R eaching out to the protest- ing farmers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday assured them Minimum Support Price (MSP) will remain in place and reiterated the Government’s willingness to hold talks. Urging them to end their ongoing agitation, he also ques- tioned the Opposition, espe- cially the Congress, for taking a “U-turn” on farm reforms. Making these assertions in the Rajya Sabha, Modi also referred to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s backing to reforms in agriculture sector. Explaining his Government’s stance on the farm laws while replying to a discussion on the President’s address, the Prime Minister also expressed concern over foreign elements trying to foment trouble. He said a new phenome- non has emerged over the past few years wherein “Foreign Destructive Ideology” was evi- dent in the country. He quipped this was the new kind of FDI in obvious reference to singer Rihanna, activist Greta Thunberg and lawyer-author Meena Harris, niece of US Vice President Kamala Harris, backing the farmers’ stir. “The nation is making progress and we are talking about FDI but I see that a new FDI has come to the fore. We have to protect the nation from this new FDI. We need Foreign Direct Investment but the new FDI is ‘Foreign Destructive Ideology’, we have to protect ourselves from it,” the Prime Minister said. He also criticised a section of people seen in every agita- tion in the country and said, “In the last few years, we have witnessed a new category of protesters, “Andolan Jeevi”, who one can witness in every agi- tation. We need to protect this country from these Andolan Jeevi, who are actually “par- jeevi”. They don’t have their own strength, but they join all agitations.” Observing that the farmers’ agitation figured prominently during the 15-hour discussion on the President’s address, Modi said the Opposition, however, did not mention about the basic facts of the laws and roots of the problem. Urging the farmers to end their protest, he said, “We will all sit together and talk. We are ready for talks and I am invit- ing you again for dialogue from this House.” In an effort to allay the apprehension of the farmers about the MSP, Modi said “MSP tha, MSP hai aur MSP rahega. No one should spread misinformation.” Highlighting the need for new farm laws to improve the income and living standard of the farmers, the Prime Minister said he was willing to take the brunt if it meant pushing reforms that were long overdue. He said, “We need to move forwards, not backwards. We need to give these reforms a chance.” Stressing the fact that the number of marginal farmers had increased over the years and the country had a respon- sibility to better their lot, Modi said every Government had spoken in favour of reforms in the agriculture sector. However, they have now taken a “U-turn”, said Modi, apparently referring to the Congress and Sharad Pawar, who was Agriculture Minister during the Congress-led UPA rule. A day after disaster struck at Reni near Joshimath in Chamoli district, the authori- ties have been able to recover 26 bodies while at least 197 people were reported missing till Monday evening. Of the bodies recovered, only two could be identified till the evening. According to the status report of the State Emergency Operations Centre (SEOC), the 197 missing people include 12 people of Reni and three other villages, along with 185 workers of the companies involved in the two hydropow- er projects damaged in the disaster. Further, between 25 and 35 persons — included in the missing persons’ list — are stuck in a tunnel with efforts underway to reach them clear- ing the debris in the tunnel. While six persons are injured, 12 persons were rescued safe- ly from the NTPC project downstream. Personnel of the NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, SSB and armed forces along with State police are undertaking rescue and relief works. Meanwhile, apart from Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, Union Power Minister RK Singh, Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Garhwal MP Tirath Singh Rawat and State Minister Dhan Singh Rawat visited the Tapovan and other affected areas where they viewed the efforts underway and interact- ed with the locals. Even as rescue operations continued throughout the day, ration, medical supplies and other daily use items were sup- plied by helicopter to the 13 vil- lages in the Niti valley which have lost road link due to the disaster. Chamoli District Magistrate Swati Bhadauriya informed that supplies will be provided by helicopters in these villages till an alternative arrangement is made. In addition to the disaster affected area, the district administration team is also searching for the missing per- sons along the banks of the Alaknanda river. T he Centre has asked social media platform Twitter to remove 1,178 anti-India pro- paganda handles managed by Pakistan and Khalistani users. The list was sent to Twitter on February 4. Twitter has not complied with the January 31 directive of the Indian Government to block 257 tweets and accounts for tweeting inflammatory pro- farmers messages. The Information and Technology Ministry issued the fresh directive after the Ministry of Home furnished inputs about anti-India propa- ganda unleashed by these accounts. According to sources, Twitter responded to the Government that the company is respecting local laws even while “protecting its founda- tional principle of free expres- sion”. “Many of these accounts were also automated bots that were used for sharing and amplifying misinformation and provocative contents on farm- ers’ protests,” said an official. According to officials, Twitter has to comply with the orders of the Government of India and if there is any resis- tance to the order, the social media company would face charges of flouting various laws. “Twitter’s stand on free- dom of expression is an excuse. They are just a platform and must obey the laws and if they violate they will face prosecu- tion,” said officials. At a time when the microblogging site is sur- rounded by controversy and has received a notice from the Government for “violating Indian law” by not taking down tweets related to “farmers geno- cide”, Twitter India’s public pol- icy head Mahima Kaul has resigned from her post citing personal reasons. Kaul had submitted her resignation in the first week of January and will be continuing at the firm till March. Twitter has also listed the job opening on its website. “At the start of this year, Mahima decided to step down from her role as Twitter Public Policy Director for India and South Asia to take a well- deserved break. It’s a loss for all of us at Twitter, but after more than five years in the role we respect her desire to focus on the most important people and relationships in her personal life. Mahima will continue in her role till the end of March and will support the transition,” Twitter global policy head Monique Meche said. T here is no clarity so far on the reasons for the glacier burst and the resultant avalanche and flash floods that wreaked havoc in the upper reaches of the Himalayas in Uttarakhand on Sunday, but experts have zeroed in global warming or Western distur- bance as the possible causes for the melting of the snow and breaking of the glacier that could have triggered the inun- dation in Chamoli district. The Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) of the Defence Research and Development Organisation is investigating the tragedy, but there are no clear answers yet for a glacier to have melted in the winter. It is not clear whether the flood is a typical Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) or some temporary damming due to a landslide and avalanche that might have blocked the mainstream to form a tempo- rary lake which burst, said Ranjit Rath, Director General of the Geological Survey of India (GSI). A GLOF is a type of out- burst flood that occurs when the dam containing a glacial lake fails. “Once the water level recedes a team of experts will assess the damage as well as the triggering factor responsible for the outburst,” Rath told reporters here. As the nightmare envis- aged by numerous environ- mentalists warning against untrammelled development in the mountains came true on Sunday, glaciologist Farooq Azam said a glacial burst is very rare. “We have been trying to understand the event since yesterday. Right now what we can tell is a glacier slipped from around 500-600 metres, which started a landslide with an ice- fall that triggered this disaster,” Azam, Assistant Professor, Glaciology & Hydrology, Indian Institute of Technology, Indore, told a news agency. “For sure there was no glacial lake outburst flood, for sure there is no cloud burst because there is no lake avail- able in the region at this par- ticular time. Even if there are lakes, they are frozen and they don’t have any activity. The disaster hap- pened because of an icefall and landslide.” he added. Satellite and Google Earth images, Azam added, do not show a glacial lake near the region, but there’s a possibility there may be a water pocket in the region. “Water pockets are lakes inside the glaciers, which may have erupted leading to this event,” he said. He suggested further analysis of weather reports and data to confirm if this indeed was the case. Climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll agreed and also said more data are needed. He said the recent climate change assessment report for India shows significant melting and decline in glacier mass over the Himalayan region in the recent decades due to warmer temperatures. Koll also said it was not clear if an accumulation of glacier melt led to this burst, and noted that Western dis- turbances during last week did bring in a lot of snow over the region, followed by clear sky and warm temperatures. “It is quite possible that cli- mate change and melting of fresh snow led to piling up of water in this area,” Koll, scien- tist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) also shows that climate change has altered the frequency and magnitude of natural hazards. “The scientists reported with medium confidence that in some regions snow avalanches involving wet snow have increased while the rain on snow floods have also increased at lower elevations in springs,” Prakash, lead author of the ongoing 6th Assessment report of IPCC, said in a statement. S oon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged agi- tating farmers to end their stir and resume the dialogue, farm- ers’ unions on Monday asked the Government to fix a date for the next round of talks. Farmer leader Shiv Kumar Kakka, who is a senior mem- ber of the Samkyukta Kisan Morcha which is spearheading the ongoing stir, said they are ready for the next round of talks and the Government should tell them the date and time of the meeting. “We have never refused to hold talks with the government. Whenever it has called us for dialogue, we held discussions with Union ministers. We are ready for talks with them (gov- ernment),” Kakka told PTI. To Modi’s address in the Rajya Sabha during which he assured minimum support price (MSP), Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait said there is no law on MSP and the Government should repeal these farms laws. The farmers leaders sitting across the borders of the city also objected to Modi’s remarks that a new “breed” of agitators called “andolan jivi” has emerged in the country, and said agitation has an important role in a democracy. Talking to media person on Monday, Tikait said business over hunger will not be allowed in the country and the laws should be repealed. C oncerned over the poor response of the State’s healthcare workers to the ongo- ing Covid-19 vaccination drive, the Punjab Government on Monday extended the time limit for the healthcare work- ers to get their first shot of the vaccine from February 12 to 19. At the same time, it has been made clear that those fail- ing to get covered till February 19 may not get free vaccination. They will be vaccinated under the drive to inoculate the gen- eral population after the com- pletion of ongoing Phase I and II, as per the decision taken during the third meeting of the State Steering Committee for COVID vaccination, chaired by the state Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on Monday evening. Besides, the Committee also decided that the vaccina- tion of frontline workers in the ongoing second phase will be completed by the first week of March. “It was decided that the first dose of vaccine, which was to be provided to healthcare workers only up to February 12, would now be given up to February 19. However, those who fail to opt for vaccination by then, would be vaccinated with the general population and may not get free vaccina- tion on priority,” said an offi- cial spokesperson. As per the figures provid- ed by the state Health Department, it has been observed that more frontline workers, such as police per- sonnel, have turned up to receive their jabs as compared to the state’s healthcare work- ers. As many as 12,021 front- line workers, having maxi- mum of police personnel, have already received the vaccine in the second phase over five days. Since January 16, when the nationwide vaccine drive was started, a total of 70,106 health workers had received the vaccine shots. Already, the state health department had already asked the Civil Surgeons of the dis- tricts that showed poor responses to motivate the health workers. Continued on Page 2
Reaching out to the protest-ing farmers, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Mondayassured them MinimumSupport Price (MSP) willremain in place and reiteratedthe Government’s willingnessto hold talks.
Urging them to end theirongoing agitation, he also ques-tioned the Opposition, espe-cially the Congress, for takinga “U-turn” on farm reforms.Making these assertions in theRajya Sabha, Modi also referredto former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh’s backing toreforms in agriculture sector.
Explaining hisGovernment’s stance on thefarm laws while replying to adiscussion on the President’saddress, the Prime Ministeralso expressed concern overforeign elements trying tofoment trouble.
He said a new phenome-non has emerged over the pastfew years wherein “ForeignDestructive Ideology” was evi-dent in the country. Hequipped this was the new kindof FDI in obvious reference tosinger Rihanna, activist GretaThunberg and lawyer-authorMeena Harris, niece of USVice President Kamala Harris,backing the farmers’ stir.
“The nation is makingprogress and we are talkingabout FDI but I see that a newFDI has come to the fore. Wehave to protect the nation fromthis new FDI. We need ForeignDirect Investment but the newFDI is ‘Foreign DestructiveIdeology’, we have to protectourselves from it,” the PrimeMinister said.
He also criticised a sectionof people seen in every agita-tion in the country and said,“In the last few years, we have
witnessed a new category ofprotesters, “Andolan Jeevi”, whoone can witness in every agi-tation. We need to protect thiscountry from these AndolanJeevi, who are actually “par-jeevi”. They don’t have theirown strength, but they join allagitations.”
Observing that the farmers’agitation figured prominentlyduring the 15-hour discussionon the President’s address,Modi said the Opposition,however, did not mentionabout the basic facts of the lawsand roots of the problem.
Urging the farmers to endtheir protest, he said, “We willall sit together and talk. We areready for talks and I am invit-ing you again for dialoguefrom this House.”
In an effort to allay theapprehension of the farmersabout the MSP, Modi said“MSP tha, MSP hai aur MSPrahega. No one should spreadmisinformation.”
Highlighting the need fornew farm laws to improve theincome and living standard ofthe farmers, the Prime Ministersaid he was willing to take thebrunt if it meant pushingreforms that were long overdue.
He said, “We need to moveforwards, not backwards. Weneed to give these reforms achance.”
Stressing the fact that thenumber of marginal farmershad increased over the yearsand the country had a respon-sibility to better their lot, Modisaid every Government hadspoken in favour of reforms inthe agriculture sector.
However, they have nowtaken a “U-turn”, said Modi,apparently referring to theCongress and Sharad Pawar,who was Agriculture Ministerduring the Congress-led UPArule.
Aday after disaster struck atReni near Joshimath in
Chamoli district, the authori-ties have been able to recover26 bodies while at least 197people were reported missingtill Monday evening. Of thebodies recovered, only twocould be identified till theevening.
According to the statusreport of the State EmergencyOperations Centre (SEOC),the 197 missing people include12 people of Reni and threeother villages, along with 185workers of the companiesinvolved in the two hydropow-er projects damaged in thedisaster.
Further, between 25 and 35
persons — included in themissing persons’ list — arestuck in a tunnel with effortsunderway to reach them clear-ing the debris in the tunnel.While six persons are injured,12 persons were rescued safe-ly from the NTPC projectdownstream.
Personnel of the NDRF,SDRF, ITBP, SSB and armedforces along with State policeare undertaking rescue andrelief works.
Meanwhile, apart fromChief Minister Trivendra SinghRawat, Union Power MinisterRK Singh, Union EducationMinister Ramesh Pokhriyal‘Nishank’, Garhwal MP TirathSingh Rawat and State MinisterDhan Singh Rawat visited theTapovan and other affected
areas where they viewed theefforts underway and interact-ed with the locals.
Even as rescue operationscontinued throughout the day,ration, medical supplies andother daily use items were sup-plied by helicopter to the 13 vil-lages in the Niti valley whichhave lost road link due to thedisaster.
Chamoli DistrictMagistrate Swati Bhadauriyainformed that supplies will beprovided by helicopters in thesevillages till an alternativearrangement is made.
In addition to the disasteraffected area, the districtadministration team is alsosearching for the missing per-sons along the banks of theAlaknanda river.
The Centre has asked socialmedia platform Twitter to
remove 1,178 anti-India pro-paganda handles managed byPakistan and Khalistani users.The list was sent to Twitter onFebruary 4.
Twitter has not compliedwith the January 31 directive ofthe Indian Government toblock 257 tweets and accountsfor tweeting inflammatory pro-farmers messages.
The Information andTechnology Ministry issuedthe fresh directive after theMinistry of Home furnishedinputs about anti-India propa-ganda unleashed by theseaccounts. According to sources,
Twitter responded to theGovernment that the companyis respecting local laws evenwhile “protecting its founda-tional principle of free expres-sion”.
“Many of these accountswere also automated bots thatwere used for sharing andamplifying misinformation andprovocative contents on farm-ers’ protests,” said an official.
According to officials,Twitter has to comply with the
orders of the Government ofIndia and if there is any resis-tance to the order, the socialmedia company would facecharges of flouting variouslaws.
“Twitter’s stand on free-dom of expression is an excuse.They are just a platform andmust obey the laws and if theyviolate they will face prosecu-tion,” said officials.
At a time when themicroblogging site is sur-
rounded by controversy and hasreceived a notice from theGovernment for “violatingIndian law” by not taking downtweets related to “farmers geno-cide”, Twitter India’s public pol-icy head Mahima Kaul hasresigned from her post citingpersonal reasons. Kaul hadsubmitted her resignation in thefirst week of January and will becontinuing at the firm tillMarch. Twitter has also listedthe job opening on its website.
“At the start of this year,Mahima decided to step downfrom her role as Twitter PublicPolicy Director for India andSouth Asia to take a well-deserved break. It’s a loss for allof us at Twitter, but after morethan five years in the role werespect her desire to focus onthe most important people andrelationships in her personallife. Mahima will continue inher role till the end of Marchand will support the transition,”Twitter global policy headMonique Meche said.
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There is no clarity so far onthe reasons for the glacier
burst and the resultantavalanche and flash floods thatwreaked havoc in the upperreaches of the Himalayas inUttarakhand on Sunday, butexperts have zeroed in globalwarming or Western distur-bance as the possible causes forthe melting of the snow andbreaking of the glacier thatcould have triggered the inun-dation in Chamoli district.
The Snow and AvalancheStudy Establishment (SASE)of the Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation isinvestigating the tragedy, butthere are no clear answers yetfor a glacier to have melted in
the winter.It is not clear whether the
flood is a typical Glacial LakeOutburst Flood (GLOF) orsome temporary damming dueto a landslide and avalanchethat might have blocked themainstream to form a tempo-
rary lake which burst, saidRanjit Rath, Director Generalof the Geological Survey ofIndia (GSI).
A GLOF is a type of out-burst flood that occurs whenthe dam containing a glaciallake fails.
“Once the water levelrecedes a team of experts willassess the damage as well as thetriggering factor responsible forthe outburst,” Rath toldreporters here.
As the nightmare envis-aged by numerous environ-mentalists warning againstuntrammelled development inthe mountains came true onSunday, glaciologist FarooqAzam said a glacial burst is veryrare.
“We have been trying tounderstand the event sinceyesterday. Right now what wecan tell is a glacier slipped fromaround 500-600 metres, whichstarted a landslide with an ice-fall that triggered this disaster,”Azam, Assistant Professor,Glaciology & Hydrology,
Indian Institute of Technology,Indore, told a news agency.
“For sure there was noglacial lake outburst flood, forsure there is no cloud burstbecause there is no lake avail-able in the region at this par-ticular time.
Even if there are lakes, theyare frozen and they don’t haveany activity. The disaster hap-pened because of an icefall andlandslide.” he added.
Satellite and Google Earthimages, Azam added, do notshow a glacial lake near theregion, but there’s a possibilitythere may be a water pocket inthe region.
