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12
F armers protesting against the three farm laws at Delhi borders for around 40 days are fully prepared to take out a tractor rally on Thursday. However, the inclement weath- er, because of which they had deferred their tractor rally by a day, has continued unabated. Even as their talks with the Government have failed to resolve the issues, the farmer unions on Wednesday said scores of farmers are gathering at borders for the tractor rallies on January 7. The farmers said the Thursday tractor rally is a rehearsal for the Republic day show. Meanwhile, All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee (AIKSCC) has urged farmers to take out trac- tors parade in all districts of the country on January 26. Several rural women in Haryana’s Jind district are receiving training to drive trac- tors for taking part in a “trac- tor parade” in the national Capital on January 26 against the three new farm laws. Women hailing from three villages — Safa Kheri, Khatkar, Pallwan — in Jind are learning to steer the tractor wheel. Sikim Nain Sheokant, pres- ident of Jind-based Kisan Ekta Mahila Manch, said though some of the women can drive tractors in the fields for farm operations, they do not have experience of road driving. “We want women to drive tractors on highway on January 26 without any help,” she said. Sheokant said several vil- lagers were also helping them out by offering their tractors and providing them required training. Women are undergoing training at a toll plaza on Jind- Patiala National Highway for handling tractor-trolleys on road. The protesting farmers have declared toll plazas “free”. “We are getting the train- ing for driving a tractor for par- ticipating in the tractor parade,” said a woman who has been receiving the lesson. She feels the new farm laws are not in the interest of the farming community. “Several other protests also have begun in support of the farmers’ demand. A sit-in has begun with more than 500 tractors marching into Baraut area of Baghpat district. In Chennai, a massive dharna was held and tribal protests are planned in Odisha,” AIKSCC stated. The body blamed the Central Government for not being serious about talks and solving farmers’ problems. “In the 7th round talks held till now, we have stated we want repeal and nothing else. The Government too has ‘under- stood that the demand is for repeal’ and said it will have to undertake ‘further consultation’. Yet, several Ministers and BJP leaders are putting a spanner in the wheels,” they said. “Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar had announced he will be talking to other farmer unions who sup- port the laws. Already this exercise to manufacture support has been undertaken and has achieved very poor response. Taking cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP lead- ers from MP and Punjab have said demands are unjustified,” they said. “While Nitin Gadkari tar- geted the need to improve food production and feed India’s largely hungry popula- tion, he attacked MSP, saying it is higher than market rate, even when the Government says MSP will continue. Ministers should know that India is host to 33 per cent of the world’s hungry popula- tion,” said the AIKSCC. A fter lakhs of birds died in several States and thou- sands were culled, the Centre on Wednesday identified 12 epicentres of avian influenza, or the bird flu, outbreak in Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and issued advisories to other States to contain spread of the infection in chickens, ducks, crows and migratory birds. Over 69,000 birds, includ- ing ducks and chicken, were culled in Kerala while the Madhya Pradesh Government banned chicken supply from Kerala and other southern States for next 10 days. The bird flu outbreak has been reported barely a few months after India in September 30, 2020 declared the country free from the disease. The Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying on Wednesday alerted States to keep a vigil on any unusual mortality among birds and to report immediately to take necessary measures as there is a possibility of bird flu spread- ing to humans and domesti- cated animals. The Ministry has also set up a control room (011-23382354) in Krishi Bhawan to keep watch on the situation and to take stock on daily basis of preventive and control measures undertaken by State authorities. The avian influenza cases have been reported in many States like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Gujarat, while Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are on high alert. “After confirmation of pos- itive samples from ICAR-NIH- SAD, avian influenza (AI) has been reported from the fol- lowing States (at 12 epicentres): Rajasthan (crow) — Baran, Kota, Jhalawar; Madhya Pradesh (crow) — Mandsaur, Indore, Malwa; Himachal Pradesh (migratory birds) — Kangra; Kerala (poultry duck) — Kottayam, Allapuzha (4 epicentres),” said the Ministry. A t least four workers were killed and six others seri- ously injured following leakage of carbon monoxide gas at the Coal Chemicals Department of Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) on Wednesday morning. While six of the victims were taken to the RSP dispen- sary, four workers, identified as Ganesh Chandra Paila (55), Rabindra Sahu (59), Abhimanyu Sah (33) and Brahmananda Panda (51), were admitted to the ICU of the Ispat General Hospital (IGH) where they died while undergoing treatment. Hours after the incident, the RSP authorities suspended two senior officials, Deputy General Manager Gopabandhu Barik of EMD Department and DGM Nabendu Das of CCD Mechanical Department for their alleged negligence. Also, the authorities decided to pro- vide job to one family member of each deceased. While opening flange bolts of the gas line of the gas mix- ing tank at the site A of the plant, some entrapped gas gushed out affecting four work- ers of the contract firm, Star Construction, critically. Meanwhile, a high-level committee has been formed to enquire into the cause of the accident. The plant is func- tioning normally, informed official sources. Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh president Himanshu Sekhar Bal demand- ed adequate compensation to the families of the deceased and injured. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in a tweet said, “Deeply saddened to know about the tragic loss of lives in the gas leak incident at Rourkela Steel Plant. My thoughts and prayers are with bereaved families in the hour of grief and pray for the speedy recovery of those who are hospitalised.” P etrol price on Wednesday neared all-time high after state-owned fuel retailers hiked rates after a nearly month-long hiatus. Petrol price was raised by 26 paise per litre and diesel by 25 paise a litre, according to a price notification from oil marketing companies. After this increase, petrol in Delhi climbed to 83.97 per litre from 83.71 previously. Diesel rates rose to 74.12 per litre from 73.87. In Mumbai, diesel touched an all-time high of 80.78. This is the first price revi- sion in nearly a month and rates are now near an all-time high. Highest ever rate of 84 a litre for petrol in Delhi was touched on October 4, 2018. Diesel too had scaled to an all-time high of 75.45 a litre on October 4, 2018. On that day, the Government cut excise duty on petrol and diesel by 1.50 per litre in a bid to ease infla- tionary pressure and boost consumer confidence. A fter suggesting the Centre on December 17 to put on hold the three controversial farms laws and form a panel to go into the issues raised by protesting farmers, the Supreme Court on Monday noted that there has been no “improvement on ground” and posted the matter for hearing on January 11. A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said the inten- tion of the court is to encour- age and facilitate talks between farmers and the Government. To this, Attorney General KK Venugopal informed the Bench that “there are chances of the parties coming to some sort of an understanding”. “We understand the situ- ation and encourage consul- tation. We can adjourn the matters on Monday if you submit the same due to the ongoing consultation process,” the Bench said. The Bench was hearing a petition filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma challenging the validity of the three farm laws. The court also issued notice to the Government on a separate petition filed by advocate Sharma, challenging the Third Constitutional Amendment of 1954 which included Entry 33, concerning food and essential commodi- ties, in the Concurrent List. “This is one of Sharma’s startling petitions... He says you [Government] have been committing illegalities since 1954,” Bobde told Venugopal in a lighter vein. P rime accused in the Mahanga double murder case Panchanana Sethi on Wednesday admitted killing BJP leader Kulamani Baral and his associate Dibyasingh Baral on January 2 night. While being taken to court, stated that the duo was killed to take revenge of the past enmity. Sethi claimed Kulamani and his son had attacked him after undressing him some days ago. Though he lodged a police complaint against the BJP leader and his son, no action was taken against them. To take revenge of the humilia- tion, he with the help of some others hacked Kulamani and his associate to death. Sources said police might seek a remand of Sethi to elicit more information from him about the double murder. Till now, police have arrested five accused. Following the murders, police have registered a case against 13 persons, including Mahanga MLA and Law Minister Pratap Jena, on the basis of an FIR lodged by Kulamani’s son Ramakant Baral. A gun was seized from a youth at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here on Wednesday. The weapon was detected in luggage of youth during scanning by the airport security personnel. The accused was supposed to board an AirAsia flight to Chennai. The airport police detained youth and ques- tioned him as he was not able to produce any appropriate documents. He was identified as a resident of Krushaprasad in Puri district. S tate capital Bhubaneswar on Wednesday reg- istered nine new Covid-19 positive cases, taking the city’s total tally to 31,693, including 203 active cases. Out of new cases, seven were local con- tacts and two were quarantine cases. However, eight persons recovered on day, increasing the total recoveries to 31,227 in the city. In Cuttack, five new infections were detected, with which city’s total tally rose to 16,228. I n another case of cyber fraud, a man was allegedly duped of Rs 53,000 within sec- onds after clicking on a link sent to him on Google Pay app. The fraud victim of Bhubaneswar, Ram Chandra Prusty, lodged a complaint at the Cyber police station here in this regard on Wednesday.As per the complaint, Prusty had received a call on his mobile phone from a Google Pay Customer Care representative a few days back. He came to know about the caller’s identity from the Truecaller app installed in the mobile phone. As Prusty received the call, the person on the other side told him he has won reward points worth Rs 4,000. Besides, the caller said Prusty can encash the reward points by click- ing on a link sent on Google Pay app. When Prusty clicked the link, Rs 53,000 was debited from his three bank accounts connected to the Google Pay account. Subsequently, his phone got hanged. T he State on Wednesday reported no Covid-19 death for the first time after six months.“There are no Covid deaths in the State in the last 24 hours,” informed the Health and Family Welfare Department, adding that the toll stood at 1,887 as on Tuesday.The first death had been report- ed on April 7 last year when a 72-year-old man of Jharpada in Bhubaneswar suc- cumbed to the virus on April 6 while undergoing treatment at the AIIMS, Bhubaneswar. However, 231 more persons contracted coronavirus in 28 districts in the last 24 hours, taking the State’s total case- load to 3,30,921.Of the fresh cases, 133 were reported from quarantine centres and 98 were local contact cases. Contact tracing and follow-up action were underway, said the Information and Public Relations Department. Sundargarh district recorded highest 32 fresh cases fol- lowed by Bargarh (25) and Angul (21). The number of total active cases in the State stood at 2,203 and recovered cases at 3,26,778. T he commercial and reli- gious institutions have reopened in the State. Educational institutions are going to reopen soon. There is a need to remain vigilant for the next two months, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday. Reviewing the Covid-19 situation and the vaccination programme in the State, Patnaik said that in England and Europe, a second Covid-10 wave is raging and in some countries lockdown has been enforced again. So, there is a need to follow the Covid guidelines more carefully. He said that due to every- body’s cooperation, the pan- demic has been successfully combated in the State till now with most of the districts in the green zones. The Covid vaccine has cre- ated huge hope among the people. India has become an advanced nation in producing the vaccine. The State is com- pletely prepared for vaccina- tion, said Patnaik and stressed on the need for massive aware- ness to remove the wrong notion among people about the vaccine. T he Covid vaccination is not mandatory; rather get- ting vaccinated would be vol- untary in the State, informed Directorate of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Dr CBK Mohanty on Wednesday. The vaccine would be administered to health workers who want to take it. This is completely voluntary; and Government has already announced it, said he. He pointed out that as per Union Health Secretary, the Covid vaccine would reach Odisha in 10 days and vacci- nation programme would commence in one or two days soon after vaccine reach. “We all are prepared to execute vaccination programme as per the guidelines framed by the Centre. The country has approved two vaccines that will be administered in two doses. The second dose of vaccine will be administered 28 days after first dose,” Dr Mohanty informed media. Earlier, Health & Family Welfare Minister Naba Kishore Das had informed that vaccine would reach State by Jan30.

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Page 1: * #˘ + ˇˆ˙ ˝ ˛˘˚˜ ! ,-. ., $ /,0 1 8˛%ˆ #@ ˘& 8 $7 D$ ) $ 7 7 $) 47 ......2021/01/06  · India SA Bobde said the inten-tion of the court is to encour-age and facilitate

�������������� ��������

Farmers protesting againstthe three farm laws at Delhi

borders for around 40 days arefully prepared to take out atractor rally on Thursday.However, the inclement weath-er, because of which they haddeferred their tractor rally by aday, has continued unabated.

Even as their talks with theGovernment have failed toresolve the issues, the farmerunions on Wednesday saidscores of farmers are gatheringat borders for the tractor rallieson January 7. The farmers saidthe Thursday tractor rally is arehearsal for the Republic dayshow.

Meanwhile, All India KisanSangharsh CoordinationCommittee (AIKSCC) hasurged farmers to take out trac-tors parade in all districts of thecountry on January 26.

Several rural women inHaryana’s Jind district arereceiving training to drive trac-tors for taking part in a “trac-tor parade” in the nationalCapital on January 26 againstthe three new farm laws.

Women hailing from threevillages — Safa Kheri, Khatkar,Pallwan — in Jind are learningto steer the tractor wheel.

Sikim Nain Sheokant, pres-ident of Jind-based Kisan EktaMahila Manch, said thoughsome of the women can drivetractors in the fields for farmoperations, they do not haveexperience of road driving.

“We want women to drivetractors on highway on January26 without any help,” she said.

Sheokant said several vil-lagers were also helping themout by offering their tractorsand providing them requiredtraining.

Women are undergoingtraining at a toll plaza on Jind-Patiala National Highway forhandling tractor-trolleys onroad. The protesting farmershave declared toll plazas “free”.

“We are getting the train-ing for driving a tractor for par-

ticipating in the tractor parade,”said a woman who has beenreceiving the lesson.

She feels the new farmlaws are not in the interest ofthe farming community.

“Several other protests alsohave begun in support of thefarmers’ demand. A sit-in hasbegun with more than 500tractors marching into Barautarea of Baghpat district. InChennai, a massive dharnawas held and tribal protests areplanned in Odisha,” AIKSCCstated.

The body blamed theCentral Government for notbeing serious about talks andsolving farmers’ problems. “Inthe 7th round talks held tillnow, we have stated we wantrepeal and nothing else. TheGovernment too has ‘under-stood that the demand is forrepeal’ and said it will have toundertake ‘further consultation’.Yet, several Ministers and BJPleaders are putting a spanner inthe wheels,” they said.

“Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar hadannounced he will be talking toother farmer unions who sup-port the laws.

Already this exercise tomanufacture support has beenundertaken and has achievedvery poor response. Takingcue from Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, the BJP lead-ers from MP and Punjab havesaid demands are unjustified,”they said.

“While Nitin Gadkari tar-geted the need to improvefood production and feedIndia’s largely hungry popula-tion, he attacked MSP, saying itis higher than market rate,even when the Governmentsays MSP will continue.Ministers should know thatIndia is host to 33 per cent ofthe world’s hungry popula-tion,” said the AIKSCC.

������� ������ ��������

After lakhs of birds died inseveral States and thou-

sands were culled, the Centreon Wednesday identified 12epicentres of avian influenza,or the bird flu, outbreak inKerala, Rajasthan, MadhyaPradesh, Gujarat andHimachal Pradesh and issuedadvisories to other States tocontain spread of the infectionin chickens, ducks, crows andmigratory birds.

Over 69,000 birds, includ-ing ducks and chicken, wereculled in Kerala while theMadhya Pradesh Governmentbanned chicken supply fromKerala and other southernStates for next 10 days. Thebird flu outbreak has beenreported barely a few monthsafter India in September 30,2020 declared the country freefrom the disease. The Ministryof Fisheries, AnimalHusbandry & Dairying onWednesday alerted States tokeep a vigil on any unusualmortality among birds and toreport immediately to take

necessary measures as there isa possibility of bird flu spread-ing to humans and domesti-cated animals. The Ministryhas also set up a control room

(011-23382354) in KrishiBhawan to keep watch on thesituation and to take stock ondaily basis of preventive andcontrol measures undertakenby State authorities.

The avian influenza caseshave been reported in manyStates like Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Himachal Pradesh,Rajasthan, Haryana, andGujarat, while Jammu andKashmir, Punjab, Delhi,Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh andTamil Nadu are on high alert.

“After confirmation of pos-itive samples from ICAR-NIH-SAD, avian influenza (AI) hasbeen reported from the fol-lowing States (at 12 epicentres):Rajasthan (crow) — Baran,Kota, Jhalawar ; MadhyaPradesh (crow) — Mandsaur,Indore, Malwa; HimachalPradesh (migratory birds) —Kangra; Kerala (poultry duck)— Kottayam, Allapuzha (4epicentres),” said the Ministry.

���� �� ���

At least four workers werekilled and six others seri-

ously injured following leakageof carbon monoxide gas at theCoal Chemicals Department ofRourkela Steel Plant (RSP) onWednesday morning.

While six of the victimswere taken to the RSP dispen-sary, four workers, identified asGanesh Chandra Paila (55),Rabindra Sahu (59),Abhimanyu Sah (33) andBrahmananda Panda (51), wereadmitted to the ICU of the IspatGeneral Hospital (IGH) wherethey died while undergoingtreatment.

Hours after the incident,the RSP authorities suspendedtwo senior officials, DeputyGeneral ManagerGopabandhu Barik of EMDDepartment and DGMNabendu Das of CCD

Mechanical Department fortheir alleged negligence. Also,the authorities decided to pro-vide job to one family memberof each deceased.

While opening flange boltsof the gas line of the gas mix-ing tank at the site A of theplant, some entrapped gasgushed out affecting four work-ers of the contract firm, StarConstruction, critically.

Meanwhile, a high-levelcommittee has been formed toenquire into the cause of theaccident. The plant is func-tioning normally, informed

official sources.Rourkela Ispat Karkhana

Karmachari Sangh presidentHimanshu Sekhar Bal demand-ed adequate compensation tothe families of the deceased andinjured.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik in a tweet said, “Deeplysaddened to know about thetragic loss of lives in the gasleak incident at Rourkela SteelPlant. My thoughts and prayersare with bereaved families inthe hour of grief and pray forthe speedy recovery of thosewho are hospitalised.”

���� ��������

Petrol price on Wednesdayneared all-time high after

state-owned fuel retailershiked rates after a nearlymonth-long hiatus.

Petrol price was raised by26 paise per litre and diesel by25 paise a litre, according to aprice notification from oilmarketing companies.

After this increase, petrolin Delhi climbed to �83.97 perlitre from �83.71 previously.Diesel rates rose to �74.12 perlitre from �73.87. In Mumbai,diesel touched an all-timehigh of �80.78.

This is the first price revi-sion in nearly a month andrates are now near an all-timehigh. Highest ever rate of �84 a litre for petrol in Delhiwas touched on October 4,2018. Diesel too had scaled toan all-time high of �75.45 alitre on October 4, 2018.

On that day, theGovernment cut excise dutyon petrol and diesel by �1.50per litre in a bid to ease infla-tionary pressure and boostconsumer confidence.

���� ��������

After suggesting the Centreon December 17 to put on

hold the three controversialfarms laws and form a panelto go into the issues raised byprotesting farmers, theSupreme Court on Mondaynoted that there has been no“improvement on ground”and posted the matter forhearing on January 11.

A three-judge Benchheaded by Chief Justice ofIndia SA Bobde said the inten-tion of the court is to encour-

age and faci l itate talksbetween farmers and theGovernment. To this,Attorney General KKVenugopal informed theBench that “there are chancesof the parties coming to somesort of an understanding”.

“We understand the situ-ation and encourage consul-tation. We can adjourn thematters on Monday if yousubmit the same due to theongoing consultation process,”the Bench said. The Benchwas hearing a petition filed byadvocate Manohar Lal Sharma

challenging the validity of thethree farm laws.

The court also issuednotice to the Government ona separate petition filed byadvocate Sharma, challengingthe Third ConstitutionalAmendment of 1954 whichincluded Entry 33, concerningfood and essential commodi-ties, in the Concurrent List.

“This is one of Sharma’sstartling petitions... He saysyou [Government] have beencommitting illegalities since1954,” Bobde told Venugopalin a lighter vein.

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Prime accused in theMahanga double murder

case Panchanana Sethi onWednesday admitted killingBJP leader Kulamani Baral and

his associate Dibyasingh Baralon January 2 night. Whilebeing taken to court, stated thatthe duo was killed to takerevenge of the past enmity.Sethi claimed Kulamani and hisson had attacked him afterundressing him some days ago.

Though he lodged a policecomplaint against the BJPleader and his son, no actionwas taken against them. Totake revenge of the humilia-tion, he with the help of someothers hacked Kulamani and

his associate to death. Sourcessaid police might seek aremand of Sethi to elicit moreinformation from him aboutthe double murder. Till now,police have arrested fiveaccused.

Following the murders,police have registered a caseagainst 13 persons, includingMahanga MLA and LawMinister Pratap Jena, on thebasis of an FIR lodged byKulamani’s son RamakantBaral.

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Agun was seized from ayouth at the Biju

Patnaik InternationalAirport here onWednesday. The weaponwas detected in luggage ofyouth during scanning bythe airport security personnel. The accused wassupposed to board an AirAsia flight to Chennai.The airport police detained youth and ques-tioned him as he was not able to produce anyappropriate documents. He was identified as aresident of Krushaprasad in Puri district.

