˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˘ˇ ˆ...2020/08/31  · sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide...

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P itching for “self-reliance” in every field, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday affirmed that toys be manufactured locally with the creative signature of Indian culture and tradition. With an eye obviously on China, which is a big source of toys for Indian children, the PM said a toy can change the life of a child and therefore a lot of attention has been given on the “impact of toys on different aspects of children’s lives in the country’s new education policy. Modi said the global toy industry is of more than 7 lakh crore rupees but regretted that India’s share in such a big indus- try is very little. In the quest for the next Google, Facebook and Twitter coming from India, Modi on Sunday talked about several homegrown apps which were recently awarded top prizes in the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge. The Prime Minister said the youth participated enthusiastically in the challenge. He noted that nearly two thirds of the entries were made by the youth of tier- 2 and tier-3 cities. Awards have been given to around two dozen apps in different categories, he said, asking listeners to famil- iarise themselves with these apps and to connect with them. Addressing the nation in his monthly radio talk ‘Man Ki Baat’, the Prime Minister re- emphasised his slogan ‘be vocal for local’ saying people should adopt Indian breed dogs who have performed excellently in the Indian forces, attracting very lit- tle expenses for their upkeep. “Our security agencies are also inducting these Indian breed dogs as part of their secu- rity squad. In the recent past, Mudhol Hound dogs have been trained and inducted in the dog squad of the Army, CISF and NSG; Kombai dogs have been included by the CRPF. Research on the Indian breed dogs is also being done by the Indian Council of Agriculture Research with the aim to make them better and more beneficial,” Modi said in his talk in which he dominant- ly spelled-out need for an “Atmanirbhar Bharat”. Before launching himself on the ‘self- reliance’ theme, the Prime Minister congratulated people on the range of festival across the country saying how they are being played in the time of coro- navirus pandemic. “The kind of restraint being practised across the country during this time is unprece- dented, Ganeshotsav too is also being celebrated online,” he said. This time around in his address, the Prime Minister put great stress on manufacturing local toys bearing the stamp of Indian culture and tradition which could be used in the cre- ative education of children. “Toys should be such that they bring out the childhood of a child and also his or her cre- ativity. “In the National Education Policy, a lot of attention has been given on the impact of toys on different aspects of chil- dren’s lives. Learning while playing, learning to make toys, visiting toy factories, all these have been made part of the cur- riculum,” said Modi quoting poet Rabindranath Tagore. T hree of every four Covid-19 cases in Asia come from India despite the country’s population of 135 crore being less than one-third of the con- tinent’s population of 460 crore. India’s record on testing is also dismal compared to other Asian nations. On the yardstick of testing per million popula- tions, India is way below most Asian countries, in some cases even 20 times less than its geo- graphical neighbours. This is just the starting point of analysing the pattern of the spread of coronavirus in Asia, and particularly in the Indian sub-continent com- prising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Interestingly, as many as 23 Asian countries have less than 20,000 total cases. Seven of the Asian countries did not report even a single case on Saturday. Asia reported 1,03,000 new cases on Saturday where- as India alone contributed 78,000 of them. Overall, Asia’s caseload stood at 68,88,876 is nearly double than of India’s total. The countries which did not report a single case on Saturday are Magnolia, Cambodia, Brunei, Macao, Timor Leste, Oman, and Laos. The Covid situation is under complete control in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, and several other countries whereas Bangladesh is trying to put out the fear of a second wave. Pakistan reported 319 new cases on Saturday, Sri Lanka 6, Bhutan 11, Maldives 109, and Nepal 844. Among India’s immediate neighbours only Bangladesh reported more than 2,000 cases. Iraq, the Philippines, and Indonesia are among some of the countries where the Covid situation is still giving hic- cups. They reported 3,834; 3,614 and 3,300 cases respec- tively on Saturday whereas Iran recorded 1,901 cases. Incidentally, much has been said about how people of these Asian countries have higher immunity because of cli- matic condition and heavy use of anti-malaria drugs and vac- cines over a period of time. The case of Pakistan is interesting. The country last reported 1,000 plus cases — 1,114 to be precise — on July 30. Since then in one month, their numbers of cases have steadily declined while India’s number has been on a one-way rise. Pakistan has now 2.95 lakh cases and is placed behind Bangladesh 3.8 lakh cases, Saudi Arabia 3.13 lakh cases, and Iran 3.71 lakh cases. Of course India remains on top with nearly 3.6 million cases. H aving already subjected to actress Rhea Chakraborty to a marathon questioning for 27-long hours during the past three days — including for nine hours on Sunday, the CBI sleuths appeared to be contemplating on summoning Sushant’s sisters Meethu and Priyanka Singh for questioning in the coming days on the late actor’s mental condition and other issues in the run-up to his alleged suicide. During her questioning on Saturday and Sunday, Rhea — who has been accused by Sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide — is understood to have been repeatedly questioned on Sushant’s mental condition in the run-up months to the actor’s death, whether she — as a stay-in friend — was giving medicines to Sushant, whether she had either given directly or administered drugs to Sushant, whether she had received money from the actor and whether she was taking finan- cial and career decisions for the deceased actor. Rhea was questioned for nine more hours for the third consecutive day. The CBI officials also ques- tioned Rhea’s brother Showik Chakraborty for the fourth consecutive day. Like they have been doing more for more than 10 days now, the CBI offi- cials also grilled Sushant’s cook Neeraj Singh and others. T he first phase of the Census and the exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR), scheduled for this year but deferred due to the coronavirus outbreak, may be delayed by a year as there is no sign of slowdown of the pan- demic. The Indian census is one of the largest administrative and statistical exercises in the world, with the involvement of more than 30 lakh officials who would visit each household across the length and breadth of the country. “Census is not an essential exercise for now. Even if it is delayed by a year, there would be no harm,” a senior official told PTI. The official said no final decision has been taken on when the first phase of the Census 2021 and NPR update would take place, but it is almost certain that it would not be held in 2020 due to the ris- ing cases of the coronavirus. “The virus threat is still loom- ing large,” another official said. D espite having differences with the dispensation in New Delhi over its handling of Kashmir affairs, former Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister and sitting Parliamentarian from Srinagar Dr Farooq Abdullah on Sunday strongly reacted to the recent statement of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister hailing ‘Gupkar dec- laration’. Without mincing any words Abdullah said, ‘we are not anyone’s puppets’. “Pakistan has always abused mainstream political parties of Jammu & Kashmir but now suddenly they like us,” former Chief Minister Abdullah said when asked about Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s statement that the declaration issued by the NC, PDP, Congress and three other parties was “not an ordinary occurrence but an important development”. Let me make it clear that we are not anyone’s puppets, neither New Delhi’s nor of anyone across the border. We are answerable to the people of Jammu & Kashmir and will work for them,” Dr Abdullah told a news agency. Referring to the issue of cross-border terrorism, Abdullah said, “I would urge Pakistan to stop sending armed men into Kashmir. We want an end to the bloodshed in J&K. All political parties in Jammu & Kashmir are committed to fight for our rights peacefully, including for what was uncon- stitutionally snatched away from us on August 5 last year.” Pitching for resumption of stalled dialogue process between India and Pakistan, the National Conference President also urged both India and Pakistan to resume their dialogue “for everyone’s greater good”. “Our people are being killed on both sides of the Line of Control every time there are ceasefire violations. For God’s sake bring a halt to that”, he said. N early 1,200 people have perished in 14 States due to incessant rainfalls and floods. As per the Ministry of Home Affairs report on flood dated August 27, West Bengal has reported 258 deaths, the highest number of deaths due to flood and rain-related inci- dents this year. Bengal is followed by Gujarat with 175 and Assam 139 (113 died due to flood while 26 of landslides) deaths. Madhya Pradesh has reported 140 deaths; Kerala 111; Karnataka 101; Maharashtra 62; Jammu and Kashmir 44; Chhattisgarh 37; Bihar and Odisha 27 deaths each, Uttar Pradesh 26; Punjab 11 and Andhra Pradesh two deaths. Flood and incessant rain- fall have affected over 1.72 crore population of 11 States. It is estimated that 7.80 lakh hectare crops in seven States are damaged. The survey for dam- aged crops is going on in Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Jammu & Kashmir. According to the Central Water Commission, parts of central India recorded excep- tional rain in the past few days leading to overflowing reservoirs that are at “extreme flood situ- ation”. According to the Ministry, nearly 56.91 lakh population are affected in 20 districts of Assam. The State has received 1236.20 mm rainfall so far this year. The kharif crops plantation has been severely affected. West Bengal has recorded 1138.3 mm rainfall so far. As many as 23 districts and 2-3 lakh population are affected due to flood in the State. In Bihar, 86.60 lakh popu- lation are affected in 16 districts. The State has received 945.3 mm rainfall and 27 people have been died so far. Currently, 48 districts of Madhya Pradesh are affected from floods. The survey of crops loss is going on in the State. A new bridge built on the Wainganga in Seoni dis- trict, some 350 km from Bhopal, collapsed on Sunday (August 30) that was its official date of completion. The water from Shivna river entered Pashupatinath Temple at Mandsaur on Sunday. The Army has been called to rescue people after heavy rains in flooded areas of Hoshangabad district of the State. According to the Central Water Commission, eight dams have breached 100 per cent capacity. NEW DELHI: With the Centre allowing commence- ment of Delhi Metro train services from September 7, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has formulated a standard oper- ating procedure (SOP) for mitigating people to people contact. Passengers boarding Metro trains won’t be able to avail token system. They will be allowed to trav- el by using smart cards only. Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot said thermal screening will be conducted at stations. S oon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi talked about making “toys for the world” in his Mann Ki Baat address on Sunday, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi took a swipe at him saying the students expected to listen the PM’s view on the NEET and JEE exams amidst pandemic, but the PM went on to chat about making India a toy hub. “Lakhs of college students protesting the conduct of JEE and NEET exams during the Covid crisis would have pre- ferred a “pariksha pe charcha (discussion on exams)” over a “khilona pe charcha (discus- sion on toys)”, Rahul Gandhi tweeted. Despite speculations, The PM did not speak a word about the upcoming NEET and JEE exams. Rahul has been continu- ously criticising the Government over various issues and the latest in his series of attacks comes amid protests from students and Opposition parties over the decision to hold JEE and NEET this week. Rahul took to Twitter on Sunday to announce about the video series on “how the Modi Government has destroyed the Indian economy” with a short clip where he states how demonetisation, “flawed GST” and the coronavirus lockdown have hit the national economy. The first video will be out at 10 am on Monday on all his social media channels.. “I will give you three big examples right now — demon- etization, flawed GST and the lockdown,” Rahul said in a 26- second clip.

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Page 1: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˘ˇ ˆ...2020/08/31  · Sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide — is understood to have been repeatedly questioned on Sushant’s mental condition

���������� ��������� ������������������������ �� ���� ������������� ���� ������ ���������� ���� ���� ������������������������� ����� ���� ������������������������������������������������ ����� ������������� �!������ ���������"����#�

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Pitching for “self-reliance”in every field, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi onSunday affirmed that toys bemanufactured locally with thecreative signature of Indianculture and tradition.

With an eye obviously onChina, which is a big source oftoys for Indian children, the PMsaid a toy can change the life ofa child and therefore a lot ofattention has been given on the“impact of toys on differentaspects of children’s lives in thecountry’s new education policy.

Modi said the global toyindustry is of more than 7 lakhcrore rupees but regretted thatIndia’s share in such a big indus-try is very little.

In the quest for the nextGoogle, Facebook and Twittercoming from India, Modi onSunday talked about severalhomegrown apps which wererecently awarded top prizes inthe AatmaNirbhar Bharat AppInnovation Challenge. ThePrime Minister said the youthparticipated enthusiastically inthe challenge. He noted thatnearly two thirds of the entrieswere made by the youth of tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Awards havebeen given to around two dozen

apps in different categories, hesaid, asking listeners to famil-iarise themselves with theseapps and to connect with them.

Addressing the nation in hismonthly radio talk ‘Man KiBaat’, the Prime Minister re-emphasised his slogan ‘be vocalfor local’ saying people shouldadopt Indian breed dogs whohave performed excellently in the

Indian forces, attracting very lit-tle expenses for their upkeep.

“Our security agencies arealso inducting these Indianbreed dogs as part of their secu-rity squad. In the recent past,Mudhol Hound dogs have beentrained and inducted in thedog squad of the Army, CISFand NSG; Kombai dogs havebeen included by the CRPF.

Research on the Indianbreed dogs is also being done bythe Indian Council ofAgriculture Research with theaim to make them better andmore beneficial,” Modi said inhis talk in which he dominant-ly spelled-out need for an

“Atmanirbhar Bharat”. Beforelaunching himself on the ‘self-reliance’ theme, the PrimeMinister congratulated peopleon the range of festival across thecountry saying how they arebeing played in the time of coro-navirus pandemic.

“The kind of restraint beingpractised across the countryduring this time is unprece-dented, Ganeshotsav too is alsobeing celebrated online,” hesaid.

This time around in hisaddress, the Prime Minister putgreat stress on manufacturinglocal toys bearing the stamp ofIndian culture and traditionwhich could be used in the cre-ative education of children.

“Toys should be such thatthey bring out the childhood ofa child and also his or her cre-ativity.

“In the National EducationPolicy, a lot of attention hasbeen given on the impact oftoys on different aspects of chil-dren’s lives. Learning whileplaying, learning to make toys,visiting toy factories, all thesehave been made part of the cur-riculum,” said Modi quotingpoet Rabindranath Tagore.

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Three of every four Covid-19cases in Asia come from

India despite the country’spopulation of 135 crore beingless than one-third of the con-tinent’s population of 460 crore.

India’s record on testing isalso dismal compared to otherAsian nations. On the yardstickof testing per million popula-tions, India is way below mostAsian countries, in some caseseven 20 times less than its geo-graphical neighbours.

This is just the startingpoint of analysing the patternof the spread of coronavirus inAsia, and particularly in theIndian sub-continent com-prising India, Pakistan,Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives,Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Interestingly, as many as 23Asian countries have less than20,000 total cases. Seven of theAsian countries did not reporteven a single case on Saturday.

Asia reported 1,03,000new cases on Saturday where-as India alone contributed78,000 of them. Overall, Asia’scaseload stood at 68,88,876 isnearly double than of India’stotal.

The countries which didnot report a single case onSaturday are Magnolia,Cambodia, Brunei, Macao,Timor Leste, Oman, and Laos.

The Covid situation isunder complete control inPakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal,Bhutan, Maldives, and severalother countries whereasBangladesh is trying to put outthe fear of a second wave.

Pakistan reported 319 newcases on Saturday, Sri Lanka 6,Bhutan 11, Maldives 109, andNepal 844. Among India’simmediate neighbours onlyBangladesh reported more than2,000 cases.

Iraq, the Philippines, andIndonesia are among some ofthe countries where the Covidsituation is still giving hic-

cups. They reported 3,834;3,614 and 3,300 cases respec-tively on Saturday whereasIran recorded 1,901 cases.

Incidentally, much hasbeen said about how people ofthese Asian countries havehigher immunity because of cli-matic condition and heavy useof anti-malaria drugs and vac-cines over a period of time.

The case of Pakistan isinteresting. The country lastreported 1,000 plus cases —1,114 to be precise — on July 30.Since then in one month, theirnumbers of cases have steadilydeclined while India’s numberhas been on a one-way rise.

Pakistan has now 2.95 lakhcases and is placed behindBangladesh 3.8 lakh cases,Saudi Arabia 3.13 lakh cases,and Iran 3.71 lakh cases. Ofcourse India remains on topwith nearly 3.6 million cases.������ ������ �-��.,

Having already subjected toactress Rhea Chakraborty

to a marathon questioning for27-long hours during the pastthree days — including for ninehours on Sunday, the CBI sleuthsappeared to be contemplating onsummoning Sushant’s sisters Meethu and PriyankaSingh for questioning in thecoming days on the late actor’smental condition and otherissues in the run-up to hisalleged suicide.

During her questioning onSaturday and Sunday, Rhea —who has been accused bySushant’s family members ofabetting the actor’s suicide —is understood to have beenrepeatedly questioned onSushant’s mental condition in

the run-up months to theactor’s death, whether she — asa stay-in friend — was givingmedicines to Sushant, whethershe had either given directly oradministered drugs to Sushant,whether she had receivedmoney from the actor andwhether she was taking finan-cial and career decisions for thedeceased actor.

Rhea was questioned fornine more hours for the thirdconsecutive day.

The CBI officials also ques-tioned Rhea’s brother ShowikChakraborty for the fourthconsecutive day. Like they havebeen doing more for morethan 10 days now, the CBI offi-cials also grilled Sushant’s cookNeeraj Singh and others.

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The first phase of the Censusand the exercise to update

the National PopulationRegister (NPR), scheduled forthis year but deferred due to thecoronavirus outbreak, may bedelayed by a year as there is nosign of slowdown of the pan-demic.

The Indian census is one ofthe largest administrative andstatistical exercises in the world,with the involvement of morethan 30 lakh officials whowould visit each householdacross the length and breadthof the country.

“Census is not an essentialexercise for now. Even if it isdelayed by a year, there wouldbe no harm,” a senior officialtold PTI.

The official said no finaldecision has been taken onwhen the first phase of theCensus 2021 and NPR updatewould take place, but it isalmost certain that it would notbe held in 2020 due to the ris-ing cases of the coronavirus.“The virus threat is still loom-ing large,” another officialsaid.

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Despite having differenceswith the dispensation in

New Delhi over its handling ofKashmir affairs, formerJammu & Kashmir ChiefMinister and sittingParliamentarian from SrinagarDr Farooq Abdullah on Sundaystrongly reacted to the recentstatement of Pakistan’s ForeignMinister hailing ‘Gupkar dec-laration’.

Without mincing anywords Abdullah said, ‘we arenot anyone’s puppets’.

“Pakistan has alwaysabused mainstream politicalparties of Jammu & Kashmirbut now suddenly they like us,”former Chief MinisterAbdullah said when askedabout Pakistan ForeignMinister Shah MehmoodQureshi’s statement that thedeclaration issued by the NC,PDP, Congress and three otherparties was “not an ordinaryoccurrence but an importantdevelopment”.

Let me make it clear thatwe are not anyone’s puppets,

neither New Delhi’s nor ofanyone across the border. Weare answerable to the people ofJammu & Kashmir and willwork for them,” Dr Abdullahtold a news agency.

Referring to the issue ofcross-border terrorism,Abdullah said, “I would urgePakistan to stop sending armedmen into Kashmir. We want anend to the bloodshed in J&K.All political parties in Jammu& Kashmir are committed tofight for our rights peacefully,including for what was uncon-stitutionally snatched away from us on August 5 lastyear.”

Pitching for resumptionof stalled dialogue processbetween India and Pakistan,the National ConferencePresident also urged bothIndia and Pakistan to resumetheir dialogue “for everyone’sgreater good”.

“Our people are beingkilled on both sides of the Lineof Control every time there areceasefire violations. For God’ssake bring a halt to that”, hesaid.

��!���" ���� �)*�()�+,

Nearly 1,200 people haveperished in 14 States due

to incessant rainfalls andfloods.

As per the Ministry ofHome Affairs report on flooddated August 27, West Bengalhas reported 258 deaths, thehighest number of deaths dueto flood and rain-related inci-dents this year.

Bengal is followed byGujarat with 175 and Assam139 (113 died due to floodwhile 26 of landslides) deaths.Madhya Pradesh has reported140 deaths; Kerala 111;Karnataka 101; Maharashtra62; Jammu and Kashmir 44;Chhattisgarh 37; Bihar andOdisha 27 deaths each, UttarPradesh 26; Punjab 11 andAndhra Pradesh two deaths.

Flood and incessant rain-fall have affected over 1.72crore population of 11 States. Itis estimated that 7.80 lakhhectare crops in seven States aredamaged. The survey for dam-aged crops is going on in Bihar,Gujarat, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra, WestBengal and Jammu & Kashmir.

According to the Central

Water Commission, parts ofcentral India recorded excep-tional rain in the past few daysleading to overflowing reservoirsthat are at “extreme flood situ-ation”.

According to the Ministry,nearly 56.91 lakh population areaffected in 20 districts of Assam.The State has received 1236.20mm rainfall so far this year. Thekharif crops plantation has beenseverely affected.

West Bengal has recorded

1138.3 mm rainfall so far. Asmany as 23 districts and 2-3lakh population are affecteddue to flood in the State.

In Bihar, 86.60 lakh popu-lation are affected in 16 districts.The State has received 945.3mm rainfall and 27 peoplehave been died so far. Currently,48 districts of Madhya Pradeshare affected from floods. Thesurvey of crops loss is going onin the State. A new bridge builton the Wainganga in Seoni dis-

trict, some 350 km fromBhopal, collapsed on Sunday(August 30) that was its officialdate of completion. The waterfrom Shivna river enteredPashupatinath Temple atMandsaur on Sunday.

The Army has been calledto rescue people after heavy rainsin flooded areas of Hoshangabaddistrict of the State. Accordingto the Central WaterCommission, eight dams havebreached 100 per cent capacity.

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NEW DELHI: With theCentre allowing commence-ment of Delhi Metro trainservices from September 7,the Delhi Metro RailCorporation (DMRC) hasformulated a standard oper-ating procedure (SOP) formitigating people to peoplecontact. Passengers boarding Metrotrains won’t be able to availtoken system. They will be allowed to trav-el by using smart cards only.

Delhi Transport MinisterKailash Gahlot said thermalscreening will be conducted atstations.

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Soon after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi talked about

making “toys for the world” inhis Mann Ki Baat address onSunday, former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi took a swipe athim saying the studentsexpected to listen the PM’s viewon the NEET and JEE examsamidst pandemic, but the PMwent on to chat about makingIndia a toy hub.

“Lakhs of college studentsprotesting the conduct of JEEand NEET exams during theCovid crisis would have pre-ferred a “pariksha pe charcha(discussion on exams)” over a“khilona pe charcha (discus-sion on toys)”, Rahul Gandhitweeted. Despite speculations,The PM did not speak a wordabout the upcoming NEETand JEE exams.

