cmyk cmyk 12 PAGES | ` 5.00 BHUBANESWAR | SATURDAY, JUNE 19 | 2021 Actor Kriti Sanon showcases expectation versus reality when it comes to leg workouts, in her new Instagram post KRITI’S GYM SECRET Memphis Depay scores one as the Netherlands overcome Austria challenge 2-0 at Euro 2020 NETHERLANDS SEAL WIN SPORTS | P12 LEISURE | P2 Iran votes in presidential election tipped in favour of a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Khamenei INTERNATIONAL | P10 HARDLINER AS FRONTRUNNER VOLUME 11, ISSUE 79 | www.orissapost.com IRREGULAR by MANJUL Is this a new fad? Everybody wants a grocery loan these days! WEATHER BHUB 30.4° 29.8° CTK 25.6° MAX MIN TEMP Humidity 95% 95% Rainfall 1.2mm 12mm Forecast Generally cloudy sky 26.6° INDEX VARIATION SENSEX 52344.45 21.12 NIFTY 15683.40 8.00 DOLLAR 74.27 `0.21 EURO 88.53 `0.21 GOLD `46,925 `33 SILVER `67,948 `349 BULLION BOURSES CURRENCY MARKET WATCH AGENCIES New Delhi, June 18: Amid a tussle between the Union government and Twitter over the new IT rules, mem- bers of a Parliamentary panel Friday strongly ob- jected to Twitter India offi- cials’ observations that they abide by their policy and categorically told them that the rule of land is supreme. According to sources, members of the Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology also asked Twitter why it should not be fined as it has been found ‘violating’ rules of the country. The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology, chaired by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, had last week summoned Twitter over issues related to misuse of the platform and pro- tection of citizens’ rights. Twitter India’s public pol- icy manager Shagufta Kamran and legal counsel Ayushi Kapoor deposed be- fore the panel Friday. Members of the panel asked some tough and searching questions to Twitter India officials but their answers lacked clarity and were ambiguous, sources said. Twitter and the Centre have been at loggerheads over several issues for the last few months. Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad Police has sent a notice to Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, asking him to join a probe in connection with the case involving an assault on a Muslim man here earlier this month, of- ficials said Friday. He has been asked to ap- pear at the Loni Border po- lice station within seven days to get his statement recorded in the case in which an FIR was lodged against the social media giant also, a senior police official said. Abide by Indian laws: Twitter told DAILY GRIND: Workers load sand on trucks from the banks of Musi river near Ravulapenta village in Nalgonda district of Telangana, Friday. PTI PHOTO POST NEWS NETWORK Bhubaneswar, June 18: Higher Education Minister Arun Sahoo Friday said that the UG and PG final year examinations in the state will be held in online mode either in July or August. The minister said this after a virtual meeting with the vice-chan- cellors of universities. The con- cerned universities will decide the dates on which they will conduct the examinations, he said. “The universities and autonomous colleges will fix their dates for online exams. Students can appear for their examinations from their homes. Those who don’t have the required facility at their homes can appear for their examinations from nearby de- gree colleges,” the minister said. “Last year, in view of the Covid- 19 pandemic, many states had an- nounced cancellation of the exam- inations but Odisha did not. Later, the Supreme Court too directed con- ducting the exams,” he said. While the lockdown was enforced in March last year, this year, the lockdown was enforced in May. Till now, online classes are being con- ducted in the state. The VCs have informed that despite the delay, all courses are likely to be completed by June end, the minister said. The minister appealed to all UG and PG students to continue with their preparations for the examinations. Notably, Sahoo had had a vir- tual meeting with the vice-chan- cellors June 12. At that time, he had said that the examinations would definitely be held. “Online classes are going on and the courses will be completed by June end. My ad- vice for students is that they should continue their studies for the exams,” he had said. AGENCIES Bangalore, June 18: A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October, and although it will be better controlled than the latest outbreak the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least an- other year, according to a Reuters poll of medical experts. The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists, doctors, sci- entists, virologists, epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vac- cinations will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak. Of those who ventured a prediction, over 85 per cent of respondents, or 21 of 24, said the next wave will hit by October, including three who fore- cast it as early as August and 12 in September. The remaining three said between November and February. But over 70 per cent of experts, or 24 of 34, said any new outbreak would be better controlled compared with the current one, which has been far more devastating - with shortage of vac- cines, medicines, oxygen and hospi- tal beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year. “It will be more controlled, as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immunity from the second-wave,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). So far, India has fully vaccinated about only 5 per cent of its estimated 950 million eligible population, leav- ing many millions vulnerable to in- fections and deaths. While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year, they cau- tioned against an early removal of re- strictions, as some states have done. When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a po- tential third wave, nearly two-thirds of experts, or 26 of 40, said yes. “The reason being they are a com- pletely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for them,” said Dr Pradeep Banandur, head of epi- demiology department at National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS). Experts warn the situation could be- come severe. “If children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared, there is nothing you can do at the last minute,” said Dr Devi Shetty, a cardi- ologist at Narayana Health and an ad- visor to the Karnataka state govern- ment on pandemic response planning. “COVID-19 is a solvable problem, as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine. In two years, India likely will develop herd immunity through vac- cine and exposure of the disease,” said Robert Gallo, director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor, Global Virus Network. CM lays foundation stones for oxygen plants in 8 districts POST NEWS NETWORK Bhubaneswar, June 18: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday laid the foun- dation stones for the establishment of eight liquid medical oxygen (LMO) plants in different districts. He laid the stones for the LMO plants of Pressure Awing Adsorption (PSA) technology in the districts of Jharsuguda, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur, Puri, Sonepur, Nayagarh, Sundargarh and Mayurbhanj through video-con- ferencing. The state government has planned to set up 20 PSA oxygen plants in the state. So far, foundation stones have been laid for 15 plants in two phases. With the functioning of the 20 oxygen plants, the state can be able to produce up to 24,000 liter of medical oxygen per minute. Patnaik said the Covid-19 sit- uation has improved significantly in the state. “However, we have to be more care- ful,” he said. As experts in some states have warned about the third wave of the pandemic, the CM directed the concerned officials to ensure full preparedness to tackle the possible third wave. The Chief Minister appealed to the public to wear double masks and get vaccinated. “Fight against the virus is going on for more than a year. In the second wave, which began in April, a fall in the oxygen saturation among the patients was a major prob- lem,” he pointed out. “Every life is precious – this is the motto of the state government for any disaster management. In this di- rection, the government is provid- ing free medical facility including medicines to the people of the state,” Patnaik said. Brace for Covid third wave by Oct: Experts GOD HELP US IF ALL THAT HAPPENS: HC NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Friday took cognisance of the violation of COVID-19 protocols in various markets in the national capital and observed that such breaches will only hasten the third wave of coronavirus which cannot be permitted at all. The high court said if this behaviour of flouting COVID-19 norms continues “we will be in a great trouble.” “God help us if all that happens.” A vacation bench of justices Navin Chawla and Asha Menon took note of certain photographs sent to one of the high court judges on WhatsApp by an AIIMS doctor showing scant regard for COVID-19 protocols by street vendors in markets. “We have paid a huge price in the second wave. We don’t know if there is any household which has not suffered in the second wave, closely or remotely,” the bench observed, adding that “we as a citizen of this city are worried when we see these images.” Taking suo motu cognisance of the photographs, the HC initiated a PIL, directing the Centre, the Delhi government and the Delhi Police to file status reports. AGENCIES Bangalore, June 18: Odisha stars Amit Rohidas and Birendra Lakra have been included in the Indian men’s squad for Tokyo Olympics, Friday. With this, three state hockey players, including Deep Grace Ekka who was named in the Indian women’s squad for the Games Thursday, will rep- resent India at the quad- rennial sports extravaganza. Rohidas and Lakra will be donning the Indian jersey for the first time at an Olympics. Veteran defender Lakra missed the 2016 Games due to a knee injury. India named eight more Olympic debutants in its 16-member men’s hockey squad, which also features seasoned performers like PR Sreejesh and Manpreet Singh, for the mega event to be held from July 23 to August 8. Hardik Singh, Vivek Sagar Prasad, Nilakanta Sharma, Sumit, Shamsher Singh, Dilpreet Singh, Gurjant Singh and Lalit Kumar Upadhyay are the players who will make their Olympic debut in Tokyo. Rohidas, Lakra in for Tokyo Online UG, PG exams BHUBANESWAR: The Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), Odisha informed Friday that the results of the annual Plus II exam- inations, 2021 will be declared in the second week of August. Informing the media, the con- troller of examination, CHSE, said that certain modalities have been for- mulated for awarding marks to Plus II students who were to appear in the finals in 2021. The examinations of the Plus II Arts, Science and Commerce along with vocational courses were can- celled keeping in mind the health and safety issues of the students, teach- ers and parents. Subsequently, an expert com- mittee was constituted by the CHSE in accordance with the instructions of the government to suggest well defined objective criteria for alter- native assessment of the exami- nees of annual higher secondary examination. On the basis of the recommen- dations of the committee and in view of the cancellation of annual examinations, 2021, the CHSE will follow the norms for processing of results of the examination. Scores will be awarded to regular examinees in theory papers/the- ory components of papers on the basis of the performance of the ex- aminee in the 10th Board exami- nation. For this purpose a detailed subject mapping has been prepared. The scores in theory papers for ex-regular examinees will be awarded on the basis of their per- formance in the previous CHSE ex- amination in which they had ap- peared. Scores will be awarded in the practical/project component of a paper both for regular and ex-reg- ular examinees at their higher sec- ondary school level. The scores awarded at the higher secondary school level will be scru- tinised and moderated. An examinee not satisfied with the result declared on the basis of Alternative Assessment Criteria, can opt to appear for the examina- tion in the off-line mode which will be conducted when the situation will be conducive, the department said in a notification. Plus II results in Aug 2nd week The universities and autonomous colleges will fix their dates for online exams. Students can appear for their examinations from their homes. Those who don’t have the required facility at their homes can appear for their examinations from nearby degree colleges ARUN SAHOO | HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER PETROL PRICE NEARS `100 ACROSS INDIA NEW DELHI: Fuel prices increased again across the country Friday adding more misery to the common man’s woes, as he already grapples with rising food prices amid shrinking income. Petrol prices have reached very close to hitting the century mark all across the country extending the scope of historic high prices. PETROL `97.75 (+0.27) DIESEL `95.62(+0.31) CITY FUEL PRICES POST NEWS NETWORK Bhubaneswar, June 18: In a shocking development, senior IPS officer and di- rector of the state Vigilance Directorate Debasis Panigrahi reportedly suc- cumbed to Covid-19 at a hos- pital in Kolkata, Friday. Panigrahi was initially admitted to the Ashwini Covid Hospital in Cuttack May 29. He was airlifted to Kolkata from the private hospital June 8 as he re- quired ECMO support after his health deteriorated. Panigrahi joined the Indian Police Service in 1991 and was allotted the Odisha cadre. He served as the Superintendent of Police of major districts such as Keonjhar, Puri, Ganjam and Cuttack. He also served as the DIG of Police (Administration), Special Secretary, Home Department, Government of Odisha, IG of Police (Modernisation) and IG of Police (Personnel) and Additional DG of Police (Personnel) at the State Police Headquarters, Cuttack. Panigrahi was a recipient of the prestigious ‘Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award’ for short stories for the year 2002. Vigilance director dies of Covid-19 Debasis Panigrahi
Transcript
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12 PAGES | `5.00BHUBANESWAR | SATURDAY, JUNE 19 | 2021
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Actor Kriti Sanon showcases expectation versusreality when it comes to leg workouts, in hernew Instagram post
KRITI’S GYM SECRETMemphis Depay scores one as theNetherlands overcome Austriachallenge 2-0 at Euro 2020
NETHERLANDS SEAL WIN
SPORTS | P12LEISURE | P2
Iran votes in presidential election tipped in favourof a hard-line protege of Supreme LeaderKhamenei INTERNATIONAL | P10
HARDLINER AS FRONTRUNNER
VOLUME 11, ISSUE 79 | www.orissapost.com
IRREGULAR by MANJUL
Is this a new fad? Everybody wants a
grocery loan these days!
WEATHERBHUB
30.4° 29.8°CTK
25.6°MAX
MINTE
MP
Humidity 95% 95%Rainfall 1.2mm 12mm
Forecast
Generallycloudy sky
26.6°
INDEX VARIATION
SENSEX 52344.45 21.12
NIFTY 15683.40 8.00
DOLLAR 74.27 `0.21
EURO 88.53 `0.21
GOLD `46,925 `33
SILVER `67,948 `349BULL
ION
BOU
RSES
CU
RREN
CY
MARKET WATCH
AGENCIES
New Delhi, June 18: Amida tussle between the Uniongovernment and Twitterover the new IT rules, mem-bers of a Parliamentarypanel Friday strongly ob-jected to Twitter India offi-cials’ observations that theyabide by their policy andcategorically told them thatthe rule of land is supreme.
According to sources,members of theParliamentary Panel onInformation Technologyalso asked Twitter why itshould not be fined as it hasbeen found ‘violating’ rulesof the country.
The ParliamentaryStanding Committee onInformation and Technology,chaired by Congress leaderShashi Tharoor, had lastweek summoned Twitterover issues related to misuseof the platform and pro-tection of citizens’ rights.
Twitter India’s public pol-icy manager Shagufta
Kamran and legal counselAyushi Kapoor deposed be-fore the panel Friday.
Members of the panelasked some tough andsearching questions toTwitter India officials buttheir answers lacked clarityand were ambiguous,sources said.
Twitter and the Centrehave been at loggerheadsover several issues for thelast few months.
Meanwhile, theGhaziabad Police has senta notice to Twitter IndiaManaging Director ManishMaheshwari, asking himto join a probe in connectionwith the case involving anassault on a Muslim manhere earlier this month, of-ficials said Friday.
He has been asked to ap-pear at the Loni Border po-lice station within sevendays to get his statementrecorded in the case in whichan FIR was lodged againstthe social media giant also,a senior police official said.
Abide by Indianlaws: Twitter told
DAILY GRIND: Workers load sand on trucks from the banks of Musi river near Ravulapenta village in Nalgonda district of Telangana, Friday. PTI PHOTO
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: HigherEducation Minister Arun SahooFriday said that the UG and PG finalyear examinations in the state willbe held in online mode either in Julyor August.
The minister said this after a virtual meeting with the vice-chan-cellors of universities. The con-cerned universities will decide thedates on which they will conductthe examinations, he said.
“The universities and autonomouscolleges will fix their dates for onlineexams. Students can appear for theirexaminations from their homes.Those who don’t have the requiredfacility at their homes can appear fortheir examinations from nearby de-gree colleges,” the minister said.
“Last year, in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, many states had an-nounced cancellation of the exam-inations but Odisha did not. Later,the Supreme Court too directed con-ducting the exams,” he said.
While the lockdown was enforcedin March last year, this year, thelockdown was enforced in May. Tillnow, online classes are being con-ducted in the state. The VCs haveinformed that despite the delay, allcourses are likely to be completed byJune end, the minister said.
The minister appealed to all UG andPG students to continue with theirpreparations for the examinations.
Notably, Sahoo had had a vir-tual meeting with the vice-chan-cellors June 12. At that time, he hadsaid that the examinations woulddefinitely be held. “Online classesare going on and the courses willbe completed by June end. My ad-vice for students is that they shouldcontinue their studies for theexams,” he had said.
AGENCIES
Bangalore, June 18: A third wave ofcoronavirus infections is likely to hitIndia by October, and although it willbe better controlled than the latestoutbreak the pandemic will remaina public health threat for at least an-other year, according to a Reuterspoll of medical experts.
The June 3-17 snap survey of 40healthcare specialists, doctors, sci-entists, virologists, epidemiologists andprofessors from around the worldshowed a significant pickup in vac-cinations will likely provide somecover to a fresh outbreak.
Of those who ventured a prediction,over 85 per cent of respondents, or 21of 24, said the next wave will hit byOctober, including three who fore-cast it as early as August and 12 inSeptember. The remaining three saidbetween November and February.
But over 70 per cent of experts, or24 of 34, said any new outbreak wouldbe better controlled compared with the
current one, which has been far moredevastating - with shortage of vac-cines, medicines, oxygen and hospi-tal beds - than the smaller first surgein infections last year. “It will be morecontrolled, as cases will be much lessbecause more vaccinations wouldhave been rolled out and there wouldbe some degree of natural immunityfrom the second-wave,” said DrRandeep Guleria, director at All IndiaInstitute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
So far, India has fully vaccinatedabout only 5 per cent of its estimated950 million eligible population, leav-ing many millions vulnerable to in-fections and deaths.
While a majority of healthcare expertspredicted the vaccination drive wouldpick up significantly this year, they cau-tioned against an early removal of re-strictions, as some states have done.When asked if children and those under18 years would be most at risk in a po-
tential third wave, nearly two-thirds ofexperts, or 26 of 40, said yes.
“The reason being they are a com-pletely virgin population in terms ofvaccination because currently thereis no vaccine available for them,”said Dr Pradeep Banandur, head of epi-demiology department at NationalInstitute of Mental Health andNeurosciences (NIMHANS).
Experts warn the situation could be-come severe. “If children get infected inlarge numbers and we are not prepared,there is nothing you can do at the lastminute,” said Dr Devi Shetty, a cardi-ologist at Narayana Health and an ad-visor to the Karnataka state govern-ment on pandemic response planning.
“COVID-19 is a solvable problem, asobviously it was easy to get a solvablevaccine. In two years, India likely willdevelop herd immunity through vac-cine and exposure of the disease,” saidRobert Gallo, director of the Instituteof Human Virology at the University ofMaryland and international scientificadvisor, Global Virus Network.
CM lays foundationstones for oxygenplants in 8 districtsPOST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik Friday laid the foun-dation stones for the establishmentof eight liquid medical oxygen (LMO)plants in different districts.
He laid the stones for the LMOplants of Pressure Awing Adsorption(PSA) technology in the districts ofJharsuguda, Bhadrak, Jagatsinghpur,Puri, Sonepur, Nayagarh, Sundargarhand Mayurbhanj through video-con-ferencing.
The state government has plannedto set up 20 PSA oxygen plants in thestate. So far, foundation stones havebeen laid for 15 plants in two phases.With the functioning of the 20 oxygenplants, the state can be able to produceup to 24,000 liter of medical oxygen perminute. Patnaik said the Covid-19 sit-uation has improved significantly inthe state.
“However, we have to be more care-ful,” he said. As experts in some stateshave warned about the third wave ofthe pandemic, the CM directed theconcerned officials to ensure full preparedness to tackle the possiblethird wave.
The Chief Minister appealed tothe public to wear double masks andget vaccinated. “Fight against thevirus is going on for more than a year.In the second wave, which began inApril, a fall in the oxygen saturationamong the patients was a major prob-lem,” he pointed out.
“Every life is precious – this is themotto of the state government forany disaster management. In this di-rection, the government is provid-ing free medical facility includingmedicines to the people of the state,”Patnaik said.
Brace for Covid third wave by Oct: ExpertsGOD HELP US IF ALL THAT HAPPENS: HC NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Friday took cognisance of the violation of COVID-19protocols in various markets in the national capital and observed that such breaches willonly hasten the third wave of coronavirus which cannot be permitted at all. The highcourt said if this behaviour of flouting COVID-19 norms continues “we will be in a greattrouble.” “God help us if all that happens.” A vacation bench of justices Navin Chawlaand Asha Menon took note of certain photographs sent to one of the high court judgeson WhatsApp by an AIIMS doctor showing scant regard for COVID-19 protocols by streetvendors in markets. “We have paid a huge price in the second wave. We don’t know ifthere is any household which has not suffered in the second wave, closely or remotely,”the bench observed, adding that “we as a citizen of this city are worried when we seethese images.” Taking suo motu cognisance of the photographs, the HC initiated a PIL,directing the Centre, the Delhi government and the Delhi Police to file status reports.
AGENCIES
Bangalore, June 18: Odishastars Amit Rohidas andBirendra Lakra have beenincluded in the Indian men’ssquad for Tokyo Olympics,Friday. With this, three statehockey players, includingDeep Grace Ekka who wasnamed in the Indianwomen’s squad for theGames Thursday, will rep-resent India at the quad-rennial sports extravaganza.
Rohidas and Lakra will bedonning the Indian jersey forthe first time at an Olympics.Veteran defender Lakra
missed the 2016 Games dueto a knee injury.
India named eight moreOlympic debutants in its16-member men’s hockeysquad, which also featuresseasoned performers likePR Sreejesh and ManpreetSingh, for the mega event tobe held from July 23 toAugust 8.
Hardik Singh, VivekSagar Prasad, NilakantaSharma, Sumit, ShamsherSingh, Dilpreet Singh,Gurjant Singh and LalitKumar Upadhyay are theplayers who will make theirOlympic debut in Tokyo.
Rohidas, Lakra in for Tokyo
Online UG, PG examsBHUBANESWAR: The Council ofHigher Secondary Education (CHSE),Odisha informed Friday that theresults of the annual Plus II exam-inations, 2021 will be declared inthe second week of August.