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State capital Bhubaneswar on Wednesday reg-istered nine new Covid-19 positive cases,

taking the city’s total tally to 31,693, including203 active cases.

Out of new cases, seven were local con-tacts and two were quarantine cases. However,eight persons recovered on day, increasing thetotal recoveries to 31,227 in the city. InCuttack, five new infections were detected, withwhich city’s total tally rose to 16,228.

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In another case ofcyber fraud, a man

was allegedly duped ofRs 53,000 within sec-onds after clicking on alink sent to him onGoogle Pay app. Thefraud victim ofBhubaneswar, RamChandra Prusty, lodgeda complaint at theCyber police stationhere in this regard on

Wednesday.As per thecomplaint, Prusty hadreceived a call on hismobile phone from aGoogle Pay CustomerCare representative afew days back. He cameto know about thecaller’s identity fromthe Truecaller appinstalled in the mobilephone. As Prustyreceived the call, theperson on the otherside told him he has

won reward pointsworth Rs 4,000.Besides, the caller saidPrusty can encash thereward points by click-ing on a link sent onGoogle Pay app.

When Prustyclicked the link, Rs53,000 was debitedfrom his three bankaccounts connected tothe Google Payaccount. Subsequently,his phone got hanged.

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The State on Wednesday reported noCovid-19 death for the first time after

six months.“There are no Covid deaths inthe State in the last 24 hours,” informed theHealth and Family Welfare Department,adding that the toll stood at 1,887 as onTuesday.The first death had been report-ed on April 7 last year when a 72-year-oldman of Jharpada in Bhubaneswar suc-cumbed to the virus on April 6 while

undergoing treatment at the AIIMS,Bhubaneswar. However, 231 more personscontracted coronavirus in 28 districts in thelast 24 hours, taking the State’s total case-load to 3,30,921.Of the fresh cases, 133 werereported from quarantine centres and 98were local contact cases.

Contact tracing and follow-up actionwere underway, said the Information andPublic Relations Department. Sundargarhdistrict recorded highest 32 fresh cases fol-lowed by Bargarh (25) and Angul (21). Thenumber of total active cases in the Statestood at 2,203 and recovered cases at3,26,778.

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The commercial and reli-gious institutions have

reopened in the State.Educational institutions aregoing to reopen soon. There isa need to remain vigilant forthe next two months, saidChief Minister Naveen Patnaikon Wednesday. Reviewing theCovid-19 situation and thevaccination programme in the

State, Patnaik said that inEngland and Europe, a secondCovid-10 wave is raging and insome countries lockdown hasbeen enforced again. So, thereis a need to follow the Covidguidelines more carefully.

He said that due to every-body’s cooperation, the pan-demic has been successfullycombated in the State till nowwith most of the districts in thegreen zones.

The Covid vaccine has cre-ated huge hope among thepeople. India has become anadvanced nation in producingthe vaccine. The State is com-pletely prepared for vaccina-

tion, said Patnaik and stressedon the need for massive aware-ness to remove the wrongnotion among people about thevaccine.

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The Covid vaccination isnot mandatory; rather get-

ting vaccinated would be vol-untary in the State, informedDirectorate of MedicalEducation and Training(DMET) Dr CBK Mohanty onWednesday. The vaccine wouldbe administered to healthworkers who want to take it.This is completely voluntary;and Government has alreadyannounced it, said he.

He pointed out that as perUnion Health Secretary, theCovid vaccine would reachOdisha in 10 days and vacci-nation programme wouldcommence in one or two dayssoon after vaccine reach. “Weall are prepared to executevaccination programme as perthe guidelines framed by theCentre.

The country has approvedtwo vaccines that will beadministered in two doses.The second dose of vaccine willbe administered 28 days afterfirst dose,” Dr Mohantyinformed media. Earlier,Health & Family WelfareMinister Naba Kishore Dashad informed that vaccinewould reach State by Jan30.

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This day in 1980, IndiraGandhi made a dramatic

comeback like the phoenixfrom the ashes. The June-12,1975 High Court verdict hadinvalidated her election to theLok Sabha in 1971.

She had clampedEmergency, put political oppo-nents in jail, changed at least 13Supreme Court judges and sti-fled the media. But as ill luckwould have it, the Janata Partyand the Lok Dal as the leadingcomponents of the ruling coali-

tion, had been at each other’sneck over both serious and triv-ial political issues to effect dis-integration sooner than expect-ed. They had no other choicebut to fall apart as the stubbornMorarjee Desai would not givein on principles he considerednon-negotiable. Consequently,a mid-term election had to beheld, which brought in IndiraGandhi with a conclusive vic-tory as the masses voted her inwith the same vengeance withwhich they had dismissed herin 1977.

Much has happenedmeanwhile. The IT revolutionhas changed the world incred-ibly. What was a wild dream inthe 1980s is an ordinary reali-ty today, so much so that eventhe most economically back-ward farmer in any hinterlandof India is equally aware of hap-penings as tge smartest kid ofa millionaire on news andpolitical affairs front.

The television, the internet,the smart phone and the mad-deningly fast and affordabletelecommunication systemshave shrunken distances andput all on the same generalinformation base. As of today,

the governance systems andmachinery are incapable ofremaining inaccessible oropaque. Ordinary people areenormously empowered withweapons like the ‘right to infor-mation’; and in the event ofhelplessness due to state harass-ment, the public interest liti-gation case heard by the courtsof law. The exposition to today’sarticle done only because of thedate coincidence is thus com-plete.

Odisha is now projected asthe ‘Best kept secret of India’ inglobal tourism circles. Thatsounds good and attractscountless tourists to explore thenewly emerging great State toexplore on every happy front-business, tourism and watchingto learn quality governance.

Wanderlust tourists havefound out this eastern IndianState has nearly everything puttogether: the mountains thatcollect frost and snow, forestswith incredible flora and fauna,rivers and river systems, lakesand lagoons, 480 km of mind-blowing coast, hot springs, fallsand streams and, above all,magnificent temple structuresstanding intact for thousands of

years. The Jagannath Temple atPuri-on-sea has been the faceof Odisha since ancient timeshaving enticed leading spiritu-al and religious leaders over thecenturies. Even the Britishcolonists respected this templefor its unique rituals that con-stitute the ancient Odia culturefully intact even today.

All the same, until theNaveen regime came, countlessheritage structures were lyingin shambles due to criminalneglect. Popular beaches hadturned filthy and unacceptablefor decent tourists. TheWestern world visitors haddiscounted Odisha onlybecause the coastal locationshad become crowded and pol-luted with toxic smoke and ear-splitting vehicular noise.

That Naveen Patnaik is astaunch devotee of LordJagannath was not known tothe people until late. He decid-ed to turn Puri the face ofOdisha. As known publicly bynow, Naveen has an uncannyknack of identifying publicofficials from among the bulkof the bureaucracy who candeliver. So, by 2013, he hadchosen Karthikeyan Pandian, a

fairly younger officer to be byhis side to provide support andguidance on all matters of gov-ernance, particularly in zeroingin on highly doable people’sprojects and schemes that ben-efit the poor and the backwardon the poverty alleviation frontand those that prevent and con-trol corruption. This young guyhad become the subject ofpublic discourse because heworked silently from within theclosed environs of the chiefminister’s office.

Every other person downthe street would be keen toknow how he looks and talks;how he strategises and takescritical decisions. One fine dayin the recent past, the no-nonsense Chief Minister cre-ated a special post so as to facil-itate Karthikeyan’s beingaround him for quite sometimeto translate noble dreams cometrue; hence, the establishmentof a special department of 5Twhich requires no explainingnow.

Karthikeyan has come outeversince to show up in publicon all important matters. He isnow a popular face; and thepeople are satisfied that he is

glued to the task of making theState a happier place to live in.Puri had remained infamousfor a tourist-hostile city withgarbage all over. Sanitationand cleanliness were plain alienideas there.

Temple servitors, traveloperators, hoteliers were allhorrifically exploitative withnegligible exceptions. And apublic transport system neverever came up to make move-ment of outsiders comfortableand safe. Karthikeyan, as ifGod’s messenger, took uponhimself the herculean task ofrestructuring the temple town.

For the first couple of years,he kept dispatching to Purisuch officers as would deliverefficiently at impressive speed.Between 2015 and now, theDistrict Magistrates who haveadministered are guys of steeland strongly resolute. Politicalcreatures who invariably getself-trained to bog down offi-cers for populist objectives gotmethodically brushed aside bythese strong and highlyinspired DMs.

And thus in right earnest,did the Puri cleansing exercisecommence. Much had

improved by the time theextremely severe Cyclone Fanipulled the little city down sobadly as would seem repairwould not happen even acrossyears. The town had no electricpower, drinking water andcommutable roads and pas-sages for moving relief andrestoration materials.

Suddenly, a young, highly-charged, energetic guy calledBalwant Singh materialisedone fine evening amid the offi-cials at an emergency meetingsaying coolly that he was tak-ing over the task of puttingback Puri to normalcy. He wasdismissed by many as a day-dreamer.

But what followed is nowhistory. Today, Puri is the besttemple town, an incomparablesea resort, crime-free and mostsignificantly an absolutelygarbage-free little city recog-nised as one of the very fewcoastal locations with the envi-able ‘Blue Flag Beaches’ thatmake destinations uniquelyattractive to tourists from allover the globe.

Most astonishingly, thebiggest pride among all heritagestructures, the massive temple

of Lord Jagannath now has aheavenly surrounding. Whatwas established as the mostimpossible task over a centuryago, is now a reality.

The majestic temple has afittingly splendid, exquisitelybeautified 250-foot free walk-ing space around it. Whenasked the humble, publicity-shyBalwant said, “It’s the Lord whois getting things done. Nothingwould be possible without Hiswill and blessings.” Balwant’stransfer order came just a weekago. The entire town wasstunned with indescribableshock.

Young, old and especiallywomen folks broke down.“Who will keep the city so spickand span, the beaches gleam-ing, the roads dust-free and ussafe at the middle of the night?”they are anxious to know. Someare tearing hair apart, more areshedding tears.

The sight is unbelievable.There are people’s groupspreparing to petition the deci-sion makers to change mindand keep the Rajasthani villageboy for one more year untilPuri widened its smile a littlemore.

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The Congress on Wednesdayalleged massive corruption

in handing over operations ofthe four power distributioncompanies to the Tata Power.

PCC vice-president PradipMajhi demanded that theGovernment cancel the con-tract within 30 days and threat-ened to take to the streets andmove to court if theGovernment fails to do so.

He said the then CongressGovernment had constitutedthe Odisha ElectricityRegulatory Commission(OERC) in 1995 under elec-tricity supply reforms, and fourdistribution companies, Cesco,

Wesco, Nesco and Southcowere formed, which were laterprivatised in 1999 for efficien-cy.“But for some reason, theAES and Reliance Infra whowere running those four dis-tribution companies for 15years left the State in 2014, afterwhich the State Governmenttook over and ran them underGridco,” Majhi said.

He further said, “The factthat has been baffling us is thatthe four distribution companieswhose annual turnover wasapproximately Rs 11,000 croreand whose cumulative assetsare counted to be Rs 15,000crores, have been sold to a pri-vate company (Tata Power)for only Rs 1,000 crore.“ I amasking for any inquiry into allthis. This is a clear case of cor-ruption.” He alleged that theOERC was bypassing normsand guidelines to favour a pri-vate entity in connivance withGovernment and Ministers,”said Majhi.

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The Cuttack Rural policehave arrested another

accused, Kailash Khatua, inconnection with the murder ofBJP leader Kulamani Baral andhis associate Dibyasingh Baral.

With this, the number ofarrests in the case mounted tofive. The police had earlierapprehended Panchanan Sethi,Kailash’s son Arabinda Khatua,Khitish Acharya, and LalitMohan Baral.

The accused have beenbooked under Sections 147,148, 120-B, 302, 149 of the IPC,and Sections 27 and 27 ofArms Act. A blood-stainedsword and bamboo lathis usedas weapon of offence havebeen seized.

Kulamani’s son RamakantBaral has filed an FIR with theMahanga police accusing localMLA and Minister Pratap Jenaand 13 others in the killing.

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The Board of SecondaryEducation (BSE),

Odisha has issued a notifi-cation for filling up formsfor the MatriculationExamination-2021.

Form fill-up wouldcommence on 10.01.2021(10 am). The last date fordepositing fees is27.01.2021 (11.45 pm).28.01.2021 (midnight) is

the deadline for submissionof forms. With payment offine, fees can be paidbetween 28.01.2021 and01.02.2021 (11.45 pm)while the deadline for formsubmission is 02.02.2021(midnight).

Class-X students willanswer 80 marks of ques-tion for each subject in theexamination, School andMass Education MinisterSamir Ranjan Dash had

informed earlier.The paperswould comprise 50 marksof objective and 30 marksof subjective questions.However, evaluation wouldbe done for 100 marks asmarks for rest 20 would beawarded as per marksobtained by a student for 80marks of question.

The results would bedeclared within 45-50 daysof conclusion of examina-tions, the Minister added.

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An Odia ISRO scientist hasnow alleged that he was

poisoned more than three yearsago when he had gone for apromotion interview to theISRO Headquarters inBengaluru.

Tapan Misra alleged thaton the fateful day on May 23,2017, his dosa and chutneywere laced with arsenic triox-ide. Misra who is presentlyworking as Senior Advisor atISRO and is superannuating atthe end of January, claimed thisin a Facebook post.

He further claimed thatdue to poisoning he sufferedfrom several issues like severebreathing difficulty, unusualskin eruptions, skin sheddingand fungal infections. He alsoposted the medical report onthe social media platform toclaim he has been diagnosedwith Arsenic toxication by the

AIIMS, New Delhi. He claimedthat the motive behind theattack was an assassinationattempt by an espionage ring toeliminate a scientist , whomade significant contributionin the field of military andcommercial sectors.

Misra alleged that thoughhe informed his seniors aboutthe matter, they did not takeany steps to ensure justice forhim.

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The BhubaneswarMunicipal Corporation

(BMC) on Wednesday with-drew the age restriction forentry into the LingarajTemple here. Devotees of allage groups would now beallowed for darshan of thedeities.The BMC had earli-er barred the entry of elder-ly persons and children

below 10 years of age intothe shrine. However, thoseintending to visit the templeneed to produce Covid-19negative reports. The BMChas made arrangements forCovid-19 testing free of costnear the temple for thoselacking the test reports.

The temple hadreopened on December 27only for sevayats and theirfamily members. From

January 3 to 5, it openedexclusively for the citizens ofBhubaneswar. From January6, tourists and devotees fromother parts of the State andthe country were allowed inothe temple with strict obser-vance of Covid-19 safetyprotocol. At one point oftime, a maximum of 500devotees are allowed fromthe Singhadwar to the AdaKatha till January 31.

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The BJP has won the faith ofthe people of the country

with the welfare programmesof Prime Minister Modi and his‘Sab Ka Sath Sab Ka Vikash’policy, said BJP leader andOdisha co-in-charge VijaypalSingh Tomar here onWednesday.

In the recent elections andby-elections, the party has wonin Bihar, Telangana, MadhyaPradesh and Uttar Pradesh, theDDC polls in Jammu and

Kashmir, panchayat polls inRajasthan, Tomar said.“InOdisha, the party is strength-ening its organisation at thegrassroots level.

In the coming elections, wewould get 51% votes and cometo power in the State,” heasserted. Commenting on theMahanga murders, he said thatin democracy, there is no placefor violence.

The killing of the BJPleader is highly condemnable.We won’t get cowed down withviolence or murders.

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State Samajwadi Party pres-ident Rabi Behera has

demanded convening of aspecial session of the StateAssembly to discuss and finda solution to the border dis-pute issue between Odishaand Andhra Pradesh.

In a letter to the AssemblySpeaker, Behera stated thattension is high among theinhabitants of the border vil-lages due to vandalisation ofthe Odisha Government’sdemarcation posts by the vil-lagers of Andhra Pradesh.

There are 120 border vil-lages of Odisha facing dis-putes with the neighbouringStates of West Bengal,Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh andAndhra Pradesh whichshould be settled urgently,he mentioned.

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While irregularities havederailed the mission of

the Odisha ComputerApplication Centre (OCAC),the benefits of e-Governancein reaching the denizens of theState are not time bound withrequisite quality.

Out of many initiativesrelated to infrastructure andapplication, the OCAC isresponsible for providing con-nectivity to the Governmentoffices at district and blocklevel through the State WideArea Network (OSWAN) thatwill improve Government effi-

ciency at work places. TheOSWAN serves as the back-bone network for data, videoand voice communicationsthroughout the State whichincludes the State HeadQuarters (SHQ), 30 DistrictHead Quarters (DHQ), 284Block Head Quarters (BHQ)and 61 Horizontal Offices.

However, it is alleged thatrequired staff provisioned toengage for necessary supportand maintenance at block lev-els are not deployed and theservices are not properly mon-itored though the payment isgoing to be released on cer-tificate of district machineriescontrolled by E&ITDepartment to a particularagency.

The OCAC has selectedthe BSNL to provide connec-tivity and city-based PrintLink Computer andCommunication through ten-der process to provide infra-

structure for SWAN NOC,DHQ and BHQ with theirinfra support and mainte-nance. Print Link also pro-vides manpower at everyblock to provide operationsupports.

The OSWAN is man-aged by a nodal officer deput-ed from NIC and is placed atOCAC but he has less controlover the project.

PWC is the TPA (ThirdParty Auditor) of the projectbut their observation and rec-ommendations are not accept-able by the payment scrutinycommittee.

The Bharat SancharNigam Limited (BSNL) is pro-viding bandwidth services forthe implementation of theOSWAN project in the State,which is being taken up underthe National e-GovernancePlan (NeGP) of theGovernment of India. TheBSNL is providing dedicated

leased lines to connect theState headquarters inBhubaneswar with all the dis-trict headquarters and theblock headquarters. The pro-ject is aimed to benefit thedenizens of Odisha in a bigway and change the manner inwhich the people interact withthe Government offices.

Though the Governmentof Odisha is provisioning bud-get and support for all theexpenditure includingCAPEX/OPEX, still becauseof poor service and connec-tivity, many offices depend onalternative arrangement ofconnectivity and required ser-vices.

The poor services can beattributed to a nexus betweenthe OCAC-Print Links-BSNLofficials. It is alleged thatmachineries are not upgradedand resources are not proper-ly deployed leaving hugescope of manipulation.

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Chaos has struck theChoudwar College with

teachers and non-teaching staffnot getting salary for last fourmonths. Electricity supply tothe college was cut off last weekowing to nonpayment of con-

sumption charges. Theunpleasant situation arose outof the absence of an approvedregular Principal in the college,that continued for last threemonths till the HigherEducation Department, at last,appointed Shivanarayan Rana,the senior-most member ofteaching staffs as Principal in-Charge on December 29.

Soon after taking overcharge he ensured power sup-ply on priority, but the employ-ees are yet waiting to draw theirsalary.According to reports, it

all started since September 30when the regular Principal ofthe college retired. She did notfollow the standing provisionsfor nomination of her succes-sor.

Instead of sending thename of four senior mostdeserving teaching staff forobtaining the approval from theDepartment of HigherEducation for Principal's post,a list of four staff members whoare not senior was sent causingdelay in appointment of a reg-ular head of the institution. The

persons whose names wererecommended allegedly belongto a lobby group. It is also sur-prising that the Cuttack Sub-Collector-cum-President of thecollege Governing Body, rec-ommended a member from thelist who figure at 14 in the rankof seniority.

However, the proposal forobtaining approval for thePrincipal in-Charge sent tothe Higher EducationDepartment after pending formonths was disposed of recent-ly. It is alleged that the pro-

cessing of the file was deliber-ately prolonged thanks to lobbyexercised by a dominant coteriein the college. It is also allegedthat some of them are involvedwith a financial fraud.

Lakhs of rupees of the col-lege money have been recov-ered from one of them afteraudit objection in the past andan RTI application regardingthe embezzlement of fundsallotted for construction of acycle stand for students filed bya local months ago has still notbeen complied with.

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As the raids on adulteratedfood manufacturing units

continue in Cuttack city and itsadjoining places, the local civicauthorities and police partieson Wednesday stumbled upona fake tea dust packaging unitat Mukameswar village underthe Cuttack Sadar police sta-tion.“At least 50 quintals ofadulterated tea and huge quan-tities of packaging materials

having branded companies’stickers pasted on them wereseized from the fake unit,”informed local police inspectorSudhansu Bhusan Jena. Hesaid one person was beingquestioned after detention inthis connection.

Food inspectors of the civicbody after inspecting the adul-terated products said dusts ofdry leaves of pot cassia(Chakunda) and papaya areadded to sawdust for makingthe adulterated tea packetswhich doesn’t have any aroma

of tea. The unit was engaged inthese unscrupulous trade prac-tices for years. The ongoingjoint raids have so farunearthed several such units,which were engaged in pack-aging adulterated food itemslike ghee, spice powders, edibleoil, soya chunks and panmasala.