Rahul has been continu-ously criticising theGovernment over variousissues and the latest in his seriesof attacks comes amid protestsfrom students and Oppositionparties over the decision tohold JEE and NEET this week.

Rahul took to Twitter onSunday to announce about thevideo series on “how the ModiGovernment has destroyed theIndian economy” with a shortclip where he states howdemonetisation, “flawed GST”and the coronavirus lockdownhave hit the national economy.

The first video will be outat 10 am on Monday on all hissocial media channels..

“I will give you three bigexamples right now — demon-etization, flawed GST and thelockdown,” Rahul said in a 26-second clip.

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Page 2: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˘ˇ ˆ...2020/08/31  · Sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide — is understood to have been repeatedly questioned on Sushant’s mental condition

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For the first time, the AllIndia Kisan Mela of the GB

Pant University of Agricultureand Technology will be held inthe virtual mode. The 108thKisan Mela will be organised bythe university from October 13to 16.

However, considering gov-ernmental regulations in placeto check the spread of theCovid-19 contagion, the uni-versity has decided to hold thisevent virtually.

This decision was taken ata meeting of the Kisan Melaadvisory committee presidedover by the university’s vicechancellor Tej Pratap recently.

The vice chancellorinformed that in view of theCovid-19 pandemic and con-

sidering the regulations of theGovernment of India, the KisanMela will be held in the virtu-al mode this time. The sale ofhigh yielding seeds, plants andother products will be sold onthe basis of online registrationsby farmers in advance.

The process of online reg-istration has already been start-ed. The vice chancellor furtherinformed that after registeringonline, the farmers can receivethe seeds, plants and otherproducts from the universityafter September 15.

For registration, the farm-ers can also contact the uni-versity by phone, message or inperson and demand the prod-ucts available and the quanti-ty according to their require-ments.

The events held every year

during the Kisan Mela like thespecial lectures, discussionswith farmers and felicitationswill be held on the online plat-form during this year’s KisanMela. Information about vari-ous techniques and researchwork will be provided throughvideo to the attendees. Pratapfurther informed that interest-ed farmers can also register atthe Krishi Vigyan Kendra inthe area to procure the seeds asper their requirement. All pro-grammes of the Kisan Mela willbe available for viewingthrough the virtual mode at theKrishi Vigyan Kendras. Thetimings of the Kisan Mela willbe from 10 AM to 5 PM daily.Farmers interested in register-ing or seeking informationshould phone at 05944-234810,he added.

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Acharya Balkrishna ofPatanjali inaugurated

Pushpak Bajaj, an authoriseddealer of Bajaj Auto nearSinhdwar in Haridwar. Thepro-vice chancellor of Patanjaliuniversity, Mahavir Agrawalgot a hawan conducted on theoccasion.

Congratulating the show-room operator PriyanshuGupta on the occasion,Acharya Balkrishna said thatthe Swadeshi company Bajajhad consistently moved aheadby gaining the trust of the peo-ple. Two-wheelers made by

Bajaj have been favoured by thepeople since the beginning, headded.

Priyanshu Gupta said thatthe Pushpak Bajaj outlet hadbeen opened due to customerdemand. Stating that it is thebiggest such showroom inHaridwar, he said that theentire range of vehicles in thecategory being sold is availableat the showroom.

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The 15-year-old daughter of arailway official was taken into

custody on Saturday after sheallegedly shot dead her motherand brother.

The wife and son of R.D.Bajpai, Executive Director,Railway Board, were found mur-dered at the government bunga-low under Gautam Palli police sta-tion in Lucknow on Saturday.

The officer's daughter, whostudies in Class 10 and is a trainedshooter, and is said to be suffer-ing from depression.

Lucknow Commissioner ofPolice (CP) Sujeet Pandey said,"After killing the two, the minorgirl, who was not in good mentalhealth, also tried to harm herselfby slitting her wrists with a razor."

At the time of the incident,the railway officer was in Delhiwhere he is posted. The girl hasbeen admitted in hospital, thepolice commissioner said. This actreflected the girl's mental insta-bility and that she required imme-diate medical assistance, he added.

The police official said thegirl, who is a trained shooter andprolific user of weapons, used a.22 bore rifle to commit thecrime.

Pandey said the girl firedthree bullets -- one hit a mirrorand two others killed her moth-er and brother. He said that thegirl had written the words 'I ama disqualified human' on thewashroom mirror with fruit jam,which made her a suspect.

The girl was questionedbefore her maternal grandparents

and she confessed to committingthe crime. The rifle used in thecrime had been recovered on thebasis of her disclosure.

The girl, police sources said,was inspired by Japanese authorOsamu Dazai, who talks aboutestrangement of the individualfrom society.

Police stumbled upon therevelation after the confession ofthe girl in presence of womencops and a counsellor.

A senior officer who interro-gated the girl, said she used to fol-low the characters of Dazai.

"A character in Dazai's novelcalled Oba Yozo tries to adapt,cope and fit in but fails to becomea human. The girl identified withthat. In her notebook, she hasscribbled 'to fail to be human, tobe disqualified as a human being'.

This is an excerpt from the book'Longer Human' by Dazai," saidthe officer.

The police also recovered atoy 'skull' and other grotesquephotos from inside her room.

It may be recalled that the rail-way official's wife Malti (45) andson, Sarvdutt, were found mur-dered while sleeping on Saturdayafternoon.

The double murder sentshock waves since the bungalowis located in a high-security zone,barely a kilometre from the ChiefMinister's residence.

Initially, the police quizzed theservants since no forceful entryhad been made in the house.

The girl remained quiet andthe police thought she was in astate of shock. However, the girlkept caressing her hand over the

full sleeved shirt she was wearing.It was later found that the

hand was bandaged and when hergrandparents made her take offthe bandage, they found severalcuts made by a razor. This madeher a suspect.

On further questioning, thegirl told the police that onSaturday, after having lunch, herbrother and mother had gone tosleep.

The girl went to the bath-room, took a shower and thenwith fruit jam scribbled 'I am adisqualified human', on the mir-ror. She also shot at the bathroommirror. She later came out andshot at her mother and brotherwho were asleep.

The girl herself informed hermaternal relatives and domesticworkers about the incident.

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A35-year-old man who hadallegedly set his cousin

ablaze in a market area inUttar Pradesh, ended his life bysuicide in a temporary jail's toi-let. Robin Varma (35) hadallegedly poured highly-inflammable industrial thinner(methyl) on his cousin RakeshVarma (40) and had set himablaze on Wednesday.

Rakesh, who sustained 80per cent burns, succumbed tohis injuries in hospital.

Firozabad SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP)Sachindra Patel had said,"Initial investigation revealedthat Puja Varma, the wife ofRobin had committed suicideon August 12. There seems tobe some dispute in the familywhich led to the incident."

Robin, after his arrest,allegedly hanged himself inthe toilet of a temporary jail hewas lodged in. He was to beshifted in the district jail aftercompletion of the 14-day quar-antine.

On Saturday, Robin wentto the toilet. When he didn'treturn to his room after 30minutes, security guards wentinside and found him hanging.

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In a second such incident in a week, aDalit widow and a man, both belong-

ing to the same community, were publiclyshamed for having a relationship.

Their heads were tonsured, facesblackened, and were made to wear a gar-land of shoes, while attempts were alsomade to disrobe the woman.

The incident took place in NaglaGurbaksh village on Friday night.

Both of them, however, were rescuedby police in time. A video of the incidenthas gone viral on social media.

Based on a complaint lodged by oneof the victims, the police arrested threepersons on Saturday.

Mainpuri Superintendent of PoliceAjay Kumar said that a case has been reg-istered against 16 people, including 10

unidentified women, under IPC sections499 and 500 (defamation), 269 and 270(negligent act likely to spread infectiousdiseases), and section 506 (criminalintimidation).

He said that a search was on for theremaining accused.

The locals have claimed that the duowas in a relationship for the past threeyears.

They said that a neighbour of thewoman had allegedly caught her in a"compromising position" with the man onFriday night after which they thrashedand publicly shamed them.

The incident came days after a widowand a differently-abled man was thrashed,their heads tonsured and faces blackenedbefore being paraded in a village as pun-ishment for their alleged illicit relation-ship in Kannauj district.

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Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan has said that the

flood affected people are beinghelped in the State withpromptness. Relief efforts havebeen carried out in the affect-ed areas. About 10,000 peoplehave been saved through therescue operation. No loss of lifehas caused. Boats are alsoactive to evacuate people to safeplaces.

Three helicopters of AirForce are conducting rescueoperation. Four teams ofNDRF are working actively.Commissioner Bhopal besidesother officers of Bhopal divi-sion are constantly monitoringthe flood affected areas ofBhopal division. Will not leaveany stone unturned in rescueand relief efforts.

Chouhan on Sundaymorning held a high levelmeeting with Chief SecretaryIqbal Singh Bains, DirectorGeneral of Police Vivek Johri,Additional Chief SecretaryHome Rajesh Rajoura,Additional Chief SecretaryWater Resources S.N. Mishra,Principal Secretary to CMManish Rastogi and soughtinformation in detail about

the situation caused by heavyrains in the state. Rescue oper-ation continues in districtsChief Minister Chouhaninformed that a family was introuble after heavy incessantrains in Valwat village ofHoshangabad district.

The family was rescued byboat. Five people, including twoinfants in the family werestranded in the f lood.Rajkumari Keer, Arti Keer, aboy aged 3 years, girls aged 5months and two months havebeen evacuated safely.

These kinds of efforts havealso been carried out inChhindwara, Balaghat, Sehore,Dewas, Seoni and Raisen dis-tricts.

Families have been airlift-ed from Somalwara of Sehoredistrict and sent to Shahganj.In the last two days, over 7,000people have been evacuatedsafely from the flood affectedvillages of 12 districts of thestate. Control room has beenset up at CM house and mon-itoring is being done.

The Chief Minister alsoconducted continuous moni-toring in the midnight ofSaturday and Sunday. About400 villages of the state areaffected by flood. As per the

requirement, help is also beingtaken from the Army.Chouhan informed that therecord of heavy rainfalloccurred 20 years ago is brokenby incessant heavy rains insome parts of Narmadanchal.One hundred seventy reliefcamps have been set up in thestate, in which around 9300people have been accommo-dated.

In view of corona crisis,arrangement of screening hasalso been made at severalplaces.

Chief Minister ShriChouhan further mentionedthat keeping in view the floodsituation, necessary relief worksare being conducted in affect-ed areas. Rescue teams areactive. It has been ensuredthat no loss to life caused in theState. Chief Minister Chouhaninformed that the record of1999 flood is broken.

Chouhan informed thatthe Prime Minister NarendraModi was also apprised of thesituation of flood affected areasof the state. Union Minister forDefence was also informed inthe past.

Chief Minister Chouhanfurther informed that no stonewill be left unturned in pro-

viding relief in flood affectedareas of the state. He said thatheavy rains and flooding isbeing monitored continuously.Relief works are being done atwar footing.

No loss to life is caused atany place. The Chief Ministerappealed the general publicnot to insist for staying back inflooded areas and on the call ofadministration, cooperateimmediately to shift to otherplaces or relief camps whiletaking precautions.

Better arrangements arebeing made. Chouhan saidthat kaccha houses do not bearthe brunt of heavy rains. Actionis also being taken to vacatethese houses. Will not leave anystone unturned for the safety ofpeople.

Chief Minister Chouhanalso urged the voluntary orga-nizations to render coopera-tion. Lend help in providingfood, clothes and other assis-tance to flood affected people.People dwelling in kachchahouses have been advised toshift to other places to protecttheir lives.

Chouhan said that the ben-efit of all the relief provisionsof the Revenue Book Circular(RBC 6-4) will be given to

farmers. The situation arisingout of heavy rainfall will beassessed after survey. Full helpwill be given as per the eligi-bility after assessing real con-dition of crops. A process isalso underway to provide ben-efit of insurance scheme to thefarmers.People airlifted withthe help of IAF

Chief Minister ShriChouhan informed that 3 peo-ple of flood affected Kulmi vil-lage of Balaghat district havebeen airlifted. In Chhindwaradistrict, 6 people have evacu-ated on August 29 from floodaffected areas with the help ofIndian Air Force.

The Army and a team ofNDRF are making effort toevacuate flood affected peoplein some villages likeBandrabhan of Hoshangabaddistrict. Two companies havebeen deployed in Hoshangabaddistrict. Some villages of Sehoredistrict are still surrounded byflood.

Administration is in con-stant contact with people. Ifneeded, team of NDRF alongwith Army Jawans will helpaffected people. A team ofArmy will help people of vicin-ity by setting up base inNasrullaganj and Shahganj.

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Aizawl: Over one lakh tabletsof Methamphetamine, alsoknown as party drugs, worthRs 3.50 crore have been seizedfrom a person in easternMizoram's Champhai districtbordering Myanmar, officialssaid on Sunday.

Acting on a tip-off, Aizawlbattalion of paramilitary AssamRifles launched a joint opera-tion with the officials ofDirectorate of RevenueIntelligence in the Diltlangarea of Champhai district lateSaturday evening and seizedone lakh of Methamphetaminetablets from the custody of adrug peddler.

In a separate action, theAssam Rifles troopers haveseized 80 bags of Areca Nutsvalued at Rs 11.24 lakh fromMelbuk areas in the sameChamphai district and arrest-ed a person. The detaineealong with recovered items,smuggled from neighbouringMyanmar, was handed over toCustom Prevention Force.

An Assam Rifles' pressstatement said : "Ongoing ille-

gal drug trades are a majorcause of concern for the stateof Mizoram. Assam Rifles,rightly christened as the'Sentinels of North East' havebeen successful in launchingsuch operations against theillicit smuggling in Mizoram."

Methamphetamine tablets(also called Yaba tablet or partytablet) contain a mix ofmethamphetamine and caf-feine and are misused as high-dosage drugs in India,Bangladesh and neighbouringcountries.

According to the BorderSecurity Force, Assam Riflesand intelligence officials, Yaba

tablets and other drugs aresmuggled into the northeasternstates from neighbouringMyanmar and then smuggledto Bangladesh, Sri Lanka andvarious Indian states. AlthoughMizoram's international borderwith Bangladesh and Myanmarand inter-state borders withTripura, Assam and Manipurare sealed in view of the Covid-19 outbreak, smuggling of var-ious drugs, arms and ammu-nition and other contraband isstill going on.

Mountainous Mizoram hasan unfenced international bor-der of 404 kms with Myanmarand 318 kms with Bangladesh.While the BSF guards theBangladesh border, the borderwith Myanmar is looked afterby Assam Rifles.Assam Rifleshas so far seized drugs andother contraband includingheroin worth of around Rs 26crore since July 1.

Many drug peddlers,including Myanmarese andIndian nationals, were alsoarrested by the Assam Rifles. IANS

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As many as 17 people havedied while over 14 lakh

people in 20 districts wereaffected due to floods inOdisha, the state governmentsaid here on Sunday.

A total of 112 blocks, 896gram panchayats, 3,256 vil-lages, 21 urban local bodies and75 wards have been hit by theflood situation, said the officeof Special Relief Commissioner(SRC).

The 20 districts affecteddue to floods are Angul,Balasore, Bargarh, Bhadrak,Boudh, Cuttack, Dhenkanal,Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur,Jharsuguda, Kendrapara,Keonjhar, Khordha,Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh,Nuapada, Puri, Sambalpur,Sonepur and Sundergarh.

While 340 villages weremarooned, and as many as10,382 houses were damagedwhile 1,68,904 hectares of cropwere affected due to flood-related incidents in the state.

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A53-year-old governmentdoctor posted in Amritsar's

Civil Hospital in Punjab diedon Sunday owing to coron-avirus.

Health and Family WelfareMinister Balbir Singh Sidhuattended the cremation ofSenior Medical Officer Arun Sharma and describedhim as the true corona warrior.

Sharma was one of thebrilliant and diligent officers ofthe Health Department.

He was enthusiasticallybattling against the COVID-19in the frontline since Marchand passionately performinghis duty round the clock in thedistrict hospital, the ministersaid.

Sidhu said Sharma was acardiac patient. He was put ona ventilator. Intensivist from thePGI Hospital in Chandigarhwas guiding his clinical man-agement and the state waspreparing to airlift him eitherto the PGI or Medanta Hospitalin Gurugram.

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Page 3: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˘ˇ ˆ...2020/08/31  · Sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide — is understood to have been repeatedly questioned on Sushant’s mental condition

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The number of novelCoronavirus (Covid-19)

mounted to 19,235 on Sundayin Uttarakhand with the statehealth department reporting664 fresh cases of the disease.Seven deaths from the diseasewere also reported on the daywhich increased the number ofdeaths to 257 in the state.

The state health depart-ment discharged 480 patients ofthe disease from different hos-pitals of the state on the dayafter their recovery from thedisease. A total of 19235patients have so far recoveredfrom the disease and the per-

centage recovery for Covid-19patients in the state is 67.61percent.

Out of the total samplestested 5.39 percent have testedpositive for the disease. Thedoubling rate in the state is nowat 22.05 days.

Three patients of the dis-ease ( 70, 63 and 33 year oldmales) were reported dead atAll India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh.Similarly two patients eachwere reported dead atGovernment Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) hospital andSushila Tiwari governmenthospital, Haldwani. In GDMC,72 and 64 year males expired

while a 48 year old male and a45 year old female were report-ed dead at Sushila Tiwari hos-pital on Sunday.

The authorities reported183 fresh cases of the diseasefrom Udham Singh Nagar dis-trict on Sunday. Similarly 126patients were found inHaridwar, 120 in Dehradun, 46in Uttarkashi, 39 in Nainital, 36in Pithoragarh, 27 in Almora,26 Tehri, 24 Chamoli, 20 inPauri, eight in Rudraprayag,five in Champawat and four in

Bageshwar district on the day.Out of the 480 patients dis-

charged on the day, 187 arefrom Haridwar, 121 fromDehradun, 97 Nainital, 32Tehri, 21 Uttarkashi, 15 inChamoli, five in Pauri and onein Champawat were dischargedon Sunday.

The state now has 5912active patients of the diseasewith Udham Singh reclaimingits top slot from Haridwar onthe day in the table of activepatients of Covid-19. Udham

Singh Nagar now has 1427active cases while with 1264active cases Dehradun is nowat second place.

Haridwar now has 1245active patients and is in thethird spot.

Nainital has 695 activepatients of Covid-19 whileTehri has 297, Uttarkashi 209,Almora 168, Champawat 143,Pauri 137, Pithoragarh 118,Bageshwar 80, Champawat 74and Rudraprayag 55 activepatients of Covid-19.

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The entry of the public hasbeen restricted in the

Municipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) on Mondayby municipal commissionerVinay Shankar Pandey afterone of the home guards post-ed at the entry gate of the cor-poration was found Covid-19positive. Since the public entrywas resumed in the corpora-tion after the lockdown, somehome guards have been post-ed at one of the entry gates ofthe corporation. They manageand facilitate the entry of peo-ple in campus only after theirthermal screening. This is thethird case of Covid-19 in MCDthis month as a municipalhealth inspector was foundpositive on August 5 and sub-sequently, a senior official was

found positive on August 18.While talking to The Pioneer,Pandey informed that a homeguard had tested positive forCovid-19 on Sunday. Thewhole campus of the munici-pal corporation was sanitisedand as a precautionary mea-sure to curb Covid-19 conta-gion, the entry of the public hasalso been restricted on Monday

in MCD, saidPandey. Hesaid thatthough the cor-poration willremain openfor the officialsand employees,the work likeproperty taxsubmission orissuing birthand death cer-tificates will be

resumed from Tuesday. Healso stated that the list of thehome guards that were in closeproximity to the infected homeguard has been prepared andthey would be quarantinedaccordingly. He also informedthat no employee of MCDwas home quarantined as theywere not in direct contact withthe patient.

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The contagion of Covid -19is continuing to cause

more deaths and is becomingmore widespread with eachpassing day. The week endingAugust 29 which is the 24thweek ever since the first caseof the disease was reported inUttarakhand on March 15,witnessed highest cases of thedisease and most deaths in aweek.

In this week (August 23 toAugust 29) the state healthdepartment reported a whop-ping 4005 cases of the diseasewhich breaks the highestweekly record witnessed aweek before by a huge margin.The 24th week reported 1400

more cases as compared withthe previous week. The weekending this Sunday also saw 55deaths which is also a record.In the 23rd week 44 deathswere reported. The week end-ing August 29 also witnessed2503 recoveries which is alsothe highest for a week. In thisweek 67385 tests were con-ducted in different laboratoriesof the state which incidental-ly is highest for a week. Thefounder of the SocialDevelopment forCommunities Foundation,Uttarakhand Anoop Nautiyalsaid that an analysis of the datashows that the major concernis the fact that new cases anddeaths are increasing muchfaster than that of recoveries.

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The Bharatiya Janata Party has postponed thefirst meeting of its state working commit-

tee under the party’s state president BansidharBhagat. The meeting was to be inaugurated ata hotel in Dehradun on Monday by theparty’s national general secretary Ram Madhav.

The BJP state vice president and media in-charge Devendra Bhasin informed that themeeting of the working committee had beenpostponed due to the party’s state president notbeing well. It will be recalled that Bhagat hasrecently tested positive for Covid-19 and isunder treatment at a hospital.

Since the party’s state president presidesover the working committee, it was decided topostpone the meeting. The meeting will be heldafter Bhagat recovers, after which a new datewill be fixed.

Earlier, the BJP State unit had announcedthat the meeting of its state working commit-tee would be held at a hotel on Monday. The

party’s national general secretary Ram Madhavwas to inaugurate the meeting. Considering theCovid-19 pandemic, both physical presenceand virtual means were to be used for the atten-dees.

The party’s national vice president and statein-charge Shyam Jaju, national joint generalsecretary (organisation) Shiv Prakash, Unionminister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and chief min-ister Trivendra Singh Rawat were amongthose slated to address the meeting. The party’sstate general secretary (organisation) AjeyKumar and other office bearers had accordedfinal shape to the form of the meeting and hadalso allocated responsibilities. The meeting wasto be held in accordance with regulations inplace to check the spread of Covid-19.

