A s the farmers’ protest at along the borders of Delhi has yet not found a break- through even on the seven- teenth day, farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, continued to protest on the borders of the national Capital amid showers on Saturday. Addressing a Press confer- ence at Singhu Border, farmers on Saturday said if the Government wants to hold talks, they are ready but the farmers will first discuss repeal of three new farm laws. “The farmers from Rajasthan’s Shahjahanpur will start their Delhi Chalo march on Sunday around 11 am. They would be coming in thousands through Jaipur-Delhi highway,” said Kanwalpreet Singh Pannu, farmers’ leader. Pannu said farmers from other parts of the country are also on their way to join the protesters here and they will take the agitation to the next level in the coming days. “If the Government wants to hold talks, we are ready, but our main demand will remain the scrapping of the three laws. We will move onto our other demands only after that,” the farmer leader said. Farmer union leaders will also sit on a hunger strike between 8 am and 5 pm on December 14 against the new agriculture laws, he said. Pannu alleged the Government tried to weaken the agitation, but the protesting farmers did not let it happen. The farmer leader vowed to keep the protest peaceful. Following the call given by farmers to block toll plazas, police had made adequate arrangements and these include multi-layered barricading and deployment as many as 3,500 police personnel. Turn to Page 4 A day after West Bengal’s Chief Secretary and DGP defied the summons, the Union Home Ministry on Saturday directed three IPS officers of West Bengal to report on Central deputation. The three officers — Bhalanath Pandey, SP of Diamond Harbour; Praveen Tripati, DIG of Presidency Range and Rajeev Mishra, ADG of South Bengal — were responsible for the security of the BJP chief JP Nadda, whose motorcade was attacked by the TMC cadre. The move is likely to fur- ther escalate the ongoing tus- sle between the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress Government in West Bengal and the BJP-led Central Government following the attack on the convoy of Nadda two days ago. “Three Indian Police Service officers belonging to the West Bengal cadre have been called to serve in Central deputation in view of the laps- es that led to the attack on Nadda’s convoy in West Bengal,’’ an MHA official said. The decision has been taken under the rules govern- ing the all India service officers, the official said. Usually, the State Government’s consent is taken before any all India ser- vice officer is called to serve in Central deputation. In February 2019, Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar was also in a similar way repatriated to Central deputation. Turn to Page 4 M y fight is an expression of my loyalty to the ‘zamin- dars’ (farm owners), on whose well-being our lives hinge on,” explains Mahak Bhatia, 25, who is part of the sit-in by a huge crowd of farmers protest- ing against the three farm laws, at Delhi’s Singhu Border, “I have to support their cause as the new farm laws will not only affect their income, but will also destabilise the socio-econom- ic system that has worked well till now. And this is the com- pulsive urge that has brought me and thousand others here.” The resident of a village of Tohana in Fatehabad, Haryana, and the only son of his moth- er, Mahak recently lost his job with Cafe Coffee Day in Chandigarh during Covid-trig- gered economic slowdown and is seeking a “non-farming” employment in Delhi-NCR. However, his primary occupa- tion at present is to actively support the movement against the Central Government over the farm laws. “I am unemployed and completely broke. I don’t have any means of sustenance of my own, but I am grateful to my zamindars for ensuring my mother and I have no scarcity of food. I have never been a farmer nor I have any farm land, but the landed farmers always take care of us. Now it’s my turn to reciprocate their immense help by raising my voice against the maleficent laws that will diminish the riches of the ‘zamindars’ and in turn affect our lives,” Mahak articulates, feeling assured that his loyalty will be acknowl- edged. However, he quickly cor- rects himself on the word “zamindars”. “They are all farmers but they employ farm workers as there are various other jobs to do in the farms. We live in the same village and we have cordial and fair rela- tions. All are equal in the vil- lage. You can witness the cohe- sion here. All of us who have gathered here come from dif- ferent backgrounds, castes and regions. But everything here is for everyone,” Mahak clarifies, but hesitates to let the camera- man snap a photo of his puff- ing on the community hookah. His comrades-in-arms on the carpet, however, encourage him to smoke the pipe for a group photo. “Even non-farming com- munities have thrown their weight behind the groundswell of support for the farmers. I will soldier on till the farmers feel safe,” says Mahak. There are many like Mahak from non-farming communi- ties bogged down in the morass of popular antipathy to the farm reform laws. Turn to Page 4 T erming the “events” along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) very disturbing, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said India was being tested in the seven-month long standoffs with China in Eastern Ladakh. Making this observation here, he, however, expressed confidence that the country will rise to the occasion and meet the challenge. This asser- tion came two days after he had said the relations between India and China were at their worst phase in the last 30-40 years. In an interactive session at the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Jaishankar also said what has happened in eastern Ladakh was not actu- ally in China’s interest as it has significantly impacted public sentiment in India. Calling the “events” along the LAC very disturbing, the External Affairs Minister said they have raised some very “basic concerns’’. Asked whether it will be a long haul or a breakthrough is expected soon, Jaishankar said: “I would not go into prediction zone at all whether it is going to be easy or not, and what will be the timelines and so on.” “I also believe that what has happened is not actually in the interest of China. Because what it has done has significantly impacted public sentiment (in India). Professionally, I have seen the evolution of how the Indian public feels about China over the last many decades and I am old enough to remember much more difficult days, espe- cially in my childhood and in my teens,” the Minister said. Jaishankar said a lot of work had gone into developing the relationship on both sides. “I do not believe that the events of this year have helped at all. In fact I think the real danger is that the goodwill which was so carefully developed will dis- sipate.” “But I also would say that, yes, we are being tested. I have every confidence that we will rise to the occasion; we will meet that national security challenge. But beyond that, at this time, I would really frankly keep my own counsel,” Jaishankar said. His comments came in the backdrop of talks at the military and diplomatic level to defuse the situation at the 1,700 km long LAC in eastern Ladakh failing. The ninth round of Corps Commander level talks between India and China are likely to take place soon. Though India has all along favoured dialogue to address the outstanding issues, its forces are operationally ready to meet any challenge. The Army has deployed specially trained troops in mountain warfare in Ladakh besides ensuring unin- terrupted logistical back up. Turn to Page 4 A mid mounting pressure from farmers, Haryana Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala on Saturday met Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Consumers Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh over the farmers’ protests and tried to mollify protesting farmers from his State saying he would ensure they get the minimum support price. He expressed hope the final round of talks between the Centre and farmer unions will be held in the next 24 to 48 hours and will lead to a con- clusive result. “I am hopeful of the next round of talks between Centre and farmers in the next 24-40 hours,” Chautala said. Turn to Page 4 Ranchi: The physician of jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Dr Umesh Prasad, on Saturday said that the latter’s kidney is functioning at 25 per cent and the situation can deteriorate at any time in future. Dr Prasad has updated the authorities of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where Lalu is admitted, in writing about this situation. “I have said earlier also that it is true that Yadav’s kidney is functioning at 25 per cent. And this situation is alarming from this logic that his kidney functioning can deteriorate anytime. It is difficult to predict exactly when,” he told ANI. Turn to Page 4 A day after several Central Ministers alleged that “divisive elements” have infil- trated the farmers agitation on the outskirts of Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday strongly defend- ed the new agricultural laws saying farmers would benefit the most from the investments in the agriculture sector and will also get new markets and opportunities. Backing the new farm laws, Modi said all the walls between the agriculture sector and asso- ciated sectors have now been removed to provide new opportunities to the farmers across the country. “Recent farm reforms will give farmers new markets, access to technology and help bring investments in agricul- ture that will benefit them, “ he said as protesting farmers per- sisted with their demand for rolling-back of three farm laws which allow trade and con- tract-farming in the agriculture produce and remove all restric- tions in hoarding by amending essential services act. “In a vibrant economy, when a sector grows, it has a direct influence on other sec- tors as well. Reforms that we’re doing are removing all such needless frameworks. Our economy doesn’t need hurdles between sectors, but bridges to support each other,” said the Prime Minister. Turn to Page 4
As the farmers’ protest atalong the borders of Delhi
has yet not found a break-through even on the seven-teenth day, farmers, mostlyfrom Punjab and Haryana,continued to protest on theborders of the national Capitalamid showers on Saturday.
Addressing a Press confer-ence at Singhu Border, farmerson Saturday said if theGovernment wants to holdtalks, they are ready but thefarmers will first discuss repealof three new farm laws.
“The farmers fromRajasthan’s Shahjahanpur willstart their Delhi Chalo marchon Sunday around 11 am. Theywould be coming in thousandsthrough Jaipur-Delhi highway,”said Kanwalpreet Singh Pannu,farmers’ leader.
Pannu said farmers fromother parts of the country arealso on their way to join theprotesters here and they willtake the agitation to the nextlevel in the coming days.
“If the Government wantsto hold talks, we are ready, butour main demand will remainthe scrapping of the three laws.We will move onto our otherdemands only after that,” thefarmer leader said.
Farmer union leaders willalso sit on a hunger strikebetween 8 am and 5 pm onDecember 14 against the newagriculture laws, he said.
Pannu alleged theGovernment tried to weakenthe agitation, but the protestingfarmers did not let it happen.The farmer leader vowed tokeep the protest peaceful.
Following the call given byfarmers to block toll plazas,police had made adequatearrangements and these includemulti-layered barricading anddeployment as many as 3,500police personnel.
Turn to Page 4
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Aday after West Bengal’sChief Secretary and DGP
defied the summons, the UnionHome Ministry on Saturdaydirected three IPS officers ofWest Bengal to report onCentral deputation. The threeofficers — Bhalanath Pandey,SP of Diamond Harbour;
Praveen Tripati, DIG ofPresidency Range and RajeevMishra, ADG of South Bengal— were responsible for thesecurity of the BJP chief JPNadda, whose motorcade wasattacked by the TMC cadre.
The move is likely to fur-ther escalate the ongoing tus-sle between the MamataBanerjee-led TrinamoolCongress Government in WestBengal and the BJP-led CentralGovernment following theattack on the convoy of Naddatwo days ago.
“Three Indian PoliceService officers belonging tothe West Bengal cadre have
been called to serve in Centraldeputation in view of the laps-es that led to the attack onNadda’s convoy in WestBengal,’’ an MHA official said.
The decision has beentaken under the rules govern-ing the all India service officers,the official said. Usually, theState Government’s consent istaken before any all India ser-vice officer is called to serve inCentral deputation.
In February 2019, KolkataPolice Commissioner RajeevKumar was also in a similarway repatriated to Central deputation.
Turn to Page 4
������ ��������� �+���+,-*�
My fight is an expression ofmy loyalty to the ‘zamin-
dars’ (farm owners), on whosewell-being our lives hinge on,”explains Mahak Bhatia, 25,who is part of the sit-in by ahuge crowd of farmers protest-ing against the three farm laws,at Delhi’s Singhu Border, “Ihave to support their cause asthe new farm laws will not onlyaffect their income, but will alsodestabilise the socio-econom-ic system that has worked welltill now. And this is the com-pulsive urge that has broughtme and thousand others here.”
The resident of a village ofTohana in Fatehabad, Haryana,and the only son of his moth-er, Mahak recently lost his jobwith Cafe Coffee Day inChandigarh during Covid-trig-gered economic slowdown and
is seeking a “non-farming”employment in Delhi-NCR.However, his primary occupa-tion at present is to actively
support the movement againstthe Central Government overthe farm laws.
“I am unemployed and
completely broke. I don’t haveany means of sustenance of myown, but I am grateful to myzamindars for ensuring mymother and I have no scarcityof food. I have never been afarmer nor I have any farmland, but the landed farmersalways take care of us. Now it’smy turn to reciprocate theirimmense help by raising myvoice against the maleficentlaws that will diminish theriches of the ‘zamindars’ and inturn affect our lives,” Mahakarticulates, feeling assured thathis loyalty will be acknowl-edged.
However, he quickly cor-rects himself on the word“zamindars”. “They are allfarmers but they employ farmworkers as there are variousother jobs to do in the farms.We live in the same village andwe have cordial and fair rela-
tions. All are equal in the vil-lage. You can witness the cohe-sion here. All of us who havegathered here come from dif-ferent backgrounds, castes andregions. But everything here isfor everyone,” Mahak clarifies,but hesitates to let the camera-man snap a photo of his puff-ing on the community hookah.His comrades-in-arms on thecarpet, however, encouragehim to smoke the pipe for agroup photo.
“Even non-farming com-munities have thrown theirweight behind the groundswellof support for the farmers. I willsoldier on till the farmers feelsafe,” says Mahak.
There are many like Mahakfrom non-farming communi-ties bogged down in the morassof popular antipathy to thefarm reform laws.
Turn to Page 4
���� �+���+,-*
Terming the “events” alongthe Line of Actual Control
(LAC) very disturbing,External Affairs Minister SJaishankar on Saturday saidIndia was being tested in theseven-month long standoffswith China in Eastern Ladakh.
Making this observationhere, he, however, expressedconfidence that the countrywill rise to the occasion andmeet the challenge. This asser-tion came two days after he hadsaid the relations between Indiaand China were at their worstphase in the last 30-40 years.
In an interactive session atthe Federation of IndianChamber of Commerce andIndustry (FICCI), Jaishankaralso said what has happened ineastern Ladakh was not actu-ally in China’s interest as it hassignificantly impacted publicsentiment in India.
Calling the “events” alongthe LAC very disturbing, theExternal Affairs Minister saidthey have raised some very“basic concerns’’.
Asked whether it will be along haul or a breakthrough isexpected soon, Jaishankar said:“I would not go into predictionzone at all whether it is goingto be easy or not, and what willbe the timelines and so on.”
“I also believe that what hashappened is not actually in theinterest of China. Because whatit has done has significantlyimpacted public sentiment (inIndia). Professionally, I haveseen the evolution of how theIndian public feels about Chinaover the last many decades andI am old enough to remembermuch more difficult days, espe-
cially in my childhood and inmy teens,” the Minister said.
Jaishankar said a lot ofwork had gone into developingthe relationship on both sides.“I do not believe that the eventsof this year have helped at all.In fact I think the real dangeris that the goodwill which wasso carefully developed will dis-sipate.”
“But I also would say that,yes, we are being tested. I haveevery confidence that we willrise to the occasion; we willmeet that national securitychallenge. But beyond that, atthis time, I would really franklykeep my own counsel,”Jaishankar said.
His comments came in thebackdrop of talks at the militaryand diplomatic level to defusethe situation at the 1,700 kmlong LAC in eastern Ladakhfailing. The ninth round ofCorps Commander level talksbetween India and China arelikely to take place soon.
Though India has all alongfavoured dialogue to addressthe outstanding issues, its forcesare operationally ready to meetany challenge. The Army hasdeployed specially trainedtroops in mountain warfare inLadakh besides ensuring unin-terrupted logistical back up.
Turn to Page 4
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Amid mounting pressurefrom farmers, Haryana
Deputy Chief MinisterDushyant Chautala onSaturday met UnionAgriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar, ConsumersAffairs Minister Piyush Goyaland Defence Minister RajnathSingh over the farmers’ protestsand tried to mollify protestingfarmers from his State sayinghe would ensure they get theminimum support price.
He expressed hope thefinal round of talks between theCentre and farmer unions willbe held in the next 24 to 48hours and will lead to a con-clusive result. “I am hopeful ofthe next round of talks betweenCentre and farmers in the next24-40 hours,” Chautala said.
Turn to Page 4
Ranchi: The physician of jailedRJD chief Lalu Prasad, DrUmesh Prasad, on Saturdaysaid that the latter’s kidney isfunctioning at 25 per cent andthe situation can deteriorate atany time in future.
Dr Prasad has updated theauthorities of Rajendra Instituteof Medical Sciences (RIMS),where Lalu is admitted, inwriting about this situation.
“I have said earlier also thatit is true that Yadav’s kidney isfunctioning at 25 per cent.And this situation is alarmingfrom this logic that his kidneyfunctioning can deteriorateanytime. It is difficult to predictexactly when,” he told ANI.
“divisive elements” have infil-trated the farmers agitationon the outskirts of Delhi,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday strongly defend-ed the new agricultural lawssaying farmers would benefitthe most from the investmentsin the agriculture sector andwill also get new markets andopportunities.
Backing the new farm laws,Modi said all the walls betweenthe agriculture sector and asso-ciated sectors have now beenremoved to provide newopportunities to the farmersacross the country.
“Recent farm reforms will
give farmers new markets,access to technology and helpbring investments in agricul-ture that will benefit them, “ hesaid as protesting farmers per-sisted with their demand forrolling-back of three farm lawswhich allow trade and con-tract-farming in the agricultureproduce and remove all restric-tions in hoarding by amendingessential services act.
“In a vibrant economy,when a sector grows, it has adirect influence on other sec-tors as well. Reforms that we’redoing are removing all suchneedless frameworks. Oureconomy doesn’t need hurdlesbetween sectors, but bridges tosupport each other,” said thePrime Minister.
I, Vishal Kumar Verma S/oMurari Lal (Brother MaheshVarma Army No- 5254856Rank - RFN) Vill. Satahriya,Post - Pawaara, Thana MugaraBadhashpur, Machhlishar, Dist-Jaunpur-222202 (UP), I havechange my name VISHALVERMA to VISHAL KUMARVERMA.
NOTICE
Be it Known to all that my namewritten in husband's servicerecords as PUNITA UPAD-HYAY in place of PUNEETAUPADHYAY. My Correct nameis PUNEETA UPADHYAY infuture for all purpose. PUNEE-TA UPADHYAY W/o. JITEN-DRA UPADHYAY 28D/2A,AZAD NAGAR, ALLAHPURPRAYAGRAJ
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Lucknow (PNS): Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath said regional dispar-ity always hindered the process ofdevelopment and that was whyUttar Pradesh was divided into foureconomic zones – Purvanchal,Madhyanchal, Bundelkhand andPaschimanchal — and two develop-ment boards – Purvanchal andBundelkhand — had been formed sothat economic disparities could beremoved.
The chief minister said thiswhile virtually addressing the con-cluding session of the three-daywebinar-cum-seminar on‘Sustainable development: issues,strategies and future direction ofPurvanchal’, held at DeendayalUpadhyay Gorakhpur University,in Gorakhpur. He said, “All depart-ments and institutions would haveto come together for the develop-ment of Purvanchal as the region hasenormous natural resources andpotential.”
“Despite being the oldest land ofcivilisation, we remained the mostbackward, considering ourselves aspoor. I have visited all the districtsof the eastern UP and I did not seeany shortage of water. The main fac-tor for human civilisation is presenthere in abundance,” he said.
The chief minister said theproblems of the region had to beresolved at the local level andthrough local institutions.
“There are all possibilities toincrease the per capita income.Agricultural research centres havebeen linked with agricultural univer-sities so that the farmers can get bet-ter value for their produce byincreasing production. To bringtheir produce to the market, a com-prehensive prospect has been pre-pared by bringing an exports poli-cy,” he said.
The chief minister said thatkeeping in view the suggestionsreceived in the seminar for thedevelopment of eastern UP, a cabi-net sub-committee would be con-stituted to give its recommendationson the suggestions with regards to
the development plan for Purvanchaland their implementation.
He said that there were immensepossibilities in the service sector andof the six Buddhist tourism sites, fivewere in the eastern region. “We haveto build good chains of hotels to pro-mote tourism. International air-ports are being built in Kushinagarand Ayodhya. The PurvanchalExpressway will become the back-bone of the economy of the easternregion and the youth of Purvanchalwill get employment here,” the chiefminister emphasised.
Yogi Adityanath said that theyouth did not have much informa-tion about the government schemesand universities and educationalinstitutions would have to take theresponsibility of making theseschemes accessible to the youth.
“Youth are not having the infor-mation of schemes like PM MudraYojana, ODOP Scheme, CMSwarojgar Yojana, AtmanirbharYojana, etc. Educational institutionsshould ensure that youth benefitfrom these schemes and get self-employed,” he said.
The chief minister said the neweducation policy was going to bringa big change across the country andthe educational institutions shouldform a committee and prepare anaction plan.
“An action plan has to be pre-pared to make government schemeseffective and also to ensure that theyreach the youth,” he said.
The chief minister said that thestate government ended the depen-dency on China and this Deepawali,diyas (clay lamps) were lit in everyhousehold.
“Be it the idols of Lakshmi andGanesh or diyas, we were dependenton China despite the fact that we hadall the resources in UP. We (the UPgovernment) ended the dependenceon China and this Deepawali,Lakshmi and Ganesh idols made byour artisans were worshipped andthis also encouraged self-relianceand business of the local artisans,” hesaid.
,!��&���!Mohammad Azeen Siddiqui,
a class V student of CityMontessori School, RajajipuramCampus-I, was awarded a goldmedal in the national level inter-school online competition,‘Brainobrain Wonderkid - 2020’,bringing laurels to the institution.The competition was organisedunder the aegis of educationalinstitution Brainobrain. Studentsof over 1,500 noted schools par-ticipated in this competition,wherein Azeen showcased herexemplary talent in mentalmaths, logical ability, generalknowledge and speed typing,and walked away with the goldmedal. Organisers praised hismultifaceted talent and awardedhim a gold medal and a certifi-cate.
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Uttar Pradesh’s DeputyChief Minister Dinesh
Sharma said that due to theefforts of the state governmentto encourage start-ups, UPhad been placed in the catego-ry of Emerging Start-upEcosystem under the StateStart-up Ranking, 2019.
The deputy chief ministersaid the newly launched UttarPradesh Start-up Policy, 2020covered start-ups in all sectors,including agriculture, medi-cine and health, energy, khadi,education, tourism, transport.
He said the policy aimed atsetting up more than 100 incu-bators, a minimum one ineach district of the state, andcreation of an eco-system com-patible with the establishmentof at least 10,000 start-ups inthe state.
He said with the imple-mentation of the policy, it wasexpected to generate directemployment for 50,000 youth
and indirect employment for 10lakh persons in the state.
Sharma said in the recent-ly concluded policy implemen-tation meeting, seven newincubators were approved inBanda, Varanasi, Noida,Lucknow, Mathura andGhaziabad districts.
He said under the Start-upPolicy, 2020, three state-of-the-art centres of excellencewould be set up in the state, outof which the construction ofthe Centre of Excellence inMedi-tech, Technology wouldbe on the SGPGIMS campus in
Lucknow was in progress. He said a new dedicated
policy was proposed to attractinvestment in data centreindustry in the state.
Sharma said under theproposed data centre policy,250 megawatts data centreindustry was to be developed inthe state, attracting an invest-ment of about Rs 20,000 croreand three state-of-the-art pri-vate data centre parks would beset up in the state.
He said under the policy,various non-financial incen-tives were proposed to data
centre parks and data centreunits, in addition to capital sub-sidy, interest subsidy, exemp-tion in stamp duty on pur-chase/lease of land and finan-cial incentives related to ener-gy. He said additional incen-tives had been proposed forBundelkhand and Purvanchalregions.
The deputy chief ministersaid to eliminate the interfer-ence of anti-social elements intransparent and clean admin-istration and tendering process,e-tendering system had beenimplemented by the govern-ment in all departments sinceMay 2017 in which all tendersabove Rs.10 lakh were beinginvited through e-tenderingonly.
He said UP was the firststate to have implemented thee-tendering system and wasgiven the ‘Best PerformanceAward’ among the top-per-forming states during the peri-od from April 2017 to March2018.
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The Uttar Pradesh government hassimplified the process of granting
licence for opening bars in the state. The new rules, Uttar Pradesh Excise
(Grant of Bar Licences) Rules, 2020, wereapproved by the cabinet which met hereon Friday.
As per the new rules, the provision ofgranting bar licences on the recommen-dation of the committee headed by thedivisional commissioner has beenscrapped. The excise commissioner hasnow been delegated the authority to issuethe licence on the recommendation of thecommittee in each district headed by thedistrict magistrate.
The rules provide for decentralisationof approvals and simplification of theprocess and therefore reduce the numberof process transactions from around 28 tojust eight.
The new rules will take far less timenow in the grant of bar licences and willhelp the hospitality industry besides bring-ing higher revenue to the exchequer.
Earlier, as it was mandatory for therestaurant to be operational in the premis-es at the time of applying for the barlicense, the applicant had to incur lossesand unnecessary expenditure in runningthe restaurant without the bar.
Under the new rules, a restaurant hasto be made operational in the premises by
the time of depositing the licence fee afterthe approval of the bar license by the excisecommissioner.
The new rules are futuristic in nature.To promote tourism, bar licences will beprovided in airport lounges, special trainsand domestic and international cruises.Besides, now every bar and club licensedpremises will be geo-tagged.
To ensure transparency and ease ofdoing business, the process of granting barlicence shall be online.
Earlier, the licence fee was charged forthe entire year, irrespective of the monthof sanction of the bar licence. Now, thelicence fee will be charged only for theremaining period of the year, exemptingthe licence fees of the quarters prior to themonth in which the licence is sanctioned.
It will be mandatory to have a mini-mum floor area of 200 square metres anda minimum seating capacity of 40 personsfor the premises for which the bar licenceis sought.
Earlier, it was mandatory for barlicenses premises to have sufficient park-ing space. Now private parking, valet park-ing arrangement within 500 metres of thepremises will be considered sufficient.
If a bar is located in a mall or in anycommercial complex, then the parkingfacilities and washrooms of the mall orcomplex will be considered as the facili-ties for the bar.
It will be compulsory to enclose com-
pletion certificate of the building or an affi-davit along with supporting documentsunder the provisions of Section 15-A (2)of the Uttar Pradesh Municipal Planningand Development Act, 1973 with the appli-cation form.
In case of being aggrieved by the deci-sion of the district level bar committeeregarding the sanction of licences, anappeal can be filed before the divisionalcommissioner.
Changes in licensed premises of barcan be approved by the excise commission-er on the recommendation of the districtlevel committee by charging 10 percent ofannual licence fee.
Event bar licences for a special eventwill be issued online for a period of con-tinuous six hours in between 8 am to 12midnight, which can be extended up to 1pm with the prior approval of the licens-ing authority on payment of additionallicence fee.
Official sources said that the new ruleswere fair and just with respect to penal-ties and compounding so that no licenseefelt the brunt of penal action, if he ensuredcompliance with the rules.
In case of being found indulging inactivities like holding liquor consumptioncompetition in order to boost the sales, afine of Rs.25,000 will be imposed for thefirst offence and Rs.50,000 for the secondoffence and on the third time, the licencewill be cancelled.
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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaid that the Revenue depart-
ment was the pivot of the adminis-trative and land system of the stateand when a department did goodwork, it became a symbol of publictrust, confidence, which in turnstrengthened democracy.
He pointed out that the Revenuedepartment has a very importantrole in settling land related disputesand patted the department for con-sistently doing excellent, qualitativework in the public interest andmaking invaluable contribution inthe progress of the state.
The chief minister expressed thisview at his official residence here onSaturday while dedicating 19 resi-dential and non-residential buildingsin 12 districts of the state throughvirtual medium.
These residential and non-resi-dential buildings, he said, had beenconstructed in order to solve theproblems of the people in a timebound manner.
On this occasion, UnionMinister of State for Road Transportand State Road, General (Retired)VK Singh also joined the programthrough virtual medium.
The chief minister said that theemployees could work in districtsand they could get accommodationat the local level itself so these resi-dential buildings had been con-structed in a time bound manner.
“Important works like thoserelating to land, disaster manage-ment and relief were done by theRevenue department, the chief min-ister said.
In the functions of the Revenuedepartment, the divisional office, dis-trict magistrate office, deputy districtmagistrate office are the focal pointsof administration, where the publicis directly concerned. The presentgovernment is continuously workingtowards providing a clean, accessi-ble and well-organised environmentin offices,” he said.
The chief minister said that aspecial campaign was being startedby the state government to registerheritage from December 15, 2020and warned that callousness in reg-istering a virasat would not be tol-erated.
After this, a special campaign ofmeasurement would also be started,he added. The chief minister saidthat the Revenue department wasconstantly constructing office build-ings of the board, district and tehsil.
“Also, for the redressal of pub-lic issues and to ensure timely atten-dance of officers and employees, res-idential buildings are being con-structed for them near the officebuilding.
As a result of the efforts made inthis direction, 19 moving projects ofthe state have been completed at acost of about Rs 100.20 crore,” hesaid.
The chief minister said thatPrime Minister Narendra Modi hadimplemented the ownership plan
(Swamitva Yojana) in the country. “Rapid work is being done on
this scheme in the state. Throughthis, citizens will get possession oftheir land, which will also providethem the facility to take loans,” hesaid.
Yogi said that on December 25,on the occasion of the birth anniver-sary of former prime minister AtalBihari Vajpayee, a special campaignfor distribution of houses would belaunched under the ownershipscheme in the state.
The chief minister said that theRevenue department had doneexcellent work during the coron-avirus period and successfully dis-charged responsibilities such as pro-viding ration to migrant workers,
supplying essential commoditiesand skill mapping.
Addressing the programme,Minister of State for Revenue andFlood Control Vijay Kumar Kashyapsaid that the Revenue departmentwas working with full capacity underthe leadership of Chief Minister YogiAdityanath. He said villages werebeing empowered through the own-ership scheme.
On this occasion, AdditionalChief Secretary (Revenue) RenukaKumar thanked everyone.
It is to be mentioned that theseresidential and non-residentialbuildings are located in KanpurDehat, Shamli, Budaun, Sitapur,Mainpuri, Hapur, Auraiya, Kasganj,Hapur and Kushinagar districts.
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Reiterating his government’s com-mitment to further improving
health services in the state, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath onSaturday said that there was a needto make people aware of the e-Sanjeevani app so that the benefitsof health services reached every per-son.
Presiding over a high-levelunlock review meeting at his offi-cial residence here, the chief min-ister said that the guidelines issuedby the state Government for protec-tion from COVID-19 should be fol-lowed in totality besides, maintain-ing and effective system for protec-tion and treatment of COVID-19patients.
