(! 4`gZU dfcXV Z_ >f^SRZ &! Z_ 5V]YZ Z_ " URj - Daily Pioneer

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I n an alarming development, Maharashtra and Delhi on Wednesday recorded massive spike in Covid-19 cases driven by a surge in Omicron infec- tion. While Mumbai logged 2,510 cases on Wednesday, Delhi recorded 923 cases. The two cities saw a 70 per cent and 50 per cent jump respectively over a 24-hour period. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said it was alarming that in Mumbai 2,200 people out of 51,000 tested positive. The positivity rate stood at 4 per cent. “Positivity rate is rising at an alarming rate. If the posi- tivity rate goes to 5 per cent then there will have to be more restrictions like Delhi. People have to understand the concern with rising cases and crowding at wedding functions may not be a good idea,” Tope said. Mumbai also saw an all- time high of 85 cases of Omicron, taking the total num- ber of new Covid-19 variant cases to 252. Of the 85 Omicron cases recorded, Mumbai accounted for the maximum of 34 cases, while Nagpur and Pimpri- Chinchwad recorded three cases. The break-up of cases in other parts of the State is as fol- lows: Navi Mumbai and Pune Municipal Corporation (PPMC) two each, while Panvel, Kolhapur and Buldhana one case each. Meanwhile, Delhi regis- tered a massive spike in daily Covid-19 cases with 923 fresh cases on Wednesday, highest since May 30 while the posi- tivity rate rose to 1.29 per cent from 0.89 per cent on Tuesday. According to Covid-19 bulletin of the Delhi Government, 344 people recov- ered in the past 24 hour. Total 64,233 tests were conducted in the past 24 hours, out of which 7,463 were rapid antigen tests, the health official said. In a sign of worry, it has emerged that about 38 per cent of the total samples analysed at various genome sequencing laboratories in Delhi in the past one week have been detected with Omicron variant of Covid. Sources said that of the 468 samples analysed during December 21-28, the Delta variant of coronavirus was detected in 31 per cent of these samples, and the rest constituted other variants including Omicron. Cumulative cases in Delhi stand at 14,45,102 while the positivity rate at 4.44 per cent. Total 14,17,804 patients recov- ered, total deaths 25,107 and the case fatality rate is 1.74. Delhi has 2191 active cases. Of these, 1,068 patients are in home isolation. On May 30, Delhi had recorded 946 Covid- 19 cases and 78 deaths with a positivity rate of 1.25 per cent. On Tuesday, the city saw 496 Covid-19 cases and one fatality due to the disease. A total of 71,696 Covid-19 tests were conducted the previous day, the bulletin said. “We are disheartened when we see crowding at markets and malls. We will have to shut down markets if this contin- ues,” said Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal. “I know you all are tired of restrictions, but it is important and there is nothing we can do about it,” he added. Continued on Page 11 T he overall risk associated with the Omicron variant remains “very high” which could cause widespread dis- ruption to health systems and other critical services, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said. In India, the Omicron infection tally climbed to 781 from 578 cases on December 27, while it was 23 cases on December 7. The national Capital has the high- est cases of the variant at 238, followed by Maharashtra at 167 cases so far. The WHO warning comes a day after Paul Kattuman, professor at the Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge which has devel- oped a Covid-19 India tracker, wrote that “India may see a spurt in the Covid-19 growth rate within days and head into an intense but short-lived virus wave as the highly-infectious Omicron variant moves through the crowded nation of almost 1.4 billion.” “It is likely that India will see a period of explosive growth in daily cases and that the intense growth phase will be relatively short,” he said. In fact, in the last 24 hours, India registered 9,195 fresh Covid-19 cases, a significant spike from the previous day’s figure of 6,358, and 302 deaths, as per the data available from the Union Health Ministry. In its weekly epidemio- logical update, the WHO said that “the overall risk related to the new variant of concern Omicron remains very high”. “Consistent evidence shows that the Omicron vari- ant has a growth advantage over the Delta variant with a doubling time of two to three days,” read the update. The Omicron variant, first identified in late November in southern Africa, has sent infec- tions soaring to levels not seen since last winter, bringing the total number of US coron- avirus cases to more than 52.9 million, with more than 819,000 deaths. States in India have already started imposing restrictions to check the spread of Covid-19 in the wake of New Year cele- brations amid a spike in infec- tions with Delhi already issu- ing “yellow alerts” while Maharashtra has declared a ban on night movement and limits on gathering. Kerala Government has imposed a night curfew from December 30 to January 2 and restricted New Year celebra- tions. Only essential services will be allowed during the cur- few. The State has barred cele- brations after 10 pm on December 31. Continued on Page11 U shered in by unseasonal rain, the cold wave may ring in the New Year on a hos- tile note in many parts of north India. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has said a cold wave will sweep over the northwestern plains, particularly Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh from December 31 to January 2. Similar conditions are also possible over north Rajasthan this weekend, January 1-2. The minimum tempera- ture could fall by 2 to 4° C over most parts of northwest India during the next two days. Dense fog could settle over sev- eral pockets of north India dur- ing the next three days. The IMD has placed Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi and Rajasthan under a yellow watch until January 2. This level of advisory urges res- idents to “be aware” of their local weather situation. Meanwhile, some parts of the country will witness rain and hailstorm for the next couple of days, the weather agency said. Even as the sun shone bright in large parts of the region on Wednesday, biting cold swept most places in Punjab and parts of Haryana, with minimum temperatures hovering below normal limits. Moga in Punjab was the coldest place, recording a low of one degree celsius. Amritsar, Bathinda, Faridkot and Ferozepur recorded identical minimum temperatures of 2.4 degrees celsius each, according to the meteorological depart- ment here. Continued on Page 11 T he Nagaland police will question the Army jawans involved in the December 4 killing of 13 civilians. One sol- dier was also killed in clashes with the locals. The soldiers may be questioned on Thursday. The Army has agreed to allow Nagaland’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) to examine and record the state- ments of officers and jawans who were involved in the killing. The killing of a group of civilians returning from work in a minibus on that day reportedly by the soldiers in a case of mistaken identity led to irate village folks clashing with the troops. They had to open fire leading to some more deaths. It led to mass unrest in the State. The Nagaland SIT is like- ly to complete recording the statements of the 21 Para Special Forces soldiers this week, top police sources said. It’s not yet clear if the soldiers will be interrogated by the SIT or they will only submit pre- pared statements. The State Government immediately instituted an SIT which will question the sol- diers of the elite commando unit allegedly involved in the incident. So far, they have not been questioned by the SIT, sources said here on Wednesday. They are likely to depose before the SIT in Jorhat, sources said. A Major General is head- ing the court of inquiry to probe all angles of the incident and an Army team is now in Oting, Mon district for probe. Home Minister Amit Shah had expressed regret over the inci- dent in Parliament. The incident led to the renewal of demand to remove the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) from Nagaland. The Centre earlier this week set up a five-member committee to look into the issue of repealing the Act. Continued on Page 11 I n a move to give relief to people, especially to those belonging to the lower income group of the State, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Wednesday announced 25 per litre cash- back on purchase of petrol for ration card holders of the State. However, the cashback can be availed up to the pur- chase of 10 litres of petrol every month and the subsidy amount will be transferred to the beneficiary’s bank account through DBT. The CM made the announcement during the second anniversary pro- gramme of the Government where he laid foundation and inaugurated development projects worth 17,222.02 crores. “Today the prices of petrol and diesel are touching the sky. This has had a bad effect on the poor and middle class families. A poor person, having a motorcycle in the house, is unable to ride it due to lack of money. He is unable to go to the market to sell his crop. Therefore, I have decid- ed that if such ration card holders fill petrol in their motorcycles or scooters, then at the rate of 25 per litre, the amount will be transferred to their bank account. This sys- tem is going to be imple- mented from January 26 next year. A poor family can get this amount up to 10 litres of petrol per month,” announced the CM in his address. Soren also launched sev- eral new schemes on the occa- sion, including the Students Credit Card scheme for the students of the State. He said that soon the students of the State would get the benefit of this scheme. Lack of money will never become a hin- drance to them for their edu- cation, he added. He said that the State Government is working in the direction of implementing the Old Pension Scheme for State Government employees. The CM on the occasion also launched Integrated Birsa Village Development Scheme cum Kisan Pathshala. 1,000 days special summer cam- paign was launched against malnutrition and anemia. An MoU was signed for Placement Linked Training Programme and another MoU to promote and provide market for forest produce was signed. Journalist health insurance scheme was launched along with several other schemes. A n insurer cannot repudiate a claim by citing an exist- ing medical condition that was disclosed by the insured in the proposal form, once the poli- cy has been issued, the Supreme Court has said. A bench of justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna also said a pro- poser is under a duty to dis- close to the insurer all materi- al facts within his knowledge. The proposer is presumed to know all the facts and circum- stances concerning the pro- posed insurance, it added. While the proposer can only disclose what is known to him, the proposer’s duty of dis- closure is not confined to his actual knowledge, it also extends to those material facts which, in the ordinary course of business, he ought to know, the court said. “Once the policy has been issued after assessing the med- ical condition of the insured, the insurer cannot repudiate the claim by citing an existing medical condition, which was disclosed by the insured in the proposal form and which con- dition has led to a particular risk in respect of which the claim has been made by the insured,” the bench said in a recent judgment. The top court was hearing an appeal filed by Manmohan Nanda against an order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), rejecting his plea seeking a claim for medical expenses incurred in the United States. Nanda had bought an Overseas Mediclaim Business and Holiday Policy as he intended to travel to the US. On reaching the San Francisco airport, he suffered a heart attack and was admitted to a hospital, where angioplasty was performed on him and three stents were inserted to remove the blockage from the heart vessels. Subsequently, the appel- lant claimed the treatment expenses from the insurer, which was repudiated by the latter stating that the appellant had a history of hyperlipi- daemia and diabetes, which was not disclosed while buying the insurance policy. The NCDRC had con- cluded that since the com- plainant had been under statin medication, which was not disclosed while buying the mediclaim policy, he failed to comply with his duty to make a complete disclosure of his health conditions. T he Indian SARS-COV-2 Genomics Consortia INSACOG on Wednesday said there is clear experimental and clinical data supporting the very high immune escape potential of Omicron. In its latest bulletin, INSACOG has cited global data to claim on the basis of ini- tial estimates that the severity of illness is lower than what was seen in previous outbreaks. “There is now clear exper- imental and clinical data sup- porting very high immune escape potential of Omicron, which appears to be the major component of its growth advantage over Delta, the genomic consortium said. In India, appropriate pub- lic health measures and inves- tigations are being conducted for surveillance of Omicron, INSACOG said while noting that globally there appears to be significantly reduced ability of vaccines or prior infection to protect against symptomatic infection by the Omicron variant. “While Delta continues to be the most prevalent VOC (variant of concern) globally, the Omicron variant has com- pletely displaced it in southern Africa and is on track to become the dominant variant in the UK and elsewhere,” INSACOG said in its bulletin released on Wednesday. P resently posted as Secretary at the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Affairs and Chairman of Delhi Metro Rail, Durga Shankar Mishra, a 1984 batch IAS officer of UP cadre, will replace RK Tewari as the 54th chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh. The Cabinet Committee of Appointment of the Union gov- ernment has cleared the proposal of the state government to appoint Mishra as the new chief secretary of UP. Mishra, who is to superannuate on December 31 this year, is likely to be given extension in service. He is sched- uled to arrive in Lucknow on Thursday and is likely to take over as chief secretary after the orders are issued by the state gov- ernment. Incumbent Chief Secretary RK Tiwari, retiring at the end of 2023, was appointed to this post on September 1, 2019, after the retirement of then Chief Secretary Anup Chandra Pandey on August 31, 2019. Pandey has since been appointed as Election Commissioner of India. Tiwari is likely to move to the Centre as he has already been empan- elled for appointment as secre- tary in the Government of India.