While 50 office bearers were to be presentat the hotel for the meeting, the rest were toattend the meeting virtually. It is pertinent tomention here that the BJP state office was alsoclosed for two days on Saturday after the party’sstate chief tested positive for Covid-19.

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The chairman ofthe Defence

Research andD e v e l o p m e n tO r g a n i s a t i o n(DRDO) G SatheeshReddy met ChiefMinister TrivendraSingh Rawat at hisresidence here onSunday.

The DRDOchairman and thechief minister dis-cussed scope for workin the defence sectorin Uttarakhand. It was agreedthat the youth of the state willnow be able to obtain trainingin the DRDO.

Further the engineeringstudents will be able to receiveinternships at the DRDO’sInstruments Research andDevelopment Establishment(IRDE) in Dehradun and other

laboratories of the organisation.This visit of the DRDO

chairman came in the wake ofthe recent announcement by theGovernment of India whichhas decided to stop the importof 101 different defence equip-ment items. Considering this,Reddy and Rawat discussedthe possibilities for encouragingindustries related to the defence

sector in Uttarakhand.The duo also discussed

connecting industries and agri-culture in the border areas ofUttarakhand to the DRDO lab-oratory. The CM’s industrialadvisor KS Panwar, DRDOchairman’s technology advisorSanjeev Joshi were also amongthose present during the meet-ing between Reddy and Rawat. &��� �����#��-�)���!�������)����#�������(�����!����� ����������� �������-��(����#����������!�������� �����!�"�����4�������

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The State’s Tourism andCulture Minister Satpal

Maharaj has directed theofficials concerned toensure that all renovationand development works atthe George Everest Houseare completed byDecember this year. Thelocation is being renovatedand developed as a heritagetourism site.

Visiting the site in theMussoorie area on Sunday,the minister inspected theongoing works and inter-acted with the officialsconcerned. Works amounting to aboutRs 23 crore are currently underway atthe George Everest House. Maharaj saidthat in addition to renovation of thehouse occupied by George Everest,various other development works arebeing undertaken at the site. Of the totalworks amounting to Rs 23 crore, worksamounting to Rs 10 crore have beencompleted while the remaining com-

ponents of the project will be startedafter securing permission from theForest department. Works amountingto about Rs seven crore are to be under-taken after the required permission isgranted by the Forest department.Maharaj further informed that theworks at this site include renovation ofthe George Everest House, setting up ofa gazing hut, amphi theatre, George

Everest peak trek route, selfie-point,improvement of the approach road andfacilitating mobile toilets. Additionally,five food vans will also be provided tolocal shopkeepers. The minister direct-ed the officials concerned to ensure thatall the works at the site are completedby December this year. Earlier, the dead-line for completing these works was setat September 2020.

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The woman who has accusedthe Dwarahat MLA Mahesh

Negi of sexual exploitation hasfiled a petition in the UttarakhandHigh Court seeking protectionfrom arrest and quashing of theFIR filed against her forblackmailing.

The wife of the MLA had ear-lier filed an FIR against thewoman, accusing her of attempt-ing to blackmail the MLA. Thepetition of the alleged victim willbe taken up for hearing by thecourt on September 1. The singlebench of justice RavindraMaithani has also directed theinvestigating officer in the case tosubmit the Whatsapp chatsbetween the MLA and the womanin the court.

According to the case details,the purported victim and two ofher family members have filed apetition in the high court seekingquashing of the FIR lodged againstthem in the Nehru Colony policestation in Dehradun. They havealso sought a stay on their arrest.

The petitioners have claimedthat the Dehradun police did notlodge their complaint but underpressure, lodged a case againstthem on the basis of a complaintletter given by the MLA’s wife.

It will be recalled that the

MLA’s wife has alleged that thewoman and the MLA’s family livecloseby in Dwarahat.

Like other people, the womantoo visited the MLA’s home oftenwith her problems. The MLA’swife has claimed that the woman

phoned her and told her that shehad given birth to a child of theMLA. She was seeking a sum ofRs five crore to settle the issue,threatening to “ruin” Negi’s polit-ical career if her demand was notmet, alleged the MLA’s wife.

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The Municipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) has collected

property tax amounting to about Rsfour crore in the past five months.The municipal officials informedthat the tax collection has current-ly decreased in the corporation asmost of the people tend to depositthe property tax near the last dateof the submission. Also, the mon-

soon season and increasing Covid-19 cases have also affected thenumber of property taxpayers vis-iting the MCD campus daily, as perthe officials.

As informed by the municipaltax superintendent, DharmeshPainuly, about 60 to 100 peopledeposit the property tax daily thesedays and so far, about Rs four crorehas been collected by the corpora-tion. He said that comparing the

online submission of the propertytax to the last year, the number ofpeople depositing property taxonline in the corporation hasincreased.

Meanwhile, the officials alsoinformed that some commercialbodies like restaurants and hotels arenot depositing property tax for thecurrent financial year possibly dueto their slow business in the last fewmonths.

It is pertinent to mention herethat the operators of several com-mercial bodies had approachedDehradun mayor Sunil Uniyal'Gama' a few months back seekingprovision of some relaxation innon-residential property tax thisyear but he has not approved anyadditional relaxation in the proper-ty tax so far besides the 20 per centrebate for every property taxpayerof the current financial year.

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The Municipal Corporation ofDehradun (MCD) is planning

to set up vending zones in severallocations in the city and will sooninvite the tenders for setting upthese zones.

The municipal commissionerVinay Shankar Pandey stated thatthe vending zones will be set up in the city but it might takesome time to complete all the pro-

cedures like preparing documents for the process andinviting tenders for all the markedlocations of the vendingzones.

Initially, the corporation hadplanned to invite the tenders inMarch but this plan was stalled dueto State-wide lockdown put in placeto check the spread of Covid-19.

According to the officials, therewere 12 locations which were ini-

tially marked for the constructionof vending zones before the lock-down but a few months back, sevenmore locations have been markedby the corporation for the vendingzones.

The locations which have beenmarked by the corporation to set upvending zones are located nearKarnpur, Nehru Colony, Patelnagar,Indira Colony and MDDA ColonyDalanwala among several others inthe city.

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Page 4: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˘ˇ ˆ...2020/08/31  · Sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide — is understood to have been repeatedly questioned on Sushant’s mental condition

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Amid a record surge in casesfor the past few days which

is set to push the Covid-19 tallyin India to over 36 lakh and thefatalities beyond 63,000 byMonday, the Government isnow a worried lot as it reviewsthe availability of ventilatorsand ICU bed facilities acrossthe States.

The Government fears thatif the Covid-19 positive casesand non-Covid patientsincrease, there will be a hugeburden on the existing criticalmedical care system needingoxygen cylinders and ICUbeds.

Though the Governmenthas been maintaining thatIndia has one of the lowestglobal Covid fatality rates andis working on the coronavirus

vaccine development, officialsin the Union Health Ministryadmit that the rise in positivecases does not bode well for theexisting medical infrastruc-ture.

Though a lot of infectedpeople are recuperating inhome isolation as well as inhospital, the demand for con-sumption of oxygen by Covidand non-covid patients is all setto increase in the comingmonths. Usually, 3 to 4 per centof the total Covid-19 cases areserious and critical and mod-erate.

For instance, with no let-up in the cases, the Assam gov-ernment is apprehending acrisis of oxygen cylinders andis trying to get it from neigh-bouring West Bengal andJharkhand.

On the other hand, in

Tripura, with a positivity rateof 21 per cent, the Covid-19situation is turning out alarm-ing as in many other tier 2cities .

Assam Health MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma saidthat consumption of oxygen byCovid and non-covid patients

is gradually increasing inAssam since last month andcurrently per day oxygenrequirement is 33 MT againstthe state’s production capacityof 37.86 MT per day.

“As on Saturday, 433patients are on oxygen support.If the number of Covid and

non-covid patients increased,it would be a serious challengefor the health department tomanage the oxygen.

If we at all manage oxygenfrom West Bengal andJharkhand, it would also be atough task to carry the oxygenin time,” he told the media on

Sunday.Presently, as per the

Central Government, 0.29 per-cent of cases are on ventilators,

1.93 per cent on ICU and 2.88per cent of cases are on oxygen.

Presently, more than 338lakh N-95 masks, nearly 135

lakh PPEs and about 27,000ventilators have been provid-ed by the Centre to theStates/UTs.

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The country’s top pharmacyeducation regulator’s warn-

ing to pharma educationalinstitutions against cuttingsalary and terminating facul-ty during the Covid-19 pan-demic seems to have fallen ondeaf ears.

The Pharmacy Council ofIndia (PCI) has now shot offthe third missive in a row tothe institutions/colleges statingthat stern action would betaken against them for notsticking to its orders.

In the third circular issuedon August 24, the PCI wantedthe college management tostick to its instructions failingwhich it warned of actionagainst such institutions.

Also, to ensure that the

advisory is implemented atthe ground level, the PCI hassought details on statementsabout salary payments to thecouncil every month. “Copy ofpay-rolls and salary slips fromJanuary 2020 should be sent tothe Council and such datashould be shared with theCouncil in future also. Theinstitutions should also postthe details on their websites,”said the circular.

The PCI had issued circu-lars on April 20 and then onJuly 9 this year, insisting onregular payments of salaries tothe teaching faculties of itsaffiliated institutions acrossthe country.

The move followed sever-al complaints from teachersposted in the pharmacy col-leges from all across the coun-try.

“The Council has nowfound that despite its directionsto institutions many of the col-lege managements are notcomplying with its orders.

“Besides there are ordersfrom central and StateGovernments to all educa-tional institutions that thesalary of teachers must be dis-bursed every month and itshould not be cut or withheldtill normalcy is restored in theeducation sector,” the Councilhas reminded the colleges.

The PCI has furthernoticed that certain institutionshave terminated some of theirteachers and the council hastaken the issue very seriously.

“Action will be taken if theinstitutions do not pay heed toeven the advisory,” said thesources.

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To boost research and activ-ities for vaccine develop-

ment to combat Covid-19, theGovernment has expanded theambit of the Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) umbrel-la, allowing the pharma andmedical device manufactur-ers to invest the ‘philanthrop-ic doles’ in researches related tothe pandemic for the nextthree years.

The Government hasamended the Companies(Corporate SocialResponsibility Policy) Rules,2014 in this regard.

A senior official from theUnion Ministry of CorporateAffairs said that a provision inCompanies (Corporate SocialResponsibility Policy) Rules,2014 has been “insertedthrough amendment thatwould allow pharmaceutical,vaccine and medical devicefirms engaged in R&D activi-

ties of new vaccine, drugs andmedical devices in their normalcourse of business to claimCSR benefits for undertakingR&D activity of new vaccine,drugs and medical devicesrelated to the virus.”

The provision will be avail-able for fiscal years 2020-21,2021-22 and 2022-23.

The companies need todisclose details of such activi-ty separately in the annualreport on CSR included in theBoard’s report.

However, in view of theCovid-19 pandemic, theMinistry has also amendedthe Act bringing incubators orresearch and development pro-jects in the field of science,technology, engineering andmedicine that are funded bythe central or state govern-ment, a public sector under-taking or any governmentagency under the CSR provi-sion.

The decision was taken in

line with the Prime Minister’sdirective to encourage newdrug discoveries for Covid-19,said K VijayRaghavan,Principal Scientific Adviser tothe Government.

CSR rules were modifiedlast year to support research inpublicly funded institutionsand incubators. CSR can sup-port organisations working inareas outside companies’ ‘nor-mal course of business’. So, apharma company could notfund pharma R&D, he said.

The activities under CSRinclude eradicating extremehunger, poverty, promotion ofeducation, promoting genderequality and women’s empow-erment as well as reducingchild mortality, improvingmaternal health and combatingdiseases.

Ensuring environmentalsustainability and promptingemployment enhancing voca-tional skills are other activitiesapproved under CSR.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday pitched his

‘vocal for local’ campaign in anentirely new domain – that ofthe canines. Calling for theadoption of “fabulous” Indiandog breeds, Modi said they arecheaper to raise and adapt bet-ter to the Indian environmenteven as he revealed that theIndian security forces too wereincreasingly inducting theselocal breeds.

The country came toknow about the Army dogsafter Modi praised their rolein sniffing out explosives,mines and terrorists besidesdisaster relief operations. Inhis monthly radio programme‘Mann ki Baat’, Modi namedtwo dogs ‘Sophie’ and ‘Vida’— who were awarded Chief ofArmy Staff commendationcards on August 15 this year— saying these trainedcanines received this honourbecause they performed theirduties diligently while pro-tecting their country.

‘Vida,’ the dog from anArmy Dog Unit located inNorthern Command, wasconferred the medal fordetecting five mines and onegrenade buried underground.‘Sophie’ of Special FrontierForce (Bomb Disposal Squad)sniffed out the presence ofinitiator/accelerant whichcould have been hastily used

to fabricate an IED, therebysaving precious lives.

“Our armed forces andsecurity forces have manysuch brave dogs who not onlylive for the country but alsosacrifice themselves for thecountry,” he said.

Five Labradors wereawarded commendation cardson Army Day 2020 for help-ing soldiers track down ter-rorists in Jammu and Kashmirand sniffing out deadly explo-sives in the North-east lastyear. The army has more than1,000 dogs trained for a vari-ety of roles such as detectingmines and explosives, track-

ing, assault, infantry patrol,and search and rescue.

Mansi, a Labrador, wasposthumously “mentioned indispatches” (the highest hon-our that a dog can get in mil-itary service in India) fouryears ago for her role in acounter-infiltration operationin north Kashmir. Her han-dler, Bashir Ahmed War, wasposthumously awarded SenaMedal for gallantry.

In his address, Modi alsohighlighted the actions ofanother dog Balaram, whodetected explosives on theAmarnath Yatra route andBhavana, who sniffed out an

improvised explosive device(IED) many years ago but waskilled as terrorists managed totrigger the explosive.

“Two or three years ago inBijapur, Chhattisgarh, a snif-fer dog Cracker of the CRPFalso attained martyrdom in anIED blast. You might haveseen a very moving scene onTV a few days ago in whichthe Beed Police were givingtheir canine colleague Rockya final farewell with all duerespect. Rocky had helpedthe police in solving over 300cases,” the Prime Ministersaid.

Favouring Indian breed

dogs, he said indigenous dogssuch Mudhol Hound,Himachali Hound,Rajapalayam, Kanni,Chippiparai and Kombai were“fabulous,” cheaper to raiseand adapted better to theIndian environment. “Thenext time you think of raisinga pet dog, consider bringinghome one of these Indianbreeds. At a time whenAtmanirbhar Bharat isbecoming a mantra of thepeople, how can any domainbe left untouched by its influ-ence,” he said.

In the last one year, thedogs have contributed to 53successful missions for theIndian Army, including track-ing of terrorists and recover-ing individuals from snow-bound areas. In over 30instances, these canines havesniffed out IEDs/Explosives.

The National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF) alsouses specially trained dozens

of dogs for rescue operations.In the event of an earth-quake, building collapse, thesedogs are experts in searchingout people trapped underdebris.

The superiority of thesecanine soldiers employed hasled to increasing demand forthese dogs from neighbouringcountries like Bangladesh,Myanmar and Cambodia.Japan also showed interest inthe training standards ofIndian Army canines whentheir Chief of Staff visited theDog Training Facility atMeerut in 2017.

Moreover, these dogs havealso saved l ives duringavalanches, earthquakes andother natural disasters. TheArmy has eight differenttrades of dogs: tracker, guard,mine detection, explosivedetection, infantry patrol,avalanche rescue operations,search and rescue, assaultand narcotic detection.

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The Union Home Ministryhas directed the paramili-

tary chiefs to issue a circularhighlighting service conductrules that bar direct represen-tation by the personnel to theGovernment on service mat-ters.

According to the serviceconduct rules, the personnel

are supposed to communicateabout service matters throughproper channel, and actioncan be taken for violation of thestipulation.

“It has been observed thatthe officers/officials of CAPFs(Central Armed Police Forces)instead of submitting repre-sentation through proper chan-nel, are forwarding represen-tation directly to higher author-

ities in thisMinistry andmany oft h e mthrough DOletters onofficial letterhead. Suchcommunica-tions notbeing inconsonancewith theinstructions issued by DoP&Tvide OM dated 31.08.2016 andalso CCS (Conduct) Rules,may attract disciplinary pro-ceedings,” reads the recentMinistry directive to theDirectors General of theCAPFs or the Central para-military forces.

The letter further said,“DsG (Directors General) ofCAPFs (i.e. BSF, CISF, CRPF,ITBP & SSB) are requested toissue a circular to their officerswith regard to submission ofrepresentations on service mat-ter through proper channel,bringing the relevant provisionsof Conduct Rules attractingdisciplinary action, in case ofnon-adherence to the pre-scribed procedures.”

In the letter, the Ministryhas specifically mentionedthe Office Memorandumdated June 6, 2013 and August31, 2015 on the issue of rep-resentation from Governmentservants on service mattersand the related instructionsregarding insistence on adher-ence to proper channel for

such communication.The move comes in the

wake of the Home Ministrybeing saddled with a numberof direct representations fromthe paramilitary personneland many of such complaintscould have been filtered at thelevel of the Forces, officialssaid.

The copy of the HomeMinistry letter has been for-warded to the Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF), BorderSecurity Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police, CentralIndustrial Security Force(CISF) and Sashastra SeemaBal (SSB).

While the provisions forfollowing the proper channelby Government servants werethere in place, the reiterationof the fact and stress on thedisciplinary proceedings incase of violation of the pro-cedure is likely to limit thescope of grievance redressal ofthe paramilitary personnelwho are barred from formingassociations or unions, para-military insiders said.

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The DelimitationCommission, set up to

redraw the constituencies ofAssam, Manipur, Nagaland,Arunachal Pradesh and Jammuand Kashmir, will visit thenorth-eastern States and theUnion Territory after preparinga “broad framework” of thedelimitation exercise. The com-mission will also seek views andinputs of its “associate mem-bers” — a group of Lok Sabhamembers and MLAs— afterdrawing up the broad frame-work. The DelimitationCommission for the four north-eastern States and Jammu andKashmir was set up in March.

“First the broad frameworkhas to be developed on carvingout constituencies based onthe 2011 Census. Only thenwould the DelimitationCommission visit the states tomeet locals. Once the frame-work is drawn, it would alsointeract with associate membersto seek their views and inputs,”said an official aware of thedevelopments.

The delimitation panel willredraw the Lok Sabha andassembly constituencies of thefour north-eastern states and,work on increasing the assem-bly seats of the Union Territoryof Jammu and Kashmir as perthe provisions of the Jammuand Kashmir Reorganisation

Act.It is headed by former

Supreme Court judge JusticeRanjana Desai (retd). ElectionCommissioner Sushil Chandrais the representative of theElection Commission in thedelimitation panel while stateelection commissioners ofJammu and Kashmir and thefour states are its ex-officiomembers.

In May, the Lok SabhaSpeaker had nominated 15 MPsfrom Jammu and Kashmir,Assam, Manipur, Nagaland andArunachal Pradesh as “associ-ate members” of theDelimitation Commission toassist the panel in redrawingparliamentary and assemblyconstituencies of the north-eastern states and the UnionTerritory. The 15 MPs includetwo Union ministers — KirenRijiju and Jitendra Singh.

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The Congress on Sundaysought to establish the

alleged links between the BJPand Bollywood producerSandeep Ssingh, who is underthe scanner in the high profileSushant Singh Rajput sui-cide/murder case, now beinghandled by CBI.

The Congress also allegedthat all the drugs related casesbeing discussed in the mediaand leaked by the probingagency were during the BJPgovernment led by DevendraFadnavis and when SandeepSsingh was making the biopicon Prime Minister NarendraModi.

With spokesperson forCongress’ Maharashtra unitSachin Sawant claiming thatone Sandeep Ssingh, who wasclose to Rajput has links to theBJP, senior advocate and aCongress member in RajyaSabha, Abhishek Manu Singhviat a Press conference asked: “Ishe the same Sandeep Ssinghwho called the BJP office inMaharashtra 53 times.” Heasked the BJP to furnish detailsof which leaders, if any, were intouch with Singh.

Though individual state-ments of various leaders flowedin media on the Sushant Rajputcase but this was the first timethat the Congress conducted aPress conference.

Singhvi reiterated the pointmade by Sawant that Singh was

one of the producers of thebiopic of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi starring actorVivek Oberoi in the lead role.“This shows that he (Sandeep)has close links with the BJP sincethe biopic poster was launchedin the presence thenMaharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis,” Singhvisaid raising doubts that due tohis close links Ssing may flee thecountry.

“In 2019, his firm LegendGlobal Studio was the only filmcompany to have signed a Rs 178crore MoU at the VibrantGujarat Summit despite report-ing losses for consecutive years,”Singhvi said.

The Congress further saidthat Ssingh was part of a trip toMauritius organised by theIndian Embassy where he wascharged with sexually assaultinga minor Swiss national on March29, 2018. “It is being claimed thatthe matter has been settled, butwe want to put before people thereal face of BJP,” the Rajya Sabhamember said.

Referring to recent devel-opments in the case of thedeceased actor, Singhvi said,“Most drug-related cases linkedto SSR case are from 2018,2019. What was Fadnavis gov-ernment doing then?”

“The swiftness with whichcase was handed to CBI, was itbecause of Sandeep Ssingh? Anumber of people in the casehave close links with BJP,”Singhvi claimed.

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Ahospital has every rightto insist on payment but

it also has the prime duty totake care of a patient facinga health emergency, theNational Consumer DisputesRedressal Commission(NCDRC) has said whileawarding a compensation of�25 lakh for medical negli-gence to a woman whosehusband died at theChristian Medical College(CMC), Vellore.

A bench of presidingmember S M Kantikar andDinesh Singh awarded thecompensation to the deceasedpatient’s wife Yashumati Devinoting that there was anurgent need for the patient’sbrain CT scan but it wasdelayed for more than threehours as the hospital waitedfor a fresh receipt of �1,850towards charges for the pro-cedure.

