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  • & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”
12
T he Government is all set to launch the vaccination drive for Covid-19 across the country and has planned a dry run in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Punjab next week. The detailed checklist has been prepared by the Union Health Ministry and shared with the four States to guide them in the dry run planned on December 28 and 29 as a step to prepare before the actual vaccination takes off. According to the Ministry, each State will plan the dry run in two districts. Preferably this will be in different session type settings, for example, dis- trict hospital, urban site, private health facility, rural outreach. “This exercise will enable end-to-end mobilisation and testing of Covid-19 vaccination process and check the usage of Co-WIN in field environment,” the Ministry said. It would also enable link- ages between planning, imple- mentation and reporting mech- anisms and identify challenges and guide the way forward prior to actual implementation, including improvements that may be required in the envis- aged process. This will also provide a hands-on experience to pro- gramme managers at various levels and will include activities from the necessary data entries in Co-WIN to vaccine receipt and allocation to deployment of team members, mock drill of session sites with test benefi- ciaries to reporting and evening meeting. Over 2,360 participants were trained during national level training comprising State immunisation officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners, etc. As on date, the State-level trainings had been completed in all States and UTs with par- ticipation of more than 7,000 district level trainees, except Lakshadweep which will con- duct it on December 29. Cascading down, 681 dis- tricts (49,604 trainees) have completed the training of Medical Officers on opera- tional guidelines. Vaccination team trainings have been com- pleted in 1,399 out of 17,831 blocks and planning units. It is going on in the other blocks. The dry run will also include testing for cold storage and transportation arrange- ments for Covid-19 vaccine, management of crowd at the session sites with proper phys- ical distancing. An important focus of the dry run will be on management of any possible adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). In addition, adher- ence and management of infec- tion control practices at the ses- sion site, to prevent disease transmission. “The mock drill will include concurrent monitoring and review at the block and dis- trict levels, and preparation of feedback to be shared with the State and Union Health Ministry. Detailed checklist has been prepared by the Union health Ministry and shared with the four States to guide them in the dry run,” added the Ministry. P rime Minister Naredra Modi, in his mega-outreach to farmers, on Friday said his Government is ready to talk with them on all issues with an “open mind” on “facts and logic” and not on the basis of the “lies spread by Opposition parties”. He claimed that new farm laws offer “all alternatives” and “gateways” to the farmers to sell their produce and increase income. Speaking to the farmers of six-States, Modi strongly backed agricultural laws and gave enough indication that though he was ready to remove any “fault” in them, his Government has no rollback plan as demanded by the agi- tating farmers on the outskirts of Delhi. “Don’t mislead by lies of others and think on facts,” said Modi and alleged that that the agitation was being fuelled by Opposition parties. Modi said TMC-ruled West Bengal, which is “block- ing” cash benefits to farmers in the State coming from the Central schemes, is supporting farmers protest. The Left-ruled Kerala which has already done away with the APMC “mandi sys- tem,” is also doing the same. Modi interacted virtually with the farmers and asked them questions on the con- tract-farming and its “benefits”. He asked farmers not to be “misled” by the “lies” of the Opposition parties looking for “jari booti” (panacea) to resur- rect their “falling political graph”. Squarely blaming those with political agenda for the deadlock in the Government’s talks with protesting farmers, the Prime Minister said the protest which started with demand for guaranteeing Minimum Support Price (MSP) has now moved to seek- ing release of those accused of violence and making highway toll-free at the behest of the Opposition parties “who are firing from the shoulders of innocent farmers”. “You would have seen that when the agitation started their demand was about MSP guar- antee. They had genuine issues because they were farmers. But then those with political ideology took over,” he said. Defending new laws, the Prime Minister said they allow farmerd freedom to sell their produce anywhere in the coun- try, including through “man- dis”. Modi said like in all sec- tors, modernisation in agri- culture is the need of the time. He said it is six-month since new farm laws have come into effect and “not a single mandi has been closed”. Modi said the Centre is willing to resume the dialogue on all farmers-related issues, even with those staunchly opposed to his Government as long as the talks are based on “issues, facts and logic.” He asserted that an over- whelming number of farmers across the country have wel- comed the new laws and are already reaping the benefits, and listed out the BJP’s victo- ry in panchayat elections across States, in which farmers were the main voters and including in areas surrounding protest sites. “Despite that, farmers across the country have whole- heartedly welcomed agriculture reforms. I assure you that I will not let you down,” Modi said. The Prime Minister alleged that the farmers’ protest is also being used now for opposing many existing policies. Though the Prime Minister did not name any par- ticular group, he made several references that appeared aimed at Left-affiliated outfits and other Opposition parties. He said those with politi- cal agenda are not letting farm- ers engage in dialogue with the Government to address their concerns. Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, are camping on various Delhi bor- ders for almost a month to protest against the three farm laws. H ours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed the Trinamool Congress and the Left Front for doing great disservice to farmers’ cause by their recent acts — like refus- ing Central Kisan Samman Nidhi funds for their aid and inciting farmers’ protest in Delhi — the Bengal ruling outfit and Left parties hit back in equal measures. Taking on the Prime Minister, senior TMC leader Saugato Roy said it is the arrogance of the Central Government and the PM him- self and not the Bengal Government which was hin- dering the flow of Central Kisan Samman Nidhi funds. Roy said, “The Prime Minister is saying only half truth by claiming that the State Government is blocking the Prime Minister Kisan Samman funds… the fact is we only want to get the funds channeled through the State Government…the Centre must not bypass the federal norms…if it does so then where is there a need of a State Government to be in place.” Earlier the Prime Minister while delivering a speech sin- gled out Bengal saying the TMC Government and the Left Front were ruining the future of the farmers. He alleged that the State Government was blocking the passage of the Kisan Samman funds. T he already uneasy tie between the Janata Dal(U) and the BJP hit a new low with the saffron party poaching six MLAs of its ally in Arunachal Pradesh. The development comes a day ahead of the announce- ment of the panchayat and municipal polls’ results in Arunachal Pradesh. The lone MLA from the People’s Party of Arunachal (PPA), Kardo Nyigyor from Likabali constituency, has also joined the BJP. The PPA MLA was also suspended by the regional outfit earlier this month. JD(U) MLAs who switched sides are Talem Taboh from Rumgong Assembly Constituency, Hayeng Mangfi (Chayang Tajo), Jikke Tako (Tali), Dorjee Wangdi Kharma (Kalaktang), Dongru Siongju (Bomdila) and Kanggong Taku from Mariyang-Geku con- stituency, according to a bul- letin issued by the State Legislative Assembly. On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party” activ- ities, and suspended them. The six JD(U) MLAs had earlier elected Talem Taboh as the new Legislature Party leader allegedly without the knowledge of senior party members. “We have accepted their letters conveying the intention to join the party,” BJP’s Arunachal Pradesh president BR Waghe said. T he CPI(M) sprang a sur- prise on Christmas Day by anointing 21-year-old Arya Rajendran as the party’s can- didate for the Thiruvananthapuram Mayoral election scheduled to be held next week. A BSc (Mathematics) stu- dent in a city college, Arya would be the youngest Mayor in the country. Since the CPI(M) commands absolute majority in the corporation council, it is certain that Arya would sail through the election. Arya won from Mudavanmugal ward, defeat- ing UDF candidate Sreekala by 2872 votes. The district committee of the CPI(M) that met on Friday took the decision to field Arya as the party’s mayoral candi- date. The formal announce- ment is expected to be made on Saturday. Daughter of a long time party activist, Arya is the pres- ident of the children’s wing of the party. She was searching for words when media persons rushed to her residence in Mudavanmugal from where she was elected as the council- lor in the recently held election to the local self Government bodies. “My father has taught me to obey the directives issued by the party and I’ll follow that teaching. The CPI(M) is more important to me than anything else. My role model is Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who is the best crisis manager I have seen,” said Arya while speaking to the media. She said she is yet to for- mulate policies for the future development of Thiruvananthapuram. However, she added that her main focus will be on address- ing women's issues and other developmental activities. “I was busy learning the basic requirements of the ward from where I have been elect- ed. Now I have to learn the whole issues haunting the cap- ital city and chart out an action programme to make Thiruvananthapuram the best city in the country. Waste man- agement is one of the impor- tant problems staring the city,” said the Mayor designate. Students of All Saints College will have the rare hon- our of having the “Worshipful Mayor” of the city as their col- league. The Left front had fielded many youngsters and women in the local body polls. With this decision, the CPM hopes to attract more youngsters to the party ahead of the Assembly elections. B order Guard Bangladesh (BGB) on Friday claimed that no illegal immigration is taking place into India from the neighbouring country, but expressed concern over rising incidents of smuggling across the border. Addressing a joint press conference with Border Security Force (BSF) Director- General Rakesh Asthana, BGB Director-General Maj Gen Md Shafeenul Islam said that at least 86 Bangladeshi nationals were killed on the Indian side in the last three years for their alleged criminal activities. Asthana, however, said BSF has apprehended 3,204 persons this year for illegally entering India from Bangladesh and 60 of them, whose nationalities were established, were handed over to BGB. Discussing various issues concerning the border during the ongoing five-day 51st DG- level talks between the BSF and BGB that started on December 22, the two forces signed a Joint Accord of Discussion and decided to increase coordinated night patrolling to prevent illegal activities. “No illegal immigration is going on from Bangladesh to India. The GDP of Bangladesh is on a steady upward trend. There is no reason for any cit- izen to come to India for jobs or any other reason. People have come with valid docu- ments only for medical pur- poses,” Islam said. T he average air quality improved from “severe” level and was recorded in “very poor” category in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Gurgaon, according to a 24- hour data issued by a Government agency on Friday. Presence of pollutant PM 2.5 and PM 10, though, remained high in the five immediate neighbours of Delhi, according to air quality index (AQI) maintained by the the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). An AQI between zero and 50 is considered “good”, 51 and 100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200 “moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”, 301 and 400 “very poor”, and 401 and 500 “severe”. Noida: Thousands of farmers from UP gathered in Noida on Thursday on the call of the Kisan Sena, a farmers’ union supporting the new farm laws, even as the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Lok Shakti) which is demanding withdrawal of the legislations dubbed this farm- ers’ faction as “Jaichand” — after the 12th century ruler came to be known for treason. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

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Page 1: & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”

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The Government is all set tolaunch the vaccination

drive for Covid-19 across thecountry and has planned adry run in Andhra Pradesh,Assam, Gujarat, Punjab nextweek.

The detailed checklist hasbeen prepared by the UnionHealth Ministry and sharedwith the four States to guidethem in the dry run planned onDecember 28 and 29 as a stepto prepare before the actualvaccination takes off.

According to the Ministry,each State will plan the dry runin two districts. Preferably thiswill be in different sessiontype settings, for example, dis-trict hospital, urban site, privatehealth facility, rural outreach.

“This exercise will enableend-to-end mobilisation andtesting of Covid-19 vaccinationprocess and check the usage ofCo-WIN in field environment,”the Ministry said.

It would also enable link-ages between planning, imple-mentation and reporting mech-anisms and identify challengesand guide the way forwardprior to actual implementation,including improvements thatmay be required in the envis-aged process.

This will also provide ahands-on experience to pro-gramme managers at variouslevels and will include activitiesfrom the necessary data entries

in Co-WIN to vaccine receiptand allocation to deployment ofteam members, mock drill ofsession sites with test benefi-ciaries to reporting and eveningmeeting.

Over 2,360 participantswere trained during nationallevel training comprising Stateimmunisation officers, coldchain officers, IEC officials,development partners, etc.

As on date, the State-leveltrainings had been completedin all States and UTs with par-ticipation of more than 7,000district level trainees, exceptLakshadweep which will con-duct it on December 29.

Cascading down, 681 dis-tricts (49,604 trainees) havecompleted the training ofMedical Officers on opera-tional guidelines. Vaccinationteam trainings have been com-pleted in 1,399 out of 17,831blocks and planning units. It isgoing on in the other blocks.

The dry run will alsoinclude testing for cold storageand transportation arrange-ments for Covid-19 vaccine,management of crowd at thesession sites with proper phys-ical distancing.

An important focus of thedry run will be on managementof any possible adverse eventsfollowing immunisation(AEFI). In addition, adher-ence and management of infec-tion control practices at the ses-sion site, to prevent diseasetransmission.

“The mock drill willinclude concurrent monitoringand review at the block and dis-trict levels, and preparation offeedback to be shared with theState and Union HealthMinistry. Detailed checklisthas been prepared by theUnion health Ministry andshared with the four States toguide them in the dry run,”added the Ministry.

����������� ���������������������������

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)���� �9:19;<%

Prime Minister NaredraModi, in his mega-outreach

to farmers, on Friday said hisGovernment is ready to talkwith them on all issues with an“open mind” on “facts andlogic” and not on the basis ofthe “lies spread by Oppositionparties”.

He claimed that new farmlaws offer “all alternatives” and“gateways” to the farmers to selltheir produce and increaseincome.

Speaking to the farmers ofsix-States, Modi stronglybacked agricultural laws andgave enough indication thatthough he was ready to removeany “fault” in them, hisGovernment has no rollbackplan as demanded by the agi-tating farmers on the outskirtsof Delhi.

“Don’t mislead by lies ofothers and think on facts,” saidModi and alleged that that theagitation was being fuelled byOpposition parties.

Modi said TMC-ruledWest Bengal, which is “block-ing” cash benefits to farmers inthe State coming from theCentral schemes, is supportingfarmers protest.

The Left-ruled Keralawhich has already done awaywith the APMC “mandi sys-tem,” is also doing the same.

Modi interacted virtuallywith the farmers and asked

them questions on the con-tract-farming and its “benefits”.He asked farmers not to be“misled” by the “lies” of theOpposition parties looking for“jari booti” (panacea) to resur-rect their “falling politicalgraph”.

Squarely blaming thosewith political agenda for thedeadlock in the Government’stalks with protesting farmers,the Prime Minister said theprotest which started withdemand for guaranteeingMinimum Support Price(MSP) has now moved to seek-ing release of those accused ofviolence and making highwaytoll-free at the behest of theOpposition parties “who arefiring from the shoulders ofinnocent farmers”.

“You would have seen thatwhen the agitation started theirdemand was about MSP guar-antee. They had genuine issuesbecause they were farmers.But then those with politicalideology took over,” he said.

Defending new laws, thePrime Minister said they allowfarmerd freedom to sell theirproduce anywhere in the coun-

try, including through “man-dis”. Modi said like in all sec-tors, modernisation in agri-culture is the need of the time.

He said it is six-monthsince new farm laws have comeinto effect and “not a singlemandi has been closed”.

Modi said the Centre iswilling to resume the dialogueon all farmers-related issues,even with those staunchlyopposed to his Government aslong as the talks are based on“issues, facts and logic.”

He asserted that an over-whelming number of farmersacross the country have wel-comed the new laws and arealready reaping the benefits,and listed out the BJP’s victo-ry in panchayat elections acrossStates, in which farmers werethe main voters and includingin areas surrounding protestsites.

“Despite that, farmersacross the country have whole-heartedly welcomed agriculturereforms. I assure you that I willnot let you down,” Modi said.

The Prime Minister allegedthat the farmers’ protest is also

being used now for opposingmany existing policies.

Though the PrimeMinister did not name any par-ticular group, he made severalreferences that appeared aimedat Left-affiliated outfits andother Opposition parties.

He said those with politi-cal agenda are not letting farm-ers engage in dialogue with theGovernment to address theirconcerns.

Thousands of farmers,mainly from Punjab, Haryanaand parts of Uttar Pradesh, arecamping on various Delhi bor-ders for almost a month toprotest against the three farmlaws.

�������������� ���� ���������� ������������ ����������� �� ������������������ �� �� ������������������������������������������������ �� ��

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Hours after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi blamed

the Trinamool Congress andthe Left Front for doing greatdisservice to farmers’ cause bytheir recent acts — like refus-ing Central Kisan SammanNidhi funds for their aid andinciting farmers’ protest inDelhi — the Bengal rulingoutfit and Left parties hitback in equal measures.

Taking on the PrimeMinister, senior TMC leaderSaugato Roy said it is thearrogance of the CentralGovernment and the PM him-self and not the BengalGovernment which was hin-dering the flow of CentralKisan Samman Nidhi funds.

Roy said, “The PrimeMinister is saying only halftruth by claiming that theState Government is blockingthe Prime Minister KisanSamman funds… the fact iswe only want to get the fundschanneled through the StateGovernment…the Centremust not bypass the federalnorms…if it does so thenwhere is there a need ofa State Government to be in

place.”Earlier the Prime Minister

while delivering a speech sin-gled out Bengal saying theTMC Government and theLeft Front were ruining thefuture of the farmers. Healleged that the StateGovernment was blocking thepassage of the Kisan Sammanfunds.

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The already uneasy tiebetween the Janata Dal(U)

and the BJP hit a new low withthe saffron party poaching sixMLAs of its ally in ArunachalPradesh.

The development comes aday ahead of the announce-ment of the panchayat andmunicipal polls’ results inArunachal Pradesh.

The lone MLA from thePeople’s Party of Arunachal(PPA), Kardo Nyigyor fromLikabali constituency, has alsojoined the BJP. The PPA MLAwas also suspended by theregional outfit earlier thismonth.

JD(U) MLAs who switchedsides are Talem Taboh fromRumgong AssemblyConstituency, Hayeng Mangfi(Chayang Tajo), Jikke Tako(Tali), Dorjee Wangdi Kharma(Kalaktang), Dongru Siongju(Bomdila) and Kanggong Takufrom Mariyang-Geku con-stituency, according to a bul-

letin issued by the StateLegislative Assembly.

On November 26, theJD(U) had issued show-causenotices to Siongju, Kharmaand Taku for “anti-party” activ-ities, and suspended them.

The six JD(U) MLAs hadearlier elected Talem Taboh asthe new Legislature Partyleader allegedly without theknowledge of senior partymembers.

“We have accepted theirletters conveying the intentionto join the party,” BJP’sArunachal Pradesh presidentBR Waghe said.

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The CPI(M) sprang a sur-prise on Christmas Day by

anointing 21-year-old AryaRajendran as the party’s can-didate for theThiruvananthapuram Mayoralelection scheduled to be heldnext week.

A BSc (Mathematics) stu-dent in a city college, Aryawould be the youngest Mayorin the country. Since theCPI(M) commands absolutemajority in the corporationcouncil, it is certain that Aryawould sail through the election.

Arya won fromMudavanmugal ward, defeat-ing UDF candidate Sreekala by2872 votes.

The district committee ofthe CPI(M) that met on Fridaytook the decision to field Aryaas the party’s mayoral candi-date. The formal announce-ment is expected to be made onSaturday.

Daughter of a long timeparty activist, Arya is the pres-

ident of the children’s wing ofthe party. She was searching forwords when media personsrushed to her residence inMudavanmugal from whereshe was elected as the council-lor in the recently held electionto the local self Governmentbodies.

“My father has taught meto obey the directives issued bythe party and I’ll follow thatteaching. The CPI(M) is moreimportant to me than anythingelse. My role model is ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, whois the best crisis manager I haveseen,” said Arya while speakingto the media.

She said she is yet to for-

mulate policies for the futuredevelopment ofT h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m .However, she added that hermain focus will be on address-ing women's issues and otherdevelopmental activities.

“I was busy learning thebasic requirements of the wardfrom where I have been elect-ed. Now I have to learn thewhole issues haunting the cap-ital city and chart out an actionprogramme to makeThiruvananthapuram the bestcity in the country. Waste man-agement is one of the impor-tant problems staring the city,”said the Mayor designate.

Students of All SaintsCollege will have the rare hon-our of having the “WorshipfulMayor” of the city as their col-league.

The Left front had fieldedmany youngsters and womenin the local body polls. Withthis decision, the CPM hopesto attract more youngsters tothe party ahead of theAssembly elections.

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Border Guard Bangladesh(BGB) on Friday claimed

that no illegal immigration istaking place into India from theneighbouring country, butexpressed concern over risingincidents of smuggling acrossthe border.

Addressing a joint pressconference with BorderSecurity Force (BSF) Director-

General Rakesh Asthana, BGBDirector-General Maj Gen MdShafeenul Islam said that at least 86 Bangladeshinationals were killed on theIndian side in the last threeyears for their alleged criminalactivities.

Asthana, however, said BSFhas apprehended 3,204 personsthis year for illegally enteringIndia from Bangladesh and 60of them, whose nationalitieswere established, were handedover to BGB.

Discussing various issuesconcerning the border duringthe ongoing five-day 51st DG-

level talks between the BSF andBGB that started onDecember 22, the two forces

signed a Joint Accord ofDiscussion and decided toincrease coordinated nightpatrolling to prevent illegalactivities.

“No illegal immigration isgoing on from Bangladesh toIndia. The GDP of Bangladeshis on a steady upward trend.There is no reason for any cit-izen to come to India for jobsor any other reason. Peoplehave come with valid docu-ments only for medical pur-poses,” Islam said.

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The average air qualityimproved from “severe”

level and was recorded in “verypoor” category in Delhi,Ghaziabad, Noida, GreaterNoida, Faridabad andGurgaon, according to a 24-hour data issued by aGovernment agency on Friday.

Presence of pollutant PM2.5 and PM 10, though,remained high in the fiveimmediate neighbours ofDelhi, according to air qualityindex (AQI) maintained bythe the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB).

An AQI between zero and50 is considered “good”, 51 and100 “satisfactory”, 101 and 200“moderate”, 201 and 300 “poor”,301 and 400 “very poor”, and401 and 500 “severe”.