Informing the media, the con-troller of examination, CHSE, saidthat certain modalities have been for-mulated for awarding marks to PlusII students who were to appear in thefinals in 2021.
The examinations of the Plus IIArts, Science and Commerce alongwith vocational courses were can-celled keeping in mind the health andsafety issues of the students, teach-ers and parents.
Subsequently, an expert com-mittee was constituted by the CHSEin accordance with the instructionsof the government to suggest welldefined objective criteria for alter-native assessment of the exami-nees of annual higher secondaryexamination.
On the basis of the recommen-dations of the committee and inview of the cancellation of annualexaminations, 2021, the CHSE will
follow the norms for processing ofresults of the examination.
Scores will be awarded to regularexaminees in theory papers/the-ory components of papers on thebasis of the performance of the ex-aminee in the 10th Board exami-nation. For this purpose a detailedsubject mapping has been prepared.
The scores in theory papers for ex-regular examinees will beawarded on the basis of their per-formance in the previous CHSE ex-amination in which they had ap-peared. Scores will be awarded in thepractical/project component of apaper both for regular and ex-reg-ular examinees at their higher sec-ondary school level.
The scores awarded at the highersecondary school level will be scru-tinised and moderated.
An examinee not satisfied with theresult declared on the basis ofAlternative Assessment Criteria,can opt to appear for the examina-tion in the off-line mode which willbe conducted when the situationwill be conducive, the departmentsaid in a notification.
Plus II results in Aug 2nd week
The universities and autonomous collegeswill fix their dates for online exams. Studentscan appear for their examinations from theirhomes. Those who don’t have the requiredfacility at their homes can appear for theirexaminations from nearby degree collegesARUN SAHOO | HIGHER EDUCATION MINISTER
PETROL PRICE NEARS`100 ACROSS INDIANEW DELHI: Fuel prices increased againacross the country Friday adding moremisery to the common man’s woes, as healready grapples with rising food pricesamid shrinking income. Petrol prices havereached very close to hitting the centurymark all across the country extending thescope of historic high prices.
PETROL `97.75 (+0.27)
DIESEL `95.62(+0.31)
CITY FUEL PRICES
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18:In a shocking development,senior IPS officer and di-rector of the state VigilanceDirectorate DebasisPanigrahi reportedly suc-cumbed to Covid-19 at a hos-pital in Kolkata, Friday.
Panigrahi was initiallyadmitted to the AshwiniCovid Hospital in CuttackMay 29. He was airlifted toKolkata from the privatehospital June 8 as he re-quired ECMO support afterhis health deteriorated.
Panigrahi joined theIndian Police Service in 1991and was allotted the Odishacadre. He served as theSuperintendent of Policeof major districts such asKeonjhar, Puri, Ganjam andCuttack. He also served as
the DIG of Police(Administration), SpecialSecretary, HomeDepartment, Governmentof Odisha, IG of Police(Modernisation) and IG ofPolice (Personnel) andAdditional DG of Police(Personnel) at the StatePolice Headquar ters,Cuttack. Panigrahi was arecipient of the prestigious‘Odisha Sahitya AkademiAward’ for short stories forthe year 2002.
Vigilance director dies of Covid-19
Debasis Panigrahi
Mumbai: Actress UrvashiRautela has garnered a fanfollowing of38 million onInstagram.
Urvashi posted a video onInstagram Friday. In the clip,she is seen riding in a luxurycar.
With these latest figures,Urvashi is ahead of actressKareena Kapoor, who has 6.7million followers, as well asstars such as Shah Rukh Khan
(25 million) andAmitabh Bachchan
(26.9 million) fol-lowers respec-tively.
On the workfront, Urvashiwill next beseen in the webseries InspectorAvinash. Theseries is based
on the life ofInspector
Mishra andhasRandeepHooda es-
sayingthe titlerole.
IANS
Mumbai: Actress Kriti Sanonshowcases expectation versus reality when it comesto leg workouts, in her newInstagram post Friday.
Kriti has posted two videoson Instagram. In the first clip,she is seen doing squats withweights effortlessly. The sec-ond video showcases whatactually went on, and you re-alise the first video is a neatlyedited clip that makes Kriti’sexercise regime seem so easy.
“I hate squats,” Kriti de-clares at one point in thesecond video. She seek aminute’s break but hertrainer won’t allow morethan 30 seconds.
“Leg day and Me!! @yas-minkarachiwalaExpectation v/s Reality Orrather. Instagram v/s Reality.Don’t forget to Swipe to seehow much I love doing legs!”she wrote as caption.
On the professional front,Kriti has a long line-up off i lms ahead. She haswrapped up shooting for theupcoming supernatural filmBhediya, co-starring VarunDhawan. The Amar Kaushikdirectorial is slated to re-lease April 14 next year.
She will be seen in Mimi,which is based on surrogacy,and also star with AkshayKumar in the action com-edy Bachchan Pandey, and
with Tiger Shroff in the actiondrama Ganapath.
Her upcoming roster alsoincludes Hum Do HamareDo with RajkummarRao, and Adipurushwith Prabhasand Saif AliKhan.
IANS
P2 CHRIS REVEALS FATHER’S DAY GIFTFROM WIFE KATHERINE
leisureHollywood actor Chris Pratt appeared on theJune 15 episode of E! News Daily Pop and therehe revealed that wife Katherine Schwarzeneggerhas already given him the best Father’s Daypresent: life as a dad of two.
Indie filmmaker Aditya Kripalani’s film Not Todayhas been honoured at the recent UK Asian FilmFestival. The film talking about suicide preventionhas been awarded the Ray Of Hope Igniting FlameCommendation 2021. The film has also been selectedfor the Indian Film Festival of Stuttgart 2021.
SATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
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AQUARIUSYou will feel deeply inclinedtowards development andresearch, today. Actionsspeak louder than words, and yourefforts and overall growth will speakplenty about your character. Your roman-tic side will come to the fore today. Youwill be willing to do anything and every-thing to bring a bright smile on the faceof sweetheart, feels Ganesha, all of it willget noticed. Enjoy the good times!
PISCESFor those who are salaried,today should be a progres-sive day for you. Importantmeetings at the work-place will benefitfrom your presence and the suggestionsyou have to make. This should enhanceyour relationship with your superiors.Compliments galore will come your waythroughout the day.
SAGITTARIUSYou are a social butterfly asyou attend a series of par-ties and events today, saysGanesha. You may even bump into oldpals and relive good ol' days. Also, youmeet your extended family! It's time forsoiree and merry-making.
LIBRAGanesha says your nature ofspending wisely is highlyappreciated as it is a goodthing to save money for the future. Thisnature of yours will not allow you tospend money on useless things. You willbe able to buy a home or a vehicle in thenear future with these savings of yours.
SCORPIOYou wish to make an imagemakeover in your office. Youare tough and determined,and your work knows no limit when itcomes to achieving your targets. You willlove to brainstorm and give innovativeideas to colleagues and bosses.
LEOYou will pay serious atten-tion to your work. You willfeel that you have no optionbut to work hard. You will not be in themood for socialising. This is only a tempo-rary phase, hence there is no need toworry. You will be back to your usual gre-garious self in no time at all, says Ganesha.
VIRGOYou will enchant peoplewith your adaptability andyour desire to gel with yoursurroundings. For those who are in love,something unexpected may take place,but there is no need to panic as by andby things will turn out to be in yourinterest. You will spend quality timewith your family.
GEMINIIt is a day filled with joy andhappiness on the homefront. You will spend a lot oftime with children. You will complete longpending household projects as well astake an interest in ironing out differencesbetween family members, says Ganesha.
CANCERGanesha advises you to becareful before signing anydocument. A hard time forshare brokers and traders. So be on theguard during deals and transactions.Average time for business. Ganesha tellsyou to be self-confidence.
ARIESToday ideas will flood yourmind, but it is good that youwill be able to carry themout efficiently. However, Ganesha warnsyou not to take brash decisions. Wisepeople will help you along the way. Payheed to the advise of experienced people.
FORTUNE FORECAST
TAURUSThe stars are very auspi-ciously disposed towardsyou, announces Ganesha.You have an exceptionally bright andenjoyable day ahead of you. All eventsand situations will work in your favour. Ifyou are pursuing higher studies you willperform brilliantly.
CAPRICORNWhatever field you are in,your career matters will topyour priority list. You willput your personal life on the back burnerfor a while. This change of places willsurely bring you great rewards as yourperformance will drastically improve andeveryone will appreciate your efforts.
BREVITY
CALVIN AND HOBBES
PEANUTS CROSSWORD
SUDOKU
SOLUTIONS
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ORD
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OKU
CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW
post To solve the Sudoku puzzle, fill in the boxes in such amanner that every row, column and 3x3 box containsthe digits 1 to 9, without repeating any.
NOT TODAY HONOURED AT UK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2021
Mumbai: Rapper Raftaar has be-come the first Indian artiste to ac-cept cryptocurrency instead of ac-tual currency as performance fee.
“I’ve always been an ardent ad-mirer of blockchain technology.I’ve always wondered why artistesand managers alike haven’t ex-plored the potential of this dis-
ruptive medium. Nevertheless,I’ve finally taken the baby stepsin this direction and all the creditgoes to my manager, Ankit Khannafor making this dream a reality forme,” said Raftaar.
The virtual performance forwhich Raftaar accepted cryp-tocurrency is scheduled for the sec-ond week of July. The boutique 60-minute event will be hosted inCanada, Ottawa for a private gath-ering of 100 people.
The rapper’s longtime businesspartner and manager AnkitKhanna has been instrumentalin the cryptocurrency transac-tion.
Ankit shared: “In my opinion,music will be one of the first in-dustries to be completely and
thoroughly disrupted throughthe blockchain. The artiste cannow go directly to the public inevery single way without the needof middlemen. Blockchain hasthe potential to expedite a seam-less experience for anyone in-volved with generating or inter-acting with music. I’m happy towelcome this new transactionalparadigm with my longtime busi-ness associate Raftaar who trulyis a pioneering voice of this newgeneration.”
Meanwhile, cryptocurrencyand blockchain technology hasalready won the approval of globalartistes like 50 Cent, Mariah Carey,G-Eazy, Sia, Fall Out Boy, theBackstreet Boys and Lana DelRey among others. IANS
Raftaar first Indian artiste to accept cryptocurrency as fees
Kriti reveals gym secret:‘Instagram vs Reality’
Urvashi scores 38 mnfollowers on Insta
Mumbai: Actor Arjun Rampal flauntsplatinum blonde hair in his newInstagram post Friday. The look isfor the upcoming Kanagana Ranaut-starrer Dhaakad that casts Arjun asthe antagonist Rudraveer.
Arjun credited hairstylist AalimHakim for creating his new look. Theactor also left a message for RazneeshGhai, director of Dhaakad.
“A challenging part in a film, needsme to push the envelope. Thank youmy brother @aalimhakim for helpingme create that and @razylivingthe-blues to realise that dream. #Dhaakad#letsbeginagain,” wrote Arjun.
Commenting on Arjun’s post, fansexpressed that the actor is looking ‘hot’in his new avatar and suggested thelook might even set a trend!
Apart from the spy thriller filmDhaakad, Arjun will also feature inthe historical drama The Battle OfBhima Koregaon. The Ramesh Thetedirectorial features Arjun as the war-rior Sidhnak Mahar Inamdar. SunnyLeone makes an appearance in thefilm, too. IANS
ARJUN FLAUNTSPLATINUM
BLONDE HAIR
The virtual performance for which
Raftaar accepted cryptocurrency isscheduled for the
second week of July
P3
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SATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARMONSOON BLUES
Khannagar area of Cuttackwitnesses extensivewaterlogging during thecurrent spell of rains, Friday
INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD
World 17,83,71,510 16,28,98,968 38,61,557
India 2,97,62,793 2,85,80,647 3,83,490
Odisha 8,70,498 8,29,851 3,508
COVID-19 TRACKER
downtown
PNN/AGENCIES
Bhubaneswar, June 18: In a bidto minimise chances of Covid-19spread during Rath Yatra in Puri,the Srimandir administrationFriday decided to conduct RT-PCRtests on priests, police personnel andgovernment officials at least fourtimes during the festivities.
A meeting, chaired by ShreeJagannath Temple Administration(SJTA) chief Krishan Kumar, was
held in Puri following which allstakeholders arrived at a consen-sus that frequent tests would ensuresafety of everyone making arrange-ments for the July 12 Rath Yatrawhich involves preparations and rit-uals that last for over a month, anofficial said Friday.
Among others, Puri DistrictMagistrate-cum-Collector SamarthVerma also attended the meeting.
Devotees have been barred fromattending the religious carnival
for the second year in a row due tothe pandemic.
According to Kumar, the first testwould be conducted before SnanaYatra (bathing festival) June 24, thesecond prior to Gundicha Yatra July12, the third before Bahuda Yatra (re-turn car festival) July 20.
The fourth test will be carried out15 days after Niladri Bije (the Lord'sentry into temple after festival)July 23, he explained.
Kumar further said that theSJTA will ensure that all servitorstaking part in the preparationshave received both the doses ofCovid-19 vaccine.
“A detailed micro-plan will bein place for setting up special med-ical centres during Rath Yatra. Anodal officer will be appointed bythe SJTA, Puri administration andthe Chief District Medical Officer(CDMO) for close coordinationamong them on a day-to-day basis,”he explained.
This apart, adequate number ofmasks and sanitiser bottles willbe distributed among the servi-tors and their families, the SJTAchief said.
A handout explaining the guide-lines that need to be followed tomaintain hygiene will be given toall servitors and officials concerned,he said. “All will be requested to en-sure complete compliance to di-rections of the Special ReliefCommissioner in regard to Covid-19 management,” Kumar added.
Servitors, cops & officials to undergo RT-PCR tests 4 times
RATH YATRA AMID PANDEMICThe first test would be conducted before
Snana Yatra (bathing festival) June 24, thesecond prior to Gundicha Yatra July 12, the
third before Bahuda Yatra (return carfestival) July 20
The fourth test will becarried out 15 days afterNiladri Bije (the Lord'sentry into temple afterfestival) July 23
SJTA will ensure that all servitors taking part in the preparations havereceived both the doses of Covid-19 vaccine
Carpenters shaping logs for chariot construction in Puri, Friday OP PHOTO
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: Even asthe Centre has already announcedthat it would provide anti-Covid vac-cines for free to the states fromJune 21, the state governmentFriday asked seven districtCollectors to exhaust 1, 13, 800doses of Covishield within 5 days.
Additional Chief Secretary(ACS), Health, PK Mohapatra hasdirected the Collectors of Ganjam,Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Khurda,Koraput, Nuapada and Sundargarhdistricts to use the vaccines forinoculation of 18 to 44 year ageg roup in nine urban local bodies (ULBs).
The government has supplied
1,13, 800 doses of Covishield (fromits own procurement) to the aboveseven districts.
The Ganjam Collector was askedto utilise 6,700 doses of Covishield
in Hinjlicut municipality and 6,300doses in Polasara NAC.
Similarly, 17,200 doses of thevaccine have been supplied forvaccination of the 18-plus agegroup in Paradip municipalitywhile 14,500 doses were given forVyasanagar municipality.
Moreover, 14,300 doses wouldbe supplied to Jatni municipality,22,400 doses to Jeypore munici-pality, 12,700 to Sunabeda munic-ipality, 5,400 to Khariar Road NACand 14,300 to Rajgangpur munic-ipality.
The Collectors have been di-rected to plan immediately to startvaccination from Monday in theabove municipality/NAC and ex-haust the stock within five days.
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: The stategovernment has made double dosevaccination mandatory for its em-ployees working in Bhubaneswarto attend office with effect fromJuly 1.
Additional Chief Secretary,General Administration and PublicGrievances, Sanjeev Chopra hasissued this instruction to all de-partments and heads of depart-ments at Bhubaneswar, Friday.
The government employees havebeen asked to get double dose of vac-
cines by June-end. Otherwise, theywill not be allowed to join workfrom July 1. However, there is ex-ception for employees who havemedical and other genuine prob-lems. The government has organ-ised a special drive for vaccina-tion of the employees of all thedepartments, sub-ordinate officesand PSUs from June 10 to 20. Inthe process, first dose of vaccine wasadministered to about 6,000 em-ployees while second phase is inprogress since June 17.
The nodal officers of all the de-partments have been directed to en-
sure full vaccination of all em-ployees of offices located atBhubaneswar.
In case any employee is unableto get vaccinated for medical orsome other compelling reason,he/he must apply for an exemp-tion to the head of the department/organisation. On receipt of suchapplication(s), the matter can beconsidered on a case-to-case basis,he stated. Employees who are nei-ther vaccinated nor exempted wouldnot be permitted to attend officefrom July 1 and their absence willbe treated as willful, Chopra warned.
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18:The Healthdepartment has planned to rampup the vaccination drive by inoc-ulating around 3 lakh persons perday by the end of this month.
The state government’s movecame after the Centre announcedfree vaccination for alladults in the coun-try. HealthMinister NabaKishore DasFriday saidthat the sup-ply of vac-cines from theCentre is likelyto see an upwardtrend by the end ofthis month.
“We have also decided to vacci-nate around 3 lakh people per dayby the end of this month. Earlier,
we used to get someamount of vaccine
doses from the manu-facturers but now we
will get the vaccinesthrough the Centre,” Das said.
The minister claimed that thestate is prepared for the third wave
of the pandemic and steps arebeing taken to ensure special careto the children.
“We have issued an SOP for spe-cial care for the infected kids as partof our preparation for the thirdwave. As per the new norms, wehave allowed parents to stay with
their Covid infected kids. Specialinstructions have been given toensure adequate beds, oxygen anddrugs for children. We have alsoformed a special committee to mon-itor the situation and suggest newways,” he said.
Director of Medical Educationand Training, CBK Mohanty, saidthe state has been readying itshealth infrastructure to tackle thefuture waves of the pandemic. “Weare prepared for the third wavebut that does not mean that Odishawill witness the third wave forsure. Many countries have not seenthe third wave. There is no need toget panicked. WE are fully pre-pared for any eventuality,” he added.
He also said, “If more peopleget infected by the virus, we will up-grade our health system to meet thesituation. Many experts have alsorefuted the claims that the thirdwave will hit the kids more.”
POST NEWS NETWORK
Cuttack, June 18: A public in-terest litigation (PIL) has beenfiled in the Orissa High Courtseeking a special audit of allthe deaths in the state due toCovid-19.
Petitioner NishikantaMishra urged the HC to directthe Chief Secretary and Healthsecretary to ramp up Covidtests and vaccination in ruralareas of Odisha.
In his petition, Mishra al-leged that the state govern-ment has failed to check the sec-ond wave of Covid-19 pandemicin Odisha. As a result, the rateof infection has gone up in therural areas.
He also alleged that the stategovernment has been trying tohide the real data with regardto the Covid deaths in Odisha.
Mishra claimed that he hadvisited Satichaura cremationground in Cuttack April 25and held discussions with theemployees of CuttackMunicipal Corporation. Onthat particular day, at least 44bodies were cremated atSaticahura. However, the of-ficial data said that only three
bodies were cremated at theground April 25, Mishra al-leged.
The petitioner furtherclaimed that at least 40 bod-ies were cremated atSatyanagar cremation groundin Bhubaneswar April 26.
According to Mishra, theCovid positivity rate was 35per cent in Nuapada district inApril. As per reports, at least82 people had succumbed tothe virus in Nuapada in April.However, the official dataclaimed that only four peopledied due to the infection in thedistrict.
Similarly, reports claimedthat around 190 people hadsuccumbed to the virus inSambalpur in April. However,the official data revealed thatonly 82 people had died due toCovid, Mishra alleged.
Plea in High Court wantsCovid deaths audited
State govt has beentrying to hide the real data with regardto Covid deaths inOdisha, said the petitioner
Govt plans to inoculate 3L per day by June-end 1.13L Covishield doses to beadministered in 9 ULBs
Weare prepared for
the third wave but thatdoes not mean that Odishawill witness the third wave
for sure. Many countrieshave not seen the
third waveCBK MOHANTY | DMET
Double dose vax must for govt employees
SHIELD AGAINST VIRUS STF leaves forMumbai to bringfake drugs kingpinPOST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: A teamof Special Task Force (STF) of stateCrime Branch Friday left forMumbai to bring the alleged ownerof the sham company involved inthe manufacture and sale of spu-rious anti-Covid drugs in the state.
Sources revealed that the teamwill approach the local court inMumbai to bring the accused,Sudeep Mukherjee, on remand forprobe into the fake drug case.
Mukherjee along with three oth-ers was reportedly arrested bySamta Nagar Police in Mumbai afew days ago on similar charges.The Mumbai police also found outthat an employee of a pharmacylaboratory at Meerut in UttarPradesh has been manufacturingfake drugs like Favipiravir andhydroxychloroquine for Covidtreatment.
