to millions offoreign nationals, includingundocumented and those whocame to the country legally.

The legislation would alsobenefit hundreds and thou-sands of Indian IT profession-als and their families.

Authors of the bill –Senator Bob Menendez andCongresswoman Linda Sánchez– told reporters that the USCitizenship Act of 2021 estab-lishes a moral and economicimperative and a vision ofimmigration reform that isexpansive and inclusive.

It grows the economy bymaking changes to the employ-ment-based immigration sys-tem, eliminating per-country

caps, making it easier for STEMadvanced degree holders fromUS universities to stay, improv-ing access to green cards forworkers in lower-wage indus-tries, giving dependents of H-1B holders work authorization,and preventing children of H-1B holders from aging out ofthe system.

“I am the daughter ofimmigrant parents fromMexico. I have dedicated mycareer to building an immigra-tion system that lets people livewithout fear, and a system thatgives immigrants – like my par-ents – who sought a better lifeand contribute to our nation afair opportunity to thrive,”Sanchez said.

“Immigrants contributegreatly to our country andsociety. They own businesses,pay taxes and teach our chil-dren. They are our coworkers,neighbors and friends,” saidMenendez.

“We have a historic oppor-tunity to finally enact boldimmigration reform that leavesno one behind, addresses rootcauses of migration, and safe-guards our country’s nationalsecurity. We have a moral andeconomic imperative to get

this done once and for all,” hesaid.

The ruling Democrats havea majority in both the Houseand Senate. However, in theupper chamber, they need sup-port of 10 Republicans to getthe legislation through theCongress before it can be signedinto law.

The Democratic leader-ship and the White House hopethat they will get the necessarysupport in the interest of mil-lions of non-citizens living inthe country.

Supported by the WhiteHouse, the bill creates an earnedroadmap to citizenship for all11 million undocumentedimmigrants, with an expeditedthree-year path to citizenship,and giving all other undocu-mented immigrants who passbackground checks and paytaxes with an eight-year path tocitizenship without fear ofdeportation.

It reforms family-basedimmigration system to keepfamilies together by recapturingvisas from previous years toclear backlogs, including spous-es and children of green cardholders as immediate familymembers. PTI

Jerusalem: Israeli PrimeMinister Benajmin Netanyahu’soffice announced early Fridaythat it had completed aRussian-mediated prisonerswap to bring home a youngIsraeli woman who crossedthe border into Syria.

In a statement, Netanyahu’soffice said the woman was onher way home, hours afterIsrael announced it hadreturned to Syria two shep-

herds who crossed into Israeliterritory in recent weeks.According to Israeli mediareports, the 25-year-old womanwas sent by Syria to Russia,where an Israeli plane was dis-patched to retrieve her.

Netanyahu thankedRussian President VladimirPutin for helping engineer thedeal, saying he had reached outto the leader for help. “I askedfor his help, and he indeed

acted,” Netanyahu said, callingthe Russian leader “my friend.”

Little is known about whythe woman entered Syria.Israeli media have said she is aformer resident of an ultra-Orthodox West Bank settle-ment, but she has not beenpublicly identified. Syrianmedia said she accidentallyentered Syrian territory aftercrossing from the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. AP

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Yangon (Myanmar): A youngwoman who was shot in thehead by police last week duringa protest against the military

coup in Myanmar died Friday,her family said.

It was the first confirmeddeath among thousands of

protesters who have faced offagainst security forces sincethe junta took power onFebruary 1, detained the coun-try’s elected leaders and pre-vented Parliament from con-vening.

Mya Thwet Thwet Khine

was shot during a demonstra-tion in the capital, Naypyitaw,on February 9, two days beforeher 20th birthday.

Video showed her shelter-ing from water cannons andsuddenly dropping to theground after a bullet penetrat-ed the motorcycle helmet shewas wearing.

She had been on life sup-port in a hospital with whatdoctors said was no chance ofrecovery. AP

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Beijing: As the spectre of age-ing population coupled withdeclining birth rates continueto loom large despite relaxationof the one-child policy in 2016,a concerned China hasapproved three provinces tocarry out full assessments andresearch into possible effects offurther easing of birth policy.

After implementingdecades old one-child policy,China is facing demographiccrisis with rapidly ageing pop-ulation over 60 years, whichaccording to official figureshas increased to 420 million in2019.

The two-child policy failed

to make impact on the lowbirth rates as the number ofbirths dropped by two millionin 2018.

China as a whole saw580,000 fewer births in 2019than in 2018, marking thethird consecutive year ofdecline since the implementa-tion of the universal two-childpolicy in the mainland, accord-ing to official data.

According to China’s sta-tistics bureau, the country hada population of 1.34 billion in2010 with an annual growthrate of 0.57 per cent, downfrom 1.07 per cent a decadeearlier. PTI

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Islamabad: Pakistan has decid-ed to register Himalayan pinksalt as Geographical Indications(GI) to prevent its unauthoriseduse by other countries.

A GI tag is a sign used onproducts that have a specificgeographical origin and possessorigin-based qualities and rep-utation in the region.