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Noida: Thousands of farmersfrom UP gathered in Noida onThursday on the call of theKisan Sena, a farmers’ unionsupporting the new farm laws,even as the Bharatiya KisanUnion (Lok Shakti) which isdemanding withdrawal of thelegislations dubbed this farm-ers’ faction as “Jaichand” —after the 12th century rulercame to be known for treason.

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Page 2: & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”

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An encounter broke outbetween terrorists and

security forces in Jammu andKashmir's Shopian district onFriday, officials said.

The firefight broke outafter security forces cordonedoff Kanigam area and launcheda search operation on the basisof a specific information aboutpresence of terrorists there.

As the security forceszeroed in on the spot where theterrorists were hiding, theycame under a heavy volume offire and retaliated.

"Encounter has started atKanigam area of Shopian.Police and security forces areon the job," police said. Theincident comes just a day aftertwo terrorists were killed in anencounter with security forcesat Kreeri in Baramulla district.

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Shillong/Agartala: There was some-thing unprecedented about theChristmas celebrations across northeastIndia on Friday. It was subdued due tothe Covid restrictions which forced peo-ple to remain indoors.

Since Christmas eve people startedcelebrating the birth of Christ at theirown homes.

The houses and churches were lit upwith beautiful lights, flowers andChristians motifs. However, somechurches across the eight northeasternstates, that have a major percentage ofChristian population, wore desertedlooks.

Church leaders said that prayersand Christmas Carols would be con-ducted at family circles. However, a fewlocal cable television channels and var-ious social media channels have telecastthe prayers and celebrations at thechurches.

Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalayalooked beautiful as Christmas masseswere conducted and the streets were litup beautifully at midnight.

Over six million Christians live inMizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya while

there are a significant number ofChristians in the other northeasternstates of Manipur, Tripura, Assam,Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

All state governments in the north-east have imposed restrictions to avoidpublic gathering and banned burstingof firecrackers during Christmas andNew Year celebrations. Even marketsand malls saw limited footfall.

The health authorities and DistrictMagistrates have issued a slew of direc-tives. Police authorities in all the stateshave made extensive security arrange-ments to prevent any untoward inci-dents during the festivities.

The Governors and Chief Ministersconveyed their warm greetings and bestwishes to the people of their respectivestates.

Churches in Mizoram, Nagalandand Meghalaya play a very significantrole in the life and culture of the peo-ple in these states.

In Mizoram, Christmas is cele-brated over several days but this yearthey have been confined to their homes.

Traditional practices like churchcarols, community feasts and church

programmes are suspended in view ofthe pandemic. Mizoram Governor P.S.Sreedharan Pillai in his Christmasmessage expressed his appreciation forthe frontline Covid workers.

Pastor Reverend H. Lalrinsanga ofthe Aizawl Presbyterian Church hasappealed to people to pray from athome.

This year Mizoram is witnessing the150th year of Christmas celebrationsafter it was first celebrated by the colo-nial British troops back in 1871.

In Nagaland, the Christmas-everevelry was missing except for the cus-tomary performances and affairsbesides illuminations of Churches.

Temperature across the northeasthas been hovering around 8 degreesCelsius, making it cold for festivities totake off.

In Meghalaya, despite shops in thestate's main commercial hub PoliceBazaar wearing a festive look during thepast few days with lights and decora-tions, shopkeepers and vendors havebemoaned that their sales haven'tbloomed like previous years. However,they expect to do a good business in the

coming days.The East Khasi Hills District

Magistrate has "prohibited the sale, pur-chase and procurement of foreign-made firecrackers, use of joined fire-crackers (series crackers or laris) whichcause huge air, noise and solid wasteproblems, the use of firecrackers gen-erating noise level exceeding normallimits".

Meghalaya Chief Minister ConradK. Sangma tweeted: "Christmas mademore meaningful for the villagers ofRongdingre & Sonsangre in SouthGaro Hills as they receive SolarElectricity by @GHE_ConnectSpreading joy through renewable ener-gy to the remotest villages in Meghalaya! Let there be light."

Many of the state governments inthe northeastern region haveannounced holidays for several days sothat the people can take part inChristmas festivities even in limited cir-cles.

In Tripura, teachers at the HolyCross College in Agartala said they havebeen holding Christmas mass in a lim-ited circle since Thursday night.

Bengaluru: Karnataka is readyto give 'autonomous status' anydegree or polytechnic collegethat comes forward in order toenhance skills and leverage tech-nology, Deputy Chief Minister, C.N. Ashwath Narayana said hereon Friday.

Addressing a gathering afterinaugurating the - GoodGovernance Day - observed inVidhana Soudha to commemo-rate the birth anniversary of for-mer Prime Minister A. B.Vajpayee here, Narayan who isincharge of Higher Educationportfolio said that the incumbentgovernment does not believe ina rigid controlling mindset.

"We feel that more and morepolytechnic, engineering colleges

should try to get autonomous sta-tus. All the developed countriesall over the world have achievedexcellence because of decentral-isation. This should happen inour state also, at a rapid pace," theDy. CM said.

He added that the newNational Education Policy haspaved way for this by eliminatinglimitations and rigidity which hadbeen existing for the last severalyears. According to him, educa-tion is the only way to get solu-tions for the problems that onecomes across.

"It is education that can giveout permanent solutions to theproblems. In view of this, the gov-ernment strongly believes inempowering the education sys-

tem and is ready to fill any short-falls towards achieving this," heclaimed.

The Dy. CM argued that it isnot always true that changescould be made only by spendinga large amount of money but it ispossible to make big changes byincurring minimum spending.

"The Learning ManagementSystem (LMS) which is beingimplemented in the state wouldmake a revolutionary change inthe years to come. Higher edu-cation institutions should con-solidate local co-operation,enhance skill, leverage technolo-gy, ensure the judicious executionof responsibility in their way tobecome autonomous," heexplained. IANS

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Hyderabad: A Chinese national wasamong four people arrested byCyberabad police on Friday during araid on a call centre in Hyderabad inthe continuing crackdown on illegalloan apps.

Cyber crime police of Cyberabadraided Cubevo Technology PrivateLtd's (Skyline) call centre and arrest-ed four employees -- Chinese nation-al Yi Bai alias Dennis, Satya PalKhyalia, Aniriddh Malhotra (bothnatives of Rajasthan) and MurathotiRichie Hemanth Seth of AndhraPradesh.

Cyberabad Police CommissionerV.C. Sajjanar said another Chinesenational Zixia Zhang is the mainaccused in the case and he is abscond-ing along with another key accusedUmapati alias Ajay.

Zixia, along with Umapati, start-ed Digipeergo Tech Pvt Ltd last year.They incorporated another companySkyline Innovation Technology IndiaPvt Ltd with the help of Singapore-based sister concern Xikai Holding Pte

Ltd. He developed instant loan appli-cations and hosted them in GooglePlay Store. He established few morecompanies as call centres in variousplaces in India and hired tele callersto collect the repayments from thecustomers.

According to the Commissioner,the accused developed 11 instantloan applications which offer loans toindividuals and collect huge repay-ments including interest, processingcharges, GST, default charges, and oneper cent penalty after the expiry ofloan period.

They were resorting to systemat-ic abuse, harassment of and threats tothe defaulters through call centres runby them. They even blackmailed theborrowers by sending fake legalnotices to their family members andrelatives.

The loan apps are Loan Gram,Cash Train, Cash Bus, AAA Cash,Super Cash, Mint Cash, Happy Cash,Loan Card, Repay One, Money Box,Monkey Box etc.

The Cyber Crime Police Stationhad recently registered eight casesagainst loan applications after a com-plaint from a citizen. The complainantsaid he obtained Rs 1.20 lakh loanfrom 28 instant loan apps and thoughhe paid the loan amount of Rs 2 lakh,he received abusive and threateningcalls.

The applications developed bythese companies were involved in 11different cases registered inCyberabad, Hyderabad andRachakonda police commissioner-ates.

The police seized Rs 2 crore inbank accounts, two laptops and fourmobile phones.

Sajjanar said the applications weredeveloped in such a way that oninstalling these apps, they get theaccess to the contacts, mobile infor-mation and other data in the device.These applications collect the idproofs, PAN card, KYC documents,and bank account details of the cus-tomers. They check the genuineness

of the documents and disburse smallamounts in the form of loans into thecustomers' bank accounts after deb-iting the processing charges and GSTi.e., 25-30 per cent in advance.

This was the latest in a series ofcrackdown by police. Earlier onDecember 22, Hyderabad andCyberabad police had announcedarrest of 17 people in raids conduct-ed in Hyderabad and Gurugram.

The police swung into actionafter three persons committed suicidedue to harassment by the employeesof online loan apps last week. A techieand a woman government employeewere among those who ended theirlives.

Hyderabad Police CommissionerAnjani Kumar said four companieshad hired around 1,100 executives torun the multi-crore illegal business-es through which thousands of peo-ple were victimised across the coun-try.

The companies were identified asLiufang Technologies Private Ltd,

Hotful Technologies Private Ltd,Pinpoint Technologies, and NabloomTechnologies Private Ltd and wereregistered in Bengaluru.

The police chief said that CyberCrime Police Station had recently reg-istered 16 FIRs pertaining to issue ofloans by alleged unauthorised loanapps and harassment of the victims bythe companies running the appsthrough their call centres.

Police raided two locations inGurugram and three locations inHyderabad which were runningorganised tele caller centres, whichwere being used to persuade, harassand intimidate the loan defaulters.

Eleven heads and importantmembers of the call centres werearrested.

Cyberabad police had also arrest-ed six people connected with loanapps Cash Mama, Loan Zone andDhana Dhan. Police said OnionCredit Private Ltd and Cred FoxTechnologies Pvt Ltd were connect-ed with these apps. IANS

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Arow has erupted overKarnataka government

reportedly turning down a pro-posal to rename the VarthuruKodi circle in Whitefield in thecity after late IPS officer K.Madhukar Shetty.

Expressing deep displea-sure over this decision, formerDirector General and InspectorGeneral of Police, ShankarBidari, said in an emotionalpost on Facebook, "I feel verysad today. I am pondering as towhat may be the reasons toreject this noble proposal to

perpetuate the memory of anhonest and principled officer,who worked hard and sincere-ly throughout his career."

He added that rejection bythe state government is noth-ing but an injustice done to thememory of an honest officerwho led a principled life.Bidiari said that Shetty wassnatched away by fate when hewas in the prime of his life andcareer.

The former DGP observedthat Karnataka has had ChiefMinisters such as KadidalManjappa, S. Nijalingappa ,B.D. Jatti, S.R. Kanthi,

Ramakrishna Hegde,Veerendra Patil and S.R.Bommai, who regarded andrespected honest officers.

"Karnataka also had aChief Minister like H.D.Devegowda, who approved theproposal within seconds ofhearing it to rename a veryimportant circle after a traffichead constable, Timmaih, evenbefore the latter's body wasburied. Timmaih had sacrificedhis life in diligent performanceof his traffic duty," he said.

Bidari said that Shetty wasmore than a son to him. "Nowit is tormenting me that the

Karnataka government hasrejected a proposal sent by theBBMP to name the VarturKodi circle as Shri MadhukarShetty circle.

The former DG also saidthat Karnataka is being ruledby a government whichincludes persons who weredealt by Shetty without fear forserious corruption chargesagainst them.

"He never sought anyfavour from any politician. Henever cultivated the support ofhis own Bunt community,though he was and will forev-er remain an officer of whom

the Bunt community willalways be proud," Bidari said.

He said there is no concernand regard for honest officersin the incumbent government.

"I knew Madhukar Shettyvery well and he always treat-ed me with the affection andrespect a son can show to hisfather. I feel very sad today. Iam confident that the righteouspeople will come to powerearly and will redeem the hon-our of Madhukar Shetty, ajewel among the officers, anddo justice to his vibrant mem-ory and the values he repre-sented," he concluded in his

post.The Bengaluru civic body,headed by Congress MayorGangambike Mallikarjuna, hadannounced in July 2019 that asa mark of respect to late IPSofficer Madhukar Shetty, theBruhat Bengaluru MahanagaraPalike (BBMP) will renamethe Varthuru Kodi circle inWhitefield as Madhukar Shettycircle and will install his stat-ue there.

The Mayor announced thisafter the then DCP ofWhitefield, Abdul Ahad, andother friends of Shetty wantedthe circle in the locality to benamed after Shetty, following

which corporator S. UdayKumar proposed the plan ofnaming the Kodi circle afterShetty.

The Pallike's TownPlanning Standing Committeeapproved the proposal of UdayKumar.

According to reports, thefunds sanctioned for the devel-opment of the ward were sup-posed be used for installing Shetty's statue at thecircle.

Shetty, a 1999 batch IPSofficer, died in December 2018while undergoing treatmentfor swine flu at the Continental

Hospitals in Hyderabad.He is remembered for his

role in exposing illegal iron oremining in Ballari, the backyardof powerful mining baron G.Janardhan Reddy.

This case led to incumbentChief Minister B.S.Yediyurappa resigning fromhis post then.

Shetty is the son ofKannada journalist VaddarseRaghurama Shetty, and hadworked as the ASP ofBengaluru Rural district andlater as the SP ofChamarajanagar andChikkamagaluru.

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Ajoint team of the Haryana ChiefMinister's flying squad and excise offi-

cials conducted raids and issued challans tofour pubs and an equal number of liquorvends for violating the excise rules and serv-ing liquor beyond the prescribed time, on theintervening night of Thursday-Friday inGurugram.

As per the state excise policy, the oper-ating time of these establishments is from 9a.m. to 12 a.m.

Inderjeet Yadav, Deputy Superintendentof Police, CM flying squad said the raids wereconducted at 10 pubs and nine liquor vendsin Sector-29, Sector-53, MG Road, GolfCourse Road, Cyber Hub and DLF inGurugram.

Acting on a tip-off, both teams had con-ducted a raid and issued challans to the pubs.

"Out of 10 pubs, fines were issued to fourpubs, and out of the nine liquor shops fourwere issued challans for running after theprescribed time, which is a violation of theExcise Act," Yadav said.

He also said a penalty of Rs 10 to 14 lakhcould be levied against these violators.

"The department is conducting fre-quent checks to ensure liquor is not servedafter the prescribed time in open and thatno one sells liquor without permission,"Aruna Singh, deputy excise and taxationcommissioner (East), said.

"Also, we have formed teams to conductsurprise checks at all outlets to ensure pubowners or operators are not violating therules and regulations," the official added.

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Lucknow: The Bahujan SamajParty (BSP) will celebrate partypresident Mayawati's 65thbirthday on January 15 as 'JanKalyankari Diwas' in a simplemanner in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The BSP, earlier, used tocelebrate the occasion in agrand manner after it facedintense criticism on the issue,the party started celebrating theday as 'Jan KalyankariDiwas'.

According to party sources,Mayawati has directed partyleaders and workers to helpmigrants, farmers, labourersand the poor people who arefacing problems due to the eco-nomic slowdown.

Under the Jan KalyankariDiwas programme, the BSPleaders will assist the needy,poor and the handicapped.

"We will visit villages and

hospitals to distribute sweetsand fruits," said a BSP leader.

She has also asked theparty leaders to follow theCovid-19 protocol announcedby the government during herbirthday celebration. Therewould be no gathering orassembly of workers, the partysaid.

Mayawati has been stayingin Delhi since the pandemicbegan and there is no pro-gramme yet of her coming toLucknow on her birthday.

She is holding regularreview meetings to gear up theparty cadre for the 2022 assem-bly election in Uttar Pradesh.

She has directed the partyofficers to strengthen the partyorganisation at the booth leveland m efforts to win back thesupport of Brahmins, backwardclasses and Muslims in order toregain lost ground.

Party leaders said that therewas no order yet from the partyhigh command about financialcontribution to the party fund, which is a regular practice onMayawati's birthdays.

The BSP has been losingground in Uttar Pradesh.

The party did not win anyseat in the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tion. It bagged 19 seats in the2017 Uttar Pradesh assemblypolls and 10 in the 2019 LokSabha election, when it had analliance with the SamajwadiParty but parted ways with SPsoon after the results weredeclared.

Earlier, in October thisyear, the BSP faced a revoltwhen seven of its MLAscrossed over to the SamajwadiParty on the eve of the RajyaSabha biennial elections.Mayawati later suspended theseven MLAs. IANS

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Patna: In a bid to bring fair trial andspeedy justice to the victim ofMunger police firing, a senior lawyerof Supreme Court has filed PublicInterest Litigation (PIL) in Patnahigh court seeking CBI inquiry inthis case.

Alakh Alok Srivasatva, a seniorlawyer of Supreme Court, told IANS:"Almost two months have passed butthere is no headway in this case tobring justice to mother of AnuragKumar (18) died in police firing dur-ing Ma Durga idol immersion atDeen Dayal Upadhyay Chowk inMunger district of Bihar on October26 this year."

"Interestingly, Bihar police con-stituted a Special Investigation Team(SIT) headed by Asangba ChubaAO, divisional commissioner ofMagadh range, to investigate this

case wherein its own police officersare facing the charges. We stronglybelieve that the Bihar governmentwill not do a fair inquiry in this case.Hence, we have urged Patna HighCourt to direct Bihar government torecommend this case to CBI for fairand speedy time bound investigationunder under its own monitoring,"Srivasatva said.

"Munger police personnel fraud-ulently took signature of 55-year-oldmother of deceased on plain paperand registered an FIR againstunknown persons on October 31under IPC sections of 302, 34 and27 of Arms Act. As we learnt that nota single person has been arrested sofar. This categorically depicts that theongoing investigation being con-ducted by the respondent, Bihar gov-ernment, is only a sham investiga-

tion and is unlikely to render justiceto the petitioner. If the case wouldnot get transferred to CBI, there isgood chance of vital piece of evi-dences will be destroyed," he said

"As per eyewitness, the deceasedwas innocent and unarmed onOctober 26, 2020 when a policemanSushil Kumar Singh and othersfired several rounds of bullets oninnocent devotees and one of thebullets hit the deceased, leavinghim died on the spot. The allegedpolice personnel open fired at devo-tees without any provocation. Even,cops did not give warning to them,"Srivastva said.

Srivasatva pointed out CISFinternal report wherein it was men-tioned that the Bihar police per-sonnel open fired aiming at devoteesof Ma Durga. IANS

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Baghpat (Uttar Pradesh): Thecontroversy over the AkhilBharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) activists threatening toremove the idol of Shrutdevi,the Jain goddess of learning,from the Digambar JainCollege in Baghpat, was final-ly resolved with ABVP'sBaghpat district coordinatorAnkur Chaudhary tenderingan apology.

"We tender our apology tothe Digambar Jain communi-ty and what occurred was dueto our ignorance. No protestwould be held in the futureregarding the idol of GoddessShrutdevi," said Chaudhary.

The Jain community lead-ers had demanded the imme-diate arrest of the ABVPactivists who entered the col-lege on Tuesday and threatenedto remove the idol.

The police did not registera case immediately against theactivists although a complaintwas lodged by college principalVirendra Singh the same day.

Baghpat Superintendent ofPolice Abhishek Singh said thecase was registered againstthose named in the complaintby college principal Dr.Virendra Singh and someunidentified activists underSections 147, 504, 506 and 427of the Indian Penal Code.

He attributed the delay inregistering the case to thepolice engagement in dealingwith the ongoing farmers'protest in the district.

Earlier, Ajay KumarSharma, the station house offi-cer of the Baraut police stationsaid the ABVP activists wereconfused over the idol of theJain goddess. IANS

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Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath offered floral tributes to late formerprime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the occa-sion of his 96th birth anniversary on Friday.

Senior party leaders and officials were pre-sent on the occasion.

The state of Vajpayee was installed at the LokBhawan by Yogi Adityanath last year and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi had unveiled it.

Tributes were also paid to the former primeminister at the BJP state headquarters.

Fruit distribution, blanket distribution,'havan' and prayer services were held by the BJPworkers in different localities of the state capi-tal.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee, represented Lucknowin the Lok Sabha for five consecutive terms from1991 to 2009. He had a close association with thecity and had many friends in the state capital. IANS

Shimla: Himachal PradeshChief Minister Jai Ram Thakuron Friday unveiled an 18-feetstatue of late former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeeon the occasion of his 96thbirth anniversary at the historicRidge in the state capital.

While addressing the 'AtalSmriti Samaroh' on the occa-sion of 'Sushasan Diwas', theChief Minister paid a tribute toVajpayee. Thakur said Vajpayeewas a statesman and a greatpersonality who practiced pol-itics of principle.

Vajpayee was a legendaryand visionary leader whodefined the highest values ofleadership and his contributionto the development of thecountry would be rememberedfor the years to come, the

Chief Minister added.Vajpayee was an orator par

excellence who left an indelibleimpression on the people. Hesaid even during some of themost strained moments in theParliament, Vajpayee succeed-ed to defuse the situation withutmost ease.

Thakur said despite beingaway from active politics formore than a decade, at the timeof his demise, lakhs of youthjoined the last journey ofVajpayee, which showed hisdeep impact on the lives of thepeople. The nation was alwaysfirst for Vajpayee and therefore,regarded as a true statesman bypeople of the country, headded.

Thakur said the unveilingof Vajpayee's statue at the Ridge

was a tribute to the great son ofmother India.

He said this statue con-structed by spending Rs 1.08crore was a token of love andaffection from the people of thestate towards the great states-man.

Vajpayee, who alwaysbelieved in value-based politicsshared a special connect withHimachal Pradesh, which hefondly called his 'second home',the Chief Minister added.