The chief minister stressed onconsistent dissemination of aware-ness messages about protectionfrom COVID-19. He said variousmodes of media and public addresssystems should also be used exten-sively to spread awareness and theyshould also be used at major cross-ings, markets and important placesto disseminate information aboutcontaining the spread of novelcoronavirus infection.
He said people should be madeaware about the mandatory use ofmasks and contact tracing and sur-veillance systems should be further
strengthened. The chief ministersaid there should be special vigi-lance in Lucknow, Varanasi andGorakhpur and a special work planshould be prepared for effective con-trol of coronavirus infection.
Yogi also directed the districtmagistrates and chief medical offi-cers to regularly hold meetings atthe Covid hospitals in the morningand the Integrated Command andControl Centres in the eveningand also prepare strategies for thefuture.
He said the construction ofmedical colleges should be complet-ed within the stipulated time frameand action plan should be preparedto complete the new medical col-
leges for which proposals had beenreceived.
He also directed the officials tocomplete all the formalities forCOVID-19 vaccination byDecember 15. He asked the chiefmedical officers, district magis-trates and district police chiefs tohold a meeting in this regard andensure safety and security for a suc-cessful vaccination drive.
The meeting was attended byChief Secretary RK Tiwari,Infrastructure and IndustrialDevelopment Commissioner AlokTandon, Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Awanish Awasthi,Additional chief Secretary (MSMEand Information) Navneet Sehgal.
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Deputy Chief MinisterKeshav Prasad Maurya
said that Uttar Pradesh waschanging rapidly towardsprogress along withPurvanchal.
“Earlier, there was fear ofgoons in the people, now it isvice-versa. With the consistentefforts of Chief Minister YogiAdityanath to improve lawand order, now goons are ter-rified of government action.This is the law and order sys-tem of the state,” he claimed.
Maurya said Uttar Pradeshwas fast becoming the pre-ferred destination for invest-ment and marching aheadconsistently on the path ofdevelopment.
“We will soon be con-nected to all the metros of thecountry through Purvanchal,Bundelkhand and Gangaexpressways. The world will beaccessible to us through Jewar,Kushinagar, Ayodhya green-field international airports andother airports,” deputy chiefminister pointed out.
Presiding over the sev-enth technical session of themanufacturing sector at thenational webinar and sympo-sium on ‘SustainableDevelopment of Purvanchal’ atGorakhpur University onSaturday, the deputy chiefminister said due to thechanged environment, betterinfrastructure and investment-friendly policies, Uttar Pradeshhad jumped to the secondrank in ease of doing businessand had emerged as a favouritedestination for investors.
The deputy chief ministersaid after coming to power, 67state highways were construct-ed by the Bharatiya JanataParty-led government.
“We are also making eco-friendly roads. Herbal roadsand roads made of plastic andother waste materials are proofof this. We will connect eachlane with the main road near-by. To motivate the people,roads are being built in thename of martyrs, topper stu-dents and famous people,” hesaid.
Maurya also referred tothe social concerns of the
Public Works Department. Hesaid the outcome of the three-day churning in Gorakhpurwould present the ground real-ity and by following the results,the progress of Purvanchalwould be further accelerated.
Meanwhile, Forest andEnvironment Minister DaraSingh Chauhan said that therewas immense potential fordevelopment and employmentin the field of eco-tourism inPurvanchal and with specialinterest of Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, Gorakhpur wouldbecome its hub.
“The chief minister hasrejuvenated the neglected vastnatural lake Ramgarh. Thislake will lead to eco-tourism ofPurvanchal in the comingdays,” he said.
Chauhan was presidingover the eighth session of theprimary sector on the last dayof the three-day webinar andseminar organised under thejoint aegis of the Planningdepartment and GorakhpurUniversity on the GorakhpurUniversity campus onSaturday.
The forest minister saidthat eco-tourism would bepromoted in Ramgarh lake inGorakhpur, Bakhira Tal ofSant Kabir Nagar, SohagiBarwa of Maharajganj, water-fall of Sonbhadra, etc.
He said a Tiger RescueCentre and VultureConservation Centre werebeing established inMaharajganj and with theefforts of Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, the Gorakhpurzoo, which was going to openfor visitors in January, wasincreasing the chances of eco-tourism.
Chauhan said the stategovernment’s plan was to pro-mote rural tourism and
increase income of forestdwellers by making touristsstay in forest areas. He said thatin the last three years, thetourist footfall had increasedup to 20 times at eco-tourismsites in the state.
Referring to the recordtree plantation on the environ-ment, the forest minister saidthat a new record would becreated next year.
Principal Secretary(Forests) Sudhir Garg, whowas the keynote speaker of thesession, said that by giving thestatus of revenue village to theforested villages, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath hadconnected the forest dwellersto the mainstream of societyand development.
“A new door to incomegeneration can be opened forthe residents here by develop-ing the facility of stay home inthese Vantangia villages offorest area,” he said.
Garg also said that therewas a lot of potential for eco-tourism and adventuretourism in Purvanchal, whichwas rich in natural beauty ofpools. The principal secretaryalso stressed the need to bevigilant about the effects of cli-mate change. He said that theneed of the hour was to plantmore and more trees to reducethe risks of climate change.
Prior to this, the seventhtechnical session of the prima-ry sector focused on the issueof employment in agriculture.
In this session CGM SPandey of NABARD, DrUmashankar Singh, Director,International Potato Centreof South Asia, Potato QualityImprovement Technique inPurvanchal, Dr RK Mittal,Vice Chancellor of SardarVallabhbhai Patel University ofAgriculture and Technology,Pallavpuram Meerut Boon forOrganic Farming, Dr PrabodhKumar Trivedi, Director,CIMAP Lucknow, expressedthe integration of farming ofaromatic plants with tradi-tion in the rural economy ofPurvanchal and Dr RamchetChaudhary of PRDF spoke onincreasing income from agri-cultural farming of KalaNamak rice, included in theODOP programme.
On Saturday, 267 personstested positive for coron-
avirus in Lucknow taking thetotal number of cases to 74,815.Besides, 315 patients recov-ered taking the recoveries to70,677. With seven moredeaths, Lucknow’s death tollclimbed to 1,050 while there are3,088 active cases. The freshcases included 29 fromGomtinagar, 15 fromIndiranagar, 13 from Rae Bareliroad, 12 each from Vikasnagar,Hasanganj, Hazratganj &Chowk, 11 from Aliganj and 10from Thakurganj.
Across the state, 1,520 per-sons tested positive, including43 in Kanpur, 95 in Ghaziabad,96 in Gautam Buddhnagar, 64in Varanasi and 176 fromMeerut, taking the UP tally to5,64,132. There were 32 deathsin the state, including five inVaranasi, three in Gorakhpur,two each in Kanpur, Prayagraj,Ghazipur & Azamgarh, and oneeach in Ghaziabad, AligarhMoradabad, Agra, Bulandshahr,Gonda, Baghpat & Etah, takingthe toll to 8,056. Besides, 1,761patients recovered, taking thenumber of recoveries to5,35,985.
Meanwhile, provision hasbeen made for storage of 1,270litres of Covid-19 vaccine in
Lucknow for the immunisationwhich is expected next year.Additional CMO and districtimmunization officer MKSingh said if the district requiresmore vaccine, it would be pro-vided by the state government.
The vaccine will be storedin four ice-lined refrigerators of225 litres capacity each, alongwith two old refrigerators.Singh said there will be threerooms at the vaccination site.“There will be a waiting roomfor the beneficiaries who will bethere following the Covid-19protocols. The vaccination willbe carried out in the secondroom while the third will be an
observation room where thebeneficiaries will have to stayfor 30 minutes. There will be ateam of doctors, in case there isany problem faced by the ben-eficiaries after vaccination,”Singh said.
He said the hospitals will beon high alert when the vaccina-tions are carried out.“December 15 is the deadlinefor complete renovation ofDistrict Immunisation Centrein Aishbagh where the vaccinewill be kept. “There are clear-cut directions that the storagearea should be newly-con-structed or fully renovated,” hepointed out.
Nodal officer for Covid-19at KGMU Dr D Himanshusaid viruses have witnessed asequential decline with the pas-sage of time and the same ishappening to the coronaviruswith people developing herdimmunity. “The positivity ratehas declined to a great extent aspeople have developed antibod-ies. The virulence of the virushas decreased which willimpact its spread, it will contin-ue to affect people in high-riskcategory depending on theirimmunity levels,” he said. Hepointed out that trials of thedrug developed by CDRI are inthe final stages.
2���������� �������������������� ,.8�5�
Two cars were stolen inAshiyana in the last 24
hours. The complainants wereidentified as Ravi KumarTripathi of Prayagraj andAshok Kumar of Barabanki.
As per reports, Ravi KumarTripathi was in Lucknow toattend a wedding at ChancellorClub. He parked his SUV in theparking area and went inside toattend the function. When hereturned late in the night, hefound the vehicle missing. Heinformed the police controlroom and a case was registeredin this connection.
Meanwhile, Ashok Kumar,who is a contractor, had visit-ed the house of a friend in sec-tor-L of Ashiyana and parkedhis luxury car outside. In themorning, Ashok found the carmissing. Two strikes by auto-lifters exposed the police claimregarding night vigil. “Seniorofficers are conducting nightinspections at different policestations to keep the cops ontoes. These two cases havecome as an embarrassment forsenior officers,” sources said.
In another incident, cashand ornaments were stolenfrom a house. Reports said themarriage of MohammedWasim of Garhi Peer Khan wasscheduled for Friday and he,along with other family mem-bers, was at the wedding venue.Around 12:40 am, a neighbourinformed Wasim about thetheft and he reached the scene.“The thieves decamped withcash and ornaments breakingthe almirah,” he told the police.A case was registered in thisconnection.
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Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of
Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS)will celebrate its first ResearchDay on Sunday (December13). It has been decided to cel-ebrate December 13, a dayprior to the Foundation Day asResearch Day every year toacknowledge the work done inthis field and to incentivisequality research.
“SGPGI Foundation Day iscelebrated on December 14every year. Other institutes ofexcellence such as PGIMER(Chandigarh) and KGMUhave had a tradition of observ-ing Research Day every year.SGPGIMS, a much youngerinstitute, is now taking thisimportant step too,” thespokesperson said.
She said SGPGIMS, sinceits inception, has given dueimportance to research activi-ties and has achieved significantprogress in frontline research.“It has been recognised as oneof the leading and outstandingmedical institutes for conduct-
ing exceptional research.Scientists have brought laurelsto the institute through theirpublications nationally andinternationally,” she added.
The spokesperson saidthat the ongoing coronaviruspandemic has proven howimportant medical research isin improving our knowledgeof various aspects of a diseasein order to enhance patientoutcomes. “As we navigatethrough and beyond the pan-demic, it is important torecognise and address all pos-sible opportunities and strate-gies for research, be it clinicalor basic. Research Day will bean excellent opportunity forall the faculty members,research scholars and stu-dents to exchange and exhib-it their ideas on research andshowcase past and currentideas and results and gaininsights for further work,” shesaid. There are 12 awards inbasic research, medical andsurgical categories which willbe given away to the bestresearch posters in these categories.
���� ,.8�5�
Mayor Sanyukta Bhatia pre-sented the report card of
Nagar Nigam regarding thework done in the last one year,on the completion of threeyears of her tenure in a pro-gramme organised on Saturday.The chief guest on the occasionwas Governor AnandibenPatel. Also present was minis-ter Ashutosh Tandon.
Addressing the gathering,the mayor said that despite thechallenges due to coronavirus,they increased the resourcesand carried out all public-cen-tric development works in the110 wards of the state capital.
“We carried out mass sani-tisation work in Covid-19 timesand 35 tankers were used to
sanitise each and every part ofthe city. A community kitchenwas started during lockdown inwhich nearly 80,000 peoplewere fed daily and 35 lakh foodpackets distributed. The ‘HelloDoctor’ facility was started byNagar Nigam and sanitarynapkins were distributedamong women. We have evenrun green ambulances forwatering the plants at the timeof lockdown and put Rs 1,000in the accounts of over 72,000daily-wagers,” she said.
She said Lucknow achieved12th spot in the SwachhataSurvekshan. “Currently, ourfocus is door-to-door garbagecollection and 400 new vehicleshave been pressed into servicein the state capital and clean-liness work is being done on a
daily basis,” Bhatia said.She said regular cleanliness
work is being carried out in thecity and health check-ups ofsafai workers and their insur-ance are also being conducted.
The mayor pointed outthat regular cleaning of Gomtiriver and heritage monumentsis also being carried out.
“The biggest achievementhas been the release of the LMCbond as Nagar Nigam becamethe first urban unit in thecountry to issue its bond,” shepointed out.
About future plans, shesaid that under the MissionShakti programme, a women’sdegree college of Nagar Nigamwould be established.
“To provide jobs to thepoor and needy women, theywill be associated with themaking of sanitary pads whichwill be distributed in slums.New commercial centres willbe established, a communityhall for Valmiki Samaj will beestablished and resources willbe increased in the a year’s timefor door-to-door garbage col-lection,” she added. The mayorsaid that the vendors would bebetter organised and all effortswould be made to see thatLucknow reaches number oneposition in the SwachhSurvekshan. She said mattersrelated to Nagar Nigam prop-erties would be resolved in abetter manner and beautifica-tion of crossings and vantagepoints would be carried out.
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Abuilding material supplierwas accused of blackmail-
ing his female friend by threat-ening to share on social mediaher obscene photos which hetook by a trick, in Gudamba. Asper reports, the woman met theaccused in connection withthe purchase of bricks for con-struction of her house a fewyears back. The accused tookRs 50,000 from the woman butdid not buy bricks for her.When the victim demandedher money back, the accusedpromised to help her purchaseland at lower rates.
He befriended the womanand started visiting her house.
He spiked her soft drinks oneday and clicked her pictures inan obscene way. He later start-ed blackmailing the woman bythreatening to upload the con-tent on social media. Thewoman gave the accused twobangles to get the data deleted,but the accused kept at it thewoman continued to give hermoney and ornaments fromtime to time. Left with no
option, the woman sought helpfrom the police.
�!�#��#"���A 55-year-old man was
electrocuted while anotheryouth suffered severe burns andhe is battling for his life at a hos-pital in Gudamba. The incidenttook place during a house con-struction work. The deceasedwas identified as Lalji aka Lalaof the area. He was working atthe house being constructed byQadir of Daliganj. Qadir’s sonAdil was also at the constructionsite and he was helping theworkers. Around 3 pm, both suf-fered electric shock and wererushed to a hospital where Laljiwas declared brought dead.
4(����!�����������������/�Lucknow (PNS): Director ofPGI (Chandigarh) Prof JagatRam stressed that learning is acontinuous process whichinvolves setting of goals, beinginnovative, working with ded-ication and finding joy in cho-sen career. He was speaking atthe 11th Prof MK MehraOration at KGMU, which wasorganised by the department ofOphthalmology.
The annual event was con-ducted in the memory of ProfMehra, who was a stalwart ofophthalmology and formerhead of the department. Asenior faculty member saidthat renowned ophthalmolo-gists are conferred this honourand they deliver the oration lec-ture on their sub-specialty.This year, the lecture was deliv-ered by Prof Jagat Ram.
Prof Ram was awarded thePadma Shree in 2018-2019.Head of Ophthalmologydepartment Prof Apjit Kaurintroduced Prof Mehra as avisionary whose midas touchglorified the destiny of thedepartment.
/�����;���������������������"�������Lucknow (PNS): One person was crit-ically injured when two unidentifiedmotorcycle-borne miscreants openedindiscriminate fire, creating panicduring a panchayat called inAzamgarh to settle a mobile snatch-ing dispute on Friday evening.
The injured was first rushed to thedistrict hospital from where he wasreferred to the medical college inVaranasi when his condition deterio-rated. A case was registered in thisregard and efforts were being made totrace out the assailants and arrestthem. Reports said that ParvendarYadav, a resident of Abyapur villageunder Akharula police station inAzamgarh, was irrigating his field lastWednesday when two youths snatchedhis mobile phone and escaped.
The incident was witnessed by 32-year-old Durgvijay, a resident of thesame village, but he allegedly helpedthe miscreants escape safely.
Yadav alleged the role of Durgvijayin the mobile phone snatching and soa panchayat was called in the villageon Friday evening to resolve the dif-ferences.
Some people from the village ofParvendar Yadav and some of the vil-lagers questioned Durgvijay during thepanchayat to find out the truth .
Sources said that when Durgvijaywas disclosing what happened on thefateful day, two youths riding a motor-cycle stopped at the place where thepanchayat was being held and firedhalf-a-dozen rounds indiscriminate-ly and escaped.
Two bullets reportedly hitDurgvijay, injuring him seriously. Hewas rushed to the community healthcentre at Akharula from where thedoctors sent him to the district hos-pital. The doctors at the district hos-pital referred him to Varanasi.
Four separate cases were registeredin connection with the incident andinvestigations were on.
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The new information tech-nology and electronic
manufacturing policy of theUttar Pradesh government hasgiven encouraging results as injust three years, investment ofRs 20,000 crore investment hasbeen made in the state byaround 30 investors. Theinvestment has resulted increation of three lakh freshjobs. The ElectronicsManufacturing Policy 2017was announced in December2017 to attract investment inthe electronics sector in thestate. Deputy Chief MinisterDinesh Sharma and StateMinister for IT Ajit Pal Singhtold reporters here on Saturdayabout the achievement of theIT sector.
“In less than three years,we have achieved a lot in ITsector with Rs 20,000 croreinvestments and three lakhjobs,” they claimed.
Under the policy, Noida,Greater Noida and YamunaExpressway areas located inthe National Capital Regionwere declared as ElectronicsManufacturing Zones.
The policy had great suc-cess and has been able toachieve its targets of attractinginvestment and employmentboth. Many reputed compa-nies from China, Taiwan andKorea set up their manufactur-ing units in UP and anElectronics ManufacturingCluster (EMC) was developedin an area of 100 acres inGreater Noida.
After the successful imple-
mentation of the ElectronicsManufacturing Policy 2017,the state governmentannounced the newElectronics ManufacturingPolicy 2020 covering the entirestate for uniform develop-ment of the electronic indus-try in all the regions of the state.
Sharma said the new pol-icy targeted investment of Rs40,000 crore over the next fiveyears and generation of4,00,000 jobs.
The establishment of threeelectronics manufacturingclusters in the state, an elec-tronic city near Jewar Airportalong Yamuna Expressway,Defence ElectronicsManufacturing Cluster inBundelkhand and MedicalElectronics ManufacturingCluster in Lucknow-Unnao-Kanpur zone are proposed.
To promote research,innovation and entrepreneur-ship in the industry, worldclass infrastructure will becreated in the state as threeCentres of Excellence in col-laboration with the Union ggovernment and industryassociations. In this order, theCentre of Excellence (COE)for product-based Li-ion cellshas been given in-principleapproval by the state government.
To promote the informa-tion technology industry, theIT Parks are being developedwith an investment of approx-imately Rs 200 crore in all 18divisions of the state bySoftware Technology Parks ofIndia (STPI), a Central gov-
ernment organisation.Operation in these IT Parks inMeerut, Agra, Gorakhpur andVaranasi is expected to beginin the first-half of next fiscal.
Apart from this, actionsare being taken to start thework for development of ITParks in Aligarh, Saharanpur,Azamgarh and Jhansi.
Additionally, 40 acres ofland has been acquired in thestate capital Lucknow to devel-op a state-of-the-artInformation Technology Parkon PPP model. Out of this, 4acre land has been allocated toSTPI to set up the country’slargest incubation centre inUttar Pradesh.
As a result of the state gov-ernment’s initiative, 18 incuba-tors in prestigious education-al institutions of the state likeIIM-Lucknow, IIT-Kanpur,IIT-BHU, Abdul KalamUniversity of Technology,Amity University, KIETGhaziabad have started theiroperations after approval bythe state government.
The ministers said at pre-sent more than 3,300 start-upunits had become operationalin the state. They said anonline portal had beenlaunched to promote incuba-tors, start-ups and otherecosystem stakeholders toengage with respective nodalagencies.
To meet the financialrequirements of the needystart-ups, a Rs 1000 crorefund has been set up by thestate government with thehelp of SIDBI which is expect-ed to be operational soon.
��������:2��� ������"� ��������������� ��
���&����'��#����“Measures were taken to ensure
commuters do not face inconvenienceat places were protest are being staged,”said police.
The Delhi Traffic Police hasdeployed its personnel across importantborder points to ensure commuters donot face difficulties and is constantlyupdating people about open and closedroutes on its Twitter handle.
In series of tweets, the traffic policeon Saturday informed commuters aboutthe closure of the Singhu, Auchandi,Piau Maniyari and Mangesh borders.
Since these borders are closed, itsuggested that motorists take alternativeroutes via Lampur, Safiabad,Saboli andSinghu School toll tax borders.
Traffic has been diverted fromMukarba and GTK Road. So, com-muters have been advised to avoid OuterRing Road, GTK Road and NationalHighway-44, the traffic police said.
Due to the ongoing farmers’protests, it said both the Chilla and theGhazipur borders are also closed fortraffic from Noida and Ghaziabad.
“The Chilla & Ghazipur borders areclosed for traffic from Noida &Ghaziabad to Delhi due to farmers’protests. People are advised to take alter-nate route for coming to Delhi via AnadVihar, DND, Apsara & bhopra borders,”it tweeted. The Tikri and the Dhansaborders are also closed for traffic move-ment but the Jhatikara border is openonly for two wheelers and pedestrianmovement, the traffic police said in atweet. Those going towards Haryana,can take Jharoda (only single carriage-way), Daurala, Kapashera, Badusarai,Rajokri NH 8, Bijwasan/Bajghera, PalamVihar and Dundahera borders as theyare open, the traffic police said.
Meanwhile, the Sonipat districtadministration has offered coronavirustesting facility to protesting farmers butmost of them are unwilling to get test-ed, fearing they would be isolated iffound positive and this would weakentheir agitation.
�,���!������In the last few years, we’ve made
reforms to break all such hurdles. Theagriculture sector is one such example.Today, farmers of India can sell theirproduce both at the mandis, as well asoutside. Farmers can also sell their pro-duce on digital platforms. We are tak-ing all these initiatives to increase thefarmers’ income and make them moreprosperous”, said Modi while virtuallyaddressing 93rd annual convention ofFICCI. “If the farmers of the countrybecome prosperous, the countrybecomes prosperous,” said the PM.
The PM’s comment in support ofnew laws come soon after two seniorCentral Ministers Ravi Shankar Prasadand Piyush Goyal alleged “infiltration”of ‘tukde-tukde-gang’ and that of “ultra-left” elements into the agitation.
Stating that obstacles are beingremoved between the agriculture and it’sclosely related processes, Modi said thecold storage infrastructure will be mod-ernised and would result in moreinvestments in the agriculture sector.Farmers will be benefitted the mostfrom it, he said.
“The farmers have options to selltheir crops in mandis as well as to out-side parties,” he said assuring that the‘Mandi System’ would continue.
Protesting farmers, particularlythose from Punjab and Haryana, areapprehensive that with the coming ofcorporate traders (new laws allowscontract farming between outsideinvestors and the farmers), the “mandisystem” with middle-men (adhatiyas) inoperation could be abolished as also the system of Minimum SupportPrice (MSP).
Interestingly, trading of farm pro-duce is already in practice in the coun-
try, including Punjab, and only six percent of agriculture produce is purchasedunder the MSP system (operating most-ly in Punjab and Haryana).
As the agitation has entered itsthird-week (17th day), Opposition par-ties are backing the farmers while theCentre is saying “no” to the roll-back ofthe farm laws though not unwilling toamend them and guaranteeing theMSP. The PM’s comments in support offarm laws have come close to the BJPlaunching its own big awareness cam-paign with farmers across more than700 districts in the country. As theslugfest between the sides continues,Government has allowed doors ofnegotiations open asking farmers towalk the middle ground.
.&%���,/�������In fact, Haryana and Punjab are pre-
dominantly agrarian society and almostall the elite of the non-farming commu-nities, whether artists or other profes-sionals, come from farming back-grounds, or have close symbiotic rela-tions with the landed farming commu-nity --- the farm workers are mostlyfrom Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and somefrom the grim underbelly of Punjab-Haryana’s rural areas which are rem-nants of a caste-ridden feudal system.
A farm transporter, one of theelderly among the protesters, claims thenew farm laws will affect the ecosystemin Haryana and Punjab whose agricul-ture survives on State subsidies in theform of high MSP (minimum supportprice) and well-established AgriculturalProduce Market Committees (APMC)mandis.
��!!����"�����In a related development a group of
29 farmers met Tomar and extendedtheir support to the new bills, threaten-ing to stage a protest if those arerepealed. The delegation, led byBharatiya Kisan Union’s (Mann)Haryana State leader Guni Prakash, sub-mitted a “letter of support” to Tomar onthe farm laws passed by Parliament inSeptember and demanded theGovernment to continue with these leg-islations.
Chautala, who’s Jannayak JanataParty (JJP) counts farmers as an impor-tant constituency and has faced prick-ly questions about his alliance with theBJP amid the mounting pressure towithdraw from the BJP-led Governmentin the State, had earlier said he willresign if the MSP system is threatened.
The Haryana Government couldtopple if key ally JJP pulls back supportfrom the BJP-led Government in theState. The BJP holds power in Haryanawith its 40 seats out of the 90-seatHaryana Assembly and the support of10 JJP MLAs and five IndependentMLAs. The Congress, on the otherhand, has 31 seats. Farmer unions, par-ticularly in Punjab and Haryana, saidthe new laws will lead to the disman-tling of the MSP system under whichGovernment agencies buy their crop atan assured price. After the meeting,Chautala said the crop procurement atthe Government-decided MSP (mini-mum support price) would be ensuredfor each farmer till the time he was partof the State Government.
&/��#�!!��'�# ���Terming it a “political move” by the
Centre, senior Trinamool Congresslawmaker Kalyan Banerjee wrote toUnion Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, say-ing that law and order is a State subject.Banerjee alleged that the Centre wasresorting to coercive means to intimi-date the State administration, and thetop officials were summoned at theinstance of the Home Minister AmitShah.
On Friday, Bengal Chief SecretaryAlapan Bandopadhyay and Director
General of Police Virendra refused toheed the orders of the Union HomeMinistry asking their presence in theNorth Block after serious security laps-es occurred during Nadda’s visit toDiamond Harbour.
His convoy was attacked by miscre-ants on Thursday damaging a numberof vehicles and causing injury to partymen including senior BJP leaders.
The Home Ministry promptly madean unprecedented move directing thetop Bengal officials to appear before itand explain the security lapses.Incidentally Home Minister Amit Shahwho is personally monitoring theCentral probe into attack on Nadda’sconvoy is likely to visit Bengal onDecember 19 and will stay here for twodays, sources said. In response to theHome Ministry’s letter the ChiefSecretary wrote back saying his andDGP’s presence in Delhi was avoidableas the matter was “already being exam-ined” by the State Government.
!�!"0�� ����%���"The rate at which his disease is get-
ting worse and since he has diabetes forthe last 20 years, his end organ is dam-aging in an escalating manner. So, thesituation is alarming for the patient'shealth. The higher authorities ofRajendra Institute of Medical Sciences(RIMS) have been informed in writingabout Yadav's health that emergency sit-uation can arise at any time," he added.
Dr Prasad also said, in his opinion,there is no need to transfer Lalu Yadavto any other medical facility as organdamage due to diabetes is irreversibleand no medicine can cure it.
"The court or the government hasto decide on whether he needs to betaken somewhere else for treatment. Inmy opinion, there will not be anymajor impact on his health if he is takenoutside for treatment. This is becausethe damage in body organs due to dia-betes is irreversible. There is no medi-cine which will make the kidney func-tion at 100 per cent from 25 per cent.Otherwise, there will be no need fordialysis or kidney transplant," he said.
"We have taken a decision that wewill consult the resident nephrologistand decide on the further course oftreatment of Lalu Prasad Yadav," headded. On Friday, the Jharkhand HighCourt deferred Lalu Yadav's bail pleahearing in the fodder scam case toJanuary 22, 2021 after considering arequest made by his lawyer.
The RJD leader was admitted toRIMS on August 30, 2018, after he sur-rendered at Birsa Munda Central Jail onJharkhand court's orders in the fodderscam. Mr Yadav had in October securedbail in connection with the Chaibasatreasury case related to the fodderscam. However, he is yet to secure bailin the Dumka treasury case.
Mr Yadav, who had been in prisonsince December 2017, was sentenced toseven years imprisonment in 2018under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) andseven years under the Prevention ofCorruption Act in connection with thefodder scam case. Both the sentences arebeing served consecutively. The casepertains to the fraudulent withdrawal of? 3.5 crores from the Dumka treasuryby Animal Husbandry Departmentofficials between 1991 and 1996 whenMr Yadav served as the State's ChiefMinister.
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prefabricated heated huts for troops andwinter clothing.
At present, more than one lakhtroops from both the sides are stationedat the LAC in the standoffs and preparedfor long haul. They have made prepa-rations for staying put in the harsh win-ter months when temperatures dip tominus 30 degrees.
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At a time when PrimeMinister Narendra Modi
has been emphasising onempowering the divyangsand showing sensitivitytowards their needs, the BJP-run civic body, NorthMunicipal Corporation ofDelhi (North MCD), haschosen to turn a blind eye toensuring even the basic rightsof Dr Sumit Anand, aMedical Officer with loco-motor disability.
Not only has he beendenied his due salary incre-ment for the last four yearssince he joined the medicalcadre, the young doctor, at anurban health centre at KarolBagh, has also not been paidhis salary since June, thisyear.
As if this unlawful denialis not enough. His applica-tion for disability rights andprivileges, enshrined underthe guidelines issued by theDepartment ofEmpowerment of Personswith Disabilities (DPwD),Union Ministry of SocialJustice and Empowerment, isgathering dust in his depart-
ment for the last two years.In another instance of
the civic body’s stark insen-sitivity towards the needs ofthe persons with disabilities,the young officer has also notbeen provided with a dis-abled-friendly chair to helphim carry out his day-to-dayofficial activities.