“Water pockets are lakesinside the glaciers, which mayhave erupted leading to thisevent,” he said. He suggested
further analysis of weatherreports and data to confirm ifthis indeed was the case.Climate scientist Roxy MathewKoll agreed and also said moredata are needed.
He said the recent climatechange assessment report forIndia shows significant meltingand decline in glacier mass overthe Himalayan region in therecent decades due to warmertemperatures.
Koll also said it was notclear if an accumulation ofglacier melt led to this burst,and noted that Western dis-turbances during last week didbring in a lot of snow over theregion, followed by clear skyand warm temperatures.
“It is quite possible that cli-mate change and melting of
fresh snow led to piling up ofwater in this area,” Koll, scien-tist at the Indian Institute ofTropical Meteorology (IITM)in Pune said.
The IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change(IPCC)’s Special Report onOceans and Cryosphere in aChanging Climate (SROCC)also shows that climate changehas altered the frequency andmagnitude of natural hazards.“The scientists reported withmedium confidence that insome regions snow avalanchesinvolving wet snow haveincreased while the rain onsnow floods have also increasedat lower elevations in springs,”Prakash, lead author of theongoing 6th Assessment reportof IPCC, said in a statement.
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Soon after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi urged agi-
tating farmers to end their stirand resume the dialogue, farm-ers’ unions on Monday askedthe Government to fix a datefor the next round of talks.
Farmer leader Shiv KumarKakka, who is a senior mem-ber of the Samkyukta KisanMorcha which is spearheadingthe ongoing stir, said they areready for the next round of
talks and the Governmentshould tell them the date andtime of the meeting.
“We have never refused tohold talks with the government.Whenever it has called us fordialogue, we held discussionswith Union ministers. We areready for talks with them (gov-ernment),” Kakka told PTI.
To Modi’s address in theRajya Sabha during which heassured minimum supportprice (MSP), Bharatiya KisanUnion (BKU) leader RakeshTikait said there is no law on
MSP and the Governmentshould repeal these farmslaws.
The farmers leaders sittingacross the borders of the cityalso objected to Modi’s remarksthat a new “breed” of agitatorscalled “andolan jivi” hasemerged in the country, andsaid agitation has an importantrole in a democracy.
Talking to media person onMonday, Tikait said businessover hunger will not be allowedin the country and the lawsshould be repealed.
healthcare workers to the ongo-ing Covid-19 vaccination drive,the Punjab Government onMonday extended the timelimit for the healthcare work-ers to get their first shot of thevaccine from February 12 to 19.
At the same time, it hasbeen made clear that those fail-ing to get covered till February19 may not get free vaccination.They will be vaccinated underthe drive to inoculate the gen-eral population after the com-pletion of ongoing Phase I andII, as per the decision takenduring the third meeting of theState Steering Committee forCOVID vaccination, chaired bythe state Chief Secretary ViniMahajan on Monday evening.
Besides, the Committeealso decided that the vaccina-
tion of frontline workers in theongoing second phase will becompleted by the first week ofMarch.
“It was decided that thefirst dose of vaccine, which wasto be provided to healthcareworkers only up to February12, would now be given up toFebruary 19. However, thosewho fail to opt for vaccinationby then, would be vaccinatedwith the general populationand may not get free vaccina-tion on priority,” said an offi-
cial spokesperson.As per the figures provid-
ed by the state HealthDepartment, it has beenobserved that more frontlineworkers, such as police per-sonnel, have turned up toreceive their jabs as comparedto the state’s healthcare work-ers. As many as 12,021 front-line workers, having maxi-mum of police personnel, havealready received the vaccine inthe second phase over fivedays.
Since January 16, whenthe nationwide vaccine drivewas started, a total of 70,106health workers had received thevaccine shots.
Already, the state healthdepartment had already askedthe Civil Surgeons of the dis-tricts that showed poorresponses to motivate thehealth workers.
said that the State Governmenthas proposed an outlay of �9405.41 crore under the devel-opmental budget for the year2021-22.
The Chief Minister was
presiding over the MLAs pri-ority meeting for the financialyear 2021-22 here.
He said that the presentState Government has com-pleted three years of its tenureand these three years havebeen full of achievements andaccomplishments despite a fullyear wasted due to the
Coronavirus pandemic.He said that a provision of
�13,300 crore was made duringthe first three years tenure ofthe previous State Governmentunder the annual plan outlaywhereas during the first threeyears tenure of the present BJPled State Government a provi-sion of �21,300 crore weremade as annual plan outlays.
The Chief Minister saidthat during the first three yearstenure of the previous StateGovernment.
433 MLA priority schemesworth �2033 crore wereapproved, whereas during thetenure of the present StateGovernment 639 MLA priori-ty schemes worth �2382 crorehave been approved.
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From Page 1Reviewing the progress of
the inoculation drive in thestate, the Chief Secretary direct-ed the Health Department tomonitor and review the postvaccination adverse reaction, ifany, to the vaccinated benefi-ciaries.
Mahajan further instructedthe Department to collect offlinedata of healthcare and frontlineworkers, who have not yet beenregistered and were willing to getvaccinated, and keep it ready for
registration. The StateGovernment would request theCentre to allow uploading suchdata and vaccinate the interest-ed persons covered under thepriority groups.
She asked the Departmentofficials to minimize the wastageof the vaccine and strictly mon-itor the use. “Taking vaccine hasnot been declared mandatoryand thus we cannot force all thehealthcare workers to take that.And because of the poorresponse from the healthcareworkers, seven percent of vac-cine wastage has already beenreported,” a state health depart-ment official told The Pioneer.
She also directed to imme-diately collect the data of front-line workers working at the stateheadquarters to cover themunder the ongoing drive.
Principal Secretary (Healthand Family Welfare) Hussan Lalassured the Chief Secretary ofprompt action by theDepartment on the suggestionsand directions given by her.
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The civic body elections inPunjab are expected to tell
whether the winds of resent-ment blowing after the enact-ment of the contentions farmlaws by the CentralGovernment will have a swayover the impending assemblyelections in the State afterabout a year.
The February 14 electionsto a total of 2,302 wards in eightMunicipal Corporations and109 Municipal Councils andNagar Panchayats of the State,amidst the intense farmers’agitation, is set to pose a majorchallenge for the state’s majorpolitical parties which are con-sidering it as nothing less thana semi-final before the finalshowdown.
It would be for the firsttime in the recallable historythat all the political partieswould contest the elections, atthe council and panchayat lev-els, on the party symbols.
Openly lending theirweight to the farmers’ agitationagainst the BJP-led Centre’sagricultural legislations, win-
ning the elections would not bea cakewalk for anyone — be itthe ruling Congress, AamAadmi Party (AAP), theShiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
In fact, for the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) it would benothing less than walking on atight rope to save its identity inthe state as the elections areconsidered to be the first reflec-tion of the people’s angeragainst the BJP over the newfarm laws.
BJP: DOUBLE WHAMMYIn a double whammy, BJP
is not only facing massiveprotests across the State overthe farm laws, but it is alsostruggling hard to contest theelections without the support ofSAD — which had snappedage-old ties with the saffronparty over the issue of farmlaws. What is more! The partyleaders were not only facingprotests by the farmers butstrong opposition by the com-mon man also.
In fact, several BJP candi-dates have decided to contestthe elections as ‘independents’fearing a backlash as the farm-
ers’ ongoing agitation is notonly limited to the rural pock-ets, but has become a massmovement with urbanites —known to be BJP’s stronghold— also coming out in full sup-port of the agitating farmers.
As per the figures releasedby the State ElectionCommission, total 15,305 can-didates filed their papers ofwhich 9,222 were left in the frayafter final scrutiny.
The BJP could not field thecandidates for 1,632 seats — 71percent of the total seats —which means that it has field-ed just 670 candidates. Asenior BJP leader, who did notwish to be named, told ThePioneer that there were manyinstances where the candidatesrequested us to contest thepolls without BJP election sym-bol (lotus), and going by theprevailing resentment againstthe party, we left it upon themto decide.
“A wrong perception isbeing created that BJP couldnot find the candidates without
SAD. But, in reality, we havegood candidates…It’s only thecurrent situation because ofwhich we have these figures,”said the leader.
This would be for the firsttime after decades that BJPwould be going for polls alone,sans Akali Dal.
As per the alliance, theSAD enjoys support in thestate’s rural areas, while the BJPprimarily takes care of theurban voters, especially thetraders and industrialists. Infact, in 2015, the then rulingSAD-BJP combine had sweptthe civic polls with the saffronparty performing better than itssenior ally. If that was notenough, the saffron brigade hasnot been able to campaign forits candidates.
Courtesy: “pakka morchas”outside the residences of overtwo dozen BJP leaders coupledwith strong resistance by thepeople towards the party can-didates.” Yes, we are facingproblems in campaigning asour meetings were disrupted bythe protesting farmers when-ever they get to know. We areprimarily sticking to door-to-door campaigning but thenalso the people question us why
we are representing BJP whichis so much against the farmers,”said a BJP candidate fromBathinda.
Punjab BJP chief AshwaniSharma said that the party ismaking an all-out effort tobreak this misconception thatthese farm laws are against thefarmers. “We are trying toreach out to people, makethem aware, meeting farmers asthese laws are for their benefitand they should not be mis-guided by the opposition par-ties,” he added.
CONGRESS: POPULARITYTEST
The elections would be apopularity test for the rulingCongress with the voters set topresent the party’s report cardfor its four-year performance.Even though the Congress isbacking the agitating farmersand has also passed its own leg-islations to negate the Centre’sfarm laws, the opposition istaking on the ruling party forits failure to fulfill its pollpromises.
On the other hand, theCongress is banking on sever-al decisions ad steps it has takenduring its four-year-tenure,mainly for giving 50 per centreservation to the women incivic bodies, ownership rights
to the slum dwellers, mobilephones to the students, gener-ating jobs for the state’s youth,smooth procurement, enhanc-ing compensation underAashirwaad, investment inindustrial sector, setting up ofsmart schools, besides theworks regarding water supply,sanitation, roads, among oth-ers. The Congress party claimsthat it has carried out the over-all development of all areas,irrespective of the party MLAsto which they belong, by pro-viding safe drinking water,proper roads, and sewage,which are the issues that inreality affect the people in gen-eral, and matters in the civicpolls. Going by the generaltrend of the ruling party win-ning the local body polls, theCongress is hopeful of sweep-ing the elections. Already, sev-eral Congress candidates havebeen elected unopposed at sev-eral seats.
SAD: FIGHT FOR SUR-VIVAL
Akali Dal is also facing theire of the people who considerit to be a party for paving wayfor bringing the contentionsacts “against the farmers”.
SAD chief Sukhbir Badaland former Union MinisterHarsimrat Kaur Badal have all
along been projecting them-selves to sacrifice the decades-old alliance and also the UnionCabinet berth to stand with thefarmers — the only NDA part-ners to oppose the farm laws.
In fact, SAD patron andfive-time Chief MinisterParkash Singh Badal had alsodeclared to return his PadmaVibhushan in protest.
SAD has all along beenmaintaining that the party hadalways stood with the farmersand would continue to do. Theparty also denied all allegationsthat the decisions were takenunder compulsions and to savetheir already dented image inPunjab.
The state’s only regionalparty believed that the peoplewould support them in theensuing polls considering theCongress’ anarchy and non-performance, with AAPnowhere in the picture.
AAP: PROJECTING DELHIMODEL
Anticipating to emerge asa major political force at themunicipal corporation level inthe state ahead of the 2022 elec-tions, AAP is campaigningwith full strength.
Besides the state leaders,including comedian-turned-politician Bhagwant Mann and
legislators, its leaders fromDelhi are also electioneering inthe state — projecting ArvindKejriwal led DelhiGovernment’s developmentmodel.
All the party candidates,primarily youngsters and risingamongst the common man, arepromising the people the cor-ruption-free municipalities,better schools, clean and devel-oped areas just like the partygovernment working in thenational capital.
This is for the first timethat AAP has fielded candi-dates for local bodies acrossPunjab, and it was hoping thatpeople would give the party’scandidates an opportunity afterall the traditional parties hadextremely disappointed thepeople of the state. “Peoplehave lost faith in traditionalparties and have trust only inAAP, which can live up to theexpectations of the people ofPunjab…The people wouldoust SAD, BJP, and Congress inthe coming elections and formthe AAP Government whichwould implement the model ofArvind Kejriwal Governmentin Delhi in Punjab,” said party’sMLA in Delhi and state’s co-in-charge Raghav Chadha whilecampaigning for party candi-dates.
As many as 1.01 lakh migra-tory birds of 51 species
have been recorded during theannual waterfowl count con-ducted at Pong wetland inKangra district of Himachal.
The annual count hasbrought cheer to the avianenthusiasts and ornithologists,who had expressed apprehen-sions over the declining num-ber of avian species at Pongwetland after the deaths ofmore than five thousand birdsdue to avian influenza H5N1
According to the censusconducted by the Wildlife wingof Himachal ForestDepartment, a total of 1,08,578birds of 96 species were count-ed during February 2021, adecline of just six percent intotal number as compared to1,15,701 birds of 114 speciesrecorded at the waterbody lastyear.
The Pong Dam is one ofthe largest man-made wet-lands in northern India and isknown as birds’ paradise aslakhs of migratory birds reachthere every winter after flyingthousands of miles from theirnative habitat in high-altitudelakes in Central Asia.
During the annual water-fowl count held on February 1and 2 by the field staff of theDepartment, out of the total1.08 lakh birds, water depen-dent migratory birds were101,431 of 51 species and waterdependent resident birds were6,433 of 29 species
. 714 birds of 16 otherspecies were also recorded atPong Dam Lake.
In January 2020 annualcensus exercise, 1,04,032migratory waterfowls of 60species, 10,377 resident waterbirds of 30 species and 1,292birds of 24 other local specieswere recorded.
This year, the number of
Bar-Headed Goose, an endan-gered migratory bird species,stood at 40,570.
During census 2020, thePong Lake had recorded anincrease by 68 percent in thenumber of Bar-Headed Gooseat 49,496 as compared to29,443 in the 2018-19.
However, their number hasdeclined this year as Bar-Headed Goose died in maxi-
mum numbers at Pong Lakedue to bird flu. Among 5006migratory birds of 38 speciesthat have died till now due tothe virus, 90 percent fatalitieshave been reported amongBar-Headed Goose.
The other species whichhave recorded higher popula-tion count at Pong during thisyear included Eurasian Coot(24,163), Northern Pintail
(12,702), Common Teal(8,444), Little Cormorant(3,649), Great Cormorant(3,410), Grey Lag Goose(2,297), Northern Shoveler(2,275) and Common Pochard(2,138).
Species namely RedNecked Grebe, Great Bittern,Lesser White-Fronted Goose,Red Crested Pochard,Ferruginous Pochard, Pied
Avocet, Northern Lapwing,Peregrine Falcon among otherswere also spotted at the water-body.
One Bar-headed Gooseand one Grey Lag Goose werespotted with metal rings, whichwere placed on their legs by thestaff of the Wildlife wing in theprevious years with an aim tocollect information on bird’smigratory patterns, survival
rates and to monitor if any par-ticular species show signs ofdecline.
The census exercise wasconducted by Wildlife wing bydeploying 57 staff members in26 sections of the Pong wet-land.
Commenting on the water-fowl count, Forest MinisterRakesh Pathania said that theresults of the annual waterbird count conducted duringthis year shows that the habi-tat of migratory and residentwater birds has graduallyimproved in the state due toeffective and timely interven-tions.
Rahul Rohane, DeputyConservator of Forests, WildlifeDivision, Hamirpur while talk-ing to The Pioneer said that thetotal population of birds as wellas number of species countedthis year are marginally less ascompared to last year due to theimpact of avian influenza out-break at the Pong wetland.
5006 migratory birds have diedtill now at the Pong Dam Lakedue to the bird flu.
He said that earlier in mid-December, around 56000migratory birds of more than50 species were recorded andthe number has increased to101,431 birds of 51 species inFebruary 2021.
The staff of Wildlife winghad conducted the annualcount this time and wildlifeexperts from the state or out-side were not involved due toCOVID-19 pandemic andavian influenza, the DFO said.
The situation is under con-trol now as a result of contin-uing containment measuresbeing taken in the Pong DamLake. But the tourism relatedactivities are still banned there,he added.
Notably, the bird flu hasbeen reported for the first timeat Pong Lake, which hostsmore than one lakh wingedguests every winter season.
Asking the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi not to link
the kisan andolan (farmers’agitation) with any one religionor community, the ShiromaniAkali Dal (SAD) presidentSukhbir Singh Badal onMonday said that the farmersfrom Uttar Pradesh to Keralawere united on one platformagainst the three agriculturallaws.
Sukhbir, talking to thenewsmen after addressing wardlevel meetings in connectionwith the forthcoming munici-pal elections, appealed to thePrime Minister to talk on theagenda and focus on giving jus-tice to the farmers instead oflinking the agitation with anyone community.
“We should all be clear thatthe farmer is fighting for thewelfare of the annadaata atlarge and we should not try todivide this struggle by trying tolimit it to one religion or com-munity. This will not serve anypurpose except alienating thegovernment amongst the farm-ing community,” he said.
‘SHOCKING THAT POLICENOT BOOKING WARRING’
At the same time, Sukhbircondemned the Punjab Policefor not proceeding againstCongress’ Gidderbaha legisla-tor Amarinder Singh RajaWarring “even after it wasclearly mentioned in the sui-cide note of contractor KaranKataria that Raja Warring andthe latter’s brother-in-lawDimpy Vinayak were bothdemanding money from thecontractor”.
“It is shocking that evenafter the death of the contrac-tor, who shot himself and hisfamily members, the police isnot booking Raja Warring inthe case. SAD will provide allnecessary assistance to the vic-tim family and ensure justice isdone in the matter,” he saidadding that Warring wouldhave to face the music for thesins committed by him.