Despite his busy schedule,Vajpayee would never miss anopportunity to come toHimachal and spent a few daysat his home in Prini village nearManali. With his simplicityand humanity, Vajpayee ruledthe hearts of millions of people,he said. IANS

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RAIPUR | SATURDAY | DECEMBER 26, 2020chhattisgarh 03

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh StateBackward Class Commission

on Wednesday asked the authori-ties to fill the backlog of pendingposts for OBCs in governmentservices.

The Commission at a meet-ing said that across the state sep-arate pre-metric and post-metrichostels should be opened inevery division for OBC boy andgirl students, a press release said.

The meeting was chaired byCommission ChairmanThaneshwar Sahu. During themeeting, Sahu said in case theapplication of a person from thebackward category is rejected bythe Chhattisgarh State ST, SCResearch Institute due to spellingerror, the latter should clarify inwhich category the person falls.

The Commission alsorecommended reserving of 50percent seats in government-runcoaching centers for OBC

students.Cases related to appointment

on compassionate grounds werediscussed at the meeting.

C'garh to be awardedfor exemplary showingin PMAY (Urban)RAIPUR: In a pat for the all-inclusive model ‘MorZameen Mor Makaan’ of Chhattisgarh, the UnionMinistry of Housing and Urban Affairs has declaredthe scheme the best convergence model in the coun-try.

Chhattisgarh shall be felicitated in the SpecialCategory of the PMAY Urban awards, chaired byPrime Minister Narendra Modi, on January 1.

The much-anticipated PMAY (Urban) awardswill be held through virtual mode. The PrimeMinister shall be accompanied by Minister of Statefor Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri.

Chhattisgarh’s pilgrimage city Dongargarh shallalso be felicitated in the category of the best per-forming Municipal Council.

In addition, three beneficiaries fromChhattisgarh who have built the best and most beau-tiful dwelling units for themselves too will be hon-oured. They are Anju Sahu (Dhamtari), MumtazBegam (Dhamtari) and Mamta Verma (Kawardha).

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has congratulat-ed all citizens of the state, the department and theUrban Local Bodies on the achievement.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh gov-ernment will bear the

educational expenditureon the four childrenwhose parents and grand-parents were murdered inDurg district, ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghelsaid on Friday.

On December 21,Rohit Sonkar (32), his wifeand parents were foundmurdered in Khudmudavillage in Patan area, theAssembly constituency ofthe Chief Minister.

Sonkar’s elder son suf-fered serious injuries inthe attack and is undergo-ing treatment while hisother three children, aged

4 to 7 years, were unhurt.The suspects are yet to beidentified.

Baghel on Friday visit-ed the village and tookstock of the investigation,an official release said. Hemet relatives of the vic-tims.

Educational expensesof the children will beborne by the government

and also `1 lakh each willbe deposited as FD in thename of each child, Baghelwas quoted as saying.

Besides, financialassistance of `1 lakh willbe given to the family.

Inspector General ofPolice (Durg Range)Vivekanand Sinha andDurg Superintendent ofPolice Prashant Thakur

apprised the ChiefMinister about the statusof investigation.

Police have releasedthe sketch of a suspectedassailant based on thedescription provided bythe boy who was injuredand announced a cashreward of `10,000 forinformation about theaccused.

Govt to educate children of murder victims

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh

Baghel said on Friday thatJesus Christ taught us thepath of love, kindness, com-passion and service for thewelfare of entire humankind. Christmas is the day tothank for God’s mercy andlove.

Baghel reached St PaulCathedral in Raipur andtook part in Christmasprayers. He extended greet-ings of Christmas to theChristian community and allresidents of the state. Hewished for happiness andprosperity for all, an officialcommunication said.

The people ofChhattisgarh have tradition-ally followed the way of love,harmony and brotherhood,he said.

Let everyone join hands

together to realize the dreamof ‘Nava Chhattisgarh’ in thepath shown by Lord Jesus, headded.

Pastorate Court

Chairman John Rajesh Pauland Secretary C. Nayak pre-sented ‘Chhattisgarhi Bible:Nava Niyam’ to the ChiefMinister.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Raising the various prob-lems faced by farmers of

Chhattisgarh, BJP MLAs onFriday staged a ‘Satyagraha’at Azad Chowk here.

Addressing the gather-ing, BJP PresidentVishnudeo Sai said the des-tiny of the state is hunger,fear and corruption underthe Congress government.The people during BJP rulehad forgotten all this for 15years.

When the commonman goes hungry, the possi-bility of revolt increases andthe state is facing such a sit-uation. Today, the Centralgovernment transferred`18,000 crore into theaccounts of 9 crore farmersacross the country.

BJP Vice President andformer Chief Minister

Raman Singh said there is aneed to stir the publicopinion as to why thefarmer in the state is understress today and why is he

forced kill himself.He said all infrastruc-

ture development workshave come to standstill.

Leader of Opposition in

the Assembly DharamlalKaushik said it was formerPrime Minister Atal BihariVajpayee who started theKisan Credit Card (KCC)

and the BJP-ledgovernment in thestate provided loan atzero percent interest tofarmers.

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh govern-ment wants ‘gau kasth’

(cow dung wood) and cowdung cakes prepared atGauthans used for cremationat ‘Muktidham’.

Civic AdministrationMinister Dr Shiv KumarDahariya has directed tomake available ‘gau kasth’ atMuktidham and other placeson concessional rates, a pressrelease said on Friday.

The move is not onlyexpected to intensify produc-tion of ‘gau kasth’ but alsoopen a new earning venue forwoman Self Help Groups(SHG) associated withGauthans.

Use of cow dung wood incremation can save about onelakh trees each year, it said.

There are 377 Gauthanslocated in civic bodies acrossChhattisgarh of which at 322cow dung is purchased.Women SHGs are engaged inproducing cow dung wood

and other cow products there.The Minister also sug-

gested using cow dung woodin place of wood for burningfire at public places to beatthe cold.

In Raipur MunicipalCorporation limits, fire isburnt at 51 places. Use of cowdung wood for this purposewill also save many trees, thepress release said.

Jesus taught path oflove, kindness: Baghel

STAFF REPORTER n RAGARH

Chhattisgarh Police on Fridayarrested three persons,

including the mastermind, forkidnapping a 12-year-old boyand making an extortion call of`5 lakh to the family in Raigarhdistrict.

Raigarh Superintendent ofPolice Santosh Singh told ThePioneer that the mastermind,Vikas Tirkey, and his accomplicesArun Toppo and RameshwarManjhi, all of Dhauragaon in thedistrict, were in custody.

Rahul Bada was abductedwhile returning home from a millon Thursday evening, the officersaid.

His family started getting fre-quent extortion calls from thekidnappers, who sought `5 lakhor threatened the boy with direconsequences. Following thefamily’s complaint, police started

a probe.Police learnt that the three

accused were not in the villagesince the incident, Singh said.

Acting on a tip, police res-cued the abducted boy from theabductors in a jungle, he said.

The accused confessed theirinvolvement in the crime. Vikas

told the police that he knewRahul’s father had sold his ances-tral property and was planning tobuy a Scorpio. So, they kid-napped his son.

Police recovered a bike usedin the crime besides three mobilephones, three knives, a rope andthe boy’s bicycle, Singh said.

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Achievements of theChhattisgarh government’s

flagship scheme Narva GarvaGhurwa aur Bari (NGGB) werehighlighted in the Central IndiaInternational Science Festival(CIISF) 2020.

The Festival was jointly organ-ized by the Union Ministries ofScience and Technology as well asEarth Sciences and non-profit bodyVigyan Bharti from December 22to 25 in virtual mode from NewDelhi, a press release said.

On December 23, a ‘StateScience and Technology MinistersConclave’ was held where scienceand technology ministers fromdifferent states took part.

The 32 science and technologycouncils located in states were

divided into six zones. Every zonedetailed the notable works carriedout in the science and technologysector in their respective states.

Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh were in the centralzone. The representation of bothstates was done by Mudit Singh,Director General of ChhattisgarhScience and Technology Counciland the Chhattisgarh RegionalScience and Society.

In the presentation, Singhspoke about steps taken for univer-salization of science, works onresearch and development, intellec-tual property rights and remotesensing. He also gave informationabout the proposed schemes.

Notable works carried outunder NGGB were also highlightedin the presentation.

STAFF REPORTER nJAGDALPUR

For proper monitoring ofCovid vaccination, the

Jagdalpur district administra-tion has created a TaskForce at the district level,block level and for city region.

The Force was created onthe initiative of CollectorRajat Bansal to ensure effec-tive handling and adminis-tration of Covid vaccines, apress release said on Tuesday.

The district level taskforce will be headed by theCollector while CEO ZilaPanchayat, Chief Medical andHealth Officer (CMHO), dis-trict programme officer ofWomen and ChildDevelopment department,IMA district President, WHOdistrict representatives alongwith other key departmentswill be its members, the

release said.The block task force will

be headed Sub DivisionalOfficer (Revenue) orTahsildar level officer whilethe block level task force will

be convened by Block HealthOfficer.

CEO Janpad Panchayat,project officer women andchild development depart-ment, public representatives

from Janpad Panchayat,Thana in-charges along withother key departmentswill be also part of theblock level and city regionteams.

Three held for kidnapping minor boy

Task Force in Jagdalpur tomonitor Covid vaccination

E-card tobe issuedCovid patients who had usedbenefits of Ayushman Bharat,Pradhanmantri Jan AarogyaYojana and Dr. KhoobchandBaghel Swastyha SahayataYojana during their treatmentwill be issued e-card whichwill be used for mapping inthe Central government’s webportal.

CMHO Jashpurinformed that people in thedistrict have been requestedto cooperate in the processand provide relevant docu-ments to the health workers.For the purpose, mobilenumbers of block level kioskoperators have been released.

NGGB achievementshighlighted at CIISF 2020

Use cow dung wood for cremation: Minister

C’garh OBC commission demandsfilling of vacant government posts

BJP MLAs hold ‘Satyagraha’ for farmers

Page 4: & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”

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Union Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar on

Friday urged Punjab farmers toend their protest and come for-ward to hold discussions withthe Government to resolve thedeadlock over the three newfarm laws.

Soon after Prime MinisterNarendra Modi accused ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee ofblocking the PM KISANscheme for farmers in WestBengal due to political reasons,Tomar said he wrote a letter toBanerjee on Thursday askingher to not prevent farmersfrom the benefits of the PMKisan Samman Nidhi scheme.

Stating that there is somemisconception in the minds ofPunjab farmers, the agricultureminister said: “I want to urgethem to leave the protest andcome forward for the dialogue.I am hopeful that farmers willunderstand the importance ofnew laws and reach a solution.”

His deputy Minister ofState for Agriculture KailashChoudhary said, “I hope in the

next meeting between farmersand the government, a solutionwill be reached. Farmers inmany states are also supportingthe new farm laws and sending‘thank you’ letters to the PrimeMinister”.

The ministry also reiterat-ed it is ready to find a “logicalsolution” to the issues raised byprotesting farmer unions.

The Government has writ-ten twice inviting them for thenext round of talks at a date oftheir convenience.

Reacting to the PMKISAN scheme in WestBengal, the agriculture minis-ter also attacked the oppositionfor ‘shooting their ideologicalgun’ from the shoulders offarmers and harming themeventually. He asked the agi-

tating farmers to stop theprotest and come to the dis-cussion table.

Tomar said that theAgriculture Ministry has col-lated data that shows 70 lakhfarmers would have benefittedPM Kisan Samman Nidhi hadthe Mamata government par-ticipated and allowed imple-mentation of the scheme in thestate, which was also pointedout by the Prime Minister ear-lier on Friday.

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee had written to UnionAgriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar on two occasionssaying that she is willing totransfer the benefits of PMKisan to the farmers providedit is routed through the StateGovernment.

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Former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee performed

a key role in shaping India’s for-eign policy and “introducedcorrections, some bold andsome others nuanced,” ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankarsaid here on Friday.

Paying rich tributes toVajpayee, the minister also saidthe then prime minister playeda transformational role in fash-ioning foreign policy that led toa new beginning in ties with theUnited States.

Making these observationsin his opening remarks at themaiden Atal Bihari Vajpayeememorial lecture, Jaishankarsaid he also “introduced cor-rections, some bold and othersmore nuanced,” in a range ofnational security and foreignpolicy issues.

Highlighting some of themajor contributions by the for-mer prime minister, Jaishankarsaid “Atalji’s vision of India-UScooperation has been advanced,particularly in recent years, bythe leadership and commit-ment of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. Overcomingthe hesitations of history, we aretoday focused on addressingcontemporary challenges andemerging opportunities.”

He also said “This vision led

to a new beginning with theUnited States that has sincebeen developed by successivegovernments on both sides. Itrequired us, as a nation, toovercome difficult momentsand continuing concerns. Onlysomeone with Atalji’s enormousself-assurance could, in the earlydays, have visualised how nat-ural this partnership wouldbecome.”

At the same time, India’srelationship with Russia hasremained steady partly due toVajpayee’s endeavours,Jaishankar said. India’s princi-pled approach of engagingChina on the “basis of mutualrespect and mutual sensitivity”too reflects Vajpayee’s thinking,he added.

On ties with countries in theneighbourhood, the ministersaid Vajpayee “radiated goodwilland friendship, while being clearthat terrorism and trust couldnot coexist.”

Vajpayee could “finesse dif-ficult issues” while warmlyreaching out across regions andcontinents, he said, pointing tothe country’s relations with theAssociation of South East AsianNations (Asean) and with coun-tries in Europe, Africa and LatinAmerica. And most notably, heembraced the Indian diaspora ina way that had no parallel tillthen, Jaishankar said.

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Senior scientist of DefenceResearch Development

Organization (DRDO), DrHemant Kumar Pandey, hasbeen honoured with DRDO’s“Scientist of the Year Award”for his contribution in devel-oping several herbal medi-cines, including the well-known drug Lukoskin, meantfor treatment of leukodermaalso known as Vitilogo.

Union Defence MinisterRajnath Singh recently facili-tated Pandey at an event herewith the prestigious awardthat comprises a certificateand cash prize of �2 lakh.

Recipient of several pres-tigious awards for his contri-

bution in the field of herbalmedicines, Pandey has beenundertaking research atDRDO’s lab Defence Instituteof Bio-energy Research(DIBER) at Pithoragarh inUttarakhand for the past 25years.

Though Pandey has devel-oped six herbal drugs so far,Lukoskin, used for treatingleucoderma or Vitiligo, a con-dition in which white patchesget developed on the skin, hasbeen most widely appreciatedand found huge acceptance inthe market.

A formulation of aroundsix herbs found in Himalayanregion, Lukoskin helps intreating white patches and ismarketed by Delhi-basedAimil Pharmaceuticals.

Available in oral liquid as wellas lotion form, it has effectivelyhelped treat over 2 lakh peo-ple suffering from the diseasein the country.

Leucoderma is an auto-immune disorder and aboutover 5 crore people are underits grip in India. It is neithercontagious nor life-threateningbut often mistaken as leprosyand hence surrounded withstigma and myths. Worldwide,the incidence of leucoderma is1-2 per cent of the population.

Apart from Lukoskin,Pandey has developed drugsfor treatment of itching andtoothache as well as an anti-radiation cream, most of whichare already being sold in themarket following transfer oftechnology.

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The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) has

arrested two former ManagingDirectors of two separate pri-vate companies in an on-goinginvestigation of �837 crorebanking fraud.

The first case was regis-tered against Sun Plant AgroLtd. (ponzi company) and itsthen Managing Director ofAwdhesh Singh and others.

In this case, it was allegedthat Singh and others had ille-gally collected about �697.72crore from the investors undervarious fraudulent schemes onassurance of paying highreturns on such investments onmaturity. The accused fledaway and cheated the investorsand allegedly misappropriatedthe invested money.

The second case was reg-istered against New Land AgroIndustries Ltd. (Ponzi compa-ny) and the company’s thenManaging Director DipankarDe and others.

The FIR alleged that Deconspired with other Directorsand illegally collected about Rs139 crore from the investorsunder various fraudulentschemes on assurance of pay-

ing high returns on suchinvestments on maturity. Inthis case also the accused fledaway and cheated the investorsby misappropriation of theirinvested money.

Meanwhile, the CBI hasregistered a case on a com-plaint from Canara Bank (leadbank) on behalf of a consor-tium of four member banksagainst a Surat-based privatecompany Surya Exim Ltd. andothers including its Directors,unknown public servants andunknown others.

“It was alleged that, duringthe period 2017 to 2019, theaccused entered into a con-spiracy to cheat a consortiumof banks including CanaraBank to the tune of �121.05crore (approximately) by wayof forgery and diversion of

funds,” the CBI said in a state-ment.

The company was alleged-ly enjoying credit facilitiesfrom the banks. It was furtheralleged that the companymaintained accounts in privatebanks without obtaining a NoObjection Certificate (NOC)from consortium memberbanks and also indulged infraudulent practices to siphonoff funds of the banks. Theaccount became non-per-forming assets (NPA), therebycausing an alleged loss of Rs121.05 crore to the consortium.

Searches were conductedat five places including officialand residential premises ofthe accused at Surat andNavsari in Gujarat which led tothe recovery of incriminatingdocuments/articles, it added.

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In line with the objectives ofboosting transparency and

accountability while ensuringease of living for the citizens,the Directorate of Estates,Ministry of Housing and UrbanAffairs on Friday dedicated tothe nation, a new Web Portaland Mobile App, e-Sampada.

The new application pro-vides a single window for allthese services including allot-ment for over one lakh gov-ernment residential accom-modations at 40 locations,Vigyan Bhawan, office spaceallotment to Governmentorganisations in 45 office com-plexes in 28 cities, booking of1,176 holiday home rooms andvenues like 5, Ashoka Road forsocial functions etc.

The website and mobileapp was launched by Ministerfor Housing and UrbanAffairs, Hardeep Singh Puri,in the presence of DurgaShanker Mishra, Secretary,MoHUA and other senior offi-cials.

Addressing the media in aprogram orgnised on virtualplatform, Puri said that this isa significant step towards pro-

motion of e-governance toboost transparency andaccountability in providingvarious Estate Services likeallotment, retention, regular-isation, no dues certificate etc.

He further said that E-Sampada is developed to sim-plify processes and bring uni-formity in system across India.This will promote ease of liv-ing for Government of India

officers / Departments as allservices can be availed onlineon a single window with a livetracking of applications. Realtime information on utilisa-tion of assets and delivery ofservice will facilitate optimumutilisation of resources.

The automated processeswill minimise human inter-vention and will lead to greatertransparency.

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Senior BJP leader and UnionMinister Rajnath Singh on

Friday appealed to farmers totry the three new farm laws asan “experiment” for a year ortwo and in case they are foundnot beneficial for the farmingcommunity, the governmentwill do all necessary amend-ments.

Describing the protestingfarmers as his own people,Singh said, “Those who are sit-ting on dharna are farmers andare born to farmers’ families.We have a lot of respect forthem.”

Thousands of farmers,mainly from Punjab, Haryanaand parts of Uttar Pradesh, arecamping on Delhi borders foralmost a month in protest

against the three laws enactedin September.

At least five rounds oftalks have taken place betweenthe protesting unions and thegovernment but a stalematehas continued with farmersrefusing to accept anythingless than the repeal of the laws,which they fear would leavethem at the mercy of corpo-rates by weakening mandi andMSP systems. The govern-ment has allayed these appre-hensions as misplaced andhas projected the new laws asmajor agriculture reformsaimed at helping the farmers.

Addressing a rally atDwarka in the national capi-tal, Singh said he himself is afarmers’ son and assured thatthe Modi government “willnever do anything which is notin the interest of the farmers”.

“People are trying to mis-lead farmers about these farmlaws that they are not in theirinterest. I am the son of afarmer and have worked infarms. I want to assure youthat there is not a single pro-vision in these laws which isagainst farmers,” Singh said atthe rally organised as part ofthe ruling BJP’s massive out-reach programme on the farmlaws.

He reiterated that the min-imum support price (MSP)will continue and some peopleare trying to create a miscon-ception that it will end.

Requesting farmers to trythe new agri laws for a year ortwo as an experiment, theformer BJP president said ifthese are not found beneficial,the government would bringall necessary amendments.

“For once let this act(acts) be implemented, for ayear or two... Try this experi-ment and if you feel that thisact (acts) is not in the interestof farmers, then I can say youthis with conviction as I knowthe intention of our PrimeMinister Narendra Modi wewill do all necessary amend-ments in it,” Singh said.

Underlining that all prob-lems can be resolved throughdialogue, Singh said PrimeMinister Modi wants the talkswith farmers to continue, andtherefore, the government hasextended an invitation tothem.

Singh appealed to allprotesting farmers to comeforward for discussions

on the farm laws and ifthey want to rope in expertsfor discussions,

the government is readyfor that as well.

“Several rounds oftalks have been held whatev-er suggested by farmers ourgovernment has ready to do allthose amendments. The prob-lems can be resolved throughdialogue only, wherever thereis scope for amendmentGovernment is ready to dothat,” the Defence Ministersaid.

Hailing former PrimeMinister Chaudhary CharanSingh as the great farmers’leader, former BJP presidentalso attacked opposition par-ties saying that Congress andCPI always cheated andbreached the trust of thefarmer leader.

He also mentioned andtalked about Sir Chotu Ram inhis address.

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Seeking to insulate its elec-tion officers especially the

state chief electoral officersfrom possible harassment forholding objective polls, theElection Commission plans towrite to the government say-ing no action should be takenagainst them by states “underany excuse”, including oldcases, for at least one yearafter the completion of theLok Sabha or assembly elec-tions.