Transcript of (! 4`gZU dfcXV Z_ >f^SRZ &! Z_ 5V]YZ Z_ " URj - Daily Pioneer

Page 1: (! 4`gZU dfcXV Z_ >f^SRZ &! Z_ 5V]YZ Z_ " URj - Daily Pioneer

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In an alarming development,Maharashtra and Delhi on

Wednesday recorded massivespike in Covid-19 cases drivenby a surge in Omicron infec-tion. While Mumbai logged2,510 cases on Wednesday,Delhi recorded 923 cases. Thetwo cities saw a 70 per cent and50 per cent jump respectivelyover a 24-hour period.

Maharashtra HealthMinister Rajesh Tope said itwas alarming that in Mumbai2,200 people out of 51,000tested positive. The positivityrate stood at 4 per cent.

“Positivity rate is rising atan alarming rate. If the posi-tivity rate goes to 5 per centthen there will have to be morerestrictions like Delhi. Peoplehave to understand the concernwith rising cases and crowdingat wedding functions may notbe a good idea,” Tope said.

Mumbai also saw an all-time high of 85 cases ofOmicron, taking the total num-ber of new Covid-19 variantcases to 252.

Of the 85 Omicron casesrecorded, Mumbai accountedfor the maximum of 34 cases,while Nagpur and Pimpri-Chinchwad recorded three

cases. The break-up of cases inother parts of the State is as fol-lows: Navi Mumbai and PuneMunicipal Corporation(PPMC) two each, whilePanvel, Kolhapur and Buldhanaone case each.

Meanwhile, Delhi regis-tered a massive spike in dailyCovid-19 cases with 923 freshcases on Wednesday, highestsince May 30 while the posi-tivity rate rose to 1.29 per centfrom 0.89 per cent on Tuesday.

According to Covid-19bulletin of the DelhiGovernment, 344 people recov-ered in the past 24 hour. Total64,233 tests were conducted inthe past 24 hours, out of which7,463 were rapid antigen tests,the health official said.

In a sign of worry, it hasemerged that about 38 percent of the total samplesanalysed at various genomesequencing laboratories inDelhi in the past one week havebeen detected with Omicronvariant of Covid.

Sources said that of the468 samples analysed duringDecember 21-28, the Deltavariant of coronavirus wasdetected in 31 per cent ofthese samples, and the restconstituted other variantsincluding Omicron.

Cumulative cases in Delhistand at 14,45,102 while thepositivity rate at 4.44 per cent.Total 14,17,804 patients recov-ered, total deaths 25,107 andthe case fatality rate is 1.74.

Delhi has 2191 active cases. Ofthese, 1,068 patients are inhome isolation. On May 30,Delhi had recorded 946 Covid-19 cases and 78 deaths with apositivity rate of 1.25 per cent.

On Tuesday, the city saw496 Covid-19 cases and onefatality due to the disease. Atotal of 71,696 Covid-19 testswere conducted the previousday, the bulletin said.

“We are disheartened whenwe see crowding at markets andmalls. We will have to shutdown markets if this contin-ues,” said Delhi CM ArvindKejriwal. “I know you all aretired of restrictions, but it isimportant and there is nothingwe can do about it,” he added.

Continued on Page 11

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The overall risk associatedwith the Omicron variant

remains “very high” whichcould cause widespread dis-ruption to health systems andother critical services, theWorld Health Organisation(WHO) has said. In India, theOmicron infection tallyclimbed to 781 from 578 caseson December 27, while it was23 cases on December 7. Thenational Capital has the high-est cases of the variant at 238,followed by Maharashtra at167 cases so far.

The WHO warning comesa day after Paul Kattuman,professor at the Judge BusinessSchool at the University ofCambridge which has devel-oped a Covid-19 India tracker,wrote that “India may see aspurt in the Covid-19 growthrate within days and head intoan intense but short-lived viruswave as the highly-infectiousOmicron variant movesthrough the crowded nation ofalmost 1.4 billion.”

“It is likely that India willsee a period of explosivegrowth in daily cases and thatthe intense growth phase willbe relatively short,” he said.

In fact, in the last 24 hours,India registered 9,195 fresh

Covid-19 cases, a significantspike from the previous day’sfigure of 6,358, and 302 deaths,as per the data available fromthe Union Health Ministry.

In its weekly epidemio-logical update, the WHO saidthat “the overall risk related tothe new variant of concernOmicron remains very high”.

“Consistent evidenceshows that the Omicron vari-ant has a growth advantageover the Delta variant with adoubling time of two to threedays,” read the update.

The Omicron variant, first

identified in late November insouthern Africa, has sent infec-tions soaring to levels not seen

since last winter, bringing thetotal number of US coron-avirus cases to more than 52.9million, with more than819,000 deaths.

States in India have alreadystarted imposing restrictions tocheck the spread of Covid-19in the wake of New Year cele-brations amid a spike in infec-tions with Delhi already issu-ing “yellow alerts” whileMaharashtra has declared aban on night movement andlimits on gathering.

Kerala Government hasimposed a night curfew fromDecember 30 to January 2 andrestricted New Year celebra-tions. Only essential serviceswill be allowed during the cur-few. The State has barred cele-brations after 10 pm onDecember 31.

Continued on Page11

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Ushered in by unseasonalrain, the cold wave may

ring in the New Year on a hos-tile note in many parts ofnorth India. The IndiaMeteorological Department(IMD) has said a cold wave willsweep over the northwesternplains, particularly Punjab,Haryana and Chandigarh fromDecember 31 to January 2.Similar conditions are alsopossible over north Rajasthanthis weekend, January 1-2.

The minimum tempera-ture could fall by 2 to 4° C overmost parts of northwest Indiaduring the next two days.Dense fog could settle over sev-eral pockets of north India dur-ing the next three days.

The IMD has placed

Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh,Delhi and Rajasthan under ayellow watch until January 2.This level of advisory urges res-idents to “be aware” of theirlocal weather situation.

Meanwhile, some parts ofthe country will witness rainand hailstorm for the nextcouple of days, the weatheragency said.

Even as the sun shonebright in large parts of theregion on Wednesday, biting

cold swept most places inPunjab and parts of Haryana,with minimum temperatureshovering below normal limits.

Moga in Punjab was thecoldest place, recording a lowof one degree celsius. Amritsar,Bathinda, Faridkot andFerozepur recorded identicalminimum temperatures of 2.4degrees celsius each, accordingto the meteorological depart-ment here.

Continued on Page 11

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The Nagaland police willquestion the Army jawans

involved in the December 4killing of 13 civilians. One sol-dier was also killed in clasheswith the locals. The soldiersmay be questioned onThursday.

The Army has agreed toallow Nagaland’s SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) toexamine and record the state-ments of officers and jawanswho were involved in thekilling.

The killing of a group ofcivilians returning from workin a minibus on that dayreportedly by the soldiers in acase of mistaken identity led toirate village folks clashing withthe troops. They had to openfire leading to some moredeaths. It led to mass unrest inthe State.

The Nagaland SIT is like-ly to complete recording thestatements of the 21 Para

Special Forces soldiers thisweek, top police sources said.It’s not yet clear if the soldierswill be interrogated by the SITor they will only submit pre-pared statements.

The State Governmentimmediately instituted an SITwhich will question the sol-diers of the elite commandounit allegedly involved in theincident. So far, they have notbeen questioned by the SIT,sources said here onWednesday. They are likely todepose before the SIT in Jorhat,sources said.

A Major General is head-ing the court of inquiry toprobe all angles of the incidentand an Army team is now inOting, Mon district for probe.Home Minister Amit Shah hadexpressed regret over the inci-dent in Parliament.

The incident led to therenewal of demand to removethe Armed Forces SpecialPowers Act (AFSPA) fromNagaland. The Centre earlierthis week set up a five-membercommittee to look into theissue of repealing the Act.

Continued on Page 11

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In a move to give relief topeople, especially to those

belonging to the lowerincome group of the State,Jharkhand Chief MinisterHemant Soren on Wednesdayannounced �25 per litre cash-back on purchase of petrol forration card holders of theState. However, the cashbackcan be availed up to the pur-chase of 10 litres of petrolevery month and the subsidyamount will be transferred tothe beneficiary’s bank accountthrough DBT.

The CM made the

announcement during thesecond anniversary pro-gramme of the Governmentwhere he laid foundation andinaugurated developmentprojects worth �17,222.02crores. “Today the prices ofpetrol and diesel are touchingthe sky. This has had a badeffect on the poor and middleclass families. A poor person,having a motorcycle in thehouse, is unable to ride it dueto lack of money. He is unableto go to the market to sell hiscrop. Therefore, I have decid-ed that if such ration cardholders fill petrol in theirmotorcycles or scooters, thenat the rate of �25 per litre, theamount will be transferred totheir bank account. This sys-tem is going to be imple-mented from January 26 nextyear. A poor family can getthis amount up to 10 litres ofpetrol per month,” announcedthe CM in his address.

Soren also launched sev-eral new schemes on the occa-

sion, including the StudentsCredit Card scheme for thestudents of the State. He saidthat soon the students of theState would get the benefit ofthis scheme. Lack of moneywill never become a hin-drance to them for their edu-cation, he added. He saidthat the State Government isworking in the direction ofimplementing the OldPension Scheme for StateGovernment employees.

The CM on the occasionalso launched Integrated BirsaVillage Development Schemecum Kisan Pathshala. 1,000days special summer cam-paign was launched againstmalnutrition and anemia. AnMoU was signed forPlacement Linked TrainingProgramme and anotherMoU to promote and providemarket for forest producewas signed. Journalist healthinsurance scheme waslaunched along with severalother schemes.

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An insurer cannot repudiatea claim by citing an exist-

ing medical condition that wasdisclosed by the insured in theproposal form, once the poli-cy has been issued, theSupreme Court has said. Abench of justices DYChandrachud and BVNagarathna also said a pro-poser is under a duty to dis-close to the insurer all materi-al facts within his knowledge.The proposer is presumed toknow all the facts and circum-stances concerning the pro-posed insurance, it added.

While the proposer canonly disclose what is known tohim, the proposer’s duty of dis-closure is not confined to hisactual knowledge, it alsoextends to those material factswhich, in the ordinary courseof business, he ought to know,the court said.