‘ERRING OFFICERS TO BETAKEN TO TASK BY SADGOVT’
Also condemning the“goodaism” unleashed by theCongress party in the con-stituency, Sukhbir urged theSAD workers to be resolute andensure the victory of Akalicandidates. “Even though thereis a complete collapse in the lawand order situation and theState Election Commission(SEC) has also abrogated itsconstitutional duty, SAD wouldnot be cowed down by suchtactics,” he said while makingit clear that officers who mur-dered democracy and its insti-tutions at the instance of theCongress party would be takento task once the SAD formed agovernment in the State.
SAD COMPLAINTSAGAINST CHANGING OFVOTER WARDS AFTERALLOTMENT OF SYMBOLSTO CANDIDATES
Complaining to the StateElection Commission (SEC)regarding changing of wards ofmany voters in BatalaMunicipal Committee elec-tions, the Shiromani Akali Dalon Monday urged it to imme-diately take action against thesame.
SAD’s senior vice presidentand spokesman Daljit SinghCheema, in a complaint filedwith the SEC, said that it is for-warding a complaint in thisregard from Batala MLALakhbir Singh Lodhinangal inwhich he has disclosed how theruling party was trying tochange wards of several hun-dreds voters even after allot-ment to election symbol to thecandidates.
Citing example, SAD saidthat in Ward No 15 of the city,SAD candidate Inderjit Kaur iscontesting from the ward, butin this case, her vote along withseveral hundred others havebeen transferred to Ward No 17.”Similarly, the SAD head officeis receiving several complaintsfrom different party leaders inwhich it has been alleged thateven after allotment of electionsymbol, hundreds of votes havebeen transferred to other wardson the instance of ruling partyleaders,” he said.
Cheema urged the SEC totake notice of complaints where
there are such complaints ofchanging of wards and otherelection malpractices and getthese inquired on priority basisand take action against theguilty in these cases.
AAP ACCUSES AKALIS, BJP,CONG FOR BRINGINGCONTRACT FARMINGLAWS TO RUIN FARMERS
Days after the UnionHome Minister NarendraSingh Tomar highlighted the2013 Contract Farming Act inPunjab, the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) on Monday targetedthe Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD), Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP), and the Congress for“colluding and taking anti-farmer decisions”.
“While in power in Punjab,the SAD-BJP combine hadintroduced the ContractFarming Act, 2013, and start-ed enacting laws to ruin thefarmers,” said AAP”s Punjabunit co-incharge RaghavChadha, during a press con-ference.
Chadha, who is on state’svisit to campaign for the partycandidates for the municipalbodies’ elections, said that nowthe Prime Minister NarendraModi-led Central Governmenthad come up with this blacklaw which was originally madeby the Akali Dal under whicha farmer could be fined andsentenced to imprisonment forviolating the Contract FarmingAct.
“The opposition Congress,in the then Punjab assembly, isalso responsible for bringingthis Act, which had agreed topass it unanimously in thePunjab Assembly instead ofprotesting against this anti-farmers law,” he said.
ELECTION DUTY ABSEN-TEEISM TO BE STRICTLYDEALT WITH: MOHALIELECTORAL OFFICER
Mohali DeputyCommissioner Girish Dayalan,who is District’s ElectoralOfficer, on Monday made itclear that any officer or officialshowing callousness towardsthe job or willful absenteeismfrom the election duty will bestrictly dealt with.
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Punjab Congress will stage astate-wide protest, across all
cities from 11 am till 1 pm, onFebruary 11 against the inces-sant hike in petrol, diesel, andkitchen gas prices by theNarendra Modi regime.
Announcing this, PunjabPradesh Congress Committee(PPCC) chief Sunil Jakhar onMonday said that due to theCentre’s oppressive policies,each segment of society is dis-tressed.
“On one side, while theCentre’s ego is forcing farmersto protest against, it is putting
undue financial burden on thecommon man by hiking pricesof petrol, diesel, and gas,” saidJakhar, who would lead theparty’s protest march fromAbohar.
“A gas cylinder used to costRs 438 in 2014 when DrManmohan Singh ji was thePrime Minister, and now, thesame cylinder cost has crossedRs 750.
This too when the prices ofcrude oil is almost half thanwhat it used to be in 2014,”Jakhar quipped, targeting theModi regime for “looting thepublic”.
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In a reshuffle in the bureau-cracy, Haryana Government
on Monday issued transfer andposting orders of five IAS offi-cers with immediate effect, anofficial statement said inChandigarh
PC Meena, DirectorGeneral and Secretary, SkillDevelopment and IndustrialTraining and EmploymentDepartment and Secretary,Finance Department has beengiven additional charge ofNodal Officer, CPGRAM PGPortal. Atul Kumar, Director,AYUSH, Special Secretary,Health Department and SpecialSecretary, Revenue andDisaster ManagementDepartment has been posted asSecretary to Governor,Haryana.
Amna Tasneem, Director,Consolidation of LandHoldings and Land Records,Special Officer (HQ) andSpecial LAO, and SpecialSecretary, Revenue and
Disaster ManagementDepartment, Special Secretary,Finance Department andNodal Officer, CPGRAM PGPortal has been posted asDirector.
Consolidation of LandHoldings and Land Records,Special Officer (HQ) andSpecial LAO, and SpecialSecretary, Revenue andDisaster ManagementDepartment.
Sonipat and DistrictMunicipal Commissioner,Sonipat during the trainingperiod of Jagdish Sharma.
Priyanka Soni, DeputyCommissioner, Hisar has givenadditional charge ofCommissioner, MunicipalCorporation.
Hisar and DistrictMunicipal Commissioner,Hisar during the training peri-od of Mr. Ashok Kumar Garg.
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An unidentified man haslooted over Rs 8.65 lakh at
gunpoint from the ChandigarhState Co-operative Bank hereon Monday.
The incident took place inthe bank branch located atSector 61 here.A case underSection 392 IPC (Punishmentfor robbery) and 25-54-59Arms act, has been registeredagainst the unknown person onthe complaint of AnuradhaAwasty, Branch manager,Chandigarh State Co-OperativeBank, Sector 61.Incharge PolicePost, Sector 61, Sub-InspectorKuldeep Singh said that ataround 12 noon, an informa-tion regarding theft at
Chandigarh State Co-OperativeBank was received at the con-trol room.
On receiving informationpolice teams immediatelyreached the spot where staff ofthe bank informed that anunknown person wearing amask aged around 32 yearsentered the bank and pushedone of the staff members andpointed his pistol at them.There were four employees inthe bank at the time of the inci-dent. The accused told thecashier to hand over the cashbag and threatened to shootthem, Singh said.Cashier hand-ed over the bag and the accusedfled away from the spot withthe bag containing an amountof Rs 8,65,452, he said.
Nodeep Kaur is behind barssince January 12 after she wasarrested from the Singhu bor-der by Haryana Police on thecharges of attempt to murder,extortion, rioting with deadlyweapons, criminal intimida-tion, causing hurt to a publicservant, unlawful assembly andtrespassing.
Detained at Karnal jailsince, that too without bail formore than 20 days, Nodeep wasalleged to have been sexuallyassaulted. Past week, she wasalso denied bail by SonepatSessions Court “in view of thegravity of offence”. And her“crime” was to protest againstthe Centre’s controversial farmlaws.
“My sister Nodeep Kaurhas been kept in jail sinceJanuary 12 and Shiv Kumar(her co-worker) from January23. They were tortured.Because Nodeep, Shiv Kumarand the worker organization
have shown the courage toexpose the loot of farmers andlaborers,” said Nodeep’s sisterRajvir Kaur, who is spear-heading #ReleaseNodeepKaurcampaign in the social media.
Coming to her rescue, thePunjab State Commission forScheduled Castes, taking suomoto notice of the reportshighlighting the matter oflabour rights activist NodeepKaur, on Monday asked thestate Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) to intervenein the matter to ensure relief ofthe victim at the earliest.
The Commission has alsosought a report, in this regard,by February 23 after initiatingimmediate requisite action.Panel chairperson TejinderKaur said that the Commissionhas taken the suo moto sincethe victim is a resident of SriMuktsar Sahib district.
In a communiqué to theAdditional Chief Secretary,Home Affairs and Justice, theCommission has written tointervene besides ensuring therelief to the victim as the mat-
ter was very serious and is anact of atrocity on a member ofthe Scheduled Castes commu-nity.
Even as the farm activistsand some others have beendemanding Nodeep’s releasesince long, it was only after anAmerican lawyer and US Vice-President Kamala Harris’ nieceMeena Harris tweeted aboutthe alleged sexual assault thata 23-year-old had faced in thepolice custody.
“Weird to see a photo ofyourself burned by an extrem-ist mob but imagine what theywould do if we lived in India.I’ll tell you—23 yo labor rightsactivist Nodeep Kaur wasarrested, tortured & sexuallyassaulted in police custody.She’s been detained without bailfor over 20 days,” Harris hadtweeted on Saturday. Harris,who has also been tweetingregularly in support of thefarmers’ protest and against thegovernment’s crackdown onthe protestors, is also support-ing the online campaign seek-ing Nodeep’s release.
Chandigarh: Seven childrensustained minor injuries whentheir school bus hit a cement-laden truck from behind whilenegotiating a turn in Rewaridistrict on Monday. The acci-dent took place near Palhawasvillage.The bus driver and ateacher were also injured in theaccident. “Luckily, no one sustained anyserious injury,” SHO of Rohraipolice station Manoj Kumarsaid over the phone.The buswas going towards the schoolin Rewari when the accidentoccurred, Kumar said, addingthat all the injured personswere taken to a hospital in thedistrict.
Scientists have found the firstgeological evidence of an
earthquake at HimebastiVillage on the border of Assamand Arunachal Pradesh, docu-mented by historians as theSadiya earthquake in historyand recorded to have causedmassive destruction in theregion almost destroying thetown in 1697 CE.
This finding by the scien-tists from Wadia Institute ofHimalayan Geology (WIHG),a research institute under theDepartment of Science andTechnology (DST), could con-tribute to a seismic hazardmap of the eastern Himalaya,which can facilitate construc-tion and planning in the region.This work has been recentlypublished in the journal‘Scientific Report’.
Historical archives refer tooften recurring earthquakesalong the Eastern Himalaya forwhich geological evidence islacking, raising the question of
whether these events rupturedthe surface or remained blindand how they contribute to theseismic budget of the region,which is home to millions ofinhabitants.
Scientists Arjun Pandey, RJayangondaperumal, GyörgyHetényi, Rao Singh Priyanka,Ishwar Singh, PradeepSrivastava and Hari B Srivastavafrom the Dehradun based insti-tute carried out a mega trench
excavation at Himebasti vil-lage, Arunachal Pradesh, India,where the most recent eventrecords the imprints of the1697 Sadiya earthquake andanalysed it with modern geo-logical techniques.
They found the first geo-logical surface rupture signa-tures in the form of exposeddeposits associated with riversand streams deformed by athrust fault along a Northeast
dipping fault zone. In order toconstrain the causative faultingevent at this site, the team datedtwenty-one radiocarbon sam-ples from the trench exposure.
The scientists also foundlarge tree trunks embedded inthe youngest flood deposits atthe exit of the Subansiri River(Sadiya town is located rough-ly 145 km southeast ofSubansiri river), suggesting thepost-seismic aggradation ofthe river following an array ofaftershocks till six months in anabortive fashion.
The study of the earth-quake at Sadiya standing on agrassy plain, almost surround-ed by forested EasternHimalayas on the right bank ofLohit River, adds an importantsite to the seismic hazardassessment of the easternHimalaya, which will benefitthe inhabitants and help in pro-viding better infrastructureacross the Eastern Himalayanfoothills which is one of themost densely populated regionsin the world, said the study.
Military Engineer Service forallegedly demanding andaccepting a bribe of �32,000from the complainant.
A case was registeredagainst the JE, MES (ND),Visakhapatnam on the allega-tions that the complainant wasawarded a contract with certainworks worth �20,92,470 and hecompleted the said works, theCBI said in a statement.
It was further alleged thatthe complainant received �6lakh against the first bill andsubmitted remaining bills tothe office of AGE, B/R-II, MES,Visakhapatnam.
The complainant met theJunior Engineer to enquireabout pending bills, underwhose supervision, the com-plainant executed the work of�4 lakh. The JE allegedly
demanded �32,000 for certify-ing the bills and asked the com-plainant to pay the amount athis office, it said.
It was also alleged that theaccused told the complainantthat if he failed to pay theamount, his remaining billamount would be stopped bysending adverse observations.CBI laid a trap and caught theaccused red handed whiledemanding and accepting abribe of �32,000 from the com-plainant, it said.
Searches were conducted atthe office and residentialpremises of accused atVisakhapatnam and Kovilpatty(Tamil Nadu) which led torecovery of incriminating doc-
uments.The arrested accusedSankar Narayana was producedbefore the Competent Court atVisakhapatnam and remandedto judicial custody for 14 days
The agency on Monday fileda chargesheet against seven
accused including thenCommandant, BSF, SatishKumar and private personsMd. Enamul Haque, AnarulSeikh, Md. Golam Mustafa,Taniya Sanyal, Badal KrishnaSanyal and Rashida Bibi beforethe Special Court, Asansol(West Bengal) in a case relat-ed to alleged illegal cross-bor-der trade of cattle.
million people in India live withactive epilepsy (Seizure) but alarge magnitude of treatmentgap, ranging from about 22 percent in the urban middle classpopulation and more so in vil-lages, about 90 per cent hauntsthe patients.
“This is because of a stringof reasons such as inadequateaccess to or awareness of anti-epilepsy medications, poverty,stigma/ cultural beliefs associat-ed with epilepsy, insufficienthealth infrastructure, shortage ofprofessionals trained in epilep-tology, inequitable distributionsof available resources in ruralareas and high cost of treatment,”experts pointed out on the occa-sion of the World Epilepsy Daybeing marked on every secondMonday of February.
Dr RK Dhamija, HOD ofthe Neurology at Delhi-basedpremier hospital Dr LadyHardinge Medical College saidthat, “Seizures can be controlled.An estimated 25% of epilepsycases are preventable.
Up to 70 per cent of people
living with the condition couldbecome seizure free with appro-priate use of antiseizure medi-cines. Low-cost treatment isavailable.”He called for urgent
strengthening of the healthcarein the rural areas which has high-er rates of epilepsy cases withhuge gap in treatment. “Epilepsycan result in significant injury as
well as death, if left untreated.Also, status epilepticus (SE) canbe a potentially lethal situation,”added Dr Dhamija.
Dr Nilesh Kurwale, EpilepsySurgeon, Coordinator for BajajAllianz Centre for Epilepsy,Deenanath MangeshkarHospital, Pune was of the opin-ion that if treatment with anti-epileptic medication fails to pro-vide adequate seizure relief, anindividual may be considered fora surgical work up. “There is alarge amount of data to suggest
that some epilepsy syndromesmay be especially amenable tohigh rates of seizure freedomthrough a surgical procedure;temporal lobe epilepsy, being themost common candidate,” hesaid, according to a report.
However, it is the stigmawhich is more fatal than theepilepsy itself. “The stigma of thedisease can discourage peoplefrom seeking treatment forsymptoms, so as to avoid becom-ing identified with the disease,”said the WHO. PNS
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The Left parties on Monday urged theCentre to stop the privatization of
Navratna PSU Visakhapatnam SteelPlant (RINL).
CPI general secretary D Raja said theprivate operators in the steel sector areeyeing on the 23,000 acres of the PSUsteel plant and urged the CabinetCommittee on Economic Affairs towithdraw the 100 percent disinvestmentdecision. CITU general secretary TapanSen welcomed the state wide protestagainst the Centre’s decision to sell offRINL.
“Over 50 years ago, 23,000 acres offarm land were acquired to set up thesteel plant. Farmers were not paid theirmoney properly. Now the land is worthlakhs of crores of rupees. If the presentmove is allowed, a private company willtake over the steel plant and grab theland. The Government has made noeffort to explore all possibilities to runthe steel plant. No iron-ore mine hasbeen allotted to the Visakhapatnam
Steel Plant. All private steel plants getiron-ore mines. Lakhs of people aredirectly and indirectly working for thesteel plant. Even the state governmentheaded by Jagan Mohan Reddy, point-ing out that the plant stands as a testi-mony to the will of the Telugu people hasasked the Union government to recon-sider its decision,” said Raja.
“Centre of Indian Trade Unions(CITU) congratulates the workers andpeople for their collective initiative toresist the disastrous move of theGovernment to privatise VisakhapatnamSteel Plant, RINL through strategic sale.CITU extends solidarity to such unitedstruggle of the people and workers toresist the nefarious move to hand overRINL to private hands and calls upon theworking people in general to express sol-idarity to the ongoing struggle atVisakhapatnam. Everywhere privatiza-tion move must be resisted and must notbe allowed to materialize through peo-ples’ collective action and interventionin order to defend the nation and thenational economy,” said Sen.
The India-US joint militaryexercise ‘Yudh Abhyas 20’
commenced on Monday inMahajan Field Firing Range ofBikaner district in Rajasthan.This is the 16th edition ofannual bilateral joint exercise ofboth the armies and will con-tinue till the 21st of this month.The previous version of thejoint exercise was held at Seattlein the United States.
Brigadier MukeshBhanwala, Commander of the170 Infantry Brigade of theIndian Army, welcomed the UScontingent at the firing rangeand impressed upon both thearmies to achieve optimumcohesion and interoperabilityduring the exercise.
He laid stress on theimportance of free exchange ofideas, concepts and best prac-tices between the troops andthe necessity to learn from
each other’s operational expe-riences, defence spokespersonLt Col Amitabh Sharma said.
“The exercise will enrichboth the contingents from eachother’s rich experience in
counter-insurgency operations.Besides counter-insurgencyoperations, exchange of expe-riences in humanitarian assis-tance and disaster relief willalso be a part of the exercise,”the spokesperson said in a
statement.The official said a number
of aerial platforms, includingthe newly inducted indigenousAdvance Light Helicopter WSI‘RUDRA’, MI-17, Chinooks,Stryker Vehicles of the USArmy and BMP-II MechanisedInfantry Combat Vehicles ofthe Indian Army, will beutilised in the exercise, whichwill go on till February 21.
The drill comes days afterthe air forces of India andFrance held a five-day jointexercise in Rajasthan inJanuary.