“On the basis of the exam-ination made above, deficien-cy / negligence is conclusive-ly established. In our consid-ered view, in the facts andspecificities of the instant case,compensation of Rs 25 lakhwith interest at the rate of 8 percent per annum from the dateof the death of the patientappears just and equitable,” thebench said.

The compensation shallbe paid within six weeks of thepronouncement of this order,without fail, it said.

“There was an urgentneed for brain CT scan of thepatient but it was delayedmore than 3 hours for thewant of a fresh receipt of Rs1,850 towards CT scan chargeseven though complainantshad already deposited 1,50,000in advance. Hospital has everyright to insist on the paymentbut it was also a prime duty tocare (for) the emergencypatient,” the bench said.

According to the com-plaint, the 58-year man, wholater died, had a history of painin his left arm after engagingin strenuous activity.

In 2009, the patient visit-ed the hospital’s outpatient depart-ment complaining of pain inhis left arm on exertion.

The patient got admittedin CMC as a private patient.On next day, after examination

it was diagnosed as a case ofCoronary Artery Disease(CAD).

The hospital beganadministering doses ofHeparin to the patient, thecomplaint alleged, adding thatit was started without anylaboratory investigations ormonitoring protocol.

The patient complained tothe hospital authorities ofbleeding and disorientation,but despite repeated requeststhe doctors ignored it.

It stated that they contin-ued administering the drug(Heparin) which was the causeof the bleeding, only to beinformed later that he had suf-fered a stroke and there was animmediate need for a CTscan.

Citing unpaid dues, theCT scan sought was denied forover three hours despite thefact that �1,50,000 was alreadydeposited.

“The delay in treatmentand the improper adminis-tration of Heparin led toanticoagulation, resulting inbrain haemorrhage, and thepatient suffered stroke in themorning at 08:30 AM, sincethen the doctors at CMCvirtually did nothing till10.30 PM and after longstruggle the patient died on20.06.2009 at 6.30am,” itsaid.

The hospital raised pre-liminary objections that thecomplainants filed a falsecomplaint and suppressed the correct facts.

It was further contend-ed that the blood thinnersthe patient had been takingprior to his treatment at thehospital may have causedinternal bleeding.

Being aggrieved, thepatient’s wife and son filedthe consumer complaintagainst the CMC for thealleged medical negligenceand cal lousness of the doctors seeking compensa-tion of �2.01 crore

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Two bravehearts including asenior officer of the Special

Operations Group of Jammu &Kashmir police and a JuniorCommissioned Officer (JCO)of the Indian Army deployedalong the line of control inNowshera sector of Rajouriattained martyrdom whilethree Lashkar-e- Tayyeba (LeT)terrorists were neutralised dur-ing an overnight operation inthe Pantha Chowk area ofSrinagar on Sunday.

In the last three days, 10terrorists have been neutralisedin three anti-terrorist opera-tions in Shopian, Pulwama andSrinagar.

Four terrorists of Albadrwere neutralised in Kilooraarea of South Kashmir'sShopian district on Fridaywhile three Hizbul Mujahideenterrorists were gunned down in

Zadoora area of Pulwama onSaturday while three terroristsof LeT were neutralised inSrinagar.

Paying rich tributes in thememory of the martyred policeofficer Director General ofJammu and Kashmir policeDilbagh Singh told reporters inSrinagar, "an Assistant SubInspector of Jammu andKashmir police identified asBabu Ram, hailing fromMendhar area of Poonch, sus-tained bullet injuries while ajoint team of Jammu andKashmir police and para mil-itary forces chased a group ofthree terrorists after a failedweapon snatching bid in thePantha Chowk area of Srinagarlate last night around 10.00p.m".

DGP said, "one of the ter-rorists was neutralised by thejoint teams in the initial roundof firing while two others were

neutralised after attempts madeby their parents to convincethem to surrender failed. Thethree slain terrorists were localshailing from Pampore",headded.

Sharing details of the nightlong operation, DGP DilbaghSingh said, " three motor bike

borne youth had opened fire onthe security checkpoint in thePantha Chowk area and alsoattempted weapon snatching.Alert jawans of the Jammu andKashmir police and paramili-tary forces chased them afterthey ran towards bylanes leav-ing behind their motorbike.

Singh said, the police officerbelonging to the SpecialOperations Group was leadingfrom the front when hereceived bullet injuries duringthe initial exchange of fire andlater attained martyrdom in theline of duty".

Singh said, ASI Babu Ramwas a brave police officer andwas part of the lead team of theSpecial Operations groupengaged in anti-terrorist oper-ations in Kashmir valley.Several senior police officersand colleagues of ASI BabuRam also paid rich tributes tohim and remembered him as abrave heart.

Meanwhile, the slain ter-rorists have been identified asSaqib Bashir Khanday, UmarTariq Bhat and Zubair AhmadShiekh all the residents ofDrangbal Pampore. They wereaffiliated with proscribed ter-ror outfit LeT.

As per police records, thekilled terrorists were part ofgroups involved in planningand executing several terrorattacks in the area. Besidesweapon snatching bid at J&KBank Pampore, Saqib Bashirwas also involved in motivatingand radicalizing the youth ofthe area to join terror folds.

According to a Jammubased Defence spokesman Lt-Col Devendra Anand,"Pakistan Army resorted tounprovoked ceasefire violationon the line of control (LoC) inNowshera Sector of Rajouridistrict. Own troops respond-ed strongly to the enemy fire.In the incident, Naib SubedarRajwinder Singh was criticallyinjured and later succumbed tohis injuries".

Naib Subedar RajwinderSingh, hailed from Amritsar inPunjab and is survived by hiswife and two children.

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The Union Territory ofJammu & Kashmir on

Sunday witnessed the highestever spike recording a totalnumber of 786 new coron-avirus positive cases in one sin-gle day while nine more Covid-19 patients died taking thetally of deaths to 694.

For the first time, Jammudistrict alone recorded 258cases, 97 more than Srinagardistrict on Sunday taking thetotal active positive cases to7959.

According to the mediabulletin, "the total number ofactive positive cases in Jammu& Kashmir stood at 7959. Outof these 2060 cases are active

positive in Jammu region and5899 in Kashmir division".Significantly, the recovery ratein Jammu & Kashmir hasreached 76 percent and thedeath rate stood at 1.86 percent.

Out of 37163 cases, 28510have recovered fully and dis-charged from different hospi-tals so far.

Official sources said,Jammu district started report-ing a large number of casesafter rapid antigen testing waslaunched across urban andrural centres across the districtlast week.

"Out of 9943 samples, 365tested positive across Urbanand rural centres of the districttill Saturday",official sourcessaid.

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Two inspectors of Gabhanapolice station are trapped in

a bribery case. On the complaint of BJP

MLA from Barauli, SSP hasconducted an inquiry and acase has been registered against them under ThePrevention of CorruptionAct.

These cases have regis-tered after the investigation ofthe complaint by SP Crime.

And during the investiga-tion, both have been suspend-ed. At the same time, four otherinspectors of the same policestation have also been lined-upafter getting continuous com-plaints against them. Thisaction has shaken the policedepartment.

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Everyone is horrified by thecorona pandemic, at the

same time people are carelessalso when it comes to takingprecautions. Neither peopleare taking care inside the housenor outside. Some people areeven avoiding the use of masksand social distancing. 189 newvirus cases were reported.Around 4000 have been foundinfected since April. More than2500 covid infections weredetected in August. There were174 patients in lockdown, thisnumber increased 22 times inunlock.

Looking at the data of 95percent of patients in unlock,during first lockdown (25thMarch to 14th April) only oneinfected patient was detected.In the second lockdown (25thApril to 3rd May), this figurerose to 43. In the third lock-down (4th to 17th May), itjumped to 85 and in thefourth lockdown (18th May to2nd June), the number

increased to174. It tookabout twomonths tocross this fig-ure. In thefirst unlock

(3rd to 30th June), this num-ber reached 490 and in thesecond unlock (1st to 31stJuly), it increased to about1450. In the third unlock (1stto 30th August), the numberexceeded 4000. 95 per cent ofthe total cases were reportedin unlock.

Apart from the increasingnumber of Covid patients, thenumber of recovering patientsis also increasing . Over 2700have been recuperated so far.The recovery rate is more than70 per cent. According to theexperts, a good recovery ratedoes not mean that peoplebecome careless about theinfection. More than 30patients have died. CMO Dr.Bhanu Pratap Singh Kalyanisaid that reckless people areputting others at risk.

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Good news for the villagers. Now theywill get a certificate of their house

built in the village like a khatauni of thefarm. With this, they will be able to takea loan from the bank. Until now, theydid not get the benefit related to thehouse due to lack of ownership of theland. The State Government has start-ed a proprietary scheme for this. In this,100 villages of the district have beenselected in the first phase. Of these, 20villages have been taken from eachtehsil. A joint team of accountant andsecretary has been formed for the sur-vey. Then there is a preparation to con-duct a survey with the drone.

ADM DP Pal said that till now peo-ple in the village do not have any own-ership of the population site. Nobody'sname is recorded in the revenue record.Now the state government has startedthe proprietary scheme to give owner-ship to the people. In the first phase, thescheme is being implemented in 100 vil-lages of the district.

After this, the survey will have to becompleted in 200 villages in 1 month.

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Aday after Bengal Governor JagdeepDhankhar advised Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee not to push the stu-dents in political quagmire over theconducting of JEE/NEET exams the rul-ing, Trinamool Congress attacked himfor running a BJP party office from theRaj Bhavan.

“It seems that the Governor has noinkling of Bengal’s culture, and itsgeo-political history which is why he ismaking such bizarre statements…Bengal has always raised its voice whenthe country has faced any problem.

“Our Chief Minister has raised thisissue not only in the interest of the stu-dents of Bengal but for the 25 lakh stu-dents of the entire country who arebeing thrown into the mouth of a pan-demic for no fault of theirs… She wantsto save their lives and not harm theircareer,” Bengal Minister Firhad Hakimsaid.

The Central Government had madeit a point of ego to hold the exams nowin September putting the lives of lakhs

of students in danger, he said adding“they have no sensitivity towards theirplights, they only serve the interests ofthe rich industrialists and not thecommon people including the stu-dents … it is foolish that they did nothold the exams when the rate of infec-tion was comparatively far lower in themonth of May … and now when theinfection is going up they are pushingthe young children in the mouth of pan-demic.”

Replying to the Governor’s terseremarks he said “here is a person whocalls himself a constitutional head butacts as if he is the member of the BJPconverting his official residence into aBJP party office.”

Reacting to the Chief Minister’s ini-tiative to postpone the all-India examsin the face of corona pandemicDhankhar had on Saturday wonderedas to why the Chief Minister was push-ing the students into in political mire.

“Why thoughtlessly make it polit-ical hot potato! Student welfare is thetop priority. Why not read SupremeCourt judgment, its rationale and fol-

low directives!” he tweeted. “'Don't prey on students for sake of

politicking', " he said adding, "Studentsare our future. Its matter of global com-petitiveness. It cannot be in politicalwhirlpool. Silent majority of students donot seek to risk their prospects and cap-size their future.

Meanwhile, in an apparent bid to upthe ante against the Trinamool Congresskeeping in view the next year’s Stateelections, the BJP on Sunday announceda series of programmes to highlight theState Government’s failures in all front.

The programmes would culmi-nate into a “march to Nabanna (Statesecretariat),” said party MP SoumitraKhan. “The party Yuva Morcha (youthwing) will raise issues like lack ofemployment, irregularities in providingjobs to the aspirants in Teachers’Eligibility Test, SSC exams etc apartfrom rampant corruption, falling lawand order problems and hold state wideprogramme which will finally culminateinto a Nabanna march in a months’time,” he said.

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The migration of labourers isturning out to be a poll

issue for Opposition parties inBihar as Leader of OppositionTejashwi Yadav has slammedChief Minister Nitish Kumarfor being unable to create jobsin the State.

As a result, labourers whowalked thousands of kilometresare heading back to Statesoffering more job opportuni-ties, Tejashwi alleged.

His statement comes a dayafter Pappu Yadav, president ofJan Adhikar Party, blamed Nitish Kumar for thesame.

"The development of Biharis currently reflecting at Patna

airport where hundreds oflabourers are assembling tocatch flights. The developmentis also visible in villages wherebuses are sent by employersfrom other states to take ourskilled labourers," Tejashwisaid.

"These labourers have trav-elled thousands of kilometresduring the Covid-19 lockdownto reach their homes. Do theynot deserve some respect andjobs back home? The employ-ers of other states are sendingair tickets and buses for thelabourers of Bihar. It explainsthe approach of the Bihar gov-ernment," he added.

Tejashwi claims that near-ly 40 lakh migrant labourersreturned home during the lock-

down.The Nitish Kumar govern-

ment had announced a depositof � 1,000 for every labourer. 50per cent of them were deprivedof government aid. Bihar has a"double-engine" governmentbut neither state nor Centre hasextended their helping hand tothem, he said.

"Nitish Kumar is arespectable person. I respecthim personally. At the sametime, he is also a liar. He hid theactual data of corona-infectedpersons. There were 84 lakhpeople in Bihar's 16 districtswhich were flood-affected. Ihave pointed out several timesand the Chief Minister went foraerial survey just twice,"Tejashwi alleged.

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After inaugurating threeimportant bridges and two

road improvement projects andlaying foundation stones forfour other major bridge projectsacross four rivers Gadchiroli,Union Minister for RoadTransport & Highways NitinGadkari said on Sunday that theentire face of the this naxalite-infested district would be trans-formed in around two yearsowing to the road-connectivityprojects.

After inaugurating and lay-ing the foundation for roadprojects worth �777 crorethrough video links inGadchiroli district in easternMaharashtra, Gadkari said: “Theall-weather road network in farflung areas of Naxal affected dis-tricts like Gadchiroli willimprove the socio-economicdevelopment in the region andin upcoming two years or so theGadchiroli district will see an all-round transformation”.

The projects inauguratedwere �168 crore 855 metremajor bridge across Pranahitariver (on Nizamabad – JagdalpurRoad (NH 63), �248 crore 630metre high level bridge acrossthe Indravati River nearPatagudam (on Nizamabad –Jagdalpur Road (NH 63), 30metre high level bridge nearLankachen (on Bejurpalli –Aheri Road), Improvement ofBejurpalli-Aheri Road (SH 275)

(between Watra andMoyabinpeta) and Improvementof Garanji – Pustola Road.

Gadchiroli also laid foun-dation stones for four othermajor bridge projects acrossthe rivers Wainganga, Bandiya,Perikota and Perimili. Theseprojects are considered crucialfor improving mobility for socio-economic development of theGadchiroli district.

Speaking on the occasion,Gadkari said that with the con-struction of these key bridges,the National Highway connec-tivity in Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh –Telangana iscomplete now.

“This is a dream which hascome true after nearly 25 years,when it was conceived when Iwas a Minister in Maharashtra”.

Gadkari said the total lengthof National Highway inGadchiroli district has increasedfrom 54 kms to 647 kms duringhis tenure. Ministry of RoadTransport & Highways hasapproved 44 road projects of 541kms length with an outlay of�1,740 crore for Gadchiroli dis-trict.The Minister compliment-ed the engineers and contractorswho completed the constructionof bridges in Gadchiroli, despitethe fear of Naxals.

He informed that the bridgeacross River Indravati was com-pleted under very trying and warlike conditions. A police stationhad to be set up in order to helpconstruct the bridge.

Speaking about his visionfor development of backwardareas in the capacity of a MSMEMinister, Shri Gadkari said withbamboo available in plenty,Gadchiroli could become thehub of Agarbatti manufacturing,whose import has now beenstopped.

He said there is a scope toset up 100 units, which wouldgive employment to local peo-ple.

The Minister also said thathe is initiating project for con-version of rice to ethanol inGadchiroli as part of bio-fueldevelopment programme.

“This will provide greatervalue for rice growers and alsocreate jobs” he said, whilerequesting the State PublicWorks Minister Shri EknathShinde to explore variousavenues for job creation inGadchiroli with a target of pro-viding employment to 10,000youth.

While complimenting thecompletion of developmentalRoad projects in the area,Minister of State for RoadTransport and Highways Gen VK Singh said that the new roadprojects would go a long way inmainstreaming of people livingin LWE areas. He said, an areaprogressed only when infra-structure was developed there.He said that with more andmore infra projects coming upin these areas, the extremism iscoming down gradually.

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Gorakhpur: Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathon Sunday held meetings withelected representatives fromGorakhpur to resolve their dif-ferences.

The Chief Minister gave apatient hearing to the MP andMLAs from his home district,heard out their grievances andassured them that he wouldensure speedy development ofthe area.

The Chief Minister askedall the elected representatives tomaintain discipline and notsully the image of Gorakhpurby making unnecessary state-ments.

It may be recalled that leg-islators from Gorakhpur hadrecently been involved in a let-ter war over the transfer of agovernment employee, causing considerable embar-rassment to the state govern-ment.

The state BJP had evenserved a show-cause notice toRadha Mohan Das Agarwal, afour-term MLA from theGorakhpur seat, for anti-partyactivities on social media plat-forms.

The notice was served bystate BJP vice-president J.P.S.Rathore on the directions ofstate BJP president SwatantraDev Singh.

Agarwal had taken tosocial media to raise the issueof a road, which he claimed was

causing flooding in some of theresidential colonies in his con-stituency.

An audio clip in which heis conversing with a partyleader and is heard takingbarbs at the "Thakur sarkar"had also gone viral on socialmedia.

The MLA has been given aweek's time to respond to thenotice.

Gorakhpur MP and actorRavi Kishan had queered thepitch by asking Agarwal toresign if he was upset at beinga legislator.

Referring to a tweet byAgarwal in which he said hewas angry with himself forbeing a legislator because hecould not tolerate the control ofcorrupt bureaucrats on honestlegislators, Ravi Kishan hadsaid "If you are so troubled withthe ideology and policies of theparty, you should quit."

Talking to reporters afterthe meeting on Sunday,Agarwal said that the meetingwith the chief minister was'positive'.

"He spoke to us at length,heard our problems andassured that he will look intothem," he said.

BJP MP Ravi Kishan toldreporters, "The Chief Ministerdiscussed developmental pro-jects with us and also asked usto maintain the dignity andimage of Gorakhpur." IANS

M a n g a l u r u :Karnataka's ruling BJPpresident and theparty's DakshinaKannada Lok Sabhamember Nalin KumarKateel has beenadmitted to a privatehospital here after test-ing positive for thecoronavirus, an offi-cial said on Sunday.

"Kateel is in a pri-vate hospital in thecity on a doctor's advice fortreatment after testing positivefor Covid-19. He is asympto-matic," the party official toldIANS.

Mangaluru is a port city onthe west coast about 360kmfrom Bengaluru in the south-ern state.

"Though I have no symp-toms, my Covid test has comepositive. I have got admitted toa hospital on doctor's advice. Iwill recover fast with all yourblessings and good wishes,"tweeted Kateel in Kannada.

The three-time lawmakeralso advised all who came incontact with him recently toundergo a Covid test and iso-late at their home.

State Medical EducationMinister K. Sudhakar, said hewas saddened to know thatKateel tested positive for Covid.

"I pray to god that herecovers fast and get back towork," Sudhakar tweeted.

Earlier in the day, state'smining baron and former BJPMinister Gali Janardhan Reddytested Covid positive and wasadmitted to a private hospitalfor treatment in Bengaluru.

"Reddy is in a private hos-pital for treatment after hetested positive for corona viruson Saturday as he was not feel-ing well. As he is asymptomatic,he is responding to the treat-ment," a party official toldIANS.

Confirming that Reddytested positive for the infection,state Health Minister B.Sriramulu said he would prayto god for his best friend'sspeedy recovery.

Incidentally, Reddy, 53,was to visit Bellary on Sundayto attend the last rites ofSriramulu's mother after theSupreme Court on August 27allowed him to travel to hishome town from Bengaluru for2 days.

Bellary is about330km northwest ofBengaluru in thesouthern state.

In a relateddevelopment, formerCongress legislatorMunirathna has alsobeen admitted in aprivate hospital inBengaluru after hetested positive onSaturday.

Munirathna, 57,joined the ruling BJP inNovember 2019 after he defect-ed from the Congress follow-ing his disqualification forrevolting against the party. Heresigned from the RR Nagarassembly segment in the city'snorthwest suburb.

Former Janata Dal-Secular(JD-S) minister H.D. Revannaand Congress state unit presi-dent D. K. Shivakumar are inseparate private hospitals in thecity for treatment after theyboth tested positive for thevirus on August 27 and August25.

Scores of politicians,including state Chief MinisterB.S Yediyurappa, oppositionCongress leader Siddaramaiah,state cabinet ministers S.T.Somashekar, Anand Singh andC.T. Ravi, Lok Sabha members,MLAs and MLCs tested posi-tive and recovered from theinfection during the last 2months. IANS

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Agra reported 56 fresh casesof Covid-19 in the last 24

hours, even as the 55-hourweekend lockdown continues.

Alarmed by the risinggraph of cases, the districtadministration is strictlyenforcing the weekend lock-down which will end Monday morning. Officialsappealed to the people not tomove out without work and fol-low the guidelines in respect ofsocial distancing and mask-wearing.

District Magistrate P.N.Singh warned that those whoviolated the guidelines wouldbe heavily fined.

The Government officesare the worst hit. The districthealth department has recom-mended staggered workinghours.

Meanwhile, there wereindications that the districtauthorities would permitreopening of the Taj Mahal andthe Agra Fort from September15 as new guidelines for Unlock4 will come into force fromSeptember 1.

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Page 6: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˘ˇ ˆ...2020/08/31  · Sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide — is understood to have been repeatedly questioned on Sushant’s mental condition

The coming months arethe time to tell Beijingthat the occasion tosettle our mutual issuesand disputes is now. For

its own sake. And it pays to worktransactionally with India to stayrelevant in a world that is rapid-ly turning against it. It must endlingering disputes or else sooneror later the American alliancewould expand and tilt the scalesfor a unipolar world. On its part,India has been non-aligned and itsleaders would prefer a multi-lat-eral world to continue. It shouldbe a sad day if one Asian countrydrives another Asian nation intothe arms of the West. It is forBeijing to balance the cultural,economic and strategic damage ofan Asian split. Or it could work fora larger Asian unity. This is thetime to act.