“Once the policy has beenissued after assessing the med-

ical condition of the insured,the insurer cannot repudiatethe claim by citing an existingmedical condition, which wasdisclosed by the insured in theproposal form and which con-dition has led to a particularrisk in respect of which theclaim has been made by theinsured,” the bench said in arecent judgment.

The top court was hearingan appeal filed by ManmohanNanda against an order of theNational Consumer DisputesRedressal Commission(NCDRC), rejecting his pleaseeking a claim for medicalexpenses incurred in theUnited States.

Nanda had bought anOverseas Mediclaim Businessand Holiday Policy as heintended to travel to the US.On reaching the San Franciscoairport, he suffered a heartattack and was admitted to ahospital, where angioplasty wasperformed on him and threestents were inserted to removethe blockage from the heartvessels.

Subsequently, the appel-lant claimed the treatmentexpenses from the insurer,which was repudiated by thelatter stating that the appellanthad a history of hyperlipi-daemia and diabetes, whichwas not disclosed while buyingthe insurance policy.

The NCDRC had con-cluded that since the com-plainant had been under statinmedication, which was notdisclosed while buying themediclaim policy, he failed tocomply with his duty to makea complete disclosure of hishealth conditions.

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The Indian SARS-COV-2Genomics Consortia

INSACOG on Wednesday saidthere is clear experimental andclinical data supporting thevery high immune escapepotential of Omicron.

In its latest bulletin,INSACOG has cited globaldata to claim on the basis of ini-tial estimates that the severityof illness is lower than what wasseen in previous outbreaks.

“There is now clear exper-imental and clinical data sup-porting very high immuneescape potential of Omicron,which appears to be the majorcomponent of its growthadvantage over Delta, the

genomic consortium said.In India, appropriate pub-

lic health measures and inves-tigations are being conductedfor surveillance of Omicron,INSACOG said while notingthat globally there appears to besignificantly reduced ability ofvaccines or prior infection toprotect against symptomaticinfection by the Omicron variant.

“While Delta continues tobe the most prevalent VOC(variant of concern) globally,the Omicron variant has com-pletely displaced it in southernAfrica and is on track tobecome the dominant variantin the UK and elsewhere,”INSACOG said in its bulletinreleased on Wednesday.

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Presently posted as Secretaryat the Union Ministry of

Housing and UrbanDevelopment Affairs andChairman of Delhi Metro Rail,Durga Shankar Mishra, a 1984batch IAS officer of UP cadre,will replace RK Tewari as the54th chief secretary of UttarPradesh.

The Cabinet Committee ofAppointment of the Union gov-ernment has cleared the proposalof the state government toappoint Mishra as the new chiefsecretary of UP. Mishra, who isto superannuate on December31 this year, is likely to be givenextension in service. He is sched-uled to arrive in Lucknow onThursday and is likely to takeover as chief secretary after theorders are issued by the state gov-ernment.

Incumbent Chief SecretaryRK Tiwari, retiring at the endof 2023, was appointed to thispost on September 1, 2019,after the retirement of thenChief Secretary Anup ChandraPandey on August 31, 2019.

Pandey has since beenappointed as ElectionCommissioner of India. Tiwariis likely to move to the Centreas he has already been empan-elled for appointment as secre-tary in the Government of India.

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NOTICE

I Avadh Raj Tiwari R/o 5/705,Viram Khand, Gomti Nagar,Lucknow declare that my son's Abhinav Tiwari Date of birthis printed 19-08-2005 in HighSchool Marksheet which iswrong, while the correct dateof birth is 18-08-2005 whichshould be entered in Schoolrecord/High School Marksheet.

NOTICE

NOTICE

Late Shri Raj Krishna S/o Late Shri IqbalBahadur Singh resident of 1/293, Viram Khan-1,Gomti Nagar, Lucknow-226010, is the mainapplicant in the Studio No. B1/0828 and B-1/829,in DLF My Pad, Vibhuti Khand, GomtiNagar, Lucknow. On 28/04/2021 Shri RajKrishna passed away at Medhansh Hospital,Nekpur Badaun Road, Bareilly and after hisdeath the said studio is being transferred tohis wife Mrs. Kirtika Krishna. If Someone hasany objection,please contact on the belowaddress within 21 days from today.1/293, Viram Khan-1, Gomti Nagar,Lucknow-226010

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NOTICE

My original allotment letterNo.201/JS-2/PA/97-98 Dated31.03.1997 in the name of RaviDutt Shukla s/o late D.N.ShuklaRegarding plot no.A-17Gautam Vihar New Shivli RoadKalyanpur Kanpur Nagar Hasbeen lost at the mall RoadKanpur Nagar,Smt. LaxmiShukla w/o Late Ravi DuttShukla R/o A-17, GautamVihar, New Shivl i RoadKalyanpur Kanpur Nagar

NOTICE

Ramesh chandra kesarwanihave changed Ramesh chan-dra by affidavit sworn beforethe notery public, Pratapgarhon 27.12.2021. henceforth, Ishall be known as RameshChandra for al lpurpose.571,kifayat ullah roadPratapgarh (U P)

It is informed To The General Public That IDeclare On Behalf Of My Mother Mrs SeetaDevi Wife of Shriprakash That The OriginalCopy Of The Property Document 06/07/2011Serial Document Number 3302 Which IsExecuted By Smt Pushpa Devi wife of VijayPrasad Kanskar In Favor Of Annapurna Deviwife of Rupesh Kumar. The Said Document(Previous Sale Deed) Has Been LostSomewhere. Any Person / Bank CreditNumber / Financial Institution To Whom YouAre In Relation To The Said Document, ThenHe Should Submit The Objection With In 7Days From The Date Of Publication Of ThisNotice (Today) Otherwise, In The Event OfClaim, Acquisition Or Objection Will BeWaived Shall Be Deemed To Have Been GivenOr Shall Be Deemed To Be Non-Obligatory.* *Rohit Gupta S/O- Mr. Shriprakash GuptaMohalla-Rajiv Nagar Bhrigu Ashram, District-Ballia (Uttar Pradesh)

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The Election Commission ofIndia on the second day of

the visit to Lucknow onWednesday held a reviewmeeting with the state's seniorofficials to assess the 2022Uttar Pradesh assembly pollpreparedness.

The chief secretary, districtmagistrates, police commis-sioners, deputy inspector gen-eral of police officers, addition-al chief secretary (home),among other officials werepresent in the meeting.

The Election Commissiondirected the state officials totake tough measures for curb-ing the flow of cash and liquorduring the elections and forensuring free and free elec-tions.

The Election Commissionasked the officials to keep aclose watch on black moneyand liquor smuggling to UP

from the neighbouring states.The Election Commission alsoasked officials to keep a closewatch on air traffic and ask air-port authorities to keep acomplete record of charteredflights of the political partiesand their leaders. The ElectionCommission directed that themovement of the cash van fordispensing cash at the ATMsshould be restricted after sun-set. It said the movement ofcash from the cash chest of theReserve Bank of India wouldbe permitted only with validdocuments otherwise the cashwould be seized.

The Excise departmentofficials apprised the ElectionCommission of the detailedplan for curbing the flow ofillicit liquor and liquor smug-gling from the neighbouringstates. The ElectionCommission sought the dataof alcohol consumption in UPin January-February last year.

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The Uttar Pradesh Excise departmentissued licences for setting up 12 distil-

leries, three breweries, 12 microbreweries and97 sanitiser units across the state andgave approval to other licences, allowinginvestments of about Rs 6,545 crore,thereby paving the way for creation of60,000 new jobs in the last four years and ahalf.

Additional Chief Secretary (Excise)

Sanjay Bhoosreddy said that ease of doingbusiness and simplification of existing ruleshad resulted in the establishment of newindustries and generation of new opportuni-ties of investment.

“Establishment of new distilleries hashelped in improving the financial conditionof sugar mills, making it easier for them toclear the arrears of sugarcane farmers and alsoin generating additional employment. Tennew distilleries have been set up in the pri-vate sector which has increased the total

installed capacity by 3,737 lakh litres and aninvestment of Rs 1,133 crore has been madein the state so far," he said.

The additional chief secretary said thatthree new breweries were going to be estab-lished in Sambhal, Sonbhadra and Barabanki.He said with the establishment of these units,beer production in the state would increaseto 12.48 hectolitres and Rs 165 crore hadalready been invested by entrepreneurs in set-ting up these units.

The Excise department has also provid-

ed 12 licences for the establishment ofmicrobreweries in Kanpur, Noida, Ghaziabad,Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Meerut, Agra,Lucknow, Moradabad and Bareilly.

"An investment of about Rs 12 crore hasbeen made the in the establishment ofmicrobreweries. Efforts are being made by theExcise department to set up wineries in thestate. Subtropical fruits like mango, jamun,peach are produced in abundance in UttarPradesh which can be used for the produc-tion of wine," Bhoosreddy said.

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Announcing a New Year gift,Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath declared an increaseof Rs 2,000 in the honorariumof part-time instructors and Rs500 of cooks working in theBasic Education department.

Along with this, BasicShiksha Parishad will providemoney to purchase two sareesand aprons to the cooks andcooks will be provided withhealth insurance cover of Rs 5lakh under Ayushman BharatYojana or Mukhyamantri JanArogya Yojana. Once these areimplemented, a total of 27,546instructors and 3,78,000 cookswill benefit from thisannouncement.

Speaking at a function onWednesday, the chief ministersaid that the developments inBasic Education and otherdepartments in the last fouryears and a half had changedpublic perceptions towards thestate government.

“What we achieved today isnot because of an individual,but is the result of a collective

effort of people. Before 2017,schools of the Basic Educationdepartment were on theverge of closure. But now, thepresent government hasstarted a special 'SchoolChalo' campaign which hasresulted in enrolment of 54 lakhnew students in the last fourand a half years. Teachers,instructors and cooks havecontributed a lot in increasingthe enrolment of new students,”

he said.Yogi further said that

schools had become symbols ofpeople's faith. “OperationKayakalp has been a greatexperiment of Uttar Pradesh.Operation Kayakalp was linkedwith public participation byasking MPs, MLAs and otherleaders to adopt one school.Under this, out of 1,56,000schools in the state, 1,30,000schools have found a new lease

of life. Now better infrastructurefacilities are available in theschools. The state governmentrealised that 75 per cent of girlsand about 40 per cent of boyswent to school barefoot.Therefore, it was decided thattwo sets of uniforms, bags,books, shoes and stockings,and sweaters will be provided toall students free of cost. At pre-sent, this facility is being pro-vided to 1.82 crore children,” he

said. Earlier, the chief ministerinteracted with instructorsMeenu Gupta, Ranveer Singhand cooks Seema and Rekhaand released a magazine'Unnayan Ke Saadhe ChaarVarsh’ of the Basic Educationdepartment and a short filmfocusing on the department wasalso screened.

Minister of State for BasicEducation, Satish Dwivedi alsoaddressed the gathering.

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Samajwadi Party president AkhileshYadav expelled four workers follow-

ing their arrest for vandalising a carwith Prime Minister Narendra Modi’sposter and a Bharatiya Janata Party flagon it in Kanpur.

The Kanpur police have chargedthe SP workers of plotting to create vio-lence and rioting on the day the primeminister visited Kanpur.

