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Asinister plot to bleedJammu on the occasion of

second anniversary of “ghast-ly” Pulwama terror attack wasfoiled by the alert jawans ofJammu & Kashmir Police afterthey recovered 6.5 kg explo-sives from a Kashmir-basednursing college student nearJammu bus stand late onSaturday evening.

The IED was to be used fortriggering a blast at any one ofthe major installations inJammu, including its famousRaghunath Mandir, railwaystation, bus stand and jewellerymarket located in the walledcity area of Lakhdatta Bazar.

Nursing college studentfrom Pulwama, currentlystudying in Chandigarh, wasdirected by the Pakistan-basedhandlers of Al-Badr terror out-fit to execute the terror plot.

In a separate development,a consignment of weapons wasalso recovered from Samba.The weapons could have beenairdropped in the area usingPakistani drones. Meanwhile,J&K DGP Dilbagh Singh alsomade a major revelation onSunday that terrorist com-manders in Kashmir are smug-gling weapons from Bihar withthe help of their over groundworkers network to carry outoperations in the region.

He confirmed that chiefcommander of Lashkar-e-

Mustafa, a front organisation ofJaish-e-Mohammad, had con-ducted a recce of the office ofNSA Ajit Doval and had alsodispatched the video footage tohis handler Iliyas doctor of JeMto plan a major terror strike inNew Delhi.

Addressing a joint Pressconference here in the districtpolice lines in Jammu, InspectorGeneral of Police, Jammu rangeMukesh Singh said they havebeen on high alert for the lastthree days as there were inputsthat on the anniversary of

Pulwama attack terrorist groupsmay carry out some major attackin Jammu city. He said based onthese inputs checking pointswere established at critical pointsand on Saturday night a personnamely Suhail was found roam-ing suspiciously in the area.

“He was carrying a bag. Onbeing questioned and checkingof the bag around 6.5 kg IEDwas recovered which was notactive. During questioning hesaid he was a student of nurs-ing college and was studying inChandigarh. He was tasked by

Al-Badr handlers in Pakistan toplace this IED at places,” he said.

Singh said on further ques-tioning Suhail also revealedthat after placing the IED hewas supposed to take a flight toSrinagar and he was to bereceived by a high rankingover ground worker of Al-Bad, Athar Shakeel Khan atSrinagar.

“After meeting Athar hewas supposed to become anactive militant. This was hisplanning. Another person inChandigarh was also in the

know-how of this planning. Hehas also been picked up fromChandigarh and has been iden-tified as Qazi Waseem andthere is another person AbidNabi associated with this out-fit. He has also been arrested,"he said. The IG said by hisarrest and by the recovery ofthis IED a major terror attackhas been averted.

Addressing mediapersonson the occasion, DirectorGeneral of Jammu & KashmirPolice Dilbag Singh said policecarried out two major success-ful operations and arrestedtwo chief commanders of TheResistance Front (TRF) andLashkar-e Mustafa in the lastone week from different areasof Jammu.

He said the TRF is beingrun by Lashkar-e-Tayyebawhile the terror outfit Lashkar-e-Mustafa is being run by Jaish-e-Mohammad from across theborder to carry out terror activ-ities not only in Jammu &Kashmir but in some otherparts of the country includingDelhi. “Lashkar-e-Mustafacame into being recently inAugust last year,” he said.

Singh said the chief com-mander of Lashkar-e-Mustafa,Hidayatullah Malik, who wasleading this outfit and was activefrom the last few months, wasarrested by the police fromKunjwani area of Jammu. Hesaid Hidayatullah was workingas an OGW for a long time and

later became active to carry outterror activities sponsored byJaish-e-Mohammad. He saidMalik was tasked to expand theterror base of the outfit from theSouth Kashmir areas to Jammuregion. Singh said, “Hidayatullahhad set up a network of OGWsto ferry arms consignment arriv-ing from across the border toKashmir Valley. In addition, hewas also in touch with terrorassociates in Bihar from wherehe was smuggling pistols. So farseven pistols have reachedKashmir via Chapra in Bihar.”

“Hidayatullah had also setup a network of Kashmiri stu-dents studying in differentcities across Punjab and wasusing them to ferry these con-signments to Kashmir,” he said.

Referring to the modusoperandi of terror outfits usingtunnels, the DGP said duringhis interrogation Malik hadalso revealed that one of theactive terrorist Ashiq Nengroo,who used to ferry infiltratorsfrom Jammu to Kashmir Valleyvia road link, himself used thetunnel route to return toPakistan along with his family.

He said now AshiqNengroo is working as an activehandler and organising logisticssupport for terrorists acrossJammu & Kashmir. During2017-18 Nengroo had managedto ferry around three dozen ter-rorists from the InternationalBorder to Kashmir Valley.

Continued on 1

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The Ministry of RoadTransport & Highways on

Sunday announced that alllanes in the fee plazas onNational Highways will bedeclared as “FASTag lane of thefee plaza” from midnight ofFebruary 15, 16 of 2021.

Union Road TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari made itclear that the deadline for theimplementation of FASTagwould not be extended further,and the vehicle owners shouldimmediately adopt the e-pay-ment facility. The CentralGovernment had last extendedthe FASTag deadline for thevehicles from January 1, 2021,to February 15, 2021

“Therefore, as per NH FeeRules 2008, any vehicle not fit-ted with FASTag or vehiclewithout valid, functional FASTagentering into the FASTag lane ofthe fee plaza shall pay a feeequivalent to two times of the feeapplicable to that category,” theMinistry said in a statement.

Continued on Page 11

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As massive operationinentsified to reach about

30 people trapped inside tun-nel began after a flash flood inChamoli district a week ago,rescue teams on Sunday recov-ered 12 more bodies, includingthe first ones to be pulled outfrom the sludge-chokedTapovan tunnel.

Five bodies were recoveredfrom the Tapovan power pro-ject tunnel, six from Rainiupstream and one from theriverbank in Rudraprayag, tak-ing the confirmed death toll inthe Uttarakhand disaster to50. Officials said 154 peoplestill remain missing after theFebruary 7 devastation, possi-bly triggered by an avalanche inthe upper reaches of theAlaknanda river system.

A surge of water inDhauliganga and Rishigangarivers had ripped through twohydel projects. Bodies of vic-tims were being found at dif-ferent locations by the river

over the past week, but rescuershad so far failed to reach any-one — dead or alive — in thetunnel network at the NationalThermal Power Corporation's520 MW Tapovan-Vishnugadproject.


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Former Jammu & KashmirChief Minister Omar

Abdullah, along with his fatherDr Farooq Abdullah (sittingParliamentarian fromSrinagar), found themselveslocked up inside their Gupkarroad house early Sunday morn-ing after they noticed a policevan stationed outside the frontgate had blocked their way.

Angry over this develop-ment, Omar Abdullah immedi-ately took to Twitter to vent hisire against the security estab-lishment. In a series of tweetsOmar wrote, “This is the‘naya/new J&K’ after Aug 2019.We get locked up in our homeswith no explanation. It’s badenough they’ve locked my father(a sitting MP) & me in our home,they’ve locked my sister & herkids in their home as well.”

In response, a Twitter han-dle of Srinagar police said,“Today is the 2nd anniversaryof the dreaded Lethpora Terrorincident. There shall be NOROP on ground.


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The US Senate has acquitteda defiant Donald Trump in

his second impeachment trialin just over a year, after theDemocrats failed once again tomuster enough votes to convictthe former president on acharge of inciting the deadlyinsurrection at the Capitol onJanuary 6.

The Senate voted 57-43 onSaturday to convict Trump ona single impeachment count— incitement of insurrection.But that majority of all 50Democrats in the upperchamber of the US Congress,joined by seven Republicans,fell 10 votes short of the 67needed for a conviction, two-thirds of the 100-memberSenate.

The Senate acquitted the74-year-old Republican leaderof inciting insurrection at theUS Capitol last month after heurged hundreds of his sup-porters to confront lawmakersas they were certifying that hehad lost the November 3 pres-idential election to DemocratJoe Biden.

He was accused of incitingriots in the Capitol which leftfive people, including a policeofficer, dead. Trump is thefirst president in US history tobe impeached by the House ofRepresentatives twice, and thefirst to be tried for impeach-ment after leaving office.


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Prime Minister NarendraModi’s day out on Sunday

to Tamil Nadu and Kerala sawthe dedication and commis-sioning of a slew of develop-ment projects in both the poll-bound States which wouldresult in creation of thousandsof jobs and savings in foreignexchange.

The Prime Minister alsolaid foundation stones for pro-jects meant for farming, devel-opment of innovation foryouths, strengthening of skill oftechnically qualified youthsand development of tourismprojects.

One of the important func-tions presided over by thePrime Minister was the hand-ing over of Arjun Mk-1A thestate-of-the-art main battletank to Indian Army. The highperformance tank was devel-oped by the scientists ofChennai-based CombatVehicles Research and

Development Establishment(CVRDE), a unit of DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) andother allied institutions.General MM Naravane, Chiefof Army Staff, received ArjunArjun Mk-1A from PrimeMinister Modi in an elegantfunction held at Chennai'sIndoor Stadium.

Paying homages to the sol-diers ambushed at Pulwamatwo years ago, the PrimeMinister said, “No Indian canforget this day. Two years ago,Pulwama attack happened. Wepay homage to all the martyrswe lost in that attack. We areproud of our security forces.Their bravery will continue toinspire generations.”

Quoting the verses ofMahakavi SubramaniyaBharathi in Tamil, Modi said,“Let us make weapons; alsomake paper; let us make fac-tories; let us also make schools;let us make vehicles that canmove and fly — also let usmake ships that can shake theworld.” Inspired by this visionof Subramaniya Bharathi, Indiahas undertaken a massive effortto become self-reliant in thedefence sector.

Later, Modi inaugurated theChennai Metro Rail Phase-Iextension project completed at acost of ��3,770 crore whichwould ease traffic flow in the city.A long time dream of the farm-ers in the Cauvery Delta districts(the five districts on the banks ofCauvery river) got a boost as thePrime Minister laid the founda-tion stone for the extension, ren-ovation and modernisation ofthe Grand Anicut Canal Systemto be completed at a cost of�2,640 crore.


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Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath’s dream project, ‘Abhyudaya

Coaching Scheme’, is off to a flying start witha list of the first batch of over 50,000 studentsprepared on the basis of entrance examina-tions for the coaching classes.

A staggering number of over 36 lakh hitswere clocked on the official website(www.abhyuday.gov.in) in four days of itslaunch with over 4.84 lakh students aspiringfor competitive exams got registered. Aftershortlisting the students after an entrance test,as many as 50,192 students will start receiv-ing coaching in physical classes fromFebruary 16.

The chief minister, under whose guidancethe whole concept is seen on ground, willinteract with some selected students virtual-ly at a function on Monday where he will alsoannounce the formal launch of ‘AbhyudayCoaching’ classes, a unique endeavour in itsown right.

Divisional Commissioner of Lucknowand nodal officer of ‘Abhyuaday’ schemeRanjan Kumar said the response of thescheme has been overwhelming as the mes-sage of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wentdown well among the aspirants.

The CM had envisaged to set up‘Abhyudaya’ free coaching centres for aspir-ing candidates preparing to qualify UPSC,NEET, JEE (Mains and Advanced), CDS,NDA, and all other competitive exams.

The overwhelming response of the aspi-rants is understandable as the faculty for thedirect counselling includes the big names ofstate bureaucracy like Chief Secretary RKTiwari, Agriculture ProductionCommissioner (APC) Alok Sinha, AdditionalChief Secretary (ACS), MSME andInformation Navneet Sehgal, ACS (CM) SPGoyal, Principal Secretary to CM SanjayPrasad, Principal Secretary (MedicalEducation) Alok Kumar and Secretaries toCM Alok Kumar and Surendra Singh, alongwith several other IAS, IPS and PCS officers.All the lectures and complete study materi-al covering the entire syllabus of variousexaminations will also be made availableonline.

Lucknow (PNS): The three-day training pro-gramme for UP legislators for use of iPads andtablet computers to enable them to participatein paperless proceedings of the UP Assembly con-cluded on Sunday. The programme had six ses-sions of three hours each. The pro tem chair-man of UP Legislative Council ManvendraPratap Singh presided over the training pro-gramme concluding day along with Deputy ChiefMinister Dinesh Sharma.

Addressing the concluding day programme,Manvendra Pratap Singh said more and more use

of new technology will pave the way for progress.“Our progress is directly proportional to the useof modern technology. The legislators have beentrained in obtaining information about budgetand proceedings of the UP Assembly, conserv-ing the information, making comments and useof that information,” he said. The training wasconducted by the National Informatics Centre(NIC), a Central government organisation. Thechief minister had himself held the orientationmeeting with the ministers and put forth his pointof view with regards to the importance of e-gov-

ernance. The budget session is commencing herefrom February 18. Finance Minister SureshKhanna will present the paperless budget onFebruary 22. UP has become the first state to con-duct the proceedings of the state assembly andlegislative council paperless. With UP for the firsttime going for paperless budget and proceedingsof the legislature, the state government has sanc-tioned Rs 50,000 each to MLAs and MLCs forpurchasing iPads and tablets. The legislators havebeen advised by the government to purchaseiPads from their resources before February 18.

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The Government RailwayPolice in Pratapgarh regis-

tered a case of murder onSaturday night against uniden-tified persons following recov-ery of the mutilated body ofShubham Prajapati (22),nephew of former state minis-ter Gayatri Prajapati. Shubham’sbody was recovered from arailway track in Amethi onFriday.

Victim’s elder brother ArunPrajapati said some unidenti-fied people had come to call hisbrother on Thursday night fordrinks and he did not returnafter that.

“They must have onlykilled my brother,” he hadalleged in his complaint to the

police.On the basis of the com-

plaint of Arun, a case of mur-der has been registered by thePratapgarh GRP.

The police said that the calldetail records of Shubham andalso the numbers found activeduring the fateful day and timeare being scanned for evi-dence.

On February 12,Shubham’s body was found atleast 4 kms from his house.Shubham was a class VIIIdropout and ran a small busi-ness in the city. He was not intopolitics. Amethi police hadalso claimed that besidesamputation, no other injurymark was found on the body,hinting that it was a case of sui-cide.

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Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath on Sunday

called upon people to take up thetask of cleaning Yamuna on the linesof what was done to make the holyGanga river clean under NamamiGange.

“How we made Ganga clean waswatched by the entire world duringthe glorious Prayagraj Kumbh. Nowit is our responsibility to give a newface to the Braj area, the land ofKrishna Leela, and set a new exam-ple to the world in terms of devel-opment,’’ Yogi said while speakingat the ‘Kumbh Poorv VaishnavBaithak, 2021’ at Vrindavan,Mathura, on Sunday. The CM ded-icated and laid the foundation ofdevelopment projects worth Rs 411crore.

The ‘Vaishnav Baithak’ is tradi-tional meeting of saints before theKumbh. Yogi, in a rare gesture,attended the meeting even as theKumbh is not being organised inUttar Pradesh. As per the old tradi-tions, the saints and Akharas willnow proceed to Haridwar Kumbh.The CM said that when the propos-al for this programme had come, theentire country was faced with theCovid pandemic. “We had a chal-

lenge to organise the programmewhich comes once in 12 years.What used to happen in earlier gov-ernment was for everyone to see, butwe could do it since it was the effi-ciency and resolve of the BJP gov-ernment,” he said.

The CM said that his govern-ment has been committed to devel-oping the Braj area like never beforeand several projects remain in thepipeline while many have beencompleted. Speaking about Yamuna,he regretted that the ‘Clean Yamuna’

endeavours should have been start-ed from Delhi, but nothing wasdone in this regard.

Coming down heavily on theArvind Kejriwal government inDelhi, Yogi said at least the Delhigovernment should take some ini-tiative initially, after which the JalShakti department could take fur-ther care.

Making a clarion call to thepeople of Braj to participate in thedevelopment of this region, he saidthat besides being the land of

Krishna, ‘Gau Sewa’ and ‘Yamuna’were an integral part of this region.

“If people of this region dedicatethemselves to these causes, Krishnawill bestow them with prosperity,”he said.

Earlier, on reaching Vrindavan,the CM went to the Banke Biharitemple to pay obeisance to thedeity. He met saints and attended themeeting of Braj Teerth VikasParishad.

Assuring world-class develop-ment in Braj, the CM said it is a mat-ter of satisfaction that the BrajTeerth Vikas Parishad has beenworking in a tandem with ministersand the ‘sant samaj’ has ensureddevelopment of the area.

“Since independence, the gov-ernments came and went but it is forthe first time that the views of thesaint community are being incorpo-rated in the development of theregion,’’ he said while pointing outthat the renovation of KashiVihwanathin Varanasi and success-ful conduct of Prayagraj Kumbh hadbeen the recent examples of how thesentiments of saints can be respect-ed and the benefits of governmentschemes could reach all without anydiscrimination. Later, the CM alsoparticipated in ‘Yamuna Aarti’ atDeoraha Baba Ghat in Vrindavan.

Lucknow (PNS): In orderto increase the efficiency of stu-dents of primary school, theYogi Adityanath governmenthas launched the ‘PrerakMission’ which is expected tochange the image of theseschools in Uttar Pradesh with-in six months.

The ‘Prerak Mission’ willrun at every primary school ofUttar Pradesh and every dis-trict will have a motivationalschool. Not only this, the thirdparty institution set up by thegovernment will check the effi-ciency of the children of prima-ry schools. Once the investiga-tion of the institution is com-pleted, the schools will benamed as motivational schools.

According to BSA,Lucknow, Dinesh Kumar, oneschool from every block will bedeveloped as a motivationalschool. “On the same lines,within a few months, everyschool of the block will betransformed into a primaryschool. In this way, every pri-mary school of the districts willbe developed as a motivation-al school,” he said.

To increase the skills ofchildren of primary schools inmathematics and languages,‘Prerna Gyanotsav Abhiyan’ isbeing started by the govern-ment.

This campaign willenhance basic learning skills forchildren and will also increase

the efficiency of the childrenwho could not continue theironline classes during the lock-down period.

In the instructions issuedby Additional Chief SecretaryRenuka Kumar, the teacherswill have to check the skills ofthe students at certain setpoints, under which the effi-ciency of students from class-es I to III will be identified on14 points, while the students ofclasses IV and V will be iden-tified on 16 points.

After the teachers of theprimary schools declare themas motivational schools, thethird party institution willexamine the children’s effi-ciency.

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Suheldeo Bhartiya SamajParty president said on

Sunday that the three farmlaws have turned the tideagainst the BJP in western UP,forcing the ruling party tofocus its attention on easternUP.

He claimed that thefarming communities, partic-ularly Jats, and others havedeserted the BJP. He said theBJP is paying special attentionto eastern UP due to the pan-chayat elections. SBSP is theformer ally of the BJP andRajbhar is a former Cabinetminister in the Yogi Adityanathgovernment.

“In the coming days, thepanchayat and assembly elec-tions will be held. The Jatfarmers in 18 districts ofwestern UP have desertedthe BJP. So now, they haveturned towards the easternparts of the state, and arefocusing on this area which hassizable Rajbhar voters. Theirsole aim is to garner votes,” hesaid.

Hitting out at the BJPgovernment in UP, he said:“They named Mughalsarai sta-tion after Deen DayalUpadhyay and did similarthings but we had no problemswith that. But why do they havea problem in writing the nameof Rajbhar after MaharajaSuheldev?”

“The BJP should start lik-ing the name Rajbhar whilewriting the name of MaharajaSuheldev, who is said to havekilled the Ghaznavid generalGhazi Saiyyad Salar Masudin the early 11th century,” hesaid.

The former UP ministeralso claimed that owing to theintense hard work of SBSPworkers over the past fewdecades, almost all the politi-cal parties in the country, theCentral and state governmentsare celebrating the birthanniversary of SuheldevRajbhar.

At present, the SBSP hasfour MLAs in the UttarPradesh Legislative Assembly.On February 11, the UttarPradesh government releasedthe reservation policy for theupcoming three-tier panchay-at polls in the state.

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KGMU will focus on mater-nal healthcare to curb

maternal mortality, have aplacement cell for better inter-phase for students and strength-en its knowledge portal by con-necting to the alumni amongvarious other plans for the nextsix months.

KGMU Vice-ChancellorDr Bipin Puri shared his visionfor the medical university on thecompletion of six months in theoffice. Addressing mediaper-sons on Sunday, he said: “We areworking to bring down thematernal mortality rate eventhough Queen Mary’s hospitalis receiving patients with com-plications from other hospitals.These patients succumbbecause of no reaction time. Theefforts are directed at makingthe maternal services so strongthat patients should be sure thatthey are in safe hands.”

Dr Puri said they have 100additional beds in QueenMary’s hospital, including sixICU and eight HDU beds.

“Earlier when a critically illwoman came to the hospital,she would be checked up bygynaecologists and then shift-ed to ICUs in the main hospi-tal. It required the building ofinfrastructure at the QMH itselfas the patients were being shift-ed. The doctors informed meabout the problems and effortswere made to build infrastruc-ture. We have posted a criticalcare doctor and anaesthetist

24x7 and organised a bloodfacility at the hospital itself,” hesaid. He added that he has alsoinformed the government thatstrict action should be takenagainst quacks who operate onwomen and create complica-tions. The KGMU vice-chancel-lor said they were also planningto have a placement cell whichcould help the residents anddoctors find employmentavenues. “The placement cellwill show them places wherethey can go for higher educa-tion, fellowship and employ-ment. It will help them devel-op communication skills andalso give them opportunities tointeract with the industry andentrepreneurs,” he said. Headded that it would also serveas an information cell whereinthey can get details of wherethey can get fellowships andimprove their employabilityand how they can improvetheir leadership skills, man-agerial skills, entrepreneurialskills. He further said that theyalso have big plans for theirknowledge portal. “We haveover 30,000 alumni with doctorsat the UK, USA and Australiawho want to get connectedwith their alma mater. “In thelast few months, we havereached out to them and askedthem whether they are happy tointeract with the students andtalk to them about their special-ity at the student level. Thealumni are delighted to talk tothese students,” he said.

Dr Puri said they have cre-

ated a knowledge portal, where-in there is a transfer of knowl-edge and information.

He further said that theyhad made several other achieve-ments. “We never had a med-ical oncologist but we haveappointed one and we alsohave a burn centre which is thelargest in the state. Theorthopaedic superspeciality,which is the first of its kind andwill come up shortly, maybe bythe end of the year. Four super-specialities will be workingunder one roof,” he said.

The KGMU VC alsoappealed through the media tothe corporates and NGOs todonate for facilitation in theintramural transport within themedical university.

“There are many patientswho are very poor and they can-not walk, have difficulty ingoing from one department.They can be provided withfacilities like battery-operatedvehicles for the intramuraltransport so that they can moveeffortlessly,” he said.

The KGMU VC said thatthey are working on the med-ical supply chain managementsystem which he wants to workas a proper system. “We areplanning to get institutionalisedprices of medicines so that thepatients have to pay less,because there is a gap betweenthe institutionalised prices andmarket prices through theHospital Revolving Fund andstopping all the local purchase,”he said.

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The Central Institute forSubtropical Horticulture

(CISH) is promoting vegetableproduction among landless SCcategory farmers through ver-tical structure designed at theinstitute. CISH directorShailendra Rajan said that manyfarmers want to grow theirown vegetables but are not ableto do so because they don’t haveland for kitchen gardening.“Vertical structures developedby the institute are useful forsuch farmers for vegetable pro-duction for personal use,” hesaid. During the Covid period,the institute distributed 40 ver-tical structures to the landlessfarmers and conducted interac-tion programmes in Kakoriand Mall blocks after six monthsof providing vertical structures.