Official sources indicatedthat such raids by the civicauthorities would continue tobust the fake manufacturingunits in the city and its neigh-bourhood.

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The 25th High Level ClearanceAuthority (HLCA) chaired by Chief

Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesdayissued an in-principle approval to threemajor industrial projects worth Rs5,358.24 crore in the metal and metaldownstream, cement and refinery andpetrochemicals sectors.The three indus-trial projects are expected to create 3,667employment opportunities. The projectsare: Expansion of Yazdani Steel & PowerLimited’s integrated steel plant (Rs 2,415crore) at Kalinganagar (jobs for over2,867 persons).

Additional clinker and cementcapacities by Shiva Cement Ltd (Rs1,523.24 crore) at Kutra, Sundargarh,(jobs for 600). Development of crude oilterminal by Numaligarh Refinery Ltd atParadip (Rs 1,420 crore) generatingemployment opportunities for 200 per-sons.

Besides, a State Level Single WindowClearance Authority (SLSWCA) meet-ing chaired by Chief Secretary SureshMahapatra also cleared five industrialprojects worth �1,085 crore in the metaland metal downstream, fertilisers, foodprocessing and tourism sectors.

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The Disha Act 2019 initia-tive by the Andhra

Pradesh (AP) Government is

certainly a point of discussionamong the States to enforcesuch strict law to protectwomen and children fromheinous crimes.

The States likeMaharashtra and Odisha arealso planning for a similarkind of legislation for them.Last year, a delegation fromthe Mahila Adhikar Abhiyanmet the Governor of Odisha,submitted a memorandumand demanded a new rape lawlike AP’s Disha Act’ for speedyconviction of rape accused.The delegation also briefedthat the situation in Odisha isworse and immediate initia-tives are required to prevent

such crimes. The last few yearsof data show that rape caseshave steadily increased inOdisha from 2013 to 2019.

In the 7 years the numberof rape cases reported is 1,832in 2013, 2,021 in 2014, 2,286in 2015, 2,144 in 2016, 2,221in 2017, 2,502 in 2018, and2,950 in 2019. Apart fromthis, 1,212 rape cases werereported in the initial sixmonths (Jan –June) of 2020,despite of lockdown (Covid-19) across the Odisha.

No doubt the speedy trialof criminal cases is the need ofthe hour. However, to succeedon the speedy trial in 21 days,better infrastructure and logis-

tics are required to be put upby the State. The contradictionbetween the ‘Right to SpeedyTrial’ versus ‘Right to FairTrail’, as both the rights areinalienable and inherent rightsunder the ‘Article 21’ of theconstitution of India needs tobe marked.

It’s really a challenge forthe Act/judiciary to choose away to deliver fair justice.This apart, the State has toensure fair justice system bymaintaining ‘fair arrest’, ‘fairchance for defend’ and ‘fairtrail system’ in order to com-plete investigation and judicialtrial on pressure.The ‘right toappeal’ in Indian judiciary

and ‘clemency petitions’ beforethe President need to attractattention that stands againstthe speedy trial concept of APDisha Act 2019.

The Act is unclear on thewords like ‘heinous’, ‘conclu-sive evidence’ and ‘circum-stances’ and it presumes theact will interpret the same ona case-by-case basis. Similarly,the Act is silent on ‘witnessprotection scheme’, compen-sation to the victim from thefund like ‘Nirbhaya Fund’.

After all such discussionson the ‘AP Disha Act 2019’, theAP State’s clear motive cannotbe ignored which is to lessenthe heinous crime and also to

ensure a speedy justice deliv-ery system. Therefore, whilethe State of Odisha is going toframe any such law, it shouldkeep in mind the above issuesand should adopt a strategy inorder to lessen such heinouscrimes as it violates the coreprinciple of ‘Right to Life’under the Article 21 of theConstitution of India.

The Odisha Governmentcannot ape the law of AP any-way. It has to set up propermechanism to find the unre-ported sexual violence; takeaction on huge pending rapecases; make provision to keeppolitical influence and inter-ference at bay so that investi-

gation doesnot go awry andtake steps to set up morewomen police stations etc.

Besides, much needs to bedone to change the mindset ofsociety that considers womenas ‘second-class’ citizens.Patriarchal attitude of oursociety and ‘gender bias’ arethe areas which are to belooked into seriously.

A greater need of advoca-cy, empowerment, counselling,proper education and aware-ness drive, interventions inconflict relationships andhome visit are a few addition-al steps to be taken in order tocontrol sexual crime againstwomen. Last but not the least,

the enacted legislation by theState must ensure that itshould not contradict withthe Central laws. The recentplan of setting up ‘24 SpecialCourt’ by the Government ofOdisha, to deal with minorcases registered under theProtection of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO) Act,2012 is no doubt a welcomestep.

(The writer is AssistantProfessor (Law), Xavier LawSchool, Xavier University,B h u b a n e s w a r [email protected]/[email protected]; Phone:9078879450/9953079450)

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Members of the city BJPYuva Morcha (BJYM)

staged a demonstration in frontof the Bada Bazar police stationin Brahmapur on Tuesdayprotesting the brutal killing ofMahanga BJP leader KulamaniBaral and his associate.

The agitators shouted slo-gans against Law MinisterPratap Jena and also burnt hiseffigy. They demanded theremoval of Jena from the StateCabinet and his arrest for beingallegedly involved in the BJPleaders murder. They alsodemanded a CBI probe into the

incident. District BJYM secre-tary Kiran Kumar Sahu termedBaral’s killing as ‘cowardice’“The BJD leaders are involvedin various scams and are hav-ing a nexus with the mafia andanti-social elements.

When the BJP is exposingtheir corrupt practices, they aretargeting our party members,alleged district BJP presidentBibhuti Jena. Former districtpresident Kanhu Charan Patisaid there is virtually no lawand order in the State. Theopposition leaders are beingtargeted and killed but theChief Minister is not taking anyaction against them.

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NGO Ama Gaon AmaKatha held its 3rd annual

meet here at Alatalanga villagein Cuttack district. Chief guestformer MP and litterateur DrPrasanna Patasani called uponthe intelligentsia, poets, stu-dents, teachers and youths topreserve and protect the villageculture which is the real cultureof India.

Prof Yudhisthir Khatua,senior journalist SugyanChoudhury, litterateur DrSricharan Das, social workerJogesh Chandra Mahapatrajoined as guests of honour.

Prof Khatua urged theyouths to dedicate themselvesfor the village community,journalist Choudhury opinedthat the sole of India rests in itsvillages and the development ofthe villages will lead to a vibrantIndia. A cultural mouth piece“AYAN” was released on theoccasion while many youthswere felicitated for their respec-tive contributions in variousfields. Dr Sricharan Das was

awarded with the “AYANSaraswata Samman” whileJogesh Mahapatra andGangadhar Mohapatra werefelicitated with “Pt RadhanathaMishra Sharma SmrutiSanmman”.

Annirudha Mallick, SarojKumar Swain, TrinathMohanty, Manoj Behera,Bramhananda Bhoi, SunakarMohanty, Laxmipirya Ray,Kadambini Sahoo, Dr RamaChandra Panda were honouredwith the “Grama JyotiSamman”. Dr Patsani alsofelicitated former SarapanchaSaroj Kumar Swain, socialworker Trinath Mohanty,

Brusaketu Samal, ManojBehera, Sunakar Mohanty,Bismaya Balaka StayajitMaharana, Bilasa Mohanty,Bramhananda Bhoi for theiroutstanding contribution inmaintaining bonhomie amongthe village communities of thearea.

At the outset, foundingsecretary Bijay Mishra gavethe welcome address while ErRashmiranjan Mishra, PramodOjha, Ramachandra Maharana,Bhagyashree Das, SubhangiMadhusmita Bastia, DebasisDas conducted the eventsmoothly. Educationist MihirKumar Mohapatra presided.

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Unfazed by the Covid-19 dif-ficulties, the Vivekananda

Pathak Manch continued itsannual literary mission this yearby organising literary testsamong the children and held itsprize distribution and felicitationprogrammes recently.

While the tests were con-ducted both online, over 200school going children fromacross the State participatedwith great enthusiasm.Organised by Manch convenerProf Rabindra Kumar Nayak atthe Japidas High School,Nuarampas, Keonjhar, the eventhad distinguished educationistsand literature lovers as guests likeGangadhar Puhan,Dambarudhar Dehury, Santosh

Patnaik and Narendra PrasadBehera. Those who gave theirvedio messages on the occasionincluded novelist and satiristAriya Gyanadatta, writer andcritic Prof Dipti RanjanPattanayak, poet Umakant Rout,Chittaranjan Nayak, SampritiSatabhisa, Padmanav Nayak,Sisir Kumar Panigrahy,Rashmikant Barik, RanjanKumar Mohanty and SaritaSamal.

The guests praised theefforts of the Pathak Manch forcontinuing the literary cam-paign for the last 16 years forencouraging creativity and read-ing habit in Odia literatureamong school children. Thesuccessful participants likeSoumya Ranjan Chaini,Laxmipriya Samal and Rupali

Sahu were given trophies andcitations. Also the highest scor-er in the last year HSC exam inJapidas High School PrakashKumar Dhal was felicitated andgiven cash prize. Among others,Manch workers Ratnakar Roul,Abhimanyu Sahu, SaradaPrasanna Jena, Pitambar Ayach,Akhaya Kumar Jena, UrmmiUttakilka, SubhashreeTannnima, Bhagirathi Senapati,Bitihotra Nayak, Bhabani SankarNayak and Sushil SubhadeepNayak coordinated the event.

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Crimes, mainly loot andsnatching cases, have

become the order of the day inBaleswar district. Within aweek, repeated incidents havebeen reported from the townand adjacent areas.

In none of the cases thepolice could make any head-way. The residents are living infear when the number of casesis rising despite claims of policeof stepping up security.

On Tuesday, an employeeof a private finance companyGopabandhu Patra faced abroad daylight robbery nearChargocchia under Chandipurpolice station limits. Miscreants

looted Rs 80,000 cash from himafter hitting his head with anobject when he was returningto his office after collecting thecash. He said two miscreantsattacked him and fled with thecash. The police althoughbegan an investigation in thecase yet have failed to get anyclue of the looters.

Prior to it on Mondayevening one Rajkishor Dhal(50) of Rajkania inKendrapada district who wasin the town to buy a too-wheeler was looted byunknown armed miscreants.The miscreants fired a shot onhim near Khannagar and spedaway after snatching Rs 2 lakhfrom him.

Dhal with bullet injuriesaround his waist was referredto the SCB Medical Collegeand Hospital, Cuttack after hisinitial admission in the DistrictHeadquarters Hospital here. Itmay be noted on December 28,two loots were reported. Whilea JCB operator was robbed of

Rs 3.2 lakh after being shot at,in the other case a man fromPanchalingeswar road underNilgiri area lost Rs 12, 000 tolooters.

Similarly, on January 1 twocases of loots were reported.The first case occurred inChandaneswar market underBhograi police station wherelooters snatched Rs 2 lakhfrom the victims and in the sec-ond case, Rs 1.31 lakh was loot-ed from a LPG employee nearMulisingh under Soro policestation limits.

Most interestingly, miscre-ants didn’t spare a police per-sonnel. They snatched a mobilephone from one constableidentified as Bhajendra Majhinear Circuit House in Baleswartown on Saturday evening andsped away. However, theSahadevkhunta police in thiscase arrested three personsidentified as Sk Rabi (21), SkRamzan (20) and Suban Malik(24) and forwarded them tocourt.

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Athief was thrashed to deathby villagers while his asso-

ciate sustained critical injuriesin the attack at Sunapali villageunder Kabisuryanagar policelimits in Ganjam district late onTuesday night. The deceasedwas identified as Ganga Kandiof Ranipada village in Polasarablock of district.

According to reports,Ganga and his associate hadgone to Sunapali at around11.30 pm with an intention tocommit theft. Spotting them,locals nabbed two and thrashedthem mercilessly. The duo wascritically injured while Gangawas taken to Polasara hospital,where he succumbed to hisinjuries during treatment.

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Apaddy procurement mandiwas launched at Chatra

Krushak Bazar here onTuesday. ADM, JagatsinghpurSatchidananda Sahoo inaugu-rated the mandi.

Speaking at the inauguralevent ADM Sahoo informedthat for current fiscal 2020-21district’s first mandi was inau-gurated where farmers canfetch their paddy. He askedSupply Department officialsand cooperative agency staffersto be cooperative and helpful tofarmers. Civil Supply OfficerBibekananda Korakera said forgrade A paddy an amount Rs1,818 will be paid per quintaland for general paddy ratefixed is Rs 1,868 per quintal.

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This actor of Bari in Jajpurdistrict can make the audi-

ence laugh as well as cry onstage. He claims to be gettingthe vision of God while per-forming on stage be it acting,singing and playing musicalinstruments like drum andharmonium.

Meet Gopinath of Aliabadvillage under the Bari block. Hesays not only he but manyartists of Bari lie neglected.Gopinath has acted in a varietyof roles in as many as 13 Jatraparties.

Gopinath is presentlyinvolved in several awarenessdrives undertaken by theGovernment. Gopinath is now73 years old; yet his artisticprowess knows no bound. He

still enjoys a reputation as astage director in the Bari area.Some writers have started writ-ing about Gopinath as well."There are many talented artistsin our area as well as in theState but they don't find themuch needed promotion. Dueto the neglect meted out tothem the younger generation isnot much interested to take toacting," said Gopinath.

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In yet another incident ofpolice highhandedness, an

inebriated policeman alleged-ly threw hot tea on a woman teavendor at Damanjodi ofKoraput district onWednesday.According toreports, Sarathi Hota, posted asthe Havildar at Damanjodi

police station, went to a tea stallin the morning. As the tea sell-er delayed in serving tea toHota, he poured hot tea on theold woman following whichshe sustained serious burninjuries.

Source said that theaccused police was drunk whenhe visited the tea stall. “Whenthe policeman asked for tea, I

was serving two to three cus-tomers., angry over it the coppoured hot tea on my back,”said the victim. Later, the oldwoman was undergoing treat-ment at a hospital inDamanjodi.

Meanwhile, a video of theincident has went viral onsocial as Havilar’s seniors aretrying to hush up the matter.

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After a fifteen months ofpilot study with release of

seven transmitter tagged sub-adult Gharials since July 20, sixmore transmitter taggedGharials of either sex , mea-suring 2.3m-3.3m from theNandankanan Biological Parkwere released into Satkosiagorge on January 5. The revisedstrategy for recovery ofGharials in Satkosia in itssouthern-most home is moreconservation oriented.

This includes involvementof five forest divisions on eitherside of river Mahanadi, imple-mentation of rigid protectionmeasures, declaration of ‘NoFishing Zone’ in 10 km ofgorge where present populationof Gharial is existing, spread-ing of awareness among localpeople, provision of compen-sation for damaged fishing netand reward of Rs 1,000 for liveGharials caught, said a release.

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Rajya Sabha BJD memberSubash Singh said the

core purpose of takeover ofSouthco by Tata Power is tosafeguard the interest of bothemployees and consumers.

Answering media querieshere, Singh said that the TataPower should protect theinterest of the employees irre-spective of the fact whetherthey are permanent employ-ees or daily wagers or NMRs."However, we cannot fight foremployees those who do notwork or are not disciplined,"he categorically said.

MLA Bikram Panda isthe chief patron of Southcowho will hereafter interactand negotiate with the TataPower in all matters andwould look after the genuine

interest of the employees,assured Singh. Replyingqueries of the media, heassured that no employeewould be retrenched.

Singh further said thatthe Tata Power would ensureboth 24 hours uninterruptedpower supply to the con-sumers including quality ser-vice and give priority to thesafety measures.

Tata Power shall alsoensure proper infrastructureand put up state of the artequipment by replacing theold ones.

Besides, low voltage prob-lems would be addressed,said Singh.He said that theprovision of rehabilitation ofdeceased employee’s kin isnow under the active consid-erat ion of the StateGovernment and judiciary.According to information

available, the staff members ofthe Southco meanwhile are ondharana in front of theSouthco Office protesting thetakeover without finalisingtheir service conditions.

Brahmapur MLA BikramPanda, former MLA Dr RCCPattnaik, Subash Maharana,working president of BijuSramika Samukshya RajivMahanty and general secre-tary Amar Pratap Singh, BJPYouth leader TumbanathPanda, Arvind Singh and thenewly joined CEO of Southcoappointed by Tata Power werepresent.

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The Marshaghai police havearrested three youths for their

involvement in hurling bombs toa Marshaghai crossing-basedeatery ‘Manas Dhaba’ on Sundaynight and seized nine live bombs,bomb making materials, twomobile phones and a bike fromtheir possession on Tuesday,informed Kendrapada SP MadkarSandeep Sampat in a Press meeton Wednesday.

The arrested were identifiedas Kuna alias Sushil Mallick (22)of Hindulia village (MarshaghaiPS) and Muna alias Manoj Nayak(25) and Jaga alias Jagannath Das(23) of Potari village (Patkura PS).Kuna is prime accused, againstwhom four cases are pending.

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Concerned over the resig-nation of lateral entry

bureaucrats, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi conducted a‘rare’ direct interaction withseven Joint Secretaries (JS)who joined the Government ofIndia after quitting private sec-tors 14 months ago.

Modi interacted with theofficers after The Pioneerreported on December 16,2020 about one of the nineJoint Secretaries resigning fromthe service and choosing to getback to an MNC abroad. Hewas a JS in the CommerceMinistry

Sources in Department ofPersonnel and Training(DoPT) said the PM urged theofficers to continue working forthe country with a lot of zeal asthe nation looks towards theirexpertise in diversified fieldsand which can contribute in theshaping of an ‘AtmanirbharBharat’.

One of the Joint Secretarieswho participated in the inter-action with Modi on December20, however, termed the inter-action as “routine”. “It was aroutine first interaction afterthe first batch completed ayear in various offices of theCentral Government,” hestressed.

While Modi was inquisitiveabout the feeling, work cultureand acclimatisation of the pri-vate-professionals-turned-

bureaucrats, one of the JS post-ed on his social media profilethat “the PM’s energy leveleven after a long day in officeis inspiring and infectious”.

Those who interacted withModi on that day were AmberDubey, who left KPMG andjoined Civil Aviation Ministry,Sujit Bajpayee, who left NHPSto join the EnvironmentMinistry, Dinesh Jagdale, theerstwhile CEO of PanamaRenewable Energy Group whowas posted in the NewRenewable Energy Ministry,Kakoli Ghosh, who joined theagriculture ministry, SaurabhMishra in Financial Services,Rajeev Saksena in the eco-nomic affairs department,Suman Prasad Singh in theRoad Transport Ministry andBhuhan Kumar in the ShippingMinistry.

Launched with much fan-fare by the Narendra ModiGovernment in 2018, the lat-eral entry scheme for senior-level officers drawn from var-ious professions and expertise

suffered a setback when ArunGoel resigned.

Sources close to Goel saidafter having served for about ayear at a very powerful post hecalled it a day due to toomuch of “bureaucratic grind”in the system. Modi had him-self announced senior-levelbureaucratic posts in severaldepartments for people whoare “talented and motivated”and willing to contribute tonation building.

Sources said the decisionof Goel to leave theGovernment sector could alsobe because of his insubordi-nation in the Ministry as hehad a background of headinga global company. “He hadcome to join the Governmentafter leaving a handsome pack-age earlier also,” sources said.The JS report to the secre-tary/additional secretary inthe Ministry or Departmentand are normally appointedfrom all-India services likethe IAS, IPS, IFS and otherallied services.

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The Congress on Wednesdayappointed its senior leaders

including Chief MinistersAshok Gehlot and BhupeshBaghel as observers to overseethe party’s election campaignmanagement for the upcomingAssembly polls in several Statesand a Union Territory.Assembly elections are due tobe held in the States of Assam,West Bengal, Kerala, TamilNadu and the UT ofPuducherry by the middle ofthis year.

An official communica-tion from the party saidCongress president SoniaGandhi has appointed theleaders as senior observersfor overseeing the electioncampaign management andcoordination in states whereassembly elections are going tobe held in 2021. Their appoint-ment is with immediate effect.They will discharge theirduties in close coordinationwith AICC general secretariesand in-charges in the respec-tive states, the party said.

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot, former Goachief minister Luizinho Faleiroand Karnataka’s former deputychief minister G Parameswarahave been appointed as seniorobservers for the Keralaassembly polls.

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel, theparty’s general secretary

Mukul Wasnik and seniorleader Shakeel Ahmad Khanhave been appointed as seniorovservers for the Assamassembly polls. For the elec-tions in Tamil Nadu andPuducherry, senior party lead-ers and former union minis-ters M Veerappa Moily and MM Pallam Raju, besides sittingcabinet minister inMaharashtra Nitin Raut havebeen appointed as seniorobservers.