Modi was in Kanpur Nagar toinaugurate the completed section of theMetro Rail and the Bina-Panki multi-product pipeline project on Tuesday.He also addressed the 54th convoca-tion function of the Indian Institute ofTechnology, Kanpur.

The four arrested were identifiedas Mulayam Singh Youth Brigadespokesperson Sukant Sharma, secretaryof SP students’ body SachinKesharwani, city secretary of SP youthbrigade Abhishek Rawat and NiteshKumar.

An FIR was registered against 8-10persons after Samajwadi Party work-ers allegedly went on a rampage, fol-lowing the departure of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s convoy in KanpurNagar on Tuesday. They allegedly van-dalised a car with the prime minister’sposter on it.

Soon after the incident, the BJPalleged that Samajwadi Party workersvandalised the car and even tried totorch it.

“Prime Minister NarendraModi had warned that SP’s ‘redcap’ means danger and red alert andit is coming true,” a BJP spokesmansaid.

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Cocking a snook at the Uttar Pradeshgovernment claim of ‘society free of

fear’, unidentified goons attacked a policeparty and snatched an INSAS rifleassigned to one of the cops at Bhootpuritrisection in Afzalgarh police station areaof Bijnor on Tuesday night.

The criminals also hit constableLalit with the butt of a country-maderevolver before fleeing the scene. Theinjured cop was admitted to a local hos-pital with a head injury.

Soon after the incident, a video of thecops being attacked and robbed wentviral, causing considerable panic amongthe people and embarrassment to thepolice brass.

The police have now launched aninvestigation but have so far failed toidentify the accused.

As per reports, a truck carrying sug-arcane waste dropped some garbage onthe road near Bhootpuri trisection inBijnor on Tuesday night and soon a JCBmachine was called to remove the waste.In the meantime, two men came andstarted abusing the truck driver fordropping the waste.

As a constable and a homeguard triedto intervene, the two started a fight withthem and snatched an INSAS rifle fromone of them. They also mugged thepoliceman in the head with the butt of acountry-made revolver before fleeing thespot with the rifle.

While the scuffle was on, somepassersby shot a video of the incident andposted it on the net. Later, the police brassalerted border districts in search of thetwo accused and a case was registered inthis regard.

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Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra

attacked the Yogi Adityanath gov-ernment over the assault andmolestation of a Dalit girl inAmethi, and warned that her partywould launch a state-wide agitationif the accused were not arrestedsoon.

Priyanka’s remarks came aftera video showing a 16-year-old Dalitgirl being beaten up and molestedin Amethi went viral on socialmedia on Tuesday.

Attaching the video of the inci-dent, the Congress leader tweeted,"If the criminals who committedthis inhuman act are not nabbedwithin 24 hours, then the Congresswill work to wake you up by vigor-ous agitation."

"This incident of ruthlessthrashing of a Dalit girl in Amethiis condemnable. @MYOGIA-DITYANATH Sir on an average 34crime incidents against Dalits takeplace every day under your rule and

135 against women, yet your lawand order is sleeping," she furthertweeted.

Meanwhile, DeputySuperintendent of Police in Amethi,Arpit Kapoor, said that one of theaccused had been arrested whilepolice teams had been formed toarrest the others.

Police had contacted the girland based on her father's complaint,a case under Protection of Childrenfrom Sexual Offences (POCSO)Act, SC and ST (Prevention ofAtrocities) Act was registeredagainst accused Suraj Soni, Shivamand Sakal.

The police officer said that thesurvivor is a resident of a village inSangrampur police station area ofAmethi and the incident took placein Raipur Phulwari town.

Meanwhile, continuing hercampaign to attract female votersfor the revival of the Congress in thecoming assembly polls, PriyankaGandhi Vadra on Wednesday inter-acted with women and girls in her`Ladki Hoon-Lad Sakti Hoon’ pro-

gram held at Girdhari Inter Collegein Sirsaganj, Firozabad.

To make a better rapport withthe females in the area also knownas `Suhag Nagri’ Priyanka visitedthe house of female labourers andinteracted with them to share theirsorrows and problems.

Interacting with the femaleswho turned out in large numbers inthe `Ladki Hoon-Lad Sakti Hoon’(I am a girl and can fight) campaign,Priyanka answered their questions

and promised a solution if theCongress government came topower. She appealed to the womenof the state to unite and try tochange the politics.

Meanwhile, Sunil Shastri, son offormer Prime Minister Lal BahadurShastri, is set to join the Congressand has met Priyanka GandhiVadra. After the meeting, Priyankatweeted the photo with Shastri andsaid, "What better occasion than theCongress Foundation Day to meet

Sunil Shastri ji, son of a soldier ofCongress and former PrimeMinister Lal Bahadur Shastri, to dis-cuss a range of issues. We will fighttogether and win."

Sunil Shastri has been with theBharatiya Janata Party but his meet-ing indicates his inclination to jointhe Congress as the grand oldparty is searching for a political facein Mirzapur assembly constituen-cy after the exit of Lalitesh PatiTripathi.

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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathlaunched a scathing attack at

the Congress over the Malegaonblast case on Wednesday andaccused the party of “encouraging”and “nurturing” terrorists, andfalsely implicating members ofBharatiya Janata Party-RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh and otherHindu outfits in the blast case dur-ing its regime.

He also demanded an apolo-gy from Congress for this ‘mis-chief ’ against the nation.

Addressing a gathering afterinaugurating and laying the foun-dation stones of development pro-jects worth Rs 196.22 crore inFarrukhabad on Wednesday, Yogisaid, “The Congress has ruled thenation for maximum time. In arecent statement by MaharashtraAnti-Terrorists Squad, it wasrevealed that BJP and RSS mem-bers were framed in false cases inthe Malegaon blast. The Congressshould apologise to the entirenation for this misdeed (‘Congressko desh ke khilaf is shararat keliye maafi maangni chahiye).During Congress rule, the partyplayed with the security of thenation.”

Taking a dig at the oppositionparties over the recovery ofunaccounted cash in a raid bytax agencies, the chiefminister said that the previousgovernments looted the money ofthe poor.

“Bundles of currency notes arecoming out from the walls. Nowyou must have understood why‘Babua’ had been opposing

demonetisation. The money fordevelopment work was used forcorruption during the earlierregime while now funds arebeing spent on welfare schemes.All characters of Mahabharat --chacha, bhatija -- fanned out forextortion in job recruitmentsduring the previous government’stenure. It never worked for thepoor, youth or farmers. Not asingle poor person got housingin the SP government and nowthe BJP has providedaccommodation to the people,” hesaid.

Over free vaccines and freeration that is being provided by thestate government, Yogi main-tained, “The double engine gov-ernment is providing doublebenefits of free ration to the peo-ple. This is what happenswhen there is a good government.Had it been a Samajwadi Party orBahujan Samaj Party government,then all the money meant forpeople’s welfare would havegone into their personalaccounts.”

“The BJP governmenthelped the poor during thelockdowns when the pandemicwas at its peak but leadersand workers of other parties werein ‘home quarantine’. As soon asour government was formed, theloans of farmers were waived.Ask ‘Bua-Babua’ where those peo-ple were in the COVID-19 crisis,”the chief minister told the gather-ing.

Yogi also announced to con-nect Farrukhabad with GangaExpressway through a linkexpressway.

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Lucknow (PNS): ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanathannounced a New Year gift fornon-gazetted personnel of UPPolice by affecting a hike in theirnutrition allowance and makingprovision for an annual allowancefor carrying SIM cards.

Informing media personsabout the decision in Lucknow onWednesday evening, AdditionalChief Secretary (Home) Awanish

Kumar Awasthi said, “As per direc-tives of Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, the government hasincreased the nutritious dietallowance by 25 per cent for allpolice personnel of the ranks ofinspector, sub-inspector, clericalcadre, head constable and consta-ble. Along with this, it has alsobeen decided to provide an annu-al SIM allowance of Rs 2,000 to thepersonnel of the post of sub-

inspector, head constable and con-stable posted on field duty of civilpolice and PAC.”

Awasthi added, “The nutri-tious diet allowance currentlyadmissible to inspector/sub-inspector/clerical cadre has beenincreased from Rs 1,200 to Rs1,500, for head constable/consta-ble rank from Rs 1,500 to Rs1,875 and for all class IV employ-ees from the present Rs 1,350 to Rs

1,688.” The senior official alsoinformed that sub-inspectors, headconstables of PAC and civil policeon field duty would be providedallowance for SIM cards in orderto maintain law and order andensure peace within the state andeffectively curb various incidents.

He said that it had been decid-ed to provide an annual SIMallowance of Rs 2,000 to the per-sonnel in two parts per year.

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A Proposal for the mortgage residential Plot partof Khasara No. 794 admeasuring 113.4 Sq. Metersituated at Mauza-Jafarpur, Pargana-Nizamabad.Tehsil-Sadar. District-Azamgarh, is pendingbefore LIC Housing Finance Ltd. The OriginalSale Deed is registered at the office of Sub-Registrar, Sadar. Distt-Azamgarh vide Book No.1, Zild No 5116 at Serial No. 4890, dated29.07.2015 executed by Mr Ramiai S/o SuryabaliR/o Village & Post-Jafarpur, Pargana-Nizamabad.Tehsil- Sadar. District-Azamgar, in favour of Mrs.Manju Yadav W/o Vipul Yadav R/o Village-Baniyapar, Post-Kalyanpur, Tehsil-Ghosi, District-Mau. It is informed to us that the above notedoriginal sale-deed lost if this orginal sale-deedis mortgage with any person(s), Financial insti-tution(s) Bank(s) or any other one, may informimmediately to LIC Housing Finance Ltd. AreaOffice Mau Branch Contact No. 9695640872 orSanjay Kumar Singh Advocate Mob No.9919972269 & 8765360669. otherwise the abovenoted proposal shall be finalize immediately afterthe expiry of 15 day of this publication.

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Rural community healthcentres have got into an

alert mode to check the rise incorona cases in view of thethird wave threat. A seniorofficial from the CMO officesaid the emphasis is on testing,treating and tracking of thepositive cases.

Kakori CHC superinten-dent Dr Dileep KumarBhargava said though they donot have an oxygen plant yet,they have sufficient number ofoxygen concentrators andcylinders. “We may also shiftthe patients to the MalihabadCHC or any other hospital, ifthe need arises. As forOmicron, reports and studieshave shown that though it ishighly infectious, it does notcause deaths. However, itseffects on respiration will varyfrom person to person. If thepatients are co-morbid andhave respiratory problems,they may face issues, but if theyare healthy and vaccinated,they are likely to face lessproblems,” he said.

Dr Bhargava said theyhave 12 beds and medicine kitshave been distributed throughnigrani samiti among peoplehaving symptoms. “Once we

get the information that aperson is symptomatic, wewill trace, test and isolate themin the same manner as we havebeen doing in the past coupleof years. We held a meetingand sensitised all the ANMs sothat the cases are detectedand isolated at the earliest,” headded.

Mohanlalganj CHC super-intendent Dr Jyoti Kamle saidthe oxygen plant has becomeoperational and there are 30beds having oxygen supply.Besides, there are oxygen con-centrators as well.

