I ndia and the US discussed the ramifications of the ongoing war in Ukraine during a telephonic conversation between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar late on Wednesday. The two leaders reviewed regional priorities, the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine and pro- moting a free and open Indo- Pacific. “Just completed a useful conversation with @SecBlinken. Reviewed the progress on our bilateral coop- eration. Discussed develop- ments pertaining to the Indo- Pacific, Ukraine, and the glob- al economy,” Jaishankar tweet- ed. “The two leaders spoke to review regional priorities, including the worsening humanitarian situation in Ukraine and our shared efforts to promote a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific, in which the sovereignty and ter- ritorial integrity of all states is respected,” State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said. Meanwhile, visiting US Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics, Daleep Singh, on Thursday said the USA will not set any “red line” for India on its energy imports from Russia but does not want to see a “rapid acceleration”. “Friends don’t set red lines,” Daleep Singh told reporters. As against purchase of 16 millions barrels oil in 2021, India has bought at least 13 million bar- rels of Russian crude oil since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The discussion between Jaishankar and Blinken took place hours before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in New Delhi to hold talks with the Indian leadership on Friday. It is the first visit by a Russian Minister to India since the military operations began in Ukraine on February 24. India and Russia are likely to discuss issues like rupee-rouble trade and procurement of oil at discounted prices. The two sides are also likely to take stock of the ongoing weapons supply, including S-400 missile, to India. Blinken wrapped up a tour of the West Asia, North Africa, and India on Wednesday, mak- ing an impassioned appeal to Algeria to limit its ties with Russia. “The countries of North Africa and the Middle East(West Asia) have experi- enced themselves the conse- quences of Russia’s military campaigns before,” Blinken said. India and the US have been in touch over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The US Deputy NSA Daleep Singh arrived in India on Wednesday on a two-day visit. Hours after his arrival, Singh held talks with Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal. Singh is known to be a key architect in designing the US sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. The visiting US official also met Foreign Secretary Harsh Shringla on Thursday and discussed India-US eco- nomic cooperation and strate- gic partnership. “Look forward to working together on global issues of mutual interest, including in G20,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. A defiant Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Thursday that he will not resign despite losing the major- ity and insisted that he will play till the last ball and face the vote of no-confidence in the National Assembly on Sunday which will decide where the country will go. In a live-address to the nation, 69-year-old Khan also discussed a ‘threat letter’ and termed it as part of a foreign conspiracy to remove him as he was not acceptable for follow- ing an independent foreign policy. He named the US as the country behind the threat let- ter in what appeared to be a slip of tongue. Khan’s address came at a critical juncture of his political career when he lost majority after defection from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. Two of his allied parties also withdrew their support and joined the ranks of the Opposition. “The nation should decide where the country should go…I always played until the last ball. I will never resign,” he said. “Those against me should have resigned…they should not have sold themselves for money.” Calling the rebel lawmak- ers as “traitors”, Khan said that they will be branded as such for the rest of their lives as he pleaded them to come back and foil the attempt to topple his government. “I will fight against the con- spiracy and will never let it suc- ceed,” Khan said as he vowed to face the no-trust vote in the assembly on Sunday. His speech came hours after Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri abruptly adjourned the National Assembly session till Sunday after Opposition law- makers demanded an imme- diate vote on the no-trust motion. The resolution against the embattled premier was tabled by Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on March 28. Khan needs 172 votes in the lower house of 342 to foil the Opposition’s bid to topple him. However, Opposition claims it has the support of 175 lawmakers and the PM should immediately resign. No Pakistani Prime Minister has ever completed a full five-year term in office. Also, no Prime Minister in Pakistan’s history has ever been ousted through a no-confi- dence motion, and Khan is the third premier to face the chal- lenge. Khan talked at length about the “threatening letter” which he said was an official communication by Pakistan’s ambassador and showed that the opposition leaders were in contact with that country as it was written before the no- confidence move. “They (officials of other country) said that if no confi- dence succeeds then things will be fine…but if Imran Khan remains in power, rela- tions will deteriorate and you (Pakistan) will have to face problems,” Khan said, quoting from the document. Khan said the foreign offi- cial knew the ones who would come into power after him would have no issues taking orders from the external forces. “But what is most disturbing is that our people, who are sitting here, are in contact with foreign powers,” he said, as he referred to the “three stooges” — Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Peoples Party co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Continued on Page 9 W ildlife traffickers are bla- tantly exploiting the shorter travel time and exten- sive reach that the aviation sec- tor offers. A new study has revealed that in ten years since 2011, about 70,000 native and exotic animals — in many cases their body parts and derivatives like Red Sandalwoods — were attempt- ed to be smuggled from 18 air- ports. Chennai airport was most frequently misused to move illegal wildlife products speed- ily with significantly fewer transit losses, said the report “High Flying: Insight into wildlife trafficking through India’s airports” which was released recently here by the TRAFFIC India. At least 140 wildlife seizure incidents were reported from the airports during the period. “It is the tip of the iceberg. The seizures reflect the ongoing trafficking and not an actual representation as most of the illegal wildlife trade goes unchecked and unreported,” said Dr Saket Badola and Astha Gautam, authors of the study. The report noted that all kinds of nefarious tricks were used to traffic the contrabands. “Checked luggage and person- al baggage, concealment of wildlife contraband within pas- senger clothing, footwear, and other wearable and through the wrong declaration of protected species, all of which makes detection cumbersome for enforcement agencies were most common tactics,” it said. What was more concern- ing was that many of the seized species are categorised as threatened on the IUCN Red List and listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices. “For instance, the Indian Star Tortoise is listed as vul- nerable on the IUCN Red List. However, traffickers clearly disregard the threatened status and international CITES rules in Appendix I prohibiting its trade as the Indian Star Tortoise was the highest number of native species seized between 2011 and 2020,” said the report. Among the species groups seized (including both Indian and exotic species), reptiles were the most encountered group during the stated period (46 per cent), followed by mammals (18 per cent), timber (13 per cent), and species from the marine environment (10 per cent). The highest number of native species seized includ- ed the Indian Star Tortoise, fol- lowed by the Black Pond Turtle Geoclemys hamiltonii while the highest number of non- native species seized was Red- Eared Slider Turtle, followed by the Chinese Pond Turtle Mauremys reevesii, said the 12- page report based on the analy- sis of the seized wildlife items in the last ten years. Similarly, several flora species, including Agarwood Aquilaria malaccensis, Red Sanders Pterocarpus santalinus, Sandalwood Santalum album, and medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) like Kuth Saussurea costus roots were seized at the airports. Chennai International Airport recorded the highest number of wildlife seizure inci- dents, followed by Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, and Indira Gandhi Airport, New Delhi.”Illegal wildlife trade through airports is a major conservation threat magnified by the growth in the airline sector. It is important for enforcement agencies to pri- oritize bringing an end to wildlife trafficking,” said Dr Badola, who also heads TRAFFIC’s India Office Continued on Page 9 C ongress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed concern about the budgetary cut for MGNREGA, saying all the State Budgets have a negative balance in their accounts to the tune of 5,000 crore which has led to delays in payments to workers. Sonia’s contention was coun- tered by Union Ministers Giriraj Singh and Anurag Thakur who said her assess- ment was “far from the truth”. Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Sonia said MGN- REGA which was joked about did help the poor during Covid-19 and played a positive role. She urged the Centre to make adequate allocations to the welfare scheme and ensure payments within 15 days. Rural Development Minister Singh and I&B Minister Thakur hit back at Sonia, accusing her of politi- cising the issue and claimed that her remarks were “far from the truth”. “The issue raised by the honourable member is far from the truth. The budgetary allo- cation for MGNREGA in 2013- 14 (UPA years) was 33,000 crore, whereas under Prime Minister Narendra Modi it had reached 1.12 lakh crore. No need to show us the mirror,” Singh said. Thakur also said that dur- ing 2013-14, a sizeable amount in the MGNREGA budget was not reaching the beneficiaries, but today beneficiaries receive the amount directly to their account. Continued on Page 9 I n a major decision that will impact sentiments in the North-East, the Union Government on Wednesday decided to “reduce disturbed areas” under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the States of Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur. The decision will considerably reduce areas under the AFSPA effective April 1, 2022. “In a significant step, GoI under the decisive leadership of PM Shri @NarendraModi has decided to reduce disturbed areas under Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the States of Nagaland, Assam, and Manipur after decades,” Home Minister Amit Shah said in a tweet. Justifying the move, the Home Minister said the reduc- tion in areas under AFSPA is a result of the “improved securi- ty situation and fast-tracked development due to the con- sistent efforts and several agree- ments to end insurgency and bring lasting peace in North East under the leadership of Modi”. The decision has been taken after decades of AFSAPA use in the North-East region which, in recent years, saw con- siderable normalcy with several extremist groups, including Bodo, ULFA and NSCN(IM) signing peace accords with the Centre. There has been frequent unrest and agitation in the Northeast for repeal of the AFSPA. During UPA’s time, the then Home Minister P Chidambaram had spoken about “reviewing” AFSPA across the country including in J&K. The “Disturbed Area” tag will be removed from 23 dis- tricts and partially from one district in Assam. In Manipur, 15 police station areas of six districts will be out of the purview of the act. In Nagaland, the Disturbed Area Notification will be removed from 15 police stations in seven districts. Welcoming the move, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said the leadership of the Prime Minister has brought a new era of peace, progress, and security to the North East. “Reduction in areas under AFSPA will further create a conducive environment for fast-paced growth in the region,” he said. Continued on Page 9 I n the Rajya Sabha elections for 13 seats across six states on Thursday, the AAP booked five RS berths unopposed from Punjab, the BJP won five, the Left two, and the Congress one. BJP’s tally has now gone up to 102 in the 245-member RS. With this, the Congress may now lose its status of Leader of Opposition by July this year, when another round of biennial elections for the Upper House will be held. The Congress lost three of its seats — two from Assam and one from Himachal. The retirees include the party’s deputy leader in the House, Anand Sharma, who was elected from Himachal Pradesh. As 72 RS members retired, voting took place for three seats in Kerala, two in Assam, and one in Tripura. In Assam, with the two Congress MLAs voting in favour of the BJP, the ruling party won both the seats. The Congress suspend- ed its defectors from the party. From Kerala, the LDF bagged two seats and the UDF one. LDF candidates P Santosh Kumar of the CPI and AA Rahim of the CPI(M) regis- tered a comfortable victory. The BJP has already won the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Nagaland unopposed. BJP leader S Phangnon Konyak won the seat becoming the first woman to enter the Upper House from the State. Nagaland is the only State in the country without an Opposition. BJP candidate Manik Saha won the lone RS seat in Tripura bagging 40 first preferential votes, Left candidate Bhanu Lal Saha got just 15 votes. The results for two seats of Assam RS polls had to be delayed after the Congress moved the EC seeking to inval- idate of votes of 5 NDA MLAs alleging they publicly revealed their ballot papers. But, the EC rejected the demand. Attempted to smuggle 70K exotic animals in 10 yrs, 140 seizures from airports reported I f in his first tenure Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath strengthened the base of gov- ernance, his second innings will focus on 2 Ds — Development and Delivery — so as to make Uttar Pradesh the number one state of the country. “The Yogi government in its second term has made the 2 Ds (development and deliv- ery) its main agenda. The guidelines have been issued regarding this and the ministers and bureaucrats have been asked to formulate develop- ment-centric policies,” Mritunjay Kumar, the media advisor to the chief minister, told a select group of reporters here on Thursday. He said in the first tenure of Yogi Adityanath, people only thought of the govern- ment doing the politics of Hindutva but many welfare schemes like free food grain distribution were launched and free houses, free toilets, free LPG and power connections were extended to people with- out any discrimination. “The focus now will be on strengthening the delivery sys- tem, so that in turn it could speed up the development process,” Kumar said. To give a boost to the 2 Ds, the chief minister has already held a couple of rounds of meetings with ministers and officials and all have been asked to prepare detailed pro- jects department wise within 100 days. “Asking the ministers to present the schemes during cabinet meetings rather than officials doing so shows that the chief minister wants every minister to know the nitty-grit- ty of the schemes so that they may plug any loopholes,” he said. Kumar said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had already started his efforts to make the state’s economy one- trillion-dollar and a ground- breaking function to attract around Rs 10 lakh crore invest- ments will be held sometime in July, 2022. Continued on Page 9 L ashing the disciplinary whip, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Thursday, sus- pended District Magistrate of Sonbhadra, TK Shibu, on cor- ruption charges and for not adhering to rules during the election. Shibu is accused of cor- ruption on a large scale during the elections. He has also been accused of corruption in min- ing and construction works. “Public representatives had also complained against him that he was making money from mining. The complaints were supported by many activists of civil societies,” a government official said Besides, during the 2022 UP assembly elections, he has Continued on Page 9
Transcript
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India and the US discussedthe ramifications of the
ongoing war in Ukraine duringa telephonic conversationbetween Secretary of StateAntony Blinken and his Indiancounterpart S Jaishankar late onWednesday. The two leadersreviewed regional priorities,the worsening humanitariansituation in Ukraine and pro-moting a free and open Indo-Pacific.
“Just completed a usefulconversation with@SecBlinken. Reviewed theprogress on our bilateral coop-eration. Discussed develop-ments pertaining to the Indo-Pacific, Ukraine, and the glob-al economy,” Jaishankar tweet-ed.
“The two leaders spoke toreview regional priorities,including the worseninghumanitarian situation inUkraine and our shared effortsto promote a free, open, secure,and prosperous Indo-Pacific, in
which the sovereignty and ter-ritorial integrity of all states isrespected,” State DepartmentSpokesperson Ned Price said.
Meanwhile, visiting USDeputy National SecurityAdviser for InternationalEconomics, Daleep Singh, onThursday said the USA will notset any “red line” for India onits energy imports from Russiabut does not want to see a“rapid acceleration”.
“Friends don’t set red lines,”Daleep Singh told reporters. Asagainst purchase of 16 millionsbarrels oil in 2021, India hasbought at least 13 million bar-rels of Russian crude oil since
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The discussion between
Jaishankar and Blinken tookplace hours before RussianForeign Minister Sergei Lavrovarrived in New Delhi to holdtalks with the Indian leadershipon Friday.
It is the first visit by aRussian Minister to India sincethe military operations beganin Ukraine on February 24.India and Russia are likely todiscuss issues like rupee-roubletrade and procurement of oil atdiscounted prices. The twosides are also likely to take stockof the ongoing weapons supply,including S-400 missile, to
India.Blinken wrapped up a tour
of the West Asia, North Africa,and India on Wednesday, mak-ing an impassioned appeal toAlgeria to limit its ties withRussia.
“The countries of NorthAfrica and the MiddleEast(West Asia) have experi-enced themselves the conse-quences of Russia’s militarycampaigns before,” Blinkensaid.
India and the US havebeen in touch over the Russianinvasion of Ukraine. The USDeputy NSA Daleep Singharrived in India on Wednesdayon a two-day visit.
Hours after his arrival,Singh held talks withCommerce Minister PiyushGoyal. Singh is known to be akey architect in designing theUS sanctions against Russiaover its invasion of Ukraine.
The visiting US officialalso met Foreign SecretaryHarsh Shringla on Thursdayand discussed India-US eco-nomic cooperation and strate-gic partnership. “Look forwardto working together on globalissues of mutual interest,including in G20,” Ministry ofExternal Affairs SpokespersonArindam Bagchi said.
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A defiant Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan said
on Thursday that he will notresign despite losing the major-ity and insisted that he will playtill the last ball and face the voteof no-confidence in theNational Assembly on Sundaywhich will decide where thecountry will go.
In a live-address to thenation, 69-year-old Khan alsodiscussed a ‘threat letter’ andtermed it as part of a foreignconspiracy to remove him as hewas not acceptable for follow-ing an independent foreignpolicy. He named the US as thecountry behind the threat let-ter in what appeared to be a slipof tongue.
Khan’s address came at acritical juncture of his politicalcareer when he lost majorityafter defection from hisPakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)party. Two of his allied partiesalso withdrew their supportand joined the ranks of theOpposition.
“The nation should decidewhere the country shouldgo…I always played until the
last ball. I will never resign,” hesaid. “Those against me shouldhave resigned…they shouldnot have sold themselves formoney.”
Calling the rebel lawmak-ers as “traitors”, Khan said thatthey will be branded as such forthe rest of their lives as hepleaded them to come backand foil the attempt to topplehis government.
“I will fight against the con-spiracy and will never let it suc-ceed,” Khan said as he vowedto face the no-trust vote in theassembly on Sunday.
His speech came hoursafter Deputy Speaker QasimSuri abruptly adjourned the
National Assembly session tillSunday after Opposition law-makers demanded an imme-diate vote on the no-trustmotion.
The resolution against theembattled premier was tabledby Leader of the Opposition inthe National Assembly ShehbazSharif on March 28.
Khan needs 172 votes inthe lower house of 342 to foilthe Opposition’s bid to topplehim. However, Oppositionclaims it has the support of 175lawmakers and the PM shouldimmediately resign.
No Pakistani PrimeMinister has ever completed afull five-year term in office.
Also, no Prime Minister inPakistan’s history has ever beenousted through a no-confi-dence motion, and Khan is thethird premier to face the chal-lenge.
Khan talked at lengthabout the “threatening letter”which he said was an officialcommunication by Pakistan’sambassador and showed thatthe opposition leaders were incontact with that country as itwas written before the no-confidence move.
“They (officials of othercountry) said that if no confi-dence succeeds then thingswill be fine…but if ImranKhan remains in power, rela-tions will deteriorate and you(Pakistan) will have to faceproblems,” Khan said, quotingfrom the document.
Khan said the foreign offi-cial knew the ones who wouldcome into power after himwould have no issues takingorders from the external forces.“But what is most disturbing isthat our people, who are sittinghere, are in contact with foreignpowers,” he said, as he referredto the “three stooges” —Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president ShehbazSharif, Pakistan Peoples Partyco-chairman Asif Ali Zardariand Jamiat Ulema-e-IslamMaulana Fazlur Rehman.
Continued on Page 9
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Wildlife traffickers are bla-tantly exploiting the
shorter travel time and exten-sive reach that the aviation sec-tor offers. A new study hasrevealed that in ten years since2011, about 70,000 native andexotic animals — in manycases their body parts andderivatives like RedSandalwoods — were attempt-ed to be smuggled from 18 air-ports.
Chennai airport was mostfrequently misused to moveillegal wildlife products speed-ily with significantly fewertransit losses, said the report“High Flying: Insight intowildlife trafficking throughIndia’s airports” which wasreleased recently here by the
TRAFFIC India.At least 140 wildlife seizure
incidents were reported fromthe airports during the period.“It is the tip of the iceberg. Theseizures reflect the ongoingtrafficking and not an actualrepresentation as most of theillegal wildlife trade goesunchecked and unreported,”said Dr Saket Badola and AsthaGautam, authors of the study.
The report noted that allkinds of nefarious tricks wereused to traffic the contrabands.“Checked luggage and person-al baggage, concealment ofwildlife contraband within pas-senger clothing, footwear, andother wearable and through thewrong declaration of protectedspecies, all of which makesdetection cumbersome forenforcement agencies weremost common tactics,” it said.
What was more concern-ing was that many of the seizedspecies are categorised asthreatened on the IUCN RedList and listed in theConvention on International
Trade in Endangered Species ofWild Fauna and Flora (CITES)Appendices.
“For instance, the IndianStar Tortoise is listed as vul-nerable on the IUCN Red List.However, traffickers clearlydisregard the threatened statusand international CITES rulesin Appendix I prohibiting itstrade as the Indian Star Tortoisewas the highest number ofnative species seized between2011 and 2020,” said the report.
Among the species groupsseized (including both Indianand exotic species), reptileswere the most encounteredgroup during the stated period(46 per cent), followed bymammals (18 per cent), timber(13 per cent), and species fromthe marine environment (10per cent). The highest numberof native species seized includ-ed the Indian Star Tortoise, fol-lowed by the Black Pond TurtleGeoclemys hamiltonii whilethe highest number of non-native species seized was Red-Eared Slider Turtle, followed by
the Chinese Pond TurtleMauremys reevesii, said the 12-page report based on the analy-sis of the seized wildlife itemsin the last ten years.
Similarly, several floraspecies, including AgarwoodAquilaria malaccensis, RedSanders Pterocarpus santalinus,Sandalwood Santalum album,and medicinal and aromaticplants (MAP) like KuthSaussurea costus roots wereseized at the airports.
Chennai InternationalAirport recorded the highestnumber of wildlife seizure inci-dents, followed by ChhatrapatiShivaji International Airport,Mumbai, and Indira GandhiAirport, New Delhi.”Illegalwildlife trade through airportsis a major conservation threatmagnified by the growth in theairline sector. It is important forenforcement agencies to pri-oritize bringing an end towildlife trafficking,” said DrBadola, who also headsTRAFFIC’s India Office
Continued on Page 9
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Congress president SoniaGandhi on Thursday
expressed concern about thebudgetary cut for MGNREGA,saying all the State Budgetshave a negative balance intheir accounts to the tune of�5,000 crore which has led todelays in payments to workers.Sonia’s contention was coun-tered by Union MinistersGiriraj Singh and AnuragThakur who said her assess-ment was “far from the truth”.
Raising the issue during theZero Hour, Sonia said MGN-REGA which was joked aboutdid help the poor duringCovid-19 and played a positiverole. She urged the Centre tomake adequate allocations tothe welfare scheme and ensurepayments within 15 days.
Rural DevelopmentMinister Singh and I&BMinister Thakur hit back atSonia, accusing her of politi-cising the issue and claimedthat her remarks were “farfrom the truth”.
“The issue raised by thehonourable member is far fromthe truth. The budgetary allo-cation for MGNREGA in 2013-14 (UPA years) was �33,000crore, whereas under PrimeMinister Narendra Modi it hadreached �1.12 lakh crore. Noneed to show us the mirror,”Singh said.
Thakur also said that dur-ing 2013-14, a sizeable amountin the MGNREGA budget wasnot reaching the beneficiaries,but today beneficiaries receivethe amount directly to theiraccount.
In a major decision that willimpact sentiments in the
North-East, the UnionGovernment on Wednesdaydecided to “reduce disturbedareas” under the Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act (AFSPA) inthe States of Nagaland, Assam,and Manipur. The decisionwill considerably reduce areasunder the AFSPA effectiveApril 1, 2022.
“In a significant step, GoIunder the decisive leadership ofPM Shri @NarendraModi hasdecided to reduce disturbedareas under Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act (AFSPA) inthe States of Nagaland, Assam,and Manipur after decades,”Home Minister Amit Shah saidin a tweet.
Justifying the move, theHome Minister said the reduc-tion in areas under AFSPA is aresult of the “improved securi-ty situation and fast-trackeddevelopment due to the con-sistent efforts and several agree-
ments to end insurgency andbring lasting peace in NorthEast under the leadership ofModi”. The decision has beentaken after decades of AFSAPAuse in the North-East regionwhich, in recent years, saw con-siderable normalcy with severalextremist groups, includingBodo, ULFA and NSCN(IM)signing peace accords with theCentre.
There has been frequentunrest and agitation in the
Northeast for repeal of theAFSPA.
During UPA’s time, thethen Home Minister PChidambaram had spokenabout “reviewing” AFSPAacross the country including inJ&K.
The “Disturbed Area” tagwill be removed from 23 dis-tricts and partially from onedistrict in Assam. In Manipur,15 police station areas of sixdistricts will be out of thepurview of the act. InNagaland, the Disturbed AreaNotification will be removedfrom 15 police stations in sevendistricts.
Welcoming the move,Union Minister SarbanandaSonowal said the leadership ofthe Prime Minister has broughta new era of peace, progress,and security to the North East.
“Reduction in areas underAFSPA will further create aconducive environment forfast-paced growth in theregion,” he said.
Continued on Page 9
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In the Rajya Sabha electionsfor 13 seats across six states
on Thursday, the AAP bookedfive RS berths unopposed fromPunjab, the BJP won five, theLeft two, and the Congress one.BJP’s tally has now gone up to102 in the 245-member RS.
With this, the Congressmay now lose its status ofLeader of Opposition by Julythis year, when another roundof biennial elections for theUpper House will be held. TheCongress lost three of its seats— two from Assam and onefrom Himachal. The retireesinclude the party’s deputyleader in the House, AnandSharma, who was elected fromHimachal Pradesh.
As 72 RS members retired,voting took place for threeseats in Kerala, two in Assam,and one in Tripura. In Assam,with the two Congress MLAsvoting in favour of the BJP, theruling party won both the
seats. The Congress suspend-ed its defectors from the party.