There have been instanceswhere Chief Electoral Officers(CEOs) have been allegedlytargeted by the state govern-ments after elections byreopening old complaints andcases.

The chief electoral offi-cers are usually IAS officerswho have held other respon-sibilities in their respectivestates in the past.

The Election Commissionis yet to firm up its proposalwhich it plans to send to thegovernment, sources awareof the development said.

They said officers who

hold free and objective pollsat times have been targeted byruling parties in many states.

The EC holds Lok Sabha,assembly, legislative counciland Rajya Sabha polls

through its CEOs in the states.The Legislat ive

Department in the LawMinistry is the nodal unit

for the EC with whom thepoll panel usually interacts.

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The year 2020 showed Indiaa glimpse of how life would

be without trains. As the coro-navirus lockdown wasannounced on March 24, theRailways for the first time in its167-year-old history shut downall its services.

People stranded across thecountry and who usuallylooked to the Railways to ferrythem home, were left withouttheir lifeline. Some, like thethousands of migrant workers,took to the streets choosing towalk to their destinations.

As the Railways directed itsresources towards carryingessentials across the country,lakhs of tickets were cancelledduring the summer holidays -- something unheard of in railhistory.

It was on May 1 that thewheels of trains started chug-ging again.

This time, to ferry migrantworkers home. Between May 1and August 30, the Railwaysferried 63.15 such workershome across 23 states in over4,000 Shramik Special trains,not only bringing huge relief tothe stranded migrants, but alsohope for the others that theirlifeline was down, but not out.

It was, however, theShramik Special trains whichsaw the Railways being criti-cised by the Opposition par-ties over the fares beingcharged from the migrantworkers. While the Railwayssaid that it did not charge apenny from the workers andspent more than Rs 2,000crore on their transportation,the politics over the issue con-tinued.

“What do trains mean forme? They mean hope, joy andalso a sense of routine. For 25years, I have taken the sameroute home to Bihar to be withmy family after months of

being away from them. That’swhat they mean to me, theyget me to my family.

“Every year, I would booktickets around the same timeto go home. This year it didnot happen and I feel a senseof loss that something that waspart of life could very easily betaken away,” said JitenderKumar, a security guard work-ing in Noida.

Currently, the Railways isoperating 1,089 special trainservices, while Kolkata Metrowas running 60 per cent of itsservices, Mumbai suburbanwas running on 88 per centand 50 per cent of Chennaisuburban services were inoperation. Railway BoardChairman and CEO VK Yadavagreed that it was a tough yearfor the national transporter,but also highlighted how itinnovated and used the crisisas an opportunity.

“This year has been of gritand victories for IndianRailways. Faced with dauntingand unprecedented COVID-related challenges, IndianRailways has not only beenable to keep the national sup-ply chain running and movemillions of people back homein most adverse circum-stances, but has also been ableto realise the potential of itsworkforce, which driven to thewall has come out with inno-vative solutions,” Yadav toldPTI.

While passenger move-ment dipped resulting in anestimated loss of 87 per cent ascompared to last year, theRailways’ made drastic changesin their freight movement,introducing parcel services,carrying essentials like milk,medicines and even ventilators.

The innovation was torealise that if the Railwayscould not move passengersfreely, it could move freightinstead.

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Page 5: & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”

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Amid war of words betweenthe Bharatiya Janta Party

and top brass of the People'sAlliance for Gupkar Declaration(PAGD) whether the electoratein Jammu and Kashmir havesupported or rejectedAbrogation of Article 370 andreorganisation of the erstwhileState in the recently concludedDistrict Development Councilpolls statistics released by theoffice of State ElectionCommission throw a more

clearer picture.According to the data sheet

released by the State ElectionCommission in Jammu andKashmir, “A total number of28,55.509 votes were polledand out of this a little over 12pervcent voters, which means3.64 lakh voters elected 138 can-didates across 10 districts ofKashmir valley while 32.08 per-cent voters i.e 9.16 lakh votersfrom Jammu region elected 140representatives in the eightphase long maiden DDC polls.

If we look at the picture at

the district level these statisticsreveal, “an average number of444 voters across Srinagar dis-trict stepped out of their homesto elect their representativewhile in Jammu district morethan 13,000 voters elected theirfavorite candidate”.

It means the claims made bythe Kashmir based leaders ofNational Conference and thePeoples Democratic Party clear-ly mean out of an electorate sizeof 28,55,509 lakh voters only3.64 lakh voters stood behindthem across Kashmir valley.

The situation remained thesame in the militancy infesteddistricts of Shopian andPulwama in South Kashmir.Here an average number of725 and 785 voters participatedin the democratic process ofelecting their own representa-tive. On the other hand inJammu region, Rajouri andKathua districts figured in thelist of districts where the high-est number of voters turned upto elect their representatives. InRajouri, an average number of9113 voters exercised their right

to franchise to elect their can-didate while in Kathua district7532 voters elected their repre-sentative.

According to the electiondata released by the office of thestate election commission, atotal number of 2855509 voteswere counted at the end of theeight phase long polling whichwas spread over a period ofthree weeks.

Out of this the winning can-didates across 10 districts ofKashmir valley polled a totalnumber of 3.64 lakh votes i.e

12.76 per cent votes.On the other hand, 9.16

lakh votes were polled in sup-port of winning candidatesacross Jammu province on 140seats. This comes around 32.08percent of the total votes polled.

If we look at the vote sharegarnered by the major politicalparties BJP figured on top of thechart. The party secured thehighest number of 708714 votes(24.82 percent) of the totalvotes polled.

On the other hand, Jammuand Kashmir National

Conference party, which won 67seats, 25 from Jammu and 42from Kashmir region polled470099 votes i.e 16.46 percent ofthe total votes polled. It was fol-lowed by the Congress partywhich polled 394575 votes i.e13.82 percent.

Another important con-stituent of the PAGD, JKPDPpolled 113175 votes which is3.96 percent of the total votespolled.

The Jammu and KashmirAPNI party, won 12 seats, threefrom Jammu region and 9 from

Kashmir valley, securing 5.30percent votes and garnered151331 total votes.

Further analysis of the polldata reveals another interestingaspect of the DDC polls.

To elect each BJP candidatean average number of 9449voters exercised their right tovote, a JKNC candidate was sup-ported by an average number of7016 voters, 4191 voters elect-ed each PDP candidate whilethe highest number of 15175voters elected each Congresscandidate in these polls.

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Two prominent Congress lead-ers in Kerala have sounded cau-

tion about the state of affairs in theparty and want the HighCommand to give top priority torevamp the leadership without anydelay.

“It is true that we have suffereda set back in the recently held elec-tion to the local-self bodies. But itis not a failure which is insur-mountable. There are some basicissues haunting the Kerala unit ofthe party which the national lead-ership should address without anydelay,” V D Satheeshan, KPCCvice -president who is serving hisfourth term as the member of thelegislative assembly.

Satheeshan is of the view thatparty’s Kerala unit was lethargicand did not put up its full effortsduring the election to the local bod-ies. “Please remember that we adwon 19 out of the 20 seats in the

2019 Lok Sabha election. What welacked this time was the kind ofhard work which we saw during theparliament election,” he said.

There is still time to recoup thespirit of 2019, feels this leader whois the Congressman to watch inKerala. “The local body electionwas held in a small canvas while theassembly election is an entirely dif-ferent ball game. Once the properleaders are in place in the State,Kerala would see entirely differentresults in the assembly poll,” saidSatheeshan.

He pointed out past incidentswhen the local body polls and thesubsequent assembly polls threwout entirely different results. “Forthat to happen, we have to pull upthe sleeves and start working rightnow,” he said.

T h i r u v a n c h o o rRadhakrishnan, who is serving hissixth term as MLA and a formerminister for home, vigilance andwater resources, too expressed his

disappointment over the poor per-formance of the Congress in localbody election.

“We can still win the assem-bly election provided the CongressHigh Command attend to theissues haunting the party. Thecohesion and unity seen in the pastwere missing this time. If the lead-ership inspire the cadre with hardwork and inculcate in them a spir-it of unity, people will prefer onlythe Congress,” said Radhakrishnan.

The decision of the MuslimLeague to call back P KKunhalikutty from the Lok Sabhato lead the Muslim League in theupcoming election has unnervedthe Congress leaders.

“Chances of the MuslimLeague demanding the chair of theChief Minister could not be ruledout. Last time they just walked awaywith five ministerial posts as theCongress leadership watched help-lessly,” said another Congress leader.

Aligarh: The health departmentis alerted after the spread of newcorona strains in the UK. Thehealth officers here have receiveda list of 66 people. They havereturned to Aligarh between 9thDecember to 24th Decemberfrom the UK. Now the depart-ment is identifying them. 9 peo-ple have been identified and didthe RTPCR test. Even after anegative report, they will beunder observation of the sur-veillance team for 28 days.

People returning from theUK are being monitored.According to health officials, sofar 2 lists have been receivedfrom the government having aname of total 66 people. Allthese people returned from theUK to Aligarh between 9thDecember and 24th December.The district surveillance teamhas traced 9 of these people andRTPCR tests have been con-

ducted and the search for theremaining people is going on.Anyone found infected will betested in Delhi and Mathuralabs.

District Magistrate ChandraBhushan Singh said that theadministration is alert for thosereturning from Britain.

Everyone is being moni-tored. Will be isolated for 28days. All are being compulsori-ly tested. A review meeting ofCorona was held under thechairmanship of DM, in whichDM said that everyone shouldfollow the rules and guidelinesof home quarantine. Negligencewill not be tolerated at anystage.

If any person is comingfrom abroad, they should nothide it and inform it in the con-trol room immediately. Theirtest report will come within 24hours. PNS

Hathras: The Karni Sena announced a mahapan-chayat in the villages of the Hathras victim in sup-port of the accused, due to which the related mes-sages also went viral on social media. The policeadministration and the local intelligence agencybecame alert and started their investigation. Five peo-ple, including the National General Secretary of theKarni Sena, Okendra Rana, was arrested on thecharges of disturbing the peace in the city.

He came here from Haryana and stayed in a hotelin the city. They were produced in the court of sadarSDM and from there sent to jail.

According to Okendra Rana, the charge sheet ofCBI is totally wrong. All four accused are innocent.In the beginning, the girl said that she had not beenraped. The same thing was also revealed in the med-ical report that there has been no incident like rape.He told the media that the Karni Sena will conducta mahapanchayat in support of the accused in thesame village. He came here from Bhiwani for thepreparation of this, but someone informed thepolice and the police arrested him and 5 other people. PNS

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The man who convertedfrom Islam to Hinduism

and became a Karmaveer fromQasim Khan is now receivingthreats. He met the SSP andexplained his problems onwhich Dehli Gate Police hasregistered a case againstunknown people on theinstruction of the SSP.

Qasim Khan, a resident ofJhalkari town located inJunglegadi bypass of DehliGate area has converted toHinduism from Islam and hasbecome Karmaveer SinghMahore. Lodhi Vihar residentsNeeraj Bhardwaj andKaramveer Singh Mahorealong with his wife Anita vis-ited the SSP. He said that he is

getting threats call fromunknown numbers and theirlife are in danger. He has beenliving in Lodhi Vihar since con-version.

Along with this, there isalso the temptation of moneythat if he wants then he cancome back to his previous reli-gion and stay in his house.

On his complaint, the SSPimmediately called InspectorDehli Gate Ashish KumarSingh to his office and sent thevictim to the police station.Where his Tahrir has beenregistered.

According to InspectorAshish, the case has been reg-istered. Now, based on theinvestigation and statement ofthe victim, action will be takenby identifying the accused.

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has writ-

ten a letter expressing solidar-ity with Amartya Sen followingreports that the Nobel Laureateeconomist had been identifiedalong with dozens of otherswho were “unauthorized occu-pants” of plots around central-ly controlled Viswa BharatiUniversity.

Saying that the allegationswere being brought against theoctagenarian economist whospent his childhood atShantiniketan --- receiving theblessings of Poet LaureateRabindranath Tagore whofounded the university --- toharass him as he was notinclined towards the saffronideology.

Banerjee in her letter saidthat she would stand by Sen likeher sister should he be victim-ized by some “nouveauinvaders” who had “startedraising surprising and com-pletely baseless allegations.”

“We all salute AmartyaSen. Just because he isn'tinclined towards BJP's ideolo-gy, they're making such allega-tions against him.” she said ear-lier after State Governmentreportedly received a commu-nication from the Viswa Bharatialleging Sen was among dozensof unauthorized occupants ofplots in the campus.

“We all are aware aboutyour family’s deep and organ-ic linkages with Santiniketan…your maternal grandfather therevered scholar KrishnamohanSen was one of the early settlers

in Santiniketan while yourfather Asutosh Sen a noted edu-cationist and public adminis-trator had his famed housePratichi built up in Santiniketanabout eight decades back,” herletter read adding how some“nouveau invaders” had startedmaking some surprising andbaseless allegations.

“I write this letter to expressmy surprise and anguish oversome recent developments, as Iread about them in media,alluding to your ancestral linksin Santiniketan,” she wroteexpressing solidarity with himin his fight against the “bigotryof the majoritarians” in thecountry, before finally assuring“we shall overcome.” Sen runshis research social foundationPratichi Trust from his house.

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Gopalganj (Bihar): A man inBihar's Gopalganj districtstabbed a girl to death for refus-ing his marriage proposal.

The incident took place inthe Sidhwalia area and theaccused has been identified asAnil Yadav.

Yadav was nearly lynchedby the locals, leaving him griev-ously injured. The police havearrested Yadav and Dheeraj,who is said to be the accused'sfriend.

A police official on Fridaysaid Yadav, a resident of Jalalpurvillage was a phone friend of thevictim.

He reached the victim'shouse late Wednesday and pro-posed marriage. When the girlrejected his proposal, the jiltedlover stabbed her repeatedly.

The injured girl succumbedon the way to the hospital.

Superintendent ofGopalganj police, Manoj KumarTiwari, said the accused wastaken into custody by the policeand is undergoing treatment ata Patna hospital. Dheeraj wasarrested on Thursday. IANS

Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanathgovernment in Uttar Pradesh isall set to roll out an ambitiousscheme of 'Road Ambulances'early next year.

Through this, the stategovernment is going to give afresh momentum to the cam-paign to rid the roads of pot-holes and will redefine theupkeep, standards and main-tenance of roads in the state.

According to the govern-ment spokesman, the PublicWorks Department is going todeploy road ambulances undera pilot project in about half-a-dozen districts of the state.

The Yogi government isworking on three frontsthrough the Road AmbulanceScheme. Apart from makingthe roads pothole free, thegovernment plans to prevent

major damage by immediate-ly repairing the damagedroads.

With the presence of roadambulances, the government isalso going to take care of reg-ular security, cleaning and themaintenance of roads.

A road ambulanceequipped with all the technicaland gang related road con-struction including mixes, gen-

erators, is being built at a costof more than Rs 40 lakh. It istouted to be the most modernroad ambulance used in anystate of the country.

The state government willlaunch about a dozen roadambulances in the first phase.Road ambulances will bedeployed in about half a dozenmetros of the state, includingLucknow and Kanpur. IANS

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Awoman, who was allegedly gangraped by five men,has claimed that she was raped again by a police

sub-inspector when she went to a police station to filea complaint.

The 35-year-old woman, who went to the Jalalabadpolice station to file her complaint, said the sub-inspec-tor took her to an adjoining room on the pretext of fil-ing her complaint and sexually assaulted her.

The alleged incident took place at the police stationon November 30.

Additional Director General of Police (ADG) ofBareilly, Avinash Chandra, has ordered an inquiry onthe complaint of the woman.

Superintendent of Police (city) Sanjay Kumar saidthe 'allegations are serious' and police are investigatingit. The woman claimed that she was gang-raped by fivemen on November 30. “The five accused forciblydragged me inside the car, took me to a nearby field andraped me. Soon after that, I went to the Jalalabad policestation where the sub-inspector also raped me,” thewoman, a widow, said.

She further said that when the local police refusedto file a case, she approached senior officers. She metADG Avinash Chandra who then ordered a probe bythe station house officer (SHO) of Mahila Thana.

A senior policeman, on condition of anonymity, said,“The woman is being used to settle scores. She hadalready registered four cases of sexual assaults inShahjahanpur and had given over two dozen complaintsso far. A circle officer is already investigating one of herrecent complaints.”

Prayagraj (Uttar Pradesh):TheAkhil Bharatiya Akhara Parishad(ABAP), the apex body of saints andseers, has warned against the entryof fake Shankaracharyas and self-styled godmen in Haridwar for theKumbh Mela, beginning in January.

The Akhara Parishad is prepar-ing a list of such fake saints and self-styled godmen and will send it toUttarakhand Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat so that suchelements do not get any recognitionand facilities during the Kumbhthrough Mela administration.

Akhil Bharatiya AkharaParishad president MahantNarendra Giri Maharaj while talk-ing to reporters, cited the recentdemand of self-styled GayatriTriveni Prayagpeeth pontiff TrikalBhavanta Saraswati, to get landallocation and other facilities for theKumbh Mela. He said that no fakesaints should be allowed to enter theKumbh zone.

Mahant Narendra Giri said thestate government should keep inmind that only fourShankaracharyas of these holy seatsshould be given the status, recog-nition, land allocation and otherfacilities during the four-monthlong Maha Kumbh.

Akhara Parishad general secre-tary Mahant Hari Giri Maharaj

said at their level, they are appris-ing the state government and Melaadministration officials about thereal and fake saints.

“We have sought names of suchfake saints from across the countryand as we get them, we will discussand take a decision accordingly inour meeting. We have already urgedUttarakhand Chief Minister,Trivendra Singh Rawat, and KumbhMela officer-in-charge DeepakRawat to ensure fake saints do notget entry and privileges duringMaha Kumbh,” he said.

It may be recalled that earlier in2018, the Akhara Parishad hadreleased in four phases, a list of morethan two dozen “fake saints” aheadof the Prayagraj Kumbh held lastyear. “In recent times, a large num-ber of incidents of self-appointed,fake or controversial godmen, pon-tiffs, Jagadgurus andShankaracharyas have come intolight.

“Even in the previous 2010Maha Kumbh, the issue of fakeShankaracharyas had come to fore.So, it is good that the AkharaParishad is taking up this issueahead of the Maha Kumbh 2021,”said MahamandaleshwarHarichetnanand Maharaj of ShriPanchayati Akhada Bada Udasin. IANS

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Hyderabad: Covid-19 pan-demic cast its shadow onChristmas celebrations in theTelugu states of AndhraPradesh and Telangana onFriday.

The usual pomp and gaietywas missing as churches sawlimited gatherings for mid-night mass and Friday morn-ing special prayers. Severalchurches organised live stream-ing of mass and carols.

Churches in twin cities ofHyderabad and Secunderabadwere tastefully decorated andilluminated on the occasion.Devotees were seen throngingthe churches since Thursday night, wearing masksand maintaining social dis-tance.

Churches in other towns ofTelangana and neighbouringAndhra Pradesh also witnessedspecial prayers.

Special prayers in church-es since midnight, carols, burst-ing of fire crackers were thehighlights of celebrations.

The festivities began with

midnight mass at manychurches in Secunderabad,which has a sizeable populationof Christians.

SCI Wesley Church inSecunderabad arranged livestreaming. Some Churches likeSacred Heart Church inSecunderabad followed stag-gered timings to break upcrowds to ensure physical dis-tancing during the mass. Thechurch organised a separatemass for senior citizens.

Congregation was held at200-year-old St John's Churchin Secunderabad. Devotees alsoattended mass at St Mary'sChurch, All Saint's Church,Wesley Church, Holy TrinityChurch and MillenniumMethodist Church. The priestsprayed for peace and high-lighted the message of Jesus'birth.

The Anglo-Indian com-munity in Lalaguda inSecunderabad celebratedChristmas with enthusiasmand in a traditional manner. InLittle England, as Lalaguda is

known, the community cele-brates the festival in theirunique style.

Cake and wine making athome is an integral part of thecelebrations for the communi-ty.

Attired in their best, men,women and children attendedthe midnight services in spe-cially decorated churches.

Christian families cut thecakes as part of the celebrationsand greeted each other on theoccasion.

The three-day celebrationsalso began at the historicChurch of South India (CSI) atMedak, about 100 km fromhere.

Medak Church, the secondbiggest of its kind in Asia, wasconstructed between 1914 and1924. It has been built withgranite in the Gothic style withstory of Bible painted on itsstained glass windows.

The celebrations were alsoheld Khammam, Adilabad andother towns in Telangana. InAndhra Pradesh, the celebra-

tions were held inVisakhapatnam, Vijayawada,Ongole, Kadapa, Bheemavaramand other towns.

Christmas celebrationswere also held at AndhraPradesh capital Amaravathi.In Prakasam district, pastorsconducted special prayers at thecentury-old historical churchChirala St Louis MarksLutheran church.

Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister Y. S. Jagan MohanReddy, accompanied by hisfamily members participated inthe Christmas celebrations atCSI Church in Pulivendula inKadapa district. Senior bishopsand priests conducted specialmasses and read out Christmasmessage.

Telangana GovernorTamilisai Soundararajan, ChiefMinisters K. ChandrasekharRao, Andhra PradeshGovernor BiswabhusanHarichandan and ChiefMinister Jagan Mohan Reddyextended greetings to the peo-ple. IANS

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In an indication of the party’sreturn to politics of intimida-

tion, the MNS workers onFriday vandalised at least threewarehouses of the Amazon inMumbai and Pune over theleading e-commerce retailer’salleged failure to provideMarathi as a language option forits App.

