· 2021. 3. 6. · roy said, “the trinamool does not want to talk about traitors ... ‘mission...

12
T he high-profile Nandigram Assembly seat will see a titanic clash in the West Bengal polls with the BJP fielding Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s former close aide Suvendu Adhikari against her. The BJP on Saturday released the first list of its 57 candidates for the first two phases of Bengal Assembly elections starting from March 27. The list released a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Brigade rally in Kolkata carries the names of the party’s star campaigner Suvendu Adhikari who will contest from the high-profile seat of Nandigram against Mamata Banerjee. The other two notable names on the list are former India pacer Ashok Dinda, who will contest from Moyna in East Midnapore, and former IPS officer Bharati Ghosh, who will take on another retired IPS officer Humayun Kabir from Debra Assembly seat in West Midnapore. The saffron outfit announced candidates for all but three of the 60 seats which will go to polls in the first two of the eight-phase elections that will start from March 27 and end on April 27. One seat of Bagmundi in Purulia district has been left for alliance part- ner AJSU. Adhikari who reached Nandigram from Delhi — to a rousing welcome by party sup- porters shouting Jai Shri Ram slogans — hours before the list was published by the party top brass in the national Capital, attacked the Chief Minister for remembering Nandigram during the elections time only. “She is a rank outsider here and I am the Bhumiputra (son of the soil)… she remem- bers Nandigram that catapult- ed her to power in 2011 only when the polls are round the corner… the people of Nandigram have decided to teach her a lesson,” said Adhikari, who has already vowed to defeat the Chief Minister by half-a-lakh votes. Reacting to his statements, senior TMC leader Saugato Roy said, “The Trinamool does not want to talk about traitors who have stabbed in the back of Mamata Banerjee. The peo- ple will give him a befitting reply.” Adhikari, a former MP and State Minister left the TMC in December last year. He had been the Man Friday of the Bengal Chief Minister handling the party organisational affairs in about a dozen districts before he left the party. Mamata had released the list of Trinamool Congress candidates on Friday. The TMC released the list for all the 291 seats and left three seats for alliance partner Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. The Left too had released its list of can- didates for the first two phas- es on Friday. A head of the West Bengal polls, former Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Dinesh Trivedi on Saturday joined the BJP. BJP president JP Nadda welcomed him into the party’s fold claiming that Trivedi crossed over not on account of “opportunism” but for the “ide- ological reasons”. The 70-year-old Trivedi maintained that he has switched sides to “serve the country better”. “This was the golden moment I had been waiting for,” Trivedi said after joining the BJP at party headquarters here in the presence of Nadda and Union Minister Piyush Goyal. Trivedi resigned his Rajya Sabha and Trinamool mem- bership on February 12, saying he felt “suffocated” because of the violence in West Bengal and his inability to do anything about it. Alluding to ‘parivar’ in West Bengal, he said after join- ing the BJP he felt being with the “janta parivar”. T he Centre has rushed high- level multi-disciplinary public health teams to Maharashtra and Punjab in view of the increase in the number of daily Covid-19 cases being reported by these States. It has also asked high-case load States and Union Territories like Maharashtra and Gujarat to continue with the strategy of “test, track and treat” that had yielded rich div- idends at the height of the pan- demic. The States have been asked to collaborate with private hos- pitals to open up vaccination time-table for a minimum of 15 days and a maximum of 28 days at a time. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan and NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr Vinod Paul on Saturday inter- acted with health secretaries and MDs of Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha. Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi and Chandigarh, which have reported increased num- ber of Covid cases in the last few days. O ne in every five Covid-19 survivors are showing symptoms including fatigue, cognitive problems and a range of psychiatric problems, a research review led by Oxford Brookes University has noted. It also painted a gloomy pic- ture for the future, warning that more number of people will be affected by neuropsy- chiatric and cognitive compli- cations. The study has come close on the heels of similar obser- vation from the World Health Organization (WHO) officials who recently noted that the ongoing Coronavirus pan- demic has caused more “mass trauma” than World War II. The observation hold importance in the context of India where more number of people with mental health disorder could pose further burden on the already patchy mental health care system. One in seven people or a total of 197.3 million people live with mental illness in India, according to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study. I n the run-up to Assembly elections in four States and a Union Territory, the Election Commission (EC) has asked the Centre to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pic- ture from coronavirus vacci- nation certificates being offered to beneficiaries in these States. The EC directive came after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress registered a complaint saying that it vio- lates the Model Code of Conduct. In its letter to the Health Ministry, the EC referred to certain provisions of the Model Code related to the use of advertisement at the cost of the public exchequer. The direction to the Ministry does not men- tion Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name but says the Ministry has to follow the Model Code of Conduct in let- ter and spirit. The Government may have used filters to hide the PM’s picture from the cer- tificate, which could take some time for the Ministry to fully implement these directions on the certificates given to those who take the Covid-19 vaccine in poll-bound West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry. The poll body had first asked the Chief Electoral Officer of West Bengal for a report on why Modi’s photo was being used on vaccination certificates generated through the Co-WIN platform. The CEO responded by informing the poll panel that the vacci- nation drive was a Central scheme. The panel then took up the matter with the Health Ministry and sought its response on the “factual posi- tion” on the use of the pho- tographs. In its reply, the Ministry said the vaccination drive was an ongoing Government initiative that had started much before the Model Code of Conduct came into force. The Mamata Banerjee-led party had approached the poll panel this week, citing violation of the model code as PM Modi’s image reflected on vac- cination certificates generated through the Co-Win platform. F armers protesting the Centre’s three farm laws on Saturday blocked the six-lane Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway at some places in Haryana to mark the comple- tion of 100 days of their agita- tion at the Delhi borders. The road blockade began at 11 am and continued till 4 pm. Farmers holding black flags and wearing black armbands and some women protesters with black “dupattas” shouted slogans against the BJP-led Government for not acceding to their demands. Protesters in Sonipat and Jhajjar districts and some other places brought their tractor- trolleys and other vehicles and parked them in the middle of the KMP Expressway in some stretches. The Haryana Police had made arrangements for traffic diversions and deployed ade- quate personnel. The call for blocking the expressway was given by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha, an umbrella body of protesting farmer unions which is spear- heading the agitation against the legislations. U rging the defence forces to keep pace with rapid advancements in war fighting capabilities all over world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked them to “rid themselves of legacy sys- tems and practices that have outlived their utility and rele- vance.” Making this observation while addressing the Combined Commanders’ Conference in Kevadia, Gujarat, Modi also conveyed his appreciation for the “res- olute dedication” shown by the armed forces over the past year in the context of the coro- na pandemic and the chal- lenging situation on the north- ern border with China. He stressed the impor- tance of enhancing indigeni- sation in the national security system, not just in sourcing equipment and weapons but also in the doctrines, proce- dures and customs practised in the armed forces, a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said. Modi was briefed by the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) about the discussions during this year’s conference, the state- ment said. He particularly appreciated the inclusion of Junior Commissioned Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers this year. Incidentally, this was the first time that personnel below officer rank were part of the high-level meeting held annu- ally. The jawans shared their views on operational matters with the top military leadership besides the Prime Minister. Emphasising the need for planning in both military and civilian parts of the National security architecture, Modi also called for a “holistic approach, focused on breaking down civil-military silos and on expe- diting the speed of decision making.” I n yet another incident of the worsening law and order sit- uation in State capital city Bhubaneswar, a youth was hacked to death in broad day- light at IRC village in the Nayapalli area by two miscre- ants on Saturday. The deceased was identi- fied as Tukuna Das, a resident of Salia Sahi in the city. Police detained two broth- ers, Sagar Prusty and Sudhir Prusty, also residents of Salia Sahi in connection with the incident. It was ascertained that old enmity led to the murder. Source said that it was locals who spotted Sagar and Sudhir attacking Tukuna in a pickup van on the road. Getting information, a PCR Van reached the spot, rescued Tukuna and shifted him to hos- pital by an ambulance. They also took the two brothers into custody. But a mob which had gath- ered at the spot dragged the two brothers out of the police van and brutally assaulted them with plastic pipes critically injuring them as the cops watched helplessly. Later, DCP Uma Shankar Dash and more police person- nel rushed to the spot and res- cued the two accused and took them to hospital. Commissioner of Police Sudhansu Sarangi said Tukuna and Sagar and Sudhir were neighbours at Salia Sahi. On Friday evening, they had a heated altercation over some matter. However Tukuna, who has criminal records, again picked up a fight with the two broth- ers on Saturday. Continued on Page 2 A meeting of the State Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday approved 16 major decisions pertaining to differ- ent departments. The major approvals included creation of an inde- pendent department named ‘Mission Shakti’ separating it from the Department of Woman and Child Development. The Cabinet approved con- struction of 10 mega rural pipe water supply schemes in Aul, Rajkanika, Chilika, Tangi, Banpur, Khordha, Jatni, Gondia, Bhubana, Golaminda, Jajpur and Binjharpur blocks. Rural pipe water schemes for 26 GPs of Sambalpur dis- trict and two GPs of Jharsuguda district also received the Cabinet’s nod. Besides, the Cabinet sanc- tioned lease of 25 acres of land for construction of a Satellite Centre of the AIIMS in Remuna tehasil of Baleswar district. The Council of Ministers approved an amend- ment to the Odisha Lokayukta Act, 2014. Besides, the annual report of Odisha Lokayukta for the year 2019 was accepted. The report will be laid in the State Assembly as per the Lokayukta Act.The Cabinet also approved construction of 2X500 MVA, 400/220/33 KV GIS sub-station at Paradip along with associated lines to be implemented over a period of three years from 2020-21. Besides, the Cabinet approved a proposal to allow the OMC Limited to sell the entire quantity of bauxite ore meant for sale through nation- al e-auction for the financial year 2020-21 to LTL suppliers only at the rate of Rs 1,000 per MT with a subsequent under- taking to pay the differential rate as stipulated by the Orissa High Court.A proposal for restructuring of the Odisha Excise Service Cadre also received the Cabinet’s approval. I n a declining trend, the State on Saturday registered 54 new Covid-19 cases in 21 dis- tricts and the State pool, fol- lowing which the total caseload increased to 3,37,674. Of the new cases, 32 were from quarantine centres and 22 local contact cases. Sundargarh district reported the day’s high- est 10 cases. Besides, two cases were reported from the State pool. Currently, the total active cases in the State stood at 802 and the cumulative samples tested were 84,51,396. However, 88 patients recovered on the day, taking the total recoveries to 3,34,990 in the State.

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Page 1:  · 2021. 3. 6. · Roy said, “The Trinamool does not want to talk about traitors ... ‘Mission Shakti’ separating it from the Department of Woman and Child Development. The

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The high-profile NandigramAssembly seat will see a

titanic clash in the West Bengalpolls with the BJP fieldingChief Minister MamataBanerjee’s former close aideSuvendu Adhikari against her.The BJP on Saturday releasedthe first list of its 57 candidatesfor the first two phases ofBengal Assembly electionsstarting from March 27.

The list released a dayahead of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s Brigade rallyin Kolkata carries the names ofthe party’s star campaignerSuvendu Adhikari who willcontest from the high-profileseat of Nandigram against

Mamata Banerjee.The other two notable

names on the list are formerIndia pacer Ashok Dinda, whowill contest from Moyna inEast Midnapore, and formerIPS officer Bharati Ghosh, whowill take on another retired IPSofficer Humayun Kabir fromDebra Assembly seat in WestMidnapore.

The saffron outfitannounced candidates for allbut three of the 60 seats whichwill go to polls in the first twoof the eight-phase electionsthat will start from March 27and end on April 27. One seatof Bagmundi in Purulia districthas been left for alliance part-ner AJSU.

Adhikari who reached

Nandigram from Delhi — to arousing welcome by party sup-porters shouting Jai Shri Ramslogans — hours before the listwas published by the party topbrass in the national Capital,attacked the Chief Ministerfor remembering Nandigramduring the elections time only.

“She is a rank outsiderhere and I am the Bhumiputra(son of the soil)… she remem-bers Nandigram that catapult-ed her to power in 2011 onlywhen the polls are round thecorner… the people ofNandigram have decided toteach her a lesson,” saidAdhikari, who has alreadyvowed to defeat the ChiefMinister by half-a-lakh votes.

Reacting to his statements,senior TMC leader SaugatoRoy said, “The Trinamool doesnot want to talk about traitorswho have stabbed in the backof Mamata Banerjee. The peo-ple will give him a befittingreply.”

Adhikari, a former MPand State Minister left theTMC in December last year.

He had been the ManFriday of the Bengal ChiefMinister handling the partyorganisational affairs in abouta dozen districts before he leftthe party.

Mamata had released thelist of Trinamool Congresscandidates on Friday. The TMCreleased the list for all the 291seats and left three seats foralliance partner GorkhaJanmukti Morcha. The Lefttoo had released its list of can-didates for the first two phas-es on Friday.

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Ahead of the West Bengalpolls, former Railway

Minister and TrinamoolCongress Member ofParliament Dinesh Trivedi onSaturday joined the BJP.

BJP president JP Naddawelcomed him into the party’sfold claiming that Trivedicrossed over not on account of“opportunism” but for the “ide-ological reasons”.

The 70-year-old Trivedimaintained that he hasswitched sides to “serve thecountry better”.

“This was the goldenmoment I had been waitingfor,” Trivedi said after joiningthe BJP at party headquartershere in the presence of Naddaand Union Minister PiyushGoyal.

Trivedi resigned his RajyaSabha and Trinamool mem-bership on February 12, sayinghe felt “suffocated” because ofthe violence in West Bengaland his inability to do anythingabout it.

Alluding to ‘parivar’ inWest Bengal, he said after join-ing the BJP he felt being withthe “janta parivar”.

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The Centre has rushed high-level multi-disciplinary

public health teams toMaharashtra and Punjab inview of the increase in thenumber of daily Covid-19 casesbeing reported by these States.It has also asked high-caseload States and UnionTerritories like Maharashtraand Gujarat to continue withthe strategy of “test, track andtreat” that had yielded rich div-idends at the height of the pan-demic.

The States have been askedto collaborate with private hos-pitals to open up vaccinationtime-table for a minimum of 15days and a maximum of 28days at a time.

Union Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan and NITIAayog member (Health) DrVinod Paul on Saturday inter-acted with health secretariesand MDs of Haryana, AndhraPradesh, Odisha.

Goa, Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Delhi andChandigarh, which have reported increased num-ber of Covid cases in the lastfew days.

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One in every five Covid-19survivors are showing

symptoms including fatigue,cognitive problems and a rangeof psychiatric problems, aresearch review led by OxfordBrookes University has noted.It also painted a gloomy pic-ture for the future, warningthat more number of peoplewill be affected by neuropsy-chiatric and cognitive compli-cations.

The study has come closeon the heels of similar obser-vation from the World Health

Organization (WHO) officialswho recently noted that theongoing Coronavirus pan-demic has caused more “masstrauma” than World War II.

The observation holdimportance in the context ofIndia where more number ofpeople with mental healthdisorder could pose further burden on the already patchymental health care system.One in seven people or atotal of 197.3 million peoplelive with mental illness inIndia, according to the 2019Global Burden of DiseaseStudy.

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In the run-up to Assemblyelections in four States and a

Union Territory, the ElectionCommission (EC) has askedthe Centre to remove PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s pic-ture from coronavirus vacci-nation certificates being offeredto beneficiaries in these States.

The EC directive cameafter West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee’sTrinamool Congress registereda complaint saying that it vio-lates the Model Code ofConduct.

In its letter to the HealthMinistry, the EC referred tocertain provisions of the ModelCode related to the use ofadvertisement at the cost of thepublic exchequer. The directionto the Ministry does not men-tion Prime Minister NarendraModi’s name but says theMinistry has to follow theModel Code of Conduct in let-ter and spirit. The Governmentmay have used filters to hidethe PM’s picture from the cer-tificate, which could take sometime for the Ministry to fullyimplement these directions on

the certificates given to thosewho take the Covid-19 vaccinein poll-bound West Bengal,Tamil Nadu, Assam, Keralaand Puducherry.

The poll body had firstasked the Chief ElectoralOfficer of West Bengal for areport on why Modi’s photowas being used on vaccinationcertificates generated throughthe Co-WIN platform. TheCEO responded by informingthe poll panel that the vacci-nation drive was a Centralscheme.

The panel then took up thematter with the HealthMinistry and sought itsresponse on the “factual posi-tion” on the use of the pho-tographs. In its reply, theMinistry said the vaccinationdrive was an ongoingGovernment initiative that hadstarted much before the ModelCode of Conduct came intoforce.

The Mamata Banerjee-ledparty had approached the pollpanel this week, citing violationof the model code as PMModi’s image reflected on vac-cination certificates generatedthrough the Co-Win platform.

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Farmers protesting theCentre’s three farm laws on

Saturday blocked the six-laneKundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP)Expressway at some places inHaryana to mark the comple-tion of 100 days of their agita-tion at the Delhi borders.

The road blockade began at11 am and continued till 4 pm.Farmers holding black flagsand wearing black armbandsand some women protesterswith black “dupattas” shoutedslogans against the BJP-ledGovernment for not accedingto their demands.

Protesters in Sonipat andJhajjar districts and some otherplaces brought their tractor-trolleys and other vehicles andparked them in the middle ofthe KMP Expressway in somestretches.

The Haryana Police hadmade arrangements for trafficdiversions and deployed ade-quate personnel.

The call for blocking theexpressway was given by theSamyukta Kisan Morcha, anumbrella body of protestingfarmer unions which is spear-heading the agitation againstthe legislations.

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Urging the defence forces tokeep pace with rapid

advancements in war fightingcapabilities all over world,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday asked them to“rid themselves of legacy sys-tems and practices that haveoutlived their utility and rele-vance.”

Making this observationwhile addressing theCombined Commanders’Conference in Kevadia,Gujarat, Modi also conveyedhis appreciation for the “res-olute dedication” shown bythe armed forces over the pastyear in the context of the coro-na pandemic and the chal-lenging situation on the north-ern border with China.

He stressed the impor-tance of enhancing indigeni-sation in the national securitysystem, not just in sourcingequipment and weapons but

also in the doctrines, proce-dures and customs practised inthe armed forces, a statementfrom the Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO) said.

Modi was briefed by theChief of Defence Staff (CDS)about the discussions duringthis year’s conference, the state-ment said. He particularlyappreciated the inclusion ofJunior Commissioned Officersand Non-CommissionedOfficers this year.

Incidentally, this was thefirst time that personnel below

officer rank were part of thehigh-level meeting held annu-ally.

The jawans shared theirviews on operational matterswith the top military leadershipbesides the Prime Minister.

Emphasising the need forplanning in both military andcivilian parts of the Nationalsecurity architecture, Modi alsocalled for a “holistic approach,focused on breaking downcivil-military silos and on expe-diting the speed of decisionmaking.”