For the West Bengalassembly elections, seniorparty leader B K Hariprasadand Alamgir Alam, besidesPunjab minister Vijay InderSingla have been appointed asobservers. The party is keen toretain power in Puducherryand is seeking to wrest powerback in Assam, Kerala andTamil Nadu. The Congress isin the process of finalisingseat-sharing with its allies inthese states, the statementsaid.

The Congress is also con-testing the West Bengal assem-bly polls in alliance with theleft parties and final seat-sharing arrangements arebeing worked out in the state,it said. The party’s electoralfortunes were on the declinelast year when it lost power inMadhya Pradesh after itsleader Jyotiraditya Scindia andhis supporting MLAs switchedover to the BJP. The Congressalso lost the assembly electionsin Delhi and Bihar last year.

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Showcasing their “success” inthe Gram Panchayat polls

in Karnataka, the BJP onWednesday claimed that thepeople have rejected theOpposition’s politics of “liesand hypocrisy” in the ongoingfarmers’ agitation and assert-ed that voters had put theirfaith in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s “develop-ment politics”.

Addressing a press con-ference here, BJP spokesper-son and Rajya Sabha memberRajeev Chandrasekhar allegedthat opposition parties havebeen trying to instigate groupsof citizens as he referred tofarmers’ protest against threefarm laws and also the earlieragitation against the

Citizenship (Amendment)Act.

Noting that he is speakingin the context of a string ofelections in Karnataka, he saidthe BJP has been winningthem, be it assembly bypolls orMLC elections or the recentrural body polls.

This “overwhelming”mandate in favour of the BJPagainst some opposition par-ties’ politics of “lies andhypocrisy” shows people’s trustin the leadership of Modi andChief Minister B SYediyurappa, he said.

People have backed themeasures taken by the centralgovernment for the agriculturesector, he claimed.

The BJP leader said theGovernment is sincere in itstalks with farmer unions to

end their protests and saidcommitment to farmers is an“article of faith” for the party.

Over 55.4 per cent grampanchayats in the state areBJP-supported and 53 per centmembers are BJP supporters,he claimed.

This result has comeagainst the backdrop of oppo-sition parties’ “falsehoods” tomislead farmers, he said.

Since the BJP came topower at the Centre, the partyhas won 14 of 17 Assemblybypolls and emerged victori-ous in all four MLC seat elec-tions, he said.

Over a month, the BJP hascited results in a number ofelections across the country toassert that the farm laws enjoysupport from a vast majorityof farmers.

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) on

Wednesday forecast densefoggy weather and poor visi-bility from January 7 to 10 innorthwest India. The mini-mum temperatures are likely tofall by 4 to 6 degree Celsius innorthwest India during thenext 4-5 days. The western dis-turbance that was affectingnorthwest India has currentlymoved eastward, for whichthe effect will be mostly overwestern Uttar Pradesh.

“Due to abundant mois-ture available in lower tropos-pheric levels and otherfavourable meteorological fea-

tures, dense to very dense fogis very likely in some to manypockets over plains ofNorthwest India in the morn-ing hours of 07th to 10thJanuary,” the IMD said. “Theminimum temperatures arelikely to fall by 4-6 degreeCelsius over plains ofNorthwest India during thenext 4-5 days. Cold wave con-ditions are likely over theplains of Northwest India dur-ing 11th-13th January,” it said.

Under the influence ofwestern disturbance fromJanuary 2 till January 6 (today),significant rainfall occurredin plains of northwest India,due to which, there is a signif-icant amount of moisture

across the region. The ongoingspell of rainfall over southernparts of India is expected tocontinue at least until Saturday.Therefore, the states of TamilNadu, Kerala, and Karnatakaare expected to keep receivingscattered to fairly widespreadshowers and thunderstorms.

According to IMD, atrough in low-level easterliesruns from the east-centralArabian Sea off Karnatakacoast to south MadhyaMaharashtra. This active east-erly wave spell is set to causescattered to fairly widespreadrains, thunderstorms, andlightning over southern penin-sular India during the next 4-5 days.

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The Central paramilitaryjawans will now use Khadi

durries procured from KVIC aspart of the vocal for local cam-paign. The Indo-TibetanBorder Police (ITBP) has signeda memorandum of under-standing (MoU) with the Khadi& Village IndustriesCommission (KVIC) for sup-plying 1,71,520 numbers ofKhadi Durries for CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPFs).

The cotton khadi durriesfor CAPF jawans will be pro-cured in a purchase order worthRs 8. 73 crore. The ITBP hasbecome the first paramilitaryforce among the Central ArmedPolice Forces (CAPFs) to havesupplies from the KVIC.

The MoU was inked byVinay Kumar Saxena,Chairman, KVIC and AnandSwaroop, Inspector General ofITBP. Vivek Bharadwaj,Additional Secretary, PoliceModernisation, Union Home Ministry also attendedthe event.

The ITBP had signed anagreement with the KVIC inJuly last year for procurementof 1,200 quintal of mustard oilwith a total financial implica-tion of �1.73 crore. It was

decided during a meeting heldat the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) of theDirectors General of theCAPFs in October, 2019 thatuse of Terry Khadi uniformand other items of swadeshiorigin should be made avail-able to the CAPFs. The gov-ernment was celebrating the150th birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi in 2019.

During the visit of HomeMinister Amit Shah inDecember, 2019 to the ITBPForce headquarters here, anexhibition stall was preparedto exhibit the KVIC products.

“The ITBP had suggestedthat durries, blankets, towels,mustard oil, yoga kit, hospitalbed sheets, pickles and similaritems can be purchased forjawans of the Force throughKVIC,” ITBP SpokespersonVivek Pandey said in a statement.

“The process of procuringkhadi bed sheets and pillowcovers from KVIC for allCAPF hospitals is also underway and it is expectedthat it will be procured in this financial year itself. Manysuch items will be procuredfrom the KVIC for promoting the local productsin the CAPFs,” it added.

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Union Home MInistry onWednesday asked Tamil

Nadu Government not to allowopening of cinema theatreswith full capacity and asked tokeep only 50% of the seatingcapacity. In a direction Ministryof Home Affairs (MHA) direct-ed the state to reverse their ear-lier order and “immediatelyissue necessary order” to bringtheir guidelines in line with theMHA guidelines. “Governmentof Tamil Nadu order of per-mitting increase the seatingcapacity of Cinema/theaters/multiplexes from existing 50%to 100% is dilution of MHAorder. States and UT shall notdilute guidelines issued underDM act in any manner,” MHAsaid in a statement.

“Govt of Tamil Nadu isrequested to immediately issuenecessary order to bring theirGuidelines in line with theMHA guidelines dated 28December 2020 and informcompliance to this Ministry,”the ministry further said. HomeSecretary wrote to Tamil NaduChief secretary to issue ordersaligned to MHA guidelines,allowing multiplexes to operateoutside containment zones withup to 50% occupancy.

On Monday, Tamil NaduGovernment had permitted toincrease the seating capacity ofcinemas, theatres, multiplexesfrom existing 50% to 100% fol-lowing COVID19 protocols.The order comes days afteractors and theatre ownersrequested Chief MinisterEdappadi K. Palaniswami toallow theatres to function attheir full capacity. As per theCOVID-19 safety protocol,since last October, the theatresin the state were allowed to fillup only 50 per cent of their seatsto ensure social distancing.

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The Supreme Court hasexpressed its exasperation

at the inability of the virtualcourt system to work satis-factorily in the apex court,saying it is becoming very dif-ficult to continue with theproceedings in an appropriatemanner.

The court also noted thatthere were no such problemsbeing faced in the virtualcourt system in the DelhiHigh Court next door.

The apex court is hearingmatters through video-con-ferencing since March lastyear amid the COVID-19pandemic.

“We at the inception mustnote our exasperation at theinability of the virtual courtsystem to work satisfactorilyin the Supreme Court whilethere is no such problems inthe Delhi High Court nextdoor!,” a bench headed byJustice Sanjay Kishan Kaulsaid in its January 5 order.

“We have been since yes-terday trying to cope with theproblem of disconnections,resonance of voices, evenwhen there is single personarguing. It is difficult tounderstand this despite morelicences stated to have been

taken. The only voice we hearis the resonance of our ownvoices!,” said the bench, alsocomprising justices DineshMaheshwari and HrishikeshRoy.

The bench directed thesecretary general of the apexcourt to look into the issue.

“We thus direct the secre-tary general to look into thisissue as it is becoming verydifficult to continue with pro-ceedings in the virtual courtsin an appropriate manner,” thebench said.

The top court made theseobservations while hearing aplea against the Decemberlast year order passed by theChhattisgarh High Court.

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Aday after Congress MPShashi Tharoor sought a

cancellation of the RepublicDay parade in the light of theCoronavirus pandemic andBritish Prime Minister’s deci-sion not to visit India, BJP’snational spokesperson SambitPatra on Wednesday slammedhim for making the demand.

In a sharp riposte to theCongress leader, Patra asked asto why Rahul Gandhi’s foreigntrips are not cancelled insteadand also lambasted him forreferring to Republic Day as amere ‘festivity’ in his tweet.

“Mr Tharoor, Republic DayParade is not just any“Festivity” that it ought to becancelled! Further Rahulcouldn’t cancel his festivities &continues to travel to “farther”

destinations often but theCongress wants Republic Dayto be cancelled?”, tweeted theBJP leader.

Issuing a statement on call-ing off the visit, the UK gov-ernment had said , “The PrimeMinister spoke to PrimeMinister Modi this morning, toexpress his regret that he will

be unable to visit India later thismonth as planned.In light ofthe national lockdownannounced last night, and thespeed at which the new coro-navirus variant is spreading, thePrime Minister said that it wasimportant for him to remain inthe UK so he can focus on thedomestic response to the virus.”

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Polls to 12 legislative coun-cil seats in Uttar Pradesh

getting vacant later this monthand bypolls to two legislativecouncil seats in Bihar and onein Andhra Pradesh will beheld on January 28. Accordingto the Election Commission, allthe elections and by-electionswould be held on January 28and counting of votes will beheld one hour after the com-pletion of polls as per estab-lished practice.

Polls to 12 seats in the UPlegislative council are gettingvacant on January 30 as theterm of the members is com-ing to an end. One of the 12members is NasimuddinSiddiqui, who already standsdisqualified. The 12 members

would be elected by membersof the legislative assembly(MLAs) in the biennial elec-tions.

The MLCs who are retiringinclude Swatantra Dev Singh,Dinesh Sharma and LaxmanAcharya (BJP), NaseemuddinSiddiqui (disqualified),Dharmavir Ashok and PradipJatav (BSP), and Ahmed Hasan,Ashu Malik, Ramesh Yadav,Ram Jatan Rajbhar, VirendraSingh and Sahib Singh Saini(SP).

Bypolls to two Bihar leg-islative council seats werenecessitated following the elec-tion of BJP leader Sushil Modito Rajya Sabha recently andelection of Vinod Narain Jha tothe State legislative Assembly inthe recently-held Bihar elec-tions.

In Andhra Pradesh, thelegislative council bypoll wasnecessitated following the res-ignation of Pothula Sunitha inNovember last year.

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Apetition has been filed in theSupreme Court seeking reg-

ulation of Twitter and othersocial media platforms throughguidelines making them culpa-ble under criminal and civil lawsuntil a specific law is passed byParliament.

The petition, likely to comeup for hearing in the comingdays, claimed that due to the lackof government control and inter-vention Twitter acts as it deemsfit.

Advocate Mahek

Maheshwari, who filed the pleain personal capacity, has soughta direction to the Centre to for-mulate a framework or guide-lines to appeal against any kindof grievances against Twitter andall such social media platformswithin designated time frame tilla proper law comes into force.

The plea has also soughtdirections to frame guidelines toentrust responsibility on theofficers of ministries of elec-tronics and IT and Information& Broadcasting to deal withgrievance/complaint againstsocial media platforms.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi held a video-tele-

conference with GermanChancellor Angela Merkel onWednesday and briefed her onCOVID-19 vaccine develop-ment in India, while alsoassuring her of the country’scommitment to deploy itscapacities for the benefit of theworld.

A Prime Minister’s Officestatement said Modi appreci-ated the long-standing role ofChancellor Merkel in provid-ing stable and strong leader-

ship at the European and glob-al stage, and thanked her forguiding the growth of theIndia-Germany StrategicPartnership.

The two leaders discussedkey issues of mutual impor-tance including the responseto the COVID-19 pandemic,bilateral ties, regional andglobal issues, particularlyIndia-EU relations.

The prime ministerbriefed Chancellor Merkel onthe developments in Indiawith regard to vaccine devel-opment and assured the chan-cellor of India’s commitment

to deploy its capacities for thebenefit of the world, the state-ment said.

“He conveyed his bestwishes for early containmentof the new wave of infectionsin Germany and otherEuropean countries,” it said.

Prime Minister Modi alsowelcomed Germany’s decisionto join the International SolarAlliance (ISA), and expressedhis desire to further strength-en cooperation with Germanyunder the platform ofCoalition for Disaster ResilientInfrastructure (CDRI).

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AMuslim body moved theSupreme Court

Wednesday seeking it bemade a party in the batch ofpleas challenging the consti-tutional validity of contro-versial new laws of UttarPradesh and Uttarakhand reg-ulating religious conversionsin inter-faith marriages.

The top court earlier inthe day, issued notice to thetwo states, while agreeing to

examine the validity of theirlaws.

Jamiat Ulama-I-Hind inits application said that sim-ilar legislations are also beingenacted or planned by variousother states which also needto be declared unconstitu-tional.

It has said that the ordi-nance passed by the UttarPradesh government waspromulgated in the backdropof statements issued by theChief

Minister claiming that his

government was working tobring a strict law to curb inci-dents of “love jihad”.

“That as is evident by thestatements made by the ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradesh,the impugned ordinance waspromulgated to curb inci-dents of “love jihad” which isa terminolog y used todescribe inter-religious mar-riages, which they allegeinvolves the conversion

of the woman - either byforce or guile - to marry aMuslim man”, it said.

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Muzaffarnagar (UP): A 26-year-oldlabourer was allegedly stabbed todeath by a mason in Uttar Pradesh'sMuzaffarnagar district on Wednesdayafter he asked him to clear his duesof Rs 2,500, police said.

The labourer was identified asSalman and the incident took placeat Mandwarin Budhana police stationarea, they said. Circle Officer (CO)Girija Shankar Tripathi said themason, Shoeb Rana, allegedlyattacked Salman with a knife when anargument broke out between themover the dues the labourer had askedhim to pay. Salman died on the wayto hospital, the CO said.

The body has been sent for post-mortem and the matter is beingprobed. Efforts are under way to nabRana, who has gone abscondingafter the incident, the official said.

Tripathi said security has beentightened in the village in view of theincident. PTI

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Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh reported289 Fresh cases of COVID-19, 428recoveries and three deaths in the 24hours ending 9 am on Wednesday.

The overall infection positivityrate slid to 7.30 per cent after 1.21 croresample tests for the virus so far turnedout a total of 8,83,876 confirmed cases,the latest bulletin said. The total recov-eries climbed to 8,73,855 and deaths to7,125, leaving 2,896 active cases in thestate, it said.

Guntur reported 42, Chittoor andVisakhapatnam 40 each, East Godavari39, West Godavari 33 and Krishna 27new cases in 24 hours, the bulletinadded. The remaining seven districtsadded less than 20 cases each.

All districts now have less than 500active cases each, with Krishna the top-per seeing 59 recoveries in a day anddropping its caseload to 470.

Krishna, incidentally, crossed 48,000total positive cases on Wednesday. PTI

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Thiruvananthapuram: A total of 10,000state Government offices and public sec-tor undertakings in Kerala will bedeclared “green” on January 26, theRepublic Day. Chief Minister PinarayiVijayan would make the officialannouncement in this regard at a virtu-al function, which would be chaired byLSGD minister A C Moideen on the day.

After the declaration, functionswould be held in various offices across thestate in which the certificate for the com-pliance of the green protocol would be

submitted to its heads by the chairpersonsof the local self-government institutionsor jointly by the ward member/council-lor and a member of the green actionforce, an official statement said here.

Those offices, which avoid using plas-tic and disposable items in day-to-dayactivities and encourage the use of arti-cles that can be reused and recycled,would get the green tag. The institu-tions are going green by meeting criteriaof the Green Protocol Verification Index,it said. PTI

Gadchiroli: A 25-year-old manhas been Killed by Naxals onsuspicion of being a policeinformer in Gadchiroli dis-trict of Maharashtra, an officialsaid on Wednesday.

Some ultras forcibly tookaway the victim, Vinod Madavi,to a forested area on Tuesdaynight from his house in Kothi(Tola) village in Bhamragadtehsil of the district.

The body of Madavi bear-ing injuries inflicted with sharpweapons and his headsmashed, was found near thevillage on Wednesday morning,he said. PTI

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After remaining grounded forfour days during a fresh spell

of snowfall between January 3-6,Srinagar Airport authorities onWednesday announced the flightoperations would begin fromJanuary 7 to clear the rush ofstranded passengers.

The information was sharedby the Srinagar AirportAuthorities along with images ofongoing snow clearing opera-tions.

Large number of tourists werestranded in different parts ofKashmir valley after a fresh spellof snowfall grounded all theincoming and outgoing flightssince January 3. As the weatherconditions improved partially onWednesday the snow clearing

operations were launched on warfooting to clear the runway forflight operations. The Twitterhandle of Srinagar Airport post-ed a tweet which stated, “TheAirport Authority of India exec-utives at Srinagar Airport havebeen working very hard in coor-dination with Beacon staff andcontinuously monitoring the areato avoid snow accumulation inapron area keeping in view thatstranded passengers may reach totheir destination “

Ironically, travelers hoping tovisit the cold desert region ofLadakh may have to wait a littlelonger.

The snow clearing operationsin the newly created UnionTerritory of Ladakh were beingdone manually at an altitude of9800 ft above sea level.

This interesting piece of infor-mation was shared by the AirportDirector, Leh Airport himself.

In a series of tweets, the

Airport Director said,”At 9,800 ftabove sea level, Leh Airport wokeup to a snow covered valley. Withtemperatures as low as -12°C, the

snow removal process from theapron of KBR Airport is donemanually in extreme tempera-tures”. Posting a picture of anongoing inspection visit, theAirport Director in his secondtweet said, “AAI Leh officers in theprocess of inspecting snowremoval from Leh Airport apronso that flights can be operated.Snow removal at Leh Airport isdone manually presently. Talks forprocurement of snow removalmachines at headquarter level”.

According to the MeTdepartment the temperature inLeh hovered around -10 degreescelsius on Wednesday. “Day'smaximum temperature wouldhover at -7°c, while minimumtemperature is predicted to be -14°c”, the MeT department reportsaid.

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Trinamool Congress MPAbhishek Banerjee again

slapped a libel notice on UnionMinister of State Babul Supriyofor making defamatory remarksagainst him and has asked him toapologise within 72 hours.

This is the second such inci-dent, as Supriyo is already con-testing a previous defamation suitfiled by the same petitioner. Acivil court issued an injunctionorder against the Minister lastDecember directing him not touse libelous language againstBanerjee. The MP has threatenedthe Union Minister with con-tempt proceeding for his latestremark.

The immediate trigger forthe legal action was a remarkmade by Supriyo who said thatthe alleged “Bhaipo” (nephew)being referred to by the opposi-tion parties including the BJPleaders while referring to cor-ruption charges was none otherthan Abhishek Banerjee who isalso the nephew of Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee.The Minister had earlier

accused Banerjee of benefitingfrom the coal and cow smugglingracket against which a CBI inves-tigation was on saying the oftrepeated word Bhaipo stood fornone other than the juniorBanerjee.

The CBI investigating therackets has been after two busi-nessmen Lala and Mishra whohad alleged connection with theTrinamool Congress’ topmostechelon and who reportedlyacted as a medium of moneytransfer in the mutli-crore cowand coal scam. Properties ofboth the businessmen, who havegone underground, been sealed.

Meanwhile, in a related

development the Chief Ministeron Wednesday paid a suddenvisit to the Raj Bhavan meetingGovernor Jagdeep Dhankhar formore than an hour. With no lovelost between the two constitu-tional authorities the meeting isseen as extraordinary as it tookplace after a gap of about 11months.

In fact the Governor made acircuitous attack on the StateGovernment and the ruling partyon Wednesday morning sayingpolitical violence should beshunned and Bengal should pre-sent itself as a violence free stateinsofar as the conduct of electionswere concerned. He also criti-cized the way the national BJPleaders were referred to as “out-siders” by the TMC leadership inBengal.

Elsewhere more TMC lead-ers continued to speak incoher-ently --- the latest being RathinChakrabarty the Mayor ofHowrah.

Alleging that all was notwell in the Trinamool scheme ofthings Chakrabarty said while

reerring to the resignation ofState Sports Minister and formercricketer Laxmi Ratan Shukla“the issues that had to beaddressed had never beenaddressed despite attention of thetop leadership was drawn tosolve them … this is why manypeople are today quitting theparty.”