“A field day was organisedin a Kakori block village to pop-ularise the technique and getfeedback for improvement indesign and production technol-ogy. Farmers were very muchdelighted to share their experi-ences and problems faced bythem. The institute provided thestructures, knowhow and veg-etable seedlings so that farmersdid not have to make muchefforts to arrange the seedlingsof good vegetable varieties. Alarge number of vegetable vari-eties were tried by the farmers,and women were interested inthis non-traditional way ofgrowing leafy vegetables,” hesaid. The CISH director saidthat aftercare of crops is easy invertical structures and afterplanting of the seedlings orseed sowing, they have to spare

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As many as 14,875 healthworkers are scheduled to

be vaccinated in a mop-up ses-sion while 844 are expected toget their second dose of Covidvaccine on Monday. Districtimmunisation officer MKSingh said there will be 119booths in the district for thevaccination drive on Monday.

The 844 health workerswho will get the second dosewere vaccinated on January 16when the drive was inaugurat-ed by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. Vaccine vialswere sent to 16 cold chainpoints on Sunday and thesame will be distributed toSGPGI, KGMU, RMLIMS,ERA’s Medical College andHospital, Medanta and otherhospitals by 8 am on Monday.

If there are any healthworkers who had registered atthe CoWin portal but theirnames are not on the list ofbeneficiaries for the drive onMonday, they can their namesadded to the portal. “We hopeto get the maximum numberof left out health workers vac-cinated through this add-onoption,” Singh said.

The district immunisa-tion officer said that the mop-up session for the frontlineworkers will be held onFebruary 18.

The Covid vaccinationdrive was inaugurated on

January 16 while the next ses-sions were held on January 22,28, 29, February 4, 5, 11 & 12.

Singh said that for the UPBudget session commencingshortly, testing of the officialsand employees at Sachivalayaand the members of VidhanSabha will be conducted.

Director of BalrampurHospital Dr Rajeev Lochansaid they have started a post-Covid clinic at the hospitalwhere those who have testedCovid negative can be treatedin case they face problems postrecovery.

“We are exposing them toyoga and other things so thatthey can be stress-free. Wehave established it at the pointwhere we have our yoga cen-tre,” he said. Dr Lochan saidthey are getting 10-15 post-Covid cases everyday and theyfeel better after being exposed

to yoga. “Most of the patientsare stressed out because ofCovid and carry a greatamount of fear. They alsocomplain of weakness,” hepointed out.

He said that within twodays, they will have two dial-ysis machines donated to thehospital. “We have two dialy-sis units; one is our indoor unitwhile the other is an ambula-tory unit. The ambulatoryunit is totally PPP and only forthose persons who walk in andget their dialysis done andleave. The other unit is ourown and has ten beds. Over 40patients are admitted everydayfor nephrology problems. Outof the eight machines whichwe have in our unit, four werevery old, so we requested acorporate giant to donate themachines as part of their CSRinitiative, and they agreed,” he

said. He added that with thisaddition, the strength of theirdialysis unit will reach sevenand they will be able to carryout three dialysis rounds everyday.

Meanwhile, NBRI directorSK Barik said they are waitingfor a few reagents to startgenome sequencing. Thegenome sequencing helps indiscovering the differentstrains for coronavirus and hasbecome important in the after-math of the UK strain.

Lucknow (PNS): A programmecalled ‘Alumni Connect’ was organ-ised on Sunday under the jointaegis of the Alumni Association andAlumni Cell of Babasaheb BhimraoAmbedkar University (BBAU). Theprogramme was presided over byVice-Chancellor Sanjay Singh.

Singh urged the alumni to coop-erate and said that BBAU’s placementcell is striving for training and place-ment of students. In addition, he alsoprovided information about MoUswith various institutions in recentyears. He said that programmes likeAlumni Connect are important forestablishing good contact with thealumni. He also informed the alum-ni about some of the positive changesin the university such as PhDentrance examination twice a year,expansion of choice-based credit sys-tem, NCC unit and many changesrelated to training and placementcells. The alumni talked about mov-ing forward together and having emotional bonding amongthemselves.

Dr Tarun Chaturvedi of 1999batch, who is the senior vice-presid-ing HR at Consultancy Innovationand Incubation Centre (IIT-Kanpur),said it was important to make pro-ductive use of research work so thatthe research work can be used forpublic interest.

Dr Monika Singh, joint directorof Indian Economic Service,

Department of Food and PublicDistribution, shared her universityexperience and said she wanted tosee the university join the country’sleading tier universities and BBAUis moving forward in this direction.

Dr Himanshu Chaturvedi, whois currently contributing to theSwachh Bharat Mission of theGovernment of India, is a solid wastemanagement expert. He offered allpossible support for current students.

Dr Madhuresh Singhal, DGMEurofins Edvinus Ltd, said that job-oriented courses should be started inthe university. Chanchal Tiwari,deputy commissioner, GST UP, said:“We need to teach students practi-cal things and give them practicalknowledge instead of just givingthem bookish knowledge.”

Dr Sohail Ahmed, assistant pro-fessor, Department of ComputerScience, suggested further improve-ment in the Patent Cell at BBAU andto move forward with joint collab-oration. At the same time, he alsostressed on character building amongthe students. Amit Kumar Gautam,managing director of TechnosanIndia Pvt Ltd, said students shouldbe made self-reliant. Dr ManjariSingh, assistant professor,Department of PharmaceuticalSciences, Assam University, saidthat the university should sign MoUswith other institutions and move for-ward with mutual cooperation.

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Twelve people, includingeight women, were arrest-

ed on the charges of fleshtrade during raids at their spaparlour and body massage cen-tre in Indiranagar underGhazipur police station area onSaturday night. The maleaccused were identified asManish Srivastava ofHusainganj, Ashish Yadav &Gufran Ahmad of Barabanki,and Arjun Sonkar of Banthra.The police recovered 20 bags,11 mobile phones and 20 reg-isters in which details of cus-tomers were scribbled, Rs 6,125in cash and other items. The

police kept the names ofwomen accused under wraps.

The police said they got acomplaint about the flesh tradewhich was being run in theguise of a parlour in the area.Accordingly, a team wasformed and a raid conducted.The police said the sex racketwas being run for a long time.

The customers were calledon their mobile phones andsent the photos of the womenworking as sex workers toselect partners of their choice.After the deal was finalised, thecustomers were called at theparlour where they were pro-vided with the ‘services’.Sources said some of the

accused managed to flee thescene.

Meanwhile, a youth wasarrested for giving fake infor-mation about murder to thepolice control room, thus keep-ing the cops on their toes. Theaccused was identified as Nihalof Talkatora. Police said Nihalhad made several calls to thepolice control room and com-plained about murder.However, when the policereached the scene, nothing ofthat sort was found. Since then,the police were keeping a trackon Nihal and nabbed him fromCampwell road. The accusedsaid he used to make fake callsto fool the police.

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Acase was registered against eight contractualemployees of Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute

of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS) pharmacy for procur-ing medicines fraudulently. These medicines were meantfor patients and were available through hospitalrevolving funds. SHO, SGPGI, Ashish Kumar Dwivedisaid security officer Manoj Kumar Saxena lodged thecase against the employees identified as NripendraSingh, Mohammed Naseem Khan, Pawan Kumar Singh,Ashutosh Kumar Yadav, Arvind, Vineet Shukla, HariTiwari and Anil Yadav. They have been booked underthe charges of criminal breach of trust, dishonesty, pun-ishment for cheating, forgery for purpose of cheating,and forgery of valuable security.

Dwivedi said that according to the complaint ofsecurity officer Saxena, the accused used to forge sig-natures of doctors on prescriptions and take out cost-ly medicines against the names of patients admittedthere. The SHO also said that no specific time peri-od was mentioned by the security officer. However,the bungling was revealed during an inspection. “Itwill be investigated what they did with these medi-cines procured illegally,” he said.

The SHO also said that the pharmacy runs on theprinciple of Hospital Revolving Fund (HRF) and canbe defined as a process of procurement of hospital con-sumables on the principle of self-sustainability, clas-sifying the requirements, distribution of goodsthrough its outlets and peripheral stores, realisationof cost, communicating the financial data for onlinebilling and to take a meaningful decision in the inter-est of patient care.

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��-�� Lucknow (PNS): The condi-tion of former Governor ofWest Bengal Keshari NathTripathi, who is admitted inSGPGI, is critical. SGPGIspokesperson said thoughTripathi had tested negativeon January 30, he is still hav-ing problems while breathingand he was shifted to thePulmonary ward under thecare of Dr Alok Nath.“Through several tests it wasfound that he had fungal andbacterial infection in his lungsand the treatment was start-ed accordingly,” she said. Sheadded that when Tripathi’scondition did not improveand he required more oxygen,he was shifted to the pul-monary ICU on February 11.“His condition is critical andunstable,” the spokespersonsaid.

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Agym trainer shot himselfdue to a failed love affair,

at a hotel room inGomtinagar. Police sent thebody for autopsy and startedfurther investigation. Thedeceased was identified asPraveen Pandey (33) of Maudistrict. He was staying at ahouse in Vishwas Khand ofGomtinagar. For the last twoyears, Praveen was without ajob after he met with an acci-dent. As per reports, Praveen

got a room (206) booked atthe Trimoorti Palace Hotelonline around 2 pm onSaturday and was found deadaround 12:30 pm on Sunday.Hotel staffers Rahul Shuklaand Pawan said they went tocheck the room and foundPraveen lying in a pool ofblood. A pistol was also foundlying beside the bed. Thepolice said the pistol appearedto be of an illegal make. Thepolice informed the family ofthe deceased and started fur-ther probe into the case. The

investigation was assigned tosub-inspector Tarun Shukla.

Inspector DK Singh said:“Praveen had some differ-ences with a woman withwhom he was in love, and heshot himself due to same rea-son”. Sources said Praveenhad chatted and called somepeople through WhatsAppthe previous night. “Thepolice suspect that Praveenshot himself probably after hisfiancée did not turn up tomeet him on Valentine’s Day,”the sources said.

limited time for maintenance.“Limited irrigation, as per

need, is the only activity to beperformed. College studentAnshika from Kakori blockwas interested to have morenumber of structures so thatadditional vegetables aregrown for family use.Although vertical structuresare equally suitable for urbanfarmers, one can satisfykitchen gardening hobby

needs by vegetable growing inbalcony or rooftop. It is a mis-conception that in rural areas,sufficient land for kitchen gar-dening is available to all. Manyof the farmers don’t have thisopportunity to have a kitchengarden as they have smallpieces of land and they utiliseit for constructing houses,” hesaid. Rajan said that verticalvegetable cultivation has beena tradition in villages where

people grow vegetable vineslike gourds, dolichos beans.

The awareness pro-gramme will not only help ingrowing vertical structures butalso cultivating vegetables likebottle gourd, sponge gourd,pumpkin on the rooftop. Formotivating farmers, the insti-tute is distributing more than2 lakh vegetable seedlings toSC group farmers for veg-etable gardening.

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��2��!!��!4��Lucknow (PNS): Congress gen-eral secretary incharge of UttarPradesh Priyanka Gandhi Vadrawill address a farmers’ rally inChandpur (Bijnor) on Monday,party sources said on Sunday. Asfarmers have been protesting atthe Delhi borders sinceNovember 26 last year todemand the repeal of three farmlaws, the Congress has started tohold block-level meetings tohighlight their grievances.

UPCC president AjayKumar Lallu said: “All partyleaders have been tasked withhighlighting the farmers’demands. We will stand by theprotesting farmers till the farmlaws are withdrawn.” Priyankahad earlier addressed the farm-ers in Saharanpur on February10. “If the Congress comes topower, we will immediatelyrepeal these farm laws. We willalso ensure MSPs for all farmers,”she had said while addressing a‘Kisan Mahapanchayat’ inChilkhana. Priyanka had earli-er visited the family of youngfarmer Navreet Singh in Rampurwho died during the tractorrally in Delhi on January 26.

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Suheldev Bhartiya SamajParty president Om Prakash

Rajbhar, a former ally ofNational Democratic Alliance,has decided to extend his sup-port to the proposed ‘RailRoko’ agitation of farmers onFebruary 18.

Talking to reporters at theCircuit House here on Sunday,Rajbhar said that the SBSPwould celebrate the birthanniversary of party’s idealMaharaja Suheldev Rajbhar onFebruary 17, observing the dayas ‘Rashtra Rakshak Diwas’.

The SBSP is determinednot to allow the rulingBharatiya Janata Party to wooRajbhars, its traditional vote-bank. Rajbhars, a sub-caste ofthe Other Backward Classes(OBC), have a sizeable popula-tion in many districts in thisbelt of Purvanchal (easternUP). As the BJP startedstrengthening itself among theRajbhars by promoting cabinetminister in the Yogi Adityanathgovernment, Anil Rajbhar, anMLA from Shivpur assemblyconstituency of the city, the dif-ferences between the BJP andthe SBSP had widened andreached a peak when prior tothe last Lok Sabha elections theruling party organised a grandRajbhar meet at Ghazipurwhich was also addressed by

Prime Minister NarendraModi. Now when Anil Rajbharis leaving no stone unturned tomake the proposed programmeat Bahraich, the birth place ofMaharaja Suheldev, a grandsuccess on the eve of his 1012thbirth anniversary by visitingdifferent districts and the primeminister is likely to lay thefoundation stone of a memor-ial to be built at a cost of Rs 80crore through virtual platform,the SBSP has also intensified itsactivities to keep its Rajbharvote-bank intact and has pro-posed to celebrate the birthanniversary of its icon atMunari Purv Balika Vidyalayain Ajgara assembly constituen-cy in the district, which is rep-resented by party’s KailashSonkar.

“The population ofRajbhars is 18 per cent but they

are being misled by the rulingparty so it has been decidedthat Bhagidari Sankalp Morchawill contest forthcoming pan-chayat polls and the people willsee who will win, those repre-senting 65 per cent or 35 percent,” he claimed.

Reacting to the prime min-ister’s ‘andolanjivi’ statement, hesaid it was just an attempt todivert the attention of the peo-ple from basic issues of educa-tion, health and employment.He also reacted to the air strikein Pakistan on Pulwama Day,saying “just one crow waskilled”. On farmers’ stir, Rajbharsaid that the Modi governmentwas being run only with thesupport of Adanis andAmbanis and suggested thefarmers to gherao these corpo-rate houses instead of the gov-ernment.

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The city on Sunday paid floral trib-utes to the martyrs who laid

down their lives in the terror attack inPulwama in Union Territory ofJammu & Kashmir.

On the second anniversary ofPulwama terror attack, the teachersand employees associated with the AllTeachers & Employees WelfareAssociation (ATEWA) gathered at DrAmbedkar Park near the districtcourt here and paid their rich tributesto the CRPF personnel who made thesupreme sacrifice when the terroristsattacked them.

It may be mentioned that 40 per-sonnel of CRPF had lost their lives inthe terror attack in Pulwama onFebruary 14 in 2019.

Paying tributes, the ATEWAmembers recalled the martyrdom ofthe CRPF personnel and said that theterrorists had shown their cowardice

that day. They added that the terror-ists would never succeed in their Illintentions to weaken the nation.

“The real tribute to these martyrswill be only when the government atthe Centre restores the old pensionscheme for the personnel of para-mil-itary forces by revoking the NPS sys-tem,” they said. Satyandra Rai,Ramchandra Gupta, Vinod Yadav, DrEhtesham Ul Haq, Manbodh Yadavand Chandra Prakash Gupta wereamong those present on the occasion.

The activists of SamajwadiShikshak Sabha (also paid tributes tothe Pulwama martyrs at a programmeheld in Orderly Bazar and termed theterrorist attack as an attack of cow-ardice. “The nation will alwaysremember the sacrifice of these mar-tyrs,” they added.

Among those who paid tributeswere Sanjay Priyadarshi, Dr NishantSingh, Vikas Kumar, Prakash Sahaniand Vijay Shankar Rai.

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Asix-member team ofBangladesh visited

Ramnagar terminal across theriver Ganga here on Sunday.

The team came here to seethe prospects of boosting tradebetween the two countries aswith the development of inlandwaterways facilities in the cityand other parts of this region,the possibilities of trade haveincreased.

Though the inland water-

ways development project waslaunched more than threedecades back during the primeministership of Rajiv Gandhi,serious work on it was doneduring the present govern-ment and just before the lastparliamentary election.

Prime Minister NarendraModi had not only dedicatedthe Ramnagar terminal to peo-ple but had also received thefirst freight cargo vessel here.

Work is going on to linkthis terminal properly with

railways and road transporta-tion. With the development ofinland waterways, the busi-ness between India andBangladesh would become eas-ier and faster. To study theseprospects, the visit of theBangladesh delegation is beingconsidered as an importantstep. The delegation compris-es Bangladesh ShippingMinistry Joint SecretaryMonemul Haque, Ministry ofCommerce Deputy SecretarySolim Hussain, Director of

Department of Marin SafetyTraffic ManagementMohammad Rafiqul Islam,Inland Waterways TrafficAuthority SuperintendentEngineer Rajadur Rahman,Rakibul Alam of MS RahmanShipping Lines and BashirAhmed of Wind ShipCorporation.

The Bangladesh team firstreached Ramnagar terminalalong with senior officers ofInland Waterways Authority ofIndia and district administra-

tion and saw the facilities there.Later, they also held a talk withtheir Indian counterparts at ahotel in Nadesar and discussedthe avenues and possibilities ofincreasing business betweenthe two nations as this inlandwaterway also connectsBangladesh through the sea.

The visiting team arrived atPt Deen Dayal UpadhyayaJunction on Saturday nightand then came to a hotel herewhere they were welcomed bythe local authorities.

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Congressmen on Sundayadopted a unique way to

protest against the skyrocketingprices of petro products andhousehold commodities byhighlighting inflation.

The Congress workersgathered near the Cantonmentrailway station and staged ademonstration by puttinghouseholds, domestic gas cylin-ders and essential commoditieson a wooden cart.

They were highlightinginflation as the commoditiesdaily use have now become outof reach with the prices sky-rocketing.

The Congress workers also‘complimented’ the people forvoting to the Bharatiya JanataParty to power as it had creat-ed a situation in which the peo-

ple were finding it difficult tomeet both ends.

They said the people werefacing their worst situationnowadays with the price ofpetrol reaching a record high asa result of which was that theprices of fruits, vegetables andother essential commoditieswere increasing day by day.

They said if this situationcontinued further, the condi-tion of people would worsenmore.

They demanded that theCentre and state governmenttake the initiative to control thesituation to give relief to theweaker section of society.

Harish Mishra, KunwarYadav, Ashish Keshari, DrAshish Yadav, Dimple Singhand many other Congressworkers and leaders were pre-sent on the occasion.

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In the aim to intensify clean-liness drive in the parliamen-

tary constituency of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, theSwachhata Sangram-2021 logowas unveiled at Shastri Ghatnear the Varuna bridge onSunday.

On the occasion, severaldignitaries were nominated asambassadors of this cleanlinessdrive and many others werelauded for their contribution inthis field in the recent past.

The function began withthe PAC Band playing tunesand Jyoti Sharma and ShrejalGupta reciting GaneshVandana. This was followed bya colourful dance programme.Later, Mayor Mridula Jaiswaland Municipal CommissionerGaurang Rathi nominatedmany prominent citizens asenvoys of the cleanliness drive.

In 2016, when Prime

Minister Narendra Modi hadlaunched his SwachhataAbhiyan from Assi ghat here,he had also named ‘Navratnas’but later on, rarely any of themwas seen active.

This time, those who havebeen nominated ambassadorsof the cleanliness drive includeeminent vocalists Padam

Bhushan Pt Channu LalMishra, Padam Bhushan PtRajan-Sajan Mishra brothersand Padam Shri Pt RajeshwarAcharya. The others are lead-ing basketball player VisheshBriguvansi, hockey player LalitUpadhyay, social worker AnilKumar Jain, Dr DeepakAsthana, Manish Khatri and

Salman Chaudhari of KinnarSamaj. They all were felicitat-ed by presenting them angvas-trum.

Besides, the contributionsof leading athlete Neelu Mishra,Dr Ritu Garg, Saquib Bharatand Anil Kumar Singh werelauded by presenting bouquetsto them as they all also

remained active during thecoronavirus pandemic period.

On the occasion, someBanaras Hindu University stu-dents made some art work tosend the message on cleanli-ness.

The participants also tooka pledge to keep the city clean,to throw waste only in dustbinsand to help Varanasi performwell in the nation-wide clean-liness survey. The pledge wasadministered by the Mayor.

Additional MunicipalCommissioner Devi DayalVerma, health officer Dr NPSingh, secretary of Jan VikasEvam Kalyan Samiti MahendraSingh Gautam, Shishir Kumar,Nirbhay Singh, MeenakshiSingh, Dr Anushree Srivastavaand senior officers of VaranasiNagar Nigam, including RamSakal Yadav, Ajay Kumar Ram,Dilip Shukla, Arpana Bajpaiand Brijesh Prajapati were alsopresent.

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Allahabad (PNS): Theworking of Dhoomanganjpolice has come under questionin the killing of army person-nel. The policemen and thefamily members of thedeceased were informed aboutthe incident by an eyewitnessaround 10 pm. It is clear fromthis that the incident tookplace before 10 pm. There arealways people on the roadfrom 9:30 pm to 10 pm. Despitethis, it is clear from the incidentthat the killers were not scaredat all and were freely roamingon the road. This has raised aquestion on the night patrollingby the cops.

Meanwhile, the police arestill groping in the dark forclues to the killers of the armyman. Senior police officers,including the DIG, had reachedthe spot to monitor the inves-

tigation. The dog squad andforensic team were also calledbut no clues to the killerscould be found till late in thenight.

ADG Zone Premprakashreached the spot in the morn-ing and questioned the fatherand family of the deceased. Healso formed a team to arrest thekillers.

The woman who was pre-sent at the time of the incidentalleged that the goons attempt-ed to rape her. But the policeofficer kept claiming that shekept changing her statementagain and again.

The officials said that whilegiving information on the con-trol room number 100, thewoman had alleged an attemptto rape her but afterDhoomanganj police reachedthe spot, she did not reveal any

such thing.In the morning, when the

family members of thedeceased gave her name in thewritten complainant, she againstarted talking about the rapeattempt.

According to the familymembers, around 11 pm,Shweta had called Ashutosh'swife and told her that four-fiveyouths were found standing onthe way near Gayasuddin PurMaidan in Nimsarai and whenAshutosh asked them to move,they started abusing him. Onprotesting, he was pulled out ofthe car and was thrashed bru-tally by the youths, who laterattacked him with a brick andkilled him on the spot.

The police on Sundayafternoon sent the girl formedical examination after shealleged rape attempt.

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One more person testedpositive for coronavirus

infection in the district, takingthe tally of confirmed cases to21,960 on Sunday evening.

With no COVID-19 deathbeing reported in the last 24hours, the death toll remains at377.

Three more COVID-19patients have been cured, all ofthem in home isolation. So far,21,540 COVID-19 patientshave recovered in the district -18,569 in home isolation and2,971 in Covid hospital.

At present 43 active casesare under treatment in thedistrict.

The recovery rate in thedistrict is 98.08 percent and themortality rate 1.71 per cent.

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The dance drama'Chandalika' enthralled the

audience in the culturalevening organised at GandhiAdhyayan Peeth auditoriumunder on-going week-long cen-tenary year celebrations of theMahatma Gandhi KashiVidyapith.

The dance drama'Chandalika' is based on thestory of a socially untouchablegirl of Chandal communityand is written by GuruRavindranath Tagore.