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In yet another incident of theworsening law and order sit-

uation in State capital cityBhubaneswar, a youth washacked to death in broad day-light at IRC village in theNayapalli area by two miscre-ants on Saturday.

The deceased was identi-fied as Tukuna Das, a residentof Salia Sahi in the city.

Police detained two broth-ers, Sagar Prusty and SudhirPrusty, also residents of SaliaSahi in connection with theincident. It was ascertained

that old enmity led to themurder.

Source said that it waslocals who spotted Sagar andSudhir attacking Tukuna in apickup van on the road. Gettinginformation, a PCR Vanreached the spot, rescuedTukuna and shifted him to hos-pital by an ambulance. Theyalso took the two brothers intocustody.

But a mob which had gath-ered at the spot dragged thetwo brothers out of the policevan and brutally assaulted themwith plastic pipes criticallyinjuring them as the copswatched helplessly.

Later, DCP Uma ShankarDash and more police person-nel rushed to the spot and res-cued the two accused and tookthem to hospital.Commissioner of PoliceSudhansu Sarangi said Tukunaand Sagar and Sudhir wereneighbours at Salia Sahi. OnFriday evening, they had aheated altercation over somematter.

However Tukuna, who hascriminal records, again pickedup a fight with the two broth-ers on Saturday.

Continued on Page 2

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Ameeting of the StateCabinet chaired by Chief

Minister Naveen Patnaik onSaturday approved 16 majordecisions pertaining to differ-ent departments.

The major approvalsincluded creation of an inde-pendent department named‘Mission Shakti’ separating itfrom the Department ofWoman and ChildDevelopment.

The Cabinet approved con-struction of 10 mega ruralpipe water supply schemes inAul, Rajkanika, Chilika, Tangi,Banpur, Khordha, Jatni,Gondia, Bhubana, Golaminda,Jajpur and Binjharpur blocks.

Rural pipe water schemesfor 26 GPs of Sambalpur dis-trict and two GPs ofJharsuguda district alsoreceived the Cabinet’s nod.

Besides, the Cabinet sanc-tioned lease of 25 acres of landfor construction of a SatelliteCentre of the AIIMS inRemuna tehasil of Baleswar

district. The Council ofMinisters approved an amend-ment to the Odisha LokayuktaAct, 2014. Besides, the annualreport of Odisha Lokayukta forthe year 2019 was accepted.The report will be laid in theState Assembly as per theLokayukta Act.The Cabinetalso approved construction of2X500 MVA, 400/220/33 KVGIS sub-station at Paradipalong with associated lines tobe implemented over a periodof three years from 2020-21.

Besides, the Cabinetapproved a proposal to allowthe OMC Limited to sell theentire quantity of bauxite oremeant for sale through nation-al e-auction for the financialyear 2020-21 to LTL suppliersonly at the rate of Rs 1,000 perMT with a subsequent under-taking to pay the differentialrate as stipulated by the OrissaHigh Court.A proposal forrestructuring of the OdishaExcise Service Cadre alsoreceived the Cabinet’s approval.

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In a declining trend, the Stateon Saturday registered 54

new Covid-19 cases in 21 dis-tricts and the State pool, fol-lowing which the total caseloadincreased to 3,37,674.

Of the new cases, 32 werefrom quarantine centres and 22local contact cases. Sundargarhdistrict reported the day’s high-est 10 cases. Besides, two caseswere reported from the Statepool.

Currently, the total activecases in the State stood at 802and the cumulative samplestested were 84,51,396.

However, 88 patientsrecovered on the day, taking thetotal recoveries to 3,34,990 inthe State.

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Page 2:  · 2021. 3. 6. · Roy said, “The Trinamool does not want to talk about traitors ... ‘Mission Shakti’ separating it from the Department of Woman and Child Development. The

�What made you come on board&TV’s Mauka-E-Vardaat?

I was on look out for a showthat creates awareness amongpeople and this show fits best in thecriteria. Also, I was missing myscreen appearances and with thisshow I got to do both. Hence, Idecided to take it up.�How is this show different fromall the other crime-based shows?

I don’t know what other showsare doing, but with this show ouraim is to show the audience realstories and bring out the truth.However, our bigger aim is to teachpeople to stay alert and createawareness. This is what I think isthe USP of this show.�What kinds of stories will beshown?We will be showcasing shocking

stories wherein the culprit has taken tosuch impossible ways of committing

crimes that it becomes hard tounderstand it. Once the audience will seethe show, they will get to know howstrangely crimes have been committed.� You haven’t been a part of many

crime-based shows. Is there a particularreason?

Yes, I don’t want to take up a show forthe sake of it. I want to resonate with it.It should have something interesting tooffer. For this particular show, I have twoother people with me — Ravi Kishan andSapna Choudhary — I believe all three ofus can make this show a huge success anddo good to people by creating awareness.� Is there a lesson that you learntwhile being a part of such shows?

Definitely. When I was doing myprevious shows, I realised that I wouldhave not been able to understand thedifferent facets of life and gather so manydifferent thoughts by reading a 100 booksthat I have learnt during these shows.There is one line that I always

remember: Abhi samaaj mein log apnitwarit safaltaon ke liye vyakti aur vastu

mein farq karna bhulte jaa rahe hain(people have forgotten to

differentiate between peopleand things for their own

benefits). Thisholds true and Ihope people start

realising what is more important and learn todifferentiate between good and bad. �Did getting to know so many crimes soclosely bother you in any way?

We are narrating the stories that havealready happened with the aim of informingpeople about ways to safeguard themselves andtheir families. I don’t get bothered by it. But yes,I do get astonished with such stories.�What makes crime-based shows so popular?

People love to see a story that can shookthem up. This is not imaginary, hence theinterest level goes even up. The interest factoralso depends on how a show has been shot andwho is narrating these stories. If the persontelling these stories holds a value in the mindsof the people, the audience automatically wantsto see more such stories.�Was there a case that left you shattered?

There is one such story that left me shocked.It is about a group which would take fingerprintsof dead bodies at the crematorium and usedthem for getting fake IDs. When they werecaught committing a crime, it was revealed thatthe identities they were using were of people whodied years ago I told my team that it isimportant to put across such stories. The teamtoo agreed and told me it has to be done in away where people take lessons from it and stayalert. This story will be shown in Mauka-E-Vardaat.

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It is not only strange butbizarre that a movie’s sequelwould be released 33 years

after the prequel. However, whatis even worse is that whileComing To America (theoriginal) directed by John Landisand based on a story originallycreated by Eddie Murphy was arom-com that managed to keepone engrossed in the film — atthe end it was a love story, parttwo is anything but funny oreven remotely romantic in

nature. Unless one considers afew scenes spent on two youngpeople talking alone with one ofthem aspiring to open a salon ofher own.

Here she befriends a princeno less and supposedly in loveand her dream is to open a salonof her own!

One does manage to getover this rather strange dreambut what one can’t get over is theunfunny dialogues. Not only arethe risque, the hand gestures areeven worse. And what the hellwas Wesley Snipes thinkingwhen he agreed to this bogglesthe mind. It does obliviate hisbetter work — Blade seriescomes to mind.

Directed by Craig Brewerand produced by Kevin Misher

and Eddie Murphy, this sequelmay have started off on a goodnote but unfortunately all itmanages to do in the 110minutes is make you cringe.

May be Murphy thoughtthat revisiting the original thathad a cult following would be agreat idea but all he manages todo is makes one wonder why heneeded to do this in this horriblemanner that take away from itsprequel.

Coming To America, themust awaited film ends updisappointing and is a hugebore.

Watch only if you havenothing else to do and want tocatch up on the stars of theoriginal movie.

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Off late Netflix has been releasing true-crime sagas. Take for example TheNight Stalker or The Cecil Hotel that

recently found their way on the OTT platform.However bizarre or strange such docu-moviesmay be, one can’t shy away from the truth thatthey are absolutely riveting and unfold ratherbrilliantly. It could stem from the fact that ifthere is a murder and then another coupledwith a Church in the middle of it all, facts andand how the investigation proceeds are boundto be filled with intrigue and throw up a fewsuspects.

Murder Among The Mormons relate to atrue investigation into twin blasts that killedtwo people in Salt Lake City, Utah, US. Thesemurders were unlike anything that came tolight in the October of 1985. May be becauseit relates to religion, murder and deception —a lethal combination.

The three-part mini-series — each ofapproximately 46 minutes — is paced out wellwith part one giving the history of the townwhere the blasts occurred, the people who livehere and the Mormon Church and the historyof the Mormons — a religious group thatembrace concepts of Christianity andrevelations made by their founder, Joseph

Smith. They primarily belong to The Churchof Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Of course, the intrigue is already there andthe next two part are all about the build upup to the murders and who and why they werekilled in the first place.

Though the entire mini-series manages tokeep one’s interest — anything related to theChurch is more so if it involves debunking thefaith of the people and making them questionthe very basis on which the Church stands. Itis the second half of part three that makes onesit up straight and watch as the mastercriminal emerges — a criminal who hasperfected his craft since he was a only ateenager.

How he not only managed to dupe theChurch but his friends and wife withoutremorse or guilt for his own gain; a powerhungry Mark Hofmann — regarded as one ofthe most accomplished forger in history. Heis infamous for forgering documents relatedto the history of the Latter Day Saintmovement. What is more interesting to knowis that one doesn’t know how many of hisforged yet authenticated documents are stillin circulation.

Hofmann was given life sentence with noparole since it was found that he felt no guiltor remorse for what he had done. He is nowin Central Utah Correctional Facility inGunnison, Colorado, US. 7��������/���

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In Odisha, most of the forestsare deciduous and during the

season starting from lateautumn through winter up toearly spring, trees experienceleaf fall. In this season the airremains dry, the soil losesmoisture and the atmospherictemperature is high. The fall-en litters including dry leavesare very vulnerable to catchingfire and facilitate its spreading.Most of the forest fire incidentsoccur during this season.

Such incidents in Similipalforest is not new, but the recentspurt of week-long forest fireduring end of February andearly March is enormous inproportion and devastating,may be due to preceding scantymonsoon rain and prevailinghigh atmospheric temperature.In 2018 and some previousyears also forest fire razedSimilipal miserably. It is dis-turbing that Odisha tops the listof forest fire affected States,according to the recent reportby the Forest Survey of India.

It is stated that the fire spreadareas cover villages even in thecore and peripheral zoneswhere the density of wildlife issupposed to be more and causeinsurmountable loss and dam-age to the wild fauna and flora.

The Similipal forest and theadjoining areas with good for-est coverage as an ecologicalniche play a pivotal role inmaintaining the water cycle,thermal and ecological bal-ance. The average mean eleva-tion of Similipal plateau is 900meters.

The highest peaks areKhairiburu (1,178 meters), andMeghasani (1,158 meters). It isthe biggest watershed of north-ern Odisha, giving origin tomajor rivers like Budhabalanga,Khairi, Salandi, Palpala,Bandhan, Deo and innumer-able perennial rivulets andstreams meandering throughthe forest. Amongst severalwaterfalls Barehipani (217meters) and Joranda (181meters) are enchanting.

Interestingly there is adegree of resemblance of floraland faunal composition ofSimilipal on the Eastern Ghatswith those of the WesternGhats and North-East India,while being a representativeeco-system within theMahanadian bio-geographicregion. About 55 species ofmammals, 29 species of rep-tiles, 231 species of birds and1,076 plant species are listed inthis plateau. Among the faunatiger, leopard, elephant, gaur,

sloth bear, hyena, ratel, sambar,mouse deer, chital, chousingha,deer, hill myna, peacock, giantsquirrel, flying squirrels, Indiantree shrew, reptiles like kingcobra and other snakes, etc areappealing. Similipal is also theabode of the rare black andmelanistic tiger.

In its river and streamwaters it has marsh crocodile,mahaseer fish, and numerousother aquatic species. Amongthe flora Sal is the climax treespecies. Champa, Arjuna,Asana are some of its associat-ed species. The rich orchidflora with about 90 species outof more than 120 in Odisha isthe indicator of Similipal’s eco-health and naturalness.

Similipal forest enjoyedthe status of a sanctuary from1979 with an area of 2,200 sqkm. A national park was cre-ated in 1980 with an area of 303sq km only within the sanctu-ary area, which was laterenhanced to 845.70 sq km in1986.

The Similipal TigerReserve created in 1956 wasincluded in the first list of nineProject Tiger areas launched inIndia in 1973. The MayurbhanjElephant Reserve, notified in2001, is one of the three ele-phant reserves created inOdisha.

The Mugger Crocodilescheme was started in 1979 atRamatirtha near Jashipur. Theeighth biosphere reserve of thecountry was declared inSimilipal forest on 22.06.1994

taking a vast stretch of forestland measuring 5,569 sq km.Now there are 18 biospherereserves in India. TheUNESCO included Similipal inthe World Network ofBiosphere Reserves in 2009.

The densely forestedSimilipal Biosphere Reserve(BR) area constitutes the core,the buffer and the transitionzones. There are four villages inthe core and 65 villages in thebuffer.

The transition zone covers1,200 villages with a populationof about 5 lakhs. The core(1194.75 sq km), buffer(1555.25 sq km), and transition(2819 sq km) together composea vast area of 5,569 sq km. TheCore zone allows managementand research activities that donot affect natural processesand wildlife.

This zone is to be kept freefrom all human pressuresexternal to the system.

The Buffer zone adjoins thecore zone. Only those activitieswhich protect and promotethe core zone are allowed here.It includes research, educa-tion, limited recreation,tourism, controlled grazing,fishing, etc. The Transition

zone is the outer most part ofthe biosphere reserve. Hereconservation knowledge andmanagement skills are appliedprimarily to foster alternatelivelihood and reduce depen-dence on consumptive use ofthe forest. Eco-developmentactivities are permitted in thiszone to meet local people’sneed only but not for com-mercial purpose. The nationalpark is established in the corezone. As per the provisions ofnational park, no human habi-tation is allowed inside it inorder to facilitate movement ofwild animals freely.

The State Government hassuccessfully relocated villagersfrom Jenabil, Baghagahan,Upper Barhakamara, Kabatghaiand Jamunagarh inside theSimilipal Tiger Reserve areabetween 2010 and 2016. FromBakua 61 families have volun-teered to move out.

The threats to the Similipalforest are loss of diversity dueto forest fire, collection of tim-ber and fire-wood, indiscrim-inate vegetation clearance andtree felling, invading of exoticspecies, Akhanda shikar (annu-al mass hunting ritual) and ani-mal hunting, natural calamities,etc. Due to loss of density andfragmentation of the forestand increased human pressurethe man-animal conflict isincreasing.

The causes of forest firemay be natural such as light-ening, friction of trees andeven soaring temperature or

man-made. Poachers set fire toscare and divert the wild ani-mals in order to make themeasy for poaching and huntingand do not douse the fire later.Akhanda Shikar, though thescale is reduced now, is the tra-ditional annual ritual of animalhunting; the tribes set fire formaking their operation easier.Partially burnt bidi or hukka isthrown on the forest floorunmindfully.

The local villagers set fireto clear the dry litter on thefloor for easy collection ofmohua flowers, sal seeds,plucking of kendu leaves, etc.Such fires are generally broughtunder control by natural rains.The tribes also collect honeyand other such products in theforest using fire.

Forecasting fire-pronedays, creating fire lines, clear-ing sites of dried biomass andcrackdown on poachers andhunters are some of the meth-ods to prevent fire.

The forest fire lines whichare strips kept clear of vegeta-tion help break the forest floorinto compartments to preventfires from spreading. Manualcontrol of fire by branches andtwigs, water spray, blowers arethe traditional practices. Nowwith advanced technologiesthe fire points are identifiedfrom satellite data making iteasy to locate the spots. Thecrown fire and to some extentground fire could be controlledby aero-foam and water spray.Whatever may be the efficien-

cy, the rapid action teams, thehandful trained staff of forestdepartment alone cannot givejustice to the job of fire controlin the vast stretches of forests.Participation of the local com-munity, Van Surakhya Samitis,eco-development committees,non-Government organisa-tions, women’s organisations,incentives to village committeesfor exemplary work, massawareness are essential in for-est fire control and manage-ment.

Similipal has a separateidentity as the place of domes-tication of tigress Khairi underthe patronage of the-thenForest ConservatorPadmashree Saroj RajChoudhury. The tiger popula-tion that increased after theProject Tiger was launchedhas started decreasing and forthe last few years the numberremains confined to mere 20plus or minus. This is only oneexample to cite here. More

studies to update the biodiver-sity status and the carryingcapacity of the Similipal forestto sustain the wildlife, moreparticularly the key-stonespecies, livelihood support oflocal tribal and non-tribal com-munities, and the anthro-pogenic pressure including sea-sonal and man-made forestfire incidents are warranted.Based on the studies, appro-priate conservation and man-agement strategies have to beworked out. As Similiapl BR isconsidered one of the rich nat-ural habitats to support tigeralong with other key-stonespecies, a bold and robust deci-sion has to be taken to declarethe entire area inviolable forwildlife. This will also help pro-tect the livelihood of the tribeswho are used to live withwildlife from time immemor-ial.(Dr Patro is president, OrissaEnvironmental Society, email:[email protected])

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In a bid to curb the mountingroad accidents and fatalities,

the State Transport Authority(STA) has identified 23 blackspots and vulnerable stretcheson different roads comingunder NH-16 and NH-57 inKhordha district.

As many as 20 black spotshave been identified on NH-16from Nakhara to Barakul cov-ering 114 km approximately.

The black spots are Pahalato Rudrapur Cut, AcharyaVihar to Satsang Vihar,Gangapada Chhak, PitapaliChhak, Khandagiri Chhak toKolathia Chhak, Aiginia toPatrapada, Gohira Chhak,Kalinga Vihar Chhak,Tamando overbridge,PalasuniChhak, Hanspal Chhak,Lingipur Cut to NH, KKMBCollege Square to Khordha

Sadar police station, RameswarChhak to Jankia police sta-tion,Chandeswar to KuhudiPetrol Pump, Near Nachunipetrol pump, Solari railwaystation to Naval Outpost,AGSquare to Raj Bhawan, RamMandir Chhak to MasterCanteen and Bomikhal

Besides, three black spotshave been identified on variousroads under NH-57 from

Khordha to Bolgarh covering37.7 km. They are Tartua (nearITBP), Tikatala and Bolagarh.

At a meeting, Khordhadistrict’s ParliamentaryConstituency Committee forRoad Safety on Saturdayrevealed that 504 people werekilled and 855 suffered criticalinjuries in road accidents inKhordha district from January2019 to December 2020.

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Adevotee collapsed in thepremises of the Jagannath

Temple here and died afteroffering prayer to the deities onSaturday.

The deceased was identi-fied as Manohar Lal, agedabout 72 years, from Cuttackdistrict.