On whether he was thinkingof quitting the party he quotedthe famous words of SriRamakrishna Paramhansa saying“jato mat, tato path” implyingthere are as many roads as hereare views.

Apart from Chakrabarty,senior Minister Rajib Banerjee’sconduct too continued to both-er the TMC leadership with thesaid leader continuing to skip theCabinet meeting besides main-taining a cold silence.

“He is not in touch with anyenior leader neither has he clar-ified his stance with the ChiefMinister after speaking in pub-lic about the ongoing nepotismin the party,” a TMC insider said.

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In what could be a major embarrass-ment to the Government of Kerala as

well as the police, the Kerala HighCourt on Wednesday set aside the ver-dict of the trial court in the infamousWalayar Sex Abuse case and orderedretrial of the case.

A bench of Justices A Hariprasadand M R Anitha lambasted the KeralaPolice, prosecution and the Protectionof Children from Sexual Offences(POCSO) Court at Palakkad for goof-ing up the case through lackadaisicalprobe and trial.

The High Court also set aside theacquittal of all the four accused in thecase. They have been asked to presentthemselves before the court on January20. But Pradeep, one of the accused hadcommitted suicide after the trial courtverdict.

All the accused are reportedlyCPI(M) activists and associates ofparty leaders.

Two Dalit sisters aged 13 and ninerespectively at Walayar in Palakkadudistrict were found dead under myste-rious conditions in January and Marchof 2017. The autopsy had found thatboth the girls were victims of ‘cruel sex-ual abuse’.

Though there were enough hintsand evidences suggesting foul playbehind the deaths, the police looked theother way and did not pursue the caseby applying the mind, said the verdict.The justices said the POCSO Courtjudges and the police needed basictraining in dealing with cases like this.

The mother of the victims said afterthe High Court verdict that the CBIshould be entrusted with the investi-gation of the case as the parents had lostconfidence in the Kerala Police. Thefather of the girls told the media thathe was under pressure by the police toown up the responsibility behind thedeaths. “I was told be the police thatthey would make sure that I was set freeduring the trial,” he said.

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Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress onWednesday accused the BJP of pro-ducing fake news items and describedsaffron party leaders visiting WestBengal from outside the state as“tourists” who have no idea of its her-itage and language.

Senior TMC MP and partyspokesperson Dr Kakoli GhoshDastidar also charged the BJP with seek-ing to cling to power by “killing peo-ple, instigating riots and dividing peo-ple”. “They (BJP) are flush with cash.They have deployed some youngsters ina big building to churn out one fakenews after another,” she said.

Referring to certain videos andnews items being circulated on socialmedia, Ghosh Dastidar described themas “fake news produced from the fac-tory of the BJP”.

She alleged that the saffron party isbringing in leaders from outside thestate who utter “wrong Bengali wordswith distorted accent. In West Bengal,the BJP has turned into a party of

tourists.”These “visitors” are ignorant of the

heritage and traditions of West Bengalas they sit on the chair of icons likeRabindranath Tagore and place theirown photo above that of the Nobel lau-reate poet in festoons, she alleged.

Ahead of Union Home MinisterAmit Shah's visit to Bolpur close toSantiniketan, which is famous as theRabindranath Tagore's abode for longyears, in December, hoardings with hispicture above that of the bard in thesame frame appeared in the town caus-ing outrage. The hoardings were laterremoved.

“Tagore had composed the song,'Amar Sonar Bangla' (My GoldenBengal). The BJP is also promising tomake a sonar Bangla (after coming topower in the state). But these people areinsulting the state and its people by dis-torting Bengali words by pronouncingthem incorrectly.

“They have no idea about the sac-rifice of thousands of Bengalis for the

language. They only know how to van-dalise the bust of Vidyasagar and sit onthe chair used by Tagore,” GhoshDastidar said.

A bust of the iconic social reformerwas desecrated in a college in Kolkataduring Amit Shah's roadshow in May2019. The TMC alleged that BJPactivists were behind the incident.

Shah had also visited Visva-Bharatiuniversity in December and went to theRabindra Bhavan, a museum, and theUpasana Griha (the prayer hall) andother buildings on the campus.

There were reports on social mediathat Shah had sat on Tagore's chair dur-ing the visit. However, it was not con-firmed by the university authorities. Stating that several BJP lead-ers from outside Bengal are visitingNorth 24 Parganas district in which herconstituency Barasat is located, GhoshDastidar said, “They may not be awarethat a revolutionary like Titumir wasborn on the soil of district, they don'tknow Bengal.” PTI

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Pakistan’s overall criminaljustice system on terrorismis a creaking sham, not justowing to the complicity of

the politico-military-clergy triad butalso due to the compromised natureof the two essentials of any crimi-nal justice system, i.e. prosecutionand the judiciary. Despite variousAnti-Terrorism Acts (ATAs), Anti-Terrorism Courts (ATCs) and evenmore grandiloquent NationalAction Plan (NAP) — the convic-tion rates in terror cases in Pakistanremain abysmally low, if at all theconvictions take place. The judicia-ry has historically been an integralpart of the Pakistani establish-ment’s machinations as exemplifiedin the mid-50s when Chief JusticeMuhammad Munir had propound-ed the “doctrine of necessity” tolegalise General Ayub Khan’s extra-legal takeover of the country by sug-gesting that “which is otherwise notlawful is made lawful by necessity”.But the fickle nature of intrigues andinter-institutional one-upmanshipcan result in the judiciary taking onthe politicians and Generals also —not necessarily to uphold the law butpursuant to their own institution-al turf wars. A special court tryingthe former Pakistan Army chief andPresident, Pervez Musharraf, hadstunningly announced for him thedeath penalty by majority votes(which was later overturned); and,more recently, the Pakistani ChiefJustice had rejected a petitioner’slast-minute withdrawal plea thathad initially challenged the exten-sion of the Pakistan Army chief ’stenure. It was followed by a tensethree-day drama which kept thepoliticos and the Generals on thetenterhooks. The wheels-within-wheels of manipulation and vestedinterests by all the competing armsof governance have ensured the per-petuation of the rot that facilitates“terror nurseries”.

Pakistan is precariously poisedto potentially get “blacklisted” forsupporting and financing terror andis under constant review by thewatchdog agency, the FinancialAction Task Force (FATF). But a fewweeks ago, the Sindh High Courthad set aside the provincialGovernment’s detention orders per-taining to the four terrorists held forthe abduction and gruesome mur-der of US journalist Daniel Pearl.The horrifying case of the journal-ist’s decapitation had shocked theconscience of the internationalcommunity but the provincial courtdeclared it “null and void” and notwarranting “any sort of detention”.The acting Attorney-General of theUS, Jeffrey Rosen, indignantly

remarked that the “separate judi-cial rulings reversing convictionand ordering release are anaffront to terrorism victimseverywhere”, and the family of thejournalist called it a “travesty ofjustice”. For its part, India is wellversed with the Pakistani judicialsystem as a similar fate wasbestowed upon the likes of HafizSaeed, Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhviand the other masterminds of theMumbai 26/11 carnage who areoften “detained”, “kept underhouse arrest” and even “sen-tenced” to appease the interna-tional community and keep theFATF proceedings from reachingharsh and punitive action, but areable to indulge in their nefariousactivities nonetheless.

Intelligence sources hadnamed the terror and Sunni-supremacist organisation,Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, as being oneof the key participants in theDaniel Pearl murder case. Thedilly-dallying, obsequiousnessand the long rope afforded by thecourts to such organisationsensure that they continue tothrive irrespective of their crimes.The complicated history of thePakistani military and its intelli-gence agency, the Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI), in nurturingand supporting such outfits fromtime to time has always ensuredthat there are crucial “contacts”and “sympathisers” within themilitary and the additional pusil-lanimity by other levers like thejudiciary, completely enfeeblingthe anti-terror commitmentsthat exist only in name.Unsurprisingly, last week, the

same Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and ISIL(ISIS) cadres were said to havekilled 11 Hazara Shia coal min-ers after abducting them, tying uptheir hands and shooting them incold blood — another statisticwas added to Pakistan’s bloodysocietal violence that isunmatched in its brutality, andapparent acquiescence andleniency from the Government’sside, at the same time.

To add insult to injury in thelamentable circus that besetsPakistan, Minister for HumanRights Shireen Mazari inconceiv-ably said: “India-funded terror-ists in Balochistan are gettingmore desperate as developmentcomes to the province!” The real-ity of the supposed “develop-ment” in the region barely masksthe fact that the persecuted ShiaHazara community, from whichthese miners had come, is hud-dled in two heavily guardedghettos in Quetta and surround-ed by high walls and barbed wire,after hundreds of them werekilled in sectarian violence overthe past couple of decades. Forthe religious minorities and the“deemed minorities” like Shias,Ahmediyas and several others,justice is a far cry.

Even if the odd individualwishes to stand up for justice andfor upholding the constitutionalprovisions, the societal regressionthat envelops the Pakistani judi-cial system is all-pervasive andpowerful, as was seen when theproud murderer Mumtaz Qadri(who had killed Punjab GovernorSalman Taseer in broad daylight)was showered with rose petals bythe resident lawyers when heattended court. The judge whofinally gave Qadri the death sen-tence had to face an impromptustrike by the District BarAssociation, had his office van-dalised and was forced into exileout of the country, fearing for hislife. Further, the witness protec-tion programmes in Pakistan arecompletely ineffective as “influ-ential” bodies routinely and

brazenly ensure intimidationand retractions, and people aresimply too scared to testify.

The patent sophistry ofascribing the booming terrornetwork in Pakistan onto the so-called “non-State actors” is abogey that has lost all credibili-ty. No such apparatus or ecosys-tem can survive for so long withsuch impunity despite so manyActs, laws and military exercis-es aimed at “uprooting terror” —unless the elements of the law-makers (politicos), law enforcers(police/paramilitary), military,religio-social leaders and thejudiciary themselves are hand inglove with the perpetrators.Indeed, many a time these terrorelements also turn onto their one-time benefactors to settle scoresand, therefore, the disentangle-ment of the murky terror wiringsis not very obvious, linear or sim-ple, given the multiplicity of theindividual and institutional cross-support afforded to them fromtime to time. Therefore, PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan’sunconvincing posturing as the“victim of terror” is akin to cry-ing wolf as the Frankensteinianreality convinces nobody. Thequartet of Pakistan’s military-politicians-clergy-judiciary cannever come clean or abort theirinter-linkages with such ele-ments. But they will do well toremember that the slippery slopeof terror spares absolutely no one.

(The writer, a military veteran, is a former Lt Governorof Andaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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������������ Sir — The 45th US PresidentDonald Trump’s adamancy togive up his office despite havinglost to his political rival JosephBiden comes across as a bizarrechallenge to the very ideals, val-ues, norms and standards theworld’s oldest democracy standsfor. Joe Biden’s oath-taking cer-emony, scheduled for January 20,remains just a fait accompli now.

That the outgoing USPresident’s defeat seems to benot going down well with himis evident from his desperateattempt to overturn the publicverdict in the recently-heldpresidential election, given therecent revelations about a phonecall that he made to theSecretary of State in Georgia thathe would “fight like hell” to holdon to the presidency.

At the end of the day, bothPresident-elect Joe Biden andVice President-elect KamalaHarris have jointly beenentrusted with a major respon-sibility to uphold the unity ofthe US which seems to besharply divided in ‘Blue’ and‘Red’ States. The world is close-ly observing.

Azhar A KhanRampur

����������������������Sir — The seventh round oftalks between farmers and theCentral Government have failedand the next round of talks isslated for January 8. The Centreis dragging the issue and does-n’t seem to be interested in real-ly solving the problem.

The demands of thousandsof farmers who are protesting in

severe cold and rain at Delhi’sborders cannot be ignored insuch an apathetic manner. Thefarmers are adamant on theirdemands for the repeal of threenew farm laws and a legal guar-antee on the Minimum SupportPrice (MSP) but the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi-ledNDA Government is in nomood to concede to their

demands. Keeping in view thelarge section of people from allwalks of life supporting theagrarian protest, theGovernment must take it seri-ously and resolve to end thestalemate, else it would prove tobe counterproductive for theincumbent regime.

Bhagwan ThadaniMumbai

���������������������Sir — The entrepreneurship inthe fields of livestock and fish-eries has proved to be a game-changer for the rural economy.Livestock contributes hand-somely to the income of smallfarm families and provides self-employment to millions of peo-ple, especially the villagers. Ithas contributed significantly tothe empowerment of women byincreasing their income. Insteadof migrating to cities foremployment, the youth musttake to livestock farming.

The Government shoulddo advance research andencourage farmers to adopt anintegrated farming approach. Apublic-private partnership forsustainable livestock rearingshould also be promoted, not tomention the need to haveadvance technological inter-vention and increase in marketconnectivity and processingchain. The Centre, along withthe State Governments, shouldframe a comprehensive policyfor the same.

Dr Satywan Saurabh Hisar

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All of us are aware from the days of our child-hood that the highest mountain peak in theworld is Mount Everest and it was named

after George Everest. It was only much later thatone came to know that Sir George Everest was theSurveyor-General of India and the peak was sonamed as he had “discovered” it to be the highestin the world. As the Surveyor-General he had hisoffices at Dehradun and used to stay in Mussoorie.He left India in 1843, almost 200 years ago, but hishouse in Mussoorie is still being preserved and isnow a place of tourist interest.

The truth, however, is somewhat different. Itis indeed a fact that Sir George Everest was theSurveyor-General of India from 1830 to 1843, butit is also a fact that during his tenure, MountEverest, as we know it today, was known only aspeak XV. Everest had neither initiated the processof measuring the height of this peak, nor was heinstrumental in its naming, which was done muchlater, long after he had proceeded to England, toenjoy his retirement after 1843.

Located on the border of Nepal and Tibet,peak XV was worshipped as a holy place byTibetans, who called it Chomolungma, the moth-er goddess of the world. In Nepal this peak isknown as Sagarmatha, meaning the peak of theheavens. Even these days this peak is addressed byits traditional names both in Tibet and Nepal, whilewe have followed what was given to us by the Britishi.e. Mount Everest. In fact the name Everest wasgiven by Colonel Sir Andrew Waugh of BengalEngineers, who succeeded Everest as the Surveyor-General of India from 1844 to 1861. The circum-stances under which peak XV was named as MountEverest are rather peculiar and reveal a very biasedhandling of the matter so that the entire credit wentto the British officers of the East India Company.

Going through the historical records of theSurvey of India Volume IV, 1830 to 1843, pertain-ing to the tenure of Everest, one can at a glanceobserve that he had shown no interest in peak XVduring this time in office. It was his successorAndrew Waugh, who made the official announce-ment of peak XV being the highest-known peakof the world in 1856. The measurements had ofcourse been initiated much earlier and finalised byour own Radhanath Sikdar.

Recognising the work of the brilliant mathe-matician Radhanath Sikdar, the Government ofIndia issued a postage stamp in his honour in 2004.However, his work is of such great importance thatissuing a postage stamp and then forgetting abouthim does not do justice to him or his contribution.Ironically, it was Everest, who recruited Sikdar inthe Great Trigonometrical Survey and becameextremely fond of him. Volume IV of the HistoricalRecords of the Survey of India, pertaining to histenure, has the following mention about Sikdar.

“Radhanath is high in favour with everybody,and universally beloved in the GT Survey. You willnot know him for the same person when you seehim again, for he is no longer a puny stripling, buta hardy, energetic young man, ready to undergoany fatigue and acquire a practical knowledge ofall parts of his profession...

“There are few of my instruments which hecannot manage; and none of my computations ofwhich he is not thoroughly master… Eventuallyhe will furnish a convincing proof that the apti-tude of your countrymen for the practical, as wellas the theoretical, parts of mathematics is in no wise

inferior to that of Europeans.”“Of the qualifications of the young

man himself I cannot speak too highly.In his mathematical attainments there arefew in India, whether European orNative, who can at all compete with him,and…even in Europe those attainmentswould rank very high.”

Later, on account of a special tech-nique developed by Sikdar for accuratecomputation of heights and distancesthrough spherical trigonometry, he vir-tually became indispensable to theorganisation and rose to become theChief Computer in the office of theSurveyor-General of India. In that posi-tion he moved from Dehradun toKolkata in 1849. As to why AndrewWaugh gave the name Everest, eventhough he had left the scene long ago, isan interesting piece of history.

Had Sidney Gerald Burrard, a laterSurveyor-General of India, not acknowl-edged the good work of Sikdar througha research paper published in 1904 in thescientific journal Nature, these factswould not have come to light. He pub-lished in detail various steps taken for themeasurement of peak XV.

This, in a way, also exposed themachinations of Waugh, who had triedhis level best to take credit away fromSikdar. It is human nature that, in casesomething important is achieved, onetries to take or give credit to someone butin this case Waugh specifically men-tioned that Sikdar had nothing to do withthis work, indicating his bias.

Later, he could be seen placatingSikdar by telling him that he should behappy that the peak had been namedafter his mentor. Waugh also gave theadditional charge of the IndianMeteorological Department to Sikdar,raising his salary to �600 per month,

which was unheard for an Indian in thosedays. Clearly all these efforts were to keephim happy but away from the core of thesurvey work.

Burrard’s publication in Naturespecifically mentions that the ChiefComputer (who was Sikdar) fromKolkata (then Calcutta) had informedWaugh in 1852 that the peak designat-ed XV had been found to be higher thanany other highest measured peak in theworld at that time.

The raw data from theodolites takenfrom seven observation stations at Jirol,Mirzapur, Janjpati, Ladiva, Haripur,Minai and Doom Dongi was collected atthe trigonometrical survey at Kolkata.This was processed by Sikdar who thenconveyed to Waugh that peak XV hadbeen measured at 29,002 feet taking themean value of all the observations.Considering that the scientific instru-mentation available at that time was onlyof a rudimentary nature, the level of accu-racy reached was almost 100 per cent andthis figure has not undergone any majorchange despite the current state of tech-nological progress.

Significantly, after years of debate,China and Nepal recently agreed on aprecise elevation for Mount Everest. Thenew agreed height of 29,031 feet wasannounced at a virtual ceremony. Sucha minuscule change in the height of thepeak despite the sophisticated technol-ogy used is a great proof of Sikdar’s excel-lence.

Correspondence between Waughand Sikdar reveals that Waugh did pri-vately acknowledge the achievement ofSikdar, but did not recognise his work onrecord and in public. In his letter datedAugust 25, 1856, Waugh wrote to Sikdarthat he was glad to hear that naming thepeak as Everest had given the latter a lot

of satisfaction. Thus it is clear that thename Everest was given to ensure thatSikdar, who could have been the right-ful claimant for credit, did not object ashe was extremely fond of Everest whohad recruited him in service. This infor-mation would have remained obscure,but for the research paper of Burrard in1904. Later, Professor Meghnad Sahaacknowledged this feat in 1938 by giv-ing Sikdar full credit. Earlier KennethMason in 1928 had recognised his workas also John Keay in his book, The GreatArc.

Changing the name of MountEverest to Mount Sikdar Everest will per-haps do full justice to Sikdar and give himworldwide recognition which was legit-imately his due, long time ago. We do nothave to seek anybody’s approval for sucha change as the rationale is well-docu-mented. Even if the world continues tocall it Everest, in India, we could still callit Sikdar Everest.

On several occasions, achievementsof Indian scientists have not been recog-nised. For instance, Sir JC Bose couldhave got the Nobel Prize for Physics orat least shared it with Marconi for hiswork on the wireless and radio.

SN Bose could have got the NobelPrize way back in 1932 for his work withEinstein on the Bose-Einstein conden-sate but at least he was recognised,though belatedly by the naming of theGod particle, Higgs-Boson after him.Naming Everest as Sikdar Everest wouldbe a recognition of a scientist whose workhas stood the test of time. Besides itwould also justifiably add to our nation-al pride.

(The writer is a former PoliceCommissioner and ex-Governor ofUttarakhand. The views expressed are per-sonal.)

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The rapidly spreading new strainof the COVID-19 virus indi-cates that the fight against the

pandemic and its fallouts is far fromover. The UK has announced a com-plete lockdown until mid-February inorder to cut the spiralling infectionrate, while India is also witnessing asudden spurt in cases of the new strainin various States. These develop-ments are bound to take a heavy tollon an already beleaguered economy.However, humanity has not lost hopeand believes that the global economywill bounce back.

The socio-economic destructionin the wake of the COVID-19 pan-

demic brought the Indian economyto its knees. Unemployment rosesharply from 6.7 per cent in March2020 to 26 per cent in April 2020. Thistranslates to nearly 140 million peo-ple losing their jobs in a shockinglyshort span of time. The same periodalso witnessed a fall in business activ-ity from 82 per cent to 44 per cent,eventually followed by the largest-everGross Domestic Product (GDP) con-traction of minus 24 per cent in theFirst Quarter of the Financial Year2020-21.