The illegal trade of spuriousdr ugs came to fore a f terMaharashtra Food and DrugsAdministration raided threewholesale drug dealers and seizedstock of Favimax 400 and 200(Favipravir tablets) and hydrox-ychloroquine tablets worth Rs 1.5crore in May. The drugs seizedby Maharashtra FDA have thename of Max Relief Healthcare inSolan, Himachal Pradesh as theManufacturer.
The same drugs seized in Odishaby the state drug controller arealso made by Max Relief Healthcarewhich was later proved a ghostcompany.
A vendor sells face masks alongside the Ring Road near Jobra in Cuttack, Friday OP PHOTO
downtownSATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP4
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POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18:Observingflagrant violation of Covid normsat Unit IV and Bapuji Nagar mar-kets, the Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) Friday orderedcomplete closure of the markets tillJune 25.
In an order issued by the civic au-thorities, the wholesale and retailmeat market at Unit IV along withBapuji Nagar market were closeddown ‘in larger public interest andwith a view to contain any possi-bility of spread of the virus.’Exempting essential commoditiesand medicine shops, all restric-tions were imposed on other shopsuntil further orders.
“A thorough inspection had beencarried out Friday at different mar-kets by the BMC’s enforcementsquad and Commissionerate Police.It was found that large gatheringswere taking place without Covid-appropriate behaviour. While therewas lack of social distancing, manywere found not wearing masksproperly. Hence, the closure orderwas issued,” said a BMC official.
“People need to understand thatthe city is still registering a largenumber of cases on a daily basis.Relaxation hours are meant forcatering to basic needs. One shouldtry to avoid large gatherings asmuch as possible. Denizens canalso look to shop online,” the official added.
BMC shuts Unit IV, BapujiNagar markets over rush
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Bhubaneswar, June 18: Despitea slowdown in the economy dueto Covid-19, revenue collectionfrom minor minerals in the statehas grown by 41.47 per cent to Rs962 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal, an of-ficial said.
The revenue from the minormineral resources was at Rs 680crore in the previous financialyear.
The growth was achieved dueto sustained endeavour for strength-ening the minor mineral admin-istration by the Revenue andDisaster Management department,said Principal SecretaryBishnupada Sethi.
A target of Rs 1,000crore rev-enue from minor mineral pro-duction has been set, he said, addingthe state government is optimisticabout improving the efficiency ofthe sector.
Efforts are on for technologicalintervention to bring more sus-tainable and scientific solution inmining exercise. “Integrated MinorMinerals Mines ManagementSystem (i4MS) is in the pipeline,which will bring the entire ad-ministrative activities on one on-line platform,” Sethi said.
Since the minor mineral sectoris a potential source of the state'srevenue, a thrust is being given onoptimisation of scientific and sus-tainable production of such re-
sources, he said.During the 2020-21 fiscal, 506
new minor mineral sources, in-cluding 12 large river sand bedswith an area of over 50 acres, havebeen identified and brought into theprocess of operation, he said.
According to the official, 2,772mining plans have been approvedby the officers under the Directorateof Geology.
The State Environment ImpactAssessment Authority held 52 meet-ings in the year and granted 1,000clearances, Sethi said Thursday.
In a bid to prevent illegal min-ing, which has been a major chal-lenge to the minor mineral ad-ministration in the state, a processfor demarcation of sites has beencompleted for 2,665 sources, he said.
The differential global posi-tioning system (DGPS) survey hasalso been conducted for 1,112sources.
All the district administrationshave stepped up the enforcementactivities to check illegal miningof minerals. During the year, 39,621raids were conducted by variousenforcement teams at the districtlevel.
“As many as 31,758 cases of il-legal mining have been regis-tered and 19,806 vehicles andother equipment seized. The en-forcement authorities earned Rs68.52 crore as royalty and penalty,”the official added.
Revenue from minor minerals up by 41%
AGENCIES
Bhubaneswar, June 18: Odishareported 3,806 new Covid-19 casesFriday, taking the tally to 8,70,498,while 37 more fatalities pushedthe toll to 3,508, a Health departmentofficial said.
There are 43,338 active cases inthe state at present, while 8,23,599people have so far recovered fromthe viral infection.
Of the new infections, 2,172 weredetected at quarantine centres,
while the rest 1,634 were local con-tact cases. Khurda district, wherestate capital Bhubaneswar is lo-cated, reported the highest 617 newcases, followed by Cuttack (393),Jajpur (346), Balasore (220) andPuri (200).
Khurda district reported thehighest five deaths, followed byCuttack, Jharsug auda andKalahandi with four fatalities each.Three people each died in as manydistricts, two each in four districtsand one each in three districts.
The state tested 64,850 samplesin the last 24 hours. As per the datareleased by the Health and FamilyWelfare department, as many as 15of the total 30 districts have activecases below 1,000-mark, while 11 dis-tricts have active cases between1,001 and 2,500 and four districts—Khurda, Cuttack, Balasore andJajpur— have more than 2,500 ac-tive cases.
Till date, Khurda district hasthe highest number of 6,756 activecases, while Nuapada in western
Odisha has the lowest number of154 cases. As far as the test positivityrate (TPR) is concerned, 14 dis-tricts have less than 5 per cent andeight of them have even less than2 per cent. On the other hand, eightdistricts have TPR between 5 and7.5 per cent and another eight dis-tricts have TPR above 7.5 per cent.
Jajpur district in coastal Odishahas the highest TPR of 19.5, whilethe Jharsuguda district in west-ern Odisha has the lowest TPR of 0.8 per cent.
37 more succumb to Covid-19 in 24 hrs
The growth was achieved due to sustainedendeavour for strengthening the minor
mineral administration by the Revenue andDisaster Management dept
Efforts are on for technologicalintervention to bring more sustainable and scientific solutionin mining exercise
POST NEWS NETWORK
B h u b a n e swa r, Ju n e 1 8 :Opposing the move of the stategovernment to relocate the war-rior-horse statue from MasterCanteen Square to Raj BhawanS q u a re, U n i o n M i n i s t e rDharmendra Pradhan Fridayurged state government to con-sider beautification of the areawithout shifting the statue.
He said people from variouswalks of life are expressing dis-pleasure over the decision to re-locate the statue, which is a land-mark of Bhubaneswar. The statuei s a n i d e n t i t y o f O d i s h a ’s heritage.
Respecting the sentiments ofthe people of Odisha, the stategovernment should protect it andconsider beautifying the mastercanteen without relocating thew a r r i o r- h o r s e re p l i c a , Pradhan said.
It is a replica of a warrior anda horse sculpture found at one ofthe gates of Konark Sun Templewhich was adopted as a part of the
State Emblem in 1964, the Unionminister said.
Later in 1988, he said, the statuesculpted by renowned sculptorRaghunath Mohapatra was in-stalled at Master Canteen by thethen Chief Minister JB Patnaik.
For the second consecutive day,Congress workers Friday stageddemonstration here demandingrollback of the decision to shift-ing of warrior-horse statue fromMaster Canteen Square.
The Bhubaneswar Smart CityLimited (BSCL) had proposed re-location of the sculpture for amulti-modal hub project at theBhubaneswar Railway Station.The proposal was approved at ameeting chaired by Director ofCulture Ranjan Das last June 8.
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: HigherEducation (HE) department haswritten to National Council forTeacher Education (NCTE) urg-ing it for restoration of recognitionto teacher education institutions in Odisha.
In a letter to the chairperson ofNCTE, HE department principalsecretary Saswat Mishra said thatduring academic session 2020-21,recognition of 15 teacher traininginstitutions was withdrawn on theground of having less than re-quired number of faculty.
In the meantime, June 1, 2021all the Teacher EducationInstitutions (TEIs) of Odisha were
shifted to the administrative con-trol of the higher education de-partment from School and MassEducation (S&ME) department.
Before that March 9, 2021, theHE department had written toOdisha Public service Commission(OPSC) for recruitment of 385 as-sistant professors for TEIs. ThoughOPSC has already taken up the re-
cruitment process, it is getting de-layed due to the pandemic.
Mishra said that Odisha is theonly state which has only the gov-ernment TEIs to cater to the needsof the trained teachers for ele-mentary, secondary and highersecondary stages. Private TEIs arenot allowed in Odisha. Due to with-drawal of recognition of these gov-ernment TEIs by the NCTE, it hasbecome impossible to meet the de-mand of the state trained teachers.
“NCTE is therefore sincerely re-quested to revoke the withdrawalof recognition of TEIs in order to en-able the government of Odisha tostart B.Ed and M.Ed programmes inthe TEIs from the current academicsession 2021-22,” the letter reads.
Pradhan opposeswarrior-horsestatue relocation
NCTE urged to restore recognition of teacher education institutions
Recognition of 15 TEIswas withdrawn on theground of having lessthan required number of faculty in 2020-21 academic year
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18:The IndiaMeteorological Department (IMD)Friday said that heavy rains arelikely to lash different parts of thestate from Monday onwards fornext few days.
The weatherman said that fourdistricts could see heavy rainfallMonday. Issuing yellow warning,the IMD and said, “Heavy rainfallis very likely to occur at one ortwo places in Kalahandi,Kandhamal, Keonjhar andMayurbhanj districts.”
The Met department also said,“Thunderstorm with lightning isvery likely to occur at one or twoplaces of Bargarh, Bolangir,Sonepur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal,Boudh, Angul, Dhenkanal,Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Nuapadaand Balasore districts.”
Light to moderate rain may occur
in different parts of interior Odishaand at a few places of coastal dis-tricts.
Similarly, heavy rainfall couldalso lash one or two places inKoraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur,Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore,Bhadrak, Jajpur, KendraparaJagatsinghpur and Cuttack whilelight to moderate rain could be
seen across the state Tuesday.Nevertheless, the department
has not issued any warning forSaturday and Sunday while lightto moderate rain could be seenacross the state besides thunder-storms.
The highest rainfall of 48.6 mmwas reported from Jharsuguda dis-trict while Malkangiri saw 28.2
mm rainfall during the last 24hours. Phulbani recorded the low-est temperature of 18 degrees CFriday while the maximum tem-perature of 32.1 degrees C wasrecorded in Raygada.
Predicting weather for the Capitalcity for Saturday, the IMD said,“Generally cloudy sky with oneor two spells of rain or thunder-shower is likely to prevail.Maximum and minimum tem-perature are very likely to be around33° C and 26° C respectively.”
The IMD has warned the fish-ermen not to venture into deepsea till June 19.
Heavy rain may lash state from MondayHeavy rainfall is verylikely to occur at one ortwo places in Kalahandi,Kandhamal, Keonjharand Mayurbhanj districts
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: ResidentDoctors' Association (RDA) of AIIMS,Bhubaneswar Friday participatedin a nationwide protest organised byvarious medical associations on theoccasion of National Protest Day, con-demning violence against doctorsand demanding strict implemen-tation of Central Protection Lawfor healthcare workers.
RDA president DebopamChatterjee said that condition of thedoctors in the country has becomemiserable amidst this pandemic.They have been fighting Covid onthe frontline for more than a year.Amidst this, incidents of violenceagainst the doctors have skyrock-eted throughout the country.
The recent attacks in Assam,Karnataka and West Bengal re-vealed that irrespective of age, ex-
perience and gender, all the doctorsare at risk of getting attacked.“Therefore, we are participating inthe protest wearing blackbands/mask/shirts with a singlepoint agenda concerning violenceagainst doctors,” he added.
RDA secretary Ashish Das said,“We request various governments toimplement Central Protection Lawand invoke NSA 1980 on such assaults.”
National Protest Day: AIIMS docs want execution of central law
Instead of relocatingthe warrior-horse
replica, the state govt shouldprotect it and considerbeautification of the MasterCanteen Square DHARMENDRA PRADHAN | UNION MINISTER
1,42,970 vaccinated
RDC (Central) Anil Kumar Samal reviews the status of SCB expansion project in presence of senior officials, includingCuttack Collector Bhabani Shankar Chayani and CMC commissioner Ananya Das, in the Silver City, Friday OP PHOTO
HEALTH INFRA REVIEW
Congress leaders, including Suresh Routray, protest the proposed relocation of the warrior-horse statue at MasterCanteen Square in Bhubaneswar, Friday OP PHOTO
DENOUNCING STATUE RELOCATION PLAN
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: The stateHealth department Friday saidthat a total of 1,42,970 persons werevaccinated against Covid-19 duringthe drive Friday.
The inoculation drive was con-ducted at 1,001 vaccination sitesplanned for Friday. The depart-ment has planned a total of 996more drives for Saturday.
REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhubaneswar, June 18: TaintedIFS officer Abhay Kant PathakFriday walked out of Jharpadajail here after six months.
The Orissa High Court hadThursday granted him bail in acase registered at Baidyanathpurpolice station in Ganjam in con-nection with a job fraud.
H e h a d b e e n l o d g e d i nJharpada special jail sinceNovember 2020.
Pathak, a 1987-batch IFS of-ficer, was arrested by Vigilancesleuths on charges of amassingproperties worth around Rs9.45 crore disproportionate tohis actual income November27, 2020.
Later, several other cases wereregistered against Pathak and hisson Akash for duping various jobaspirants on the pretext of pro-viding jobs in Tata Motors.
Abhay Pathak walksout of Jharpada jail
Bhubaneswar: Childline Foundation hereFriday constituted a team to investigatethe alleged sale of a 10-day-old child herea few days ago. The Childline officialscame to know about the issue from thereports doing rounds on various socialmedia platforms. As per the sources, acouple sold their infant to some middle-men for Rs 10,000 in Master Canteenarea. Childline director BenudharSenapati urged the Chairperson ofOCPCR, Child Welfare Committee, DCPOand DCP to probe the matter.
Probe into child sale
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POST NEWS NETWORK
New Delhi, June 18: The NationalGreen Tribunal (NGT) has ques-tioned the decision of the OdishaState Pollution Control Board(OSPCB) of granting consent tosand mine operators to mine sandfrom the Subarnarekha river inexcess of what was allowed in theenvironment clearance.
A bench of the NGT comprisingjudicial member B Amit Sthalekarand expert member Saibal Dasguptaobserved that the consent to oper-ate was granted for 20,000 CM3 bythe PCB considering the princi-ple of sustainable sand mining.However, the tribunal found that asper the environmental clearancegranted by the SEIAA in December2017, mineable reserved are 20,000CM3 of sand against the environ-ment clearance for only 5,000 CM3annually with the specific conditionthat the annual extraction of sandshall not exceed 5,000 CM3 allow-ing for replenishment of 25 percent of the mineable reserve overthe lease period.
“The question is how the consentto operate was granted by the OdishaState Pollution Control Board for20,000 Cm3 when the environmentclearance was only for 5,000 CM3 perannum,” the tribunal observed.
Earlier, the state PCB had filedan affidavit stating that the sandminers had extracted 19,995 CM3of sand in excess of the permissi-ble quantity of 30,000 CM3 andpenalty for the excess mining ofsand for this period was realised bythe tehsildar of Jaleswar from thesand miners.
Significantly, the tribunal alsoquestioned the calculation of thePCB that only 19,995 cm3 of sandhas illegally been mined and thatrecovery has been made by theTehsildar only for this excessamount of 19,995 CM3 of sand.
“It appears from the affidavitfiled by the state PCB that the ac-tual amount of sand mined in the
past one-and-a-half year is 49,995CM3. Then the excess amount ofsand mined would be 42,495 CM3as per the condition granted in theenvironmental clearance and not19,995 CM3,” the tribunal held.
The NGT asked SEIAA to filean affidavit within four weeks an-swering the queries of the tribunaland responding to the avermentsmade in the additional affidavit ofthe state PCB.
It may be mentioned here that thetribunal’s order came following anapplication filed by Laxmidhar Palaialleging irregularities and viola-tions of pollutionnorms by the sandmining operators inSubarnarekhariver in Jaleswar tehsil.
OSPCB in dock over grantingconsent to mine excess sand
AGENCIES
Koraput, June 18: When theworld is struggling hard to keepaway from Covid, Khemunduguda,a panchayat in tribal-dominatedNandapur block of the district,has remained untouched by thepandemic, thanks to the aware-ness among the villagers aboutthe deadly virus.
The panchayat covering 12 vil-lages with around 15,000 peoplehas not reported a single case ofCovid-19 since the pandemic beganlast year.
About eight per cent of thedwellers of Borgiput, Maligutha,Kurmaput, Salab, Bariapakhana,Kjudgipaar, Bhitar Rukba,Padarukba, Parjabuda and manyother villages depend on agricul-ture for their livelihood, while oth-ers do odd jobs.
The coronavirus is said to havefailed to spread its tentacles intothe villages due to the awarenessamong the villagers about thevirus and strict adherence to Covidprotocols.
Since the pandemic began lastyear, residents of the panchayathave strictly complied with safety
protocols such as social distancing,wearing facemasks and cleaninghands regularly.
Those who go out for work arerequired to follow all safety pro-tocols. Interestingly, most of themproduce vegetables. Instead of vis-iting wholesale markets, they ap-proach the villages of the farmersto collect vegetables in order toensure that social distancing ismaintained.
"We are happy that we haven'trecorded any Covid case yet orlost anyone to the deadly virus.With the second wave of Covid-19striking the country, everyone be-
came serious about their safety.Some neighbouring villages havealso started emulating us in en-forcing Covid-19 protocols seri-ously,” sarpanch DambarudharGuntha said.
Sources said that villagers fromthe neighbouring panchayats testedpositive in both the waves, but peo-ple from this panchayat remaineduntouched by Covid-19.
Those who returned from otherstates and far-off places were keptin quarantine for at least 14 daysin the panchayat itself, Gunthapointed out.
According to the sarpanch, itwas possible with the coordinatedeffort by the villagers, youth andthe healthcare workers of the pan-chayat.
“In accordance with state gov-ernment policy, Asha and an-ganwadi workers conduct door-to-door surveys in the villages on aregular basis for health check-up of villagers. Asha workershave ensured that every eligibleperson is vaccinated againstCovid. Almost all in the panchayatabove the age of 45 have been in-oculated with the first dose,” thesarpanch said.
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bhadrak, June 18: Even as deathsdue to Covid-19 are on the rise in thedistrict, incidents of family mem-bers and relatives abandoning theirloved ones for fear of being infectedwith coronavirus are also increas-ing on a daily basis. Amid this, ablock development officer (BDO)and sarpanch in Bhadrak districthave set an example by perform-ing the last rites of a man suc-cumbed to Covid.
Dhamnagar BDO DurgacharanMurmu and local sarpanch ManojRay Mohapatra cremated the bodyof Basudev Mishra Thursdayevening after he died of Covid-19.The deceased was a resident ofBadatirana village of Nadigaonpanchayat in the district.
According to sources, Basudevwas put in home isolation after test-ing positive for Covid-19 a few days ago.However, the elderly man’s familymembers refused to cremate his bodyafter he died. When the matter cameto the knowledge of the BDO andsarpanch, they rushed to Badatiranavillage and cremated the body.
POST NEWS NETWORK
Nayagarh, June 18: TheSuperintendent of Police, Nayagarh,Sidhharth Kataria said that the six-year-old girl from Dhundugadiaunder Banigochha police limits,who had gone missing a few days ago,was raped prior to being murdered.
The minor girl had gone missingJune 12, 2021. Police found her mu-tilated body at an isolated locationnear Dhundugadia village inNayagarh June 16, the SP said. Healso stated that the victim wasraped and murdered by a 22-year-old youth of the same village.
During preliminary investiga-tion, it was ascertained that theaccused took the girl to a bananaplantation near the village on thepretext of showing her his mobilephone. The youth raped and thenstrangled her with a plastic rope,the police official stated.
“The accused had concealed thebody of the girl victim after rapingand murdering her. We nabbedhim and during interrogation heconfessed killing the girl. He alsotold us about the place where he hidthe body. The body was recoveredWednesday. The accused has beenforwarded to court,” the SP said.
POST NEWS NETWORK
Deogarh, June 18: He is a policeofficer, a writer, an actor, anchor, di-rector and a social activist – allrolled into one. Meet Tapan KumarNayak, the multi-talented person-ality who has donned all the hatssuccessfully.
Born at Para village underRiamal block in Deogarh district,Tapan is presently posted at CID,Crime Branch office in Cuttack asa sub-inspector.
He says his acting skills werefirst noticed when he was a stu-dent of Shendha High School.Thereafter, he kept on honing hisacting, dancing and mimicry skills.The desire to do better in the en-tertainment field led him to join the
Biju Patnaik Film and TelevisionInstitute in Cuttack. He completeda diploma course in ‘acting’ fromthere. Before joining the police de-partment, Tapan was a teacher atthe Khirod Basini Kanyashram atKatada village in Angul district.After completing his Diploma inElementary Education (DEl.Ed)from the District Institute ofEducation and Training (DIET) inAngul, he started his career as ateacher. During this period, he didmany stage programmes as a mim-icry artiste. For his extraordinaryimitating skills of Odia and Hindifilm actors, he became a ‘go-to’ per-son for guaranteed entertainment.
Besides performing in many op-eras, Tapan has also written playsand directed many of them.