“The ANMs and nigranisamitis are carrying out vacci-nations and giving instructionsto people suffering from coughand cold to immediately getthemselves tested. We are test-ing 200 people per day thoughearlier we were doing 400-500tests on a daily basis. Now,most of the people havealready been vaccinated. Weare testing all the patientscoming for admission andalso their attendants. Most ofthese patient are asympto-matic,” she said.

Mall CHC superintendentDr Arun Chaudhary said thatan oxygen plant catering to 30beds has already been installed.“We have also carried out tri-

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With 118 new novel coro-navirus positive cases

being reported in Uttar Pradeshon Wednesday, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath gave outinstructions to strengthen med-ical facilities across the stateand asked district magistratesand chief medical officers tophysically verify the facilitiesavailable in every hospital.

“Isolation beds, ICU beds,PICUs needed for children,paediatric specialists and ven-tilators should be checked. Ifthere is any deficiency, thenarrangements should be madeto rectify it immediately,” Yogisaid. At a high-level Team-9meeting in Lucknow onWednesday, the chief ministersaid that the state-wide nightcurfew should be strictlyenforced to prevent the spreadof novel coronavirus infectionand police patrolling should beintensified and people shouldbe asked to follow the Covidprotocol.

“Testing should be done forevery person coming to UttarPradesh from any Indian stateor from abroad. Extra precau-tions should be taken at busstations, railway stations andairports. Also monitoring com-mittees should be reactivatedand every person coming from

outside should be tested,” hesaid. As many as 118 newCOVID-19 cases were detect-ed across the state in the last 24hours while 36 patients recov-ered during the same time. At

present, the number of activecases in the state is 473, how-ever there are no COVID-19patients in 25 districts.

Meanwhile, 25 people test-ed positive for coronavirus

infection on Wednesday. Thefresh cases included 14 trav-ellers. Three of the people havecome were from Dubai whilefour are the contacts of anentire positive family. Fourteen

of the cases have travelled fromRanchi, Maharashtra, Delhiand Gaya. The fresh casesemerged from Indiranagar,Aliganj, Sushant Golf City andAlambagh.

��9���"���������<2��(�������Lucknow (PNS): The districtadministration has pulled up itssocks up for the containment ofOmicron. In a meeting onWednesday, District MagistrateAbhishek Prakash directed theofficials concerned to ensurestrict surveillance of the patientsin home isolation and shiftthem to institutional quarantineif they are found violating theguidelines.

The DM said all the rapidresponse teams and surveil-lance teams would be doubledand provided with medical kits.All the medical kits should bemade available at the CHCs, hesaid. “These teams shouldinspect private and govern-ment hospitals in the next twodays to see if there are adequatestock of medicines, oxygen andmanpower. HAL hospitalshould also be started in thenext four days,” he said.

The DM said focused test-ing should be carried out at alldialysis, gynecological and den-

tists clinics. Home isolationpatients should be under sur-veillance and no patient shouldbe found moving around, headded. In view of the Omicronand third wave threat, 100 per-cent tracking should be carriedout, he said.

He asked LMC to ensurethat posters are pasted outsidethe homes of patients in isola-tion, and containment areas bebarricaded. LMC should ensuresanitisation of the houses of pos-itive cases, he said.

LMC should also sensitisepeople about Covid-appropriatebehaviour through the publicaddress system, he said.

The DM also reviewed theCovid vaccination campaignand said those who have still nottaken vaccine shots should beidentified and vaccinated so thatthe district reaches a saturationpoint.

Meanwhile, 35 lakh seniorcitizens with comorbidities willbe given the booster dose in thestate from January 10 while 1.4

crore adolescents (aged 15-18years) will take vaccine shotsfrom January 3. A senior offi-cial from the Health departmentsaid no special preparationswere required as all the arrange-ments were already in place.

The districts leading in thefirst dose coverage are GautamBuddh Nagar (123.5%),Shahjahanpur (103.6 %),Etawah (100.6%), Pilibhit(97.5%), Ghaziabad (96.4%)and Lucknow (95.3%). The dis-trict with low figures in termsof first dose coverage are Ballia(68.9%), Kushinagar (73.2%)and Lalitpur (75.3%).

The districts with low sec-ond dose coverage includeHapur (36.5%), Moradabad(38.01%), Prayagraj (38.18%),Shamli (39.6%) and LakhimpurKheri (35.49%). The districtswith robust figures are GautamBuddh Nagar (84.8%),Shahjahanpur (67.6%),Ghaziabad (64.6%), Lucknow(63%) and Etawah (47.2%).

$�� ����� ��������� ��������� als with the electricity and back-up. If both are not working bychance, we have 12-20 oxygencylinders in storage. We have fullarrangements for oxygen and weare fully prepared for the thirdwave,” he said. He added thatthey are stressing on vaccinationsand also increasing the rapidresponse teams. “We haveinstructed the ASHA workersand sanginis to make sure thatall the patients, including thosewith the slightest of symptoms,are tested for Covid. As perinstructions from the CMOoffice, we are testing all thepatients coming to the OPD. Wehave increased RT-PCR testingand patients are also being sen-sitised in this regard,” he said.

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‘Postponement of assembly polls not possible, saysEC’, published in The Pioneer, Lucknow, datedDecember 29, 2021. Such reports attributing tosources in ECI have appeared in newspapers inDelhi, UP and news portals. It is to clarify that nosuch official announcement was made by ECI eitherin Delhi or Lucknow that polls in five states will notbe postponed. The error is regretted.

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An officer of a university alleged that the registrar sex-ually harassed and threatened her while the exam-

ination controller and others bullied her in a bid to forceher to submit to the wishes of the registrar.

Those named in the case included an officer of reg-istrar rank (accused of being prime harasser), an exam-ination controller, deputy registrar and a professor.

The complainant said the registrar had been mak-ing amorous advances towards her ever since she wasappointed in 2018. “The registrar used to call me to hisoffice where he would share his personal life with me togain my sympathy and in a bid to befriend me. There wasno grace in his gestures and I so started distancing myselffrom him. Irked over that, he started threatening to spoilmy career,” she alleged.

She said the officer made a junior employee exam-ination controller, in gross violation of norms. “The examcontroller worked as his sidekick. He would try and coerceme into accepting the proposal of the registrar, sayingthe latter might go to any extreme if I rejected him,” thewoman alleged. She further alleged that the registrar ropedin a professor who had a big say in the academic workjust to harass her. “One day, the professor, along with theexam controller, reached my office and both caught meby my shoulder and asked to submit to the wishes of theregistrar,” she alleged.

The complainant further alleged that the registraralso roped in a deputy registrar as a part of his nefari-ous design. “Complaint letters would be sent to the uni-versity in the name of my husband in a bid to drive awedge between me and my husband. The deputy regis-trar tried to defame me and assassinate my character byinsinuations. I was also served a show-cause notice eventhough I did nothing wrong. I complained to the vice-chancellor but no help came my way,” she stated in hercomplaint. She further said that she moved court afterwhich an internal investigation committee launched aprobe. “However, I was held responsible and the accusedwere not taken to task,” she said.

Recalling an incident, she stated: “On January 2, Iwent to take my car’s key which I had forgotten in thedining hall, and the registrar reached there. He attempt-ed to grab me from behind but I managed to flee thescene. However, I was terrorised to the core.” The policeregistered a case for molestation and other counts againstthe accused and started further probe.

Meanwhile, the managing director of a com-pany and his associates were accused of fraudulent-ly selling shares of a man. Pramod Kumar Sharmaof Tedhipuliya crossing in Indira Nagar said hisshares were sold by managing director of the com-pany Sanjeev Agrawal and his associate directorsSunita Agrawal & Veena Agrawal. “I had theshares of the company in which the above-namedpeople are managing director and associate direc-tors. They sold the shares without my consent andwithout informing me. The shares were valued atRs 6.49 lakh in 2017 and their current value wasabout Rs 9 lakh. The company is lying closed thesedays and the MD and others are not available. I sus-pect they have fled after committing the fraud,” healleged. Police registered a case for criminal breachof trust and forgery against the accused.

������)The PGI police arrested the mastermind of a gang

that had honey-trapped an employee of UP Housing andDevelopment Board (UPHDB) in November and extort-ed Rs 93,000 from him. The accused was identified asGolu Sharma alias Jugnoo Sharma. According to thepolice, Golu was the mastermind of the gang. Earlier too,he had honey-trapped a lot of people but no FIR was reg-istered in those cases. The police said Golu, who wasabsconding, was arrested following a tip-off. He was heldfor extortion, criminal breach of trust, cheating and dis-honesty. The police recovered a four-wheeler from hispossession.

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Inviting Tender Notice (Anticipation of Sanction)The S.E. Lucknow Circle, U.P.P.W.D. on behalf of Governor of Uttar Pradesh invites the percent-

age rate bids online from the eligible and approved Contractors registered with UP PWD for Road workclass “A, & B ” Bidders are advised to note the minimum qualification criteria specified in Clause 4 of theInstructions to Bidders to qualify for the award of the contract.

Sl. DIS Name of work Estima- Bid Tender+ Time of Address of Address of Address No. TRI ted cost Security Stationary Completi Executive Superint- of Chief

CT (Rs. In (Rs. In ) Charges+ on Engineer ending EngineerLakhs) Lakhs) G.S.T. of the Engineer

Executingthe work

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 Construction of 190.00 11.50 Rs.300.00+ 12 Construction Lucknow ChiefMastemau Chilaula 2000.00+ Months Division, circle, Engineerroad to remaining 54.00 =(Tender No.1 P.W.D. P.W.D. CentralPortion of Chaurasi cost+Stationary Lucknow Lucknow Zoneroad. Charges)+ P.W.D.,

GST @ 18%) Lucknow= Rs. 2354.00 .

2 Special Repair of 78.00 5.90 Rs.300.00+ 06 Construction Lucknow ChiefLucknow Sultanpur 2000.00+ Months Division, circle, Engineerroad to Adrauna 54.00 =(Tender No.1 P.W.D. P.W.D. CentralKallikheda Link cost+Stationary Lucknow Lucknow Zoneroad. Charges)+ P.W.D.,

GST @ 18%) Lucknow= Rs. 2354.00

3 Special Repair of 44.00 4.20 Rs.300.00+ 06 Construction Lucknow ChiefLucknow Sultanpur 2000.00+ Months Division, circle, Engineerroad via Shahkheda 54.00 =(Tender No.1 P.W.D. P.W.D. CentralPanchayat Bhawan cost+Stationary Lucknow Lucknow Zoneto Mahipalkheda Link Charges)+ P.W.D.,road. GST @ 18%) Lucknow

= Rs. 2354.00

��The Rate adopted in the BOQ are excluding GST.Bids can be downloaded online from date 31.12.2021 at 11:00 AM to 05.01.2022 at 12:00 Noon and

bid can be submitted online on or before 05.01.2022 at 12:00 Noon. The technical bids will be openedonline on date 06.01.2022 at 12:30 PM. According to the provisions of Government Order no. 1/2018/3070/78-2-2018/42 IT/2017 (22) Date 03-01-2018 after opening of the technical and financial bids, the bidder hasto submit original documents personally in department/ office. In the event of non submission of originaldocuments by the bidder, the appropriate action will be taken in accordance with the provisions of G.O.