A day after a Mumbai courtissued a notice to their partypresident Raj Thackeray toappear before it on January5,2021 in connection with a casefiled by Amazon against theparty, the MNS workers – armedwith sticks – went on a rampageat Amazon’s warehouses atAndheri and Malad in northMumbai and one at Kondwalocality in Pune. As theyindulged in rampage, the MNSworkers shouted anti-Amazonslogans.

The MNS’ rampage at threeAmazon warehouses took placeat a time when the e-commerce

retailer was in the midst ofcatering to bulk orders placedduring the Christmas-New Yearseason. However, the extent ofdamage caused by the MNSworkers was not immediatelyknown.

Apparently, the MNS work-ers targetted the warehouses ofAmazon to express their angerover the summons issued byDindoshi court to their partypresident to remain presentbefore it on January 5, in con-nection with a case filed by thee-commerce retailer against thetearing of its posters by the polit-ical party workers.

Amazon had filed its civilsuit before the Dindoshi court insuburban Mumbai against theMNS and its workers' unionwhich had allegedly threatenedto block the firm’s operations inMumbai if it did not includeMarathi as one of the preferredlanguages on its mobile appli-cation or website.

After hearing Amazon’sarguments on December 14, the

court had ordered that the com-pany staff be given protection.The court had restrained theMNS and its activists fromobstructing the e-retailer or itsemployees from working at thee-commerce firm's site or dis-turbing its business activities.

Since October this year, theMNS has been carrying a cam-paign ‘No Marathi, No Amazon’in the state seeking incorporat-ing a Marathi option on theAmazon Apps, and warned thatit would not tolerate step-moth-erly treatment meted out to thestate language.

MNS had last week threat-ened to launch an agitationagainst Amazon and Flipkart forthe non-inclusion of Marathi asa preferred language in theirApps.

While customers in Indiacan access Amazon services inEnglish, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu,Kannada and Malayalam,Flipkart is available in English,Hindi, Tamil, Telugu andKannada language.

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Bengaluru: Amid the Covid-19scare, devotees offered prayers atvarious prominent Lord Vishnutemples across Bengaluru on theoccasion of Vaikuntha Ekadashifestival.

All the temples followedthe Covid protocols strictly suchas maintaining social distancing,while several temples voluntar-ily suspended distribution of'Teertha' (holy water), insteadthey gave away 'laddus' as'prasadam' to the devotees.

Besides this, the templesalso restricted the entry of thedevotees as the festival isobserved for more than 10 days.

Several prominent Vishnutemples, including Tirupati

Devasthanams's (TTD) Vishnutemple in Vyalikaval, ISKCON,Kote Venkataramana Swamy inChamarajpet, Srinivasa Templein Mahalakshmi Layout, andTirumalagiri Temple in J.P.Nagar have been decked up witha variety of flowers.

S e p t u a g e n a r i a nPadmanabha Rao, a devoteewho visited the TTD temple inVyalikaval, told IANS that theVaishnava worshipers (followersof Vishnu) believe that 'VaikuntaDwaram' or 'the gate to theLord's inner sanctum' is openedon this day.

“The Margashirsha ShuklaPaksha Ekadashi in the lunarcalendar is known as a

'Mokshada Ekadashi'. Specialprayers, yagnas, discourses andspeeches are arranged at Vishnutemples across the world on thisauspicious day,” he explained.

Another devotee, TammeGowda, offered his specialprayers at the MahalakshmiLayout temple and told IANSthat fasting on VaikunthaEkadashi is equivalent to fastingon the remaining 23 Ekadashisof the Hindu year.

Quoting Vishnu Purana,Rao said Vaishnavites believethat Lord Vishnu opened thegate of 'Vaikuntam' (his abode)for two 'asuras' (demons) in spiteof them being against him.

They also asked for the

'boon' that whoever listens totheir story and sees the image ofVishnu coming out of the doorcalled 'Vaikunth Dwar' wouldreach Vaikuntha as well.

“Temples all over Indiamake a door kind of structure onthis day for devotees to walkthrough,” he said and revealedthat their family members couldnot visit Tirupati this year for thefirst time in seven decades.

“We actually wanted to go toTirupati but due to the Covidscare, we cancelled our plans andinstead we came here. Thisbeing a 10-day long festival, weplan to visit all prominent tem-ples across Bengaluru,” he added.

IANS

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Page 6: & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”

As this piece is being writ-ten, forest fires are burn-ing at a number of placesin Uttarakhand, and per-

haps in a few other parts of Indiaas well. According to a report byLalmani Verma in The IndianExpress of December 6, 2020,Uttarakhand had recorded 185wildfires between October 1 andDecember 1 this year. This wasmore than the number of fires thatoccurred between mid-Februaryand mid-June, which is the seasonfor forest fires in the State. But then,the number of conflagrations inthis year’s fire season was incred-ibly low. The report quotes ManSingh, Chief Conservator ofForests, Forest Fire & DisasterManagement, as saying: “Thenumber of fire incidents in forestsfrom February to June this year wasalmost 10 per cent of the averagenumber of incidents that occurredin the past 20 years. In October andNovember, only a negligible num-ber of forest fires had occurred inthe past years, but there was a sharprise in these months this year afterthe unlockdown process. It leads tothe conclusion that such incidentsoccurred due to carelessness ofhumans who moved out after theunlocking process.”

This tends to corroborate thebelief, held by many, that the sharpfall in the number of fires in thisyear’s season was a result of theCOVID-19 outbreak and the lock-down, and that the numbers willsoar at an unprecedentedly highrate as normal activity picks up.This prospect must cause seriousconcern because of the severedamage that forest fires cause.They destroy entire forest ecosys-tems, kill wildlife, drive endan-gered species towards extinctionthrough the destruction of theirhabitats and burn trees and theundergrowth. Spreading out, theydestroy human settlements, hous-es, property and kill people.Environmentally, they are a majorsource of greenhouse gas emis-sions. A report by Daisy Dunne,datelined July 14, 2020, and titled“How climate change is affectingwildfires across the world” inCarbon Brief, states that they areresponsible for 5-8% of the 3.3million annual premature deathsfrom poor air quality.

At least a billion animals andbirds are estimated to have per-ished in Australia’s devastating for-est fires in the late 2019 and early2020. The actual number mayturn out to have reached trillionsif the estimates had taken intoaccount bats, frogs and inverte-

brates like insects, worms andspiders. According to a CNNreport by Jessie Yeung titled“Australia’s deadly wildfires areshowing no signs of stopping.Here’s what you need to know”,last updated on January 14,2020, the catastrophic forestfires in Australia destroyed1,588 houses and damaged 650others in New South Wales, thecountry’s most populated State.

In the United States, theState that has suffered most overthe years is California. Thingswere, doubtless, better in 2019than in 2018. In late Octoberlast year, however, forest firesforced 2,00,000 people to leavetheir homes and led to the dec-laration of an emergency. Theperiod from January 1 toNovember 22, 2019, witnessed46,706 wildfires compared to52,080 in the correspondingperiod in 2018. About 4.6 mil-lion acres perished in the sameperiod in 2019, compared to 8.5million acres in 2018. Towns,property and houses have beendestroyed and people killed.

The situation is grim inIndia which, on an average, loses�1,176 crore a year to forest fires.The Forest Survey of India(FSI) detected 29,547 fires in2019 using the ModerateResolution Imaging Spectro-radiometer (MODIS) system. Ina written response to a query,Minister of State forEnvironment Babul Supriyotold the Lok Sabha onSeptember 23, 2020, that an areaof 2,56,710 hectares was affect-ed by forest fires in the countryin 2019. What is also alarming,a report by the FSI submitted in2019 has it that 1,52,412 out ofIndia’s 7,12, 249 square kilome-

tres of forest cover, 21.40 percent, is highly fire-prone, withthe forests of Mizoram,Chhattisgarh, Manipur, Odishaand Madhya Pradesh being themost vulnerable.

The prospects are forbid-ding. For one thing, globalwarming is conducing to anincrease in the number of for-est fires. Many experts consid-er it to have been an importantfactor aggravating the circum-stances leading to theAustralian and American for-est fires referred to above. Thisis hardly surprising. Globalwarming makes vegetationhighly inflammable throughenhanced evaporation, whichcauses fires to spread rapidlyand become more intense. Ithas also caused the length offire seasons — when conflagra-tions are most frequent —worldwide to increase by 19 percent between 1979 and 2013.

It is a cyclical process, withglobal warming conducing toforest fires and the latter con-tributing to global warming.The way things are, the ParisAgreement on Climate Change’scall for holding the increase inglobal average temperature inthis century to well below 2°Cabove the pre-industrial revolu-tion level and for trying to limitit to 1.5°C above it, is not goingto be achieved. More, accordingto the Special Report on GlobalWarming of 1.5°C, released bythe Intergovernmental Panel onClimate Change (IPCC) onOctober 7, 2018, the adverseeffects of climate change wouldnot be reduced even if theincrease is limited to 1.5°C.What is particularly alarming,this level, according to the

report, is likely to be reachedsometime between 2030 and2052.

With global warming con-tinuing to aggravate — andmake more potent — the cir-cumstances leading to forestfires, the actual spark is some-times provided by lightningstrikes or friction between drybranches of trees or bamboofragments. The main factor,however, is human activitywhich is responsible for 95 percent of the forest fires in Indiaand 90 per cent in the case ofthe United States. In the latter,some human-caused fires resultfrom campfires left unattend-ed, the burning of debris,downed power lines, negli-gently discarded cigarettes andintentional acts of arson.

In Brazil, farmers andranchers have been setting largetracts of the Amazon rainforests aflame while theGovernment is accused of beingeither indifferent to, or encour-aging of, their doings.According to India’s State ofForest Report 2017, people inthis country set fire to forestsfor, among other reasons, clear-ing areas for shifting cultivation,non-timber forest produce col-lection and for hunting/poach-ing purposes. Another reason ismaking room for growingtowns and villages.

Preventing forest fires will,therefore, require action onmultiple fronts. The NationalAction Plan on Forest Fires byForest Protection Division of theMinistry of Environment,Forests and Climate Change,released in 2019, makes a num-ber of recommendations. Theseinclude a vigorous strategy for

spreading awareness of theimplications of forest fires,ensuring the participation oflocal communities in forestmanagement, enhanced train-ing and specifically designatedpolicies to increase the capaci-ty of local communities to pre-vent and control forest fires,increasing the resilience offorests to withstand firesthrough management interven-tion and the rooting out of inva-sive weeds like Lantana, whichcontribute significantly to theoutbreak of forest fires andthreaten native biodiversity.

For their part, the Unionand State Governments need toenhance their preparedness toact early against fire outbreaks.This would have to include aneffective communications net-work, the use of modern tech-nologies and products likedrones to identify the exactlocation of forest fires and thedirections of their spread,deployment of adequate man-power in fire-prone areasthrough the filling of all vacan-cies in the ranks or frontlineforest officials.

All this will require money.The provision of �50 crore inthe 2020-21 Union Budget isnot going to be enough. Theargument, however, will bethat even the last budget’s allo-cation of �46.58 crore was notfully spent. While the UnionGovernment must play its partfinancially and administrative-ly, State Governments, whichare responsible for forest man-agement on the ground, needto pull up their socks.

(The author is ConsultingEditor, The Pioneer. The viewsexpressed are personal.)������������� �������� ����������������

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������������� ����Sir — West Bengal and Assamwill go to the Assembly polls in2021 and, in both the States, theBJP has high stakes. In Assam, theBJP is seeking return to power forthe second consecutive time. InBengal, the party is hoping todefeat Chief Minister MamataBanerjee’s Trinamool Congress.

In both the States, theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA) is an emotive issue butUnion Home Minister AmitShah’s statement that the CAArules are yet to be framed as theexercise could not be carried outbecause of COVID-19 meansthat it won’t be the main electionissue. Both the States are strongopponents of the CAA ever sinceit was enacted in 2019.

While the BJP is aggressive-ly pushing its campaign infavour of the CAA in Bengalahead of the Assembly elections,it is defensive in the neighbour-ing Assam. Both the States havesignificant Muslim populations— 27-28 per cent and 34-35 percent, respectively.

An election narrativearound the CAA is expected topolarise the voters.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

��������������������Sir — The discovery of a mutat-ed and more virulent COVID-19virus strain in England hascaused turmoil around the world.As a precaution, a night curfewhas been imposed in the farawayMaharashtra.

This is ridiculous on the partof the State Government because

the virus will not stop spreadingand we are forced to be contentwithout jobs and eat only stonesand mud for another five yearsbecause the Chief Minister is notwilling to resume local trains sothat we can reach office and getour salaries to feed our families.

Uddhav Thackeray does notneed Christian votes; that is whyhe has now started harassing

Christians by not allowing us tocelebrate Christmas and the NewYear Mass even during daytime.

First, he and his policemendemolished Kangana Ranaut’sbungalow. Now they are target-ing Christians. Is the virus activeonly during Christian festivalslike Easter and Christmas?

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

�������������Sir — Records are meant to bebroken but in a field game likefootball, breaking records isnot an easy task to achieve.However, Lionel Messi hasbecome the all-time top scorerfor a single club after scoring his644th goal for FC Barcelonaduring their La Liga match.

Messi touched peak form in2011-12 but continued to garnergoals in a steady way.Incidentally, Pele scored 643goals in 665 competitive gamesfor his Santos club while Messineeded 749 matches to break therecord, though he did it in 17 sea-sons as compared to the 19 sea-sons the Brazilian great needed.

In addition, Messi, whomade his first appearance forBarcelona aged 17 in 2004, haswon 10 La Liga titles with theclub plus four ChampionsLeague Trophies. Thus, a mag-ical Lionel Messi broke thegoal-scoring record for a singleclub and entered the recordbooks by bettering the veteranBrazilian’s feat.

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Page 7: & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”

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On December 13, the 11-party Oppositionalliance, the Pakistan DemocraticMovement (PDM), held a large rally in

Lahore. It marked the completion of the firstphase of the alliance’s agitation against the ImranKhan Government which saw the PDM holdanti-Government rallies in six cities in Pakistan.

The next phase of the movement was kickedoff by the PDM holding a rally in Mardan onDecember 23 despite a ban imposed by the dis-trict administration amid the COVID-19 pan-demic. The protesters, led by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam(F) and PDM chief Maulana FazlurRehman, senior Pakistan Peoples Party leaderYousuf Raza Gilani and Pakistani Muslim League(Nawaz) vice-president Maryam Nawaz, gatheredat the Gaju Baba Khan flyover to address a hugecrowd. The rally in Mardan would be followedby another public meeting in Larkana onDecember 27 on the eve of the death anniver-sary of Benazir Bhutto.

The PDM has demanded that Prime MinisterKhan’s Government quit by January 31 or faceintensified movements by Opposition parties.This includes a “long march” towards Islamabadin late January or early February and possibleresignations of Opposition members in theAssemblies. The PDM has decided to focus onsmaller cities for public meetings and protests willbe held in Bahawalpur on December 30,Malakand on January 3, Bannu on January 6,Khuzdar on January 9, Loralai on January 13,Tharparkar on January 16, Faisalabad on January18, Sargodha on January 23, and Sialkot onJanuary 27.

Political pundits and analysts are already out-weighing the chances of both the PDM and theImran Khan Government. Heated debates aretaking place about whether the Oppositionalliance would be able to dislodge the Pakistan-Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Government that is alreadybesieged by a faltering economy, rising inflation,a lethal pandemic and the Government’s ownblunders, which are many.

In his characteristic style Khan stepped uphis efforts to silence the voice of the PDM, alongwith the voices of thousands who criticised hisGovernment. Despite such attempts, the PDMhas held its ground and organised five major ral-lies in Multan, Peshawar, Gujranwala, Karachi,and Quetta since October 16. Now it is uppingthe ante even further.

Most commentators are of the view that, evenif the PDM is unable to outright force Khan’sdeparture, it can create a serious constitutionaland political crisis, which will not only bog downa troubled regime but can also create issues forthe military establishment that is overtly back-ing the present set-up in Islamabad.

The most worrisome aspect of this is that themilitary establishment has begun to be seen asa visible party in the conflict between the PDMand the Khan Government. The kind of politi-cal crisis the PDM’s agitation is expected to cre-ate can be detrimental to a highly polarised poli-ty. There have been five major anti-Governmentmovements since Pakistan’s inception in August1947. The first such movement was able to forcethe military dictator, Ayub Khan to resign in1969. Though the second one managed to stallZulfikar Ali Bhutto’s bid to rule as the PrimeMinister of Pakistan for the second time in 1977,but it also saw the imposition of the country’sthird and perhaps harshest, military regime.

The third major movement wasmade up of a cluster of movementsbetween 1981 and 1986, against theGeneral Zia-ul-Haq dictatorship. Eventhough intense and at times extreme-ly violent, this movement failed to dis-lodge the dictator. He died in a planecrash in 1988.

The fourth movement rose upagainst the General Musharraf dictator-ship in 2007 and succeeded in oustinghim through a forced resignation.

Ironically, the last major anti-Government movement was led byImran Khan’s PTI against the thirdNawaz Sharif regime. It was unsuccess-ful but it did manage to create enoughspace for the PTI to squeeze throughduring the controversial 2018 elections.

The PDM has succeeded in hold-ing impressive rallies. But it is still nota full-fledged movement. It is expect-ing to evolve into becoming one dur-ing its next phase. However, it is still tooearly to predict whether the PDM willsucceed in removing the Imran KhanGovernment or, especially, if it can actu-ally achieve its second and more ambi-tious, aim to neutralise the self-appoint-ed political role of the military-estab-lishment.

Succeed or not, once the PDM doesevolve into becoming a movement,there is every likelihood that things willbegin to alter, for good or otherwise. Ina 1973 essay for the Annual Review ofAnthropology, the American sociologistand anthropologist Ralph W Nicholaswrites that political and social move-ments may have varying degrees of suc-cess (or, for that matter, failure) but theyleave behind societies that are neverquite the same.

Nicholas describes movements as“liminal” or “the interim between theend of the old and the beginning of the

new.” According to Nicholas, move-ments may evolve into becoming suc-cessful uprisings, or they may becrushed but, no matter what the out-come, they always have what it takes tobecome contagious. He adds that theyalso have the seeds to become “succes-sive.” By this Nicholas means that evenmovements that are crushed or collapsebecome paradigms for future protests.

As long as there are conditions fora movement to emerge, they will,despite being repeatedly vanquished.According to the “political opportuni-ty theory”, if a political system seemsvulnerable, there will emerge chal-lengers who would move to use this vul-nerability as an opportunity to push forpolitical or social change. TheAmerican political scientist and histo-rian, Charles Tilly is often credited asbeing one of the foremost pioneers ofthe aforementioned theory.

The theory is not as much aboutwhy movements emerge, as such, butrather what course they take once theyget going. Reasons behind the why, gen-erally speaking, can be economic or todo with repression. Interestingly, thetheory states that democratic pluralismtoo, can become a factor.

For example, all these factors canbe seen as playing a role in the largepockets of protests emerging in Indiarecently. An economic downturn, cou-pled with political repression of liber-al voices and the country’s long-stand-ing democratic systems, are allowingthese protests to take shape, so muchso that some members of theGovernment are now lamenting that“too much democracy” is a problem.This could be understood as meaningthat democracy is hindering theirdesire to fully implement theGovernment’s contentious projects.

However, the theory is equallyapplicable in regions where there areeconomic issues and repression but toolittle or no democracy. The theory statesthat agitation against these or otherissues brews in pockets that continueto expand even when these pockets arerepressed. Their consistency eventual-ly begins to sap the energy of the Stateand this creates opportunities for pock-ets of resistance to mobilise from with-in and outside their circle until theymerge to become a people’s protest.

The conditions for a movement inPakistan are ripe. Economic melt-down, State repression, bad gover-nance and political polarisation are nowpitching one chunk of the polity againstthe other. The PDM’s agenda is thusclear — to exhaust its opponents, soample opportunities emerge to furtherexpand and grow the movement. Butaccording to Nicholas, politics alonewill not be sufficient. Disillusionmentagainst an existing governing ideologyneeds to be replaced by a new promiseto invigorate a disillusioned polity.

The anti-Ayub Khan movementoffered various forms of economicequality to inspire the people to comeout and protest. An “Islamic” system ofGovernment was promised by themovement to bring people out againstthe ZA Bhutto regime. The idea of “tab-deeli (change)” was floated by ImranKhan during his party’s street protests.And now Sharif is promising a demo-cratic and political system that will notbe rigged, engineered or tampered bynon-civilian elite.

Promising democracy alone wouldnot have been able to draw the kind ofattention that the PDM has managedto attract. This promise needed a newangle which Sharif has ingeniously pro-vided. (Courtesy: Dawn)

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Urban India generated about59.56 million metric tonnesof municipal solid waste

(MSW) in 2019. While the averagecollection rate was reported to bearound 92 per cent, only about 37per cent of the collected waste wastreated. As per the biannual reviewreport (BUR) submitted by theGovernment to the United NationsFramework Convention on ClimateChange (UNFCCC) in 2014 thisuntreated MSW, when disposed,contributed to nearly 15065 x106 KgCO2Eq of the country’s greenhouse

gas (GHG) emissions, leading to cli-mate change on a global scale.