The precious salt is extract-ed from the Salt Range inPunjab which extends along thesouth of the Potohar Plateau andthe north of the Jhelum River.

The decision was taken ina meeting with the IntellectualProperty Organisation (IPO)Pakistan chaired by CommerceAdviser Razak Dawood. PTI

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The new public sector enter-prises policy envisages that

the strategic sectors have lim-ited number of players restrict-ing it to maximum four publicsector enterprises of the hold-ing nature, a top official said onFriday.

Department of PublicEnterprises (DPE) SecretarySailesh said the remainingenterprises will be rationalisedin terms of mergers, amalga-mations and privatisation if fea-sible.

As part of the‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’package, Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman had inMay announced that there willbe a maximum of four publicsector companies in strategicsectors, and state-owned firmsin other segments will eventu-

ally be privatised.The DPE secretary was

addressing a webinar organisedby PHDCCI.

Sailesh said, “We need tobuild our capabilities andemphasise our domestic pro-duction for global and domes-tic outreach at a globally com-petitive cost.”

The new paradigm frame-work in which the govern-

ment is working on will makePSU a pivotal part and there isa strength towards asset mon-etisation in the brownfield pro-ject, he added. “We need toensure that the desired resultsare achieved in the collabora-tive effect of the private sectorto enhance wealth, improveR&D, and growth of the econ-omy.

“The secretary also saidthat with the announcementsof the new PSU policy, the govtwishes to have a strong andimpactful public sector in astrategic sector. “MSMEs(micro, small and mediumenterprises) have the potentialin the sectors such as defence,infrastructure, manufacturing,power, petroleum, coal, min-ing, ports, airports, and manymore, which will help to createbetter running of governmentassets,” he said.

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Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman on

Friday held an informal meet-ing with top industrialists ofTamil Nadu to elicit their viewson the budget she presented onFebruary 1.

TVS Motor ChairmanVenu Srinivasan, MRF LtdChairman M Mammen, IndiaCements Ltd Vice Chairman NSrinivasan, former AshokLeyland Chairman RSeshasayee and ApolloHospitals MD Sunita Reddywere among those who tookpart in the meeting, sourcessaid.

This is the first time sheis meeting industry captains inTamil Nadu after presenting thebudget. However, the meetingwas out of bounds for themedia and the points discussedwere not known. Industrysources said the FM listened tothe views put forth by theindustrialists during the inter-action.

The India Cements LtdManaging Director N

Srinivasan said he thanked theFM for presenting an ‘out-standing’ budget that wouldspur growth.

“The budget will spurgrowth. I told her that duringthis calendar year itself, all theindustries, including manu-facturing, will be runningtowards full capacity”,Srinivasan told PTI.

The official twitter handleof the FM’s office shared imagesof the Minister interacting withthe industrialists.

Earlier in the day, BJPTamil Nadu unit President LMurugan received Sitharamanand presented a ‘Vel’ to her aspart of welcoming her to thestate.

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Holding that banks cannotwash off their hands

towards their customers for theoperation of lockers, theSupreme Court Friday direct-ed the Reserve Bank of India(RBI) to lay down regulationswithin six months mandatingthe steps to be taken by bankswith respect to locker facilitymanagement.

A bench comprisingJustices M M Shantanagoudarand Vineet Saran said with theadvent of globalization, bank-ing institutions have acquireda very significant role in the lifeof the common man as bothdomestic and internationaleconomic transactions withinthe country have increasedmultiple folds.

The top court said peopleare hesitant to keep their liquidassets at home as “we aresteadily moving towards a cash-less economy.”

“Thus, as is evident fromthe rising demand for such ser-vices, lockers have become anessential service provided byevery banking institution. Suchservices may be availed of bycitizens as well as by foreignnationals,” the bench said.

Moreover, due to rapidgains in technology, “we arenow transitioning from dualkey-operated lockers to elec-tronically operated lockers,”the top court said.In the elec-tronically operated lockers,though the customer may havepartial access to the lockerthrough passwords or ATMpin, etc., they are unlikely topossess the technologicalknow-how to control the oper-ation of such lockers, the benchsaid.”On the other hand, thereis the possibility that miscreantsmay manipulate the technolo-gies used in these systems togain access to the lockers with-out the customers’ knowledgeor consent,” it said.

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The country’s foreignexchange reserves fell by

USD 249 million to USD583.697 billion in the weekended February 12, RBI datashowed on Friday.

In the previous week, thereserves had declined by USD6.24 billion to stand at USD583.945 billion. It had toucheda record high of USD 590.185billion in the week endedJanuary 29, 2021.

In the reporting week, thedecrease in reserves was main-ly due to a fall in the foreigncurrency assets (FCAs), a majorcomponent of the overallreserves.

FCAs decreased by USD1.387 billion to USD 540.951billion, weekly data by theReserve Bank of India (RBI)showed.