Watching him playing ‘Khanjani’(a traditional percussion instru-ment found in Odisha and WestBengal) is a delight indeed.
Tapan has also lent his name tomany social activities. Besidesbeing the president of Angul-basedhuman rights organisation ‘Think’,he is associated with NationalHuman Rights and Anti-CorruptionBureau, Help India, Anti-CorruptionFoundation of India, Bhagat SinghYuvasena, Odisha, and‘Dukhasukha Ra Sathi’. This apart,he has been appointed as an officerof National Crime ResearchIntelligence Bureau.
Tapan said he is happy for as heis able to divide his time betweenprofession and passion, whichproves to be a hard task for many.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Berhampur, June 18: As mon-soon clouds loom over the lush-green Pakidi hills, a boom in thelocal peacock population has seendroves of peacocks and peahens de-scend on villages and highwaysin this picturesque area in Ganjamdistrict.
The national bird has thrived andits population has increased overthe past few years, partly becauseof the lockdown and partly as vil-lagers in the area have helped pro-tect and feed peacocks, believingthey bring `good luck.
The population of the nationalbird in the area has grown mani-fold to around 2,000 over the last fewyears, Ghumusar South DivisionalForest Officer (DFO) Satya NarayanBehura said.
The peacock population in thehill area has increased due to theinvolvement of local people intheir protection, he added.
Aska Forest Range Officer PKSahu explained that villagersaround Pakidi hill help protect thebirds even though they often eatstanding crops, as they believesighting peacocks brings good luck.
The vi l lagers ofSobhachandrapur, Ambuabadi,Kerikerijhola, Bharatapalli,Cheramaria, Sameiguda andKarnoli are credited with helpingpeacock flocks by allowing them toco-exist with humans.
Good forest cover in the hillarea and lack of forest fires are alsosome of the reasons for an in-crease in their population in thearea, officials added..
As the air and noise pollution lev-els came down because of the lock-down, many peacocks started com-ing out on the roads too, Behuraadded.
The villagers have also consti-tuted a committee to protect them.
The committee had received theprestigious Biju Patnaik Awardfor Wildlife Conservation, the high-est award in the state for protect-ing the wildlife, for its effort toconserve the national bird habitatin 2006.
“We have created awarenessamong the people about the im-portance of the protection of thebirds in the area regularly,” SameerPradhan, the president of the pea-cock protection committee, said.
The villagers are not only pro-tecting them from the poachers, butalso feed them and set up water potsnear the village during summer fortheir drink, Pradhan said.
“As their population increasedmanifold, some of the birds havenow migrated to other areas likeBandhaguda and Baramundali,”he said.
Farmers stage dharnaover delay in paddyprocurement
POST NEWS NETWORK
Bargarh, June 18: Hundreds offarmers from Salhepali area underBheden block in Bargarh districtFriday staged a sit-in before thedistrict collectorate alleging delayin paddy procurement.
The farmers said that thoughthey have been bringing their pro-duce to the procurement centrestheir produce is not being pro-cured under various pretexts.
The agitating farmers claimedthat they had registered themselvesand also been issued tokens for pro-curement. Even though the districtis yet to meet its procurement target,paddy is not being procured inten-tionally, many farmers rued. As a re-sult, the farmers continue to wait forprocurement with over 10,000 sacksof paddy kept in the open duringthe rainy season. Low pressure-in-duced rain has already partiallyspoiled some of their produce.
RSP pipes for megalift irrigation projects
BDO, sarpanch perform last ritesof Covid victims
RUSH AMID LOCKDOWN
Rajmahal Square in Bhubaneswar witnesses heavy traffic even during the lockdown, Friday OP PHOTO
HITTING THE STREETS
Members of Cuttack chapter of IMA stage a demonstration at IMA House in the Silver City, Friday, protesting thealleged attacks on doctors in several parts of the country OP PHOTO
Here’s how Covid waves fail totouch this Koraput panchayat
Nayagarh minorraped prior tomurder, says SP
KHEMUNDUGUDAPANCHAYAT IN
KORAPUT DISTRICTHAS NOT RECORDED A
SINGLE INFECTIONSINCE THE OUTBREAK
OF THE PANDEMIC IN 2020
THE POPULATION OFTHE NATIONAL BIRD IN THE AREA HASGROWN MANIFOLD TOAROUND 2,000 OVERTHE LAST FEW YEARS
POST NEWS NETWORK
Rourkela, June 18: Rourkela Steel Plant,a unit of SAIL, supplied 3,100 metres ofspiral welded pipes tomega lift irrigationprojects in Odisha, acompany statementsaid Thursday.
T h e s t a t e g o ve r n m e n t h a dplanned to take up1 7 4 m e g a l i f t irrigation projectsin the river basins o f Va n s a d h a r a ,Indravati, Mahanadi,Brahmani, Baitarani,Tej, Burhabalanga,and the periphery ofHirakud and Rengali reservoirs.
The spiral welded pipes manufactured bythe RSP are used for irrigation, powerplants, slurry transportation, water supply,sewage disposals, grain silos and otherpurposes.
THE STATEGOVT AIMS ATTAKING UP174 MEGALIFT IRRIGATIONPROJECTS INTHE RIVERBASINS
REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE
Pakidi hills sees boom in peacock population
This multi-talented cop wears many hats
WORDSWORTH
power post P6
The Air India divestment has got stuck between a rock and a hard land-ing! The second wave of the Covid pandemic has now delayed it fur-ther. It is beginning to seem that the government may have been a tri-
fle too ambitious and optimistic about closing this chapter. While there isno dearth of suitors of the beleaguered carrier, the Civil Aviation Ministrybabus have come up against a new stumbling block – the potential seizureof Air India’s assets by Cairn Energy, after India lost the tax dispute caseagainst the company in an international arbitration tribunal.
Civil Aviation Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola actually now has a newheadache to deal with, even as the government is still to finalise the time-line for completion of the stake sale or the valuation of the airline and itsassets. Too many loose ends!
The loss to Cairn is a major blow and loss of face for the Modi sarkar. Ofcourse, the Centre says that it will defend any attempt by Cairn to take overthe airline’s assets and has in fact challenged the arbitration award, but untilthe case is resolved and the award overturned in India’s favour, Kharola andhis cohorts in the Civil Aviation Ministry cannot rest easy. In fact, as a re-sult of this new threat, civil aviation babus are now scurrying betweentheir ministry and the Law Ministry to deal with this legal threat. This sagamay have a few more seasons left to go.
UP on BJP’s mindSenior about-to-retire babus of two BJP-ruled states are a miffed lot with
the appointment of former Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary Anup ChandraPandey as the new Election Commissioner of India having been done anddusted in a surprise move. But it was clearly in the works in Delhi, long be-fore the skirmishes between UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the BigTwo spilt out into the open. Thanks to the need for surprise, even babus inhis home cadre were left gasping.
Many see the appointment of Pandey as the Centre’s initial steps to focus onretaining Uttar Pradesh and remote central control on the coming Assembly polls.
But the incumbents will walk on eggs since the ghost of election com-missioners past still lurks overNirvachan Bhavan as an appro-priate landing spot has not yet beenfound for former Chief ElectionCommissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora.
Pandey has joined SushilChandra and ElectionCommissioner Rajiv Kumar at the poll panel. Not surprisingly, given Pandey’sbackground questions are being raised about his appointment. Some pointout the significance of the fact that all three election commissioners are fromUP! Current CEC Sushil Chandra did a long stint in the state’s RevenueDepartment and EC Rajiv Kumar is a former Finance Secretary of the state.Besides his tenure as the state Chief Secretary under Chief Minister YogiAdityanath until 2019, Pandey was also the state’s industrial developmentcommissioner.
Prepare for more babu surprises to emerge in and around UP as the pollsdraw near.
Babu crisis at the CentreThere is a crisis of babus in the Modi sarkar. The Department of Personnel
and Training (DoPT) Secretary Deepak Khandekar has informed his multi-ple bosses that despite the government repeatedly requesting the states to de-pute more officers at the Centre nothing is moving, and nobody is willing. Ithas reportedly asked for more officers at the deputy secretary, director andjoint secretary levels. Most states, however, say they are dealing with theirown shortage of officers, leading to senior state officials holding severalportfolios in many states. Though both Karnataka and Himachal have prom-ised to help recently, this to-ing and fro-ing has been going on for several monthsnow, with the states’ response to the Centre being seen as decidedly poor.
Sources say that the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) hasmade a fresh request to the states last week stating that their lack of appropriateresponse to the Centre’s request is creating a cadre management problemfor the Centre. But sources say there is a veiled new warning in the Modisarkar’s latest missive to the states on the issue. Apparently, the letter fromDoPT says that the cadres who have not sent adequate nominations for theCentral Staffing Scheme at various may find that they have to settle for feweradditional Senior Duty posts in the future. Will the states take note? Is thisa babu pushback or due to political masters unwilling to allow their best tomigrate to Delhi?
Share a babu experience! Follow [email protected]’s multiply the effect.
Bhubaneswar, besides beingthe capital city of Odisha andone of India’s smart cities,
has been a city of historical im-portance due to its temples, archi-tectures and urban planning. Thehistorically sacred geographies inits vicinity and the urbane archi-tectures inside the city are sculpturaland architectural wonders for everybody’s eyes – residents, migrants anddaily foot fallers. Such beauties,historical and modern, justify theetymological significance of‘Bhubaneswar’ - ‘God of the universe’.
It is shocking, therefore, to no-tice how terrible beauties are born,almost on a daily basis, in such anabode of art and aesthetics – the lat-est one being the decision to shiftthe ‘Warrior-Horse’ monument toanother corner of the city. Forevery Odia, this stony wonder is ano Trojan horse, but a magnificentrepository that proudly harboursglorious history, racial magnifi-cence and cultural distinctivenessof Odisha. It is a jewel onBhubaneswar’s neck, which is tooprecious to fiddle with. For the vis-itors, it is the guiding star to thecity’s topography; for the departingguests, it is a haunting host who is
difficult to be removed from theirheart and mind; for the residents,it is of an insurmountable culturalpride and memory that every sun-rise kindles in them. It is, therefore,repugnant to the nature and art ofurban planning to think of shiftingsuch a monumental wonder to anew and alien place. I wish thepoor horse could protest againstsuch decision of the metro-men!
Great writers like William Hazlittsaid ‘Art’ is immortal, but humanlives are not. However, life can bemade immortal, if we model ourlives as per the virtues of art andaesthetics. That is why Leonardoda Vinci is as immortal as his‘Monalisa’. City planners think-ing of concrete-beautification ofa city should learn that real beautyis born in the hands of artists, notof engineers. They should alsolearn that to shift the horse mon-ument from its original place toanother is like shifting a line onMonalisa’s lips.
Similarly, a city can be immor-tal not because of able adminis-tration or bureaucracy, but becauseof its respect to the history, in-tegrity and dignity of its peopleand culture enshrined in their mar-vels and monuments. City stories
of Athens and Sparta have im-posed more prominence onHellenism than Hebraism. Englishdramatist Oscar Wilde, a vehementcritic of Karl Marx’s egalitarian-ism, observed that millionairescannot take care of culture. I thinkhe would have reiterated this, hadhe heard that an over-bridge isbeing considered more valuablethan a marvelous work of art. Abridge at the cost of a beauty issnobbery of city planning, whichis no less deplorable than any othersnobbery that has inflicted ourmetro mentality.
Read what Joseph Addison hadto warn England against in eigh-teenth century, when England wasgradually shaping into a plannedcity - “As a foreigner is very apt toconceive an idea of the ignoranceor politeness of a nation from theturn of their public monuments andinscriptions, they should be sub-mitted to the perusal of men oflearning and genius.” I think theWarrior-Horse in the city ofBhubaneswar is one such monu-ment of Odia antiquity and achieve-ments. Let us not be ignoble, there-fore, to shift and tamper with itsoriginal habitation. Many ideas,histories, memories and prides
would be lost with every shovel-full of soils you will dig out to up-root and shift it, irrespective of ut-most engineering care. Five hundredyears ago, Shakespeare, envision-ing the mischief of grave robbers,pleaded in his epitaph not to tamperwith his grave: “Good friend, forJesus’ sake forbear, to dig the dustenclosed here. Blessed be the manthat spares these stones, and cursedbe he that moves my bones.”I thinkFakir Mohan Senapati andRabindranath Tagore too were wiseenough to leave the city spaces andretreat to the idyllic places such asSanti Kanan (Balasore) andSantiniketan (Birbhum). Otherwise,they would have had to face thebulldozers to be uprooted and shiftedlike the Warrior-Horse.
It is ironic that before forgettingthe sad demise of Padma VibhushanRaghunath Mohapatra, Odisha hasto witness an imminent threat tothe maestro’s signature art in theform of the ‘Warrior-Horse’ cur-rently installed at the MasterCanteen Square in Bhubaneswar.
The writer is AssociateProfessor, Department ofEnglish, Faculty of Arts,
Banaras Hindu University.
A monumental blunder!
100 YEARS OF DEVASTATIONO
n July 1, the CommunistParty of China (CPC) will stage a patriotic ex-travaganza to celebrate
the 100th anniversary of its found-ing. Among the achievements it willcelebrate is the Baihetan Dam, lo-cated on the Jinsha River, on thesoutheastern edge of the TibetanPlateau. The dam will start oper-ations on the same day.
The CPC loves a superlative. Itis the world’s largest manufac-turer and exporter, with the world’slargest foreign reserves. It boaststhe world’s highest railway andthe highest and longest bridges. Itis also the world’s most dammedcountry, with more large damsthan the rest of the world com-bined, and prides itself on hav-ing the world’s biggest water-trans-fer canal system.
The dams themselves are oftensuperlative. The Three GorgesDam is the world’s largest powerstation, in terms of installed ca-pacity, and the Baihetan Dam isbilled as the world’s biggest archdam, as well as the world’s first proj-ect to use a giant one-gigawatt(GW) hydro-turbine generator.With 16 such generators, Baihetanranks as the world’s second-largesthydroelectric dam (behind theThree Gorges Dam, at 22.5 GW).
All of this makes great fodderfor CPC-fueled nationalism – es-sential to the party’s legitimacy.China often flaunts its hydro-en-gineering prowess, including its ex-ecution of the most ambitiousinter-river water transfers everconceived, to highlight its mili-tary and economic might. (To besure, there are also superlativesChina will not be flaunting at itsupcoming centenary – beginningwith the world’s largest networkof concentration camps.)
But China’s dams are not merelysymbols of the country’s great-ness. Nor is their purpose simplyto ensure China’s water security,as the CPC claims. They are alsointended as a source of leveragethat China can use to exert controlover downstream countries.
The CPC’s 1951 annexation of thewater-rich Tibetan Plateau – thestarting point of Asia’s ten majorriver systems – gave China tremen-dous power over Asia’s water map.
In the ensuing decades, the coun-try has made the most of this ri-parian advantage. For example,by building 11 giant dams on theMekong, just before the rivercrosses Southeast Asia, China hassecured the ability to turn off theregion’s water tap.
But the CPC is failing to considerthe high costs of its strategy, whichextend far beyond political fric-tion with neighbors. The party’sinsatiable damming is wreakingenvironmental havoc on Asia’smajor river systems, includingmainland China’s dual lifelines: theYellow and the Yangtze.
Giant dams damage ecosystems,drive freshwater species to ex-tinction, cause deltas to retreat, andoften emit more greenhouse gasesthan fossil-fuel power plants. Morethan 350 lakes in China have dis-appeared in recent decades, and,with few free-flowing rivers left,river fragmentation and deple-tion have become endemic.
The social costs are no less se-vere. For starters, given shoddyconstruction in the first threedecades of communist rule, about3,200 dams collapsed by 1981, with
the 1975 Banqiao Dam failure alonekilling up to 230,000 people. Ofcourse, China has raised its dam-building prowess dramaticallysince then, and Baihetan was com-pleted in just four years. But as itsearly dams age, and weather be-comes increasingly extreme, cat-astrophic failures remain a seri-ous risk.
Moreover, dam projects havedisplaced an enormous number ofChinese. In 2007, just as China’smega-dam-building drive was gain-ing momentum, then-PrimeMinister Wen Jiabao revealed that,since the CPC’s rise to power,China had relocated 22.9 millionpeople to make way for water proj-ects – a figure larger than morethan 100 countries' entire popu-lations. The Three Gorges Damalone displaced more than 1.4 mil-lion people.
This doesn’t seem to bother theCPC much. Baihetan’s inunda-tion of vast stretches of a sparselypopulated highland has forcedlocal residents, mostly from the rel-atively poor Yi nationality, to farmmore marginal tracts at higherelevations. As China shifts its
focus from the dam-saturated riversin its heartland to rivers in theethnic-minority homelands theCPC annexed, China's economi-cally and culturally marginalizedcommunities will suffer the most.
And there is little doubt thatthis will happen. The CPC hasnow set its sights on building theworld’s first super-dam, on theYarlung Zangbo river – betterknown as the Brahmaputra – nearTibet’s heavily militarised borderwith India.
The Brahmaputra curvesaround the Himalayas in a U-turnand forms the planet’s longest anddeepest canyon, as it plunges froman altitude of 2,800 meters towardthe Indian floodplains. Dammingit means building at an elevationof more than 1,500 meters – thehighest at which a mega-dam hasever been built. And because thegorge holds the world's largest un-tapped concentration of river en-ergy, the super-dam is supposed tohave a hydropower generating ca-pacity of 60 GW, nearly three timesthat of the Three Gorges Dam.
The fact that the gorge is one ofthe world's most biodiverse re-gions seems to be of little concernto the CPC, which is far more in-terested in being able to use wateras a weapon against India, its Asianrival. China has already set thestage for construction, recentlycompleting a highway through thecanyon and announcing the startof high-speed train service to amilitary town near the gorge. Thiswill enable the transport of heavyequipment, materials, and work-ers to the remote region, whichwas long thought inaccessible be-cause of its treacherous terrain.
The CPC views its centenaryas cause for celebration. But therest of the world should see theparty for what it is: repressive,genocidal, and environmentallyrapacious. And it should preparefor what the CPC’s second century may bring.
Brahma Chellaney isProfessor of Strategic Studiesat the New Delhi-based Center
The CPC loves a superlative. It is the world’slargest manufacturer and exporter, with theworld’s largest foreign reserves. It boasts theworld’s highest railway and the highest andlongest bridges. It is also the world’s mostdammed country, with more large dams thanthe rest of the world combined, and pridesitself on having the world’s biggest water-transfer canal system
A twist in the AI tale
CHRISTIAN LION
Two guys are walking through agame park & they come across a
lion that has not eaten for days. Thelion starts chasing the two men. Theyrun as fast as they can and the oneguy starts getting tired and decides tosay a prayer, "Please turn this lioninto a Christian, Lord." He looks to see
if the lion isstill chasing
and he sees the lionon its knees. Happy to
see his prayer answered, he turnsaround and heads towards the lion. Ashe comes closer to the lion, he hearsthe lion saying a prayer: "Thank you Lord for the food I am about to receive."
SATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
Sit in meditation! But do not think!Look only at your mind! You willsee thoughts coming into it!Before they can enter, throw theseaway from your mind till yourmind is capable of entire silence.
SRI AUROBINDO
CITYSCAPE
THE CPC VIEWSITS CENTENARY
AS CAUSE FORCELEBRATION.
BUT THE REST OFTHE WORLD
SHOULD SEE THEPARTY FOR WHATIT IS: REPRESSIVE,GENOCIDAL, AND
ENVIRONMENTALLY RAPACIOUS
Brahma Chellaney
WISDOM CORNERSomeone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted atree a long time ago. WARREN BUFFETT
Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by,and that has made all the difference. ROBERT FROST
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and thelife of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreasesby being shared. BUDDHA
CPC CENTENARY
Readers of Orissa POSTare most welcome to contribute letters(200 words), articles andcolumns (between 750-1250words). Contributors arerequested to send theircontact numbers and fullpostal address/email ID. They may alsosend in their valuable comments, opinionand suggestions, preferably by email, to: [email protected]
Sir, Blood is thicker than water is a well known saying. This aptly suits the coun-try’s political system. Earlier, politics wasn’t a profession; it was a passion. Thedecline in political discourse of the country began with the onset of dynastic pol-itics. Not that the political families always prospered in the process – affection andamicability often gave way to bad blood, betrayal and belligerence. Chirag Paswanwill know better because he is “shell shocked” by the action of his uncle PashupatiKumar Paras who ‘rebelled” against his nephew for ‘disrespecting’ him. Thebrother of the late Ram Vilas Paswan was made to eat his own words after Chiragordered him to retract his statement praising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. A hu-miliated Pashupati along with five members of the Lok Jan Shakti Party (LJP)‘expelled’ Chirag from the party and the latter, in turn, removed the five MPs fromthe party. During Paswan’s time, dissent or dissatisfaction with his leadership inthe LJP was unheard of. Powerful, pragmatic and polite, his pristine traits gaveno scope for unhappiness within the cadres. Chirag, of course, is youthful and,as some say, brash. Disgruntlement about Chirag’s style of functioning had cometo the forefront when a couple of LJP senior leaders switched sides some time ago.Instead of introspection, the young leader’s detached look appeared to have sur-prised his supporters. LJP’s poor show in the Assembly elections seems to haveemboldened his rivals in the party. Ganapathi Bhat, AKOLA
Game of spinning money
Sir, How does one murder cricket in the name ofcricket? The answer is the Indian Premier League,one of the world’s biggest sports leagues, that is at thereceiving end of critics for being the ugliest spectacleof the country at a time which is unprecedented andextraordinary by any standard. The decision of the Boardof Control for Cricket in India to continue the IPLamid prevailing Covid-19 crisis in India is in-congru-ent with the larger social reality the cricket-loving na-tion is currently facing. The country can’t afford to runa cricket tournament which is providing cricketerslavishly-designed bio-bubbles and, thus, helping themto bypass the catastrophe that a common citizen isotherwise forced to face. Once postponed, the tourna-ment ought to have been once for all for this season.Instead we are putting a cover and playing in theEmirates as in the last season. When people die we playthe game in the name of making money.