Dr Anand, however, hasnot let this indifference hin-der his performance. Duringthe lockdown period due toCovid-19, Dr Anand report-ed daily for duty, for which hewas recognised with CoronaWarrior certificates, first bythe then DeputyCommissioner, Central DelhiArav Gopi Krishna and thenBalram Meena, SDM, KarolBagh.
“When I complainedabout non-payment of salaryto the department, the offi-cials are pressurising me tosign a faulty salary pay-billwithout increment and dis-ability-related benefits,” hesaid adding the apathy hasleft him and his old parents,who are dependent on him,mentally and financiallydrained out.
Having failed to get jus-tice from the civic body, the
Lieutenant Governor, NewDelhi, the Union HealthMinistry, the StateCommissioner for Personswith Disabilities, Dr Anand
is now pinning hopes on theNational Human RightsCommission (NHRC), whichhas registered his case for fur-ther action.
Talking about his disabil-ity, Dr Anand said, his was acase of medical negligencewhen treatment for anenlarged lymph node led tothe gradual paralysis of anerve leading to his rightshoulder when he was doinghis MD. He had to give up hisdreams of doing specialisa-tion and joined the NorthMCD in the medical cadre.
“It is very disappointingthat bright people likeAnand, who cleared MBBSand then UPSC in the firstattempt have to go throughsuch discrimination onlybecause they are physicallydisabled.
“Instead of honouringtheir commitment andboosting their morale, theNorth MCD is finding newways to harass such Coronawarriors. This must stop andhe should be delivered hisdues immediately to send apositive message among thecommunity,” said DrSatendra Singh, an activist forpeople with disabilities.
Ahead of the sixth phase of District DevelopmentCouncil elections, parts of Kashmir valley wit-
nessed fresh spells of snowfall in plain areas of Srinagarand higher reaches of tourist resorts of Gulmarg,Pahalgam and North Kashmir districts of Baramullaand Kupwara. In Jammu region, famous tourist resortsof Patnitop, Bhaderwah,Bani, Trikuta hills where thecave shrine of Mata Vaishno Devi is located also wit-nessed fresh snowfall. Due to inclement weather con-ditions movement of smooth traffic was also haltedon the 300 km long Jammu Srinagar NationalHighway. Several interior roads in snowbound areasalso remained covered with thick blankets of snow.
On the other hand, two civilians were injured ina grenade attack on a police post in Sopore area ofBaramulla district. This is the third grenade attack inKashmir valley in the last 48 hours,official sources said.
In Jammu region, Pakistan army violated cease-fire agreement by resorting to mortar shelling inBalakote sector of Poonch.According to a Jammu basedDefence Spokesman, Lt-Col Devender Anand around 6.00 p.m Pakistan army resorted to unprovokedceasefire violation by using small arms firing and mor-tar shelling in the Balakote sector of Poonch. Inresponse the Indian army retaliated strongly,spokesman added.
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Srinagar:Union Minister AnuragThakur on Saturday expressed con-fidence that J&K will get back17,000 hectares of land that wasgrabbed through the RoshniScheme, and action will be takenagainst corrupts.
“Roshni Act has been struckdown by High Court and (it)termed the Act illegal and uncon-stitutional. It clearly defined whythis Act had been brought in...Justto help a few big names, “ Thakur,who is the BJP's election in-chargefor Jammu and Kashmir, toldreporters here.
Thakur said he was glad thatthe court had taken an initiative andthere has been a fair inquiry into it.
“I am sure that 3.42 lakh kanal(17,000 hectares) of land will bereturned to state of Jammu andKashmir. There will be actionagainst who were involved in thecorrupt practice, “ he added.
The Jammu and Kashmir gov-ernment has filed a review petitionin the high court seeking to distin-guish between landless cultivatorsand wealthy land grabbers who hadbenefitted from the law which hasbeen struck down. The petition willcome up for hearing on December16.
Commenting on the ongoingDistrict Development Council elec-tions in Jammu and Kashmir,Thakur said the people will decidewhich part wins or loses.
“However, the response to thefive phases of elections so farmeans that people have alreadyensured the victory of democracy.The important thing is that thesepolls have been free, fair and fear-free,” he said. The union ministersaid there were attempts the scarethe people ahead of the elections“but they (voters) were notscared. “ PTI
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Goa's coronavirus caseload wentUp by 70 and reached 49,305 on
Saturday, while two deaths took the tollto 705, an official said.He said 47,489people have been discharged so far,including 144 on Saturday, leaving thestate with 1,111 active cases. The offi-cial said 2,069 samples were tested forthe infection during the day.
Committee of COVID-19Vaccination was held under thechairmanship of DistrictMagistrate (DM) Kaushal RajSharma here on Friday. In themeeting, Health departmentofficers have informed thatthe construction work of vac-cination storage room will becompleted by December 31and three ILRs (Ice LinkedRefrigerators) have becomeavailable to the district from thestate. The vaccination of healthcare workers from both gov-ernment and private hospitalswill be done in the first phaseand then in the further stages,vaccination of frontline work-ers and citizens above 50 yearsof various departments will bedone. Vaccination will be doneboth in government and privatehospitals.
DM directed that district-level micro plans should be pre-pared as per the guidelines ofthe Central and state govern-ments and employees related tovaccination should be trained.Special arrangements should bemade for the safety and main-tenance of the vaccines. Other
departments should beinformed in time for coopera-tion in the drive. Sharma alsoreviewed the status of coronainfection. He said that thenumber of corona cases hasincreased slightly in the past, sothere is a need to remain alertcompletely. The work of sur-veillance should be expedited,sampling work should also bedone on priority and if positivepatients are found in them,they should be immediatelyadmitted to Covid dedicatedhospitals.
‘Special monitoring of old
patients should be done inten-sively by the concerned com-munity and primary healthcentres (CHCs/PHCs),’ he said,instructing the Chief MedicalOfficer (CMO) Dr VB Singh tomake a calendar and prescribeddoses of tablet Ivermectin to bedistributed free-of-cost to thetargeted groups. Earlier, SMOof WHO made a power pointpresentation of the districtlevel action plan of Covid vac-cination. Chief DevelopmentOfficer (CDO) MadhusudanHulagi, ACMOs, medical offi-cers, District Programme
Officer (ICDS) and othersincluding the employees ofUNICEF, WHO, Zapigo andMicroSave were present in themeeting.
Meanwhile, the DM alsoreviewed the revision work ofthe voter list on the basis of eli-gibility date January 1, 2021 asdirected by the ElectionCommission of India. Hedirected that BLOs to remainpresent at all polling stations inthe district on Sunday andtheir supervisory officers AROs/ EROs should continue toconduct rounds at their respec-tive booths. He informed thata total of 2,920 BLOs and 300supervisors have been deployedin the district. During thiscampaign special emphasis waslaid on adding the names ofwomen and young voters. TheDM has set a target of gettingat least 10 forms for each BLO.Action will be taken against theBLO for not meeting the target.The worst-case ratio of femaleand male voters is in Rohania,City South and VaranasiCantonment assembly con-stituencies.
Special emphasis shouldbe laid on increasing the num-ber of women voters in theseassembly constituencies.
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The police force and PACpersonnel were deployed at
Dafi Toll Plaza on Saturday toavoid any confrontation fol-lowing the announcement byagitating farmers to make tollplaza free for the commutersand block highways in protestagainst the Centre’s new threefarm laws. The police were alsoalerted to keep close vigil onthe highways. Meanwhile, thepolice made the former districtpresident of the SamajwadiParty (SP) Satish Fauzi and hisson Ajay Yadav house arrest asa precautionary measure.
In order to intensify theiragitation against the Centre’sthree new farm laws the agi-tating farmers had announcedto block highways and maketoll plaza free for the com-muters on Saturday and inview of this, the police forceand PAC personnel weredeployed at Dafi Toll Plazahere to avoid any confronta-tion between the agitators and
employees working at tollplaza and also ensure that thecommuters face no inconve-nience. The police personnelof police stations situated par-ticularly in rural areas weremade alert to keep close watchon the highways.
No confrontation wasreported at this toll plaza andit functioned normally asusual. No protest was also
reported at this toll plaza andhighway as well. The policeand PAC personnel weredeployed at the toll plaza evenin the wee hours to ensure thefunctioning here as usual.Nothing untoward happenedand the function at toll plazaremained normal, the policeclaimed.
Meanwhile, the police alsomade the former district pres-
ident of the Samajwadi PartySatish Fauzi and his son Ajayhouse arrest. It is pointed outhere that the SP hasannounced to support the agi-tation of the farmers and itsactivists also staged a protestin favour of farmers’ agitationduring the Bharat Bandh onDecember 9 last.
Fauzi and his son wereasked to remain at home inSeergverdhan under Lankapolice station and not holdtalks with others just as pre-caution in view of theannouncement of the agitatingfarmers to block highwaysand make toll plaza free, thepolice informed. The policealso kept close watch on theactivities of those of theadjoining areas of toll plazawho had been in controversyin the past.
The personnel of localintelligence unit (LIU) werealso put on alert so as the inputcould be gathered on time incase the farmers gather ingroups for the agitation.
VARANASI (PNS) : UPMinister of State (IndependentCharge) for Tourism, Culture,Religious Affairs and ProtocolDr Neelkanth Tiwari has takenthe officers of Irrigation depart-ment to task and issued anotice to them for the slowprogress of development andbeautification work being doneat Sangam Ghat (confluence ofrivers Ganga and Gomti) inKaithi near MarkandeyaMahadev temple with the costof �1065.66 lakh. He wasreviewing the progress of �11,731 lakh projects ofTourism department at itsChowkaghat office here onFriday.
The minister instructedthe officers of the departmentto complete the projects in timeby launching a drive on war-footing and ensure maintainingof quality of work. He alsodirected the concerned officersto complete the project beingdone at cost of �1514.02 lakhat Seer Govardhan before theforthcoming Sant RavidasJayanti. He said that the con-struction work on open theatreand changing rooms beingdone with a cost of � 59.91lakh should be completed byFebruary 15 so that the pro-gramme can be organised thereon the occasion of forthcoming
festival of Mahashivratri.Besides, Tiwari also instructedcomplete lane road repairingwork in Ramapura, Benia,Katuapura, Haraha, GolaDinanath, Piarikala, Chetganj,Habibpura, Pandariba,Prahladghat, Omkaleshwar,Rajghat, Madhyameshwar andDaranagar wards by July nextyear. The minister asked theconcerned officers to start heli-pad construction work inDomri by approaching thecourt to remove the stay. Hesaid that he will lay the foun-dation stone of �382.32 lakhproject for the development ofpond at Bhadrakali temple inSarawa on January 1 next. Heexpressed his concern over theslow progress in the construc-tion work between Godowliaand Dashashwamedh Ghatbeing done with the cost of �1077.56 lakh and asked theconcerned officers to ensurecompletion of work soon.
Meanwhile, the ministerhas informed that the head-quarters (Directorate) of theDepartment of ReligiousAffairs will be made in Varanasias it was decided in a cabinetmeeting held in Lucknow onFriday under the chairmanshipof Chief Minister YogiAdityanath. This will be thefirst directorate to be made at
state level in the city. Accordingto him, in 1985, the departmentwas created but its directoratehas not yet been formed. Hesaid that with the formation ofthe Directorate of ReligiousAffairs in the city, the activitiesof the shrines, temples andmonasteries will be connectedand the schemes related totheir beautification and devel-opment works will gainmomentum.
IIT-BHU DIRECTORFLAGS OFF SHOP-ON-WHEELS: Director of IndianInstitute of Technology,Banaras Hindu University (IIT-BHU) Prof Pramod KumarJain flagged off shop-on-wheelsof Grihastha Georgic Pvt Ltd,a start-up incubated at RKVY-RAFTAAR Agri BusinessIncubator (R-ABI) on Friday.Prof Rajiv Prakash, Dean(R&D), Prof Pradeep KumarMishra, Dean (Student Affairs)and Principal Investigator,RKVY-RAFTAAR schemewere also present. Thereafter,Jain visited the BioreactorFacility & Food TechnologyLab for analytical testing of agriand food products establishedin Malviya Centre forInnovation, Incubation andEntrepreneurship (MCIIE).
Grihastha has created afarm to folk platform, Family
Farmer to provide better priceto the farmers for their agriproduce and to provide quali-ty products to the customers attheir doorstep. Shop-on-wheelsis one of the milestones ofGrihastha recommended bythe Incubator Committee. It isstarting now in Varanasiregion. It will help people in theregion to instantly get the goodquality agri products.
Earlier, IIT-BHU hadorganised a 60-hour onlineAgri-preneurship OrientationProgramme (AOP) recently inwhich 31 start-ups shortlistedunder RKVY-RAFTAAR AgriBusiness Incubator (R-ABI),participated from UP,Uttarakhand, West Bengal,Bihar, New Delhi, Punjab andHaryana. The online valedic-tory of the programme washeld on Thursday in whichProf Pradeep Kumar Mishrawelcomed the chief guest andIIT-BHU Director ProfPramod Kumar Jain and guestof honour Prof Rajiv Prakash,Dean (R&D), IIT-BHU. In hisaddress, Prof Jain congratulat-ed the selected start-ups andemphasised on usage of AI,IOT and precision agriculturein the start-up ideas so thatAtmaNirbhar Bharat, dream ofPrime Minister Narendra Modican be realised.
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A30-year-old man, who wasgoing home with his broth-
er, was shot dead by someunidentified miscreants onFriday night near AvatarTalkies under the Shivkutipolice station. After the inci-dent, all the top officials includ-ing DIG reached the spot andreviewed the situation there.
It was learned that theman who was shot dead wasaccused of killing propertydealer Wasim two-and-a-halfyears ago. He was released onbail shortly before. After talk-ing to the kins, the police raid-ed several places in theMehndori area and picked upfive suspects.
They are being interro-gated. Police said that primafaicie it appeared that oldenmity could be the reasonsbehind his murder. His broth-er has seen the accused. Policecame to know about some sus-pects. Based on the same, thepolice are conducting raids totrace the whereabouts of theaccused persons.
Neeraj Jaiswal, a residentof Jondhal, has a garmentshop in Azad Market inTeliarganj.
On Friday night, he closedthe shop and was going homewith his brother Dheeraj.Some people were alreadyambushed near Avatar Talkies.They started firing indis-criminately at Neeraj. Hereceived two shots in thestomach and one shot in hischest.
After this, all the hood-
lums escaped. PerturbedDheeraj immediatelyinformed the family and thepolice about the incident..
The police immediatelyrushed to the SRN with Neerajwhere doctors declared himdead.
By then the force of sev-eral police stations includingDIG, SSP Sar vashreshtTripathi, SP City DineshSingh, CO Sudhir Kumar hadreached the spot. Neeraj’sbrother Dheeraj informed thepolice about the enmity on thebasis of which some suspectswere hauled up immediatelyin Mehdauri.
Police have picked up fivepeople in this connection.Some people who are undersuspicion were not found athome. Search is underway tocatch hold of them.
SSP Sarvshresth Tripathisaid that Neeraj was jailed inthe Wasim murder case whichtook place two-and-a-halfyears ago. He had come out onbail shortly before. Police havefound extremely importantclues in the murder case. Thecase will be worked out soon.
Wasim, a property dealerfrom Mehndori, was mur-dered on the night of May 17,2018. His body was found inMalak Balau vi l lage ofNawabganj. In this case, thepolice had sent half-a-dozento jail including Vipin, NeerajJaiswal. Neeraj was releasedfrom jail shortly before.Wasim and Neeraj had a dis-pute over money and themurder took place over thesame issue, added the SSP.
PRIEST KILLED INMISHAP: A priest was killedwhile four others includingthe cyclist sustained grievousinjuries when the car in whichthey were returning from abarat in front of Iradatganjrailway station in the dis-trict’s Ghurpur police stationarea collided with a truckafter hitting a cyclist. Whenthe news of the priest’s deathreached his house in the acci-dent, a pall of gloom prevailedover his family members. Thekins reached the spot weepingand wailing.
On Friday evening, baaratof Dipendra Tiwari, son ofGauri Shankar Tiwari, resi-dent of Pachkhara village ofJasra, went to Neeva village ofDhumanganj. A car wasreturning from the barat onSaturday morning. As soon asthe car reached nearIradatganj, in the meantime,an employee of the brick kiln,Chhote Lal (65) son ofBabadin was going to hishouse in Jamuli by bicycle. Inan attempt to save the cyclist,the car crashed into theparked truck while hittingthe bicycle.
Utkarsh Tiwari (28) son ofVinod Tiwari sitting in the cardied. While driving in the car,Vishambhar Dwivedi (55) andthe groom’s father GauriShankar Tiwari (60) and thegroom’s nephew Rachit Tiwari(13) son of Ravindra Tiwariwere seriously injured. In theaccident, Utkarsh died whileon the way to the hospital.Utkarsh Tiwari was a priest ofthe marriage procession.
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North Central Railway isactively participating and
promoting ‘Fit India’ campaignlaunched by the Ministry ofYouth Affairs and Sports,Government of India. A seriesof activities have been plannedunder this initiative duringDecember 2020 to promote fit-ness across nation.
On Saturday a fitness campwas organised by NCR SportsAssociation in Railgaon,Subedarganj Stadium.President, NCRSA andPrincipal Chief EngineerSharad Mehta welcomed allparticipants on this occasionand briefed on importance offitness in our daily life and ben-efits of this initiative. Underthe ‘Fit India’ campaign aschedule of physical exerciseincluding running, walking
and stretching has beendesigned by experts for railwayemployees and their familymembers inline with theme ofthis campaign ‘Fitness Ka DoseAadha Ghanta Roz.’
All officers, staff and theirfamily members present onthis occasion were impartedtraining on these exercises byexpert coaches of NCR sportsassociation. Sharad Mehta fur-
ther instructed the coaches tocontinue guiding officers, stafftheir family members andencouraged everyone toincrease participation in thisimportant fitness initiative .
The event witnessed par-ticipation from Ajai MathurPrincipal Financial Advisorand Navin Kumar Sinha SeniorDeputy General Manager otherhead of departments, generalsecretary NCRSA AnkurChandra, joint secretary VijayKumar, sportspersons of NCRfrom various sports disciplines– Athletics, Gymnastics,Hockey, Cricket, Badminton,Golf, Football and otherRailway employees and officialson NCRSA. The Fit IndiaCampaign is being organised toencourage fitness. The cam-paign will cover Fit IndiaThematic Campaign“FitnessKa Dose Aadha Ghanta Roz.
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Union Minister of State forE d u c a t i o n ,
Communications andElectronics and InformationTechnology, Sanjay Dhotre,visited Allahabad Region of UPPostal Circle. Chief PostMaster General Uttar PradeshKaushlendra Kumar Sinha,Post Master General AllahabadSuvendu Kumar Swain andother dignitaries of theDepartment of Posts were pre-sent during the visit.
The minister reviewedthe performance of UP PostalCircle on different revenueand operational parametersand gave inputs/suggestions toimprove the performance. Theminister announced thenames of villages coveredunder the scheme ‘5 StarVillage’ in Uttar PradeshPostal Circle. The Departmentof Posts launched this schemeto ensure universal coverageof Postal schemes in rural
areas. This aims at financialinclusion of citizens under dif-ferent schemes offered by PostOffices.
The concept of the FiveStar Villages is to ensure 100household coverage of allschemes. One scheme is equalto one star rating. If a villagecomplete all five schemes thevillage gets status of 5 Star rat-
ing.Passbooks to the girl child
— the beneficiaries ofSukanya Samirdhhi Yojna -ambitious scheme serving thevision of the Prime Ministerfor ‘Beti Bachao and BetiPadhao’ were distributed bythe minister who also distrib-uted cheques to the benefi-ciaries of SCWF Senior
Citizen Welfare Fund) andoffered POSB schemes.
During a press confer-ence, the minister briefedprint and electronic mediaabout the role being played byDepartment of Posts.
He stated that as a serviceprovider, UP Postal Circle iscommitted to provide thequality service to the cus-tomers and to serve the citi-zen in general.
The concept of welfarestate, the vision of good gov-ernance and the goal of digi-tal India are being conceptu-alised and realised by the UPPostal Circle.
The minister informedthe media about the achieve-ment of UP Postal Circle. Hehighlighted the role played byPost Offices in Covid lock-down Department of Postshas played a crucial role in thepandemics of COVID-19 bydelivering cash at the doorstep of citizens with the helpof APS (Aadhar EnablesPayment System).
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Prayagraj reported a total of43 positive cases of the
COVID-19 within the last 24hours. At the same time, 122patients also became infectionfree on the same day on Fridayevening. About 110 personsalso completed their home iso-lation, while 12 patients alsodischarged from differentCovid hospitals. With thisnumber of people completingtheir home isolation, a total of19,695 persons have complet-
ed their home isolation tilltoday.
One patient also suc-cumbed to the deadly virus onthe same day. On Fridayevening, a total of 5,510 per-sons got their corona test con-ducted. Of them, as many as 43persons were tested positive forCOVID-19.
Meanwhile, a total of 20people, including about half-a-dozen employees of two mar-riage halls of Lohar village ofBelkharnath developmentblock and the former village
head in Bhangwachungi townwere found corona infected inthe Pratapgarh district. Thisstirred up. However, theadministration closed the mar-riage hall for 24 hours and gotit sanitised.
The Health departmenthas been involved in preparingthe list of the people involvedin the marriage hall since thelast three days. Those involvedin the matrimonial programmewill be tested by taking a sam-ple. CMO Dr Arvind Srivastavasaid that he has now made
arrangements to send samplesof the marriage hall operatorsand employees for testing.
A 66-year-old woman diedon Friday from Corona. Shewas a resident of Jhunsi. Shewas undergoing treatment atSwaroop Rani Nehru Hospital.Apart from this, SeniorResident of SRN SurgeryDepartment, SignalMaintenance worker ofRailways, Branch Manager ofBaroda Bank, MR of a phar-maceutical company have beenaffected due to coronavirus.
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� �������� ���!������ ��/������������������������� ����ALLAHABAD (PNS):Construction of pontoonbridges for the month longannual Magh Mela started. Itstarted from the Triveni bridgeon the first day. Twenty caskshave been taken out of thewarehouse and taken to theghat for the same purpose.Construction of other bridgeswill start soon. The PublicWorks Department will con-struct five bridges by January 5.On the other hand, the work ofthe Chakard Plate roads is alsogoing on. It is targeted to becompleted by January 10.Most of the Magh Mela to beset up in five sectors will crossthe Ganga. In such a situation,five bridges on the Ganga haveto be built for the devoteescoming form across the globeand bathe in the Sangam. Forthe construction of this bridge,the matter was complicatedbetween the officials and thecontractors for the last severaldays.
It is because the depart-ment had reduced the rate ofbridges by revising it. At thatrate, they were not willing towork. Since the department hasto work below the prescribedrate. But this time all the con-tractors put a higher rate. Thenit was finally decided that thefair is nearer, if the bridge is notconstructed, the fair will beaffected. Therefore, the workhas started from Friday, assum-ing certain conditions of thecontractors.
ed in the district on Saturday,increasing the total number to20,189. The day also saw twomore deaths, increasing the tollto 333. During the day, the fol-low-up negative reports includ-ed 92 and 90 of them have beenrecovered from home isolationwhile two from the hospitals,increasing the number to16,210 and 2,886 respectively.The total number of patientswho have been recovered so far
is 19,096, leaving 760 activecases. The recovery rate is94.58 per cent, while the mor-tality rate is 1.64 per cent.
Chief Medical Officer(CMO) Dr VB Singh hasinformed that in the firstreport of the day, 43 positivepatients were found out of2,735 reports received. Tillthen, the total test reportsreceived were 4,63,557 andthe results of 3,365 are await-ed. Out of them, 4,43,370 werenegative while 20,187 positive.The total number of samplescollected was 4,85,132. Earlier,
two males aged 59 and 75 fromPuari Kala (Badagaon) andNagwa (Lanka) respectivelysuccumbed to Covid-19 at SirSundarlal Hospital, BanarasHindu University (SSH BHU).With the addition of five newred zones, the total number ofhotspots has increased to 2,555including 225 red zones. Twogreen zones have been con-verted into red zones onceagain There are 2,330 greenzones with eight new ones.
Meanwhile, on the instruc-tions of the District Magistrate(DM) Kaushal Raj Sharma,
mass/ group antigen tests con-tinued to be conducted atVaranasi Junction (Cantt.) andManduadih railway stationsbut all the 79 and 41 tests donethere respectively were foundnegative. Besides, all the 145tests have been found negativeat Shree Shiv Prasad Gupta(SSPG) Hospital, Kabirchaura,176 at LBS Hospital Ramnagar,155 tests at GovernmentWomen’s Hospital, 31 atCHC Shivpur, 45 atSwami VivekanandHospital, Bhelupur and 105 atSSH BHU.
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Under the joint aegis of theBanaras Locomotive
Works (BLW)’s SafetyDepartment and RailwayProtection Force (RPF) a safe-ty demonstration and trainingworkshop was organised at thewestern gate of the workshoppremises on Friday. Thedemonstration of initial actionunder special circumstancesby the on duty railway employ-
ees at the time of fire accidentand use of correct method offirefighting under special cir-cumstances and training was
attended by 91 employeesworking in the Loco Division(LAS workshop) and the RPF.It may be pointed out here thatthis is the fourth such event inBLW. Earlier training wasorganised in the administrativebuilding on November 20, atEngine Division on November27 and in Stores division onDecember 4. Another similarevent will be organised in theBlock and Plant Division onDecember 18.
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General Manager, North Eastern Railway(NER), Vinay Kumar Tripathi along with
Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) VijayKumar Panjiar, Project Director (PD) of RailVikas Nigam Limited, VK Shukla, and seniorofficials, on Friday inspect-ed the progress of the towerwagon POH shed underconstructon work on 6.24acres near Dullahapur sta-tion. He conducted a thor-ough inspection of the shedbuilt in an area of 3,780square metre, 1.2 route kmdouble line and pucca con-struction work being donein 650 square metre areaand directed the authoritiesconcerned to develop con-nectivity of this shed as perdoubling. He also saw thediagram of the shed projectbeing constructed by theRail Vikas Nigam Limitedand also discussed the yard remodelling ofDullahapur station with its the officials. The GMsaid the construction of the tower wagon shedis in progress according to the doubling but itwill be of benefit only if it can be connected toDulhapur station from both the up and downside. On the occasion Senior DivisionalOperations Manager (SDOM) Rohit Gupta,Senior Divisional Engineer (SDE-Coordination)Rajeev Agarwal, Senior Divisional CommercialManager (SDCM) Sanjeev Sharma, Senior
Divisional Personnel Officer (SDPO) SameerPaul, Senior Divisional Signal and TelecomEngineer (SDSTE) Trimbak Tiwari, SeniorDivisional Electrical Engineer (SDEE) SatyendraYadav, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer(SDME) Satyaprakash Srivastava and senior offi-cers of RVNL were present. Earlier the GM
reached Aunrihar byhis inspection specialtrain and conducted athorough inspection ofthe DEMU shed. Heinspected the equip-ment of the DEMUshed workshop and thecoaches to be main-tained there as well astested the safetyknowledge of the tech-nical staf f there.Besides he directed toreduce the power con-sumption of theDEMU shed and useitto its full potential.Apart from it the GM
VK Tripathi, DRM VK Panjiyar along withsenior officials while conducting the windowtrailing inspection of the Aunrihar-Dullahapurand Aunrihar-Jaunpur rail sections checked therail track, curvature, bridge culvert, block sec-tion, signal, visibility board, ballast spread, trackpacking etc and tested the speed limit and safe-ty of the rail section. This inspection was car-ried out with the aim of ensuring rapid and safeoperations, Public Relations Officer (PRO),Varanasi, Ashok Kumar said.
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A62-year-old women died ina road accident under
Adalhaat police station onFriday. As per the reports,Champa Devi (62), a residentof Bhaaipur Khurd village, wascrossing the road on AdalhaatSakraudi road when she was hitby a motorcyclist. As a resultshe sustained serious injuriesand was admitted to a privatenursing home located atNarainpur. During treatmentthe women died. After theaccident the motorcyclist man-aged to flee from the spot. Afterregistering the case the policecompleted the legal formalitiesand launched a search for the
motorcyclist. Meanwhile in ahead-on collision between aRoadways bus and a trailer 16persons were injured. Out ofthemfour had been admitted tothe district hospital. As per thereports, a Roadways bus car-rying 42 passengers was on theway to Lucknow fromMirzapur on Friday. The buspassengers got injured when auncontrolled trailer knocked itnear Rannopatti village onMirzapur Prayagraj road underJigna police station. On theinformation the area policereached the spot sent theinjured to a hospital and reg-istered a case against the driverof the trailer. However, the busdriver was safe. After the acci-
dent the trailer driver managedto flee from the spot.
ASSAULTED: A contrac-tual lineman was assaulted bysome miscreants on Friday.The Madihan police registereda case and investigation into thematter was on. As per thereports, the staff of theElectricity department wasreturning from Reksa Khurdvillage under Madihan policestation after disconnecting anillegal electricity connectionwhen some miscreants assault-ed the lineman.
On the application of thevictim the police registered acase and was investigating thematter. However, no arrest hasbeen made yet, last reports said.
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The railway administrationhas revised the timing of
special trains being run for theconvenience of the people.Passengers are requested toseek information about therevised timetable of trains whilemaking reservation or beforetravelling in order to avoidinconvenience. All coaches inthese trains will be reservedcategory and passengers trav-eling in them will have to fol-low the Covid-19 guidelines,Chief Public Relatios Officer(CPRO) PK Singh said.