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The Sensex tumbled 435points while the Nifty

slumped below the 15,000-mark on Friday as marketsbuckled under selling pressurefor the fourth session on thetrot amid a lacklustre trend inglobal markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensexended 434.93 points or 0.85 percent lower at 50,889.76, pres-sured by robust selling in bank-ing and auto counters.Similarly, the broader NSENifty gave up the 15,000 level,dropping 137.20 points or 0.91per cent to 14,981.75. A dayafter topping the Sensex gain-er’s chart, ONGC emerged asthe biggest laggard in Friday’ssession, tumbling 5.06 per cent.It was followed by SBI, AxisBank, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto,Maruti and M&M, which shedup to 3.77 per cent. On theother hand, IndusInd Bank,

HUL, Dr Reddy’s, NTPC,Reliance Industries and BajajFinserv were among the gain-ers, climbing up to 1.97%.

During the week, theSensex declined 654.54 pointsor 1.26 per cent, and Nifty fell181.55 points or 1.19 per cent.

“The Nifty-50 and BSESensex declined by 1.2 percent this week as market moodbecame cautious on risingglobal and local bond yields.

The broader markets thatis NSE Mid Cap 100 Index andBSE Small Cap Index are bothin the green this week. The US10 Year Bond yields have risenfrom below 1 per cent to 1.29per cent, building in econom-ic impact of the USD 1.9 tril-lion stimulus package.

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Petrol price onFriday crossed

the �90-per-litremark in the nation-al capital, and dieselsoared to �80.60after rates wereincreased for the11th consecutiveday in a row.

Petrol price onFriday was hiked by31 paise per litre and diesel by33 paise, according to a pricenotification of state-owned fuelretailers.

This pushed the petrolprice to �90.19 a litre in Delhiand to �96.62 in Mumbai.

Diesel now comes for Rs80.60 a litre in the national cap-ital and for �87.62 in Mumbai.

The increase follows aspurt in prices of oil in theinternational market, on whichIndia is 85 per cent dependentto meet its needs. Brent oilcrossed USD 65 a barrel onThursday as a worsening US

energy crisis took out almost 40per cent of the nation’s crudeproduction.

In 11 days, retail petrolprices have risen by Rs 3.24 alitre, a record since the pricingwas deregulated in 2010, anddiesel rates have gone up by Rs3.47.

Petrol price has alreadysurged past the Rs 100-mark insome places in Rajasthan andMadhya Pradesh, which levythe highest VAT on the fuel.Retail pump prices defer fromstate to state depending on thelocal taxes (VAT) and freight.

New Delhi:Despite talks with US-based Cairn Energy, the Indiangovernment may soon go ahead with an appeal against the arbi-tration award in the retrospective taxation case, sources said.

An official source told IANS that government will contestthe award as taxation is its its sovereign right.

Further, the Centre will also contest other suits filed by CairnEnergy at various other international courts. PTI

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The Centre has given regu-latory approval for drone

deployment for remote sensingdata collection in agriculturalareas of 100 districts of thecountry.

The move will be benefi-cial for Gram Panchayat levelyield estimation, under thePradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana.

The Ministry of CivilAviation and the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation hasgranted conditional exemp-tion for Remotely PilotedAircraft System usage to theMinistry of Agriculture andFarmers Welfare.

“The exemption shall bevalid from the one year fromthe date of issue of the per-mission letter or until theoperationalisation of the‘Digital Sky Platform’, whichev-er is earlier,” the ministry saidin a statement.

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Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha has roped ininternational action director Stefan Richter

for the forthcoming Ayushmann Khurrana-star-rer Anek.

Richter is known for his larger-than-life yetrealistic action choreography, evident in actionsequences he designed for Ryan Reynolds andSamuel L Jackson in the 2017 Hollywoodthriller The Hitman’s Bodyguard, and for ShahRukh Khan in the 2011 Bollywood release Don2.

“Anek is the biggest film of my career interms of scale, and Anubhav Sinha is leaving nostone unturned to give the audience a huge big-screen experience with his vision. It is true thatStefan Richter has been roped in for our film.He comes in with a wealth of knowledge and hasbeen an architect for big scale action moviesaround the world,” said Ayushmann, disclosingthe news of the collaboration along with an on-set image of Richter that he posted.

He added that he would be doing somethingnew in the film courtesy Ritcher.

“With his craft, the action sequences of Anekwill match global standards and give the audi-ence a thrilling visual experience. Anubhav sirand Stefan are making me do something that isextremely new for me. As an artiste, I relishdoing different things and constantly exploremyself. Anek is taking me on a new journey thatI’m really enjoying,” the actor added.

Actor Ranveer Singh feels younghip-hop and rap artiste Spitfire is

a big reason why everybody tuned intohis 2019 film Gully Boy.

Spitfire, whose real name is NitinMishra, was dubbed as a prodigy forthe incredible lyrics of the song, AsliHip Hop.

“Nitin AKA Spitfire is a lyricalprodigy. He is a large part of the rea-son everybody tuned into Gully Boyduring its first promo when he wroteAsli Hip Hop. He is the one who wroteMurad’s part in all of the rap battles,”said Ranveer, referring to his charac-ter of Murad in the film, a youngsterfrom the slums who goes on to becomea hip-hop star.

Ranveer added, “When his match-less raw talent and pure passionrevealed itself to me, it became a largepart of the reason I even wanted to par-ticipate in the business in the firstplace.”