The students of theuniversity staging this dancedrama kept the audienceglued to their seats with theirmesmerising performance.Dr Shubhra Verma directedit.

It was followed by thedrama 'Gandhi Teri Smritiyan'in which the students delight-ed the students by showing therevolutionary life of MahatmaGandhi. A short film 'Swadesh'was also screened, showingthe beautiful scenes of theMahatma Gandhi KashiVidyapith, Banaras HinduUniversity and this holycity.

The cultural evening ofthe four-day celebrations endedwith the drama 'Geshe Jampa',based on the novel written byDr Neerja Madhav, in whichthe students showed thethoughts and feelings ofTibetans.

Earlier, the eveningbegan with 'Shiv Stuti' present-ed by Kathak dancer AbhishekBasak.

MGKVP Vice ChancellorProf TN Singh and eminentnovelist Dr Neerja Madhavwere also present at the cultur-al programmes.

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Appreciating the work donefor the containment of

COVID-19 infection, theAllahabad High Court expressedhope and trust that every indi-vidual in Uttar Pradesh shall gethimself/herself vaccinated.

While hearing a PIL relatingto COVID-19, a division benchcomprising Justices SiddharthaVarma and Ajit Kumarobserved, “Before we proceedwith the case, we would like torecord our appreciation for thegreat work with regard to thecontainment of COVID-19infection which has been doneby the state and its instrumen-talities. We are also noticing thatthe number of infections ofCOVID-19 have been comingdown. This is a very positivesign.” Regarding the vaccination,the counsel of the Central gov-

ernment as well as the state gov-ernment received instructionsfrom the respective authoritiesthat as per the availability of thevaccine, the vaccination pro-gramme was continuing.

So far as the availability ofambulances was concerned, theaffidavit of the nodal officer ofMoti Lal Nehru Medical Collegeat Prayagraj was filed before thecourt wherein it was stated thatthe hospital had two advancedlife support (ALS) ambulances.It was also stated that the officeof the chief medical officer hadthree ambulances.

The counsel for the stategovernment also informed thecourt that Wi-Fi had also beeninstalled in the post-Covid wardwhere patients come after get-ting treated in the ICU.

While taking this affidaviton record, the court observed,“We connected ourselves

through video-conferencing andsaw for ourselves the post-Covidward. We appreciate the workwhich has been done. We foundthat the situation there was verysatisfactory.” While appreciatingthe work done by nodal officerRishi Sahai, who was present inthe court, the court observed,“So far as the work which hasbeen done by him is concerned,we appreciate the job performedby him during the times of pan-demic. We also hope and trustthat he will perform his dutiesfurther in Prayagraj so far as thevaccination programme is invogue. In the times of pandem-ic, we would like to observe,such officers who have workedhard and are still workingresponsibly should not be trans-ferred out, especially for nowwhile the programme for vacci-nation is going on in its fullsteam.”

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Allahabad (PNS): The sixth day of theorientation programme organised by theFaculty Development Centre, Iswar SaranDegree College, began on Sunday with alecture by the resource person Dr BKSingh, librarian at the University ofAllahabad. He spoke on ethics in research.He also talked about research integrity inwhich transparency, rigour, respect, rele-vance, and accountability were the maincontent.In the second session, ProfSubhash Agrawal from the Department ofEducation, CSJM University Kanpur,talked about national education policybased on the report and recommendationof Kothari Commission, the first nation-al policy on education in 1968, whichcalled for a radical restructuring and pro-posed equal educational opportunity inorder to achieve national integration.

Prof Agarwal also talked aboutNEP2020. He said the draft NEP discussedreducing curriculum content to enhanceessential learning and critical thinking.

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Uttar Pradesh cabinetMinister Sidharth Nath

Singh said the Union Budget2021 provided a road map tothe vision of making the newIndia self-reliant.

He said the budget pre-sented by the Central govern-ment was the budget of thecommon man up to the lastrung of society.

The minister said that thespecial thing about the bud-get was that the oppositionhad nothing to say against it.

Singh said the rural econ-omy of Uttar Pradesh wasdeveloping rapidly throughthe One District One Project(ODOP) scheme.

This model of economy isnow known as the YogiModel.

There is a discussion

going on by organising sem-inars on behalf of BharatiyaJanata Party and other organ-isations regarding variousaspects of the budget.

People are also givingtheir opinion.

BJP City unit chiefGanesh Kesarwani said theUnion budget was balanced.He said the way the Centraland state governments tookcare of all sections of society,particularly the migrantlabourers, during the coron-avirus pandemic was praiseworthy.

Singh said the Unionbudget would take all effectivesteps to establish India as astrong and developed coun-try at the international level.He said the development indiverse areas would be bene-ficial for the people in thecoming times.

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Mahant Narendra Giri,president of Akhil

Bharatiya Akhara Parishad(ABAP), on Sunday advisedUttarakhand Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat to learnfrom the Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment of UP and completepreparations for the KumbhMela.

He said that during thecoronavirus period, the MaghMela of Prayagraj had becomean example and in such a situ-ation, preparations for theKumbh should be made on thelines of Magh Mela.

The Akhara Parishad pres-ident said that despite theCOVID-19 pandemic, due tobetter arrangements made bythe Yogi government, lakhs of

devotees were taking the holydip at the Sangam in MaghMela. However, such prepara-tions were yet to be seenregarding the Mahakumbh tobe held in Haridwar.

He lauded the Yogi govern-ment for making the biggestbathing festival of Magh Melaon Mauni Amavasya smooth.He said the saint and seers werewith the chief minister ofUttarakhand and were alsowilling to follow the Covidguidelines.

Mahant Giri said thatthere was still a month forHaridwar Mahakumbh and atthis juncture, if theUttarakhand government heldtalks with the officials ofPrayagraj, it could improve thepreparations for the megaevent.

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Allahabad (PNS): The Mahila Sabha of SamajwadiParty staged a sit-in in front of the All Saints Cathedralin Civil Lines under the banner of Mahila Ghera pro-gramme on Saturday evening.

Former MLAs Vijma Yadav, Pooja Pal, Mahila Sabhadistrict chief Anita Srivastava, its city unit presidentManju Yadav and Nidhi Yadav alleged that incidents ofcrime against women were rising in the state and the stategovernment had failed to check them.

The Mahila Sabha leaders said that during theSamajwadi Party regime, women were protected in pan-chayats by starting schemes like reservations, KanyaVidya Dhan, pension scheme, 181 and 1090 helpline toprotect their honour and self-respect.

Indu Yadav, Richa Singh, Sabiha Mohani, NishaShukla, Sudha Yadav said that the Bharatiya Janata Partyhad stopped all these facilities provided to women bythe SP government. Manju Pathak, Sangeeta MalviyaSharma, Pooja Mishra, Nirmala Yadav, SatyabhamaMishra, Kamala Yadav and Rita Maurya also expressedtheir views. Samajwadi backward cell state chief RajpalKashyap also reached the dharna site. He was accom-panied by district chief Yogesh Chandra Yadav, City unitpresident Sayed Iftekhar Hussain, Sandeep Patel, IsrarAnjum, MLC Ramvriksha Yadav, Basudev Yadav,Dharmaraj Patel, Haji Parvez Ahmed, DanbahadurMadhur, Sayed Mohd Askari, Mohd Gauss and others.

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Atwo-day training pro-gramme was inaugurated

by Additional Director BasicEducation Ganga SinghRajpoot at Kuthond blockresource centre. He instructedthe teachers to use problemsolving tricks, reasoning, gen-eralisation method, estimationmethod in teaching of math-ematics and language subjectsin oder to improve elementaryeducation at the primary level,basic theme of course pro-gramme is based on founda-

tional learning and remedialteaching. While referring to theforthcoming classes he saidtheir main focus was to make

students comfortable in theschool environment. On theoccasion he also instructed allteachers to ensure all facilitiesin school before the classesstarted like proper mainte-nance of toilets etc. He empha-sised on following all Covid-19prevention guidelines whenthe school reopened. BlockEducation Officer (BEO)Mahesh Sharma and academ-ic resource persons SanjeevKumar, Brijesh Pathak, MaheshYadav and Shyamji Tripathiwere among those present dur-ing the training programme.

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NTPC Rihand station receivedthe Greentech Environment

Protection Award for the year2019-20 at the 20th EnvironmentProtection Award ceremony heldin Mahabalipuram recently. Onthis achievement of the station,Executive Director (Rihand)Balaji Iyengar while expressinghis happiness congratulated thedepartment concerned. TheGreentech Environment

Protection Award was receivedby NTPC Rihand station’sAdditional General Manager(AGM), EMG/ AUDepartment, VK Atri, fromChairman and CEO ofGreentech Foundation KSharan. The station has receivedthis award for special com-mendable work done towardsenvironmental safety. On thisachievement of the station,there is wave of happinessamong the residents of Rihand.

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Divisional Commissioner(DC) Yogeshwar Ram

Mishra held a meeting of offi-cials of the division andreviewed law and order situa-tion, revenue collection andprogress of development works.Reviewing law and order the

DC asked the DMs and SPs todirect SDMs and COs to patrolthe area jointly for minimumone hour everyday and interactwith people to get a feedback.He directed the DMs and SPsto visit the places themselves asfar as sensitive issues wereconcerned. He instructed theofficials of Mirzapur district toincrease the revenue collectionthrough stamp. On less collec-tion in Bhadohi through excisethe ADM(F&R) and exciseofficer were directed to makea strategy for increasing it. Heexpressed satisfaction overrecovery done by Mirzapurand Sonbhadra through coop-erative but officials concernedwith Bhadohi were taken totask for less collection. The DCexpressed discontent overworks related to minor irriga-tion and the SE was warned tomend his ways and directedhim to ensure transparency inexpenditure and allocation ofbudget. The CDOs of Mirzapurand Sonbhadra were asked tomonitor works of minor irri-gation, inspect checkdams con-structed by the MinorIrrigation department and

report to him. The DCexpressed his discontent overtardy progress in clearing of siltfrom canals and reprimandedthe EE of Mirzapur CanalDivision. The DC reviewedthe progress of all agenciesrelated with development,including roads, and directedthe Jal Nigam to ensure the

connection in every house-hold too along with laying ofpipelines under AMRUTscheme. The meeting wasattended by all divisional officers,DMs, SPs, CDO and ADMs ofthe division and was conductedby Joint DevelopmentCommissioner (JDC) SureshChandra Mishra who was assist-ed by Rahul Tiwari.

THANA SAMADHANDIVAS: Superintendent ofPolice Ajay Kumar Singh heldthe meeting of ThanaSamadhan Divas at DehatKotwali on Saturday and direct-ed the cops to dispose of allapplications on merit and main-tain records properly. He inter-acted with the aggrieved andissued directions accordingly.Three matters were receivedbut none of them were disposedof the same day. In the districttotal 73 applications werereceived through 15 police sta-tions in which 14 were dis-posed of on the spot while for therest joint teams of Revenuedepartment and police weresent for disposal.

GIRL RECOVERED: TheLalganj police recovered a kid-

napped girl and arrested thekidnapper. According to areport received here, onFebruary 8 a man in a firstinformation report (FIR)lodged at the police station inwhich he stated that his minordaughter was kidnapped by theaccused by enticing her. Actingon the matter the police wasinvestigating the case when itgot the information about thepresence of the kidnapper atDubar turn. Thereafter thepolice raided the place andarrested Babbal Dharikar, aresident of Lalapur villageunder Lalganj police station.On the identification of theaccused the police recoveredthe girl too. After completingthe legal formalities the policesent the accused to jail.Meanwhile an earlier reportsaid that the Kachhawaanpolice arrested two accused oftheft recently. Rinku Singh, aresident of Bajahaan village, hadlodged a complaint at the policestation regarding the theft in hisshop. During investigation thenames of Vikas and Neelesh,residents of Ramapur villageunder Kachhawaan police sta-tion, came to light. Takinginstant action the police arrest-ed the accused fromKanaksaraany turn. BesidesAdalhaat police arrested a crim-inal along with a countrymadegun and a cartridge recently.During routine patrolling atnight on being tipped off by anan informer that some suspectswere sitting at Tendhi puliya inPachengada village the policeraided the place and caughtDivesh Kumar Singh, a residentof Pachengada village underAdalhaat police station andrecovered an illegal gun alongwith a cartridge. After register-ing a case in this connection thepolice sent the accused to jail.

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ADG of Gorakhpur zone AkhilKumar took charge on Saturday.

Talking toreporters, theADG said pro-viding speedyjustice to the vic-tim will be hisfirst priority. Headded that alongwith Gorakhnathtemple, securityarrangements atGorakhpur air-port andKushinagar inter-national airport will be reviewed. Itmay be pointed out here that AkhilKumar, who is a native of Begusaraidistrict of Bihar state, is a 1994 batchIPS officer. Besides he has worked asSP and SSP of Lucknow, Ghaziabad,Aligarh, Deoria, Ghazipur, KanpurDehat, Kannauj and Amroha. Hebecame DIG of Meerut in the year2010 and from there went to Delhi oncentral deputation.

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NTPC Vindhyachal organi-aed a communication

workshop on the topic ‘Crisismanagement- Role of PublicRelation and Communication’on Saturday for the seniors ofNTPC Vindhyachal. The fac-ulty comprised the keynotespeakers, Assistant Professor ofMedia and MassCommunication, Graphic EraHill University, Dehradun,Shikha Mishra, and Assistant

Professor Department of MassCommunication, PMIR Indore,Bhavna Pathak. This commu-nication workshop witnessedparticipation from ED(Vindhyachal) Munish Jahuri,GM (O&M) SC Nayak, GMSSC Vipan Kumar, GM (HR)Uttam Lal and all the other GMs,heads of departments (HODs)and other seniors who wereconnected via MS Teams. In thisworkshop ED VindhyachalMunish Jauhari appreciated thefaculty members who delivered

an effective session and addedthat it is imperative that weadopt a crisis management andcommunication plan as it nFcotonly help us in identifying thepotential threats but also pre-pares us to manage the samethrough the application ofcogent and effective commu-nication strategies. The work-shop came to an end by thank-ing all dignitaries and seniorswho were present as well as theteam which organised thiscommunication workshop.

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Kotwali police arrested three accused and recovereda stolen motorcycle on Saturday. As per the reports,

Rajendra Sharma, a resident of Ghurahoopatti localityunder City Kotwali police station had lodged an FIR onFebruary 7 at city kotwali in connection with the theftof his Passion Pro motorcycle. Acting on the case inchargeKutcheri police outpost Santosh Singh recovered themotorcycle from Jogiabaari locality and arrested the threeaccused. After completing the legal formalities theaccused were sent to jail. They were identified as AnubhavSingh, a resident of Mahuaria under City Kotwali policestation, Yashraj Singh belonging to Mahuarikala underVindhyachal police station and Prabhash, a resident ofGosaain Talab under City Kotwali police station.

DIRECTIVE TO OFFICIALS: Chairman of NagarPalika Parishad (NPP) Manoj Jaiswal visited Ghantagharward on Saturday. On the occasion the residents com-plained about stench from a urinal to him. At it thechairman directed the officials to shift it to another placefar away from the locality. On seeing filth near a tem-ple the chairman directed the officials to take necessaryaction in the matter. During his visit chairman ManojJaiswal became aware with the problems of the residentsof the area and taking instant action he directed the offi-cials concerned to submit a proposal accordingly and getthe sanction from him.

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Industrial Development MinisterSatish Mahana launched the

Micro ATM developed by RedmilBusiness Mall here on Sunday.

This is the first-of-its-kindATM in India launched fromKanpur. Available at the cheapestrates in Indian markets, the com-pany will not promote any Chineseproduct in the ATMs.

Minister of State for HigherEducation Neelima Katiyar, MayorPramila Pandey, MLC ArunPathak, Redmil Business Mallfounder Ashish Paliwal and ChiefExecutive Officer Raj Singhal werealso present at the launch ceremo-ny.

Speaking on the occasion,Mahana said during the past fewyears, a lot of changes were seen intwo sectors - technology andemployment - in the country. Hesaid former prime minister AtalBehari Vajpayee had providedhighways for the countrymen whileRedmil Business Mall had createdample opportunities of employ-ment for youth by launching theMicro ATM.

He added that the project was

inspired by the 'Local for Vocal' callof Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Paliwal said it was the biggestB2B Fintech platform which pro-vided employment to over 70,000persons in 17 states of the country.

“The application consists ofover 35 services covering 125 plusbrands of India and overseas coun-tries. With the help of this ATM,one can get cash from his/herneighbouring shop against the

credit/debit card,” he said.Singhal said the application

could be downloaded from GooglePlay Store.

The cost of an ATM is Rs 2,800and the device works like an ATMmachine which allows anydebit/credit card ho

lder to swipe in it and get cash.The respective shopkeeper will geta commission from 4 to 10 per cent,he added.

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Hundreds of members ofthe medical fraternity and

all the members of IndianMedical Association-Kanpursat on relay hunger fast at theGandhi statue in Phool Baghon Sunday to express solidari-ty against ‘forced mixopathy’.

The doctors took the oathto remain united and givemomentum to their agitationfor their “rightful demands”and the “safety of the sufferinghumanity” which they claimedwould be dangerously erodedonce there was amalgam of var-ious modes of treatments.

Chairman of the ActionCommittee, Dr Shiva KantMishra, addressing the gather-ing, said the medical fraterni-ty was forced to take to agita-tion because it was concernedabout the dangerous impact of‘mixopathy’ on human health.He said this amalgam wasgoing to produce quacks in bignumbers and the commonman stood at threat.

Dr Mishra said the objec-tive was to draw the attentionof the masses towards thethreat to human health asquacks would be a potent threatto the people. He said thedecision of the government tobring allopathy, homoeopathy,Ayurveda, Siddha and Unanion one common platform was

a suicidal move and the IMAwas not going to allow this tohappen.

He said self-styled doctorsin the times to come would notbe in the larger interest of thesuffering humanity.

Addressing the gathering,IMA-Kanpur Secretary DrDinesh Sachan said the relayfast was continuing all overIndia in protest against themove of the government andwould end this Sunday.

He said members from thenational body of the IMA hadcome to take part in the relayfast and to work out modalitiesfor giving further momentumto the agitation.

IMA-K President DrNeelam Mishra said the IMAstrongly supported the need toimprove various modes oftreatment but the amalgam ofall the modes and putting themall at par was certainly notacceptable.

She said this could betermed as mockery of humanhealth and placebo treatmentcould play havoc with humanhealth.

She said the life expectan-cy had shot up from mere 35.21years in 1950 to 73 years in2020 and this could be madepossible due to meticulous anddedicated service of the allo-pathic doctors.

She said allopathy hadmade India a trusted medical

tourism destination and thiswas due to the expertise of theIndian doctors and affordabletreatment and providing at parmedical expertise that was dearin the West.

She said it would be noexaggeration to state thatallopathy was based on soundresearch work and it alone hadposed a challenge to pan-demics, especially COVID-19,and the vaccines were all thegift of allopathy.

She added that in foreigncountries there were over 60per cent doctors from Indiaand this was on account of theirmedical expertise in allopathy.

She said the IMA had gird-ed up its loins to give furthermomentum to this agitation.She said this move would befollowed by ‘Chalo Rajdhani’call.

Members of MSN, JDAS,IMA, Women Wing, IMAHospital Board and all in-ser-vice doctors including of themedical college, participated inthe relay fast. Prominentamong them were Dr VCRastogi, Dr RN Chgaurasia, DrAK Srivastava, Dr GulabAgarwal, Dr AC Agarwal, DrRajesh Jain, Dr AartiLalchandani, Dr Pravin Katiyar,Dr Alka Sharma, Dr RashiMishra, Dr Savita Rastogi, DrPoornima Dixit and Dr ReetaKumar.

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Additional Director Health and Family Welfare, DrGK Mishra, said the district had girded up its

loins to ensure that the vaccination drive to be takenup between February 18 and 22 was optimal and nofrontline worker was left out.

He said there were certain errors in the list of var-ious departments, including that of the mobile num-bers. He said directives had been issued to the offi-cials concerned to rectify these errors.

Dr Mishra said several frontline workers had reg-istered for the vaccination drive from February 18through a single mobile phone number and this wasthe reason that the number had declined.

He said many mobile phone numbers throughwhich registration was made were no more in use andthus contact with the frontline workers was suffer-ing a setback.

He said as per the directive of Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) Awanish Awasthi, all officials con-cerned were required to trace out the wrong mobilenumbers in the list. He said all those who were to bevaccinated on that particular date should be given oneday holiday.

He said all the officials had joined hands to ensureoptimum vaccination between February 18 and 22.

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Kendriya Vidyalaya at theIndian Institute of

Technology, Kanpur is amongthe three schools selected fororganising India Toy Fair.

In association with theUnion ministries, includingthe Human Resource Ministry,the Toy Fair is being organisedfor the first time in India. It willprovide an opportunity to stu-dents of Kendriya Vidyalaya toshow their talent and skillsthrough different types of toysand emerge winners.

Kendriya VidyalayaPrincipal RN Wadalkar saidthree KVs were selected fororganising the Toy Fair in thecountry.

Besides KV-IIT Kanpur,the other two are KendriyaVidyalaya on JNU campus andKendriya Vidyalaya atGurugram.

The Toy Fair will be organ-ised virtually from February 27to March 2 and inaugurated byPrime Minister Narendra Modiwho will give his message tostudents, teachers and otherparticipants to promote Vocalfor Local and AtmanirbharBharat campaigns.

Wadalkar said it was agreat platform for KV stu-dents to display their toys in thefair being organised for the firsttime in India.

As many as 15 students ofKV-IIT Kanpur will presenttheir self-made toys in the fair.At the India Toy Fair organisedhere on February 2, the panelof judges had selected 15 besttoys for display. The toys to bedisplayed in the fair include:Wave Maker, Starry Cube,Selected Julia, irrigation toytruck, touching screen device,revolving wheel, puppet show,surface area, dictionary board,element bytes, balloon hover-craft, Fun with Knowledge,Indian Railways, Save theChicken and Covid Rakshak.

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Civil construction work ofKanpur Metro project is

progressing at a rapid pace andthis can be substantiated withthe fact that the first 100 U-girders were placed in 67 days,second hundred in 63 days andthird hundred in a record 57days.

The team of Uttar PradeshMetro Rail Corporation hassuccessfully placed 300 U-gird-ers in six months.

UPMRC ManagingDirector Kumar Keshav, onSunday, said that the base of theMetro track had been laid forabout half the distance of the 9-km-long priority corridor fromIIT-Kanpur to Motijheel.

He said a total of 622 U-girders were to be placed andin accordance with this the UPMetro completed the erectionof about half of the U-girders,which was a major achieve-ment in itself.

He said the first U-girder ofthe priority corridor was erect-

ed on August 11, 2020, inpresence of the UP chief sec-retary. He said the UPMRC hadplaced 300 U-girders within187 days. He praised the workof the entire UPMRC team andcontractors of Afcons and theteam of general consultants.

He said the work was mov-ing ahead with full speed andexpressed confidence of pro-viding world class Metro ser-

vices to the residents of Kanpurin a stipulated time-frame.

Keshav said in such a shorttenure, the dedicated andskilled team of UPMRC engi-neers and contractors hadaccomplished numerousachievements associated withthe civil construction work ofthe priority corridor and hadbeen sustaining the pace ofwork.

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Kanpur Electric SupplyCompany’s new Managing

Director Anil Dhingra tookover the charge at an informalfunction where outgoing MDAnil Mathur was given a warmsend-off.

The new managing direc-tor said his priority would beto ensure that the consumersdid not face any problem relat-ed to power supply, especiallyduring the summer months.