From Kerala, the LDFbagged two seats and the UDFone. LDF candidates P SantoshKumar of the CPI and AARahim of the CPI(M) regis-tered a comfortable victory.
The BJP has already wonthe lone Rajya Sabha seat fromNagaland unopposed. BJPleader S Phangnon Konyakwon the seat becoming the firstwoman to enter the UpperHouse from the State. Nagalandis the only State in the countrywithout an Opposition.
BJP candidate Manik Sahawon the lone RS seat in Tripurabagging 40 first preferentialvotes, Left candidate Bhanu LalSaha got just 15 votes.
The results for two seats ofAssam RS polls had to bedelayed after the Congressmoved the EC seeking to inval-idate of votes of 5 NDA MLAsalleging they publicly revealedtheir ballot papers. But, the ECrejected the demand.
If in his first tenure ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath
strengthened the base of gov-ernance, his second innings willfocus on 2 Ds — Developmentand Delivery — so as to makeUttar Pradesh the number onestate of the country.
“The Yogi government inits second term has made the2 Ds (development and deliv-ery) its main agenda. Theguidelines have been issuedregarding this and the ministersand bureaucrats have beenasked to formulate develop-ment-centric policies,”Mritunjay Kumar, the mediaadvisor to the chief minister,told a select group of reportershere on Thursday.
He said in the first tenureof Yogi Adityanath, peopleonly thought of the govern-ment doing the politics ofHindutva but many welfareschemes like free food graindistribution were launched andfree houses, free toilets, freeLPG and power connectionswere extended to people with-
out any discrimination.“The focus now will be on
strengthening the delivery sys-tem, so that in turn it couldspeed up the developmentprocess,” Kumar said.
To give a boost to the 2 Ds,the chief minister has alreadyheld a couple of rounds ofmeetings with ministers andofficials and all have beenasked to prepare detailed pro-jects department wise within100 days.
“Asking the ministers topresent the schemes duringcabinet meetings rather thanofficials doing so shows that thechief minister wants everyminister to know the nitty-grit-ty of the schemes so that theymay plug any loopholes,” hesaid.
Kumar said that ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath hadalready started his efforts tomake the state’s economy one-trillion-dollar and a ground-breaking function to attractaround Rs 10 lakh crore invest-ments will be held sometime inJuly, 2022.
Continued on Page 9
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Lashing the disciplinarywhip, Chief Minister Yogi
Adityanath, on Thursday, sus-pended District Magistrate ofSonbhadra, TK Shibu, on cor-ruption charges and for notadhering to rules during theelection.
Shibu is accused of cor-ruption on a large scale duringthe elections. He has also beenaccused of corruption in min-ing and construction works.
“Public representatives hadalso complained against himthat he was making moneyfrom mining. The complaintswere supported by manyactivists of civil societies,” agovernment official said
Besides, during the 2022UP assembly elections, he has
I myself Dhirendra Rastogihouse no 441/140 R Balaganj,Topkhana, Lucknow I want toregister & update my son birthdate 12.08.2009 in all documents
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Deputy Chief Minister, KeshavPrasad Maurya, on Thursday,
directed the officers ofHorticulture and Food Processingdepartment to give maximumencouragement to establish foodprocessing units at the village leveland to create maximum employ-ment through these units.
He also directed the officialsto submit the draft within a weekfor the improvement in the UttarPradesh Food ProcessingIndustry Policy-2017.
These instructions were givenby Maurya while reviewing theplans of the Food Processingdepartment at his camp office at7 Kalidas Marg.
Maurya instructed officials tomake innovative efforts in thedirection of employment gener-ation by promoting food process-ing industries in Uttar Pradesh.
He also said that all possibleefforts should be made to providebenefits of various schemes of thedepartment to the genuine eligi-ble people up to the village levelin the entire state.
He said that in the field offood processing, people should beconnected with employment bytraining them about processing offlour, rice, fruits, vegetables,spices, bakery, confectionery etc.
He said that the food process-ing sector had the highestemployment after the informationtechnology (IT) sector and added
that there were possibilities for thedevelopment of industries in thissector. Maurya claimed thatdevelopment of industries wouldnot only lead to development ofthe food processing sector, butalso develop other related indus-tries and service sectors.
He said the income of farm-ers should be increased by addinglocal raw material and valueaddition in rural areas. He saidthe contribution of food process-ing industries in employmentgeneration should be ensured.
“In view of the availability ofsufficient raw material and unlim-ited possibilities, promotion offood processing industries in thestate is one of the priorities of the
government,” he said.Maurya was apprised of the
progress of other schemes, includ-ing Pradhan Mantri KisanSampada Yojana, Uttar PradeshFood Processing Industries Policy,Mahatma Gandhi FoodProcessing Village Self-Employment Scheme, PradhanMantri Micro Food IndustryUpgradation Scheme and gaveimportant directions to the offi-cers.
Additional chief secretary(horticulture and food process-ing), director, horticulture andfood processing fruit industrydevelopment officer and otherofficers were also present in themeeting.
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In a shocking incident inHapur, two brothers suffocat-
ed to death after inhaling poi-sonous gas and later their sis-ter also tried to end her life indepression while in a separateincident in Barabanki, fourpersons, including two scribes,were killed in a road accident.
In Hapur, two real brothersdied of suffocation in a roomof a sheet printing factory inPilkhuwa, a handloom town ofHapur district.
Disturbed by the informa-tion of losing both her broth-ers, the sister of the victimshanged herself to end her life.She was rushed to a hospitalwhere her condition remainscritical.
Reports said that both thebrothers, 22-year-old Navedand 24-year-old Aslam, hadgone to get sheets chemicallywashed in the sheet printingfactory located in Mohalla NewArya Nagar of Pilkhuwa onWednesday.
When they reached theroom to get the drying sheets,they fell unconscious alleged-ly due to leakage of some poi-sonous gas. When they did notcome out of the room for a longtime, the other employees wentto the room and saw bothlying dead.
The deceased were nativesof Chittauda in Garh, and wereliving in Shivaji Nagar ofPilkhuwa for the last 10 years.
According to informationreceived, chemicals are used inthe factory to make the colours
fast on the sheets. The sheetsare kept in a closed room forthe colours to dry. As the doorwas closed. poisonous gas ema-nating from the films had filledthe room.
Police later sent the bodiesfor post-mortem.
Meanwhile, when the newsof the death of Naved andAslam reached their
Sister, she also tried tocommit suicide by hangingherself. She was admitted to thehospital in a serious condition.
While the police are inves-tigating the matter, DSPPilkhua Dr Tejveer Singh saidthe bodies were sent for post-mortem and police were mak-ing investigations to initiatelegal action against the facto-ry owner.
In Barabanki, four people,including two journalists, werekilled when a car collided witha mud-laden dumper nearHathi ka Purwa village onPurvanchal Expressway underLoniktra police station area ofBarabanki district.
Police said the accidenttook place on Wednesday nightand three people were killed onthe spot while the fourth per-son succumbed to his injuriesat KGMU Trauma Centre inLucknow.
All the people in the carwere residents of Pratapgarhdistrict and were on their wayto Lucknow.
In s p e c t or- i n - C h a r g eVishwanath Yadav said that thespeeding car collided with thedumper near the village. Ongetting information, the local
people reached the spot andtook out all the occupants inthe car and took them toHaidergarh community healthcentre, where the doctors pro-nounced three people dead.
The fourth person wasreferred to the KGMU TraumaCentre in Lucknow, where healso died during treatment.
The deceased were identi-fied as Irshad Khan (30),Abubakar Raine (32), LukmanRaine (33) and Imran (25).
In Bijnor, the motorcyclerider died in an accident on theBijnor-Noorpur road while ayouth died when his motorcy-cle collided with a tractor-trolley parked on MandawarChandak Marg.
Police sent the bodies forpost-mortem.
According to reports, amotorcycle slipped uncontrol-lably on Nurpur Road inKotwali Nagar city police sta-tion area, killing the riderSanjeev of Maujampur areaunder Harvansh police sta-tion. Police reached the spot ongetting information and sentthe body for post-mortem.
On the other hand, anoth-er motorcycle rammed into atractor-trolley parked nearRanipur village on Chandak-Mandawar road.
In this incident, the motor-cycle rider, Ravindra Rathi ofAanchal village in RaipurBerisal under the Mandawarpolice station of Bijnor, wasinjured. Police sent Ravindra tothe hospital where the doctorspronounced him dead uponarrival.
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In another attempt towardsshaping the future of prima-
ry education and workingtowards the holistic develop-ment of primary schools, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, inhis second term, will launch theSchool Chalo Abhiyan acrossthe state from Shravasti districton April 4.
The chief minister, in ameeting with the higher offi-cials on Thursday, issued direc-tions to focus more on districtswith low literacy rates. He saidthe primary schools in thestate should be equipped withbetter facilities.
“From April 4, the SchoolChalo Abhiyan would beginfrom Shravasti, the districtwith the lowest literacy rate. Inthis regard, the departmentshould complete all the prepa-rations in time. All the teach-ers should go on a door-to-door visit and meet the parentsand motivate children to cometo school,” Yogi Adityanathsaid.
The chief minister furtherinstructed the officials thatalong with all the public repre-sentatives who would be asso-ciated with the campaign,members of the legislativeassembly (MLAs) must alsoadopt one school each. In addi-tion to this, the officials shouldalso adopt schools for their
holistic development, he added.The chief minister direct-
ed the officials to pay specialattention to the districts withlow literacy rate and run anextensive campaign in schoolsthere.
School Chalo Abhiyan isbeing started from Shravasti,where literacy rate is the low-est in the state followed byBahraich, Balrampur, Budaunand Rampur, he said.
Yogi Adityanath furtherinstructed officials to transformall the schools of the BasicEducation Council underOperation Kayakalp. He saidthat every primary school inthe state must be equipped withall basic facilities.
“For this, private institu-tions, alumni of the schoolsshould be contacted. CSR(Corporate SocialResponsibility) should be alsoapproached for the transforma-tion of schools,” he added.
Arrangements for drinkingwater, toilets, smart classes andfurniture should be ensured inevery school of the BasicEducation Council. Along withthis, there should be arrange-ments for uniforms, shoes andsocks, he added.
The chief minister askedthe officers to run a time-bound campaign for theposting of teachers in everyschool of the Basic EducationCouncil.
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As the summer has approached, the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment has asked the Health department to make
sure that all preparations are in place to launch the com-municable disease control campaign across the state onApril 2.
Elaborating on the motto of this campaign, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, while addressing a review meet-ing on Thursday, said, “Our government is planning tospread awareness, provide treatment and upgrade facil-ities for the people to effectively combat communicablediseases. Moreover, staff deployment should also be accel-erated by running a campaign for better health of the gen-eral public in the state.”
The communicable disease control campaign, start-ing from Siddharthnagar on April 2, will be rolled out inall 75 districts to educate people about measures to pre-vent communicable diseases. Under this campaign, thehealth workers will pay door-to-door visits to identifypatients with viral fever, vector-borne diseases andother symptoms.
Issuing further instructions for the Health department,Yogi said, "Patients should not face any kind of hasslesat the government health set-ups in all districts.
No patient should return from the hospital withouttreatment, and there has to be a full OPD arrangementat the hospitals."
The government has also issued directives to ensureinter-departmental coordination in order to make thecampaign successful.
It will include foolproof arrangements for state-widesurveillance campaigns, spraying of anti-larva chemicalsunder extensive mass-scale sanitation, fogging, andcleanliness drives, to ensure the safety of the state's peo-ple.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath further said that asthe summers had started, the departments concernedshould ensure that there was adequate water supply in all75 districts of the state, and all hand pumps were func-tioning. He asked the officials to ensure these requirementswere fulfilled on priority.
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While the gang involved inleakage of UP Board's
English question paper ofIntermediate exam is yet to bebusted by the Special TaskForce, the state government onThursday asked the districtauthorities to make randomverification of paper bundleskept under tight security andsubmit their findings bySaturday evening.
The Class 12 Englishexamination was cancelled in24 districts on Wednesdayafter the paper was leaked andChief Minister YogiAdityanath has ordered strin-gent action, including invok-ing the National Security Act,against the culprits.
The cancelled exam willnow be held on April 13, anofficial statement had said.
Issuing a circular in thisregard on Thursday evening,Additional Chief Secretary(Home) Awanish KumarAwasthi said that the localauthorities of all the districts,including districts magistrates,police commissioners, districtpolice chiefs, district inspec-tors of school, etc shouldmake random check of at least20 per cent of centres in eachdistrict where question paper
bundles were kept under tightsecurity.
He said that these officialswould verify whether the sealon the bundles were not tam-pered with in any way and incase any suspicion arose, theywould initiate immediate legalproceedings and appraise theUP Board of HigherSecondary so that they mayalso take necessary action.
Awasthi also directed theofficials that for each randomchecking, the officers shouldcross-verify the seals and latersend a detailed report to thegovernment by 7 pm onSaturday of the findings madeby them.
He said this measure wastaken to ensure that no paperleakage could take place fromnow onwards besides if anydiscrepancies were found,timely action could be taken sothat the exams were not can-celled at the last moment.
Meanwhile, nine morepeople, including two localjournalists, were arrested onThursday in connection withthe leak of Class 12 Englishpaper of the UP Board, policesaid.
Deputy Superintendent ofPolice (Rasra) Shiv NarayanVyas said nine more peoplewere arrested in connection
with the case by Nagara policeon Thursday.
Those arrested includetwo local scribes, DigvijaySingh and Manoj Gupta, hesaid.
The officer noted thataltogether 24 people have sofar been arrested in connec-tion with the incident.
Police have lodged threeseparate FIRs in Ballia CityKotwali, Nagara andSikandarpur police stationson Wednesday in this regard.
Additional DirectorGeneral of Police (Law andOrder) Prashant Kumar hadsaid the Ballia district magis-trate and district police chiefgot information onWednesday morning that thesecond shift paper had beenleaked.
He had said onWednesday that two of theaccused were arrested fromBallia's Kotwali police stationarea, 10 from Nagara and fivefrom Sikandarpur. "BalliaDIoS (Director Inspector ofSchools) Brajesh KumarMishra is among those arrest-ed," he said.
Chief Minister YogiAdityanath had ordered theSpecial Task Force (STF) of theUttar Pradesh Police to probethe case.
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Striding towards another vac-cination milestone, Uttar
Pradesh became the first statein India to administer morethan 30 crore doses of Covidvaccines.
As per the data fromCoWIN portal updated till2:00 pm on Thursday, at least30 crore out of the total 184crore doses administered in thecountry have been given in UP.
Strengthening its fightagainst the COVID-19 pan-demic, the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment is providing vaccina-tion cover to all childrenbetween 12 to 17 years of agein a time-bound manner. So
far, over 2,05,03,327 teenagersin the age group of 15-17 andover 9,60,066 children in theage group of 12-14 have beenadministered the Covid vaccinedoses in the state.
Committed to providingadditional protection cover tothe priority group, UttarPradesh started administeringbooster shots (precautiondoses) to the frontline andhealthcare workers as well assenior citizens from January 10.Over 24.25 lakh ‘precautiondoses’ have been administeredin the state so far.
UP is followed byMaharashtra with 16.13 croreCovid vaccine doses adminis-tered so far. In terms of per-
centage, about 83 per cent ofthe adult population is fullyvaccinated and over 100 percent have received one vaccinedose in UP. In the age catego-ry of 15-17, around 93 per centof the children have received atleast one dose of the vaccine.
To speed up the vaccina-tion drive for children in thestate, Yogi Adityanath hasasked the officials concerned toensure adequate availability ofvaccine doses in Uttar Pradesh.
Aggressive vaccination isan integral part of the compre-hensive strategy of the Yogi-ledUP government to contain thepandemic, along with adher-ence to Covid appropriatebehaviour.
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The Uttar Pradesh Policeonce again acted tough on
Gorakhpur pediatrician DrKafeel Khan, who is contestingthe UP Legislative Councilelection on Samajwadi Partyticket, by booking him alleged-ly for using criminal force toobstruct the work of a publicservant in Deoria.
It is alleged that Dr Khanforcibly entered an ambulancedespite being stopped by thedriver to examine a femalepatient. However, Dr Khan,who is contesting the legislativecouncil election from theDeoria-Kushinagar seat, allegedthat the case was politicallymotivated.
The incident took place onMarch 26, but a case was reg-istered at the Kotwali police sta-tion on Tuesday on the com-plaint of Prakash Patel, anambulance driver working atthe primary health centre(PHC) in Bhaluani.
The complainant allegedthat since the ambulance didnot have the required amountof oxygen, they were carrying
Ambu bags (artificial manualbreathing units) with them.However, the woman died assoon as she reached the emer-gency ward of the hospital.
On March 28, Khan said inhis tweet that the oxygen cylin-der in the ambulance in whichthe woman was brought to thedistrict hospital was empty.He also alleged that there wereno Ambu bags, laryngoscopy,ET tubes (endotracheal tubes),and life-saving medicines in thehospital.
Dr Khan said when hewas coming out of the hospi-tal, a young man asked me toexamine his mother lyinginside the ambulance.
He said, “I believe that thecase was registered against me
because I had tweeted aboutthe shortcomings I found in thehospital and ambulance. Thecase against me is politicallymotivated. I am contesting thelegislative council election andpeople are supporting me. Theyfiled a case against me to divertmy attention. I see this case asa continuation of my harass-ment.”
Deoria’s Additional DistrictMagistrate Kunwar PankajSingh said during the investi-gation they found that the alle-gations made by Dr Khan oflack of essential facilities in theambulance were false.
In November last year, thestate government had dis-missed Dr Khan from ser-vices, saying the decision waslinked to the death of childrenat Gorakhpur's BRD MedicalCollege hospital due to analleged lack of oxygen.Subsequently, the AllahabadHigh Court stayed the UPgovernment's order to suspendKhan.
In 2017, Dr Khan was sus-pended and arrested after thechildren died in the hospital.Presently he is out on bail.
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Uttar Pradesh Congress, onThursday, staged a
statewide demonstration inprotest against the steep hike inprices of all essential com-modities including petroleumproducts.
The demonstration waspart of Congress’ ‘Inflation-freeIndia Campaign’ in three phas-es from March 31 to April 7across the country to protestrising inflation.
Under the campaign on thefirst day on Thursday, UPCC
launched ‘Mehngai MuktBharat Abhiyan’ across thestate.
UP Congress’ media con-vener Anshu Awasthi said thatunder the inflation-free Indiacampaign, the party leadersstaged a demonstration in theentire state and claimed tohave got full support of thepublic.
He claimed that the peoplefelt cheated,, especially as theBharatiya Janata Party leadershad not made any changes tillthe elections were going butonce they were elected, theywere again busy looting thepeople by raising prices of allcommodities, including petrol,diesel, LPG cylinder, kerosene,edible oils, and other foodgrains and vegetables.
Interestingly, as the party'sstate unit is headless afterremoval of Ajay Kumar Lallufrom the UPCC president'spost, different units of theparty in Lucknow stageddemonstrations separately.
“We were told that all unitsof the party would stagedemonstration against inflationalong with other state andnational units of the party butas no one was present here todecide how and under whomto go out on protest so each andevery unit of the state tried toshow their individual strengthand staged demonstration sep-arately,” disclosed the formerdistrict president of theCongress.
set up an infectious diseasehospital inside the premisesand a proposal to this effect hasbeen sent to the state govern-ment. Incharge of KGMU’sinfectious disease unit Dr DHimanshu said the planninghad started even before theCovid-19 outbreak becauseKGMU usually gets a largenumber of patients of HIV,swine flu and other such epi-demics, he pointed out.
“We cater to all kinds ofinfections and this is the onlycentre where rabies patients arealso admitted and treated. Theproposal had already been sentbefore 2017 and was resentrecently. The proposal con-sisted of setting up of a sepa-rate infectious disease hospitaland also introducing courses
and degrees in this field,” hesaid. On what is the need to setup a separate hospital whenthey already have the infectiousdisease unit, he said what theyhave right now is an infectiousdisease ward. “There are a lotof infections, including droplet,air-borne, blood-borne andtransplant infections whichhave to be kept separate.Infectious disease hospitals arekept separate to decrease infec-tivity to other patients which isthe reason why it has been sug-gested,” he said.
On how the infectious dis-ease scenario has changed, hesaid nothing has changed andonly their diagnostic detec-tion has become better.
“This is the biggest differ-ence. Now we have a betterdiagnostic technique and weare aware of these diseases, andwe are able to think clinically.Because of the awareness we
know that these are the symp-toms and that is what needs tobe done. We had the infectiousdisease unit in 2014 which hasimproved, and so we are treat-ing more and more diseasessuch as brain infections, bloodinfections. We are identifyingthese infections better,” headded. He said the approachtowards the treatment has alsoimproved. “We are focusing ondrug resistant bugs and chang-ing the pattern of the treat-ment,” he pointed out. Asregards coronavirus, KGMU isready and has around 50 bedsin the IDH as a separate unitwhich can be expanded.
“We are keeping a watch onthe situation, but we thinkthat the likelihood of anotherCovid wave,” he said. He, how-ever, pointed out that they arestill getting mucormycosiscases because there is moreawareness.
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The detailed project report(DPR) of the east-west cor-
ridor of Lucknow Metro will beupdated for the year 2022.
Giving this information,Lucknow Metro RailCorporation’s ManagingDirector Kumar Keshav saidthat the existing DPR was for2019. He said under the direc-tions of the chief secretary, theLucknow Metro east-west cor-ridor DPR was being updatedby the Delhi Metro RailCorporation. “The DPR wasfirst updated in 2013 for theyear 2019 and it is now beingupdated again,” he said.
Kumar Keshav said that heheld a meeting with the offi-cials of the DMRC (DelhiMetro Rail Corporation) inthis regard on Wednesday.“The DPR will be updated vis-à-vis the cost of the project andthe increase in the traffic pop-ulation, traffic signals, financialanalysis and economic rate ofreturn because now if we startthe construction in 2023 then
it will be completed by 2027.Hence the traffic figures will befrom 2027 onwards and thecost will also be from 2027onwards. It will also be seenwhether additional trains arerequired or not for the eastwest corridor” he said. TheLMRC managing director saidthat currently the east-westcorridor from Charbagh toVasant Kunj was proposed fora distance of 11.098 km with12 stations at Charbagh,Gautam Buddha Marg,Aminabad, Pandeyganj,Lucknow City railway staticmedical college crossing,Nawajganj, Thakurganj,Balaganj, Sarfarajganj, MusaBagh and Vasant Kunj.
He said that the east-westcorridor was very crucialbecause the ridership wasaffected if there was no con-nectivity for the north-southcorridor. “It is one directionalmovement with only thenorth-south corridor runningand until we connect it withthe old city part of Lucknow,the ridership of the north-south corridor will also be
affected. Whosoever has to goto City station, Aminabad hasto opt for other modes of traf-fic,” he said. When askedwhether it would be challeng-ing to construct the east-westcorridor, Keshav said that itwould not be a problembecause they had an engineer-ing solution for that. “Earlieralso there were seven stationsfor the Metro and now also wewill have to construct theseseven underground stationsin the congested area.Geometrically, alignment-wiseeverything will be the sameand the only point is that it isa congested area,” he added. Hesaid that updating the DPRwould take two months. Hesaid the DPR was with the stategovernment and they werewaiting for approval of the pro-ject. “More important is thatthe project is approved andonce it is approved then onlyit will start taking shape. Afterthe state government approvalit will be sent to the Centralgovernment for approval.”
Stressing further on theimportance of this corridor a
senior official of the UPMRCsaid, “If we talk about NorthIndia, after Delhi, Lucknow isthe only city where world-classgovernment hospitals are pre-sent, among which KingGeorge’s Medical Universityhas an important place.
“Every day thousands ofpeople from eastern UttarPradesh and Bihar come hereeither by bus or train for treat-ment. Lucknow Metro is theonly centre of both these oper-ating mediums which con-nects Alambagh bus stationand Charbagh railway station.To reach the KGMU fromCharbagh, patients have topass through narrow roadslike Gautam Buddha Marg,Aminabad, Pandeyganj, wherethe problem of traffic jams iscommon. If the metro is con-structed on this route, then thegeneral public will not only getair-conditioned, smooth, safetravel to the medical universi-ty but also the facilities provid-ed by the Metro such as lift,escalator, wheelchair, stretch-er (in case of emergency) canbe found easily,” he added.
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Atotal of 2,187 students ofUttar Pradesh have
returned from Ukraine while85 are either still there due topersonal reasons or in neigh-bouring countries along withtheir relat ives, Rel iefCommissioner Ranvir Prasadsaid. He also said that some ofthem may also have returnedfrom neighbouring countrieson their own.