He also spoke about his favourite

track in Spitfire’s new EP titled Partein,which released on Friday.

“This new EP features one of myfavourite tracks so far, Zalzala (a track

from the EP). When I am in the gymit gets me hyped and pumped up.When I hear Sangeet and Afterparty(other tracks from the EP) they trans-

port me into an elevated spiritualspace and put me in a deep, thought-ful, reflective frame of mind,” said theactor.

The EP speaks of the rapper’s ver-satility, fearlessness and his beautifulspirit, said Ranveer. “Partein is ademonstration of skill and maturity.Tune in and hear your heart out. I can’twait for his next evolution,” he added.

Ranveer has founded the indepen-dent record label IncInk with NavzarEranee. Spitfire is managed by the label.

IncInk is his passion project thataims to give a platform to raw talentswith no connection in the musicindustry from across the country toexpress their skills and present their tal-ent to the global audience.

Actor Shraddha Kapoor describes the lock-down phase of last year as one of her cru-

cial phases for self-realisation. It was a periodwhen she could learn to unlearn and redefinethe value of zero, the spiritual meaning of shun-ya, she says.

“I think every time we start a film, westart from zero, from shunya. Lockdown wasa time for me to understand the value ofseveral things, including self-love, thefamily and my emotional and spiritu-al health. I also think that it made memore independent, and things likethe power of yoga to develop afocussed mind so that I can chooseto be a part of any project — film orentrepreneurial venture — morefearlessly,” Shraddha said.

“As an actor, being a part of showbusiness, we have to look in a cer-tain way and that changes also withevery film that we do, every char-acter I play. Recently I invested ina beverage project in which I real-ly do not have to count my calo-ries while having my favouritedrinks. In a way, during lock-down, I have understood andredefined the value of shunya,and now I know the brand ofproduct or even brand of cin-ema I would like to associate

myself with. It is a learning that has happenedthrough last year,” she added.

Shraddha has been around in Bollywood foraround a decade, and she has faced success,

failure, praise and criticism. Her debut filmTeen Patti fared below expectation, herthird film Aashiqui 2 was a musical super-hit, followed by Ek Villain. She has tried

dance and action in various films includ-ing ABCD 2, Baaghi, Street Dancer 3D,and Saaho.

What has her decade in Bollywoodtaught her? “Firstly, whenever I get anew film, I receive it with a lot of grat-itude because a producer is investingmoney to make the film and makingme part of that journey. As an actor,I always put my 100 per cent, butresult is certainly not in our hand. Itis in the hands of the audience.Interestingly, the result plays a parton my next opportunity, becauseit is the nature of the business ofcinema. I have learnt to look atthings from a broader perspec-tive,” she summed up.

Shraddha finished a portionof the shoot for director LuvRanjan’s untitled film co-star-ring Ranbir Kapoor in Delhilast month and is gearing up

for her next schedule.

�What fascinated you to say yes to theseries 1962 The War In The Hills?

There are two major reasons — one,it was a war story, based and inspired bya real incident which I had read and wasabsolutely aware of. Any kind of storythat is related to Indian Army or defence,I get really excited. And the second rea-son was the director Mahesh Majrekar.I had worked with him earlier and Iwanted to do so again.

�How was your experience of playingan Army Officer?

I always love to work on films basedon the Army or any defence service forthat matter. I love wearing uniforms. I amvery fortunate that very early in my lifeI have played a cop, an officer and a spe-cial commando in a series called Testcase.I find myself very lucky to play all thesecharacters.

�What research went into it? Was itmore mental than physical?

See, when you play any char-acter, there are always two kindsof research involved — physicaland mental. The physical one isusually related to the professionof the character. So, since I amplaying an Army officer, Imade sure that I look like one.I wore the uniform properlyand made sure that I appear fitenough and be able to do allthose physical activities, whichare required to be done to playmy part. And I think mentalresearch is always importantfor an actor. As far as that isconcerned, it has to be thecharacter’s emotions, whichcan be of any kind. Forinstance, in this particularstory, I am in a healthy compe-tition with Abhay Deol’s char-acter, where I feel that I am moretalented than him but he got thechance to lead the battle while Iam on a standby. So I think theseare the emotional points where youhave to work as a character. In thisseries, the important aspect was thatI should look apart and my body lan-guage should reflect my character. Sothat preparation was quite important.

�Any insight into the storyline...It’s a very emotional story because

this war happened when we were a newlyindependent as a country. We were notequipped to handle a war. Somewheredown the line, I personally feel that it’smore of an emotional inspiration. Whenyou have less resources and facilities, but

even then you have to fight for yournation. So during that time your will andpassion matter more. That is the reasonthat even when we had 3,000 opponentsfighting 126 soldiers, we won. Just byimagining the numbers one gets goose-bumps. I must say it was a battle of daunt-less courage.

�Why do you think it’simportant to make showson such subjects?