According to reports, theseptuagenarian fell uncon-scious while he was on his wayback through the Ghanti Dwarof the temple after paying obei-sance to the deities in theshrine. He was rushed to thePuri District HeadquartersHospital, where doctorsdeclared him brought dead.

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ABorder Security Force(BSF) jawan shot himself

dead over unknown reasons inKoraput district on Saturdaymorning.

The jawan, identified asIndrajit Singh, had been post-

ed at 15th Battalion of BSF atJalaput in Koraput district.

According to reports, heattempted to end life by shoot-ing self on his head with hisservice rifle.

He was admitted in a crit-ical condition to a hospital atLamataput, where doctorsdeclared him dead. Source saidthat the jawan had joined thecamp at Jalaput on Thursdayafter a week-long vacation athis village in Rajasthan.

The reason behind his tak-ing the extreme step was yetobscure.

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Abook highlighting the richmineral potentials of the

State and developmentprospects compiled by theSociety of Geoscientists andAllied Technologists (SGAT)was released on Friday at theRaj Bhavan by Governor ProfGaneshi Lal.

The first edition of thebook was published in theyear 1995; the second andthird editions were released in1998 and 2006, respectively.

Now, the revised editioncontains 31 chapters dealingwith all mineral resources inthe State and its chapters havebeen authored by eminent sci-entists of Geological Survey ofIndia, Directorate of Miningand Geology, IMMT, CentralGround Water Board andCMPDI.

The Governor commend-ed the effort of SGAT in pro-moting minerals developmentin the State. The SGAT teamwas led by president Dr ONMohanty.

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Sarpanch of Agastinuagamgram panchayat under

Chhatrapur block in Ganjamdistrict P Simadri was dis-qualified from his post on thePanchayati Raj Divas on Fridayfor not knowing Odia and alsofor having more than two chil-dren. The action was taken onthe basis of a petition filled bySimadri’s nearest rival NiwasiGouda, whom the former haddefeated in the 2017 panchay-at polls.

The petitioner had claimedthat Simadri had submittedfalse a poll affidavit as he can-not read and write in Odia lan-guage. Moreover, he has twowives and six children asagainst the ‘two-child’ norm forcontesting elections toPanchayati Raj institutions

(PRIs). After hearing the case,Civil Judge (Junior Division)Sushant Kumar Panigrahyordered disqualification of theSarpanch and directed theGanjam Collector to takeaction in this regard instantly.

“On the Panchayati RajDivas, the court pronounced asignificant order. We areextremely happy to have wonthe legal battle after three anda half years,” said advocateSrikant Mishra representingNiwasi Gouda.

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The family of social activistAditya Dash has filed a

petition in the Supreme Courtseeking a CBI probe into hismysterious death last year.

The petition was filed onMarch 4, said Aditya’s familymembers at a Press conferencehere on Saturday..

“We had to move theOrissa High Court as we didnot have faith in the CrimeBranch investigation. But weonly got dates after dates.Therefore, we filed the petitionin the Supreme Court demand-ing a CBI probe,” said Aditya’sparents.

“Eight months have passedsince the death of our son, butwe have not got justice. We donot have more patience,” saidthe parents.

They criticised the probeinto the case by theGovernment Railway police aswell the State Crime Branch.“On this day, eight months ago,our son had died. The GRPmessed up with the probe. Wewere happy when the Crime

Branch took over the probehoping that they would bringout the truth. But theirapproach has forced us to movethe HC,” they added.

Earlier on August 28, 2020,Bidyashree, wife of Aditya, hadmoved the Orissa High Courtseeking a CBI investigationinto the case.

A little less than fourmonths after filing the petition,Bidyashree had tried to commitsuicide by consuming sleepingpills while going live onFacebook.

Notably, Aditya’s body wasfound along the railway tracksnear the Lingaraj railway sta-tion in Bhubaneswar on July 7.The DGP had handed over thecase to the Crime Branch onJuly 30.

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The Biju PatnaikMemorial Trust

(BPMT) celebrated the105th birthday of legendaryleader late Biju Patnaikwith various activities hereon Friday. Early morning,lamps were lighted in templesand gods and goddesses wereworshipped, after which treewere planted and foods dis-tributed to the poor.

A memorial meeting heldhere at the BPMT’s Nuabazarpremises. The meeting waspresided over by senior BJDleader and BPMT workingpresident Sumanta Biswal.Jagatsinghpur MP Dr RajashreeMallick was chief guest and for-mer MLA Pravat Tripathy waschief speaker on the occasion.

BJD Paradip presidentBasant Kumar Biswal, BJDState secretary and prominenttrade union leaderi SantoshKumar Pattnaik, PramodKishore Jena, Ranjan KumarDas, BJD labour cell vice-pres-ident Jugal Kishore Nayak andBJD women cell joint secretarySabita Mohapatra paid tributesto Biju Patnaik and recalled hislife, thoughts and dedicationfor Odisha and Odias. A voteof thanks was given by RanjanKumar Das.

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B H U B A N E S WA R : T h eadministration of Lord LingarajTemple has decided to raise theMahadeep at the temple at 10pm on the Mahashivaratri dayscheduled on March 11. Theother rituals at the shrine are tobe observed according to thetradition.

A meeting was called tofinalise the preparation for asmooth conduct of rituals withstrict adherence to the Covid-19 guidelines. The emphasiswas laid on making arrange-ment for lakhs of devoteeswho might turn to offer pujaand have darshan of Lord

Lingaraj in the evening.The devotees would not be

allowed to sit together on thetemple complex for lightingdiyas (lamps).

Arrangement would bemade for smooth exit of thedevotees from the temple in theevening.

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ACentre for MarineBioresources and

Biotechnology was inaugurat-ed at the Fakir MohanUniversity here on Saturday inthe presence of Union Ministerof State for Micro, Small,Medium Enterprises (MSME)& Fisheries, AnimalHusbandry and DairyingPratap Chandra Sarangi, StateMinister of Higher Educationand Agriculture Arun KumarSahoo and university Vice-Chancellor Prof DinabandhuSahu.

Sarangi said the CentralGovernment is promoting a lotof activities in the marine and

fisheries sector. Indiahas great potentialsin the field of marinebio-resources andcan exploit marinefisheries, seaweeds,horseshoe crabs andother livingresources.

Sahoo urged thestudents to gobeyond the text-books and venture into newknowledge which would ben-efit the society and make thestudents self-sufficient to facethe world in the future. Hepromised that all necessaryhelp would be provided to theFM University to build it as aworld-class institution.

Vice-Chancellor ProfSahoo said Odisha has a longcoastline of 480 kilometersand it is rich in various typesof marine bio-resources whichare not fully exploited due tolack of scientific exploration,trained manpower and high-end equipment facilities.

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Union Petroleum MinisterDharmendra Pradhan on

Saturday thanked UnionMinister of AgricultureNarendra Singh Tomar for tak-ing prompt cognisance on mat-ters relating to payment of PMKisan instalments to all eligiblefarmers in Odisha on hisrequest.Earlier, Pradhan in aletter to Tomar had requestedthe latter to call a meeting ofthe Agriculture Ministry andthe Odisha Government andresolve all the payment relatedissues and ensuring disburse-ment of PM Kisan benefits toall eligible farmers.Besides, herequested the AgricultureMinister for his personal inter-vention for facilitating addi-tional bulk window clearanceto the State Government toenable them to expeditiouslyrectify details of all beneficia-ries whose records were put in‘stop payment mode.’ Later,Tomar said he has directedconcerned officials to take nec-essary steps so that all farmersof Odisha can avail benefits of.PM Kisan scheme. Pradhansaid the Government underthe leadership of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi isworking round the clock for thewelfare of farmers in Odishaand in the country.

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Page 4:  · 2021. 3. 6. · Roy said, “The Trinamool does not want to talk about traitors ... ‘Mission Shakti’ separating it from the Department of Woman and Child Development. The

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Aday before the StateExecutive Committee

meeting of the party, the BJPtook stock of the political andsocial developments in theState in its State office-bearers’meeting on Saturday.

Party leaders expressedconcern over the growing lawand order situation, contro-versy over paddy procurement,increasing violence againstwomen and children, corrup-tion in DMF and CAMPAfunds, corruption and mis-management of Covid-19,uncontrolled sand lifting, bor-der dispute, defective educationpolicy, acute shortage of drink-ing water and cattle protectionissues.

The meeting chaired byState president Samir Mohantyunanimously hailed theachievement of the UnionGovernment under the lead-ership of Prime Minister

Narendra Modi for the exem-plary work on Covid manage-ment and vaccination driveand thanked Modi for his com-mitment to the people ofOdisha in providing morePMAY houses, sanctioning toi-lets and including farmers inthe Pradhan Mantri Fasal BimaYojana. Party State observer DPurendheswari said, “Throughour hard work, we should winconfidence of people.”

Mohanty underlined theneed to spread the good andpro-poor schemes of the ModiGovernment and asked partyworkers to go to all 37,000booths and spread awarenessabout these schemes.

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B R A H M A P U R : I T IBerhampur students under theguidance of Principal Dr RajatKumar Panigrahy have devel-oped an innovative computertechnology added with skill todevelop the 3D graphic sculp-ture fabrication art.

With this, innovationsculptures up to 100 ft with skycolour background can bemanufactured and installed.The most important point isthat the sculptures can be eas-ily portable where and whenrequired. This would consumeonly scrap metal sheets withlow cost and light weight.

“This shows a new era ofskill development on comput-er graphics, welding, grinding,cutting, painting skills are inte-grated to develop the skill; andthis will be a new model ofattraction in the public ralliesof political leaders,” said DrPanigrahy.He added this ideawould pave way for creatingemployment in this sector.

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The Divine Health Care(DHC), a unit of DNGH

Health and Research PrivateLimited, organised a blooddonation camp at the premis-es of its unit here at GajapatiNagar on Thursday.

Brahmapur MLA BikramPanda inaugurated the bloodcamp and also the newlyopened “Sai Gemms SI andOccupational Therapy Center.”

MLA Panda appreciatedthe selfless efforts and devotionof Director of DHC andrenowned Physiotherapist Dr

Dhireswar Panda in providingquality and timely healthcareservices to the needy people byorganising blood donation andfree healthcare camps in dif-ferent parts of the district.

He said that currentlypatients of diverse deceasesare attracted towards medica-tion and physiotherapy whichis provided by the DHC. Heassured all help for develop-ment of the centre.

Senior scribe Jagan MohanMahaptra, senior scribe andsocial worker Prof KC Panda,BJD State secretary TumbanathPanda were guests of honour.

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BHUBANESWAR:The 105thbirth anniversary of BijuPatnaik was observed by UtkalSammilani members by payingfloral tributes at the statue ofthe legendary leader at theBiju Patnaik Park here onFriday.

Presiding over a function,Sammilani’s Mancheswarbranch president DillipDashsharma said that despiterepeated demand, the country’shighest civilian honour BharatRatna has not been given toBijubabu. The UtkalSammialni once again voicesthe demand.

Among others, SitalChandra Mohanty, GobindChandra Subudhi, SiddharthaShankar Gadnayak,Maheshwar Mohapatra,Samaranjan Mohanty, SanjaySwain, Prakash Samal andGyanaranjan Behera were pre-sent. PNS

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Ayouth was killed in a roadmishap in Boudh district

on Saturday when he wasreturning from Puri after thecremation of his father at theSwargdwar. The deceased ArunMeher hailed from the Tarbhaarea of Subarnapur district.

Besides, four of Arun’s rel-atives suffered grievous injuriesafter the car by which they weretravelling rammed into a sta-tionary truck on National H-57near Karadakotha under the

Purunakatak police in Boudhdistrict today.

The injured, who hail fromfrom Balangir district, wereidentified as Chhabi Meher(from Rugudipali),Bidubhusana Meher, AshokMeher and Ram Meher (allfrom Belapadar).

On receiving information,police reached the spot andsent the injured to the BoudhDistrict Headquarters Hospital(DHH). The police also initi-ated an inquiry in this con-nection.

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The Gajapati district admin-istration has taken a strong

initiative for rehabilitation oforphan children from all overdistrict.As per Adolescent Act2015, by the instruction ofdistrict Collector AnupamSaha, 10 centres were openedto detect the orphan children.

The Anganwadi workerswere given responsibility toconduct a survey in the firstplace.Accordingly, 525 werechildren identified from the dis-trict. The child protection unitstaff were also assigned to iden-tify the parentless children.OnTuesday a meeting was held atKashinagar NAC premiseswhere BDO KashinagarSimanchal Mahanty, ChairmanCWC Pramod Kumar Roul,Member of CWC AlakaSahu,CDPO KashinagarKanaklata Pujari, staff of childprotection unit DambarudharBalwant were present.

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While announcing thelaunching of the first

FICCI Ladies Organisation(FLO) Odisha Women’sAwards instituted to acknowl-edge and award the womenachievers of Odisha onSaturday, Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik reposed faithon women to run PanchayatiRaj Institutions saying Odishais ahead in women empower-ment and the State’s empower-ment model for women is oneamongst the best in the coun-try.

“My Government hasalways been a champion of thecause of women empower-ment, Mission Shakti is one ofthe key initiatives of ourempowerment model, has suc-cessfully brought over eightmillion women from the fourwalls of family to socio-eco-nomic vibrancy,” Patnaik said.

He said the rural women inOdisha are now increasinglybecoming a major contributorto the State’s growing economy.Through the Government’s ini-

tiatives like Make-in-Odisha,Start-Up Odisha and Skilled-in-Odisha, more and morewomen in Odisha are comingto entrepreneurship.

The CM observed thatOdia women have also beenachieving great feats in nation-al and international sports.Odisha has become the firstState in the country to walk thetalk and it has been resolved inthe State Assembly to allocate33 per cent of seats inParliament and State LegislativeAssembly. He pointed outthat since 2011, Panchayat andUrban Local Bodies in the

State are represented by over 50per cent women.

The CM released a ‘PolicyBrief on WomenEntrepreneurship in Odisha’and thanked the efforts ofFICCI-FLO for its endeavourto encourage and facilitatewomen to showcase their tal-ents, skills and energy at thegrassroots, middle and seniorlevels for an inclusive eco-nomic growth trajectory.National president FICCI FLOJanhavi Phookan and Statepresident Dharitri Patnaik alsospoke on the occasion.

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The 18th National TheatreFestival CANFEST-2021

was inaugurated at the JayadevSadan here on Friday.

The festival will run for sixdays from March 5 to 10 in col-laboration with the UnionMinistry of Culture,Department of Culture,Government of Odisha,National Eastern ZonalCultural Centre, Kolkata,Paradip Port Trust (PPT),IOCL Paradip Refinery, IFFCOParadip unit. English dailyPBD is the media partner of thefest.

The event is being heldadhering to social distancingand Covid-19 guidelines.

The festival was declaredopen by Deputy Chairman,Paradip Port Trust (PPT) AsishKumar Bose in the presence ofsenior GM (Finance), IFFCOSuresh Goyal and president,CANMASS Atulya KumarMohapatra.

Several troupes from dif-ferent parts of the State andcountry are participating in thefestival.

On the opening day,Actor’s Repertory Theater (Art)group of New Delhi presentedthe inaugural Hindi play ‘NaginTera Vansh Badhe’. The playwas directed by Avtar Sahni.Hindi play ‘Charulata’ wasplayed by Prangan group ofPatna, directed by AbhayaSinha on the second dayevening.

Similarly, the Odia play‘Abhinetri’, ‘Swayambar ‘, Hindi

play ‘Nepathya MeinShakuntala’ , Bengali play‘Tithineer ‘ will be performedby Dynamic Platform,Bhubaneswar, Sri Sri JagannathLalit Kala Mandap, Paradip,Shadow Theatre, Bhopal andSudrak group of Kolkata on theday of 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6thevenings.

The festival is being organ-ised by CANMASS presidentCapt Atulya KumarMohapatra, secretary SrimanNarayan Mishra and coordi-nated by all members of CAN-MASS group.

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In a Press meet here formerBJP MP Aira Kharavela

Swain said the Union Budget ofIndia for 2021-22 is develop-ment-oriented.

The Government focuseson infrastructure so that manymanufacturering units will beste up and employment can begenerated. Our main motto isto eradicate poverty, he said.

Economic growth meansto increase in national proper-ty and comfortable living ofpeople and India can overcomepoverty like East Asia countriesJapan, Korea, Thailand,Singapore, Malaysia by pump-ing more funds into infra-structural growth and job cre-ation, Swain told.

In the current UnionBudget, Rs 5.63 lakh crore hasbeen allocated for infrastruc-ture development which is 15.5per cent of the GDP. This is arecord allocation since inde-pendence, told the former MP.

This would help developroad, aerodrome, railways,port, electricity and irrigationin a massive way. TheGovernment introduced threeBills for the betterment offarmers. Health insurance,social security for the farmersand repeal of old laws will fos-ter development by endingpoverty, Swain said. TheGovernment gives priority tothe private sector so that theycan develop the countrystrongly. The Government will

invest Rs 35,000 crore forCorona vaccine, he said prais-ing the efforts.

The Government will cre-ate 15,000 new Navodoyaschools for better educationand to iradicate dangerous dis-eases 15 new national healthcentres will be opened, Swaintold. In the Press meetKandhmal BJP district presi-dent Jagannath Sahu and lead-ers Bhagaban Mohanty, TapanPadhi among others were pre-sent.

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Ambassador of France toIndia Emmanuel Lenain

was happy to see the world-class sports infrastructure at theKalinga Stadium here onFriday.

After unveiling the coun-try’s first Indo-French dualdegree Master’s programme inSports Industry Managementof the Xavier Emylon BusinessSchool (XEBS) at XIMB,Lenain visited the KalingaStadium. He was accompa-nied by Consul General ofFrance in Kolkata VirgineCorteval.

Odisha Special Secretary,

Sports and Youth Services RVineel Krishna shared theunique initiatives in the State inthe sports sector.

At the Hockey HPC, theAmbassador interacted withtrainee cadets and took to thestick to play a few shots ofhockey with them. HPCProject Director Rajiv Seth,gave an over view of the thriv-ing Hockey ecosystem inOdisha. At the ABTP SportsScience Centre, he had a virtualinteraction with Olympian goldmedalist Abhinav Bindra andwas demonstrated the biomechanical assessment andrehabilitation facilities by thecentre’s head Pradeep Pillay

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Aman and his son werearrested and forwarded to

court by Tikayatpalli police inSundargarh district on Fridayallegedly for abetment of sui-cide of his daughter-in-lawwho was newly married.

The deceased ChandeswariBehera(30), a resident ofTalamunda village ofJharsuguda district, had mar-ried one Bibhuti Behera, a res-ident of Sarsara village underTikayatpalli police stationunder Bonei sub division,five months ago. As per the FIRlodged in Tikayatpalli policestation by family member ofChandeswari, Chandeswari’sfather-in-law Laxman Beheraand husband Bibhuti Behera,used to torture Chandeswariregularly for dowry.