The 01079 Lokmanya TilakTerminus-Gorakhpur Pujaweekly special will fromDecember 3 to 31 depart fromLokmanya Tilak Terminus at15.50 hrs every Thursday, fromKalyan at 16.25 hrs, from NasikRoad at 19.25 hrs, fromBhusaval at 22.55 hrs, fromKhandwa at 01.10 hrs on thesecond day, from Itarsi at 03.40hrs, from Habibganj at 05.10hrs, from Vidisha at 06.00 hrs,from Jhansi at 09.25 hrs, fromOrai at 11.05 hrs, from KanpurCentral at 13.50 hrs, fromLucknow at 15.45 hrs, fromBarabanki at 16.55 hrs, fromJarwal Road at 08.02 hrs, fromColonelganj at 18:24 hrs, from
Gonda at 19.05 hrs, Balrampurat 20.07 hrs, Jharkhandi at20.16 hrs, Tulsipur at 20.42 hrs,Barhni at 21.29 hrs,Siddharthnagar at 22.15 hrsAnandnagar at 22.41 hrs andreach Gorakhpur at 00.20 hrs.
During the return journeythe 01080 Gorakhpur-Lokmanya Tilak Terminusweekly puja special will fromDecember 5 to January 2 everySaturday depart fromGorakhpur at 05.30 hrs,Anandnagar at 06.20 hrs,Siddharthnagar at 06.47 hrs,Barhni at 07.55 hrs, Tulsipur at08.35 hrs, Jharkhandi at 08.59hrs, Balrampur at 09.20 hrs,Gonda at 10.35 hrs,Colonelganj at 11.02 hrs, JarwalRoad at 11.19 hrs, Barabanki at12.50 hrs, Lucknow at 14.05hrs, Kanpur Central at 16.05hrs, Orai at 17.32 hrs, Jhansi at20.00 hrs, the second day fromHabibganj at 00.50 hrs, Itarsi at02.40 hrs, Harda at 03.24 hrs,Khandwa at 05.40 hrs, Bhusavalat 07.30 hrs, Nashik Road at10.55 hrs, Kalyan at 13.50 hrsand will reach Lokmanya TilakTerminus at 15.10 hrs.
STOPPAGE PROVIDED:The railway administration forthe convenience of passengershas decided to provide addi-tional stoppage to the
05045/05046 Gorakhpur-Okha-Gorakhpur special trainfor two minutes atKhambhaliya station,Chief Public Relations Officer(CPRO) Pankaj Kumar Singhsaid. As a result fromDecember 12 the 05045Gorakhpur-Okha special trainwill arrive at Khambhaliya sta-tion at 01.26 hours and willleave at 01.28 hrs. Likewiseduring the return journey fromDecember 13 the 05046 Okha-Gorakhpur special train willarrive at Khambalia station at23.00 hrs and leave at 23.02hrs.
C O M P O S I T I O NCHANGED: The railwayadministration has changedthe composition of the05004/05003 Gorakhpur-Kanpur Anwarganj-GorakhpurChauri Chaura special fromDecember 16 till further notice,CPRO PK Singh said. In the05004/05003 in Gorakhpur-Kanpur Anwarganj-GorakhpurChauri Chaura special trainfrom December 16 as per therevised coach structure, a totalof 19 coaches, including two ofGSLR, six of general secondclass, six of sleeper class, threeof AC third, one of AC secondand one of first-cum-secondAC coach will be attached.
Cabinet minister Anil Rajbhar andUP Minister of State for Energy
and minister incharge of the district,Ramashankar Patel, inaugurated amulti-specialty Aditri Child andDental Hospital located in BechupurNaibasti on Friday. On the occasion itsincharge Dr Nidhi Singh said that thesaid hospital had been equipped withnecessary facilities for dental diseases andthose related to children and besides treatmenthas been arranged by specialist doctors. UPCabinet Minister Anil Rajbhar said that a spir-it of service is required for the uplift of society.He said the hospital was a huge achievement for
Chandauli. Earlier the ministerswere welcomed by being pre-sented bouquets. Among thosepresent were Dr R Singh, RanaPratap Singh, Omprakash Singh,Anil Gupta Guddu, RajkishoreSingh, Dr Nilima Singh Dr RKSingh, Dr Ajit, Chairman SantoshKharwar, Dr LaxmishankarYadav, Dr Ajit, Ramesh Jaiswal,Vijay Kumar Singh, Gaurav
cases on Saturday evening.Chief Medical Officer Dr AnilK Mishra said that 37 morepeople had tested positive forcoronavirus infection betweenFriday evening and Saturdayevening taking the tally ofconfirmed cases to 31,417cases. He said that 10 patientswere discharged from hospi-tal. He said no COVID-19deaths in the city was report-ed till Saturday eveningkeeping the death toll to 800.The CMO said at present 699active cases were undergoingtreatment. Dr Mishra said3381 samples were sent fortesting in the city.
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In a tragic incident, a nine-year-old boy was strangled,
allegedly by his relative, inGhatampur police station areaon Friday night.
His body was recoveredfrom a footpath near Noanriver on Saturday morning.
The boy had gone there toattend a marriage ceremonywith his parents.
After going through thevideo footage, as the handker-chief tied with on throat of thedeceased matched with theone held by his brother-in-lawpresent in the marriage cere-mony and the blood stainsfound on his shoe, the latterwas brutally beaten up andhanded over to police.
According to reports, themarriage of Kiran, daughter ofSuresh Nishad of Chitauli vil-lage, was scheduled to be heldon Friday.
Suresh’s brother-in-law,Chhote Nishad ofGuraiyanpurwa village, hadalso gone to attend the mar-riage with family members. Inthe night, Chhote’s son Arvindalias Krishna (9) was strangledand his body was dumped onthe footpath near Noan riverbridge about 200 metres fromthe house.
During search on Saturdaymorning, Arvind’s body, witha handkerchief tied on histhroat, was recovered.
On going through the mar-riage video, when the hand-kerchief tied on the throat ofthe deceased matched with theone held by his brother-in-lawArvind alias Chintu Nishad ofMisrapur village and the bloodstains found on his shoe, vil-lagers took nabbed him.
After he confessed hiscrime, the villagers brutallybeat him up and handed himover to police.
Chintu had a love affairwith Arvind’s sister and hadmarried her about four yearsago. Station House OfficerRavendra Misra said theaccused had also beaten up hiswife during the marriage cer-emony.
He was taken into custodyand investigations were on, headded. The body was sent forautopsy.
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Kanpur DivisionalCommissioner Raj
Shekhar has expressed concernover the apathy of authoritiesconcerned to solve the drainagesystem problem in the RaniaIndustrial Area (RIA) in thepast three decades.
He directed the UttarPradesh State IndustrialDevelopment Authority, thestakeholders and the UdyogBandhu to work out a solutionto this long-pending problem.
The divisional commis-sioner also directed the UPSI-DA to prepare a detailed pro-ject report (DPR) latest byMarch-April 2021 after dueconsultation with the National
Highway Authority of India,the Irrigation department, thePollution department and theIndustries.
He said the DPR should beprepared in two phases, thefirst for the area where indus-tries had been established andthe second phase for the rest ofthe area to be taken up.
He also directed the UPSI-DA to prepare a preliminaryreport by the end of this monthwith technical and profession-al agencies while roping in theIndian Institute of Technology.He said this should be doneafter due consultation withthe stakeholders.
Shekhar said it was a mat-ter of great concern that thedrainage problem was pending
for the past three decadesand none of the stakeholdersand authorities concernedhad made any effort to solveit.
Prominent among thosepresent in the meeting includ-ed Joint CommissionerSarveshwar Shukla, UPSIDARM Rakesh Jha and officials ofNHAI, Irrigation, Pollutionand other departments con-cerned.
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Kanpur Nagar (PNS): theUttar Pradesh Metro RailCorporation Ltd (UPMRC)has started giving finishingtouches to the IIT and
Kalyanpur metro stations. It has given the contract for
finishing work of nine metrostations (constructed betweenMotijheel and IIT-Kanpur) inthe priority corridor toSam India Builtwell PrivateLimited.
The finishing worksinclude construction of roomsat the metro stations, plasterand painting of civil structures,water supply, drainage, firefighting systems, electronicand maintenance works.
The track beam work hasbeen completed at the IITmetro station and it will becompleted at the Kalyanpurmetro station very soon.
The track was laid on thetrack beam.
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Granting legal sanction toAyurveda doctors to per-
form surgery will prove suici-dal and it is likely to backfiredangerously, according to for-mer chief medical officer DrVC Rastogi.
Dr Rastogi, who is spear-heading the agitation againstthe government’s decision toallow Ayurvedic practitionersto perform surgeries, saidallowing ‘mixopathy’ wouldlead to a fall in medical treat-ment standards and it wouldreflect on future doctors andthe general masses.
“There is no denying thefact that there is an acute cri-sis of doctors in the country,but any attempt to bridge thegap with ill-prepared practi-tioners of traditional medicinesystems will have dangerousrepercussions in the times tocome,” he said.
Dr Rastogi said if the gov-ernment remained adamantthen the medical profession-als would have to give furthermomentum to their agitation.
He added that the medical
professionals did not want togo in for a confrontation butwould prefer an amicablesolution in the larger interestof the country and the doctorsas well.
He said a surgeon shapedafter over 10-year meticulouspractical practice and if‘mixopathy’ was allowed, itwould increase the number ofquacks all over India and thecurrent image of India in theworld as the most preferredmedical tourism destinationwould nose-dive.
Dr Rastogi said the IndianMedical Association (IMA)was not against the AYUSH(Ayur veda, Yoga andNaturopathy, Unani, Siddhaand Homeopathy) doctors butwas in favour of these doctorspractising in their own areasinstead of overstepping into azone meant for allopathicdoctors who were shaped afterhard work put in for over 10years of studies and then 10years of practice.
He said the IMA wantedthe AYUSH doctors to bepromoted in their respectivestreams.
Mohan on Saturday said withthe growing vehicular popula-tion and considering a com-pound annual growth rate(CAGR) of 8.83 percent perannum, the petrol sale during2020-21 and 2021-22 was esti-mated to be around 38,075 mil-lion and 41,266 million litresrespectively and this engen-dered the need for blending itwith 10 percent ethanol tomeet the fuel requirement.
He said the governmentwas working on both fronts—capacity building for ethanolproduction and availability ofalternative feed stocks.
Prof Mohan said everyeffort was being made toincrease the supply to morethan 3,200 million litres and4,250 million litres during2020-21 and 2021-22 ethanol
years respectively. He said as a result of sur-
plus sugar production consis-tently from the last couple ofyears, sugar factories had beenreeling under financial stressand ethanol had emerged as asaviour of the sugar industry.
He said ethanol produc-tion, which ensured dualadvantages of economic andenvironmental sustainability,was now being considered asa reliable tool not only to bal-ance the sugar demand-supplyscenario but also to increaserevenues in the entire sugar-cane value chain besidesaddressing the environmentalissues.
Prof Mohan said the dif-ferential pricing policyannounced by the govern-ment offering � 43.75, � 57.61and � 62.65 per litre forethanol made from heavymolasses and also heavymolasses and sugarcane
juice/syrup, respectively, hadattracted the sugar industry toopt for producing more ofethanol by sacrificing sugarand during the current sugarseason, it was expected thatabout 20 lakh tonnes of sugarthrough different routes shallbe diverted for ethanol pro-duction enabling additionalethanol production of about1,200 million litres.
He said to facilitate capac-ity creation, the governmenthad already launched a schemefor extending financial assis-tance to molasses based dis-tilleries for enhancement andaugmentation of ethanol pro-duction capacity which mayresult in additional capacitycreation of 6,000 million litresper annum, keeping in viewthe requirement to meet 20percent blending targets by2030.
Prof Mohan said the NSIhad formulated various mod-
els for production of ethanolfrom various sugar factoryintermediates which result inreduction in sugar production,increase in ethanol productionand ensures higher returns.
The NSI director said inone such model of sugar syrup,heavy molasses diversion, asugar factory of 2500TCD having integrated dis-tillery could have additionalincome to the extent of �1,000lakh during the crushing sea-son.
He said the assured mar-ket of ethanol and timely pay-ments by Oil MarketingCompanies made the prepo-sition attractive for the millersand keeping it in view, thesugar factories were workingon various other options forproducing ethanol using cas-sava, sweet potato, sweetsorghum, sugar beet and sur-plus grains so as to workround the year
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6�� ���� ������&! ��� ������)�������������KANPUR (PNS): Upset by theprolonged illness of her daugh-ter, a woman strangled her andthen hanged herself in Barrapolice station area on Fridaynight.
Family members brokeopen the doors of her room onSaturday morning and rushedthe mother-daughter duo to anursing home in Naubastawhere doctors pronouncedthem dead. Vikas Singh ofBarra-4 is employed in a tyrecompany and lives with hismother, Saroj, father, ShashiSingh, elder brother, Avinash,wife, Priya Singh (30) anddaughter, Ananya (5). Localresidents said that Ananya wasa divyang since birth anddespite treatment, she hadfailed to recover from her ail-ment. This had upset PriyaSingh. On Friday night, afterVikas returned from office,Priti took Ananya to a room onthe second floor of the houseon pretext of teaching her.There, after strangling the girl,Priti hanged herself.
Circle Officer of GovindNagar, Vikas Pandey, said as thekin did not want autopsy, thebodies were handed over to
them after informing the seniorofficials.
TWO COMMIT SUI-CIDE: Two persons, includinga girl, committed suicide byhanging themselves in the cityduring the past 24 hours.
While a factory worker,Mangal Singh (32) ofNasimabad Colony inFazalganj, hanged himself lateFriday night, the 23-year olddaughter of Uttam Chand ofTalpura, Jhansi, ended her lifein a hostel room in Kalyanpurpolice station area. She waspreparing for NEET here.
Mangal Singh wasemployed in a boiler factory.His father, Chandrika Prasad,had died several years ago.His family comprised motherShanti Devi, wife Shipra andyounger brother Ravi.Fazalganj Station House OfficerAjay Pratap Singh said themarriage of Mangal’s nephewwas scheduled to be held inJhansi on Friday. While allother family members hadgone to attend the marriageceremony, Mangal did not gothere.
He returned from duty latein the evening and went to rest
in his room. In the night, whenhis uncle, Man Singh, returnedand called him for dinner, hefound him hanging from theceiling fan. No suicide note wasfound in the room.
The SHO said it was notclear what pushed MangalSingh to take the extreme step.
In another incident, KirtiSharma was preparing forNEET by living in the hostelopened by Ravindra Sharma inSharda Nagar, Kalyanpur. Shehanged herself from the ceilingfan late Friday night.
When the hostel inchargedid not get response from herroom on Saturday morning, hepeeped through the windowand found her hanging.
The body was sent forautopsy. Kalyanpur InspectorAjay Seth said efforts were onto ascertain cause of incidentwith the help of her cellphone.
ELECTROCUTED :Meanwhile, an elderly homeguard was electrocuted due toelectric short-circuit in hisroom in Majhawan village ofVidhnu police station area onSaturday morning. In a bid torescue him, his younger sonalso sustained serious burns.
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India on Friday pledged acommitment of USD 2 billion
at the World HealthOrganisation’s “Lives in theBalance” summit to provideessential services to women,newborns, young children andadolescents across the world.
The summit organised byWHO’s The Partnership forMaternal, Newborn & ChildHealth (PMNCH), a globalalliance of more than 1,000organisations, registered a totalcommitment of USD 20.6 billionfrom a group of high income, lowand middle-income countriesand charitable foundations acrossthe world. “USD 6.6 billion (32per cent) of the total pledge isfrom money committed by lowand middle-income countriesthemselves, includingAfghanistan, India, Kenya,Liberia, and Nigeria. An addi-tional USD 14 billion (68 percent) is from official develop-ment assistance and grants givenby Germany, Canada, Sweden,UK, USA and the Bill & MelindaGates Foundation,” the PMNCHsaid in a statement.
India’s commitment of USD2 billion will be used to strength-en all levels of care in responseto the pandemic and to ensureessential public health functionsduring the year 20-21.
“As important as this USD20.6 billion is, it only will par-tially solve the problem of pro-viding basic essential servicesfor women, newborns, youngchildren and adolescents,”Rajesh Bhushan, Union HealthSecretary said. “Comprehensiveefforts and collective advocacyare needed to ensure availabil-ity of substantially enhanced
financial resources for this noblecause,” he said. The recent WHOdata from 105 countries showsthat 90 per cent of countries haveexperienced disruptions tohealth services, with low-andmiddle-income countries report-ing the greatest difficulties.
According to early esti-mates of the indirect impact ofCovid-19 on child and mater-nal mortality, more than 2 mil-lion additional deaths are esti-mated over 12 months (2020-2021) above the pre-pandemiclevel because of disruptions toessential health and nutritionservices. “The health and well-being of women, children andadolescents are now at great risk,with inequities compoundedby narrowing access to essentialhealth services such as antena-tal care, skilled assistance atchild birth, postnatal care,immunizations and family plan-ning. Our concern is thatresources — insufficient tobegin with — are being divert-ed away to respond to theCovid-19 pandemic,” HelenClark, Chair of PMNCH andformer Prime Minister of NewZealand, said.
As of November 2020, 2.8million children and adolescentshave contracted Covid-19 in 87countries, according toUNESCO. It said that in April,1.5 billion students were affect-ed by educational institutionsclosures in 195 countries thisyear, leading to loss of schoolmeals and critical impacts onchild nutrition. “This fundingwill ensure women, childrenand adolescents can accesshealth services and prioritysocial protections throughoutthe Covid-19 crisis and recov-ery periods,” Clark said.
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India is not only on track toachieve its Paris Agreement
targets but to exceed thembeyond expectations, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi saidon Saturday at the ClimateAmbition Summit 2020through video conference.
“Today as we are looking toset our sight even higher, wemust also not lose sight of thepast. We must not only reviseour ambitions but also reviewour achievements against tar-gets already set. Only then canour voices be credible for futuregenerations,” he said at thesummit on the occasion of thefifth anniversary of the land-mark Paris Climate Agreement.
Sharing details on theachievements achieved by Indiaunder the pact, Modi said that“ We have reduced our emis-sion intensity by 21 per centover 2005 levels. Our solarcapacity has grown from 2.63GigaWatts in 2014 to 36GigaWatts in 2020. Our renew-able energy capacity is thefourth largest in the world.
“It will reach 175 GigaWattsbefore 2022. And, we have aneven more ambitious targetnow — 450 GigaWatts ofrenewable energy capacity by2030,” he pointed out. We havealso succeeded in expandingour forest cover and safeguard-ing our biodiversity, said thePrime Minister who assertedthat “on the world stage, India
has pioneered two major initia-tives ie the International SolarAlliance, and Coalition forDisaster ResilientInfrastructure to cut down cli-mate change.
Asserting that India iscommitted to walk on greenpath, the Prime Minister,addressing the global leaders atthe summit, said that in 2047,as India will celebrate 100years as a modern, independentnation, it will not only meet itsown targets, but will alsoexceed your expectations.
The Summit provides aplatform for leaders toannounce ambitious new com-
mitments under the ParisAgreement. This agreement isa landmark deal in the multi-lateral climate change process.
For the first time, a bind-ing agreement brought allnations into a common causeto undertake ambitious effortsto combat climate change andadapt to its effects.
It is a legally binding inter-national treaty on climatechange which was adopted by196 Parties at the twenty-firstsession of the Conference of theParties (COP) in Paris, on the12th of December 2015 andcame into force on the 4th ofNovember 2016.
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While the CBI has set upan “internal inquiry”
after 103 kg gold worth Rs 43crore, seized and sealed by iteight years ago, went missing,it clarified on Saturday that themissing gold in Tamil Naduwas not kept in its “malkhana”(vault) and was inventoriedand kept in the safe of accusedfirm Surana Corporation.
“It is clarified that CBIsearched the building ofSurana Corporation Limited,NSC Bose Road, Chennai andprepared a search list. Thesearch list mentioned that400.47 kg gold has been inven-torised and was kept in safeand vaults of Surana, sealed inpresence of independent wit-nesses and the MD of Suranacorporation and its officials,”the CBI said in a statement.
As per the directions ofthe Madras High Court, thevaults were opened in the
presence of official liquidator,officials belonging to six Banksand independent witnessesinspected from February 27,2020, to February 29, 2020, tohand over the gold to thelender banks of SuranaCorporation, it said.
“The seals affixed on thevaults were found intact.However, gold weighed only296.66 kgs. As the discrepan-cy between the quantity men-tioned in search memo and asper the weight came to notice,CBI promptly ordered an inter-nal inquiry by a senior officerto look into the role of its offi-cials, if any,” the agency said.
“It is clarified that theinventorised gold was not keptin Malkhana of CBI. Rather itwas in premises of Surana onlyunder the seal. While theenquiry was on, the petitionwas filed in High Court andaccordingly High Court passedan order dated 11.12.2020,” it said.
CBI’s internal enquirycontinues and if any adverserole of any CBI officials sur-faces, strict action will betaken against them, it furthersaid, adding, the Madras HighCourt has observed that CBIunder the DSPE Act does nothave authority to register atheft case which falls within
the domain of local police. The theft case will be reg-
istered by the CB-CID ofTamil Nadu and investigationwill be conducted by an offi-cer of the rank of SP in CB-CID, it added.
The gold is part of 400.47-kg bullion and ornamentsconfiscated by the CBI when
it carried out searches at theoffice of Surana CorporationLtd in Chennai in 2012 in acase pertaining to allegedfavours extended by officials ofMinerals and Metals TradingCorporation of India (MMTC)to the firm in import of goldand silver.
During the hearing on the
matter in the Madras highcourt, the agency’s lawyer sub-mitted that “an internalinquiry is being conducted bythe CBI in this regard”.
“When this Courtexpressed its opinion, as towhy no FIR was registered fortheft, the learned SpecialPublic Prosecutor submittedthat an internal enquiry isbeing conducted by the CBI inthis regard. He requested thisCourt to give a direction to theCBI to register an FIR for theftand conduct investigation. Heeven suggested that this Courtcould direct the CBI of theneighbouring State or theNational Investigating Agencyto conduct the investigation,”the high court bench said.
A regular FIR for theftshould have been registered inthe jurisdictional police stationand the police investigationunder Chapter XII of CrPCshould have been conducted”,the high court noted.
New Delhi: For the first time,India, Iran and Uzbekistan willhold a trilateral dialogue onMonday on joint use of thestrategically located Chabaharport which is being increasing-ly seen as a fulcrum of connec-tivity to Central Asia.
The announcement of themeeting was made by theMinistry of External Affairs(MEA). “The first trilateralworking group meeting between
India, Iran and Uzbekistan onjoint use of Chabahar Port willbe held virtually on December14,” the MEA said.
The port is being devel-oped by India, Iran andAfghanistan to boost trade tiesamong the three countries inthe wake of Pakistan denyingtransit access to New Delhi.Located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on theenergy-rich Iran’s southern
coast, the port can be easilyaccessed from India’s westerncoast, bypassing Pakistan. It isconsidered to be a major tran-sit point to connect with sev-eral Central Asian countries.
The trilateral meeting istaking place in the backdrop ofIndia pitching for participationof Uzbekistan in theInternational North SouthTransport Corridor (INSTC)project. PTI
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The US and China both areengaged in a fox game of
Intelligence to outsmart eachother ahead of the CentralTibetan Administration (CTA)elections early next year inDharamshala in their bid togain dominance in Tibetanpolitics even as the challenge forthe Indian administration is toinstall a leadership amenable toits security interests.
Through this game, boththe US and China-based organ-isations are ostensibly also seek-ing to size up the stature of theDalai Lama by pumping moneyin the run up to the CTA polls and installleadership inclined to them,sources said. While two Trustswere created in the US threeyears back to transfer donationsto the Dharamshala-basedSocial and ResourcesDevelopment Fund (SARD), anon-profit organization estab-lished in 1997 by the CTA.
Instead of distributing thedonations from the US to thecommunity, the SARD offeredloans to the Tibetans based inDharamshala for various pur-poses including business andreconstruction, they said. Thechairmen of both the US-basedtrusts are contesting the CTAelections in early 2021 in whatis a direct American agenda ofinfluencing the Tibetan elec-tions, they further said.
The US-based trusts havefunded SARD to the tune ofseveral crores which was ulti-mately distributed as loans andeven as relief to fight Covid-19.
In addition to this, theAmerican Christian missionar-
ies have also funded SARD sig-nificantly in a clear signal thateven religion is negotiable forthe US-based Tibetans in frayfor the CTA polls next year, theysaid. Likewise, China is alsoseeking to influence the CTApolls in order to garner supportfrom Dharamshala for backingthe Dalai Lama it aims to foistand get recognition for thetallest spiritual leader of theTibetans. China, the sourcessaid, adopted a trick differentthan the US and used arrestedChinese national Luo Sang aliasCharlie Peng to funnel moneyin the CTA elections. Sang,nabbed in a money launderingcase worth over Rs 1,000 crore,
transferred money throughhawala to the Tibetan leader-ship in Dharamshala.
“The Tibetan cause hasgained a bigger proportionglobally and both the US andChinese intelligence agenciesare seeking to influence theCTA polls despite the fact thatIndia has single handedly con-tributed the most in taking careof Tibetan refugees. The secu-rity establishment here is grap-pled with the challenge of push-ing candidates close to DalaiLama, a known supporter ofNew Delhi or those consideredclose and loyal to India,” an offi-cial familiar with the develop-ments in Dharamshala said.� ����2 �����������.������������������������������������(�)��
Kolkata:Senior TrinamoolCongress lawmaker KalyanBanerjee wrote to Union HomeSecretary Ajay Bhalla onSaturday, saying that WestBengal's chief secretary anddirector-general of police weresummoned to Delhi over theattack on BJP chief JP Nadda'sconvoy with “political motive”,asserting that law and order isa state subject.
Banerjee, the chief whip ofthe TMC in the Lok Sabha,alleged that the Centre wasresorting to coercive means tointimidate the state adminis-tration, and the top officialswere summoned at the instanceof the Union Home Minister.
BJP national general sec-retary Kailash Vijayvargiya,however, said that everyonesaw how Nadda's convoy wasattacked by alleged TMC work-ers on December 10 andBanerjee's letter to Bhalla has
“little merit”.“We want to inform you
that law and order is within thedomain of the state under 7thSchedule of the State list....How in respect of the law andorder situation you can callboth the officers for any sortsof discussion?” the TMC MPsaid in the letter.
“It appears that with apolitical motive and at theinstance of your minister, whois a political person belongingto Bharatiya Janata Party, youhave issued the said letter. Youare trying to coerce the officersof West Bengal with politicalvindictiveness. It appears youare interfering with the feder-al structure,” Banerjee added.
He said that in respect oflaw and order, the state gov-ernment is accountable to thelegislative assembly “but not toyou or to your home minister”.
The TMC leader also
claimed that a person, who isa convict in a case and namedin 59 other criminal cases, wasin the convoy of Nadda onDecember 10 and “madeprovocative gestures” to theTMC supporters standing onthe roadside.
“Laws have been thrownout in river by your action atthe instance of Shri Amit Shah,BJP leader and Union HomeMinister,” the lawmaker said,adding that indirect attemptswere being made to imposeemergency in West Bengal.
Banerjee said that withParliament not in session, hewas voicing strong oppositionto the move by the Centrethrough the letter on behalf ofhis party. In response to the let-ter, Vijayvargiya said,“Everyone saw what happenedon December 10, how the con-voy was attacked by TMCmen.” PTI
Madurai: Actor Rajinikanth's proposed partyWould not have any impact on Tamil Nadupolitics and not everyone can be as success-ful as AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran or late J Jayalalithaa, Ministerfor Cooperation Sellur K Raju said onSaturday.
Chief Minister K Palaniswami's wave wassweeping through Tamil Nadu and peopleknew who should rule in the Centre and thestate, he told reporters here.
Referring to Rajinikanth's decision to floata political party in January 2021 and face theassembly polls, he said, “Actors who were con-fined to their house until yesterday have cometo the public domain today.”
“Tamil Nadu politics will not see any-thing new with the entry of Rajinikanth,” heclaimed. The Minister further said the vot-ers would teach a good lesson to the newentrants.
“No one can enter politics and be suc-cessful like late MGR or Jayalalithaa... Onlythose who toil for the people would emergesuccessful in the state,” he added. PTI
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Union Minister Jitendra SinghSaturday said the now-scrapped
Article 370 had paved the way forrampant corruption in Jammu andKashmir as successive state govern-ments used it to make their own anti-graft laws, customised allegedly forconvenience.
He said the setting up of theDistrict Development Councils(DDC) will bring further account-ability, transparency and outcome-oriented approach in the working ofthe administration in Jammu andKashmir.
“The Article 370 had paved theway for rampant corruption inJammu and Kashmir because it gavethe successive governments in thestate the right to enact their own anti-graft laws which were inadequate andtailor-made for convenience,” he toldan election rally in support of BJPcandidates in the DDC polls.
At the same time, Article 370 also
gave the state rulers the prerogativenot to allow the Centre's Preventionof Corruption Act to be implement-ed in Jammu and Kashmir like therest of the country, he said.
Singh, the Union Minister for thePrime Minister's Office, said thePrevention of Corruption Act wasimplemented in Jammu and Kashmironly after the abrogation of Article370 and the state having turned intoa Union Territory.
The Article 370 was abrogated onAugust 5, 2019, and subsequently theerstwhile state was divided into twoUTs -- Jammu and Kashmir, andLadakh.
Singh, who hails from Jammuand Kashmir, said there was noeffective curb on corruption in thepast because the erstwhile state ofJammu and Kashmir had its ownanti-corruption law and probes intocorruption cases carried on indefi-nitely, allowing the officials con-cerned to get superannuated, ormaking too late to bring them to
book.“As a result, corruption in Jammu
and Kashmir, both in lower as well asin higher offices, became a normrather than an exception and thecommon impression was that any-body who was smart enough to getaway with it, could also manage to goscot-free,” he said. With the imple-mentation of the Prevention ofCorruption Act in Jammu andKashmir now, the minister said, nowthere are timelines fixed to disposecorruption cases and at the sametime, not only the bribe-taker but alsothe bribe-giver is held guilty.