Prasad pointed out thatthey have received no distresscalls any further from the stu-dents that they wanted to beevacuated. He added that itwas an achievement that nostudent from UP died.
“This is the biggest suc-cess of the Central govern-ment in bringing the stu-dents back from the warzone,” he said. He added thata budget of Rs 2 crore had
been sanctioned by the stategovernment. A sum of Rs 1crore each was given to Noidaand Ghaziabad DMs anddetails of how much moneywas spent will be knownwhen the accounts are closed,”he added.
Regarding their infra-structure development to dealwith situations like these, hesaid they have a control room (1070) and they startthe coordination once it isactivated post any emergency.
This is based in annexeand continuously functionalround the clock. “It was start-ed in the last Covid period.Now we are thinking ofstrengthening the districtcontrol rooms and will pro-vide more equipment tothem,” he said. He added thatthey are planning to connectit to 112.
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Inspector General of Police,Lucknow Region, Laxmi
Singh attended the 10-dayworkshop on research method-ology organised by the RuralManagement department ofBabasaheb Bhimrao AmbedkarUniversity in Lucknow on theninth day on Thursday as a spe-
cial guest. Workshop directorDr Taruna said research stu-dents from different states ofIndia are participating in thisworkshop sponsored by theIndian Council of SocialScience Research and organisedby the Rural Managementdepartment. Laxmi Singh dis-cussed scientific approach, pub-lic utility research, and impor-
tance of artificial intelligence.“Unfortunately, the measure ofacademic excellence in India isreport card-based which has tochange. To make researchpublic utility, there is a need tolink educational institutionswith industries,” she said.
On the importance ofknowledge-based economy, shesaid the selection of research
work should be in such a waythat it should be able to fulfillthe needs of the country andsociety for the next 10 to 20years. She further pointed outthat in the national income ofa small country like Britain,educational and research insti-tutions contribute up to 42 percent whereas it is only about 1per cent in India. Realising the
importance of commitmentand participation in linkinginstitutions with industries,she appealed to the studentsand teachers not to rely only ongovernment grants in educa-tion and research, but moregrants can be obtained alsofrom the industry throughinnovative courses, skill devel-opment and intensive training.
A30-year-old woman endedher life by jumping in front
of a train in BBD police stationarea on the intervening night ofWednesday and Thursday.Police said the woman took theextreme step due to some fam-ily discord. She was identifiedas Sanju Devi of Uttardhaunavillage under BBD police sta-tion area. The body was iden-tified by her husband ShivKumar Yadav.
As per reports, the loco-pilot informed Malhaur railwaystation that the woman jumpedin front of the train betweenSafedabad and Malhaur railwaystations around 3 am. The rail-way staff later sent a memo tothe police and a team reachedthe scene. Shiv Kumar told thepolice that his wife was men-tally unstable and left the homewhen all others were asleep.
���'�Thieves made off with cash
and ornaments worth severallakh from the flat of a journal-ist in Ghazipur police stationarea on Wednesday afternoon.The complainant, RajeshAnand of NakshatraApartment in Indiranagar, saidhe, along with his family, hadgone to a water park around 1pm after locking the flat. “Mynephew returned home around6 pm and found the house bur-gled. The thieves rummagedthrough all the rooms anddecamped with cash and orna-ments,” he stated in his com-plaint.
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Secondary EducationMinister Gulab Devi visited
Nishatganj Inter College inHazratganj and Ideal PublicInter College on Thursday totake stock of the ongoing UPBoard examination process.
District MagistrateAbhishek Prakash also inspect-ed three schools in Mahanagar.He was accompanied by thejoint commissioner of police.The DM inspected RajkiyaBalika Inter College onShahmina road. He inspectedall the rooms and took stock ofthe functioning of CCTV cam-eras and drinking water facil-ities. He also inspected TaleemGah-e-Niswa Inter College . Healso inspected the exam roomsand the control room. He saidall the toilets have to be cleaned
before the first shift and afterthe second shift is over. He alsoinspected Government JubileeInter College. He inspectedthe strong room where papersare kept. He said no laxity willbe tolerated. Out of the 102 reg-
istered students, six were foundto be absent. He said the examsshould be copying-free. Hewas informed that CCTV cam-eras have been placed outsidethe strong room and continu-ous monitoring is being done.
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The Lucknow Chapter of Indian MedicalAssociation took out a protest march in support oflate Dr Archana Shukla on Thursday from ShaheedSmarak to IMA Bhawan. The participating doctorscondemned the action by police officers of Dausain Rajasthan for their illegal action against DrArchana Sharma. “A 22-year patient died due topost-partum haemorrhage (PPH) and thereafter,lots of problems were created for doctors. Seniorgynaecologist Dr Archana committed suicide due
to the illegal FIR filed under Secion 302 of IPC, andharassment by political persons, demand of moneyand media trial. A doctor who saves lives was sub-jected to such harrassement,” he said. A senior doc-tor said IMA demands immediate suspension of thepolice officers concerned and stern action againstthe troublemakers. “A case of murder should alsobe registered against all those who provoked her tocommit suicide. We stand by the family of DrSharma. We will follow the guidelines given byUPIMA and support the national IMA decision,” headded.
#�$�"�(�%��Lucknow Oriya Samaj is celebrating Utkal Diwas
at Ganna Kisan Sansthan on Friday. The chief gueston the occasion is Prof Yashodhara Mishra, an emi-nent writer in Odia language. Prof DR Sahu fromLucknow University, who is also the secretary ofLucknow Oriya Samaj, said Yashodhara Mishra’s sto-ries reflect Indian feminism. “She is a poet and a pro-fessor of English besides being a visiting faculty inmany universities. Mishra was born to a modest fam-ily in a picturesque locale of Sambalpur on January
6, 1951. She is an alumna of Ravindra College andUtkal University. Her inclination towards writing wasevident from her childhood. She developed a flairfor writing right from her student life,” Sahu said.There will also be an Odissi performance by ProfKunjalata Mishra and her team.
%�$�����3D printing with 3D virtual modelling, 2D dig-
ital imaging has capability of revolutionising theentire forensic system. 3D printing in forensics willbe a gamechanger that will aid in human identifi-cation. A team from National Forensic SciencesUniversity (NFSU), Gujarat, deliberated and suggest-ed the importance of 3D technology in criminalinvestigation and forensic caseworks at the work-shop at KGMU. Dr Shalini Gupta from KGMU sug-gested incorporating 3D scanning for crime sceneinvestigation and management. She also highlight-ed the role of post-mortem computed tomographyin the mortuary setting. Maxillofacial radiologistsuse this expertise in 3D printing in medical and den-tal clinical works. She also discussed the role of3D printing in anthropological and archaeological
cases. 3D technology will help in preserving the orig-inal evidence in cases where physical evidence is like-ly to deteriorate. NFSU team has been testing thistechnology since 2018.
���"����.�A multi-specialty health check-up camp was
organised at Dilkusha Heritage Club in BandariyaBagh under the guidance of DRM, North EasternRailways (NER), Lucknow, Monica Agnihotri andin the presence of chief medical superintendent ofNER hospital in Badshahnagar, Dr Charu Saxenaon Thursday. A spokesman said famous cardiolo-gist Dr Tarun Bansal from Apollo Medics, throughvirtual medium, made the participating railway offi-cials aware of preventive measures for cardiac ail-ments while ACMS, Badshahnagar hospital, DrDiksha Chaudhary chaired the event. The partici-pants were told about the lifestyle, diet, and exer-cise for fending off the disease and were advised tokeep themselves stress free and remain happy,” thespokesman said. As many as 39 railway officials andtheir family members underwent medical check-upat the camp.
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Amajor fire broke out in adairy plant on Kursi road
in Gudumba police stationarea on Thursday. Police saidprima facie, the fire broke outfollowing a blast in the dryerwhich is used to dry milkpowder. While the fire engulfedthe entire building, no injuriesor casualties were reported inthe incident. Six fire tenderswere pressed into service andit took more than two hours todouse the flames. Officials saida probe would be conductedinto the sequence of events.The fire officials said the dairyhad all the equipment requiredto douse the flames. They saidthat the nozzle present insidethe dryer got choked severaltimes and due to that temper-ature might have gone up a fewnotches which led to a blast.
Meanwhile, a fire broke outat a petrol station in Puranialocality in Aliganj on Thursdayafternoon. No casualty wasreported in the incident.
Ateam of Talkatora policeand surveillance cell of the
DCP, West, nabbed an accusedinvolved in printing and circu-lation of fake Indian currencynotes (FICN) on Thursday.The accused, identified asFarhan Khan of Thakurganj,was wanted in a case registeredagainst him in the past. Hereportedly owned up his crimeand disclosed that he, alongwith his aides Salman ofHasanganj, MohammedMubashshir of Gopalganj inBihar, Mohammed Arbaz ofHasanganj, Shavez Khan ofThakurganj, suspended consta-ble Rahul Saroj of Pratapgarh,Qadir of Thakurganj and Yusufof Talkatora, was working inthe gang. He said he and hisaides would print fake curren-cy notes and circulate the samein the market.
Farhan disclosed that hewas working for dreaded broth-er trio Salim, Rustam & Sohrab,and was named in cases ofmurder, kidnapping and othercrimes. He said as he fell shortof money to fight court cases,he started printing and circu-lation fake currency notes. Hefurther said that they operated
from a house in a remote areain Thakurganj. He further saidhe had his aides would hide inBihar whenever the policeintensified search drives.
Meanwhile, a 25-year-oldman died after falling into anopen drain in Ashiyana aftermidnight on Wednesday. Policesaid Mohammed Ejaz of RuchiKhand in Ashiyana was return-ing home by a scooty when hefell into the drain near PremPlaza. He was said to be analcoholic and was in a drunk-en state at that time. He wasrushed to Lokbandhu hospitalwhere he was pronounced deadaround 1:58 am on Thursday.
Meanwhile, a youth slitthe throat of a colleague in PGIpolice station area on Thursdaynight. Police rushed the victimto a hospital where his condi-tion was examined as critical.The police also detained theaccused, who was identified asAman of PGI locality. ThePGI SHO said that the accusedwas heavily drunk and that thepolice would interrogate him.“It appeared that both had averbal spat during a drink ses-sion and Aman attacked thevictim,” he said. He added thatthe police were collectingdetails related to the incident.
on Thursday staged demon-strations across the state,including outside the partyoffice in Gomti Nagar inLucknow, to protest the attackon the residence of Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal’s res-idence in Delhi on Wednesday.
A heavy police force wasdeployed around the protestvenue in Lucknow and theprotesters were detained atEco Garden.
The protesters weredemanding action against theculprits who attacked Kejriwal’sresidence.
The AAP leaders laterhanded over a memorandumof their demand addressed tothe UP governor to the police.In Lucknow, the protesters
were led by AAP district gen-eral secretary Afroz Alam.
AAP state general secretary
Dinesh Singh Patel alleged theBharatiya Janata Party wasscared of AAP's growing pop-
ularity and now its leaderswere planning to get Kejriwalkilled.
������������������ !�"�#$�%&����#'� �� (+����������)�������������������Lucknow (PNS): The entranceexamination fee for BEd hasbeen reduced by one-third ofits original amount. PrincipalSecretary, Higher Education,Monica Garg said it is beingdone because it is a job-orient-ed course and will help inincreasing employability.
“The fee has been reducedboth for both entrance exam-ination as well as counselling tohelp the underprivileged stu-dents. It will also help inincreasing the employabilityof students. Every year, a largenumber of students appear forthe exams from across thestate,” she said. BEd is essentialfor all those who want to pur-sue teaching as a career and ispreferred by girl students.
Lucknow (PNS): Asking BDCand zila panchayat members toensure victory of BharatiyaJanata Party in the comingLegislative Council elections,Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaid the BJP's victory wouldensure majority of party in theUpper House.
He said that zila panchay-at and kshetra panchayat mem-bers had a big contribution inadvancing democracy. "If theBJP wins all the 36 seats in theUP Legislative Council elec-tions to be held on April 9, theBJP and allies will have over 75members in the legislativecouncil," he said.
The chief minister interact-ed with BDC and ZilaPanchayat members throughvideo conference on Thursday.
Yogi Adityanath said thatthe BJP government was work-ing without discrimination andthis was why once again thepeople had given their blessingsto the popular BJP governmentthat does not discriminate.
Kanpur District Magistrate,City, Neha Sharma while
addressing the meeting of offi-cials for conducting free andfair UP Board examinations onThursday said every effort hadbeen made to ensure it’s freeand fair conduct but despitethat if any one tries to spreadrumours then strict action willbe taken against that person.She appealed to officials toapprise the authorities aboutpeople who indulged inrumour mongering tarnishingthe image of the district admin-istration. She said it had beendecided in principle thatmobile phones will be remain
banned in double lock roomand examination centres.
She said special security
arrangements had been madeat 133 centres and a total of3,623 CCTV cameras have
been set up. She claimed thatthese CCTVs were carrying outround the clock recording. Shesaid entry into the rooms wherequestion papers will be keptwas banned and will be openedonly the same morning. Shesaid the onus of conductingfree and fair examination willbe on centre superintendents.
It may be mentioned herethat the paper was leaked outprior to Class XII Englishexamination and it was alsodisplayed on social media. Themeeting of DM became all themore important that this ques-tion paper was also leaked inKanpur Dehat and half ofurban Kanpur fell underKanpur Dehat.
Shekhar, while carrying out asurvey of the Riverside PowerHouse on VIP road directedthe officials concerned toensure that they worked out asite plan in the next two orthree days. He said a work planfor the beautification of thetowers will be taken up underSmart City Project. He saidthese towers which were lyingas waste can be aestheticallydecorated and used in a con-structive manner in the com-ing times.
He said under the SmartCity Project these high towerscan be aesthetically decoratedand special messages can be
broadcast. He said most bene-ficial aspect of this broadcastwill be that they can be visibleup to a distance of four km.The River Side Power Housewas lying shut for the past sev-eral decades and thus it hadbeen decided to make best useof this huge towers of theBritish period.
He said there were twotowers one of brick while theother of steel and thus they canbe used as high mast whichcan illuminate the VIP and sur-rounding areas of the city with-in 20 metres range.
He said this historical tow-ers will be converted into self-ie points and visitors can takeselfies. He said it had alsobeen decided to make arrange-ments for visitors to sit along
with drinking water facilityand clean toilets.
He said this in fact was theproperty of KESCo and ithoused three towers and theirheight was over 100 metre andwere made of very good qual-ity steel. He said apart from thisthere was another tower ofbrick measuring around 80metre. He said it had beendecided to illuminate the tow-ers and use them for broadcastof messages. He said the tow-ers will be colourfully andbeautifully illuminated whichwill be one centre of attractionand people who visit Kanpurwill certainly prefer to click self-ies at this historical place.
Dr Shekhar said apart fromthis important messages whichwill be beneficial for the peo-ple of Kanpur will be broadcastfrom here.
He said Kanpur was oncepopular as The Manchester ofthe East and was a prominentindustrial town housing worldclass Lal Imli, Elgin, CooperAllan, Victoria, Muir Mills andseveral others.
He said they were lying inutter neglect and thus it hadbeen decided to beautify themunder the Smart City Project.Prominent among those whoaccompanied him were MDKESCo, Kanpur MunicipalCommissioner who is also theCEO of Kanpur Smart CityProject.
CSJM University, Kanpur, DrRK Dwivedi, while addressingthe valedictory session of theseven day NSS camp at DGCollege on Thursday said theobjective of NSS was develop-ing the personality and char-acter of the students throughvoluntary community serviceand ‘Education throughService’ was the purpose of theNSS. The ideological orienta-tion of the NSS was inspired bythe ideals of Mahatma Gandhi.
He said youth was the ageof change both physical andpsychological and care shouldbe taken that the energies ofyouth were channelised in theright manner. He said whenit was channelised positively itcontributed a lot to the nation-al development. He said theyouth had full potential todevelop, they need opportuni-ties to be equipped withknowledge, attitude and skills.
These competenciesenable youth to become social-ly useful.
He said it was essentialthat youth should be consid-
ered as a community resourceand it should be harnessed forsocial development as finallyit led to national develop-ment.
He said young people willnot be able to build essentialskills and competencies and beable to feel safe, cared for, val-ued, useful and spirituallygrounded unless their familyand community providedthem with the support andopportunities they needed. He
said thus youth developmentwas also a process in whichfamily and community mustactively participate.
He said development ofyouth as the future of everynation depended upon thewell-being of this importantsegment of society.
He said the over all aim ofNational Service Scheme wasenvisaged earlier to give anextension dimension to thehigher education system and
orient the student youth tocommunity service while theywere studying in educationalinstitution. He said the rea-son for the formulation ofthis objective was the generalrealisation that the collegeand +2 level students had atendency to get alienated fromthe village/slum masses whichconstitute the majority of thepopulation of the country. Hesaid the educated youth wereexpected to take up the reinsof administration in futurebut were found to be unawareof the problems of thevillage/slum community andin certain cases were indiffer-ent towards their needs andproblems.
Addressing the sessionprincipal of DG College, DrSunanda Dubey said peoplemust make sure to encourageyouth to do better in everyfield. She said when we con-stantly discourage youth anddo not believe in them, theywill lose their spark. She saidyouth had the power to builda nation so we must give themthe opportunity.
The vote of thanks wasproposed by Dr SushmaSharma.
signed between theDepartment of Journalism andMass Communication ofCSJMU, Kanpur, and BhaskarInstitute of MassCommunication andJournalism of BundelkhandUniversity on Thursday. Vice-Chancellor of the CSJMUniversity, Prof Vinay Pathak,said both the institutes willwork in better coordination inacademic work. He said cur-rently the students of theJournalism department ofBundelkhand University willalso be able to study in theJournalism department of thevarsity.
He said as per the MoU ithad also been decided thatteachers from here will gothere to teach. Moreover, it hadbeen agreed to start commonprogrammes between the twouniversities in seminars,research and media other relat-ed activities, he added.
He said it was highly essen-tial to expand knowledge hori-zons and said this could be fur-ther improved by using tech-nology.
He said opportunitiesshould be created for the dis-semination of knowledge andit will be good for the better-ment of society and the nation.
(IITK), Udghosh’ 21, will beheld from April 1 to 3. It hadalso marked its presence in theonline medium by conductinga variety of pre-fest events,guest sessions and competitionsfor the student and was nowabout to take off on Friday. Thiswas informed by the studentswhile addressing presspersonson Thursday.
Among the pre-fest events,Udghosh had invited Dr KiranBedi for an interactive session
where the former IPS officerand Lieutenant Governor ofPondicherry, motivated stu-dents to be fearless. It has alsoinvited renowned UPSC examfaculty, Awadh Ojha, to hold asession for campus students.Other prominent guests includ-ed Shankar Basu, former headcoach of strength and condi-tioning of the Indian CricketTeam, celebrity nutritionistJinal Shah and fitness influ-encer Swetha Subbiah.
Udghosh maintained itsactive presence on the socialmedia handles, keeping thestudents well informed with its
timely social media posts. Theteam of Udghosh worked dayand night to organise the eventsoffline with full glory. It was allset to hold a multitude ofsporting events at the IITKanpur campus. The main festwill comprise a series of events,including athletics, basketball,cricket, badminton, hockey,football, lawn tennis, volleyball,squash, table tennis, weightlift-ing and kabaddi, where teamsfrom various educational insti-tutes from across the countrywill compete against each otherduring the weekend. Around2,000 participants will visit the
IIT Kanpur campus for the fes-tival.
The online events likePoker, BGMI and VALO willalso be held besides eventslike Zumba, there will also beinteractive talks by popularcelebrities like PrakashPadukone, a sports legend andformer world No 1 in bad-minton, Arun Singh, a journal-ist and popular influencer,Sangeeta Bahl, who scaledMount Everest at the age of 53,Aarish Ansari, a freestyle foot-baller, Sharad Kumar, aParaolympian and Swara, whois a YouTube star.
staged a protest at districtheadquarter here blaming thatthe workers of Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) made an attack onthe residence of the ChiefMinister of Delhi ArvindKejriwal. The scores of theactivists of the AAP gatheredat the district headquarter hereand staged a demonstrationblaming that the BJP workersmade an attack at the residenceof the Delhi CM in the pretextof the protest. The attack wasmade by the BJP activistsunder the leadership of theMember of Parliament of theruling party Tejaswi Surya
which is highly condemnable;they blamed adding that thesecurity of the national capitalis under the Union HomeMinister.
It is learnt that the work-ers of the Bharatiya JanataYuva Morcha (BJYM), youthwing of the BJP on Wednesdaylast demonstrated at the resi-dence of the Delhi CM in thenational capital in protestagainst his remarks regardingthe movie The Kashmir Files.
The attack under thesupervision of the police is amatter of serious concern; theagitated activists said addingthat it is not difficult to under-stand about the safety of thecommon people under thecircumstances when the resi-
dence of the CM is not safe. The attack smells a big
conspiracy about the happen-ing of major incidents in thefuture, they apprehendedadding that if anything wrongtakes place with the CM, theUnion Home Minister will beresponsible.To break theCCTV cameras and barrierand painting the main gate ofthe residence of the Delhi CMshowed that the protestors hadprotection of anyone at whombehest the BJP workers com-mitted such things, the agitat-ed AAP activists said.
Among those who joinedthe protest were Kailash Patel,Abdullah Khan, KrishnakantTiwari, Rekha Jaiswal andGhanshyam Pandey.
In the backdrop of the factthat Naini Industrial belt of
the district has been utterlyneglected resulting into clo-sure of almost all the heavyand light industries, whichwere once the pride of the dis-trict, the newly appointed cab-inet minister and BJP MLAfrom Allahabad South assem-bly seat, Nand Gopal Gupta‘Nandi’ has said that Naini willsoon see a number of smallscale industries.
The minister’s remarkscome close to the day after hemet the chief minister YogiAdityanath. Nandi’s statementhas given a new sigh of hopeto locals who are strugglingwith unemployment and slow-
down of economic activities ofthis region.Nandi, the MLAfrom Allahabad South, is veryexcited about the develop-ment of the Naini industrialarea since he took oath as acabinet minister in Yogi 2.0.
While talking to media-persons, the minister said thatthe ‘double engine’ govern-ment would do everythingpossible to see to it that theNaini Industrial belt gets backthe glory and importance itonce enjoyed. He said thatthere will be rapid develop-ment of small and big indus-tries in the Naini industrialarea. A lot of work was donein the previous governmentalso. Many small enterpriseslike rice mill, paper industry,and the Dalmoth were estab-
lished in the area.In addition to these,
Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises (MSMEs) will befurther promoted, heassured.“Today India is thefirst choice of investors all overthe world and in the last fiveyears, the way the rule of lawwas established in UttarPradesh, investment in UPhas increased. Will talk to thecentral government that heavyindustries also come”, saysNandi.
He also added that civicfacilities will be furtherimproved in city South.
The streets would becleaned with automaticmachines. The priority is toget rid of the cobweb of wiresthrough underground cabling
and pure drinking waterwould also be provided, heassured. Nandi has studiedSenior Secondary (12th) fromNational Institute of OpenSchooling (NIOS) in 2019while being a cabinet minister.Nandi could only study tillhigh school in childhood dueto the poor financial conditionof the family.
The industrial belt ofNaini was famous for a num-ber of prominent industrieswhich not only supplied itsproducts across the countrybut also abroad. Industrieslike Bharat Pumps andCompressor Limited, ITI,Hindustan Cables etc weresome of prominent industrieswhich are either closed or onverge of getting closed.
The Farewell function for ASethna, a senior science
teacher of the College, wasorganised by the staff and stu-dents of Girls’ High School &College. The event began withthe Lord’s prayer followed by theBible reading. Thereafter Mrs ALawrence (College SectionCoordinator) delivered thefarewell speech. She acquaintedeveryone present about MrsSethna’s achievements and lau-rels.
The audience was filledwith emotion as a result of this.She conveyed her sincere admi-ration and gratitude towardsher. In response with a floodingheart and a shaking voice Mrs.Sethna expressed how much shewill miss the school and the chil-dren.
She thanked the lord forgranting her good health andhonour she was bestowed withthroughout her thirty two yearsof dedicated service.
The Principal Rev (Dr)Vinita Eusebius conveyed hersincere gratitude to Mrs Sethna,for being the pillar of strengthat all times. She was presentedwith bouquets followed by aspecial prayer by Mrs AChattree. The programme con-cluded with the NationalAnthem.
Kashmiri students, who werearrested on the sedition chargeafter they allegedly raised pro-Pakistan slogans following acricket match in Agra last year.
They were also accused ofsloganeering against India andputting objectionable posts onsocial media.