Chandeswari’s sister-in-lawwho is married also used to tor-ture her. When the torturebecame unbearable,Chandeswari reportedly hadtold his parents to take her totheir house. On March 3 ataround 10 pm, the family

members of Chandeswari cameto know from on their relativethat Chandeswari is criticaland they went to the house ofin-laws of Chandeswari andfound the door of the housewas locked from outside andsaw through the window thatChandeswari was hangingfrom roof.

Laxman and Bibhuti hadabsconded. So they suspectedthat both Laxman and Bibhutikilled Chandeswari and laterhanged her and after lockingthe door from outside, fled.

After getting informationon Thursday morning, a policeteam alongwith scientific team,reached the spot and retrievedthe body. Later, the policestarted searching both fatherand son.On Friday, policearrested both Laxman andBibhuti and forwarded them tocourt for abetment to suicide ofChandeswari.

Significantly, accusedLaxman and Bibhuti had beenarrested and sent to jail in amurder case, five years ago andlater had come out of jail onbail.

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The Care Hospitals here onThursday suspended an

employee following allegationsagainst him levelled by womanhousekeeping employee of mis-behaviour.

An internal committee ofthe hospital promptly took thedecision keeping in line thehospitals’ zero-tolerance poli-cy on any such complaints ofmisbehaviour. The said indi-

vidual would remain suspend-ed till further investigations arecompleted.

Notably, the housekeepingstaffs at the Care Hospitals areprovided by an external agency,said a hospital release.

From Page 1The two siblings then bun-

dled him into their pickup vanto bring him to the police sta-tion. But on the way, he tookout a sharp weapon andattacked them. When one ofthe brothers was injured, theyin self-defence fought backand Tukuna was severelyinjured, Sarangi said.

Both Sagar and Sudhirwere arrested on murdercharges and forwarded tocourt.

Sarangi requested the peo-ple not to take the law into theirhands and, instead, to informpolice in case of criminal inci-dents.

Meanwhile, DCP Dashsaid police would suo motoregister an FIR and take strin-gent action against thoseinvolved in brutally thrashingthe two murder accused.

Those who have thrashedthe duo would be identified onthe basis of video footage andstatement of PCR staffs, headded.

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The State Government sus-pended Mohana BDO

Bansidhar Khosla on charge ofdereliction of duty.

Without approval of leave,the BDO remained out ofheadquarters for which theaction was taken against himon March 3.

On August 21 atMandimera,a ganja loadedtruck with cashew of 18 quin-

tal was seized.Under the instruction of a

court, the BDO got power tosell the cashew.

Those skinless cashew wasworth Rs 1. 42 crore but theBDO sold the cashew at Rs 14lakh only.

An inquiry was institutedagainst 8 others in the dealincluding Supply InspectorSankar Beher, IIC Adava TapanKumar Pati apart from theBDO.

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Ayouth died while stealingelectrification cables

passed over the railway tracknear a temple at Baghra Roadin Baripada town early onSaturday morning.

The deceased, identifiedas Chandan Sarkar (23), a res-ident of Baripada town, and hisfriend had climbed up an elec-tric pole installed near thetrack for a railway electrifica-

tion project. While he was cutting the

electric wires, he slipped fromthe pole and died on the spot,GRP official said.

Recently, the electrifica-tion project had startedbetween Bangiriposhi andRupsa railway lines viaBaripada. However, the trainspassing through the track in therailway line are being run with-out electricity. The wires werenot charged at the time of

mishap.As the wires were lying on

the track, the alert loco pilot ofBangiriposhi-BhubaneswarSuperfast that had left theBaripada railway station in themorning suddenly stopped thetrain sensing any possiblemishap.

The loco pilot informedthe railway officials for neces-sary action to clear the track.After a two-hour of halt, thetrain services resumed.

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Page 5:  · 2021. 3. 6. · Roy said, “The Trinamool does not want to talk about traitors ... ‘Mission Shakti’ separating it from the Department of Woman and Child Development. The

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The CBI has issued a lookoutnotice against Bijay Mishra,

brother of Trinamool Congress(TMC) leader Binay Mishrawho is a close confidant ofparty MP Abhishek Banerjee,in a cattle-smuggling case.

The agency is mulling overapproaching Interpol to get aRed Corner Notice (RCN)issued against Binay Mishra,who has not joined the probetill now, officials said.

“A lookout notice has beenissued against Bijay Mishra, thebrother of TMC leader BinayMishra,” the official said, with-out divulging any other details.

The agency has also sum-moned two senior officers of theWest Bengal police -- anInspector General and aSuperintendent of Police -- onMonday for questioning in con-nection with the case, they said.

The agency had namedBinay Mishra as a co-accusedin its supplementary

chargesheet filed in the cattle-smuggling case last month.

Binay Mishra is suspectedto be close to West BengalChief Minister and TMCsupremo Mamata Banerjee’snephew Abhishek Banerjee,they further said.

In its chargesheet filedbefore a designated CBI courtin Asansol (West Bengal), theagency has already mentionedBinay Mishra as absconding.

The CBI had filed achargesheet on February 18 inthe case against Border SecurityForce (BSF) CommandantSatish Kumar and six others fortheir alleged involvement in acattle-smuggling racket oper-ating at the India-Bangladeshborder.

Recently, the CBI had alsoquestioned Abhishek Banerjee’swife Rujira and sister-in-lawMenaka Gambhir in a separatecase pertaining to illegal coalmining and pilferage from themines of the Eastern CoalfieldsLimited (ECL).

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on

Saturday said it has arrestedtwo directors of a TamilNadu-based firm in a moneylaundering case worth �325crore, linked to a bank fraudcase.

Hittesh Patel and SureshN Patel, directors of ShinagoPlantations Pvt Ltd, were sentto 10 days’ ED custody by aspecial court on Saturdayafter they were placed underarrest under sections of thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA), theagency said in a statement.

The two allegedly laun-dered funds to the tune of�325 crore by using a networkof nearly 20 group entitieslocated across Tamil Nadu.

The PMLA investigationrevealed that “the accused incollusion with the valuers

availed loans from erstwhileCorporation Bank (nowUnion Bank of India) on thebasis of inflated value of theproperties offered as collateraland indulged in wilful diver-sion of funds through variousgroup accounts.”

It said investigation fur-ther revealed that “the fundsso availed by various indi-viduals/group concerns in theform of Letter of Credit (LC)and Cash Credit (CC) lim-its/Agriculture term loans,were transferred within thegroup entities through circu-lar rotation of money to availmore funds from the Bankwithout any actual business.”

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Donations for the con-struction of Ram Mandir

in Ayodhya are estimated tohave crossed �2,500 croreand construction is likely tobe completed in three years.

Addressing the media,Ramjanmabhoomi TeerthKshetra Trust chairmanChampat Rai on Saturdaysaid that the constructionwill commence from Apriland as per banks’ estima-tions till February 4, the donations have crossed�2,500 crore and house-to-house visits for donationshave been stopped.

Now only online dona-tions will be received, Rai saidadding that 10 crore house-holds in 4 lakh villages hadbeen approached by 9 lakhvolunteers in the past 45 daysduring the fund collectiondrive.

“Four lakh cubic stoneswill be used to complete con-struction within 3 years.While construction has not

begun, the improvement ofland for the foundation willstart in April.

Around �2,500 cr havebeen received till 4th ofMarch, but can’t confirm thefigures. We have reached 10crore households with 9 lakhworkers. The campaign isover doesn’t mean that dedi-cation towards God is over.Visit our website which has allthe details of bank accountsand one can contributeaccordingly.”

He also said that a lot of

responses were received fromNorth East States andSouthern States.

To a query, Rai said thatdonations from Rajasthan areexpected to be bigger thanUttar Pradesh.

From Arunachal Pradeshdonations are estimated tohave crossed �4.5 crore, fol-lowed by �2 crore fromManipur. As per the pressrelease issued by VHP, Rs.85crore has been received fromTamil Nadu and �13 crorefrom Kerala.

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As the farmers’ protestagainst the Centre’s new

farm laws completed 100days, the Congress onSaturday said the period wasa “black chapter” in India’sdemocracy for the treatmentmeted out to the protestersand also marked 100 days ofthe ruling BJP’s “arrogance”.

Former Congress chiefRahul Gandhi hit out at theCentre over the farmers’protest and said nails werelaid at Delhi’s borders forthose, whose sons risk theirlives at the country’s bor-ders.

His attack came after thefarmers’ agitation completed100 days with the protestingunion leaders asserting that

their movement is far fromover and they are “goingstrong”. “Whose sons risktheir l ives at the country’s borders, for themnails have been laid at theborders of Delhi. ‘Annadaatas’demand their rights, govern-ment commits atrocities,”

Rahul said in his tweet,Congress general

secretary Priyanka GandhiVadra also hit out at theCentre saying, “100 days offarmers’ struggle, of fight forrights , of respect for‘annadaatas’, of the pathshown by Gandhiji, Sardar

(Vallabhbhai) Patel, Nehruji,(Lal Bahadur) Shastr ij i ,Shaheed Bhagat Singh.” Withthe hashtag ‘100DaysOfBJParrogance’, she said,“100 days of BJPGovernment’s arrogance, ofassault on farmers, of liesand scorn for farmers.”

Congress spokespersonPawan Khera said the protest-ing farmers have been braving all odds — of natureand the might of the State —for the last 100 days.

“Each one of us, whichev-er category we may belong to,have our own struggles andthat is the awareness on which the Governmentdepends,” Khera said.

There is one section of thesociety that has found time tocome out and protest — farm-ers — against these “blacklaws” and they are “our voice”,he added.

The Congress demandsthat the three new farm lawsshould immediately berepealed, Khera said.

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The Supreme Court, which ishearing cases through

video-conferencing sinceMarch last year due to theCovid-19 pandemic, will com-mence hybrid physical hearingsfrom March 15.

The apex court has issuedthe standard operating proce-dure (SOP) for the hybridphysical hearings.

The top court has beenhearing cases through video-conferencing since March lastyear due to the pandemic andseveral bar bodies and lawyershave been demanding thatphysical hearings shouldresume immediately.

“On an experimental basis,and as a pilot scheme, the finalhearings/regular matters list-ed on Tuesdays, Wednesdaysand Thursdays may be heardin the hybrid mode, as may be

decided by the bench, consid-ering the number of parties ina matter as well as the limitedcapacity of the courtrooms; allother matters, including thoselisted on Mondays andFridays, shall continue to beheard through video/tele-con-ferencing mode,” said the SOPissued by the apex court.

“The hybrid physical

hearings are to commencewith effect from March 15,2021,” it added.

It said unless otherwisedirected by a bench, the finalhearings or regular matterswhere the number of lawyersfor the parties is higher thanthe average working capacityof the courtrooms accordingto COVID-19 norms, that is

20 per courtroom at any giventime, shall invariably be listedfor hearing through the videoor tele-conferencing mode.

“...However, in case thebench directs hearing of suchmatters to be held through thehybrid mode, the appearanceof the parties, whether byphysical presence or throughvideo/tele-conferencing, willbe facilitated as per the direc-tions of the bench,” the SOPsaid.

It said if the number ofparties is higher than the spec-ified number in a matter list-ed for hybrid hearing, thenone advocate-on-record(AOR) and one arguing coun-sel per party would be allowedentry.

It said one registered clerkper party, as may be chosen bythe AOR, shall be allowedentry to carry paper-books orjournals of lawyers up to thecourtrooms.

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ADelhi Court has ordered tosummon the court clerk of

the record room of Delhi HighCourt to bring original case fileof the petition filed by MedhaPatkar for quashing of thedefamation case filed by VKSaxena, presently the chairmanof Khadi and Village IndustriesCommission. The original casefile will help settle the disputeabout the existence of the socalled “defamatory’ press

release issued by Patkar , some-thing she has persistentlydenied in the court.

Saxena has filed twodefamation cases against Patkarwhich are pending in the courtof Metropolitan Magistrate,Saket, New Delhi. The onedefamation case was related toa press note issued by Patkar on24.11.2000, in which sheclaimed that Saxena visitedMalegaon, praised NarmadaBachao Andolan (NBA), anddonated a cheque of �40,000 to

Lok Samiti, a support group ofNBA. The news was publishedby a news portal rediff.com.

Saxena denied that he evervisited Malegaon or made anysuch donation to the NBA andsaid that the press note was fullof false allegations and wasdefamatory. He subsequentlyissued a legal notice to Patkar.After receiving no responsefrom the NBA leader , Saxenafiled a defamation case inJanuary 2001.

During the last 20 years on

various occasions, Patkardenied that she ever issued anysuch press note and evenclaimed that it was fabricatedby Saxena himself.

Interestingly, Patkar filed acriminal miscellaneous appli-cation No 6026 on 26.11.2018,U/S 482 of CrPC in the HighCourt of Delhi for quashing theproceedings in another defama-tion case filed by Saxena againsther. An advance copy of thepetition was also sent to Saxenaby her advocate. In the said

criminal petition, Patkar in thelist of “dates and events”, men-tioned that on 24.11.2000, apress note was released by herwhich was subsequently pub-lished in the news portal red-iff.com.

Incidentally, this was pre-cisely the case made out bySaxena. Patkar later withdrewthe petition.

Saxena on February 17,2020 filed an application in theMM Court along with certifiedcopies of the criminal miscel-

laneous application no. 6026 of2018 filed by Patkar in the DelhiHigh Court with the request forcalling upon additional witnessin the case, i.e. the concernedcourt clerk of the Delhi HighCourt with original case file ofthe above case where she hasadmitted to have issued thepress note in question. Counselfor Saxena pleaded that judicialadmission cannot be with-drawn.

Metropolitan MagistrateAnimesh Kumar after hearing

both the sides said, “it is a caseof the complainant (VK Saxena)that on 26.11.2018, accused(Medha Patkar) filed a petitionbearing number Crl MC 6026of 2018 before the Hon’bleDelhi High Court U/S 482CrPC for quashing the pro-ceedings of CC No. 2866/1/03pending before this court. LdCounsel for the complainantsubmits that the accused hasmade certain judicial admis-sions under oath in the saidpetition filed before the DHC

where she has categoricallyadmitted that she made aver-ments against the complainant.”

The Magistrate further saidthat relevant record related toCrl MC No. 6026 of 2018 titled“Medha Patkar Vs State ofDelhi & Others” should besummoned in the present case.

“Hence, let summon beissued to the concerned clerk ofthe record room of Hon’bleDelhi High Court to bring theoriginal case file on 19.03.2021,”he ordered.

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The CPI(M) Polit Bureau onSaturday accused the BJP-

led Government at the Centreof playing dirty tricks by mis-using Central agencies likeCustoms Department to tar-get Kerala Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan and Ministersduring the poll season withtutored affidavits of accusedpersons in the gold smug-gling case.

For his part, Vijayan said:“After declaration of Assemblypolls, central investigationagencies’ attacks have intensi-f ied. The CustomsCommissioner, who isn’t partyto gold smuggling case, includ-ed portions of confidentialstatement by accused (SwapnaSuresh) in his statement inHigh Court. He has also lev-eled allegations against KeralaSpeaker and Ministers todefame the LDF government.”

The Customs Departmentin Kochi earlier alleged that apolitical party was trying tointimidate the investigationagency but made it clear thatit will not work. “A politicalparty trying intimidation, willnot work,” Customs(Preventive) CommissionerSumit Kumar wrote on hisFacebook page.

“She has stated with clar-ity about smuggling of foreigncurrency at the instance of the

Hon’ble chief minister andthe Hon’ble Speaker with thehelp of the Consulate,” theCustoms has said in a state-ment filed in the Kerala highcourt.

The CPI (M) Polit Bureaualleged that the tutored state-ments of the jailed accusedwas recorded months ago andleaked to malign the partyduring the election time.

“The Polit Bureau of theCPI(M) strongly condemnsthe Customs Authority’sattempt to falsely implicateChief Minister PinarayiVijayan, three other ministersand the Speaker of theAssembly of Kerala in analleged dollar smuggling case.The customs have cited an affi-davit by one of the accused,who is in judicial custody inthe gold smuggling case, forthis purpose. The fact that thistutored statement was record-ed some months ago and pre-

sented after the elections wereannounced shows the politicalgame behind this move.

“The BJP Central govern-ment is systematically misus-ing the Central agencies formaligning the Chief Ministerand the LDF government. Thepeople of Kerala will seethrough this political chi-canery and give a fitting rebuffto the dirty tactics adopted bythe BJP and the UDF,” saidCPI(M).

In Kerala, the CPI(M) hasstaged protest marches atCustoms offices. Recently, theCustoms Department has filedan affidavit before the Courtstating that the main accusedSwapna Suresh has given state-ment before the investigatorson the knowledge of the ChiefMinister and three Ministersand Speaker of the KeralaAssembly about the illegaldollar trade and gold smug-gling involving UAE consulate.

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First published in Pashto in1983, the autobiography of

freedom fighter Khan AbdulGhaffar Khan, fondly knownas Bacha Khan or BadshahKhan, is now out in English,announced publishing houseRoli Books.

The book, titled “TheFrontier Gandhi: My Life andStruggle”, is translated by for-mer Pakistani civil servantand author Imitiaz AhmadSahibzada. This is the “firsttime” that Khan’s autobiogra-phy is available in English. Anearlier account of his life, pub-lished in English in 1969, andwith the same title, was basedon the interviews conductedwith him and was not “hiswritten autobiography”.

“.. Bacha Khan felt that the1969 account of his life andstruggle was not complete andbegan to write his own auto-biography thereafter, with thehelp of numerous associates.Bacha Khan’s autobiographywas thus first published inPukhto in 1983, in Kabul..This book is a translation ofBacha Khan’s only written,Pukhto autobiography,” writesSahibzada in the book.

Khan (1890–1988), popu-larly called the ‘FrontierGandhi’, was born inUthmanzai in the North-WestFrontier Province of BritishIndia. His life was dedicated to

the social reform of thePukhtuns and he continues tobe revered across the world bythem. In India, he is known forhis close association withMahatma Gandhi and hisleadership of the KhudaiKhidmatgar (Servants of God)movement from 1930 – 47 –one of the most successful andsustained Gandhian non-vio-lent campaigns anywhere inthe world.

The book, whose fore-word is written by historianand Mahatma Gandhi’s grand-son Rajmohan Gandhi, bringsto life events and personalitiesof the independence move-ment as Khan records theuntiring energy and sacrificesthat went into winning free-dom.