Singh said that in the last oneyear, there is a visible change in gov-ernance and the good governancepractices followed by the Centre arealso being gradually implemented inJammu and Kashmir, one after theother.
“This has also led to a conspicu-ous change in the work culture in thegovernment setup which was gross-ly lacking in the past,” he said.
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Aseven-year-old girl wasallegedly raped by two
men in a village in UttarPradesh's Muzaffarnagar dis-trict, police said on Saturday.
The minor had gone miss-ing for some hours, after whichher family started searching forher. She was found uncon-scious and bleeding on the roofof a nearby house in the villageunder Budhana police stationlimits on Friday evening, theysaid.
A case has been registeredagainst the two men under
Indian Penal Code Section376D (gang rape) and the pro-visions of the Protection ofChildren from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act, Circle Officer(CO) Girija Shanker Tripathitold PTI.
The two accused werearrested, the CO said.
In his police complaint, theminor's father alleged that theaccused took her to a nearbyhouse and raped her. He saidthey left her on the roof of thehouse in an unconscious state.The family members rushedher to hospital, the girl's fatherstated.
Mainpuri: A local court here has sen-tenced a person to seven years' rigorousimprisonment in connection with therape of a minor girl in 2012 and alsoslapped a fine of Rs 11,000 on him.
The court passed the order on Friday,assistant district government counselPushpendra Singh Chauhan said here onSaturday. He said Pradip Kumar, a residentof Udhan village of the district, had onJanuary 16, 2012 kidnapped a minor girlaged 13. After a search by the minor'smother and her family members yieldedno results, a complaint was lodged againstKumar at the local police station the nextday, Chauhan said. PTI
8��� �������������;�����<������ ��������������������������� Chennai: Four persons died while 10 oth-
ers were injured after a truck laden withcement bags rammed into as many as 10vehicles, on the Thoppur road inDharmapuri district, the police said onSaturday.
According to the police, the brakes ofthe cement bag-laden truck failed and itdashed against 10 cars and a small van,killing four and injuring 10 others.
The injured have been admitted to thehospital. The damaged cars, vans and thetrucks were removed by a crane so thattraffic on the stretch could resume.
Such accidents are common in thisstretch owing to bad road design, localssaid. IANS
farmers freed the tolls in theGhaziabad area. Following thecall given by farmers, theywere stationed at all the tollpoints in Ghaziabad and let thevehicles pass through it with-out any payment.
Farmers on Saturday alsotook out a protest march on theUP-Gate. The farmers startedgathering at Pilkhua and Duhaitoll plazas since morning.
There was heavy policeforce deployed at both thetolls. Despite this, the farmerscompletely free both tolls as perthe schedule. During this time,the farmers took out vehiclesfor two hours at both the tolls
without paying any toll.Although the officials pre-
sent on the spot tried to con-vince the farmers and even for-bade them to do so, the farm-ers refused to obey them andfreed the toll.
Meanwhile, during the agi-tation, an ambulance arrivedduring the farmers' strike onNH-9, to which the farmersgave way. Farmers stayed onNH-9 even in the mild drizzlein the morning.
At the same time, agitatingfarmers intensified the agita-tion today demanding therepeal of the Agricultural Lawunder the flyover at UP Gate.According to the announce-ment, farmers mostly made tollplazas free. The toll on allroads connecting Delhi wasmade free.
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The national Capital onSaturday reported 1935
new cases of Covid-19 takingthe total number of peopleinfected with Coronavirus to605470 while the positivityrate came down to 2.64 percent.
According to the healthbulletin, which details infor-mation about the fresh casesregistered in the last 24 hours,73413 tests (32578 RT-PCR,CBNAAT and True NAATtests figures; 40835- RapidAntigen). The number of con-tainment zones stood at 6451.
As per the bulletin releasedby the Delhi government,578116 patients have recovered,been discharged or migrated sofar, while number of activecases stood at 17373, it said
Delhi health ministerSatyendar Jain said that thethird wave of covid in Delhi ison the wane and urged every-one to continue following theprecautions to effectively com-bat the virus.
“November 7 was the peakof the third wave in Delhi. Thepositivity rate was 15.26 percent on that day, which hasbeen on the perpetual declineever since. For the past 10 days,the positivity rate has beenbelow five per cent. I can say
that the third wave is on thewane. More than 70,000 testshowever are still being carriedout,” the health minister hadsaid on Friday.
“The situation is verymuch under control, but still,I will request you all to wear amask, follow social distancing.Wearing a mask will help us ineradicating the virus from thecity. I applaud the citizens fortheir continued support, aswell as the healthcare workerswho have been working tire-lessly,” he added.
As per the bulletin, 94beds in COVID care centres areoccupied by persons underquarantine, including travellerswho have returned by VandeBharat Mission and bubbleflights, it said.
Thawar Chand Gehlot onSaturday inaugurated the 20thInternational Spine and SpinalInjuries Conference (ISSICON2020: Virtual), where medicalexperts from all over the worldgathered to discuss the chal-lenges of treating and managingspinal injury patients and wayahead in the aftermath of glob-al Covid-19 pandemic.
With increasing spinalinjuries due to road accidentsand its changing pattern in thedeveloping world, surgeons andexperts attending ISSICON 2020virtually deliberated on various
ways to cushion the impact ofCOVID-19 pandemic amongthe spinal cord injury (SCI)patients and their reintegrationin workforce for economic self-reliance. The five-day conferenceis being organised by the IndianSpinal Injuries Centre (ISIC),New Delhi in collaboration withthe Spinal Cord Society.
“According to estimates,India records about 20,000 newcases of spinal cord injury. It isimportant to treat them com-prehensively and manage theircondition. But at the same time,it is important that they do notremain dependent on others. Ata time when the world hasmoved inside and working fromtheir homes, spinal injury
patients should not be leftbehind or out. I am happy toknow that the best professionalshave gathered here to deliberateon this,” said Gehlot.
“The mission of ISSICON2020 is spreading awarenessand prevention of spinal injury,provide education and training,as well as social inclusion andcommunity outreach for peoplewith spinal injury, especially inthis extraordinary situation. Thewhole world has changed in past12 months. I hope that the vac-cine will be available throughoutthe world and not just in wealthycountries,” says Dr RuthMarshal, president ofInternational Spinal CordSociety.
Dr H S Chhabra, president- Association of Spine Surgeonsof India, Secretary - Spinal CordSociety and Chief of SpineService and Medical Director ofIndian Spinal Injuries Centresaid “Spine problems in devel-oping countries are increasing ata rapid pace – road traffic injurydeaths have increased by sixtimes during the last 5 years.Besides, with better socioeco-nomic conditions, the pattern ofspine injury is changing. Theconference helped us gatherknowledge from the best prac-tices followed around the worldfor better preventive, surgical aswell as rehabilitative care andcomprehensive treatment", headded.
Police has arrested two menfor allegedly cheating a financecompany to the tune of Rsthree crore.
The accused have beenidentified as Essa IsmailMerchant (47) and AmrendraShashkant Totade (55), bothresidents of Mumbai.
According to Dr O PMishra, the JointCommissioner of Police, EOW,a loan (Equipment Finance)was applied by the accusedpersons with CLIX FinanceIndia Private Limited throughtheir company AdvancedComputers and Mobiles Indiato purchase Machinery forpacking, wrapping and sealing
and of mobiles devices.“The loan was sanctioned
and as per sanction letter,accused persons were to remit25 per cent of equipment costto the vendor as marginmoney. The accused personsremitted Rs one Crore to thevendor in Dubai. The proof ofremittance was provided to theNBFC, which released theloan amount to the bankaccount of the alleged bor-rower company,” said the Joint CP.
“The loan thus receivedwas not remitted to the vendorand it was misappropriated bythe Directors of the companyin repayment of their otheroutstanding. A case under rel-evant sections of Indian PenalCode (IPC) was registered atEOW police station and inves-
tigation was taken up,” said theJoint CP.
“During investigation, italso emerged that the allegedcompany remitted the marginmoney to the Vendor and gotthe loan disbursed. Thereafterthe loan amount was misap-propriated in repayment of anLC already availed by thealleged Company from YESBank," said the Joint CP.
"After a few months, themargin money was alsoreceived back by the allegedcompany from the vendor atDubai. It was further revealedduring investigation that theaccused persons have availedloans amounting to Rs 150Crores from different institu-tions and all of these loanshave been defaulted,” said theJoint CP.
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Mindsets, attitudinal barriers,and lack of awareness are
still a deterrent for providingjobs to Persons with Disabilities(PwDs), experts here lamentedat an event held recently.
“One area that all companiesshould look at is to find ways inwhich the abilities of personswith disabilities can get uti-lized. If we use persons with dis-abilities as wallflowers, itbecomes a lose-lose situation, forthe company and the employee,”said Arundhati BhattacharyaChairperson and CEOSalesforce (India). He was speak-ing at a discussion at theNCPEDP- Mindtree Helen
Keller Awards 2020 event where11 persons were felicitated vir-tually as a recognition of theirexemplary work towards fur-thering employment opportu-nities for PwDs. SaurabhChandra, Trustee NCPEDP said,“The Rights of Persons withDisabilities (RPwDs Act) is oneof the strongest disability legis-lations in the world, howeverproblem lies in its implementa-tion because of lack of under-standing, awareness, or maybebecause of a belief that provid-ing jobs to PwDs comes at a highcost. This mindset needs to bechanged.” Som Mittal, industrydoyen and Chairman NCPEDP,talked about the myriad of chal-lenges-the consequences of the
Covid-19 pandemic-on PwDslike access to finance, pension,healthcare facilities, transportand livelihood. He said, leavingno one behind is the key to aresilient and sustainable society.Thus, actions must be prioritisedas per the most marginalised”.
Arman Ali, ExecutiveDirector, NCPEDP said by felic-itating Helen Keller Awards, wecelebrate the leadership of peo-ple with disabilities and equalopportunity employers. Theyare showing everyone the way byincluding disability into busi-nesses and beyond their call ofduty. In this new normal, it’s allabout diversity and of the win-ners and is no longer limited tobig cities”.
dent has been arrested by theDelhi Police for allegedly dup-ing a neighbour to the tune ofRs 2.38 lakhs in NationalCapital. The 20 year-old girl isa resident of Nehru Vihararea and she is a student ofBachelor of Arts (BA) fromSchool of Open Learning inDU. According to AntoAlphonse, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), North district, a com-plaint was received in whichthe complainant alleged thatduring lockdown when hechecked his mother’s savingsbank account there was zerobalance.
“Following this, he con-tacted the Bank at MukherjeeNagar and found out that Rs2,38,000 were deducted fromhis mother’s account betweenNovember, 2019 to March,2020. The complainant alsochecked messages for deduc-tion in her mother mobilenumber but was not able tofind any such message. Thecomplainant made a com-plaint in Bank regarding unau-thorised transaction, wherehe came to know that trans-actions were OTP secured,which were sent to registered
mobile number in bank,” saidthe DCP.
“A case under section379/420 of Indian Penal Code(IPC) at Timarpur police sta-tion and investigation wastaken up. During investigation,it was revealed that the moneywas transferred from accountto PayTM. Notice was alsosent to PayTM which provid-ed relevant details followingwhich the beneficiary wasidentified as Swati (namechanged), who is also a neigh-bour of the victim,” said theDeputy Commissioner ofPolice.
“Bank Account Statementof Swati was also collected andit was found that money wastransferred from PayTM to herbank account. Subsequentlyshe was apprehended,” said theDeputy Commissioner ofPolice.
“During interrogation, theaccused confessed to hercrime and told police thatafter helping the victim toactivate her new debit card,she also added the card in herPayTM account. She aftertransferring the money delet-ed OTP messages from thevictim's mobile phone. Shespent the money on buyingclothes, household items, foodand recharge,” said the DeputyCommissioner of Police.
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Hong Kong: Relatives of adozen Hong Kong residentswho have been detained inmainland China for more than3 1/2 months made a pleaSaturday to be informed of thetiming of any trials andwhether they can attend.
The request underscoredthe sharp contrast between the relatively open legal system in Hong Kong, a semi-autonomous Chinese territory, and that of the main-land, where often little infor-mation is divulged until a trialis over.
“I miss my son so much,”the mother of Wong Wai-yin,one of the detainees, said,choking up. “I want to visit himso badly. I haven’t seen my sonin a very long time — it’salmost four months. Pleasetell me (about the trial). I’m justan ordinary mother.” The 12were arrested at sea in Augustwhile they were apparentlymaking a bid to flee to Taiwanafter a tough national securitylaw took effect in Hong Kongearlier this year.
They were picked up afterentering mainland waters forcrossing the maritime borderwithout permission. AP
Umm Rakouba (Sudan): Theonly thing the survivors canagree on is that hundreds ofpeople were slaughtered in asingle Ethiopian town.
Witnesses say securityforces and their allies attackedcivilians in Mai-Kadra withmachetes and knives or stran-gled them with ropes.
The stench of bodies lin-gered for days during theearly chaos of the Ethiopiangovernment’s offensive in thedefiant Tigray region lastmonth. Several mass graveshave been reported.
What happened begin-ning November 9 in the agri-cultural town near theSudanese border has becomethe most visible atrocity in awar largely conducted in theshadows.
But even here, muchremains unclear, includingwho killed whom.
Witnesses in Mai-Kadratold the Ethiopian HumanRights Commission andAmnesty International thatethnic Tigrayan forces andallies attacked Amhara — oneof Ethiopia’s largest ethnicgroups but a minority inTigray.
In Sudan, where nearly50,000 people have fled, oneethnic Amhara refugee gavethe Associated Press a similaraccount.
But more than a dozenTigrayan refugees told theAP it was the other wayaround: In strikingly similarstories, they said they and oth-ers were targeted by Ethiopianfederal forces and alliedAmhara regional troops.
It’s possible that civiliansfrom both ethnicities weretargeted in Mai-Kadra,Amnesty now says.
“Anyone they found, theywould kil l ,” TesfaalemGermay, an ethnic Tigrayanwho fled to Sudan with hisfamily, said of Ethiopian andAmhara forces.
He said he saw hundredsof bodies, making a slicinggesture at his neck and headas he remembered the gashes.
But another refugee,Abebete Refe, told the AP thatmany ethnic Amhara like himwho stayed behind were mas-sacred by Tigrayan forces.
“Even the governmentdoesn’t think we’re alive, theythought we all died,” he said. AP
Washington: The US SupremeCourt has rejected a lawsuitseeking to overturn the resultsof the presidential election inseveral key battleground stateswon by Joe Biden, effectivelyending President DonaldTrump’s bid to challenge theoutcome of the November 3polls.
The Supreme Court onFriday rejected a bid fromTexas’ attorney general andbacked by President Trump toblock the ballots of millions ofvoters in battleground states ofGeorgia, Michigan,Pennsylvania and Wisconsinthat went in favour ofPresident-elect Biden.
Supreme Court JusticesSamuel Alito and ClarenceThomas said they believed thecourt was required to hear thecase but expressed no positionon Texas’ claim. As many as126 Republican Congressmenhad also backed the lawsuit.
“Texas has not demon-strated a judicially cognisableinterest in the manner in whichanother State conducts its elec-tions. All other pendingmotions are dismissed asmoot,” the Supreme Court saidin a brief unsigned order onThursday, delivering a devas-tating blow to the efforts of theRepublican president to chal-lenge and overturn the electionresults decisively won byBiden, a Democrat.
Biden not only bagged themost popular votes in thepresidential electoral history ofthe United States, his tally inthe electoral college was 306,more than the 270 votesrequired for winning the raceto the White House. Trumpreceived 232 electoral votes.The election results are sched-uled to be formally certifiednext week by the 538-memberElectoral College.
Reacting to the verdict, anangry Trump tweeted, “TheSupreme Court really let usdown. No Wisdom, NoCourage!”
He also said the verdictwas a “legal disgrace” and “anembarrassment to the USA.”
Trump and his campaignteam have been making unsub-stantiated allegations of mas-
sive voter fraud and electoralmalpractice in the election.State election officials andmainstream media say theyhave not found any such evi-dence.
Texas Attorney GeneralKen Paxton in his lawsuitalleged that four battlegroundstates -- Georgia, Michigan,Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- had violated their own statelaws, and thus the USConstitution. The lawsuiturged the court to bar thesefour states from casting theirelectoral votes for Biden and assuch shift the selection of elec-tors to the states’ legislatures.
Trump had said he expect-ed to prevail in the SupremeCourt.
Pennsylvania, in itsresponse to the lawsuit, alleged
that Texas wanted the justicesto disregard the Constitution,not interpret it.
It said Texas’ f i lingsattempted to construct a sur-real alternate reality.
“Texas’ effort to get thisCourt to pick the nextPresident has no basis in law orfact. The Court should notabide this seditious abuse ofthe judicial process, and shouldsend a clear and unmistakable
signal that such abuse mustnever be replicated,” said theresponse filed by the State ofPennsylvania.
Reacting to the develop-ment, Nancy Pelosi, Speaker ofthe House of Representatives,said, “The Court has rightlydismissed out of hand theextreme, unlawful and unde-mocratic GOP lawsuit to over-turn the will of millions ofAmerican voters.” PTI
Washington: New York Gov.Andrew Cuomo is one of sev-eral contenders under consid-eration by President-elect JoeBiden for the role of attorneygeneral, a person with knowl-edge of the search process saidon Friday.
The other three contendersat the moment include formerAlabama Sen. Doug Jones, fed-eral appeals court judgeMerrick Garland and formerDeputy Attorney General SallyYates, said the person, who cau-tioned that no decision had
been reached and noannouncement was expectedimminently.
The person was not autho-rized to discuss the searchprocess by name and spoke oncondition of anonymity to TheAssociated Press.
The Associated Pressreported earlier in the weekthat Jones, who lost his Senateseat last month, and Garland,who was spurned byRepublicans four years ago fora spot on the Supreme Court,had emerged as the two front-
runners in the search process.Spokespeople for Cuomo
did not immediately returnemails seeking comment onFriday.
It was not clear to whatextent the disclosure this weekthat federal prosecutors wereinvestigating the finances ofBiden’s son, Hunter, mighthave scrambled the attorneygeneral search process giventhat the person who has pickedwould inherit the probe assum-ing it remains active nextmonth. AP
ing to Washington for a pair ofrallies to back his desperateefforts to subvert the electionthat he lost.
The rallies Saturday comea month after a pro-Trumpdemonstration that drew atleast 10,000 people to the cap-ital. That day began with Trumpthrilling supporters when hismotorcade passed by and endedwith scattered clashes betweenhis loyalists and local activistsnear Black Lives Matter Plazanear the White House.
Saturday’s rallies are meantas a show of force just two days
before the Electoral Collegemeets to formally electDemocrat Joe Biden as the nextpresident. Trump refuses toconcede the election, citingbaseless claims of fraud.
The Supreme Court onFriday rejected a lawsuit tooverturn Biden’s election vic-tory, ending an attempt to getlegal issues rejected by state andfederal judges before thenation’s highest court.
Trump planned to leave theWhite House around middayto attend the Army-Navy foot-ball game in West Point, NewYork. One of the rallies will beat Freedom Plaza downtownand the other nearby on theNational Mall.
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Hong Kong: Jimmy Lai, the 73-year-old Hong Kong mediatycoon and advocate fordemocracy, was denied bail onSaturday after being chargedthe previous day under thesemi-autonomous Chinese ter-ritory’s new national securitylaw.
Lai faces a charge of collu-sion with foreign elements toendanger national security,apparently for tweets he madeand interviews or commen-taries he did with foreignmedia.
The Apple Daily, a feistypro-democracy tabloid ownedby Lai, said he is accused of ask-ing a foreign country, organi-zation or individual to imposesanctions or engage in otherhostile activities against HongKong or China.
His case was adjourned toApril 16 at the request of pros-ecutors, who said police need-ed time to review more than1,000 tweets and commentsmade on his Twitter account,the Apple Daily reported.
The newspaper said his
charge sheet listed several for-eign politicians who followedLai on Twitter and cited com-mentaries he wrote and inter-views he did with foreignmedia.
Lai, who was already beingheld on other fraud chargesafter police raided his mediacompany, could be seen hand-cuffed to a chain around hiswaist as guards led him to a vanto go from prison to court. Hewore a navy blazer and anopen-neck shirt.
Beijing imposed thenational security law on HongKong earlier this year afterstormy protests in 2019 thatstarted over an extradition billand expanded to includedemands for greater democ-racy in the former Britishcolony.
The new law outlaws seces-sion, subversion, terrorism andcollusion with foreign forces tointervene in Hong Kong’saffairs. It has constricted freespeech in the city, and democ-racy activists see it as a way tosuppress dissent. AP
Tehran: Authorities say Iranhas executed a once-exiledjournalist over his online workthat helped inspire nationwideeconomic protests in 2017.
Iranian state television andthe state-run IRNA newsagency said that Ruhollah Zamwas hanged early Saturdaymorning.
In June, a court sentencedZam to death, saying he hadbeen convicted of “corruptionon Earth,” a charge often used
in cases involving espionage orattempts to overthrow Iran’sgovernment.
Zam’s website and a chan-nel he created on the popularmessaging app Telegram had
spread the timings of theprotests and embarrassinginformation about officials thatdirectly challenged Iran’s Shiitetheocracy.
Those demonstrations,which began at the end of2017, represented the biggestchallenge to Iran since the2009 Green Movement protestsand set the stage for similarmass unrest in November oflast year. AP
Economic indicators haveshown encouraging signs of
recovery of the Indian econo-my post-pandemic, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi saidon Saturday as he vowed tokeep government controls to abare minimum and encourageprivate capital.
In this time of pandem-ic, he said, the government hasaccorded highest priority tosaving lives of Indians and theway India has handled the cri-sis through concerted effort hassurprised the world.
Compared to Februarywhen the pandemic started,things have changed inDecember, he said, adding,there is a road map to deal with
this now.“Even the economic indi-
cators are encouraging,” headded.Various measures takenby the government in the lastsix years has instilled confi-dence among global investors,he said.
As a result, he said, “Indiahas seen record Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) and ForeignPortfolio Investment inflowsduring the pandemic.”
Addressing the FICCIAnnual Convention, he said, adecisive government alwaysstrives to remove obstacles forothers and always tries to con-tribute towards the society andthe nation.
Recalling the time whengovernment was in all the sec-tors, he said, a visionary anddecisive government, on theother hand, encourages all thestakeholders to realise theirpotential.
Modi pointed out that inthe last six years, the govern-ment has encouraged stake-holders in all sectors and thisis reflected in the all-round
reforms in sectors rangingfrom manufacturing to MSME;agriculture to infrastructure;from tech industry to taxationand from real estate to regula-tory easing.
Talking about variousreforms undertaken by thegovernment in the last sixyears, he said changes havebeen brought in manufactur-ing, MSMEs, agriculture, infra-structure and regulatory eas-ing.
As a result of taxationreform, he said, India has gotcompetitive advantage in cor-porate tax rate and initiatedfaceless assessment and facelessappeal leaving behind the scarof tax terrorism and InspectorRaj.
Pointing out that the oldpolices protected inefficien-cies while ‘AatmanirbharBharat Abhiyan’ is guided topromote efficiency in all thesectors, he said the governmenthas introduced ProductionLinked Incentive (PLI) schemeto promote sunrise sectors andtechnology based industries.
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The Finance Ministry onSaturday said it has
approved �9,879.61 croreworth capital expenditure pro-posals of 27 states.
Of this, �4,939.81 crorehas been released as the firstinstalment.
In a statement, the min-istry said all states, exceptTamil Nadu, have availed ben-efits of the newly announcedscheme for ‘Special Assistanceto States for CapitalExpenditure’, which wasannounced on October 12 aspart of AatmaNirbhar Bharatpackage.
“So far capital expendi-ture proposals of �9,879.61crore of 27 states have beenapproved by the Ministry ofFinance.
An amount of �4,939.81crore has already been releasedto the states as the first instal-ment under the scheme,” it said.
The ministry said thescheme is aimed at boostingcapital expenditure by the stategovernments who are facing
difficult financial environmentthis year due to the shortfall intax revenue arising from theCOVID 19 pandemic.
“Capital Expenditure hasa higher multiplier effect,enhancing the future produc-tive capacity of the economy,and results in a higher rate ofeconomy growth.
Therefore, despite theadverse financial position of theCentral Government, it wasdecided to extend a specialassistance to the state govern-ments in respect of capitalexpenditure, in financial year2020-21,” it added.
The capital expenditureprojects have been approved indiverse sectors like, health,rural development, water sup-ply, irrigation, power, trans-port, education, urban devel-opment.
As part of theAatmaNirbhar Bharat Package,the government hadannounced that the Centrewill offer Rs 12,000 crore spe-cial interest-free 50-year loan tostates, exclusively for capitalexpenditure.
San Francisco: Cloud major Oracle hasannounced to move its California-based head-quarters to Austin, Texas and cited flexibility ofemployee work as the key reason behind the deci-sion. The decision came a day after the compa-ny posted revenues of $9.8 billion in its fiscal sec-ond quarter, a growth of two per cent (on-year)and Cloud services and licence support revenueswere up four per cent to $7.1 billion.
“Oracle is implementing a more flexibleemployee work location policy and has changedits Corporate Headquarters from Redwood
City, California to Austin, Texas. We believe thesemoves best position Oracle for growth and pro-vide our personnel with more flexibility aboutwhere and how they work,” a companyspokesperson told CNBC on Friday.
“In addition, we will continue to supportmajor hubs for Oracle around the world, includ-ing those in the US such as Redwood City,Austin, Santa Monica, Seattle, Denver, Orlandoand Burlington, among others, and we expect toadd other locations over time,” Oracle said. IANS
Sharma on Saturday said if theIndian economy grows at 5 percent in the era of deglobalisa-tion, then it will be a significantachievement.
Addressing the FICCIAnnual Convention, Sharmafurther said India hastilypassed agriculture and labourreforms during the Covid-19pandemic.
“Our expectations have tobe realistic...If we can grow atmore than 5 per cent in a year,
that is a significant achieve-ment,” he said.
Sharma also noted that itis no longer feasible in theworld of deglobalisation togrow at 7 per cent as exportscannot grow at 20 per cent or30 per cent in a year, whichwas good in an era of global-isation.
“So, for an economy likeIndia’s, growth rate of 5 per centwill be pretty credible even inthis era where I think emerg-ing economies in general willmake some sort of a come-back,” he added.
Sharma pointed out that
there were about 100economies that were growing at7 per cent or more in 2007.
“That has never happenedin the history of the globaleconomy. In the last decade,only 10 economies in the worldhave grown 7 per cent or morein any year,” he said.
Sharma also argued thatif the population growth of acountry is slowing, then thatcountry can’t grow at the samepace as it did in the past.
According to the RBI,Indian economy is likely tocontract by 7.5 per cent, in2020-21.
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�What is your role in ZeeTheatre’s teleplay WrongTurn?
I play a man who is caughtin a wrong situation. He getsstuck in a snowstorm anddecides to take refuge in abungalow where four friends,who are retired lawyers, play amock trial with everyone whovisits that bungalow. They tellmy character that you won’t beable to move out from thisplace till morning because ofthe snowstorm, so why don’tyou join us in the game. Theydo a mock trial and find mycharacter guilty of the murderand try to prosecute me. Thisis what the whole story is andhow the story pans out isinteresting to watch. It isactually the adaptation of aGerman play, Breakdown.�How interesting was to be apart of such a story?
It was fun. The interestquotient lies in the way thestory progresses. The process ofmaking that character andevolving it over time was alsothrilling. We rehearsed for it for20 odd days. That wasextremely fun because it wassomething we don’t get to do inTV or films. That part wasinteresting.�What made you take up ateleplay?
The reason was that Iwanted to explore this genre aswell. It’s been a long time sinceI have been on stage and haveperformed in continuity. It isdifferent feel to shootsomething in one go. That wassomething that attracted metowards this teleplay. AndThank God that I said to itbecause it was a fantasticexperience. �You don several hats, that ofa writer, director and an actor.Where do you find yourselfmost comfortable in?
There is no comfort zone assuch. Every field demands adifferent amount of dedication.When you are acting, you haveto justify your character. Onlyif you will justify the character,you will justify the story. As awriter, you have to create all thecharacters, so that the actorscan justify them on screen. Andas a director you have too seeeverything.� Is there a conflict betweenthe writer, director and actorin you?
There is no internalconflict between a writer andan actor in me. Becauseultimately there is one brain
which is driving both of them.So while donning these twohats, one has to be completelybipolar to negate yourself. Butyes, the writer in me does helpthe actor in a lot of ways. Attimes, while doing TV, one tendto gets stuck. The idea here isnot to get technical but findsolutions to the problems. Herethe writer does help you get outof tricky situations a lot oftimes.
As for the writer-director,it goes on a different tangent.When you are directingsomething that you havewritten, there is always a scope
for improvisations.�How do you define acting?
It is a simple thing. Readwhat is written, understand itand just do it on camera. Thatis all. Then comes the interestquotient of course. It is like youhave to write ABC only, but itis up to you how fancy youwant it to be. It is your choiceto play with the fonts andstyles. You can keep onbeautifying it. The best thingabout acting is that there can behundreds of interpretations ofa single situation. One can cryin a lot of ways and laugh in alot of different ways and each
way will portray a differentmeaning.� In all these years of yourcareer, is there a change thatyou have seen in the TVindustry?
Yes. There were timeswhen TV got better, than it sawa downfall and vice versa. It hasseen both ups and downs.Many things have beenimproved now. But if I talkabout the time, when I used towatch TV and DD was the onlychannel, I feel probably we hadbetter stories to tell back then.Then came a time wheneverything became content-driven and we shifted tocommercialisation. A lot ofthings got ruined during thisshift. Now, we are goingtowards resurrection, though ata small level.�Do we need entertainmentfor seven days a week? Whynot take inspiration frominternational series and makethem time bound?