All policymakers and adminis-trators dealing in waste manage-ment thoroughly understand thewealth potential associated withthis MSW, which can be unlockedwith appropriate energy and eco-nomic linkages, yet the codes tounlock such potentials are not uni-fied. Once mixed, many potential-ly recyclable items lose their valuefor recycling. Hence, segregation atsource is the key to manage MSWin an efficient manner. Solid WasteManagement Rules require peopleto hand over segregated garbage toUrban Local Bodies (ULBs).However, proper implementationand monitoring of this golden rulewhich may turn many downstreamprocesses in waste managementmore efficient and effective, is lack-ing. To discover what would moti-vate residents to segregate garbageand help cities reduce their wasteburden through appropriate man-agement of organic and inorganic

garbage in a decentralised manner,a pilot project was implementedfrom January to mid-Novemberthis year in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh(UP). The project was initiatedunder the Development andManagement of NationallyAppropriate Mitigation Actions(NAMA) project in India.

Under the pilot intervention,initially, a group of three colonies-Saraswati Nagar, Krantipalli andRambagh & Kolhua Vinayaka werepiloted from January (Group 1) andthis was later extended to includeVijaynagaram and Vijayanagaramextension (Group 2) in September.

Starting with information edu-cation and capacity building (IEC)drives in these colonies, pilot inter-ventions were started where house-holds were encouraged to hand oversegregated waste to the VaranasiMunicipal Corporation (VMC) col-lection staff on a daily basis. FromAugust onwards, lucky draw com-petitions for households giving seg-regated waste to collectors were ini-

tiated to increase the motivation andengagement of residents.

Initially, it was found that noneof the households were separatinggarbage. But, due to the source seg-regation awareness programme andengagement of the VMC staff,around 67.42 per cent of the resi-dents began to segregate garbage bythe end of the pilot in November.The number of households givingsegregated garbage went up steeply

from 40 per cent in August, after theannouncement of the lucky draws.

In Group 1 colonies, due to theavailability of large garbage collec-tion bins or existing garbage accu-mulation points, residents eitherself-dispose the waste or get it dis-posed through their domestic helpin an unsegregated manner. Forthem the domestic help provided abetter level of garbage collection ser-vices, compared to door-to-doorcollection by the VMC as the staffwas only available to collect wastefrom the main gate of the apartmentblocks. As a result, many householdsresiding on higher floors were notinterested in availing of the door-to-door collection services provided bythe waste collection staff and usedto dispose mixed garbage.

In Group 2 colonies, whichhad mostly bungalows and rowhouses, due to the non-availabilityof any garbage disposal point andappropriate service by the VMCstaff, almost all residents were hand-ing over waste to VMC collectors.

As an outcome of the pilot, theservices provided by the VMC staffwere streamlined further. Hence, itcan be concluded, that with anappropriate infrastructure, servicesupport from ULBs and regularmonitoring, it is possible to increasethe number of households provid-ing segregated garbage.

While certain people were moti-vated to do source segregation ofMSW based on awareness pro-gramme inputs, others responded toincentives. Though such measurescan be effective in motivating house-holds to separate garbage in the ini-tial phase, once source segregationbecomes a practice, such incentivesmight not be required.

The experience from thesepilots also revealed that awareness,along with appropriate infrastruc-ture (for collection and treatingwaste), can indeed motivate peopleto segregate waste at source.However, for mass involvement, ahabit of segregation will have to beinfused through appropriate IECs,

monitoring, a motivational mecha-nism, monitoring (possibly throughInformation Technology-based sys-tems) and penalties.

With regards to IECs, the con-cept and benefits of source segrega-tion should be strongly interlinkedwith health and economic benefitsto the city, demonstrating directimpact and benefits to the public.The local, State and Central govern-ments will also have to work cohe-sively to look at possible mecha-nisms to bring all stakeholders onboard to turn waste into a resourceand demonstrate a strong politicalwill to bring about change.

Interlinking workers from theinformal sector, building theircapacities and adjusting key perfor-mance indicators of existing staffmembers will also help enhance thelevel of services in cities.

(Manuja is a Fellow at TERI andGaurav is a Technical Advisor at GIZIndia. This article has inputs fromNAMA, India. Views expressed arepersonal.)

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Page 8: & % ’ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2020/12/26  · On November 26, the JD(U) had issued show-cause notices to Siongju, Kharma and Taku for “anti-party”

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Kathmandu: Nepal’s SupremeCourt on Friday issued a show-cause notice to Prime MinisterKP Sharma Oli-led govern-ment, asking it to submit awritten clarification over itsdecision to abruptly dissolveParliament.

The notice was issued aftera preliminary hearing at thefive-member Constitutionalbench headed by Chief JusticeCholendra Shumsher Rana onthe writ petitions filed againstthe government’s decision todissolve the 275-memberHouse of Representatives,according to court officials.

The bench sought the writ-ten clarification from the Officeof the Prime Minister andCouncil of Minister and Officeof the President as they aremade defendants in all thewrit petitions, they said.

The court has also askedthe government to submit anoriginal copy of the recom-mendations made by the gov-ernment to dissolve the Houseand the decision made byPresident Bidya Devi Bhandarito authenticate the govern-ment’s recommendations with-in 10 days.

Earlier, the apex courtdemanded an amicus curiaefrom Nepal Bar Associationand Supreme Court BarAssociation in connection with

the hearing.An amicus curiae is a legal

professional or expert whoassists the court by offeringinformation, expertise, orinsight that has a bearing on thecase.

Meanwhile, the PushpaKamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’-ledfaction of the ruling NepalCommunist Party (NCP)staged a protest rally inKathmandu against the deci-sion.

‘Prachanda’ and MadhavKumar Nepal, senior leadersJhala Nath Khanal, spokesper-son Narayan Kaji Shresthaalong with the party’s CentralCommittee members andmembers of the dissolvedHouse gathered near the PrimeMinister’s Office for the protest.

“We are here,” “Reinstatethe House of Representatives,”and “dissolution of the Houseis unconstitutional,” were the

slogans raised by the protesters.Around 300 Central

Committee members of theNCP and nearly 100 membersof the House were present inthe protest rally.

After staging a sit-in, thecrowd marched towards theElection Commission (EC)office.

The EC will decide whichfaction of the NCP is legitimateto carry the party name andelection symbol.

“We have the support ofthe majority of the Centralcommittee members.Therefore, we are going to thecommission to prove and showthat we are the legitimate fac-tion,” protesting leader SunilManahdhar, who is also aCentral Committee member ofthe NCP, told PTI.

He said that the party willlaunch the agitation against theOli government in collabora-tion with other Oppositionparties, including the NepaliCongress and Janata SamajwadiParty for the reinstatement ofthe House of Representatives.

Separately, Prime MinisterOli has called a Cabinet meeting on Friday evening,amid an intensified strugglebetween the two warring fac-tions of the ruling NepalCommunist Party to wrestcontrol of the party. PTI

Rome: Curfews, quarantinesand even border closings com-plicated Christmas celebra-tions Friday for countless peo-ple around the globe, butingenuity, determination andimagination helped keep theday special for many.

In Beijing, official church-es abruptly cancelled Mass onChristmas Day in a last-minute move, after China’scapital was put on high alertfollowing the confirmation oftwo confirmed Covid-19 caseslast week, and two new asymp-tomatic cases were reported onFriday.

One of several notices wasposted at Beijing’s St. Josephs’

Church, which was built orig-inally by Jesuit missionaries inthe 17th century.

Border crossing closureskept thousands of migrantsfrom economically devastatedVenezuela who live inColombia from going homefor Christmas.

Colombia’s governmentshut down the crossings in abid to slow down the spread ofCovid-19 infections. Thosetrying to return home for theholidays this year had to turnto smugglers.

Yakelin Tamaure, a nursewho left Venezuela two yearsago, won’t be going home andsaid there will be no gifts or

new clothes for her two chil-dren, aged 10 and 15. Tamauresaid that she hasn’t been ableto find work as a nurse becauseshe stil l doesn’t have aColombia residence permit.Her parents are sti l l inVenezuela.

“My mother broke herfoot and can’t walk properly soI’m worried about her,” saidTamaure. “I try to send hermoney, but its not the same asbeing there.”

Others successfullycrossed borders elsewhere onlyto find themselves in quaran-tine. For their first Christmassince getting married inMarch, Nattasuda

Anusonadisai and PatrickKaplin are cooped up in quar-antine in a Bangkok hotelroom. It wasn’t great fun butthey did make sure to get aChristmas tree.

They returned earlier thismonth from a 4 1/2-monthtrip to Canada and the UnitedStates, making a 32-hour jour-ney from Montreal via Doha.One condition of enteringThailand is a 14-day quaran-tine upon arrival. Thai citizenscan stay at state facilities forfree but foreigners like Kaplin,from Canada, must pay to stayat an approved hotel, theoption the couple took sothey could stay together. AP

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Karachi: British-born al-Qaedaleader Ahmed Omar SaeedSheikh and his three aides,whose release in the abductionand murder case of US jour-nalist Daniel Pearl was orderedby a court here, would walk outof the prison on Saturday, policeand lawyer said on Friday.

In a surprise move, a two-judge bench of the Sindh HighCourt on Thursday directedsecurity agencies not to keepSheikh and other accused under“any sort of detention” anddeclared all notifications of theSindh government related totheir detention “null and void”.

The court observed that thefour men’s detention was “ille-gal”.

According to the JailSuperintendent, the four mencould not be released fromKarachi’s Central Jail onThursday as the prison author-ities received orders from theSindh High Court for theirrelease very late.

The legal counsel for thefour men said that they would

now be released on Saturday asFriday is a public holiday in thecountry.

Meanwhile, the UnitedStates on Friday expressed “deepconcern” over Sindh HighCourt’s order to release Sheikhand his aides and said it willcontinue to monitor any devel-opments in the case.

“We are deeply concernedby the reports of the December24 ruling of Sindh High Courtto release multiple terroristsresponsible for the murder ofDaniel Pearl. We have beenassured that the accused havenot been released at this time,”the US State Department said ina tweet.

It said that the US willcontinue to monitor any devel-opments in the case and willcontinue to support the Pearlfamily “through this extremelydifficult process” while hon-ouring the legacy of Pearl as a“courageous journalist”.

The US has been mountingpressure on Pakistan, demand-ing justice for Pearl.

Ruth and Judea Pearl - theparents of Pearl - condemnedthe decision made by the SindhHigh court and expressed fullconfidence in the SupremeCourt of Pakistan to providejustice for their son and rein-force the paramount of thefreedom of the press, theExpress Tribune reported.

“We refuse to believe thatthe Pakistani government andthe Pakistani people will let sucha travesty of justice tarnish theimage and legacy of Pakistan,”they said in a statement.

In April, a two-judge SindhHigh Court bench commutedthe death sentence of 46-year-old Sheikh to seven yearsimprisonment. The court alsoacquitted his three aides whowere serving life terms in thecase — almost two decadesafter they were found guilty andjailed.

However, the Sindh gov-ernment refused to release themand kept them in detentionunder the Maintenance ofPublic Order. PTI

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The US on Friday expressed“deep concern” over a

Pakistani court’s order torelease British-born al-Qaedaleader Ahmed Omar SaeedSheikh and his three aides,who were convicted and sen-tenced in the abduction andmurder case of American jour-nalist Daniel Pearl.

In a surprise move, a two-judge bench of the Sindh HighCourt on Thursday directedsecurity agencies not to keepSheikh and other accusedunder “any sort of detention”and declared all notificationsof the Sindh government relat-ed to their detention “null andvoid”.

“We are deeply concernedby the reports of the December24 ruling of Sindh High Courtto release multiple terroristsresponsible for the murder ofDaniel Pearl. We have beenassured that the accused havenot been released at this time,”the US State Department saidin a tweet.

It said that the US willcontinue to monitor anydevelopments in the case andwill continue to support thePearl family “through thisextremely difficult process”while honouring the legacy ofPearl as a “courageous jour-nalist”.

The US has been mount-ing pressure on Pakistan,demanding justice for Pearl.

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Arecord number of peoplehave tested positive for

Covid-19 in England as mil-lions spend Christmas Dayaway from friends and familydue to a continuing spike incoronavirus infections onFriday.

Figures from the NationalHealth Service’s (NHS) Testand Trace network show thatbetween December 10 and 16,173,875 people received a pos-itive result — the highest week-ly total of positive cases and a58 per cent increase on the pre-vious week.

Separately, according tothe the Office for NationalStatistics (ONS), positive cases

of coronavirus are increasingsharply in parts of the UK, witharound one in 60 people nowtesting positive in Wales andone in 85 in England.

Experts believe the newmutations of the deadly virusare driving cases up across thecountry as they are more con-tagious. It has resulted in mostparts of the UK to be placed insome form of stringent lock-down measures, with Londonand surrounding areas in Tier4 level of highest alert with anear-complete shutdown.

UK Prime Minister BorisJohnson has warned thattougher restrictions could beneeded to keep a mutant coro-navirus strain “running out ofcontrol” in the New Year.

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Johannesburg: South Africa’shealth minister has rejected hisBritish counterpart’s claim thata new coronavirus variant inthe country is more contagiousor dangerous than a similar onein spreading the UK.

“At present, there is noevidence that the 501.V2 (vari-ant) is more transmissible thanthe United Kingdom variant -- as suggested by the BritishHealth Secretary,” ZweliniMkhize said in a statementpublished late Thursday.

“There is also no evidencethat (it) causes more severe dis-ease or increased mortalitythan the UK variant or anyvariant that has beensequenced around the world”.

Announcing restrictionson travel from South AfricaWednesday, Britain’s MattHancock had said that thevariant there was “highly con-cerning, because it is yet moretransmissible, and it appears to

have mutated further” thanthe similar strain in Britain.

The British minister’swords “have created a percep-tion that the variant in SA hasbeen a major factor in the sec-ond wave in UK,” Mkhize said.

He pointed to evidencethat the British strain, whichbears a similar mutation to theSouth African one, appeared asearly as September in south-eastern county Kent -- “approx-imately a month before theSouth African variant appearsto have developed”.

Citing “the widely sharedview of the scientific commu-nity,” Mkhize also argued that“the risks of travel bans mayoutweigh the benefits”.

“Banning travel betweenUK and SA is an unfortunatedecision,” he added.

South Africa is the countryhit hardest by coronavirus onthe continent, with close to onemillion infections so far and

26,000 people dead.Around 14,000 positive

cases were detected on each ofthe past two days, comparedwith between 8,000 and10,000 earlier this week. AFP

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Atlanta: The United Stateswill require airline passengersfrom Britain to get a negativeCovid-19 test before theirflight.

The US is the latest coun-try to announce new travelrestrictions because of a newvariant of the coronavirus thatis spreading in Britain.

The Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention saysairline passengers from theUnited Kingdom will have toget negative Covid-19 testswithin three days of their tripand provide the results to theairline.

The agency says the orderwill be signed Friday and gointo effect on Monday.

The CDC says because oftravel restrictions in placesince March, air travel to theUS from the UK has been cutby 90 per cent.

Last weekend, Britain’sprime minister said a newvariant of the coronavirusseemed to spread more easilythan earlier ones and wasmoving rapidly throughEngland. Dozens of countrieshave since barred flights fromthe UK. AP

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Calais: Hundreds of lorriesarrived at the French port ofCalais on Friday as authoritiesscrambled to ease a bottleneckin Britain, where thousands ofdrivers have been stuck fordays because of tougher coro-navirus rules.

“Yesterday, we had 1,000lorries cross over from Dover.As of 10:00 am (0900 GMT) wealready had 550 lorries fromBritain,” Benoit Rochet, head ofthe Calais port operator, toldAFP.

“At this rate, the situationshould be completely takencare of by tomorrow,” he said.

The port decided to remain

open despite the Christmasholiday so that ferries as well asthe trains bringing trucksthrough the Channel Tunnelcould operate.

Getlink, the Eurotunneloperator, said 478 trucks hadarrived in Calais by 11:00 am,after 1,942 were brought overThursday.

Most of the drivers headedstraight for the highway, accord-ing to an AFP journalist at thescene.

Truckers were stranded insoutheast England after Francehalted all travel from Britain onSunday for 48 hours in a bid toprevent a new strain of coron-

avirus, which experts fearedcould spread even faster, fromreaching its shores.

The move created a massivelogjam with up to 10,000 trucksparked along highways as wellas the runways of the Manstonairfield, according to EU trans-port commissioner AdinaValean, who criticised theFrench government’s decision.

Drivers fumed at having tospend Christmas in their cabsaway from their families withonly minimal toilet facilities,because they were unable to getCovid-19 tests that must benegative to be allowed intoFrance. AFP

*��������$�"������ ������ ����&��� ����������� Kabul: At least two Afghan

army officers including a bat-talion commander were killedon Friday when their vehiclewas hit by a roadside bomb inthe northern Balkh province,the military said.

Hanif Rezaie, a spokesmanfor the army in the country’snorth, said Capt. MohammadQasim Paikar and another offi-cer were killed and two othersoldiers were wounded in theexplosion, which took placebetween Balkh and Char Bolakdistricts.

The attack was the latestamid relentless violence inAfghanistan even as Talibanand Afghan Government nego-tiators hold talks in Qatar, try-

ing to hammer out a peace dealthat could put an end todecades of war.

No one immediatelyclaimed responsibility forFriday’s bombing. Rezaieblamed the Taliban, who areactive in both districts and reg-ularly launch attacks againstAfghan security forces.

Elsewhere, the Talibanannounced the release of 30imprisoned Afghan securitypersonnel on Thursday in thesouthern Kandahar province’sPanjwai district.

This is the first batch ofprisoners released by theTaliban since the start of directpeace talks with the AfghanGovernment in September. AP

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All many people want forChristmas this year is a

simple hug, Britain’s QueenElizabeth said in her annualfestive message, saying it wouldbe hard for those who lostloved ones to Covid-19 pan-demic or were separated bycurbs on social mixing.

In her traditional pre-recorded Christmas Dayaddress to the nation, the 94-year-old monarch repeatedlyspoke of hope for the futurewhilst acknowledging millionsof Britons would be unable tohave their usual family cele-brations this year.

“Of course for many, thistime of year will be tinged withsadness; some mourning theloss of those dear to them, andothers missing friends andfamily members distanced forsafety when all they really wantfor Christmas is a simple hugor a squeeze of the hand,”Elizabeth said.

“If you are among them,you are not alone. And let meassure you of my thoughts andprayers.”

The queen herself has hadto eschew her traditionalChristmas celebrations, and isspending the festive season qui-etly at Windsor Castle with herhusband Prince Philip, 99.

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The country’s foreignexchange reserves surged

by USD 2.563 billion to toucha record high of USD 581.131billion in the week toDecember 18, RBI datashowed.

In the previous week, thereserves had declined by USD778 million to USD 578.568 bil-lion.

In the reporting week, theincrease in reserves was due toa rise in foreign currency assets(FCAs), a major component ofthe overall reserves.

FCAs rose by USD 1.382billion to USD 537.727 billion,the Reserve Bank of India’s(RBI) weekly data showed.

Expressed in dollar terms,the foreign currency assetsinclude the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-USunits like the euro, pound andyen held in the foreignexchange reserves.

The gold reservesincreased by USD 1.008 billionin the reporting week to USD37.020 billion in the weekended December 18, the datashowed.

The special drawing rights(SDRs) with the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) rose byUSD 12 million to USD 1.515billion.

The country’s reserve posi-tion with the IMF also rose byUSD 160 million to USD 4.870billion.

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With European Union andthe UK clinching a post-

Brexit trade pact, India shouldnow aggressively pursue freetrade agreements (FTAs) sep-arately with both the regions,according to experts.

Although it is premature toassess the gains for India fromthe agreement betweenEuropean Union (EU) and theUK, Indian goods would notget much benefit from thispact, they said. However, Indiacan explore opportunities inservice sectors like IT, archi-tecture, research and develop-ment and engineering in boththe markets as the EU-UKpact does not cover services,they added. “There is not muchgain for Indian goods, but wecan gain in services sector inboth the UK and EU markets.We will gain more in the UKmarket as we are English speak-ing country,” Federation ofIndian Export Organisations(FIEO) Director General AjaySahai said.

He said there are no spe-cific customs duty benefits fordomestic goods from thisagreement.

“Now we should push the

FTA negotiations with both theEU and the UK. Indian com-petitors like Vietnam havegreater duty advantage in sec-tors like apparel and marinegoods,” Sahai said.

Sharing similar views,Biswajit Dhar, a professor ofeconomics at Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, said India had a lotof contentious issues whilenegotiating FTA with the EU.However, after Brexit, the UKcould have different stand onthose issues and now “Indiashould pursue FTA talks againwith both the regions”.

He added that there is apossibility of doing a favourablefree trade pact with the UK.

FIEO President SharadKumar Saraf said that India

should now move “aggressive-ly” on starting negotiations forFTA with both the EU and UK.

“We have requested thegovernment to sign an MoU(Memorandum ofUnderstanding) regarding adeadline to conclude FTA talkswith Britain during the visit ofUK Prime Minister BorisJohnson next month in India,”Saraf said. Rakesh Mohan Joshi,professor at Indian Institute ofForeign Trade (IIFT), said thatafter the trade deal with the EUand the UK, India will get abetter opportunity to cater tothe demands of both the mar-kets. “But India needs to planaccordingly,” he added.

Apparel Export PromotionCouncil (AEPC) Chairman ASakthivel said India-UK FTAwould help in removing thecustoms duty disadvantagesfaced by domestic players inBritain. Britain clinched a his-toric deal with the EuropeanUnion on Thursday as bothsides managed to thrash out apost-Brexit free trade agree-ment just days before theDecember 31 deadline. Thebilateral trade between Indiaand the UK dipped to USD15.5 billion in 2019-20 fromUSD 16.9 billion in 2018-19.

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Traders’ body CAIT onFriday urged Finance

Minister Nirmala Sitharamanto defer the implementation ofRule 86B in GST, wherebybusinesses with over Rs 50lakh monthly turnover willhave to pay at least 1 per centof their GST liability in cash,terming it a “counter produc-tive” measure that will increasethe traders’ compliance burden.