Technical evaluation of tenders is to be done by Prahari Software, the details of which are avail-able in NIT enclosed with Bid Document.

All terms & conditions can be seen on website http:/etender.up.nic.in(A.K. Singh) (O.P. Sonkar)

Executive Engineer Superintending EngineerConstruction Division No.1, Lucknow Circle, P.W.D.,

PWD. Lucknow LucknowFor on behalf of Governor of UP

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UP. POWER TRANSMISSIONCORPORATION LIMITED-TENDER NOTICE E-Tendersfor executing the following

works in two parts (as detailed in tender-specifications) are hereby invited fromexperienced contractors and will be openedon the same dates mentioned below at15.30 hrs. publicly in the office of the under-signed. The tender documents can be hadup to previous working day of the openingday on payment of Rs. 236.00 includingGST(NON REFUNDABLE) in cash ordemanddraft. If e-tender document isrequired by post, Rs. 30.00 will be chargedextra. Part-I of the tender will contain anearnest money in shape ofCDR/FDR/BD/RTGS duly pledged in favourof the undersigned in official capacity andpart-II will contain rates,terms and condi-tions and other relevant details. Withoutearnest money e-tender will not be accept-ed. E-Tender No. 08/ESDS/2021-22 To beopened on dt. 27.01.2022, Tender costRs. 236.00, Earnest Money Rs. 2000.001. Work for installation of 01 No. addition-al 132/33KV, 63MVA transformer at 220KVS/S Sultanpur under Electy. 400KVSubstation Division, Sultanpur. ExecutiveEngineer Electy. 400KV SubstationDivision Sultanpur No. 1003 Date27.12.2021 "Save Energy in Nationalinterest."

Lucknow (PNS): The RailwayWomen Welfare Association(RWWA), RDSO, is organisingmany welfare activities for rail-way personnel these days.

A spokesman said the wel-fare activities include‘Arunodaya Vidyalaya’ toimpart education to children ofrailway personnel, impartingtraining to girls to make themself-reliant and arranginghousehold items to needy rail-way employees.

He further said RWWAdistributes masks and sanitis-ers among railway personneland make the RDSO employ-ee aware of the regular use ofmasks, social distancing andsanitisation.

To honour its voluntarysocial responsibility, a pro-gram was organised byRWWA, RDSO, at ArunodayaVidyalaya on December 27.

Cultural programmes,including group and solo activ-ities by school children, wereperformed to create awareness

and to help protect peopleagainst Omicron infection.

President of RWWA NishaBhutani highlighted the guide-lines of Covid-19 like main-taining social distance, usingsanitisers, cleaning hands reg-ularly with soap, using masksand keeping classrooms andsurroundings clean. She reit-erated the commitment ofRWWA for the welfare of rail-

way workers. Sweaters, foodpackets and gifts were givenaway to children by RWWA.

RWWA, under the leader-ship of president NishaBhutani, vice-president RitaPandey, secretary NirupamaVerma, treasurer GitaShrivastava and all the nomi-nated members, is working togive a new dimension to thewelfare of railway employees.

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The department ofPhysiology, King George’s

Medical University, celebratedits 110th Foundation Day onWednesday. Consultantendocrinologist at HormoneCare and Research Centre(Ghaziabad) Dr Pankaj

$&*�#� ��#&)/�)The Green Gas Limited on

Wednesday filed a complaintagainst a private telecommcompany for damage caused toits pipeline, at Gomtinagarpolice station. The damagecaused disruption of gas sup-ply to 4,000 houses for almost24 hours since Tuesday after-noon. Green Gas Limitedspokesperson Surya PrakashGupta said, “Contractors ofthe private company dig uproads to lay down their linesand it not only affects the sup-ply of gas but also creates a sub-stantial amount of risk becausegas is inflammable entity,” hesaid. He added that the gaspipeline was damaged at CMScrossing. “Gas supply to 4,000houses in Gomtinagar wheresenior officers reside was dis-rupted for hours,” he said. Thesupply resumed on Wednesdayafternoon the workers reset theregulators. The supply was

affected in Vineet Khand, ViratKhand, Vishal Khand, VirajKhand and Vivek Khand.

'&�#)���$&�)Hasan Askari, a student of

City Montessori School,RajajipuramCampus I,entered theG u i n n e s sBook of WorldR e c o r d s .Hasan createda world record for balancing afootball on his knee for thelongest time, a feat whichrequired a lot of patience, con-centration and strong willpower. Hasan balanced thefootball on his knee for 6 min-utes and 16.98 seconds.

��#�) $&��0��$ &�A valedictory function was

organised at Sri Rama ChandraVaidya Ayurvedic MedicalCollege and Hospital in

Chinhat on Wednesday. Thechief guest was Dr VK Gaud,who said the students workedhard in Covid times for theireducation. The students put upa dance show on the occasion.

)&$��&�+��0�# $ ��)Jaipuria Institute of

Management, in associationwith Lucknow ManagementAssociation, is organisingDoctors’ Felicitation Ceremonyto appreciate and complimentthe important role that doctors,medical professionals, andparamedics have played duringthe Covid pandemic over thelast two years. The doctors tobe felicitated include KGMUVC Bipin Puri, Surya Kant,Suruchi Shukla, SGPGI direc-tor RK Dhiman, RMLIMSdirector Sonia Nityanand, PKDas, Shrikesh Singh, RakeshKapoor, Dilip Dubey, MayankSomani, Anil Vikram Singhand Ashmita Singh.

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Rain lashed the state capital onTuesday night and Wednesday

morning, adding to the chill quotient.Met director JP Gupta said the rainswere caused by the presence of west-ern disturbance in the adjoiningareas of the state. The absence of sunincreased the chill after rains. Theday temperature plunged by 5.1degrees as the city recorded a maxi-

mum temperature at 17 degreeCelsius while the minimum temper-ature was recorded at 14 degreeCelsius, which was 6.1 degrees abovenormal.

Gupta said the weather wouldimprove from Thursday onwards. “Itwill be cloudy in the morning butthere will be clear skies later,” he said.The total rainfall received by the citytill 8:30 am was 9.6 mm while it was0.4 mm from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm.

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The Lucknow police onWednesday attached

properties worth Rs 48 croreof Dilip Singh Bafila andproperties worth over Rs 9lakh of his nephew PraveenSingh Bafila. A case underGangster Act against landmafia Dilip Singh Bafila andhis nephew Praveen SinghBafila was registered onJanuary 30 last.

The duo have 17 casesregistered against them indifferent police stations acrossthe state capital. The proper-ty attached included an SUVworth Rs 15 lakh, two sedans

worth Rs 15 lakh, and fourbikes worth Rs 4 lakh. Theassets include landed proper-ty in Mohammedpur Sariyavillage of Bakshi-Ka-Talab,another in BKT along withseveral plots in GomtinagarExtension and Meerut besidesbank deposits to the tune ofRs 48 crore.

The police said that theproperties of the land mafiawere attached under thecharges of Gangsters Act.

The police said Dilip, whohails from Uttarakhand, cameto work in UP Secretariat asa class IV employee in 1986.He started dealing in saleand purchase of lands in 2007.

His nephew arrived in UP in 2006 and worked withhim.

The police said that theaccused formed societies like‘Himalayan CooperativeHousing Committee Limited’and ‘Bahujan CooperativeHousing Society’. They usedto dupe gullible people by lur-ing them with lucrative dealsin their societies. They usedto take money in advance forsecurity and registration.However, the buyers were notgiven f lats and plots aspromised. When the buyersdemanded their money back,they used to be threatenedwith dire consequences.

Agarwal, who was the speak-er for the prestigious ‘Prof. RCShukla oration-2021’, elabo-rated on the relevance ofstudying physiology whilepractising clinical medicine.

Head of the departmentDr Sunita Tewari said Vice-Chancellor Dr Bipin Puri hasbeen encouraging in all theirendeavors. “A glimpse of thehistory will take us way backin 1906 when the foundationof the department was laid. Itbecame functional when thefirst batch of students tookadmission in 1911. Due to theCovid pandemic, many of theactivities of the Physiologydepartment and society couldnot be held as before, but the

enthusiastic students organ-ised online co-curricular activ-ities during lockdown,” shesaid. Among the achievementsshe said that MBBS 1st yearhas been awarded ICMR STS(Studentship) under the men-torship of faculty members ofthe department.

“In the last one year, thetotal number of papers pub-lished by faculty members inpeer-reviewed indexed med-ical journals is more than 40.The department of Physiologyhas been one of the pioneers inKGMU to initiate severalextra- mural funded researchprojects. The projects havebeen funded by CCRYN andAYUSH Ministry of Health

and Family Welfare. Otherongoing projects runningunder the supervision of fac-ulty of the department havebeen funded by ICMR, DBT,DST, UPCST,” she pointedout. She said various labora-tories are involved in teachingand training of undergraduateand post-graduate medicalstudents in which clinical labsplay a major role.

“The vision is to developthe department as a centre ofexcellence by introducing inte-grated teaching, appliedresearch in physiology byprocuring grants from extra-mural sources and bringingresearch outcomes from benchto bedside,” she added.

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An employee of Helpline-1076 died under mysteri-

ous circumstances onWednesday evening. Policesent the body for autopsy andstarted further investigation.

As per reports, Rahulaka Abhishek (22) ofBhainsamau locality inBakshi-Ka-Talab police sta-tion area fell sick all of a sud-den and was rushed to a hos-pital by an ambulance but hedied on the way. Police said

Rahul fell sick when he washome. He was being taken toRam Sagar Mishra Hospitalwhen he died. “Rahul com-plained of nausea and vom-iting and died in the ambu-lance on the way to hospital,”the police said.

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As a new year gift to farmers'families, the Modi

Government is scheduled to trans-fer over Rs 20,000 crore to bankaccounts of more than 10 crorefarmers of the country under thef lagship Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi

(PM-KISAN) scheme on January1. This would be the 10th install-ment to farmer's families since thestart of the scheme and over Rs.1.6 lakh crore has been transferredto farmer families so far. Besides,about Rs 14 crore will be given toover 351 farmer producers organ-isations (FPOs) as part of gov-ernment equity which will bene-

fit more than 1.24 lakh farmers. Ina statement, the Prime Minister’sOffice said, “Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will release the10th installment of financial ben-efit under Pradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)scheme on January 1, 2022 at12:30 PM via video conferencing”.“An amount of more than Rs

20,000 crore will be transferred tomore than 10 crore beneficiaryfarmer families. This is in line withthe continued commitment andresolve to empower grassrootlevel farmers”, the statement said.

The last installment wasreleased on August 9, 2021 for theAugust-November 2021 period.

Under this installment, the

money was transferred to over9.75 farmers families. Under this,a financial benefit of Rs. 6000/-per year is provided to the eligi-ble beneficiary farmer families,payable in three equal 4-month-ly installments of Rs.2000/- each.The fund is transferred directly tothe bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

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Persisting with its objective tomake India a hub for manufac-

turing world class defence equip-ment, the Government onWednesday announced a fresh list of351 sub-systems and componentsthat will not be allowed to be import-ed under a staggered timeline begin-ning December next year.