He appealed to the officialsand staff of KESCo to ensurethat all necessary preparationswere made in advance for pro-viding uninterrupted powersupply to the city.

Dhingra said the biggestproblem of the electricity con-sumer was that there was aweak redressal cell to up theproblems of the consumers onpriority. He directed the offi-cials and staff to ensure that thecomplaints of the consumerswere attended to on priority. Hesaid in case of any fault itshould be given top priorityand attended to also. The newmanaging director said Kanpurwas a metro city and the needfor power was much more andthus there were frequent prob-lems related to fault repairs andtransformers.

He said the common com-plaint which cropped up morein summer season was trans-formers getting burnt up andsaid for this all preparationshould be made well inadvance. He said those wholooked after the transformersshould regularly check oilwhich was one reason for trans-formers going up in flame.

Dhingra said the loadshould be balanced equallyand appealed to the people toensure they paid their electric-ity dues on time to help KESCogive the best service to the peo-ple of the city.

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Agriculture plays a vital role in the Indian econ-omy and is the spine of India. The important

and vital section includes farming of crops, ani-mal husbandry, pisciculture, agro-forestry etc.Over 60 per cent of Indian population primarilydepends on agriculture. Totally it contributesaround 15.90 per cent to the gross domestic prod-uct of the nation. The credit for all this goes tothe particular weather and soil conditions whichare best for Zaid crops.

This was stated by Deputy Director,Agriculture, Dr Manish Sinha, while addressinga meeting at Vikas Bhawan here on Sunday.

He said the current season was that of Zaidcrops and which grew in a long time period main-ly from March to June. He said the period in whichthe crop was mainly grown in summer was calledZaid crop season.

Sinha said the Zaid crops required warm dryweather for growth and longer day length for flow-

ering. He said the UP government had started giv-ing importance to the Zaid season as it had thepotential to decrease the deficit in the productionof pulses. He said the government intended toincrease the area under moong and urad culti-vation to 4.9 million hectares, which would be awhopping increase of 75 per cent from the 3.1 mil-lion hectares area under cultivation in 2021.

Sinha said Zaid season gave farmers a chanceto utilize their land and water reserves to growprofitable crops, which included a few pulses. Hesaid growing cash crops in this season was par-ticularly beneficial because as the summerapproached the demand for cash crops likecucumbers, water melon, and musk melonincreased. He said it was not the production perse which met the demand but it was the supplychain which met the demand. He said the sup-ply chain started even before production and coldstores helped imports to grow but infrastructurein Uttar Pradesh was incomplete and not com-plementary.

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The Army on Sunday addedmuscle to its firepower

capabilities when PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hand-ed over to the force the indige-nously designed and manufac-tured Arjun Main Battle Tank(MBT) MK-1A in Chennai.

Presiding over the cere-mony, Modi said the tank rep-resented the united Indianspirit as the weapon systemmanufactured in the south willguard the frontiers in the north.

The Arjun tank manufac-turing factory at Avadi inChennai will shortly get anorder for 118 such front-linefighting machines and the totalcontract is worth over �9,000crores.

It is an improved andupgraded version of the origi-nal Arjun-MK 1 MBT whichwas also indigenously designedand manufactured within thecountry. The new tanks hasincorporated more than 50upgrades and 71 new features.The Army will get an edge overits enemies as the new tank hasaccurate firing capabilities dur-ing day and night thereby pro-viding the army to launchcounter-offensive with lethaleffect, officials said here.

At the handing over func-tion, the Prime Minister alsoaccepted a salute by the state-of-the-art tank, indigenouslydesigned, developed, and man-ufactured by the DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO)’sCombat Vehicles Research andD e v e l o p m e n tEstablishment(CVRDE) inChennai. Modi later handedover a replica model of the tankto Army Chief General M MNaravane.

“Today I am proud to ded-icate to the country one morewarrior to protect our frontiers.I am proud to hand over the

indigenously designed andmanufactured Arjun MK-1A.”

“It also uses indigenousammunition. Tamil Nadu isalready the leading auto man-ufacturing hub of India. NowI see Tamil Nadu evolving as atank manufacturing hub ofIndia,” he said.

“A tank made in TamilNadu will be used in our north-ern border to keep our nationsafe. This showcases India’sunited spirit—Bharat’s ektadarshan,” Modi added.

Highlighting the capabili-ties of the upgraded version ofthe Arjun MBT, officials saidArjun MK-1 Alpha is a “con-temporary tank in the worldwith battle winning efficacy.”

It is ‘infused’ with 71 newfeatures and would ensureeffortless mobility in all ter-rains, besides precise targetengagement during day andnight.

The production orderopens up a large avenue indefence manufacturing for over200 Indian companies andscores of Micro, Small &Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)with employment opportuni-ties to 8,000 people, they said.

Quoting from revolution-ary Tamil poet and freedomfighter Mahakavi SubramanyaBharathi, Modi said inspired bythe former’s vision, “India hastaken a massive effort tobecome self-reliant in thedefence sector.”

Of the two defence corri-dors in the country, the one inTamil Nadu has alreadyreceived investment commit-ments of over �8,100 crore,Modi said.

“We will continue workingto make our armed forces oneof the most modern forces inthe world. At the same time thefocus on making IndiaAtmanirbhar in the defencesector moves with full speed,”he said.

Later, in a tweet, he said itwas “a special day in our jour-ney to become Aatmanirbharin the defence sector,” referringto Arjun Main Battle Tank(MK-1A). Fifteen academicinstitutions, eight labs and sev-eral MSMEs were also involvedin the Arjun MK 1A.

The new tanks with itsfirst round hit probability hasone of the most accurate tankgun in the world. This majes-tic tank has indigenousKanchan Armour strappedwith DRDO developedReactive Armour Panels.

After using in differentconditions, the Army had rec-ommended a number ofimprovements to MBT ArjunMk 1, which enhanced themobility and fire power ofMBT Arjun Mk 1A. Withthese changes, this upgradedversion has successfully under-gone extensive trials by theIndian Army. The precise tar-get tracking of the tankensures accurate engagementduring day and night in bothstatic and dynamic condi-tions.

The country decided tobuild its own main battle tankand a project was initiated bythe DRDO in the 1970s at theCombat Vehicles Research andDevelopment Establishment(CVRDE).

The scientists were giventhe objective to design andbuild a state-of-the-art tankwith superior fire power, highmobility, and excellent protec-tion. The production of theArjun tanks started in 1996 atthe Indian Ordnance Factory’sproduction facility in Avadi.

At present, the Army hasmore than 100 Arjun MK-Itanks in its armour and is like-ly to induct 20 odd more tanksshortly. The first batch of 16Arjun tanks were inductedinto active service in 2004.

The old and new version ofthe MBT has a highly sophisti-cated computer-controlled inte-grated fire control system withstabilised sighting that works inall lighting conditions. The sec-ondary weapons include a co-axial 7.62-mm machine gun foranti-personnel and a 12.7-mmmachine gun for anti-aircraftand ground targets.

Officials also said the newversion launched by the PrimeMinister gas more than 55 percent indigenous content as com-pared to 40 per cent of the ear-lier version of the Arjun.

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Mounting more pressureon the Modi Government

to come clean on the Indo-China skirmishes in recentmonths, former defence min-ister A K Antony on Sundayalleged that disengagement inboth the Galwan Valley andPangong Tso Lake areas andthe creation of a buffer zonewas a “surrender” of India’srights.

Antony said he was sadthat the Narendra ModiGovernment was not givingproper priority to nationalsecurity at a time when Chinawas getting belligerent andPakistan continued to promoteterrorism.

Addressing a Press con-ference, the senior Congressleader said that at a timewhen India was facing multi-ple challenges at the borderand was facing a two-frontwar-like situation, the increasein defence budget this year ismeagre and insignificant andwas a “betrayal” of the coun-try.

The Government had onFriday stated that India hasnot “conceded” any territoryfollowing the disengagementagreement with China inPangong lake areas in easternLadakh.

Antony said disengage-ment was good as it reducedtension but it should not bedone at the cost of nationalsecurity.

“Both disengagements inGalwan and Pangong Tso area surrender,” he alleged,adding that it amounted tosurrendering of areas tradi-tionally controlled by India.We are surrendering ourrights,” he alleged, noting thatGalwan Valley as Indian ter-ritory was never a disputedland even in 1962.

“Disengagement andbuffer zone means surrenderof our land at the moment,” healleged, while warning that theGovernment is not under-standing the importance ofthis disengagement and cre-ation of the buffer zone.

He warned that Chinacan play mischief anytime by

helping Pakistan in Siachen.“We want to know from

this Government when therewill be status quo ante as onmid-April 2020 in the entireIndia-China border,” he said,asking what was the govern-ment’s plan in this regard.

He also said that the gov-ernment must take the coun-try and the people into confi-dence on restoration of statusquo ante at the borders.

He said the Governmentalways consulted leaders of allpolitical parties before takingsuch a decision and mustkeep national security inmind.

Antony alleged that thegovernment did not increasedthe defence budget to“appease” China and to give amessage that it did not wantto confront them.

“To appease China, thegovernment sent a message bynot increasing this defencebudget that we do not want toconfront you.

To appease China, wehave agreed to disengagementon China’s terms,” he alleged.

When the whole countryis facing serious challengesfrom both China andPakistan, the senior Congressleader said the armed forcesare demanding support andsubstantial increase in thedefence budget.

“But compared to lastyear’s revised defence budget,this budget has made a mea-gre and insufficient increase ofonly 1.48 per cent. It is abetrayal of the country. Thegovernment has let down ourarmed forces. TheGovernment is not payingproper attention of nationalsecurity,” Antony said.

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Of the total 29,337 kmlength of projects, only

8,632 kms length of projectshas been awarded and 1,040kms length of projects havebeen appraised so far under theBharatmala Project phase-1which is targeted to be com-pleted by 2021-22. TheDetailed Project Report for alength of 19,665 kms is stillunder preparation stage whenonly two years are left as per theschedule fixed for completionof Phase-I. Taking note of slowpace of work, a parliamentarycommittee on transport,tourism and culture asked theGovernment to examine thecauses for delay in constructionof Roads under Phase-I andtake requisite remedial mea-sures expeditiously so as toremove the stumbling blocks inorder to achieve the targetsfixed.

“In the course of exami-nation, it was seen that therewere about 375 projects ofNational Highways includingBharatmala, pending due toreasons like Land Acquisition,forest clearance, utility shift-ing, and contractor issue andso on in various States. Theseincluded projects across thecountry namely in AndhraPradesh, Assam, Bihar,Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat,Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,Jammu & Kashmir,Jharkhand, Karnataka,Madhya Pradesh,Maharashtra, Meghalaya,Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan,Tamil Nadu, Telangana, UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand andWest Bengal. These projectshave surpassed their date ofcompletion and the

Government apparently hasnot reviewed them,” the par-liamentary committee said inits report, which tabled in theParliament on Tuesday.

The Committee notedwith concern that some NHprojects are delayed due tomultiple reasons which inter-alia include poor performanceof contractor, utility shifting,delay in environment/forestclearance, land acquisition,cash flow problem of the con-cessionaire/contractor and soon. Delay in the projects hasresulted in increase in theoverall cost of the projects.

The Committee are con-strained to note that there istime and cost over-run inmany projects of theGovernment. “Amongst them,for example, is the Char-Dham Mahamarg VikasPriyojana - Improvement ofNH Connectivity to Char-Dham (Kedarnath, Badrinath,Yamunotri& Gangotri) in theState of Uttarakhand, foun-dation stone of which was laidin December, 2016 by theHon’ble Prime Minister. Itwas initially targeted for com-

pletion by March 2020, but theCommittee was informed thatit has been delayed due to lit-igation relating to forest andenvironment clearance in var-ious 63 courts and the exactdate of completion of the pro-gramme depends on the finaloutcome of the case,” thereport said.

The Committee also rec-ommended that 4-laning ofPune-Nashik (NH-60), Pune-Tamhini-Mangaon-Diveagar(NH-756), Hadapsar-Saswad-Jejuri-LonandPhaltan-Mohol(NH-965), Patas-Baramati-Akluj-Tondale (NH-65G) and6-laning of Pune-Solapur(NH-65), Kolhapur toVaibhavwadi-Vijaydurg underBharatmala and Alibaug toSindhudurg coastal NationalHighway in the State ofMaharashtra, extension ofPatna-Areraj road to Bettiah,Ramgarhwa and Raxaul inthe State of Bihar, road con-necting Anmod at the borderof Goa to Londa, widening ofSundar Bani-Seri-Jangar-LamRoad in Rajouri district inJammu be taken up at the ear-liest.

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On the second anniversary ofthe Pulwama terror strike

on Sunday, dignitaries, filmactors and political leaders led bythe President and the PrimeMinister paid rich tributes to the40 CRPF personnel killed in theattack that days after had alsoprompted Indian Air Force to goacross borders on a “punishingmission”, hitting terror terrorcamps at Balakot in Pakistan.

Remembering the soldierswho died in Pulwama terrorattack, President Ram NathKovind said the nation is com-mitted to eliminating terrorism.“Nation salutes the sacrifice ofour brave soldiers”, he said.

Modi described CRPF‘jawans’ as “exceptional indi-viduals who devoted their livesto the country”.

On February 14, 2019, 40personnel of the Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) were killedafter a suicide bomber rammedan IED-laden truck into a CRPFconvoy. Pakistan-backed Jaish-e-Mohammad-executed attacktook place when a convoy of 78buses with 2,500 CRPF person-nel was heading to Srinagarfrom Jammu.

“No Indian can forget thisday. Two years ago, the Pulwamaterror attack occurred. We payhomage to all the martyrs. Weare proud of our security forcesand their bravery will continueto inspire future generations,” hesaid during a public event inChennai.

Former Congress presidentRahul Gandhi also expressed hisgrief by tweeting in Hindi say-ing “tribute to the brave soldiers,who died in the Pulwama terrorattack. A tribute to their fami-lies as the country owes you.”

Actors including AkshayKumar, Varun Dhawan andRajkummar Rao paid tributesand said the country will forev-er remain indebted to the bravehearts. Kumar took to Twitterand shared a picture of themartyrs. “Remembering ourbrave hearts of #PulwamaAttack,we will always remain indebtedfor your supreme sacrifice,” the53-year-old actor tweeted.

Dhawan shared the sameimage on Instagram and cap-tioned “Jai Hind”. Actor KartikAaryan prayed for the familiesof those who were killed in theterrorist attack.

“On this day, two years

back, 40 soldiers sacrificed theirlives for our nation in Pulwamaattack. Prayers for the bravesouls and their families. We’llalways be in debt of yours,” theactor tweeted.

Rest In Power Braveheartsof Pulwama!”, actor Suniel Shettywrote.

While paying homage to theslain soldiers, Vice President MVenkaiah Naidu said he standsin solidarity with the jawans’families.

“I join the nation in payingmy humble tributes to the CRPFpersonnel who were martyred inthe dastardly Pulwama terrorattack. The grateful nation willalways remember their patrio-tism & supreme sacrifice,” theVice President Secretariat tweet-ed quoting Naidu.

Union home minister AmitShah said that the slain soldiers’sacrifice will never be forgotten.“I bow down to the brave mar-tyrs who lost their lives in thegruesome Pulwama attack onthis day in 2019. India willnever forget their exceptionalcourage and supreme sacrifice,”Shah tweeted.

“Entire nation stands unit-ed against terrorists “, said theDefence Minister.

BJP president JP Naddaalso remembered the sacrificeof CRPF personnel.

“India will always remem-ber their martyrdom. Weshould all unite to completelyend terrorism from its veryroots,” Nadda said on Twitter.

Days after the attack, theIndian Air Force on February26 carried out multiple aerialstrikes at JeM terror camps inPakistan’s Balakot, killing a“large number” of terroristsand destroying their infra-structure.

On its part, the CRPFtweeted “‘We did not forget, wedid not forgive”. The CRPFrenewed its resolve to end ter-ror saying they have not for-given or forgotten the grue-some attack.

“Be brave enough to die asmartyr”’, said BJP MP and for-mer test player GautamGambhir and asked people tobe “brave enough to die thedeath of a martyr” as he paidhis tributes. Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwaloffered “heartfelt homage” tomartyrs, while Union MinisterSmriti Irani said: “Salute tobrave sons of mother India”.

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The Centre on Sunday saidthat India has been record-

ing a steady decline in thenumber of daily new deathssince October 1, 2020, whilethe national recovery rate isamongst the highest in theworld. Now the17th most-affected country by active cases,fourth by fatality, and secondby total and recovered cases,India has added 78,577 cases inthe past 7 days.

“Since 1st October 2020,the nation has seen an unabat-ed decline in Case FatalityRate. The Case Fatality Ratetoday stands below 1.5 (1.43%).With only 92 people suc-cumbing to the deadly coron-avirus disease, India’s CaseFatality Rate is one of the low-est in the world,” the UnionHealth Ministry said.

The recoveries have surgedto 1,06,11,731 with 11,016patients getting discharged ina span of 24 hours. “India’sCovid-19 recovery rate of 97.31per cent is amongst the high-est in the world. The differencebetween the recovered andactive cases has grown to1,04,74,164 as on date,” theministry highlighted. Till date,the cumulative number ofhealthcare and frontline work-ers vaccinated against Covid-19in the country has surpassed 82lakhs.

A total 82,63,858 benefi-ciaries have been vaccinatedthrough 1,72,852 sessions, asper the provisional report till 8am on Sunday. These include59,84,018 HCWs (1st dose),23,628 HCWs (2nd dose) and22,56,212 FLWs (1st dose).The 2nd dose of Covid-19 vac-cination started on Saturday forthose beneficiaries who havecompleted 28 days after receiptof the 1st dose. As on Day-29of the vaccination drive(February 13), a total of2,96,211 beneficiaries receivedvaccination. Out of which,2,72,583 beneficiaries were vac-cinated across 8,071 sessionsfor 1st dose and 23,628 HCWsreceived 2nd dose of vaccine.

“The country is witnessinga progressive increase in thevaccination day by day,” theministry said adding 68.55 percent of total vaccinated bene-ficiaries are from 10 states.

It said 81.58 per cent of thenew recovered cases areobserved to be concentrated in6 States. Kerala has reported themaximum number of singleday recoveries with 5,835 newlyrecovered cases. A total of1,773 people recovered inMaharashtra in a span of 24hours followed by 482 in TamilNadu.

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The Indian Consulate inDubai has issued an advi-

sory asking Indian expatriatesbased there to avoid visitingthe mission for consular ser-vices and instead use onlinemeans like a WhatsApp num-ber, email or a helpline num-ber to check the spread ofCovid-19. A section of the 2.6million Indians, many ofthem also engaged in blue col-lar jobs, based there are, how-ever, concerned over themove as a visit to the missionis necessitated only when theonline means are exhausted.

“Members of the Indiancommunity who wish to visitthe Consulate for any con-sular services are advised toavoid such visits unlessabsolutely necessary. Theyshould, instead, make use ofthe various electronic plat-forms of fered by theConsulate without having tophysically visit the office,”the mission said in the advi-sory issued on Thursday onTwitter.

Being the largest expatri-ate community, it is theresponsibility of all the Indiannationals residing in the UAEto str ict ly comply withCOVID preventive measuresand guidelines issued by theUAE health authorities from

time to time suchas wearing facemasks at all times,maintaining socialdistancing andavoid public gath-erings, it furthersaid.

Many of theexpatriates thereare labourers and

will now be left with no griev-ance redressal mechanismwhen online mechanisms arenot able to resolve their issues,a PIO settled in UAE said,adding why would a personvisit the consulate if all theissues are settled online.

Another expat who didnot wish to be identified saidit is illogical to restrict theIndians from visiting the con-sulate in the name of pre-venting Covid-19. There arealways means to regulate theflow of visitors to a place andinstead a home service shouldbe launched to cater to suchIndians who are under anykind of distress or an emer-gency due to lack of consularaccess, he further said, addingthe rich and mighty cannothave exclusive access to theconsulate.

The Indian mission housesa help centre for distressedIndians –Pravasi BharatiyaSahayata Kendra (PBSK), thatruns a 24x7 toll free helplinenumber 800 46342 of PBSKthere are cases wherein physicalinteraction is also required toresolve the issues, the expats said.

Other online options toconnect to the mission are send-ing emails [email protected] or sendmessages on a WhatsApp num-ber +971-54-3090571 besidesusing the PBSK Dubai MobileApplication.

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The Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA) on

Sunday announced a masspetition movement fromFebruary 15 to March 31 toprotest against a CentralCouncil of Indian Medicinenotification that authorisespost-graduate practitioners inspecified streams of ayurvedato perform general surgicalprocedures. The IMA said thatthis notification will lead to“mixopathy” and demandedits immediate withdrawal.

The IMA had held a pan-India relay hunger strike fromFebruary 1-14 on the issue.

The “impractical, unsci-entific and unethical notifica-tion” should be immediatelywithdrawn, it said in a state-

ment, adding that besides thepetition movement, it will alsospread awareness among thepeople on the notification.

The IMA also said that itwill submit a list of 1,000modern medicine doctorswilling to serve in remoteareas of the country to counterthe false claim of lack of doc-tors.

“All IMA members, allspecialty organisations, allmodern medicine students,all women doctors across thecountry will educate peopleabout this retrograde andunscientific mixing of differ-ent systems of healthcare. Allmodern medicine hospitalswill promote the importanceof scientific ethical surgicalexpertise,” the doctors’ bodysaid.

The IMA also announcesnon-cooperation movement“henceforth in which modernmedicines surgeons and anes-thesiologists shall not cooper-ate with AYUSH personstraining and performingsurgery”, it said.

The doctors’ body hasbeen opposing the notificationby Central Council of IndianMedicine, a statutory bodyunder the Ministry of AYUSH(Ayurveda, Yoga andNaturopathy, Unani, Siddhaand Homoeopathy).

The notification authoris-es post-graduate practitionersin specified streams ofAyurveda to be trained to per-form surgical procedures suchas excisions of benign tumours,amputation of gangrene, nasaland cataract surgeries.

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The All India MuslimPersonal Law Board has

moved the Supreme Courtagainst a plea seeking layingdown of “gender and religionneutral” uniform grounds toaward maintenance andalimony in matrimonial dis-putes as per internationalconventions and Constitution.

The Board has opposedthe plea filed by advocateand BJP leader AshwiniKumar Upadhyay which alsoseeks directions to the gov-ernment to take appropriatesteps to remove the prevailing anomalies in thegrounds of maintenance andalimony, and make them uni-form for all citizens withoutdiscrimination.

“The applicant would liketo submit that the expression

and ‘Custom and Usage’ inArticle 13 of the Constitutiondoes not include faith of a reli-gious denomination embed-ded in personal laws,” the All India Muslim PersonalLaw Board (AIMPLB) pleasaid.

“The constituent assemblywas aware of the distinctionbetween ‘personal law’ and the‘Custom and Usage’ and chose

advisedly to exclude person-al law and include Customand Usage in Article 13 of theConstitution,” it said whileseeking impleadment in thepetition filed by Upadhyay.

The AIMPLB opposed Upadhyay’s plea onthe basis that personal lawscannot be tested on the anvilof Articles 14, 15, 21 and 44 ofthe Constitution.

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therefore, had to enter theAssembly. He could haverequested an MLA to give uphis seat. But instead of doingthat, he chose not to disturbanyone; there was a VidhanParishad seat vacant which heused to become an Assemblymember. In 2001, whenNarendra Modi was in a sim-ilar situation in Gujarat, hecould not do the same. Therebeing no Vidhan Parishad inhis State, Modi had to getelected from an Assemblyseat vacated by an MLA.