About 250 soldiers fromeach side are participating inthe exercise. The two armieswill share their war-relatedtechniques, skills and experi-ence with each other duringthis exercise. The exercise isone of the largest militarytraining and defense coopera-tion efforts between India andthe United States.
fans, with the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA) allowing the Board ofControl for Cricket in India(BCCI) to use the live aerialcinematography to cover crick-et matches in 2021.
The Ministry of CivilAviation (MoCA) had receivedrequests from BCCI and M/sQuidich pertaining to grantingof request and other corre-spondences regarding permis-sion to use Remotely PilotedAircraft Systems (RPAS) forlive aerial filming.
It is yet unclear how earlydrones will be used in cricketmatches, or if they will beused for the next matches in theongoing India-England series.
Aerial cameras, hangingby a cable, known as
Spidercam, Skycam have beencommon in cricket matchesnow. Drones, too, have beenused before, in the 2017Champions Trophy. But thiswas limited to analysing thepitch before the start of thematch.
“The Ministry of CivilAviation (MoCA) andDirectorate General of CivilAviation (DGCA) have grant-ed a conditional exemption tothe Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) for thedeployment of drones for liveaerial cinematography of theIndia Cricket Season in 2021,”the Ministry said on Monday.The exemption is valid tillDecember 31, 2021.
According to the MOCA,
the BCCI has to obtain neces-sary clearances from (a) LocalAdministration (b) Ministry ofDefence (c) Ministry of HomeAffairs (d) Air DefenceClearance from Indian AirForce and (e) Airport Authorityof India (AAI) [as applicable]prior to operation of RemotelyPiloted Aircraft System (RPAS).
Moreover, M/s Quidichengaged by BCCI as RPASoperator shall only operate theRPAS models specified in theapproved standard operatingprocedures (SOP) dated 8thJanuary 2021. The operationsof the RPAS having valid DroneAcknowledgement Number(DAN) [specified in the SOP]shall be operated as per theabove-mentioned SOP in thearea specified therein.
Any change in theapproved SOP for e.g. changein procedures or RPAS or usecase or personnel or area spec-ified in the approved SOP shall
be included in the SOP andsubmitted to DGCA forapproval.
Also, the BCCI has to takenecessary permission regardingaerial photography fromDirectorate of Regulations andInformation, DGCA orMinistry of Defence (as applic-able).
"The drone ecosystem isevolving rapidly in our coun-try. Its utilization is expandingfrom agriculture, mining,healthcare and disaster man-agement to sports and enter-tainment. The granting of thispermission is in line with theobjectives of the Governmentof India to promote the com-mercial use of drones in thecountry," said Amber Dubey,Joint Secretary, Ministry ofCivil Aviation said.
"The Drone Rules 2021 arein the final stages of discussionwith the law ministry. We arehoping to receive the approvalsby March 2021," he added.
After a week-long derailmentby the Opposition, as the
Lok Sabha on Monday resumednormal functioning following anappeal by Defence MinisterRajnath Singh, Congress leaderAdhir Ranjan Chowdhurylaunched a scathing attack on theModi-Government, demandingto know who "leaked" informa-tion on the Balakot-air-strike for"election benefit" and describedit as a case of "treason", He soughtthe Government to constitute aJPC on the "TRP scam" andwanted government to provideinformation on the allegedChinese occupation of "1000 Sqkm of land" on the Line ofControl (LAC) along Ladakh.
Earlier, Singh said that it wasa duty of every member tomaintain the tradition of passingthe Motion of Thanks toPresident's address. He also saidthat Rajya Sabha has alreadypassed the Motion of Thanksafter Prime Minister Narendra
Modi's reply and "I appeal tomembers not to break this tra-dition in the Lok Sabha".
While Speaker Om Birlaalso appealed to the members toallow the House to function andnot indulge in sloganeering,Chowdhury too said that thistradition has been continuingsince 1921 and should not bebroken. "Our demand was to dis-cuss the issue of farmers whohave been sitting in the cold onthe borders of Delhi in protestagainst farm laws. It is regrettablethat they are being stopped fromentering the capital by sharp nailsand barbed wires," he said refer-ring to the reinforced barricad-ing at the farmers' protest sites.
In the backdrop of farmers’agitation, Chowdhury allegedthat government has created a"narrative" first again Muslimsand now vis-a-vis farmers that"they are enemies of the country".
"Why can't prime Ministertalk with farmers? Why is thisarrogance ?," he asked.
He accused that hoisting of
flag in the Red Fort was not car-ried out by farmers but "planned"by the government. "Truth is thatyou wanted this to happen..it isa well-thought out conspiracy ofyours..you reached them there",said Chowdhury and demand-ed a Joint ParliamentaryCommittee (JPC) on it .
The opposition MP criti-cised the government for strik-ing at 18-year-old environmen-tal activist Greta Thunberg forsupporting 'kisan movement'when PM himself had, he said,extended support in the USA bysaying " ab ki baar TrumpSarkar".
Initiating discussion fromhis party on the Vote of thankson the President''s address, theCongress leader said merelyquoting great people likeRabindranath Tagore, SwamiVivekanand or Netaji SubhashChandra Bose does not amountto following their ideas.
He said Prime Ministertalked about great people buttheir ideas need to be imple-
mented too.For the BJP, its MP Locket
Chatterjee initiated the debateaccusing West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee andher party TMC of "politicising"and "insulting Ram-Sita".
She charged the state gov-ernment with blocking centralschemes and pursuing "appease-ment polices". Opening theDiscussion on the Vote of thankson the President''s address for theBJP, the MP from Hoogly wentall out in accusing TMC leadersof "pocketing money" meant forthe common public.
She said central schemes forfarmers' are blocked by the TMCgovernment.Chatterjee said:“2021 is a historic year whenIndia enters the 75th year of itsindependence and I pay homageto those who lost their lives forour freedom.The Modi govern-ment has taken many big deci-sions for the betterment of thecountry like GST and handlingthe coronavirus pandemic prop-erly.”
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India has become the fastestcountry to vaccinate 6 million
beneficiaries against Covid-19countrywide, said the UnionHealth Ministry as it termed it asa feat achieved in just 24 days. Incontrast, it said that the USAtook 26 days to reach this markwhereas the UK achieved this in46 days. The nationwide Covidvaccination program waslaunched by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on January 16while vaccination of the frontlineworkers commenced from February 2.
At least 60,35,660 benefi-ciaries were vaccinated through1,24,744 sessions, as per theprovisional report till 6 pm onMonday.These include 54,12,270HCWs and 6,23,390 FLWs. TheMinistry said that 35 States/UTsconducted the Covid vaccina-tions on Monday with elevenStates/UT vaccinating more than65 per cent of the registeredHCWs.
At least 11 States/UTs havereported less than 40% coverageof vaccinating HCWs. Theseare- Delhi, J&K, Ladakh, Punjab,D&NH, Chandigarh, TamilNadu, Meghalaya, Nagaland,Manipur, and Puducherry while10 States account for 75.12 percent of the total beneficiaries vac-cinated on Monday.
Total 29 persons have beenhospitalized so far. This com-prises 0.0005% of the total vac-cinations.
“Of the 29 cases of hospital-ization, 19 were discharged aftertreatment, while nine personsdied. In the last 24 hours, oneperson who is suffering from B/LFacial Palsy has been hospitalizedat Kerala Institute of MedicalSciences, Thiruvananathpuram,Kerala and is stable.
“Total 23 deaths have beenrecorded till date. These com-prise 0.0004% of the total vacci-nations. Of the 23, nine personsdied in the hospital while 14deaths are recorded outside thehospital”.
The induction ceremony of thefirst five Rafale fighter jets into
the IAF at the Ambala airbase inSeptember last year cost the exche-quer �41.32 lakhs, the Governmentinformed the Rajya Sabha onMonday.
Elaborating upon the expensesincurred, Defence Minister RajnathSingh said the armed forces have atradition for such inductions andsuch ceremonies were also heldwhile inducting the Apace andChinook helicopters.
Moreover, this money was spentas India and France held bilateraldelegation level meetings duringthe ceremony, Rajnath said in thehouse. The talks were held betweenthe French and India defence min-isters, Rajnath said.
“All new aircraft types in IAF aretraditionally inducted through abefitting ceremony... The arrange-ments for this event were mademostly through local resources ofIAF,” the Defence Ministry said in a
written reply in the Rajya Sabha.The first five Rafale jets of IAF
were formally inducted into serviceon September 10 last year.
India has contracted 36 Rafalejets in fly away condition under a�7.87 bn Inter GovernmentalAgreement with France in 2016.
The entire lot of 36 will beinducted by next year, Rajnathinformed the House.
F����� ���� ���� ��� ����������0��!���%�� ������� �� ��������(Pakistan has always resorted to an increase in ceasefire violations after
major terrorist attacks like the one in Pathankot and Uri in the last fewyears, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said here on Monday. However, theIndian security forces were giving a befitting reply he said.
Making these points in the Rajya Sabha while responding to questionson spike in ceasefire violations, he said 5,133 incidents took place last yearin which 46 security men were killed. Replying to leader of opposition GhulamNabi Azad’s question that such violations were more during the NDA regimeas compared to the UPA stint, Singh said the number of violations hadincreased from 2011 onwards.
Lucknow/Ghazipur/Azamgarh(UP): Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath onMonday said the construction ofthe six-lane PurvanchalExpressway will be completed byMarch and it will be inaugurat-ed by Prime Minister NarendraModi in April.
Adityanath was on a visit toGhazipur and Azamgarh toinspect the construction work ofthe expressway. “Once thePurvanchal Expressway is com-plete, people from Ghazipurcan reach Lucknow in threehours and Delhi in 10 hours,”Adityanath said at a programmein Ghazipur.
“The mafia had obstructedthe pace of development inUttar Pradesh (in the past) andnow, the government is seizingtheir illegal properties,” headded.
The campaign initiated
against the mafia will continueand they will not be allowed tostay in Uttar Pradesh, the chiefminister said. He also appealedto the people''s representatives totake the welfare programmes ofthe government to the public.
At Azamgarh, Adityanathsaid, “The construction work ofthe expressway is moving at afast pace. By March, the express-way will be completed andPrime Minister Narendra Modiwill inaugurate it in April.”
He said the expressway willbe built in three years despiteCOVID-19, adding, “Thismodel of development hasbecome a centre of attraction forthe country and the world.”
“Azamgarh had a bad repu-tation till four years ago. Peoplefrom here found it difficult to getrented accommodation in othercities, but the situation haschanged in four years and
Azamgarh is now becoming amodel of development,”Adityanath said.
Speaking at Lucknow later,the chief minister rued thatearlier, even small projects thatwere supposed to be completedin a year took 10 to 12 years tocomplete.
“When the BJP govern-ment came to power in 2017, theBaan Sagar irrigation project wascompleted and dedicated to thenation. This project was plannedin 1973 by the PlanningCommission and the foundationwas laid in 1978 by the thenprime minister Morarji Desai,but it kept lying for almost 40years,” he said, adding that sev-eral schemes were announcedbut the works could not be car-ried out in a time-bound man-ner and the estimates wererevised with the government notgiving funds. PTI
Jammu: A Pakistani intruder, believedto be a local guide of Pakistan based ter-ror outfit, was gunned down by the alertjawans of the Border Security Forcewhile he was 'aggressively' attemptingto breach the barbed border fencenear BoP (border outpost) ChakFaquira in the Samba sector on Monday.
According to official sources, thesuspicious movement of the intruderwas spotted by the BSF jawans around2.30 a.m and a tight vigil was main-tained to prevent any infiltration bid.After a seven hour long wait, theintruder emerged from the hiding and
started approaching the barbed wirefence very aggressively. The BSF sen-tires present in the border outpost
warned him and also fired warningshots.Instead of retreating the intrud-er approached the barbed wire fencevery 'aggressively' in a bid to breach thesame.
Briefing media persons about theincident, IG BSF Jammu Frontier, N SJamwal told reporters at the border out-post, “at around 9:45 am, alert BSFtroops saw Pakistani Intruder headingtowards border fence near border out-post (BOP) 64 along the internationalborder in Chak Faquira area”.
“Despite repeated warnings, theintruder kept moving under suspi-cious circumstances and approached the
border fence in an aggressive manner.That was the time when BSF personnelopened fire, killing him on the spot,” IGBSF, Jammu frontier said.
Earlier on November 23, 2020another intruder was shot dead by theBSF in the same border belt. Officialsources claimed, the Pak intruder mayhave been acting as a guide and was senton a recce mission ahead of pushing agroup of armed infiltrators inside theIndian territory to launch a terrorstrike.
BSF had also detected a cross bor-der tunnel in the same area in themonth of August 2020. PNS
who had thronged theBangalore-Chennai highwaysince morning, V K Sasikala, theformer aide to late J Jayalalithaa,gave enough hints to theAIADMK leadership that shewould not be cowed down byrestrictions and suppression.
“I’ll engage myself in activepolitics in days to come for partyworkers,” Sasikala told mediapersons in a brief interaction atThirupathur where she wasaccorded a rousing reception bythe cadres of AIADMK andAMMK.
She said she was not thetype who could be enslaved bythe powers that be. This was inresponse to the queries byreporters whether she will bevisiting the AIADMK headquarters and the JayalalithaaMemorial at Chennai’s MarinaBeach.
If the crowd which hadgathered to welcome her back toTamil Nadu is any indication,Chief Minister EdappadiPalaniswamy and his deputy OPanneerselvam may have torework their strategies tocounter “Chinnamma”, as she isaddressed even by party leaders.Sasikala (66) was released fromParappana Agrahara CentralJail on January 27 as she com-pleted the four year jail term inconnection with the dispro-portionate asset case.
“This could not be a mobi-lized crowd as it is difficult tobring this many people byorganisers. I am sure most of theparty cadres came to welcomeher on their own,” said a StateIntelligence Officer who wasmonitoring the journey ofSasikala from Bangalore.
Veteran scribe Sam Rajappasaid the turn out of the peopleto welcome Sasikala was his-
toric. “I don't think any politi-cal leaders, both State andNational, were accorded suchwelcome in Tamil Nadu's his-tory,” said Sam Rajappa.
Even as Sasikala set on herjourney to Chennai, what stoodout was the wordy duel betweenher nephew TTV Dhinakaranand D Jayakumar, minister offisheries in EdappadiPalaniswamy Government.
Jayakumar, who had playeda key role in easing out Sasikalaand her family members fromthe AIADMK in September2017, alleged on Sunday thatDhinakaran has taken all moneyowned by Sasikala. “Dhinakaranis afraid that Sasikala would askhim for accounts. Till the otherday he was claiming thatAIADMK was a closed chapter.He had insulted the party sym-bol of Two Leaves by claimingthat with the demise ofJayalalithaa, the party symboltoo has lost relevance,” saidJayakumar.
He said Dhinakaran madea vault face by declaring that theAmma Makkal MunnetraKazhakam was launched withthe intention of retrieving theAIADMK and the Two Leavessymbol. Whatever possibilitiesof patch-up between theAIADMK and the AMMK werethere look bleak as on Mondayas Sasikala accompanied byhundreds of cars was on her wayto the MGR Memorial atRamavaram in a Chennai sub-urb. She had called onRamavaram Gardens, MGR’spersonal residence, while on herway to the Bangalore Prison forsurrendering before the author-ities in 2017.
But what is of interest iswhether she would visitJayalalithaa Memorial at Marinabeach to pay her respects to herAmma (as Jayalalithaa wasaddressed by her) whom sheserved with devotion for morethan three decades.
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KOCHI: The fag end of thePinarayi Vijayan-led KeralaGovernment is witnessingunprecedented agitations byunemployed youth demandingjobs even as various groupshave started submitting mem-orandums to the Governorlisting how the State adminis-tration subverts rank lists pre-pared by Public ServiceCommission and appoints rel-atives of CPI(M) leaders.
Monday saw the ignominyof two youths, disappointedover the Government ignoringtheir plea to appoint themthough they figure the rank listprepared by the PSC, settingthemselves ablaze in front ofthe State Secretariat atThiruvananthapuram. Timelyintervention by Police andonlookers saved their lives.This is the first time in its his-tory an incident like this is hap-
pening in Kerala.Priju and Praveen were
among the youths who havebeen staging a sit-in in front ofthe State Secretariat sinceJanuary 26 demanding they beappointed in GovernmentService as they figure in therank list of last grade employ-ees prepared by the PSC. Butthe Kerala Government hasbeen busy appointing personswho do not figure in the list,demolishing the employmentdreams of these youths.
Meanwhile an organisa-tion by name Save UniversityCampaign Committee based atthe capital city submitted amemorandum to the Governorof Kerala, who is also theChancellor of all theUniversities in the State, listinginstances of impropriety inappointing assistant professorsto various universities.
The committee has given adetailed account of how thewife of M B Rajesh, former MPrepresenting the CPI(M), wasappointed in Sree SankaraSanskrit University allegedlyviolating all norms. “Politicalconsideration looms large allthrough the preparation of therank-list for the Asst. Professorappointment in theMalayalam dept so as toappoint first rank holderNinitha Kanicherry who wasonly a poor 212th rank hold-er in an earlier selectionprocess made by the KPSCfor appointment of Asst:Professors in the GovernmentColleges, overlooking highlyqualified candidates who gothigher position in the PSCrank list over the candidate,”reads the Memorandum, acopy of which is with ThePioneer. PNS
Amaravati: Village and wardvolunteers, who have becomea vital cog in implementingdecentralised governance inAndhra Pradesh, have protest-ed at various places in the Stateon Monday, demanding a payhike.
A few hundred volunteersprotested in Vijayawadademanding a pay rise.
“We are only asking for ourrights. We are not able to runour families...please increaseour salaries. We are protestinghere peacefully. Even duringCoronavirus time, we did a lotof work,” said a woman volun-teer at Vijayawada.
She alleged that even asthey are protesting peacefully,the police are resorting to vio-lence. Another woman volun-teer said that the governmenttook them under the villagesecretariat system on August15, 2019 and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said vol-unteers are like his two eyes butnow things are different now.
“Now see the injustice hap-pening to volunteers. Who istaking care of us? See how thepolice are beating us andpulling our hair. When we aredoing so much work for thegovernment, is this how theybeat us?” she questioned.