The Central Board ofIndirect Taxes and Customs hasintroduced Rule 86B in Goodsand Services Tax (GST) whichrestricts use of input tax cred-it for discharging GST liabili-

ty to 99 per cent.However, this restriction

will not apply where the man-aging director or any partnerhas paid more than Rs 1 lakhas income tax or the registeredperson has received a refundamount of over Rs 1 lakh inthe preceding financial year onaccount of unutilised input taxcredit.

The Confederation of AllIndia Traders (CAIT) in a let-ter to Sitharaman has drawnher attention towards Section86B, saying that “it is a counter-productive step which will loadthe traders further with burdenof compliance and also muchfinancial obligation”.

The traders’ body statedthat it has “urged Sitharamanto defer implementation ofRule 86 B immediately whichis scheduled to be implement-ed from January 1, 2021 andalso extend the last date for fil-ing GST and Income Tax Auditreturn from December 31 toMarch 31, 2021”.

CAIT Secretary GeneralPraveen Khandelwal said thatin light of the current scenariowhen domestic trade is dis-turbed due to repercussions ofCOVID-19 and traders arefighting for survival of business,it is “strongly urged that theimplementation of Rule 86 Bmay be deferred”.

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The Indian auto industry isexpected to see stronger

growth in 2021-22, after recov-ering from the devastatingeffects of the COVID-19 pan-demic, with electric vehiclesales, especially two-wheleers,also likely to see positive move-ments, according to NomuraResearch Institute Consulting& Solutions India.

However, in the personalvehicles segment, the levelsreached in 2018-19 would bereached only in 2022-23, itadded.

In 2018-19, passengervehicle sales rose 2.7 per centto 33,77,436 units from32,88,581 units in 2017-18,according to the Society ofIndian AutomobileManufacturers (SIAM).

“After the devastatingeffects of the COVID-19 pan-demic, it is expected that theauto industry will see strongergrowth in 2021-22,” AshimSharma, partner and grouphead (business performance

improvement consulting-auto,engineering and logistics) atNRI Consulting & SolutionsIndia, said.

As far as personal vehiclesare concerned, the 2018-19levels would be reached only in2022-23 whereas for two-wheelers, it will be achievedmaybe a year after that, headded.

“This is also on account ofsome price hikes expected withintroduction of new regula-tions,” Sharma said.

In 2018-19, total two-wheeler sales rose 4.86 percent to 2,11,81,390 units ascompared with 2,02,00,117units in 2017-18.

As far as electric vehicles(EVs) are concerned, Sharmasaid 2021-22 would also seepositive movements, especial-ly in the two-wheeler EV seg-ment, with new players likeOla Electric getting into thefray.

“In addition, on the EVcomponents side, we couldfinally see cell level manufac-turing starting off in India

with technological collabora-tions focusing on cutting-edgetechnologies such as LTO (lithi-um titanium oxide) batteries,”he said.

The LTO batteries can befast charged at high tempera-tures as well as last for 10,000-plus cycles and other enhancedchemistries like NMC811, hesaid. NMC811 is a cathodecomposition with 80 per centnickel, 10 per cent manganeseand 10 per cent cobalt.

In case of other EV com-ponents such as motors andcontrollers, Sharma said, “Wecould see a wider participationby local component playersand also the entry of some newplayers especially to cater to therise in domestic EV two-wheeler and three-wheelerdemand.”

In addition, exportopportunities for EV compo-nents as well as batteries couldcertainly emerge for domesticplayers as the world strugglesto find alternative sources forsupply chain resilience, headded.

New Delhi:As many as 3.97crore taxpayers have alreadyfiled their income tax returnsfor assessment year (AY) 2020-21 (fiscal year 2019-20) tillDecember 24, the Income TaxDepartment said on Friday.

“Over 3.97 crore IncomeTax Returns have already beenfiled till 24th of December,2020. Have you filed yours asyet? If not, please do it TODAY!File your Return of Income Tax

& ....Relax!,” the departmenttweeted. This includes 2.27crore taxpayers filing ITR-1,85.20 lakh filing ITR-4, 46.78lakh ITR-3 and 28.74 lakh fil-ing ITR-2.The deadline to fileI-T returns by individual tax-payers for the 2019-20 fiscal(AY 2020-21) ends onDecember 31, 2020, while thesame for taxpayers whoseaccounts require to be auditedis January 31, 2021. PTI

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The race to acquire the bank-rupt Dewan Housing

Finance Corporation Ltd(DHFL) has intensified withboth the final bidders Oaktreeand Piramal having enhancedtheir offers.

US-based Oaktree Capitalhas raised its offer for theinsolvent NBFC by Rs 1,700crore, intensifying the biddingwar with Piramal Enterprises.

In its letter to theCommittee of Creditors onThursday, Oaktree said that itsbid is now at Rs 36,410 croreand that of Piramal is Rs 34,909crore.

Oaktree’s offer came a dayafter Piramal raised its bid by

Rs 1,000 crore and alsoimproved its offer for a con-trolling stake in DHFL’sPramerica Life InsuranceCompany to Rs 1,000 crorefrom Rs 300 crore.

“We understand that thebidder that submitted the sec-ond highest bid has sought toincrease its bid by means of (a)allocating additional interestincome to the financial credi-tors and (b) increasing its bidfor the insurance stake. Asrequired, we are allocating anadditional amount of Rs 1,700crores as additional interestincome to the financial credi-tors,” Oaktree said in its latestletter to the CoC.

The lenders had asked boththe final bidders in the

December 18 meeting tosweeten their bids.

The CoC also askedOaktree and Piramal to speci-fy the proposed shareholdingstructure of DHFL’s insurancebusiness, where foreign own-ership is currently capped at 49per cent.

Earlier, Kapil Wadhawan,the erstwhile promoter of theDewan Housing FinanceCorporation Ltd (DHFL),wrote to the administrator ofDHFL, reiterating his new pro-posal to repay 100 per cent ofthe principal debt to the cred-itors.

He also assured to run theNBFC following the best cor-porate governance standards asdecided by the lenders.

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Private equity investment inthe Indian real estate sector

is likely to recover and hit the$6 billion-mark next year, reg-istering a year-on-year growthof 30 per cent, according to areport by Savills India.

The report noted that thegrowth may come on the backof an improving economic sen-timent supported by policyreforms and growth in keyemerging sectors.

It said that PE investmentin real estate in 2020 is expect-ed to contract at $4.6 billiondue to decline in economicactivity, adding that investorsare likely to adapt themselvesin the altered world order andsteadily return to the marketwith evolved strategies.

“The next wave of invest-ments will be driven by growthin warehousing, affordablehousing and data centres apartfrom the commercial officesegment which will continue tosee steady improvement,” saidthe report titled Beyond The‘20: Private Equity in IndianReal Estate’.

A likely repair of thebruised economy, improvingtrade relations, policy supportand progress on the vaccinationfront, are the key factors that

would drive the sentimenthenceforth, it added.

A Savills India statementsaid that its estimates for pri-vate equity investment in thesector are based on factorslike overall economic and infra-structure growth, growth insectors such as manufacturing,logistics and e-commerce.Geopolitical scenario and pol-icy enabling environment arealso considered to be keydeterminants. As per thereport, the warehousing andlogistics segment has beenamong the most resilient assetclasses in the ongoing pan-demic. Warehouse leasing isexpected to increase by 60 percent in 2021 as compared to2020, keeping investors rivetedand on the lookout for invest-ment opportunities.SavillsResearch also expects privateequity investors to assess anopportunity of around $330million in the industrial andwarehousing segment in 2021.

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The Economic OffencesWing of Delhi Police has

filed an FIR against StrategicCredit Capital Private Ltd(SCCPL) along with otherassociated entities and indi-viduals Mohnish Mukkar overan alleged fraud of over Rs 793crore based on a complaint byReligare Finvest Ltd (RFL).

RFL had filed a criminalcomplaint in August 2019 foroffences of cheating, misap-propriation, forgery, criminalbreach of trust, and criminalconspiracy against SCCPL andits associate entities and indi-viduals.

According to the FIR, theaccused persons includingSCCPL and Mohnish Mukkaralong with cheating anddefrauding RFL, also forgedand fabricated documents toinduce RFL to execute anassignment agreement.

As per the FIR, aroundApril-May 2015, MohnishMukkar and Veena Singh,Director of PHFPL, hadapproached RFL expressinginterest in acquiring certainexisting RFL loans. MohnishMukkar at the relevant time,had represented to RFL that hewas a promoter and director ofHalcyon Asia Support ServicesPrivate Limited, which com-pany was engaged in the busi-ness of debt restructuring.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on

Friday honoured Information,Public Relations andLanguages Department with astate-level award for develop-ing first of its kind EnterpriseResources Planning (ERP)Software for issuing releaseorders and payment of bills tovarious media houses. Thedepartment has received theaward at a state-level functionheld on the occasion of GoodGovernance Day here.

While honouringAdditional Chief Secretary,Information, Public Relationsand Languages Department,Dheera Khandelwal, DirectorGeneral, Information, PublicRelations and LanguagesDepartment, P.C. Meena,Additional Director (Admin),Information, Public Relationsand Languages Department,Varsha Khangwal and PardeepKaushal, Senior TechnicalDirector, NIC, Khattar laudedthe officers for bringing themuch-needed e-reform in theold age system of issuingrelease orders and payment ofbills by replacing it with thefirst of its kind e-solution.

Envisioning the ChiefMinister’s idea of bringingtransparency and efficiency inthe entire process of releasingState GovernmentAdvertisements and Payments

to media houses, theInformation, Public Relationsand Languages Departmenthas developed first of its kindOnline Release Orders andBilling System (OROBS).

Appreciating the efforts ofthe Department especially theproject team, Khattar said it isan example worth emulatingfor other states as well.

He said that release ordersand advertisement bills arebeing processed through thisonline system, adding thatthe payment of bills will bemade within a period of 30days of submission to themedia houses concerned afterthe submission of bills.

Sharing more details,Director General,Information, Public Relationsand Languages Department,P.C. Meena said that theOnline Release Orders andBilling System (OROBS) is anERP system for Information

Public Relations andLanguages Department,Haryana aimed at bringingtransparency and quickness inthe entire process of issuanceof release orders and bill pay-ments.

The system has beendeveloped in-house by theteams of NIC Haryana andDIPRL Haryana, he shared.

The online system willeliminate the manual processof submission of advertise-ment requests/indents byclient organizations and man-ual bill submission by theprint media.

The departmental offi-cials and print media will alsobe able to track the status ofrelease orders and bills onlinethrough a comprehensivedashboard. Besides this, thesystem has been integratedwith SMS gateway to sendevent-based alerts to variousstakeholders.

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Jaipur: Rajasthan is amongthose States in the countrywhere right to informationwas initiated years ago andright to information waspro-vided to its people through theact, said the Chief Miniser. Thistime also, the Jan SoochnaPortal has been developed tofurther strengthen the right toinformation. Through the por-talinformation relating to gov-ernment departments, agen-cies, board, corporations, isbeing made available to the

common man easily.With the view to increase

transparency, the list of thebeneficiariesof differentschemes of state governmenthas been made availableon JanSoochna Portal, he said.

Waiving off crop loan fromcooperative banks was underthejurisdiction of the state gov-ernment, so it fulfilled itspromise in 48hrs only, butsince the commercial banks,nationalized banks andregion-al rural banks comes under the

administrative con-trol of theMinistryof Finance, GoI, sothe StateGovernment hassent to theUnionGovernment, theone time settle-ment proposal forwaivingoff theloans of the farm-ers. The Hon'bleCM has written let-terstwice to the Prime Ministerand one letter to Union

FinanceMinister, whose reply isstill awaited.

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How has George Clooney been handlingisolation? Aside from spending timewith his wife, Amal Clooney, and their

three-year-old twins, and editing his new filmThe Midnight Sky, he’s relied on, like many oth-ers, a text chain with pals and Zoom. He justgot off one with Matt Damon and JohnKrasinski.

“In some ways, we keep more in touchnow than we did before,” says Clooney on theother end of the phone from London.

The Midnight Sky, which Clooney direct-ed and stars in, is an apocalyptic sci-fi dramawith some striking solitude. A thickly beard-ed Clooney plays an astronomer with termi-nal cancer living at the Barbeau Observatoryin the Arctic Circle. It’s 2049. When cataclysm

covers the globe, he — and a young,unspeaking girl (Caoilinn Springall) —

are potentially all that remains,along with the returning crew of

a space expedition to aJupiter moon.

The film based onLily Brooks-Dalton’snovel Good Morning,Midnight, is Clooney’sseventh film as direc-

tor and his biggestscaled produc-tion yet. In aninterview, the5 9 - y e a r - o l d

actor-filmmakerdiscussed his new

film, the arc of his careerand his latest novelty device ofchoice. Excerpt:

�You finished shooting TheMidnight Sky in February, right

before the pandemic began. How hasyour year been since?I’m kind of doing what everyone’s

doing. Washing dishes, doing laundry andmopping floors. Mostly I just wish I was ableto see my mom and dad, and that kind ofthing. They’re social creatures and it’s not asmuch fun when they can’t be out with theirold friends.

�It’s been years since you were the lead ina film. Why?

Things change for you as an actor. Theroles that are brought to you become very dif-ferent. I was doing an interview the other dayand they asked if this was the way my careeris going to be going, playing more characteractor roles. I was like, well, I didn’t want to.

But I’m almost 60 years old. That’s how itworks. I focus on actors who I admired great-ly and how they handled their career. (Paul)Newman, who was a very good friend of mine,by the time he was in his mid-50s, he’s doingThe Verdict, which is a character-actor piece.Even though he was a giant film star, one ofgreats of all time, he was developing as he grewolder the character-actor pieces he foundinteresting, that demanded less of him.

�Nobody’s Fool is a great late-period Newmanfilm.

Yes. I just watched that the other day. I had-n’t seen it in forever. I forgot about him steal-ing the snow plow. That’s a really underratedfilm. But there’s only a couple ways you can goif you’re a person in my shoes. You can try todeny your aging. You can dye your hair and geta face lift and try to still be the guy who getsthe girl in the films. Or you can accept thatyou’re getting older and be that guy. The rea-son I got into directing and writing and pro-ducing 35 years ago was because I knew at somepoint I don’t want to be worried about whatsome casting director thinks of me.

�You’ve always seemed aware of being partof a Hollywood continuum. Your Los Angeleshouse belonged to Clark Gable.

When I moved to Hollywood, I went andlived with my Aunt Rosemary (a top singer inthe 50s) for about six months until she kickedme out. Then I was living on the floor of anapartment for a couple years. But the reality wasshe was part of that continuum. She was mar-ried to Jose Ferrer. She’d have people over to the

house. Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr. and DeanMartin. And I got to spend time around thatkind of world. Before that I drove Rosemarywhen she was doing a show called 4 Girls 4. Itwas Margaret Whiting and Kaye Ballard andKay Starr. So I had an understanding of the con-tinuum in the entertainment industry. We allstand on the shoulders of the people who didit beautifully before us. I got to be friends withGregory Peck and would go over to his housefor dinners with (Peck’s wife) Veronique. Someof the most memorable nights I ever had wassitting around listening to them talk about“Roman Holiday.” It’s an amazing thing, whenstars were giants.

�You said you were “ashamed” as a nativeKentuckian when charges weren’t pursued inthe death of Breonna Taylor. Do you feel a dis-connect with your home state?

The divide is so different now. I do blamethe way we get our information. It really start-ed when Fox News came in and said: We’regoing to give you another version of reality.When I grew up in Kentucky as a Democrat,that wasn’t a particularly popular thing. But youweren’t demonised by it. My parents voted forMcGovern and everyone around them voted forNixon, but we were all friends. It’s just what itwas. Because you’re all starting from the samefact base. NBC, ABC and CBS are all giving youbasically the same news and then you take thatinto your political persuasion, digest it and comeup with your own opinion. Now the internethas obviously made it a thousand times worse.

�One thing I think people missed in that

Tom Cruise on-set audio was the fear in hisvoice for the future of the industry. Are youworried for what Hollywood might look likeafter the pandemic?

Well, no. My concern is only specificallyin the theatres themselves because they’regoing to have to tread water for at least sixmonths before people are in anyway comfort-able enough to go in big groups. So you’ve gotto keep them afloat. They are a part of oureconomy. They’re what people do on a Fridaynight. People have to get out of the house. It’slike music venues for concerts. We subsidiseoil companies, we can subsidise theaters.Having said that, once we get through it, thissounds so much like everything we heardwhen television and VHS and DVDs came in.I have no fear at all that the theatre world isgoing to be around.

�What drew you towards the film?What I always saw in this was the idea of

what regret can do to you. I always thoughtwhat he’s really dying of is not cancer butregret. It’s killing him. I know people who areolder — older than me, even — who live withreal regret. It’s deep in them. When you getolder, it’s a cancer. Everyone has regrets. Youhope you don’t have the ones that last a life-time.

�Has working alongside Amal, while she’sin the next room waging humanitarian bat-tles, changed your approach to filmmakingat all?

For the last 15-20 years, I’ve spent abouthalf of my day working on things other thanthe film business because I have interests inother issues around the world. But there aresome funny moments. I have an office and shehas an office and they’re kind of up againsteach other. The other day, I was doing theHoward Stern Show. We’re talking about, like,a prank pooping in a cat box. And on the otherside of the wall, my wife is having a conver-sation trying to keep Maria Ressa from goingto prison in the Philippines. She can hear meand I can hear her. We go to dinner afterwardand say: What an insane household we live in.

�You’ve brought renewed attention to theFlowbee by saying you use it to cut your ownhair. Is there any other novelty device you’dlike to plug?

Here’s what I think we should do. Let mego buy some stock in the Pocket Fisherman.I’ll go buy some stock in that, and then youand I will split the proceeds.

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After a long time of beingcooped up at home, a lot us

are craving that feeling of exhil-aration that comes from partic-ipating in extreme adventuresports. The adrenaline rush, thesheer excitement, the butterfliesin the stomach before taking theplunge are all hallmarks of whatgreat adventures look like!Discovery Channel is all set tobring back the thrill of extremesports with a new season of itsadventure reality series FeelinAlive Season 2, this time, helmedby hosts Amol Parashar andCyrus Sahukar.

Shot in one of the mostbeautiful locations, Manali, theshow will take the viewers on anadventure to conquer theextreme and experience thatadrenaline rush that they’vebeen craving for some timenow. In the four-part series the

hosts will go around Manali dis-covering the unknown and over-coming their fears. Trainingunder experts, the duo will setout to perform some the extremesports including slacklining atJagat Sukh, canyoning at JoginiFalls, snowboarding at SolangValley and ATV off-roading.

Speaking about his experi-ence, Amol said, “It was anamazing experience. I havenever felt such thrill in my life.

Manali is such a beautiful place,but this time, it was more thanjust the beauty of this place thatI got to savour. That rush and thethrill of trying something newfor the first time, was priceless.To be honest, it was a bit nervewracking for me before I triedthese extreme sports. But onceI got into it, I was loving everymoment of it. I not only enjoyedshooting the show but it alsohelped me overcome my fears.”

Sharing his experience, Cyrussaid, “I thoroughly enjoyed myselfwhile shooting for the show. It wasfun and beautiful experiencingManali. I feel, trying new thingsreally helps you overcome yourfears. I would watch people do allthese things and being cool, butnever had the courage to do thison my own, until now. I glad tohave had the opportunity. This isgoing to be one experience I willremember for the rest of my life.”

Megha Tata, ManagingDirector – South Asia, DiscoveryCommunications India said,“Shows like this enhance ouroffering of real life entertainment.We are delighted to bring backthe adventure show and collab-orate with some of the leadingbrands.”

(The show premiers onDecember 28 on DiscoveryChannel, Discovery Channel HD,TLC and TLC HD.)

After screening carefully curatedofferings through the year, ZeeTheatre ends 2020 with Gidh, a grip-

ping teleplay from across the border.Written and directed by Kanwal Khoosat,the play revolves around two women pro-tagonists bound together by their sharedmiseries of life in a patriarchal society.

Gidh which means ‘Vulture’, delves intoSaleema’s mundane life which is disrupt-ed after an unexpected visit from Salmawho claims to be her sister-in-law. As theplot unfolds, both the women share the tri-als of their respective lives which they hadto undergo because of the same man –Junaid, Salma’s brother and Saleema’s hus-band. Together, they decide to put an endto their suffering. What in fact transpireschanges one of their lives forever, but notin the way she had expected.

Kanwal says, “It has been an excitingexperience collaborating with Zee Theatre.After Jhaanjhar Di Paanwaan Chhankaarand Mushk, the journey to this one hasbeen more than enriching, engrossing andliberating as I embarked on developing theteleplay vocabulary for it. The developmentof the play was experimental, energetic andchallenging, but overall, I am proud of theteam that stood by me and believed in meto create something authentic andthrilling.”

Actor Sana says, “The characters in thisplay are the antithesis of the stereotypicalwomen we see on TV as good or bad. Inthe beginning, I thought I was playing awoman very different from myself butended up realising that we shared so many

similarities. Working in a room full ofstrong women helped me let my guarddown, altering my perception of woman-hood as I know it. We incorporated all ourunique experiences, ideas, stories andmanifested it into a piece that didn’tadhere to any specific format.

The teleplay also stars Raasti Farooqand Adeel Afzal and will be aired onTataSky theatre on December 27 at 2 pmand 8pm. This is the first time that the playwill be screened on TV and in India.