Having been a memberof the Rajya Sabha, I foundthat the level of debates anddiscussions was, on thewhole, more sober andmature than in the LokSabha. Generally, the speak-ers in the Upper Houseensured that they had stud-ied and reflected on the sub-ject they spoke on whereas,in the Lok Sabha, moremembers spoke off the cuff;most of them had spent timein their constituencies overthe weekend. Many of themregularly left Delhi on Fridayafternoons, if not onThursday evenings, to returnon Monday mornings. TheRajya Sabha members couldafford to spend the weekends

in Delhi and read up beforespeaking the following week.

The Communist partieshad a commendable system;most of their Upper Housemembers spent the weekendsin Delhi. They not only stud-ied the contemporary sub-jects but also collected theBills coming up for debateand passed on their notes totheir Lok Sabha colleagues. Ioffered to organise a smallsecretariat at my cost for allmy party members so that allof us could be better preparedfor discussions. Being inpower after long and with alenient leadership, the gener-al mood in the party was oneof overconfidence. Littlewonder then that the 2004general election was lost ona manifesto which projected“India shining”. To everyIndian shining, there werecitizens not shining.

In India, our constituen-cies are large and the votersare much more varied than,say, in western countries.Moreover, our diversitymakes it useful for theMembers of Parliament andeven Assemblies to knowother parts of the country.The Upper House memberswould have the leisure to do

this kind of work during theweeks when the House doesnot sit. The Lower Housemembers cannot normallyhave much leisure; their focushas to be on their own voters.If the legislators do not taketheir knowledge side seri-ously, they would yield help-lessly to the dominance of theExecutive or the Ministers.

It is for the political parties to realise and decidewhether they wish to makeserious use of the UpperHouse or exploit it for theirconvenience. But, truly, these chambers can be usefulas knowledge-cum-wisdombanks for the parties as well as for the country. Theycan help raise the quality of politics.

Getting elected by lakhsof people is related to popu-larity or, at least, acceptabil-ity whereas knowledgedepends on education andexperience. Both are neces-sary virtues; the Lower Housemore for the party while theUpper House more for thecountry in the long run, ifused wisely.

(The writer is a well-known columnist and anauthor. The views expressedare personal.)

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�� Sir— The Union Home Ministry’s call forcitizens to become “cyber volunteers” andidentify, flag and report illegal, unlawful and“anti-national” online content is perhaps themost brazen and dangerous sign of anattempt to turn our democratic and freesociety into a “surveillance State”.

Though vigilante activities directedagainst individuals, social groups and com-munities have increased in the past fewyears and the Government has ignored andsometimes even patronised these, it wasnot expected of it to move towards settingup a virtual vigilante force. The pilot pro-ject is to be implemented in Jammu andKashmir and Tripura, and then extendedto other States. This will have dangerousconsequences for citizens, as it will cur-tail their rights and will jeopardise free-dom of society. It is illegal as it violatesthe basic tenets of the Constitution whichguarantee freedom of speech and privacyto every individual.

These volunteers will act like secretpolice service agents reporting to theGovernment and its machinery about anypost or comment which they dislike or disp-prove of. Where we are moving? It’s reallya matter of great concern. A time will comewhen these volunteers will dictate terms tothe common man and will assume the roleof courts. They will pronounce judgmentson social media and will lynch anybodythey feel like without any fear. We are build-ing a “Taliban” State.

Shovanlal Chakraborty | Kolkata

� ��Sir —In March 2020, international oilprices were raised due to the COVID-19pandemic. The Central Government is nottaking immediate steps to reduce taxes onoil or petroleum. The retail petrol anddiesel rates are governed by internation-al prices. India is 85 per cent dependenton oil imports to meet its needs. Of course,it is well known that Central and Statetaxes account for about 60 per cent of retailprices. But the Union Budget includedpetrol and diesel among those products,

on which a new agricultural structure anddevelopment cess has been imposed.

Fuel prices are increasing time to timein Pakistan and Nepal but in India, rela-tively high rates will trouble the oil con-sumers or end users. By increasing therates of petrol and diesel, the Central andState Governments will generate more rev-enue from taxation. But this will onlyenrage the common people as the pricesof commodities would increase. The oilexpenditure of a farmer who operates var-ious agricultural apparatus and machineslike diesel pumps, generators and so on,will increase but the income will not riseproportionately. Hence the Centre and theState Governments should reconsiderrelaxing the prices keeping in mind theinterests of marginal farmers and commonoil consumers.

Yugal Kishore Sharma | Faridabad

��Sir — Parents must stop telling their chil-dren that the attraction they feel towards

the opposite gender is merely infatuationand love has nothing to do with it. Bydoing so they are suffocating their chil-dren, demoralising their spirit and alsodoubting their sense of judgment. Most ofthe parents do it because they think thatin this way they would prevent the youngminds from getting distracted. They areunaware of the fact that by imposing sanc-tions and unnecessary high moral princi-ples on their children, they are actuallymaking them weak from within.

Gradually and slowly, such children willstop discussing their problems with theirparents. The distance between them willincrease which will have adverse conse-quences for the family. Adolescents whohave reached the age of puberty need to beconvinced that their love is real and that ifthey marry for love, then they will have agreat deal of parental support.

Srinivas Reddy |Hyderabad

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��4��;�&��"��<As expressed in this

journal, others havevoiced, from time totime, doubts about

the utility of the Upper Houseof legislature whether in theStates or at the Centre. Thecause of these doubts is the not-so-infrequent misuse of theRajya Sabha as well as theVidhan Parishads. As SanjayGandhi’s influence grew in the1970s, many of his friendswere lifted into the Rajya Sabha.Fortunately for them, the elec-tion rule-framers prescribedthe minimum age for suchcandidates as 30. Hence, likethe minimum age of 25 yearsfor the Lok Sabha, anyone whowas over 30 years was eligiblefor the Upper House. In manyways, this was the first reasonof misuse.

The Upper House wasnever meant for the youngwoman or man to get into.They, being young and fit,should cultivate the commonfolk, broaden the party baseand, in due course, contest aLok Sabha seat. The youngand raw individuals reflectedon the House discipline as wellas the quality of debates andtheir contribution toParliament. The purpose ofthe Upper House, whether atthe Centre or in States, was theexact opposite: Older, matureindividuals, preferably welleducated who could devotetime to study issues and thenspeak on them in an informedmanner. They may or may notrelate to the common folk of aconstituency, nor perhaps maythe mass voters relate to suchmembers.

The Upper House shouldbe used to accommodate lead-ers who made competentMinisters and had to get elect-ed within six months of theirappointment by the PrimeMinister or a Chief Minister.

One recent example is thatof Yogi Adityanath. He was inthe Lok Sabha when the UttarPradesh Assembly electionswere held in 2017 and he hadnot contested from any con-stituency. Yet he was selected tobe the Chief Minister and,

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Among the many challenges that needurgent attention, more so after the COVID-19 pandemic invaded our lives, is housing.

This vital segment needs a scientific and creativeintervention to make it a sustainable proposition.Lack of proper housing is one of the reasons, apartfrom loss of jobs, that led to the mass migrationof labourers from cities to the villages, during theinitial days of the countrywide lockdown. Hence,expanding access to affordable housing is essen-tial not just for equitable development but alsofor social stability.

Looking at the gravity of the issue, FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budgetspeech announced the extension of the tax hol-iday on affordable housing projects for one moreyear. The Government has done this to ensureaffordable housing for migrant workers. Theaffordable rental housing projects are part of the‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Urban).’

While we continue to record improvement indealing with poverty, homelessness has eliciteda poor response from our policymakers.Consequently, slums constitute 17 per cent ofurban households in India and in Mumbai theymake up 42 per cent of the households. Theseslum clusters lack necessary amenities like privatetoilets and potable water. A high population den-sity and a weak public healthcare system meanmore susceptibility to COVID-19 and other dis-eases and epidemics. Necessary precautions likesocial distancing to stay safe of the Coronaviruscannot be practised under such deplorable livingconditions that prevail in slums and jhuggi jho-pri clusters.

Human health and well-being depends on arange of interconnected social, economic andphysical factors that impact the environment inwhich we live and sustain ourselves. The key togood housing is to ensure that residents haveaccess to transportation, affordable healthcare,jobs, education as well as other essential services.A decent habitat and shelter can contribute in notjust individual or societal well-being but also havethe potential to catalyse overall economic growth.It is, thus, critical to recognise housing investmentas a basic, fundamental building block of econom-ic activity.

Housing is not a standalone issue and is close-ly intertwined with other factors and lack of sus-tainable housing is often the cause of a slew ofhealth and developmental problems. Poor ven-tilation and the inability to maintain basichygiene are major causes of poor health. Fragilebuilding structures undermine safety and increasevulnerability to disaster. Lack of lighting and spacelimits the ability of children to study. Inadequateprivacy and lack of sanitation contribute to a hostof diseases, hence perpetuating poverty.

For many people in the developing world, theland on which they live is their only asset. If thatproperty is not recognised as legally theirs, theylose out on several social benefits. Land owner-ship is often the bedrock of other developmentinterventions. Owning land boosts nutrition, edu-cational outcomes and gender equality. The con-verse is equally true. Where land security is absentor weak —when men and women do not haverecognised legal rights to their land and can thusbe easily displaced — all other development efforts

go in vain and conflict arises.Many who live in slums have

little or no control over the owner-ship of the property they live upon.The lack of official land titles is amajor impediment to the acquisi-tion of housing finance. People donot have documentary proof ofbeing owners of the land on whichthey live and are, therefore, legallyinsecure.

Many low-income villagershave owned their land for genera-tions but lack formal ownershipdocuments. Hence, they do nothave access to formal financialservices. Once their inhabited landgets formally titled, they couldobtain access to several public ben-efits, including loans.

Traditional housing financehas not been able to offer much helpto people in the low-income group.But a range of financial institutionsare applying good microfinancepractices, thus promoting housing.The increased provision of housingmicrofinance has resulted in safeand healthy housing conditions formillions. Successful housing micro-finance providers have marriedthe core principles of micro-cred-it — peer-based borrower selectionand repayment enforcement, closefollow-up on repayment and so on— with the technical expertiserequired to investigate land owner-ship and other classical housingfinance principles.

This model has been highlysuccessful wherever Governmentsare offering long-term tenancies

and shared-ownership housing.But the sector is still in need of moresustainable business models to getlegitimacy in mainstream finance.

Housing micro-finance caninclude a range of financial servicesthat support improving or upgrad-ing housing such as home repairand expansions, additional cookingspace, water and sanitation services,energy efficiency upgrades, thepurchase of inhabitable land or per-manent structures and the con-struction of new housing.

The demand for housingmicro-finance is high. The clientsare already channelising a goodportion of micro-enterprise loansfor home improvement; micro-entrepreneurs also use their homesas productive assets for generatingincome. A home can be a place tostore inventory, produce goodsand run a business. A home is alsoa personal asset that usually appre-ciates in value over time. Homeimprovement, thus, not onlyenhances living conditions but isalso an investment.

The Government also needs touse creative approaches for makingrental housing a safe option forhouse owners. Its share in overallhousing has been steadily declining.There is clearly a need to replace thecurrent rent control laws withmodern tenancy laws, so as to givefull freedom to tenants and ownersto negotiate the rent and the lengthof the lease.

Rules with respect to evictionalso need to be reformed to restore

the balance between the rights oftenants and the owners.

We need a differently struc-tured and more professional mar-ket rental sector. A model Rent Actis needed to promote rental hous-ing. There should be mutual agree-ment between the landlord and thetenant for a stipulated lease periodprior to which the tenant can’t beevicted and after the expiry of thelease period, the tenant will not bepermitted to continue in the hous-ing unit.

However, rent control laws givetenants so much security that land-lords worry that they may notregain possession of their proper-ty at the end of the lease period.People often leave their propertiesvacant until they get a tenant theyare comfortable with.

It is time the Government putsrental housing to use. Its share inoverall housing has been steadilydeclining. There is a need forreplacing current rent control lawswith a modern tenancy law, whichwould give full freedom to tenantsand owners to negotiate the rentand the length of the lease.

Policymakers, financial institu-tions and housing experts alsoneed to evaluate their current poli-cies, cultures and ways of working.With a thoughtful approach, theycan be better prepared to tackle thishumongous problem. TheGovernment will have to changecourse and shift away from the lega-cy mindset before the problem getsout of hand.

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It seemed innocent enoughat the start: Just a surge inthe number of boys com-

ing to school with notes fromdoctors saying they wereexcused from playing contactsports. But pretty soon highschools all over China werehaving trouble findingenough willing young men tomake up a football team. Itwas around the same timethat attendance at the com-pulsory classes in Marxist-Leninist-Xi-Jinping-Thoughtcrashed. Even when boysstarted talking about theirfeelings and trying to looklike K-Pop stars, people triedto laugh it all off and dubbedthem “little fresh meats.” Butsome far-sighted peopleunderstood that the nation’ssoul was at stake here.

As early as last June, SiZefu, member of the StandingCommittee of the 13thChinese People’s Political

Consultative Conference’sNational Committee andchairman of Harbin ElectricCorporation, was warningthat many of China’s youngmales had become “weak,timid and self-abasing.” Fromnot playing football to notwanting to be an “army hero”is a short, slippery slope.

This “feminisation”, Siharrumphed, “wouldinevitably endanger the sur-vival and development of theChinese nation unless effec-tively managed.” And even ashe spoke, limp-wristed youngmen with flowers in their hairwere spotted lolling about inthe street outside.

Just as Oscar Wilde her-alded the fall of the Britishempire and hippie “peaceand love” caused the US tolose the Vietnam War andstart its long decline, so too,young Chinese men wearingmake-up....Stop! Are you sure

that the Party wants you to godown this particular rhetor-ical road?

Well, okay, maybe notexactly those examples. Butwhat would the veterans ofthe Long March say aboutthese effeminate young girly-men? You can’t turn theminto proper soldiers. Chinawill be easy meat for the firstmanly country that comesalong. Harrumph!

China has a very bigbureaucracy, so it takes awhile for an issue to come tothe top of the pile but by earlythis year it had arrived. It’s notclear if President-for-Life XiJinping took a personal inter-est in the issue but his enthu-siasm for football as a symbolof national strength and man-liness is well-known, so thepolicy-makers knew theywere on a safe track.

The Education Ministrytook the lead, with the pub-

lication of a policy docu-ment last week entitled,‘Proposal to Prevent theFeminisation of MaleAdolescents’. No, really, I swearI’m not making this up.Check it out online.

The document claimsthat China needs to hiremore male teachers to serveas role models (at present fourout of five teachers in urban

areas are women) and “vigor-ously develop” sports likefootball to “cultivate the stu-dents’ masculinity.”

The official Chinese newsagency Xinhua instantly tookup the cause, condemning“androgynous” young men as“slender but weak as wil-lows,” and there was a suspi-ciously instant chorus of sup-port on social media for thenotion that traditional formsof masculinity are the foun-dation of national militarystrength.

It probably sounds freshto an adult generation ofChinese who don’t even knowtheir own country’s real his-tory. To people elsewhere, itsounds like a bunch of early20th Century Englishmen inwing collars declaring that“the battle of Waterloo waswon on the playing fields ofEton.” (No, it wasn’t. It waswon when Blücher’s Prussian

army joined the battle in theafternoon after a forcedmarch.)

It sounds like a bunch oflate imperial claptrap, becausethat’s what it is. Playing foot-ball sometimes makes youbetter at playing football. Itdoes not make you better atdominating foreigners orfighting wars — and why doyou want to do that anyway?It’s, therefore, pleasing toreport that the response inChinese official and socialmedia was far from unani-mously enthusiastic.

“Is feminisation now aderogatory term?” one Weibouser asked and received over200,000 likes, and the People’sDaily, no less, published anopinion piece arguing thatdiversity and tolerance shouldbe encouraged among femi-nine and masculine menalike.

There is probably no

country on Earth where thegenerational divergence ofopinions, especially amongthe male half, is greater thanit is in China. From an almostentirely hierarchical society aslate as the 1980s(Confucianism reinforced bythe ‘democratic centralism’ ofCommunism) to a youngergeneration that is egalitarianand gender-fluid (at least inthe big cities) is one hell of aleap.

It will eventually beresolved, as these things usu-ally are, by the magic of gen-erational turnover. The youngwill outlive the old andbecome the majority. Andhere is the authentic voice ofthe young, summed up in asingle tweet: “There are 70million more men thanwomen in this country. Nocountry in the world hassuch a deformed sex ratio.Isn’t that masculine enough?”

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Future of Democracy andWork.’ The

views expressed are personal.

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New Delhi: GST officers will immediately sus-pend registration of taxpayers whose salesreturn or GSTR-1 forms show "significant dif-ferences or anomalies" from the return filed bytheir suppliers, a move aimed at curbing tax eva-sion and safeguarding revenues.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes andCustoms (CBIC) has issued a StandardOperating Procedure (SOP) for suspension ofregistration of a person on observance of suchdiscrepancies /anomalies which indicate viola-tion of the GST Act.

As per the SOP, the registration of specifiedtaxpayers shall be suspended and system gen-erated intimation for suspension and notice forcancellation of registration in form GST REG-31, containing the reasons of suspension, shallbe sent to such taxpayers on their registered e-mail address.

The registration would be suspended incases where a comparison of the returns fur-nished by a registered person with the detailsof outward supplies furnished in form GSTR-1, or the details of inward supplies derived basedon the details of outward supplies furnished byhis suppliers in their GSTR-1, show 'significant

differences or anomalies', indicating contra-vention of the provisions of the GST Act.

"Till the time functionality for FORM REG-31 is made available on portal, such notice/inti-mation shall be made available to the taxpayeron their dashboard on the common portal inForm GST REG-17.

"The taxpayers will be able to view the noticein the 'View/Notice and Order' tab post login,"the SOP said.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) officers havealready intensified their drive against fakeinvoicing and this has also contributed toincrease in tax collections in the past couple ofmonths.

GST collections have crossed the Rs 1 lakhcrore mark for four consecutive months andsurged to an all-time high of about Rs 1.20 lakhcrore in January.

The SOP further said the taxpayers whoseregistrations are suspended would be requiredto furnish reply to the jurisdictional tax officerwithin 30 days from the receipt of such notice/ intimation, explaining the discrepancies /anomalies and the reasons as to why their reg-istration should not be cancelled. PTI

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New Delhi: Insurance sector reg-ulator Irdai has asked insurers toissue digital policies to theirpolicyholders and also tell themhow to use these documents.

The regulator has reasonedthat the step will not onlybring down the cost but alsohelp speed up claim settle-ment process.

In its circular issued to allinsurers excluding GIC Re,Lloyd's (India) and FRBs (foreignre-insurance branches), Irdaisaid that Digilocker will drivereduction in costs, elimination ofcustomer complaints relating tonon-delivery of policy copy,improved turnaround time ofinsurance services, faster claimsprocessing and settlement,reduction in disputes, reductionin fraud and improvement incustomer contactability.

On the whole it is expect-ed that it will lead to better cus-tomer experience, said theInsurance Regulatory andDevelopment Authority ofIndia (Irdai).

In order to promote theadoption of Digilocker in the

insurance sector, the Authorityadvises all insurers to enabletheir IT systems to interact withDigilocker facility to enablepolicyholders to use Digilockerfor preserving all their policydocuments.

The insurers should informtheir retail policyholders aboutDigilocker and how to use it.Insurers are also advised toenable the process by which thepolicyholders can place theirpolicies in the digilocker, saidthe regulator.

As per the circular, theDigilocker team in NeGD(National e-GovernanceDivision) under Ministry ofElectronics and InformationTechnology will provide nec-essary technical guidance andlogistic support to facilitateadoption of Digilocker.

Digilocker is an initiativeunder the Digital India pro-gramme by the governmentwhere citizens can get authen-tic documents/ certificate indigital format from originalissuers of these certificates.

It aims at eliminating or

minimising the use of physicaldocuments and will enhanceeffectiveness of service delivery,making these hassle free andfriendly for the citizens.

Notably, the decision ofIrdai has came against thebackdrop of a letter written bySanjay Dhotre, Minister ofState for Electronics & IT,Communications and HumanResource Development, toAnurag Singh Thakur, Ministerof State for Finance andCorporate Affairs with regardsto issuance of digital insurancepolicies to citizen's DigiLockeraccounts.

In the letter, Dhotre hadrequested Thakur to adviseIrdai to issue an advisory to allinsurance companies to makeavailable the digital insurancepolicy of all policy holders viatheir Digilocker account andacceptance of Digilocker issueddocuments as valid documents.

"This will provide an alter-nate channel to access andmanage all their insurancepolicies in a safe and authenticmanner. PTI

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Aurangabad: The rate ofpetrol with additives hascrossed the Rs 100 mark for alitre in Maharashtra's Parbhanidistrict on Sunday morning, anoffice bearer of a petrol dealers'association said.

After a 28 paise rise onSunday morning, the per-litrerate of petrol with additives forretail sale crossed Rs 100.

Parbhani District PetrolDealers' Association PresidentAmol Bhedsurkar told PTI,"The rates of petrol with addi-tives in Parbhani has reached to100.16 rupees for one litre. The

cost of unleaded petrol is 97.38here." The cost of petrol inParbhani is one of the costliestin Maharashtra. The cost ishigher due to longer distance oftransportation.

Fuel in Parbhani comesfrom Manmad in the Nashikdistrict, which is at a distanceof 340 km. "We need Rs 3,000extra for every tanker if pricesgo up by 10 paise. Hence, theinvestment in buying fuel hasalso gone up," Bhedsurkar said.

The transportation cost forfuel stands at nearly 21 paise alitre now, he added. PTI

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New Delhi: Doing away withrestrictive conditions for use ofsteel in highways construc-tion, the government onSunday announced that allkinds of steel will be allowed forhighways provided these meetthe quality parameters.

Earlier, the contract pro-visions required use of steelproduced by primary/integrat-ed steel producers only. Themove is aimed at ensuring costreduction in highways con-struction using steel.

"The Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways hasissued orders that all steel -whether produced from ore,billets, pellets or melting ofscrap - would be allowed to beused for National Highwayconstruction, as long as itmeets the standards requiredfor specific grades of steel," theMinistry said in a statement.

The steel proposed to beused would be tested in NABL-accredited laboratories as athird party check before

approval. The move is basedon the analysis and discussionswith stakeholders and alsotechnical opinion.

In view of the increase insteel prices, which can impactthe cost of building nationalhighways, Road Transport &Highways Minister NitinGadkari had suggested theneed to re-look at all conditionswhich could be restrictive,without impacting the qualityof material used for highwayconstruction.

With this step, the suppli-er base for steel used in theconstruction of national high-ways would increase, leading tomore competition and betterprice discovery by the markets,the statement said.

This is also part of the con-tinuous effort by the Minister

to reduce costs through useof new technology, reducingrestrictions on suppliers andmaking the procurement sys-tem transparent, it added. PTI

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New Delhi: Taking a leaf out ofReliance Industries Ltd's play-book, state-owned Oil andNatural Gas Corporation(ONGC) is forming a new sub-sidiary for gas business thatcould be used to bid and buy gasfrom the firm's own fields.

The board of ONGC at itsmeeting on February 13approved creation of a newwholly-owned subsidiary com-pany for gas and liquefied nat-ural gas (LNG) business valuechain subject to necessaryapprovals, according to thefirm's third quarter earningsannouncement.

"The company is beingformed with the objective ofsourcing, marketing and tradingof natural gas, LNG business,Hydrogen enriched CNG(HCNG), gas to power business,bio-energy/ bio-gas/ biomethane/ other biofuels busi-ness, etc," it said.

ONGC may use the newsubsidiary to buy any new gas

that the firm produces fromfields such as KG-D5 in theKrishna Godavari basin, peoplewith direct knowledge of thematter said.