They appealed to the gov-ernment to think about themat least now.
Likewise, another volun-teer questioned Reddy as tohow the volunteers could liveon a salary of Rs 5,000 andhighlighted the various expens-es such as rents and others.
The sudden protest seemsto be a fallout of the pay hikethe government gave recentlyto workers operating the newly
launched rice door deliveryvehicles.
“We go door to door anddo a lot of work but are paidonly Rs 5,000 while the justappointed rice door deliveryworkers are being paid Rs21,000. The government shouldalso think about us,” a ward vol-unteer told IANS from WestGodavari district.
He said that the peoplewho are entering data whichthe volunteers bring are beingpaid Rs 15,000 salary permonth and observed that theydo not go out in the sun butcomfortably sit under the fanand enter data.
He said that officials expectvolunteers to finish work in just10 minutes but are being paida pittance.
Currently the volunteersare on leave as they have beentaken off Panchayat electionduty by a diktat from the StateElection CommissionerNimmagadda Ramesh Kumar.They are expected to return towork on Wednesday.
Widely praised by severalpeople, including PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, whoappreciated Reddy and toldhim that the Central govern-ment was also thinking ofreplicating volunteer systemacross the country during avideo conference with chiefministers once.
In fact, senior officials fromKarnataka had also visitedneighbouring Anantapur dis-trict in AP to study the volun-teer system and praised itsmodel.
Each volunteer is entrust-ed with the responsibility ofcatering to the governanceneeds of 50 families. IANS
Shillong/Aizawl: In a bid tocontain spread of coronavirus,officials in Meghalaya said thatthe night curfew would remainin force in Shillong and otheradjoining areas under the EastKhasi Hills district for the nextseven days from Monday.
Besides Shillong, the nightcurfew is being extended inMizoram capital Aizawl.
East Khasi Hills' DistrictMagistrate Isawanda Lalooissued a notification extendingthe curfew in Shillong, whichis also the district headquarters,
until February 14.Health officials, security
personnel, officials and per-sonnel of essential servicesincluding media and the vehi-cles carrying essential goods areexcluded from the purview ofthe night curfew which wouldremain in force for five hoursfrom 11 p.m.
Meghalaya has so farreported 13,885 Covid-19 caseswhile 147 people have suc-cumbed. On Monday, thenumber of active cases stood at137, while 13,601 people haverecovered.
Its recovery and mortalityratio are 97.95 per cent and1.06 per cent, respectively.
In Mizoram, an official ofthe Aizawl DeputyCommissioner's office said thatthe night curfew will beenforced in the capital cityfrom 8.30 p.m. to 4.30 a.m.
Mizoram has the distinc-tion of having the lowest deathrate of 0.21 per cent among the28 states in India. Its recoveryrate is 99.25 per cent.
Mizoram was the lone statein India where there was noCovid-19 related death until
October 28 last year even as thefirst death was reported inIndia on January 30, 2020.
According to the datareleased by the Union Ministryof Health and Family Welfareon Monday, Mizoram has so farreported 4,383 Covid-19 caseswith nine people have died.While 4,353 people have recov-ered from the infectious virus,there are 21 active cases as onMonday evening.
According to state healthofficials, all the deaths were intwo -- Aizawl and Serchhip --of the state's 11 districts. IANS
Ghazipur (UP):Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathon Monday reiterated that thereis no place for any mafia in theState and said that he hasvowed to eliminate such ele-ments.
The Chief Minister, whileaddressing a programme inGhazipur, said, “Our govern-ment is constantly movingtowards wiping out the entiremafia culture which hinderedthe development of Purvanchalfor long. Previous governmentspatronised mafia and criminalsin the state due to which thedevelopment of the statereceived a massive setback.”
Adityanath was here toreview the progress of the 340-km Purvanchal Expressway.
He said, “There is no placefor those who give patronage tothe mafias, criminal and otherrogue elements in the newUttar Pradesh of 'Ek BharatShrestha Bharat'. While we areworking towards the welfare of
villages, farmers, youth, anddevelopment, on the otherhand, it is also very importantto destroy the mafia culturethat has become a hindrance tothe development ofPurvanchal.”
The Yogi Government hasalready seized illegal assetsworth about �1,000 crore ofmore than 40 mafia elementsincluding Mukhtar Ansari,Ateeq Ahmad, Vijay Mishra,Sundar Bhati and others.
The state government isalso demolishing illegal prop-erties of mafia dons and theirclose aides. Cases have beenregistered against 800gangsters and their close asso-ciates. IANS
Gandhinagar: A BJP legislatorfrom Waghodia in Gujarat,Madhu Shrivastav, on Mondayagain courted controversy as hewas caught on camera whileopenly issuing death threat to anelectronic media reporter whenthe latter asked uncomfortablequestions.
“Ask questions in a straightmanner. Why are you actingsmart? I am telling you I'll getyou killed by my men,”Shrivastav threatened Gujaratinews channel 'Mantavya News'reporter Amit Thakor on cam-era.Shrivastav, known as'dabang' politician, has in thepast also allegedly misbehavedwith journalists a couple oftimes and issued similar deaththreats, but got away as nocomplaints were lodged againsthim.Gujarat BJP chief CR Patilsaid: “We will check what hap-pened and confirm it first(before reacting).”
Shrivastav was also accusedof threatening Vadodara votersat a rally in Waghodia area in Vadodara on April 3,2019 if they didn't vote for the BJP in the Lok Sabhaelections.
The election authoritieshad even issued a show-causenotice to him for alleged viola-tion of the Model Code ofConduct. IANS
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Congress MLA ImranKhedawala said on
Monday that he had submittedhis resignation as legislator toGujarat Congress chief AmitChavda to protest over theticket distribution for the localbody elections in Behrampuraarea of Ahmedabad.
“I tendered my resignationto the Gujarat PradeshCongress Committee chief onMonday. My constituencyJamalpur Khadia consists ofJamalpur, Khadia andBehrampura wards of theAhmedabad MunicipalCorporation. After the highcommand selected four nom-inees for Behrampura, I con-veyed it to them. After thesefour filed their nominations, Icame to know that two othercandidates had also filed papers
on Congress tickets,”Khedawala alleged.
“I confirmed this newsfrom the Collector's office andthereafter questioned theGujarat leadership over theissue. My question is -- oncethe high command has decid-ed and given its mandate tofour candidates, why have twoothers been given the same?”asked the legislator.
Dissatisfied with the replyfrom state leadership,Khedawala said, he tenderedhis resignation to the GPCCPresident.
“Initially they refused toaccept my resignation. Butwhen I threatened that I willtender my resignation to theAssembly Speaker, it wasaccepted. Now, the party highcommand will take a decisionon my resignation,” he added.
Baghpat: In a shocking inci-dent, a 30-year-old man killedhis pregnant wife and minordaughter in Baghpat district onMonday following an argu-ment.
The man, who worked as abarber, later went to the policestation and admitted his crime.
The incident took place atthe Gayatri Puram locality hereunder the Kotwali police sta-tion area.
Circle officer M S Rawatsaid the accused Gulfam wassuffering from cancer. IANS
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Varanasi: The 'Mera Ghar MeraVidyalaya' (mohalla class)scheme introduced in Varanasiin Uttar Pradesh is now becom-ing a role model for the wholecountry.
This scheme by the UttarPradesh Basic EducationDepartment was started fromthe Sewapuri block in PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's con-stituency and is proving to be sopopular that parents are givingit preference over conventschools. The scheme waslaunched in 2020 during theCovid-19 pandemic when allschools and educational insti-tutions were shut.
The state government cameup with an initiative of 'MeraGhar Mera Vidyalaya' as anattempt to facilitate learningthrough ancient 'Gurukul' res-idential style of teaching.
Varanasi Basic ShikshaAdhikari, Rakesh Kumar Singh,said, “The scheme was startedwith an aim to provide a school-like environment at homethrough digital means. Since thelaunching the scheme, teachersand staffers of the schools havebeen delivering books and studymaterial to the children. It isbeing received well by the stu-dents and parents alike.”IANS
@����������������� ������������ �/ �������� �� ����'����Amaravati: The Andhra
Pradesh Government has set upa panel to investigate the deathof Tejaswini, an engineeringstudent who committed sui-cide as she could not pay her col-lege fee.
Education MinisterAdimulapu Suresh expressedsadness over the death ofTejaswini, 20, who was studyingin a private engineering collegein Prakasam district.
Incidentally, the collegemanagement harassed the stu-dent over delay in paying hertuition fee. According to Suresh,Chief Minister Y. S. JaganMohan Reddy took up the issueseriously and ordered a detailedinquiry.
Similarly, students unionshave also demanded a thoroughinquiry into the incident.
Reacting to the student'sdeath, Telugu Desam Party(TDP) national president NaraChandrababu Naidu questionedwhat the government was doingwhen the girl was not in a posi-tion to pay fees. IANS
letter of the Bengal Governorto the Secretary of State:
“The scale of rioting wasunprecedented. It was apogrom between two rivalarmies of the Calcutta under-world. The fact that over2,000 persons of the goondatype who had been confinedunder the Defence of IndiaRules during the war werereleased the previous year isof great significance. The onlything which prevented a com-plete collapse of the adminis-tration was the three battal-ions of British troops, whowere readily available for thissort of emergency. Thoughthe occasion and nature of theemergency could not be fore-seen, the Army Commanderand I had long agreed on thenecessity of such a dispositionof troops. I could not possi-bly have held Calcutta withthe police alone, and I amdoubtful if Indian troopswould have inspired suffi-cient confidence. That theinfection did not spreadimmediately to the districts isa fact for which we cannot betoo thankful. We had to takea big chance in denudingHowrah and the mill areas oftroops on the 17th.
The obligations of theConstitution made my task farharder. My special responsi-
bility for law and order is nota ‘discretionary’ matter and, inhandling the situation, partic-ularly at the outset, I hadalways to consider the suscep-tibilities of my Ministry. Thedual personality ofSuhrawardy, as Chief Minister(in charge of the Home port-folio) and as the most influ-ential member of the MuslimLeague in Bengal, was a con-stant embarrassment.Yours sincerely,FJ BurrowsCC: Lord Wavell, Viceroy”
What was an even moretragic event, although blood-lessly, was the partition ofBengal in 1905. The idea wasnot new, it was bubblingsince, say, 1875. By dividingBengal on communal linesand encouraging Muslimascendancy in the east, theGovernment was, in Risley’swords, weakening “a solidbody of opponents” to theRaj. Viceroy Curzon was pre-sented with hundreds of peti-tions, which he chose toignore. Bengal united is apower; Bengal divided willpull several different ways.The summer of 1905 was along, hot one in Bengal andthe atmosphere was chargedwith tension. The editor of aleading daily had condemnedthe partition. Overnight,
emotions had risen to feverpitch. People refused to par-ticipate in festivities whereforeign salt or sugar wasused. The giant was stirringand even the Viceroy wasforced to admit “the specta-cle that has been presented bythe streets of Calcutta duringthe past fortnight has not inmy opinion been creditable tothe Capital of a great Empire”.
October 16, the day of thetragedy, became a turningpoint in British India’s histo-ry. The announcement ofpartition shattered the long,legendary belief in the even-tual fairness of the British. Itbecame a day of nationalmourning. No food wascooked in Calcutta’s homes,the domestic hearthsremained unlit. Shops andoffices were closed and, inseveral places, newspaperswere not distributed. PoetRabindranath’s song,“Banglar mati Banglar jal”,thrilled patriotic sentimentsto an all-time high and theball had been set rolling fora mass Raksha Bandhan cer-emony. Virtual strangersstopped each other on thestreets to tie the rakhi thread,symbolising brotherhood.
(The writer is a well-knowncolumnist and an author. Theviews expressed are personal.)
������������������������ ��Sir— This refers to the editorial‘Reconnected’ (February 8). Truly speak-ing, curtailing the high-speed internet inJammu and Kashmir is like paralysing theUnion Territory and widening the riftbetween people and the Government. Theadministration has done the right thingby restoring 4G services across the UT asit will prove to be a milestone in reinstat-ing confidence among the residents whowill start believing that the Governmentcares about its people.
The people of the valley have alwaysbeen at the receiving end in theGovernment’s fight against terrorism.Their lives have been ruined, businessesdemolished, studies interrupted and theyhave been thrown into gloom and dark-ness. However, the recent step of theGovernment will help in healing theirwounds up to some extent, if not fully. Thepeople of J&K have witnessed violenceand bloodshed due to the cross-borderterrorism and the presence of boots on theground.
The Government must also makeattempts to develop the tourism sector inthe UT. The tourism industry in J&K hasfaced a severe blow after the erstwhileState was scrapped of its special status andtwo UTs were carved out of it—J&K andLadakh. Further, Coronavirus pandemicalso delivered a deadly blow to it. J&K isnow on the path of development andprogress.
Azhar A Khan | Rampur
����������������������������������Sir — Scientists across the world are try-ing their best to come up with more vac-cines against Coronavirus. The good thingis that an inoculation drive has started allover the world, with India supplying itsindigenous vaccines to many countriesacross the globe. India has emerged as aleader in the true sense. However, the threatfrom the pandemic is not over yet as thevirus is coming up with new strainsagainst which there are no vaccines devel-oped yet.
It’s not hard to imagine the plight theworld will go through if the virus startsmutating fast into new virulent strains. It’shard to develop vaccines against every newmutant. The World Health Organisation(WHO) has already cautioned the nationsto beware of more such deadly pandemicscrossing the path of humanity in the future.The health problems faced by people whoare cured of COVID are another issue thatneeds our attention. The complex forms ofillness and its psychological impact isenough to ruin not only individual life butthe life of generations to come. Early diag-nostics, care and treatment are essential tofight such psychological illness. Further,long-term effects of COVID-19 are stillunknown as the symptoms of post-COVIDsyndrome are diverse.
M Pradyu | Kannur
��������������������������������Sir — The recent calamity inUttarakhand, in which many peoplehave died, points out towards our lack-
adaisical approach in dealing with the cli-mate crisis. If the Governments across theworld and organisations of global reputeare serious about the damages that areinflicted on environment, they must takesome concrete action rather than justchalking out five or 10-year plans whichare of no use.
Huge amounts are wasted almostevery year in organising big conferencesand seminars to discuss global warmingand ill effects of climate change but thesituation has largely remainedunchanged. Private organisations andNGOs make huge money working for theenvironment and climate change. It ispublic money and Governments shouldbe very careful about how and where itis spent. Merely levying the carbon taxon poor nations will not serve any pur-pose. It’s time to make concerted efforts.
The agitators had askedfor a tractor rally onRepublic Day lastmonth. Most govern-
ments would have refused per-mission (as it was a day of con-stitutional celebration) and, per-haps, offered a date before orafter January 26. To the delightof some agitators and to the sur-prise of others, the Governmentaccepted the idea, subject topolice discipline. No one, itwould seem, suspected the dan-gers pregnant in the tractortamasha, namely the hooliganbabies and the enormity of thedamage they could lead to thecause. The day witnessed theworst rioting one could haveseen or imagined except that nota drop of blood was shed; onedeath was of a tractor driverinvolved in an accident. For thefarmers, the rally was the lowpoint of their two-month strug-gle for the cause as demonstrat-ed on the chilly highways aroundDelhi. For the Government, itwas an unexpected bonanza.
Only the Left Front couldenact comedy on the streets ofCalcutta (now Kolkata) whenev-er its ruling Government calleda protest bandh, against whomno one knew, although it wasimpeccably enforced. Not a birdflew near any of the many streetsin the city. Press was free tomove, so I moved about; the boysat street corners guarding thebandh were often keen to beinterviewed and photographed.
It was a comedy for all thosecitizens who enjoyed a holidaybut a sarco-comedy for the poorin the unorganised sector. Therickshawalas, taxi drivers, busoperators, mutias or coolies et alhad to go without wages. WhenI asked a boy at a street cornerabout it, his reply was that thesemen do not belong to ourunions, what do we owe them?Working class was an expressiontoo distant for the boy.
The most tragic rioting thatCalcutta ever witnessed wasbetween August 16 and 18,1946. It was an attempt by MAJinnah to convince London thatHindus and Muslims could notcoexist, hence the Partition. Iquote briefly from the official
In the Union Budget for 2021-22, FinanceMinister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman has givena pleasant surprise. This has to do with the
Government’s decision to discontinue with thedecades-old practice of so-called “off-Budget lia-bilities” this time around. “Off-Budget liabilities”is a fancy nomenclature used by governments todenote transfer of certain expenses incurred bythe Union Government to the books of its agen-cies tasked with the implementation of its wel-fare schemes. This helps the former show lowerexpenses on its own books, thereby, helping itbring down fiscal deficit to the desired level. Atypical case relates to the Food Corporation ofIndia (FCI) through which the Centre adminis-ters its mammoth programme of delivering foodsubsidy. Under the National Food Security Act(NFSA), over 800 million beneficiaries receivefood grains, primarily wheat, rice and coarse cere-als, at the heavily subsidised price of �2, �3 and�1 per kg, respectively, which is a fraction of thecost of procurement, handling and distribution.
The task is performed by the FCI on behalfof the Government, which reimburses the short-fall in realisation from sale vis-à-vis the cost tothe former. Termed as food subsidy, reimburse-ment to the FCI is solely the liability of the Centreand is paid from the Union Budget.
If any given year the reimbursement amountdue to the FCI is say “X”, the Government decidesnot to release a portion of this and merely keepsit pending (the extant method of accounting oncash basis i.e. expenses are recorded when actu-al payments are made helps it to do this). To keepits operations going, the agency borrows the“unpaid amount” from the banks or any othersource. These borrowings plus interest accruedremain on the books of the FCI.
This disingenuous mechanism may help theCentre show that it is sticking to the fiscal con-solidation road map. But this gives a misleadingpicture of the Government’s finances and makesit complacent with regard to the dire need forbringing about genuine and sustainable reduc-tion in expenses. It also affects the financial healthof the agency implementing welfare schemes. Inrecent years, ballooning unpaid dues forced theFCI to borrow from the National Small SavingsFund (NSSF). In 2016-17, when the former start-ed borrowing from the latter, the Centre had com-mitted to releasing subsidy arrears to enable theFCI to pay back the loans in subsequent years.But that was not to be, as subsidy arrears keptmounting and the FCI continued borrowingincreasingly from the NSSF. As on March 31,2020, it owed a staggering �3,00,000 crore to thefund.