“If our world wants topicture non-violent defiance,or inter-faith partnership, .. Ora commitment to the rights ofthe vulnerable, it cannot domuch better than study thesetwo men together: GhaffarKhan and, older by 21 years,Mohandas Gandhi, brothers inspirit, each armed with theswords of conscience andcourage,” writes Rajmohan,who is also the author ofKhan’s biography, “GhaffarKhan: Nonviolent Badshah ofthe Pakhtuns”.

“The Frontier Gandhi: MyLife and Struggle”, priced at�695, is available for sale inoffline and online stores.

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Scientists have developed aplatform to detect the effect

of prolonged exposure to alco-hol on red blood cells (RBC)through high-resolution mea-surements of their size, accord-ing to a statement on Saturday.

The high-resolution plat-form that shows the reductionin size of RBCs due to alcoholexposure can be tuned for apoint-of-care screening of mul-tiple conditions that alter thesize and count of red cells inblood.

Although it is known thatalcohol affects RBCs, the exactphysiological changes are verysubtle and difficult to measure.

In order to overcome thischallenge, scientists led byProfessor Gautam Soni fromRaman Research Institute(RRI), an institution funded bythe Department of Science &Technology (DST), have devel-oped custom-made electro-fluidic platform thatcan detect the change by mea-suring the cell size in enhancedresolution.

The device made in RRIrelies on the resistive pulsesensing principle.

The team first developedtechniques for making tinymicron (1/1000th of a mil-limetre) sized holes or micro-pores at the tip of a glass cap-illary with careful fabrication,flame polishing, and imageverification.

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The BJP on Saturday nomi-nated senior party leader

and former Union MinisterPon Radhakrishnan as its can-didate for the April 6 bypoll tothe Kanyakumari Lok Sabhaconstituency in Tamil Nadu.

As the campaign for theAssembly polls heats up, unionHome Minister and formerBJP president Amit Shah willalso visit Tamil Nadu andKerala on Sunday.

The bypoll was necessitat-ed due to the death of CongressMP H Vasantha Kumar inAugust last year due toCOVID-19.

The BJP’s Central ElectionCommittee (CEC), which metearlier under its NationalPresident JP Nadda and attend-ed by Prime Minister NarendraModi, Defence MinisterRajnath Singh and HomeMinister Amit Shah, approvedthe candidature ofRadhakrishnan. He is also aformer BJP State president.

The BJP had on late Fridaynight finalised its seat-sharingdeal with its ally AIADMK forthe April 6 Assembly polls inthe state where the latter, thelead partner, allocated 20 seatsto the saffron party, besides theKanyakumari parliamentarysegment.

Radhakrishnan had wonfrom Kanyakumari in the 2014

parliamentary and inducted inthen Modi-led NDA dispensa-tion as Minister of State.

He lost the subsequent2019 Lok Sabha elections toKumar from the same con-stituency. He was then MoSFinance and Shipping.

Union Home Minister andformer BJP president AmitShah will be on a one-day visitto Tamil Nadu and Kerala onSunday to attend variousimportant programmes.

According to a party state-ment here, Shah will first visitSuchindram Temple inKanyakumari, Tamil Nadu ,andoffer prayers. He will thenlaunch “Vetri Kodi Eandhi”(Vijay Sankalp MahasamaprkAbhiyaan - a door to doorcampaign) in SuchindramTown, Kanyakumari.

The BJP said Shah will holda massive roadshow “Vetri KodiEandhi” fom Hindu college toVeppamoodu Kamaraj statue inKanyakumari. After the road-show, the Union Home Ministerwill address a Karyakarta Sabhaof the party at Uduppi Hotel inKanyakumari .

Shah will then proceed toKerala where he will visit ShriBelur Math atThiruvananthapuram in Keralaand offer prayers. After that, hewill address the Valedictoryfunction of BJP’s Kerala VijayYatra at Shanghumukham inThiruvananthapuram.

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Country’s largest iron oreminer NMDC has left the

price of lump ore unchanged at�5,100 per tonne and �4,210per tonne for fines in its latestprice revision announced onSaturday.

Iron ore is the key rawmaterial used in steel making.Any change in its prices has adirect impact on the rates ofsteel. In a filing to the BSE,NMDC said it fixed the priceof lumps or high-grade iron oreat �5,100 per tonne, and that ofiron ore fines or inferior gradeore at �4,210 a tonne.

The revised prices areeffective from March 6, 2021and exclude royalty, DistrictMineral Fund (DMF), NationalMineral Exploration Trust

(DMET), cess, forest permitfee, and other taxes, the com-pany said.

Last month, NMDCreduced the price of lumps to�5,100 per tonne from �5,700per tonne fixed on January 6,2021, while the rate of fines wasalso revised downwards to�4,210 a tonne from �4,810 pertonne.

NMDC, under theMinistry of Steel, is the coun-try’s largest iron ore miner.

The company, whichhas been in the business ofmining iron ore for over sixdecades, produces about 35MT iron ore from its three ironore complexes in the country— one in Donimalai inKarnataka and two in theDantewada district ofChhattisgarh.

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Union minister AnuragThakur on Saturday said

the government is open toevaluate and explore new tech-nologies, including cryptocur-rencies, for improving gover-nance.

Prime Minister NarendraModi himself is a strong advo-cate of embracing technologyin various aspects of gover-nance, the Minister of State forFinance said while addressingan event organised byEntrepreneurs’ Organisation -EO Punjab.

“Let me say that we wel-come innovation and new tech-nology...Blockchain is a newemerging technology.Cryptocurrency is a form ofvirtual currency. I firmlybelieve that we must alwaysevaluate, explore and encour-age new ideas with an openmind,” he said.

A High-Level Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC)was constituted under theChairmanship of EconomicAffairs Secretary on digitalcurrencies and it has submittedits report.

The government would

take a decision on the recom-mendations of the IMC and thelegislative proposal, if any,would be introduced inParliament following the dueprocess, he said while invitingsuggestions and views on thisissue.

Cryptocurrencies are dig-ital or virtual currencies inwhich encryption techniquesare used to regulate the gener-ation of their units and verifythe transfer of funds, operatingindependently of a centralbank.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman on Friday said thegovernment is still formulatingits opinion on cryptocurrenciesand will take a calibrated posi-tion.

Reserve Bank of IndiaGovernor Shaktikanta Das hadlast week said the apex bankhas certain “major concerns”

over the impact cryptocurren-cies may have on the financialstability in the economy andhas conveyed the same to thegovernment.

The RBI had virtual-ly banned cryptocurrency trad-ing in 2018

and had directed all entitiesregulated by the central bank tocease dealing in virtual cur-rencies. The Supreme Courthad also asked the Centre in2019 to frame policies for cryp-to, and in 2020, struck downthe curbs imposed by the RBI.

The Reserve Bank hadthrough various public noticeson December 24, 2013,February 1, 2017 andDecember 5, 2017, cautionedusers, holders and traders ofvirtual currencies, includingbitcoins, regarding various risksassociated in dealing with suchvirtual currencies.

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The 15th FinanceCommission opted for con-

tinuity and predictability andhence retained the share of taxdevolution to States at 41 percent of the total pool, its chair-man NK Singh said onSaturday.

Speaking at a webinarorganised by the Centre forPolicy Research (CPR), Singhsaid each Finance Commissionin the past has somewhatincreased the total amount ofdevolution to states, but the15th Finance Commissionweighed all the options con-sidering that the fiscal space ofboth states and the Centre hasshrunk on account of theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Rajya Sabha memberSushil Kumar Modi highlight-ed that the share of divisiblepool is slowly shrinking as the“cess and surcharge” compo-nent in Gross Tax revenue is

increasing. The 15th Finance

Commission has recommend-ed that states be given 41 percent of the divisible tax pool ofthe Centre during the period2021-22 to 2025-26, which is atthe same level as was recom-mended by the 14th FinanceCommission.

Finance Commission is aconstitutional body that givessuggestions on Centre-statefinancial relations.

As per the Commission,the gross tax revenue (GTR) forthe 5-year period is expected tobe Rs 135.2 lakh crore. Out ofthat, divisible pool (afterdeducting cesses and sur-charges and cost of collection)is estimated to be Rs 103 lakhcrore. States’ share at 41 percent of divisible pool comes toRs 42.2 lakh crore for 2021-26period.

The report of the 15thFinance Commission wastabled in Parliament on

February 2.Singh said each Finance

Commission has somewhatincreased the total amount ofdevolution as percentage ofdivisible pool.

“We had an option ofcontinuing this trajectory, wehad an option of enhancing thisdevolution to somewhat high-er figure. We had the option ofsomewhat recalibrating down-wards looking at the constraintson the fiscal space of theCentral Government. FinanceCommission is not anencounter with shock and awe,Finance Commission has alegacy which believes in stabil-ity, continuity and predictabil-ity. We opted for continuity andpredictability,” he said.

Modi, in his speech, saidcess and surcharge which was10.4 per cent of GTR in 2011-12, has increased to 20.2 percent. Even after deducting GSTcompensation cess, it is 15 percent.

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All India Nationalised BanksOfficers Federation (AIN-

BOF) has opposed privatisationof public sector banks as it willlead to increase in servicecharges and will take bankingbeyond the reach of commonman.

In a statement, the AIN-BOF said privatization willprimarily impact the generalpublic only as the social objec-tives will be lost in the name ofprofitability.

“Service Charges will beincreased and customers whoare able to bear those chargesonly will be serviced. This willtake banking beyond the reachof the common man which wasthe primary objective of

nationalization,” it said.It said though the

Government’s agenda of pri-vatization started way back in1991 immediately after the lib-eralization the trade unionswere successful in thwartingthe ill-conceived moves of thesuccessive governments overthe past three decades andmaintaining the public sectorstatus.

“Of the many private sec-tor banks that came into exis-tence, today only a handfulwhich were promoted by thefinancial houses like ICICI,UTI, IDBI, HDFC are surviv-ing and many of the privatesector entities that commencedtheir banking operations after1990 were either closed ormerged”, it added.

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India Grid Trust, India’s firstpower infrastructure invest-

ment trust (InvIT), on Saturdaysigned a share purchase agree-ment to acquire NER-IITransmission Limited fromSterlite Power as part of theFramework Agreement.

The indicative value of theacquisition is �4,625 crore andwould boost IndiGrid’s AUM(asset under management) by34 per cent to over �20,000crore ($2.8 billion).

Post completion, the plat-form’s asset portfolio wouldconsist of 13 power transmis-sion projects, with a total net-

work of 38 power transmissionlines and 11 substationsextending over 7,570 circuitkilometers and 13,350 MVA in17 Indian states and 1 UnionTerritory.

NER-II is part of InterState Transmission Scheme(ISTS) network, and wasawarded on a Build, Own,Operate, Maintain (“BOOM”)basis with a contractual periodof 35 years.

The project has 11 ele-ments including two substa-tions of 1,260 MVA capacityand four transmission linesextending over 830 circuit kilo-metres.

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As several carmakers bleedin the US and beyond,

Tesla is profitable and accord-ing to Elon Musk, his electriccar company and Ford are theonly two carmakers in the USwhich have not gone bankrupt.

Tesla reported anotherprofitable quarter as revenue hit$10.74 billion in the fourthquarter of 2020. In last year,Tesla achieved free cash flow ofnearly $2.8 billion after spend-ing more than $3 billion onbuilding new factories andother expenditures.

US automaker Ford lastmonth announced to morethan double its investment inelectric and autonomous vehi-cles to $29 billion. The

automaker had previouslycommitted to spend $11.5 bil-lion on electrifying its vehiclelineup through 2022.

“Tesla & Ford are the onlyAmerican carmakers not tohave gone bankrupt out of1000’s of car startups.Prototypes are easy, productionis hard & being cash flow pos-itive is excruciating,” Musksaid in a tweet on Friday.

Ford CEO Jim Farleyresponded to his tweet, saying:“Respect”.

In 2020, Tesla producedand delivered half a millionvehicles. In addition, Model Yproduction in Shanghai hasbegun.

Tesla this year also regis-tered its Indian subsidiary withthe Registrar of Companies

(RoC) in Bengaluru, onJanuary 8.

“2020 was a defining yearfor us on many levels. Despitea challenging environment,we’ve reached an importantmilestone of producing anddelivering 0.5 million cars,”Musk had said.

On the other hand, Ford’sincreased investment is aimedat catching up with the EVmarket leader Tesla and keeppace with other automakerslike GM and Volkswagen.

“We are accelerating ourplans right now, breaking con-straints, increasing batterycapacity, improving our costsand getting more batteryelectrics into our cycle plan,”Ford CEO Farley said lastmonth.

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The National High SpeedRail Corporation Limited

(NHSRCL) on Saturday saidthat it has opened two techni-cal bids for construction orbuilding of bridges for the 508km Mumbai-Ahmedabad HighSpeed Rail (MAHSR) corridorin the state of Gujarat andDadra and Nagar Haveli inwhich nine companies haveparticipated.

NHSRCL spokespersonSushma Gaur said that thetechnical bids for contractpackages of P-1(B) and P-1(C)for construction or building of

bridges for the MAHSR corri-dor in the state of Gujarat aswell union territory of Dadraand Nagar Haveli.

She said that as of now, 5bidders for P-1 (C) whereasfour bidders for P-1 (B) havesubmitted their bids for thepackage.She said that the P-1(C) package includes con-struction of bridges for doubleline High Speed railway forfour PSC Bridges and sevensteel truss bridges betweenZaroli Village at Maharashtra -- Gujarat Border and Vadodara,in Gujarat and the union ter-ritory of Dadar and NagarHaveli for the project.

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High base effect along withvolume decline subdued

the growth of India’s pharma-ceuticals market, India Ratingsand Research (Ind-Ra) said.

Accordingly, the volumedeclined in the anti-infectiveand respiratory products waspronounced during themonth.

“Ind-Ra expects a growthimprovement over the comingmonths as the vaccinationdrive gains momentum and alower base leads to bettergrowth momentum.”

“However, IPM grew 1.1per cent YoY during February2021, due to a 5.8 per cent vol-ume decline, price growth of4.8 per cent and productslaunches at 2.1 per cent.”

According to Ind-Ra,acute therapies such as gastroand vitamins witnessed salesgrowth of 9.9 per cent YoY and8.6 per cent YoY, respectively,while anti-infectives declined11.3 per cent YoY duringFebruary 2021.

“A growth outperformancewas observed in chronic ther-apies during the month, withcardiac and anti-diabeticgrowing 7.3 per cent YoY and4.3 per cent YoY, respectively.”

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Oil marketing companieshave spared consumers of

yet another petrol and dieselprice hike even though theglobal oil market is on the boilwith crude reaching withintouching distance of year-high-level of $70 a barrel.

Petrol continues to bepriced at �91.17 a litre anddiesel �81.47 a litre in the cap-ital on Saturday. Across thecountry too, the petrol anddiesel price remainedunchanged.

This is seventh consecutiveday when pump prices of autofuels have remains unchanged.

After a spike in global oilprices seen over last two weekswith crude price jumping closeto $67 a barrel, prices had fall-en to around $63 a barrel butit rose again to cross $69 a bar-rel mark now after after theOPEC+ decision to continuewith crude production cut inApril.

Petrol and diesel priceshave been rising continuouslysince February 9.

New Delhi:Union RailwayMinister Piyush Goyal onFriday emphasised on the man-ufacturing on the indigenoushigh quality containers in Indiasaying that India has excellentsteel making capabilities.

Addressing a webinar hereat the Container Corporationof India Ltd (CONCOR) on‘Indigenous Manufacturing ofContainers’, Goyal said, “Weshould be aspiring for a muchbigger play in container man-ufacturing. We have absolute-ly excellent steel making capa-bilities, we have an MSMEsector with good skills and theframe making capabilities arealso good.”

The minister stressed thatIndia’s exports are going toincrease significantly, as againstthe imports. “Government hasmade a conscious decision tosupport our shipping sector somore and more of the Indiancompanies start owning Indianflag vessels,” he said.

Goyal said, there is a lot ofbuzz and excitement in ourmanufacturing sector, to meetdomestic and internationalrequirements. “We are part ofthe resilient global supply

chain, which are looking atalternate supplies,” he said.

“If India starts manufac-turing at scale, we will becomecost-competitive to sell to allparts of the world. Scale pre-sents huge cost-benefit oppor-tunities,” he said.Goyal empha-sised that if you produce ahigh-quality product, ourneighbours will never be ableto match it. And that can besold in Europe and US.

“If India manufacturers amillion containers in a year, wewill become cost-competitive,”he said.Goyal said containermanufacturing business need-ed a LIFT, which CONCORhas been able to provide.Elaborating the meaning ofLIFT, he said L - efficient logis-tics, I - depending on indige-nous sources, F - futuristicand T - becoming a trendset-ter.“We should all collectivelytake a concrete decision tobuy only Indian and supportIndian industry, to meet notonly India’s needs but theworld’s needs. Container short-age and imported containershould be dumped into theflames of history,” the ministersaid. IANS

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���� ������7 �!���� ''��� �� �������!$�'��&'��!�'��,�$��Mumbai: Covestro saw a

strong end to an exceptionalyear in 2020 and benefited,especially in the second half,from its consistent crisis pre-vention measures and a recov-ery in demand.

However, despite the verysuccessful fourth quarter, thegroup could not fully com-pensate the massive, pandem-ic-related cut-backs that arosein the first six months. “We were able to successfullynavigate through this highlyexceptional year and main-tained our ability to act at alltimes,” said CEO MarkusSteilemann.

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NASA’s latest Mars rover,Perseverance, performed

its first test drive on the RedPlanet, covering a distance ofabout 6.5 metres across theMartian landscape, a “majormilestone” before it begins itsscience operations.

The drive lasted about 33minutes, propelling the roverforward by four metres, whereit then turned to the left by 150degrees and backed up 2.5metres into its new temporaryparking space, the Americanspace agency noted in a state-ment.

According to NASA, thedrive served as a mobility testto check out and calibrateevery system, subsystem, andinstrument on the Perseverancerover, which it said is a majormilestone before the scienceoperations get underway.

“When it comes to wheeledvehicles on other planets, thereare few first-time events thatmeasure up in significance tothat of the first drive,” said

Anais Zarifian, the mobility testbed engineer of the Mars 2020Perseverance rover at NASA’sJet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)in Southern California.

“This was our first chanceto ‘kick the tires’ and takePerseverance out for a spin. Therover’s six-wheel drive respond-ed superbly. We are now con-

fident our drive system is goodto go, capable of taking uswherever the science leads usover the next two years,”Zarifian said.

Regular commutes of over200 metres are expected oncethe rover begins pursuing itsscience goals, including thesearch for signs of ancientmicrobial life, NASA said.

As part of its mission, therover would characterise theRed Planet’s geology and pastclimate, and pave the way forhuman exploration of Mars.

It is also expected to be thefirst to collect and cacheMartian rock and soil.