The accused, however, intheir bail pleas rejected thecharges, saying they have been
falsely implicated in thecase.After hearing arguments,Justice Ajay Bhanot grantedthem bail on Wednesday.
Inayat Altaf Sheikh and thetwo other accused said in theirpleas that the case was theresult of "student rivalry overtrivial issues"."The applicants
did not raise anti-India or pro-Pakistan slogans. They hailfrom the state of Jammu &Kashmir, which is the veryembodiment of Indian val-ues," their bail pleas said. Theircounsel told the court that theapplicants "truly representKashmiriyat", defined by acomposite culture.
"These ideals also formthe essence of Indian valuesdiversely expressed in variousparts of the country.
The applicants are youngstudents with a bright future.
The trial is moving at a snail'sspace and is not likely to con-clude any time soon. The inor-dinate delay in the trial will leadto indefinite detention of theapplicants," their bail pleassaid.Their counsel also con-tended that the applicants donot have any criminal history.
"Applicants shall notabscond and will cooperate inthe criminal law proceedings.The applicants shall not tamperwith the evidence or influencethe witnesses in any manner,"the counsel said.
Pradesh on Wednesdayattached land worth over Rs 1crore of education mafia donMahendra Singh Kushwaha.
Circle Off icer, City,Ojaswi Chawla said a caseunder the Gangster Act wasregistered against Kushwahain 2016 and since then hisproperties, both movable andimmovable, are being beenattached.The land attachedon Wednesday at
Fatehullahpur village in theNandganj area is worth aboutRs 1.25 crore, he said.
The action came on a daywhen the Class 12 Englishexam of the Uttar PradeshSchool Board was cancelled in24 districts after the questionpaper was leaked, prompting
Chief Minister YogiAdityanath to order invokingthe stringent National SecurityAct in the case.
The Ballia Police hasarrested an official and 16 oth-ers, a senior official said.
pended here on Thursday afterthree video clips purportedlyshowing them taking bribessurfaced on social media.
"Three small video clips ofpolice personnel allegedly tak-ing bribes came to my noticetoday, Sambhal Superintendentof Police Chakresh Mishrasaid in a statement.
Taking cognizance of theseclips, four police personnel ofBahjoi police station, including
Sub Inspector Murli DharChauhan, have been suspend-ed," the SP said.
He identified three othersuspended policemen as headconstables Tej Singh and Pintuand Constable Priyanshu.
The SP also directed the
additional superintendent ofpolice to investigate the mat-ter.
"I have ordered a probe tocheck the veracity of the videoand confirm the involvementof the accused police person-nel. Strict action will be taken
Four people were killed in acollision between a car and
a mud-laden dumper near avillage on the PurvanchalExpressway under Lonikatrapolice station area, police saidon Thursday.
According to police, theaccident took placeWednesday night.Inspector-in-charge Vishwanath Yadavsaid the speeding car collidedwith the dumper which wastaking a turn near thevillage.On the information of
the local people, the policereached the spot and pulledout all the occupants of the carand rushed them toHaidergarh CHC, where doc-tors declared three of themdead, he said.
The fourth passenger withserious injuries was referred toLucknow Trauma Centre,where he succumbed toinjuries during treatment,police said.The deceased havebeen identified as Irshad Khan(30), Abubakar Raine (32),Lukman Raine (33) and Imran(25).
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Seven history-sheeters sur-rendered at City Kotwali
and requested the police to givethem opportunity to reformthemselves. Four history-sheeters of Katra Kotwali andthree of under City Kotwalireached at City Kotwali policestation and promised to not tocommit any crime in futureand said that they had decid-ed to live the life as commonpeople. ASP City Sanjay
Kumar, CO City Prabhat Raiwere also present on the occa-sion along with SHO CityKotwali Arvind Mishra andmade it clear that without sub-stantial evidences the policewill not harass them but it wastheir responsibility to provethat they were not involved incrime at all. The ASP furthersaid despite all the police willkeep its vigil on the surren-dered criminals. The history-sheeters who surrendered at thepolice station were Krishna
Agrahri a resident ofDankeenganj, Shivam Soni res-idents of Ganeshganj, DayaShankar resident of Ganeshganjand Manoj Bharati all underKatra Kotwali, Adya, Santoshand Sonu Budhwar all residentsunder City Kotwali.
ARRESTED: KatraKotwali police arrested a rapeaccused on Wednesday. Ayoung woman had lodged anamed FIR at the police stationabout her rape on Tuesday.Acting in the case the police
team led by SHO RajeshSrivastaca arrested Imran Aliresident of Gaivi Ghat, underthe Katra Kotwali police stationfrom Shastri Bridge areaand sent him to jail onWednesday.
SUICIDE: A youth underDehat Kotwali hanged himselfon Wednesday. UddeshyaUpadhyay (24) a resident ofBarkachha Kala village wasfound hanging from the ceilingof his house on Tuesday in latenight.
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Though there was a fall insoaring temperature but
despite this, there was no let-up in the heat wave which con-tinued throwing normal life ofthe district out of gear onThursday too.
For the last few days, thedistrict has been witnessing asharp increase in the temper-ature which reached 41 degreeCelsius on Wednesday but itcame down to 39.8 degreeCelsius on Thursday. Butdespite this, there was no let upin the heat wave due to warmwind coming from Rajasthan.
The heat wave and scorch-ing Sun had thrown the normallife of the district out of gear and forced the dwellers to remain in homes. Finding no
option, the people, particular-ly women, were seen taking thehelp of umbrellas to save themfrom the Sun during the mid-day hours.
The people avoided mar-keting during the day hoursand thus, the markets andshopping malls wore a desert-ed look during these hours.
The holy ghats also wore adeserted look during the dayhours because of the unbear-able Sun and warm wind.Though, the rush of people wasseen at ghats particularly atDashashwamedh Ghat, RPGhat and Assi Ghat in the lateevening. The meteorologistforecast some relief from thewarm wind in the comingdays.
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Sunbeam Academy held apreschool graduation func-
tion at its Samne Ghat branch,here and the progress reportswere distributed among chil-dren.
The function began withlighting of a ceremonial lampand the degrees were givenaway to the students who werealso honoured by putting ongowns. The Director PoonamMadhok honoured the stu-dents and hoped that thesechildren would play an impor-tant role in the development ofthe nation.
The Secretary of academyJagdeep Madhok congratulat-ed the students for their successand expressed happiness ontheir entrance in new classes byobtaining good marks. TheDeputy Director Dr GP Mishraexhorted the students to do thebest in the future and thePrincipal Dr KK Panda said tothe students that you are thefuture of the country and youractivities, good behaviour andeducational success will takethe nation to the path ofprogress.
The operation head RohanMadhok, Principal ofKnowledge Park branchSantosh Tiwari and seniorcoordinator Nagama Nushratalso congratulated the stu-dents. The students also pre-sented a cultural programme.Sanjeev Jha and Vivek Pandeyjointly conducted the proceed-
ings, the administrator DrNishant Singh informed.
BACHPAN DAY CARECENTRE: In an achievement,the Bachpan Day Care Centre,Khushipur, run by theDepartment of Empowermentof Persons with Disabilitiesgets ISO 9001:2015 certificatefor fulfilling all the standards.
The organisation ICL gaveaway the ISO 9001:2015 certifi-cate to the centre to fulfill allthe standards of ISO. Beforegiving away the certificate, ateam of the departmentreached the centre situated inKhushipur of the district fromLucknow and examined thestandards related to health,education and safety.
The children with disabil-
ities aged from 3 to 7 years areimparted education in the cen-tre where the facilities such asspeech therapy, physiotherapy,music training, etc are available,the coordinator of the centreRamesh Singh informed.
OLD MAN FOUNDHANGING: Body of an old-aged man was found hangingfrom a tree along the railwaytrack near an underpass in thepremises of the BanarasLocomotive Works (BLW)under Manduadih police sta-tion.
According to the informa-tion, the passersby saw thebody of an old-aged person onThursday morning which washanging from a tree along therailway track towards the
underpass of BLW and it led tosensation in its premises. Aftergetting information, the policeand forensic team reached thesite and collected the samplesfrom the spot by bringingdown the body from the tree.The RPF personnel alsoreached the spot and gatheredinformation about the inci-dent.
It was said that both handsof man were tied and thus thelocals doubted that after killingthe deceased the miscreantshanged the body here. Thepolice recovered AadharCard from the pocket ofthe deceased and he was iden-tified as Wachan Saroj (70), aresident of Amiliya of Jaunpurdistrict.
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Senior RashtriyaSwayamsewak Sangh (RSS)
leader Indresh Kumar onThursday visited Shri KashiVishwanath Dham along withthe women belonging to theDalit castes and after havingdarshan of Baba Vishwanathsaid that Hind, Hindu andHindutva bring to one and alltogether and laid an emphasison making the worship placesfree from the social evil ofuntouchability.
With the visit of Dalitwomen to the Shri KashiVishwanath Mandir to havedarshan, the revolution ofsocial harmony and equalityhas now begun, he said andadded that the Dalits will alsovisit Ayodhya and Mathura toworship and publicise the cul-ture of country in the entireworld. The culture of India isprotector of human beings andhumanity as well, he said. Thewomen of Dalit communitieshave shown their wishes tohave darshan in Shri KashiVishwanath Mandir and thus,we all come to the temple to
have darshan of BabaVishwanath, he said.
The RSS leader empha-sised on making the places ofworship free from the socialevil of untouchability andrather, there will be social har-mony as the almighty is for oneand all. Baba Vishwanath units
to all and added that Hind,Hindu and Hindutva also uniteto all and also honour all. Thecourt of Lord Shiva is open forall, he said.
The Dalit women had alook of Kashi VishwanathCorridor and KashiVishwanath Dham after having
darshan at Shri KashiVishwanath Mandir and laud-ed the beauty of Dham. Theyalso praised the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for the magnif-icence of the Dham and tem-ple. Lakhmeena Devi, KishanBanwasi and Najneen Ansariled the Dalit women.
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Atotal of 6,152 children willget free admission in pre-
nursery and class-I in as manyas 1,104 schools of the districtunder the Right of Children toFree and CompulsoryEducation Act, 2009 (Right toEducation Act, 2009). TheBasic Education departmenthas released a list of selectedchildren.
Under the first phase, atotal of 16,626 children had
applied for the admissionunder the Right of Children toFree and Compulsor yEducation Act, 2009 (Right toEducation Act, 2009), out ofthem, as many as 2,179 appli-cations had been cancelledafter the verification.
The lottery of as many as14,447 applications was drawnon Wednesday last at VikasBhavan through computerunder the supervision of theDistrict Rural DevelopmentAuthority Umesh Mani
Tripathi, as many as6,152 children wereselected for the admissionin schools free of cost whileas many as 8,295 childrenwere declared out of race forthe admission because theseats were full. The BasicEducation department hasreleased the list of selectedchildren.
The children could applyonline under the second phasefrom April 2 to 23 and underthe third phase from May 2 to
June 10 as many as 3,001seats are still vacant.
It is learnt that there is aprovision to take admission ofchildren of poor income cat-egory under the Right ofChildren to Free andCompulsory Education Act,2009 (Right to Education Act,2009).
The admission of chil-dren of this category is com-pulsory on 25 seats against thetotal seats in pre-nursery andclass-I.
Two cases of alleged ragginghave come to light from the
Allahabad University campus.In the first case, a BA II studenthas accused the boys of PCBhostel of ragging and beatinghim for protesting against theiralleged misbehaviour. The stu-dent lodged a complaint in thisregard with the Colonelganjpolice station on Wednesdaynight.
According to reports, thestudent has alleged that onWednesday evening he wassitting with his colleagues in theuniversity campus. In themeantime, a senior studentand inmate of Sir PCB hostelarrived there along with histhree others and started bully-ing him. When he protested,the senior called a few moreinmates from the PCB hosteland they collectively thrashedhim.
The junior student laterlodged a complaint at the anti-ragging portal as well as thelocal police station. According
to CO Colonelganj Ajit SinghChauhan, police have regis-tered a case on the complaintof the student and are lookinginto the matter.AU’s actingchief proctor Prof KN Uttamsaid, “Taking cognizance ofthe matter, we have issuedshow cause notices to fourinmates of the PCB hostel.Action will be taken in duecourse of time.” In another inci-dent, a student of a five-yearlaw course has accused a seniorand a former student leader ofAU and his supportersthrashed and ragged him. Acomplaint has been lodged inthis case too at the anti-raggingportal.
Meanwhile, two separategroups of students clashed witheach other in two separateincidents on the AU campus onWednesday.
In one incident, three stu-dents of BA-III thrashed theirsenior and a student of MA-Iat the Central library. In thesecond incident, a student ofBA-II thrashed his classmate inthe Hindi department in front
of the teacher who was takingthe class. He also misbehavedwith the teacher when he triedto intervene. “We have issuedshow cause notices in both thecases and strict action will betaken,” said Prof Uttam.
FIR LODGED AGAINST8 AU STUDENTS FOR DIS-TURBING PEACE:Authorities of AllahabadUniversity have lodged an FIRunder section 147, 188 and 120B of IPC and section 7 of CLAAct against eight AU studentsand others for disturbingpeace inside the varsity cam-pus. The FIR was lodged onMarch 26.
Deputy SP (Colonelganj)Ajeet Singh Chauhan said thatProf Harsh Kumar, chief proc-tor of the Allahabad University(AU) has registered the FIRunder different IPC sectionagainst students claiming thata group of students wereprotesting on varsity campussince February 14 and demand-ed that annual exam should beconducted through onlinemode.
Meanwhile, during theprotest, a group of studentsidentified as Amit KumarPandey, Ajay Singh aliasSamrat, Ashutosh Patel aliasRahul Patel, Satyam Kushwaha,Shiv baliYadev, Hariom Yadav,Mohd Saif , Pawan Sharma andanother unidentified had notonly disturbed the study atmos-phere but also staged a sit in onthe office premises of vicechancellor.
Chief proctor alleged thatthese student leaders were alsoprovoking other students tocreate a noisy atmosphereinside varsity premises.
On March 25, a group ofstudents instigated other stu-dents including Hariom Yadav,Mohd Saif , Pawan Sharma andthree others who then made afutile attempt to self-immolateafter sprinkling inflammablesubstance on themselves onuniversity campus.However,alert policemen and universi-ty security officials foiled theirattempt,but this incident creat-ed terror like atmosphere insideuniversity campus.
Officials of the basic educa-tion department have set a
target to transform as many as750 schools out of the 2,855primary and upper primary,under the category of ‘Five-starRating’ by the end of this year.The ambitious project of BasicShiksha Adhikari aims tomakeover of government-runschools by providing toilets,drinking water, furniture,ramps, railing and boundarywalls by December 2022.
The Basic ShikshaAdhikari (BSA), Prayagraj dis-trict, has finalised 19 parame-ters to categorise schools underFive-star Rating. BSA,Prayagraj, Pravin KumarTiwari told reporters, “We have
started an exercise to transformone fourth of the total 2,855primary, junior high schools ofthe district under 5- star rat-ing.” “For achieving rating, aprimary, upper primary schoolwill have to fulfil all 19 parame-ters, including drinking water,boys’ toilet, girls’ toilet, runningwater in toilet, tiling of toilet,CWSN toilet, multiple handwashing unit, tiling in classroom floor, black board,kitchen shed, white wash, rampand railing, electrification andequipments, power connec-tion, furniture, running tapwater, and boundary wall withgate,” he added.
Tiwari said sincere effortsare being made to bring at least750 schools under Five-star rat-ing in the first phase by
December 31, 2022. “Seniorbasic education departmentofficials have chalked out a planto achieve the target before theyear-end. Senior officials arealso coordinating with theprincipal and school staff to getthe required work done,” headded.
Last year, Varanasi districtemerged at the top with thehighest growth in equipping itsprimary and upper primaryschools with basic civic facili-ties under Operation VidyalayaKayakalp (OVK).
The ranking, based on athird party survey inSeptember 2020 and August2021, placed Varanasi in firstplace. Ghaziabad and Etawahstood second and third, respec-tively. The ranking shows that
out of 1,32,675 schools mappedin August, 2021, 5.3% (7,092)qualified for five-star ratingswith OVK indicators saturatingabove 90%. Another 21.7%(28,817) schools were graded asfour-star, where over 75% ofbasic facilities were provided.
Another 45% (60,142)schools achieved three-stargrading by meeting at least 50%of the OVK indicators. Around15.7% (20,815) and 11.9%(15,809) got two-star and one-star grading, respectively.Schools with single stars showsaturation of OVK indicatorsbelow 35%.
Officials, however, said thework of rejuvenating primaryand upper primary schools isbeing done in a phased man-ner.
6������������������������%�����PRAYAGRAJ (PNS): In a
shocking incident, a 50-year-old Sub Inspector was killedafter the former was hit by aspeeding vehicle during a checkdrive in front of SultanpurGhosh police station gate ofFatehpur district. His familymembers were in deep shockdue to his death in Prayagraj.Many people including wifeand son left for Fatehpur fromthe house located in Naini. Allthe relatives gathered at home.
Sub-Inspector VirendraNath Mishra, a native of Osavillage of Kaundhiyara in
Prayagraj district, has built ahouse near Mevalal's garden inNaini. His wife and childrenlive there. Virendra Nath wasposted at Sultanpur Ghoshpolice station in Fatehpur. Hewas checking vehicles in frontof Sultanpur Ghosh police sta-tion at 10.30 am. Then the bikerider coming at high speedfrom the front hit him. As thesub-inspector's hand got stuckin the silencer of the bike, hedragged for a long distance.The injured sub-inspector wastaken to the community healthcenter Hathgam where he died.
On the other hand, bikerider Narendra Kumar and hisfather Prakash Ghosh residentof Durga ka Purva Sultanpurwere also injured. The injuredfather and son were going ona bike carrying a pig. They havealso been admitted to the CHC.CO Gayadutt Mishra said thatthe relatives of the late sub-inspector have been informedabout the accident in NainiPrayagraj. Here, the news ofthis tragic accident in Prayagrajcreated a ruckus. Sub-InspectorVirendra Nath Mishra's fatherSangam Lal Mishra and moth-
er have also passed away.Virendra Nath was theyoungest of five brothers. Somepeople, including my brother,live in Osa village, while theentire family of the sub inspec-tor lives in the garden of NainiMevalal. He has a son and adaughter who are married.Elder brother Rajendra PrasadMishra has died due to bulletinjury in celebratory firing at afunction. A brother GajendraNath Mishra is also a sub-inspector. He is posted atGahmar police station inGhazipur.
through India. Nepal con-ducts its third-country tradethrough India. Meanwhile, ona few occasions, diplomatictensions interrupted the move-ment of people and goods atthe India-Nepal border.During the Madhesi Andolanin 2015, the border was partial-ly closed after protestersblocked the transit points withIndia. Thousands of trucksfrom India, laden with emer-gency supplies of petroleum,medicines and pulses, werestuck for months.
To ease the supply of suchproducts, India has executedseveral connectivity projectswith Nepal. In 2020, India suc-cessfully delivered the firstcross-border petroleumpipeline with Nepal, which isone of the firsts in South Asiaand stands as a role model forregional cooperation. InOctober 2021, the two coun-tries signed an MoU on rail-way connectivity to connectKathmandu with Raxaul. Itwill serve as a lifeline forNepal’s cross-border publicand container transportation.Despite Oli’s best efforts to tar-nish India’s image, the latterhas continued to extend ahelping hand to the Himalayannation.
On the energy front, Nepalhas rich hydropower potential.However, this sector has large-
ly been ignored due to anunstable political and eco-nomic environment. For overthree decades, India has beenpushing to tap its hydropow-er potential on a mutual basis.In 1996, the countries signedan ambitious and economical-ly viable PancheshwarMultipurpose Project aimed atproducing more than 5,000MW. However, the project isstagnating in political indul-gences. During Modi’s firstvisit to Nepal in 2014, the pro-ject was expected to receive abig push but India’s efforts fellprey to a lack of interest fromNepal. Even after 26 years, nojoint Detailed Project Report(DPR) has been prepared. ForNepal, Bhutan must serve asa fine example of benefittingfrom India’s technical exper-tise in power production andencashing the end product byexporting it to India. Withrenewed scope for coopera-tion in the hydropower sector,the joint DPR may get tabledduring the current visit.
Geo-Strategic Relevance:The previous CommunistGovernment in Nepal brazen-ly danced to China’s tunes.With Oli as the PrimeMinister, China received max-imum encouragement andbegan to openly intervene inNepal’s domestic and foreignaffairs. The Chinese
Communist Party delegationsto Nepal in the last threeyears have demonstrated theiroutreach. However, withDeuba at the helm, there is aclear sign of rapprochementtowards India. Also, with theentry of the US through MCCin Nepal, China is realising theloss of ground. The recent visitto Nepal by Chinese ForeignMinister Wang Yi in the back-drop of the parliamentary rat-ification of the MCC develop-ment grant worth $500 mil-lion by the US is clearly seenas competition to BRI and itsill-intended expansionistagenda in Nepal.
Therefore, India as an all-weather development part-ner of Nepal and the US as anemerging one present a strong challenge to Chinesemanoeuvrings.
Conclusion: PM Deuba’svisit to India is a welcome step.However, despite the ongoingbilateral cooperation, develop-ments on resolving theKalapani issue will be lookedat closely. Also, Deuba has ashort stint at hand, consider-ing the parliamentary electionsby the end of this year. Yet, anyprogress in bilateral ties will bea clincher in future course.
(The author is a ResearchAssociate with the VivekanandaInternational Foundation. Theviews expressed are personal.)
�������������� �������������Sir — It was reported recently that UnionRoad Transport Minister Nitin Gadkarihad come to Parliament in a HydrogenMirage (meaning progress) car.Currently, fuel prices are at an all-timehigh. In such a scenario, some peoplehave started changing over to electricvehicles. Even cheaper, the newHydrogen Mirage car will be consideredpollution-free. This car is made byToyota, a Japanese company. The mainfeature of this car is that its fuel is madefrom water. And once the tank is full, itcan comfortably cover 646 km. Greenhydrogen fuel will be made from waterand organic waste.
It takes only three-four minutes torefuel. The main thing is that there is zeropollution and it costs only �2 per kilo-meter. Besides helping the environ-ment, the cost of transport and travel willalso remain under control. More impor-tantly, we can export this hydrogen fuel.Gadkari has said that India has a lot ofscope in this, too. It will create manyemployment opportunities. There is nodoubt that the hydrogen car will opennew doors of development in a situationwhere pollution levels will continue torise by the day.
Shantaram Wagh | Pune
������������������������������ Sir — Our politicians indulging in hatespeeches, especially during election ral-lies, seem to have become an acceptednorm over the years. Their speeches arepeppered with words that often targetcastes and religions (‘Spread of undigni-fied terms into politics’; March 31).These leaders spew hate and hope thattheir speeches would divide and polarisepeople, and fuel violence. Some of thewords they speak hurt as much as sticksand stones, and some others are seen assignalling by those seeking to manifesthate into real time. In fact, it is impor-tant to place such unparliamentarywords on record, since history bears wit-ness to such disparaging remarks.
Politicians trading barbs at election
time have evolved into a vicious striden-cy in public discourse that hinges onidentity politics. In fact, the very first ruleof the ECI’s Model Code of Conduct forpolitical parties reads, “No party or can-didate shall include in any activity whichmay aggravate existing differences or cre-ate mutual hatred or cause tensionbetween different castes and communi-ties, religious or linguistic.” But ‘identi-ty’ is the lowest hanging fruit for ourpoliticians and it essentially hoversaround religion, caste, birth and language.Communal rhetoric during electionsrevives the centuries-old schisms thatdemocracy has been unable to heal.
Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai
����������� ���������������� Sir —The post-pandemic examinationperiod has started now, and the UP Boardexaminations are also part of the series.Despite the physical arrangements madeby the Government and proper precau-tions by the anti-cheating squad, thecheaters could repeat the instances of
paper leaks of Class 12th Board exam.Taking immediate action, the authoritiesimmediately booked 17 people, andexams were cancelled in 24 districts. Theleak of the English Board examination isregretful and puts the role of the author-ities under the cloud as a Governmentteacher was found guilty in this incident.
After two years of no Board exams,students returned to the Boards for thevery first time after the COVID-19 pan-demic. Online schools and online coach-ing of last year and physical Boards of thisyear, though difficult, were manageablefor the students at secondary schools toreturn to normal. This kind of paper leaksand exam cancellation hurts innocent stu-dents as they try honestly and hard towrite a good exam, but a section ofcheaters spoils all their hard work.Authorities must keep a constant vigil sothat such incidents are not repeated.