In the Budget for 2020-21, Sitharaman hadestimated the requirement of food subsidy to be�2,53,000 crore. Add to this the cost of free foodgiven (in the wake of the pandemic) to 800 mil-lion beneficiaries under the NFSA as also tomigrant labour during April-November, 2020.The total requirement comes to �4,22,000 crore.Against this, the Budget support was only�1,26,000 crore (Budgetary Expenditure�1,16,000 crore plus �10,000 crore given by wayof supplementary grant). This would have led toan uncovered gap of close to �3,00,000 crore.Under a business as usual scenario, the FCI would
have borrowed �3,00,000 crorefrom the NSSF. However, doing aturnaround, in the RevisedEstimate (RE) for 2020-21, the FMhas paid all of the food subsidydues �4,22,000 crore from theBudget. In other words, theGovernment has taken all of theexpenses under this head on its bal-ance sheet. The allocation for2021-22 at �2,42,000 crore is alsomore or less close to the likelyrequirement.
This means that even duringnext year, there won’t be anyunpaid dues. Furthermore, consid-ering that the FM has substantial-ly relaxed the Fiscal Deficit trajec-tory to reach 4.5 per cent by 2025-26 (instead of 2.5 per cent in2022-23 as per the NK SinghCommittee on review of FiscalResponsibility and BudgetManagement), thereby implying agood cushion, one would expectthe Government to maintain itsaltered stance even beyond 2021-22. This is welcome as it will bringtransparency and bolster the cred-ibility of Budget numbers. But, thisalone won’t suffice.
There is an urgent need to tack-le the fundamental factors behindthe ballooning food subsidy, likethe ridiculously low price of food—almost scratching the surface —supplied to beneficiaries underthe NFSA; the disproportionatelyhigh number of beneficiaries thatis pegged at a whopping 800 mil-lion (who will believe India hassuch a large number of poor); inef-
ficiency in the Public DistributionSystem (PDS) and rampant misuseof subsidy. This is where almostevery Government has failed.
In early 2015, a committeeunder senior BJP leader ShantaKumar had recommended a cut inthe number of those eligible forsubsidised food from 67 per centto 40 per cent and restricting thebenefit of �1/2/3 per kg only to thepoorest of the poor under the‘Antyodaya Anna Yojana’, whileincreasing the supply to seven kgper person. Others should pay 50per cent of the Minimum SupportPrice (MSP) paid to farmers. Thoserecommendations were quietlyignored.
The NFSA that came into forcein 2013 provided for the sale priceat �1/2/3 per kg to continue for aperiod of three years only.Thereafter, even as there was no baron increasing the price, theGovernment decided not to go forit. Far from that, in 2017, Ram VilasPaswan the then Union Ministerfor Consumer Affairs had declaredthat there would not be anyincrease in the price for threeyears.
In the Economic Survey for2019-20, the Chief EconomicAdviser (CEA), KrishnamurthyVenkata Subramanian had rec-ommended some reduction infood subsidy by limiting thescheme’s coverage and increasingthe issue price of food grainswhich he has reiterated in theEconomic Survey for 2020-21. The
Government has not paid heed tohis advise.
The Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) of subsidy is a foolproofmechanism for helping poor con-sumers as was amply demonstrat-ed in the case of LPG. It involvesputting money in the account ofbeneficiaries who in turn, can useit to buy food from wherever theychoose. The DBT has been on theGovernment’s radar since 2012-13;yet all that we see are a few pilotprojects being run in some districts.
Now, in view of the farmersdemanding a law on guaranteeingthe MSP and if it is enacted, thiswill dash whatever little hoperemains for launching DBT. This isbecause then the Government willbe legally bound to purchase allcrops (for which the MSP is noti-fied) and the entire quantity thatfarmers offer to sell. In otherwords, the current system of pro-curement albeit at MSP and sellingto beneficiaries at the subsidisedprice will stay. This implies, thatDBT will be off the table as a sub-sidy can’t be given twice over, firstby supplying food at a subsidisedprice and then by transferring thecash to the beneficiary’s account.
To conclude, even as theGovernment has mustered courageto give a truthful account of themoney it spends on food subsidy,there is nothing on the horizon toindicate that this will be reined-in.There is no dearth of prescriptions;but the irony is no one in the polit-ical class has the gumption to act.
On a calm Sunday morn-ing, the sound of gush-ing water stirred fear in
the minds and hearts of the peo-ple of Chamoli district inUttarakhand as it remindedthem of the fateful day in 2013when a deluge took hundreds oflives, rendered many homelessand devastated the State.
The huge volume of waterand mud flowing towards theunder-construction Rishi GangaHydel Project confirmed theworst fears of the local peoplewho watched helplessly as near-ly 40 labourers at the RishiGanga and Dhauli Ganga damsites came under the swathe ofthe colossal deluge consisting ofwater, muck and debris.
The death toll by Mondayevening climbed to 18, while 27were rescued and over 200were feared missing or dead,with 30-35 feared trapped in atunnel at the Tapovan-Vishnugad project.
These figures would havebeen much more had the inci-dent not taken place on aSunday, which is a weekend andthe number of labourers inattendance is thin.
The magnitude of the dis-aster can be gauged by the factthat the glacial burst caused sud-den flood and avalanche in theDhauli Ganga, Rishi Gangaand Alaknanda rivers totallydevastating the NationalThermal Power Corporation’s(NTPC’s) Tapovan-Vishnugadhydel project and the RishiGanga Hydel Project. It’s unfor-tunate that scientists failed topredict the catastrophe eventhough it was a disaster waitingto happen.
The people of Chamolidistrict and environmentalistshad long been protesting againstthe setting up of the two hydelprojects which has severelycompromised the ecology of theregion.
In 2019 the people of Rainivillage, who have been deeplyimpacted by the latest tragedyhad filed a Public InterestLitigation (PIL) in theUttarakhand High Courtagainst the construction of thehydel project, citing damage tothe environment as the mainreason. The project site in Rainivillage area falls under theNanda Devi Biosphere Reserve,just a few kilometres from theNanda Devi National Park.
Considering its impact onthe environment and the localcommunity owing to the blast-ing and stone crushing activities,the High Court stayed blastingin the project area till furtherorders and constituted a panelunder the Chamoli DistrictMagistrate and MemberSecretary of the State PollutionControl Board to inspect theRishi Ganga HydroelectricProject site.
However, as the project
progressed, the huge pile ofmuck was not disposed as perenvironmental norms and, as aresult, it came gushing downwith the flood waters creatinghavoc.
The Government andcourts must realise that appoint-ing committees and delaying theenvironmental impact assess-ment report of any project isnothing short of playing withthe environment and people’slives. Sunday’s disaster has
proved the same beyond doubt.Apart from scant regard
shown for environmentalnorms and laws by theGovernment, climate changetoo, had a major role to play inthe recent disaster.
The IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change’s(IPCC) Special Report onOceans and Cryosphere in aChanging Climate (SROCC)reveals that climate change hastriggered global warming whichin turn has altered the fre-quency and magnitude of nat-ural hazards leading to adverseevents such as the breaking offof a portion of the Nanda Deviglacier on Sunday.
According to the HIMAPassessment report facilitated bythe International Centre forIntegrated MountainDevelopment (ICIMOD), tem-peratures are rising in the HinduKush Himalayan (HKH) regionand the rise in global tempera-
ture will have more impact inthe Himalayan region due toelevation-dependent warming.If the world can keep the tem-perature rise to below1.5°Celsius, in the HKH regionit would translate to at least a riseof 1.8°C, and in some places,above 2.2°C.
The Himalayan region,which has an ultra-delicate ecol-ogy, is least monitored given thedifficult geographical terrainand is susceptible to the increas-es risk of unforeseen extremeweather events such as glacialbursts. As per estimates there are8,000 lakes in the Himalayas, ofwhich 200 are classified as dan-gerous, and as mountain slopesare impacted by glacier retreatand permafrost thaw due to ris-ing temperatures, the lakesbecome unstable and populat-ed regions in the foothillsbecome highly vulnerable toextreme weather events.
The rising heat in the
Himalayas is also attributable tothe excess use of concrete instructures such as dams and res-idential buildings. These struc-ture radiate heat and contributeto the spike in ambient temper-atures. There is an urgent needto make a shift to traditionalbuilding materials such as stoneand wood in order to dial downthe vulnerability to climatechange and also put hydelpower projects under restrictedcategory. In addition to this theGovernment must also set upmore high altitude monitoringstations so that the health of theHimalayas is correctly gauged.This in turn will enable betteradaptation practices.
The Uttarakhand glacierburst has revealed the conse-quences of human apathytowards the environment andclimate change. The end resultis loss of human lives, ruinednature and, as usual, no lessonslearnt.
The writer is an environmental journalist. The views expressed
are personal.
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Canberra (Australia): China has formallyarrested a Chinese-born Australian journalistfor CGTN, the English-language channel ofChina Central Television, on suspicion of ille-gally supplying state secrets overseas, Australia’sforeign minister said Monday.
The arrest of Cheng Lei last Friday startsan official criminal investigation and came sixmonths after she was detained.
“The Australian government has raised itsserious concerns about Ms. Cheng’s detentionregularly at senior levels, including about herwelfare and conditions of detention,” ForeignMinister Marise Payne said.
“We expect basic standards of justice, pro-cedural fairness and humane treatment to bemet, in accordance with international norms,”she added.
China’s Foreign Ministry confirmedCheng’s arrest and said her legal rights werebeing “fully guaranteed.”
“We hope that Australia will earnestlyrespect China’s judicial sovereignty and refrainfrom interfering in China’s law-based handlingof cases in any way,” ministry spokespersonWang Wenbin said at a daily briefing. AP
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For nearly 17 months, the Trumpadministration tried to deport
the mother and daughter from ElSalvador. The Biden administrationmay finish the job.
They are being held at a familydetention center in remote Dilley,Texas, but have repeatedly been onthe verge of deportation. The Fridaybefore Christmas, both were drivento the San Antonio airport and puton a plane, only to be pulled offwhen attorneys working for immi-grant advocacy groups filed newappeals.
“I have faith first in God and inthe new president who has taken
office, that he’ll give us a chance,”said the mother, who goes by thenickname “Barbi.”
She left behind two other chil-dren in El Salvador and asked not toreveal her real name so as not todraw the attention of criminal gangsthere.
Barbi’s daughter was 8 whenthey crossed the US Border inAugust 2019 and will turn 10 in afew weeks. “It’s not been easy,” shesaid.
It’s unlikely to get easier anytimesoon.
President Joe Biden rushed tosend the most ambitious overhaul ofthe nation’s immigration system ina generation to Congress and signed
nine executive actions to wipe outsome of his predecessor’s toughestmeasures to fortify the U.S.-Mexicoborder.
But a federal court in Texas suspended his 100-day moratoriumon deportations, and the immigra-tion bill is likely to be watered down as lawmakers grapple withmajor coronavirus pandemic reliefbill as well a second impeachmenttrial for former President DonaldTrump.
Even if Biden gets most of whathe wants on immigration, fullyimplementing the kind of sweepingchanges he’s promised will takeweeks, months — perhaps evenyears.
Washington: Donald Trump’shistoric second impeachmenttrial is opening this week witha sense of urgency — byDemocrats who want to hold theformer president accountable forthe violent US Capitol siege andRepublicans who want it over asfast as possible.
Scheduled to begin Tuesday,just over a month since thedeadly riot, the proceedings areexpected to diverge from thelengthy, complicated trial that
resulted in Trump’s acquittal ayear ago on charges that he pri-vately pressured Ukraine to digup dirt on a Democratic rival,Joe Biden, now the president.
This time, Trump’s Jan. 6rally cry to “fight like hell” and
the storming of the Capitolplayed out for the world to see.While Trump very well could beacquitted again, the trial couldbe over in half the time.
Details of the proceedingsare still being negotiated by theSenate leaders, with the durationof opening arguments, senators’questions and deliberations allup for debate.
So far, it appears there willbe few witnesses called, as theprosecutors and defense attor-
neys speak directly to senatorswho have been sworn to deliv-er “impartial justice” as jurors.Most are also witnesses to thesiege, having fled for safety thatday as the rioters broke into theCapitol and temporarily haltedthe electoral count certifyingBiden’s victory.
Defense attorneys forTrump declined a request forhim to testify. Holed up at hisMar-a-Lago club, the formerpresident has been silenced on
social media by Twitter withoutpublic comments since leavingthe White House. Instead,House managers prosecutingthe case are expected to rely onthe trove of videos from thesiege, along with Trump’s incen-diary rhetoric refusing to con-cede the election, to make theircase. His new defense team hassaid it plans to counter with itsown cache of videos ofDemocratic politicians makingfiery speeches. AP
Washington: The Bidenadministration haswarned Yemen’s Houthirebels against ongoingattacks against civiliansjust 48 hours after mov-ing to strike the groupfrom a terrorism black-list.
The StateDepartment on Sundaycalled on the Iran-backedrebel group to immedi-ately stop attacks on civil-ians and new militaryoperations in Yemen.The demand came only
two days after the admin-istration notifiedCongress that it wouldremove the Houthis fromits list of “foreign terror-ist organisations,” a des-ignation that comes withsevere U.S. Sanctions. Italso came just three daysafter President Joe Bidenordered an end to U.S.Support for the Saudi-ledoffensive military opera-tions against the rebels.
“As the president istaking steps to end thewar in Yemen and Saudi
Arabia has endorsed anegotiated settlement,the United States isdeeply troubled by con-tinued Houthi attacks,”State Departmentspokesman Ned Pricesaid in a statement. “Wecall on the Houthis toimmediately ceaseattacks impacting civilianareas inside Saudi Arabiaand to halt any new mil-itary offensives insideYemen, which only bringmore suffering to theYemeni people.” AP
Johannesburg: South Africahas suspended plans to inocu-late its front-line health careworkers with the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine after asmall clinical trial suggestedthat it isn’t effective in pre-venting mild to moderate ill-ness from the variant dominantin the country.
South Africa received itsfirst 1 million doses of theAstraZeneca vaccine last weekand was expected to begingiving jabs to health care work-ers in mid-February.
The disappointing earlyresults indicate that an inocu-lation drive using theAstraZeneca vaccine may notbe useful.
Preliminary data from asmall study suggested that theAstraZeneca vaccine offersonly “minimal protectionagainst mild-moderate disease”caused by the variant in South
Africa. The variant appears more
infectious and is driving adeadly resurgence of the dis-ease in the country, currentlyaccounting for more than 90per cent of the Covid-19 cases,health minister Zweli Mkhizesaid Sunday night.
“The AstraZeneca vaccineappeared effective against theoriginal strain, but not againstthe variant,” Mkhize said.
“We have decided to put atemporary hold on the rolloutof the vaccine ... More workneeds to be done.”
The study, which hasn’t yetbeen peer-reviewed, involved2,000 people, most of whomwere young and healthy. Thevolunteers’ average age was 31.
“Protection against mod-erate-severe disease, hospital-isation or death could not beassessed in this study as the tar-get population were at such low
risk,” said a statement issued byOxford University and theUniversity of theWitwatersrand inJohannesburg.
Scientists will be studyingwhether or not theAstraZeneca vaccine is effectivein preventing severe diseaseand death against the variant,Mkhize said.
Other vaccines have shownreduced efficacy against thevariant, but have providedgood protection from seriousdisease and death.
Public health officials areconcerned about the SouthAfrica variant because it con-tains a mutation of the virus’characteristic spike protein,which is targeted by existingvaccines. South African offi-cials say the variant is morecontagious and evidence isemerging that it may be morevirulent. AP
Yangon: Martial law wasdeclared in parts of Myanmar’ssecond largest city MandalayMonday, after hundreds ofthousands rallied across thecountry against the coup andthe military issued a sternwarning against furtherprotests.
The orders cover seventownships in Mandalay, ban-ning people from protesting orgathering in groups of morethan five, and a curfew will runfrom 8 pm until 4 am, the gen-eral administration depart-ment said in a statement.
A similar declaration hasbeen made in a township inAyeyarwaddy further southand announcements concern-ing other localities are expect-ed to trickle out tonight.
“This order is applied until
further notice,” one Mandalaytownship statement said.
“Some people... are behav-ing in a worrying way that can harm the safety of publicand law enforcement. Such behaviours can affect sta-bility, safety of people, lawenforcement, and peaceful exis-tence of villages and couldcreate riots, that’s why thisorder bans gathering, speakingin public, protest by usingvehicles, rallies,” the statementsaid.
The junta has so farrefrained from using deadlyforce against the demonstra-tions sweeping most of thecountry, but with pressurebuilding riot police fired watercannon in an attempt to dis-perse thousands gathered inNaypyidaw.
The military last weekdetained Suu Kyi and dozens ofother members of her NationalLeague for Democracy party,ending a decade of partialcivilian rule and triggering
international condemnation.In the face of an increas-
ingly bold wave of defiance,state broadcaster MRTVwarned that opposition to thejunta was unlawful and sig-nalled a potential crackdown.
“Action must be takenaccording to the law with effec-tive steps against offenceswhich disturb, prevent anddestroy the state’s stability, pub-lic safety and the rule of law,”said a statement read by anannouncer on the channel.
Tens of thousands of peo-ple overcame a nationwideinternet blockade to rally overthe weekend in the first majoroutpourings of opposition tothe coup.
The movement built onMonday, with protests acrossthe country and the start of anationwide strike. In Yangon,the nation’s commercial capital,crowds spilt onto the city’s mainroads, immobilising traffic anddwarfing the previous day’s rally.
Canberra: Australia hasdemanded Myanmar immedi-ately release an Australianadviser to Aung San Suu Kyi’sgovernment who was detainedin a military coup, an officialsaid on Monday.
Economic policy adviserSean Turnell had told friendsvia social media that he wasdetained but he has been out ofcontact in recent days.