In fact, India suffered a stagger-ing loss of �32,000 crore per day dur-ing the first 21 days of the lockdown.These tremendous economic revers-es need the intervention of innovativemeasures such as an increased focuson marginally leveraged areas such asthe ‘Blue Economy.’

The World Bank defines theBlue Economy as sustainable use ofthe global oceanic resources for eco-nomic growth, improved livelihoodsand for sustaining a healthy oceanecosystem. Originally coined byBelgian economist Gunter Pauli in

2010, the term ‘Blue Economy’ holdstremendous environmental and eco-nomic relevance for the Indian econ-omy which holds fifth position in theworld.

Judicious development of theBlue Economy is critical for thecountry’s efforts to revive its crippledfiscal health. This sector will not onlyhelp resurrect the comatose economybut can also lead to sustainablegrowth in the coming decade andbeyond. With many traditional sec-tors currently stagnated and boggeddown in the recession, India urgent-ly needs an eco-friendly and long-term sector whose economic poten-tial has not yet been fully realised.

The oceans abutting India’s near-ly 7,000-km-long coastline have thecapacity to provide just what thenation needs. According to theMinistry of Earth Sciences, current-ly the Blue Economy in India com-prises just 4.1 per cent of the GDP,which demonstrates the need to scaleup this sector.

India already has robust tradition-al oceanic activities such as fisheries,

tourism, maritime transport and soon. For the Blue Economy, theGovernment can increase its focus oncertain emerging areas such as mar-itime renewable energy, seabed extrac-tive activities, marine biotechnologyand bioprospecting. Of all theavenues, bioprospecting is the mostexciting because it has the potentialto become a long-term economicresource as it involves eco-friendlyexploration and harnessing of plantand animal species from which med-icinal drugs, biochemicals and other

commercially valuable material can beobtained. With a sea of opportunitieswaiting to be tapped, the BlueEconomy can prove to be the nextlevel of growth for India but at thesame time, we need to exerciseextreme caution in order to ensurethat any harm to the environment orthe delicate marine biodiversity is notonly predicted beforehand but alsoavoided properly. For instance, bio-prospecting can sometimes causeoverharvesting of individual specieswhich leads to their extinction. It caus-

es immense damage to the environ-ment as the role of any particularspecies in the ecosystem cannot bereplicated by any other breed. TheGovernment must also ensure that theprivate sector enterprises engaged inthe Blue Economy abide by strictnorms and regulations for safeguard-ing the marine ecosystem. Only thenwe will be able to have environmen-tally responsible economic growth forour nation.

As a first step towards leveragingthe oceans for responsible economicgrowth, India needs to up the explo-rative extent of the oceans under itspurview. This area definitely needsimprovement. Furthermore, theachievements and potential of BlueEconomy-related activities mostly gounreported which results in lessawareness among the citizens andinvestors regarding its potentiality.Therefore, it does not attract privatesector enterprises or investments andthese conditions are detrimental to itsdevelopment and growth.

The Blue Economy can turn theproverbial economic page for India as

it entails multiple socio-economicbenefits. It can not only help in liveli-hood generation, providing energysecurity and improving the health andprosperity of coastal communities butcan also increase the ecologicalresilience of the oceans surroundingIndia. If piloted properly, the BlueEconomic development drive willhelp India achieve its SustainableDevelopment Goals by 2030 andalso pave the way for marine sectorservices to assist the Indian economyto become a $10 trillion one by 2030.But careful planning and implemen-tation are needed for these goals to beachieved. Oceans constitute over 70per cent of the Earth’s surface and iftheir vast resources are harnessed witha sense of responsibility and duerespect for the environment, they canprovide infinite assets for our econ-omy. India is gifted with abundantoceanic resources making it possibleto power the country’s future with theaid of the Blue Economy.

(The writer is an environmentaljournalist. The views expressed are

personal.)

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Colombo: India on Wednesdaycalled on Sri Lanka to meet theexpectations of its minorityTamil community for equality,justice, peace and dignity with-in a united country for its“own interest”, as part of thereconciliation process.

During a joint media inter-action with his counterpartDinesh Gunawardena, ExternalAffairs Minister S Jaishankar,who is in the island nation forhis first overseas visit of theyear, underlined India's back-ing for Lanka's reconciliationprocess and an “inclusive polit-ical outlook” that encouragesethnic harmony.

“As we promote peace andwell-being in the region, Indiahas been strongly committed to

the unity, stability and territo-rial integrity of Sri Lanka. Oursupport for the reconciliationprocess in Sri Lanka is long-standing, as indeed for aninclusive political outlook thatencourages ethnic harmony,” hesaid.

“It is in Sri Lanka's owninterest that the expectations ofthe Tamil people for equality,justice, peace and dignity with-in a united Sri Lanka are ful-filled. That applies equally tothe commitments made by theSri Lankan government onmeaningful devolution, includ-ing the 13th Amendment to theConstitution,” Jaishankaradded.

The progress and prosper-ity of Sri Lanka will surely be

advanced as a consequence, heasserted.

The 13th Amendment pro-vides for devolution of powerto the Tamil community. Indiahas been pressing Sri Lanka toimplement the 13th amend-ment which was brought inafter the Indo-Sri Lankanagreement of 1987.

His remarks assume sig-nificance in the backdrop ofmoves by the ruling Sri LankaPeople's Party (SLPP) allies tomount a public campaign forabolition of Sri Lanka's provin-cial councils system.

The SLPP's Sinhala major-ity hardliners have been advo-cating a total abolition of theisland's provincial council sys-tem established in

1987. The issue of Tamil recon-

ciliation process had also fig-ured prominently at a virtualsummit between PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andhis Sri Lankan counterpartMahinda Rajapaksa inSeptember last year.

Modi had pitched for fullimplementation of the consti-tutional provision by the SriLankan government to ensuredevolution of powers to theminority Tamil community.

While expressing India'scommitment to help enhanceLanka's capability to deal withgrowing maritime challenges,Jaishankar said New Delhi alsolooked forward to the earlyreturn of the Indian fishermen

detained in the island nation.Jaishankar said India-Sri LankaJoint Working Group hadrecently met and discussed alloutstanding issues related tofisheries in an open and candidmanner. “We naturally lookforward to the early return ofour fishermen,” he said.

Indian fishermen, appre-hended in Sri Lanka forallegedly poaching in its terri-torial waters, were providedconsular assistance by theConsulate General of India inJaffna last week.

The Indian HighCommission here said it was intouch with the Sri LankanGovernment to facilitate theearly release of the detainedfishermen.

India and Sri Lanka lastweek held through video con-ferencing a meeting of thejoint working group on fish-eries and discussed the issuesrelated to fishermen and theways to overcome challengesposed by the COVID-19 pan-demic.

Fishermen from bothcountries are arrested fre-quently for inadvertently tres-passing into each other'swaters.

Jaishankar is on a three-dayvisit here from December 5 to7 at the invitation of his SriLankan counterpartGunawardena.

This is the first visit by aforeign dignitary to Sri Lankain the new year. PTI

.�������������0��4������ �� 5� �����������2�����Colombo: Assuring that Indiawill always be a “dependablepartner and reliable friend” ofSri Lanka, External AffairsMinister S Jaishankar onWednesday said the country isopen to strengthening its rela-tionship with Colombo on thebasis of “mutual trust, mutualinterest, mutual respect andmutual sensitivity”.

Speaking at a joint mediabriefing here with his SriLankan counterpart DineshGunawardena, Jaishankar alsosaid that the coronavirus pan-demic has not been able to dentthe bilateral relationship andthat the two countries are now

looking at post-COVID coop-eration.

“COVID hasn't been ableto dent our bilateral coopera-tion. In fact, high level contactswere maintained and indeedstrengthened during the pastyear and the virtual summitbetween our prime ministerswas a high watermark for us in2020,” he said.

Jaishankar, who earlier metPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa,said he discussed cooperationfor post-COVID health andeconomic recovery. “India willbe a reliable partner in SriLanka's development,” he said. PTI

Beijing China's Governmenton Wednesday accusedWashington of misusingnational security as an excuseto hurt commercial competi-tors after President DonaldTrump signed an order ban-ning transactions with pay-ment services Alipay andWeChat Pay and six otherapps.

Tuesday's order escalateda conflict with Beijing overtechnology, security and spyingaccusations that has plunged U.S.-Chinese relationsto their lowest level in decades.

It followed confusion infinancial markets after the NewYork Stock Exchangeannounced last week it wouldremove three Chinese phonecompanies and then withdrewthat plan Monday. AP

Washington: President Donald Trump has signed an exec-utive order barring transactions with eight Chinese appsincluding Alipay and WeChat Pay to protect America'snational security, citing the steps taken by India to ban morethan 200 Chinese connected software applications.

Trump's order said action is needed to “deal with thenational emergency” caused by the “pervasiveness of thespread” of apps created and controlled in China.

The ban against the eight Chinese apps -- Alipay,CamScanner, QQ Wallet, SHAREit, Tencent QQ, VMate,WeChat Pay, and WPS Office -- will come into effect in 45days from Tuesday.

“The pace and pervasiveness of the spread in the UnitedStates of certain connected mobile and desktop applicationsand other software developed or controlled by personsChina, to include Hong Kong and Macau (China), continueto threaten the national security, foreign policy, and econ-omy of the United States,” Trump said on Tuesday.

“At this time, action must be taken to address the threatposed by these Chinese connected software applications,”Trump said in his executive order.

The orders follow two others Trump signed in Augustbanning dealings with the popular video app TikTok as wellas the main WeChat app.

Trump said that India has banned the use of more than200 Chinese connected software applications throughoutthe country. PTI

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London: A British judge onWednesday denied bail toWikiLeaks founder JulianAssange, ordering him toremain in a high-securityprison while U.K. Courtsdecide whether he will be sentto the United States to face espi-onage charges.

District Judge VanessaBaraitser said Assange mustremain in prison while thecourts consider an appeal byU.S.

Authorities against herdecision not to extradite him.

The judge said Assange“has an incentive to abscond”and there is a good chance hewould fail to return to court iffreed.

On Monday, Baraitserrejected an American requestto send Assange to the U.S. AP

Geneva: The head of the WorldHealth Organization said onTuesday that he is “disappoint-ed” Chinese officials haven'tfinalised the permissions toallow a team of experts intoChina to examine the origins ofCOVID-19.

WHO Director-GeneralTedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,in a rare critique of Beijing, saidmembers of the internationalscientific team began departingfrom their home countries overthe last 24 hours as part of anarrangement between WHOand the Chinese government.

“Today, we learned thatChinese officials have not yetfinalized the necessary permis-sions for the team's arrival inChina,” Tedros said during anews conference in Geneva. AP

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Ajoint session of the USCongress, presided over

by Vice President Mike Pence,on Wednesday is scheduled tocount the result of theNovember 3 presidential elec-tion and officially confirm theElectoral College votes won byPresident-elect Joe Biden andVice President-elect KamalaHarris.

However, a large numberof Republican lawmakers,including more than 100members of the House ofRepresentatives and over adozen Senators, are expectedto raise their opposition to thecounting of votes and electionresults.

“When the Congressmeets tomorrow, this resound-ing victory will be recognised,and Joe Biden and KamalaHarris will be officially

declared the next Presidentand Vice President of theUnited States,” House ofRepresentatives SpeakerNancy Pelosi said in her “DearColleague letter” on Tuesday.

Observing that the JointSession should be a solemnoccasion, Pelosi said there areno speaking roles during thesession, except for announcingthe votes of the states.

“If Republicans bring achallenge to a state, we thenbreak into separate House andSenate sessions to debate. Thestate delegations and our lead-ers – Representatives ZoeLofgren, Jamie Raskin, AdamSchiff and Joe Neguse – havebeen working on ourDemocratic presentation ofthe Constitutional, historicaland thematic justification forrespecting the will of the peo-ple,” Pelosi said.

Washington: Vice President Mike Pence has toldDonald Trump that he lacked the power to challengePresident-elect Joe Biden's victory in the November3 election despite the US president's insistence thathe did not, according to a media report.

The New York Times reported on Tuesday thatPence delivered the message to Trump during hisweekly lunch with the president.

Pence is set to preside over the US Senate onWednesday as it receives the results of the state-by-state Electoral College that determines the winnerof presidential election.

Biden, a Democrat, beat Trump 306-232 in theElectoral College and in the popular vote by morethan 7 million ballots. Trump, a Republican, has notconceded the election, reiterating unverified claimsthat the presidential polls were rigged.

Dozens of lawsuits by his campaign challeng-ing election results have failed in US courts.

“Vice President Mike Pence told PresidentTrump on Tuesday that he did not believe he hadthe power to block congressional certification ofJoseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory in the presidential elec-tion despite Mr Trump's baseless insistence that hedid,” the daily reported, citing unnamed peoplebriefed on the conversation. Trump, however, hasdecried the report as “fake news”, asserting that Pencenever told him what the report said. PTI

Washington: Thousands of supporters of DonaldTrump have converged here to attend a massive rallyto be addressed by the US president on Wednesdayin protest against what he alleges to be a rigged pres-idential election.

“Washington is being inundated with peoplewho don't want to see an election victory stolen byemboldened Radical Left Democrats. Our Countryhas had enough, they won't take it anymore! Wehear you (and love you) from the Oval Office.MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Trump saidin a tweet on Tuesday.

Trump is scheduled to address the rally at about11 a.M. The rally is being held at the same time,when in a joint session, the US Congress is sched-uled to count the votes of the Electoral College andcertify the results of the November 3 presidentialelection.

Trump, the Republican incumbent, has notconceded the election, reiterating unverified claimsthat the presidential polls were rigged. Dozens oflawsuits by his campaign challenging election resultshave failed in US courts. Biden, a Democrat, is setto be inaugurated as the 46th US President onJanuary 20.

Thousands of Trump supporters gathered at var-ious places in downtown Washington with postersand banners “Stop the steal” to “Trump is my pres-ident.” US media feared a violent clash betweenRepublican and Democratic supporters. PTI

Brussels: The European Unioncalled for the immediate release onWednesday of the 53 former law-makers and pro-democracyactivists who have been arrested inHong Kong after beingaccused of violating a new securi-ty law.

The mass arrests, including offormer lawmakers, were the largestcrackdown on Hong Kongs democ-racy movement since the law wasimposed by China last June to quelldissent in the semi-autonomous ter-ritory.

EU spokesman Peter Stanotold a press conference that thearrests send the “signal that politi-cal pluralism is no longer tolerat-ed in Hong Kong.”

He added that the security lawis being used “to crush dissent andstifle the exercise of human rightsand political freedoms.” AP

Hong Kong: Hong Kong police arrested 53former lawmakers and democracy proponentson Wednesday for allegedly violating the newnational security law by participating in unof-ficial election primaries for the territory's leg-islature last year.

The mass arrests, including of former law-makers, were the largest move against HongKong's democracy movement since the lawwas imposed by Beijing last June to quell dis-sent in the semi-autonomous territory.

“The operation today targets the activeelements who are suspected to be involved inthe crime of overthrowing, or interfering(and) seriously destroy the Hong Kong gov-ernments legal execution of duties,” John Lee,Hong Kong's security minister, said at a newsconference.

He said those arrested were suspected oftrying to paralyze the government, via theirplans to gain a majority of the seats in the leg-islature to create a situation in which the chiefexecutive had to resign and the governmentwould stop functioning.

In a video released by former lawmaker

Lam Cheuk-ting on his Facebook page,police turned up at his house and told himhe was “suspected of violating the nationalsecurity law, subverting state power.” Policetold those recording the video to stop or riskarrest.

The legislative election that would havefollowed the unofficial primaries was post-poned by a year by Hong Kong ChiefExecutive Carrie Lam, who cited the publichealth risks during the coronavirus pandemic.Mass resignations and disqualifications of pro-democracy lawmakers have left the legislaturelargely a pro-Beijing body.

Lee said the police would not target thosewho had voted in the unofficial primaries,which were held in July last year and attract-ed more than 600,000 voters even though pro-Beijing lawmakers and politicians had warnedthe event could breach the security law.

All of the pro-democracy candidates inthe unofficial primaries were arrested, accord-ing to tallies of the arrests being reported bythe South China Morning Post, online plat-form Now News and political groups. AP

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Housing sales fell 37 per centyear-on-year during the

2020 calendar year while grossoffice space leasing declined 35per cent on low demandbecause of the coronaviruspandemic, but demandimproved significantly in thelast quarter to cross pre-COVID level, property con-sultant Knight Frank Indiasaid on Wednesday.

In its ‘India Real Estate -Residential and Office UpdateH2 2020’ report released onWednesday, the consultantreported that sales of residen-tial properties fell 37 per centto 1,54,534 units in 2020 acrosseight cities as compared with2,45,861 units in the previousyear. Similarly, the gross office

space absorption declined 35per cent to 39.4 million sq ftfrom 60.6 million sq ft.

However, both housingsales and gross office leasingduring October-December2020 were higher than the cor-responding period of the pre-vious year. The sales of resi-dential properties in the fourthquarter of the 2020 calendaryear rose to 61,592 units from58,402 units in the year-agoperiod on pent-up and festivedemand, while office absorp-tion increased to 17.5 millionsq ft from 16.4 million sq ft.

As per the annual data,housing sales fell in all eightmajor cities during 2020, withdemand falling most inAhmedabad and least in Pune.In the office market,Hyderabad witnessed maxi-mum decline in leasing activ-ities and Ahmedabad the least.

Knight Frank India trackseight property markets --Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Chennai,Kolkata, Bengaluru,Hyderabad, Pune, and

Ahmedabad.In the residential proper-

ty market, housing sales fell 18per cent in Pune to 26,919 unitsduring 2020 from 32,809 unitsin the previous year, whileMumbai saw 20 per centdecline at 48,688 units from60,943 units. The Maharashtragovernment’s decision to tem-porarily cut stamp duty on reg-istration of properties led tohigher sales in Mumbai andPune region during the lastfour months of the 2020 cal-endar year, the consultant said.

Housing sales in Delhi-NCR decreased 50 per cent to21,234 units in 2020 from42,828 units in the previousyear, while demand slumped 51per cent in Bengaluru to 23,579units from 48,076 units.

In Chennai, sales fell 49per cent to 8,654 units in 2020from 16,959 units in the pre-vious year. The sales of resi-dential properties inHyderabad declined 38 percent to 10,042 units from16,267 units. Kolkata saw 21

per cent fall in sales to 8,912units from 11,266 units.

Ahmedabad was worst hit,with sales down by 61 per centto 6,506 units in 2020 from16,713 units in the previousyear."Despite the on-going pan-demic, the H2 2020 salesgrowth in some cities is fairlyencouraging. In Q3 2020, thereal estate market started wit-nessing revival signs, furtherrecording a significantimprovement in home salesduring Q4 2020," Knight FrankIndia CMD Shishir Baijal said.

Out of the total salesnumber in the second half of2020, he said Mumbai andPune contributed around 50per cent in home sales.

"This marvellous perfor-mance can be largely attributedto the state government’s deci-sion of reducing stamp duty inMaharashtra. The other stategovernments would need tojump into the bandwagon oroffer something similar to bol-ster demand across their mar-kets," Baijal said.

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Agriculture MinisterNarendra Singh Tomar on

Wednesday said a large num-ber of farmers from across thecountry are coming out insupport of three farm lawsand urged protesting unions tounderstand the sentimentsbehind reforms broughtthrough these legislations.

He also expressed confi-dence that the protestingunions will focus on farmers’interests and help the govern-ment reach a solution throughconstructive dialogue.

Speaking to reporters aftermeeting a group supporting thelaws, Tomar said the govern-ment is committed towards allfarmers of the country and

their interests."Therefore, we are meet-

ing those farmers who arecoming out in support of thethree laws, in addition to acontinuing dialogue with thoseopposing the Acts," the minis-ter said.

He further said, "A largenumber of farmers from acrossthe country are coming out insupport of the laws.

We are meeting them andalso getting their letters andphone calls. We welcome andthank all of them."

Seven rounds of talksbetween the government andrepresentatives of protestingfarmers have failed to resolve along-running agitation againstthe three laws enacted inSeptember.

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The non-food componentin the price basket will

continue to keep inflation at ahigh level and result in a "longpause" in interest rates, a for-eign bank said on Wednesday.

The central bank is likelyto pare the pandemic-drivenemergency response as well, thereport by Singaporean lenderDBS said.It can be noted thatthe high inflation driven by thefood prices has forced the RBIto go for a status quo in ratesfor the three consecutivereviews of the bi-monthly pol-icy meetings, even as growthcontinues to be in the negativeterritory. The RBI expects theGDP to contract by 7.5 per centfor FY21.The bank report saidover a six month period, foodinflation is likely to ease, butnon-food may be sticky onaccount of rigidity in domesticfuel taxation, marginal hikes inmanufacturing costs aftermonths of the shutdown, com-

modity price rises, telecomprice adjustments and return indemand impulses in certaincore categories.The recent rallyin commodities lends to freshcost-push impact, especiallyindustrial metals, it said, point-ing out that generic steel hot-rolled coil futures are up byover 80 per cent since late-September 2020, while on oil,Brent crude rallied 30 per centin the December quarter.