The government had inOctober 2020 allowed affiliatesof gas producers to buy the fuelin open auction.

This policy change allowedReliance to buy two-thirds outof the additional 7.5 millionstandard cubic metres per day ofgas it along with partner BP plcof UK plans to produce this yearfrom the new fields in KG-D6block.

"ONGC too can look at thisoption now. The new subsidiarycan participate in any auctionthat ONGC will do for incre-mental gas from KG-D5 block,"a source said.

Besides ensuring competi-tion and fair price discovery, theONGC subsidiary can then sellthe gas so sourced to firms suchas Mangalore Refinery andPetrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) ata margin.

This would help ONGCearn better margins on the gasproduced.

"Right now gas is a loss-making business for ONGC.

The government controls gasprice which is less than cost ofproduction," the source said.The government has fixed aprice of USD 1.79 per millionBritish thermal unit for ONGC'sfields. This is half of the cost ofproduction.

It allows a higher rate ofUSD 4.06 per mmBtu for diffi-cult fields such as deepsea fields(KG-D6 and KG-D6) but eventhat is less than the cost of pro-duction from highly capitalintensive projects.

The current regulationmeans even if Reliance discov-ered a price equivalent of USD6-7 per mmBtu for the 7.5mmscmd of new gas from KG-D6, it would get only USD 4.06till March 31.

The same would apply forONGC. It might discover a ratehigher for the 15 mmscmdincremental gas planned fromKG-D5 block but it can get onlyUSD 4.06 as per current price.

"So, essentially the ONGC'sgas subsidiary can bid and buyKG-D5 gas. It will pay ONGCUSD 4.06 per mmBtu but cansell to MRPL or any other cus-tomer at a price higher than that,ensuring that the gas business

becomes a viable proposition,"the source said.

The government has givenoperators the freedom to dis-cover market prices but this rateis subject to a pricing ceiling orcap that the government notifiesevery six months. The cap for sixmonths to March 31, 2021 isUSD 4.06 per mmBtu.

In the February 5 auction,Reliance O2C Limited, an affil-iate of Reliance Industries Ltd,picked up 4.8 mmscmd out ofthe 7.5 mmscmd gas auctioned.

State gas utility GAIL(India) Ltd won 0.85 mmscmdof supplies while Shell picked up0.7 mmscmd.

Adani Total Gas Ltd got 0.1mmscmd, Hindustan PetroleumCorporation Ltd (HPCL) 0.2mmscmd and Torrest Gas 0.02mmscmd. Other buyers includ-ed IRM Energy (0.1 mmscmd),PIL (0.35 mmscmd) and IGS(0.35 mmscmd), they said.

Sources said the gas wasbought at a price of USD 0.18per million British thermal unitdiscount to JKM (Japan/Korealiquefied natural gas importprice), that is price of JKM(minus) USD 0.18 with tenuresranging from 3 to 5 years. PTI

New Delhi: Increasing com-modity prices, specially thoseof rhodium and palladium,which are used in catalysers tomeet strict emission norms, areputting cost pressure on auto-mobile makers, according to asenior official of Maruti SuzukiIndia.

The company, which hadhiked prices of its vehicles inJanuary, however is not plan-ning to pass on the burden toconsumers in the near futurealthough it is keeping a closeeye on its cost structure.

With the supply of semi-conductors becoming a chal-lenge for the automotive indus-try, Maruti Suzuki is alsowatching the situation closelyalthough it will have normalsupply this month.

"In commodities, priceshave gone up dramatically thisyear, especially that of steel, andrhodium and palladium, whichare used in catalysers of BS-VIvehicles.

"Demand across the worldhas gone up but its mining hap-pens only in Russia and SouthAfrica. There, the mining wasmuch lesser because of thepandemic," Maruti SuzukiIndia Executive Director(Marketing & Sales) ShashankSrivastava told PTI.

Supply was less and glob-al demand is very high becauseall Euro VI, BS-VI and ChinaVI vehicles require catalysers,he said adding, "so, the demandhas gone up, whereas supply isconstant and 80 per cent ofdemand for rhodium and pal-ladium comes from the autoindustry."

When asked if the issue isas critical as that of semicon-ductor, he said, "for rhodiumand palladium, supply is not anissue but price is a problem butin semiconductor supply is aproblem."

Commenting on MarutiSuzuki's position with regardsto semiconductor supplies,

Srivastava said, "right now forsemiconductors we don't havean issue. January was normalfor us. February seems to benormal but there is a majorsemiconductor shortage in theauto industry. So, we are watch-ing the situation very careful-ly. Right now we are not affect-ed."

On whether the companyplans to pass on the burden ofincreased rhodium and palla-dium prices to consumers,Srivastava replied in the nega-tive stating the company hadhiked vehicle prices in Januarybecause of increase in com-modity prices.

"In fact all OEMs haveincreased prices largely becauseof the increase in commodityprices. We keep watching thecost structure, how the costs areevolving and take decisionsaccordingly.

Now we have to draw a fineline. We have to take care of thedemand. PTI

New Delhi: The NationalCompany Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT) has askedDevas Employees Mauritius toapproach NCLT to raise itsobjection over the court's deci-sion to admit a petition byAntrix Corporation seekingwinding up of DevasMultimedia.

While disposing of its plea,the Chennai bench of theNCLAT has directed DevasEmployees Mauritius to file aninterlocutory application andbe a party in the ongoing mat-ter at the NCLT.

On January 19, theBengaluru bench of theNational Company LawTribunal (NCLT) had admittedthe petition by AntrixCorporation, the commercialarm of Indian Space ResearchOrganisation, for winding upDevas Multimedia and hasappointed a provisional liq-uidator for the company.

It had also directed the pro-visional liquidator to take con-trol of the management, prop-erties and actionable claims ofDevas Multimedia.

The NCLT order was chal-lenged before the NCLAT byDevas Employees Mauritius,which holds 3.48 per cent ofissued equity share of DevasMultimedia.

Devas EmployeesMauritius has submitted thatbeing a shareholder of DevasMultimedia, being its con-stituent Board Member andowner and hence it has a say inthe manner in which the com-pany, its affairs, managementetc are carried out.

According to the petition-er, the NCLT order of January19, affects its right to participatein the affairs' and manage-ment of Devas Multimedia.

However, the NCLATobserved: "It is relevantly point-

ed out that just because an'Order of Admission' is passedat the initial stage, theAppellant's interest is not like-ly to be affected or prejudicialbecause latent and patent rea-son that still it may get anopportunity to be heard whenits Petition is Allowed."

The NCLAT Chennaibench, which consistedMember (Judicial) JusticeVenugopal M and Member(Technical) Balvinder Singhdirected it to file an applicationbefore NCLT, to be a party intothe main matter.

"….Deems it fit and prop-er in 'Directing' the 'Appellant'to file necessary 'InterlocutoryApplication' before the'Tribunal' (NCLT) seeking per-mission to implead itself in themain pending CompanyPetition setting out necessaryfacts/reasons for the same,"said NCLAT in its order passedon February 11. PTI

New Delhi: Markets regulator Sebi is in the process of settingup a cybersecurity fusion centre, a move aimed at detecting cyberthreats faster and resolve such incidents efficiently and effectively.

In its annual report for 2019-20, Sebi noted that cyber attacksand threats attempt to compromise the confidentiality, integri-ty and availability of the computer systems, networks and data-bases in the markets ecosystem.

Establishing a cybersecurity fusion centre or a cyber lab ispart of Sebi's three-tier structure for monitoring cybersecurity-related events in the securities markets and taking actions asdeemed necessary in the interest of protection of the securitiesmarket.The three-tier structure would strengthen the cyberse-curity preparedness or resilience of the entire securities marketecosystem.Under the tier-1, high-powered steering committeeon cybersecurity chaired by a whole-time member of Sebi hasbeen set up and a cybersecurity fusion centre would be estab-lished under the tier-2, the regulator said.

In the tier-3, division of technology and cybersecurity on Sebiwould coordinate with the steering committee, cyber securitylab security and operations centres at the respective market infra-structure institutions (MIIs). PTI

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Kattankulathur: SRM Instituteof Science and Technology,Kattankulathur has signed aMemorandum ofUnderstanding (MoU) withTamil Nadu Veterinary andAnimal Sciences University(TANUVAS). The signing wasbetween the Department ofFood Process Engineering,School of Bioengineering,SRMIST and College of Foodand Dairy Technology,Koduvalli, TANUVAS.

As per the MoU, both insti-tutes will have a broad scope tocarry out faculty and studentexchange programme to carryout training and research activ-ities for a shorter duration. Thearea will be extended to jointresearch activities to exploreopportunities to undertakeresearch projects and seekresearch funding from externalfunding agencies. This agree-ment will also facilitate to con-

duct joint academic eventssuch as short courses, seminars,workshops, or conferencesbased on mutual interests andavailable expertise in both theinstitutions. Both institutes canshare and carry out jointresearch in technology for dis-tance and computer-basedlearning.

The MoU was exchangedbetween Dr. C. Balachandran,Vice Chancellor, TANUVASand Dr. C. Muthamizhchelvan, Pro Vice Chancellor (E&T),SRMIST in the presence ofTANUVAS officials Dr.P.Tensingh Gnanaraj, Registrar;Dr. Cecilia Joseph, DirectorResearch; Dr. V. Appa Rao,Dean Research and Dr.Premnath Manoharan, profes-sor & HoD Food ProcessorEngineering. SRMIST officialsDr. S. Ponnusamy, Registrar;Dr. T.V. Gopal, Dean College ofEngineering and Technology; Dr. M. Vairamani, Chairperson, School of Bioengineering, and heads of

the departments and facultymembers.

Speaking at the signingceremony Dr. C. Balachandran,Vice Chancellor, TANUVASsaid, "The outcome of thisMoU may bring new innovativeideas and solutions for thegrowing demand and recurringissues of the Food Processingand Health sector in India.Both the universities can nowshare knowledge, technology,and faculty exchange program.We need engineers when itcomes to technology hence thescope is more in this sector."

Dr. C. Muthamizhchelvan,Pro Vice Chancellor (E&T),SRMIST said, "Gone are thedays when we worked as indi-viduals, now it is important thatwe work with other with insti-tutes/ universities. Such col-laborations open up newavenues and will benefit bothparties."

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&�� %�!��New Delhi (PTI): Protestingagainst rising diesel prices andexcessive taxation among otherissues, transporters’ apex bodyAIMTC on Sunday said itwould suspend transport oper-ations if the government fails toaddress their issues.

The All India MotorTransport Congress (AIMTC)claims representing about 95lakh truckers and about 50 lakhbus and tourist operators.

“Rising diesel prices, exces-sive taxation, issues related toe-way bill... present state ofscrapping policy...rationalisa-tion of presumptive tax werethe key issues discussed anddeliberated upon” by governingcouncil of AIMTC, the trans-porters' umbrella body said ina statement.

The AIMTC’s nationalleadership has decided to issue

a 14-day notice to the govern-ment for starting the processtowards resolution of thedemands.

The demands includeimmediate reduction of dieselprices and uniformity in it, res-olution of issues related to e-way bill and GST, and discus-sion on scrapping policy withtransport fraternity before itsroll-out.

“It is decided that if thegovernment fails to address and/or start the process to resolvethe above demands of theindustry in a positive way,then another governing coun-cil meeting will be convened,”the statement said.

It added that they will becompelled to surrender theirvehicles and declare nationwidesuspension of transport oper-ations.

�� Kochi (PTI): Facing flak fromopposition parties over risingfuel prices, Oil MinisterDharmendra Pradhan onSaturday blamed the artificialprice mechanism created bythe Oil producing nations forspiralling retail prices of petroland diesel which have touchedan all time high.

Noting that India meets80 per cent of its fuel require-ment from oil producingnations, the minister said,“we are facing challenges onthe price” as the crude oilprice was again on a risingtrend.

Pradhan, who is here toattend the inauguration ofthe Petrochemical Park atBPCL Kochi Refinery byPrime Minister NarendraModi on Sunday, said therewas a total collapse in demandfor petroleum across the worlddue to the COVID-19 lock-down and petroleum produc-ers had to reduce production.

“Now the economy hasrevived and India has returnedalmost to the pre-COVIDposition. However, the oilproducers have not increasedproduction.”

“I am sorry to say oil richcountries are not looking intothe interest of consumingcountries. They created anartificial price mechanism.This is pinching the consum-ing countries,” Pradhan toldreporters in response to aquery on rising fuel prices inthe country.

The minister, however,said recently some initial pos-itive things have been indi-cated by the oil producing

countries.The minister also said the

situation arising out of theCOVID-19 crisis contributedto the oil price hike.

He cited the government’sincreased spending in welfareand developmental pro-grammes to justify theincrease in the petroleumproducts.

“Some components of thepetroleum price are comingfrom the tax regime. We arepassing through an unusualphase due to the Covid pan-demic.”

“The spending of theUnion and state governmentshave gone up.There is a 34 percent increase in capital expen-diture in the budget. But wehave to carry forward oureconomy and we needresources,” he said.

His statement came a dayafter the Congress said it wasplanning a nationwide protestagainst increasing fuel prices.

The opposition party hasattacked the BJP-led govern-ment at the Centre over thesoaring prices of diesel andpetrol and alleged that it wasnot willing to lower the exciseduty on diesel and petrol toease the burden on the people.

Pradhan also justified thedecision to implement a Rs6000 crore project at BPCLKochi refinery ahead of dis-investment, saying the projectwill facilitate production ofniche petrochemicals whichare predominantly beingimported in the country.

He said this will createnew industries and new jobopportunities in Kerala.

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Donald Trump has told mil-lions of his supporters that

he is ready for yet anotherphase of active public life afterthe US Senate acquitted him inhis second impeachment trial.

Following four days of theimpeachment trial, the 100-member Senate voted toimpeach the former US presi-dent by 57-43 votes, 10 votesshort of the two-thirds major-ity needed for conviction.

Trump, a Republican, is thefirst-ever president to havebeen impeached twice and thefirst president to have facedimpeachment after leavingoffice.

Trump, 74, faced thecharge of incitement of insur-rection over the deadly January6 assault of the US Capitol byhis supporters.

“Our historic, patriotic andbeautiful movement to MakeAmerica Great Again has onlyjust begun. In the monthsahead I have much to sharewith you, and I look forward to

continuing our incredible jour-ney together to achieveAmerican greatness for all ofour people. There has neverbeen anything like it!” Trumpsaid in a statement.

“We have so much workahead of us, and soon we will

emerge with a vision for abright, radiant, and limitlessAmerican future,” Trump, whoreceived 74 million votes in theNovember 3 presidential elec-tion, higher than that of anypresident before him.

While Trump has

remained quiet on his post-presidency life, speculation hasbeen rife that he might run forthe presidency in 2024 orencourage someone from hisfamily to fight out a battle forthe White House.

There is also some talk that

the former president mightpart ways with the RepublicanParty to form his own party.However, there has been no statement on thisfrom Trump.

“Our cherishedConstitutional Republic wasfounded on the impartial ruleof law, the indispensable safe-guard for our liberties, ourrights and our freedoms,”Trump said.

After the end of his termon January 20, Trump flew tohis resort in Palm BeachFlorida, where he has beenstaying since then.

Trump has been bannedfrom almost all the major socialmedia platforms includingTwitter and Facebook.

Meanwhile, severalRepublican leaders slammedthe party’s Senators who votedagainst Trump.

The seven Senators areRichard Burr, Bill Cassidy,Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski,Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse andPat Toomey.

“The Louisiana GOP

immediately censured Sen. BillCassidy, while state party offi-cials in North Carolina andPennsylvania issued sharpstatements expressing disap-pointment over the votes castSaturday by Sens. Richard Burrand Pat Toomey,” Politicoreported.

“The moves are the latest ina series of censures and disci-plinary actions doled out tolawmakers deemed to be crit-ical of the former president inthe wake of the Capitol riot,” itadded.

Republican Senator JohnCornyn said that he had con-cerns about this snap impeach-ment from the start.

“The arguments of theHouse Impeachment Managersthat the Constitution permitsthe impeachment of a privatecitizen, the free speech protec-tions of the First Amendmentdon’t apply, the due processclause of the Fifth Amendmentis optional, and that the trialmay include a presiding officerwho also serves as a juror allwere a bridge too far,” he said.

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Two Indian-origin experts inpublic service have been

appointed by the Biden admin-istration to key positions atAmeriCorps, the federalagency for volunteering andservice.

Sonali Nijhawan has beennamed Director ofAmeriCorps State andNational, and Sri PrestonKulkarni, 42, was appointed thenew Chief of External Affairs.

Though having run forCongress twice unsuccessfullyin Texas, Kulkarni was certain-ly noticed by the leadership inWashington.

Kulkarni’s appointment,along with Nijhawan and DanKohl, reflects “the Bidenadministration’s commitmentto diverse leadership,” accord-ing to the release byAmeriCorps.

In their roles, these leaderswill use service to support theadministration’s agenda, focus-ing on four of the most urgentchallenges of our time: Covid-19, economic recovery, racialequity, and climate change, theAmeriCorps said.

Kulkarni lost his race forthe Texas District 22 seat in theUS House of Representatives toformer Fort Bend CountySheriff Troy Nehls inNovember as the Democraticnominee in a deeplyRepublican district.

Kulkarni brings a variety ofexperience in service and pub-lic affairs to AmeriCorps,including 14 years as a foreignservice officer with the StateDepartment where he spe-cialised in public diplomacyand worked in public affairsand international informationprogrammes, completing toursin Taiwan, Russia, Iraq, Israel,Jamaica and Washington, thestatement said.

Nijhawan has committedher career to developing lead-ers and growing national ser-vice. Most recently, she devel-oped and served as the execu-tive director of Stockton ServiceCorps, a six-year, USD 12 mil-lion initiative to address localneeds through AmeriCorps.

Her professional back-

ground also includes extensiveexperience in education,AmeriCorps said in a pressrelease.

Inspired by the students,families, and AmeriCorpscommunity she met, she wenton to help found City YearSacramento and launch theorganisation’s 22nd site with 50new AmeriCorps members.

Nijhawan also served as theCalifornia director ofEducation Pioneers where sherecruited, placed, and support-ed managers in urban schoolsystems and education non-profits, empowering people tochallenge the status quo of ourpublic education system.

She earned a bachelor’s ineducation and psychology fromMarquette University and amaster’s in social work from theUniversity of Maryland,Baltimore.

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Vast numbers of people allover Myanmar flouted

orders against demonstrationsand marched again on Sundayto protest the military takeoverthat ousted the elected govern-ment of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Large demonstrations wereheld in the major cities ofYangon, Mandalay and thecapital, Naypyitaw, as well as infar-flung areas dominated byethnic minorities.

Resistance also took placein cyberspace, as a group call-ing itself BrotherHood ofMyanmar Hackers defaced thegovernment’s Myanmar DigitalNews website, replacing con-tent on its home page withwords and pictures against themilitary takeover.

Protesters in Yangon againrallied outside the Chinese andU.S. Embassies. They accuse

Beijing of propping up themilitary regime and applaudWashington’s actions sanction-

ing the military.“The civil disobedience

movement and demonstrations

show that the people ofMyanmar want democracy. Westand with them,” said a state-ment Saturday on the U.S.Embassy’s Twitter account.

Other protesters carriedsigns urging people to boycottbusinesses linked to the mili-tary.

Sunday’s activism tookplace after the ruling juntaissued a new order suspendingseveral basic civil liberties.

The order, issued lateSaturday and published Sundayin state newspapers, suspendsprovisions in an existing law onsecurity and privacy protection,allowing the authorities tocarry out searches and makearrests without court warrants.

It also allows the intercep-tion of electronic and othercommunications without awarrant and permits the deten-tion of detainees for more than24 hours without court permis-

sion. Civil servants have beenvery active in the protests, andsocial media postings onSunday indicated that staterailway workers have joinedthem, with some unconfirmedclaims that they have gone onstrike.

The military seized poweron February 1, detaining SuuKyi and members of her gov-ernment and preventingrecently elected lawmakersfrom opening a new session ofParliament.

The junta, led by SeniorGen. Min Aung Hlaing, said itwas forced to step in becausethe government failed to prop-erly investigate allegations offraud in last year’s election,which Suu Kyi’s NationalLeague for Democracy partywon in a landslide. The stateelection commission refutedthat contention, saying there isno evidence to support it.

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The DGP said that in another majorsuccess one more chief commander ofanother terror outfit TRF being run byLashkar-e-Tayyeba, Zahoor Rather aliasSahil and Khalid was also arrested. Singhsaid that Zahoor was arrested during anoperation on the intervening night of 12and 13 February. "Zahoor was active fora long time and was a trained militant. Hewas leading TRF. He was also working asan OGW. In 2002 he was working withHizbul Mujahideen," he said.

Singh said that Zahoor remainedactive for 5 years and later surrendered in2006 and he again became active in 2009and in 2009 his handlers sitting in Pakistanknew his potential.

He said that Zahoor was handed overthe responsibility of running TRF inJammu & Kashmir and he was involved inkilling 3 BJP leaders in Kulgam last year.

Singh said that intensive questioningof Zahoor Ahmad is going on and it isexpected that some more breakthroughswill take place through Zahoor.

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Chamoli District Magistrate Swati SBhadauria and Superintendent of PoliceYashwant Singh Chauhan rushed to thetunnel when the first two bodies werebrought out in the early hours of Sunday.

Three more bodies were recoveredlater from the tunnel, which is packed withdebris brought by the flash flood. Officialssaid a helicopter has been kept on stand-by at the Tapovan rescue site to quickly flyout survivors, if there are any, for medicaltreatment.

Rescuers are also continuing with analternative approach –- trying to widen ahole they have drilled into another inter-connected tunnel from where the trappedmen could perhaps be reached.

The men found dead Sunday wereidentified as Alam Singh from Tehri,Anil (Dehradun district) Jitendra Kumar(Jammu), Shesh Nath (Faridabad), JitendraDhanai (Tehri), Suraj Thakur (Kushinagar)Jugal Kishore (Punjab), Rakesh Kapur(Himachal Pradesh), Harpal Singh(Chamoli), Ved Prakash (Gorakhpur),Dhanurdhari (Gorakhpur).

The bodies were kept at a temporarymortuary at Tapovan, officials said.

The Chamoli DM said about 445 peo-ple stranded after the flash flood have sofar been sent to their villages using heli-

copters. Over 500 ration kits have beendistributed in the affected areas.

Medical camps put up in the affectedvillages have so far treated 998 patients.

The process of cremating the victimsafter taking their DNA samples contin-ued in Chamoli district. Two bodies andfour severed limbs were cremated onSunday.

The agencies involved in the Tapovanrescue work include the Indo-TibetanBorder Police, the National DisasterResponse Force and the State DisasterResponse Force.

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He was first acquitted by the Senate onFebruary 5, 2020 on charges of abuse ofpower and on obstruction of Congress.The Democrats had charged Trump inDecember 2019 with pressuring Ukraineto smer Biden, his rival in the Novemberelection.

On Saturday, seven Republican sena-tors -- Bill Cassidy, Richard Burr, MittRomney, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski,Ben Sasse and Pat Toomey -- voted infavour of impeaching Trump.

If he had been convicted, the Senatecould have voted to bar Trump, who hasnot yet conceded defeat to Biden, fromrunning for office ever again. Minutes afterthe verdict was announced, Trumpreleased a statement, saying "no presidenthas ever gone through anything like it".

"It is a sad commentary on the timesthat one political party in America is givena free pass to denigrate the rule of law,defame law enforcement, cheer mobs,excuse rioters, and transform justice intoa tool of political vengeance, and persecute,blacklist, cancel and suppress all peopleand viewpoints with whom or which theydisagree," he said.