“We have called for theimmediate release of Australiancitizen Prof. Sean Turnell fromdetention,” Foreign MinisterMarise Payne said.
The Australian Embassy inMyanmar had been providingTurnell with “extensive supportduring this ordeal,” she said.
Turnell’s friend and fellowMyanmar expert MoniqueSkidmore said she believed theMacquarie University eco-nomics professor had beendetained because of his closerelationships with ousted leaderSuu Kyi and other senior mem-bers of her National League forDemocracy party. AP
Jerusalem: Israeli PrimeMinister Benjamin Netanyahupleaded not guilty on Monday ashis trial on corruption chargesresumed in a Jerusalem court-room just weeks before nation-al elections in which he hopes toextend his 12-year rule.
Netanyahu was indicted lastyear for fraud, breach of trustand accepting bribes in threeseparate cases. In recent months,Israelis have held weekly protestscalling on him to resign over thecharges and criticising his gov-ernment’s response to the coro-navirus crisis. AP
Tokyo: A Japanese navy sub-marine and a commercial shipcollided off Japan’s southerncoast on Monday, causingminor injuries to threecrewmembers of the submarineand damage to its mast, defenseofficials said.
The submarine Soryu wasin the process of surfacingabout 27 nautical miles (50kilometers) south of CapeAshizuri on Japan’s southwest-ern island of Shikoku when itcollided with the commercialship, the Maritime Self-DefenseForce said in a statement.
There was slight damage tothe submarine’s mast but it wasable to continue sailing on itsown, it said. The navy did notidentify the commercial ship,but NHK public television saidit was the Hong Kong-registeredbulk carrier Ocean Artemis. Itwas transporting 90,000 tons ofiron to Okayama in westernJapan after leaving the Chineseport of Qingdao last Fridaywith 21 Chinese crewmem-bers, it said. Defense MinisterNobuo Kishi told reporters thatthe collision was “extremelyregrettable.” AP
price (MSP) has increased17.52% to 616.43 lakh tonne sofar in the 2020-21 kharif mar-keting year, with maximumbeen purchased from Punjab,
according to the Food Ministry.The Centre’s nodal agency
Food Corporation of India(FCI) and state agencies under-take procurement of food-grains to meet the food secu-rity needs under various wel-fare schemes and exigencies aswell as to ensure MSP to farm-
ers.Procurement of paddygrown during the kharif seasonof 2020-21 crop year is under-way. In a statement, the min-istry said paddy procurementis continuing “smoothly” in theprocuring states with a pur-chase of 616.43 lakh tonne ofpaddy up to February 7 this
year.”This is an increase of17.52 per cent against the lastyear corresponding purchase of524.52 lakh tonne,” it said.
Out of the total purchase,Punjab alone has contributed202.82 lakh tonne which is32.90 per cent of the total pro-curement, it added.
Besides, the governmenthas procured through its nodalagencies about 3,08,783.12tonne of moong, urad, tur,groundnut pods and soybean atan MSP value of Rs 1,662.68crores benefitting 1,67,362farmers in Tamil Nadu,Karnataka, Maharashtra.
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The Centre on Mondayasked State Governments
to submit their proposals seek-ing additional funds for theration card portability scheme,called ‘One Nation-One Ration
Card’ (ONORC), by
February 15.Under the ONORC plan,
beneficiaries can lift their enti-tled foodgrains from any elec-tronic point of sale device(ePoS)-enabled fair price shopsof their choice by using theirexisting ration cards with bio-metric authentication.
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Domestic air travel demandcontracted by 41 per cent
year-on-year to around 76 lakhpassengers in January withsequential growth also slowingdown to 3.5 per cent during themonth over December 2020, areport said on Monday.
Indian carriers had flowna total of 1.27 crore passengerson domestic routes in January2020.
Indian aviation industryhas witnessed a continuedrecovery in domestic passengertraffic in January 2021.However, the pace of growthslowed down in the reportingmonth, with a sequentialgrowth (over December 2020)of around 3.5 per cent toaround 76 lakh passengers,rating agency Icra said in arelease.
On a y-o-y basis, however,domestic passenger trafficdeclined by around 41 percent in January over the samemonth of 2020, it added.
The capacity deploymentin the previous month ataround 71 per cent is a signif-
icant increase over the 59 percent capacity deployed inNovember last year andaround 67 per cent inDecember, Icra said.
The number of flightsdeparting has also graduallyincreased from 416 on May 25,2020, when commercial airpassenger services resumed,to 2,294 till January 18, 2021,said Kinjal Shah, Vice Presidentat Icra.
For January 2021, theaverage daily departures werearound 2,190, significantlylower than the average dailydepartures of 3,080 in January2020, though better thanaround 2,048 in December2020, she said.
“The average number ofpassengers per flight duringJanuary 2021 was 111, againstan average of 134 passengersper flight in January 2020.Thus, it is expected that thedomestic aviation industryoperated at a passenger loadfactor (PLF) of around 72 percent in the previous monthagainst 86 per cent in January2020, that too on a low capac-ity,” she added.
New Delhi:The Indian phar-maceutical industry has provedto be a dependable supplier ofquality drugs in a time of glob-al need on account of theCovid-19 pandemic, and isexpected to reach a size of USD130 billion by 2030, Chemicaland Fertiliser
Minister D V SadanandaGowda said on Monday.
Following the onset of thepandemic, the Indian pharmaindustry has shown its role asa reliable supplier of drugsand medical devices in a timeof need, he added.
“The total market size ofthe Indian pharma industry isexpected to reach USD 130 bil-lion by 2030.
The medical devices indus-try in India has the potential togrow at 28 per cent per annumto reach USD 50 billion by2025,” Gowda said.
He was addressing thecurtain raiser press conferenceon the 6th edition of ‘IndianPharma & India MedicalDevice 2021’. “India has beenserving more than 200 coun-tries with its pharma productsand will continue to dischargeits responsibilities.
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India’s risk-based internalaudit requirement for non-
banking finance companies iscredit positive, MoodysInvestors Service said.
The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) issued guidelines for thecountry’s largest non-bankingfinance companies (NBFCs)to implement a risk-basedinternal audit framework, inline with banks. The frame-work requires an NBFC’s inter-nal audit function to assessrisks independently of its exist-ing risk-management func-tions.
The requirement is creditpositive because it adds anoth-er layer of risk monitoring andimproves the companies’resilience to unexpectedshocks, Moody’s said.
The guidelines will apply toall deposit-taking NBFCs orNBFCs with assets of morethan Rs 500 billion as of March31, 2022. The framework’sapplication to the largestNBFCs reflects the RBI’s ongo-ing efforts to strengthen and
harmonise regulatory normsbetween NBFCs and banks.The NBFC sector has beenincreasingly important to cred-it growth in India.
NBFCs’ total balance sheetmore than doubled to Rs 49trillion in 2020 from around Rs20 trillion in 2015. At the sametime, banks’ exposures toNBFCs have also increased,and according to RBI data,8.5% of gross bank credit wasto NBFCs as of December2020, compared with 4.8% inDecember 2016.
Banks have traditionallybeen subject to stricter regula-tions and risk controls thanNBFCs, creating regulatoryarbitrage for NBFCs, eventhough they provide similarfinancial services.
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Extending its winning streakto the sixth session, equity
benchmark Sensex rallied 617points to end above the 51,000-mark for the first time onMonday, tracking strong gainsin Infosys, ICICI Bank andReliance Industries amid apositive trend in global mar-kets.After touching a lifetimehigh of 51,523.38 during theday, the 30-share BSE indexended 617.14 points or 1.22 percent higher at its record clos-ing peak of 51,348.77.
Similarly, the broader NSENifty surged 191.55 points or1.28 per cent to its lifetime clos-ing high of 15,115.80. Ittouched an intra-day record of15,159.90.
Mahindra and Mahindra(M&M) was the top gainer inthe Sensex pack, soaring
around 7 per cent, followed byBajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel,
PowerGrid, Infosys andICICI Bank., Kotak Bank, BajajFinance and ITC were amongthe laggards. According toBinod Modi, Head-Strategy atReliance Securities, domesticequities remained in the grip ofbulls with benchmark indicesextending gains for the sixthconsecutive day.“Improvedprospects of sustained eco-nomic recovery on the back-drop of sharp increase in cap-ital expenditures and boldreform measures have embold-ened investors. “While globalequities remained favourabletoday, benchmark index Niftyand Sensex recorded fresh all-time highs,” he said. Elsewherein Asia, bourses in Shanghai,Hong Kong and Tokyo endedwith significant gains, whileSeoul was in the red.
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Markets regulator Sebi onMonday barred
Capitalaim Financial AdvisoryPvt Ltd and five individualsfrom accessing securities mar-ket for selling services to clientswithout consideration of theirfinancial position, investmentobjective and risk profiling.
The individuals who havebeen barred are the company’spresent and former directors-- Abhijeet Bajpai, Anant Tiwari,Debabrata Bhattacharjee,Sheetal Foujdar and AbhilashaVerma.As per an interim orderof Sebi, Capitalaim and its pre-sent directors Bajpai and Tiwariare directed to cease and desistfrom acting as an investmentadvisor.
Besides, they have beendirected not to divert any fundsraised from the investors.
Also, the regulator hasdirected them to immediatelywithdraw and remove alladvertisements, representa-tions, communications in rela-tion to its investment advisoryactivity or any other activity inthe securities market.
The interim direc-tion comes after the regulatorprima facie found Capitalaimand individuals in violations ofPFUTP (Prohibition ofFraudulent and Unfair TradePractices) norms as well asInvestment Advisor (IA) regu-lations.
A probe by the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(Sebi) found that Capitalaimwas selling products and ser-vices to its clients withoutcommunicating the risk profileto them. Further it wasobserved that Capitalaim wascharging fees from clientswhich is disproportionate oftheir annual income and sell-ing same services or packagesto same clients on multipleoccasion at different arbitraryprice for future period / over-lapping period, while an exist-ing subscription is still active,which has the effect of lockingin the client to the InvestmentAdvisor, as IA has “no refundand cancellation” policy. It hadcharged different arbitraryadvisory fees from the sameand different clients, Sebinoted.
watching our favourite web seriesor for that matter to satisfy thoselate night hunger pangs? Theanswer is very rarely. And even ifwe try to do so we don’t findmuch tasty options.
Here comes CaliforniaPistachios to your rescue.
“Pistachios are a great sourceof healthy fats, fiber, protein,Vitamin B6, potassium, thiamine,copper, phosphorous and power-ful antioxidants like lutein andzeaxanthin. They are also the low-est calorie nut so you can havemore pistachios in a single serv-ing as compared to any othercommonly consumed nuts. Theresults from the largest ran-domised clinical trial to date onnuts and Diabetes showed thateating about 2 ounces of nuts aday for three months, as a replace-ment for carbohydrate foods,may improve long-term bloodsugar control and LDL cholesterolin people with Type II Diabetes,”Luke Coutinho , Holistic LifestyleCoach — Integrative Medicine &Founder — Luke CoutinhoHolistic Healing Systems Pvt Ltd,tells you.
He adds that the researchshows that adding pistachios todifferent common carbohydratefoods, such as rice and pasta, waslinked to reduced relative bloodsugar response of the meal.
However, there are variousbeliefs associated with eatingnuts. Eating them only in wintersis one. But that is, of course, nottrue. “Eating a handful of nuts likepistachios should be a part ofeveryone’s daily and balanceddiet,” Coutinho, who was recent-
ly announced as the AmericanPistachio Growers (APG)Lifestyle Ambassador in Indiaduring a virtual press conference,says.
For those who are alwaysangsting about not putting extrakgs, pistachios can help them too.“Researchers recently discoveredthat eating as much as 20 per centof calories from American pista-chios may not lead to weight gain,but it may provide the added ben-efit of improving health.American pistachios are also oneof the lowest-calorie nuts with just160 calories in a single ouncewhich is equivalent to 49 pista-chios. Also the act of openingeach pistachio shell to get out thenut slows down the eatingprocess, which lead to greater sat-isfaction and fullness after eating,”Coutinho explains.
He adds that it’s time we stopfearing good fats and blame themfor making us put on weight. “We
need good fats for so many bod-ily functions. It is a poor lifestyle,sedentary day, overeating junk,toxic emotions, poor sleep pat-terns, that actually lead to weightgain,” Coutinho asserts.
Now many of us would won-der how to select the best varietyof pistachios, Coutinho shareswords of wisdom to help them.
“Not many know that main-ly only two countries generate thebiggest yields of pistachios: the USand Iran. In the US, pistachios areprimarily grown in California.What makes these two kinds dif-ferent is the fat content. Californiapistachios are lower in saturatedfats (1.5 grams per serving) andhigh in protein (6 grams), mak-ing them a healthier choice thantheir counterparts from othercountries, giving you yet anoth-er reason to include it into yourdaily diet and open up one moreavenue for healthful snacking,”Coutinho explains.
�����%� Bathua orchenopodium leaves arefilled with many nutritionalqualities which can dowonders for your overallhealth. It is loaded withessential minerals andantioxidants.
It is a powerhouse ofVitamin A, C and B complex.The leaves are a good source ofamino acids too. Amino acidsplay a significant role incell function andcell repair. Alarge propor-tion of our cells,muscles and tis-sues are made up ofamino acids.
Minerals likeiron, potassium, phos-phorus and calcium arealso present in abundance
in Bathua. Rich in fibre andwater content, bathua alsocures constipation(due to itslaxative properties) and a hostof your tummy problems byaiding digestion and boostingintestinal activity too. Bathua’srole in keeping your liverhealthy has also made theselovely greens a hit in the healthand nutritioncircuit.
With fading hopes, butwith a stern decisionof not giving in to thecircumstances, Ali
Hamad’s parents thought of reach-ing out to HCMT ManipalHospitals after hearing ‘no’ frommany big hospitals in Delhi.
It was their strong will tosave their baby that even fortunefavoured them, so much so thatsuch a complicated surgery wassuccessfully done in nine-monthold Hamad.
Liver transplants are oftentricky. Sometimes it is too late fora transplant, while the other timesthe body doesn’t accept the donor’sliver at all. However, the most riskyof all is the transplant in babies lessthat one year of age and 10 kg ofweight. So was the case withHamad who suffered from liverfailure due to a rare disorder.
Dr Sailendra Lalwani, Head ofthe Department of LiverTransplant and Hepato-Pancreatic-Bil iar y Surger y,HCMCT Manipal Hospitals per-formed the surgery that makesHamad one of the youngest babiesundergoing a very complex livertransplant procedure. Dr SailendraLalwani’s team was supported byDr Lalit Sehgal HOD — GeneralAnesthesia, Liver TransplantAnesthesia, Liver Critical Care, DrVikas Taneja, HOD — Pediatricsand Dr Sufla Saxena, Consultant— Paediatric Gastroenterologistand Hepatologist.
Hamad was a known case ofProgressive Familial IntrahepaticCholestasis Type II (PFIC TYPE2). He had jaundice since birth.
The patient had multiple hospital-isations in Iraq for jaundice andrecurrent cholangitis. “He wasevaluated for jaundice and a liverbiopsy done in Iraq was suggestiveof progressive familial intrahepat-ic cholestasis Type 2. Three othersiblings of the patient died becauseof jaundice and they remainedundiagnosed. Given the history,clinical condition, and patholog-ical diagnosis patient was referredfor a liver transplant,” Dr Lalwanitells you.
This is not all. Hamad washaving infection with cholangitisfor which he was admitted andtreated. “Apart from recurrentcholangitis, the patient was havingmarked ascites and growth failurewith a bodyweight of 6.1 kg. Heunderwent evaluation for a livingdonor liver transplant and hismother was evaluated as aprospective donor. During anevaluation, CT scan showed cir-rhotic changes,hepatosplenomegaly with attenu-ated portal vein with no portalflow with significant ascites andsignificant portosystemic collater-als,” Dr Lalawani says.
He adds that no supply ofblood to the liver or clinicallyspeaking attenuated portal vein isa big challenge to any liver trans-plant team as vascular complica-tions are high in paediatric trans-plant patients. The reconstructionof the portal vein with graft isalways a challenge as it increasesthe risk of thrombotic complica-tions.
“To overcome this challenge,we planned to use an iliac vein
graft procured during cadavericliver transplant,” Dr Lalwaniexplains.
Hamad underwent a trans-plant on January 3, 2021. “Therewas no flow in the portal vein. Weplaced the interposition vein graftto give inflow to the liver. It tookaround nine hours to complete thetransplant and baby was shifted toICU on a ventilator,” Dr Lalwanielaborates.
The baby was off the ventila-tor the next morning and gradu-ally in the next few days, he start-ed accepting oral feed, toleratingwell, and gaining weight. “Finally,after 20 days of surgery baby was
discharged from the hospital. Thefamily plans to go back to Iraqnow,” Dr Lalwani adds. The baby,however, was given 80 per cent ofsuccessful surgery with a 20 percent of risk.
“There are no complications inHamad right now, but since hisimmunity is almost zero, he needsextra care, especially during thepandemic. However, the donor ishealthy and has nothing to worryabout. She was on medication forabout five days post the surgery,but is now completely fine,” DrLalwani explains.
Dr Saxena says that it has beenpossible because the parentsbrought the baby right in timewhich contributed to the success-ful surgery. “There are three phas-es of liver failure. Phase I is themost treatable, while in Phase IIand III it is comparitively difficultto treat the patient. Hamad wasbrought to the hospital in thebeginning of Phase II, hence wetook the chance and with God’sgrace completed the surgery,” DrSaxena tells you.
Hamad’s mother, who alsobecame the donor, says that shewas extremely afraid about losingher child again. “He is my fourthson, earlier three died perhaps suf-fering from the same liver disease.I was very afraid about Hamad’ssurvival, but the doctors heresaved the life of my son. Weexpress since gratitude towards alldoctors of Manipal Hospitals.From day one they assured me thateverything will be right and I willgo back to Iraq with a healthychild,” she says.