"While India’s CPI inflationis expected to ease, 2021 aver-age inflation will stay above the4 per cent target. Room for out-right rate cuts is, thereby, lim-ited, but the central bank willsettle into a long pause, with abias to anchor rates throughstrong dovish guidance," asper the report.

It added that an upcomingreview of the inflation targetsis "unlikely" to result in a mate-rial change. The 4 per centinflation target given to theReserve Bank of India is up forreview post-March.

New Delhi:Business-to-busi-ness (B2B) e-commerce majorUdaan on Wednesday said ithas raised $280 million (about�2,048 crore) in funding fromexisting and new investors,including Lightspeed VenturePartners and Tencent.Existinginvestors of Udaan - LightspeedVenture Partners, DST Global,GGV Capital, AltimeterCapital, and Tencent - partici-pated in the latest fundingexercise, in addition to two newinvestors - Octahedron Capitaland Moonstone Capital, a state-

ment said.With the latest cap-ital infusion, Udaan has raised$ 1.15 billion in total till date.While the company did not dis-close the details around valu-ation, sources said the valuationhas crossed USD 3 billion postthis transaction.The latest cap-ital infusion is additionalfinancing to the company’sseries D round. Udaan hadannounced raising $585 mil-lion in series D funding roundin October 2019 from a clutchof investors, including China’sTencent. PTI

New Delhi:The Govt hasapproved the signing of anagreement to institutionalise amechanism for cooperationbetween India and Japan insending and accepting skilledIndian workers, who have qual-ified the skill and Japaneselanguage test. The memoran-dum of cooperation on a basicframework for partnership per-taining to "Specified SkilledWorker" between India andJapan was cleared at a meetingof the Union Cabinet chairedby Prime Minister NarendraModi.It will enhance people-to-people contacts, foster mobil-ity of workers and skilled pro-fessionals."The presentMemorandum of Cooperationwould set an institutionalmechanism for partnershipand cooperation between Indiaand Japan on sending andaccepting skilled Indian work-ers, who have qualified therequired skill and Japaneselanguage test, to work in four-teen specified sectors in Japan.

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State-owned Coal India Ltd(CIL) on Wednesday said it

is optimistic of closing thecurrent financial year withauction bookings of 120 mil-lion tonnes (MT).

CIL’s concentrated effortsto book increased volumes ofcoal under e-auction to bolstersales revenue, especially inview of the narrowed marginsin add-ons during the COVID-19 pandemic period, paid offwith the company scoring astrong 76.2 per cent growthduring April-December of thecurrent fiscal, the PSU said ina statement.

"Encouraged by the buoy-ancy in its e-auction coal sales,CIL is optimistic of closing thecurrent fiscal with auctionbookings of 120 million tonnes(MT). It would be the highestever since coal sales beganunder the auction hammer,"the PSU said.

The auction sales have sur-passed the company’s previousestimates and the companysaid that it is sure of allocating120 MT of coal by the end ofthe current fiscal.

The PSU booked 81.4 MTof coal under five auction win-dows progressive up toDecember of the current fiscal,

displaying a robust 35.2 MTvolume expansion compared to46.2 MT it booked during thesame period a year ago.

Beginning October, CILintroduced special spot auctionfor coal importers, under whichit had already booked 7.3 MTin three months.Apart fromincreased volume bookings,premium over notified pricehas been gaining steadily sinceOctober with CIL as whole net-ting a 15 per cent premiumduring April-December.Among the subsidiaries,Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL)clocked the highest 40 per centincrease over the notified priceswith Central Coalfields Ltd(CCL) and Bharat Coking CoalLtd (BCCL) registering 23 percent and 22 per cent, respec-tively.The company has iden-tified specific mines in ECL,BCCL, CCL and SECL fromwhere the response has beenpositive in e-auction and thereis potential for further increase,the company said.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will interact with

leading economists and sec-toral experts on Friday to delib-erate on measures that may beincluded in the upcoming bud-get for promoting growth, amiduncertainty on multiple frontscaused by Covid-19. The meet-ing, being organised by thegovernment think tank NitiAayog will be held virtually andwill also be attended by NitiAayog Vice Chairman RajivKumar and Niti Aayog CEOAmitabh Kant.

"The PM will meet econ-omists on Friday to seek theirinputs for the next budget," said

a government official on con-dition of anonymity. The meet-ing assumes significance asaccording to the Reserve Bankof India (RBI), India’s economyis projected to contract 7.5per cent in the current fiscalending March 31, 2021, whilethe International MonetaryFund (IMF) and World Bankestimates the contraction at10.3 per cent and 9.6 per cent,respectively. India’s economyrecovered faster than expectedin the September quarter as apick-up in manufacturinghelped GDP clock a lower con-traction of 7.5 per cent and heldout hopes for further improve-ment on better consumerdemand.

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Iron ore prices are expected tobe elevated over the near-

mid-term due to supply-sideconstraints clubbed with asimultaneous robust revival indemand post Covid-19 leddemand shocks, India Ratingsand Research said onWednesday.

In its iron ore marketreview, the agency said thedomestic supply shortage is pri-marily driven by a delay in theramp-up of Odisha iron oremines post auctions in March

2020 due to the high, unviablepremiums and Covid-19-leddisruptions.As per the review,various measures have beentaken by the central and stategovernments to address theshort supply, but they are like-ly to be insufficient in meetingdemand over the near term.

Further, it predicted a slightsoftening of prices, once sup-ply improves, it would remainat elevated levels due to thestructural change in the cost ofminers paying premium, itsaid.

The global supply side has

also been constrained by thesupply disruptions in Brazil andSouth Africa."Conversely, bothdomestic and global steel pro-duction levels have been on therise post Covid-19 disruptions.Domestic production hasimproved since 2QFY21 withoutput reaching pre-Covid lev-els,".

New Delhi:WhatsApp hasupdated its terms of service andprivacy policy regarding how itprocesses user data and part-ners with Facebook to offerintegrations across the socialmedia giant’s products. Usershave received in-app promptsinforming them of the updatein terms of use that take effecton February 8, 2021.

The message to users notedthat the key updates includemore information aboutWhatsApp’s service and how itprocesses user data; how busi-nesses can use Facebook host-ed services to store and man-age their WhatsApp chats; andhow WhatsApp partners withFacebook to offer integrationsacross the company products.

The message added thatusers will need to accept theseupdates to continue usingWhatsApp. When contacted,a WhatsApp spokesperson said,"As we’ve previously talked aspart of WhatsApp’s business

vision in October 2020, inorder to enable small busi-nesses better, we are updatingour terms of service and pri-vacy policy as we work tomake WhatsApp a great way toget answers or help from a busi-ness." The spokesperson saidthe updated terms of serviceand privacy policy includeadditional information on howthe company handles user data.

"Our updated Terms andPrivacy Policy provide moreinformation on how we processyour data, and our commit-ment to privacy. "For exam-ple, we’ve added more infor-mation about more recentproduct features (like catalogs/add to cart feature, etc) andfunctionalities, how we processyour data for safety, securityand integrity, and added moredirect links to user settings,Help Center articles and howyou can manage your infor-mation," the spokesperson said.

PTI

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New Delhi: At a time when all-out efforts are being made tocut down air pollution inDelhi-NCR, including byincentivising ways to dispose ofstubble without setting it afire,India Inc is coming forward tocontribute towards the augustcause.

New Holland Agriculturedonated farming equipment tothe Krishi Vigyan Kendra,Chhaulas, Dadri, and GreaterNoida in Gautam Budh Nagardistrict for carrying out eco-nomically viable and environ-mentally sustainable strawmanagement. Local MP DrMahesh Sharma and DadriMLA Tejpal Nagar were pre-sent on the occasion.

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Everyone is hoping that 2021will bring relief and it is

more important than ever.Taking a big leap, Bhuvan Bamhas launched Youthiapa 2.0, anincubator for the young and dri-ven youth of today to carry thefun energy while preserving alittle spice. The house ofBBkiVines’s official merchan-dise seems to not want to reston past laurels.

The idea of launchingYouthiapa 2.0 was simply to beable to express individuality,identity, boldness, and self-awareness, the characteristicswhich are predominant in theyouth. An interesting newbrand logo represents a “V”hand gesture which adds anoth-

er dimension to the brand’sidentity. It accurately describesthe youthful zeal and enthusi-asm in today’s generation. Thecollection features pieces suchas sweatshirts, hoodies, T-shirtand more which are colorful yetmature.

Staying true to the brandname, Youthiapa has remaineda consistent resource for aneveryday streetwear wardrobe.This offset carries the brand

message of “For The Youth, ByThe Youth” and is made ofpieces that have not only beendesigned to look stylish but alsoresonate with our favorite mem-ories of childhood.

Launching the collectionfor the consumers, BhuvanBam said, “Youthiapa 2.0 encap-sulates versatile and easy to wearpieces. The designs and thecolours are such that it reverber-ates with the youth. This is the

clothing that makes sense forthem today. It’s what they wantto wear, whether it’s for work,college, or [a reflection] of whatthey’re seeing on the street.”

Rohit Raj, partner atYouthiapa, said, “Every piece ofclothing features unique, signa-ture prints. Youthiapa has foundits niche as a go-to place forstreetwear staples among ourgeneration. Keeping that inmind, we have launched a cap-sule collection which will caterto a new generation of youngshoppers. As the name goes, thedesigns are developed by theline’s target audience: a hand-picked group of young, on-the-rise talent. In all its literal sense,it is ‘For The Youth, By The

Youth.’ The response has beengreat so far that we are planningto team up with experts to forayinto fragrances. That is some-thing we are really excitedabout.”

Youthiapa has erstwhilepopularly mastered the bal-ance between usability andaddressing cultural, nationaland world issues through itstongue-in-cheek fashion. It’strending slogan ‘Hustle KaroBhasad Nahi’ has caught a lot ofattention among the industryand his fans. The slogan trans-lates as a message to teenagersto galvanise and work hard,without creating any chaos —something Bhuvan considershis life’s motto.

The only underrated groupof individuals who canchange a Brideszilla to a

total Bridechilla are her squad ofloyal bridesmaids! And we doknow the importance for allbridesmaids to match up to thecharm and charisma of the bride,while not completely outshiningher!

But if you’re caught between

the madness of organising wed-ding favours and planning activ-ities and overlooking details ofvarious functions, you shouldn’thave to fret about one morething, that is looking your bestduring all the ceremonies.

It is for this reason, we pre-sent to you the ultimate list ofoutfit ideas that all bridesmaidscan take cues from for every

occasion during your bestfriend’s wedding!

EVENING OF THEENGAGEMENT

Kickstart the weddingfestivities with romanticcolours, flowy fabrics anddainty embroideries incontemporary silhouettes,such as Ridhi Mehra’s.Style your regal ensemblewith minimal jewelleryand clean pulled-back hairto complete the poshavatar!

HALDI CEREMONYServe some serious

fashion goals with warmtones, lehariya prints andimmaculate floral embroi-dery for the auspicioushaldi ceremony by design-ers Sukriti & Aakriti andGulabo Jaipur. Add thatremarkable touch to yourtraditional ensemble bystyling your dupatta overthe shoulders for a demurelook.

RITUAL OF MEHNDIChannel a vivacious

vibe for the ritual as youare caught between collat-ing all the mehndi favours

and other wedding frenzy!Gulabo Jaipur’s bright pas-tels with floral detailingand intricate thread-workreflects the essence of tra-ditional chic while Sukriti& Aakriti’s revival ofphulkari evokes a sense ofpride in our hearts — bothof which are apt for themerriment around themehndi ceremony.

SANGEET SHENANI-GANS

What can be morebreathtaking than a sareeor a lehenga for your bestfriend’s sangeet ceremo-ny? An opulent pre-drapedpant or lehenga saree byRidhi Mehra! Beautifulpearl embroidered blous-es, ruffled hems and chif-fon plush fabrics in richhues embody al l thedreamy and fun shenani-gans of the sangeet orcocktail evening.

THE SACRED VOWSBe it dolling up in the

prettiest of lehengas oradorning the most gor-geous floral jewellery,bridesmaids today are allgame for making spectac-

ular style statements,(sometimes even co-ordi-nated) for their closefriend’s pheras. Sukriti &Aakriti’s resuscitation ofthe intricate craft ofphulkari commemoratesthis special occasion whilebeing an absolute treat forthe bohemia admirers.

RECEPTION UNDERTHE STARS

As you save the bestfor the last, the evening ofthe reception demands acertain amount of extrav-agance, so no shying away!Instead, slip into thosegorgeous jewel-tonedlehengas, embellishedblouses and elaboratelyembroidered sarees andshararas to complementthe grandeur of the night.Even better, pair your min-imal looks with navratnaornate belts like RidhiMehra’s or strikingly mag-nificent dupattas by Sukriti& Aakriti.

So go big or go homefor your best friend’s wed-ding festivities this won-derful winter season asthere is no time for it suchas now!

The 2021 Grammy Awards will nolonger take place this month in Los

Angeles and will broadcast in March dueto a recent surge in Coronavirus casesand deaths.

The annual show would shift fromits original January 31 broadcast toMarch 14, according to a joint statementreleased from the Recording Academyand CBS, which broadcasts the ceremo-ny. The statement said the decision wasreached “after thoughtful conversationswith health experts, our host and artistsscheduled to appear.”

“The deteriorating COVID situationin Los Angeles, with hospital servicesbeing overwhelmed, ICUs havingreached capacity, and new guidance fromstate and local governments have all ledus to conclude that postponing our showwas the right thing to do. Nothing ismore important than the health and safe-ty of those in our music community andthe hundreds of people who work tire-lessly on producing the show,” read thestatement from Recording Academyinterim CEO Harvey Mason Jr, CBSexecutive Jack Sussman and Grammys

executive producer Ben Winston.“We want to thank all of the talent-

ed artists, the staff, our vendors and espe-cially this year’s nominees for theirunderstanding, patience and willingnessto work with us as we navigate theseunprecedented times.”

The Grammys will be held in LosAngeles at the Staples Center. LosAngeles County, the epicenter of the cri-sis in California, has surpassed 11,000COVID-19 deaths and has had 40 percent of the deaths in California. It is thethird state to reach the 25,000 deathcount.

An average of six people die everyhour from COVID-19 in Los AngelesCounty, which has a quarter of the state’s40 million residents. County healthofficials fear the incoming Christmas andNew Year’s surge.

The new Grammys date coincideswith the scheduled hosting of the ScreenActors Guild Awards, which is typical-

ly held at another downtown Los Angelesvenue, the Shrine Auditorium. Thatshow honors the best performances infilm and television.

The Daily Show host and comedianTrevor Noah is set to host the 2021Grammys, where Beyoncé is leadingcontender with nine nominations. Shescored nominations for song and recordof the year with Black Parade, which shereleased on Juneteenth, while Savage —her No. 1 collaboration with Megan TheeStallion — picked up bids for record ofthe year, best rap song and best rap per-formance.

Beyoncé’s Black Is King, which airedon Disney+, is nominated for bestmusic film while Brown Skin Girl, a songdedicated to dark- and brown-skinnedwomen, is nominated for best musicvideo. Her daughter Blue Ivy Carter singson Brown Skin Girl and also earned aGrammy nomination.

Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Roddy

Ricch, Jhené Aiko, Post Malone, RenéeZellweger, Billie Eilish and her produc-er-brother Finneas also scored nomina-tions. First-time nominees include TheStrokes, Megan Thee Stallion and HarryStyles.

Since the pandemic, a number ofawards show were postponed and laterrevamped due to COVID-19 restrictions.The BET Awards was the first majorawards show during the pandemic andwas a success thanks to its artsy, highlyproduced, well-crafted pre-taped perfor-mances. The MTV Video Music Awardsfeatured Lady Gaga winning awards andperforming onsite in a mask, and theLatin Grammys pre-taped several per-formances the week of the show, hand-ing out some of its awards to the win-ners who attended the show.

Performers at the forthcomingGrammys will be announced at a laterdate.

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The new strain ofCoronavirus has becomea major cause of con-

cern,” said Rajasthan ChiefMinister Ashok Gehlot. “Anykind of negligence towards it canland us in a huge crisis. We needto pay special attention to thetravellers coming to the statefrom other countries, includingthose affected by the virus.COVID tests and intensivescreening of the passengersshould be done. Due to the newstrain, a terrible situation hasarisen in England and lockdownhas to be imposed again. Takinglessons from this, we need totake extra precautions.Necessary ideas should be sentto the Central Governmentfrom the state regarding theimportant measures soon,” headded.

Gehlot also highlighted thatwith the best management andcooperation of the people ofRajasthan, the situation is cur-rently under control. The recov-ery rate has increased to an all-time high of 96.31 per cent. Withpositive cases being zero insome districts, the situation isgetting better. In view of this, he

advised to open schools forclasses from 9 to 12, universityand colleges, coaching centresand government training insti-tutes from January 18. Medical,Dental, Nursing andParamedical colleges were alsodirected to open from January11.

The institutions will have 50per cent attendance on the firstday and the remaining 50 percent on the second day. Teacherswill be given necessary trainingby the Health Department forprevention of compression. TheChief Minister said that all thehealth protocols, includingmasks, should be taken care ofin all institutions. They shouldbe governed under the guide-lines and SOPs of the Centre.

Medical and Health

Minister Dr Raghu Sharma saidthat special vigilance is beingdone in the state regarding thenew strain of Coronavirus. Themedical department is sendingcontact-tracing and screening ofpassengers from the UK as wellas sending them to the ICMRlab in Delhi for a sample test.

Principal Secretary, HomeAffairs, Abhay Kumar said thatthe number of positive cases inthe state has reduced. In such asituation, it is possible to conductintensive monitoring of peoplecoming from other countriesincluding the UK to preventcontraction of new strains.Government Secretary Medicaland Health Siddharth Mahajansaid that the maximum numberof active cases in the state onNovember 29 was 28,758, whichcame down to 8,189 on January4. Similarly, the number of pos-itive cases per day, whichreached 3,314 on November24, came down to 457 onJanuary 4. He also informedabout the preparations beingdone for providing vaccinationin the state.

Vice Chancellor ofRajasthan Health Sciences

University, Dr Rajababu Panwarsaid that it is necessary to be vig-ilant in the state regarding thenew strain. He said that in ourcountry, the risk of new strainwill be reduced due to goodimmunity levels of the people.

Principal of SMS MedicalCollege, Dr Sudhir Bhandarisaid, “The traffic from the affect-ed countries should be kept toa minimum. Also, effective scan-ning should be done at theentry point of all passengers. Heinformed that the facility oftesting new strains is currentlyavailable in eight institutions inthe country. In three weeks, thefacility of investigation will alsobe available in Rajasthan.”

Medical expert Dr AshokPanagadia said, “Due to the con-tinuous effort by the state gov-ernment, the concentration ofCorona in the state has beencontrolled and the death rate hasbeen very low. He also stressedon giving necessary training tohealth workers for vaccination.Other specialist doctors of SMSMedical College also expressedtheir views regarding the newstrain, vaccination and healthprotocol.”

The Ghaziabad district of Uttar Pradesh iscounted in the sensitive and developing dis-

tricts of the country. To solve the departmentalproblems of the citizens of Ghaziabad, the dis-trict administration has established an integrat-ed control room. The special thing is that nowcomplaints related to the functioning of 19 dif-ferent departments of district administration canbe easily registered under one roof. The DynamicDistrict Magistrate, Ghaziabad, Dr Ajay ShankarPandey, shares more. Excerpts:

Ever since you were appointed as theDistrict Magistrate of Ghaziabad, you havebeen facing one challenge after another butdealing with them successfully. Who would youwant to give credit to?

I took charge of Ghaziabad District on July15, 2019. It was a big challenge for me to suc-cessfully complete the Kavar Yatra. After this, themovement against the NRC and CAA, theremoval of Section 370 and the decision on RamJanmabhoomi brought challenges to the law andorder. Apart from this, the biggest challenge wasCOVID-19. During this time, it was a huge taskto provide treatment to the victims and also savethe district from rumours, but succeeded in tack-ling these challenges by way of self-confidence,public support and the support of its adminis-trative officers.

What steps have you taken to curb corrup-tion in government departments?

When I had joined, initially, there were a lotof complaints regarding corruption in the city’sgovernment departments. For the same, we madeaction plans regarding the lands so that the com-mon man can complain and his name can stayconfidential. This way, there will be no threat tohis safety. We kept a black box in the Collectoratepremises and kept the key with ourselves.Through this black box, the public filed theircomplaints in a confidential manner and afterinvestigation of these letters, many major casesof corruption were revealed. Required action wasalso taken against many officers and employees.

What about the smart development ofGhaziabad metropolis. What were the stepstaken?