MR Annanthambal Yayanthy, CHENNAI
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Dilip Cherian
BABUDOMBYTES
Cahoot
Every British Internet financial start-up trumps the last in the silly-namesgame. Maybe it’s an attempt at off-beat individuality, or perhaps all the
sensible names have been taken. We’ve had one e-bank called Egg (halfwaysensible, suggesting nest-egg), another entitled Smile and a third delighting inthe name of Marbles. And now the British bank Abbey National hasannounced an online service called Cahoot. Hang on a minute, you chaps.There’s only one common expression in English which uses the word, andthat’s in cahoots with, meaning that a person is in some partnership orassociation with another. Presumably that’s the idea the namers of the newenterprise have in mind — you and your bank looking after your moneytogether. But there’s a problem or two. The lesser one is that the word and thephrase, originally American, are still slightly foreign to British ears and eyes.The other is that, as Jessie Sheidlower put it in one of his Jesse’s Word of theDay columns once, it almost always has “a suggestion of some questionableor nefarious purpose”, or as Jonathon Green says in his magisterial CassellDictionary of Slang, it usually implies “a slightly disreputable or surreptitiousalliance”. Questionable, nefarious, disreputable, surreptitious — even whenqualified, these are hardly the words to associate with an enterprise,especially one concerned with safeguarding your money and mine.
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MAHARASHTRA
SATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
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WESTBENGAL
INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE
Kolkata, June 18: The CalcuttaHigh Court Friday deferred to June24 the hearing on the petition filedby West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee challenging BJPleader Suvendu Adhikari’sNandig ram win in the 2021Assembly polls.
The Chief Minister had filed apetition against her one-time aideand now the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) Leader of Opposition,Adhikari, in the Calcutta HighCourt challenging his win in theelection from Nandigram andprayed to the court for declaring theelection null and void. Banerjeehad contested and lost the electionfrom Nandigram against Adhikari.
In her petition, Banerjee allegedthat Adhikari has committed cor-rupt practices as envisaged underSection 123 of the Act, including of-fences of corrupt practices ofbribery, undue influence, spread-ing enmity, promotion of hatred andenmity amongst the citizens ofIndia, seeking votes on the basis ofreligion, taking the assistance of thegovernment officials for furtheranceof the prospects of the respon-dent's election and booth capturing.
The plea said that there wereseveral discrepancies and mal-
practices in the counting processconducted by the Returning Officeron 2 May 2021. Accordingly, Banerjeeand her party colleagues had soughta recount of votes. However, suchrequests were rejected without duecause and the Returning Officersigned the Form 21C, declaring theelections in favour of Adhikari,the petition read.
The petition also said that upona review of the Form 17C (Accountof votes recorded and Result ofcounting) Banerjee discovered glar-ing discrepancies and non-com-
pliances in the same."The election in Nandigram has
been conducted in complete con-travention to the constitution andthe laws governing elections inIndia. Suvendu Adhikari has en-gaged in several corrupt practicesthat have enhanced his winningchances and materially alteredMamata Banerjee's chance of suc-cess in the election.
Therefore, there are substantialgrounds for declaring the afore-said election of Nandigram (AC-2010) null and void in accordance
with Section 100 of theRepresentations of People Act,1951," the petition said. The electionresults for the West Bengal Assemblypoll were declared May 2, more thana month ago. As per the ElectionCommission, Adhikari, who joinedthe BJP after quitting the Trinamool,defeated Mamata Banerjee by 1,956votes. While Adhikari had polled1,10,764 votes, Banerjee had got1,08,808 votes. Adhikari's vote per-centage stood at 48.49 while that ofBanerjee was 47.64.
Justice Kausik Chanda, who wassupposed to hear the case on Friday,deferred the case till June 24.
MAMATA VS SUVENDU
HC defers Nandigram poll result hearingBANERJEE HAD FILED A PETITION
AGAINST HER ONE-TIME AIDEADHIKARI, IN THE CALCUTTA HIGHCOURT CHALLENGING HIS WIN INTHE ELECTION FROM NANDIGRAMAND PRAYED TO THE COURT FORDECLARING THE ELECTION NULL
AND VOID
IN HER PETITION, BANERJEEALLEGED THAT ADHIKARI HAS
COMMITTED CORRUPT PRACTICES,INCLUDING OFFENCES OF CORRUPT
PRACTICES OF BRIBERY, UNDUEINFLUENCE, SPREADING ENMITY,
PROMOTION OF HATRED ANDENMITY AMONGST THE CITIZENS
OF INDIA
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Mumbai, June 18: More than halfa crore people in Maharashtrahave become fully vaccinatedagainst coronavirus over the lastfive months as they have been ad-ministered both the doses of vac-cines, a report by the state healthdepartment has revealed.
A total of 53,72,219 people havegot both the doses till now, it said.
As per the Election Commissionof India's data shared ahead of2019 Assembly polls, there are atotal of nine crore people inMaharashtra who are above 18years of age. Considering that, thestate has been able to vaccinateslightly over five per cent popula-tion in the last five months. The na-tionwide vaccination drive beganon January 16 this year.
Maharashtra Health MinisterRajesh Tope has several timesclaimed that the state has an in-stalled capacity of inoculatingeight lakh people on a daily basis.However, the data revealed thatthe state has managed to administeraverage two lakh doses daily.
Of the fully vaccinated people,34,99,679 are from the above-45 agegroup category, followed by 8,47,938frontline workers, 8,05,318 healthcare workers and 2,19,284 under-45
age group, the report said.A total of 1,55,11,585 people from
above-45 age group have received
the first dose, while as many as12,38,085 health care workers havegot the first jab, the report said.
Over half crore in Maha fullyvaccinated in five months
‘People’s laxity may bring about 3rd wave’Mumbai: A possible third wave of the coronavirus infection could take placeif people do not follow outbreak norms like maintaining hygiene andwearing masks, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said Friday. Theminister also said there may be as many as 5,000 unreported Covid-19deaths in the state, and these would be reconciled with the overall tally afterall information about them is verified. He told a regional news channel thatit was not the crowd on the street that could trigger off a Covid-19 thirdwave, but "people not wearing masks and not following hygiene". "Nobodycan exactly predict a third wave. But by wearing masks and maintainingappropriate behavior, we can postpone its arrival and keep the impact to aminimum," Tope said. On the issue of Covid-19 deaths and the updating ofunreported cases on later days, Tope said the Maharashtra governmentwould never hide such figures, but, in some cases, private hospitals aredelaying in informing local civic authorities about fatalities in their facilities.
INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE
Gondia, June 18: In a bizarre de-velopment, a farmer has beenslapped with a penalty of `21,000for allegedly damaging a stone idolsymbolising the village deity athis farm and also threatened with'social boycott' if he failed to coughout the money, a Gondia police of-ficials said here Friday.
The incident occurred June 9when the peasant, Tikaram PPardhi was carrying out the groundlevelling work in his farm wherethe stone idol got accidentally dam-aged, enraging the Sitepar villageof around 2,600 people, said AmgaonPolice Inspector Vilas Nale.
"Later, the Sitepar VillagePanchayat met, ruled that the in-cident had hurt their religious sen-timents and imposed a fine of`21,000 with a threat of 'social boy-cott' if Pardhi refused to pay up.
Since this is illegal, we have initi-ated action against the concernedpersons there following the vic-tim's complaint," Nale told IANS.
The defiant Pardhi rejected thepunishment and countered the dik-
tat by lodging a complaint withAmgaon Police Station Wednesday(June 16) demanding action againstthe village elders, including a PolicePatil. The Investigating Officer BalrajLanjewar said that the villagers be-
lieve the stone deity is their 'Kul-Devta' and as per traditions, theykick-off the new annual crop seasonduring monsoon by worshippingthe deity which was allegedly dam-aged by Pardhi in his field.
The village Sarpanch Gopal FMeshram claimed that the fineamount would be used to repairthe stone idol, perform 'puja' and
sacrifice to appease the deity, andconstruct a small temple at the siteto prevent any such accidents in fu-ture. Pardhi said in his police com-plaint that he was not financiallywell-off and hence could not af-ford to pay the fine, after whichthe Panchayat warned him of a'social boycott'.
Nale revealed that besides theSarpanch Meshram, eight others,including the village Police Patil,have been booked under sectionsof Maharashtra Prohibition ofPeople from Social Boycott(Prevention, Prohibition andRedressal) Act, 2016 and servedthem notices.
The accused include: Police PatilUlhasrao B Bisen, Tekchand DMadavi, Rajendra H Bisen, PratapL Bisen, Yogesh H Bisen, Puran LBisen, Yadavrao S Bisen and SudhirH Bisen, and further investiga-tions are underway, Nale added.
Farmer faces ‘social boycott’ for damaging village deityThe incident occurredJune 9 when the peasantwas carrying out theground levelling work inhis farm where the stoneidol got accidentallydamaged, enraging the Sitepar village of around 2,600 people
AGENCIES
Nagpur, June 18: BJP leaderAshish Shelar Friday said the MahaVikas Aghadi government could notsave the OBC reservation given inMaharashtra local bodies by the pre-vious Devendra Fadnavis dispen-sation, and accused ruling partiesin the state of falsely blaming theCentre on this issue.
The Supreme Court had re-cently ordered that the number ofreserved seats, after taking into ac-count those earmarked for SC,ST categories etc, cannot exceed50 per cent of the strength of thelocal body.
He pinned the blame on dis-continuation of OBC quota in localbodies on Maharashtra ministerVijay Wadettiwar and ChhaganBhujbal and state Congress unitchief Nana Patole.
The BJP leader said the two peo-ple who had approached SupremeCourt against OBC quota in localbodies were close to the Congress,including one being the son of a for-mer MLA from Washim, and asked
Patole to come clean on this link.Shelar also claimed the Uddhav
Thackeray government did not col-lect any sort of empirical data onOBC numbers in local bodies overa period of 15 months ahead of thecourt case.
After the court order on OBCquota, parties like the NCP andCong ress were putting theblame on the BJP-led Centre,Shelar alleged.
INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE
New Delhi, June 18: The SupremeCourt on Friday agreed to hearthe appeals against the CalcuttaHigh Court order denying WestBengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee and Law Minister MoloyGhatak from filing affidavits ontheir role on the day of arrest of fourTrinamool Congreess leaders May17 by the CBI in Narada case.
A bench comprising JusticesHemant Gupta and VRamasubramanian, in its order,said, "Tushar Mehta, SG has put ap-pearance on behalf of the re-
spondents. Let a copy of these pe-titions be served upon the office ofthe Solicitor General. At the jointrequest of the parties, list the mat-ters on June 22. We hope that theHigh Court will not take up thematter June 21 and June 22."
The top court asked the HighCourt to consider the matter afterthe apex court considers the ap-peals of the state and Ghatakagainst the order.
A five-judge bench of the CalcuttaHigh Court on June 9, hearing theCBI's application for transfer ofthe Narada sting tape case fromthe special CBI court to the High
Court, had said it will considerlater the affidavits by Banerjeeand Ghatak.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi,
appearing for Ghatak, had saidthat the minister was attendingthe cabinet meeting and was not onthe court premises at the time ofhearing. He emphasised the CBI hadaddressed the court virtually.
The allegations levelled are thatTrinamool leaders played key rolein stopping the CBI from performingits legal duty after arresting fourparty leaders May 17 in the case.
Solicitor General Mehta hadcontended before the court thatthe affidavits cannot be accepted onthe ground of delay as they werefiled after the completion of his arguments.
AGENCIES
Kolkata, June 18: After the WestBengal government decided notto conduct the Madhyamik(Secondary) and Uccha Madhyamik(Higher Secondary) board exami-nations this year in view of theCovid-19 pandemic, the respectiveboards Friday announced the eval-uation pattern for Class X andClass XII students.
However, the boards announcedthat the students will have thechance to appear for the exams ifthey are not happy with the eval-uation whenever they are con-ducted, and in that case the marksobtained in the exams will be con-sidered as final.
The West Bengal Board of
Secondary Education gave 50 percent weightage each to the marksobtained by the students in ClassIX annual exams and the internalformative assessments in Class X.
The West Bengal Council ofHigher Secondary Education de-cided to segregate the theoreticalmarks into two parts, giving 40 percent weightage to the marks ob-tained in Madhyamik and another60 per cent weightage to the subjectmarks of the Class XI annual exams.
In addition to this, the studentswill also get the marks scored in thepractical exams or project works.
"We have two sets of marks forClass X students -- first, the marksobtained in Class IX exams, and sec-ond, the marks obtained in inter-nal formative assessments in ClassX. We will give equal preference (50per cent) to both the numbers andprepare the final marksheet," saidKalyanmoy Ganguly, the Presidentof West Bengal Board of SecondaryExamination. The results are ex-pected to be out in July this year,Ganguly added.
SC agrees to hear Mamata, Law Min on affidavitsA medical worker inoculates a beneficiary with a dose of the Covishield vaccine, at a theatre hall turned vaccination centre in Kolkata, Friday PTI PHOTO
SHOT OF HOPE
NARADA CASE
OBC quota in localbodies: BJP’s Shelarattacks Maha govt
Bengal announces evaluation pattern forClass X, XII board exams
INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE
Mumbai, June 18: In a majorbreakthrough, the Mumbai Policehave arrested five persons in con-nection with the allegedly fraud-ulent Covid-19 vaccination driveconducted at a posh housing soci-ety in Kandivali in May end, a topofficial said Friday.
The action follows a complaintlodged by the HiranandaniResidents Welfare Association of theposh Hiranandani Heritage Societyin Kandivali west with the localpolice Wednesday.
The society management hadorganised a private vaccinationcamp for its residents and in-housestaffers like security personnel,drivers or domestic helpers May 30.
Of the 435 flats in three residen-tial towers, around 390 residentshad been inoculated during thedrive that day, but belatedly realisedthat they may have been cheated.
Additional Commissioner of
Police, Mumbai North Region,Dilip Sawant said that no permis-sion of the BrihanMumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC) hadbeen taken for the private vacci-nation camp conducted at the so-ciety.
After the society’s complaint,the police moved swiftly and man-aged to arrest five persons --Mahendra Kuldeep Singh, 39,Sanjay Gupta, 25, Chandan Singh,32, Karim Akber Ali, 21 and NitinMore, 32 within 72 hours.
"So far, we have picked up fivepersons, including four fromMumbai and one from a railwaystation at Madhya Pradesh, whois being brought here for theprobe," Sawant said. The shakenresidents said that a facilitatorclaiming to represent the reputedKokilaben Dhirubhai AmbaniHospital (KDAH) had negotiatedto provide 400 vaccine doses for`1,260 each and around `5 lakhwas paid to him.
Police nab 5 for Covid vaxfraud at housing society
P8
nationalSATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
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An earthquake, of 4.2 magnitude, wasrecorded in Gujarat's Kutch Friday afternoon,officials said. According to the Institute ofSeismological Research (ISR), the quake,which occurred at 3.45 p.m., had its epicentrenear Bandhal, 11 km north by northwest ofBhachau, and its depth was 26.7 km
QUAKE SHAKES KUTCHWith manycorners of India
gradually moving towardsunlock from the secondwave, we cannot affordthe laxity and any furtherincrease in cases againHARSH VARDHAN | UNION HEALTH MINISTER
Punjabgovernmenthad said that
they had procured4.29 lakh doses ofCovishield at `13.25crore, which onaverage costs `309 per dose. Theyhad also procured 1,14,190 doses ofCovaxin at `4.7 crore, which onaverage costs `412 per dose. Theysold vaccines to private hospitals ata profit of `750 per dose
HARDEEP SINGH PURI | UNION MINISTER
of theday uote
The DMKgovernment istotally
responsible for therise in prices, withina month of the DMKunder Stalinassuming office, the prices ofessential commodities have shot up.The prices of construction material,especially cement, have gone up.The price of a bag of cement is now`520, which was `370 before theDMK came to power
L MURUGAN | TN BJP PRESIDENT
Public worshipwill be allowedin temples as
soon as the Covid-19cases are undercontrol and the statereports zero deathsdue to Covid
PK SEKAR BABU |TAMIL NADU MINISTER FOR HR&CE
92% scribesreceive vax Agartala: In collaboration withthe Agartala Press Club, theTripura government has so faradministered the first dose ofCovid vaccine to around 92per cent of the journalists inthe state, with many of themreceving the second shot aswell, officials said here Friday.The secretary of AgartalaPress Club (APC), PranabSarkar, said that besidesvaccinating the mediapersons,all the print and electronicmedia houses in Tripura arealso being sanitised regularly.
Man held for chit fund fraudNew Delhi: A man has beenarrested for allegedlycheating people by luringthem to invest in his chit fundscheme after offeringhandsome returns, police saidFriday. Mool Chand wasnabbed by the EconomicOffences Wing of the DelhiPolice Thursday for fraud andcheating, and was tracked viasurveillance and localintelligence, they said. Policesaid the accused lured peoplefrom his locality to invest inhis chit fund scheme byoffering handsome return andliquid funds.
Sonowal in Delhi New Delhi: Former Assamchief minister SarbanandaSonowal is in the nationalcapital to meet senior BJPleaders, sources said Friday.His arrival here thisafternoon comes amidspeculation of an impendingreshuffle in the UnionCabinet and his possibleinduction into it. Sonowalwas chief minister of theBJP-led Assam governmentfrom 2016 till last month.Even though the BJP-ledalliance returned to power,Sonowal was not made chiefminister and was replaced byHimanta Biswa Sarma.
Minor girl raped Nagaon: A minor girl wasallegedly raped by her maternaluncle in a village in Assam'sNagaon district, police saidFriday. The 11-year old girl wasallegedly raped by her unclewhen her parents were awayfrom home. Initially, the allegedrapist had told the parentsthat the girl was molested byanother person but the minorlater told her mother that heruncle had committed the act.The girl's mother filed acomplaint with the police andthe accused was arrestedThursday, the police added.
SHORT TAKES
Children dive into the Arabian Sea during high tide in Mumbai PTI PHOTO
FUN TIME
AGENCIES
New Delhi, June 18: Studies haveshown that following vaccinationthe chances of hospitalisation re-duce by 75-80 per cent even after con-tracting Covid and oxygen re-quirement comes down to 8 percent, the government said Friday.
Almost 85 per cent decline hasbeen noted in daily new cases sincethe highest reported peak May 7,it said. About 78.6 per cent declinehas been recorded in total activeCovid-19 cases since the peak re-ported May 10, it added.
A sharp decline of 81 per cent hasbeen noted in weekly case posi-tivity rate. It was the highest at21.6 per cent between April 30-May6, the government said.
There are 513 districts withCovid-19 positivity rate less than 5per cent, it said. The country'sCovid curve can be flattened byJuly end if the government is ableto vaccinate a whopping 90-lakhpeople a day, said healthcare ex-pert at a webinar.
The webinar held Thursday washosted by MeraDoc, a personalisedhealthcare platform that connectshighly experienced health practi-tioners with people. "We invitedthe second wave and if we were torepeat the same, then God help us!With a near double mortality ver-sus the first, the second was ashocker," Dr Naresh Trehan,Chairman and MD, MedantaHospital. "If we were to beat the
virus, then we need to not only fol-low Covid appropriate behaviour,but also look at the way vaccinesare rolled out. "If starting July 1,we are able to administer 50 lakhvaccines a day then we can reducethe virus impact by 25 per centand by 50 per cent if this is scaledup to 70 lakh by mid-July. We mayeven flatten the curve if we areable to vaccinate about 90-lakh peo-ple in a day by the end of the month,"Trehan said. Meanwhile, early thismonth, the government has saidthat there will be enough doses bymid-July or August to vaccinateone crore people per day. "We are con-fident of vaccinating the wholepopulation by December," IndianCouncil of Medical Research (ICMR)Director General Balram Bhargavahad said. The Health MinistryFriday said that a total of 26,89,60,399people have been vaccinated so farin the country, including 32,59,003who were administered vaccines inthe last 24 hours.