Amid the ongoing contestbetween China and theUnited States on asserting
their position in Nepal overMillennium ChallengeCorporation (MCC) and Belt andRoad Initiative (BRI), NepalesePrime Minister Sher BahadurDeuba is arriving in India on athree-day visit today. It will be hisfirst visit to India since takingover as the Prime Minister in July2021. Meanwhile, Deuba andNarendra Modi had held talks inGlasgow on the sidelines of theClimate Summit in October2021. The meeting evoked inter-est as it indicated a reach-outmoment between the countries.
The visit comes in the back-drop of strained India-Nepalrelations in the last three years.Since July 2021, Deuba has madeattempts to improve bilateralties; in fact, a Nepali Congressdelegation led by former ForeignMinister Prakash Sharan Mahatvisited India in October to pre-pare the ground for this visit andmet BJP president JP Nadda andForeign Minister S Jaishankar. InAugust, Vijay Chauthiwala, thehead of the BJP’s foreign affairscell, visited Nepal and held talkswith Deuba, UML ChairmanKP Oli and Maoist PartyChairman Prachanda, amongothers.
Backdrop: With the forma-tion of a CommunistGovernment in Nepal in 2018,the bilateral ties touched thenadir in recent history. Kalapanibecame the most contentiousissue which ex-Prime MinisterOli chose to politicise instead ofresolving it diplomatically. Oli’santi-India centric ultra-national-ist outlook proved to be a polit-ical stunt to consolidate his posi-tion vis-à-vis Prachanda, who hadbeen demanding Oli’s resigna-tion. Meanwhile, despite India’smultiple requests to resolve theborder row, the Kalapani issuewas used as a tool by almost allpolitical parties to make electoralgains.
Connectivity and Energyon Cards: Among many likelyagreements and MoUs, connec-tivity and energy are high on thecards. For a landlocked Nepal,access to the third world throughland and sea routes is only
be made up through manufactureof more LHB coaches by correct-ing the course in mid-year. Thiswould ensure that the pace ofreplacement of ICF coaches is notvitiated too badly.
The safety record of IR hasimproved in recent years and thenumber of fatalities is much lower.Greater stress on upkeep of trackand allied infrastructure has cer-tainly helped. Due to this focus ontrying to have more and more ofsafer coaches to limit the loss of lifein case of a derailment, primacy ofthorough investigation into causeof accidents and implementation ofcorrective measures should not beignored due to any complacency.
The cause of the accident wasreported as a traction motor of thelocomotive falling down and caus-ing the locomotives wheels to liftand derail followed by derailmentof twelve trailing coaches; such anevent is very rare and largely lim-ited to a particular type of motor onelectric locomotives. The tractionmotor is stoutly secured in the bogieand the accident indicated a seri-ous manufacturing defect com-pounded by improper examinationof the fitment of traction motor onthe bogie during maintenance.Subsequent examination of datarevealed that the culprit seems to bethe nose stay lug of this motor andits weld failure has caused tencases of motor getting detached inrecent years whereas its indicatedfailures during checks number in hundreds.
This key aspect, whether themanufacturing alone or both design
and manufacturing need improve-ment, it is expected, would be a partof the findings of Commissioner ofRail Safety (CRS), who has beenentrusted with the inquiry. Someaspects of the follow-up related tothe accident in question are some-what disturbing.
There have been some instruc-tions which give the impressionthat some officers are trying tojump the gun and attempting todivert the issue. First, in a knee jerkreaction, a top Railway Boardexecutive passed bizarre instruc-tions immediatelyafter the accident,calling out for Loco Pilots to checkthe condition of traction motormounting while taking over chargeand even during halts in the mid-dle of a train-run, never mind thata routine check by a Loco Pilot canhardly detect a failure of fabricationor weld, and it unnecessarily stress-es them out. There may be need toinstitute a one-time examination ofthis fitment on all locomotives ofthis series on a pit by maintenancestaff but it is not a defect which iswithin the purview of a Loco Pilotto assay, particularly when hewould be without the benefit of alocomotive standing on an inspec-tion pit. A Loco Pilot, who carriesthe burden of safety of hundreds oflives when in-charge of a trainshould be freed from such imprac-tical and disquieting duties.
After that came the news reportof the CRS flagging railways’ fail-ure in ensuring mandatory safetyinspection of locomotive of the ill-fated train. He observed that thelocomotive in question was run-
ning continuously for 18,000 kmafter the last trip inspection where-as it should have undergone inspec-tion after 4,500 km as per stipula-tions. It would appear that the tripinspection time interval has beenkept at 4500 km as a matter ofsupreme caution by IR whereasmodern locomotives, not today butfor more than two decades, aregood for working 30 to 40 thou-sand kilometres without anyinspection. In fact, many locomo-tives on IR easily work for thisrange of distance without anychecks and even if we assume thatthese passenger locomotives needcloser examination, there can neverbe a case to examine their tractionmotor mounting every 4500 kilo-metres. Experts say that overdueschedule running of the locomo-tives, per se, cannot be the cause ofan accident and our operations aresuch that overdue running is fre-quently unavoidable. The mattercan certainly be taken up for sys-tematic improvements but linkingit with the derailment would onlytend to obfuscate the real cause ofthis tragic event.
Even complex problems havesimple solutions whereas thisseemed to a simple problem witha simple solution; the solutionsought, however, seems to be acomplex one, with unnecessarilyduplicity borne out of unclearintentions.IR has managed well tokeep its record largely accident-freeand such red herrings by certainexecutives may cause it to fritteraway this advantage. This shouldnot be allowed to happen.
(The writer is a retiredGeneral Manager ofIndian Railways and
anindependent rail con-sultant. The views
expressed are personal.)
An explosive, mind blow-ing account of a singleman’s unbounded initia-
tive to checkmate the Dragon .. . ,” so reads the blurb on thereverse jacket of Major Bakshi-The Dragon’s Nemesis, by SudipTalukdar, author, military ana-lyst and journalist. The book,published by GarudaPrakashan, is an unusual yetgripping story in contemporaryIndian fiction, focusing on veryreal dangers posed by ournorthern neighbour.
The narrative beginsinnocuously enough. MajorBakshi, a veteran of fiftycounter terror operations and arecipient of Mahavir Chakra, isdistressed by the ‘rowdy’ behav-iour of some ‘Bollywood celebs’he is hosting for a TV pro-gramme in a forward area. Notonly do his polite requests to
maintain decorum fall on deafears, but his uniform is mockedas a ‘joker’s costume.’ But whenhe is manhandled, an indigni-ty that crosses all bounds of tol-eration, matters really get out ofhand. He promptly marches theentire protesting team to thewaiting transport and sendsthem away, unceremoniously.
Dumped into the mostbackward rural pocket of cen-tral India, dubbed as a ‘blackhole,’ by a livid brigade com-mander, the infantry officerfinds himself among a bunch ofArmy discards, doomed to amiserable existence. The Major,made of sterner stuff, reboundsfrom the colossal setback, turn-ing the punishment postinginto an opportunity. He goesabout forging the demoralizedgroup into one of the world’smost feared guerrilla forces,
with a resolute will and grimdetermination. Notwithstandingdaunting odds, he imparts cut-ting edge combat skills to thewritten-off soldiers and mouldsthem into warriors of steel,preparing them for the mostdangerous and daring missionof their lives. One that is capa-
ble of inflicting terriblevengeance on an enemy likeChina! Is it his sharp strategicsense at play or just pure luck?Or even his connect withShamanic Powers, from theworld beyond. This is theauthor’s second novel afterProxy War: The CounterMoves, which focused on ter-ror networks from across theborder and how the Armydelivers a coup de grace.
Painted on a sweeping can-vas with broad strokes of thepen, the book seamlessly inte-grates the complex world of his-tory, military affairs, politicsand international relations, intoa gripping narrative that neverloses sight of its goal, headinginexorably towards a shatteringdenouement.
Major Bakshi does have somany intriguing aspects to his
persona. The setback in love lifeand the ensuing trauma prompthim to take up the calling ofarms. The master of tactics andambush is not only a ruthlesstask master but also equallycompassionate, often to a fault,who loves his men and seeks tohelp them in a thousand andone ways. He is also instrumen-tal in eliminating dozens of themost dreaded terrorists, apply-ing their own methods. Thebook has a real-life war veter-an in a fictional role as a lieu-tenant general and army com-mander, who has been given themandate to checkmate theaggressive Northern neighbour.He brings his formidable expe-rience and expertise to bear onthe undertaking. China hasbeen bullying India withimpunity, a fall-out of the poli-cies being pursued in the post-
independence years. Successivepolitical dispensations havefared no better, either behavinglike passive spectators or wilt-ing before its military might,even though the Indian Armyis prepared to give the Dragona befitting reply, as borne out byevents at Nathu La, Somdorongand lately at Galwan.
How the book came to bewritten makes for an interest-ing story. One day, just out ofthe blue, the publisher askedthe author to write aboutChina, not long after his debutnovel Proxy War-The CounterMoves, appeared on the book-shelves. Being totally cluelessand unprepared, he somehowracked his brains for ideas,completing the task in sevenshort months. He wove a plotaround whatever knowledge hehad acquired about geopolitics,
strategic matters, military life,officers and men who hadserved with his father in warand peace and lastly the urgeto punish the Northern neigh-bour.
Lt Gen PG Kamath, for-mer Commandant of ArmyWar College and strategicaffairs analyst, observes: “Thebook has in places discussionthat is taking place among theveterans and planners. It is sorealistic that it well could beheld in the decision-makingprocess in the corridors ofpower. The author appears tobe well informed in geo-strat-egy and has a clear idea ofpower-play indulged by coun-tries. The shenanigans of dif-ferent countries and the con-cept of proxy war have beenabundantly and exquisitelybrought out in the book.”
!2 ������'�923;22 Readers would recall that ninepassengers died and nearly fortywere injured following the derail-ment of several coaches of Up
Bikaner-Guwahati Express on January 13at Domohani in Mainaguri area of WestBengal’s Jalpaiguri district. The derailmentcaused many of the twelve coaches whichderailed, to capsize or climb over anoth-er coach. This accident had brought intofocus once again, the issue of avoidablefatalities in an accident by switching overto a safer coach design on all faster ser-vices such that even if a derailment doesoccur, in spite of all the precautions andmeasures, the damage it causes to theaffected coaches should be so controlledthat it causes minimal casualties.
Indian Railways (IR) principallyemploys two types of coaches — the oldICF-type and the newer LHB-type. Thelatter coaches are designed with a coupler,which gets strongly interlocked with thecoupler of the adjacent coach, preventingrelative sideways and vertical movementsof the coaches with respect to each otherand, therefore, coaches do not climb orcapsize, even if there is a derailment. TheICF-type coaches have no such restrain-ing arrangement, causing them to mounteach other or capsize individually whensubjected to a thrust in case of a derail-ment. At the same time, the more recentVande Bharat Train 18 type coaches areeven safer with their semi-permanent typecouplers, anti-climbing feature and saferstructural designs. I had recommended inthis column that ICF-type coaches shouldbe scrapped in a greater haste and toincrease the pace of manufacture ofLHB- and Train-18- type coaches toreplace them. It is possible,thanks to somemeasures taken by railway productionunits, particularly Integral Coach Factorysince 2016, that IR can be geared to man-ufacture more than 9000 coaches per year.Once we replace the ICF coaches on fasterservices in a period of 3 to 4 years, the bal-ance can be relegated to inferior serviceswhich can then complete their full usefullife without putting lives of passengers toany significant danger of fatalities in caseof an accident.
The coach production programmeissued by IR has a plan for manufactur-ing 8429 coaches, falling short of the pos-sible 9000 or more. Although it is notexplicitly spelt out, it would help fasterreplacement of ICF coaches, and therefore,a good step towards improving safety. Thepitfall is that this plan envisages 1200Vande Bharat Train sets and another 52Cargo-liner and freight EMU coacheswhereas the actual achievement would befar less. Even if IR manages to manufac-ture around 500 against these 1252, itwould not be a mean achievement, con-sidering that not one coach of VandeBharat coach has been built since their firstturn-out in October 2018, more than threeyears back. It is strongly hoped that theshortfall of these 700+plus coaches would
Thursday informed the LokSabha that Airlines have beentold to strictly follow the 'onehand bag' rule in the aircraft.The Bureau of Civil AviationSecurity (BCAS) had issued acircular on February 24, 2000to enforce the rule, he said dur-ing the Question Hour.
Scindia, however, also saiddifferent airlines have differentluggage policy and that avia-tion is “ a deregulated sectorand we can not regulate it”.However, ladies hand bag, anovercoat or wrap, a rug or ablanket, a camera or a pair ofbinoculars, reasonable amountof reading material for flight,umbrella or walking stick,
infant's feed for consumptionduring flight and infant's car-rying basket provided an infantis carried, collapsible wheelchair or a pair of crutches orbraces for passenger's use ifdependent on these and a giftitem purchased from duty freeshops are among items that canbe carried along with hand bag.According to the BCAS circu-lar dated May 11, 2000, one lap-top may also be allowed as anadditional item with one handbag. Airlines are adhering toguidelines issued by BCAS intheir hand baggage policy.
And are giving wide pub-licity to this rule through theirwebsite, social media and sig-nages, he said. Scindia saidBCAS has sensitised airlineoperators for strict implemen-tation of one hand bag rule inits meeting in January.
���������%�������� ��������
Stepping up the attack againstthe Government over the
steep hike in fuel prices, formerCongress president RahulGandhi on Thursday said therise has been unprecedentedand demanded its roll back.Leading a protest by CongressMPs on the issue at VijayChowk, he said prices of petroland diesel have risen ninetimes in the last 10 days, andthe common man is the mostaffected due to this. Congress
MPs from both the Lok Sabhaand the Rajya Sabha carryingplacards raised slogans againstthe government and sat on adharna against the fuel pricehike. Among those presentincluded Leader of Oppositionin the Rajya Sabha MallikarjunKharge and Congress leader inthe Lok Sabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury.
"Our demand is that the gov-ernment should control prices
and stop raising petrol anddiesel prices," Gandhi saidwhile noting that the poor andmiddle class have been worst
hit by the hike. We can see thatpetrol and diesel prices areclimbing rapidly. The govern-ment is making thousands ofcrores from this.
The Congress is protestingacross the country against thisprice rise of petrol and diesel.The government has to stopdoing this. It has to ensure thatprices do not rise," Rahul toldmediapersons
"I had said that when elec-tions will be over, the prices ofpetrol and diesel will be risingand had asked people to fill uptheir tanks," he further said.
Rahul shared on Twitterpetrol rates in countries in theIndian sub continent. "PetrolRate in Indian Rupees (Rs)Afghanistan: 66.99. Pakistan:62.38. Sri Lanka: 72.96.Bangladesh: 78.53. Bhutan:86.28. Nepal: 97.05. India:101.81. Don't ask questions tothe 'Fakir', who shares knowl-edge on the camera. LootsIndia while carrying a bag fullof 'jumlas' (rhetoric)," RahulGandhi said in a tweet inHindi, using hashtag"MehangaiMuktBharat". The
former party chief said thislevel of price rise in petrol anddiesel has been unprecedented,while accusing the govern-ment of stealing the moneyfrom the poor and handing itover to industrialists.
The Congress is alsolaunching a week-long coun-trywide protest "Mehngai MuktBharat' against inflation andrise in fuel prices, under whichit will launch a social mediacampaign as well as beat platesand drums.
It will also garland LPGcylinders across the country atall state and district headquar-ters to highlight high inflationand rise in fuel prices.
Petrol and diesel priceswere on Thursday hiked by 80paise a litre each, taking thetotal increase in rates in the last10 days to �6.40 per litre. Rateshave been increased across thecountry and vary from state tostate depending upon localtaxation. This is the ninthincrease in prices since the end-ing of a four-and-half-monthlong hiatus in rate revision onMarch 22.
The Lok Sabha on Thursdaywitnessed yet another walk-
out of Opposition Congressand Trinamool Congress mem-bers who were protesting thecontinuous hike in fuel pricesand demanding relief for con-sumers . From word go oppo-sition members started theprotest, carrying placards andshouting slogans in houseagainst spiraling of fuel pricesand sought that it be with-drawn to provide relief to con-sumers. The members shoutedslogans against Modi -govern-ment for its alleged “anti-people”policies. Some of members wereseen holding placards saying “categorize SC community”.Speaker Om Birla said oppor-tunities were given to oppositionon four occasions in past in thissession to raise issue and nowthey should go back to their seats
and take part in proceedings.The opposition membersignored Speaker's plea andcontinued their protest. Apartfrom Congress and TrinamoolCongress, those who took partin protests include DMK, CPI,CPI-M and TRS members. TRSmembers were raising someplacards seeking justice forScheduled Castes communities.
After nearly 30 minutes,some members, includingCongress and TrinamoolCongress, staged a walk out inprotest. Opposition had earlierthrice staged walk-out fromhouse. Petrol and diesel priceswere on Thursday hiked by 80paise a litre each, taking totalhike in rates in last 10 days to�6.40 per litre. Petrol in Delhiwill now cost � 101.81 per litreas against �101.01 previouslywhile diesel rates have gone upfrom �92.27 per litre to �93.07,according to a price notificationof state fuel retailers.
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In an effort to furtherstrengthen Defence ties,
India and France onWednesday began a five-daymega naval wargame in theArabian Sea in reflection ofgrowing congruence in theirmaritime security cooperation.
These drills are part of the20th edition of the ‘Varuna’bilateral naval exercise. Thebilateral exercises between thetwo Navies were initiated in1993. The exercise was chris-tened as ‘Varuna’ in 2001 andhas become a vital part ofIndia – France strategic bilat-eral relationship, officials saidhere on Thursday.
Various units includingships, submarines, maritimepatrol aircraft, fighter aircraftand helicopters of the twonavies are participating in theexercise. These units willendeavour to enhance and
hone their operational skills inmaritime theatre, augmentinter-operability to undertakemaritime security operationsand demonstrate their com-mitment to promote peace,security and stability in theregion as an integrated force.
Having grown in scopeand complexity over the years,Varuna series of exercises con-tinue to provide both the naviesopportunities to learn fromeach other’s best practices.
The exercise has been aprincipal driver for operationallevel interactions between thetwo navies and has under-scored the shared commit-ment of both nations to secu-rity, safety and freedom of theglobal maritime commons.
French Navy ChiefAdmiral Pierre Vandier visitedIndia this week during whichhe held talks with his Indiancounterpart Admiral R HariKumar focusing on mecha-
nisms to ensure peace and sta-bility in the Indian Oceanamid rising Chinese presencein the region. The visit by theFrench Navy Chief came overa month after External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar travelledto Paris.
During the visit, Jaishankarsaid India looks at France as a"trusted" partner in counteringmyriad security challengesfrom the seabed to space andfrom cyber to oceans.
The maritime cooperationbetween India and France haswitnessed a major expansion inthe last few years. The Indianand French navies in Aprillast year too carried out amega wargame in the ArabianSea.
The French Navy deployedits nuclear-powered aircraftcarrier Charles de Gaulle, andits entire carrier strike group inthat exercise, reflecting grow-ing congruence in naval ties.
New Delhi: The NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA)has announced cash reward of�10 lakh each against fourwanted terrorists of TheResistance Front, a frontalorganisation of Lashkar-e-Tayabba (LeT) active in Jammuand Kashmir, for provision ofinformation leading to theirarrest. The four terrorists arewanted in NIA case related toconspiracy hatched for radi-calizing, motivating and recruit-ing youth of Jammu andKashmir to effect violent activ-ities inValley and rest of coun-try. “In any person has anyinformation of importance onsuspects leading to their arrestor apprehension, the informa-tion may be shared on follow-ing numbers and email address-es: NIA Headquarters, [email protected], NIABranch Office Jammu-0191-2476270/2476271 andWhatsApp/Telegram:9149981400,” the NIA said in a statement.
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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday said
future generations will miss theexperience of MPs retiring fromthe Rajya Sabha and urgedthem to pen down their vastknowledge for posterity. Healso urged them to come againto the House. He made this
emotional appeal while bid-ding farewell to 72 Elders rep-resenting 19 states retiringbetween March and July thisyear. He asked them to take theexperience gained within thefour walls of the House to fourdirections in the best interests ofthe country and to help inspirecoming generations.Incidentally, it was one of thebiggest numbers of MPs retir-
ing at same time. AddressingUpper House, he emphasisedthat experience has more powerthan knowledge, and the MPsshould take it forward in the ser-vice of the nation.
Sometimes experience hasmore power than knowledge, hesaid, noting that academicknowledge has its limits. "Itcomes in use in seminars butthings gained through experi-ence help find easy solutions toproblems," Modi said.
He also opined MPs mayfeel they have contributed a lotto the House but the House hasalso contributed to their lives."We take back more from theHouse than we give.
We experience India'sdiversity in its social structurein the house," he said. Someprominent members to retireinclude A K Antony, AmbikaSoni, P Chidambaram, AnandSharma, Jairam Ramesh, Suresh
Prabhu, Praful Patel,Subramanian Swamy, PrasannaAcharya, Sanjay Raut, NareshGujral, Satish Chandra Mishra,M C Mary Kom, SwapanDasgupta and Narendra Jadhav.Rajya Sabha Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu said legislatorsacross the country should bedriven by passion, performanceand procedural integrity anddesist from disrupting law mak-ing bodies.
Naidu called upon electedrepresentatives to ensure thatexpectations and aspirations ofpeople are incorporated indesigning of laws and policies.He also expressed concern overHouse having lost over 35 percent of functional time due todisruptions since 2017.
The retiring members, hesaid, have a total parliamentaryexperience of 181 terms includ-ing 143 terms in Rajya Sabhaand 38 in Lok Sabha. For his
part, Leader of OppositionMallikarjun Kharge referred toJawaharlal Nehru and saidIndia's first Prime Minister pro-vided Rajya Sabha with powerand integrity. Nehru made RajyaSabha MPs members of variouscommittees. Except, in case ofMoney bills, both Houses areequally powerful, Kharge added.Kharge emphasised that therecan be differences of opinionbut it is important that everyoneworks together.
As this is a permanentHouse, the journey continues,old members will retire and newones will come, the Congressleader said. Senior Congressleader Anand Sharma, who tooretired, said that he nevertrooped in Well of House dur-ing his entire tenure. Sharmaalso said he never used impolitewords in his speeches and noword of his was ever expungedfrom records of House.
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The Supreme Court onThursday granted former
Union Minister Sharad Yadavtime till May 31, 2022 to vacatethe official bungalow allotted tohim as a member of Parliamenton humanitarian ground.
The top court asked Yadavto furnish an undertaking with-in a week to the effect that hewill vacate the bungalow bythen. In the event of failure tosubmit the undertaking with-in a week, Yadav will have tovacate the premises immedi-ately in compliance of an orderof the Delhi high court.
A bench of Justices DYChandrachud, Sanjiv Khannaand Surya Kant said, “Havingheard the counsel, we are of theview that end of justice wouldbe met purely on humanitari-an ground, if time to vacate thepremises is granted to the peti-tioner under May 31, 2022subject to his filing an under-taking that he shall vacate on orbefore the said date”.
attached assets worth about Rs500 crore in two separate casesof money laundering and forexviolation. In first case, the EDhas attachéd �243.93 crorebelonging to MohamedAsadulla, A Shafiulla and theirrelatives accused of defraudingAmanath Co-operative BankLtd, Bengaluru on money laun-dering charges.
In second instance, it hasseized assets worth �216.40crore of a Chennai-based com-pany Southern AgrifuraneIndustries Pvt Ltd [SAIPL] andits promoter/director MGMMaran (former chairman ofTamilnad Mercantile BankLimited) and MGM Anand,under FEMA. The ED initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion of Asadulla and his relativeson basis of an FIR registered by
Commercial State PoliceStation, Bengaluru andChargesheet dated May 5, 2006filed by CID, Bengaluru undervarious sections of Indian PenalCode.
In the chargesheet filed inthis case before Court of 1stAddl. Chief MetropolitanMagistrate (ACMM),Bengaluru against MohamedAsadulla (former GeneralManager of Amanath Co-oper-ative Bank, Bengaluru), A.Shafiulla (former BranchManager of Co-operative Bank,)and K Hidayathulla (thenaccountant of said bank) inconnection with misappropria-tion of funds to tune of �68.43crore by opening fictitious over-draft accounts in the name ofthemselves, their relatives andtheir entities.
The ED probe revealed thatsaid persons, during year 1997to 2002, opened 50 fictitiousoverdraft accounts in name ofthemselves, their relatives and
their entities to misappropriatebank’s funds. Further, theaccused persons opened eightother real estate accounts and165 housing loan accounts toadjust the outstanding amountof the said 50 fictitious accounts.Through this, the accused per-sons have succeeded in closing40 accounts out of said 50 fic-titious accounts.