As a creative personwhen you are makingsomething, you tend to get

inspired by stories. Youmight even get inspired by a

crime, so that it reaches a larg-er audience and people get

aware that, ‘oh! It was a heinouscrime and we should be careful

to not get into a situation like this.We should be alert in life.’ In a very

similar manner, there are so manystories out there which are inspira-tional. Also, I was reading some-where that in today’s time, IndianArmed Forces — Indian Army,Indian Navy and Indian Air Force— deliberately promotes a lot sothat the youngsters feel motivat-ed to join the services. So I thinkthese kind of stories becomevery important. I feel it encour-ages people to understand theimportance of these professions,especially the youngsters. Showslike these will help them realise

how important soldiers are for a coun-try. I am sure a lot of youngsters will getencouraged.

�You’ve worked with MaheshManjrekar earlier in Hathyar. Andrecently, in an interview you also men-tioned that, “we’re quite familiar witheach other’s style of working.” Do youthink that made your ride smooth here?

I know how Maheshji works. Initially,I was a little apprehensive about my rolebecause I thought there’s no conflict inmy character. But then deep down I knewthat even if there’s no conflict, I can trustthe director with the effectiveness of myrole. The visual journey is through thecamera. If it captures you well, only thenan actor’s emotion reaches the audienceperfectly. That’s why I trusted him withmy role, emotions and presentation.When you’ll see the series, you’ll realisethat my character has that vulnerabilityand softness.

�Can you share a few anecdotes...I can recall a very interesting and

highly emotional scene from the series.It is when I come to inform Shagun Singh

(Mahie Gill), who’s playing Major SurajSingh’s (Abhay Deol) wife, about whathappened in the battle. After hearing thenews, his daughter gets hysterical. It wasabout how I control her emotions andcalm her down. There were no dialoguesin this particular scene. Maheshji had aconversation with the three of us —Mahi, the girl who’s playing Suraj’sdaughter and me. He explained to us thecrux of the scene and said, “This is whatI want out of it. This is the emotion I wantthe audience to feel when you performit.” He then told us, “I am placing thecamera in this direction and now every-thing is up to you guys... how you do itto create the perfect shot.” So he gave usa lot of details of what we are supposedto deliver as actors. That scene took quitesome time because it was a bit difficultas well as emotional since there was nota single dialogue. We just had to conveythrough our feelings and emotions. Asthey say, “Silence speaks louder thanwords.” So we had to make the audiencefeel the moment by playing with ouremotions.

(The series releases on February 26 onHotstar.)

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Arunachal Pradesh is known for itslush green hills, diverse tribes, and

rich vibrant culture. Now NationalGeographic, along with actor RadhikaMadan, will take the viewers throughthis spectacle and help people discov-er some unique experiences. The two-part documentary series tit ledPostcards from Arunachal, documentsthe spiritual and wondrous journey ofRadhika while exploring the varieddestinations spread across the state.

With showcasing picture-perfectmountains and tranquil lakes; Radhikashares her experiences of feeling thepeace and calmness at the monaster-ies, exploring the diverse handicrafttradition and understanding the richculture of the harmonious tribes livingin the state. From highlighting theexotic flora and fauna exclusive to the

state to bustling markets amidst theserene hills, extreme sports to adven-turous camping in Ziro Valley; view-ers will get a taste of the simplicity ofthe exquisite beauty of this statethrough this series.

“We harness the power of story-telling, technology and visuals toexplore and provide a deeper under-standing of a place. With this docu-mentary series, we have showcased thebeauty, serenity and vibrancy thatArunachal Pradesh has to offer to giveour viewers an opportunity to under-stand and appreciate the wonders ofthe state,” said a National Geographicspokesperson.

“The state is a veritable treasurehouse of nature, culture and has a lotto offer to tourists from all over theworld. From serene monasteries to

beautiful mountains; deep-rooted tra-ditions and tribes, the series is trulyrepresentative of the beauty of the stateand we are happy to premiere it on aspecial day,” said Pema Khandu, ChiefMinister of AP.

Talking about her experiences andassociation, Radhika said, “The jour-ney means so much more to me thanjust travel. This is my first ever solo tripand that made this shoot even morespecial. The hills, the beautiful har-monic culture, the thriving and diversewildlife made me fall in love with thisplace. I have always loved travelling butthis time, I explored it through a dif-ferent lens.”

(The docu-series will premiere onArunachal Statehood Day — February20 at 8 pm on National GeographicChannel India and Fox Life India.)

While growing up, we oftenheard tales of supernatural

entities lurking around where welived, just waiting to nab us at theright time. Though many say they’rejust urban legends, some say ‘She’won’t let you go!’ Are you ready tobe haunted by your dreams? Well,get ready to watch debutant writer-director Sarmad Khan’s urban hor-ror film, The Wife.

The horror stars GurmeetChoudhary and debutante SayaniDatta as a married couple who soonafter moving into their new apart-ment find their idyllic life unravel-ing in the most horrific ways due tothe presence of a malevolent spir-it. When their relationship crum-bles, they realise that they must sticktogether to not only save their mar-riage but also their lives. The filmis produced by Zee Studios. It’sposter features the lead cast andlooks intriguing as it unveils both,romances as well as an ominousundertone running through it.