The external affairs situationis gearing itself into a remarkableopportunity for New Delhi toregain what we lost in 1962 andbefore. It is as if many a planet ispositioning itself to assist India. Itbegan with Chinese ruler XiJinping becoming highly ambi-tious, apparently wanting to makehis Middle Kingdom the power-ful pivot of the earth. LikeNapoleon Bonaparte in 1804, Xihas crowned himself Emperorfor life, although the world haschanged a great deal over the lasttwo centuries. Today any numberof his colleagues would resentsuch a royal elevation and implic-itly compel Xi to prove himself agreat man every week. That pres-sure is hard to live up to.

The US has an unusuallybold President; he has an electionto win in less than three monthsfrom now. President DonaldTrump has been waging a coldwar with Beijing for quite a while.It has become colder of late andis likely to freeze further. Hedemonstrated in Texas earlierthis year how much he likesPrime Minister Narendra Modi.Lately, he, along with his Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo, has open-ly supported India in the contextof Chinese border intrusions,although their main concern isTaiwan, a democratic island coun-try off the southeast coast ofChina. It is an independent coun-try but Beijing claims that China,Taiwan and Hong Kong-Macaoare one country, three systems.The US has a defence treaty with

Taiwan and cannot possiblyallow the island country to begrabbed by China.Nevertheless, it is a matter of a“do or die” prestige issue forBeijing, especially in Asia. Itwill, therefore, be interesting tosee how the issue will unfold.

According to its President,the US is likely to jettison theNorth Atlantic TreatyOrganisation (NATO). Thiswas an alliance to combat aninvasion by the Soviet Union ofwestern Europe. By 1991, theSoviet Union had broken up. Sowhat is the rationale forNATO? Who should it defendand against whom? In anycase, this should mainly be theresponsibility of westernEurope, not the US. If this wereto happen, the US militarybudget would have a lot ofmoney and troops to spare forAsia. Half the American troopsstationed in Germany arealready being transferred toAsia. After World War II endedin 1945, Germany and Japanwere asked by the US andallies to scale down their mil-itary status. They were forbid-den from letting their forcesleave the shores of their coun-tries for any military opera-tions. In fact, for the first fiveyears after WWII, these coun-tries were not to have any mil-itary at all. They were to be pro-tected by the US, with or with-out NATO. Germany remainedconservative, saved money and

produced its economic miracle.Japan was militarily a littlemore restless and began devel-oping its navy, airforce andstrengthening its army, eventhough slowly. In these 70years, it has quietly modernisedits navy and airforce, has builta helicopter-carrier and makesmodern submarines. The pre-sent Prime Minister, ShinzoAbe, has worked hard to amendthe Constitution and Japan cannow send troops overseas. Themore China developed, thegreater was the Japanese intentto be militarily stronger; so alsois the case with India over thelast six years. Every action hasa reaction.

Similarly, the people ofTaiwan have been alerted, espe-cially after trouble began inHong Kong. Until the XiJinping regime passed a lawthat anyone arrested for wrong-doing in Hong Kong could beextradited to mainland Chinafor being tried, these smallerplaces were relaxed. This newChinese law, Hong Kongersrightly feel, is a violation ofBeijing’s commitment of 1997,when the British left, of “onecountry two systems” wherebythe mainland would not inter-fere in island, which is also a bigrevenue earner. Popular protestspilled over to the streets whereeven American flags wereflown, provoking great anger inBeijing. These continual agita-tions have further alerted the

Taiwanese and new PresidentTsai Ing Wen is committed tocomplete independence and adeeper cooperation in theneighbourhood, which infuri-ates Beijing no end. The US isdefending Taiwan’s freedom todemonstrate its seriousness;very recently a Secretary of theTrump government has visitedTaipei as a show of support.India under Prime MinisterModi has appointed an envoyto Taiwan, following theLadakh clashes.

More distant countries,whether in Europe or SouthAmerica, have got resentful ofChina for suppressing factsabout the Wuhan contagion.The international wind is blow-ing against the Dragon.

The Islamic countries maynot speak up but are upset athow Beijing is treating Muslimsin its country, especially thoseliving in Xinjiang, which wasonce an independent EastTurkestan. After the Red rev-olution and Mao Zedong com-ing to power in 1950, some 28leading politicians of this coun-try were invited to Beijing(then Peking). The stated pur-pose was to meet fraternalleaders and discuss issues ofmutual interest. Since theUygurs had no means of trav-el, a special plane was sent tothe capital Ürümqi. After theconference and get-together,the same aircraft that was tak-ing the Turkish leaders back,

crashed. All Uygur leaderswere killed except two commu-nists who had opted out at thelast moment feigning sickness.They took over the governmentof East Turkestan and soonmerged it with the rest ofChina.

The Sino-Japanese rela-tions have an uneven history.For example, Manchuria was acolonial province of Japanbetween 1932 and 1945. As aresult of World War II, it wasceded to China. Over the manydecades, especially after itsnaval victory over Russia in1905, Japan had consideredthe Pacific Ocean more as itsown than anyone else’s. Lately,China has been spreading itswings over the South ChinaSea, which is objected to byseveral powers, including Japanas well as the US. Beijing hasbuilt an island in its midst, pro-voking Australia, India, Japanand the US, which havedeployed their navies to con-duct exercises in the high seas.The current bone of contentionhappens to be the SenkakuIslands, a group of uninhabit-ed islands. Except for the USadministering them between1945 and 1972, as part of theRyukyu Islands, the archipelagohas been controlled by Japansince 1895. The People’s ofRepublic of China (PRC) start-ed talking of the sovereigntyover the islands in the latter halfof 1970 when evidence relatingto the existence of oil reservessurfaced.

Additionally, after claiminglarge portions of the SouthChina Sea as well as Mt Everest,two Chinese websites havebeen claiming that centralAsian countries like Kyrgystanand Kazakhstan have beenparts of China and with the lat-ter even eager to “return” toChina. According to the latestChinese territorial claims onothers’ territories, under theKhan dynasty, a total of 510,000square kilometres of Kyrgystan,or the entire country, was partof China but was later overrunby the Russian empire.

It is well known that Chinais over populated and land-hungry. In the bargain, thePeople’s Liberation Army hadtried to cross the Ussuri riverand into Russian territory in1969. The vast area of RussianAsia has comparatively fewpeople and is, therefore, a per-petual temptation for theChinese to occupy. Beijing hasfew friends for fear of what itis and what it could desire.North Korea and Pakistan arethe only obviously perceptibleallies.

(The author is a seniorjournalist. Views expressed arepersonal)

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Sir — The whole country seemsto be obsessed with the death ofactor Sushant Singh Rajput.While it is sad that a young andtalented person like him died anunnatural and untimely death,and no one can make up theloss of his life for his parents, thefact remains that there havebeen many more suicides byactors during this pandemic.How come no one talks aboutthose deaths? Is it because theywere not so well-known people?Everyone knows that small-time film and television stars aredesperate as they are either notbeing paid or are being givenhalf of what is due to them.This has led to deep financialdistress for a bevy of actors andsome of them have committedsuicide in the last few monthssince the pandemic swept theworld. One wishes that some-one would give a thought tosuch people too and speak upfor the ones who died by sui-cide. Those entertainment com-panies that held back the pay-ments and resulted in the des-perate actors committing sui-cide should also be brought tobook. They deserve justice too.

Or is justice in this country onlyreserved for the politically-con-nected and well-known people?

R DikshitNavi Mumbai

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Sir — If one were to go by themedia reports and news chan-nels in the country, then there

is nothing else happening in ournation apart from the probe inthe Sushant Singh Rajput suicidecase. The real issues on theground are being ignored. What

is being said about the resur-gence of lynchings by cow vig-ilantes in the cow belt? Why isnothing being said about thecontinuing horrific injuries thatelephants are suffering aftereating fruits stuffed with pres-sure bombs in the South? Whatof the rapes in Uttar Pradesh(UP) that are taking place everyother day? What of the risingcases of Coronavirus in UPand Karnataka and the fact thatIndia is now the third-mostaffected country in the world?Are these, and many otherissues plaguing the country, notworth discussing on nationalmedia? Obviously, real journal-ism has taken a backseat andscribes and news anchors arenow just trying to print/showwhat sells. Circulation figuresand TRP ratings have replacedall other considerations.Journalists seem to have losttheir voice and are at the beckand call of media house ownerswho seem to measure everythingin terms of bottomlines. Sadly,the fourth pillar of democracyhas developed major cracks.

Ashmit AaronNoida, UP

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Page 7: ˘ ˇˆ ˙ ˘ˇ ˆ...2020/08/31  · Sushant’s family members of abetting the actor’s suicide — is understood to have been repeatedly questioned on Sushant’s mental condition

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Badi ashrafiat hei zabaan mein. Nawabi kamaza deti hai Urdu faqiri mein (The Urdulanguage is so aristocratic that it makes even

a pauper feel like a king).”Urdu, an Indo-Aryan language, is renowned

for its candour and timelessness. It goes withoutsaying that since time immemorial, Urdu hadbeen the lingua franca of Sindh, Gujarat, MadhyaPradesh, undivided Bengal, Punjab, Doaba andso on, besides being the language of the heart andsoul, as emphasised by the Hindi littérateur-cum-Education Minister of India, Ramesh Pokhriyal‘Nishank’, at the inauguration of a two-day webi-nar titled, The role and responsibility of Urdu writ-ers in the age of electronic and social media.

Speaking during the webinar organised bythe National Council for Promotion of UrduLanguage (NCPUL), Pokhriyal emphasised thatUrdu is a language of not only a composite cul-ture, syncretism and interfaith bonds but also ofhumaneness.

Thankfully, Urdu has kept up with the timesand become a techno-savvy language with softcopies of hundreds of books being available onapps. However, as social and electronic media isthe biggest platform for the dissemination ofinformation these days, it is the responsibility ofall connoisseurs and littérateurs to ensure thatUrdu makes its presence felt there.

According to eminent Urdu professor ZamanAzurdah, writers, poets and authors are the eyesof the entire social, religious and political sys-tem and they have a huge responsibility towardslovers of language and literature. Hence, they haveto be positive and shed all negativity. And as themost powerful source of information is the socialand electronic media, like the authors, poets andjournalists of other languages, Urdu writers, too,must toe the line of the internet. Fortunately,many of them are already connecting globally viasmartphones and computers and taking the lan-guage to the masses.

Even before the advent of Muslims in India,the country was connected historically, cultur-ally, politically and commercially via Arabic,Persian and Turkish influences to the Middle Eastand other countries, including Iran, Sudan andTurkey. After Muslims settled in India, the con-glomeration of people of various cultures speak-ing a variety of languages like Rekhta, Hindaviand ultimately, Urdu, came into being.

This intermingling was also known aslashkar (group). The purpose of all the Indian andinternational languages is to achieve the frater-nal spirit. Urdu is a beautiful language born outof the conglomeration of Hindu, Muslim andeven English cultural backgrounds.

Dr Humra Parveen, Department of MassCommunication, AMU, says that Urdu happensto be the language of the conglomerate traditionand culture of India that, after being acquired bythe Khanqahs, educational institutions and theofficial world, also became the language of com-merce. During the times of Mohammed Shah andQuli Qutub Shah, it became the Government’slanguage. At that time, it was, in fact, the most

popular language and owing to its poet-ic exuberance and ease of learning(which it is even today), Urdu replacedPersian.

The cultural and artistic tone andtenor of Urdu has been depicted gen-erously in multifarious forms, includ-ing the Mushaira (poetic gathering),Marsiahkhwani (elegy) Ghazal (poet-ry recitation), Qawwali (chorus),Dastangoi (storytelling), Chahar Bait(poetry competition) and so on, besidesother art forms like drama.

The reason that Urdu proliferatedand got promoted was owing to its sec-ular character and a universal base inIndia and abroad. Today it happens tobe one of the most popular of all inter-national languages. Not only that,Urdu is the voice of the sub-continentand has become an important link lan-guage for South Asian Association forRegional Cooperation (SAARC)

In India alone, as per Governmentrecords, Urdu is the mother tongue ofmore than 70 million people. However,an equal number of Urdu-knowingpeople are spread all over the nation.In the erstwhile State of Jammu andKashmir, Urdu is the first languagewhile in other States like Uttar Pradesh,Delhi, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,West Bengal, it has been recognised asthe second language.

Nevertheless, there are some otherareas where people have recordedUrdu to be their mother tongue, likeBihar, Maharashtra, Karnataka,Jharkhand and Rajasthan. So far as thelinguistic link of Urdu is concerned, its

family includes Sanskrit, Persian, Arabicand Dravidian languages like Teluguand Kannada.

Owing to its historicity, linguisticappeal, cultural multiplicity and liter-ary taste, it doesn’t have any religion orregion. Connoisseurs of Urdu arefound around the world. Besides,another salient feature of Urdu has beenits linkage to the dialects. Writers, espe-cially from Punjab, Kashmir,Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka,have also glorified the language glob-ally.

All languages are beautiful and havetheir own charm and distinct persona,but Urdu, in particular, is sweet andpoetic and at the same time, very adapt-able. If a language can be developedthrough a combination of seven lan-guages, what can be more flexible andwelcoming? Many foreigners ask tohear Urdu, and when they do, their firstreaction is: It is so soft and easy on theears.

Phonologically, Urdu sounds arethe same as those of Hindi except forslight variations in short vowel allo-phones. Urdu also retains a completeset of aspirated stops (sounds pro-nounced with a sudden release with anaudible breath), a characteristic ofIndo-Aryan, as well as retroflex stops.

It does not retain the completerange of Perso-Arabic consonants,despite its heavy borrowing from thattradition. From the grammatical pointof view, there is not much differencebetween Hindi and Urdu. One distinc-tion is that Urdu uses more Perso-

Arabic prefixes and suffixes than Hindi.Another interesting aspect of Urdu

is that it has incorporated in itself theidioms and clichés of other Indian lan-guages like Punjabi, Hindi, Marathi,Sindhi, Hindi, Sanskrit, Gujarati,Pushto, Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Kashmiri,Telugu and Kannada. In fact, the innerspirit of Urdu is Sanskrit and it has beenconnected to it. Same is the case withmany foreign languages, like Arabic,Persian, Turkish, English, Uzbek andNepali that have gelled quite well withUrdu. It is assured that if a language hasviable connects with the other tongues,the result is a very pleasant one, basi-cally indicating an intermingling of andrespect for cultures. In this regard, itis pertinent to mention that Urdu is awindow to the cultural heritage of India.It makes us introspect as it is a languageof a composite culture and joins bro-ken hearts.

The NCPUL has been promotingUrdu on a pan-India basis by conduct-ing seminars, workshops on calligraphy,graphic designing, e-books, Urdu mediaand other topics, besides teaching ofUrdu, Persian and Arabic to peoplefrom all cross-sections of society andbringing out of Urdu magazines. Tillsuch organisations are there and thelanguage uses technology to propagateitself on social and electronic media,Urdu will live on in the hearts andminds of people.

(The writer is the Chancellor ofMaulana Azad National UrduUniversity and grandnephew of BharatRatna Maulana Azad)

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In 1924, a year after declaringTurkey a republic and becomingits President, the former com-

mander in the army of the shrink-ing Ottoman Empire, and a hero ofWorld War-I, Mustafa Kemal Pasha,abolished the centuries-old office ofthe caliphate and drove the lastOttoman Caliph into exile.

With this act, not only didKemal launch his ambitious repub-lican and secularisation project inTurkey, but he also triggered a racebetween Muslim leaders and mon-archs to become recognised as thenew leaders of the Muslim world.

Various Muslim groups aroundthe world had agitated againstEuropean powers, who were at warwith the Ottomans during WorldWar-I. But after the defeat of theOttomans, many Muslim politicalleaders and intellectuals hailedKemal’s coming into power and sawhim as a modern redeemer of Islam.

The British historian, E

Kedourie, in a 1963 essay for theJournal of the Royal Asiatic Societyof Great Britain, writes that Kemalwas conscious of the fact that theidea of the caliphate was deeplyembedded in the minds of Muslims.According to Kedourie, at onepoint, Kemal actually wanted toname himself as the new Caliph. Butsince this would have contradictedand complicated his secularisationand republican project, he didn’t.

However, Kedourie adds thatKemal then offered a much-weak-ened version of the caliphate toShaikh Ahmad al-Sanusi, an Arabhead of a Sufi order, as long as hewould remain outside Turkey.

This suggests that, despitelaunching an aggressive project tosecularise Turkey, Kemal was stillinterested in retaining the country’srole as the “spiritual and politicalleader of the Muslim world.” Butafter the abolition of the Ottomancaliphate, two contenders rushed into claim the title. King Fuad of Egypt(that was still being ruled by theBritish) and the Wahabi Arab trib-al leader, Ibn Saud, who, with thehelp of the British, had conqueredformer Ottoman territories in whatwould become Saudi Arabia in1932. In 1926, Fuad organised aninternational Muslim conferencein Cairo. It was not attended by

Saud. Weeks later, Saud held a sim-ilar conference in Mecca. Turkey didnot attend any of the two events andneither did the Shia-majority Iran.

In 1947, a much smaller playeremerged in this race. It called itselfPakistan. It was founded in August1947 by Muhammad Ali Jinnah’sMuslim League. The party’s roots layin an evolving idea which emergedin the 19th century. It took a mod-ernist approach to understandingIslam. This then progressed as aMuslim nationalism, which wasremoulded as Pakistani nationalism.According to the French politicalscientist, Christophe Jaffrelot, thisapproach relegated Islamic rituals tothe private sphere and brought intopublic space Islam as a political-cul-tural identity marker.

Inspired by the writings ofMuslim reformers such as Sir SyedAhmad Khan and the poet andphilosopher Muhammad Iqbal,Jinnah and his party imagined a sov-ereign Muslim-majority countryuntainted by, what Iqbal had lament-ed, tribalism inherent in Arabianpolities. Iqbal pleaded for a faithunderstood and articulated accord-ing to the needs of modern times.

Jinnah and his colleagues need-ed to greatly trim the pan-Islamicaspects of Muslim nationalism toroot it more in the realities of

South-Asian Muslims. But this did not deter Pakistan’s

first Prime Minister, Liaquat AliKhan, from declaring that Pakistanwas a lot more than just anotherMuslim country. According to MRazvi, in the 1981 issue of theJournal of Pakistan Institute of

International Affairs, Pakistan helda World Muslim Conference in1951 in Karachi. During the event,Liaquat highlighted the importanceof retaining pan-Islamic ideas.

This did not please SaudiArabia, which suspected thatPakistan was trying to underminethe kingdom’s (self-appointed) roleas the leader of the post-ColonialMuslim world. But this role was dra-matically snatched away by GamalAbdel Nasser, the EgyptianPresident who came to powerthrough a coup in 1952. Charismaticand articulate, Nasser was hailed asa hero by Muslims around theworld when, in 1956, he managedto keep at bay an attack by Britishand Israeli forces on Egypt.

With his displays of Arab social-ism and a modernity suited to theneeds of the evolving Muslim poli-ties, Nasser mocked Saudi Arabia ofbeing retrogressive and rigid. For adecade after 1956, Nasser’s Egyptwas the undisputed leader of theMuslim world, inspiring large num-bers of Muslims in Arab and non-Arab regions alike.

Stung by Nasser’s status in thiscontext, and also by his criticism ofSaudi Arabia, the Saudi monarchKing Faisal (who came to the thronein 1964) unfolded a hectic moderni-sation process in Saudi Arabia.

However, Nasser’s mystique andinfluence began to rapidly recedewhen Egyptian and Syrian forceswere decimated by their Israelicounterparts in 1967.

In 1970, Nasser passed away,and Saudi Arabia once again rushedin to pick up the status of the leaderof the Muslim world. A windfall ofprofits made during (and becauseof) the 1973 oil crisis enhanced theinfluence of what became known asthe “petro-dollar.” And Saudi Arabiahad the most.

Faisal cleverly used these to sub-due (and win over) Nasser’s succes-sor Anwar Sadat. Faisal was alsoaware of the ambitions of PakistaniPrime Minister ZA Bhutto, who fan-cied himself as a champion of themodern Muslim world. But sincePakistan had lost a war in 1971 andits economy was weak, Faisalbrought Pakistan fully into theever-expanding Saudi orbit.

By the 1980s, flush with petro-dollars and with a surge in the pop-ularity of “political Islam” in Muslimcountries, Saudi political and reli-gious influence witnessed a mani-fold increase. It was only chal-lenged by the radical Shia theocra-cy in Iran. Both countries fought abrutal war of influence through sec-tarian proxies in countries such asPakistan and Lebanon.

However, in the new century,events such as the Arab Spring, thefall of dictatorships in Libya, Iraqand Tunisia, civil wars inAfghanistan, Somalia, Syria andYemen, the emergence of multipleviolent anti-State Islamist outfits inmost Muslim countries, along withthe retreat of the US and the rise ofChina, began to make variousMuslim countries reconsider theirstrategic priorities and even reinventtheir ideological character to strikenew alliances. Turkey, which haddropped out of the game of Muslimleadership decades ago, entered thefray again and is trying to lure non-Arab Muslim regions to break awayfrom the Saudi orbit. It is an orbitthat had already begun to decay.

This is one reason why the newSaudi monarchs are trying to reviveKing Faisal’s initial reformist ideas.Whereas the conservative aspect ofSaudi ideology was castigated byNasser’s Egypt in the past, thistime it is being challenged byErdogan’s “neo-Ottomanism”, whichis critical of Saudi Arabia for squan-dering the influence it had enjoyedfor decades as the leader of theMuslim world.

Turkey sees itself as a more nat-ural candidate for this role. This titleonce again is up for grabs.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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Paris: A senior French armyofficer based abroad has beenarrested and handed prelimi-nary treason charges for shar-ing highly sensitive intelligencewith a foreign power, authori-ties said Sunday.