I feel the National Highway of Delhi and

Meerut-Expressway should be constructed as thecountry’s first rapid rail project. We are tryingto clear all the hurdles for the progress. The con-struction of Dasna-Meerut Express was ham-pered at more than 252 points, which wereremoved after mutual discussion. Disputesrelated to land of farmers were also settled. Itsconstruction was to be completed on November30, 2020, but due to the pandemic, it had to beextended. Now, the project will be completed bythe end of this month. As far as the Rapid RailProject is concerned, land has been made avail-able on Meerut Road after talking to farmers forRapid Rail Depot.

Do you want to talk about any importantscheme which is yet to be launched for the pub-lic?

After getting the green signal from ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath, work to establish anintegrated control room in a district has begun.However, due to the pandemic, the first integrat-ed control room was established in the state,which received a very good response. Now, theintegrated control room, the problems of the gen-eral public related 19 departments, includingmedical, health and family planning, education,railway, food and logistics, disaster and relief,agriculture and pollution will be addressed. Thecontrol room will be constructed in Raj Nagar.

The ICAR-Central ResearchInstitute for Jute and

Allied Fibres (CRIJAF),Barrackpore, is dealing withresearch and promotion ofscientific production tech-nologies of jute and alliedfibre crops in the countryand now playing leadershiprole in promoting sustain-able jute based eco-farmingand eco-friendly conversion ofagricultural waste into wealth.

During last fifteen daysICAR-CRIJAF and CRIJAF-KVK, North 24 Pgs, haveorganised awareness and sen-sitisation porgramme, quizand painting competitions topropagate the message ofcleanliness and sustainableagriculture among the stu-dents, farmers and generalpublic.

The emphasis was givenfor waste recycling, vermi-composting, organic agricul-ture and by product utilisationwith special reference to juteand allied fibre crops. Being anatural fibre institute, ICAR-CRIJAF has taken many ini-tiatives on Swachhata partic-ularly in disseminating theknowledge to make wealthfrom the waste, which will ful-fill the dream of clean envi-ronment vis-a-vis higherincome for the farmers.

The institute is dedicated

to support the governmentmission on Swachha Bharatand is making all efforts inrealising the dream of cleanand green India.

India, which uses about14 million tonnes of plasticannually, lacks an organisedsystem for management ofplastic waste, leading to wide-spread littering. Realising theconsequences of plastic pollu-tion, which can handicap thesustainable developmentalgoal, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s call on min-imising the consumption andban on ‘single use of plastics’in the country has creatednationwide awareness to gofor alternate to plastics. We arefortunate that jute of whichIndia is the world’s largest pro-ducer is the best alternative toplastics.

In coming decades, it isexpected that a number of jutemills and mini-jute plantswill be seen engaged in a bigway in the production of juteand jute blended yarns formanufacturing jute bags. If abiodegradable jute bag is usedinstead of a regular plasticbag, it can reduce the amountof waste formed significantly.Consumers can be encour-aged to always carry a jute bagto put their items in whenthey go to the market.

In its 50 years of existence,Taparia Tools Limited (TTL),a hand tools manufacturing

company, has deployed everyknown right method to marketits products across the country.This was necessary as it initial-ly had formidable competition,mainly from tool manufacturesin the unorganised sector andother Indian companies. TTLtoday commands almost 70-75per cent market share in theorganised sector. Marketing ahigh quality hand tool is quitea task, says the CMD of the �500crore TTL in a market.

Taparia Tools Ltd, an ISO-9001 accredited company, start-ed manufacturing hand tools in1969 in India in technical col-laboration with a reputed com-pany by the name of AB Bahcoof Sweden. The company has awell laid out fully equipped fac-tory located at Nashik. All themanufacturing facilities requiredfor production of hand tools areunder one roof.

The company’s research anddevelopment department ismanned by mechanical engi-neers and metallurgistsequipped with latest CADdesign facilities from its incep-tion. It has laid high emphasis onthe quality of its products.

Taparia Tools are guaranteedagainst manufacturing and rawmaterial defects and are replacedfree with no questions asked.

The factory has a fullyequipped Quality AssuranceDepartment and laboratory formeticulous and continuous test-ing of materials up to the finalfinished product. All tools arebuilt tough for prolonged useand are tested to conform tostrict highest international stan-dards.

The company has receivedaward for export excellencesince 1974-75 onwards. Over theyears, TTL has developed anetwork of over 300 distributors.It has also expanded its retail

network to over 1 lakh storesacross the country. In addition,for direct marketing, the com-pany has prepared a database ofmanufacturing companies thatdo bulk purchases of hand tools.There is also an ever-increasingdemand for newer and heavierindustrial hand tools such aspipe wrenches, truck wheelspanners, flat and ring andcombination spanners.

Seeing the recent trend ofquality conscious consumersopting for ‘do-it-yourself ’ tools,the company has launched avariety of home tool kits.Taparia believes that hand toolsare an extension of a humanhand.

Rajasthan Chief MinisterAshok Gehlot gave instruc-

tions to maintain special vigi-lance in view of the death ofcrows and other birds. The birdflu (Avian Influenza) caused bythe virus H5N1 is contagious

and fatal. He said that specialincidents should be monitoredin dense bird sanctuaries. Theincidence of death of birdsincluding crows in 46 districtsof the state is a matter of con-cern. Veterinarians and bird

experts analyze these incidentsclosely and keep adequatearrangements to prevent them.

The Chief Minister saidthat people have special asso-ciation with birds here. Due tocarelessness and non-adher-

ence to protocol, this virus canalso affect humans. In view ofthis, special care needs to betaken.

Gehlot informed that atpresent there is no informationfor the spread of this disease in

chickens in Rajasthan. So far,625 birds have been reporteddead in the state, out of which122 samples have been sent toa laboratory in Bhopal. Avianinfluenza virus has been con-firmed in 29 crows.

During this pandemic,lifestyle for children across

the world has drasticallychanged. They are now mostlyconfined within the four walls oftheir apartments with variousrestrictions and are compelled tofollow the new normal. Severalexperts dealing with childrenpsychology have raised seriousconcerns over the expected neg-ative impacts of the new restric-tive lifestyle on children in par-ticular. Being worried with suchconcerns, Ruhail Choudhury, anacclaimed corporate lawyer anda social activist, who also spe-cialises in Child Rights fromHarvard University, created a

digital platform for kids acrossthe globe to share their talentand creativity. He want them toengage in constructive commu-nication and various develop-mental activities. Ruhail hasbeen involved with various socialactivities particularly relatingto the welfare of children formore than a decade now.

The digital platform pro-vides news and articles related toeducation, health and commu-nity development exercisesinvolving school students. Thewebsite also aims at developingfriendship among children ofvarious nations and therebyensures international peace and

friendship in future. To facilitatesuch objectives, it also recognis-es icons from all over the world,who have not only championedmeans of attaining global peacebut have also contributed in bet-terment of society.

The website managed toget global icons of peace —Danish Ambassador To India,Freddy Svane, CGO Tata Sonsfrom Delhi, TanmoyChakrabarty, Senior Advocate,Supreme Court of India, AnoopBose, James Strock, Lawyer andWriter from California, andAcclaimed Journalist andFormer Sheriff of Calcutta, UtpalChatterjee from Kolkata.

In many parts of the country, the lack of prop-er irrigation avenues limit farmers to culti-

vate their land only once a year. The district ofKeonjhar was no different from other parts ofthe country and in the entire district, not morethan 15 per cent of the land was sown morethan once.

To cope with the challenge of limited irri-gation, District Mineral Foundation (DMF)came up with the novel concept of using theriver Baitarini for the benefit of the farmers.The river passes through different blocks in thedistrict and being a perennial river, the flow iscertain even in summers. Building upon thegeographical advantage, the DMF launched aproject called Surface Based Solar Lift Irrigation.

Under this project, farmers with continu-ous land were formed in groups and provided

with Lift Irrigation Points. The water was lift-ed using renewable source of energy and solarpanels were installed for lifting the waterthrough 5 HP pump. Once such solar basedsurface lift point covers more than five acresof land. About 125 such points are installedwithin the district with a cost of about �5.5crores. Another 74 points are yet to beinstalled.

“We used to cultivate only once a yeardespite a channel of Baitarini flowing near ourfields. The solar lift irrigation point has helpedus to cultivate the land even in summers. Also,we have started growing vegetables as we nowhave any assured source of irrigation, which wenever had earlier,” said Janardhan Dehuri, afarmer in Bhatunia village of Padmapur, GP ofSadar block of Keonjhar.

HIGH VIGILANCE FOR NEW STRAINOF COVID REQUIRED: GEHLOT

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Towering paceman KyleJamieson completed an 11-

wicket match haul onWednesday as New Zealandthrashed Pakistan in the secondTest to become the world’stop-ranked team.

Jamieson was nearunplayable in Pakistan’s secondinnings in Christchurch, finish-ing with 6/48 to go with his5/69 in the first innings, asPakistan were all out for 186during day four’s final sessionto give New Zealand victory byan innings and 176 runs.

The win, which saw themsweep the series 2-0, also con-firmed New Zealand had over-taken Australia as the world’snumber one Test side.

Pakistan resumed the dayat eight for one, needing to batfor the better part of two daysto salvage a draw but they werenever in the hunt.

Trent Boult captured thefirst wicket when he had night-watchman Mohammad Abbasout for three in the fifth overand after that the day wasmainly about Jamieson, whorecorded his best match perfor-

mance.Although he is the junior

member of a pace attack head-ed by higher-ranked veterans

Tim Southee and Boult, the 26-year-old has rapidly advancedto playing a senior role.

In his sixth Test after mak-

ing his debut against India 10months ago, Jamieson hastaken 36 wickets at a stunning13.27 average and with four

five-wicket hauls to his credit.After Abbas departed,

Abid Ali and Azhar Ali lookedto be laying the ground workfor a solid third-wicket standand moved the score to 46when the 2.3 metre (6ft 8in)Jamieson went to work andremoved Abid Ali for 26.

After using his height tocreate extra bounce and forceAbid Ali on to the back foot,Jamieson whipped up a fullerdelivery and the batsman’sattempt to switch to a drive wassliced to backward point wheresubstitute Will Young took aone-handed, diving catch.

In a potent middle session,Jamieson had Haris Sohail andAzhar Ali caught behind, andbowled Pakistan captainMohammad Rizwan as hemoved through his repertoire.

Sohail did not get his feetmoving as he poked at a risingdelivery on 15 and was caughtbehind.

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Having touched nadir and zenith ina span of 10 days, AjinkyaRahane’s India will look to start

afresh against Australia with the big-hit-ting Rohit Sharma’s presence adding anew dimension to what promises to bean enthralling third Test starting here onThursday.

The Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG),despite being witness to some extraordi-nary batting performances from thetouring Indian sides over the years, hasnot exactly been a happy hunting ground

with six defeats. The lone win came agood 42 years back.

If Rahane’s side can go 2-1 up andensure the retention of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, it will be one of thefinest hours in the history of Indian crick-et. Making it even more special is the factthat the side has been without twoworld class performers and a senior paceragainst a nearly full-strength Australianteam.

Seldom has an Australian battingunit, that boasts of a player of SteveSmith’s calibre, looked so circumspectand literally intimidated by an Indian

bowling unit, which isn’t operating at full-strength.

Pacer Navdeep Saini will make hisdebut here, replacing Umesh Yadav whowent home following an injury.

The pressure is understandable asAustralia are literally pushing a 70 percent fit David Warner out there in themiddle to combat fire with fire even ashis statements make it clear that he is notat all comfortable with the idea.

And in this backdrop, enter RohitSharma, whose last couple of monthshave been loads of off-field drama.

First it was his absence from the ini-tial part of the tour due to a hamstringinjury sustained while playing the IPL.

Then his subsequent quarantine fortwo weeks in a Sydney apartment.

And when he finally united with histeammates, an excited fan inside aMelbourne restaurant led to an inquiryagainst him and four other teammates forwhat was called by the local media, apotential bio-security breach.

But the white-ball legend has learnt

the art of being unfazed, which was evi-dent from his intense net session onTuesday when he was comfortably facingthe first team bowlers like RavichandranAshwin.

His mere presence has added springin the strides of the team and the young-sters in this current set-up swear by him,the reason he replaced Cheteshwar Pujaraas vice-captain after just one Test.

The Sydney track has traditionallyfavoured the batsmen as Sunil Gavaskar,Ravi Shastri, Sachin Tendulkar and evenPujara and Rishabh Pant, who got cen-turies here during last tour, will vouch for.

If Rohit and Shubman Gill can givethe team a good start, the under-pressurePujara will be much more relieved whileplaying his own defensive game.

Rahane, after one of his more copy-book hundreds constructed in adversityduring the last game, will enter the arenawith more confidence while facing theAustralian quartet of Mitchell Starc,Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and

Nathan Lyon.KL Rahul’s injury has given Hanuma

Vihari one more chance despite hisreturns being as underwhelming asMayank Agarwal, who has been forcedto make way for Rohit.

But it is Australia’s wobbly battingthat will again be put to test by Ashwinon a track, that has traditionally helpedspinners.

With 10 wickets and a new-foundconfidence, Ashwin has won both on andoff-field battle against opposition’s keyplayers such as Smith and MarnusLabuschagne.

It’s not just the wickets that he hasscalped but the manner in which theintelligent Chennai engineer has man-aged to create doubts in the minds ofworld class batters is worth its weight ingold.

As much as Australia needs Smith tobe back in form, they would also needsomeone like Travis Head to deliver as hehas failed to get a hang of both pace and

spin.Jasprit Bumrah, who is still some

games short of 20 Tests, will be leadingthe pace attack and is expected to showthe way with his bagful of tricks.

Whether it’s Siraj or Saini, whoevershares the new ball will have their taskcut out as they aim to match the higheststandards set by the likes of MohammedShami and Ishant Sharma.

SQUADSAustralia: David Warner, Matthew Wade,Will Pucovski, Marnus Labuschagne,Steve Smith, Travis Head, CameronGreen, Tim Paine (captain and wk),Nathan Lyon, Pat Cummins, MitchellStarc, Josh Hazzlewood, Marcus Harris,Mitchell Swepson, Michael NeserIndia (XI): Rohit Sharma, ShubmanGill, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane(captain), Hanuma Vihari, Rishabh Pant(wk), Ravindra Jadeja, RavichandranAshwin, Mohammed Siraj, JaspritBumrah, Navdeep Saini.

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David Warner’s mere pres-ence makes Australia a

better side and fills the other 10on the park with exuberanceand energy, skipper Tim Painegushed on Wednesday as theopener looks set for return toTest cricket when the thirdmatch against India beginshere Thursday.

Warner missed a lot ofaction since India arrived as hesustained a groin injury duringthe second ODI.

He is still not hundredpercent fit but Paine’s eulogiesbore a testimony to team’s des-peration to get their openerback in the wake of their bat-ting unit’s flop show in three ofthe four innings so far.

“Hopefully, if he gets in andgets away, that puts pressureback on opposition right away.Regardless of whom we areplaying, we are a better teamwhen David Warner is in thatteam from the runs he scoresor the energy he brings into thegroup,” Paine said.

“He protects our middle-order a bit with Marnus

(Labuschagne) and Steve com-ing in. Other guys comingwhen bowlers are a bit tired, it’san advantage. So David has gota huge role for us,” his skippersaid even as the senior openeris battling against time to getcloser to full fitness.

There were multiple adjec-tives used by Paine in praise ofWarner, who is an enforcer,who can lift the other playerswith his impact performance.

“David has been awesome.Fills the guys with lot of con-fidence, He is a player you lovehaving on your side. Always gotplenty to say, really energetic,professional and I have alwaysloved playing with him,” Painecouldn’t stop raving about theman, who was hated by hiscountrymen after his role in theball tampering scandal.

However, Paine refused tobelieve that Australia’s batting

formula had gone for a tossduring the first two games inWarner’s absence.

“I don’t think so as battingformula is very individual. Youdefinitely want to bat longperiods of time but how you doit is up to the player.

“David is known as a dash-ing opening batter but if theconditions are not favourablehe’s got to respect that. Inshort, he likes to be aggressiveand no doubt about that but hehas got great hand-eye skillsand he can often score quick-er than others,” the glovesmansaid.

While Paine said that theywon’t be naming the squadimmediately, he did dropenough hints about young WillPucovski making his debuthaving recovered from concus-sion suffered during a warm-upgame against India A.

“Will has been fantastic aswell. He has been out of thebubble for a couple of weeks.He is fresh and batting well inthe nets, looks ready to go if heis called upon,” said Paine,confirming that if he plays, hewill open the batting.

Colombo: The England crick-et team all passed coronavirustests after all-rounder Moeen Aliwas found to have Covid-19 andhave been cleared to startrestricted training in Sri Lankaon Wednesday, a spokesmansaid.

Moeen was found to havethe coronavirus shortly afterthe squad arrived in Sri Lankaon Sunday and has been put inisolation in a hotel away fromthe other players.

The result was an earlyblow to preparations for the twoTests in Sri Lanka that start inGalle on January 14. But theplans in the secure bubble inHambantota in the south of the

island are now largely back ontrack.

“Good news from the campall PCR tests from yesterday arenegative except for Moeen Ali,and we can start controlledtraining this afternoon,” said anEngland spokesman.

Chris Woakes, who hadbeen a close contact of Moeen,tested negative but will contin-ue to isolate in his room. Thetourists must undergo a thirdtest on Thursday.

Sri Lanka have just finisheda tour in South Africa wherethey lost two Tests and are dueto return home on Friday. Theywill also have to go into a biose-cure bubble. AFP

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The ever inquisitiveRavichandran Ashwin,

who has a knack for learningnew things, and much-improved batsman RavindraJadeja have stood out for Indiain the first two Tests againstAustralia, skipper AjinkyaRahane said on Wednesday.

While Ashwin is current-ly leading the wicket-takers’chart with 10 scalps, Jadeja’shalf-century and the hundredplus stand with skipperRahane in the second Testformed the cornerstone ofIndia’s eight-wicket win inMelbourne.

Asked about the hallmarkof Ashwin’s greatness, Rahanesaid, “He is always looking tolearn new things. He has goodskills but is always looking tolearn new things, and that’swhat makes Ashwin great.”

The captain couldn’t be

more happier with the TamilNadu tweaker’s success.

“I hope that he continuesfor next two Test matchesand do the job for us,” saidRahane.

If Ashwin’s improvisa-tion has impressedRahane, he is mightypleased with Jadeja’s Testmatch application whichadds the necessary bal-ance the team hasoften lacked.

“As a bats-man RavindraJadeja hasimproved a lotand that is a mas-sive point as ateam’s perspec-tive,” Rahane said.

“When you know thatyour number seven cancontribute with the bat,that becomes really easyfor you to actually getthat (decent) total

and obviously in the field, youhave seen him taking somebrilliant catches.

“So yes his addition inthe team helped us a lotand he has been reallyfantastic and it is reallygreat for us,” he said.

Happy with RohitSharma’s addition to

the playing XI, theskipper informedhat his deputy hashad some sevento eight net ses-sions as he gearsup for his firstTest in 13

months.“He is

batting reallywell in thenets. He hashad goodseven-eightsessions. Hecame to

Me l b o u r n e ,

started his practise straightaway when our Test match gotover,” Rahane said making itclear that Rohit will open theinnings.

The SCG wicket aids spin-ners and that’s why Rahanedoesn’t want his team to takechances while facing NathanLyon.

“Yes, we have good spin-ners but Nathan Lyon is theirquality spinner, who has donewell here, so we don’t want totake anybody lightly,” he said.

While signing off, Rahanewith a note of caution remind-ed one and all that Melbourneis history now.

“As I said earlier, whatev-er happened in Melbourne itis history now. Australia is avery good team, especiallywhen playing in Australia.They are a dangerous teamand we respect that. We justwant to be in the moment andstart well tomorrow.”

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INDIA-AUSTRALIA AT SCG

RESULTS OF INDIA-AUS TESTS

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Jose Mourinho reached hisfirst final as Tottenham

Hotspur manager after SonHeung-min and MoussaSissoko clinched a 2-0 victo-ry over Brentford in theLeague Cup.

But he will have to wait110 days before Tottenham

contests the final againsteither of the Manchester clubs,with City playing United inthe other semif inal onWednesday.

Second-division teamBrentford knocked out fourPremier League sides to reachthe semifinals, but giftedTottenham an opening goal inthe 12th minute when Sissoko

was left unmarked for a head-er.

But Tottenham took untilthe 70th minute to extend itslead when Son lifted the ballinto the net after Harry Kaneand Tanguy Ndombele com-

bined for the breakaway.Brentford, which had been

denied an equalizer when aVAR review spotted—through a forensic examina-tion of footage — that IvanToney was marginally offside

with his knee before scoring.The west London club

finished with 10 men afterJosh Dasilva’s high studs-upchallenge left Pierre-EmileHojbjerg with a gash on hisleft shin.

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