Shariq Patel of Zee Studios says,“The urban setting and matter-of-fact approach in presenting super-natural events as never seen before

on screen makes the film unique.Horror as a genre is fairlyuntapped and I am sure this filmwill deliver the thrills it promis-es”

Gurmeet says, “This is my firstsolo lead and you’ll get to see mein a whole new and differentavatar. The script is fresh andyou’ll find the film to be a perfectamalgamation of spine-chillinghorror, action, romance, dramaand so much more.”

Director Sarmad says, “I thinkthe audience will the unconven-tionality of this film. Most horrorstories tragically are quite pre-dictable, especially for those wholove this genre and can end upmostly guessing what’s going tohappen next. Yet, with this film,you can’t know anything for suretill you’ve arrived at the end of it.”

Sayani says, “I am a huge fanof this genre and to be able tomake my debut in one is the mostexciting feeling ever. The entireexperience of being a part of sucha film has been a very fulfilling oneindeed.”

(The film is streaming on Zee5.)

Anatomist Alice Robertsembarks on an auda-cious scientific stunt —

to rebuild her own body, edit-ing out errors left behind byevolution. With the help of oneof the world’s best virtual sculp-tors, Scott Eaton, and top SFXmodel maker SangeetPrabhaker, Alice creates a life-size model of the perfect humanbody. She meets leading expertsto find out what the body’sbiggest problems are, and howadaptations in the rest of theanimal world could inspire hernew, improved design.Ambitious, audacious andpacked with cutting-edge sci-ence, Can Science Make MePerfect? challenges everythingyou thought you knew aboutthe perfect body. ProducerGareth Cornick talks about theshow. Excerpts:

�Tell us about the show andhow is it different?

Well, it’s the first time in myknowledge that anyone hastried to redesign a human bodyto make it better. And it camefrom the idea of the perfectbody. One day, I was thinkingin the office that ‘what do wecall the perfect body?’ Is it, BradPitt or Angelina Jolie? Andthat’s kind of beauty. Then Ithought, that we can actuallydesign a perfect body. Andwhat are the pieces of your bodythat are just not fit for purposeanymore? For a 21st centuryhuman? So that’s how CanScience Make Me Perfect wasconceptualised.

�What draws you to be a partof science shows?

I always had a keen interestin science. I actually trained asa physics teacher to begin with,and just got the feeling that Iwanted to make televisionshows because I’d get a wideraudience. For many people‘Science’ is an off-putting word.But the fact is science is every-where in everything. So, I liketo know things, I am alwayscurious. And so, through theprogrammes I make, I try tobreak down that barrier, andshow the audience that scienceis something that everyoneshould be interested in. Youdon’t need to be a genius tounderstand it, you just need to

have a thirst for understandingthings. So, I like to go far out onideas, get people excited and getthem to teach science — this iswhat really drives me crazy.

�Which are the most strikingdiscoveries revealed in theshow?

Well, I think as a part of theskeleton, one thing we reallywent for were the hips andknees. And in our research, werealised that virtually everyone,by the time they’re 70, or 80’swill have a problem with theirhips, knees and back. So, wedecided to create alternatedesigns of a human body,through the process of anatomy.We also looked at the animalkingdom because in terms ofevolution, there is a lot of inspi-ration to be taken from otheranimals. An ostrich’s legs arefantastic, they don’t break downat all. A chimpanzee never hasa backache, and so the lowerspine of our skeleton wasinspired from a chimpanzee.Did you know we have a blindspot in our retina? And if youwere to redesign an eyeball, youwouldn’t want to design it likethe eye we have. In that sense,an octopuses eye is a betterdesign and that’s what we haveused on the skeleton. That’s fas-cinating to see how many timesevolution has tried to over-come the same problems which

humans face in different envi-ronments.

�Can science make one per-fect?

The aim of the show is —can you make a person perfectto live in the 21st century? Andthat depends on what your ideaof perfection is. If it is Brad Pitt’sbody or Angelina Jolie’s body,then we haven’t achieved that.And that’s totally subjective. Wehave designed a body that won’tlet you down in 21st centuryhuman life, you won’t get anyage, you won’t get back ache,your hips won’t need to bereplaced, your ears will lastyou’ll be able to hear till the ageof 80, a body that’s fit for pur-pose, right into old days to 80 or90 years old. And we’ve debasedthat by looking at animals in theanimal kingdom, how they ageand their systems work. It maylook freaky, but we think wecracked it.

�What are the key takeaways forthe audience from this show?

The takeaway is to look atyour own body, lifestyle and themodern world arena. It willinform and help inspire people tolook after their health better orunderstand what’s happening totheir body they get older.

(The show will air on NationalScience Day i.e February 28 at 11am on Sony BBC Earth.)

Are you planning to arrangea socially-distanced

screening of a film? Do you feellike reliving the theatre expe-rience? Catching your favouritedirector’s film? Or simply tak-ing a weekend film break?Well, director Taranveer Singhhas curated a list of must-watchfilms this year. Have a look:

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Shakun Batra is one of themost interesting filmmakers ofour generation. After doingKapoor & Sons, I can’t wait tosee what he does next, especial-ly with a stellar cast likeDeepika Padukone andSidhant Chaturvedi.