Currently, India is facing a vaccine shortage causing adelay in the nationwide vaccination programme
‘Vaccine reduceshospitalisationchances by 80%’
62,480 fresh casesWith 62,480 new coronavirusinfections being reported in aday, India's total tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 2,97,62,793,while the death toll climbed to3,83,490 with 1,587 freshfatalities, the lowest in 61 days,according to the Union HealthMinistry data updated Friday.The active cases have fallenbelow 8 lakh after 73 days andthe national Covid-19 recoveryrate has crossed 96 per cent.The active cases have declinedto 7,98,656 comprising 2.68 percent of the total infections,while the national Covid-19recovery rate has improved to96.03 per cent, the data updatedat 8 am showed.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, June 18: The south-west monsoon has further advancedinto some more parts of Gujarat,Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andUttar Pradesh, the IndiaMeteorological Department saidFriday.
Delhi will have to wait longer formonsoonal showers. The wind sys-tem is expected to reach the capi-tal around the usual date of June27, officials said.
However, conditions arefavourable for further advance ofthe monsoon into some more partsof Gujarat, south Rajasthan, west
Uttar Pradesh and remaining partsof Madhya Pradesh during nextthe next 24 hours, the IMD said.
The Northern Limit of Monsoon(NLM) passes through Junagarh,Deesa, Guna, Kanpur, Meerut,Ambala and Amritsar, the weatherdepartment said.
“The impact of mid-latitudewesterly on the monsoon is likelyto continue till June 23, and hencethe advance of the monsoon intoRajasthan, remaining parts Punjab,Haryana and Delhi is not likelyduring the same period,” the IMDhad said Thursday.
It had said the monsoon flow pat-tern is likely to organize and
strengthen gradually between June26 and June 30, and the further ad-vance to most parts of northwest
India is likely during the same period.The MeT office had earlier pre-
dicted that the wind system may
reach Delhi by June 15, 12 daysearly. Normally, the monsoonreaches Delhi by June 27 and cov-ers the entire country by July 8.
Last year, the wind system hadreached Delhi June 25 and coveredthe entire country by June 29, ac-cording to Skymet Weather, a pri-vate forecasting agency.
Mahesh Palawat from SkymetWeather said westerly winds havebeen blocking the advance of themonsoon in northwest India forthe last three to four days. “Thesewinds will persist for another week.Hence, chances are that Delhi willget monsoonal showers only aroundthe usual date of June 27,”he said.
DELHI WILL HAVE TO WAIT LONGER FOR MONSOONAL SHOWERS. THE WIND SYSTEM IS EXPECTED TO REACH THE CAPITAL AROUND THE USUAL DATE OF JUNE 27, OFFICIALS SAID
Southwest monsoon advances further into Guj, Raj, MP
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi/Chennai, June 18:Tamil Nadu Chief Minister andDMK president M K Stalin Fridaymet Congress chief Sonia Gandhiin New Delhi in the presence ofRahul Gandhi and described themeeting as “close to the heart.”
This is the first meeting betweenStalin and Sonia Gandhi after theDMK-Congress alliance swept theApril 6 Assembly polls in TamilNadu, with the Dravidian partycoming to power in the state aftera decade.
The leaders are learnt to have dis-cussed the new government's
schemes and policies in TamilNadu, where the Congress is a jun-ior partner.
Both Rahul Gandhi and Stalintook to Twitter to share about themeeting. “Congress President Smt.Sonia Gandhi and I had the pleas-ure of meeting Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister, Shri M K Stalin and Smt.Durgavathy Stalin earlier today,”Rahul Gandhi said in the tweet.
“We will keep working with theDMK to build a strong and pros-perous state for the Tamil people,”he added. Stalin, in his first visitto Delhi after being sworn in as
chief minister last month, also up-loaded pictures of his meetingwith the Congress chief and RahulGandhi along with his wife.
Referring to the ties with theCongress' top leaders, Stalin saidit was a “relationship continuingsince the days” of his father and lateDMK president M Karunanidhi.
“It felt close to the heart,” thechief minister said about themeeting. Earlier, Stalin had metPrime Minister Narendra ModiThursday and presented a num-ber of demands pertaining toTamil Nadu.
This is the first meetingbetween Stalin and
Sonia Gandhi after theDMK-Congress alliance
swept the April 6Assembly polls in Tamil
Nadu, with theDravidian party coming
to power in the stateafter a decade
Stalin meets Sonia, Rahul
INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE
Ranchi, June 18: Taking lessonsfrom the second wave of Covid-19,the Jharkhand government ispreparing to tackle the expectedthird wave of the pandemic.
To understand the nature, impactand preparations needed to fightagainst the anticipated third wave,Chief Minister Hemant Soren ishaving regular interactions withexperts and doctors from acrossthe nation.
Experts anticipate that in thethird wave children will be atgreater risk but this does not giveany guarantee of adults being un-affected. Experts suggest that thecoronavirus is mutating at a fastpace and any kind of lethargy maylead to serious complications. Withthe inputs received from the ex-perts, the state government is onhigh alert.
Efforts are being made to en-hance and upgrade the existingmedical infrastructure. The gov-ernment is also working on gen-erating awareness among people.Along with the government, par-ents are also expected to dischargetheir responsibilities.
Hemant Soren has also unveileda book which has detailed infor-mation on Preparation, Preventionand Planning for Covid-19 in thethird wave. Most children infectedwith Covid-19 may not show anysymptoms or may exhibit verymild symptoms. Common symp-toms include fever, cough, shortnessof breath, fatigue, body ache, run-ning nose, sore throat, diarrhoea,loss of taste or smell.
INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE
Gandhinagar, June 18: Withinjust three days of coming into ef-fect in Gujarat, the state registeredits first case of violation of the'Gujarat Freedom of Religion(Amendment) Act 2021' in VadodaraThursday, officials said Friday.
The police in Vadodara have ar-rested a Muslim man for marryinga Hindu woman by introducinghimself as Sam Martin - a Christian.
One Samir Abdulbhai Qureshi,25, residing in Tarsali area ofVadodara, has been arrested fol-lowing a complaint registered onThursday. A Hindu woman, 25,filed a complaint against Samirfor marrying her under the false pre-text of being a Christian.
“The Hindu woman has com-plained that she was lured into arelationship through Instagram bySamir, who said that he was aChristian, Sam Martin. She hascomplained that the accused hadforced her into physical rela-tionship and had photographed themoments. And he threatened herwith making them viral if shedid not marry him. They mar-ried in 2019,” SV Chaudhary, in-spector at Vadodara's Gotri po-lice station, said.
Guj registers firstcase of ‘Love Jihad’
Covid-19 thirdwave: J’khandon high alert
INDO-ASIAN NEW SERVICE
Golaghat (Assam), June 18: ARoyal Bengal Tiger has died due to"accidental firing" by forest per-sonnel Friday in the fringe areasof the world famous KazirangaNational Park and Tiger Reserve(KNP & TR) in eastern Assam, of-ficials said.
Director of the KNP & TR,Karmashree P. Sivakumar saidthat a carcass of the approx 10-year-old male Royal Bengal Tigerwas found near Japoripothar,Karuabari area (fringe area KNP& TR) by the forest personnel. "Onenquiry, it is found that the tiger dieddue to bullet wound suspected to beaccidental firing while trying toscare away the tiger from the pub-lic area. We are further conducting
a detailed inquiry into the inci-dent," Sivakumar said. "The tigerhad killed a buffalo two days backand reappeared Thursday evening.
Forest guards were immedi-ately sent to the area after thelocal people had informed aboutthe presence of the tiger.
On Friday morning, the tigerand the forest guards came veryclose to each other and the tiger
tried to attack them. After findingno other option, the forest guardsfired in self-defence," the senior IFSofficer said.
Sivakumar said that since thetiger was old, it possibly couldnot hunt in the forest and strayedout looking for livestock. This isthe third instance in the recentpast in which a tiger carcass wasrecovered from KNP & TR.
Stray firing by forest guards killsRoyal Bengal Tiger in Assam
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, June 18: With theflattening of the coronavirus curve,the Indian Railways has added 660more trains in June to facilitatethe movement of migrant labour-ers and clear the waiting list invarious origin-destination clus-ters, it said in a statement.
During the pre-Covid times,about 1,768 mail and express trainswere operating daily on an average.As Friday, about 983 mail and ex-press trains are being operateddaily, which is about 56 per cent ofthe pre-Covid level. The number oftrains is being enhanced gradu-ally in accordance with the de-mand and commercial justifica-tion, the railways said.
As June 1, about 800 mail andexpress trains were in operation."During the period from June 1to June 18, approval for operating660 additional mail/express trainshas been given to the zonal rail-
ways," it said. These include 552mail and express trains and 108holiday special trains.
The zonal railways have beenadvised to restore trains in agraded manner, keeping in viewthe local conditions, the demandfor tickets and the Covid situationin the region.
RLYS APPROVES660 MORE TRAINS
Set up in 1908, the KNP & TR, is one of India's seven UNESCO world heritagesites and extends across Assam's Golaghat, Nagaon, Sonitpur, Biswanath
and Karbi Anglong districts along the Arunachal Pradesh border
Representative image
P9
nationalSATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
There has been a talk of athird wave and experts points outthat it could affect our children. Wehave made elaborate arrangementsin all hospitals to ensure that properpaediatric care facilities are there,but there need be no fear about itPINARAYI VIJAYAN| KERALA CHIEF MINISTER
The owner of south Delhi’s‘Baba ka Dhaba’, KantaPrasad, allegedly attemptedsuicide and has beenadmitted to the SafdarjungHospital, police said Friday
OWNER OF ‘BABA KA DHABA’ ATTEMPTS SUICIDE
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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, June 18: Sea levels willrise around the LakshadweepIslands between 0.4 mm per year to0.9 mm per year and will affect air-port and residential areas, ac-cording to a study projecting dif-ferent greenhouse gas scenarios.
The study highlights that theworst possible inundation sce-narios projected for LakshadweepIslands are almost similar underdifferent emission scenarios andall the islands in the archipelagowould be vulnerable to impactfrom the rise in sea levels.
A team of scientists studied theclimate projections of sea levelrise and associated coastal inun-dation in atoll islands, a ring-shaped coral reef or island.
The team included AyshaJennath, Athira Krishnan, SaikatKumar Paul, Prasad K Bhaskaran,jointly from the Department ofArchitecture and Re gionalPlanning and Department of OceanEngineering and NavalArchitecture, IIT Kharagpur, withsupport from the Department ofScience and Technolo g y,Government of India under theClimate Change Programme (CCP).
One of the major threats in thecoming years is the rising sea leveland its significant impact on smallislands. This is for the first time that
climate model projections havebeen used to assess the potentialareas of inundation over the ar-chipelago of Lakshadweep Islands
in the Arabian Sea, the Scienceand Technology Ministry said."Sea level will rise around theLakshadweep Islands in the rangebetween 0.4 mm per year to 0.9mm per year," the study said.
It estimated that smaller is-lands Chetlat and Amini are ex-pected to have major land loss.Projection mapping indicated thatabout 60-70 per cent of existingshoreline would experience landloss in Amini and about 70-80 percent in Chetlat.
The present work highlightsthat larger islands Minicoy andthe capital Kavaratti are also vul-
nerable to sea level rise, and ex-pected to experience land lossalong 60 per cent of the existingshoreline. Sea level rise effects areseen to have the least impact onAndroth Island under all emis-sion scenarios. The research thatwas published in the journal'Regional Studies in Marine Science,Elsevier recently showed that thecoastal inundation could have widesocio-economic impact.
According to the team, pro-jected inundation due to sea levelrise can impact the islanders as res-idential areas are quite close tothe present coastline.
AGENCIES
New Delhi, June 18:The SupremeCourt Friday expressed its dis-pleasure over the Delhi High Courtdiscussing the entire anti-terrorlaw UAPA in a bail matter, andmade it clear the high court's ver-dicts granting bail to three studentactivists in a north-east Delhi riotscase will not be used as a prece-dent in any court in the country.
The top court, however, refusedto stay the verdicts early this weekon an appeal by the Delhi police. "Itis surprising that in a bail appli-cation, there is 100-page judgementdiscussing the entire law. That iswhat is troubling us.
"There are many questions whicharise as legality of the UAPA wasnot challenged before the highcourt. These were bail applica-tions," it observed.
The issue of reading down ofUAPA(UnlawfulActivities(Prevention) Act)is "im-portant" and can have "pan-Indiaramifications", said a vacationbench of Justices Hemant Guptaand V Ramasubramanian, addingthis law will require interpreta-tion by the apex court.
The apex court agreed to hear theappeals filed by the Delhi Police chal-lenging the verdicts of the highcourt and issued notices to JNU stu-dents Natasha Narwal andDevangana Kalita and Jamia stu-
dent Asif Iqbal Tanha seekingtheir responses. While refusing tostay the high court verdicts grant-ing bail to the three accused, thebench said these judgements willnot be treated as a precedent byany party before any court. "In themeantime, the impugned judgmentshall not be treated as a precedentand may not be relied upon by anyof the parties in any of the pro-ceedings. It is clarified that the re-lease of the respondents (Narwal,Kalita and Tanha) on bail is notbeing interfered at this stage," thebench said in its order. "Issue no-tice," it said, adding, "Let the counteraffidavits be filed within four weeks.List in the week commencing July19, 2021 on a non-miscellaneousday". Taking note of SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta's submissionthat the entire UAPA has been"turned upside down" by the highcourt in granting bail in the case,the bench said, "The issue is im-
portant and can have pan-Indiaramifications".
"We would like to issue notice andhear the other side," it added. Mehtaurged the apex court to stay thehigh court verdicts, saying thefindings arrived at in these judge-ments "virtually record acquittalfor these accused" and other ac-cused would also seek bail relyingon them. “The way the Act hasbeen interpreted, probably it willrequire interpretation by theSupreme Court. That is why weare issuing notice,” the bench said.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, ap-pearing for the student activists, saidthere is no doubt that the apexcourt should consider the ramifi-cations and interpretation of theUAPA so that there is a judgementon the issue from the top cour Atthe outset, Mehta referred to thejudgements of the high court andsaid, “the entire UAPA has beenturned upside down on its head”.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, June 18:The Ministryof Education is expected to soon de-cide on conducting the two re-maining editions of the engineer-ing entrance examinationJEE-Mains and the medical en-trance test NEET in August, ac-cording to officials.
"The situation is being reviewedto decide on the schedule of thepending editions of JEE-Mainsand whether NEET-UG can be con-ducted August 1," a senior officialsaid.
From the current academic ses-sion, JEE-Mains is being conductedfour times a year to offer flexibil-ity to students and a chance to im-prove their scores. The first phasein February was followed by the sec-ond phase in March, while the nextphases were scheduled for Apriland May. But those were postponedafter an exponential rise in thenumber of Covid-19 cases duringthe second wave of the pandemicin the country. The JEE-Advancedexam, which is conducted for ad-mission to the prestigious Indian
Institutes of Technology and theNational Institutes of Technology,was also postponed. The exam wasscheduled July 3.
While no further decision wastaken on NEET-UG, the registrationfor the exam, which was supposedto commence from May 1, was keptin abeyance. The ministry is alsoyet to decide on the fate of theCentral University CommonEntrance Test (CUCET).
The Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) Thursday an-nounced the marks tabulation pol-icy for the Class 12 exams, whichwere cancelled on June 1 in viewof the Covid situation. The sched-ule for the subsequent entranceexaminations is expected to be de-cided soon. According to the policydecided by a 13-member panel setup by the board, the theory paperevaluation formula is that a 30-percent weightage will be given to themarks obtained in Class 10, an-other 30-per cent weightage to theClass 11 marks and a 40-per centweightage to the Class 12 marks ob-tained in the unit test, mid-term andpre-board exams.
INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE
Gurugram, June 18:Amid a spikein the number of attacks on doctorsin various parts of the country,the Indian Medical Association(IMA) on Friday staged a protesthere, demanding implementationof central protection act for thehealthcare workers.
Vandana Narula, president ofIMA, Gurugram, said : "We de-
mand a zero tolerance on violenceagainst health workers."
"Around 1,500 doctors have diedduring Covid pandemic and it isnow time for a central protectionact for the health workers so thatanyone who attacks a doctor ordamages hospital property will bearrested under non bailablecharges," she said.
During the protest, doctors fromIMA Gurugram wore black masks
and created awareness about the sit-uation of doctors in India.
Sarika Verma, secretary of IMA,Gurugram, said: "88 per cent doc-tors are afraid of violence at theirworkplace and every death be-comes a cause of stress in the hos-pital.
No one can ensure whether thepatient will remain alive or notand it is important to understandthat doctors are on a very difficulttask. There is no role of a violencein a civilised society."
Doctor Karan Juneja said: "Weas junior doctors have spent 15months wearing PPE kits and per-formed our Covid duty, when pa-tients' kin would not look after
them. Nurses, cleaners, techni-cians, ambulance workers and jun-ior doctors looked after patientstill their last breath. Whenever adoctor died, it impacts the mentalhealth of doctors from all over thecountry.
"Several doctors are hesitant tomake their children doctors be-cause of the fear of assault insidehospitals. This violence has goneon too long and has to end now," saida doctor.
IMA members also submitted amemorandum to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi throughGurugram's Deputy Commissioner,seeking implementation of cen-tral protection act.
AGENCIES
New Delhi, June 18: Amid thecrisis in the Lok Janshakti Party(LJP), a five member delegationled by Chirag Paswan, son of partyfounder and former Union Ministerlate Ram Vilas Paswan, approachedthe Election Commission claim-ing that he was elected as partychief in 2019 for a period of five years.
The Lok Janshakti Party dele-gation met the Election CommissionFriday. Speaking to the media aftermeeting the Election Commission,Chirag said, "A five member dele-gation met the Commission andkept the matter before it."
He said that they apprised theElection Commission that in 2019he was elected the national presi-dent of the LJP and the national ex-ecutive has passed the resolutionfor the same. Chirag said, "I waselected as LJP President for a pe-riod of five years and after everyfive years election for the partychief is held."
Before me, the party founderRam Vilas Paswan was the partyPresident and his tenure was till2020, but due to his health issues hestepped down from the post as hewas also having responsibilitiesas an Union Minister, he said. "Thushe resigned from the post and thenational executive gave me thecharge of party chief," Chirag said,adding that he apprised the pollpanel about the same.
Chirag said that we have ap-
prised the Commission that 10 peo-ple, including five MPs have beensuspended from the party. He saidthat we also informed the poll panelthat these people are trying to claimto be the LJP and are using thesymbol of the party. "And asPashupati Kumar Paras is claim-ing to be the President of the party,thus it was necessary for us to pres-ent out side with the poll paneland apprise them of the entire situation."
Chirag said, "We have told theCommission that few people canclaim to be the LJP leaders, andas per the Constitution of the partyI am the president of the LJP till 2024and the entire national executive isworking with me. And I have re-quested the Commission if any-one claims that he is the Presidentof the LJP, we should be given achance to provide evidence." Hesaid that the poll panel has assuredhim of informing him if someoneclaims to be from the LJP.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, June 18: A DelhiCourt Friday dismissed the bailpleas of alleged middlemanChristian Michel in connectionwith alleged AgustaWestland scamrelated corruption case filed bythe CBI, and the money launderingcase by the EnforcementDirectorate.
Special CBI Judge Arvind Kumarrefused to grant relief to the Britishnational, who was extradited fromDubai in 2018. The court noted thatthe stage was not fit to grant himbail. In his bail applications movedon both the cases, the accused hadsaid he was not required for the pur-pose of investigation, and expressedwillingness to cooperate with theinvestigation.
The applications said that the ac-cused never sought to evade theprocess of law, and that no pur-pose will be served by keeping himin further custody.
They said Michel made no at-tempt to suborn witnesses, tamperwith documentary evidence, or inany other manner to obstruct thejudicial process.
The `3,600-crore alleged scamrelates to the purchase of 12 VVIPhelicopters from AgustaWestland.
Where is thecrisis in ourparty? The
same leaders whohave been levellingallegations for thelast couple of monthsare still making the noise, and theseleaders have not even been able tosecure an appointment with ArunSingh, the BJP in-charge forKarnataka
BS YEDIYURAPPA | K’TAKA CHIEF MINISTER
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Rajasthan willsoon becomeself-reliant in
medical oxygengeneration asmanufacturing plantsare being set up byvarious institutions
RAGHU SHARMA | RAJ HEALTH MINISTER
The BJP is upsetover its defeat in
the panchayatelections. Not havingthe numbers, thedistraught BJPleadership ismisusing the governmentmachinery to ensure that theirparty nominees win the posts of zilapanchayat chairpersons
AKHILESH YADAV | SP PRESIDENT
UP ATS arrestsfour RohingyasLucknow: The Uttar Pradeshpolice on Friday arrested fourRohingyas, saying they wereliving illegally in India andpart of an organised ganginvolved in human trafficking.The gang members werearrested from Meerut,Aligarh and Bulandshahrdistricts, the Anti-TerrorismSquad (ATS) of the UttarPradesh Police said in astatement. According to thepolice, the gang wasinvolved in preparing forgedvoter cards, Aadhaar cardsand passports besideshuman trafficking.