Since its landing on Marson February 18, the rover hasundergone several routinechecks, including a a softwareupdate, replacing the comput-er program that helped landPerseverance with one NASAwill rely on to analyse the

planet.On March 2, NASA said its

engineers unstowed the rover’s2-metre-long robotic arm forthe first time, flexing each of itsfive joints over the course oftwo hours.

All the while, the spaceagency said the rover continuesto send down images fromMars using the most advancedsuite of cameras ever to travelto the Red Planet.

“Every picture fromPerseverance is relayed byeither the European SpaceAgency’s Trace Gas Orbiter, orNASA’s MAVEN, MarsOdyssey, or MarsReconnaissance Orbiter. Theyare important partners in ourexplorations and our discover-ies,” said Justin Maki, chiefengineer for imaging and theimaging scientist for the Mars2020 Perseverance rover mis-sion at JPL.

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Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan on Saturday

comfortably won a trust vote inthe National Assembly amidopposition boycott, bolsteringhis Government’s position afteran embarrassing defeat in thisweek’s hotly-contested Senateelections.

Prime Minister Khansecured 178 votes in the 342-member lower house ofParliament during a specialsession convened on the direc-tives of President Arif Alvi. Herequired 172 votes for a simplemajority. The floor test tookplace without the Opposition asthe Pakistan DemocraticMovement (PDM) — an

alliance of 11 parties — boy-cotted the voting, making iteasier for Khan to secure therequired numbers.

Khan decided to take avote of confidence in theNational Assembly after hisfinance minister Abdul HafeezShaikh was defeated in theSenate election by formerprime minister Yusuf Raza

Gilani on Wednesday. TheOpposition demanded thePrime Minister’s resignationafter the debacle.

Addressing the House aftersecuring the trust vote, the 68-year-old cricketer-turnedpolitician thanked all lawmak-ers from his party and allies forsupporting him in Parliament.

Foreign Minister ShahMahmood Qureshi earliertabled a single-point resolutionin the House.

“That this House reposesconfidence in the PrimeMinister of the IslamicRepublic of Pakistan, Mr ImranKhan, as required under clause(7) of Article 91 of theConstitution Islamic Republicof Pakistan,” the resolutionsaid. Speaker Asad Qaiserannounced the result, sayingPrime Minister Khan had beenelected to the post with 176votes following the 2018 gen-eral elections. “Today, he hassecured 178 votes,” he said.

The ruling coalition had181 members but after the res-ignation of one of its lawmak-ers, Faisal Vowda, its strengthwas reduced to 180. TheOpposition coalition has 160members in the House. Oneseat was vacant. According tothe breakdown, 155 PTI law-makers out of 156 voted infavour of the prime minister,Dawn newspaper reported.

Seven lawmakers from theMuttahida Qaumi Movement(MQM), five each from thePakistan Muslim League-Qand the Balochistan Awami

Party, three from the GrandDemocratic Alliance, and oneeach from the Awami MuslimLeague and the JamhooriWatan Party voted in favour ofthe resolution. Independentcandidate Aslam Bhotani alsovoted in favour of Khan.

Earlier, unruly scenes werewitnessed outside Parliamentbuilding when supporters ofthe ruling alliance tried to dis-

rupt a press conference ofOpposition leaders belongingto the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).

PML-N leaders alleged thatthey had been manhandled bythe ruling party members whowere holding up banners andchanting slogans in favour ofKhan. Security forces man-aged to separate the politicalworkers of the two sides.

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Pakistan’s leading Oppositionleaders on Saturday

demanded Prime MinisterImran Khan’s resignation andfresh elections, soon after hewon a vote of confidence in theNational Assembly.

Khan secured 178 votes inthe 342-member lower houseof Parliament during a specialsession convened on the directives of President Arif Alvi.

The floor test took placewithout the Opposition as thePakistan DemocraticMovement (PDM) — analliance of 11 parties — boy-cotted the voting.

The first to respond waschief of the PDM Maulana

Fazlur Rehman, who told themedia in Sukkur, Sindh that thevote of confidence has nomeaning.

“This was not a confidencevote. We know which agencieswatched the members of theassembly the entire night. [Weknow] who knocked on thedoors of each member toensure they were present,” hesaid.

His reference was towardsreports stating that the gov-ernment kept its membersinside lodges in Islamabadunder strict watch so that all ofthem are present in Parliamentduring the floor test.

Rehman alleged that thelawmakers were forced to votefor Prime Minister Khan.

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Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan said on

Saturday that his governmentwill introduce electoral reformsand electronic voting machinesto ensure fair and transparentelections in the country.

Delivering a speech afterwinning a trust vote in theNational Assembly, the crick-eter-turned-politician said hisgovernment plans to intro-duce electronic voting, enablingmillions of Pakistanis abroad tovote in elections.

“We are bringing moderntechnology in elections for atransparent election process.We have decided to useElectronic Voting Machines(EVM) in the future. It isimportant to use them tocounter the voter fraud claimsmade by the candidates wholose the polls. We are alsoworking on putting up a system

so that the overseas Pakistaniscan cast their votes,” Khansaid.

“Just like in the US whereformer president DonaldTrump’s repeated allegations ofelectoral malpractice weredebunked by a transparent sys-tem, Pakistan will also put inplace the same system to ensurefair and transparent elections inthe country.

“As captain in Cricket, Ibrought the concept of neutralumpiring, similarly my gov-ernment will set in motion afair electoral system,” he said.

Khan’s remarks came afterPakistan’s election commissionon Friday expressed shock anddisappointment over the primeminister’s allegations against it,asserting that the Senate elec-tions were held as per theConstitution and it has “nevercome under any sort of pres-sure and God willing, will notin future as well.”

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Pope Francis and Iraq’s topShia cleric delivered a pow-

erful message of peaceful coex-istence on Saturday, urgingMuslims in the war-weary Arabnation to embrace Iraq’s long-beleaguered Christian minor-ity during an historic meetingin the holy city of Najaf.

Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said religious authoritieshave a role in protecting Iraq’sChristians, and that theyshould live in peace and enjoy the same rights as otherIraqis.

The Vatican said Francisthanked al-Sistani for having“raised his voice in defense ofthe weakest and most perse-cuted” during some of themost violent times in Iraq’srecent history.

Al-Sistani, 90, is one of themost senior clerics in ShiiteIslam and his rare but power-ful political interventions have helped shape present-dayIraq. He is a deeply revered fig-ure in Shia-majority Iraq andhis opinions on religious andother matters are sought byShiites worldwide.

The historic meeting in al-Sistani’s humble home wasmonths in the making, withevery detail painstakingly dis-cussed and negotiated betweenthe ayatollah’s office and theVatican. Early Saturday, the 84-year-old pontiff ’s convoy, led bya bullet-proof Mercedes-Benz,pulled up along Najaf ’s narrowand column-lined Rasool Street,which culminates at the golden-domed Imam Ali Shrine, one ofthe most revered sites in ShiiteIslam. He then walked the fewmeters (yards) to al-Sistani’smodest home, which the cler-ic has rented for decades.

A group of Iraqis wearingtraditional clothes welcomedhim outside. As a maskedFrancis entered the doorway, afew white doves were releasedin a sign of peace.

He emerged just under anhour later, still limping from anapparent flare-up of sciaticanerve pain that makes walkingdifficult. The “very positive”meeting lasted a total of 40 min-utes, said a religious official inNajaf, who spoke on conditionof anonymity because he wasnot authorised to brief media.

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Baghdad:The scenes are searedin the memory of the Rev.Ammar Altony Yako: A churchthat for decades has been thepride of the town of Qaraqosh,a center for Christian life inIraq, stood badly scarred.

Yako saw it in 2016 whenQaraqosh was liberated frommore than two years of IslamicState group rule. Scrawled ona wall was the proclamation,the “Islamic State will remain.”Strewn amid the rubble in acourtyard were bullet-riddledmannequins and other telltalesigns of a militants’ makeshiftfiring range for target practice.

On Sunday, a new scene willplay out for the world to watchat the Church of the ImmaculateConception and new memorieswill be created. Where theextremists once damaged, PopeFrancis will now pray.

“I never could have imaginedthat his holiness, the pope, wouldvisit this church, not even in mydreams,” said Yako, who has been

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Security forces in Myanmaragain used force Saturday to

disperse anti-coup protesters, aday after a UN special envoyurged the Security Council totake action to quell junta vio-lence that this past week leftmore than 50 peaceful demon-strators dead and scores injured.

Protests were reportedSaturday morning in the coun-try’s biggest city, Yangon, wherestun grenades and tear gaswere used against demonstra-tors. On Wednesday, 18 peoplewere reported killed there.

Protests also took place inseveral other cities, includingMandalay, the second-biggestcity, Myitkyina, the capital ofthe northern state of Kachin,Myeik in the far south, wherepolice fired tear gas at students,and Dawei in the southeast,where tear gas was also used.

Officials are believed to

have exhumed the body of ayoung woman who was killedduring Wednesday’s suppres-sion of protests in Mandalay.The woman, Kyal Sin, hadbeen photographed taking partin the protests before her death,and images of her on the frontlines have made her a high-pro-

file martyr.Security forces on Friday

night sealed off the cemeterywhere she was buried, andwhen residents visited in themorning, her grave was fresh-ly plastered over and shovelsand other evidence of diggingwere found at the site.

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Bleary-eyed lawmakersworked through a moun-

tain of amendments Saturdayas the Senate plodded towardpassage of a $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill that President JoeBiden and Democrats say iscrucial for hoisting the coun-try out of the pandemic.

The Senate commenced adreaded “vote-a-thon” — a con-tinuous series of votes on amend-ments — shortly before mid-night Friday, and by midmorn-

ing Saturday had dispensed withover two dozen.

Democrats were hoping forfinal passage by around middayso the Senate could send themodestly revamped bill back tothe House, and then to Biden thiscoming week for his signature.

The Senate had been insession since 9 a.M. EST Friday.Its work on the bill was prov-ing to be a test of both law-makers’ physical stamina andDemocrats’ ability to pass leg-islation backed by every sena-tor in the party.

The chamber is divided50-50, with Vice PresidentKamala Harris’ tiebreaking votetheir only edge, andRepublicans are arrayed againstthe legislation. Overnight, theSenate was like an experimentin the best techniques for stay-ing awake. Several lawmakersappeared to rest their eyes ordoze at their desks, often bury-ing their faces in their hands. Atone point, Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, at 48 one of the youngersenators, trotted into the cham-ber and did a prolonged stretch.

Washington: No news confer-ence. No Oval Office address.No primetime speech to a jointsession of Congress.

President Joe Biden is thefirst executive in four decadesto reach this point in his termwithout holding a formal ques-tion and answer session.

It reflects a White Housemedia strategy meant both toreserve major media set-piecesfor the celebration of a legisla-tive victory and to limit unforcederrors from a historically gaffe-prone politician. Biden has optedto take questions about as often

as most of his recent predeces-sors, but he tends to field just oneor two informal inquiries at atime, usually in a hurried settingat the end of an event.

In a sharp contrast with theprevious administration, theWhite House is exertingextreme message discipline,empowering staff to speak butdoing so with caution.

Recalling both Biden’slargely leak-free campaign andthe buttoned-up Obamaadministration, the new WhiteHouse team has carefully man-aged the president’s appear-

ances, trying to lower the tem-perature from Donald Trump’sWashington and to save a bigmedia moment to mark whatcould soon be a signatureaccomplishment: passage ofthe Covid-19 bill.

The message control mayserve the president’s purposesbut it denies the media oppor-tunities to directly press Bidenon major policy issues and toengage in the kind of back-and-forth that can draw out infor-mation and thoughts that gobeyond the administration’scurated talking points. AP

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overseeing reconstruction at thechurch. “It’s a very, very unex-pected event and a very happyone.”

It is also one rich in symbol-ism. Coming amid a pandemicand security challenges, the pope’shistoric trip is taking him toChristian communities, like Yako’s,ravaged by the ISIS onslaught in2014. Christians in the area wereforced to escape ancestral townsand villages as the militants sweptthrough northern Iraq. Many havesince scattered abroad, their exo-dus fueling existential anxietiesabout Iraq’s already dwindlingChristian population.

Many hope the pope’s tripcan focus attention on theirstruggles and send a message ofencouragement, but they alsopoint to security, economic andsocial challenges deterring manyChristians from returning. AP

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Axar Patel andRavichandran Ashwinonce again made a

mockery of an eternally con-fused English batting line-up asIndia enter into the inauguralWorld Test Championship finalwith a resounding innings and25 run victory on the third after-noon of the fourth and final Testhere on Saturday.

All India needed was adraw to book a Lord’s date inJune with Kane Williamson’sNew Zealand but Axar (24-6-48-5), in company of Ashwin(22.5-4-47-5), literally blewEngland away in a session andhalf for a paltry 135 in 54.5 oversto complete a 3-1 rout, ensuringthat the Anthony De MelloTrophy will stay at the CricketCentre in Mumbai.

It was another two and halfdays finish but even the mostpartisan England experts liketheir former skipper MichaelVaughan have admitted that the22-yard strip had almost noth-ing to do with their side’s abjectsurrender.

A case in point could beIndia’s first innings score of 365and a lead of 160 on the sametrack where England couldcumulatively manage only 340runs across two innings.

This was one Test matchwhere Indians, even before a ballbeing bowled, created an illu-sion of a turning track. It was aploy of playing with the mindsof a team that was already in anegative zone.

There wasn’t much turnbut enough to ensure that thevisitors wilted under pressure asPatel’s series tally stood at high-est for a newcomer (27) whileman of the series Ashwin waspeerless as ever with 32 scalpsin his kitty.

A lot of credit for this vic-

tory should go to theindomitable Rishabh Pant, whoplayed the enforcer on the sec-ond day with a magnificenthundred, and WashingtonSundar, who notched up a chis-elled 96.

These two knocks literallymade it impossible for Englandto make a comeback as a totalof 365 seemed like 650.

The coming of age of Pantas a real replacement for theiconic Mahendra Singh Dhoniand emergence of Washingtonas a potent batting all-rounderonly augurs well for the team.

So formidable is India’sbench strength right now thatHanuma Vihari, who saved anepic Test in Sydney only a cou-ple of months back, may not get

to play a Test in near future.World’s best wicketkeeper

Wriddhiman Saha will also findit difficult to add to his 38 Testsunless the Roorkee Rockstargets injured.

Patel, in his debut Testseries, was a powerhouse per-former but he also knows thatonce Ravindra Jadeja is fit andavailable, he will have to wait forhis next Test.

The story of the third daywas similar to the one that hasplayed out for most of theseries.

With shoulders alreadydrooping after the humilationinflicted by Pant andWashington, England’s openersZak Crawley (5, 16 balls), DomSibley (3, 21 balls) and Jonny

Bairstow (0, 1 ball) seemed like“walking wickets” at the start ofthe post-lunch session.

One had expected two ofEngland’s best players in JoeRoot (30) and Ben Stokes (2 off9 balls) to put up a fight but theall-rounder failed to gauge theextra bounce as he went for asweep shot off Patel.

Kohli accepted the dolly atleg slip as England’s resistancewas blown away at 30 for 4.

Ollie Pope (15) hit Ashwinfor a six, which was more des-peration than finesse, and itwas only a matter of timebefore he yorked himself asPant fumbled while gatheringbut managed to effect a stump-ing to make it 65 for 5.

The England skipper could

only helplessly look how hiscolleagues made a mess ofTest match batting and Ashwinfinally had his number trap-ping him leg before on theback-foot with another straightball.

The remaining wickets inthe post tea session were amere formality which the spin-ners completed in due courseof time.

The morning sessionbelonged to Washington,whose 96 off 174 balls was asimportant as Pant’s secondday hundred in the final con-text of the match.

Washington and AxarPatel (43 off 97 balls) added aninvaluable 106 runs for theeighth wicket, which endedeven a miniscule chance forEngland to stage a recovery.

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To become the best version of himselfwhile learning something new every-

day is Ravichandran Ashwin’s endeavouras he aims to leave his lasting legacy inthe pantheon of Indian cricket greats.

Ashwin has now won eight Man-of-the-Series awards in his 10-year careerand is only eight wickets short of equallingHarbhajan Singh’s 417 Test wickets.

It could well happen in England thissummer but he doesn’t want to entertainany such thoughts.

“Honestly, that’s not even crossed mymind and if you want me to put mythoughts on it. He is a fantastic bowler.There’s a lot that I have learnt from him.I wasn’t even an off-spinner when Bhajjupaa started playing for the Indian team,”Ashwin’s respect for another practitionerof the same craft was there for all to see.

“He (Harbhajan) was also an inspira-tion because of the 2001 famous series (32wickets in 3 Tests). I never imagined in2001 that I will be an off-spinner, and Imean who would have imagined thosethings.

“I was fortunate to play alongsideBhajju paa when I came into the team andalso play under Anil bhai but I would nowlike to leave my own legacy,” Ashwin said.

Being a student of the game Ashwin

wants to evolve as a cricketer and a per-son everyday.

“My growth as a cricketer is a directsynonym to the person I am. I want tokeep evolving, keep learning and that’s mysecond nature, directly proportional to the

kind of cricketer I am and whatever I do,the best that I can be.”

Ashwin’s apathy for all those pitch crit-ics is well documented and he would loveto see how the global media reacts whena green top is given to India when they gofor a game outside the sub-continent.

“The series win is a testament to thefact that this is a really good Indian crick-et team. That’s all I would like to say.Other day, I was listening to what Sunnybhai (Sunil Gavaskar) was saying, makessense,” Ashwin said referring to Gavaskar’sstatement about not giving too much cre-dence to the British pundits, whosefavourite day job had been criticising theIndian tracks.

“Only because we are giving attentionto people who are making a mockery ofit, we are encouraging them to do it non-stop,” he said.

He then sarcastically said that hewould keenly watch how foreign mediacover the criticism from Indian commen-tators about the pitches provided whenIndia is on tour abroad.

“I would like to a pitch covered withgrass somewhere else in the world andsome of our Indian commentators, tak-ing picture and putting an Instagram postand I will like to see how the global mediatakes notice and then we will know who’sat faulty end.”

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India’s supremely talented bench strength has made skipper ViratKohli quite confident that the team will have a relatively smooth

ride when the transition period dawns upon it in the next few years.With the rise of several young players like Washington Sundar,

Mohammed Siraj and the maverick Rishabh Pant, India have beenon a roll both at home and abroad.

“Our bench strength is extremely strong and that’s a good signfor Indian cricket. When the transition happens, the standardswon’t fall and Rishabh and Washy’s partnership showed exactlythat in a crucial juncture of the match,” Kohli said at the post-matchpresentation.

After notching up victories in the second and third Testsrespectively, India won the fourth match inside three days.

“We had to pick up our body language after the first game inChennai. Every team in International cricket is a quality side andwe need to work hard to beat them, even at home. Keeping thatintensity going is most important and is the hallmark of our team,”Kohli said.