����� �Ram Madhvani directing

his next after Neerja is reasonenough to be excited, but I amalso eager to see how hemoulds Kartik Aryan into arole unlike anything else he has

played in the past.

�����I absolutely loved Hardik

Mehta’s directorial debutKamyaab starring SanjayMishra. And I really excited tosee what he has made next.

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Ayushmann Khurana isknown for picking interestingscripts and his pairing withVaani Kapoor seems quiteintriguing. Add to thatAbhishek Kapoor at the help ofthings. It looks like a quirkylove story to look forward to.

�������������Talking of quirky love

stories, how can I notmention the film I’ve made?(Wink). Quiteunderstandably Tuesdays &Fridays is one of the films Iam most excited about in2021, for obvious reasons.

Actor Vaani Kapoor will see three filmsreleasing on the big screen this year.

With Shamshera, in which she has beenpaired opposite Ranbir Kapoor, Bell-Bottomopposite Akshay Kumar, and ChandigarhKare Aashiqui with Ayushmann Khurrana,Vaani has an enviable line-up of films readyto release in 2021. The actor is keen to con-stantly explore and present herself in newavatars each time her film hits the theatres.

Vaani says, “As an actor, I want to try myhands at everything. I’m lucky that I havemass entertainers as well as high-conceptcontent films this year that will enable meto present myself distinctly to audience andthe industry. I’m someone who wants toexplore every genre possible in my careerand want to undertake as many risks as pos-sible.”

She adds, “I don’t want to be bracketedas an actress who can do just a particularthing or look a certain way on screen. In fact,I want to take as many plunges as possibleand explore myself to constantly discoverand rediscover. I have always wanted to pickfilms that allow me to do something inter-esting and leave a mark onscreen.”

Vaani dubs 2021 a huge moment in hercinematic career. She says, “I’m really excit-ed about how 2021 is looking like. It’s awatershed moment for me and I want tocontinue on this path of choosing interest-ing roles that enable me to express.”

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Naomi Osaka says nobodyremembers a loser — and

she doesn’t plan to be onewhen she tries towin a fourthGrand Slam crownagainst JenniferBrady in theAustralian Open final onSaturday.

A second trophy atMelbourne Park would meanthe 23-year-old from Japanhas won half of the Majors she’scontested since her first at theUS Open final in 2018 — aninfamous match foreverremembered for SerenaWilliams’s implosion.

Osaka’s defeat of Williamsin the semi-final on Thursdayended the 39-year-old’s latestattempt to win an elusiverecord-equalling 24th Slamtitle and reinforced the beliefthat a new generation is takingover from the American.

Osaka is at the forefront ofthe young wave and credits anew-found mental maturityfor being able to battle throughmatches under the highestpressure. And she had a warn-ing for the 22nd-seededAmerican Brady ahead of thefinal.

“I have this mentality thatpeople don’t remember therunners-up,” she said. “I thinkI fight the hardest in the finals.I think that’s where you sort of

set yourselfapart.”

Osakais hotfavourite

against Brady, who is makingher Grand Slam final debutafter being forced into a hard14-day quarantine ahead of theAustralian Open, where shewas confined to her hotelroom and unable to train.

The pair first clashed asjuniors in Florida seven yearsago when Brady won. Osakahas won both their matchessince with their rivalry hittingnew heights in the second ofthose, last year’s epic US Opensemi-final.

Eventual champion Osakaprevailed 7-6 (7/1), 3-6, 6-3 ina nerve-jangling encounter,dubbed by some as the bestmatch of the truncated 2020season.

Osaka, who has never losta Slam match after gettingpast the fourth round, is aim-ing to become the firstwoman’s player since MonicaSeles to win her first fourGrand Slam finals.

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Russia’s Daniil Medvedev over-powered Stefanos Tsitsipas tomake his first Australian Open

final on Friday, where he will bid to stopworld number one Novak Djokovicfrom clinching an unprecedented ninthtitle.

The fourth seed proved far toostrong for Greece’s Tsitsipas, crushinghim 6-4, 6-2, 7-5 in front of more than7,000 noisy fans at Rod Laver Arena toextend his win streak to 20.

The 25-year-old, ultra-confident onthe back of his unbeaten run, whichincludes three titles, has been knock-ing on the door of Grand Slam successfor some time, but has yet to win a title.To finally get over the line he must onSunday beat top seed Djokovic, who haswon all eight finals he has played atMelbourne Park.

But nobody on tour has moremomentum than Medvedev,whose tricky game has stymiedall opponents since November,and he has won three of his lastfour against the 17-time GrandSlam-winning Serb.

“It definitely wasn’t easy,” saidMedvedev, only the third Russianafter Yevgeny Kafelnikov and MaratSafin to reach the Australian Openfinal.

“I got a little bit scared and tight(in the third set) because it’s a semi-final of a Slam... but happy I was ableto turn my game on, especially in sometight moments on my serve.”

Medvedev came into the show-down boasting a 5-1 edge in their head-to-heads and a frosty relationshipstemming from Shanghai in 2019,when the popular Greek blasted hisslugfest playing style as “boring”.