Like I mentioned before,when we will shift from beingcontent-driven tocommercially-driven we willsee this happening. The reasonis the priority now is not toshow good content, but to notlet go the huge chunk ofaudience that you havereceived, even at the cost ofcompromising on the quality.This mindset needed a changeyesterday or even day beforeyesterday, but we don’t let ithappen.
Wartime spy thrillers come withtheir own notalgia attached tothe sepia shades of a bygone era
of conquest and cruelty. World War 1stars in such big screen saga in a big wayand pretty often but this one comes as awomen’s special, made even more specialby the sterling performances of all theladies involved — one jew, the other partIndian and yet another a French woman.
These three women are employed forthe first time ever in war territory, byBritish establishment, and the three ofthem, guided by a Jewish head of
operations back in London, weave a storythat keeps you on edge despite the slowmoving events.
Radhika Apte as a sufi signalswoman stands out not just because of herexotic looks but also because of her shortspurty performance in a role that is smallbut highly impactful.
The arresting thing about this spystory is the fact that it is helmed bywomen, unthought of in that era. Thestory has been spun from a no-nonsenseto the bone plot which leaves no spacefor pauses. So sit tight and enjoy this truestory of spies who wore skirts, werecourageous, innovative and determinedto save the world from Hitler and hisdreaded Gestapo even as country aftercountry falls to the Jewish pogrom.
This underworld story, notso much about theunderworld, but its fallout on
the families of criminals, is slowmoving, a bit boring andsometimes confusing. In the end,however, it grows on you as thestory progresses.
A desperado does shockinglyloving things like presenting a childto his wife who can have her own.Then he vanishes, leaving his wifeand the little one to go on the run.
The story goes on in the badlandsof a 70s America where co-criminalsare on the hunt for the wife of thisdesperado Eddie to find out wherehe is. The run gets interesting when
an ex-wife pops up along with a sonand lover who is helping the womenbe safe.
Here is a film that has a lot of promise and after abit of a shaky start, it manages to suck one intothe lives of those who have lost everything and
hence hope and chance to pick themselves up and startover in a war-torn country like Afghanistan where the
only hope for the children is to not get sucked into asystem that will put them on a path of death anddestruction.
Girish Malik’s Torbaaz takes you on a journey thatis full of emotions, has a message, is touching and toldfrom a very different fresh perspective. It is rare for Hindicinema to tell such powerful stories. But then it has kids,there is bound to be a message and some tears involved.
It is good to see Sanjay Dutt play a man who playsthe role of an Army man here and despite his personalloss is able to once find purpose when he comes incontact with the children in a refugee camp. Histransformation from a man who wants nothing to dowith a country where he suffered a loss to a man whois willing to give up his life for the sake of one changefor the kids is not without making one sentimental andfind a connection— how a parent would do anythingto protect his kids and give them a purpose.
Together with the kids who give a stellarperformance, Dutt carries the movie on his shouldersrather well. Sadly, Nargis Fakri doesn’t have much to dohere. Rahul Dev plays the part of the Taliban well. Hisbody language makes him fit for the role.
The barren landscape is in keeping with the wholeidea of how desolate the lives of the people in refugeescamps are and how little they have in terms of a goodfuture.
Overall a movie for those who are love good subjectand content.
The general premise is that remakes never live up to theexpectations of the people. This is because oneexpects Bollywood to do a better job done by makers
from regional cinema. Or it could be that since there are moreHindi speaking audience. But the truth is that if one hasalready seen something, the copy is never better. The originalDev Das was much better or should one say closer to whatwas in the book by Sarat Chandra. So Durgamati... directedby G Ashok, is not an exception to the case in point for thosewho have seen the Tamil-Telugu version... Bhaagamathiedirected by him.
This is a tad strange why a director who gave a betterversion in the original version would fail to evoke the sameenthusiasm and not better his fare; that is the whole point ofa remake — to make the next one better. More so since it isthe Hindi version.
The problem here is not that Bhumi Pednekar has failedto give her best, she has done a great job. The problem hereis that there is very little when it comes to the scare quotient.Those that are there don’t manage to give you goosebumps.A haunted house, a witch and a folklore seeped in history, allfall flat due to cliches.
Then there is the whole how a politician can never behonest; but here he can’t do anything wrong. We have seenenough Bollywood movies that what one sees is not the truth.Hence what happens at the climax is not a surprise. Not goodfor a crime thriller.
Still all is not lost here if one has not seen the originalversion. For them, Durgamati... is a welcome change. But ifone is watching it for horror one will be disappointed.
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It was a bumper harvest in Punjab andHaryana this year, which meant thatthere was so much more residue toburn. Stubble burning is not a newproblem. Each year, Delhiites strug-
gle to breathe during the months ofOctober and November. Each year, there isa hue and cry on how one can prevent thesefires but to no avail.
According to data released by thePunjab Remote Sensing Centre, the Staterecorded 73,883 incidents of stubble burn-ing between September 21 and November14, 2020 which is the highest since 2016.
Punjab reported 51,048 cases of stub-ble burning in the corresponding period lastyear and 46,559 such incidents in 2018. Thenumber of farm fires was 43,149 in the Stateduring the same period in 2017.
According to the Ministry of EarthSciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, theshare of stubble burning in NCR pollutionpeaked to 42 per cent on November 5, when4,135 farm fires were recorded in the region.
What if there was an alternative for thefarmers? What if they had an option to notburn the stubble? What if instead of burn-ing, one could use it to make manure, oreven make idols or disposable crockery oreven the much needed silica fertiliser?Believe it or not, there are many stakehold-ers in this sector who are doing their bit toensure that farmers don’t resort to paddystraw burning.
Suvrat Khanna, CEO-Co-founder,Verve Renewables tells you that every yearover 30 million tonnes of paddy stubble areburnt in Punjab and Haryana alone. “Theidea of pledging to collect 1.5 lakh metrictonne of agricultural waste for power gen-eration in Haryana was initiated with thesole intention of finding a problem of stub-ble burning which is a serious issue acrossNorthern India,” Khanna says.
Using agricultural waste as a source forenergy production benefits farmers, bio-energy producers and the environment.Their aim is to collect one million tonnesof agro stubble by 2024 to generate approx-imately 2,50,000 MW of power.
Studies by Indian Agricultural ResearchInstitute show that crop residue (mainlypaddy straw) burning released 149.24 mil-lion tonnes of CO2; over nine milliontonnes of carbon monoxide (CO), 0.25 mil-lion tonnes of oxides of SOX, 1.28 milliontonnes of particulate matter and 0.07 mil-lion tonnes of black carbon. All of these con-tributed to hazardous levels of air pollutionin Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and UP.
He tells you that an average paddy fieldgenerates two tonnes of paddy straw eachseason. Khanna, who is in his second yearof operations, uses a three-prongedapproach.
He looks at compensating farmers todispose of agricultural waste like paddystraw in a sustainable manner; collects anddelivers boiler ready biomass resources thatcould be used for generation of power byco-generation power plants attached to
sugar mills and with this looks at alterna-tive uses of stubble for energy productionproviding an ecological solution to air pol-lution.
“When we started in 2018, we wantedto tackle the issue of stubble burning, butat that time, didn’t know how to go aboutit. Fortunately, we came across a sugar millwhich was willing. We knew that electric-ity could be generated from paddy straw.We requested if we could provide them withit as an alternative. They agreed. They wereextremely forthcoming and made changesto their boiler,” Khanna tells you who decid-ed to pursue this since he is from Amritsarand stubble burning is an yearly issue andfrom a business point of view, it all startsfrom finding a solution.
“We saw a problem and decided tosolve it. We are a bridge between the farmerand the mills. We go into villages and tellthem that they don’t have to burn, insteadonce they harvest, we will come and col-lect residue. We try to involve entire villagessince it increases bale collection by themachine,” Khanna tells you.
The onus of making the bales rest withthe farmers. They are encouraged to buymachines or an entrepreneur steps in. Thereare two kinds of balers; one that costsbetween �20-�25 lakh. This makes bales of20-25 kg. The bigger one that makes balesof 250-300 kg and is priced at �35-�40 lakhupwards. The small machine can work in20 acres of land a day and the big one 40acres a day.
“For now, the farmers are not beingpaid, but there are plans for the same oncethe system becomes cost-effective. Theydon’t pay us, we don’t pay them. But we bearthe cost of picking bales up; a win-win forall concerned. Convincing the farmer is notvery tough since an individual farmer getsa 40 per cent subsidy to buy this machine;for custom hiring companies, there is a sub-sidy of up to 80 per cent. We assure thefarmer with long-term association. Thisinstills confidence in them,” Khanna tells
you.Sanjeev Nagpal, founder, Sampurn
Agri Ventures Pvt Ltd, a Punjab-based com-pany, has gone a step forward. Besides set-ting up a biogas plant utilising only paddystraw as the sole feed, he is converting thesame into fertiliser. Unfortunately, hisendeavours to mass market paddy fertilis-ers have run into roadblocks — agriculturepolicies — he tells you, for now doesn’t allowsale of silica fertiliser, a first of its kind. Buthe tells you that this silica is extremelyimportant for plants. For now, individualscan buy the same for their kitchen gardenand that he uses the same in his 300 acresof farmland.
“We are in the process of creating afarmers’ group and using this fertiliser, growhigh quality foods and market it,” Nagpalsays.
To develop the technology to convertpaddy straw, Nagpal has collaborated withIIT Delhi. “We have developed this tech-nology to process paddy straw, in collabo-ration with IIT Delhi, We are fermentingpaddy straw to produce biogas and manure.We started this project back in 2015. Wethen had to get approval from AgricultureUniversity for agriculture use in 2017. Thisis a silica fertiliser and agriculture policiesframed in the 1960s, at the time of GreenRevolution, doesn’t recognise this as a fer-tiliser. The Food Agriculture Organizationhas accepted that silica fertiliser is requiredby plants for sustainable agriculture. Majordiseases like cancer, Diabetes are all linkedto absence of silica in the human body sincethey are absent in the food chain,” Nagpaltells you.
In fact, this entrepreneur-farmer hasalready grown kinnow using this fertiliser.“The pre-booking response to this has beenphenomenal. For now, we will only be sup-plying to nearby areas like Chandigarh butnext year, we plan to increase our reach andtry and supply to the rest of the country. wejust need to have the logistics in place,”Nagpal explains.
He tells you that instead of creatingroadblocks and looking at paddy straw asa burden; to look at it is an asset, if utilisedproperly. India can develop huge agri-exports if it recognises this.
“One can look at exports. But why notuse the same for ourselves to produce highquality food and export the same? For now,I have used 50,000 tonnes of paddy strawover the period of five years. But I am util-ising my plant at minimum capacity due tothe hassles involved. At full capacity, I willrequire 12,000 tonnes of paddy straw peryear,” Nagpal says.
He tells you that the Government hasgiven a go ahead to promote 5,000 biogasplants in Punjab, Haryana and UttarPradesh and purchase the gas at �46 per kg.“This is a huge support by the Centre. Wetoo are supplying to the grid. If operationalat full capacity I would be able to supply1MW — supplying electricity to four-fivevillages. For now, I am supplying 3,000 unitsa day,” he says.
Setting up one huge biogas plant is notlogistically possible. What is needed is asmaller one per five-six villages. “This willopen up employment opportunities aswell,” Nagpal explains.
Elsewhere in Andhra Pradesh, SinguruRajesh, assistant Professor Raghu
Engineering College, Visakhapatnam andhead of Green Gears, is busy collectingpaddy straw as well preventing the farm-ers in his area to burn the same.
It all started because Singuru hasbreathing problems. “I have asthma; I knewthat I had to look for alternatives, at leastin my area. I was inspired from the ageoldpractices of utilising tamarind and paper tomake plates. The farmers in my area areextremely cooperative. We not only usepaddy straw, we also use every kind of agri-culture waste to make idols, crockery andeven panel insulation. The good part is thatonce the crockery is used one can put it intothe soil it turns into manure for plants,”Rajesh tells you.
The residue is taken and cooked, pulpis extracted and the same can be used tomake a variety of things depending on themould available. For now, Rajesh is testingthe products by giving it to family andfriends to use it. But the COVID-19 put onhold his efforts to go for production andsupply.
“It will take us a couple of years, beforewe can supply it across the country. I start-ed this project in 2018. In 2019, I got NavBharat Nirman Award and Young ScientistConference-2018 Award for this work.Once we have commercial viability, we willstart paying the farmer as well for theresidue. At full capacity, we will end upusing a tonne of agriculture waste,” Rajeshsays.
The problem of stubble stems from thefact that farms use machines which cuts thelength leaving a portion in the land.Pulling it by hand is next to impossible.“Traditionally, the field would be ploughedmixing the stubble in the ground adding thenutrients in the soil. But because of the har-vester and thresher now being used whichleaves stubble and the urgency to sowanother crop, the easiest option it to burnthe same. But we are now telling farmersthere are other options; you can give it tous,” Rajesh says.
Kyle Jamieson bagged fivewickets in a masterclass of
swing bowling as New Zealandstruck hard and fast to have theWest Indies on the ropes on daytwo of the second Test inWellington on Saturday.
The tourists ended the dayon the brink of another followon as they struggled to 124/8,still 336 behind New Zealand’s460.
Only Jermaine Blackwoodprovided any serious resistancebut he fell late in the day for 69as Jamieson and Tim Southeewreaked havoc.
Jamieson, the rising star inthe Black Caps, got 5/34 for hissecond five-wicket haul in onlyhis fourth Test.
The Basin Reserve stripcontinued to provide all theingredients on a fast bowler’swish list — pace, bounce andmovement — and New Zealandexploited this perfectly.
“The way the ball’s movingwe knew if we got it in goodenough areas then things wouldhappen,” said the 2.08 metreJamieson.
“It was just a matter of doingit for long enough and if you dothat you tend to get rewarded.”
Unlike the West Indies bats-men, Nicholls and Neil Wagnerwere able to plunder runs whenthe New Zealand inningsresumed on Saturday morning.
Both scored personal bests,untroubled whether the WestIndies bowled full or short, asNicholls advanced from hisovernight 117 to 174 whileWagner finished unbeaten on66.
The New Zealand pacequartet — Southee, Trent Boult,Neil Wagner and Jamieson —immediately extracted life fromthe wicket.
They moved the ball in andaway and it took the tourists fourovers to get their first runs on theboard, by which stage Southeehad already dismissed KraiggBrathwaite caught at first slip byRoss Taylor.
After Southee caught andbowled Darren Bravo for seven,Jamieson stepped up with theback-to-back wickets of JohnCampbell 14 and Roston Chaseto have the West Indies at 29/4.
It was familiar territory for
Blackwood whose century in thesecond innings of the first Teststarted with Windies at 27/4.
He survived Jamieson’s hat-trick ball, and the one after,which both slammed into thepads but vociferous appealswere turned down and replaysshowed the deliveries swingingaway down the leg side.
Southee tied up ShamarhBrooks at the other end and theWest Indies faced 27 dot ballsbefore Blackwood broke thedrought with a single.
The pair put on 68 for the
fifth wicket before falling inquick succession.
Brooks faced 92 deliveriesfor a stubborn 14 before heshouldered arms to a goodlength Jamieson ball that jaggedback into the stumps.
Southee then accounted forBlackwood with a sharply risingdelivery that was fended toLatham in the slips. Jamiesonclosed the day with the wicketsof Jason Holder for nine andAlzarri Joseph without scoring.
Along with Jamieson’s five,Southee has taken 3/29.
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Victoria’s Marcus Harris wason Saturday added to an
injury-plagued Australia squadfor next week’s first Test againstIndia after Will Pucovski wasruled out of the series openeralongside David Warner.
The four-match seriesbegins with the day-night Testat Adelaide from December 17.
Harris was drafted into thesquad for the seasoned Warner,who suffered a groin injury dur-ing the second one-day interna-tional against India, whilePucovski sustained a concussionwhile batting for Australia A ina tour match against the visitorsat Drummoyne Oval in Sydney.
Cricket Australia said bothbatsmen will target a returnahead of the Boxing Day Test,scheduled to be held inMelbourne from December 26-30.
“Given the spate of injuriesin recent weeks, we’re fortunateto be able to bring a player ofMarcus’ calibre into the Testsquad,” Australia’s nationalselector Trevor Hohns wasquoted as saying by
cricket.com.au.“Marcus has been in out-
standing form for Victoria thisseason and has had the benefitof facing India’s bowlers in boththree-day tour matches atDrummoyne and under lightsat the SCG.”
He added, “At the sametime, we are disappointed forDavid and Will that they willnot be available for the firstVodafone Test.
“We have taken a conserv-ative approach in managing
Will since he sustained theconcussion and hope he andDavid will be back to full healthahead of the Boxing Day Test.”
Harris played nine Tests forAustralia and was a member ofthe squad which retained theAshes in England last year.
He has smashed 355 runs ata fantastic average of 118.33 intwo Sheffield Shield domesticfirst-class matches for Victoriathis season, with a knock of 239against South Australia beingthe highlight.
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Rishabh Pant andHanuma Vihari putthemselves in the reck-
oning for next week’s first Testwith contrasting hundreds asIndia thoroughly dominatedAustralia A in the pink ballwarm-up match here atSydney Cricket Ground onSaturday.
Needing 19 runs to reachhis centur y when JackWildermuth commenced thesecond evening’s final over,Pant clobbered him for 4, 4, 6,4, 4, to remain unbeaten on ablistering 103 off only 73balls. Overall, he hit ninefours and six sixes.
At the other end, Viharilaboured his way to a fine 104-run knock off 194 balls.
Also staking a claim forselection is young ShubmanGill, with an elegant 65 off 78balls and 10 sweetly-timedboundaries.
In the final session ofplay, Pant’s aggressiveapproach paid dividends as hesmashed the Australia Abowlers to all corners of theSCG, the southpaw making astrong case for himself for thewicketkeeper’s job in Adelaideahead of Test specialistWriddhiman Saha.
To cite an example of hispower-hitting, Pant swept oneover the cow corner for a six,leaving Nic Maddinson tosearch for the ball among therows of chairs at the SCG.
At the close of play, India
were strongly placed at 386 forfour for an overall lead by 472runs, having bundled out thehome team out for a paltry108 in their first innings onFriday.
In their first innings, Indiawere all out for 194, whichwould have been far less if notfor pace spearhead JaspritBumrah’s maiden first-classfifty, but the visitors staged astrong comeback with bothbat and ball.
While Gill may havebooked himself one of theopening slots with his dazzlingstrokes, Hanuma’s effort mightforce the Indian team to playan additional batsman in theseries opener.
Coming out to bat againin the beginning of the day’splay, India lost Prithvi Shaw inthe second over as the youngright-hander drove the ball atcover-point without any greatfoot movement. It was a bit ofa soft dismissal.
If Shaw missed out on anopportunity to make a bigscore in good batting condi-tions, his contemporary Gillgrabbed it with both hands onthe way to reaching his half-century off 49 balls.
During his stay in themiddle, Gill played some ele-gant drives and lookedassured while going on to thebackfoot, which seems to be
his forte.However, the 21-year-old
got out in an unfortunatemanner to leg-spinner MichellSwepson.
Swepson bowled a fasterone and Gill, shaping up to flickit, missed, prompting thebowler to appeal for an lbweven as the ball headed towardsthe first slip where a divingSean Abbott held on to it.
TV replays were inconclu-sive and the absence of DRSand Snickometer in the prac-tice game, a disappointed Gillhad no option but to walkback to the dressing room asumpire’s decision could not bechallenged.
That ended a 104-runpartnership for the secondwicket between Gill andAgarwal, who was joined in byVihari for another half-centu-ry stand.
Thereafter, the duo ofVihari and skipper AjinkyaRahane was involved in apartnership of 78 runs for thefourth wicket as theAustralian bowlers toiled hardfor wickets.
There was a brief raininterruption after Pant walkedin at the fall of Rahane’s wick-et. But he straightaway playedhis shots to further unsettlethe Australian bowlers.
Even as Vihari showedgreat composure and patiencein collecting his runs, Pantwas quite at ease while clear-ing the fence, reaching his fiftywith a cracking square cut injust 43 balls.
Pant continued in samevein till the end of the day’splay and hurtled towards hiscentury with a flurry of bighits. While Vihari, in all,struck 13 boundaries.
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Australia batsman MarnusLabuschagne on Saturday
said there has not been anytalk about him opening thebatting in the first Test againstIndia but he is ready to bat atthat slot if the team manage-ment asks him to do so.
With both David Warnerand Will Pucovski ruled out ofthe first Test, and Joe Burnsshort of runs, Labuschagne isan opening option for thehome side in the day/nightmatch starting at AdelaideOval on December 17.
“No, there has not been(any talk on batting position)... Currently I think numberthree. But I am just preparingto bat, if that’s No 1 or No 3,it doesn’t matter. I am ready toface the ball, no matter whatthe circumstances are,” he saidduring a virtual press confer-ence.
“Look, I finished last sum-mer at three, so hopefully atthree. But my job is to face theball that is coming down to mewherever I am batting,” saidthe 26-year-old, who hasplayed 14 Tests so far.
He said he is ready to dowhatever is the best for the team.
“If the team needs me toopen, that’s what I will do. It’sa team sport, it’s about win-ning games. We’ll have towait and see how thingspan out with a few othermoving parts currently.”
Labuschagne saidhe’s prepared to face theIndian attack underlights and since theplayers know whothey are upagainst, it’s justabout beingfocussed.
“ W e ’ r eobviously pre-pared. Wep l a y e d( J a s p r i t )Bumrah inon e - d ay e r sand in thelast ODI her e a l l y
ramped it up and bowled verywell. For us, we know who weare coming up against.
“So, it’s just making surewe are really focussed andunderstand what bowlers aredoing. We know whichbowlers we are playing(against) and we make surethat we prepare accordingly,”he said.
The right-handed bats-man said facing the likes ofMitchell Starc, Pat Cumminsand Josh Hazlewood in thenets makes the Australiansbetter batsmen.
“One thing that makesour batters that good is thatwe’re facing the best bowlingattack in and out during train-ing. The likes of Cummins,Hazlewood, Starc and (James)Pattinson, they are unbeliev-able bowlers. Facing themevery training session ensureswe prepare as good as wepossibly can be at Test level.”
Labuschagne, who canalso bowl leg-spin, is alsoready to bowl if the teamneeds him.
“I have been the fifthbowling option for the last fiveseries, so it is no different thanany other Test match that Ihave played. I am makingsure that I am always ready tobowl and I like the opportuni-ty when I do get to bowl,” headded.
He also said that therehas been no change in the
perspective of Australianplayers as far as the prepa-
rations for the day-nightmatch is concerned.
“We are justtrying to hit a lot
of balls, get usedto conditionsand trying tomake sure (to
be) readyc o m eThursday,”h equipped.
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Added to an injury-plaguedAustralia squad for the
first Test against India, batsmanMarcus Harris says he is “pret-ty ready” to take on the visitors’quality pacers, having facedthem in both the tour games.
“There’s obviously been abit of stuff going on with every-thing in the last couple ofweeks, so it’s been good to havea hit against the Indian boysand another hit today,” Harristold Fox Cricket.
“It feels like I’m in theright place at the right time, butit feels like I’ve been playingreally well as well. It’s been good,not to be the one that’s spokenabout too much.”
“I knew coming here thatif I went okay I’d put myself ina position to maybe play, theway that things have beengoing,” said the 28-year-oldright-handed batsman.
“I obviously wasn’t in theTest side last summer so I did-n’t have that distraction cominginto this summer and I’ve justbeen focused on what I need todo, so that’s been good,” he said.
“Now I’ve found myselfwhere I am, and I feel prettyready to go and I’m looking for-ward to it.”
Harris played nine Tests forAustralia and was a member ofthe squad which retained theAshes in England last year.
With Warner and Pucovskirued out, Harris appears set toplay his 10th Test and first sincethe final Test of the 2019 Ashes.
The opener averages25.06 with two half-centuriessince debuting against Indiaat the Adelaide Oval twosummers ago.
Against the touringIndians this summer, Harrishas put together scores of 35,25no and 26 in three inningsfor Australia A.
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Veteran batsman Ross Taylorwas on Saturday dropped
from an 18-man New Zealandsquad named for the T20I seriesagainst Pakistan while KaneWilliamson will return from hispaternity leave to lead the sidein the second and third match-es.
Besides the 36-year-oldTaylor’s absence, fast bowlerLockie Ferguson, who suffereda bone stress injury in his back,was also left out from the squadfor the three-match series start-ing next Friday in Auckland.
Trent Boult, who was rest-ed for the T20Is against the WestIndies, will also be available onlyfor the second and third games
of the series along with TimSouthee, Kyle Jamieson andDaryl Mitchell.
Seamer Blair Tickner, bats-man Mark Chapman and all-rounder Doug Bracewell willonly be part of the first T20I.
According to selector GavinLarsen, Taylor, who made 38and nine against the West Indiesin his last T20Is, missed outbecause of the “quality andform” of the rest of the squad.Taylor has scored 1909 runsfrom 102 matches at an averageof 26.15.
Mitchell Santner will onceagain lead the T20I side in theseries opener at Eden Park,having done so in the rain-hitthird T20I against West Indiesin Williamson’s absence.
Rohit Sharma “clinically fit” tojoin the Indian team inAustralia but said a call on hisparticipation in the last twomatches of the Test series therewill be taken after a reassess-ment by the squad’s medical
team.“He has been given a
detailed programme to followfor the duration of the twoweeks he will be quarantinedfor. He will be reassessed by theTeam India medical team posthis quarantine to establish hisfitness status and a call on hisparticipation in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy will be takenaccordingly,” the BCCI said in
a statement.Rohit on Friday cleared an
eagerly-watched fitness test atthe National Cricket Academyin Bengaluru and will leave forAustralia on December 14,three days before the start ofthe marquee Test series.
“... Rohit Sharma has com-pleted his rehabilitation processat the NCA in Bengaluru andis now clinically fit,” the state-
ment said.The BCCI said the NCA
medical team is satisfied withRohit’s fitness but added that hewill need to work on hisendurance. “The NCA medicalTeam was satisfied with thephysical fitness of Mr Sharmaafter assessing him on differentmetrics, however, he will berequired to continue work onhis endurance,” the BCCI said.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp saidhe has changed his mind over the need
for VAR in football and believes thechange to using technology to determinethe finest of margins has made the gameless enjoyable.
The Reds were involved in threelengthy stoppages during a 1-1 draw awayto Midtjylland in the Champions Leagueon Wednesday for VAR to check a penal-ty awarded to the Danish champions andrule out a goal for either side.
“We stop celebrating goals, we waitconstantly, we have less than millimetreoffside decisions. A lot of things are notlike they were before, that’s the truth,” saidKlopp in his pre-match press conferenceahead of Sunday’s trip to Fulham.
“I said when the idea of VAR firstcame up I was in favour of it because Ithought the right decisions would be nice,if we could have rights decisions.
“I’m not sure we all thought itthrough properly and how long will it taketo get the right decision, how much willit take away from a game we all lovedbefore.”
Liverpool have been involved inplenty of VAR controversy already thisseason as Everton goalkeeper JordanPickford escaped without seeing a red cardfor a horrendous challenge on Virgil vanDijk, which caused knee ligament dam-
age to the talismanic Dutch defender.Jordan Henderson had a late winner
ruled out in the same game for a millimet-ric offside call, while Andy Robertson con-ceded a late penalty after a review in a 1-1 draw at Brighton two weeks ago.
“It’s nothing to do with tight decisions
against us, it’s in general. A few things arenot like they were before and they werebetter before. If you change something
there should be justimprovement andthat is for sure notthe case and that’s it.”
������������� ���Jose Mourinho has warned his
Tottenham players they face a searchingtest of their Premier League title creden-tials over the gruelling Christmas period.
Spurs, top of the table on goal differ-ence, are about to embark on a run ofseven fixtures in 21 days, which couldhave a huge say in whether they willremain as contenders.
They start at Crystal Palace onSunday before games against Liverpool,Leicester, Wolves, Fulham and Leeds, witha League Cup quarter-final at Stokesandwiched in between.
Mourinho has been used to jugglinghis squad as they have been in EuropaLeague action and will do so again, butsays his star men such as Harry Kane andSon Heung-min will have to play most ofthe matches.
“It is impossible for a player to playall these matches in a short period of time,”he said. “Of course we need to do it(rotate) and we have to do it but at thesame time there are players that are real-ly, really unique.
������!/�4 Former India all-rounderYuvraj Singh on Saturday turned 39but instead of celebrating his birth-day this year, the 2011 World Cuphero hoped for a “swift resolution” tothe ongoing farmers’ issues throughdialogue. “Birthdays are an opportu-nity to fulfil a wish or desire and thisbirthday rather than celebrating Ionly wish and pray for a swift reso-lution of the ongoing talks betweenour farmers and our government,”Yuvraj said in a Twitter post.
“Undoubtedly, farmers are thelifeblood of the nation and I trulybelieve that there is no problemwhich cannot be resolved throughpeaceful dialogue,” he added.
The 2011 World Cup-winningstar also distanced himself from hisfather Yograj Singh’s unsavoury com-ments made earlier this week duringa protest rally.
“As a proud Indian, I am indeedsaddened and upset by the state-ments made by Mr Yograj Singh. Iwish to clarify that his remarks havebeen made in an individual capaci-ty and my ideologies are not the samein any manner,” Yuvraj said andended the post with Jai Jawan! JaiKisan! Jai Hind! PNS
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Former championsChennaiyin FC face a tough
task when they take onNorthEast United FC in anIndian Super League matchhere on Sunday.
CFC are up against one ofthree unbeaten sides so far thisseason, and need to raise thelevel of play to secure a positiveresult.
Despite not getting theresults and points their perfor-mances have merited, CFChave been arguably one of themost attractive sides to watch,creating a flurry of chances inevery game they have played sofar.
They had the advantageagainst Mumbai City FC in theirprevious encounter but suc-cumbed to a 1-2 defeat as aresult of some questionable ref-ereeing decisions and indecisivedefending from set-pieces.