The government in the last oneand half years has released three listsincluding the latest one curbingimport of weapon systems and relat-ed components. The armed forceswill now procure the weapon sys-tems from Indian manufacturers.The new initiative will save foreignexchange equivalent to around Rs3,000 crore annually.

On Wednesday, the defenceministry also released a list of 2,500items that it said have already been"indigenised". Officials said "A pos-

itive indigenisation list of sub-sys-tems, assemblies, sub-assembliesand components has been notifiedby the department of defence pro-duction as part of the efforts toachieve self-reliance in defence man-ufacturing and minimise imports bydefence public sector undertakings."

The ministry said in a statement"351 imported items" will be "indi-genised" in the next three years. Thenotification on the new list wasissued on Monday. The ministry saidthe items mentioned in the list willonly be procured from Indian indus-tries as per the timelines indicated.According to the notification, importrestrictions on the first set of 172items will come into force byDecember next year while the sameprovisions will be applicable onanother batch of 89 components byDecember 2023.

Import restrictions on anotherset of 90 items will come into effect

by December 2024. The itemsincluded laser warning sensor, high-pressure check valve, high-pressureglobe valve, drainage intrusion detec-tion systems, various types of cables,sockets and voltage control oscilla-tor. In August last year, the ministryannounced that India will stop theimport of 101 weapons and militaryplatforms like transport aircraft,light combat helicopters, conven-tional submarines, cruise missilesand sonar systems by 2024.

A second list, putting importrestrictions on 108 military weaponsand systems such as next-generationcorvettes, airborne early warningystems, tank engines and radars, wasissued in May. In an effort to attractin the defence manufacturing sector,the government in May last yearannounced increasing the FDI limitfrom 49 per cent to 74 per cent underthe automatic route in the defencesector.

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Seven Indian Institutes ofTechnology (IIT) and

Indian Institute of Science(IISc), Bengaluru are amongthe top 10 central institutionsin promotion and support ofinnovation and entrepreneur-ship development, accordingto Atal Ranking of Institutionson Innovation Achievements(ARIIA) announced by theCentre on Wednesday.

The top rank has beenbagged by IIT Madras fol-lowed by IIT Bombay, IITDelhi, IIT Kanpur and IITRoorkee. IISc Bengaluru hasbagged the sixth rank in theranking followed by IITHyderabad, IIT Kharagpur,National Institute ofTechnology (NIT), Calicutand Motilal Nehru NationalInstitute of Technology, UttarPradesh.

Launching the ARIIA,

Minister of State forEducation Subhas Sarkaremphasised on promotinginnovation to achieve the tar-get of a USD 5 trillion econ-omy by 2025, the minister saidmore than quantity, the insti-tutes should focus on thequality of innovation andresearch.

"This will help us achievethe Aatmanirbhar Bharatdream in true sense.'Emphasis on Innovation' wasamongst the three vows takenby Prime Minister NarendraModi during his recent Kashivisit. The other two vowswere for Swachh Bharat andAatmanirbhar Bharat.Considering all these threevows, innovation is the onlypath for their fulfilment.Hence, we need to give ahuge push to innovation andentrepreneurship within oureducational institutions," hesaid.

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Eminent Bollywood star-turned-BJP MP Hema

Malini mesmerised the audi-ence on the second and penul-timate day of Kashi FilmFestival organised under theAzadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav atRudraksha Convention Centrehere on Tuesday evening. Sheperformed a play on LordShiva and Durga. ‘I’ve per-formed here many times. Thedance performed here for thefirst time at the age of 16 is spe-cial for me. This time’s presen-tation is also special becauseunder the leadership of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, theentire nation is moving towardsprogress apart from giving ahistoric gift in the form ofKashi Vishwanath Corridor.Everyone is coming to see it,due to which the ticket tocome to Varanasi is gettingreduced,’ she said.

Speaking as the chief guest,Union Minister of Informationand Broadcasting AnuragSingh Thakur said, ‘Kashi is nolonger just an ancient city buthas also become a moderncity. Roadways, airways, portsand roads have developed in allareas. There can be no betterplace for the film festival thanKashi, the land of music,knowledge and spirituality.’Congratulating to the stategovernment for such a wonder-ful event, Thakur said that the

PM has given the best place inthe form of this conventioncentre to the city.

‘The task of saving such aheritage in the form of KashiCorridor has happened forthe first time in the historyof 250 years,’ he said. Regardingthe film festival, he saidthat this festival would beorganised in future also. ‘Thiswill benefit the local artistsalong with the tourism here,’ headded.

On the second day, leadingBhojpuri star-turned-BJP MPRavi Kishan also performed onthe stage. Speaking on the

occasion, he said, ‘Now Kashihas become such a form thatpeople who used to go toLondon for holidays will cometo Kashi. For this, thanks to thePM who changed the whole ofKashi. Under his leadership somuch work was done whichhad not been done in the last70 years,’ he said.

Earlier, at a discussion onthe theme of ‘Music, Songs andLegacy of Banaras’, leadingcomedian Satish Kaushiksaid, “We forget the pastwork and there is a hungerto do better and betterin the future. We’re with

those who do good and standby the country. It was in ourtime that the dream of workingin films could be fulfilled onlyby going to Mumbai but nowit is not so. One scene isenough for a good artiste tobecome popular.’

Producer and actor RahulMitra said that Film City in UPis a campaign to return home.The film industries are gettingthe support of single windowpermission, security andadministration in UP and if allthe facilities are available in UP,then the talents here will cometo their soil.

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Chief Medical Officer(CMO) Dr Sandeep

Chaudhary continued his driveto ensure strengthening thework of various health centresin the district and in this direc-tion, he inspected the UrbanPrimary Health Centres(UPHCs) at Pandeypur,Pahadia and Town Hall here onTuesday. He first reachedPandeypur UPHC, along withurban nodal officer andACMO Dr AK Maurya.During his stay, the CMO wasinformed in detail about theservices being provided in thehospitals. Each room of thehospital was visited by him andduring this, necessary guide-lines were given to the doctorsand all the staff regarding themedical facilities availablethere. CMO, during his inspec-tion at all the three UPHCs, hasinstructed the in-charge med-ical officers to review the insti-tutional delivery cases apartfrom ensuring to keep thecleanliness and equipment inthe hospital systematically.

Meanwhile, in view ofthreats of Omicron and thirdwave, the vaccination drivehas been intensified and 26,770beneficiaries were given Covidjabs on Tuesday under theongoing door-to-door vaccina-tion campaign. It was the ninthday of this special campaign asduring the period sinceDecember 20, as many as2,43,808 beneficiaries havebeen vaccinated which indi-cates that an average of 27,089persons are receiving vaccinedoses daily.

According to the CMO, in

528 sessions including variouscentres and charitable hospitalsin the district 26,770 beneficia-ries were vaccinated in which9,554 beneficiaries were vacci-nated for the first dose while17,216 second dose. Out of vac-cinated people, 7,269 peoplewere above 45 years while19,501 were beneficiaries of 18-44 years. At two day/nightspecial vaccination centres, 145people were vaccinated atSampurnanand SportsStadium, Sigra and 11 at LTCollege, Orderly Bazar.

Earlier, sero survey has

started once again in the dis-trict from Monday to check thedeveloped immunity (anti-body) in people against coro-na. According to the instruc-tions received from the govern-ment, a total of 100 samples willbe collected from the district inthis sero survey, which will besent to the Micro-BiologyDepartment of KGMU,Lucknow for examination. Inthe investigation, it will beconcluded that how many anti-bodies have developed in peo-ple against corona. The CMOsaid that as per the instructionsreceived from the government,this survey is being conductedin 15 districts of the stateincluding Varanasi. A sero sur-vey was also conducted by theHealth department in June lastto find out the developedimmunity in people aged 18years and above.

The results of the surveyshowed that most of the pop-ulation has antibodies in theirblood to fight against Covidand different groups of peoplehave antibodies for differentperiods of time.

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Warm welcome wasaccorded to Jan Vishwas

Yatra of Kashi regional unit ofBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)when it entered the districtthrough Kapsethi underSewapuri assembly constituen-cy here on Wednesday.Hundreds of women were pre-sent there to greet the yatra. Itis one of the six such regionalyatras of BJP being taken in dif-ferent parts of the state on eveof upcoming assembly electionsto apprise the people of theachievements of party-led cen-tral and state governmentsduring the last seven and fiveyears respectively. Amidst thedhoon of bands and beat ofnagaras, the yatra was alsowelcomed in Barora, Sewapuri,Jansa and many other places.

State BJP presidentSwatantra Dev Singh wasmainly present when the yatraentered the district. Thisregional yatra was taken outfrom Ghazipur by UnionMinister Smriti Irani onDecember 19 last and afterpassing through various assem-bly constituencies ofSonbhadra, Mirzapur,Prayagraj, Pratapgarh, Bhadohidistricts, it arrived at Varanasi.According to district presi-dent Hansraj Vishwakarmaand yatra in-charge PrabhatSingh, after entering Varanasidistrict from Sewapuri VidhanSabha, the yatra enteredRohaniya assembly constituen-cy and it was warmly welcomedhundreds of people at KapsethiBazar, Takkhu Ki Bauli, BarodaBazar, Jansa crossing, Kurauna,Daudpur Bazar, Rohini Bazar,Modhaila and Manduadih.Later, it entered the VaranasiCantt assembly constituency in

the city from Bhikharipur.According to city chief

Vidyasagar Rai and yatra in-charge Shomnath Maurya theyatra was welcomed at severalplaces where gates were madeand women in saffron robesperformed aarti while shower-ing flowers. Farmers wearingsaffron turbans also accompa-ny the yatra. Later, in theevening road shows were heldin all the three Vidhan Sabhaconstituencies of the city areas.Entering Varanasi Cantt assem-bly seat through Bhikharipur,the roadshow passed throughSunderpur and Naria andreached Lanka after garlandingthe statue of Mahamana PtMadan Mohan Malviya nearBHU Main Gate. Then passingthrough Sant Ravidas Gate,Assi crossing, Bengali TolaInter College, it entered City

South constituency viaJangambadi and then reachedGodowlia crossing where itwas warmly welcomed. Afterpassing through KashiVishwanath Dham, ChowkPolice Station, Nichi Bagh cityBJP office and garlanding thestatue of Maharaja Agrasen, itreached Lahurabir viaMaidagin and Ramkatora aftergarlanding the statue ofChandrashekhar Azad.

Later passing throughTeliabagh via GovernmentQueen's College, the yatraentered the City North assem-bly constituency. At Nadesar,the participants garlanded thestatue of Swami Vivekanandaand then reached district Courtvia Andharapul, where aftergarlanding the statue ofBabasaheb Dr BhimraoAmbedkar statue, the yatra

took a rest at night atKadambini Lawn Shivpur aftergarlanding the statue ofRajarshi at UP College.