Europe-1 radio reportedthat the lieutenant colonel isaccused of passing “ultra-sen-sitive” information to Russiansecret services. It reported thatthe officer served on a NATObase in Italy, and was arrestedwhile on vacation in France.

French authorities wouldnot confirm which foreignpower the senior officer is sus-pected of spying for.

Defence Minister FlorenceParly said the officer is underinvestigation for “serious secu-rity breaches.” Speaking onEurope-1 on Sunday, Parly saidthe French military has taken

“necessary protective measures”as a result.

A treason investigation wasopened in late July after theDefense Ministry alerted theParis prosecutor’s office to sus-pect activity, according to ajudicial official. The officer wasarrested and given preliminarycharges Aug. 21 of compro-mising national defense secrets,sharing intelligence with a for-eign power that threatens thenation’s fundamental interestsand other counts, the officialtold The Associated Press.

The official was not autho-rized to be publicly identifieddiscussing an ongoing investi-gation. NATO said the organi-zation does not comment onintelligence issues, noted thatthere is a judicial process under-way and referred questions toFrench authorities. AP

Washington: The number ofconfirmed coronavirus casesglobally has topped 25 million.

That’s according to a tallykept by Johns HopkinsUniversity.

The US leads the countwith 5.9 million cases, fol-lowed by Brazil with 3.8 millionand India with 3.5 million.

The real number of peopleinfected by the virus around theworld is believed to be much

higher - perhaps 10 times high-er in the US, according to theCentre for Disease Controland Prevention - given testinglimitations and the many mildcases that have gone unreport-ed or unrecognised.

Global deaths fromCOVID-19 stand at over842,000, with the US having thehighest number with 182,779,followed by Brazil with 120,262and Mexico with 63,819. AP

Portland (US): One personwas shot and killed lateSaturday in Portland, Oregon,as a large caravan of PresidentDonald Trump supporters andBlack Lives Matter protestersclashed in the streets, policesaid.

It wasn’t clear if the shoot-ing was linked to fights thatbroke out as a caravan of about600 vehicles was confronted byprotesters in the city’s down-town. An Associated Press free-lance photographer heard threegunshots and then observedpolice medics working on thebody of the victim, whoappeared to be a white man.

“Portland Police officersheard sounds of gunfire fromthe area of Southeast 3rdAvenue and Southwest AlderStreet. They responded andlocated a victim with a gunshotwound to the chest. Medicalresponded and determined thatthe victim was deceased,” thePortland Police Bureau said ina statement.

Police did not release anyadditional details and were atthe scene investigating lateSaturday.

Portland has been the siteof nightly protests for morethan three months since thepolice killing of George Floydin Minneapolis.

Many of them end in van-dalism and violence, and hun-dreds of demonstrators havebeen arrested by local and fed-

eral law enforcement since lateMay. The caravan arriveddowntown just as a protestplanned for Saturday was get-ting underway. Police madeseveral arrests before the shoot-ing and advised residents toavoid the city core.

The chaotic scene cametwo days after Trump invokedPortland as a liberal city over-run with violence in a speech atthe Republican NationalConvention as part of his “lawand order” re-election cam-paign theme. The caravanmarked the third Saturday in arow that Trump supportershave rallied in the city.

Trump and other speakersat this week’s conventionevoked a violent, dystopianfuture if Democratic presiden-tial hopeful Joe Biden wins inNovember and pointed toPortland as a cautionary tale forwhat would be in store forAmericans.

The pro-Trump rally’sorganiser, who coordinated asimilar caravan in Boise, Idaho,earlier in the week, said in avideo posted on TwitterSaturday afternoon that atten-dees should only carry con-cealed weapons and the routewas being kept secret for safe-ty reasons.

The caravan had gatheredearlier in the day at a suburbanmall and drove as a group to theheart of Portland. As theyarrived in the city, protestersattempted to stop them bystanding in the street and block-ing bridges.

Videos from the sceneshowed sporadic fighting, aswell as Trump supporters fir-ing paintball pellets at oppo-nents and using bear spray ascounter-protesters threw thingsat the Trump caravan. Theshooting happened shortlybefore 9 pm Pacific, severalhours after the caravan beganarriving in Portland. AP

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Kathmandu: Nepal on Sundayreported its highest single-dayincrease in the coronaviruscases with 1,221 new infections,taking the country’s total countto 38,561.

During a regular pressbriefing, Dr Jageshwar Gautam,the spokesperson for theMinistry of Health, said the

country’s death toll jumped to221 after 14 more people dieddue to COVID-19.

The country’s death toll hasdoubled in just two weeks dueto a surge in cases.

According to the spokesper-son, there are currently 17,518corona active COVID-19patients in the country. PTI

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Bangkok: About 1,000 peoplegathered in a Bangkok sportsarena on Sunday, swearing todefend Thailand’s monarchyfrom a student-led mass move-ment that they believe is athreat to the institution’s exis-tence.

Calling themselves “ThaiPakdee,” or “Loyal Thai,” mostwere dressed in yellow shirts —a colour closely associated withthe monarchy and the rulingestablishment. Some clutchedportraits of current King MahaVajiralongkorn and of his laterevered father, King BhumibholAdulyadej, while others wavedgiant national flags.

The gathering took place asanti-government protests gath-er momentum across Thailand,posing the strongest challengeyet to the rule of PrimeMinister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

The former army chief firsttook power in a coup in 2014,then retained it in an electionlast year widely seen as riggedto all but guarantee his victory.

Speakers at Sunday’s rallypledged to protect the monar-chy and the nation. Videoswere shown, one of whichextolled King Maha’s role infighting communism in the

1970s, when a jungle insur-gency threatened the coun-try’s stability.

“I promise to fight shoul-der to shoulder with brothersand sisters who share the samebeliefs, to protect the belovedinstitution,” said one speaker,Patiyut Tongpajong.

Speaking to the mediabefore the program began,Thai Pakdee leader WarongDechgitvigrom, a formerMember of parliament, saidtheir aim was “to educate thepeople.” The protesters thatthe royalist movement isresponding to have three core

demands: holding new elec-tions, amending the constitu-tion and ending the intimida-tion of critics of the govern-ment.

But some of the anti-gov-ernment movement’s leadersstirred controversy with anunprecedented call for reformof the monarchy, which theysee as out of touch and unac-countable.

The institution has tradi-tionally been treated as beyondreproach. It is also protected bystrict defamation laws that canbring punishment of 15 yearsin prison. AP

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Taipei: The president of theCzech Senate arrived in Taiwanon Sunday on a visit that hasdrawn sharp criticism fromChina.

Milos Vystrcil was accom-panied by Prague MayorZdenek Hrib and more than 80representatives from govern-ment, business and academia,lending Taiwan a boost in itsefforts to resist the diplomaticisolation imposed by Beijing.

Taiwanese ForeignMinister Joseph Wu greeted thedelegation at Taiwan’s mainTaoyuan International Airportafter their arrival on a flightchartered from Taiwanese flagcarrier China Airlines. Chinalast week denounced Vystrcil’s

visit as “undermining the polit-ical foundation of China-Czechrelations” and said participantswere acting out of “their owninterests.” “China condemnsthis despicable act and urgesthe Czech side to abide by theone-China principle and han-dle Taiwan-related issues in aprudent and appropriate man-ner,” foreign ministryspokesperson Zhao Lijian toldreporters on Thursday.

China claims Taiwan as itsown territory and its increasingdiplomatic pressure has reducedthe number of the self-govern-ing island’s formal allies to just15, most of them small countriesin the Pacific, Central Americaand the Caribbean. AP

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Ankara: Turkey marked the98th anniversary of the decisiveWar of Independence battleagainst Greek forces Sunday asthe threat of a new conflict withAthens looms in the easternMediterranean.

“Turkey’s struggle for inde-pendence and future continuestoday as well,” Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan said in amessage to commemorateVictory Day.

“It is absolutely not a coin-cidence that those who seek toexclude us from the easternMediterranean are the sameinvaders as the ones whoattempted to invade our home-land a century ago.”

In recent weeks, Turkishand Greek forces have engagedin a series of cat-and-mousemilitary exercises in the seasbetween Cyprus and the Greekisland of Crete. The confronta-tion was sparked when Turkeysent a research vessel accom-panied by warships to search forgas and oil reserves. EU mem-ber Greece claims the waters arepart of its continental shelf andhas enlisted the support of the27-nation bloc, which has con-demned Turkey’s “illegal activ-ities” and warned of potentialsanctions against Ankara. AP

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Kabul: Afghanistan’s presidenthas appointed a council fornational reconciliation, whichwill have final say on whetherthe government will sign apeace deal with the Talibanafter what are expected to beprotracted and uncertain nego-tiations with the insurgents.

The negotiations wereenvisaged under a US-Talibanpeace agreement signed inFebruary as intra-Afghan talksto decide the war-torn coun-try’s future. However, theirstart has been hampered by aseries of delays that have frus-trated Washington. Some hadexpected the negotiations tobegin earlier this month.

Afghan President AshrafGhani issued a decree lateSaturday establishing the 46-member council, led by his for-mer rival in last year’s presi-dential election, AbdullahAbdullah, who is now in the

government.The council is separate

from a 21-member negotiatingteam, which Ghani appointedin March and which is expect-ed to travel to the Gulf Arabstate of Qatar, where theTaliban maintain a politicaloffice, for intra-Afghan talks.

The council will have thefinal say and will ultimatelydecide on the points that thenegotiating team takes up withthe Taliban.

Abdullah’s appointment tohead the reconciliation effortsfollowed a power-sharing dealhe signed in May with Ghani toend the political deadlock afterlast year’s election — a vote inwhich Abdullah had alsodeclared himself a winner.

The High Council forNational Reconciliation ismade up of an array of Afghanpolitical figures, including cur-rent and former and nine

women representatives, one ofwhom was named Abdullah’sdeputy. Ghani also appointedformer President Hamid Karzaito the council but his prede-cessor rejected the appoint-ment in a statement Sunday,saying he declines to be part ofany government structure.

Also on the council aremujahedeen and jihadi leaderswho fought against the SovietUnion in the 1980s but whowere also involved in aAfghanistan’s brutal civil warthat followed their takeover in1992 that left 50,000, mostlycivilians, dead in Kabul.Among them is GulbuddinHekmatyar, who signed a peacedeal with Ghani in 2016 butpreviously was declared a ter-rorist by the US. The councilalso includes Abdur RasoolSayyaf, who was the inspirationfor the Philippine terroristgroup Abu Sayyaf. AP

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Gunmen stopped a group ofmotorcycle riders then openedfire with assault rifles in a busydowntown area in the southernPhilippines, killing nine peo-ple, police said Sunday, in thelatest violence to roil thevolatile region.

Police officials said theattack on the victims, whowere mostly farmers, at noonSaturday in Kabacan town inCotabato province may havebeen sparked by a local feudand was likely not an act of ter-rorism.

Cotabato lies in a poverty-wracked region where adecades-long Muslim sepa-ratist insurgency has easedlargely due to a 2014 peace dealbetween the Philippines’ largestMuslim rebel group and thegovernment, although smallarmed groups aligned withthe Islamic State group stillpose a threat. AP

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Beirut: The head of Lebanon’sHezbollah said on Sunday hisgroup supports the formation ofa government that would be ableto improve economic conditionsin the crisis-stricken country andundertake major reforms.

Hassan Nasrallah said hisgroup is also open to calls fromFrance for a new political con-tract in Lebanon, on conditionthat all Lebanese sects are onboard.

The speech came on theeve of a meeting by Lebaneseparliamentary blocs deciding toname a new prime ministerand also ahead of FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron’sarrival in Lebanon late Monday.It’s Macron’s second visit to theformer French protectorate inless than a month.

Macron has offered Frenchsupport after the devastatingAug. 4 port explosion in Beirutand has also pressed Lebaneseofficials to formulate a newpolitical pact to lift the coun-try out of its political stale-mates, entrenched corruptionand years of mismanagement.

The Iran-backed militantgroup Hezbollah, which has adominant role in Lebanon’spolitics, has come underintense criticism and publicscrutiny as the country facesmultiple devastating crises. Theport explosion killed 190 peo-ple and injured over 6,000.Parts of the capital were dev-astated and the port, a maintrade channel for the smallcountry dependent on imports,was badly damaged. AP

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Harare: Zimbabwe’s parksauthorities in Zimbabwe areinvestigating the death of 11elephants in a forest in the westof the country, a parksspokesman said Sunday.

The carcasses of the ele-phants were discovered onFriday in Pandamasue Forest,located between HwangeNational Park and VictoriaFalls. Blood samples have beentaken to a laboratory for analy-sis to determine the cause oftheir deaths, Tinashe Farawo,spokesman of the ZimbabweNational Parks and WildlifeManagement Authority, said.The dead elephants were foundwith the tusks still on their bod-ies, ruling out poaching. AP

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The Income Tax departmenton Sunday asked banks to

refund the charges collected onor after January 1, 2020, ontransactions carried outthrough electronic modes likeRuPay cards or BHIM-UPI.

The Central Board ofDirect Taxes (CBDT), in a cir-cular on ‘imposition of chargeon the prescribed electronicmodes under section 269SU ofI-T Act’, also advised banks notto impose any charges on anyfuture transactions carried outthrough these modes.

To encourage digital trans-actions and move towards aless-cash economy, theGovernment inserted a newprovision, Section 269SU, inthe Finance Act, 2019.

The Act requires a personcarrying on business and hav-ing sales/turnover/gross

receipts from business of morethan � 50 crore in the imme-diately preceding previous yearto mandatorily provide facili-ties for accepting paymentsthrough prescribed electronicmodes.

Subsequently, in December2019, debit card powered byRuPay; Unified PaymentsInterface (UPI) (BHIM-UPI);and Unified Payments InterfaceQuick Response Code (UPIQR Code) were notified as pre-scribed electronic modes.

“Banks are advised toimmediately refund the chargescollected, if any, on or after

January 1, 2020, on transac-tions carried out using theelectronic modes prescribedunder section 269SU of theIncome-tax Act,1961 and notto impose charges on anyfuture transactions carriedthrough the said prescribedmodes,” the CBDT circularsaid.

The apex body on directtaxes said that it had inDecember 2019 clarified thatany charge, including theMerchant Discount Rate(MDR) shall not be applicableon or after January 1, 2020, onpayment made through pre-scribed electronic modes.

However, it has receivedrepresentations that somebanks are imposing and col-lecting charges on transactionscarried out through UPI.

A certain number of trans-actions are allowed free ofcharge beyond which every

transaction bears a charge.“Such practice on part of

banks is a breach of section10A of the PSS (Payment andSettlement Systems) Act aswell as Section 269SU of theIncome Tax Act. Such breachattracts penal provisions...,” theCBDT said.

Nangia Andersen LLPPartner Sandeep Jhunjhunwalasaid, “Processing of refund ofcharges collected from January2020 till date and non-imposi-tion on future transactionscarried out using electronicmodes prescribed underSection 269SU of the I-T Actcould mean an added burdenon the banking system han-dling transactions via RuPay orUPI right from initiation to set-tlement of such payments.Guidance in this regard fromthe RBI and the Ministry ofFinance would be highly appre-ciated”.

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Attributing the rise inreporting of bank frauds to

greater scrutiny, experts saidstrong due diligence at branchlevel and periodic fund utili-sation audits can check finan-cial delinquencies.

The Reserve Bank in itslatest annual report revealedthat bank frauds, both in termsof numbers and volume, havegone up substantially during2019-20.

As per the annual report,“the total cases of frauds(involving �1 lakh and above)reported by banks/FIsincreased by 28 per cent by vol-ume and 159 per cent by valueduring 2019-20.”

The date of occurrence ofthese frauds are, however,spread over several previousyears.

Both the borrowers andlenders should be held account-able for misuse of depositors’funds, said Gagan Puri -Partner, Leader Forensic ser-vices, PwC, adding “a culpableact of diversion of fundsaccompanied by ineffective orinsufficient monitoring can bea recipe for disaster.”

Strong culture of account-ability, zero tolerance and effec-tive enforcement is the key forensuring that the instances offraud decrease, he said.

“Enhancing the due dili-gence process taking into thelearnings of the frauds thathave been identified, and fundutilisation audits at the time ofdisbursements, instead of doingthese once the account hasbeen identified as a NPA, aremeasures that are the need ofthe hour,” Puri added.

Atul Pandey, Partner,Khaitan & Co, said the spurt in

banking frauds mainly per-tain to loan related frauds.

“It is important to notethat the RBI has substantiallystrengthened the fraud recog-nition process and such spurtin cases may not necessarilyindicate increase in bankingfrauds, but may instead reflectcases which had earlierremained undetected,” he said.

Pandey further said thatthe RBI’s directives on increas-ing monitoring of loans as wellas imposing requirement ofincreased forensic audits seemto be a step in the right direc-tion.KV Karthik, Partner,Forensic - Financial Advisory,Deloitte Touche TohmatsuIndia LLP, opined that over theyears RBI has been active whenit comes to providing timelyguidelines to banks on emerg-ing frauds, fraud preventionmethods, compliance frame-works and pushing for strin-gent reporting norms and otherenablers.

It is up to the banks toimplement these guidelinesand implement a fraud riskmanagement and EarlyWarning Signals (EWS) systemin a comprehensive manner.

“This will require a shifttowards a proactive approachfor fraud risk managementrather than reactive approachthat is prevalent.

This means banks willneed to move from equippingoneself to respond to a fraudincident, to preventing it, peri-odically reviewing their riskand controls and implementingtechnology tools for preventionand early detection of frauds,”Karthik said.

Commenting on the issue,Vivek Jalan, Partner at TaxConnect Advisory services LLP,said the root cause lies in the

lag between occurrence anddetection of frauds.

“In large frauds (�100 croreand above), the average lag was

almost 5 years which byany standard is not acceptable.What is needed is Real TimeWarning Signals (RTWS)instead of Early WarningSignals (EWS). Also thestrengthening of concurrentaudits in banks is a possibleway forward,” he said.

As per the central bank’slatest annual report, banks andfinancial institutions (FIs) tookan average of 2 years in detect-ing a fraud during 2019-20,while for high-value frauds ofover �100 crore, the time lag inoccurrence and knowledge offund misappropriation wasmuch higher at over 5 years.

Presenting data of fraudsinvolving �1 lakh and above,RBI said a total of 8,707 fraudswere detected during 2019-20involving an amount of�1,85,644 crore. This com-pares with 6,799 cases involv-ing �71,543 crore in the previ-ous year.

RBI’s report said fraudshave been predominantlyoccurring in the loan portfolio(advances category), both interms of number and value.

There was a concentrationof large value frauds, with thetop fifty credit-related fraudsconstituting 76 per cent of thetotal amount reported as fraudsduring 2019-20.

Weak implementation ofEWS by banks, non-detectionof EWS during internal audits,non-cooperation of borrowersduring forensic audits, incon-clusive audit reports and lack ofdecision making in jointlenders’ meetings account fordelay in detection of frauds, itadded.

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Private companies havebegan investing in farm

sector spurred by the recentreforms that will help increasefarmers’ income, according toAgriculture Secretary SanjayAgarwal.

The Government recent-ly brought three major reformsvia Ordinances.

It amended the EssentialCommodities Act to deregulatefood items, and introduced anew law - The Farmers’Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation)Ordinance, 2020 -- to allowfarmers to sell their produceoutside the AgriculturalProduce Market Committees .

The Farmers(Empowerment andProtection) Agreement onPrice Assurance and FarmServices Ordinance, 2020 wasbrought in to legalise contractfarming.

“These reforms are applic-able pan-India. They are mov-ing in the right direction andwill help increase the income offarmers,” Agarwal told PTI.

The government hasalready held one round of dis-cussion with the industry onimplementation of agri-reforms.

“Large number of indus-

tries are planning investments,while some have already invest-ed,” he said.

“Lot of things are hap-pening. I was told that a ricecompany has already enteredinto contract farming withbasmati rice growers in 1,000acres, while another companyhas opened a private mandi,” hesaid without disclosing invest-ment amount.

On the ongoing kharif(summer) sowing, Agarwalsaid India has already set a newrecord in sowing of kharifcrops. “Good rains haveimproved the prospects ofkharif crops. Total area sown tokharif crops has reached 1,082lakh hectares till August 28,surpassing the 2016 record,” hesaid. In 2016, farmers hadsown kharif crops in a total areaof 1,075.71 lakh hectare.

Total sown area underkharif crops stood at 1,009.98lakh hectares during the cor-responding period last year.Even in the current COVID-19crisis, farmers have workedvery hard, he said.

“Overall, there has beengood sowing till date. Allrequired steps for risk mitiga-tion have also been taken,”Agarwal said, adding thatreports on status of crops instates that faced floods andheavy rains are awaited.

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Homebuyers sitting on thefence are likely to enter the

property market and moveforward with their purchasedecisions following the thetemporary reduction in stampduty by MaharashtraGovernment, according to topreal estate developers.Theready-to-move-in residentialproperties will be in moredemand than the under-con-struction flats, they said.

On Wednesday, theMaharashtra Govt decided toslash stamp duty on sale deeddocuments by 3 per cent fromSeptember 1 to Dec 31, 2020,and by 2 per cent from January1, 2021 to March 31, 2021.

Currently, the stamp dutyrate is 5 per cent for urban areasand 4 per cent for rural areas.

Stamp duty is a transac-tional tax collected by the gov-ernment on property purchas-es.”The temporary stamp dutyreduction is an excellent moveby the Maharashtra Govt. It hasbeen intelligently designed toexpire in a time-bound mannerwhich creates an incentive forfence-sitting homebuyers tomove forward with their pur-chase decisions,” GodrejProperties Executive ChairmanPirojsha Godrej told PTI.Embassy Group Chairman andManaging Director JituVirwani termed it as anencouraging move by theMaharashtra Govt.

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Ahead of the roll out ofone-time debt recast for

resolution of Covid-19 relatedstress in bank loans, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanwill hold a review meetingwith bankers and heads ofnon-banking financial com-panies (NBFCs) on September3 for smooth and speedy imple-mentation of the scheme.