CFC head coach CsabaLaszlo will be hopeful his side’sintent and vigour will translateinto goals and wins, followingtwo disheartening losses toBengaluru FC and MCFC.
Prior to that, Chennaiyindrew 0-0 against Kerala Blasters,having won their openingencounter 2-1 against
Jamshedpur FC.A return to the Tilak
Maidan may be a good omenfor Laszlo’s men as it was at thisground they beat JFC.
Laszlo said the trio of mid-fielder Anirudh Thapa, defend-er Enes Sipovic and attackerIsma Goncalves are expected toreturn to action much soonerthan he had earlier expected.
Chennaiyin were unbeatenagainst NEUFC last seasonenroute the ISL final, beatingthem 2-0 at home followed bya 2-2 draw in Guwahati.
Like CFC, NorthEast arealso a different outfit from lastseason, now under a younghead coach in the form ofSpaniard Gerard Nus.
They will be aiming toextend their unbeaten streak.The Highlanders, placed thirdin the standings with ninepoints, have been among theearly pacesetters this season,with two wins and three draws.
Northeast United are thejoint-highest scorers so far thisseason with Mumbai City FC(with 8 goals each) and indefence, they have also made itdifficult for opponents to breakthem down, keeping two cleansheets.
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Former champi-ons Bengaluru
FC would look to shrug off anunexpected struggling start tothe Indian Super League andnotch up a win against KeralaBlasters here on Sunday.
It has not been an idealstart for Bengaluru with threedraws and just one win in fourmatches. But, head coach CarlesCuadrat is aiming to get his sideback on track and is eyeing fullpoints against Kerala Blasters atthe Fatorda Stadium.
Bengaluru have a greattrack record against Kerala. Insix games, they have prevailedon four occasions and lost justonce. But that is the past andCuadrat’s side aren’t in the bestof form. Their last game againstNorthEast United ended in a 2-2 draw. Bengaluru started the
campaign with a3-4-3 formation,which wasn’tconducive to
their style, forcing Cuadrat todeploy a four-man defence.The change in plan has helpedBengaluru bring out best fromDimas Delgado and UdantaSingh, making them look morethreatening.
The former ISL championshave netted 80 per cent oftheir goals (4) from set-piecesthis season and this could posea threat to Kerala whosedefence has been the most vul-nerable in the league.
They are yet to keep aclean sheet against BFC.
This season, Kerala Blastershave conceded six goals (sec-ond-most), despite facing just13 shots on target. Coach KibuVicuna addressed that con-cern.
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Red Bull driver MaxVerstappen produced a
stunning last lap and beat bothMercedes cars to take poleposition for the season-endingAbu Dhabi Grand Prix onSaturday.
He was .025 seconds aheadof Valtteri Bottas and .086clear of world champion LewisHamilton for his first pole ofthe season and third of hiscareer.
"Mega, mega lap!" RedBull's team principal ChristianHorner yelled over the radiowhen Verstappen crossed theline under floodlights at the YasMarina circuit.
"It's a long season foreveryone and this was a greatfinal qualifying for the wholeteam," Verstappen said. "We areall very happy and it's great tofinally get there after beingclose many times in 2020."
Bottas led Verstappen andHamilton after their firstattempts in Q3, the final section
of qualifying, and Hamiltonthen appeared on course for arecord-extending 99th careerpole as he led the split times ontheir second and final attempts.
But Verstappen showedwhy he is touted as a futureworld champion, and Bottasfound some extra speed toscore a rare victory over hisillustrious teammate.
Hamilton went well wide inQ1 and went over the curb,while Verstappen complainedover the radio that his hand hadgot stuck inside the cockpit.
Indian women’s hockey head coachSjoerd Marijne on Saturday said that the
team has achieved its primary target ofimproving fitness level of the players asthey were left with practically no compe-tition this season due to the Covid-19 pan-demic.
The team did not play any competi-tion since February when it had travelledto New Zealand. Since then it has beencamping at the Sports Authority of India(SAI) Centre here. The camp ends onSaturday.
“One of our goals was improving fit-ness and that worked out very well. In thepast few weeks, we also worked with thejunior men’s team in a few sessions to testour speed and handling skills and I amhappy with the progress we have made asa group,” Marijne said.
He believes the core group had workedhard towards a good build-up to theOlympic Games next year.
“We have done well so far in utilisingthis time and our primary focus is theOlympics.
“We are hopeful of playing goodmatches early next year that will showwhere we stand and we can plan themonths leading up to the Games keepingin mind the areas that require improve-ment basis our performance in thesetours,” the head coach explained.
Marijne said the break the players aregetting will help them recover from themental fatigue.
“The players have worked hard thesepast four and half months and they havedone it without complaining about any-thing — be it living in a bio bubble withzero outside interaction or living awayfrom their families for so long.
“I am extremely happy with the atti-tude they have showed these past fourmonths and I understand that the train-ing camp was physically and mentallyquite challenging. This break will beespecially good to recover from the men-tal fatigue.”
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Anwar El Ghazi’s last-gasppenalty fired 10-man Aston
Villa to a dramatic 1-0 winagainst Wolves on Saturday.
In the first of the day’sPremier League games, Dutchwinger El Ghazi struck from thespot in stoppage-time to lift Villainto eighth place.
Villa had Douglas Luiz sentoff in the final minutes for twobookings after the Brazilianmidfielder caught DanielPodence with an elbow.
But Nelson Semedo’s foul onJohn McGinn triggered ElGhazi’s penalty before Wolvesmidfielder Joao Moutinho wasdismissed for a second yellowcard just moments from full-time in a fractious local derby.
After two successive defeats,Villa will hope they are back ontrack with just their second winin six games.
Villa have won four of theirfive away league matches thisseason, while mid-table Wolveshave only one win in their lastfive games.
With Raul Jimenez out aftersurgery on the fractured skull hesuffered against Arsenal, Wolveshanded a first Premier League
start to 18-year-old striker FabioSilva — a club record £35 mil-lion ($46 million) signing fromPorto in the close-season.
It was two weeks since Villalast played after the Newcastlematch was postponed due totheir opponents’ coronavirus
outbreak and they took a whileto get going as a result.
Villa appealed for a penal-ty when the ball glanced offRomain Saiss’ shoulder as hestooped to head clear, but VARignored their protests.
�������������Wolves finished the first
half strongly, with DanielPodence forcing EmilianoMartinez to save his lowdrive.
Martinez kept outLeander Dendoncker’sstinging strike and Silvanearly broke the deadlockwhen his glancing header drift-ed narrowly wide.
Silva was inches away froma first Premier League goalwhen he took Podence’s passand rifled his first-time shot pastMartinez, only to see the ballcannon back off the post.
Luiz’s stray elbow earnedhim a red card from Mike Deanin the 85th minute, but El Ghaziwon it from the penalty spotafter McGinn’s burst was haltedby Semedo.
On Friday night at EllanRoad stadium, West Ham bossDavid Moyes labelled the use ofVAR as “rubbish” after his sidehad to come from behind to beatLeeds 2-1 and move up to fifth.
The Hammers could nothave had a worse start asMateusz Klich opened the scor-
ing at the second attemptfrom the penalty spotafter Lukasz Fabianskiwas penalised for com-ing off his line in savinghis Polish internationalteammate’s first spot-kick.
Moyes was left exasperatedwith the decision based on thesmallest of margins, while theretake was allowed to standdespite encroaching by Leedsplayers.
“Until we get the VAR sort-ed I don’t think I’ll be happy,”said Moyes.
“It’s a really good result butwe had another setback after 30seconds. There are some terri-ble decisions that are happeningat the moment.
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Borussia Dortmund coachLucien Favre admitted hisside suffered a “disaster” in
the Bundesliga title race onSaturday after being routed 5-1 byVfB Stuttgart to suffer their heav-iest home defeat in over a decade.
Stuttgart’s Congo winger SilasWamangituka netted twice inthe romp which piled the pressureon Favre with f ifth-placedDortmund now five pointsbehind leaders RB Leipzig.
“Things went mercilesslywrong,” admitted Dortmunddefender Mats Hummels.
"We shot ourselves in thefoot every few minutes."
Dortmund have taken just apoint in their two league gamessince star striker Erling BrautHaaland was ruled out untilJanuary with a hip injury.
Stuttgart's relentless press-ing and sloppy Dortmunddefending resulted in the visitorsscoring four unanswered sec-ond-half goals.
“We are not a team that candefend well, that has to be saidquite clearly,” fumed Dortmundcaptain Marco Reus, while Favreadmitted it was “a disaster”.
Wamangituka converted apenalty midway through the firsthalf after Dortmund's Emre Canbrought down Mateo Klimowicz.
Dortmund equalised justbefore the break when a superb
Raphael Guerreiro longball picked out GiovanniReyna, who deft lychipped home.
It was 1-1 at thebreak, but the flood-gates opened in the sec-ond period as nearly everyDortmund mistake was punished
with a Stuttgart goal.Guerreiro lost con-
trol of the ball on theedge of his penalty areaand Wamangitukaclaimed his second goaleight minutes after the
break.Midfielder Philip Foerster,
in for suspended Stuttgart captainGonzalo Castro, scored with aperfectly timed run into the areawith an hour played.
Jude Belligham's stray passwas then snapped up byWamangituka and moved tostriker Tanguy Coulibaly, whofired home on 63 minutes.
The VAR ruled out a secondReyna goal late on before a mis-take by Dortmund’s Nico Schulzsaw Nicolas Gonzalez claimStuttgart’s fifth goal.
The debacle is Dortmund'sheaviest home defeat since beinghumbled 5-1 at home to BayernMunich in 2009.
!��5�,�,���Fresh from knocking
Manchester United out of theChampions League in midweek,RB Leipzig saw off WerderBremen 2-0 to leapfrog Bayerninto top spot in the table.
Leipzig captain MarcelSabitzer converted a penalty andDani Olmo, who shone in theattacking midfield role, grabbeda first-half goal for the hosts.
The victory left Leipzig apoint clear of defending champi-ons Bayern, who can regain firstplace at FC Union later in Berlin.
The home win capped a goodweek for Leipzig, who knockedUnited out of Europe on Tuesdaywith a 3-2 victory to reach the last16 of the Champions League.
Arsenal loanee MatteoGuendouzi scored his first goalfor Hertha Berlin in their 1-1draw at BorussiaMoenchengladbach.
Guendouzi scored just afterthe break when Gladbach’s DenisZakaria lost possession on theedge of his area.
Gladbach, who also reachedthe last 16 of the ChampionsLeague in midweek, fought theirway back and equalised throughBreel Embolo on 70 minutes.
Freiburg ended their nine-match winless run with a 2-0 winover Arminia Bielefeld.
Nils Petersen hit the wood-work twice before Vincenzo Grifoconverted a late penalty.
Then South Korean midfield-er Jeong Woo-yeong, on loanfrom Bayern Munich, scored inadded time.
Cologne stay just above therelegation places after their 1-0win at second-from-bottomMainz.
Leipzig moved top on 24points with Bayern, who playUnion Berlin later on Saturday.
Igor Angulo struck at theinjury time of the first half to
hand FC Goa a 1-0 win overOdisha FC, their second succes-sive win in the Hero IndianSuper League here on Saturday.
The win propelled FC Goato the fourth spot in the stand-ings.
Angulo (45+1st minute)netted the winner to help JuanFerrando’s side register anothervictory.
Arshdeep Singh shone for
Odisha but their inefficiencyupfront meant Stuart Baxter’sside remained winless in thecompetition.
Vinit Rai was handedhis first start of the sea-son as Odisha made fourchanges to their line-up.Ferrando rang in just onechange as Alberto Noguerareplaced Edu Bedia.
Goa outplayed their oppo-nents in the first half and head-ed into the break with a one-goallead.
The Gaurs dominated pro-
ceedings from the start whileOdisha decided to stay compactand absorb the pressure.
Jorge Ortiz Mendoza, a con-stant threat on the left flank, hadan opportunity to give Goa thelead during the 16th minute.Brandon Fernandes won the balland laid down a pass for Ortizon the left. The forward cutinside into acres of space butdragged his shot wide.
However, despite dominat-ing possession, the Gaurs failedto penetrate the Odisha defence,who kept things tight at theback.
Odisha, too applied pressureon Goa’s backline towards theend of the first half, mainlythrough Diego Mauricio but thehome team’s backline did well tothwart the dangers.
Goa’s perseverance finallypaid off towards the end of thefirst half with Angulo gettinghimself on the scoresheet again.Romario beat his marker on theleft and found the Spaniard inthe box, who created space tofool Jacob Tratt before drillinghis shot into the bottom left-
handed corner.The second half got
off to an interesting startwith both sides showingintent.
Odisha pushed hardfor an equaliser and near-
ly came close just before thehour mark. After a counter-attack, the ball fell to ColeAlexander at the edge of the box,but midfielder fired his shotwide.
8��������������� ��!����9����!������������ ���
The Gaurs fashioned twoclear-cut opportunities duringthe 64th minute but Arshdeepproduced stunning double saveto keep his side in the game.
The Odisha custodian first
blocked a shot from Angulowith his leg. The ball was even-tually cleared and fell toPrinceton Rebello. The substi-tute found Mendoza outside thebox but the latter was denied as
Arshdeep dived full stretch.The Odisha FC keeper pro-
duced another double save dur-ing the dying minutes of thegame, denying both Mendozaand Len Doungel.
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It goes without saying that thereis no bound to our young talent.A case in point is the 26-year-oldIIT Guwahati student Sunit
Nandi, who realised the need for asecure work email provider. Hemerge his expertise and experienceto launch Letter, a powerful emailhosting provider packed with anarray of advanced features.
It offers an intuitive user inter-face, impressive performance andglobal standard security which boastson sharing strongest data privacy andencrypted storage for emails.
“I have often suffered due to thelack of business email solutions thatproperly implements the basics suchas email deliverability, contact sync,calendars, search and also respectsuser privacy and right to their data,”Nandi says.
Devising a solution to theseissues, Nandi self-hosted his workemails for several years before final-ly launching Letter. “I was so frus-trated with the state of email hostingthat I self-hosted my own workemails for several years, and spentcountless days improving the secu-rity and optimising email deliver-ability. I spent almost three years onthe infrastructure. I was optimisingon three things security, usability andavailability. As for security, whatev-er data and conversations you havestays on the server in an encryptedform. It is not accessible by anyoneoutside of the server. It is safe fromany cyber attacks as well,” Nandi, whois also a serial entrepreneur and start-ed when he was 18, explains.
He adds that the email hostingprovider doesn’t restrict the usage toany particular client. “One can use itwith his choice of clients. Take forexample BlueMail or even KMail,” hesays.
If one wants to try this Made In
India email provider, all one has todo is to visit Letter.is and choose thepreferred plan and check out. “Wewill then call the customer to givehim an administrative account. Youcan add your domains to it and thenadd your mail boxes to it. It worksjust like any of the regular emailproviders,” he tells you.
The most basic plan that is onoffer right now is a 4GB yearly onefor �1,320. This 4GB storage can besplit into four different domains andone can add as many different emailsin each of them.
“The highest plan that we haveright now is �3,520 plan which offer50GB of storage. It follows the same
strategy as the basic plan and one cansplit it into 50 different domains. Wealso offer customised big plans fororganisations,” he tells you.
Given the rise in cyber crimesand how technology is misusedworldwide, Nandi says, anything canbe misused and that his product isnot an exception. “When you think
about weakening privacy, you needto take some data out of the user. Ifany privacy solution has a backdoor, it does not remain private any-more. But with that being said, if afew people are trying to misusesomething it doesn’t mean that therest of the world shouldn’t benefitfrom it. One either have bullet proofsecurity or nothing at all,” he says.
Before launching it commercial-ly a month ago, the service saw atleast 20 people who practiced duringthe private beta version. “After thelaunch, we have about 46 customersusing this service,” Nandi, who havebeen operating the beta phase sinceOctober, says.
The service, he says, is witness-ing a couple of new signups everyday. “I hope in the coming few yearswe will become a significant playerin this market,” he opines. He addsthat the service has at least 15 inter-national users.
To make sure the server meetsthe growing demands, he says, thatthey have their inbuilt cloud whereall the data gets backed up and willalso make sure the servers never getdown. “The data is backed up at leastfour times a day on our system. Butthis doesn’t mean the data can leakout of the system. Your password isthe key and as long as we don’t knowyour password we don’t know how toaccess your mails or data. Also,when the data is updated on our sys-tem, it gets converted into a gibber-ish form and only when the thirdparty logs in with the password, thedata gets converted into its originalform. So if by any chance the datagets leaked then also it will requirea lot of efforts to get it in the formof plain text,” Nandi, who for the nextone year wants to solely focus onLetter before opting for a new ven-ture, tells you.
� How did you partner withCharityBuzz.com to raise funds for
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have faced the consequences too with aninterruption in their education and halt intheir hunt for jobs. Thankfully organisa-tions like Magic Bus are doing sometremendous work in helping affected fam-ilies and it is our duty too help in whateverway we can. This organisation is doinggreat work with its COVID-19 recoveryplan to revive incomes and get back ontheir feet by connecting them to employ-ment opportunities. As an actor if my inter-action can ensure that no children dropsout from school, I am happy to give mytime.
� Most Indians don’t do much for char-ity. How important is it for us to give backto society in some form or the other?
First of all, I don’t agree that Indiansdon’t do charity. Not everyone wants topublicise what they do. Many people do thesame quietly. I think people in India, overthe last few years have become more con-scious about giving back and it has becomestronger after COVID-19. They are mak-ing a difference and contributing andchanging the landscape of giving in India.If we all contribute, we will be able to sendat least one more child to school, give onemore young person a stable job and bringone more family out of poverty. The task
seems mammoth, but if we work togeth-er, we can see that change coming.
� Would you agree that films are a medi-um that can change the mindset of thesociety?
Films are a reflection of our society sothey can change. But the message can’t bethat obvious so it is important for peopleto take out that message. Otherwise,films are there to entertain and out ofentertainment there lies a message, peo-ple are smart enough to take it.
� A lesson that life has taught you thusfar?
That there is no alternative to hardwork and honesty.
� You are a public figure and what yousay carries weight. Does it bother youwhen it gets misconstrued or people trollwhat you have said?
As long as I am honest with what Ihave said and am truthful it doesn’t both-er me because my grandfather used to saythat when you are telling the truth youdon’t have to remember it so stick to it. Idon’t really get bothered by trolls, some-times you give them attention, sometimesyou ignore them.
� You have been part of Bollywood andHollywood. Are they different?
They are different from a languagepoint of view; they are different from aprofessional point of view. But both theindustries are of story-tellers. Sometimesyou tell great stories, sometimes you tellstories that don’t connect with people.
� From an actor to an author to a teacherto a motivational speaker. What role doyou love the most?
It is difficult to choose. Sometimeswhen I am acting, I am very happy, whenI am writing a book, it is the author, whenI am at public functions and speaking, Ilove the role of a motivational speaker. Ilove to make a difference in people’s lives,I am a people’s person and love connect-ing with them and if my conversation andeternal optimism can help, I am a happyman.
� What are your upcoming projects?I have already completed a film —The
Last Show with Satish Kaushik. I am alsothe producer here. Then there is my pod-cast Anupam Cares on iHeartRadio onSpotify and Apple. Then there is my bookYour Best Day Is Today, it is about my expe-riences of the pandemic and lockdown.
� What is your role in Coolie No 1?Without revealing a lot, I am playing Deepak, Varun’s friend
again. This time I play a very different kind of friend. I go througha lot to help him get the girl. As a prize, in this film, for a changeI get a girl as well. That’s the difference between the other friends’roles that I have done with Varun and this one. This also marks aperformance where I get to play a different type of role. There’s alot of lying happening in the film. Sometimes I become his driver,sometime a mechanic and what not.� With every character that you play, there’s always a lesson thatyou learn.What was it here?
With every film I do and every character that I play, I alwayslearn something. One thing that I took back home from the setsof this film was something that I have learnt from my father yearsago. He used to tell me jhoot ke paer nahin hote hain. You tell a lieand then cover it up with another one and the cycle goes on. Theother amazing thing I learnt one was that in our country specifi-cally there’s a lot of pressure on the boy to be successful and rich.There’s a lot of expectations from him and many people believe ifthe boy is well off, their daughter will live a happy life. I want totell it to everyone that women now are capable of anything andeverything. The time is different, hence one should leave it to theboy and girl to make their own choice. This is something that JefferyRozario (played by Paresh Rawal) who is Sara and Shikha Talsania’sfather in the film, learns the hard way. He looks for rich guys, butends up getting poor ones for his daughters, who are good actu-ally. This is something that I will remember for a lifetime.� How was the experience to share sets with such a varied cast?
We were shooting in Bangkok and there was a frame wherewe had Mr Jaaved Jaaferi, Rajpal Yadav, Paresh Rawal and Bharatiji.I was standing around and looked at everyone and thought whatdid I do to deserve this where I am standing with such amazingactors. This is nothing less than an award. There’s Johnny Levertoo, I have grown up watching him. It felt so surreal. My teacherNaseeruddin Shah always say that Johnny Lever is by far the bestactor in the industry. One, I was overwhelmed. Two, I was starstruck.Then, there was David Dhawan directing. I was like ‘Sahil Vaid,what have you done to deserve this’. It was a beautiful experience.There was something always happening on the set. It was very oldschool yet a modern one because there was both of Varun and DavidDhawan to bring you an experience of yesterday and today.� Did the surreal experience, as you call it, made you nervous?
If you end up doing theatre with Naseeruddin Shah, you don’tget nervous while acting. I am still nervous when I go and rehearsefor a new play with him. He is blatantly honest. He would tell it toyour face how bad you were. With David Dhawan it is different.His favourite line to me during shooting was, ‘Sahil maza nahinaa raha’. And when someone says that to you as an actor you areblank. He then explained to me how he want a scene to go. Alsoit was surprising for me to know that David Dhawan andNaseeruddin Shah are close friends. They both respect each other.I remember David sir telling me once, ‘Kya ho gaya, hero wali act-ing kar na. Naseer ne sikhaya nahin tujhey’. It is difficult to put thesefeelings into words.� You once said that to act just means to do. Has the definitionchanged for you now?
It will never. That’s my basic. Even here at the sets of SatyamevaJayate 2, that I am shooting for right now in Lucknow, I follow thisrule. Naseer sir told me that you will get all kinds of roles and gen-res Sahil and an actor’s job is never to say I don’t think my char-acter would do this. If a director has a vision, you just do it. � What is there in the pipeline?
There’s a film Silence with Manoj Bajpai, Prachi Desai andVaquar Sheikh, that I just started shooting for. I play a police offi-cer in it. Then there’s Swagatam Khushamdeed that I am shootinglater this month that have Pulkit Samrat and Isabelle Kaif.
The album is titled ‘I’ because thisis my story — all about my journey.
There are nine tracks here and allof them are about my life, my
experiences and journey tillnow. Some of the tracks are
dark and some are aboutwhat I have achieved.Those who want to knowabout me, should defi-nitely listen to this.
� How did you getyour name Ikka?
Actually, my nameis Ankit. I told myfather when I wasyoung why he had tokeep a name that is socommon; when I wasin school there were
six kids in my class bythe same name. I told
my father why not ShahRukh or Hrithik? He told
me that this was the nameI would have to live within this life, at least. But heshortened it to Akki and
from there, when youlook at it, backwards, it reads
Ikka.
� You have also released a new trackAngaar. Tell us about that?
The track is about how we havestruggled so much and there is so muchtalent in us — that we have achievedthings ad we have grown and improvedas artists. The uniqueness is that it fea-tures Raftaar and music given by Sez onThe Beat. Raftaar and I have known eachother for sometime but we lost touch dueto a misunderstanding but that gotcleared and 10 years later, now, did thistrack.
� How did you end up collaboratingwith Divine?
It was during the lockdown. AndDivine and I would keep with each otherregularly over Insta. Over one such chat,he asked me to share a vibe if I had anyand why not do it together. I was doingan album at that time and agreed. I hadtwo-three songs ready and told him tochoose whichever one he liked and getback. He loved Level Up and he sent hisverse in five days and the song was ready.
� How did you get interested in music?I had no interest in music; I was
more interested in playing video gamesand reading comics. I loved to draw andwas creative. One day, a friend got a cas-sette of Eminem — Lose Yourself. WhileI didn’t understand most of it, I loved it.The song has a vibe to it. I explored hip-hop and listened to many artists andloved this style, dress sense and music.I was totally enamoured with it and mylove for music took root.
� How did you end up being a rapper?I just fell into it. I started with lis-
tening to hip-hop and just went with theflow. My friends were those who rapped.It became my life as well. I watched doc-umentaries about the history of rap andlives of rappers all over the world. It feltso real to me and I get influenced bythings that are real. Hip-hop was so dif-ferent for me.
� You are a singer-songwriter, rapper,lyricist, composer and producer. Howdo you do all this?
I have had the opportunity to workwith some of the best artists — GuruRandhawa, Diljit Dosanjh, Yo Yo HoneySingh — right at the beginning of mycareer. These people are the best in whatthey do. Some gave me a sense ofmusic, another taught me production,yet another taught me how to write. I liketo observe things and learn and thingsfell into place.
� Has the rap scene saturated in India?Not at all. People have just started
to listen to rap. Labels have started pro-moting it now. More and more peopleare drawn to hip-hop. I see great thingsfor this genre since there is still betterthings to come.
� What next?I am working on my next album. I
have a few collaborations and Bollywoodprojects as well.
The recent episodes of destructiveflooding in cities such as Hyderabadand Bengaluru have once againturned the spotlight on the drainageproblems facing urban India.
According to a recent report by the New Delhibased Centre for Science and Environmenttitled Why Urban India Floods, flooding is oneof the most predominant hazards facing urbanIndia at present. Experts and commentatorswho have studied this issue have identified anumber of vital causal dimensions to thisproblem ranging from unplanned urbandevelopment, which has led to theencroachment of the natural drainage channelsof urban water bodies, to shortcomings indrainage infrastructures which have led to theintensification of the problem.
Missing in much of these discussions,however, are the historical dimensions of thisissue. A perusal of these dimensions indicatestwo things: firstly, urban flooding and theinability of Indian cities to upgrade drainageinfrastructures were, in a similar vein tocontemporary times, features of urban life evenin the British period; secondly, Indian cities’inability in solving these problems in thisperiod had economic rather than engineeringroots. Even when comprehensive engineeringsolutions to these problems were available, atthat time they were only haltingly implementeddue to the inability of local municipalgovernments to finance such elaborate schemeson their own. Given that this weakness andinstitutional structure continues to largelyendure in Indian cities, there is a need toprovide secure financial backing to localgovernments for building robust urbaninfrastructure in the future.
Modern drainage systems were introducedin the major cities of the world from around1850 onward as a response to emergentepidemic diseases such as Cholera. Indian citieswere no exceptions to this trend as Calcutta,Bombay and Madras city (now Kolkata,Mumbai and Chennai) — the three biggestcities in British India — were among the first tointroduce these systems there. Kolkata (thenCalcutta) introduced its system in 1858, whileMumbai (then Bombay) and Chennai (thenMadras) introduced their systems in the late1870s with the key responsibilities forfinancing, building, operating and maintaining
these systems lay with the local municipalbodies.
The precise engineering arrangements fordraining the cities varied from case to case andwas shaped largely by local conditions. Designchoice in this period revolved around twomodes of drainage — the ‘combined’ and the‘separate’ system of drainage. The ‘combined’system transported both stormwater (surfacerun-off of rainwater) and sewage in a singleunderground sewer, while the ‘separate’ systemcollected and disposed storm water and sewageseparately via separate pipes. While Kolkataopted for a ‘combined’ system due to itstopography, Mumbai and Chennai city optedfor the ‘separate’ system guided by the annualrainfall patterns in the city. Since rainfall in thelatter two cities were restricted only to a fewmonths in a year, it was felt that stormwater canbe separately managed more efficiently. On asimilar note, while Kolkata opted to drain itsstormwater into a nearby tidal creek by thename Bidhyadhari, Chennai and Mumbai optedto drain their stormwater into the sea via opendrains and channels.
����������������������������Following their introduction, these drainage
systems certainly did not have a smooth careerand began to develop a number of problems notso different from the drainage problemsafflicting contemporary Indian cities. Thenature of the problems in each case wasstrongly conditioned by its design choices. Forinstance, the cities that adopted the ‘separate’system developed practical difficulties inkeeping sewage from entering storm waterdrains and vice versa. This manifested inMumbai in 1901 when parts of the city’s stormwater drains had become a public health hazardwhen a slower uptake of household sewerconnections led to the dumping of sewage intothese drains. In Chennai city, in the late 1920s,the reverse was the problem as storm waterfound its way into sewage pipes therebystretching the sewage disposal arrangements ofthe system.
While Kolkata’s ‘combined’ system couldsteer clear of the aforementioned difficulties, itstill had to search for new disposalarrangements for its storm water due to thesilting up and rise in the bed level of theBidyadhari river by the mid-1910s therebycausing stagnation within the drains.
Furthermore, the carrying capacity of thestormwater drains in all of these cities were
beginning to be overwhelmed resulting inmonsoon floods through the 1920s and 1930s.For instance, a national newspaper report fromAugust 1923 complained about Kolkata (thenCalcutta) that ‘Floods are of daily occurrence,and it is doubtful if this will ever be a thing ofthe past’, while a report on flooding in Mumbaiin 1937 noted that ‘Flooded Bombay (nowMumbai) streets, are a common sight...’ duringmonsoons. In both these cases, the inadequatecapacity of its drainage infrastructure torespond to the rainfall patterns in the city wereidentified as the most important cause, thusproviding us interesting parallels from the paston monsoon flooding in urban India.