Star opener Rohit Sharma scored 161 in the first innings ofthe second Test and the skipper feels the knock changed the com-plexion of the series alongside seasoned spinner RavichandranAshwin’s performance of 32 wickets.

“Rohit’s knock was the defining moment in Chennai, andAshwin has been our most bankable player over the years so theyhave been our best players this series.

“Now we can accept that the World Test Championship final,which was a distraction in New Zealand in 2020, but now it’s areality,” Kohli said.

Ashwin, who ended the series with 32 wickets and a centu-ry, was named Man of the series and the spinner was delighted toqualify for the WTC final, adding that the win was a collectiveeffort.

“The fact that we qualified for the WTC final is very impor-tant. The intensity was low after Chennai, despite the high inAustralia. Every time there was a challenging time in the series,someone put their hand up, so this series win was right up there,”Ashwin said. England skipper Joe Root conceded that his teamwas outplayed by the hosts in the series.

“The first game was a positive. We haven’t matched India inthe last three, and we need to keep learning and keep getting bet-ter for this experience and this series,” Root said.

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5������ 7�& ��'��Dubai: India on Saturdayfinished on top of the leaguephase of the ICC World TestChampionship standingsafter crushing England by aninnings and 25 runs in thefourth Test.

“That victory againstEngland means India finishthe league phase of the inau-gural ICC World TestChampionship with a fineview from the top of thetable,” the ICC tweeted.

India finished the leaguephase with 520 points, whichincludes 12 wins, four losesand one draw.

New Zealand finished inthe second spot with 420points, including seven winsand four loses.

Australia finished thirdwith 332 points ahead ofEngland and Pakistan.

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England captain Joe Root onSaturday mourned the

opportunities his team squan-dered in the lost fourth Test,saying they let slip the advan-tageous position from wherethey could have been on topof the game.

India at one stage were121 for five but ended up tak-ing a 160-run lead in the firstinnings which proved to bematch-winning.

Rishabh Pant, WashingtonSundar and Axar Patel tookthe game away from Englandwith their fearless approach.

“There have been timeswe had a chance to wrestle thegame in our favour, to get ontop, just didn’t manage to doit,” Root said at the post-match conference.

“India played thoseimportant, key moments bet-ter than us in these last threegames and credit for beingable to do that better than wedo.

“So, it has been disap-

pointing, it has been frustrat-ing to finish the series on anote that we have but we aregoing to keep looking forwardas a team,” said Root.

The England skipperacknowledged Indian bats-man Rishabh Pant’s remark-

able ability to take the attackby the scruff of its neck. “Theway he bats, he makes it dif-ficult for bowlers to buildpressure on him. Sometimeshe pulls a reverse sweep to aguy, who has 600 Test wickets.

“So it is quite a skill and a

brave move to do and it cameoff for him and got themselves(India) to a very good positionon that wicket,” said Root,referring to the reverse sweepwhich Pant played off JamesAnderson.

For India, RavichandranAshwin grabbed 32 wickets inthe series, while Axar snared27 wickets to leave Englandfloored.

Root lavished praise onthe Gujarat left-arm spinnersaying he was relentless in hislengths.

“In this series, Axar inparticular, has been very accu-rate and has asked very goodquestions. He has been relent-less with his length and someballs have skidded, some havespun quite big and we aregoing to just find a way tomanage it well.”

But not all was doom andgloom for Root, who foundsolace in the fact that hiswicket-keeper Ben Foakes andleft-arm spinner Jack Leachperformed their roles to thebest of their abilities.

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Originating from Sanskrit, the word‘Peetha’ means ‘seat, altar, shrineor dwelling’. In the case of theShakti Peethas, it is very specific.It is the sacred space where the

Supreme Goddess rakes a strong, well-foundedsear on Earth. Each of the Peethas have beenturned into shrines for the Goddess by the verypeople who believe in the absolute power ofthe feminine. Each site where the 51 bodyparts of Sati fell, came to be known as a ShaktiPeetha.

A teertha is a crossing. As with mostSanskrit words, there are multiple meanings ofthis too. Teertha is also the passing of theatman to the parmatman the crossing from thephysical world to the metaphysical world.These 51 sacred sites are also linked by theolo-gists and scholars to the 51 alphabets of theSanskrit language. In each of the Peethas alsoresides Kaalbhairava, which is another name ofShiva. Most of the Shakti Peetha shrines con-tain a naturally appearing stone whichbecomes the object of worship around whichthe temple shrine is built.

Vindhyavasini is an additional ShaktiPeetha, which I have deliberately not includedin the 51 Peethas. While a powerful dwelling ofShakti, Vindhyavasini is not the abode ofShakti as Sati’s body parts. It is, however, thepreferred choice and home of Yogamaya, thesister of Krishna, who escaped from Kamsa’sprison at Mathura.

Kalika Purana indicates that there are fourAdi Shakti Peethas, which is further affirmedin the commentary and text of Brihat Samhita.It lists the names of the location at variousplaces in India such as Vimla temple, Odisha,where her feet fell, Tara Tarini temple inBehrampur, Odisha, where her breasts fell,Kamakhya temple in Guwahati, Assam, whereher yoni or vagina fell and lastly, the Kalighattemple in West Bengal, where her right toe fell.

���������� ��������������Since antiquity, Goddess worship has been

part of the Indic tradition of India. In fact, theGoddess is even more popular than Shiva andVishnu. All the manifestations, avataras orappearances of the many forms of Devi belongto the pantheon of the Shakti cult. The SupremeGoddess can be a gentle life-giver as in the caseof Lakshmi, Saraswati or Parvati, or as the mis-tress of death in the form of Durga, Kali andChamunda. She is a fascinating juxtaposition,both life-perpetuating and potently destructive.In her life-giving form, Shakti can be represent-ed as beautiful, benevolent, maternal, knowl-edgeable, compassionate and even desirable tothe best. She invigorates, cheers and brightensthe entire universe. She is represented anddescribed as an idealized woman who is imbuedwith beauty, virtue and righteousness, andadorned with jewels. In fact, her iconography isdrawn from the pre-modern depictions of thesalabanjikas, apsaras and surasundaris. In thisform, Shakti embraces and enlivens all aspectsof reality. As the goddess of destruction and dis-ease, she takes on rather unattractive and repul-sive forms. As Sitala Devi Manasa, or Kali, theDevi is shown as haggard, ugly, unkempt andemaciated. However, whatever the form, it isalways powerful.

I have dipped into both Puranic andShakta texts to read the many interpretationsand mythologies associated with the iconogra-phy, rituals of worship, devotion and represen-tation of the Shakti Peetha as sites of immensepower and energy. Each devotee enters the siteof the Peetha through their own path of wor-ship, through their respective understanding ofthe Great Goddess. The wama panthis or Shaktworshippers, for whom Shakti/Devi issupreme, enter through the tantric path, whichis a sectarian movement.

The 51 Peethas have their own singulariconography and their own specific modes ofrituals, worship and even prasada, with somestandard common offerings like flowers, sweetsand vermilion.

����������� ���������������While the Shakti Peethas were specific to

the body parts of Sati, the rituals of adoration,prayer and worship differed from region to

region, given the culture and history of theplace. Over time, the Peethas became linked totheir respective regions. The local people tookownership of them and started claiming rightsover the teerthas and sites. Naturally, the localfood and religious and cultural traditions start-ed getting preference over the stated Puranic orstandard Sanatan dharmashastras.

In the temples, the daily rituals of worshipwere similar to the presiding deity, who wasnormally male, i.e. Vishnu or Shiva, and thefeminine was worshipped in the form of theirconsorts. However, in the Shakti Peethas, thepresiding deity was a body part, which whilehaving its own specific service or prayer, wasenfolded in the larger narrative of the worshipof Shakti in the form of Devi.

The purpose of puja (prayer) is to appease,soothe and mollify the powerful Goddess andembrace the divine energy expressed as lifeforce. The life force itself has many variations,from auspiciousness, health, desire for chil-dren, wealth and success, gaining power overintellectual and artistic skill, even victory overenemies. The ritual of puja is heavily investedin darshan. While doing puja, the concept ofmaking eye contact with the deity is the key.Darshan is a two-way concept where the devo-tee sees the divinity and in turn, the divinitysees the devotee. The concept of darshan cross-es all spaces, from intimate puja corners athome in domestic spaces to large public tem-ples including the 51 Shakti Peethas.

The very act of darshan/view is the crucialkey that creates the iconic moment where thedevotee and the divine are in complete sync.This is the reason why ‘Shakt’ worshippersmake long and arduous journeys to the Shakti

Peethas. The idea is to take the energy of theSupreme Goddess while receiving her bless-ings. The religious rites have three distinctclassifications: Nitya, which is daily, normallydone at home; Naimittika, which are importantdays of the deity, and particular festivals (somespecial to the ishta deva at home or to the pre-siding deity of the temple); and finallyKamya, which are optional, but a highlydesired teertha being one of them.

The ritual of prayer to Shakti is also vestedin the panchbhootas, where the five jnanain-driyas, or senses, are included in the aspect ofpuja:

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is offered by the devotee when he/she begins theritual of puja. In domestic spaces, the devoteeperforms the puja at an individual, intimatelevel, often making prasada or an offering offruits, and a rice and milk pudding with saffronstrands and sprinkled with mewa/ nuts, particu-larly almonds and raisins. What I have observedin the offerings by the devotees, is that forShakti, it is a bali, or animal sacrifice, normallya lamb and sometimes even a buffalo. The verybasic prasada for Shakti is meat, alcohol forBhairava, and a sweet, normally a rice pudding.Since the Shakti Peethas have been appropriated

by the devotees of the region, naturally theprasada of the Peetha also acquires a localflavour. In Eastern India, it is primarily khichdiand kheer with poori and potato curry; in SouthIndia, it is a variation of the local rice, i.e. puli-hora; in Andhra Pradesh, a jaggery laddoo; andin Western India, at the Amba temple inBanaskantha, a delicious sweet made of chick-pea flour, the mohanthal, is offered along withsindoor, and makhanas, or dried lotus seeds. Inthis way, almost every region brings in itsregional flavour and speciality as part of theprasada offered at the Shakti Peethas.

Meat as prasada is served in the templecommunity kitchens only on special occasionswhen specific sacrifices are conducted. Holdingwater in the palm of their hands, or achaman,the devotee asks for forgiveness and blessingsbefore beginning their prayer. In the large publictemples, it is the priest who becomes the con-duit of devotion and reverence. He is the inter-mediary who while performing the ritual acts,offers food and flowers to the presiding deity ofthe temple. Worship in a temple begins by cir-cumambulating the temple and the garbhagrihawhere the deity lives.

The myth of Sati and the 5l Peethas is animportant myth in the worship of the SupremeGoddess. It lays down the template for all thosewho believe in the Absolute Power of theMother Goddess, crossing borders from Tantrato Mantra, from Devi Bhagwat Purana to YoginiHridya Tantra, right down to the popularGrama Devi in a village to the Kula Devi of aRajput clan.

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We are at our wits end as no end to the pandemicappears to be in sight. Return to normalcy appearsto be a shifting goal post something like a mirage

on the highways in a hot summer afternoon. The society iswitnessing all kinds of negative emotions reigning overhuman thinking. Depression is on the rise. Aggression is onthe rise. Fear and anxiety are on the rise. Human responseis completely clueless. With jobs disappearing, careers jeop-ardised and businesses vanishing, talks of positive thinkingappear hollow. Rather a gimmick of a few who have the sup-port system to hold the fort. But can something be done aboutit. No not about Corona. That will take its own course andhopefully it has covered most of its journey. In the times ofdistress, frustration can take many forms, from most unde-sirable behaviours too weird responses. However, thesource of all this is not Corona. Coronavirus is what it is.The problem is how we perceive corona and its consequences.It is the perceived world that is the real world and the prob-lem lies in how we perceive Corona. So tempering the per-ception is the answer. But the source of this perception isthe mind which is giving all kinds of warning signals andanxious moments. We can take a cue from the definition ofBhram or illusion as described in Indian philosophy. Thefamous rope and snake illusion. If you see a snake and believeit’s a rope your response will be as if it’s a rope. On the otherhand if you see a rope and believe it’s a snake you will behavelike you do when you see a snake. To sum it up then the per-ception of Corona is like that. For some it is like snake sothey are over anxious and for some it is a rope, not to be both-ered at all. Both these positions are erroneous and the truthis somewhere in between. The solution lies in mind man-agement. But mind management is easier said than done.It is both a science and an art. In fact it is a practice and oneneeds a lot of training to do it. It is important to understandthe science first. We must realise that mind generates thou-sands of thoughts everyday, more distressful then the pleas-ant ones. The way out is to control that. One of the most pop-ular idioms explain the way to control the mind very sim-ply. An empty mind is a devils workshop. So the way out isengaging the mind constructively. That calls for the art. Thishas to be developed. By doing, by training. That is why prac-tice is important. Experience of calmness or agitation dependson the mind. To train the mind there is a need to reorientthe thought process. The greatest problem is in our assump-tion that we are entitled to a certain way of life. This is a con-ditioned state as we have taken many things for granted. Soeven the slightest disruption throws us out of gear. That wayCorona has become a major disruption. Naturally we arecompletely off balance. The mind needs to be reassured. Ourprevious generations have gone through even more difficulttimes, and the world did not come to an end. This time alsoit won’t. Just keep on counselling the mind to take things inits stride and think of ways to cope with the disruption. Itworks.

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In the sixteenth chapter of theBhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna statesthat there are two types of persons

in this world. These either possessdivine qualities or demonic qualities.Every person will have predominanceof either of the two. (16.6) We knowwhat divine qualities are: these are non-violence, truthfulness, not given toanger, modesty, etc. (16.2) The demon-ic qualities are: deceitful behaviour,arrogance, anger, etc. (16.4) Demons,having little intelligence, take birth tocause harm to the world. (16.9)

So, we, having divine qualities,must protect ourselves from thesedemonic characters. Consider whathappened during the Mahabharat era.Evil forces led by Duryodhan and com-pany came to power. Pandavas — therightful occupants of the throne wereousted. In the same period, Kansa —a demon was wrecking havoc on goodpeople and there was no check on him.God incarnated as Lord Krishna andset the matter right. However, Goddoes not incarnate so frequently. Then,what are we to do? In the present times,many despots have managed to takecontrol of their nations. What shouldtheir citizens do? Good people in thesecountries must come together to pro-tect themselves, and, if possible, bringchange in the government as and whenthere is a opportune moment.

Let me explain this philosophy ofcoming together. I will cite my ownexample. I don’t like many things whichhappen in the country, but that doesnot prevent me from protecting myselffrom evil forces. I try to associate withmostly good people. Fortunately forme, my family consists of really goodsouls; I couldn’t have asked for better.As far as relatives go, I am very care-

ful in choosing with whom I associate.I try to maintain close relationshipswith only the really good ones. For oth-ers, my rule is to be strictly formal withthem, i.e. what is the minimumrequired. Going further, I worship“Shanideva”, as advised by myastrologer, and I do so quite serious-ly. Gaining favour of gods and goddess-es is also important for me. I worship“Durga Ma” by chanting a particularmantra suggested by my spiritualfriend. All these getting together withgood people, “grahas” and gods andgoddesses is very satisfactory. However,I still felt a lot of vacuum.

Over a period of many decades, Ihave realised that this vacuum can onlybe filled by God. Only He, the omnipo-tent, can help in certain circum-stances; only He, the omniscient, canguide me in the most difficult situa-tions; only He, the omnipresent, can beavailable to me at all times; and onlyHe, the Master of the universe, can pro-

vide whatever I need, whenever I need. Additionally, I have realised that

God is forever watching all of us; hear-ing whatever we say; and being awareof what we are thinking. And the pur-pose is simply to help, guide andreward in order to encourage us goodpeople; the task of punishing is with thedivine authorities. It took me quitesome time to fully realise the fact thatGod, who is everything (7.19) hastaken this duty upon Himself. This istrue as realised by many. Due to thisfact, I can live peacefully; I feel securein spite of presence of many negativeforces. I am so gratified that I spendfifteen minutes daily prior to going tosleep thanking the Lord for variousthings. The underlying emotion is:God, we have you. Without your pres-ence I or anyone cannot gain peace,bliss or sense of security. Thank Godthat you are very much with us.������������ ����� ���������(���������

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Asoul is sent to a life in thehuman body for a certainperiod of time. When thesoul inhabits a body, thesoul is still a part of God

and is still one with God. The soul,however, is now overpowered by pow-erful forces, such as the mind, the bodyand the outer world, which cause thesoul, over time, to forget itself. The soulslowly begins to identify itself with thebody and mind and world outside. Itsuddenly begins to think that it canonly receive information from theouter world through the senses. Thusthe soul has become attuned to onlyone channel — the channel of theworld.

If we think about our life aswatching a television programme, wehave multiple choices as to what towatch. Just as there are a dozen net-work stations and then dozens if nothundreds of cable stations from whichto choose, so, too, there are many activ-ities in this world that we can engagein.

Now, let us take a look at the otherchoices available to us. This physicalplanet is not a separate offshoot from

all of creation and God. Most religionsbelieve that there are higher regions orexistence to which the soul goes afterit dies. Scientists and doctors have triedto verify this by documenting accountsof people who were declared clinical-ly dead but had near-death experiencesand described something beyond thisworld. The question is, where are theserealms? They are not zones in outerspace delineated by borders. All theserealms exist concurrently with this one.The reason we are not aware of themis because they operate on a differentfrequency or vibration.

The saints and mystics tell us thatwe have the choice to either stay tunedto this physical world, or to tune intothe channels of God. God wants us towatch God’s programming. God isavailable twenty-four hours of the day,three hundred sixty five days of a year.God’s programming does not turn offat three a.m. like some networks do.It is a free station broadcasting all thetime without any cable fees. We onlyneed to know how to tune into God’sstation.

The connection to God is nothard. It is just a matter of making the

choice that this is what we want to do.The steps to do this are simple. � Step one is to stop identifying withthe body, mind, and world outside, andidentify with the soul. � Step two requires that when we iden-tify with our soul that we shift ourattention to the frequency or thehigher realms and ultimately to God.

That is all we have to do. God didnot make it hard for us to becomeaware of our true Home. It is we whohave made it complicated.

So how do we accomplish step oneand step two? To accomplish step one,we must withdraw our attention fromour body, mind, and the world outside.We must decide to turn off the outerprogramming. When that program-ming is in the off mode, then in thesilence we will experience ourselves assoul. That is the step that we call self-knowledge.

Once we identify with the soul, wewill be able to pick up frequencies thatthe soul is capable of receiving. We canmake a gradual shift in which we gofrom the consciousness of one regionto consciousness of the spiritualrealms.