As per details submitted bythe said bank, out of the eightreal estate accounts, 165 hous-ing loan accounts and previ-ously opened 10 overdraftaccounts (out of 50 fictitiousaccounts) are still outstandingand the total loan proceeds ofthese accounts was to the tuneof �79.30 crore.
In the second, the ED hasseized assets worth �216.40crore of Chennai-based com-pany Southern AgrifuraneIndustries Pvt Ltd [SAIPL]under provisions of ForeignExchange Management Act(FEMA).
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Frequent cyclones and sealevel rise besides anthro-
pogenic activities such asconstruction of harbours,beach mining and building ofdams are taking a toll on thecountr y’s coast l ine, theGovernment said inParliament on Thursday, indi-cating the livelihood threatslooming large on the fisheriescommunities depending onresources from the sea.
The Government hascited an analysis for the peri-od between 1990-2018,revealing that at least 33.6 percent of the 6,632 km longcoastline of mainland is undervarying degree of erosion.
Dr Jitendra Singh, UnionMinister of Science andTechnology, said the NationalCenter for Coastal Research(NCCR), has been monitor-ing the shoreline erosion since1990 using remote sensingdata and GIS mapping tech-niques. “Of the total 6,632 kmlong Indian coastline of themainland which has beenanalyzed from 1990 to 2018and it is noted that 33.6% of
the coastline is under varyingdegrees of erosion,” he said ina written reply to a questionin the Rajya Sabha onThursday.
The reasons for coastalerosion include increase infrequency of cyclones andsea level rise and anthro-pogenic activities such asconstruction of harbours,beach mining and building ofdams. He further said thatthere are 526 maps preparedfor the entire Indian coast for
identifying areas vulnerable tocoastal erosion in 1:25000scale along with 66 districtmaps, 10 state /UnionTerritories maps.
A Report on “NationalAssessment of ShorelineChanges along Indian Coast”was released in July, 2018and shared with variousCentral and State govern-ment Agencies and stake-holders for implementingshore line protection mea-sures. Innovative coastal ero-
sion mitigation measures attwo pilot locations havehelped.
These are PuducherryBeach Restoration Project,Puducherry where the sub-merged reef has been imple-mented by the EnvironmentMinistry and beach nourish-ment implemented by thePuducherry Government.“This helped in restoration ofthe 1.5 km long city beachafter 30 years and helped inimproving tourism and fish-
ing activities in addition toprotection of the coast duringextreme cyclonic events,” theMinister said. Another projectis Kadalur Periya Kuppam inTamil Nadu.
“An offshore submergeddyke was implemented. Thishelped in protection of threef ishing Vil lages duringextreme cyclonic events andrestored lost beach that isbeing used for landing offishing boats and other fish-ing activities.
West Coast Erosion
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People staying in north,northwest and central India
should brace for intense heat-waves in April. The IndiaMeteorological Departmenton Thursday issued alert to theministries of Labour, Powerand Fire departments owing toheat wave conditions and cau-tioned people to avoid sunexposure as much as possible.
In its seasonal forecast,the IMD said that north,northwest and central Indiamay see above-normal maxi-mum temperatures in Aprilwith below normal rainfall.Regions including Gujarat,Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh and Odishawill be experiencing summersunlike that in 2020 and 2021.
Intense heatwave hasforced the Telangana andOdisha governments toreschedule the timings of theschools. The Telangana gov-ernment has reduced the tim-ings of half day to all schoolsfrom March 31 to April 6
while the Odisha governmentdecided that morning classeswill be held for classes 1-8 from6.30-10.30 am from April 2.Students of classes 9-12 willattend school from 7-11.30am.
“ During April, there willbe above normal maximumtemperatures over northwestand central India, whereasnormal to below normal max-imum temperatures are likelyover the south peninsularIndia, eastern parts of centralIndia and extreme southernpart of northeast India,”Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, direc-tor general of IMD said whilereleasing forecast on Thursday.In its advisory, IMD has alert-ed the Power Ministry to keepa regular check on power cutsand ensure proper electricitysupply.
People have been advisedto stay indoors and avoid sunexposure as much as possibleas heatwave could lead tosevere to moderate health con-cerns for vulnerable people.The Labour Ministry has alsobeen advised to follow the
same instruction and avoidinvolving labourers outdoors toescape the direct exposure tothe sun. To improve publicsafety and minimise the risk offire incidents, the FireDepartment has been suggest-ed to be equipped and alert.Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Haryana, Uttar Pradesh,Himachal Pradesh andMaharashtra are continuingto witness maximum temper-atures hovering between 39-42degrees during the last fewdays.
The IMD declares a “heat-wave” when the maximumtemperature is over 40 degreesCelsius and at least 4.5 notch-es above normal. A “severe”heatwave is declared if thedeparture from normal tem-perature is more than 6.4notches, according to the IMD.
On the contrary, thunder-storms will bring rains oversouth peninsular India, keep-ing a check on the maximumtemperatures. The prevailingLa Nina conditions are likely tocontinue till July or evenAugust, according to IMD.
Assets worth Rs 5 crore of asenior West Bengal-based
journalist, SumanChattopadhyay, and his fami-ly members have been attachedunder the anti-money laun-dering law in connection withan alleged chit fund scam, theEnforcement Directorate (ED)said on Thursday.
The federal probe agencyissued a provisional orderunder the Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) forattaching bank accounts andduplex flats situated in andaround Kolkata.
The action pertains tothe ED probe into the trans-
actions of the ICore group ofcompanies. The agency hadfiled a money-launderingcase, taking cognisance ofan FIR lodged by the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)against the group and others.
"ICore group companiesran a chit fund scam and thegroup illegally raised a hugeamount of money from lakhsof gul l ible investors bypromising unreal ist icreturns," the agency alleged ina statement.
Chattopadhyay, it said,"personally and through hiscompany Disha Productionsand Media Private Limited,has received proceeds ofcrime to the tune of Rs 9.83
crore from the ICore group inthe guise of business invest-ment in the company".
Apart from the ICoregroup, Chattopadhyay alsoreceived funds from other chitfund companies such asSaradha Group through thesame modus operandi and hadcome under the ED scannerpreviously in the Saradha groupcase, the agency said.
Chattopadhyay, then theeditor of a leading Bengalidaily, was arrested by the CBIin 2018 in the same case.
The ED attached assetsworth Rs 300 crore of thecompany, its promoters, direc-tors and others in Septemberlast year.
A circular issued by theState Government said thatthe “restrictions currently inforce are hereby withdrawn.”However the advisory inrespect of health and hygieneprotocols including wearingof mask at all times, “handhygiene and sanitisation ofpublic places would continue to
be strictly observed until fur-ther orders.”
The Government bringsto an end the Disaster man-agement Act which would nolonger be invoked, lifting allcurbs on political and publicgatherings including weddingparties etc, government sourcessaid.
The State had not wit-nessed corona related deaths inpast several deaths and thenumber of infections were lim-ited to between 40 and 42 asenior Government doctor saidadding however “the peopleshould keep a strict vigil inview of curbs on the interna-
tional flights being lifted … andalso in view of infectionsreturning in some Europeanand other countries includingChina.”
The Government orderwould come into force pastmidnight, sources said. The lasttime the State Governmentextended the restrictions wasearly this month.
“It is good that all officesboth Government and privatewould start functioning withnormal strength after abouttwo years … but in all theoffices santizers and maskswould be made mandatory,” agovernment secretary said.
Thursday announced a cashreward of Rs 10 lakh each onfour wanted terrorists of TheResistance Front (TRF), afront organisation of the pro-scribed Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT), operating in Jammuand Kashmir.
The four terrorists, includ-ing two Pakistani nationals, arewanted by the NIA in connec-tion with a case registered lastyear in connection with a con-spiracy hatched for radicalising,motivating and recruitingyouths of Jammu & Kashmir to
effect violent activities in theUnion territory and rest ofIndia, a spokesperson of theagency said.
The case was registeredunder various sections ofIndian Penal Code andUnlawful Activities(Prevention) Act.
The cash reward wasdeclared against Pakistaninationals Saleem Rehmani alias'Abu Saad' of Nawab Shah,Sindh and Saifullah Sajid Jatt ofShangamanga in Kasur andtheir local associates SajjadGul of Srinagar and BasitAhmad Dar of Redwani Payeenin south Kashmir's Kulgamdistrict.
Substances (NDPS) Act courton Thursday granted 60 days’extension to the NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB) to filea charge-sheet in the much-dis-cussed drug-bust case, in whichBollywood superstar ShahRukh Khan’s son Aryan Khanand others are accused.
Allowing a plea made bySpecial Public ProsecutorAdvait Sethna citing “com-pelling reasons” for seekingmore time to file a charge-sheetin the case, Special NDPSJudge V V Patil granted twomonths’ additional time to filethe charge-sheet in the case.
Under the NDPS Act, theNCB gets 180 days for filing acharge-sheet in a case and inthe mid-sea drug bust case,involving Aryan Khan andothers, the deadline for filingthe charge-sheet was to expireon April 2.
On March 28, the SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) of theNCB had moved the NDPSCourt, seeking 90 days’ addi-tional time to file the charge-sheet in the case stating amongother things that it was yet torecord the statements of 15 keysuspects were yet to be exam-ined for “fair and logical con-clusion of the investigation”.
There are in all 20 accusedin the case. The NCB told the
special court that it was still inprocess of recording theirstatements, since many of theaccused did not turn up forinvestigations resulting in anunintentional delay.
It may be recalled that theNCB had arrested Aryan Khan,Arbaaz Merchant, MunmunDhamecha and five others onOctober 3, after its officialsbusted a rave party and seized13 grams of cocaine, 5 grams ofMD (Mephedrone), 21 gramsof Charas, 22 pills of MDMA(Ecstasy) and Rs 1.33 lakh incash from Goa-bound CordeliaCruises' Empress ship, off theMumbai coast. Subsequently,the NCB arrested 12 morepersons in connection withthe mid-sea rave party.
In its plea filed before thespecial court seeking addi-tional time to file the chargesheet, the NCB had stated:that it was yet to examinepanch witness Kiran P Gosavias it was awaiting permission tointerrogate and record his state-ment and that some of theaccused purportedly gavewrong passwords of mobile,laptops and tablets which hadresulted in the delay in theextraction of data and forensicexamination.
The NCP also told thecourt that it was trying to findout details of contacts andaddresses of the two Nigeriannationals arrested in the caseand that the money trail and
consideration paid for pur-chasing drugs was underway
The NCB stated that ithad completed its investigationagainst Mohak Jaswal, GomitChopra, Nupur Satija, AbdulKadar Shaikh, Chinedu Igweand Okoro Uzeoma, while itsinvestigation against otherswas still underway.
On their defence lawyers inthe case opposed theProsecution’s plea seeking anextension in time to file charge-sheet, contending that theNCB’s application for timeextension was an excuse to con-tinue keeping the detainedaccused behind bars. Theyurged the court that the NCBbe directed to file a charge-sheet now and that it could filea supplementary charge-sheetlater. While seeking rejection ofthe Prosecution’s application,the defence lawyers also toldthe court that the NCB’s appli-cation was not compellingenough to be granted extensionof time as it had failed to dis-close which of the accusedwere not co-operating withthe investigation as alleged.
The defence lawyers alsoargued that the NCB’s applica-tion not only affected two per-sons in custody but also the 18others who were out on bail.They also pointed out that thenon-receipt of analysis of dig-ital data was not a ground forextension of time to file thecharge-sheet.
on Thursday called for uphold-ing principles of sovereignty,territorial integrity and inter-national law. Britain alsofavoured more robust eco-nomic, strategic and defenceties with India given the unsta-ble global order.
These were the main take-aways from the talks betweenExternal Affairs Minister SJaishankar and visiting BritishForeign Secretary ElizabethTruss. The talks took place aday before Russia’s ForeignMinister Sergei Lavrov dis-cusses the entire gamut of theUkraine conflict and India-Russia ties with his Indiancounterpart on Friday. He mayalso call on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.
Besides reviewing the ram-ifications of Russia’s militaryoperation all over the world,India and Britain also dis-
cussed ways to further enhancecooperation in the strategical-ly important Indo-Pacificregion. The two Ministers alsoreportedly discussed the situa-tion prevailing at the border inLadakh for the last two years.
The two Ministers alsotook stock of the “Roadmap2030” launched by both coun-tries.
It comprises comprehen-sive plans for the relationshipover the next ten years and alsoserves as a useful instrument toactively monitor and pursuepriorities.
A major step in this direc-tion was taken last year whenPrime Minister Narendra Modiand his British counterpartBoris Johnson launched theIndia-UK Enhanced TradePartnership that aims to morethan double bilateral trade by2030.
“I think the roadmap 2030has progressed quite substan-tially. So, a lot to be done. In allof this, we have had geopoliti-cal situations, quite apart fromthe Covid which had its impactearlier during the delegation-level talks with Truss,”Jaishankar said.
On her part, Truss said it is
a vital time in global security inthe wake of Russia’s illegalinvasion of Ukraine. It is essen-tial to respect the principles ofsovereignty, territorial integri-ty, and international law.
“It is very important for theUK that we are improving oureconomic, security and defencerelationships because we areliving in a more unstable world.That’s why we are strengthen-ing our work with India,” sheadded.
Truss also said she washappy to visit New Delhi for thethird time in a year and reviewthe progress made on the“Roadmap 2030” venture.
Jaishankar said there was alot of work to be done andlauded the setting up of theStrategic Futures Forum. Onthe Ukraine situation,Jaishankar said ChineseForeign Minister Wang Yi wasin India last week and the twoministers discussed the sce-nario in the war-afflictednation.
Also, he said “our ownrelationship (with China) is notexactly going through its bestperiod. But the Chinese havetheir own analysis of what’shappening in Ukraine”.
He made these observa-tions at the India-UK StrategicFutures Forum. “What we sawhappening in Afghanistan lastsummer had a very strongimpact certainly in India,which wasn’t the same inEurope. People didn’t neces-sarily relate to the coming ofthe Taliban the same way oridentify with the people affect-ed in the same way,” he said.
Speaking at the same
forum, Truss said India andthe UK lead the world inareas like the number ofUnicorns, the number of peo-ple involved in the tech indus-try. Both freedom-lovingdemocracies will help leadthe world. Free Trade dealsbetween both countries can becompleted rapidly.
Ahead of the talks, theBritish High Commission, ina statement, said Truss will
convey to Jaishankar thatRussia’s invasion of Ukraineunderlines the importance ofdemocracies working togeth-er to deter “aggressors” andreduce vulnerability to “coer-cion”.
“Foreign Secretary LizTruss is in India today as partof a wider diplomatic push fol-lowing Russia’s illegal invasionof Ukraine last month,” thestatement said.
It also said Truss wants to“counter” Russia’s aggressionand reduce global strategicdependence on the countryahead of the key NATO andG-7 meetings next week.
“Deeper ties betweenBritain and India will boostsecurity in the Indo-Pacificand globally, and create jobsand opportunities in bothcountries,” Truss was quoted assaying in the statement.
“This matters even morein the context of Russia’sunprovoked invasion ofUkraine and underlines theneed for free democracies towork closer together in areaslike defence, trade and cybersecurity,” she said.
The India-UK relation-ship was elevated to a
Comprehensive StrategicPartnership during the India-UK virtual summit heldbetween Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and his Britishcounterpart Boris Johnson inMay last year.
The British minister alsosaid she will work to deepencyber security and defencecooperation between the twocountries and announced anew joint cyber security pro-gramme.
The programme will aimto protect online infrastructurein both countries from attacks.It said India and the UK willwork together to increasecyber security and carry outjoint exercises to practise com-batting threats from cyber-criminals and ransomware.
Foreign Secretary HarshShringla had said onWednesday India and the UKare committed to delivering acomprehensive and balancedfree trade agreement (FTA) bythe end of this year along withan interim deal for early gains.
Addressing the First India-UK Strategic Futures Forum,Shringla said the `Roadmap2030’ launched by both coun-tries details comprehensive
plans for the relationship overthe next 10 years and alsoserves as a useful instrumentto actively monitor and pursueagreed priorities.
A major step in this direc-tion was taken last year whenPrime Minister NarendraModi and his British counter-part Boris Johnson launchedthe India-UK Enhanced TradePartnership that aims to morethan double bilateral trade by2030.
Noting that defence andsecurity is another key elementof the India-UK renewed part-nership, Shringla said thefocus is on research and inno-vation and joint industrialcooperation to developadvanced defence capabilitiesand strengthen collaborationin tackling new threats in thecyber, space, counter-terror-ism and maritime domains.
He noted that as the worldfaced a pandemic of unprece-dented proportions, India andthe UK joined hands in bring-ing in game-changing solu-tions. A notable success wasthe collaboration betweenOxford Astra Zeneca and theSerum Institute of India, hesaid.
Khan accused the trio of involve-ment in corruption and asked if thatcountry would allow someone tobecome its leader if involved in cor-ruption. “Will foreign countries wantsuch corrupt people in power in theirstates? They are ready to accept suchcorrupt politicians, but I am not accept-able to them,” Khan said.
Khan said that he came to politicsafter he had everything includingmoney and fame, and “I need nothingeven today”.
He said one of his objectives to joinpolitics was to give a sense of honourto his nation and bring it out of slavery.
“When I started politics, I includ-ed three things in my party’s manifesto.Justice, which means law is the same forthe powerful and the weak. Humanitybecause there is kindness in an Islamicstate, and third, self-reliance (khuddari)because a Muslim nation cannot be aslave,” he said. Khan reminisced aboutattending a meeting chaired by formermilitary leader Pervez Musharraf whosaid that it was important to join the USwar on terror, as Musharraf said that“US was like a wounded bear” and couldattack Pakistan.
The support was acceptable to theextent that “we all are against terrorism”but to support it militarily cost Pakistan80,000 lives. No other state and ally ofthe US suffered like Pakistan, he said.
He said Pakistan got taunts from theUS, drone attacks and mantra of “domore” instead of appreciation for its rolein the war on terror. He said all politi-cians were afraid of America and neversaid anything against drone attacks.
“I said from day one after gettingthe government that our foreign poli-cy will be for Pakistan and not againstany other country,” he said.
“...Our policy was not anti-US, -Europe, or even India [...] it becameanti-Indian after New Delhi revoked thespecial status of Kashmir and brokeinternational law in August 2019,” saidKhan, who insists that the Kashmir dis-pute remained a big issue between thetwo countries.
India has repeatedly told Pakistanthat Jammu and Kashmir “was, is andshall forever” remain an integral part ofthe country.
Earlier, Khan chaired a meeting ofthe National Security Committee whichdecided to issue a strong demarche toa country, that it did not name, over the“threatening letter”.
“The Committee concluded that thecommunication amounted to blatantinterference in the internal affairs ofPakistan by the country in question,which was unacceptable under any cir-cumstances.”
Meanwhile, a highly placed sourcein the federal government told PTI on
Thursday that backdoor talks betweenthe government and the joint opposi-tion are underway on the issue of no-confidence motion against Khan.
“Talks are focused on one-point -the joint opposition withdraws the no-trust motion against Khan and inreturn he dissolves the NationalAssembly calling for fresh elections,” thesource said, adding that the “top manin the establishment may be a guaran-tor” if the understanding between thetwo reaches.
The development comes a day afterInformation Minister Fawad Chaudhryon Wednesday confirmed that Armychief General Qamar Javed Bajwa andPrime Minister Khan met twice duringthe day. Khan came to power in 2018with promises to create a ‘Naya Pakistan’but miserably failed to address the basicproblem of keeping the prices of com-modities in control, giving air to the sailsof opposition ships to make war on hisgovernment.
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He further claimed that the people'ssupport to the ruling party in the 2022assembly polls vindicated the popular-ity of Yogi Adityanath governmentand now the opposition would have tothink twice of leveling allegations ofBharatiya Janata Party governmentindulging in caste politics and Hindutva.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party’s vic-tory in Hathras, Lakhimpur Kheri andUnnao in the assembly polls proves thatthe opposition's tirade against the gov-ernment over specific incidents fell flatand the people too accepted it as just anincident and nothing more,” he said.
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also been accused of serious negli-gence as district election officer. It wasinformed that he did not seal the boxcarrying postal ballot papers during theelection. Pictures of open boxes wentviral and at one stage the ElectionCommission of India was close to can-celling the election in the district, theofficial said.
He said the situation could be sal-vaged only after the divisional com-missioner of Vindhyachal got the boxsealed by taking representatives of dif-ferent political parties into confidence.
“In view of these allegations, thegovernment has decided to suspendShibu. He has been attached with theRevenue department during his sus-pension period,” Additional ChiefSecretary Devesh Chaturvedi said.
Meanwhile, the government sus-
pended Senior Superintendent of Policeof Ghaziabad, Pawan Kumar, for dere-liction of duty and for his failure to con-trol crime. During his suspension peri-od the IPS officer has been attachedwith the DGP office.
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Assam Chief Minister HimantaBiswa Sarma welcomed the Centre’sdecision to withdraw the Armed Forces(Special Powers) Act, 1958 completelyfrom 23 districts and partially from onedistrict of the State.
The AFSPA has been in force in theState since 1990 and this move marksthe beginning of a new chapter inAssam’s future, he said.
“I wholeheartedly welcomeAdarniya PM Shri @narendramodi’sdecision to withdraw AFSPA from allareas of Assam barring nine districtsand one subdivision,” the Chief Ministersaid in a series of tweets.
Manipur Chief Minister N BirenSingh also hailed the Centre’s decisionand thanked the Government.
“On behalf of the people ofManipur, I would like to thank theCentre for taking such a move in theinterest of the people,” said Singh. Hedescribed the day as a “momentousoccasion”.
The Armed Forces (Special Powers)Bill was passed by both the Houses ofParliament and it was approved by thePresident on September 11, 1958. Itbecame known as the Armed ForcesSpecial Powers Act, 1958.
In 1983, the AFSPA was enforcedin Punjab and the Union territory ofChandigarh, and withdrawn in 1997.
In 1990, Jammu and Kashmir wasdeclared a “disturbed area” and AFSPAwas enforced in the region, whereArmy continues to have special privi-leges.
He said under Prime MinisterModi, geo-tagging of assets createdunder MGNREGA was introduced andpayments were directly made to work-ers in their Jan Dhan accounts.
Sonia said Budget cuts are impact-ing the workers who are not receivingtimely payments and compensations.The scheme which was a mainstay ofproviding employment is hit by moni-tory constraints, she said.
“There is a regular reduction in thebudgetary allocation for MGNREGA.This year the budget for MGNREGA is35 per cent less than that of 2020. Thiscomes at a time when unemploymentis rising continuously,” she said.
Noting that the Supreme Court hadlikened the delay in MGNREGA pay-ments with forced labour, she said theStates were told that their annual labourbudget will not be approved unless theymeet conditions related to social auditand appointment of Lokpal.
“Social audit should be made effec-tive but workers can’t be punished bystopping the money for this,” she said.
“I request the Central Governmentto allocate adequate funds for MGN-REGA, ensure payment of workerswithin 15 days of work, and pay com-pensation in case of delay in paymentof wages,” Sonia said.
The House witnessed uproar as theCongress members protested theremarks by the Ministers and sought tocounter the Government’s viewpoint onMGNREGA.
This is the third time during theongoing session that the Congresspresident has raised issues in the LokSabha during zero hour, the other twobeing starting mid-day meals for chil-dren post-Covid-19 and the alleged biasshown by the social media towards theruling party.
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Taking a serious view of the grow-ing crime, TRAFFIC India recentlydeveloped new awareness and capaci-ty-building tools to combat the wildlifetrade through the aviation sector.
“We have partnered with TRAFFIC,WWF-India, Customs, CISF, andWildlife Crime Control Board (WCCB)to design and implement a dedicatedprogramme that will help strengthen thedetection of illegal wildlife trade at air-ports,” said Atul Bagai, Head of theUnited Nations EnvironmentProgramme Country Office in India.
Tilotama Varma, AdditionalDirector, WCCB maintained that air-ports have emerged as a popular modefor transporting wildlife contrabandsdue to the shorter travel time and exten-sive reach. Traffickers are using variousmodes all of which make detection dif-ficult.
Echoing a similar concern,Yogendra Garg, Additional DirectorGeneral, NACIN said, “Customs needto continuously acquire new skills tokeep pace with the latest trends insmuggling. Training tools and resourcesare thus crucial for upscaling their skillsto detect crime. Also, there is a dire needto create awareness about emergingissues like wildlife crime from time totime.” Warning that wildlife and forestcrime is a serious and growing problem,Ravi Singh, Secretary-General andCEO, WWF-India added, “Wildlifeneeds our support more than ever dueto the ever-increasing threats due tohuman interventions, climate change,and illegal wildlife trade. The new pro-
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Maharashtra Minister ofState for Food & Drugs
Administration (FDA)Rajendra Yadravkar has said hehas ordered his department'sofficials to crackdown onchemists selling medicineswithout prescription from adoctor.