FLAG-WAVING FANSFifth seed Tsitsipas was backing up

from a stunning five-set upset of 20-time Grand Slam champion RafaelNadal, but it was an energy-sappingfour-hour epic and he appeared to feelthe effects.

In front of vocal, flag-waving Greekfans, the servers controlled the pointsas they moved to 2-2 in the opening setbefore the Russian, anchored to thebaseline, drew first blood.

Until then, Tsitsipas had only facedeight break points in the entire tourna-ment, but Medvedev earned two andconverted on the second when theGreek sent a return long.

Medvedev, who also reached the

2019 US Open final, stayed focused andworked two set points at 5-4. ButTsitsipas defended both successfullywith deep, aggressive returns as thecrowd lifted their volume.

He sent down his first double-faultof the match on his third before blast-ing an ace and a winner to take a one-set lead.

Medvedev dominated the longrallies, with Tsitsipas needing to fight

hard for every point, and he was bro-ken again after a seven-minutemarathon game when the Russianblasted a sizzling forehand down theline for 2-1 second-set advantage.

Frustrated, Tsitsipas slammed hiswater bottle to the ground at thechangeover, with the ballkids forced tomop up the mess after it burst andsprayed everywhere.

Medvedev was commanding onserve and a glum Tsitsipas unravelled,

broken again, to love, on his next gameas the Russian raced through the set in36 minutes.

He was broken again early in thethird set and appeared spent, butroared on by the crowd he found newreserves to break back for 3-3.

For the first time in the match,Medvedev was under pressure butheld his nerve with a glorious passingshot giving him another break for 6-5before he calmly served out to win.

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India’s Ankita Raina onFriday claimed her maiden

WTA title by lifting the PhillipIsland Trophy along withRussian partner KamillaRakhimova, a feat which willcatapult her into the top-100 inthe doubles for the first time inher career.

Ankita and Kamilla eraseda one-set deficit to beat theRussian combination of AnnaBlinkova and AnastasiaPotapova 2-6, 6-4, 10-7 in thesummit clash here.

The 28-year-old Indianshared the $8000 prize moneywith her partner and earned280 ranking points, whichwill take her to 94 from the

current 115 when the WTAdoubles chart is updated nextweek.

Ankita will become onlythe second player to crack thedoubles top-100 since Sania

Mirza, who is a six-timeGrand Slam champion.

The past two weeks havebeen extremely memorablefor the gritty Indian, whomade her Grand Slam debut at

the Australian Open in thedoubles, and also won a roundin the main draw of a WTAsingles tournament.

Elated at her performanceand the result, Ankita says thesingles top-100 is also justaround the corner.

“It’s been a great week.Kamilla and I played togetherfor the first time. We signed upjust 20 minutes before thedraw because there was a lot ofconfusion with the entry list.

“Kamilla plays very aggres-sive, has good strokes and I justhad to ask her to be aggressiveat the net, which she did,”Ankita said.

“It was not that draw waseasy, we beat some good play-ers who were tough not only indoubles but in singles, too.Kamilla has great fighting spir-it. It’s great... First WTA titlesand doubles top-100, too. I amlooking forward to crack sin-gles top-100,” she added.

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Second seeded Elise Mertens andAryna Sabalenka swept past

Barbora Krejcikova and KaterinaSiniakova to clinch their firstAustralian Open and second GrandSlam doubles title on Friday.

The Belgian-Belarusian combina-tion proved too strong for the third-seeded Czech pair, winning 6-2, 6-3on Rod Laver Arena after sealing thematch on their fourth championship

point.It was their second Grand Slam

success as a team after the 2019 USOpen and sixth title overall as theyboth bounced back from fourth-round defeats in singles at MelbournePark.

They pair made their debuttogether at the 2019 Australian Openand have since established themselvesas one the tour’s top teams, along withtwo-time Grand Slam winnersKrejcikova and Siniakova.

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Fast bowler Mark Wood feelsEngland, boasting one of the game’s

finest seamers in James Anderson, canfancy their chances in the upcomingday/night Test against India if the pinkball moves around.

The four-match Test series is levelat 1-1 heading into the day-night Testat the new 110,000-capacity Sardar PatelStadium here.

“As soon as the ball moves, weknow how good our seam bowlers canbe. We’ve got good depth there,good skills and two of the best-ever (James Anderson andStuart Broad).

“Hopefully, ifthe ball doesmove and it isseamer-friendlywe can be very confi-dent going into the game,” Woodsaid during a virtual interaction onFriday.

Along with Jonny Bairstow, Woodjoined the England squad ahead of thethird Test.

While the spinners have taken thebulk of wickets in the first two Tests ofthe ongoing series, Indian pacers tookall 20 wickets to win their only previ-ous day-night match on home soil,against Bangladesh in Kolkata.

“We’ve been bowling with them inthe nets - they have swung quite a bit

and they’ve lasted longer whichwas interesting to see,” said Wood.

“With the ball, as soon as itmoves, every one of the bowlers

from the past couple ofmonths is dying to get itin their hand. I’m not theonly one who’s trying toget hold of it. “The wick-ets in the nets have been

a bit green and had goodpace and carry too. I don’tknow if that’s anything togo by or whether it’s a bitof a trick.”

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