In this process we are not goinganywhere physically; we are merelyshifting our attention from one stateof consciousness to the other. Theother state of consciousness does notexist in time or space. They are oper-ating concurrently. We are simultane-ously in the other realms and in Godat the same time but we are not awareof it because our attention is onlyfocused on one region-the physical.

So, for step one, if we meditateaccurately we will experience ourselvesas soul. Once we identify with the soul,then we will also be aware of the innerLight and Sound that is the radianceand vibratory sound of God within us.If we absorb ourselves in the Light andSound within, we can then attain steptwo. We can shift our attention into theLight and Sound, which attracts oursoul to higher levels of vibration.

It is simply a matter of choosingwhere we want to put our attention.This is the simplicity of spirituality.God did not make things complicat-ed. It is simple, we just have to chooseto transplant the flower of our atten-tion from the world into God’s garden.

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����������������������A typical feature in each

Shakti Peetha is the presence ofa manifestation of Shiva in theform of Bhairava. Sati, whosebody parts create the ShaktiPeethas, is married to the pri-mordial god, Shiva. However,the Shakti Peethas are complet-ed with a Bhairava shrine with-in the complex.

In each of the 51 ShaktiPeethas, Shiva meditates asBhairava. Each of the Bhairavashave their own unique iconog-raphy and indicators. Tounderstand the cult of Bhairavaand the different forms ofBhairavas, it is important tounderstand the origin, markers,manifestations, representationsand expressions of theBhairavas.

The fierce form of Shiva isBhairava, who himself hasmany manifestations. He iseven present in Buddhist andJaina iconographies. InVajrayana Buddhism, he isknown as the BodhisattvaMajushri, Heruka,Vajrabhairava and Yamantaka.

Bhairava is also known asthe wandering form of Shiva-the fearful form who is theannihilator. As MahakaalBhairava, he is the keeper oftime. As Dandapani, he holds adanda/rod to punish the sin-ners. And as Swaswas, he is onewhose mount or vehicle is adog.

Bhairava moves into therealm of the tantric and withhis consort Bhairavi. In this,he is prayed to at midnightduring which time, the couplegive darshan to their faithfuldevotees. It is believed thatthere are 64 Bhairavas, whoare divided into eight cate-gories, known asAstabhairavas, the guardiansof the eight directions. Theyare Asithaanga Bhairava, RuruBhairava, Chanda Bhairava,Krodha Bhairava, UnmatthaBhairava, Kapaala Bhairava,

Bheeshana Bhairava andSamhaara Bhairava.

The Bhairavas are ruled andcontrolled by the MahaKaalbhairava, or Kaalbhairava,who as per the Shaivite tantrictexts, is also the supreme ruler ofthe world. In the Trikha system,Bhairava as Para Brahman isalso the supreme reality.

Along with Ganesha andHanuman, the two most populargods of the Hindu pantheon, theMother Goddess or Maa is pre-sent in every home in the formof the domestic mother herself. I

would like to end with a shlokafrom Devi Upanishad where thecomplement of man and womanin the form of Shiv and Shakti isexpressed, which is also the baseof the Samkhya Philosophy:

‘It is only when Shiva uniteswith thee, O Shakti, that hebecomes the all-powerful Lord.Left to himself, he lacks even thestrength to raise his little finger.’

Excerpted with permissionfrom Shakti: 51 Sacred Peethasof the Goddess by Alka Pande,

Rupa, �295

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������6���!�� &���'����������7���'���8The Syrian Civil War start-

ed as a non-violent upris-ing in the middle of March2011. Today it is a full-fledgedwar which involves severalnations and world’s prominentjehadi outfits such as IslamicState (ISIS), al-Qaeda andsplinter groups of these twomainstream groups. However,the Baathist Syrian ArabRepublic headed by PresidentBashar al-Assad has survived adecade in power despite mili-tary challenges from all cornersof the country.

Estimates emerging fromvarious human rights agenciesand independent media reportssay that by end of Decemberlast year, the death toll in thewar was between 3,87,000 and5,93,000. The UN reports thatmore than 5.6 million havealready fled the country andover 6 million have been inter-nally displaced so far.

Although many complexevents pushed the Syrians intothis war, one that stands out isthe historic Arab Spring, start-ed in the early months of 2011.This 21st century movementmainly inspired by digital plat-forms across North Africathrough the West Asia finallytriggered the uprising in Syria.But then quickly, the ArabSpring had turned into massgathering in the form of non-violent protests against theauthoritarian and family-ruledregimes in all these countries.

In Syria, in the month ofMarch, 15 schoolchildren werearrested and tortured for writ-ing graffiti which was rightlyinspired by the Arab Spring.One of the boys was killed aswell. The arrest of these school-children sparked outrage acrossSyria. Soon after, people cameout on the road and demand-ed the release of all the childrenand raised slogans for basicfreedoms for all in the country.The Assad regime respondedby killing many protesters andthis led to the demand for hisresignation by the demonstra-tors. Subsequently, the clashesbroke out between the massesand the supporters of theGovernment. This graduallyspiralled into the full-blownwar, what the whole world iswitnessing today, involving ter-ror groups of various nations ofthe world. But at its heart, theconflict highlights the tragicShia-Sunni divide among theMuslims in the entire region.

The failure of the UN-ledefforts to bring the warringparties to the negotiation tablelast month in Geneva has once

again brought war clouds overthis West Asian nation. TheUnited Nations should take thelead and restart the Genevaprocess. So far, the UN strate-gies have broadly failed forSyria. If it moves in the samedirection, can it be so that theorganisation is complicit inthe crimes committed by theAssad regime?

Now, what America isdoing to bring peace to Syria isthat it is back again. The latestAmerican strike in Syria hassignalled President Joe Biden’snew war game in West Asia.

The so-called messenger ofpeace and reunion of Americabadly divided by formerPresident Donald Trump,Biden is now targeting Iran-backed militias in Syria. Hisadministration is justifying theattack as the missile sallies aredirected towards rebels that arepropping up the Assad regime.The US Air Forces dropped500-hundred-pound jointdirect attack munitions at acrossing used by Iranianbacked groups reportedly

killing 17. The particulargroups hit by the limited USstrike are Kataib Hezbollahand Kataib Syyaid al-Shuhada.Meanwhile, Deniss Ross, a for-mer Senior US official andWest Asian expert, says theattack was designed to showthat there would be a militaryresponse if US forces were tar-geted, or the militias continuedto strike. The Assad adminis-tration was quick to remindBiden that the Americanattacks were a cowardly act andurged Biden not to follow thelaw of the jungle.

The country’s ForeignMinistry condemned the attackon areas in Deir al-Zor, nearthe Syrian-Iraqi border. Thestatement released by theMinistry highlighted thatBiden Administration is sup-posed to stick to internationallegitimacy, not to the law of thejungle as did by the previousadministration.

It’s really ironic that Bidenand Harris, the duo is repeat-ing what once Trump simplydid. When Trump ordered a

strike on Iran in 2019, Bidensharply reacted and tried tooffer a sermon to him:“Trump’s erratic, impulsiveactions are the last things weneed as Commander-in-Chief.No President should order amilitary strike without fullyunderstanding the conse-quences. We do not needanother war in the MiddleEast, but Trump’s actionstoward Iran only make thatlikely.”

And what Biden is doingnow? He knows very well howan American Presidentresponds to the crisis zones inthe “Middle East”. Precisely,nothing has changed inWashington, except the mangiving orders. What Obamadid, Trump followed and nowBiden is taking it forward.America clearly has no strate-gy for the West Asia and NorthAfrican (WANA) region. Itspolicy towards the region isoutdated and dangerous. It’smeddling carelessly with Iraq,Iran and Syria. Washington hasno coherent policy to deal

with Tehran, Damascus andBaghdad. So obviously, findingout a solution for the Syrianwar demands a new approachwith a purely humanitarianconcern.

Only with the collectiveefforts of the US, Russia, Iranand Turkey, peace can bebrought to war-torn Syria.Biden’s engagement with Putin,Erdogan, Rouhani andKadhimi (Iraq) would matterthe most in bringing a perma-nent solution to the chaos inSyria. That is why the stabilityin West Asia demands morethan a deal with Iran fromWashington. The experts andpolicy practitioners opine thatregional issues in this part ofAsia could no way be compre-hensively addressed.

They all agree that Iranwould no way concede its sus-tained support for regionalproxies and halt its ballisticmissile programme in the nearfuture. It is widely felt that iso-lating Iran was purely coun-terproductive. So to address,Tehran’s troublesome behav-

iour in the region, it is better tohandle each regional conflictthrough separate and parallelplatforms at the same time.

Why is Moscow equallyconcerned about the chaos inSyria? It is not only to save theembattled Assad regime, an oldally of Russia, but also to staveoff the growth of the Islamicterror in Russia. Hence, theSyrian conflict is not just a far-away battle for Putin regime.The life-time monarch is long-ing for stability at any cost. Heknows fully well that thejehadists may get enoughground for their subversivemodels in his vast country. Ofcourse, this might alter Putin’slong-term strategies to keep theopposition and western pres-sure at bay. His regime is notbest equipped to counter theISIS, the way it is raging its uglyhead in the WANA region.Russia’s relationship with Syriadates back to 1950s and theCold War. In those days, theUSSR used to train the topbrass of the Syrian military.

What lies ahead in Syria?

By 2020, the Syrian civiliansfaced another year confrontinglife-threatening challenges. It isall about their survival as all ofthem are fighting for basicamenities such as food andmedicines.

However, the last year sawthe discernible decrease in vio-lent conflicts across the coun-try. But this does not mean thatwarring groups are retreating.No single rebel group is con-sidering withdrawing from thewar zones. The reason behindis that all these groups arebacked by strong allies and theywant to pursue the war till thefall of the Assad Government.

The Human Rights Watchnotes, “With the unprecedent-ed depreciation of nationalcurrency, the imposition offurther international sanctionsand crises in neighboringcountries, the Syrian economywent into freefall for much of2020. For ordinary Syrians,this translated into an inabili-ty to procure food, essentialdrugs, and other basic neces-sities. As a result, more than 9.3million Syrians have becomefood insecure and over 80 percent of Syrians live below thepoverty line.”

This correctly reflects thesituation on the ground andinsurmountable challengesfaced by the millions who arecaught between warring zones.

Only way to solve theimbroglio in Syria is to estab-lish a UN-backed transitionalregime and pressurise Assad tostep down. A presidential elec-tion is meant to be takingplace in Syria this summer. Itwould be a total disregard tomillions of those who are suf-fering and a sham on globalgovernance platforms such asthe UN. The world body is nottalking anything about this.And it is abandoning theGeneva peace process.

In fact, the SyriaConstitutional Committee thatdemands a political processwould be useless if the UN doesnot stop the upcoming presi-dential poll for Assad. Thiselection would offer full immu-nity and legitimacy to the tor-turous and autocratic regime inDamascus. It’s time to act.Ensure that no more civiliansdie. There is no need to securepeace when hardly anyone willbe there to share the joy of thesame. Washington should notemploy the old tactics to han-dle the dictators in WANA.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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5����(��������������� ���'����!����������������The Covid-19 pandemic has

highlighted the value ofawareness on infectious dis-eases. Tuberculosis (TB) is aninfectious disease that needsour attention as much as theSARS-CoV2 because it affectsover 26.4 lakh Indians eachyear. An estimated 4.45 lakhIndians lose the battle to thisancient disease that is both pre-ventable and curable.

It has therefore beenextremely encouraging to seethe heightened commitmenttowards TB elimination fromthe highest levels ofGovernment leadership. Sincethe announcement by thePrime Minister to eliminate TBby 2025, five years ahead of theUN Sustainable DevelopmentGoal target, at the End TBSummit in New Delhi in 2018,comprehensive plans have beendeveloped to achieve this goal.

The launch of the NationalStrategic Plan (NSP) for TBElimination introduced piv-otal interventions, including afour-fold increase in funding,launch of private sector engage-ment to improve access to careas well as initiation of socialsupport schemes to supportpatients in completing theirtreatment. However, there isstill more to be done.

While the prioritisation ofTB at the national level hasbeen commendable, Statesmust sustain this momentumby effectively implementing

the policies and NSP interven-tions and ensuring optimumfund allocation and utilisa-tion.

The funding of the NTEPis divided on a 60:40 ratio,where 60 per cent of the totalfunding is provided by theCentral Government, and StateGovernments are expected tofund the remaining 40 per

cent. However, in addition tofund allocation, fund utilisationand efficient implementation ofthe programme at the Statelevel remains a challenge.

The Central TB Divisionhas developed a State TB Indexthat highlights the performanceof States based on targetsachieved, funds utilised, amongothers towards achieving the

goal of TB elimination. Whilesome States have made signif-icant progress towards thesegoals, with Gujarat, AndhraPradesh, Telangana and Kerala(among the large States) per-forming well on all indicators,including fund utilisation,many large States such as Bihar,Madhya Pradesh, and WestBengal still reflect poor fund

utilisation and thus have chal-lenges in the implementation ofthe programme. Another crit-ical challenge at the State levelremains the paucity of humanresources — with vacancies incritical positions required to befilled.

The other challenge thatthe programme faces is the lackof awareness about the disease

that negatively impacts healthseeking behaviour. In the pastyear, the pandemic has broughtabout a positive change inpeople and their appetite forinformation on health, therebygiving us an opportunity onthis positive behaviour to gen-erate awareness about TB.

The launch of the TBHarega Desh Jeetega campaignin 2014, with the country’sbiggest movie star AmitabhBachchan as the face of thecampaign, was a game chang-er at the national level.However, there is a need toamplify the campaign at all lev-els, including States, districts,blocks and villages, to improveaccess to information and gen-erate the demand for TB care.

Along with improvingcommunications for aware-ness generation, it is also crit-ical for the programme todirectly engage with the com-munity at all levels. Not only docommunity champions aid ingenerating awareness to des-tigmatise the disease, but theirvoices also serve as an impor-tant feedback mechanism forthe programme.

Under the NSP, theNational TB EliminationProgramme established TBforums at the State and districtlevels to bring to the fore com-munity voices, patient per-spectives and understandground-level challenges facedby patients in accessing care.

Continued and effective func-tioning of these forums willprovide the programme withindependent monitors whocan help in highlightinglocalised gaps that need to beaddressed. At the district lev-els, elected representatives canalso serve as independent mon-itors of the programme pro-viding oversight and aid inaddressing localised challengesto ensure effective implemen-tation.

The call for a Jan Andolanby Union Health Minister DrHarsh Vardhan is timely andaims to engage 1.3 billion peo-ple of this country to takeownership of the programmeand ensure we achieve the tar-get of a TB free India. It is cru-cial for the programme to takecue from this call to action andreflect the targets and initiativesthrough direct and relatablemessaging which will generateawareness among the people onwhere to seek treatments, whatincentives they are entitled to,and thereby improve healthseeking behaviours. It is onlywith the collective approach wewill be able to rid the countryof this deadly disease.

(The author is chairman,National Taskforce, NationalTB Elimination Programme,and Professor and former HoD,Department of PulmonaryMedicine, PGIMER,Chandigarh)

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Attaining the state of yoga is some-thing like a river stream mergingwith the ocean, when the river

water loses its own identity and becomesone with the sea. Having thus, struckupon the core of existence, mind realisesits wholesome power, when it has noth-ing more to explore. Similarly, duringyoga, the unitary mind gets dropped, andso too the sense of individualistic exis-tence, leaving no scope for any differenti-ation. So, one is at peace.

You may ask: If mind is devoid of anythought, what purpose would it serve?For, thoughts drive all actions on ourpart. Let me make it clear here thatattaining samadhi is not the end game. Itis a self-empowerment process, whichbrings into play full human potential,when one would know no limits. Also,mind regains its sense of orderliness,when all its functional constituents beginto spontaneously operate in coordinatedmanner. Mind then becomes free fromany preconditioning, when full mind-space becomes available. The scope ofvision thus expands to its optimum best.Intelligence gets sharpened. Armed assuch, mind explores the targeted subjectwith an open mind, and so is able to per-

ceive things in the right perspective, andaccordingly make right moves. In fact,you then look at things from the highestcentre of consciousness, whereuponnothing remains hidden from you.Intuitively, you may get to root of whatev-er is looked at.

The process does not end withsamadhi. Patanjali must have realised thedanger of those having attained samadhideveloping the tendency to get mentallydisinterested from the usual course of lifeand get stuck to an abstract imaginaryworld. But that is not the purpose ofsamadhi. We are not only supposed tojust improve our own lot, but also leadothers towards that end. And that will notbe possible if the seeker gets mentally cutoff from the living world. Accordingly,Patanjali suggested a backward integra-tion process, which he has termed as theprocess of samanvaya. It involves back-ward integration of samadhi, dhyana, anddharana. Having established in theprocess, when due attention is given to anissue and reflected upon, one may intu-itively get to the root of the subject inhand. Following which, one may be ableto spontaneously pick up the right lead.This is what in Kashmir Saivism is

termed as being in Sahaja Samadhi. Having thus discussed the concept of

Yoga, it is time now to get down to itsapplication. There are hundred and oddmethods of meditation in circulation, fol-lowed by various cultures all across.There is no fun in comparing and beingjudgmental about which one of them issuperior to other. For, as already experi-enced by Swami Ram KrishnaParamhansa, you may follow differentpaths, but at the end of the day, the samesense of love overtakes you. A fresherwould, however, be keen to know whatparticular mode of dhyana to follow.Experientially speaking, a three-courseprocess is suggested — Calming downthe Mind, Mind Detoxification andContextual Meditation — that run inconformity with the above laid principles.

Calming the Mind: A fresher, beforetaking up the Dhyana process, needs tofirst create a favourable inner mental cli-mate. The method calls for trying to rela-tively calm down the restive mind, flirt-ing with unwieldly thought crowd playingwithin in immediate terms, mostly incon-sequential and negative. Otherwise, thestate of mind would not be conducive topursue dhyana process in right earnest.

The method is simple, true to thecallings of Pratyahara. You need to liedown on your back in a relaxed posturewith no pillow support, preferably on ahard bed, in order that spinal-cordremains straight. Close your eyes. Allyour sensory instruments will naturallyget disengaged from the outer world andthereby waking state consciousness. Thesubconscious mind immediately comesinto full play, bringing into focus randomthoughts picked up in immediate pastthat would be playing at the surface level.Persistent desires and feelings too maykeep knocking your inner space.Evidently then, you will be flooded withthoughts, unnerving you from within.Allow the thoughts to naturally flow inand flow out. Continue the process for atleast 20 minutes. Don’t pay any attentionto the thoughts visiting you again andagain. Just train your mind to remain dis-engaged from them as a silent witness.Remember, only when you pay attentionthat you get affected. The irony, however,is that it is not easy to remain unaffected.

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