Naxal killedin encounterRaipur: A woman Naxal waskilled in a gun-battle withsecurity forces inside a forestin Bastar district ofChhattisgarh Friday, a seniorpolice officer said. Threeweapons and a huge cache ofMaoist camping material wererecovered from the encountersite, he said. The gunfighttook place around 8 am in theforest of Chandameta-Pyarbhat villages when jointteams of security forces wereout on an anti-Naxaloperation, Inspector Generalof Police (Bastar range)Sundarraj P said.
Tiger killed Umaria: A tiger was killedafter being mowed down by avehicle while crossing anational highway in Gunghuttirange of Umaria forestdivision in Madhya Pradeshearly Friday, an official said.The incident occurred on NH-43, around 35 kms away fromUmaria district headquarters,he said. “It appears that somelight vehicle hit the big cataround 3 am. The body partsof the tiger were intact,”Umaria Divisional ForestOfficer (DFO) Mohit Sood toldPTI over phone.
Standalonebuildings soonChandigarh: The PunjabCabinet led by Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh Friday gave the go-ahead forregularisation of standalonebuildings constructed outsidethe municipal limits, withoutapproval of the Housing andUrban DevelopmentDepartment but with strictadherence to the building by-laws. The on-time settlementpolicy, for which applicationswill be accepted till March 31next year would enable suchbuildings to be regularisedwith payment of a nominalfee and statutorygovernment dues, besidesbringing them within theambit of planning and ensuresafety of public.
SHORT TAKES
Chirag approaches EC Chirag was removed as leader of the LJP in the Lok
Sabha Monday after five out of six MPs, including hisuncle Paras, staged a coup against him
AGUSTAWESTLAND SCAM
Court dismissesMichel's bail pleas
Climate change to increase sea level in Lakshadweep: StudySEA LEVEL WILL RISE AROUND THE LAKSHADWEEP ISLANDS IN THE RANGE BETWEEN 0.4 MM PER YEAR TO 0.9 MM PER YEAR
IMA seeks protection for healthcare workers
Decision on pendingentrance exams of JEE,NEET soon: Edu Min
Cases of violence against doctors and other healthcare workers have been reported lately fromsome parts of the country, including Jammu and
Kashmir and Assam among other places
Commuters wade through a waterlogged road during heavy rain in Prayagraj PTI PHOTO
BRAVING THE ODDS
Top court refuses to stay Pinjra Tod activists’ bail
Fragments of nCoVgenes found inSabarmati riverPRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Ahmedabad, June 18: A recentstudy by researchers at the IndianInstitute of Technology (IIT)Gandhinagar in Gujarat has es-tablished the presence of coron-avirus in water samples from theSabarmati river and two lakes inAhmedabad.
While the study, funded by theUNICEF, did not reveal if the genesof coronavirus found in the watersamples were dead or alive,Professor Manish Kumar, who ledthe research, has emphasised theneed for further probe on the sub-ject to avert any future tragedy.
Following the revelation, theAhmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC) has decided to send samplesfrom these water bodies to theGujarat Biotechnology ResearchCentre (GBRC). " We have beensending samples to them since thelast one year and they submit theirreport to the state government.We have no idea about the IIT's re-search. However, we will now sendsamples of these water bodies to theGBRC for a similar analysis," saidHarpalsinh Zala, the AMC's city en-gineer for Water Resources.
Representative image
Representative image
P10SATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
The truth is, it’s simplynot enough to
commemorate Juneteenth. Afterall, the emancipation of enslavedBlack Americans didn’t mark theend of America’s work to deliveron the promise of equality, itonly marked the beginningJOE BIDEN | PRESIDENT, US
A 1,098-carat diamond believed to bethe third-largest gem-quality stoneever to be mined has been discoveredin Botswana, according to a jointventure between Anglo American’sDe Beers and the government
WORLD’S 3RD LARGEST DIAMOND
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internationalAny actioncarried out bythe President
as per Article 76 ofthe Constitutioncannot become asubject of anypetition and this cannot be an issuefor a judicial review
BIDYA DEVI BHANDARI | PRESIDENT, NEPAL
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On the S-400,they discussedit. There was
not a resolution ofthe issue. There wasa commitment tocontinue thedialogue on the S-400, and the twoteams will be following up on thatcoming out of the meeting
JAKE SULLIVAN | NATIONAL SECURITY
ADVISER, US
Innovativeinstruments toallow debt
restructuring andmeaningful debtreduction can helpmiddle-incomecountries expand their fiscal spaceto boost investment and steer aresilient and sustainable recoveryfrom the crisis
ANTONIO GUTERRES | SECRETARY-GENERAL, UN
Indian-origin judgeelected to Canada SCToronto: Indian-origin JusticeMahmud Jamal has becomethe first non-white person tobe nominated to the SupremeCourt of Canada. He has beenelevated from the Court ofAppeal for Ontario where hehas served since 2019. “I ampleased to announce thenomination of JusticeMahmud Jamal to theSupreme Court of Canada.Respected around the world,Canada’s Supreme Court isknown for its strength,independence, and judicialexcellence, “ PM Trudeau saidwhile nominating JusticeJamal to the apex court.
UK to jab all adultsamid Delta surge London: The UK’s healthofficials Friday opened up thecountry’s Covid-19 vaccinationprogramme to all adults, inwhat has been dubbed as the“final push” to offer protectionagainst the deadly virus. TheNational Health Service (NHS)said everyone aged 18 andover is being urged to arrangea jab if they have not had oneas it begins sending around1.5 million texts to peopleaged 18-20. According to thelatest figures, around eight in10 adults have had their firstdose while more than halfhave had their second dose.
HK paper executivescharged with collusionHong Kong: Hong Kong policecharged the chief editor andchief executive of pro-democracy tabloid Apple DailyFriday with collusion with aforeign country, a nationalsecurity case that has sentchills through the city’s media.The raid on the paper’s officesfollowed by the arrestsThursday marked the first timethe sweeping national securitylaw, which Beijing imposed onHong Kong last year, was usedagainst the media, one of thesymbols of civil liberties in thesemi-autonomous city thatdon’t exist elsewhere in China.
Fighting in 200Afghan areas Kabul: Fighting between theAfghan National Security andDefence Forces (ANDSF) andthe Taliban were reportedacross 200 areas in 24 hoursamid escalating violence inthe war-torn country, officialdata revealed. The DefenceMinistry Thursday claimed that148 Taliban fighters were killedin the fighting with Afghansecurity forces, and more than160 others were wounded.Meanwhile, the Talibanclaimed to have killed over 50security force members.
SHORT TAKES
AGENCIES
Berlin, June 18: A team of Germanresearchers is teaching drones tohunt for human screams and whilethat sounds quite grim, a bit ter-rifying, the technology is beingdeveloped for an extremely goodcause.
The researchers from Germany’sFraunhofer FKIE institute havedeveloped a drone-carried acousticssystem to find people stuck in dis-tressed situations. The idea willcome in handy if a person is stuckunder a pile of rubble after a nat-ural disaster and first responderscouldn’t locate him.
The engineers from the insti-tute have already built a drone pro-
totype designed to find people bydetecting human screams and lis-tening for other signs of distress.
Macarena Varela, one of thelead engineers demonstrated the de-velopment of their project lastweek at an annual conferencehosted by the Acoustic Society ofAmerica. The engineer added thatthe gadget would be ideal for post-disaster scenarios linked with nat-ural calamities like earthquakes,hurricanes and wildfires. Thedrones could hover over an areawhere the rescue crews are facingdifficulty reaching and it can pin-point the exact location where theaffected people may be trapped.
“[Drones] can cover a largerarea in a shorter period of time than
rescuers or trained dogs on theground,” Varela said. “If there’s acollapsed building, it can alert andassist rescuers. It can go places
they can’t fly to or get to them-selves.”
Unmanned aerial vehicles anddrones are a better alternative to
assess the damage when disastersstrike. Some drones have thermalimaging capabilities to scan theheat signature from body, whilelarger drones are helpful in carryingout the medical supplies and othergoods to people in need.
The Aerospace Corporation isworking on drones which can vi-sually identify dogs and share theirlocation with rescue teams. TheUniversity of Zurich developed adrone to change shape midflight tofit into oddly shaped crevices.
The German start-up to makedrones is looking to convey threeseparate packages: To locate peo-ple using aerial acoustics whichpresents its own fair share of ob-stacles. An auditory system that can
recognise the difference betweenhuman cries, animal calls andsound of nature. It might also needto identify patterns associated withother human activities like kickingand clapping which people createto get the attention of the rescueteams.
While all these challenges are al-ready prevailing, engineers at FKIEare preparing a database of “im-pulsive” human noises to train thedrone. They have recorded them-selves screaming, tapping and cre-ating other noises that might be asign of people in trouble. Afterthis, they analysed each sound fre-quency to find common “signa-tures” and used those to train artificial intelligence software.
Scientists teaching drones to hunt down human screams
An aerial view shows houseboats anchored in low water levels at Lake Oroville, which is the second-largest reservoirin California and according to daily reports of the state’s Department of Water Resources is near 35% capacity, nearOroville, California REUTERS
HEAT WAVE BAKES WEST
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Seoul, June 18: North Koreanleader Kim Jong Un ordered his gov-ernment to be prepared for both di-alogue and confrontation with theBiden administration — but morefor confrontation, state media re-ported Friday, days after the UnitedStates and others urged the Northto abandon its nuclear programmeand return to talks.
Kim’s statement indicates he’lllikely push to strength his nucleararsenal and increase pressure onWashington to give up what NorthKorea considers a hostile US pol-icy, though he’ll also prepare fortalks to resume, some experts say.
During an ongoing ruling partymeeting Thursday, Kim analysedin detail the policy tendencies of theUS under President Joe Biden andclarified unspecified steps to betaken in relations with Washington,
the Korean Central News Agencysaid.
In 2018-19, Kim held a series ofsummits with then-PresidentDonald Trump to discuss his ad-vancing nuclear arsenal. But theirnegotiations fell apart after Trumprejected Kim’s calls for extensivesanctions relief in return for apartial surrender of his nuclear ca-pability.
Biden’s administration hasworked to formulate a new ap-proach on North Korea’s nuclearprogram that it describes as “cal-ibrated and practical.”
Details of his North Korea pol-icy haven’t been publicized, but USofficials have suggested Biden wouldseek a middle ground betweenTrump’s direct meetings with Kimand former President BarackObama’s “strategic patience” tocurb Kim’s nuclear program.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
London, June 18: In a surpris-ing result, British Prime MinisterBoris Johnson’s Conservative Partyhas been easily defeated in a spe-cial election for a seat that it has heldfor decades.
The Liberal Democrats, whichwas in a coalition government withthe Conservatives between 2010and 2015 before seeing its electoralfortunes wane dramatically, wonThursday’s election in Chesham andAmersham, 35 miles (57 kilome-ters) northwest of London.
Sarah Green, the Liberal Democratcandidate, picked up around 57 percent of the vote and won a seat theConservatives have held since it wascreated in 1974. She added around 30percentage points to the party’s re-sult from the 2019 general election.
“This Conservative Party hastaken people across the countryfor granted for far too long,” Green
said Friday. Her party leader, EdDavey, said the result sent a “shock-wave through British politics” byshowing that the “Blue Wall” ofConservative seats in southernEngland could be vulnerable.
The Conservatives have madebig inroads into Labour’s “RedWall” in recent years, winning aswathe of seats on a combination
of factors, notably Johnson’s in-sistence that he would ensure thatBritain leaves the European Unionafter years of parliamentary hag-gling. Having secured that, Johnsonhas managed to capture more sup-port in Labour’s heartland by prom-ising to “level up” Britain throughbig infrastructure spending andother initiatives.
NUCLEAR TUSSLE
Kim ready for confrontation with USThe need to get prepared forboth dialogue andconfrontation, especially toget fully prepared forconfrontation in order toprotect the dignity of ourstate and its interests forindependent developmentKIM JONG UN | NORTH KOREA LEADER
UK’s Conservatives suffer defeat in ‘Blue Wall’ seat
Iran votes for nextPrez with hardlinerRaisi as frontrunner
ISRAELI FORCES ATTACK AL-AQSA PROTESTERS
Delta variant becomingglobally dominant: WHO
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Geneva, June 18: The Delta vari-ant of Covid-19, first identified inIndia, is becoming the globallydominant variant of the disease, theWorld Health Organization’s chiefscientist said Friday.
Soumya Swaminathan alsovoiced disappointment in the fail-ure of CureVac’s (5CV.DE) vaccinecandidate in a trial to meet theWHO’s efficacy standard, in par-ticular as highly transmissiblevariants boost the need for new,effective shots.
Britain has reported a steep risein infections with the Delta variant,while Germany’s top public healthofficial predicted it would rapidlybecome the dominant variant theredespite rising vaccination rates.
The Kremlin blamed a surge inCovid-19 cases on reluctance tohave vaccinations after record newinfections in Moscow, mostly withthe new Delta variant, fanned fearsof a third wave.
Nepal SC interim orderagainst export of sand,pebbles, stones to IndiaPRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Kathmandu, June 18: Nepal’sSupreme Court Friday issued an in-terim order against the govern-ment’s decision to export sand,stones and pebbles to India in abid to bridge the widening tradedeficit, after environmentalistsand Opposition leaders raised con-cerns that the move will have se-rious environmental implicationsfor the Himalayan nation.
A joint bench of Chief JusticeCholendra SJB Rana, justices MiraKhadka, Hari Krishna Karki andBishwambhar Prasad Shresthaasked the government of belea-guered Prime Minister K P SharmaOli not to implement its policy toextract sand, pebbles and stones forexport until there is a final decisionon the case.
During the unveiling of thebudget for fiscal year 2021-22,Finance Minister Bishnu Paudelhad announced that the govern-ment would export these materialsto reduce the widening trade deficitfacing the country.
Currently, Nepal has put a banon the export of sand, stones andpebbles. Nepal’s Opposition par-ties have also taken serious objec-tion to the government’s decisionto export sands and pebbles.Environmentalists have alsowarned the government againstthe decision, pointing to its seriousimplication to the country’s envi-ronment.
They had raised concern thatthis decision, if implemented,would destroy the Chure range ofhills near the southern border ofthe country and invite environ-mental disasters.
The Supreme Court in its in-terim order said that the govern-ment’s decision violates Articles 30and 51 of the Constitution, saidsenior advocate Dinesh Tripathi,one of the writ petitioners.
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Jerusalem, June 18: Palestiniansprotested after Friday prayers atthe Al-Aqsa mosque compoundin Jerusalem and briefly clashedwith Israeli police, leaving threedemonstrators wounded.
A series of far more violentclashes at the site in April andMay helped ignite last month’s11-day Gaza war. The site is thethird holiest in Islam and the holi-est for Jews, who refer to it as theTemple Mount because it was thelocation of the biblical temples.
It has frequently been the sceneof Israeli-Palestinian violence.The Red Crescent emergencyservice said two Palestinianswere wounded by rubber bulletsand a third by a stone that wasthrown.
Young Palestinians could beseen throwing stones at police sta-tioned at an entrance to the com-pound, who fired stun grenades and
rubber-coated bullets.Hundreds demonstrated after
Friday prayers in response to arally held by Jewish ultranation-alists Tuesday in which dozens hadchanted “Death to Arabs” and “Mayyour village burn.”
The Palestinians protestedagainst insulting Islam’s ProphetMuhammad, after online videoshowed some of the participantsin the Tuesday march denigratinghim.
This time, the policerefrained from enteringthe compound andappeared to act withmore restraint, possiblyon the orders of Israel’s newly sworn-in government
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Dubai, June 18: Iran voted Fridayin a presidential election tippedin the favour of a hard-line pro-tege of Supreme Leader AyatollahAli Khamenei, fuelling public ap-athy and sparking calls for a boy-cott in the Islamic Republic.
State-linked opinion polling andanalysts put hard-line judiciarychief Ebrahim Raisi as the domi-nant front-runner in a field of justfour candidates. Former CentralBank chief, Abdolnasser Hemmati,is running as the race’s moderatecandidate but hasn’t inspired thesame support as outgoing PresidentHassan Rouhani, who is term lim-ited from seeking the office again.
If elected, Raisi would be thefirst serving Iranian presidentsanctioned by the US governmenteven before entering office overhis involvement in the mass exe-cution of political prisoners in
1988, as well as his time as the headof Iran's internationally criticizedjudiciary — one of the world’s topexecutioners.
It also would firmly put hard-lin-ers in control across the Iranian gov-ernment as negotiations in Viennacontinue over trying to saveTehran’s tattered nuclear deal withworld powers, as it enriches ura-nium to the closest point yet toweapons-grade levels.
Tensions remain high with boththe US and Israel, which is be-lieved to have carried out a seriesof attacks targeting Iranian nu-clear sites and assassinating the sci-entist who created its militaryatomic program decades earlier.
Raisi, wearing a black turbanthat identifies him in Shiite tradi-tion as a direct descendant of Islam’sProphet Muhammad, voted from amosque in southern Tehran, wav-ing to those gathered to cast ballots.
“I beg everyone, the lovely youths,and all Iranian men and womenspeaking any accent or languagefrom any region and with any po-litical views, to go and vote andcast their ballots,” Raisi said.
There are more than 59 million el-igible voters in Iran, a nation hometo over 80 million people. However,the state-linked Iranian StudentPolling Agency has estimated aturnout of just 42 per cent, whichwould be the lowest ever since thecountry’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
If elected, Raisi would bethe first serving Iranianpresident sanctioned bythe US government even
before entering office overhis involvement in the
mass execution of politicalprisoners in 1988
THE ENGINEERS FROM THE INSTITUTE HAVE ALREADY BUILT A DRONE PROTOTYPE DESIGNED TO FIND PEOPLE BY DETECTINGHUMAN SCREAMS AND LISTENING FOR OTHER SIGNS OF DISTRESS
P11
businessSATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
Closing the global skillsgap is one of the most
pressing issues of our time. That iswhy I’m proud of thesepartnerships, which will helppeople of all backgrounds acquirethe skills they need to thrive in afast-changing global economyARVIND KRISHNA | CEO, IBM
Alphabet unit Google could face itsbiggest regulatory threat, with EUantitrust regulators set to open a formalinvestigation into its lucrative digitaladvertising business before the end of theyear, said people familiar with the matter
GOOGLE’S ADTECH BIZTO FACE EU PROBE
cmyk
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I am happy toinform that thebanking sector
was in strongposition when Covidhit. The preliminarydata suggest that interms of CRAR that has beenimproved upon, the profitability hasbeen improved upon, provisioncoverage ratio that has also beenimproved over the previous year
MK JAIN | DEPUTY GOVERNOR, RBI
of theday uote
India needs allkinds oftechnology to
serve its digitalambitions, and thetechnology-neutralstance will serve as aprime catalyst for the requiredgrowth
PD VAGHELA | CHAIRMAN, TRAI
The secondwave of Covidmay worsen
stressed assets in thebanking system,adding pressure onthe financial stability
RAKESH MOHAN |FORMER DEPUTY GOVERNOR, RBI
AAI staff warn of‘industrial action’Mumbai: A joint forum of AAI'semployees and officers haswarned the management of"industrial action" if it goesahead with a recent proposalof reduction or deferrals insalary perks, as part of thenational airport operator'seconomic revival plan amidthe pandemic. The Joint Forumof Unions and Associations ofAAI dubbed the proposaldiscussed at various videoconferences (VCs) with themanagement with arecognised union and otherassociations as "unscientific".
Ampere Vehiclescuts scooter pricesMumbai: Greaves Cotton's e-mobility arm Ampere VehiclesFriday cut the prices of itsscooters by up to `9,000following the governmentincreasing subsidy forelectric two-wheelers by 50per cent under the FAME-IIscheme. Following thisdownward revision in theprices, Ampere's Zeal willcarry a price tag of `59,990 asagainst `68,990 earlier, thecompany said. Similarly,Magnus Pro model is nowpriced at `65,990 from `74,990earlier, it said.
India’s mineralproduction up 37%New Delhi: India’s mineralproduction rose by 37.1% inApril 2021 over the samemonth a year ago, accordingto the mines ministry. Theindex of mineral production ofmining and quarrying sectorfor the month stood at 108,which was 37.1% higher fromthe level in April 2020, theministry said. The productionlevel of important mineralsthis year includes coal 516Ltonnes, natural gas (utilised)2,583 million cubic metre,petroleum (crude) 25L tonnes,bauxite 16.61L tonnes,chromite 6.36L tonnes andgold 120 kg.