Trump, now based in his resort inFlorida, denounced the trial as "the great-est witch hunt in history".

He thanked his team of lawyers andothers for their tireless work "upholdingjustice and defending the truth".

He also said that the Democrats'attempt to end his political career had alsofailed, telling his supporters, “our historic,patriotic and beautiful movement to MakeAmerica Great Again has only just begun.”

"In the months ahead I have much toshare with you, and I look forward to con-tinuing our incredible journey together toachieve American greatness for all of ourpeople. There has never been anything likeit!" said Trump, who received 74 millionvotes in the election, higher than that ofany president before him.

In his first reaction to the develop-ment, President Biden said that theSenate's acquittal of his predecessor was areminder that democracy was "fragile" andevery American had a duty to defend thetruth.

“This sad chapter in our history hasreminded us that democracy is fragile.That it must always be defended. That wemust be ever vigilant. That violence andextremism have no place in America. Andthat each of us has a duty and responsi-bility as Americans, and especially as lead-ers, to defend the truth and to defeat thelies,” Biden said in a statement.

While the final vote did not lead to theconviction of Trump, the substance of thecharge is not in dispute, he said.

"Even those opposed to the conviction,like Senate Minority Leader McConnell,believe Donald Trump was guilty of a “dis-graceful dereliction of duty” and “practi-cally and morally responsible for provok-ing” the violence unleashed on the Capitol,”Biden said.

The Democratic Party criticised theRepublican senators for acquitting Trump,saying their vote to clear him “will live asa vote of infamy in the history of the USSenate".

“January 6th will live as a day of infamyin the history of the United States ofAmerica. The failure to convict DonaldTrump will live as a vote of infamy in thehistory of the US Senate,” Senate MajorityLeader Chuck Schumer said.

Senate Republicans who voted not toconvict Trump chose to abandon theConstitution, the country and theAmerican people, House Speaker NancyPelosi said.

“What we saw in that Senate today wasa cowardly group of Republicans whoapparently have no options because theywere afraid to defend their job, respect theinstitution in which they serve,” she said.

After the vote, Senator MitchMcConnell said Trump had been "respon-sible" for the assault on the Capitol andcalled it a "disgraceful, disgraceful derelic-tion of duty".

However, he voted against his convic-tion, saying it was unconstitutional nowthat Trump was no longer president. Buthe warned Trump could still be held liablein court.

The Washington Post said that theresult of the vote underscored Trump'scontinued grip on most Republicansdespite the party losing control of both theWhite House and Congress during histumultuous tenure.

The verdict brought an abrupt end tothe fourth presidential impeachment trialin American history, and the only one inwhich the accused had left office beforebeing tried, it said.

The trial ended after just five days,partly because Republicans andDemocrats alike had little appetite for aprolonged proceeding, and partly becauseTrump's allies had made clear before iteven began they were not prepared to holdhim responsible, The New York Timesnoted.

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In the statement issued by MoRTH,the Ministry clarified that this has beendone to further promote fee paymentthrough digital mode, reduce waitingtime and fuel consumption, and providefor a seamless passage through the feeplazas.

The Ministry had mandated fitmentof FASTag in M&N categories of motorvehicles with effect from 1 January 2021.

Category 'M' stands for a motorvehicle with at least four wheels used forcarrying passengers whereas Category'N' stands for a motor vehicle with atleast four wheels used for carryinggoods, which may also carry persons inaddition to goods.

FASTags, which facilitate electron-ic payment of fee at toll plazas, wasintroduced in 2016. Making the tagscompulsory would also help in ensur-ing that vehicles pass seamlessly throughthe toll plazas, as the fee paymentwould be done electronically.

Replying to a query on FASTags atthe Nagpur airport, Gadkari said thegovernment had extended FASTag reg-istration date limit two-three timesbefore, and now it would not be extend-ed further. Now, everybody shouldimmediately buy FASTag.

FASTags can be purchased onlinefrom the authorized banks or eventhrough retailers such as Amazon.Buyers can also opt to visit any pointsof sale of one of the 23 authorized banksand road transport offices to get the tag.Users are advised to purchase the tagsfrom the banks they already haveaccounts in. The national highwayauthority also sells IHCML tags whichare bank-neutral.

Earlier last week, to give anotherrelief to highway commuters, the NHAIdecided to do away with the requirementof maintaining a minimum amount inFASTag wallet to ensure seamless move-ment at electronic toll plazas.

It was directed that users will nowbe allowed to pass through the toll plaza,if the FASTag account/ wallet balance isnon-negative. After crossing the tollplaza, if the account balance becomes

negative, the bank can recover theamount from the security deposit, whichshould be replenished at the time of thenext recharge by the user.

"In order to increase the FASTagpenetration to ensure seamless move-ment of traffic and to reduce avoidabledelays at the toll plazas, NHAI hasdecided to remove the mandatorythreshold amount for the FASTagaccount / wallet, which was paid by theuser in addition to the security depositfor the passenger segment(Car/Jeep/Van)," NHAI said in a state-ment. According to the latest statementby the Transport Ministry, there aremore that 2.54 crore FASTag users in thecountry and it contributes 80% of thetotal toll collection. Daily toll collectionthrough FASTag has crossed ?89 croremark.

The FASTag registration has gone upto 90% on some routes and only 10 percent people are left. FASTag is also avail-able on toll nakas and people shouldpurchase and use it for seamless traffic,he said.

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The works would improve the water car-rying capacity of the canals which distrib-ute water meant for irrigating the farm lands.

The Prime Minister also launched theelectrification of the railway track betweenVillupuram- Cuddalore-Mayiladuthurai-Thanjavur and Mayiladuthurai-Thiruvarurstretch which is expected the save IndianRailway Rs 14.61 lakh per day in fuel coston the Chennai-Egmore Kanyakumaristretch.

It turned out to be a golden day forKerala as the Prime Minister dedicated tothe nation the Rs 6,000 crore propylenederivatives petrochemical complex atKochi Refinery which would save thecountry foreign exchange worth Rs 4,000crore per annum and generate thousandsof job opportunities. This is the first unitin the country to produce acrylic acid andacrylates hitherto imported at high costs.The acrylic acid unit commissioned by thePrime Minister is world's largest singletrain unit.

Prime Minister Modi also inaugurat-ed the Ro-Ro vessels at the historicWillingdon Island which will reduce dis-tance from 30 km by road to 3.5 km onwaterways. This will help us to bring downthe transportation cost, transit time, pol-lution, and congestion on road in Kochi,"said the Prime Minister.

Sagarika, the international cruise ter-minal, built at a cost of Rs 25.72 crore was

thrown open to service by the PrimeMinister marking Kochi as an importantcruise station in the global tourism map.The terminal would cater to more than alakh tourists per year with its air condi-tioned halls for lounging, ten counters forcustoms clearance and 48 counters forimmigration formalities.

Vigyana Sagar, the marine engineer-ing training institute, with a capacity totrain 114 fresh engineering graduates indifferent aspects of naval and architectengineering is another of the innovativeestablishment dedicated to the nation bythe Prime Minister on Sunday. The PrimeMinister also laid the foundation stone forreconstructing the south Coal Berth atKochi to facilitate the import of ammoniameant for FACT, the public sector fertilis-er giant.

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Due to adverse inputs, movement ofVIPs/Protected Persons has been dis-couraged and all concerned were informedin advance NOT to plan a tour today".

However, unrelenting Omar Abdullahhit back questioning the police claim. Hewrote back, "Please share the writtencommunication addressed to me &acknowledged by me (or my office)informing us in advance of these restric-tions. Surely this anniversary didn't comeas a surprise to the administration.

In response, an official communicationexchanged between senior security officerswas made public to highlight the prevail-ing circumstances under which suchrestrictions were necessitated. UnsparingOmar again reacted strongly. "Please notethat none of the people who have beendetained in their homes today have beenmarked on this document. Moreover it stilldoesn't answer under what law policetrucks are parked outside our gates pre-venting us from leaving".

In a joint statement the senior NationalConference leaders, including party gen-eral secretary Ali Mohd Sagar, condemnedthe arbitrary confinement of top partyleaders. "Confining party leaders to theirhomes exposes the iron fist approachtowards Jammu and Kashmir. The measureis the gross violation of human rights andis highly condemnable. Previously also atvarious instances, the leaders weredebarred from moving out from their res-idences exclusively for any reason. Theundue measure marks a new low in thecurtailment of fundamental rights of peo-ple of Jammu and Kashmir. The measuresreveal abnormal is the new normal in thispart of the world," they said.

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Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh’son-screen bromance in the film

Gunday was a hit as audiences real-ly loved their camaraderie. Past theseventh anniversary of the film’srelease, Arjun shares why Gunday isand will always be one of his favouritefilms.

�What did you love about the filmthat made you sign it instantly?

At the time I was starting mycareer, I was hardly six months oldin the business and Adi sir (AdityaChopra) offered me a film which wasa two-hero ensemble, big commercialset-up. When I met Ali (AbbasZafar), I loved his energy and excite-ment towards treating it like a larg-er than life adventure. It was like athrowback and a tribute to the 70’s& 80’s cinema that I grew up watch-ing. The ‘Mukul Anand, SubhashGhai space of cinema’ and at the sametime a film about brotherhood andgangsters. When you are a youngactor starting out, these are all trap-pings that you love exploring anddoing in mainstream cinema. Youwant to establish yourself at thebeginning. You want to do main-stream stuff with a sense of height-ened reality and that’s what Gundaywas all about. I got really excitedabout doing something so front foot-ed and mainstream.

�Your bromance with Ranveer inthe film was an instant hit. Tell uswhat made the bonhomie so special.

I think it was the off-camera loveand respect we had for each otherbecause we realised we have toomuch in common. In fact we are bornjust ten days apart from each other.It was much simpler for us to bondthan we realised. And when you arestarting out, you are not thinkingabout your career and rivalry. You arejust trying to make the best film pos-sible and have the most fun. Ranveerand I also knew each other before thefilm so it made it a little simpler tobreak the ice onset. Credit to Ali forwriting a film that allowed us to bebest friends. He was a big factor forbringing me and Ranveer closer. Itjust happened, it was just the flow. It’slike chalk and cheese where even

though we are poles apart, we stillmanage to fit together. It’s like sugarand spice, they are opposites but bothsound good together. We were twopeople who were completely differ-ent but ended up getting along andworking well together. People realisedthis when they saw the trailer whereboth of us looked good together.

�The film presented you in an allnew avatar. What did you love themost about your character?

Costumes. To play a character inthe 70’s, a gangster, it’s always excit-ing to go into. It was my first-peri-od film at that time. The way I wasstyled, presented, the low angle trol-leys and just being treated larger thanlife, running in slow motion, thatintroduction coming out of the train,

landing on a coal train and muchmore. I think the presentation wasway bigger than any third film couldhave gotten me and it was cool,unique and exciting. You usually feelthat you need to work a lot, beforeyou get that kind of scale but here Iwas immediately, in the third film,within the first six/eight months ofmy career.

�What do you think was the film’sUSP?

I think the camaraderie betweenRanveer and me and the big star castcoming together, was special. Aftera long time, there was a two-hero filmand the youth loved the music. Iknow for a fact that the music andtrailer made all the difference.

Today consumers have becomemore aware and conscious of

harmful chemicals hidden intheir skincare products. They areskeptical of using skincare thatwear the claim of being “organic”and “all natural”, often question-ing if these claims are just market-ing gimmicks. Dr. Jagvir Singh,Founder and President, RefreshBotanicals lists five common mis-conceptions about organic skin-care that will make you rethinkyour regimen.

MYTH 1: Using DIY masks issame as using organic products

People believe that whippingup a yogurt and honey smoothiein your blender and using it as aface mask will benefit their skinas much as an organic face mask.

While we’re all up for a DIYface treatment once in a while, theingredients you find in yourkitchen can’t really compare to theactive ingredients found in organ-ic skincare products. These spe-cial ingredients are usuallyextracted at the molecular levelleaving behind the most activeand potent part for your skin care.

MYTH 2: Organic products areineffective

Many people are afraid ofchange and stick to a product thatthey are familiar with and haveused for years. Unfortunately,many drugstore products havebeen diluted, watered down, andfilled with an abundance of chem-ical preservatives to extend thelifespan. This means that whilethe product may offer quickresults, you shouldn’t hold yourbreath waiting to see any reallong-term benefits for the healthof your skin.

Organic products, on the

other hand, are jam-packed withvital nutrients, antioxidants, vit-amins and minerals at high con-centrations that truly feeds yourskin. You’ll instantly get thatradiant, hydrated and clear skin.

MYTH 3: Organic productsneed preservatives to lastlonger

Highly organic productsoften require premium packag-ing that are equipped with air-less pumps. This prevents thehighly organic plant materialfrom oxidising, thus spoiling.When looking for organic skin-care, look for airless pumps —meaning that the product isbeing pumped through literallybeing pushed out of the contain-er.

MYTH 4: Eating healthy isenough for great skin

There is no argument withthe benefits of eating clean,antioxidant-rich foods anddrinking tons of water. However,

a healthy diet alone is not nec-essarily enough for great skin.While everything you eat doeshave an impact on your skin,food cannot cleanse away impu-rities and environmental toxinsthe way a good face wash can, orprovide a protective barrier onthe skin the way a moisturisercan. For truly beautiful skin, besure to eat healthy, exercise reg-ularly and practice safe, organ-ic skincare. Organic skincareproducts should accompany ahealthy lifestyle for a moreyouthful and fresher complex-ion.

MYTH 5: All “Natural Types”of skincare are created equal

There is a thin line betweenorganic and natural products.Note that we use the word nat-ural here, and not organic. Whilemany products may claim to be“all-natural” on their labels, itdoesn’t mean that their ingredi-ents are in fact “organic.” Naturalproducts often contain natural

ingredients but may containpesticides and other harmfulchemicals.

For a skin care brand to be ableto wear the claim of “organic,”ingredient suppliers have to under-go a rigorous process where theyare monitored for many years toensure that their farming methodsare free of pesticides, herbicides andchemicals. Additionally, skin carebrands must ensure that theirmanufacturers follow stringentpractices to ensure there is no crosscontamination of organic andinorganic materials.

In today’s time awarenessabout chemical-laden products isgaining momentum, which is high-lighting the importance of natur-al organic skincare products. Thisincreased awareness is makingmore people to switch to organicproducts. While more people aremaking the transition, morebecome mindful about the use ofchemicals in regular everydayproducts and are adapting to thenatural organic skincare regime.

�� A court-appointed legal guardian defrauds her older

clients and traps them under her care. But her latest markcomes with some unexpected baggage. StarringRosamund Pike, Peter Dinklage and Eiza González, thefilm releases on February 19 on Netflix.

��Against the backdrop of a turbulent era in Brazil,

this documentary captures Pelé’s extraordinary pathfrom breakthrough talent to national hero. It releases onFebruary 23 on Netflix.

��A single mother enters a world of twisted mind games

when she begins an affair with her psychiatrist boss whilesecretly befriending his mysterious wife. Starring SimonaBrown, Eve Hewson and Tom Bateman, the TV dramareleases on February 17 on Netflix.

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Sports players are considered asfit individuals who showcasetheir strength, endurance and

flexibility to flex their bodiesthrough tough circumstances andpull through their sport perfor-mance. They train day in and out tohave command over their body andtechniques. Every sport has theirown demands and likewise a train-ing schedule is devised by theircoaches and followed by playersand their parents for optimal perfor-mance. Long ago it was identifiedthat despite best body and technique,something was stopping the playersto achieve their best. On deeperinvestigation it was found that mind

had a role to play in performancewhich was often not understood.With time, coaches, parents andplayers recognised this gap andstarted understanding the need formental training.

Despite increased awareness, thetaboo of visiting a mental health pro-fessional acts as a huge barrier toadopt a positive and progressivechange. Over years sport psycholo-gy (area of specialisation that usespsychological interventions in sportsset up) has found its space and par-ents, coaches and players are reach-ing out to professionals for perfor-mance enhancement.

Winning is still the biggest moti-

vator fore v e r y o n einvolved insports. Evenafter having anemphasis on partici-pation and excellence, achievingsuccess and avoiding failures takescentre stage for one and all. Whetherone is playing an individual sport ora team sport, chief coach to subor-dinate coaches, sport science expertsalong with player’s parents make acrucial part of the team whichtogether influences the course ofaction for long.

Management of sports playersinvolves binding the entire team

strongly and keeping them on thesame page. In this competitive world,increased exposure to internationalcompetitive events, advances in sup-port from corporate and governmentsectors has led to increased perfor-mance pressure. With time, sportshas moved from mere joy, sense ofsatisfaction to pride and profes-sionalism. The demand to performis so strong that it comes with the tagof “Success at any cost.” But do wereally need success at the cost of our

mental peace?Mental health

when dis-t u r b e d

affects one’s ability to recognise theself-potential and gets bogged downby stress. Talent wasted due to lackof professional help at right time cannever stand the spirit of sports.Hence, it becomes essential to learnthe mind-body connection and men-tal toughness to become resilient intesting moments of matches.

It’s scientifically proven thatexercise promotes positive mentalhealth but sometimes this observa-tion doesn’t hold true. With increas-ing competition, competitive stress,pressure of expectations, financialcrisis, logistic issues and infrastruc-tural concerns, the challenges to per-form good are not just vested in tal-ent but in things beyond one’s con-trol too.

Anxiety, depression, personali-ty disorder, mood disorders, panic,PTSD, eating disorders as well as

more serious mental health issuesare coming to surface in popu-

lation as young as age 10. Thepeak years of sport perfor-mance and the onset of mul-tiple mental health issuescoincide and thus, this factof understanding theunderlying issues whichneed attention are simplyside-lined. While themind of a player is mostimportant, even themind-set of their coach-

es and the parents areequally important. It is

essential to create a holisticapproach in bringing a change

in their perspectives towardswinning and success. Lack of time,resources, myths that it is only forelite players have been wiped-out;the need of the hour is mental

health training for all. (The writer is a sports psycholo-

gist.)

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Population, when unchecked, increases at ageometrical ratio. Subsistence increases only

in an arithmetical ratio...,” said ThomasMalthus in his thesis, titled An Essay on thePrinciple of Population, which was publishedin 1798. When he made this observation, theworld-population was not even one billion.During the last 200 years, it has grown toaround 7.8 billion. And the prediction ofMalthus that the world would run out of fooddue to its growing population, has not yet comeexactly true. There is no doubt, Malthus didnot foresee that at some time in the future, therewould be a spectacular increase in food pro-duction and that the earth would not produceexactly in arithmetic progression, yet no sen-sible person can deny that, after all, there is anupper limit to production of subsistence by theearth. But, strangely, we find that there is noeffective clarity in regard to this hard fact inthe minds of those who formulate nationalpolicies.

One can see that,even today, in most ofthe under developedcountries, the situationis still Malthusian andthe people there do nothave enough food. It isa well-established factthat the populationgrowth-rate in thesecountries makes itextremely difficult fortheir governments to eradicate poverty andunemployment. So the living conditions forlarge sections of people there are really poor.

In such a critical situation of stark pover-ty, high incidence of disease and extreme scarci-ty of health care facilities, many welfare andsocial service agencies voluntarily help theimpoverished, the sick, the handicapped andthe mentally unwell people. No doubt, imme-diate help in the form of food, medicine, shel-ter, health-care, etc. is needed for quite a largenumber of people and these charitable insti-tutions do commendable social service.Nevertheless, the basic problem remainsbecause the root of all these maladies is noteradicated.

The population in these poor countriescontinues to rise enormously and, alongsideit, the number of poor unemployed, diseasedand hungry people also continue to multiply.The reason for this is that no sincere and con-crete steps are taken to give a high degree ofclarity to the people.

Another factor that is responsible for thiscritical situation is the highly consumeristic andwasteful lifestyle of affluent nations or of afflu-ent sections of society in the same country. Itis not known to many that about 80 per centof the gross world-products are consumed bythe developed countries which constituteonly 20 per cent of the world-population whileremaining world population that dwell indeveloping countries gets only 15 per cent ofgross world products. So again there is needto give clarity to the people about the urgentneed for simplicity in life. Hence, what peo-ple of developing nations should made to beunderstood that mere charity cannot solve theproblems of poverty and hunger, created byexploitation, social injustice and the utterly self-ish and wasteful life-style of some nations orsome sections of society. In fact, some peoplehave recently raised this vital question aboutthe end-result of charity after a controversialdocumentary was made by a popular directorin the West on charity work done by the organ-isations there.

Many scholarly people across the globehave made a strong observation and said thatcharity alone would not serve the purpose. Onehas, therefore, to reiterate that what is requiredmore is clarity, by means of such knowledgethat brings in its wake, the highly needed moralvalues of social justice, brotherhood, love, absti-nence from sex-lust and inspiration for a sim-ple lifestyle. Remember, to change the currentsituation, the lifestyles of the people need tochange.

Azaadi hai toh sab hai (wherethere is freedom there is every-thing),” said Rehana Begum, who

along with her husband and children,was rescued from a MunicipalCorporation toilet compound in 2017.Originally from Purnia in Bihar, thefamily moved states looking for workopportunities. “My husband and I weremarried without the permission fromour families, so we had no place to fallback on, that is the price one pays forbeing a woman who dares to love,” saidRehana.

“Initially, we were offered �5,000. Aswe lived in a rented space, the idea ofmoving into the complex full timeseemed lucrative. As our entire familymoved into the complex, I had to dodouble shifts of guarding the toilet andon several occasions, had to clean it aswell. My work started at nine in themorning until 11 at night,” added she.Taking care of three children, cleaningtoilets and juggling housework, clearlytook a toll on her.

She shared, “Living on the site per-manently, we worked in the compoundday in and day out. Our wages werestopped and when I refused to work, Iwas threatened with sexual violence. Ihad fallen sick at one point and wasdiagnosed with pneumonia but was notallowed to go to a hospital for propertreatment. The only saving grace is thatI am finally free.”

Rehana and her family were rescuedby National Campaign Committee for

Eradication of Bonded Labour(NCCBL). A court case is pending inDelhi for her rightful compensation andlack of accountability on the part of theDelhi Municipal Corporation. To sur-vive, Rehana’s husband, at present, isworking as a rickshaw puller while sheis trying hard to find a job as a domes-tic worker. The family fears that theymay be trapped in debt bondage againas they look for jobs.

Not just Rehana, across India, anestimated 12 million workers areemployed in brick kilns, garment facto-ries, construction units among others.Over three lakh informal workers havebeen released according to theGovernment of India. India identified atleast 1,35,000 bonded workers in its 2011census, while the Australian charityWalk Free Foundation put the numberat eight million in its 2018 GlobalSlavery Index.

Most of these workers are sourcedfrom remote rural pockets with concen-tration of poverty through a vast net-work of contractors. While most of these

pockets exist in the Northern andEastern part of the country, some devel-oped states in the West and South, alsohave such pockets.

Desperate and vulnerable popula-tion of unorganised workers, who are inno position to negotiate wages or theirrights, have become a massive pool forcheap labour. A large number of theselabourers are children, forced out ofschool, bearing the burden of sustain-ing their families.

“I lost two of my children, an eight-years-old boy and one girl, who wasbarely 10, as they were sent off to workin a kiln in Himachal Pradesh. We werejust informed that they both died but noone bothered to tell us how,” sharedPinki, the mother of the two children.

Pinki and her husband, Kale, live ina small hamlet of Bandhera Khas inDeoband, Uttar Pradesh, a colony whereseveral migrant workers like herself andher husband now reside. In 2014, Pinkiand Kale, originally from Saharanpur,were taken to work in a brick kiln inNawanshahr in Punjab and were

promised �1,500 per person per week bythe contractor. The same personpromised to pay the same amount fortwo of her children, giving them achance of making more money.