���������������The city governments of that era were
certainly not silent spectators as these problemsstarted unraveling from of them. They were, asa matter of fact, quite alive to the need toupgrade their respective drainage systems. Forinstance, Mumbai city’s corporation hadplanned for a project costing nearly �1.36 croreto give a comprehensive overhaul of the city’sstorm water drainage system in 1924, whileKolkata had finalised a scheme to shift itsoutfall works from Bidyadhari river to the riverKulti by 1930. But financial stringency facingthe local governments in this period meantthese schemes were either delayed or suspendedor only partially implemented.
While the implementation of Calcutta’s(now Kolkata) scheme could eventuallycommence only in 1935, Bombay’s (nowMumbai) scheme for stormwater drainage wasnot implemented even by 1933. Under the tightfinancial constraints, the municipal bodiescould not go beyond tinkering with the existingsystem to prevent flooding. In Mumbai, themunicipal corporation began to allow stormwater to drain off through sewage pipes duringperiods of monsoon in a bid to reduce floodingof city streets in the 1930s.
This position of financial weakness ofmunicipal bodies is succinctly captured by thefollowing quote from O.J.Wilkinson, whoserved as the drainage engineer of Kolkata inthe mid 1920. He noted that: ‘In Calcutta (nowKolkata) we have ... terrific rainstorms tocontend with, a drainage problem ofunparalleled complexity, a vast conservancyquestion..Yet the income per head of thepopulation is but a fraction of London or othergreat European cities. Whereas in London, therateable value is such that enormous schemes to
meet the growing needs of the community canbe financed without much difficulty frommunicipal funds, in Calcutta (now Kolkata), itis quite impossible for obvious reasons. Thedrainage question alone is of such decisiveimportance and so great in extent that the costof remedial measures may be quite beyond themeans of the corporation.’
If this was the case in Kolkata, one of thethen richest municipal bodies in the country,then it would certainly not be difficult tofathom what the state of drainage systems inother poorer yet populous cities such asLucknow and Banaras might have been. Indeed,as of 1937 only 3% of the 517 municipalitiesacross the five provinces of Bengal, Mumbai,Chennai, UP and Punjab had modern sewagedisposal systems installed even though theengineering practices behind them had becomefairly well rooted in India. Thus, it was not forwant of engineering solutions that drainagesystems remained inadequate; it was mainly thedire economic conditions that these localbodies found themselves in that prevented theemergence of a functional and satisfactorysystem of urban drainage in India.
It’s now nearly 90 years since theaforementioned incidents took shape. Whilethere are important qualitative differencesbetween the challenges that contemporaryurban India faces and what its colonialpredecessor did, this article has alluded to someimportant enduring elements. Chief among thisis the economic inability of India’s local bodiesto build robust public infrastructure fordelivering vital services — be it water,sanitation or drainage.
A recent report of the research organisationICRIER titled Finances of MunicipalCorporation in Metropolitan India alerts us thatthe dire financial position of these bodiescontinues to remain a major stumbling blockfor upgrading urban infrastructure. While it isdifficult to come up with a clear recipe on howto improve urban living conditions in India notthe least on the basis of historical work, onestarting point certainly could be ensuringgreater intervention of central and stategovernments in providing secure financialbacking for these local bodies to build vitalpublic services in our cities.
The author is an engineer turned PhD stu-dent with the Centre for the History of Science,Technology and Medicine (CHoSTM) at King’s
College, London, researching the history of sani-tary infrastructures in late colonial Madras city
Climate change, or moreaptly, climate chaos, isarguably one of the major
challenges of the 21st century,and is often considered an exis-tential threat to humanity. Itleaves no aspect of lifeuntouched, including the econo-my, environment, health andlivelihoods, regardless of whichpart of the world you reside. Theglobal community has awoken tothe risks involved, and there hasbeen a ramp-up of efforts to mit-igate the release of greenhousegases, including the main culpritcarbon dioxide, through aplethora of initiatives such asfocusing on renewable energy,creating a circular economy, andeven re-inventing what woulddrive future growth, with ‘green’deals being considered by vari-ous influential governmentsworldwide.
However, recent researchsuggests that no matter howambitious our efforts are, currentemission trends indicate that it isunlikely we will be able to limitthe temperature rise to 1.5°Cabove pre-industrial levels. Thisis the warming limit that is sup-ported by the world’s most cli-mate-vulnerable countries, withwarming above this point leavingus open to more extreme weath-er events, biodiversity loss on ascale previously unimaginable,agricultural depletion andunprecedented forced migration.The Global South, including theIndian subcontinent, will be par-ticularly hard hit. Climate geo-engineering is increasingly tout-ed as a promising solution forthis, a blanket term that containsquite a few radical, often contro-versial and potentially challeng-ing to implement proposals.
Before we continue, we wouldlike to point out that we are nei-ther advocates nor opponents ofgeoengineering. We believe it isimportant to have a broader pub-lic discussion on a wider spec-trum of possible climate options,and our goal in this article is toshed some light on one oft-neglected outside scientific circles,and lay out the unknowns, oppor-tunities and obstacles involved,especially from a South Asianperspective. That being said, let’sstart with a few definitions.
Under climate geoengineering,there are two major groups of pro-posed approaches; Solar RadiationManagement (SRM) and CarbonDioxide Removal (CDR). SRMproposals aim to limit or reversethe temperature rise produced byhigher greenhouse gas concentra-tions, by reflecting inbound sun-light back into space. Theapproach that has received mostresearch attention would involvespraying tiny reflective particlesinto the upper atmosphere toreflect away some sunlight. Theeffects of SRM would be experi-enced rapidly, in the order ofmonths after implementation, andthis is why it is being researched –it’s the only known way to quicklystop or reverse the rise in globaltemperatures.
However, it is important tonote that these effects would lastonly as long as the programme ismaintained. SRM does notreduce the concentrations ofgreenhouse gases in the atmos-phere and there is the potentialfor disastrously abrupt warmingof the global climate with sud-den and permanent cessation ofa high level of SRM cooling. Asit is largely based on computersimulations, there is also signifi-
cant uncertainty on what theactual impacts may be, includingpredicting the change in rainfallpatterns and growth of plant life.
CDR on the other hand,involves removing carbon diox-ide and other greenhouse gasesfrom the atmosphere by variousmeans, ranging from reforesta-tion/afforestation, restoration ofwetlands, burning biomass tocapture carbon and permanentlystoring it, fertilizing oceans toabsorb more CO2 or even directcapture of CO2 from ambientair. Generally, CDR techniquesare comparatively slow-actingand expensive to implement, butare less contentious and havebeen included in many modelsfor achieving effective climatechange mitigation.
What we find worrying isthat climate geoengineeringresearch as a whole has predomi-nantly been conducted byWestern academia, and in reality,countries in the Global South areoften poorly represented indebates about these approaches,even though in many of thecases, those are the same coun-tries that would be the mostimpacted.
This question of moral hazardsurrounding geoengineering hasbeen intensely argued, thoughagain mostly in developedeconomies. A range of people,from policy makers to activists,have expressed concerns thatCDR and SRM might be seen as“get out of jail” free cards thatreduce the incentives for coun-tries to move towards a net-zerocarbon pathway. This becomes allthe more serious when coupledwith what is essentially limitedresearch about the benefits anddrawbacks of these methods.
Encouraging SRM or CDR maysignificantly reduce allocation ofresources to inclusive and reliableclimate change mitigation andadaptation strategies, or even leadto total near-term disregard forthem, leaving developing coun-tries to suffer the consequences.For example, Global South coun-tries have expressed their concernregarding the uncertainty of Bio-
Energy and Carbon Capture andStorage (BECCS) methods, whichis a CDR technique. These pro-jects may require large land areas,thereby competing with agricul-tural lands. Additionally, as previ-ously stated, research has shownthat SRM would involve tinkeringwith a complex system and itmight have nasty side effects, withcountries like India bearing the
brunt if it goes wrong. It may infact not be in the best interests ofnorthern, developed countrieslike Norway or Canada too, whomay prefer increased tempera-tures for agricultural productivityand other land uses.
Another cause for apprehen-sion is the lack of an internation-al agreement overseeing climategeoengineering. Currently these
methods can be rolled out by anycountry independently, especial-ly economically strong ones.This would certainly cause animbalance of power in globalpolitics, as such a country wouldpotentially have control over theglobal thermostat, with negativerepercussions in certain parts ofthe world. We first have tounderstand exactly what theeffects of various geoengineeringmeasures would be on a regionalbasis, and ensure that the needsof all nations are met when andif they are executed. This is anissue with global ramifications,and cannot be treated locally. Itis therefore absolutely vital thatthere is a cohesive strategy thatis transnational in nature, withdefining principles for gover-nance, research, developmentand possible implementation ofthese novel technologies. Weurge India and other developingnations to take the lead to ensurejustice, and ascertain that anyand all measures need to consid-er the wishes of all stakeholderswithin these vulnerable regions.
As it stands, climate geoengi-neering could prove to be a com-plement to other climate solu-tions and not a silver bullet. If itworks well, it might be able toprotect climate-vulnerableregions by keeping temperaturesbelow 1.5°C while the world isdecarbonising. But the uncer-tainty and unpredictabilityaround these techniques mayhave counterproductive implica-tions worldwide, especially inthe Global South. The globalnature of these methods man-date a strong need for trans-parency within all the dimen-sions of these techniques, safe-guarding equity as the centraltheme. However, it is absolutelyclear that climate geoengineeringis not a substitute for reducingcarbon emissions and our focusmust continue to be on weaningour economies off carbon, advo-cating sustainable behaviouralpractices and building strongresilience to climate change. Byprioritising these pathways, wewill hopefully never be pressedto use climate geoengineering toprotect our planet.
Vinayak Nambiar is AnantFellow for Climate Action; Sijo
Abraham is Anant Fellow forClimate Action; and Mohammed
Mofizur Rahman is Instructor,Anant Fellowship for Climate
Action
The year 2021 will be the yearof the Covid-19 vaccine. It willbe the topic of our greatestrelief and utmost anxiety.Which vaccine? How to avail
it? Will it work? What are the side effects?We will not know the answers to all thesequestions at once, not even at the timeregulatory approval is given for each vac-cine.
Choosing the vaccine to use inIndia’s vaccination programme will there-fore certainly not be easy as they will eachbe based on very different technologies,with differing degrees of efficacy and sideeffects that will likely be revealed withtime. Many millions will be vaccinatedevery week, and perhaps an effectivetracking system could help us identifyproblems with particular vaccines whichwere not caught in the pre-approval tests.
Procuring the vaccine would indeedbe initially difficult but I don’t anticipateit to be our greatest challenge in the longrun either. India has a large vaccine pro-duction capacity. The Serum Institute ofIndia is the largest vaccine manufactur-er in the world and it is producing theAstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine and willalso produce the Novavax vaccine. It isexpanding capacity to 1.2 billion dosesper year, and half of this could be avail-able for India. There are other Indianmanufacturers engaged in clinical trialsto produce a vaccine, such as ZydusCadila, Bharat BioTech, Dr Reddy’sLaboratories and Biological E. There willundoubtedly be difficulties in thisunprecedented situation.
However, funding the programmewill be a major challenge and a heavilydebated one too. Should the vaccine befree for all beneficiaries or only for some?Will the government pay for vaccines forall? India has a vast spectrum of socialand economic inequalities. We havesome of the world’s richest and theworld’s poorest, with health care distri-bution that also mirrors this enormousgap. Without free vaccines provided bythe government at least to some extent,we can not ensure that the last mile inrural India are offered the vaccine. Wecan not ensure that the population leftout in vaccinating 70% of India and hop-ing for herd immunity for the rest, are notthe poorest.
We can anticipate two other majorhurdles in vaccinating India for which,
I believe, the private sector must step into help.
First, how will we distribute the vac-cine to the last mile? Our existing systemsfor distributing medicines to the angan-wadis and rural medical centres arefraught with pilferage. Already we see ablack market for vaccines preparing tosuck out the vaccines from the system tooffer it to those with greater buyingpower who might want the vaccine at thesoonest. How can we then ensure that thevaccine is offered to all individuals in anequitable manner? Some have suggesteda lottery system for offering vaccines, buteven then how can the lottery winnersbelonging to economically weaker seg-ments be sure of receiving their vaccine?
Here, the network of the local kiranastores and freelance entrepreneurs insmall towns and villages who are already
being mobilised by the government fordistributing Covid testing kits and maskscould be tapped upon. They are the gov-ernment of India’s best last mile connect.This network has been leveraged by thegovernment already and so it can beleveraged for vaccine distribution aswell, to be then picked up by the govern-ment healthcare workers in villages,slums, small towns. Large companiescould include their supply chain and dis-tributors within that network for vaccinedelivery. The supply chain of large com-panies such as Hindustan Unilever Ltd.and others will thus bolster this exist-ing network further — if a Lifebuoy canbe delivered to the furthest hut in a vil-lage so can the Covid vaccine. Indeedthereafter, the government healthcareworkers would be best suited for door-to-door vaccinating. In our experience of
setting up 11 Covid hospitals and recov-ery facilities over six months, we lever-aged public private partnerships to set upthese hospitals and facilities in urbanpockets that lacked healthcare facilities,bringing in government healthcare work-ers to operate them. A similar PPPmodel can be put in place for vaccine dis-tribution and vaccine administration inrural India.
Second, how do we overcome India’sbiggest malaise — corruption — in thisregard? The black market is picking upalready, making ‘bandobast’ to get thevaccines out to people with resources assoon as possible. There are even travelcompanies such as Gem Tours offeringMumbai-New York-Mumbai tickets, 3night/4 day packages with breakfast andone vaccine dose. Further, even if thekirana stores in villages and slum zones
are looped in to distribute the vaccines,there might be cases where they insteadsell off the vaccines at high prices. In thecase of the latter, the government can notentirely check the corruption and the pri-vate sector might be silenced by the fearof losing the supply chain for their ownproducts.
What are ways in which we can pre-empt this corruption? Communicationmight be key here. An intensive anti-cor-ruption campaign for vaccine distribu-tion can be planned in order to remindthe public of being ethical during theworst global pandemic in history that hasravaged the lives of millions. The publicinvolved in vaccine distribution can beencouraged and named as ‘heroes’ ,much as the frontline warriors werereferred to as ‘Covid Warriors’. Thecommunication on vaccines must coverfactual information about the variousvaccines, removing rumours and baselessfears. The vaccine cannot be mademandatory, which makes the dispersionof effective and accurate communicationall the more important.
In India, since the past three monthsor so the private sector has alreadystepped in to assist the government inarticulating and dispersing the messagearound Covid precautions. At times thegovernment pays companies for spread-ing the message while in some cases com-panies and even some advertising agen-cies have stepped up to do so on a pro-bono basis. This trend can be furtherstrengthened towards an anti-corruptioncampaign for vaccine distribution.
We can not afford to lose the battleto Covid, especially once an effective bas-ket of vaccines arrive. The distributionof anything to the last mile in India is achallenge. This is at least once when thecountry needs to step up its game andensure that the choice and the correctinformation for the Covid vaccine reach-es the most disadvantaged end of incomegroups in India. They can not be left togain ‘herd immunity’ while the top 1%get their choice of vaccines. This is thechallenge that the government, privatesector, me and you need to win in 2021.
The writer is CEO of Sustain Labsand Adjunct Professor at SciencesPo
Paris. She is also a columnist andauthor of the 2019 bestseller IndianInstincts — essays on freedom and
0������������"�����������������"��=����"���Today the Rohingya
Muslims are nowhere.More than one million of themleft their homeland of RakhineProvince, Myanmar, in 2017after their ethnic cleansing atthe hands of Myanmar Army.
Most of them descended inthe neighbouring Bangladeshand stayed in makeshift campsin the Cox Bazar, a coastal townlocated near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border area of thecountry all these years.
Many of them have crossedthe turbulent sea to get intoother South East Asian nationssuch as Indonesia, Malaysiaand Thailand.
Their future hangs oninternational intervention fromnations concerned and humanrights agencies. Despite anurgent urge from the UN andthe case being heard in theInternational Court of Justice(ICJ) at The Hague(Netherlands), they continue tolanguish in the ill-managedrefugee camps in Bangladesh.But recently Dhaka took adecision to shift a large num-ber of the Rohingya refugees toan island named Bhasan Char,in a phased manner. However,the spread of the news in thebeginning of this monthamong the distraughtRohingyas evoked mixed feel-ings — many of them are quiteexcited to go to their newabode, thinking this could bea better place, while others areworried about their permanentdislocation from the currentcamps.
To unearth the root causeof the Rohingya exodus in2017 from Rakhine toBangladesh, we need to focuson the recent political hap-penings in Myanmar. The UNsays the Myanmar Armydemonstrated “genocidalintent” while conducting oper-ations against the ArakanRohingya Salvation Army(ARSA) in 2017.
According to the authori-ties, this operation targeted toflush out the Islamists and tobring back law and order in theRakhine Province. But the cen-tral issue is that Myanmar doesnot want to recognise theRohingyas as citizens and itsees them as illegal migrantsfrom Bangladesh. That is whythe Burmans, the major ethnicgroup of the country, consist-ing of the Army, the rest ofadministrative ranks and theleadership, simply do not wantthe Rohingyas to stay in thecountry.
Much before 2017, the
clashes used to break outbetween the majority Burmansand the local Rohingyas. But inthat year, the ARSA killednearly 20 police officers andsecurity forces of the MyanmarArmy. And on August 25, theARSA, previously known as theHarakah al-Yakin, immediate-ly provoked a counter-insur-gency operation from the fed-eral Army of Myanmar inRakhine Province. TheGovernment says the ARSA isa terrorist organisation. Itsleader Ata Ullah was born inPakistan and raised mostly inSaudi Arabia. The group alsoreleased a report in 2016according to which it is led byRohingyas living in SaudiArabia.
However, the concern isthat striking at the ARSA is notgoing to solve the core issue i.e.denying citizenship to theRohingyas. For decades, theRohingyas have been residing
in Arakan known as theRakhine Province.Interestingly, earlier, they weregiven the right to vote. But withthe coming of the Tatmadaw topower, gradually the basicpolitical rights and freedoms ofthe Rohingyas were curtailed.Thus, the Rohingya anger hasgrown against the MyanmareseState fully controlled by themajority Burmans.
Many security expertsopine that the ARSA may havereceived backing from jihadistswho have fought in battle-grounds of Afghanistan, Syria,Iraq, etc. The main purpose ofthe ARSA is to defend, salvageand protect the Rohingyasfrom the State repression in theline with the principle of self-defence. But the official viewfrom Naypyidaw is that theArmy operation in the provincewas against the terrorists, andto restore law and order in thatarea. Even the locals and vari-
ous newspapers in the regionsemphasise more on the terrorattacks and the plight of theothers who had to flee the areabecause of the clash betweenthe Army and the Rohingyas.
It is very clear that themajority Burmans have a long-held prejudice against theRohingya Muslims, who arenot regarded as the citizens ofthe country. These Rohingyasare called as “Bengalis”. Andmost of the nationalist groupsview them as a threat to theircountry. This is the back-ground of the harrowing con-ditions of the Rohingyas thathas sparked a bitter debatebetween Bangladesh andMyanmar, but without anycredible outcome.
And anytime in future, theglobal jehadi groups such as theIslamic State and al-Qaedamight plant their agents tosponsor full-time Islamic terrormovements in Myanmar. The
Tatmadaw must be ready toface such an onslaught fromthese global monsters andaccordingly should keep a closewatch on the activities of theARSA in the region.
The root of the plightbehind the current Rohingyacrisis lies in Myanmar itself. Itcan well be regarded as a sys-tematic and forced migration ofthese people from their homeprovince. And it is theTatmadaw i.e. the MyanmarArmy that has led a vicious andbrutal campaign against thehapless Rohingyas over theyears. It all started in 1978when then Burmese Army car-ried out an operation called“Operation Ngamin” to driveout the Rohingyas fromRakhine.
Again, in 1982, a new lawwas passed by Myanmar todeny citizenship right to theRohingya Muslims. And final-ly, they were excluded from the
list of the country’s 135 ethnicgroups. For years, Myanmarhas pursued institutionaliseddiscrimination policies likethese and cornered the poorand minority MuslimRohingyas to a point of noreturn to the mainstream ofcountry.
The role of Nobel laureateand the present StateCounsellor of Myanmar ishighly questionable on thequestion of the repatriation ofthe Rohingyas. The suffering ofthe Rohingya itself is a tragedy.But the way it was carried outby the Tatmadaw had crossedall civilisational limits. Suu Kyidoes not control the militaryand even if she wants she can’tdo so. Also the military doesnot trust her at all.
It’s very simple because allher life she has fought againstthe repressive military anddemanded to restore basic free-doms in the country. But today
she has almost forgotten thevery core of the basic freedomsfor which she once bravelyfought. It’s painful and sad. Thistime her party National Leaguefor Democracy won more seatsthan what they had won in theelections of 2015. But even ifshe could have condemnedthe actions of the Tatmadaw, itwould not have gone to thisextent.
The world knows very wellwhat Suu Kyi said in theInternational Court of Justiceat the Hague in December2019. She bravely defendedher country’s military againstthe allegations of genocide.These all have rightly signalledthat she is a true politician andno more a votary of democra-tic rights.
The recently concludedparliamentary election hasonce again excluded theRohingyas from the muchawaited political process in thecountry. Further, because of thefighting between the Tatmadawand the Arakan Army, theNovember ParliamentaryElection had to be cancelled inthe Rakhine Province.
The saddest part of theRohingya crisis is that no oneis focusing on the repatriationof the Rohingyas to Myanmar.Why the whole world is mumover this matter? Why are weall putting pressure onBangladesh to resettle theserefugees in an unsafe and vul-nerable island? It seemsBangladesh has accepted theresponsibility of relocating theRohingyas and looking fortheir future settlement.Precisely, they all must be sentback to Myanmar i.e. RakhineProvince, as early as possible.
The UN, the UNHRC andvarious other global humani-tarian agencies must build upenough pressure on Naypyidawto take back all the Rohingyas.Now a new Joe Biden admin-istration must devise a strate-gy to convince the Tatmadawfor the same. Else, the Generalsback home in Myanmar willtake it for granted that suchheinous crimes could easily avoid international attention. Though Bangladesh is assuring therepatriation of the Rohingyasin the Bhasan Char, the inter-national community must beaware that it is a very vulnera-ble area to shift millions ofthese refugees in the days tocome.
(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)
��$��� �������������� ��������� �����Amid the Covid-19 pan-
demic the education sys-tem in India has been witness-ing challenges with significantimpact on higher education.
To deal with the situation,experts have talked about whatshould be the course of direc-tion with regard to the patternof completion of course work,methodology of teaching andexamination.
The Higher EducationInformation System’s recentattempt to ensure high level ofpartnership among institutionsthrough equity and access to allshows the level of insight inempowering and motivatingstudents and faculty members.
Besides, the pursuit of theNational Education Policy(NEP) to cover school, adult,higher education and effortstowards promotion of Indianlanguages and online educationexhibit tremendous efforttowards enhancement of over-all educational scenario.
Indian universities arebeing encouraged to improvetheir performances by makinga push towards a more meritbased peer reviewed researchand the chimera of fulfilling theaim of 6 per cent of GDPexpenditure on education.
A few experts are of theviews that we have at least gotan opportunity to analyse andaddress the multidimensionalissues in the education sector.
Whereas for some it is awelcome sign that we woulddraw a framework for keydemands of the higher educa-tion while maintaining a syn-ergy between various actorsand stakeholders, there hasbeen a section which stronglyfeels that the idea of onlineteaching can never replace theexisting system of classroomsteaching. For many others, it isnot clear that segregation of thepractical and theory papers,particularly for MBA courses,can be a feasible option if thefuture trends compel us to fol-low the undesirable.
Ensuring proper monitor-ing of education sector on dayto day basis as done by theauthorities can ensure growthin changing circumstances.
In the midst of argumen-tation and generation of dis-course it is imperative to lookat the process from neutralstand. But at times differentpoint of views creates insightsabout the way in which theideas and emotions get trans-lated into effective decision-making process.
The Union Ministry ofEducation has opened up con-ceptual and scholastic discus-sions which may result in thecreation of exquisite thoughtsand a new vision for the growthof a stupendous education sys-tem even during the crisis ofunprecedented magnitude. It is
high time we realised the grav-ity of challenges encounteredby the higher education.
The importance of educa-tion for the physical, intellectu-al and moral will always be onhigh pedestal because educationfrees a person from the clutch-es of darkness and bigotry.
But many a times the ques-tions and desires of competi-tion, comparison and person-
al greed leads to the problem ofmanipulation and takingrecourse in shortcuts. TheRight to Freedom of Expressionin democratic societies hasbeen debated many times.Recent developments in acad-emic world have posed newchallenges about the changingnature of problem and thehuge competition quagmirethat still lurks.
The University GrantsCommission (UGC) has shownserious concern over theincreasing number of predato-ry, cloned and substandardpublications and emergence ofa number of web opinion sitescoupled with arrangement ofpredatory conferences. In ahighly proactive step, the UGChas issued strict directions andcreated high quality list of jour-
nals to be considered the onlyvalid publication category.
As a result of the long questfor excellence the UGC estab-lished Consortium forAcademic Research and Ethics(CARE) to ensure and promotepious academic integrity andquality research and teaching.
This would help in broad-ening the ethical horizon andenhancing the decision making
capabilities but also lettingnew generation know what isethically and morally correct.
When it comes to ethics itmeans going beyond the setclichés and moving from par-adigm to paradigm shift. Weought to try our level best tokindle the flame by ensuringthe sensitisation of students andfaculty members in this direc-tion. It is difficult to change thedirection of the wind, but wecan do our bit in adjusting eth-ical sail towards the path ofdevelopment of ethos.
The major challenge willbe its dealing with profession-al institutes. How to develop mechanism to sensitisethe stakeholders of these insti-tutes to overcome the rigmarole of regulations, andtake decision.
It is daunting task to dealwith the emerging challengesdue to mushrooming of a num-ber of private educational insti-tutes. There is a strong need toidentify new ways to judge thequalitative competence of can-didates by laying a lot of impor-tance on improving analyticaland observatory qualities of thecandidates through cognitivediscourse and seeking multipleoptions and viewpoints in orderto help in forming an integrat-ed texts and questionnaire.
(The author is a professorand expert on strategic affairs)
Habits die hard. You may strive toget over them, but you won’t beable to hold it for long unless you
make corrections at the base level.Remember, the root of inherent habittendencies lie in the thought seeds thatare firmly embedded in the inner realmsof the mind. As and when they get a con-genial ground, they spring into action.Something like a wheat seed, which ifkept on a table, remains inert. If it some-how reaches the earth mass, it will sproutinto a plant when it has access to water.
Someone holding a coveted positionin an international organisation fearingloss of job came asking three years back:“My performance at works is commend-able, and is duly acknowledged by mysuperiors. Yet, why do I come under suchthreat?
“Will I be able to retain my posi-tion?” Well, the reason lies in your self-undoing acts. You are primarily anescapist. Whenever you come under neg-ative bind for whatever reasons, yourinherent sense of fear and insecurityovertakes your thought plane. To forgetthat, your get into self-indulgences,which you take to extremes. You, thus,invite your own problem. But given pre-
sent astrological directions, as of nowyour job is secure.” I observed. “Agreedsir. But how could you pinpoint myproblem with such clarity?” He asked.
“A horoscope speaks of the basic fab-ric of one’s making that throws light onyour virtues and attributes; as well ashabits and attitudes. Coming as they mayas Karmic carryover from the past, theyare imprinted in the inner realms of yourmind as thought-seeds. Given a conge-nial trigger, they come into play.” Ireplied. Assured of his job security, heasked: “Suggest me some remedial mea-sures — stone or a puja — that may helpme avoid such situations in future.”
He was given a process, whichinvolved self-reflecting on his thoughtpatterns so as to resolve them throughrelevant educative inputs that may helpget over the past hangups. Also, to trainthe mind living mindfully in the present.“Why put me under such process? Ipromise you to overcome my self-indul-gences. I am strong enough to hold on tomy promise,” he then said. “Well, thatwill not suffice. You need to resolve themfrom the root level, otherwise, it willerupt in future also.” I observed. He didnot pay attention to my counsel. No
wonder, he came under similar spelltwice in between.
Let us now look at his astrologicalpointers. He is born in Aquarius lagna, afixed sign, which makes him a stubborncharacter. The lagna lord Saturn con-junct the Sun brings in a sense of fearand insecurity having a hardened atti-tude. Moon placed adverse to Saturnbrings in a negative mind-set. Given anadverse situation, he may become self-pitying. The Sun placed adverse to mis-chievous Neptune makes him habituallyan escapist, who remains stuck to hisself-delusionary perceptions. He maynot acknowledge truth on its firstappearance and will rather prefer pursu-ing his own self-beliefs till pushed to thewall.
Moon is ill-disposed off to Venusidentified with sensuous pleasure, whichis conjunct Rahu. Venus is also involvedin exchange with Mars, a planet identi-fied with animalistic instincts. This com-bination, in the first place, brings in self-indulgent tendencies. Second, he remainsvulnerable to unpredictable moodswings. Third, he is too much touchy andsensitive, whereby he gets over-exercisedeven on trivial issues, over which hekeeps mulling for long.
Intelligence signifying Mercury is ill-disposed of to Mars, which makes himrestless, irritable and bad tempered. He,thus, given an adverse situation, loses hissense of alert, vital to mindful living.Mercury placed adverse to Jupiteraccounts for his insensible reasoning andjudgment. What further compounds hisproblem is his inflated ego, coming as itmay with Mars placed adverse to Jupiter.That binds him to his self-defined beliefsand perceptions, not open to lookbeyond for a reality check. He is averse tolistening or counsel. He can’t digest any-thing that is not in line with his percep-tion. If all that would not be enoughMoon posited in Sagittarius sign and alsoaverse to Saturn implies that he will notbe able to keep up the promises hemakes.
With exalted Jupiter and Moon overthe head, the positives in him are strongenough to make him a good professional.But his overpowering negatives wouldnot allow him a free run, unless heresolves them from the root level. Theresult is there to see.
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