“The review (meeting)will focus on enabling busi-nesses and households to availof the revival framework on thebasis of viability, necessarysteps like finalising bank poli-cies and identifying borrowers,and discussing issues thatrequire addressing for smoothand speedy implementation,”the Finance Ministry said in astatement.

The finance minister willreview the implementation ofthe resolution framework forCovid-19 related stress in bankloans on Thursday with the topmanagement of scheduledcommercial banks and NBFCs,it said.

The RBI earlier this monthpermitted one-time restruc-turing of both corporate andretail loans.Banks are in theprocess of getting a board-approved restructuring frame-work in line with RBI’s frame-work and eligibility defined bythe central bank in its notifi-cation on August 6.

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Telecom industry’s revenuesare expected to rise 14-15

per cent in the current finan-cial year led by some uptick inaverage revenue per user,though the subscriber basemay remain flat with ruralgrowth offsetting SIM consol-idation in urban locations,apex association COAI esti-mates.

The newly appointed DirectorGeneral of Cellular Operators’

Association of India (COAI) SP Kochhar told PTI that anyduopoly situation in the currentthree-player private telcos mar-ket can “never be a good thing”and asserted that sufficientcompetition among the oper-ators is required for ensuringthat subscribers get good ser-vices at better prices.

The COAI will continue tobe a neutral body that believesin consensus building and una-nimity of views, Kochhar saidwhen asked about past differ-

ences amongst the telecomcompanies, who are membersof the association, on variousissues.

“COAI tries to get thepoint of view of all membersunanimously and we makesure whenever we project toany authority whether in gov-ernment or regulatory, we do itas unanimous voice, we are notpartisan...,” he said.

Kochhar said that indus-try’s financial distress is “evi-dent” and that the COAI willcontinue to push for reliefincluding reduction in spec-trum usage charges (SUC) andlicence fee; and exemption ofGST on licence fee and SUC, aswell as on payment of spectrum

acquired in auctions.On whether, the telecom

industry is headed towards aduopoly, Kochhar spoke infavour of competition saying,“at the end of the day, generalpublic should get benefits oftelecom and that will not hap-pen in case of a duopoly”.

It is in the interest of thecountry that duopoly does notcome in and “we have morecompetition, so better servicesat better prices can be offeredto subscribers”, he said.

The industry’s revenue,Kochhar said, will grow at 14-15 per cent in FY21, led bysome improvement in averagerevenue per user (ARPU).

“We also expect the sub-

scriber base to remain flat inthis fiscal, and the rural sub-scribers will grow to offset theSIM consolidation in urbangeographies.

“Data consumption peruser per month will movehigher from 12 GB to 15 GB bynext year, and there will beincrease in ARPU this fiscal butwhether that will be significantincrease or not is something wewill have to see,” he said.

However, Kochhar addedthat the association has notreceived any indication as yetfrom its members companieson tariff hike.

“Only recently ARPUsstarted moving up. But withvarious other liabilities on tel-cos, profits have not yet start-ed seeing the light of day andcompanies are unlikely to beprofitable with the currentscale of improvement inARPUs.

ARPUs should go up by atleast twice the figure than it isat, now,” he said.

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Domestic liner ShippingCorporation of India (SCI)

has emerged as a pioneeramong top Indian fleet ownerswhen it comes to hiring womenin key roles on ships with over20 per cent women workforceand a robust gender-neutralhiring policy in place.

Incidentally, SCI- whichowns and operates around one-third of the Indian tonnage andhas operating interests in prac-tically all areas of the shippingbusiness, servicing both nation-al and international trades --has at its helm a woman as thechairperson and managingdirector, H K Joshi.

Of the total 646 employees,135 are women.

“SCI has been the pioneerin India with regards to recruit-ing women for jobs on boardits fleet

Presently, two masters,five chief officers, two secondengineers, 31 second/third offi-cers, six third/fourth engineersand two nurses are womenserving on various types ofships,” as per the annual reportof the Navratna public sectorenterprise.

In addition, there are 13women trainee nautical offi-cers, four woman traineemarine engineers and sevenwoman trainee electrical engi-neers.

The company is committedto the principle of equalemployment opportunity andstrives to provide employees

with a workplace free of dis-crimination, the report said.

All HR activities of recruit-ment, placement, promotion,transfer, separation, compen-sation benefits and trainingensure equal opportunities forskill enhancement and careerprogression, it said.

“Company’s efforts arereflected in the representationof women across various hier-archical grades.

At present, women consti-tute around 20.54 per cent oftotal workforce at shore estab-lishments of your company,”SCI said.

SCI encourages activeinvolvement in the activities ofthe Forum of Women in PublicSector (WIPS) since its incep-tion, it said.

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The market valuation of sixof the top 10 most valued

firms zoomed by �1,06,523.84crore last week, with ICICIBank and Kotak MahindraBank leading the pack.

During the last week, theBSE benchmark Sensex hadgained 1,032.59 points or 2.68per cent.

Of these 10 most valuedcompanies in terms of marketcapitalisation (m-cap), RelianceIndustries Ltd (RIL), HDFCBank, HDFC, Kotak MahindraBank, Bharti Airtel and ICICIBank emerged as gainers.

On the other hand, fourfirms Tata ConsultancyServices (TCS), HindustanUnilever Ltd (HUL), Infosysand ITC ended the week withlosses.

The market valuation ofICICI Bank jumped by �26,620.32 crore to �2,82,550.05crore, becoming the biggestgainer.

Kotak Mahindra Bank’sm-cap rose by �25,360.91 croreto �2,90,458.09 crore, RIL’s val-uation was up by �21,458.89crore at �13,41,164.42 crore

and HDFC Bank’s worthincreased by �16,547.52 croreto � 6,13,598.67 crore.

Among other two gainers,HDFC saw its market valuationrise by �14,599.47 crore to�3,37,472.45 crore and BhartiAirtel added �1,936.73 crore to�2,85,625.71 crore.

In contrast, the market capof HUL plunged by � 11,982.71crore to �5,05,658.41 crore.

Infosys witnessed an ero-sion of �5,963.14 crore to�3,98,188.66 crore from itsvaluation and TCS took a hit of�4,165.15 crore to see its mar-ket cap at �8,39,445.98 crore.

The valuation of ITC alsodeclined by �1,661.13 crore to�2,40,619 crore.

In the ranking of ten mostvalued firms at the close of thetrading week on Friday, RILheld the numero uno positionfollowed by TCS, HDFC Bank,HUL, Infosys, HDFC, KotakMahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel,ICICI Bank and ITC.

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As several states continue tooppose the borrowing

options proposed in lieu of theGST compensation, the Centrehas told states that central rev-enues have been under greaterstrain compared to GST rev-enue.

In a letter to the states, andUnion Territories proposingthe two options and explainingthem in detail, the FinanceMinistry also laid down theissues faced by the Centre indisbursing the compensationcess.

“The prevailing economicsituation is such that Centralrevenues are under greaterstrain than GST revenue. Whileindirect taxes are linked totransactions, and recover inproportion to activity, directtaxes on profits are dispropor-

tionately reduced in the presentsituation,” it said in the 12-pageletter.

Along with direct taxes onwages and salaries getting seri-ously affected, Customs rev-enues are also hit by the slow-down in imports, it said.

Central expenditures arestretched not only by the pan-demic response but also by theneeds of national security, theFinance Ministry stressed.

“This is a national prob-lem, not a Central Governmentproblem alone,” it said.

On the question of bor-rowing by the UnionGovernment, to pay the com-pensation cess, the ministrysaid that the Centre alreadyfaces a very large borrowingrequirement this year.

Further, additional bor-rowing by the Centre influ-ences the yields on Central gov-

ernment securities (G-secs)and has other macro-econom-ic repercussions, it said.

“The yield on G-secs actsas a benchmark for state bor-rowing as well as private sectorborrowing. Hence any rise inCentral borrowing costs ipsofacto drives up borrowing costsfor all borrowers, includingnot only the states but also theentire private sector,” the lettersaid.

As per the design of theoptions given to the states bythe Centre to meet GST com-pensation gap, if the statesdecide to meet the entire short-fall of Rs 2,35,000 crores(including the Covid-impactportion) through issue of mar-ket debt, then additionalunconditional borrowing limitof 0.5 per cent and the final(bonus) tranche of 0.5 per centprovided under the

Atmanirbhar Bharat package asa Covid relief measure will notbe available separately.

Under option one, theCentre has offered a specialborrowing window to states, inconsultation with the RBI, foran amount of Rs 97,000 crore(the shortfall arising out of GSTimplementation) at a “reason-able” interest rate.

The Centre will endeavourto keep the borrowing cost ator close to the G-sec yield, andin the event of the cost beinghigher, will bear the marginbetween G-secs and the aver-age of State Development Loanyields up to 0.5 per cent (50basis points) through a subsidy.

The second option givenby the Centre allows states toborrow the entire projectedGST compensation shortfallof Rs 2,35,000 crore (totalshortfall of Rs 3 lakh crore

minus Rs 65,000 crore collect-ed as GST compensation cess)for FY21. But this borrowingwill be allowed by subsumingthe additional unconditionalborrowing limit of 0.5 per centand the final (bonus) trancheof 0.5 per cent given to statesas a special limit to fight theCovid pandemic.

Though reform linked bor-rowing will be permitted underthis option, it would not be car-ried forward to next year.

The interest on borrowingtaken by states under thisoption will have to be paid bythem from their resources.The principal on the amountborrowed under the option,after the transition period, willbe paid from the proceeds ofthe cess.

The states will not berequired to repay the principalfrom any other source.

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The board of Coal India Ltdhas approved creating an

additional board level post inthe PSU and its subsidiaries.

According to a Coal Indiareport, the post of Director(Business Development) will becreated to identify and devel-op new business opportunities.

“The board of direc-tors...Had approved creation ofboard level post of Director(Business Development) in CIL(Coal India) and its subsidiariesas per Companies Act, 2013,Listing Regulations and DPEguideline,” the world’s largestcoal miner said in its latestreport.

The business scenario inwhich CIL operates is rapidlychanging globally in the cur-rent times. To cater to futuris-tic business models, there is aneed for an additional boardlevel post that can drive thecompany’s future business,increase its revenue, identifyand develop new businessopportunities, build andexpand the presence of thecompany both locally as well asin the global markets, it said.

All the said tasks arestrategic in nature and it can bemanaged only by a separateboard level post to lead the

organisation, as all other boardlevel posts basically meet theexisting functional needs of theorganisation.

In case, the said works arecombined with the existingfunctional set up in the organ-isation, requisite focus andthrust are feared to get some-what compromised.

CIL is already in theprocess of investing a substan-tial amount in diversificationprojects namely solar power,revival of fertilizer plants,acquiring coking coal assets inAustralia and Canada, coalgasification, CBM, rail wagonprocurement among others inthe coming years.

CIL is presently headed byChairman and ManagingDirector who is assisted by fourother functional directorsnamely Director (Technical),Director (Personnel and

Industrial Relations), Director(Finance) and Director(Marketing). As such, at pre-sent, there are five Board levelposts in CIL including CMD.

All the board functionar-ies are handling their respon-sibilities as per their jobdescription and the tasksassigned to them.

In addition, CIL boardconsists of two governmentnominee directors and sevenindependent director posts,out of which, five posts in theprocess of getting filled by theGovernment of India.

CIL was incorporated in1975 with the government tak-ing over private coal mines.

Coal India is a maharatnafirm operating through its eightsubsidiaries in eight states. Ithas a foreign subsidiary inMozambique namely CoalIndia Africana Limitada.

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After celebrating the Indian Armywith Uri: The Surgical Strike last

year and recently announcing anoth-er war film in Pippa, RSVP’S air forcefilm Tejas is set to go on floors thisDecember.

It is the story of a daring andfierce fighter pilot, played by actorKangana Ranaut. The Indian AirForce was the first of the country’sdefence forces to induct women intocombat roles in 2016. The film takesinspiration from this landmark event.

RSVP took to their social mediaand marked the announcement,“Tejas starring Kangana to take-offthis December! This film is our odeto the brave Air Force Pilots ofIndia...”

Written and to be directed bySarvesh Mewara, the film aims toevoke a sense of pride and mostimportantly inspire the youth of ournation. It takes us through some ofthe challenging combat missionsour forces undertake in their effortto keep our country safe from terror-ism.

“Tejas is an exhilarating storywhere I play an air force pilot. It feelsgood to celebrate brave men andwomen in uniform who makeimmense sacrifices in the line of dutyeveryday... Excited to take this jour-ney with Sarvesh and Ronnie(Screwvala),” says Kangana.

“While we were preparing for thefilm, the world was hit by this unfor-

tunate pandemic. I’m pleased that weare resuming work and will com-mence shoot later this year. The ideaof developing a story around awoman fighter pilot was born in-house by Salona Bains Joshi, the asso-ciate producer on the project, and Ibacked it instantly. I hope our filminspires many more women to jointhe Indian Air Force,” says Ronnie.

Says Sarvesh, “The film is areflection of the current sentiment inour country. We celebrate our armedforces and I hope to further evoke aspirit of patriotism and nationalismthrough the storytelling. Kangana isa strong woman with a voice that res-onates with the youth and I cannotwait to begin shooting.”

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Sinister charactersconverge around a youngman devoted to protectingthose he loves in a postwarbackwoods town teemingwith corruption andbrutality. Starring TomHolland, Bill Skarsgårdand Riley Keough, the filmreleases on Netflix onSeptember 16.

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Sparks fly when acrusading but cash-strapped attorneytakes on a charmingclient looking to sue adating site thatguarantees its userswill find love. StarringRachael Leigh Cook,Damon Wayans Jr andHeather Graham, thefilm releases onNetflix on September 3.

����������While searching for her

missing mother, intrepid teenEnola Holmes uses hersleuthing skills to outsmartbig brother Sherlock and helpa runaway lord. StarringMillie Bobby Brown as theteen detective, Henry Cavilland Sam Claflin, the filmreleases on Netflix onSeptember 23.

Long before do-it-yourself (DIY)projects became a lockdown must-do, artist Harun Robert aka

Rob brought them to our own TVscreens via the show, M.A.D, making artseem easy for even those who weren’t wellrehearsed with their creative side. Today,Rob brings its more revised and updat-ed version — Imagine That. The showaims to encourage children to imagine,experiment and repurpose everydayitems through the imaginative world ofDIY and give a purpose to their creativ-ity by introducing upcycling as its under-lying theme.

While the fans of that 2000s showmight surely find this exciting, we arecurious to know how such a show willreclaim its space, given that social mediafeeds are full of short videos of DIYs.

�After almost a decade of M.A.D,what led you to start another such show— Imagine That?

As an artist, I love trying out newthings and reinventing them. My switchfrom television to digital was to explorethis new space and platform. I ended upbuilding a great art community there withalmost 1.3 million subscribers. Thisjourney in itself was very exciting. But allmy fans and followers started putting arequest forward — ‘please come back tothe world of television’. I guess people def-initely enjoy that format as well. And afterall, the audience is king. I got this greatchance to collaborate with DisneyChannel; I’ve always been its fan since Iwas a kid. The television platform allowsme to reach a bigger audience and itsreach is unparalleled. It’s exciting to beback on television.

�Before social media, M.A.D was theonly medium for people to know howDIY worked. However, now they arewell-versed with the DIY culture due toeasy access to the internet. How differ-ent will be your workshops this time?

The show will definitely grab theaudience attention. I agree that there is anabundance of content around and aboutDIY. But that doesn’t affect the nature ofthis show. It’s also a little unfair to com-pare the show with the content presenton the internet just because it falls underthe same genre. This show is definitelyvery unique. It showcases reinvention ofthings, something I really believe in.Imagine That as a show encloses a lot ofinteresting ideas and projects. The DIYsthat we’re doing on the show are new andunseen. The USP is that it is centeredaround upcycling. We often talk about

recycling, and upcycling is basical-ly a creative form of recycling. It is

a very interesting medium in itself. It’sabout picking up ordinary and boring

objects and converting them intoextraordinary things that have a com-

pletely new life, purpose and meaning.The transition from one thing changinginto the other will definitely encouragethem to watch the show. I also take pridein saying that my process of explainingthings is very different than that of oth-ers. I can really simplify the concept. I canbreak it down and dissect it to the sim-plest form. So someone who is approach-ing that project or DIY will not feel intim-idated by it. In fact, they will enjoy theprocess, they will feel it’s fun and they willwant to attempt it.

�Upcycling as a concept has beenaround for a while...

Yes, people have been aware ofupcycling and recycling. With ImagineThat, we want to introduce the purpose

of upcycling in a unique and fun way tothe kids. To make them aware of theabundance of creativity and boundlessimagination around them. As they say,“everything you can imagine is real.”

�Why do you think DIY is impor-tant? Can we merge the conceptwith sustainability?

Absolutely! I always encouragepeople to do DIY art and upcy-cling. We need to reduce, reuseand recycle. When you’re workingwith different materials and you’retrying to use your imaginationand creativity to convert thetrash into a more valuable item,you are stimulating your creativ-ity. Mindfulness is just one ofthe many benefits that comesyour way when you embracea do-it-yourself project. Whenyou’re working with yourhands, it helps you a lot inyour own personal growth.You learn a new technique, anew skill and a new tool.With this show, we are talk-ing about saving the planet,we are talking about sus-tainability and we are talk-ing about a better future.So all these ideas will helpkids understand theprocess of repurposingthings a lot better.Imagination and creativ-ity can change the world.

�It can be tricky to hostshows for childrenbecause you have to pitch

the concept exactly right...How challenging is it tocapture the attention of theyounger ones?

The fact is that I feelvery lucky to be doing whatI am doing. I love art. As anartist, I am very passionateabout it. The fact that I getto do this every day is areward in itself. When you’re

doing it for kids, it’s even better becausekids are the most honest audience youcan have. They won’t fool around, if theydon’t like something, they’ll tell it to youon your face. And if they love it, theirreactions are the best. I receive somuch love that it makes me love this jobeven more. It really pushes me and moti-vates me to do more. Through my work,I encourage kids to be more creative.Kids are curious by nature and they arecreative. Their imagination is really vividand wild. So my job is just to be a guideand help them in the right direction toexplore that creativity. In a way, I alsowant to be their best friend. A lot of peo-ple don’t see me as a teacher. I never sayI teach, I say it’s playful learning. Theydon’t treat me like a teacher or an adult,they treat me like a friend. So it is veryeasy for me to convey an idea or a mes-sage to them. I really enjoy it and I hopeI continue to do this forever.

�Given that things are easily accessi-ble to the young generation today withtheir parents’ increased incomearound the country, how do you thinkthe importance of DIY projects can beexplained to them?

Imagine That will help them under-stand the importance of DIY and mak-ing innovative artsy products out of sim-ple and easily available day-to-daythings. It will help them understand theimportance of little things that can makehuge differences. Yes, now they do haveeasy access to material, technology andmore. That is why it is important theyhave shows like these that can help theminculcate the right or good habits earlyon. Simple aspects like their safetywhile cutting or using scissors whilemaking the DIY art have been integrat-ed within the show. Through this, weaim at inspiring kids and young minds.We want to give them interesting ideasand knowledge that they can apply in thereal world.

�Why do you think it is important tobring out the creativity in a child? Orhow important it is for the kids toimagine, experiment and repurposeeveryday items?

Kids are very curious in nature andthey are creative as well. People say kidsare destructive but they’re just curiousabout what things are made of. Theywant to know what’s inside it and howit works or can I make it myself? So weare just channeling all the curiosity andenergy through the show and are apply-ing it in the right direction. I always saythat creativity is not just for artists, it isfor everyone. Creativity helps people getbetter at problem-solving, and it leadsthem to think out of the box. They’realso better communicators with a bet-ter understanding of visual language aswell. If they have an idea, they can pre-sent it better. With so much stressaround, it helps in channeling all thatenergy into something fun yet produc-tive. The show gives them that greatbreak while bringing them joy as well.

(The show airs from September 6 at9.30 am on Disney Channel.)

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In our quest for peace, we are all united, whichmakes it grow stronger with each passing day.

However, in a world torn by strife, one might ques-tion if this search is still reasonable. Many ask thattoday, when even the relations of parents and chil-dren, husband and wife are fraught with dissent,how can one dream to imagine a world without dis-cord? Is it not a utopian dream?

In Hindu scriptures, the world is described asa tree and is often referred to as the Kalpa Vriksha,wherein kalpa connotes the time period of one com-plete cycle of creation from golden age to the endof iron age. The seed or the creator of this creationis of course, lord. There is a trunk and many bigbranches that stem from the tree. The big branch-es of this world tree represent the main religionsof the world that are created by powerful souls whocome on earth as reli-gious preceptors. Theygive birth to a new orderor faith that is followedby millions around theworld over a period oftime. With the passage oftime, as this tree growsbigger and older, manynew branches come outand the older ones alsocontinue to expand anddivide. However, theoriginal purity andstrength of religionsbegin to decline with time and many divisions occurwithin them and then finally at the end of iron age,the tree dries up completely and the seed emerges.

Well, god and truth is one. When the astronautsfly in their spaceships and see the fragmented earthfrom above, they see it as one planet. In the sameway, spirituality takes us beyond all divisions to astage where through oneness, the world canbecome a beautiful family. Since everyone in theworld is unique, and therein lies its beauty, indi-viduals are bound to be different. But those differ-ences shouldn’t come in the way of our unity. Whichis also why, the foundation of unity does not lie inalways doing the same thing but in identifying ourcommon roots. A family is born out of commonparents and so, for the world to be united, every-one must belong to the same father.

It is in this realisation that we descend from thesame home and the same parent that we bond witheveryone as brothers and sisters. When we strip our-selves of all differences and labels that we inheritfrom the costume of body, we arrive at who we orig-inally are — souls sparkling with energies of knowl-edge, purity, peace, love, happiness, bliss and power.From the interplay of these energies are born virtueslike humility, forgiveness, tolerance, acceptance andcooperation that help us coexist in a world of vari-ety. Remember, unity of hearts is possible with aconscious awareness that we are all souls who areinnately virtuous and belong to the same family.This wisdom is loaded with the power to transcendall tangible and intangible barriers that disconnectany two persons, families, communities or nations.Our strong and deep-rooted desire for togethernessdespite the current scenario brings us to the under-standing that things must have been in completeharmony once upon a time.