Explaining what transpired at thekiln, she said, “The only means for usto have made money was to movecities. My children were taken toHimachal Pradesh. Instead of �1,500, wewere paid only �500 every week or evenless. With no money and no clue of ourchildren, there was a sense of feelingtrapped. I remember working aroundthe clock carrying bricks on my back. Itfeels like a blur to me, the life that I livedfor five years.”

Pinki survived by living in amakeshift tent, eating corn kernels andbread. She was finally rescued in 2017along with her husband by NCCBL. Asper the wages promised to the couple,the contractors owed them over one lakhrupees. However, the family hasn’treceived a single penny so far.

For her, losing her children andnever getting to see them again was thebiggest trauma. “I was beaten up sever-al times, I was not paid for my work, butlosing my children was the scariest part,”said she.

The COVID-19 pandemic and thelockdown imposed to contain the spreadof the virus has worsened the situationfor the bonded labours as rescue oper-ations have also come to halt. NirmalGorana of the National CampaignCommittee for Eradication of Bonded

Labour (NCCBL) responsible for con-ducting rescue operations across Indiasaid, “Amid the pandemic, many weretrapped in the sites of exploitation as res-cue operations remained stalled. As thenationwide lockdown was announced,brick kiln sites, several construction sitesin remote parts of the country, includ-ing the agricultural sector continued tofunction.”

However, the meagre wages that thebonded labourers were getting was alsostopped. They had appealed in theChandigarh High Court and theAllahabad High Court, but the state wasoverburdened at that point and undertak-ing rescue operations became difficult.Even those who could be rescued werenot being given repatriation and policeprotection, making their chances offalling back in the trap of bonded labourmuch higher.

Though bonded labour was outlawedin 1976 when the Bonded Labour System(Abolition) Act came into force, the newsof rescues is fairly common. Convictions,however, are a few.

A senior official in the CentralLabour Ministry on the condition ofanonymity said, “There is widespreadprevalence of violence in case of thebonded labour and the assistance, espe-cially during the times of COVID hasbeen delayed. However, when it comes torescues, the responsibility lies with therespective states to act on these com-plaints.”

The Centrally Sponsored PlanScheme for Rehabilitation of BondedLabourers has been in place since 1978to rehabilitate those rescued. As part ofthis scheme, adult male rescuers are enti-tled to the financial assistance of �1 lakh,while those who come under special cat-egories, such as women and children areentitled to �2 lakh. Others, who are res-cued from forced or bonded labourfrom more extreme conditions like sex-ual exploitation, brothels or trafficking,as deemed by the District Magistrate, areeligible for financial assistance of �3 lakhalong with some non-cash assistancefrom the state governments.

This financial assistance is funded bythe centre but comes only after convic-tion. A person who is rescued is eligibleto �20,000 as immediate assistance fromthe District Administration, regardless ofconviction. Apart from the immediateassistance, those rescued are also entitledto a state-issued rescue certificate (RC),which makes them eligible for the reha-bilitation measures; however, those get-ting the certificates remain abysmally low.

None of the people the writer spoketo had been provided with the compen-sation. Despite a large number of womenworkers, Women’s work is unaccountedfor and their labour is not recognised inthe economy. Doubling the oppression oftaking care of the food, family and suf-fering harassment from contractors, theyremain invisible and unpaid.

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You are most influenced by thepeople you surround yourself

with, so choose wisely. This wassome really good advice I wasgiven very early on in life. In myopinion, one of the biggest reasonspeople falter on their fitness plansor goals is peer and family pres-sure. So what happens when yourspouse or partner joins you on thisjourney of yours? Would thatmake your life easier? Would ithelp you stick to your plan andprocess? Most likely, yes!

The pandemic has been ahuge learning curve for a lot ofpeople. Not only have their prior-ities changed, but also their atti-tude towards health and fitness.For someone like me, fitness hasbeen a part of life since a veryyoung age and even though I’vesuffered through my fair share offamily or peer pressure, it’s neveractually made me waiver. Mywife never really worked out in lifeto be honest. The only time shestarted taking her fitness serious-ly was after we had our firstchild. She’s always been thin, butfit is something she’s had to workon and really hard. I wasn’t real-ly enthused about the idea of usworking out together if I’m beingabsolutely honest, but having agoal and working on it togetherhas been a lot of fun. It also givesme an opportunity to make herpush a little because I know if shetrains alone, she isn’t going towork as hard as she should.

For people who are just start-

ing out, the peer and family pres-sure can get a bit too much andnine times out of 10 they will fal-ter. So having your partner orspouse join you on your journeywill only make it easier.

Having said all of the above,there are documented advantagesof working out with your spouse

that can benefit both parties.

�It improves the emotional bondyou share with your partner

According to various studies,working out with your partner likesprinting or jogging at the samepace, rhythmic weight-training orany workout has a plethora of pos-

itive effects. As a result, coupleswho work out together may feelmore “emotionally attuned” withone another as compared to oth-ers.

�AccountabilityWorking out together sets the

accountability for both partners

and each one motivates the otherto achieve goals, both as individ-uals and as a couple. And let’s behonest, we have our bad dayswhere we don’t feel like workingout, on such days your partnercould be the person who pushesyou to get the work done. If oneneeds a push to get out of bed inthe morning to workout, settingcouple goals could be the answer.If they’re awake and ready to go,you will be more likely to get yourworkout done instead of hittingthe snooze button on the phonefor the next hour. Having a part-ner can make you stick to yourgoals, even on days when a work-ing out is the last thing on yourmind.

�It brings happiness to yourrelationship

Exercise makes you a happi-er person individually, thanks toall the endorphins you releaseduring and after your workout. Ifyou work out with your partner,you get to experience that togeth-er.

Pushing and motivating eachother, then seeing the results ofall the hard work you’ve put in,

creates positivity for your rela-tionship.

�It’s a commitment to eachother

If you and your partner makeworking out together a regularthing, you establish a commongoal and respect that physicalactivity is important for your-selves and your relationship.There are a bunch of studies thatshow that individuals are morelikely to make a positive healthbehaviour change if their partnerdoes too.

Overall, fitness regimes canbe made more interesting andworking out as a couple is one ofthe ways to make that happen.What adds to the fun are thosemoments of slight humour inbetween workouts that is justunderstood between you andyour partner through mere eye-contact. Also, following healthyeating habits becomes easier anda fun thing to do if the same isshared. Hence, the saying ‘coupleswho train together, stay togeth-er’.

(The writer is the founder ofSohfit.)

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India took command of thesecond Test after an exhilarat-ing day two when 15 wickets

fell on a rapidly deteriorating pitchwith star spinner RavichandranAshwin ensuring a massive firstinnings lead for the hosts with his29th five-wicket haul, here onSunday.

Resuming the day at 300 forsix, Rishabh Pant took India to329 in their first innings with anunbeaten 58 before running outof partners.

Ashwin (5/43) and companythen bundled out England for 134on a pitch that is getting morevicious by each passing session.The 34-year-old picked up his sec-ond five-wicket haul of the seriesby uprooting the stumps of num-ber 11 Stuart Broad.

By close of play, India were 53for one in the second innings,extending their lead to 249 runs.

Wickets fell in a heap onSunday but it was by no means anunplayable surface, as demon-strated by Rohit Sharma on theopening day and with 25 off 62,he was going strong even bystumps on day two. CheteshwarPujara (7 batting off 18) was at theother end.

However, barring Ben Foakes(42 not out), England batsmenhad no answers to the challengeposed by the Indian bowlers.The sweep shot that came to theirrescue in much easier conditionsin the previous Test, broughttheir downfall including Root.

So far, the script has playedout perfectly for India, who wonthe all important toss on theopening day and put up a decentenough total on a dustbowl intheir bid to level the series.

Ishant provided the first

breakthrough for India when hehad left-handed opener RoryBurns LBW for a duck with a ballthat nipped back and beat his

defensive push.The other opener Dom Sibley

(16) was the next to go, caught byVirat Kohli at leg-slip off Ashwin,

which was given by the thirdumpire after India chose to reviewas the on-field umpire turneddown the appeal for a catch.

The big wicket of captain JoeRoot (6), who tormented thehost bowlers in the first Test, wastaken by debutant Axar Patel

when the England captain’sattempted sweep against the turnlanded safely in the hands ofAshwin at short fine-leg.

Ashwin then struck at thestroke of lunch, having DanLawrence (9) caught at short-legby Shubman Gill reducingEngland to 39 for four.

India claimed another four inthe post-lunch session to leaveEngland gasping at 106 for eightat tea.

Ashwin added two morescalps to his tally whileMohammed Siraj (1/5), who wasintroduced as late as in the 39thover, debutant Axar Patel (2/40)and Ishant Sharma (2/22) also didthe damage.

Ashwin got the big wicket ofBen Stokes in the sixth over afterlunch. The left-hander missed anattempted clip off a beauty thatdrifted in and lost his off-stump.

Ollie Pope (22), who lookedassured against the spinners, wasbrilliantly caught by a divingRishabh Pant when he tried toglide one down the leg-side, togive Mohammed Siraj a wicket offthe first ball he bowled in Tests inIndia.

Foakes, who impressed withhis keeping skills when Indiabatted, showed his abilities infront of the wickets too. He bat-ted with poise against the spin-ners, who were looking to makethe most of a helping pitch.

Moeen Ali, coming in atnumber eight, fell when his edgehit Pant’s thighs and rebounded toAjinkya Rahane who took a finecatch diving forward.

Earlier resuming the day at300 for six, India added 29 runsto their overnight score. Theaggressive Pant scored 25 of thoseruns, hitting two fours and twosixes to remain unbeaten.

For England, pacer Olly Stonefinished with 3 for 47 in his firstgame in India. Off-spinner Ali (4for 128) picked up four wicketsbut proved expensive.

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Gutsy Naomi Osaka saved twomatch points to outlast Garbine

Muguruza in a tense comebackwhile Serena Williams was pushedto a decider but prevailed againstAryna Sabalenka in a thriller onSunday and reach the AustralianOpen quarter-finals.

Hsieh Su-wei swept into her firstGrand Slam quarter-final after 16years of trying becoming the oldestplayer to make a last-eight debut inthe Open Era. Also, Simona Halepfought back from a set down to beatFrench Open champion Iga Swiatek3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Third seed Osaka as on the vergeof elimination at 3-5, 15-40 on herserve in the third set before rattlingoff four points in a row.

She then twice broke the serveof the two-time Grand Slam winnerMuguruza to prevail 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 inone hour and 55 minutes of grippingaction on an empty Rod LaverArena.

She will now have an all-Asianquarter-final against Chinese Taipeiveteran Hsieh Su-wei, who upset19th seed Marketa Vondrousova 6-

4, 6-2 in the fourth round.The 35-year-old overwhelmed

Vondrousova, a player 14 years herjunior. Hsieh got a early break in the

opening set and never looked trou-bled in win over the 19th seed, aplayer she also toppled in an AbuDhabi warm-up event in January.

�� Serena Williams outlasted big-

hitting Aryna Sabalenka in a three-set thriller to make Australian Openquarter-finals.

The American withstood a bar-rage from the seventh seed to pre-vail 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in two hours andnine minutes and set up a mouth-watering clash with world numbertwo Simona Halep.

Williams, 39, had never beforeplayed the Belarusian, who has col-lected more trophies than anyoneelse since last year French Open butnever reached the quarter-finals ofa Slam. Sabalenka, who has spokenabout modelling her big-hittinggame on Williams, showed off herpower with blistering serves andgroundstrokes in the high-octanecontest.

A composed Williams, watchedby older sister Venus in the stands,counter-attacked superbly in theearly stages and broke Sabalenka’sserve in the 10th game to win the

opening set.Sabalenka, who was born four

months after Williams made herGrand Slam debut in 1998, wasunperturbed and stepped up herassault to dominate Williams’ usu-ally reliable serve.

The 22-year-old admonishedherself before drawing level bypouncing on Williams’s falteringfirst serve, which she landed just 36%of the time in the second set.

Williams regrouped and raced toa commanding 4-1 lead in the thirdset as a frustrated Sabalenkaslammed her racquet to theground as the match began toslip away.

Sabalenka won threestraight games to get back onterms but Williams’s experience sawher through as she maintained herunbeaten run since emerging from14-day quarantine in Australia.

Halep exacted revenge onSwiatek with a comeback three-setvictory, which set up a blockbusterquarter-final with Serena Williams.

The world No 2 was thrashed bythe 19-year-old at Roland Garros,winning just three games, but turnedthe tide in Melbburne.

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The West Indies beat Bangladesh by 17 runs inthe second Test on Sunday to complete a 2-0

series sweep.Rahkeem Cornwall claimed 4/105 and com-

pleted a superb catch at first slip to end the matchas the tourists bowled out Bangladesh for 213 inthe second innings on the fourth day, 18 runs shortof their victory target.

While Cornwall took centerstage, KraiggBrathwaite (3/25) and Jomel Warrican (3/47)grabbed the remaining wickets as Bangladesh werebowled out for 213 on the fourth day.

The West Indies made 409 and 117 runs intheir two innings and Bangladesh were all out for296 in their first innings. The tourists had wonthe first Test by three wickets. which was anoth-er thriller with debutant Kyle Mayers scoring arecord-breaking fourth-inning double century.

Cornwall took centrestage as spinners pickedup all 10 wickets in a famous win.

Mehidy Hasan hit two sixes and three fourslate in the day to add drama after the hosts losttheir ninth wicket but the West Indies kept theircool to deny them a come-from-behind win.

“I would say this is a team effort. The one-day team didn’t do well. But we had some plansand came on top,” said skipper Kraigg Brathwaite.

The West Indies had lost the ODI series 3-0.“Coming over here with all the protocols in

place, it is huge,” he added.“Very thankful for this opportunity. I’m very

proud of the boys. It means everything backhome.”

�� +9600�:

Give Rishabh Pant a“break” from constant

comparisons and let him gofrom strength to strength, hissenior India teammateRavichandran Ashiwn sug-gested on Sunday.

Be it for his keeping orbatting, be it with one ofIndia’s greatest or any otherplayer, Pant needs a breakfrom all sorts of comparisons,expressed Ashiwn, who hasbeen keeping the youngstumper on his toes withdeliveries that look like fetch-ing their team wickets everynow and then.

“He was constantly com-pared with the great MSDhoni for a long time. Now hegets compared for his wicket-keeping with (Wriddhiman)Saha, this that and all that,sometimes it’s just better togive a break and let peoplebuild on confidence,” Ashwinsaid at the end of the secondday’s play during which hecollected his 29th five-for inTest cricket.

On his swashbucklingw i c k e t k e e p e r- b a t s m a n ,Ashwin continued, “Withrespect to Rishabh’s keeping,

the name of the game is con-fidence right, he has beenbatting well, he has beenworking incredibly hard onhis keeping as well...

“And sometimes, whenyou are constantly being com-

pared to someone who hasdone well for years, it can bereally hard, I really do feel forRishabh, on a lot occasions,when I am watching gamesfrom home where he is play-ing the white-ball format.

“He has definitely got theability, that is why he is here

and I have no doubt he will gofrom strength to strength.”

After playing a key role inIndia’s incredible series win inAustralia last month, Pantsaid the comparisons withDhoni are flattering but addedhe wants to carve his ownidentity in the game.

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Pakistan clinched a four-wicket vic-tory over South Africa in the third

and final T20I with eight balls to spareat the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore onSunday to clinch the series 2-1.

South Africa were all at sea anddespite heroics from David Miller,who scored an unbeaten 85, andTabraiz Shamsi’s career-best of 4-25,Pakistan were too good for the visitorsas Hasan Ali and Mohammad Nawazclubbed 20 runs off the penultimateover, bowled by Andile Phehlukwayo(2.4-0-37-0), to clinch the game and theseries with some space to spare.

Babar Azam had won the toss andhad asked Heinrich Klaasen’s men to batfirst. South Africa had slumped to 48for six and 67 for seven before Miller’sexploits pushed the South Africaneffort to a respectable 164 for eight.

Miller clubbed five boundariesand seven sixes, four of which came inthe final over of the innings, bowled byFaheem Ashraf (3-0-38-0), in his 45-ballinnings after the entire South Africanbatting order had been caught like adeer in the headlights.

In reply, Shamsi had bamboozledthe Pakistan top-order to leave SouthAfrica with hope of clinching a victo-ry from the jaws of defeat but a lack of

support proved the difference asPakistan reached 169 for six with stilleight balls remaining in the match.

The only support Miller received inthe South African effort was from open-er Janneman Malan. The Cobras manstruck three fours and a six from 17 ballsbefore being trapped leg before fromdebutant legspinner, Zihad Mahmood(4-0-40-3).

For Pakistan, Mohammad Rizwan,who scored a century and a fifty in thefirst two games, along with new part-ner Haider Ali (15), gave the home sidea good start with an opening stand of51 from just 37 balls.

,��168#; $06

Atired-looking Dominic Thiembecame the highest seed to fall

at this year’s Australian Open whenthe US Open champion was senttumbling out in straight sets byGrigor Dimitrov in the fourthround on Sunday while ailing worldNo 1 Novak Djokovic battled pastMilos Raonic to keep his titledefence alive.

The night match’s schedulinggave Djokovic the maximum

amount of time to recover froma midriff muscle injury sus-tained in his five-set winover American Taylor Fritz

late on Friday. And not oper-ating at his best, Djokovic

dropped a set but won 7-6(4), 4-6,6-1, 6-4 in a bruising battle. It wasthe Serb’s win No 300 in Grand Slamevents.

Earlier, Thiem, the Austrianthird seed and last year’s losing final-ist, appeared to lack energy after ral-lying to beat Nick Kyrgios over fivegruelling sets on Friday in front ofa raucous crowd. He struggled tomatch the intensity of the 18th-seed-

ed Bulgarian on a silent, fan-freeRod Laver Arena and slumped out6-4, 6-4, 6-0 in 2hr 1min.

Former world No 3 Dimitrovwill now play giant-killing Russianqualifier Aslan Karatsev in thequarter-finals after he stunned 20thseed Felix Auger-Aliassime over fivesets. The power-hitting 27-year-old,a virtual unknown before the tour-nament started, battled back fromtwo sets down to upset the Canadian

3-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 on MargaretCourt Arena.

Also, Alexander Zverev tottedup his 50th Grand Slam win whenhe beat Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic instraight sets to reach the quarter-finals.

The German sixth seed wastested in the first two sets butfound it easier in the third, sealinghis 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 victory withan ace.

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�� With apologies toHarbhajan Singh, R Ashwin onSunday cherished surpassing hisformer India teammate’s numberof Test wickets in the country.

With 266 scalps, Ashiwn isnow only behind spin legendAnil Kumble’s 350 wickets inhome Tests. Ashwin went pastHarbhajan, who took 265 wicketsin India at an average of 28.76, bydismissing Ben Stokes with aperfect off-spinner on the second

day of the second Test.“When I was watching the

2001 series where Bhajju Pa(Harbhajan) was playing, I didn’teven imagine that I would go outand become an off-spinner for thecountry.

“I was still a batsman for mystate, trying to accelerate a careertowards batting and playing forthe country, I wasn’t sure whetherI would go on and become a play-er for the Indian team,” Ashwin

said at a post-day conference.The 34-year-old Ashwin, who

has so far taken 391 wickets from76 Tests at an impressive averageof 25.26, was not aware of his featuntil he had come for the mediainteraction at the end of the day’splay.

According to Ashwin, a lot ofhis teammates, when he wasyoung, would make fun of him ashe used to try bowling likeHarbhajan.

“Lot of my teammates fromthat age, from that generation, youknow, used to make fun of me,because I used to bowl like BhajjuPa, my action, I used to try andbowl like him and all that.

“So, from there on to comeone and actually break the recordof something that he possesses,has to be incredibly special. I did-n’t know of it, now that I do knowof it, I feel happy. Sorry, BhajjuPa...,” said Ashwin. PTI

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�� It is an incrediblychallenging surface, saidEngland assistant coachGraham Thorpe as Indiatook upper hand after dis-missing England for 134 intheir f irst innings onSunday.

“It is a very challengingsurface that is what I amgoing to say. In terms of mecommenting on the pitch Ithink that is for someoneabove me to look at.

“It was incredibly chal-lenging on that surface forus on day two. Theirs isobviously a very skilled spinattack as well on their ownconditions. And it was avery good toss to win,”Thorpe said at press confer-ence.

Decisions by the third

umpire have come in forcriticism in the match so farand on Sunday there was anissue over Rohit Sharmabeing ruled not out onreview after he was ruled outby the on-field umpire.

However, Thorpeoffered straight bat, saying“we have to accept the deci-sion.”

“We have to trust thetechnology...That’s really allI can say,” the formerEngland batsman said to aquestion if there was a senseof frustration with theDecision Review System.

Asked how the Englandbatsmen would need to baton a tricky pitch like the onehere, Thorpe said the bats-men had plans but could notexecute. PTI

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�� Munich: Bayern Munich is signing French

defender Dayot Upamecano from Bundesligarival Leipzig in its first transfer for next season.The Bavarian powerhouse said in a statement onSunday that the 22-year-old Upamecano hadagreed a five-year deal through June 2026effective from July 1. Bayern is making use of a42.5 million euro ($51.5 million) buyout clausein Upamecano's current contract at Leipzig,which would otherwise have run to 2023.

�� Melbourne: Indian tennis player Ankita

Raina recorded her first victory in the singlesmain draw of a WTA Tour event with a three-set win over Elisabetta Cocciaretto at the PhillipIsland Trophy here on Sunday. Ankita came frombehind to beat the Italian 5-7, 6-1, 6-2 in theopening round of the $235,238 hard court tour-nament. The two-hour and 11 minutes win willtake Ankita to her new career-high singles rankof 156 from 181. If she goes deep, then she willensure her place in top-150.

�� ,�� !� ��Dubai: Teenaged high jumpers Praveen

Kumar and Nishad Kumar produced their per-sonal best efforts to take a Gold each and set newAsian records as the curtains came down on the12th Fazza International World Para AthleticsGrand Prix here. Praveen's and Nishad's Goldmedal-winning efforts were the high points forIndia who also had three Silver and a Bronze onSaturday, to end their campaign at the champi-onships with 23 medals. At the end of the com-petition, India were among the top finishers inthe medal tally with Thailand returning homewith 34 medals, while Turkey, Kenya and Indiafinished with 23 each.

*�� !��*�� LUCKNOW: DainikJagran on Sundaybegan their cam-paign of the MediaCup Twenty20Cricket Tournamentin style, beatingdefeating Ditital Media by 27 runs at the KDSingh ‘Babu’ Stadium here. In another match ofthe day, Photo Journalists XI defeated ThePioneer by 10 wickets to collect full point in aGroup A match.BRIEF SCORESDainik Jagran 132/4 in 20 overs (Prahlad Mawri45, Rohit Srivastava 20, Sunil Singh 17, SaurabhSingh 2/19, Himanshu Dixit 2/23) beat DigitalMedia 105 in 18.3 overs (Abhilash Mishra 16,Vinod 3/12, Alok Mishra 3/27, Sunil Singh 2/20).The Pioneer 70 in 16.2 overs (Shalabh Saxena17, Ashutosh 14, Kayam Raza 4/12, Kashif Khan2/13, Ashutosh Tripathi 2/19) lost to PhotoJournalists XI 71/0 in 8.5 overs (Kashif Hasan42*, Satyendra Mehrotra 17*).

the pioneer€¦ · of army staff, received arjun arjun mk-1a from prime minister modi in an...

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