Talking to PTI, he said,"The orders were given yester-day in Aurangabad after Ireceived a complaint aboutsale of drugs from a local phar-macist without a formal pre-
scription of a doctor. Suchpractices are against the lawand should be banned."
"I have asked FDA officialsto carry out searches and crossverification of sale of drugsfrom pharmacies in the state.The FDA will also prod drugsellers to demand prescriptionbefore selling medicines," hesaid. There have been somecases where scheduled drugs,which are not easily availableand are allowed to be pur-chased only if prescribed by aphysician, were sold across thecounter at pharmacies, the
minister said. "No pharmacist was
demanding prescription forsuch drugs. It was shocking andserious as well," the Ministersaid. Yadravkar said he hassought a primary report in thenext 8 days from FDA officialson action taken to curb thepractice of selling drugs with-out prescription. "It will give ussome idea about ground real-ity on sale of drugs. During the2021-22 fiscal, FDA officialshad collected Rs 5.50 crore asfine (for violation of differentnorms) ," he said.
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The Ukrainian emergencyservices say the death tollafter a Russian missile
strike Tuesday on the regionalgovernment headquarters inthe southern city of Mykolaivhas risen to 20.
The emergency services saidrescuers had now found 19bodies in the ruins since thestrike devastated the govern-ment building Tuesday morn-ing. One other person died inhospital.The regional governoraccused Russia of waiting untilpeople arrived for work beforestriking the building.
Emergency services saidthey are still working at thescene. In other development ofthe day, Greenpeace says itsactivists from the Nordic coun-tries and Russia have blocked athe transfer of Russian oil
between two large tankers sail-ing in northern Denmark.
Greenpeace said swimmersand activists in kayaks and boatsfrom Denmark, Finland,Norway, Sweden and Russiaplaced themselves between twosupertankers to block the trans-fer of 100,000 tonnes of Russianoil in waters in northernDenmark.
The environmental orga-nization called for an embargoof Russian fuels to stop the fund-ing of Moscow's invasion ofUkraine.
It said in a statementThursday that “every timeRussian oil or gas are pur-chased, (Russian PresidentVladimir) Putin's war chestgrows, and so far at least 299supertankers with fossil fuelshave left Russia since the start ofthe war in Ukraine.”
Despite some countries
declaring a ban on the arrival ofRussian vessels to their ports,Russian coal, oil and gas is stillarriving via ships registered inother countries, Greenpeacesaid.
Rome, Italian PremierMario Draghi says Europe ispushing for a cap on gas priceswith Russia because its paymentsare financing the war in Ukraine.
Draghi told foreignreporters Thursday that theprices that Europe is paying areout of line with the global mar-ket. “We, Germany and Italy,along with other countries thatare importers of gas, coal, grains,corn ... Are financing the war.There is no doubt,'' Draghi said.
“For this reason, Italy alongwith other countries are push-ing for a cap on the price of gas.There is no substantial reasonthat the price of gas is so high forEuropeans.”
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Aconvoy of buses headed toMariupol on Thursday in
another attempt to evacuatepeople from the besieged portcity, while Russia pressed itsattacks in several parts ofUkraine ahead of a planned newround of talks aimed at endingthe fighting.
After the Russian militaryagreed to a limited cease-fire inthe area, the Red Cross said itsteams were travelling toMariupol with relief and med-ical supplies and hoped to helppull civilians out of the belea-guered city on Friday. Previous attempts at establishinga similar humanitarian corridorhave fallen apart.
Russian forces, meanwhile,shelled suburbs of the capitalthat Ukraine recently retookcontrol of, a regional official said.New attacks in the area whereMoscow had promised to de-escalate further underminedhopes of a resolution to end thewar on the eve of a new roundof talks.
A day earlier, Ukrainianofficials reported that Russianshelling on the outskirts of Kyivand around another city whereit had vowed to ease up.
Russia's Defense Ministryalso reported new strikes onUkrainian fuel stores lateWednesday, and Ukrainian offi-cials said there were artillery bar-rages in and around the north-eastern city of Kharkiv over thepast day.
Despite the fighting ragingin those areas, the Russian mil-itary said it committed to acease-fire along the route fromMariupol to the Ukraine-heldcity of Zaporizhzhia fromThursday morning.
Ukrainian Deputy PrimeMinister Iryna Vereshchuk said
45 buses would be sent to col-lect civilians who have sufferedsome of the worst deprivationsof the war.
Food, water and medicalsupplies have all run low duringa weekslong blockade and bom-bardment of the city.
Civilians who have man-aged to leave have typicallydone so using private cars, butthe number of drivable vehiclesleft in the city has also dwindledand fuel stocks are low.
The InternationalCommittee of the Red Cross,which is helping run the evac-uation, said its teams havealready left for Mariupol.
“It's desperately importantthat this operation takes place,”the Red Cross said in a state-ment. “The lives of tens of thou-sands of people in Mariupoldepend on it.”
As the new evacuationattempt was announced, evi-dence emerged that a Red Crosswarehouse in the city had beenstruck earlier this month amidintense Russian shelling of thearea.
In satellite pictures fromPlanet Labs PBC, holes can beseen in the warehouse's roof,along with a painted red cross ona white background.
The aid organisation said nostaff have been at the site sinceMarch 15.
Talks between Ukraine andRussia were set to resume Fridayby video, according to the headof the Ukrainian delegation,David Arakhamia, six weeksinto a bloody war that has seenthousands die and a staggering4 million Ukrainians flee thecountry. But there seemed littlefaith that the two sides wouldresolve the conflict soon, par-ticularly after the Russian mili-tary's about-face and its mostrecent attacks.
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Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy
thanked the White House forpledging an additional $500million in direct aid, but said hewas open with US PresidentBiden about Ukraine needingmore to resist the Russianinvasion.
“If we really are fighting forfreedom and in defense ofdemocracy together, then wehave a right to demand help inthis difficult turning point,”Zelenskyy said in his nighttimevideo address to the nationWednesday. “Tanks, aircraft,artillery systems. Freedomshould be armed no worsethan tyranny.”
Prior to Wednesday'sannouncement of $500 millionin aid, the Biden administra-tion had sent Ukraine about $2billion in humanitarian andsecurity assistance since thestart of the war last month.That's all part of the $13.6 bil-lion that Congress approvedearlier this month for Ukraineas part of a broader spendingbill.
Zelenskyy said the negoti-
ations with Russia were con-tinuing but for now, they wereonly “words without specifics.”
About the supposed with-drawal of Russian forces fromKyiv and Chernihiv, Zelenskyysaid: “We know that this is nota withdrawal but the conse-quences of being driven out.But we also are seeing thatRussia is now concentrating itsforces for new strikes onDonbas and we are preparingfor this.”
Meanwhile, as the UnitedStates prepares to accept up to100,000 Ukrainian refugeesfollowing Russia's invasion oftheir country, existing com-munities in cities likeSacramento and Seattle arealready mobilizing to providefood, shelter and support tothose fleeing the war.
The federal governmenthasn't said when the formalresettlement process will begin,but Ukrainian groups in theU.S. Are already providing sup-port to people entering thecountry through other chan-nels, including on visas that willeventually expire or by flying toMexico and crossing over theborder.
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The UK governmentannounced on Thursday 14
new sanctions on Russian pro-pagandists and State media,who it said spread lies anddeceit about Russian PresidentVladimir Putin's "illegal inva-sion" of Ukraine.
The latest sanctions listincludes Sergey Brilev, describedas a famous TV anchor onRussia state-owned mediaRossiya and propagandist forPutin. Having previously livedin the UK, Brilev will no longerbe able to access any of his UKassets or continue business deal-ings. The UK is alsodirectly sanctioning State mediaorganisations, targeting theKremlin funded TV-Novostiwho own RT, formerly Russia
Today, and Rossiya Segodnyawho control news agencySputnik.
“Putin's war on Ukraine isbased on a torrent of lies. Britainhas helped lead the world inexposing Kremlin disinforma-tion, and this latest batch ofsanctions hits the shamelesspropagandists who push outPutin's fake news and narra-tives,” said UK Foreign SecretaryLiz Truss, who is in India onThursday for talks.
“We will keep on goingwith more sanctions to ramp upthe pressure on Russia andensure Putin loses in Ukraine.Nothing and no one is off thetable,” she said.
Following UK mediawatchdog Ofcom's revocation ofRT's broadcasting licencerecently, the latest set of sanc-tions are aimed at ensuring thechannel will not be able to findits way back on UK televisions,and will prevent companiesand individuals operating in theUK from doing business withRussian state propaganda vehi-cles RT and Sputnik, and keyfigures in those organisations.
The UK government said“disinformation is part of theKremlin playbook and is usedby Putin's regime to obscure thetruth of his unjust invasion”.
The Kremlin has expressed“regret” and “concern” over
US officials' reports that theRussian president is being mis-informed by advisers abouthis military's performance inUkraine.
Vladimir Putin'sspokesman Dmitry Peskov toldreporters on Thursday that“neither the State Departmentnor the Pentagon possess thereal information about what ishappening in the Kremlin.”
“They simply don't under-stand what's going on in theKremlin, they don't under-stand President Putin, theydon't understand the mecha-nism of decision-making, theydon't understand the way wework,” Peskov said.
“It is not just regrettable, itelicits concern, because thiscomplete lack of understandingleads to erroneous decisions,tragic decisions that could havevery bad consequences,” headded.
US intelligence officialssaid Putin is being misin-formed by advisers about hismilitary's poor performancein Ukraine, according to theWhite House. The advisers arescared to tell him the truth, theintel says.
White House communica-tions director Kate Bedingfieldsaid Wednesday the USbelieves Putin was being mis-led not only about his military'sperformance but also “howthe Russian economy is beingcrippled by sanctions because,again, his senior advisers aretoo afraid to tell him the truth."
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President Vladimir Putin'swar in Ukraine has been a
"strategic blunder" that hasweakened Russia and left it"increasingly isolated" on theworld stage, according to the
White House. At a press con-ference on Wednesday, WhiteHouse Press Secretary KateBedingfield said the US hasinformation that Putin felt mis-led by the Russian military,which has resulted in persistenttension between the presidentand his military leadership.
“We believe that Putin isbeing misinformed by his advi-sors about how badly theRussian military is performingand how the Russian economyis being crippled by sanctionsbecause his senior advisors aretoo afraid to tell him the truth,”she said. “So, it is increasinglyclear that Putin's war has beena strategic blunder that has left
Russia weaker over the longterm, and increasingly isolatedon the world stage," she said.
Bedingfield said theRussian leadership made anaggressive push toward Kyiv atthe beginning of the inva-sion, but is now publicly try-ing to redefine the goals oftheir invasion to be differentthan they were at the outset.When asked about somedeclassified American intelli-gence information that Putinhad bad information from hismilitary, she replied: “I thinkputting forward this informa-tion simply contributes to asense that this has been astrategic error for them.”
Russia does not appear to bescaling back its military oper-ations in Ukraine but is insteadredeploying forces to the east-ern Donbas region.
Russia promised duringtalks in Istanbul on Tuesdaythat it would de-escalate oper-ations near Kyiv and Chernihivto “increase mutual trust andcreate conditions for furthernegotiations.” UkrainianPresident Volodymyr Zelenskyyand the West were skeptical.
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Starting out with funnyvideos and chat over Mario
Kart racing games, twoUkrainian brothers have addeda somber tone to their YouTubechannel popular with youngJapanese with updates fromtheir country that bring theharsh realities of war closer toJapan. The Russian invasion ofUkraine began just after theduo, Sava Tkachov, 26, and hisyounger brother Yan, 20, cele-brated the second anniversaryof their YouTube debut withsubscribers exceeding 2 millionfor their Sawayan Channel andSawayan Games that Sava
hosts. The first word of warcame from their father, a busi-ness consultant who hadreturned to Kyiv two monthsago just before Russian troopsrolled in and has stayed sinceto help defend his country. Thesiblings' YouTube content,which used to be full of pranks,jokes and action videos, hasbecome more serious.
Worried about their 53-year-old father and friends inUkraine, the brothers in earlyMarch announced on theirchannel that they planned tovolunteer as defenders too. Ittriggered a wave of reactions,some supporting and otherscriticizing them.
China, Pakistan's all-weatherally on Thursday reacted
guardedly to the potential defeatof Prime Minister Imran Khan'sgovernment in Parliament, urg-ing all political parties in thecountry to stay united in theinterest of stability and devel-opment. “China is committed tonon-interference policy,”Chinese Foreign Ministryspokesman Wang Wenbin tolda media briefing here whilereplying to a question aboutwhether Beijing is concernedthat any change of leadership inPakistan could impact its closestrategic ties with Pakistan.
“As an all-weather strategiccooperative partner, friendlyneighbour of Pakistan, Chinasincerely hopes that all parties
in Pakistan will stay united anduphold the major interest ofdevelopment and stability,”Wang Wenbin added.
Pakistan's embattled PrimeMinister Khan on Wednesdayeffectively lost majority inParliament after MuttahidaQaumi Movement-Pakistan(MQM-P), a key partner of theruling coalition, joined theranks of the Opposition, whichhad tabled a no-confidencemotion against his governmentin the National Assembly.
Khan has been claimingthat the Opposition's no-confi-dence motion against him wasthe result of a “foreign conspir-acy” because of his external pol-icy and funds were being chan-nelled from abroad to oust himfrom power.
As political crisis gripped
Pakistan, Chinese ForeignMinister Wang Yi told visitingPakistan Foreign Minister ShahMahmood Qureshi, a closeconfidant of Prime MinisterKhan that Beijing has agreed torollover USD 4.2 billionPakistan debt due to be paid thisweek. Qureshi is currently vis-iting China to attend theNeighbourhood CountriesForeign Ministers conference onAfghanistan.
"I am immensely happy toshare that the Chinese FM hasgiven a nod of approval on therollover of commercial loan aswell," Qureshi was quoted assaying by Pakistan daily Dawn.
The USD 4.2 billion debt,which was maturing this week,has been rolled over providingmajor financial relief toPakistan, the daily reported.
The US has asserted that itdid not send any letter to
Pakistan on the current polit-ical situation in the country asit sought to refute allegationsof America's involvement inthe no-confidence motionagainst the Imran Khan-ledgovernment, according to amedia report on Thursday.
Pakistan's embattled PrimeMinister Imran Khan onWednesday effectively lostmajority in Parliament afterMuttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), a key part-ner of the ruling coalition,joined the ranks of theOpposition, which had tableda no-confidence motionagainst his government in theNational Assembly. Khan hasbeen claiming that theOpposition's no-confidence
motion against him was theresult of a “foreign conspiracy”because of his external policyand funds were being chan-nelled from abroad to oust himfrom power.
On Wednesday, the PTI-led government confirmed thatits allegation about a foreignconspiracy against the primeminister was based on a diplo-matic cable received from oneof the country's missionsabroad. The government ini-tially offered to share the let-ter with the chief justice ofPakistan, but later the primeminister also briefed his cabi-net members about the con-tents of the letter, the Dawnnewspaper reported.
A group of journalists werethen provided with minutes ofthe cabinet meeting at theirinteraction with the prime minister.
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With assault weaponsready, US andFilipino marines
sprang from amphibious vehi-cles and transport helicoptersto defend an island from poten-tial aggressors in a war exerciseand show of American fire-power staged on Thursday inthe northern Philippines.
The exercise - held in far-flung Claveria town across thesea from China and Taiwan -fits into a strategy unveiled inFebruary by the Biden admin-istration to considerably broad-en US engagement in the Indo-Pacific region by strengtheninga web of security alliances andpartnerships, with an empha-sis on addressing China's grow-ing influence and ambitions.
Watched by invited jour-nalists, the mock combat endedwith the allied forces success-fully securing the island beforeit could be seized by invadersin a clear warning to would-beaggressors in a region withmultiple trouble spots.
"We should indeedimprove our preparation forexternal aggression," saidPhilippine regional militarycommander Maj. Gen.Lawrence Mina, who spokewith reporters as the marinestook combat positions on the
sandy beach and a narrowtrench under the scorchingsummer heat.
"It's high time because wenever know if we'll getembroiled in the unfoldingevents that we're hearing in theinternational scene," he said."At least we're ready."
The beach landing andcoastal defense maneuvers werepart of one of the largest com-bat exercises in years betweenthe longtime treaty allies thatbegan Monday and wouldinclude live-fire drills, aircraftassaults, urban warfare andcivic projects mostly in north-ern and the westernPhilippines, which faces thedisputed South China Sea.
Col. Timothy Brady Jr.,who heads the US 3rd MarineLittoral Regiment, said he was"very pleased" with the out-come of the mock beachmaneuvers, which started inthe nearby coastal town ofAparri. "Certainly, the objectiveof what we're doing is demon-strating the strength of thealliance as well as the commit-ment to regional security,"Brady said.
Called Balikatan - Tagalogfor shoulder-to-shoulder - theannual exercises will run up toApril 8 with nearly 9,000 navy,marines, air force and armytroops, including 5,100
American military personnel,to strengthen their joint fight-ing capabilities and readiness"for real-world challenges,"according to US and Philippinemilitary officials.
First staged in 1991, theBalikatan exercises areanchored on the 1951 MutualDefense Treaty, which commitsthe United States and thePhilippines to come to eachother's aid in case of an attack.
When President RodrigoDuterte took office in 2016, hethreatened to scale back USmilitary activities in the coun-try as he nurtured closer tieswith China and Russia butwalked back on many of histhreats, including a move toabrogate a defense pact thatwould have restrictedAmerican forces fromlargescale combat exercises inthe country. China's "coercionand aggression spans the globe,but it is most acute in the Indo-Pacific," the strategy papersaid, citing Beijing's "econom-ic coercion" of Australia, theintensifying pressure onTaiwan, bullying of neighboursin the East and South Chinaseas and the conflict along theLine of Actual Control withIndia. "Integrated deterrencewill be the cornerstone of ourapproach," the strategy papersaid.
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Asenior minister in theNepal government on
Thursday extended his supportto a demand to declare Nepala Hindu State, saying if themajority of the population arein favour, it can be donethrough a referendum.
Minister for Tourism andCulture Prem Ale, addressingthe opening of the two-dayExecutive Council meeting ofthe World Hindu Federation inKathmandu, said the demandto declare Nepal a Hindu statecan be considered and if suchdemand comes he "will play aconstructive role".
Minister Ale was respond-ing to the demand raised by theWorld Hindu Federation hereduring the programme. Morethan 150 representatives from12 countries, including Nepal,India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka,Malaysia, United States,Germany and UK, are attend-ing the two-day ExecutiveCouncil Meeting. "As the pre-sent five-party coalition gov-ernment enjoys close to twothird majority in Parliament,the demand to declare Nepal a
Hindu state can be put into ref-erendum," he pointed out.
"Although ourConstitution has declared thecountry as a secular state, if themajority of the population arein favour of a Hindu state, thenwhy not declare Nepal a Hindustate through referendum," heasked? Nepal was declared asecular state in 2008 after thesuccess of the people's move-ment of 2006 that saw theabolition of monarchy.Hinduism is the largest religionof Nepal. During the pro-gramme, World HinduFederation InternationalPresident Ajay Singh demand-ed that Nepal be declared aHindu state as the country isinhabited by a huge majority ofHindu population. "I was sur-prised to learn that the erstwhileHindu state Nepal was sudden-ly declared as a secular one," hepointed out. "If some countriescan be declared as Islamic statesand still adopt democratic sys-tem and other countries can bedeclared as Christian states andstill adopt democratic system,then why not Nepal be declaredas a Hindu democratic coun-try?'' he questioned.
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The countdown towardsthe most controversialWorld Cup in history
really begins on Friday as thedraw for Qatar 2022 takesplace in Doha, less than eightmonths before the start of thetournament itself.
As pandemic restrictionsease, some of football's biggestnames will be there for thedraw at a Doha conventioncentre among the skyscrapersof the city's West Bay district,as holders France and theirrivals find out who they willface in the group stage of thefirst World Cup to be held inNovember and December.
The dust has still not set-tled on qualifying, with finalmatches the three berths to bedecided in play-offs in June.
Seedings for the draw arebased on the latest FIFA worldrankings published onThursday, and the seven high-est-ranked qualifiers, includ-ing France, are in Pot Onealong with the host nation,despite Qatar being one of thelowest-ranked participants.
The tiny Gulf state ofunder three million peoplestunned the planet when itwon the right to host theWorld Cup at a vote in 2010,leading to accusations of vote-buying -- which were hotlydenied -- and questions overthe country's suitability.
Off-field issuesThe obvious issue was the
extreme heat in June and July,when the World Cup is tradi-tionally held, and so the deci-sion was taken to move thetournament to the northernhemisphere winter.
Then there has been thecriticism of the working con-
ditions of hundreds of thou-sands of migrant labourers inthe country, including thosewho built the stadiums. Thatled to the threat from somecountries of a boycott.
For all the issues, there isexcitement as a World Cupapproaches, and FIFAannounced on Wednesdaythat over 800,000 tickets hadbeen snapped up so far.
Seven of Qatar's eightWorld Cup stadiums arebrand new. Most will bereduced in size after the tour-nament, while one will evenbe dismantled altogether.
This week organisers havebeen eager to show off thegleaming infrastructure as theworld's media descend onDoha.
There will though beinevitable questions about thefate of the migrant workers,however much FIFA and localorganisers would prefer the talkto be solely about football.
The last 32-team tourna-ment
Even the draw itself cannotbe separated from bigger issuesbeyond football.
Russia's invasion of Ukrainethrew the European play-offs todecide the final three of UEFA's13 qualifying places into somechaos.
Russia were suspendedfrom all international footballuntil further notice, preventingthem from featuring in theplay-offs.
Ukraine's play-off semi-final against Scotland was post-poned until June, with the win-ner of that match facing Walesfor a place in Qatar.
England will certainly bethere, with their managerGareth Southgate dismissingtalk of a boycott.
Canada will be there too, fortheir first World Cup since1986, but Italy are the biggestabsentees from the draw aftertheir disastrous defeat by NorthMacedonia last week ruled themout again, just like in 2018.
Their next chance to qual-ify will be in 2026, by whichtime the World Cup will havebeen expanded to a bloated 48teams.
For all the controversy sur-rounding Qatar's World Cup, atleast it features 32 sides, splitinto eight groups of four, sure-ly the perfect number for foot-ball's global showpiece.
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The United States andMexico booked their
tickets to the World Cupfinals in Qatar onWednesday after securingthe results needed to claimthe last two automatic qual-ifying places from the CON-CACAF region. The USAwere beaten 2-0 by CostaRica in San Jose to finishthird in the standings whileMexico eased past ElSalvador 2-0 in Mexico Cityto finish second overall.
Costa Rica finishedqualifying in fourth placeand will face New Zealand ina playoff for a World Cupberth. Canada, who com-pleted their successful qual-ifying campaign with a 1-0defeat in Panama onWednesday, had alreadyqualified for the World Cupon Sunday.
Both the US and Mexicohad all-but sealed qualifica-tion after wins on Sundaymeant only a freak set ofresults in Wednesday's finalround would see either siderelegated to a playoff place.
Costa Rica needed tobeat the US by six goals ormore in San Jose to have achance of qualifying.
Two second-half goals ineight minutes by Juan Vargasand Anthony Contrerasraised hopes of a miracle forthe home fans, but theUnited States regrouped toclose out the game, qualify-ing ahead of Costa Rica ongoal difference.
"I'm extremely proud ofthis group," US starChristian Pulisic said afterWednesday's defeat.
"It's a bit of a weird feel-ing right now because I hateto lose so much. But I'm real-ly proud and I can't wait to
go to the World Cup.The United States qual-
ification comes after theirshock failure to reach the2018 World Cup in Russia,when an upset defeat toTrinidad and Tobago shat-tered their campaign.
Mexico ended their see-saw qualifying campaignwith a victory which ensuresthey will continue theirrecord of appearing at everyWorld Cup since the 1994tournament.
Mexico took the leadwhen Uriel Antuna jabbedhome from close range on 17minutes after a rebound froma Nestor Araujo header.
Wolves striker RaulJimenez then doubled theMexican lead from thepenalty spot to leave 'El Tri'on course for Qatar.
In Wednesday's otherqualifying game, Jamaicadefeated Honduras 2-1.