The world was first called the paradise, as manyscriptures say, and it functioned like one family andone kingdom; it had one language and one religion.Over the passage of time, this unit began to branchout and divisions emerged. And today, with so manymounting differences and global problems reach-ing a dead-end, it is time to renew the world on allcounts. It’s time to begin afresh and re-instill in our-selves the culture of connecting with each other withlove and respect the laws of nature and be honestto our original values that bring us together. Let’splant a sapling of self-change so that we can achievea world that is united. The day is not far when weshall walk hand-in-hand as one family.

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The efficacy of any government isoften measured by the successfulexecution of the social welfare and

infrastructural schemes launched duringits tenure. Money is invested andresources are utilised to conceptualise,design and implement these schemes onground, however, after completion, noone talks about their sustenance andupkeep. Of all the schemes andannouncements, the infrastructural pro-jects bring hope particularly for peopleresiding in remote locations as they bringwith them employment opportunitieswith promises of a better quality of life.However, once the project is concluded,keeping a check on it gets compromised.

���������In the mountainous region of

Uttarakhand, villages are tucked away insome of the most isolated corners. Inthese villages, people do not venture outof their houses after sunset. The fear ofattack by wild animals in the dark forcesvillagers to stay indoors. “To tackle thesituation, the state government hadannounced installation of solar lights byUttarakhand Renewable EnergyDevelopment Agency (UREDA) to makelife a little easier for us,” shared KheemSingh Bisht, a resident of village Sirsodain Almora district.

After installation of lights, villagersin these far-flung areas started venturingout even during the night without anyfear. However, with no proper mainte-nance, the lights have now started giv-ing trouble. “We’d lodge complaints onthe number provided by the implement-ing agency but it wasn’t always success-ful. Sometimes, they would guide us on

telephone or through videos to repair thelights but due to lack of technical knowl-edge and training, we hardly ever suc-ceeded,” rued Kheem. He believes that forsuch an arrangement, villagers should beinvolved while conceptualising thescheme and should be given proper train-ing to be able to repair lights on theirown.

The solar lights were installed in 670villages in the entire state under the AtalAdarsh Gram Yojana, which waslaunched in the year 2010-11. But likeSirsoda village, several solar lights, whichwere previously installed have been ren-dered useless. This has led to sheer dark-ness on the streets connecting these vil-lages taking away the little light that thevillagers had found.

“In the year 2015-16, UREDA hadinstalled 20 solar lights in our village.Streets, which would look deserted afterevening, were lit up by these lights. Itbrought a sense of safety among villagers.Today, however, nine out of 20 lights are

not working,” shared Govind SinghFatrayal, a resident of village Kaltani inAlmora Development Block. After filingseveral complaints, the concerned depart-ment fixed the issue but due to lack ofmaintenance, the lights stopped workingagain.

Narendra Mohan, who works withUREDA in state capital, Dehradun,agrees that a proper maintenance isrequired to ensure successful implemen-tation of any scheme. “If we talk aboutthe maintenance of solar lights, I believethat the previous arrangement of offer-ing subsidy on these lights should be re-considered. Equal investment by individ-uals would put equal responsibility on vil-lagers to maintain these lights.Government should provide them prop-er training and technical knowledge tomake them capable of repairing theselights on their own,” said Mohan. He alsosuggested that self-help groups can begiven the responsibility of looking aftersuch projects in the village as these

groups are quite active in the mountain-ous areas.

�������������������Another project that has lost its

enthusiasm in the State today is the man-agement of forests by community mem-bers through Van Panchayat. Oncerecognised as effective bodies for man-aging and protecting forest areas inUttarakhand, Van Panchayats are facingserious challenges today. Every year, sev-eral saplings are planted by the VanPanchayats and the official papers indi-cate a 100 per cent success rate. Theground reality, however, differs. Of thetotal, only 55 per cent plants manage tosurvive because of a lack of maintenance.But no one is bothered about the successof the scheme as long as formality on offi-cial papers is fulfilled.

The activities under the scheme arebeing conducted without any course cor-rection. Multiple projects of similarnature are simultaneously being imple-

mented in most of the villages. Due tothis, around two to three oak trees havebeen planted within a parameter of twometres. However, the arrangement com-pletely overlooks the fact that due to lackof enough space, these saplings will notgrow properly. Clearly, these initiativeslack technical expertise and a concreteplan on follow-up activities.

A����������������The mounds and trenches construct-

ed for water conservation are too facinga similar fate. The resources are beinginvested in new structures while the olderones can be seen in dilapidated conditionin the Van Panchayats. As per PitamberMelkani, a resident of Jalna Neel Pahariin Dhari Block in Nainital, “Between 2018-20, Central Himalayan EnvironmentAssociation (CHEA), as part of a projectunder the Department of Science andTechnology (DST), constructed moundsand trenches in Van Panchayat of ourregion. It provided employment opportu-nities to locals and today, 55 families areable to fulfill their water requirementsbecause of these structures. But who willbe responsible for the maintenance ofthese structures over the years?”

Well, it is not just Uttarakhand butseveral other hilly states face similar fateas tough geography and weather condi-tions make it difficult to maintain suchprojects. It therefore becomes quite cru-cial to build the capacities of the locals andmake them equally involved in such ini-tiatives. Ownership by the community willmake them responsible for successfulmaintenance and protection without rely-ing on the government all the time.

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Teachers shape the future ofstudents. They teach, engage,

collaborate and inspire in morethan one way. In the words ofNobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai,“One book, one pen, one childand one teacher can change theworld.” Rightly so, the role that ateacher plays in a larger transfor-mation of children is enormous.

However, a teacher’s profes-sional development often goesoverlooked. Apart from teachingstudents, the only learning theyreceive is the discussion withtheir peers in the staff room.

Though they receive workshopsoccasionally but they are rarelypersonalised to meet theirdemands.

Well, this is precisely whereCPD (Continuing Professional

Development), comes into thepicture. It is a process of trackingand recording the skills, knowl-edge and experience that ateacher has gained formally andinformally. This learning is

beyond their initial training with-in an institution. It keeps thetrack of what a teacher experi-ences, learns and also how s/heapplies them. Conventionally, itrefers to the physical file or fold-er that contains the informationabout the development of aneducator. Some organisations usethis term while referring to atraining or development plan,which some argue is not accurate.

Usually, the professionaldevelopment of a teacher remainsin the paper trail. They show theirCPD improvement to receivepromotions. However, if there hasbeen no progress in terms ofskills, there is no enhancement intheir student training as well. Thisin turn means that there is noeffective improvement in class-room learning, which needs tochange.

A lot of schools have startedfollowing it, and now I think it isthe time to digitise these pro-grammes. Doing so will not onlyunleash a teacher’s true potential,it will also benefit the students.Well, thanks to our advances indigital technology, this can bedone without much hassle. Today,using video analytics has empow-

ered us to automate regularprocesses with immaculate pre-cision. Video-analytics-based sys-tems can be deployed withinclassrooms to reflect on the per-formance of a teacher. It cananalyse everything right fromtheir body language to the over-all classroom engagement. Itpaves the way for live and on-demand, of the class when need-ed. It also enables the designat-ed mentor to easily add flags,comments and events to a videoand assist teachers in searchingand navigating the content.Further, it can help teachersidentify their shortfalls and workon them.

Such advanced solutions arethe need of the hour. It goes with-out saying that teachers play acritical role in the holistic devel-opment of a student. So, theirown career progress and skilldevelopment have a direct impacton their pupils' learning.Thankfully, we have these tech-driven solutions as the next log-ical step towards teacher trainingand continuous development.

(The writer is regional direc-tor, ONVU Learning, ONVUTechnologies.)

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Lewis Hamilton led fromstart to finish at the BelgianGrand Prix to clinch his

89th career win and move twobehind Michael Schumacher’sFormula One record on Sunday.

The world champion wasuntroubled from pole position,beating his Mercedes teammateValtteri Bottas by eight secondsand finishing 15 seconds aheadof Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo wasfourth and grabbed an extrapoint for the fastest lap.

Hamilton’s fifth win fromseven races also extended hischampionship lead overVerstappen to 47 points withBottas drifting back in third.Hamilton is odds-on to win aseventh title to tie Schumacher’srecord.

Schumacher won five of

those F1 titles consecutivelyduring a glorious era for Ferrari,but the proud Italian team isstruggling badly now. SebastianVettel finished 13th and CharlesLeclerc 14th.

They are not able to get any-where close to Hamilton interms of speed, let along chal-lenge him.

Having secured a record-extending 93rd career pole,which he dedicated to Americanactor Chadwick Boseman,Hamilton made a clean start andBottas was unable to exert pres-sure on the long straight up toTurn 2.

Early into the 44-lap race,Williams driver George Russelland Alfa Romeo’s AntonioGiovinazzi crashed heavily butwere both unharmed.

McLaren driver CarlosSainz Jr. Failed to start becauseof an exhaust failure.

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For all that’s been on Novak Djokovic’splate of late - including a painful neck

and his efforts to start a new players’ asso-ciation in men’s tennis - he just keeps win-ning.

He’s perfect in 2020, an ideal way tohead into the U.S. Open.

Djokovic tied Rafael Nadal’s record byearning his 35th title at a Masters 1000tournament, overcoming a sluggish startto beat Milos Raonic 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in theWestern & Southern Open final Saturdayand improve to 23-0 this season.

“Has been challenging mentally andemotionally for me to stay sane and be ableto compete on the highest level and winthis title,” Djokovic said.

“Going on an unbeaten run so far thisyear obviously brings even more confi-dence each match.”

Djokovic, 11-0 head-to-head against2016 Wimbledon runner-up Raonic, goesinto the U.S. Open as the No. 1 seed anda big favorite. The Grand Slam tournamentbegins Monday.

“What is that, 23-0?” Raonic said play-fully during the trophy ceremony.

“Honestly, if I start the year off 3-0, I’mpretty happy.”

Earlier Saturday, Victoria Azarenkawon her first tour title since 2016 whenNaomi Osaka pulled out of the women'sfinal because of a left hamstring injury.

“I just hope I'm giving myself, youknow, the opportunity and the chance tohave enough time” to recover ahead of theU.S. Open, Osaka said.

The Western & Southern Open nor-mally is held in Ohio but was moved toFlushing Meadows this year because of thecoronavirus pandemic as part of a two-tournament "controlled environment.”

Djokovic will be seeking his 18thGrand Slam title, which would move himone behind Nadal and two behind RogerFederer's men's record of 20. Neither ofthose rivals is entered in the U.S. Open -

although both spoke out via Twitter onSaturday against Djokovic’s bid to start anew group to represent men’s tennis play-ers.

“We want to have our own organiza-tion and association that is 100% ours,”Djokovic said.

On court, Djokovic was listless in thefirst set, looking exactly the way one mighthave expected given that he laboredthrough a three-hour semifinal a day ear-lier, when he repeatedly grabbed hisstomach and twice had his neck massagedby a trainer.

It took all of 30 minutes for Raonic, aCanadian ranked No. 30, to take that set.But Djokovic asserted himself in the sec-ond set, breaking to lead 3-2 with a back-hand passing shot and raising his right fist.

In the third, Djokovic broke twicemore, and eventually the 33-year-oldfrom Serbia was raising his arms to mark

his 80th career title and 61st on hardcourts. Jimmy Connors holds the men’srecord of 109 titles; the only others aheadof Djokovic are Federer, Ivan Lendl andNadal.

Djokovic also won the Western &Southern Open in 2018 and is now the firstman to win each Masters 1000 event - onelevel below the Grand Slams - at least twice.

Osaka initially felt a problem with herleg in her first match of the Western &Southern Open and said she pulled thehamstring in the second-set tiebreaker ofher semifinal Friday.

She called this an “emotional week.”The 22-year-old Osaka brought the

push for racial justice to the tennis tour bysaying she was not going to play in hersemifinal, joining athletes in other sportssitting out in reaction to the shooting bya Wisconsin police officer of a Black man,Jacob Blake.

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Indian captain Virat Kohliadmitted he was “pretty

scared” to hit the nets for the firsttime in five months but said hisfirst training session ahead of theIPL went “better than expected”.

The Royal ChallengersBangalore captain resumedtraining after a five-month coro-navirus-forced hiatus. The netsession was also attended bySouth African pace legend DaleSteyn and RCB team directorMike Hesson. “(It went) muchbetter than expected, to be hon-

est. I was pretty scared. I hadn’tpicked up a bat for five months,but yeah it came out better thanI thought, to be honest,” Kohliwas quoted as saying by the fran-chise’s website.

The 31-year-old, who wasRCB’s highest run-getter lastyear, said staying fit during thelockdown helped him to reactbetter during the net session eventhough he was training after along break.

“I’ve trained quite a bit dur-ing the lockdown, so I’m feelingquite fit and that helps. Becausethe body is light and you reactbetter, I feel like I have more time

on the ball. That's a big plus,” hesaid.

“Otherwise you come heav-ier into the season, the body isn’tmoving as much, and it startsplaying on mind, but yeah, as Isaid it went much better than Iexpected.” RCB arrived in Dubailast week ahead of the 13th IPLwhich is scheduled to begin onSeptember 19. The cash-richT20 event was moved out ofIndia due to the rising COVID-19 cases in the country.

The team hit the nets onSaturday after successfully end-ing its quarantine period. BesidesKohli, spin trio of Chahal,

Washington and ShahbazNadeem and a few pacers alsotrained and Kohli was pleasedwith the way they went abouttheir business in the first session.

“The spinners looked pret-ty good for day one, they pitchedthe ball in consistent areas forlong enough,” said Kohli, whoselast assignment was the two-match Test series against NewZealand in early March.

“Shahbaz was good, Washywas very good, I saw Chahalbowl well too. The seamers wentthrough their motions a little bit.All in all, a decent start to ourcamp.”

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Record-setting England pacerJames Anderson relishes

the challenge of getting the bestbatsmen out and is looking for-ward to a tough contest againstVirat Kohli when his side trav-els India next year.

Anderson, who recentlybecame the highest Test wick-et taker among pacers with 600scalps during the home seriesagainst Pakistan, and Kohlihave had some intriguing bat-tles over the years.

“It’s always tough bowlingat batsmen of that quality. It will

be a tough battle but that’ssomething I do enjoy. You wantto get the best players out,”Anderson told the Test MatchSpecial podcast.

When India touredEngland in 2014, Andersonwas Kohli’s nemesis with theright-arm pacer dismissing theIndia skipper on four occasions.Kohli could score just 134 runsin his 10 innings.

But Kohli came back toEngland an altogether differentbatsman in 2018 as he finishedthe Test series as the top run-scorer with an impressive 593-run tally with two centuries and

three fifties to his name.“I had some success against

him in 2014 and then he cameback a completely differentplayer in 2018 and was incred-ible,” the 38-year-old Anderson,who is currently in the fourthplace among all-time highestTest wicket-takers, said.

Asked what changes he sawin Kohli’s batting in 2018,Anderson said, “He left the ballreally well in 2018. The firsttime he came over (in 2014),when I was bowling out-swingers he might chase itearly on and that brought theedge and the slips into play.

“He left it a lot better andhe was a lot more patient (in2018). He waited for you tobowl at him and then he’s verystrong off his legs so he couldscore freely,” said the starEngland bowler who has played156 Tests since 2003.

Asked about the techniqueshe would use on continentalpitches, he said, “We have hadour success. We tried to roll fin-gers down the side of the ball,just try to make it grip on thedry surface.

“Having skills like that real-ly helps. We enjoyed bowling(in India).”

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At a time when most of theyoung cricketers are lured by

“easy money” in thriving T20leagues, West Indian RahkeemCornwall, the heaviest ever toplay the five-day format at morethan 140kg, has got his prioritiesstraight.

The 27-year-old spinner wantsto “nail down” his Test career,which is only three games old, andif leagues like the IPL happenalong the way, it would be a

“bonus”.Speaking to PTI from

Trinidad, where he is making animpact with both bat and ball forSt Lucia Zouks in the CPL,Cornwall expressed his devotionto Test cricket.

“If I can play the T20 formatand travel the world and playleagues it would be good but myaim is to be one of the most suc-cessful Test players out there.

“Playing Test cricket is the artof cricket, everyone wants to playTest cricket and do well. I have

already played the format, I justwant to make sure I get what I amreally looking for in Test cricketand when my times comes toretire, I don’t have any regrets,” saidCornwall.

West Indies cricket hasenjoyed most success in the short-est format over the past 10 yearswith a chunk of its players goingon make a name and some hand-some amount of money in T20leagues around the world.

Cornwall too is open tobecoming a T20 globetrotter but

not before he achieves his goals inTest cricket.

“If I get to play differentleagues around the world, it wouldbe a bonus for me but the mainfocus is to keep pushing my Testcareer,” said the offie who made hisTest debut against India in Jamaicalast year when he took three wick-ets including Cheteshwar Pujara's.

He had also dismissed Indiaskipper Virat Kohli in a tour gamein 2016.

“Pujara is a quality player, agood player of spin. To get him

was a joy, more so as it was my firstTest wicket,” recalled Cornwall,who is yet to make his limitedovers debut for West Indies but isconfident of doing so with a suc-cessful outing the ongoing CPL.

At the moment, he likes to beknown as the off-spinner who can“drastically” improve with thebat.

The constant chatter aroundhis size doesn't bother him but hewould want to be fitter and lean-er to the point where he is able toperform at his best in all formats.

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Terming the upcoming IPL one of his“most important assignments” as captain,

Delhi Capitals’ Shreyas Iyer has demandedconsistency from all his teammates.

In the last edition, Delhi Capitals reachedthe IPL play-offs for the first time in sevenyears, and they are hoping to better that resultthis time.

“It’s certainly very different from last sea-son, but challenges excite me,” Iyer toldIPLT20.Com.

“As a captain, this is going to be certain-ly one of my most important assignments justbecause of how different the setting is. It isgoing to be very different, the key is to takeit one day at a time.

“We’re being briefed about the do’s anddon’ts at every step, it’s crucial that everyonewho is part of our team bubble follows that.”

Moved out of India due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 13th edition of the world'sbiggest T20 league will be played across threevenues in the UAE from September 19 toNovember 10.

“All pieces of the puzzle need to fall in theright place to be a champion team,” he said.

“But the IPL is a long tournament andresults keep going up and down invariably.

“The one thing that worked for us lastseason for how in each and every match, dif-ferent players stepped up to the occasion andthat was crucial to our success and will be keythis year too. Having not just one consistentperformer but many of them.”

Iyer welcomed the new additions in theform of experienced India playersRavichandran Ashwin and Ajinkya Rahane.

“Ashwin and Rahane add tremendousdepth to our side and give Ricky and meoptions to be flexible with our playing XIdepending on where we're playing, who ouropposition is and where we are placed in thetournament at a particular time,” Iyer said.

“Also these are two individuals who arehighly knowledgeable about the game andhave captained IPL teams, so for me as cap-tain, this is an opportunity to use all experi-ence and reach out to them whenever I wantto share or discuss anything at all.”

He said he is blessed to be working along-side Australian legend Ricky Ponting, who isthe chief coach of the Delhi franchise.

“He’s such a legend and makes everyone,from the senior-most to the newest guy feelat home and as a part of this unit. As a cap-tain, he gives me freedom and that has helpedme grow as a cricketer.”

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India and Russia were on Sunday declared jointwinners of the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad

after the final was marred by internet discon-nection and server malfunction.

Russia were initially declared winners aftertwo Indian players — Nihal Sarin and DivyaDeshmukh — lost out on time in the final aftersuffering a disconnection with the server.

India lodged a protest against the contro-versial decision which was reviewed.

This was the first time FIDE, the interna-tional chess federation, was holding theOlympiad in an online format, due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.

“FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich madea decision to give gold medals of FIDE Online#ChessOlympiad to both teams - India andRussia,” the world chess body tweeted.

“We are the champions !! Congrats Russia!,”the legendary Viswananthan Anand wrote onhis twitter handle after the final.

The first round of the final ended in a 3-3draw with all the six games finishing in stale-mate. Russia won the second round 4.5-1.5 withwins for Andrey Esipenko over Sarin and PolinaShuvalova over Deshmukh, leading to a contro-versy as the Indians claimed the losses were dueto connection issues.

In the second round, Anand, coming in forP Harikrishna, had drawn with IanNepomniachtchi while captain Vidit Gujrathidrew with Daniil Dubov.

Koneru Humpy, the world rapid champi-on, was beaten by Alexandra Goryachkina andD Harika drew with Alexandra Kosteniuk.

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Mohammad Hafeez and BabarAzam both half centuries asPakistan piled up an impos-

ing 195-4 against England in the sec-ond Twenty20 international at OldTrafford on Sunday.

Hafeez top-scored with 69 afterPakistan captain and opener Babar,the world's number one-ranked T20batsman, launched the innings with56.

Leg-spinner Adil Rashid brieflychecked Pakistan's progress with 2-32from his maximum four overs.

But the rest of 50-over worldchampions England's attack lackedpenetration, with seamer Tom Curranconceding 46 runs - including 23 offone over.

In a fixture where both sides wereunchanged after Friday's opener in athree-match series ended as a noresult washout, the tourists were sentinto bat by Eoin Morgan, the Englandcaptain.

But Babar, who pulled the firstball of the match from fast bowlerSaqib Mahmood for four, was uncon-cerned as he struck boundaries offspinners and seamers alike.

Fellow opener Fakhar Zamansaw his brisk 36 end when he skyedRashid to long-on to leave his side 72.

Babar completed a fine fifty witha superb extra-cover drive off Rashid- his seventh four in 37 balls faced.

But Rashid had his revenge whenBabar miscued a pull to deep mid-wicket.

Hafeez, whose pulled six offMahmood kept the runs comingwhen he pulled a careless Curran no-

ball, an above waist-high full toss, forsix.

Hafeez’s scooped four off

Mahmood to long leg which saw himto a 26-ball fifty including four foursand three sixes before he was dis-

missed off the penultimate ball of theinnings when he drove Curran toMorgan at extra-cover.

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