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Nestled in a lush paradisal terrainin Ahmedabad is collector and artdirector Anil Relia’s palatial man-

sion that houses his enviable art collec-tion. Among the many Indian contem-porary art masters are his historic pich-vais, which find their way into a book —Nathdwara Paintings from the Anil ReliaCollection (Kalyan Krishna and KayTalwar Nyogi Books). This magnum opuscelebrates Relia’s collection along withvignettes of art history. Intricate andintense are a series of pichvais that echothe beauty and tensile power of ShriNathji in all his fervour and ferment.

,���������������������Here are the images that present the

magnificence of creating masterworkswith opaque watercolour and gold oncloth. Krishna as Shri Nathji, repeated inseveral places, dancing with the gopis inthe forest, with peacocks in dense foliageand cows with protective hand prints andtemples in the foreground — a surfeit ofimages talk to us about the incantationof the bhajans, shlokas, mantras and thebedrock of the devotional inner spirit.

Leafing through the book, oneunderstands that devotees of Shrinathjiestablished an elaborate worship patternbased on raga (music), bhoga (food), vas-tra (clothing) and shringara (adorn-ment). This transformed the deity intoa world-affirming god. This is the essenceof pushti-marga, which sees the pleasuresof the world as a manifestation of god’sgrace and enjoys them along with thegod.

+��+����) ���������A������Worshipped in the Gangetic area

until the 17th century, the deity wasmoved on a bullock cart to Rajasthan toprotect it from idol breaking activities ofthe Mughal Emperor, Aurangzeb. Onerecalls reading that the cart carrying thedeity got trapped in soft mud in the placenow known as Nathdwara, gateway to thelord. The city of Nathdwara is the homeof Shrinathji and the most importanttemple town devoted to him. The layoutof the city is typical for a Rajasthanipalace, with numerous gates painted withconfronted elephants, winding alleysand gleaming white walls. At the centre

of the town is the icon devoted toShrinathji, with worshippers and cowsgathered in the main square before himin celebration of the Govardhana puja.

+����(�������������Pichvais were commissioned for

either a public temple or private shrineon the occasion of a holiday or festival.Gopashtami is a festival that is dedicat-ed to lord Krishna and cows. It is thecoming-of-age celebration whenKrishna’s father, Nanda Maharaja, gavehim the responsibility for taking care of

the cows of Vrindavan. On this day,herders bring hundreds of cows and theircalves to Nathadwara, where the cows aredecorated for the occasion. They arepainted with designs similar to those inthe present pichvai, their horns are gild-ed and some wear ankle bracelets andpeacock-feather crowns. This book hasa series of fascinating images.

One can never tire of the solo ShriNathji images. In one of the pictures, heis wearing a brocade chakdar vagha,beaded necklaces, lotus garland, a largepeacock-feather headdress, holding the

lakut and lotuses in his right hand,backed by a patterned backgrounds,with the golden pandan box, betel leavesand covered pitcher of holy Jamuna waterat his feet, a row of garlanded cows bear-ing auspicious handprints at bottom, allwithin floral borders the worship of ShriNathji is prime and primordial.

The blue-skinned god, surroundedby silver silhouettes of gopas and gopis,is mesmeric and magical, offerings in theforeground and the priests dressed in yel-low and offering oil lamps add to the fer-vour.

�� �������������India’s most gorgeous pichvais lie in

museums abroad specially with theSackler and Freer Galleries, Museum ofBoston and Met museum New York. Thisbook tells us the power of the Indian col-lector and his place in the firmament ofIndian art history, especially in the

domain of textiles. The beauty of thebook is in its inane iconic distinction.Relia affirms the place of both collectorand devotee. In an India that forgot toprotect and preserve its temples, thisbook is a testimony to our mythic vital-ity and virtuosity of artistic dimensions.

When you look at these originals, yourealise the impact of the temple hangingdesigns lord Krishna standing under atree, playing a flute, with a cow nuzzlingat his foot. The presence of the gopis, thepensive power of the trees and showersof flowers become the spiritual fermentof eternal nature. The images of diminu-tive cows and cowherders appearingeither in the main focus or in the hori-zontal band create a significance for theterm Gopala. Of course, sublime isKrishna milking the cow and thekalpavruksha behind in the backgroundis a tale for many ages. From foliage pat-terns to lotus ponds, the book is a feast

for the senses. Most figures are delineat-ed in gold against a dark blue ground orpresented in the sunlit sunshine of crim-son and orange tinted gorgeousness.

Of deepened resonance and celestialrhythm is the ras lila on Sharad Purnima.Split into chapters of scholarship andintensity in research the in-depth narra-tive by Kalyan Krishna and Kay Talwarbring us into the maw of a rare spirit.Whether it is the circle of opalescent lightbeams or the fully waxed autumn moonseen in a dense grove the reader is drawninto a state of rapturous enchantment,and we understand the craving of thegopis wanting to be with their lordKrishna. In more ways than one, thisbook presents a divine lila ensuing as wedrink of the manifestations of lordKrishna.We are left with multiple imagesof the ras lila or divine dance that cul-minates when Krishna as Shri Nathji pre-sents his darshana.

As the largest industry in the world,tourism is everything and every-

thing is tourism. India is expected tobecome the youngest country by 2022,with an average age of 29. Instagram is rul-ing the social media networks worldwideand with 59 million active monthly users,we are the third-largest market forInstagram. Millennials have set theirown rules and pushed the brands andmarket strategists to serve what they wanteven before the COVID-19 era.

The Indian Hospitality brands arenow gearing up to ensure contactless,seamless and exceptional hospitality ser-vices to the guests in the new social dis-tancing world. The new informed worldconsumer is setting new trends which aregoing to rule out 2021, says Roop PratapChoudhary, Managing Director of NoorMahal.

Smart rooms with smart controlsBe it Artificial Intelligence, Machine

Learning or Internet of Things, futuristictechnologies have taken complete controlof hotel rooms to ensure contactlessexperiences. From room key to personalentertainment during your staycation,everything is now accessible from smartdevices. Once sounded as a scifi movie

scene, now you can set the temperature,mood and ambience of your hotel roomvia voice command. Imagine your roomdetecting light automatically or adjustingthe brightness level, controlling temper-ature and contributing to energy savingwhile ensuring your luxurious comfortand stay.

You can enjoy contactless room ser-

vice using voice recognition technologyor book your favourite spa session witha single click on your smartphone.Opulence, comfort and exceptional roomexperiences are going digital in 2021. Thesmart rooms are going to be powerpacked with keyless entry, soundproofwindows, smooth streaming entertain-ment, wireless device charging, real time

video chats with hotel staff and a lot morefor new age guests.

Sustainability is going to be muchbigger and greener

The positive side of worldwide lock-down is that the nature has got the timeto reboot and blossom. This has made usrealise the true value of sustainable andeco-friendly practices to save the life sav-ing planet. Maintaining the beauty ofenvironment through recycling andproper management of five living ele-ments i.e. water, waste, energy, food andstructure, hotel brands in the newinformed world are now committed todeliver sustainable hospitality experi-ences. Hotels are using bare minimumartificial powers whether it is in the formof air, light and water. Organic, vegetar-ian and vegan choices are now leading theF&B menus. Hotels are going to bet highon solar energy so as to contribute theirbit in energy conservation for future gen-erations. Plastic straws, cutlery, water bot-tles, toiletry bottles etc have been replacednow with compostable or reusable alter-natives.

Mobile check-inThis year has set new trends in

motion which are going to rule in 2021as well. Contactless check-in hasbecome the new norm of hospitalityand guests are willing to skip frontdesk for check-in and other roomrelated queries. These contactlesstechnologies are not only offering easeand safety to consumers but alsohelping hoteliers’ weather operationaldisruptions. Chatbots are ready toresolve any guest query. On the oth-erhand, virtual tours and mobilecheck-in are ready to delight travel

enthusiasts in 2021.

Robots room serviceMany hotel brands in India have

already adopted robotics to transform theroom cleaning and room service opera-tions. The rise of service robots has ush-ered a new era of guest hospitality.Guests are excited to take services fromthese robots who are here to assureutmost safety, hygiene and comfort. Thenext year — 2021 will have a newbrigade of robot butlers delivering yoursnacks, toiletries or other amenities toguest rooms. They can navigate floors byusing the Wi-Fi to call lifts or be placedat front door where guests can ask ques-tions and enjoy chats with them. They arenow your front desk managers providingbasic information such as the spa andgym timings, best places to hangout, pop-ular shopping hubs and personalisedinformation for a guest’s needs.

Short distance tours and staycationsPeople are now preferring staycations

over long holidays and short distancetours over long journeys. A recent surveyconducted by Booking.com has revealedthat people have been taking smaller jour-neys and discovering (or rediscovering)wonderful experiences closer home withease in travel restrictions. Be it bagpackers, corporate groups, families orfriends, people are preferring to drivedown to their nearby getaways for shortand relaxed staycations. In a bid toencourage more footfall on domestictourism destinations, the Tourism min-istry has also started Dekho Apna Deshcampaign asking Indians to take pledgeto visit at least 15 different tourism loca-tions in India by the year 2022.

D )��

Actor Pankaj Tripathi says he is unable tounderstand why women prefer to keep quiet

instead of opening up whenever they experiencesome sort of trauma, especially in personal life.

“It’s unknown to me why women keep quietwhen they go through trauma in personal life.They are tight-lipped when asked to share theirproblems. I don’t really know how to decodethis, but somehow this problem still exists in oursociety. Even if we stay in liberal urban cities,there still are few sections of society wherewomen are not vocal about their problems,” theactor said.

Tripathi’s observation resonates in his newrelease, the web series Criminal Justice: BehindClosed Doors. In the show, he plays lawyerMadhav Mishra, who fights the case of AnuChandra (played by Kirti Kulhari), a womanwho is arrested for killing her husband VikramChandra, a hotshot lawyer played by JisshuSengupta. As the story unfolds, the emerges theseemingly open and shut case has layers, andthat Anu might have been a victim in her mar-ital life.

“In the series Madhav Mishra struggles tounderstand why Anuradha Chandra killed herhusband and what was her real motive behinddoing so!” Tripathi said.

Directed by Rohan Sippy and ArjunMukerjee, and written by Apurva Asrani, theseries also features Deepti Naval, Shilpa Shukla,Mita Vashisht, Pankaj Saraswat, and AyazKhan, and streams on Disney+ Hotstar VIP.

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The All India ChessFederation (AICF) elections,

scheduled to be held online onJanuary 4, again seem to beheaded towards rough weatherwhen Bharat Singh Chauhanfaction have filed an objectionover the eligibility of formerAICF President PR VenkatramaRaja and candidate for generalsecretary’s position, RavindraDongre.

The court-appointedReturning Officer Justice(retired) K Kannan has releasedthe list of nominated candidatesfor 15 posts, which includesnames of PR Venkatrama Raja(Tamil Nadu) and RavidraDongre (Maharashtra).

The Chauhan camp con-tended that the nominations ofthese two in the electoral rolland later in the list of candidatesis in violation of country’sSports Code and should berejected.

Quoting an RTI reply bythe Ministry of Sports,Government of India, the

appeal said that elected repre-sentatives of the state associa-tions should be eligible to rep-resent their respective stateassociation in the NationalSports Federation (NSF) meet-ings. And, those representingelected representatives of thestate associations can only beeligible to contest elections.

“…Only such persons whoare the elected members of theexecutive body of the State/UTAssociations can only be autho-rized by the President of suchAssociation to represent in themeetings of the NSFs includingcasting of vote in the election ofthe NSFs,” the Sports Ministrysaid in its reply to a RTI query.

The BS Chauhan groupclaim that the names of Rajaand Dongre should not be inthe voters’ list because they arenot elected representative oftheir respective state associa-tions. Only those whose namesappear in the voters’ list are eli-gible to contest AICF elections.

Justice Kannan will behearing these objections onDecember 26.

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Afew bruised egos will eyeredemption when Indiasquare off against

Australia in the second Test herefrom Saturday, ready to bounceback in skipper Ajinkya Rahane’shour of reckoning after hittingthe ‘nadir of 36’.

Seldom has an Indian out-fit been at such difficult cross-roads in recent years as it is inthe aftermath of the humiliatingdefeat in Adelaide and ViratKohli’s departure for the birth ofhis child.

But the good thing is thatstar-in-waiting, Shubman Gill, isready to honour his team’s leapof faith in him when he makeshis Test debut at the imposingMelbourne Cricket Ground.

Likewise, young workhorseMohammed Siraj will step intemporarily to fill the void cre-ated by crafty MohammedShami’s injury and it will beabout how Rahane, touted as abowler’s captain, handles him.

It’s not about the defeat butthe manner of capitulationwhich can come back to haunta side that’s not short on quali-ty. The next few days will be atest of real character and it’s onlyfair that a strategic shift was onthe cards.

A couple of forced and anequal number of tactical changeswas always on cards for the vis-itors as they take on Tim Paine’sconfident men, spendingChristmas without their families.

Gill’s languid approach andthat extra second while facingfast bowlers, coupled with a waytighter technique than PrithviShaw, might just give the dress-ing room the confidencerequired in testing times.

He will have the company ofMayank Agarwal, who would bewanting to do an encore, if notbetter, of his performance at avenue where he made his Testdebut.

Similarly, Rishabh Pant,

whose intent always providesway more assurance than a pas-sive Wriddhiman Saha, isexpected to play his fearlessbrand of cricket which is theneed of the hour.

Pant was an instant hit dur-ing the last tour in 2018-19 butin the past year, had lost bothform and confidence to surren-der his place in the white-ballformats.

Amid the ruins, there lies aglimmer of hope as RavindraJadeja, who has recovered fullyfrom his concussion and ham-string injury, will add a newdimension with his all-roundabilities in a five-bowler set-up.

Hanuma Vihari will beshunted up the batting orderafter retaining his place and theexperienced KL Rahul have towait patiently for his turn.

The Australians aren’tknown to take any prisoners andan unchanged XI that is expect-ed to play at the MCG will nottake its foot off the pedal, skip-per Tim Paine insisted.

While Kohli’s absence cannever be really compensated for,Rahane would like to show hischaracter by promoting himselfup the batting order and takingmore responsibility.

Cheteshwar Pujara can playhis natural doggedly defensivegame but head coach RaviShastri might just tell him thatthere’s no harm if the scoreboardis ticking as it will only lessen thepressure on a batting line-up thatwill miss Kohli way too much.

In the absence of Shami,Jasprit Bumrah and UmeshYadav will have to be relentlessand also guide a young Siraj,

who is expected to feel a bit jit-tery.

Finally, the Indians wouldlike to take that big front-footstride forward while facing PatCumins and Josh Hazlewoodnot only physically but also fig-uratively.

TEAMSAustralia XI: Tim Paine (cap-tain & wk), Joe Burns, MatthewWade, Marnus Labuschagne,Steve Smith, Travis Head,Cameron Green, Pat Cummins,Josh Jazlewood, Mitchell Starc,Nathan Lyon.India XI: Ajinkya Rahane (cap-tain), Mayank Agarwal,Shubman Gill, CheteshwarPujara, Hanuma Vihari, RishabhPant (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, RAshwin, Umesh Yadav, JaspritBumrah, Mohammed Siraj.

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The Indian team manage-ment has made players

“insecure” and the decision torotate between WriddhimanSaha and Rishabh Pant hasbeen “unfair” on both the wick-etkeepers, feels former openerGautam Gambhir.

Saha was on Friday droppedfrom the Boxing Day Test due tohis poor batting form in theopening game and Gambhirasked whether the team’s think-tank will do the same with Pantif he fails in the next two games.

“It’s unfortunate andWriddhiman Saha has playedjust one Test match in thisseries and he hasn’t done welland gets dropped.

“Imagine what happens toPant if he doesn’t do well in thisTest or the third Test. What do

you do then? Would you go backto Wriddhiman Saha,” Gambhirquestioned on YouTube channelSports Today.

For Gambhir, it’s not lip-ser-vice but actions that makesplayers secure, something thatthis current regime has failed,according to him.

“That’s why this team looksso unsettled because no one issecured. Professional sportis all about security.Everyone has talentwhen they arerepresentingthe country,”Gambhir, knownfor his frank opinion,said.

“All they wantis security andthat assur-ance thatwe are

there to back you, not just bywords but by action.”

No one apart from Indiarotates wicketkeeper based onconditions, said Gambhir.

“Actually, it’s been unfair onRishabh Pant and WriddhimanSaha both over a long period oftime when they have picked andchosen players on conditions.You don’t do that with wicket-keepers. You do that with

bowlers,” he fumed.“In overseas condi-tions, you play two

spinners based onconditions, itsunderstandable, but

which other teams inthe world has chopped

and changed wicket-keepers based onconditions. Noone apart fromIndia.”

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South Africa will make a“meaningful” anti-racism

gesture when they take thefield against Sri Lanka onBoxing Day here, after failingto do so during the T20I seriesagainst England last month.

The first Test against SriLanka starts on Saturday andcoach Mark Boucher said theSouth African team wouldlook to express its support forinclusion after its inaction inthe last series, which attractedcriticism from many quarters.

“We’ve had a lot of discus-sions since we’ve come into thebubble about this, especiallyafter what the board statementwas and the guys have come upwith a meaningful gesture,”Boucher said during a virtualpress conference on Friday.

“That’s something theplayers will share with every-one before match day,” headded.

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Manta also credits her bandmatesfor her songwriting, “As a writer youhave a vision and it is your bandmates,who are expert instrumentalists andput your vision into action. I havebeen blessed in both my bands to havegreat bandmates. I really wouldn’tchange anything about my experi-ences.” She also adds that a lot of whatshe knows about music was picked upfrom her fellow musicians, “Some ofthem are very highly educated inmusic, some have studied abroad.There are so many things that I lackthat they make up for. There arenumerous things that I was unawareof that I have learnt thanks to the priv-ilege of working with them.Collaborating with others in your field

is very importantin any cre-

ative profession because you can’t gothe solo way.”

The inspiration for her songs oftencomes from her personal experiencesbut that is not a deliberate thing, shesays. “I think, I speak for most songwrit-ers when I say that when you are writ-ing about a subject, subconsciously, youare taking from your own experi-ences. But it isn’t always that. One majoraspect that people often forget aboutanybody indulging in creative writingis that it isn’t always experiences but alsoobservations and even your mood at thepoint of time that you are writing asong.” However, a major portion of writ-ing is inspired from observing lifearound them and that is where a bulkof their creativity comes from, she feels.For someone who wanted to be a cre-ative writer, Manta says that songwrit-ing is where she channels her inventiveenergy.

As for this year, Manta is fairlypragmatic, “There are many aspects

to 2020, but some days it is greatto wake up

and not go anywhere.” And while notperforming has taken its toll, she isvery pleased that she managed to fin-ish writing the material for theEnsemble’s third album. Althoughwhen she recently caught up with herbandmates for the first time since thelockdown began, ostensibly for the firstpractice of the new material, no musichappened. “We were meeting after solong that we just ate, chatted and par-tied.” She says that she has been for-tunate as she teaches music at the ShivNadar School in Gurugram’s DLFPhase 1 which has meant that unlikesome other musicians she has man-aged financially.

Talking about the revolutionaryIntelligent Manual Transmission thatremoves the clutch but keeps the gearlever, allowing drivers to get the bestof both worlds, she says, “Well, my leftfoot was feeling idle, but this really tookme just a minute to get used to, so itisn’t very difficult at all. The music isgreat in the car so your left foot cankeep tapping to it.” She hopes that theIMT concept catches on with more

cars adopting it. As for the seven-speaker BOSE audio system,

Manta’s first comments arethat it is ‘beautifully bal-anced’. “Some audio sys-tems are too heavy on the

base, and others, likebad headphones, canbe too high on treble.As musicians theexperience you wantlisteners to have is abalanced one andthat is what we try toachieve in the mix-ing studio and thetranslation on thissystem is perfect,”she exults.

While the Sonethas turned out to be

one of 2020’s best things, itsmusic system is actually a

hidden surprise for melody lovers.Here is to a very

musical 2021. ■

Manta Sidhu, songwriter and vocalist forthe Manta Sidhu Ensemble, alwayswanted to write and had chalked outa career in journalism ever since shewas in school. After graduating

from Delhi University’s Hindu College she joinedthe fabled A J K Mass CommunicationResearch Centre at Delhi’s Jamia MilliaIslamia. Yet, after a few years of writing sto-ries, editing and spending long hours in thenewsroom, she realised that her true love wasmusic and writing songs. While supportingherself with some freelance journalism gigson the side, Manta was drawn more andmore into music. “I was already quitedeeply into it since college and I alwayswanted to pursue music seriously, but I did-n’t realise to what extent.”

Despite being blessed with a great voice,Manta admits that, music was just one ofseveral extra-curricular activities she partici-pated in during school. It was while studying atHindu College that she became a part of the col-lege’s active music society and met new friends —all with an interest in music. “That is where I decid-ed that I would be pursue music professionally, butI had no idea about how deep I would get into it.Music was an unconventional career choice then.”

Yet, Sidhu states that while it might haveseemed tougher earlier because there were fewerlocations and gigs, nowadays with a whole bunchof younger and hungrier musicians taking upinstruments, competition has ensured that ‘mak-ing it’ is still a challenge. “By making it I mean, earn-ing enough to make ends meet and live comfortably, sothat you can spend time writing and composing your ownmusic and releasing albums. It is still a challenge today. Although thereare so many more places to play music but there are also so manymore musicians. And that is a good thing.”

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˙ ˝ RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No ......2019/04/22  · run Daily News reported. All state Universities have been closed until further notice. Cardinal Malcolm

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