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Las Vegas will host a night-time Formula 1 Grand Prixalong its iconic Strip in 2023 with the sport's top offi-
cial describing the event as "an incredible moment".The race returns to the city for the first time since 1982
and will become the third grand prix in the United Stateson next year's F1 calendar, alongside Miami and Austin.
"This is an incredible moment for Formula 1 thatdemonstrates the huge appeal and growth of our sport witha third race in the US," said Stefano Domenicali, the pres-ident of Formula 1.
"Las Vegas is adestination knownaround the world forits excitement, hos-pitality, thrills, and ofcourse, the famousStrip. There is nobetter place forFormula 1 to racethan in the globalentertainment capi-tal of the world."
The race willtake place at night,on a Saturday inNovember.
The track willbe 3.8 miles (6.12km) long from start to finish with topspeeds estimated to be over 212 mph (342 km/h).
It will take in the city's most famous landmarks, hotelsand casinos.
There will be 50 laps with three main straights and 14corners, including a high-speed cornering sequence and asingle chicane section.
"Iconic Las Vegas and Formula 1, the pinnacle of motor-sport, is the perfect marriage of speed and glamour," saidGreg Maffei, president of F1's owners Liberty Media.
Las Vegas twice hosted F1 races in 1981 and 1982 onthe car park of Caesar's Palace after Watkins Glen in upstateNew York lost its rights after two decades.
The Miami Grand Prix debuts this year on May 8 whilethe United States Grand Prix takes place at Austin, Texason October 23.
The famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway previouslyplayed host to the US Grand Prix between 2000 and 2007.
This year will be the first time since Dallas and Detroitin 1984 that the United States has staged two races.
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Iga Swiatek's dream season con-tinued as she defeated Petra
Kvitova 6-3, 6-3 in the MiamiOpen quarter-finals to close in ona third successive WTA 1000crown.
The new world number onewon the title in Doha and thenIndian Wells and now has anexcellent chance of becomingonly the fourth woman in histo-ry to win the Sunshine Double -- triumphing in California andFlorida in the same year -- fol-lowing Steffi Graf (1994 and1996), Kim Clijsters (2005) andVictoria Azarenka (2016).Swiatek, who has now won 15successive WTA tour matches, isthe form player in the women'sgame at the moment andAmerican Jessica Pegula, whoreached the last four earlier in theday after fifth seed Paula Badosawas forced to retire because of ill-ness midway through the first set,
will have her work cut outattempting to stop the Polish 20-year-old when they meet onThursday for a place in the final.
Czech star Kvitova was onthe backfoot once she was brokenin the first set as Swiatek's excel-lent hitting, especially from theback of the court, and her serveultimately proved the difference.
The two-time Wimbledonchampion fought hard, butSwiatek was able to maintain heraggressive, attacking game andwhen she broke for 3-2 in the sec-ond set it was always going to bean uphill battle for the 32-year-old now ranked 32nd in theworld. "I want to use the confi-
dence I have had since the startof the year and I am on a roll,"Swiatek said after winning in onehour and 14 minutes at HardRock Stadium. "I am just sohappy I can compete againstlegends like Petra. I knew I hadto keep up with the pace as sheplays fast and I think my firstserve was the key."
Pegula goes into her secondWTA 1000 semi-final well rest-ed after her round of 16 matchagainst Anhelina Kalinina onlylasted a set before the Ukrainianretired.
The same fate then befellSpain's fifth-seeded Badosa in thequarters on Wednesday, as sheconceded the contest with thescore at 4-1 to the American.
Pegula, whose parents ownthe Buffalo Bills NFL franchise,has spent just three hours and 22minutes on court in her fourmatches so far and said: "I've def-initely played really, really cleantennis the last two sets.
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Aworld record crowd for awomen's football match of
91,553 saw Barcelona cruise into theChampions League semi-finals bythrashing Real Madrid 5-2 at CampNou on Wednesday to seal an 8-3win on aggregate.
The crowd figure surpassed theprevious record for a women's gamewhen 90,185 watched the 1999World Cup final between the UnitedStates and China at the Rose Bowlin Pasadena.
It also smashed the previousrecord attendance for a club fixture,set in March 2019 as 60,739 support-ers saw Barca beat Atletico Madrid
at the Wanda Metropolitano.Barcelona were eager to give the
fixture as much visibility as possible.The club's 147,000 members
were allowed 24 hours to book upto four free tickets, with only anadministration charge due of 2.50euros. Non-members were thenable to buy tickets for between 9 to15 euros.
The reigning European cham-pions advance to the semi-finalswhere they will face the winners ofArsenal and Wolfsburg, who playtheir second leg on Thursday, afterthe opening game in London fin-ished 1-1. Barca now own sevenwins out of seven in competitivemeetings against Real Madrid.
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The Indian troika of Kiran George, MeirabaLuwang Maisnam and Mithun Manjunath
progressed to the men's singles pre-quarterfinalsafter contrasting wins in the second round of theOrleans Masters Super 100 badminton tournamenthere.
While George stunned Netherland's third seedMark Caljouw 19-21 21-16 23-21, qualifier Meirabagot rid of eighth seed Toby Penty of England 21-16 21-16 and Manjunath prevailed over compatri-ot Siddharth Pratap Singh 21-14 21-10 in anothersecond round match.
George, who had won the Odisha Super 100event in January, will face Indonesian qualifierChristian Adinata, Meiraba meets Hong Kong'sChan Yin Chak and Manjunath takes on secondseeded Dane Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus next.
Ashwini Bhat K and Shikha Gautam eked outa 21-23 21-12 21-10 win over Danish pairing ofAmalie Schulz and Christine Busch to set up a fightagainst French duo of Flavie Vallet and EmilieVercelot.
Men's doubles pair of PS Ravikrishna andSankar Prasad Udayakumar also made it to the pre-quarterfinals with a 19-21 21-11 21-12 win overGerman pairing of Marvin Datko and PatrickScheiel.
Among others, top seed B Sai Praneeth andwomen's singles players Anupama Upadhyayaand Ira Sharma also entered the third round onWednesday night.
Mixed doubles pairing of Ishaan Bhatnagar andTanisha Crasto, seeded seventh, also crossed theopening round hurdle.
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The presence of threeOlympians, including
skipper Salima Tete, willcertainly be an advantagefor the Indian hockey teamwhen it competes at theFIH Women's JuniorWorld Cup, beginning hereon Friday.
Apart from Tete, mid-fielder Sharmila Devi andstriker Lalremsiami werepart of the senior teamwhich finished fourth atthe Tokyo Olympics.
The Indian team willbegin its campaign in PoolD against Wales onSaturday before taking onformidable Germany onSunday.
The Indians will thentake on Malaysia in thefinal pool match before
the quarterfinal roundwhich starts on April 8.
The 20-year-old Salimais a vital cog in the Indianmidfield. She has alreadyproved her capabilities in
the successful Olympicscampaign.
Her swiftness is a treatto watch. She mesmerisedwith her brilliant runs inthe bronze medal match
against Great Britain, earn-ing three penalty corners,albeit in a losing cause.
Lalresiami, the firstwoman Olympian fromMizoram, is a nimble-foot-ed striker, known for quickand poaching movementsinside the opposition circle.
The 20-year-oldSharmila, also an energeticforward, has impressed allwith her brilliant runs fromboth the flanks during theOlympics. She also scoreda goal in India's pool stagematch against GreatBritain.
The coveted quadren-nial tournament, whichwas originally scheduledfor December, was post-poned due to the Omicron-threat in South Africa.
"There is a lot of excite-ment among the players.
Everyone has worked sohard for this moment andused the postponement togain better exposure,improve as a team so wecan put up our best perfor-mance here," said Tete,who had led the U-18 teamto a silver medal at theYouth Olympics in 2018.
Highlighting the team'spreparations, the Indianskipper said: "Coming hereearly has helped us tremen-dously. We have been ableto get a good amount oftraining sessions herewhich has helped in accli-matising to the weather." "Itgets very warm and humidduring the day. It definite-ly helped to have our lastcamp before coming herein Bhubaneswar where wetrained in quite hot condi-tions."
Goals continue to rain in the 32nd All-India KD Singh ‘Babu’ MemorialU-14 prizemoney hockey tournament as Naval Tata Academy, Odisha andregister massive wins at Padamshri Mohd Shahid Stadium on Thursday.
Naval Tata Academy demolished Uttrakhand 31-0 with skipper Sahil Tirkeyscoring 11 goals including a double hattrick. He sounded the board in 31st,32nd and 34th minute for his first hattrick and came back to score in the 54th,56th and 58th minute to complete his double hattrick. Ronit Dung Dung wasequally lethal as he also scored a hattrick in his eight goal spree.
In another one-sided match, Flicker Brothers continued their winning formto blank Hockey Unit of Tamil Nadu 14-0. Shubhdeep Singh and Neeraj scoredhattricks. In another match, Guru Hockey Acacdemy scored a comfortable7-0 victory over Hockey Bihar.
Earlier, a condolence meet was also organised to pay the tribute to famoushockey coach Pandit Ram Avtaar Mishra. Former hockey players Syed Ali,Sujit Kumar, Mukul Lal Shah, Khursheed Ahmed and Imran-ul-Haq paid trib-utes to the departed soul.
�$��"���'�������'���"Mohd Saif and Ajeet Verma slammed tons to help Akhil Infra enter final
of the 17th Babu Banarasi Das ‘A’ Division cricket league, crushing Kooh SportsClub by 227 runs at CSD Sahara ground on Thursday.
Batting first Akhil Infra piled up a massive total of 396 runs for the lossof five wickets in the allotted 40 overs. Mohd Saif cracked 145 runs in just 81balls with the help of 5 sixes and 17 fours while Ajeet scored 108 runs off 82balls. He hit two sixes and 13 boundaries. In reply, Kooh Club were bundledout for mere 169 runs in 25.5 overs.
In a ‘C’ division match played at Parth Cricket ground, Parth CricketAcademy pummled Lucknow Academy by 198 runs.BRIEF SCORES:AICC: 396 (Mohd Saif 145, Ajeet Verma 108, Uvais Ahmed 63; AnshChaudhary 26/2, Shashank 85/2)KSC: 169 (Akshat Pandey 31, Ansh 27, Aniket 26; Shivam Sharma 10/3, Ajeet16/2, Abhinav 16/2)
stopped play after being sentin to bat. South African cap-tain Elgar made 67 in anopening partnership of 113with fellow left-hander SarelErwee (41) but Bangladeshfought back before Bavumaand Kyle Verreynne steadiedthe innings with an unbeat-en fifth wicket partnership of53. Bavuma, playing in his50th Test, made 53 not outand Verreynne was unbeatenon 27. It was Bavuma's 18thhalf-century. He has hit a sin-gle century. The Bangladeshbowlers failed to take advan-tage of a well-grassed pitch at
the start of the match, bowl-ing too many loose deliver-ies as South Africa scored 60runs without loss in 13 overs
in the first hour. But thetourists came back strongly,taking three wickets betweenlunch and tea and keeping
the run rate down. Off-spin-ner Mehidy Hasan played akey role for Bangladesh,bowling 26 overs in the dayand taking one for 57. Hebowled 22 overs in his firstspell, which enabled captainMominul Haque to rotate hisfast bowlers in short spells.
Mehidy's outstandingcontribution of the day, how-ever, was a sensational run-out. Fielding at backwardpoint he sped across theground to make a divingstop when Bavuma droveinto the covers. He picked theball up cleanly and threwdown the stumps from akneeling position to dismissKeegan Petersen, who hadlooked in good form in mak-ing 19.
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Evin Lewis, who looks up toChris Gayle for inspiration,batted, or rather, belted the
ball like the legendary Jamaican topower Lucknow Super Giants to anincredible win over Chennai SuperKings in the IPL on Thursday.
Lewis blazed away to anunbeaten 23-ball 55 as LSG, froma hopeless situation, overhauled animposing target of 211 with threeballs to spare.
Openers KL Rahul (40) andQuinton de Kock (61) laid thefoundation with a rollicking standbut the increasing required run ratemade the task extremely difficultfor LSG. However, Lewis had otherideas and along with the talentedAyush Badoni, who played his partwith a nine-ball 19, made it lookquite easy in the end.
The script changed complete-ly in the blink of an eye as Lewisand Badoni smashed Shivam Dube
for 25 runs in the penultimate overto bring the equation down to ninefrom the last six balls.
For sure, handing the ball toDube to bowl the 19th over will bedebated for a while.
In all, Lewis hit six fours andthree sixes as first-timers LSGrecorded their maiden win in thelucrative league. Badoni hit twomaximums, which turned out to becrucial in the context of the finalresult. Earlier, leg-spinner Ravi
Bishnoi (2/24) did a tremendousjob with the wet ball in difficultconditions, even as Robin Uthappaturned back the clock with hisbeautiful yet brutal assault to pro-pel CSK to a strong total.
Rahul and de Kock were off toa flyer, punishing the CSK bowlersinto submission. The duo was at itsdestructive best, dealing only infour and sixes and at one point itlooked like they were going to fin-ish the game in quick time.
But Dwaine Pretorius (2/31)was right on his mark as he got ridof Rahul before Dwayne Bravo(1/35) engineered Manish Pandey'sdismissal to bring the defendingchampions back in the game.Pretorius struck once again,accounting for compatriot de Kockas CSK continued to put pressurewith good fielding.
Then, Lewis joined forces withBadoni to do the job for LSG.
Kolkata Knight Riders are expectedto continue with their risk-taking
approach despite mixed returns whenthey take on Punjab Kings in the IndianPremier League here on Friday.
KKR head into Friday's game at theback of a three-wicket loss against RCBthough managed to make the game closeafter a below-par total.
Punjab began their campaign witha win but they would expecting a bet-ter bowling effort after conceding morethan 200 runs in their first game. SouthAfrica speedster Kagiso Rabada isexpected to play after completing histhree-day quarantine and that will givea big boost to the Punjab attack.
Batting at the Wankhede, where thetrack is relatively fresh, has not been easyas seen in the two games played at thevenue so far.
It may be early days in the two-month long IPL but the toss is alreadyplaying a significant role in the game'soutcome with dew coming into picturein the second half of the game.
Kolkata's openers, Ajinkya Rahaneand the attacking Venkatesh Iyer per-ished cheaply against RCB and the duowould be looking to provide a strongstart to the team.
While skipper Shreyas Iyer, who hasbeen in good form despite the failureagainst RCB, would be an important cogin the wheel, but would need supportfrom the likes of Nitish Rana.
For left-handed Rana, consistencywould be the key.
Apart from the duo, the responsi-bility in the middle order needs to beshouldered by Sam Billings, SheldonJackson and the big-hitting AndreRussell.
On the bowling front, pacer UmeshYadav was splendid in both the gameswith the new ball.
Experienced Kiwi bowler TimSouthee, who replaced Shivam Mavi andpicked up three wickets, too has a keyrole to play upfront.
The concern for Kolkata would bethe form of spinner Varun
Chakaravarthy, who needs to hit thestraps quickly.
For Punjab, a lot would rest on howtheir top three - skipper MayankAgarwal, flamboyant Shikhar Dhawanand Sri Lankan Bhanuka Rajapaksa,who played a match-winning cameoagainst RCB, perform.
While head coach Anil Kumblewould expect more contributions fromthe middle order, the likes of OdeanSmith and Shahrukh Khan proved theirmettle when they steered the side homeagainst RCB and would be keen to beamong the runs again.
It remains to be seen if Under-19World Cup star Raj Bawa, who failed onIPL debut, gets another chance.
Punjab bowlers came up against amarauding Faf Du Plessis in the firstgame and the likes of Sandeep Sharma,Arshdeep Singh and Odean Smithwould need to up their game againstKKR.
The eight overs from spin duo ofRahul Chahar and Harpreet Brar couldalso make a difference in the game.
Teams (From): Kolkata KnightRiders: Aaron Finch, Abhijeet Tomar,Ajinkya Rahane, Baba Indrajith, NitishRana, Pratham Singh, Rinku Singh,Shreyas Iyer, Ashok Sharma, PatCummins, Rasikh Dar, Shivam Mavi,Tim Southee, Umesh Yadav, VarunChakaravarthy, Aman Khan, AndreRussell, Anukul Roy, ChamikaKarunaratne, Mohammed Nabi,Ramesh Kumar, Sunil Narine, VenkateshIyer, Sam Billings, Sheldon Jackson.
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Danielle Wyatt made the most ofthe luck that came her way
enroute to a memorable hundred asdefending champions Englandshowed their big-match tempera-ment with a 137-run win overSouth Africa to enter the Women'sWorld Cup final here on Thursday.
Wyatt (129 off 125), who wasdropped five times, struck a maid-en World Cup hundred beforeSophia Dunkley produced a fine 60off 72 balls to take England to animposing 293 for eight after SouthAfrica chose to bowl.
South Africa, who had reachedthe last-four stage as the second bestteam from the league stage and alsoeliminated India from the compe-tition, crumbled under the pressureof a knock-out game.
They could never recover from
the body blow received in the sec-ond over of the chase when pacerAnya Shrubsole (2/27) had tourna-ment's leading run-getter LauraWolvaardt caught and bowled. Their innings ended at 156 in 38overs.
Left-arm spinner SophieEcclestone completed the job forEngland by cleaning up the lower-order, ending with six wickets for 36runs in eight overs. She had also hitan unbeaten 24 off 11 balls to takeEngland close to the 300-run mark.
With five wins on the trot afterthree losses that had them staring atan early exit, England's juggernautis well and truly rolling as they standon the cusp of a fifth title.
Their final and familiar oppo-nents Australia, on the other hand,are eyeing a record-extending sev-enth crown.
"That was a complete perfor-
mance from us, something we weresearching for a little bit. Reallychuffed that the girls have broughttheir best cricket when everything'son the line," said England skipperHeather Knight referring to theircomeback after a disastrous start totheir tournament campaign.
"I think the knockout cricketthat we have been playing for the lastfour games has helped us."
On meeting the undefeatedAustralia in the final on Sunday, sheadded: "We will go in as underdogs.We have put a lot of energy in thelast few weeks and need a one lastpush and hopefully we can do thaton Sunday."
It was a brilliant display ofswing bowling from Shrubsole thatbroke the backbone of South Africabatting in the run chase.
Wolvaardt's opening partnerLizelle Lee was Shrubsole's second
wicket as the out-of-form batterflicked it straight into the hands ofthe mid-wicket fielder, ending herforgettable campaign in the ICCevent.
After Kate Cross removed SuneLuus with a beauty that seamed tonip back in sharply, the writing wason the wall for South Africa, whopaid the price for their sloppy field-ing early on in the game.
Their decision to chase in ahigh-pressure game was also debat-able. However, it was still a good runfor South Africa in the competition.
"We needed to bring our bestperformance today and we didn'tand we are feeling it. We needed tobe clinical today and we weren't, itis time to keep on working," saidSouth Africa skipper Sune Luus.
I still think we had a great cam-paign and we are not taking any-thing away from that."
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Having recovered from his finger injury,star India batter Suryakumar Yadav has
joined the Mumbai Indians ahead of theirsecond IPL game against Rajasthan Royals,the five-time champions said on Thursday.
Surya, who was undergoing rehabilita-tion at the National Cricket Academy aftersuffering a finger injury during the homeseries against West Indies last month,missed MI's IPL opener against DelhiCapitals on March 27.
"Suryakumar Yadav exited his manda-tory quarantine and joined the team (onWednesday) for the gym session in the com-pany of his mates Kieron Pollard, IshanKishan and Jasprit Bumrah... The mood inthe camp is upbeat," MI said in a statement.
"The team underwent a strength andconditioning session yesterday under thewatchful eyes of Paul Chapman. The ses-sion involved weight and fitness training,with the focus on working on core fitnessand building strength."
Mumbai Indians had lost to DelhiCapitals by four wickets in their IPL open-er at the Brabourne Stadium here.
Mumbai failed to defend 178 as Delhishot off the target in just 18.2 overs, thanksto an unbroken 75-run stand between AxarPatel and Lalit Yadav for the seventh wick-et.
Star India pacer Jasprit Bumrah had alacklustre outing, leaking 43 runs from 3.2overs and it was their English debutantTymal Mills who impressed returning withfigures of 3-0-26-1.
Mills struck in his very first over for MI,
removing Delhi captain Rishabh Pant.Death bowling all about mindset: MillsAs someone who employs a lot of vari-
ations to win the battle in the slog overs,Mills said it's about mindset.
"Bowling at the death is a lot about themindset. You need to want to bowl the dif-ficult overs when the pressure is on. It issomething that I enjoy," the English pacersaid.
"I understand that I am not gonna comeout on top every time but when I do, it isa great feeling.
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Skipper Babar Azam and openerImam-ul-Haq smashed brilliant cen-
turies to help Pakistan pull off theirhighest ODI run-chase in a six-wickettriumph over Australia in Lahore onThursday. Azam hit an 83-ball 114 andHaq notched a 97-ball 106 as Pakistanchased down a stiff 349-run target withsix balls to spare to level the three-matchseries at 1-1. Ben McDermott crackeda maiden ODI hundred in Australia'simposing total of 348-8 on a flat
Gaddafi Stadium pitch.The victory is Pakistan's first over
Australia since Melbourne in January2017. In between, they had lost 10 con-secutive one-day internationals.Pakistan's win sets up an intriguing finalmatch at the same venue on Saturday.Australia won the first match by 88 runson Tuesday, also in Lahore.
Haq, who hit six boundaries andthree sixes, put on a robust 118-runopening stand with Fakhar Zaman (67)off 111 balls to set the platform for thechase. Zaman smashed seven bound-
aries and two sixes during his 64-ballknock before he was bowled by MarcusStoinis.
Undeterred, Haq completed hisninth hundred off 90 balls before heholed out at long-off in spinner AdamZampa's 35th over. Haq added 111 forthe second wicket with Azam off 92balls. Azam reached his 15th ODI cen-tury with a single off Cameron Green,reaching the mark off 73 balls. He added80 for the third wicket with MohammadRizwan before he was caught off NathanEllis with 40 needed
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Indian women's team head coach RameshPowar's contract has expired at the con-
clusion of the side's campaign in the ICCWorld Cup and he might have to reapply forthe post as per BCCI rules.
The disastrous World Cup campaigncould also lead to a radical shift in women'scricket, with National Cricket Academy(NCA) head VVS Laxman taking an activepart in mentoring the next batch of the coun-try's cricketers. The team failed to make thesemifinals of the ongoing tournament.
Powar had replaced WV Raman, whohad guided the team into the T20 World Cupfinal in 2020. "Powar's contract was till WorldCup. There is no provision for extension. Sothe entire process starts with applications andinterviews. Powar can certainly reapplyand CAC (Cricket Advisory Committee), asper the constitution, will take a call," a seniorBCCI source told PTI on the condition ofanonymity. Eyebrows were raised afterRaman wasn't given a second term after agood show with the team and Powar, whohad a chequered history with skipper MithaliRaj, was brought back. "The CAC takes thecall and if they felt Ramesh would do bet-ter than Raman, it was their call. The boardcan't interfere," the source said.
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last over and Mukesh Choudharybowling a couple of wides, Badonismashed a six to level the score andthen took his side over the line.
Earlier, Uthappa scored a fluent50 off 27 balls to give CSK a solidstart before Dube made 49 off 30deliveries, while skipper RavindraJadeja (17 off 9) and MS Dhoni (16off 6), who slammed two fours anda six, provided the final flourish.
Uthappa looked like a man ona mission as he slammed AveshKhan (2/38) for back-to-backboundaries off the first two balls ofthe innings.
With the ball coming nicely ontothe bat, he smashed it all over thepark.
CSK were dealt a blow when adirect hit by Bishnoi from backwardpoint marked the end of RuturajGaikwad (1), who was well short ofthe crease in the third over.
But Uthappa, and new manMoeen Ali (35), continued theassault by dealing only in fours andsixes. The Super Giants bowlers hadno answer for the duo as CSK racedto 73 for one at the end of thePowerplay.
In all, Uthappa slammed eightfours and one maximum, whileMoeen hit four boundaries and twosixes during his 22-ball stay.
It was Bishnoi again who gavethe second breakthrough when hetrapped Uthappa leg before with aquick delivery, soon after the batterreached his fifty.
Dube picked up from whereUthappa left, cracking three bound-aries off Dushmantha Chameera(0/49), who struggled with his line,in the ninth over. It was a bad dayfor the Sri Lankan as he repeatedlyfumbled with the ball in the field,giving away easy boundaries.
With the bowlers strugglingafter getting nothing from the wick-et, sloppy fielding made mattersworse for LSG.
Dube and Ambati Rayudu (27),then, shared a 60-run stand to keepCSK on course for a big total.
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