Aster partnerswith Dr Reddy’sNew Delhi: Aster DMHealthcare Friday said it hastied up with Dr Reddy'sLaboratories to administer theCovid-19 vaccine Sputnik V aspart of a limited pilot softlaunch. The Kochi-basedhealthcare provider wouldinitially inoculatebeneficiaries in (Kochi) Keralaand Kolhapur (Maharashtra)as part of the initiative. "Welook forward to building astrong partnership with DrReddy's across our network ofhospitals to furtherstrengthen our efforts inproviding easy access andvaccinating the community,"Aster DM Healthcare CEOHarish Pillai said.
SHORT TAKES
REUTERS
Chennai, June 18: Shares of com-panies controlled by Indian bil-lionaire Gautam Adani recordedtheir biggest weekly losses ever.The six stocks cumulatively lost1.91 trillion Indian rupees ($25.83billion) of value over five daysthrough Friday.THE FUNDS
According to an Indian news-paper that reported Monday theaccounts of three Mauritius-basedfunds, which are among the topforeign investors in Adani groupcompanies, had been frozen by theNational Securities Depository Ltd(NSDL).
The NSDL website showed ac-counts held by the three fundsfrozen as of May 31, among thou-sands of others, without citing a rea-son, according to a review by
Reuters. The exact date of thefreeze is unknown and the accountsremained frozen Friday, accord-ing to the website.DENIALS, CONTRADICTIONS
The Adani Group firms, in iden-tical statements issued to stock ex-changes, rejected media reports, in-cluding in the Economic Times,as “blatantly erroneous.”
The companies, which are inthe businesses of operating air-ports and ports, power generationand transmission, coal and gastrading, said the accounts in whichthe funds hold Adani shares werenot frozen. NSDL and India’s se-curities regulator SEBI did not re-spond to requests for commentfrom Reuters.
But a senior NSDL official, whodeclined to be identified, toldReuters on Monday the funds havemultiple accounts and that the
Adani shares were held in other ac-counts that were not frozen, addingthat freeze was "not new". Theshares of the Adani companieshowever have continued to fall.THE FUNDS
The three foreign funds - Albula
Investment Fund, Cresta Fund andAPMS Investment Fund - are all reg-istered at the same address, ac-cording to the Mauritius financialregulator.
The funds cumulatively control2.7% of all shares in the Adani
Group companies as on June 11, cal-culations based on an e-mail sentby Adani executive to NSDL and re-viewed by Reuters showed.
Two other Mauritius-based fundsthat are also investors in Adanicompanies - LTS Investment Fundand Asia Investment Corp - arealso registered at the same address.
Reuters was unable to find awebsite for all five funds, and callsto the phone numbers provided toMauritius regulators went unan-swered.
The five funds deployed 94.4%-97.9% of their total capital in Adanicompanies' shares, data by Indianstocks analysis firm Trendlyneshowed. Reuters could not inde-pendently verify Trendlyne data.
Four of the six Adani stockshave a public shareholding of about25% - the minimum level man-dated by regulators for companies
listed on Indian exchanges.Indian stock exchange data
shows most shares of Adani Groupcompanies are held by trusts con-trolled by Adani. Foreign portfo-lio investors are the next largestshareholders, while retail and do-mestic investors typically controlabout 5%.THE IMPACT
After falling 0.4-8.5% Monday,the day of the Economic Times re-port, Adani group stocks fell be-tween 7.1%-22.6% over the week-compared with last Friday's close,wiping out nearly 22% of the gainsin the year preceding this week.
The decline saw the firms' cu-mulative market capitalisation de-cline by over a sixth. FlagshipAdani Enterprises rose 8.76% andAdani Ports rose 7.33% on Friday,but the four other Adani stockseach closed 5% lower.
Mystery behind near `2tn slump in Adani Group sharesEXPLAINED
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Mumbai, June 18: Reserve BankGovernor Shaktikanta Das haspitched for policy support from allsides: fiscal, monetary and sec-toral, to nurture recovery of theeconomy hit by the second wave ofthe coronavirus pandemic.
The dent on economic activitydue to the second wave of the pan-demic during April-May necessi-tated continuation of monetarymeasures to support the process ofeconomic recovery to make itdurable, Das had said while par-ticipating in the meeting of theMonetary Policy Committee (MPC)earlier in the month.
"Overall, the second wave ofCovid-19 has altered the near-termoutlook, and policy support fromall sides – fiscal, monetary and sec-toral – is required to nurture re-covery and expedite return to nor-malcy," Das said, as per the minutesof the meeting released Friday.
Going forward, the governorsaid the pace of vaccination and thespeed with which the second wavecan be brought under control willhave considerable bearing on theevolving growth as well the infla-tion trajectory.
The Reserve Bank remains com-mitted to undertake pro-active con-ventional and unconventional meas-ures and to effectively channellingthe systemic liquidity to alleviatestress of critical sectors whichhave borne the brunt of the secondwave, he said.
Das, and the other five membersof the MPC: Shashanka Bhide,Ashima Goyal, Jayanth R Varma,Mridul K Saggar and Michael
Debabrata Patra -- had voted forkeeping the policy repo rate un-changed at 4 per cent.
RBI Deputy Governor Patra ob-served that unlike in the first wave,supply conditions have remainedrelatively resilient in the secondwave, but aggregate demand bar-ring net exports has been dentedand needs counter-pandemic pol-icy support.
Even the turnaround in net ex-ports is fragile and heavily de-pendent on the strength of the vac-cination propelled revival in
external demand, which may bepartially offset by the terms oftrade loss on account of the rise ininternational commodity prices,particularly crude oil, he noted.
Patra further said the MPC hascreated the necessary conditions forsupporting growth by maintain-ing the policy rate at its lowestlevel ever.
"The onus is on the Reserve Bankto operationalise the MPC's guid-ance on an ongoing basis by en-suring congenial financial condi-tions across the system as well asfor specific sectors, instrumentsand institutions," he said.
RBI Executive Director MridulK Saggar said the solace is thateconomic growth has not fallenoff the cliff in Q1 as it did ayear ago.
It is possible that that initialGDP estimates do not provide fullvisibility and the impact on in-formal and unorganised economymay be deeper, he said.
‘Support from all sides neededto nurture economic recovery’
Overall, the secondwave of Covid-19 has
altered the near-termoutlook, and policy supportfrom all sides, fiscal,monetary and sectoral, is required to nurturerecovery and expeditereturn to normalcySHAKTIKANTA DAS I GOVERNOR, RBI
AGENCIES
Mumbai, June 18: Clearing thedecks for the takeover of crisis-ridden Punjab and MaharashtraCooperative (PMC) Bank byCentrum Financial Services, theReserve Bank of India hasgranted its “in principle” ap-proval to it for setting up a smallfinance bank (SFB).
The "in-principle" approval hasbeen accorded in specific pursuanceto Centrum Financial ServicesLtd's offer dated February 1, 2021,in response to the Expression ofInterest notification datedNovember 3, 2020, published bythe PMC Bank, the RBI said in astatement Friday.
"The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)has today decided to grant 'in-prin-ciple' approval to Centrum FinancialServices Ltd (the applicant) to setup a small finance bank under gen-eral 'Guidelines for on tap Licensingof Small Finance Banks in thePrivate Sector' dated December 5,2019," it said.
The central bank will considergranting a licence for commence-ment of banking business underSection 22 (1) of the BankingRegulation Act, 1949, on being sat-isfied that the applicant has com-plied with the requisite conditionslaid down by the RBI as part of "inprinciple" approval.
In March, the RBI had furtherextended the restrictions on thebank till June 30. The central bankhad then said that the process of re-construction will be commenced assoon as the aforesaid objectives areachieved to the best possible extent.
The PMC Bank had received
binding offers from certain in-vestors for its reconstruction, in re-sponse to the EOI dated November3, 2020 floated by the bank.
The RBI and the PMC Bank arepresently engaging with prospec-tive investors in order to securebest possible terms for the depos-itors and other stakeholders whileensuring long term viability of thereconstructed entity, the RBI hadsaid in March, adding that given thefinancial condition of the PMCBank, the process is complex andis likely to take some more time.
PMC BANK RESOLUTION
RBI clears way forCentrum to set up SFB
The central bank will consider granting a licence for commencement of banking business underSection 22 (1) of theBanking Regulation Act,1949, on being satisfiedthat the applicant hascomplied with the requisite conditions laiddown by the RBI as partof “in principle” approval
REUTERS
Milan, June 18:Ferrari andAmazon Web Services (AWS) haveentered an agreement to makeAmazon's cloud computing unitthe luxury carmaker's cloud stor-age, machine learning, and ar-tificial intelligence provider, AWSsaid Friday.
The deal will help Ferraristreamline design and testing ofits cars, and allow its ScuderiaFerrari Formula One racing teamto launch a digital fan engage-ment platform, AWS said in a statement.
"Together, the companies willaccelerate the pace of innovationacross the entire Ferrari organi-zation", including their road carsdepartment, GT Competitions,the Ferrari Challenge, and theFormula One team, it added.
Ferrari will rely on AWS'sadvanced analytics, machinelear ning, compute, storage,and database capabilities "torapidly achieve insights intocar design and performanceon the road and track," AWSsaid.
Ferrari said in a separatestatement that the engagementplatform it will with AWS wasaimed to increasingly connectFor mula One fans with thedaily life of its racing teamand its drivers, "through per-sonalisation tools, exclusivecontent and interactive appli-cations". Financial details ofthe deal were not disclosed.
Ferrari, Amazon’s AWSenter agreement on data
REUTERS
Tokyo, June 18: The Bank ofJapan surprised markets Friday byunveiling a plan to boost fundingfor fighting climate change, joininga growing number of central banksstepping up efforts to address its eco-nomic and financial fallout.
The central bank also main-tained its massive stimulus to sup-port the economy and extended aSeptember deadline for its pan-demic-relief programme, suggestingthat Japan will lag well behind theUnited States in ending crisis-modepolicies.
"In Japan, inflation had notreached 2% even before the pan-demic. As such, we must continuewith our ultra-loose monetary pol-icy even after the pandemic sub-sides, in order to achieve our 2%inflation target," BOJ GovernorHaruhiko Kuroda told a briefingafter the policy decision.
The BOJ said it will launch theclimate change scheme by the endof this year, and will release a pre-liminary outline of its plan at itsnext policy-setting meeting in July.
Under the scheme, the BOJ willprovide funds to financial institu-
tions that increase loans and in-vestment for activities aimed atcombating climate change. Whiledetails have yet to be announced,the BOJ said it will be modeledafter a similar programme that of-fers cheap loans to financial insti-tutions that boost lending in areasconsidered to be growth industries.
"The BOJ probably wanted tomove in tandem with the govern-
ment, which recently flagged stepsto promote green in its policy blue-print," said Naomi Muguruma,senior market economist atMitsubishi UFJ Morgan StanleySecurities.
"It is also jumping on the band-wagon of the rising tide amongcentral banks towards linking mon-etary policy to climate change,"she said.
BOJ to boost funding tohelp fight climate change
AGENCIES
New Delhi, June 18: Retail in-flation for farm and rural work-ers rose to 2.94 per cent and 3.12 percent, respectively, in May as certainfood items turned costlier. The in-flation rates in April had stood at2.66 per cent and 2.94 per cent, re-spectively.
"Point-to-point rate of inflationbased on the CPI-AL (ConsumerPrice Index for AgriculturalLabourers) and CPI-RL (ConsumerPrice Index for Rural Labourers)stood at 2.94 per cent and 3.12 percent in May 2021," the labour min-istry said in a statement.
It added that the inflation ratesbased on CPI-AL and CPI-RL inApril 2021 had stood at 2.66 percent and 2.94 per cent, respectively;and 8.40 per cent and 8.12 per cent
during May 2020.Food inflation based on CPI-AL
and CPI-RL stood at 1.54 per centand 1.73 per cent, respectively, dur-ing May 2021. They had stood at 1.24per cent and 1.54 per cent, respec-tively, in April 2021; and 10.40 percent and 10.21 per cent in May lastyear.
All-India CPI-AL and CPI-RL forMay this year rose eight notcheach to 1,049 and 1,057 points, re-spectively.
The major contribution towardsthe rise in general index of agri-cultural labourers and rural labour-ers came from food, with (+) 6.67points and (+) 6.16 points, respec-tively. This was mainly due to arise in prices of wheat atta, meatgoat, fish fresh, mustard oil, ground-nut oil, pulses, and vegetables and fruits.
RETAIL INFLATION FOR FARM,RURAL WORKERS UP IN MAY
AGENCIES
Mumbai, June 18:Disinvestment-bound Air India is looking to raise`200 to 300 crore by selling com-mercial and residential real estateassets in different parts of thecountry. Air India Friday soughtbids for a slew of properties, in-cluding flats and plots.
"Air India through MSTC in-vites e-auction bids for sale of theproperties located across India,"according to a public notice.
A residential plot and a flat inMumbai, five flats in New Delhi, aresidential plot in Bangalore, andfour flats in Kolkata, are amongthe properties that have been puton sale. Besides, a booking office andstaff quarter in Aurangabad, a res-idential plot along with AirlineHouse in Bhuj, six flats in Nashik,booking office in Nagpur and aresidential plot inThiruvananthapuram and two flatsin Mangaluru are for sale, as perthe notice.
Air India to sell realestate assets; maygarner up to `300Cr
Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/37159
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sports P12SATURDAY | JUNE 19 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Amsterdam, June 18: This time,the Netherlands never looked likethrowing away their two-goal lead.Memphis Depay and DenzelDumfries scored a goal in eachhalf as the Dutch comfortably beatAustria 2-0 Thursday to advance tothe round of 16 at the Euro 2020.
Depay sent a penalty kick lowinto the corner in the 11th minute
for his 27th goal in 66 internationalmatches. Dumfries then scored hissecond goal of the tournament —following his late winner againstUkraine — in the 67th after an un-selfish pass from PSV Eindhoventeammate Donyell Malen.
A foul by Austria captain DavidAlaba on Dumfries earned theDutch penalty at the Johan CruyffArena, although only after refereeOrel Grinfeeld had a second look
at the incident on a screen.Dumfries, a wing back who has
played a role in all five Netherlandsgoals at the tournament, was askedafter the match if his tournamentwas beginning to resemble a boy-hood dream.
The Netherlands is playing at amajor international football tour-nament for the first time in sevenyears and qualified for the knock-out stage with a game to spare. The
Dutch, whose only major tourna-ment victory came at the 1988European Championship, finishedthird at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Austria rarely threatened to equal-ize against a well-ordered Dutchdefense led by Matthijs De Ligt onhis return from a groin injury.
The closest Austria came was along-range shot by Alaba in the82nd minute. The team had slightlymore possession than theNetherlands but only managed oneshot on target in the entire game.
Dumfries’ goal and overall per-formance again vindicated DeBoer’s decision to ditch the tradi-tional Dutch system of four de-fenders, threemidfielders andthree forwardsin favor ofthree defend-ers, five mid-fielders and twoforwards.
The Netherlands will play theirfinal Group C match against NorthMacedonia Monday.
RIGHT ON THE MONEY: MemphisDepay reacts after scoring from thespot for the Netherlands’ first goalagainst Austria as Frenkie de Jongrushes on with another teammate forcelebration, Thursday night
Depay, Dumfries lift DutchDe Bruyne helps Belgium seal winCOPENHAGEN: Substitute Kevin de Bruyne setup one goal and scored the winner himself togive Belgium a 2-1 victory over Denmark in aEuro 2020 game marked by an emotional tributeto Christian Eriksen in the first half. De Bruynecame on after halftime for his first appearancesince sustaining a facial fracture in theChampions League final and squared the ball forThorgan Hazard to equalise in the 55th minute.He then scored in the 71st with a low shot fromoutside the area. It was Denmark’s first gamesince Eriksen’s collapse, and the hosts startedat a furious pace at a raucous Parken Stadium.Yussuf Poulsen scored with a low shot inside thefar post in only the second minute. Players from both teams then haltedplay after 10 minutes as the 25,000 fans rose for a minute of thunderousapplause in tribute to Eriksen, who wears the No.10 shirt for Denmark’snational team. The players joined the applause as well, as did referee BjornKuipers. Eriksen remains in a nearby hospital after suffering cardiac arrestin the team’s opening game against Finland. The victory gave Belgium aspot in the round of 16. Denmark can still advance with a win over RussiaMonday if the Belgians beat Finland.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sao Paulo, June 18: Brazil changedhalf of their starting line-up toface Peru in their second CopaAmerica match and still cruisedto a 4-0 victory. It was the Selecao’sninth consecutive victory, and an-other display that suggests the tour-nament hosts are the favorites to de-fend their South American title.
Defender Alex Sandro, Neymar,midfielder Everton Ribeiro andstriker Richarlison scored the goalsat the Nilton Santos stadium inRio de Janeiro.
The result puts Brazil atop theGroup B standings with six points.Colombia are two points behindafter their goalless draw withVenezuela.
As coach Tite promised, Brazilare using the Copa America to pre-pare for next year’s World Cup in
Qatar. Six players who missed the3-0 win against Venezuela were inthe starting line-up against Peru.
Brazil opened the scoring in the12th minute after Gabriel Jesuscrossed and Sandro hit it home fromclose range. But the new playersdidn’t adapt as well as the coach ex-pected.
Everton Ribeiro and Richarlisonstepped in, and Brazil appearedmore assured in the second half. Inthe 68th, Neymar received the ballat the edge of the Peruvian boxand beat goalkeeper Pedro Gallesewith a low crossed shot.
Peru stepped up the pressure,but Brazil moved further ahead inthe 89th when Ribeiro scored fromclose range, his first for the na-tional team. Richarlison, who wenton at halftime, scored the last goalof the match in added time after twosaves by Gallese.
Copa America: Braziloverpower Peru 4-0
HUN v FRA
Time: 06:30 pm
POR v GER
Time: 09:30 pm
ESP v POL
Time: 12:30 am (June 20)
TODAY’S MATCHES
Telecast: Sony TEN Network
Ministry extends deadline to submit applicationsPRESS TRUST OF INDIA
New Delhi, June 18: The Sports MinistryFriday extended the deadline to submitapplications for this year’s NationalSports Awards by a week, enabling the on-line process to continue till June 28.Earlier the last date of submission ofnominations and applications was fixedat June 21.
“It has been decided to extend the lastdate for submission of applications from
21st June, 2021 to 28th June, 2021,” reada circular issued by Under Secretary tothe Government of India, SudershanGarlapati. The Sports Ministry had in-vited applications for the national sportsawards May 20, allowing eligible ath-letes, coaches, universities and other en-tities to self-nominate and apply onlinefor a second year running because of theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Till 2019, applicants needed recom-mendations to be able to apply but the con-dition was waived off last year as theCOVID-19 lockdown prevented smoothmovement of people.
Last year, 74 recipients were bestowedwith the awards. The prize money was alsoincreased significantly with the KhelRatna awardees receiving Rs 25 lakh,Ar juna awardees Rs 15 lakh,Dhronacharya (Lifetime) Rs 15 lakh, andDhyanchand winners Rs 10 lakh.
NAT’L SPORTS AWARDS
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Bristol, June 18: Shafali Verma (55 n o,68b, 11x4) became only the fourth playerin the history of women’s Tests to smashtwo half centuries on debut, taking Indiato 83/1 at stumps on the third day of one-off Test against England. The day’s playended after the third session was washedout by rains.
Another debutant Deepti Sharma, whowas promoted to No.3 after her resolute29 not out in the first innings, was givingVerma company on unbeaten 18 afterIndia were forced to follow-on in the one-off Test.
Before Verma, Lesley Cooke (England),Jessica Louise Jonassen (Australia) and
Vanessa Bowen (Sri Lanka) were theother players who have scored two 50-plus scores in their debut matches.
India trail by 82 runs overall with ninesecond innings wickets in hand and theystill need to do a lot of work to save thematch on the final day Saturday.
Only 45.5 overs were possible on the daywith three rain delays or interruptions.The Verma-Deepti duo defied the Englandbowlers for 20 overs and added 54 runs inthe post-lunch session after losing SmritiMandhana in the morning session for 8.
Earlier, India Women were left with amountain to climb after being shot out for231 in their first innings, half an hour be-fore lunch.
BRIEF SCORES: England 396/9d;India 231 & 83/1 (f/o) (Shafali Verma 55n o). Match to continue.
Peerless Shafali leads India fightback
Neymar celebrates his goalagainst Peru as Richarlison,one of the other scorers,joins the party
WTC final: Rain playsspoilsport on Day 1
An Indian fan with the Tricolour on hisback looks on as rain played spoilsporton the opening day of World TestChampionship final between India andNew Zealand in Southampton, Friday.As a result, the reserve day is all set tobe brought into equation. As per ICCplaying conditions guidelines for theWTC final, if required the reserve sixthday can now come into effect with sixhours of play lost on Day 1 itself. Therewas forecast of rain and thundershowersand the heavens opened up lastevening with relentless downpourcontinuing till afternoon. With puddlesforming throughout the outfield, eventhe best drainage system couldn’t havepossibly forced some action on theopening day. Umpires Michael Goughand Richard Illingworth, after multipleinspections, called off the game at 7:30pm IST (3 pm local time).