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Over five decades, since the first successful heart transplantwas carried out by Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South
Africa, this procedure remains the most effective proven ther-apy to alleviate symptoms, improve quality of life and confer sur-vival benefit for a selection of end-stage heart failure (HF) patientswho have no further medical or non-transplant surgical optionsavailable to them. Typically, these patients will have less than 50per cent chance of surviving the next two years without the sur-gical intervention.
The following are indications for heart transplantation:Idiopathic Dilated Cardiomyopathy: This is a disease of
unknown cause that affects the heart muscle such that one orboth ventricles, or main pumping chambers of the heart, tendto dilate and cause reduced function, The heart is then unableto pump sufficient blood around the body, particularly when itdemands more oxygen and nutrients during exertion.
Ischaemic Cardiomyopathy: This is caused by disease ofthe arteries of the heart whereby the arteries are either narrowedor blocked by local deposition and collection of fatty materialthrough a process called atherosclerosis. Many patients will havehad intervention by way of stents placed inside the diseased arter-ies, or have had bypass surgery. Some patients with ischaemic
heart disease can also haverefractory chest pain, or angi-na, that is not amenable to per-cutaneous or surgical treat-ment. They also benefit fromheart transplantation.
Valvular Heart Disease:A condition where disease ofone or more heart valves leadsto damage of the heart musclewith enlargement of the heartand poor function.
Hypertrophic cardiomy-opathy: Characterised byabnormal thickening of theheart muscle, typically the leftventricle, such that it becomesstiff and unable to perform thenecessary pumping action. Thiscondition is often linked to aninherited genetic defect.
Infiltrative cardiomyopa-thy: Both genetic and acquired causes lead to the depositionof abnormal material within the tissues of the heart leading toheart failure. Some of these diseases are Amyloidosis, Sarcoidosis,Haemochromatosis, Fabry disease, Danon disease and Friedreich’sataxia.
Congenital Heart Disease (CHD): Some complex congen-ital heart diseases are not amenable to surgical correction or repairand require neonatal heart transplantation. However, many con-ditions can be corrected or repaired in childhood and over thatover 80 per cent of patients with CHD now survive to adulthood.A proportion of patients who have had one or more surgical pro-cedure will develop heart failure later in life. Some of these con-ditions will eventually result in damage to the lungs also withthe requirement of a combined heart and lung transplant.
Persistent Ventricular Arrhythmia: Intermittent malignantheart rhythms can become intractable with damage to the heartmuscle and eventual heart failure.
Primary Cardiac Tumour: Rarely, a primary cardiac can-cer without risk of metastasis may also be amenable to heart trans-plantation.
Other conditions: Heart muscle can also be damaged byalcohol, drugs, viral infection (viral myocarditis), following child-birth (post-partum cardiomyopathy) and also in the context ofthyroid disease or Diabetes.
Flu season is starting.While catching coldand cough may not be
that big of a deal, but dur-ing the pandemic it candefinitely give you a miniheart attack.
Here are a fewtips that canhelp.
D r i n kwarm water.D r i n k i n gwarm watertwice a day,with or with-out having aflu is beneficial.It not only helpsrelieve sore throat but
also helps to detoxifyyour body.
Salt water gargle.Add one tsp of salt to
lukewarm water and gargletwice daily. It will help killthe bacteria in throat and
will relieve pain and dis-comfort.
Take steam. Boil waterin a pan, cover your headwith a towel and inhale thesteam for at least 15 min-
utes. Do this twice daily.This will help relieve
stuffy nose, sorethroat and even
reduce headaches.
D r i n kginger tea.Ginger isknown for its
anti-inf lam-matory proper-
ties. Drinking gin-ger tea once a day will
help reduce cold.Vitamin C helps. Mix
lemon in lukewarm waterand drink it daily. VitaminC is rich in antioxidantswhich help improve immu-nity and fight cold and flu.
Seasonal flus are annoying.and threatening too, espe-
cially during this pandemic.ROSHANI DEVI shares easyhome remedies that can helptreat the flu without having
to put too much efforts
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Vitamin E is a fat-soluble vitamin.Our body stores and uses it as need-ed. Vitamin E in food is found in
vegetable oils, margarine, nuts, seeds, cere-als and leafy greens. People usually getenough vitamin E from the foods they eat.People with certain disorders may needextra Vitamin E from supplements.Vitamin E is an antioxidant, it plays animportant role in the immune systembuilding and metabolic processes.
Here are seven reasons to add VitaminE in your daily diet
Boosts immune systemVitamin E is a powerful antioxidant
which protects cells from oxidative dam-age when cells are exposed to free radicals.It slows down the ageing process of yourcells. It helps people with higher environ-mental lifestyle risk factors to fight againstinfections by boosting the immune system.
Enhances muscle healthVitamin E plays a very important role
in preparing and growing muscle tissue.After exercising, the cells and tissuesbecome torn and it helps to restore themquickly and build them up stronger.
Keeps heart healthyGetting more Vitamin E into the diet
from healthy foods helps to protect theheart muscle from cramping and bloodclotting. People who have cardiovascularproblems are usually advised to have moreof a Vitamin E rich diet as well as a sup-plement.
Supports eye healthIf you suffer from eye problems then
taking Vitamin E daily can help to preventfurther damage. It supports the health ofthe small muscles surrounding the retinaand protects it against damage from highblood sugar regimen and also protects theeye from free radical damage.
Maintains hair growthAs Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant,
it also helps to maintain healthy hairgrowth. This can lower the risk of thin-ning hair as we get older by reducingoxidative stress and damage to the hair fol-licles.
Protects nerve health & hormonalhealth
Vitamin E is a fat-soluble nutrient, ithelps to protect the cover of the body’snerve endings called the myelin sheath.Hormones in the body are made using fatand cholesterol as their raw material.Being an antioxidant and fat-solublenutrient, it also protects exposures fromfree radical damage especially duringmenopause, Pms and stressful times.
Maintains healthy skinVitamin E is a powerful antioxidant
which helps you in giving healthy skin asit repairs the skin damage caused due toexposure to air pollution and ultravioletrays of the sun.
To conclude, Vitamin E is sensitive toheat so it must be consumed from raw anduncooked foods to protect its nutritionalvalue. Add Vitamin E to your daily diet toattain its health benefits.����� ��� ��� �� � ���>�������� ��'�� � �� ��
Flowers Bloom, Flowers Wither Away,Flowers Bloom AgainSomewhere between reality and fanta-
sy, between experience and memory,Chameli Ramachandran creates a visualsymphony in a twilight realm. This is anode to nature a reflection as soothing as arequiem to life and the living.Evanescent and evocative
The walls of Vadehras in Delhi arereplete with a suffusion of flowers, leaves andbranches, an arcadia including orchids, stha-lapadma (Hibiscus mutabilis), simul (silkcotton) and various kinds of lilies, chrysan-themums, carnations and crotons.
Shantiniketan born Chameli’s poeticbrushstrokes quiver and fold in a quiescentmood across sheets of paper, with a quick-ly fading yet evocative sense of energy. Thecontemplative Chameli is at the peak of herpowers here in 97 works that grace one floor.With technical virtuosity, she varies the gra-dation of ink strokes from lush bloomedfoliage to pale, silvery grey/ash tones in thedistance.
Flowers have been a central theme ofher work since the 1970s. Sometimes a small
sprig would appear as fresh, decorativepunctuation to a blank sheet of paper, othertimes a humble arrangement of bloomswould become the sole focus of her com-position, advancing from the ornamental tothe central subject, and looking for veraci-ty in simple everyday subjects.An organic odyssey
Whether single or a bunch, each studyreveals a deep desire to tell the visual truthby exposing the processes involved. It is indi-cated by the soft suffusion of layers refer-ring to the colour separations involved inthe revelation of nature’s organic odyssey. Indeliberately creating with tranquil tones ofcolour and using only ink, she ensures thatwe are not distracted from the more formalelements of the composition. The denseintricacies and the precise lines contrast withthe fluidity of the crayon-like handling ofthe small petalled flowers. Different painter-ly techniques demand different skills ofdraughtsmanship: precision and perfectionof detail versus fluidity and spontaneity ofline are her recurrent theme.
The monochrome minimalism in herworks have the ability to stimulate sensory
moods. The bold, recessive leaves add avibrancy to otherwise traditional composi-tions. An idealised, imaginary landscapeopens out with a sense of recession built onan understanding of deeply studied spatialconcepts. The entire composition is unifiedthrough a perspective that suggests famil-iarity with nature studies.
Chameli’s love for poetic forms unrav-el like a sumptuous bouquet — interposingher own long, rhythmic dashes designed toindicate short pauses. As subjects, flowersare parts of the topography of her own psy-che; she explores her own feelings withpainstaking and painful honesty but neverloses sight of the poetic application. This isone of her greatest techniques — to reflecther own serenity. These works recordthoughts and feelings experienced natural-ly over the course of a lifetime devoted toreflection and creativity: the powerful mindrepresented in these records is reflective,compelling, moving, thought-provokingand emerges like an orchestration of moor-ings. Memory and imagination leadChameli into an island of her own naviga-tion.
India were left with the her-culean task of chasing aworld record 420 after
England refused to declare inan unfocussed second essay,cut short by RavichandranAshwin’s brilliance on a sharplyturning fourth day strip in theopening Test here on Monday.
At stumps, India were 39for one, requiring another 381runs to set a new record andtake a 1-0 lead in the four-match series. The previousbest is 418, chased by WestIndies against Australia in2003.
Relishing bowling on aresponsive pitch, the seasonedAshwin returned excellent fig-ures of 6/61 to snap England’ssecond innings at 178 after thehome team conceded a mas-sive first-innings lead of 241runs.
With opener Rohit Sharma(12) back in the hut, ShubmanGill (15) and CheteshwarPujara (12) will begin the pro-ceedings for India on the fifthand final day at the MAChidambaram pitch, whichhas started to play tricks.
India would have been ina bigger hole had it not beenfor a seventh-wicket partner-ship of 80 runs between new-comer Washington Sundar(85) and Ashwin, who alsocontributed a 31 with the batbefore picking his career’s 28thfive-wicket haul.
But despite the duo’s bestefforts, the hosts still fell wayshort of the follow-on targetafter being bowled out for337. India resumed the day at257 for six.
Hoping to give theirbowlers some respite from thesweltering heat, Englanddecided against enforcing thefollow-on and batted again.
But the start wasn’t the onethey wanted as Ashwin bowledhis off-spinners to deadly effectwith the new ball, the bounceaiding him in his endeavour.
Ashwin removed RoryBurns with the very first ball ofthe second innings when heinduced an edge for AjinkyaRahane to take an easy catch in
the first slip.Having ambled to 16 off 37
balls, Dominic Sibley wasshown the door by Ashwin,with the bounce again helpingthe off-spinner.
Veteran pacer IshantSharma was rewarded for bowl-ing with a lot of hearth through-out the match when he hadDaniel Lawrence trapped infront of the wicket with the onethat snaked in.
That was wicket number300 for Ishant, making him thesixth Indian and third pacerfrom the country to reach thelandmark.
Ben Stokes could not repli-cate the form of his first inningsas he played away from his bodyto give Rishabh Pant a catch offAshwin.
As wickets kept falling atone end, skipper Joe Root (40off 32 balls) looked like he wasbatting on a pitch differentfrom the one where the ball wasturning from one end to the
other, scoring runs withoutmuch ado.
With all the confidence inthe world, first-innings doublecenturion Root swept andreverse swept the India spinners,including Ashwin, as runs cameat a fast clip when he was in hiselement in the second session.
He not just negated but alsoattacked the spinners withaplomb but what Root could nottackle was a delivery that keptlow on landing before thuddingagainst the English run-machine’s pads.
The umpire had no hesita-tion in raising his finger asJasprit Bumrah appealed for anLBW.
Ollie Pope (28), Jos Buttler(24) and Dom Bess (25) madeuseful contributions, butEngland strangely kept on bat-
ting even after the lead crossed350 and then 400 on a trackwhich is expected to give thebowlers a lot of purchase on thefinal day.
While 16 wickets fell on thefirst three days, a staggering 15fell by the wayside on Mondayand the Chepauk pitch playeda major part.
While Ashwin did anadmirable job, India captainVirat Kohli may have missed atrick or two by not trying outWashington’s off-breaks whenleft-arm spinner ShahbazNadeem was leaking runs,including overstepping on afew occasions and adding to hisfirst innings no balls.
When India came out to batagain, left-arm spinner JackLeach bowled Rohit with apeach of delivery that landed onthe leg-stump before hittingthe off-stump, the turn leavingthe home team with plenty toworry about going into thefinal day’s play.
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It’s been so long since he hada sizeable crowd to play for,
the showman in NovakDjokovic just had to come out.
Top-ranked Djokovic haswon eight titles at theAustralian Open. He began hisquest for a ninth with a clini-cal, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 victory overJeremy Chardy in the closingact of the day 1 program onRod Laver Arena.
The total crowd Monday atMelbourne Park was 17,922,including day and night ses-sions in three divided zones. Itwas well down on the 64,387fans that crammed onto thegrounds on Day 1 of last year’sAustralian Open, but waymore than any other majorsince then.
After an austere year fortennis during the COVID-19pandemic, there was a unani-mous refrain from playersacross the day, starting withNaomi Osaka in the openingmatch on Rod Laver, to Serenaand Venus Williams, and tomercurial local favorite NickKyrgios, who closed the day on
et haul to help Pakistan win itsfirst series against South Africasince 2003 with a 95-run vic-tory in the second Test on thefifth and final day inRawalpindi on Monday.
Hasan finished with 5-60to record his best match fig-ures of 10-114 and help dis-miss South Africa — whowere set a daunting 370 tochase — for 274 before the teabreak.
Hasan’s new-ball partnerShaheen Shah Afridi finishedwith 4-51, while spinner YasirShah took the last wicket tospark jubilation among thePakistan players.
Opener Aiden Markramscored a fighting 108 andTemba Bavuma 61.
They put on a 106-runstand for the fourth wicket togive Pakistan a scare.
Markram took a single offthe last ball before lunch asSouth Africa reached the breakon 219-3, needing 151 for a win.
But Hasan ripped throughthe tourists’ batting order,which lost seven wickets for
just 33 runs with the secondnew ball.
Hasan struck with the sec-ond over of the new ball to endMarkram’s resistance by get-ting the opener caught in theslip and end his 335-minutefight.
Markram’s fifth Test cen-tury — the first outside SouthAfrica — included 13 bound-aries and three sixes.
Next ball, Hasan hadQuinton de Kock caught in theslip for nought, ending SouthAfrican skipper’s miserableseries with just 46 runs.
Hasan dismissed George
Linde for four to record histhird five-wicket haul as heimproved upon his previousbest match figures of 7-83against New Zealand in AbuDhabi in 2018.
This is Pakistan’s only sec-ond Test series win over SouthAfrica in 12 attempts, havinglost eight and drawn three.
Pakistan last beat SouthAfrica 1-0 in a two-matchseries at home in 2003.
The series win also liftsPakistan to fifth in internation-al Test rankings — the firsttime they have placed in thetop five since January 2017.
Ishant Sharma’s work ethic hasbeen exemplary over the last 14
years, feels Ravichandran Ashwin,who wishes to see his India team-mate enter the 400-wicket club andset a bench mark for the emergingquicks of this country.
Ishant, the most-capped Testplayer in this current line-up, onMonday, became the third Indianpacer after Kapil Dev (434 wickets)and Zaheer Khan (311) to reach the300-wicket milestone.
“Look, Ishant has been one ofthe most hard-working cricketers,
that I have seen in that Indian teamdressing room.
“He has worked extremelyhard, for more than just one reason,because being that tall (6 ft 4 inch)itself requires a lot of facets to bemanaged through a career which isspanned out through almost 14years now,” said Ashwin.
Ishant is only two short of 100Test appearances and will only bethe second pace bowler from Indiato achieve that coveted landmark.
For Ashwin, that itself is a mea-sure of his achievement.
“Ishant, who went to Australiaand got Ricky Ponting out (in 2007-
08), and then hasgone throughso many
o t h e rtours, hadhis fair shareof injuries, fora fast bowler toget close to 100Tests in India is nota joke and it is fantastic fantasticachievement,” said the wily off-spinner.
“I can keep going on and keepcomplimenting Ishant, but I real-ly wish to see him get to 400 andprobably 500 wickets.
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the so-called Peoples' court:Thanks for coming.
The state government isallowing up to 30,000 peopleper day into Melbourne Park,about 50% of capacity. Therewere no fans allowed at the U.S.Open, only about 1,000 per daywere allowed at Roland Garrosand Wimbledon was canceled.
But with the AustralianOpen starting three weeks laterthan usual - now it's outside thesummer holidays - and somepeople still nervous aboutgoing out in crowds followinga harsh Melbourne lockdownlast year, it was a predictablycautious start.
That wasn’t the case at allfor Serena Williams, whoarrived ready to race to starther bid for a record-equaling24th Grand Slam singles title.
In a colorful one-leggedcatsuit she said was inspired byformer Olympic championFlorence Griffith Joyner,Williams dropped her openingserve but rebounded to win 10consecutive games and beatLaura Siegemund 6-1, 6-1.
As she left the court sheflexed her biceps, and laterdonned a T-shirt that read“Unstoppable Queen.”
Speed was of the essencealso for No. 2-ranked SimonaHalep and No. 3 Osaka, whoeach only dropped threegames.
U.S. Open championOsaka beat AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova 6-1, 6-2, andtwo-time major winner Halepopened the night session on the
main show court with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Australian wild-cardentry Lizette Cabrera.
Joining them in the secondround were No. 7 ArynaSabalenka, two-timeWimbledon champion PetraKvitova, French Open winnerIga Swiatek and 2019 U.S. Openchampion Bianca Andreescu,
who returned from 15 monthson the sidelines to beat MihaelaBuzarnescu 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.Rebecca Marino, a former top-40 player competing in a GrandSlam event for the first time ineight years, beat KimberlyBirrell 6-0, 7-6 (9).
Venus Williams, a seven-time major winner, won a
Grand Slam match for the firsttime since 2019.
Playing in her 21stAustralian Open, the elderWilliams beat Kirsten Flipkens7-5, 6-2. At 40, Venus is the old-est woman in this year's drawand just the sixth player in her40s to compete at the AustralianOpen.
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