Regional BJP spokesmanNavratan Rathi said that theyatra will start from Ring Roadoffice of Shivpur Vidhan Sabhaof Varanasi district at 10 am onThursday and after passingthrough Lamahi, Aidhe,Goithan, Sathwan, Singhpur,Sarnath, Sandhan, Dubkiyanetc of Shivpur assembly seat,the yatra will enter AjgaraVidhan Sabha areas and thenPindra assembly seat throughChaubepur, Kadipur, Munariand other areas. He said thatthis Yatra will enter the borderof Jaunpur district viaPremnagar, Nehiyan, Mangari,Babatpur, Pindra, Phulpur,Karkhiyaon areas in Pindraassembly constituency.

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The district administrationwill cross-check the facili-

ties provided to organisationsin Magh Mela this year. It isbecause every year there is amess-up and the administra-tion has to bear the brunt of it.The facilities that the fairadministration allocates to theorganisations, many times theagencies do not supply thembut take the bill from theadministration. Therefore, thecommissioner has now giveninstructions for cross checkingof facilities.

Under the chairmanship ofCommissioner Sanjay Goyal, areview meeting of the progressof works of Magh Mela 2022was held at IIIT-A auditoriumlocated at the Mela Office.During this, the commission-er suggested to get the facilityslips verified. The commis-sioner suggested that before theend of the Magh Mela, the facil-ities provided to the organiza-tions should be verified fromthem. After that third party orfair administration team alsoverify.

When the progress of theworks of the Public WorksDepartment was found to beslow, the Commissioner

warned that if the work was notcompleted by December 31, theconcerned officers would besuspended. The commissionersaid that in order to maintainthe cleanliness and purity of therivers, a joint team of officialsof Ganga Pollution ControlUnit, Pollution Control Boardand Municipal Corporationshould conduct sampling ofdrains and present its reportregularly to the Mela Officer.He further said that thereshould be no laxity in main-taining the cleanliness of thewater. If the progress of thehealth department was foundto be slow, giving a stern warn-ing to the officials concerned,asked them to complete all thework at the earliest.

He asked the HealthDepartment officials to get thetoilets constructed in police sta-tions and outposts at the ear-liest. Mela officer SheshmaniPandey, Deputy District OfficerSant Kumar etc were present inthe meeting.

Meanwhile, preparationshave begun to establish a cityof renunciation and asceticismon the sands of the Sangam.The Maghmela of 2022, whichwill be held at the meetingplace of Ganga-Yumna andinvisible Saraswati, will be a

mini Kumbh giving the feel ofMahakumbh. Tourists andbathers coming from all cor-ners of the country and abroadwill get special facilities oftransportation.

Roadways and city buseswill ferry passengers every 15minutes to the designated park-ing spot in the Maghamelaarea. Routes will be made espe-cially for the plying of buses inthe Maghmela area. The bridgeof Jhunsi and Phaphamau willbe closed on special bathingdates, then only with the helpof these buses, passengers willbe able to reach Sangam.

During the Kalpavas, twothousand additional buses willbe arranged on the majorbathing festivals MakarSankranti, Paush Purnima,Mauni Amavasya, BasantPanchami, Maghi Purnima,Mahashivratri. This time theUttar Pradesh TransportCorporation will test itsarrangements for the MaghMela as a trial for the prepara-tions for the Maha Kumbh. Forthis, together with Prayagraj,Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur,Devi Patan, Ayodhya,Chitrakoot, Azamgarh,Gorakhpur areas will arrangebuses.

Prayagraj division has its

own 597 roadways buses, whileother buses will come fromother divisions only.

The maximum crowd willreach Sangam on Amavasya, sotwo thousand additionalbuses will be operated onthis day. Whereas on normaldays, arrangements willbe made to transport thebathers to Maghmele by 1200buses.

Apart from Jhunsi, the cor-poration, which has made aworld record through shuttlebuses in Kumbh, is also build-ing a temporary bus stand atNaini's Leprosy intersection.There will be arrangementsfor shelter and drinking wateretc.

TKS Bisen, RegionalManager, Roadways said thatspecial transport facilities willbe available to the passengersin Magh Mela. Two thousandbuses of nine divisions will runon the main bathing festivaland 1200 buses daily. There willbe provision for temporarybus stand and shelter anddrinking water. There will be aninquiry counter. Additionalpersonnel will be deployed.Shuttle bus service will also runfor the neighboring districtsalong with estimating thecrowd.

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KP Trust is known for itsglorious past and immense

social commitments. I con-gratulate the office bearers on150th foundation day of thisvaluable, vibrant, and viabletrust, Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath saidwhile lighting the ceremoniallamp at its Foundation Dayfunction at KP CommunityHall here on Wednesday.

When most of the trustslive a short life and die owingto one reason or the other, it isno less than a great achieve-ment that KP Trust is celebrat-ing its 150th foundation day,said the CM and made men-tion of the names of the firstPresident of India Dr RajendraPrasad, former prime ministerLal Bahadur Shastri and manyothers who had been associat-ed with this trust actively.

Yogi Adityanath under-lined the contribution of KPTrust in the field of Education,right from primary level tohigher education for both boysand girls. He assured all possi-ble help to this trust from the

government. Cabinet ministerSiddharth Nath Singh narrat-ed the glorious history of theKayasth community, and saidthat they need proper represen-tation in national politics.

KP Trust president and

former mayor ChaudharyJitendra Nath Singh apprisedthe chief minister about the his-tory of the trust and its socialcommitments. Former presi-dent of the Trust ChaudharyRaghavendra Singh also spoke

on the occasion. The functionwas attended besides others byAnand Srivastava, MLA HarshBajpai, former president of KPTrust Dr KP Srivastava, GPSrivastava Sunil Dutt Kautilya,and Anil Kumar Srivastava.

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Ajoint team of SpecialOperation Group (SOG)

and Khuldabad policeclaimedto have arrested five membersof an inter-district auto liftersgang and seized three SUVs,two bikes, five country-madepistols of different bores alongwith several live cartridges,370 gm toxic powder andforged documents from theirpossession.

The accused were identi-fied as Vinod Kumar aliasPappan of Holagarh,Shahnawaz alias Sahil aliasMaqsood of Hathigawon,Dayashankar of Varanasi,Mohd Safar of Pratapgarh and

Rajan of Mirzamurad.Police said that acting upon

a specific tip-off that membersof an inter-district auto lifter’sgang were planning to lift anSUV near Khuldabad road, ajoint team of SOG andKhuldabad police laid a trapand nabbed all the five mem-bers of the gang.

The gang members used toconduct recce of target areasthrough an SUV to avoid policesuspicion.

They used to carry oldbunch of keys of cars andSUVs and execute the crime.The gang members also carriedbanned tablets along with themand targeted passengers to loottheir belongings and luggages

near railway stations and busstands. Police said Pappan andDayashankar were the master-minds of the gang againstwhom more than a dozencriminal cases were registeredin different police stations ofthe state. Moreover,Dayashankar and Safar werealso involved in selling stolenbikes and cars.

TRADER ROBBED ATGUN-POINT: A furnituretrader of trans-Ganga area ofPhaphamau was robbed at pis-tol point on Tuesday night atPlatform number one ofPhaphamau railway station.He was deprived of Rs 50,000in cash and a mobile phone.The robbers also thrashed him

when he offered a bit of resis-tance.

Furniture trader Krishnafinished his work quite late atShantipuram and was return-ing to Rangpura as usual. Hewas on foot and was passingthrough the northern area ofPlatform Number 1 ofPhaphamau Junction when wasintercepted by the robbers whodeprived him of Rs 50,000 incash and a mobile phone at pis-tol point.

Later he lodged a com-plaint with the PhaphamauGRP. The police are trying toidentify the robbers whoseimages had been captured bythe CCTV cameras of the plat-form.

:7$���#;2����)��%�<2��%���8�����=��������ALLAHABAD (PNS): In abid to seek suggestion from cit-izens of Sangam city to makeUP the number one state, theleaders and activists of theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)conducted ‘Sujhav Apka –Sankalp Hamara’ campaign atKydganj, Mutthiganj, andVishwavidhalaya mandals inPrayagraj here on Wednesday.BJP leader , Rajesh Kesarwanitold the reporters that over24,312 people have given theirsuggestions through post cardsand other mediums in 10 man-dals of the district till now andwe would be taking the sugges-tions promptly and sensibly todraft the policies in days tocome. He added that the cam-paign was underway in SangamCity for the past 10 days andcitizens are actively partici-pating in the campaign. BJPleader also claimed that theparticipants were also interact-ing with party leaders with

their suggestions which wouldhelp the party to draft new poli-cies for public welfare andoverall development of thestate. Senior BJP leader andparty’s state co-convener(media) Ashish Gupta saidthat the party has launched itscampaign to call for sugges-tions for its ‘sankalp patra’(manifesto) in the state in thirdweek of December month,with the state governmentclaiming that all the promisesmade in 2017 have been ful-filled. He added that this cam-paign is part of the ‘UPNumber One’ particularlydesigned to ask for suggestionsfrom the citizens of the statethat will form the basis of itselection manifesto. These sug-gestions can be given in writ-ing and dropped into ‘akanshapeti’ (expectation boxes) placedacross the state. Gupta, howev-er, said that suggestions are alsoinvited through e-mail,

WhatsApp and the party’s web-site. They can also be in theform of voice recordings.

NIA CHIEF PAYSHOMAGE TO FATHER ONDEATH ANNIV: NationalInvestigation Agency (NIA)chief Kuldeep Singh reachedPratapgarh on Wednesday toattend the anniversary of hisfather Bajrang Bahadur Singh.Cabinet minister RajendraPratap Singh Moti Singh alsoreached there. He paid tributesto the father of the NIA chief.Many dignitaries were presenton the occasion. Singh said ina conversation with media per-sons that the youth of a lead-ing country like India will haveto move forward with manygoals together to be successful.In the current situation wherethe competition is very intense,to focus on only one goal canprove to be a big mistake, hesaid. The NIA chief passed BScfrom Allahabad University in

1980. He is a 1986-batch IPSofficer. He kept himself awayfrom queries related to securi-ty etc, saying that he has comefor a private programme, so itwill not be right to say anythingon such sensitive matters.

TECHNICAL SNAG INTRAIN RECTIFIED:Anandvihar-Rewa Expresstrain got divided into two partson Tuesday night near TundlaRailway station on way toPrayagraj, but the fault was rec-tified and the train was sent toits destination. Railway officialssaid that a coupling betweensleeper and AC-III got openminutes after the train crossedTundla Junction. The pressuredevice made the driver alertand after informing the control,half of the train was rolled backto get the left behind coachesconnected. The train wasbrought to Tundla, and afterthorough check up, it wasflagged off for Rewa.

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The railway administration for the conve-nience of the passengers will run the 05301

Gorakhpur (GKP)-Bandra Terminus(BDTS)special train for a single trip on January5 as follows. All coaches in this train will be ofreserved class and passengers travelling in it willhave to follow the Covid-19 prevention guide-lines, CPRO Pankaj Kumar Singh said. The05301 Gorakhpur – Bandra Terminus specialtrain will on January 5 depart from Gorakhpurat 08.30 hrs, from Khalilabad at 09.10 hrs, fromBasti at 09.39 hrs, from Gonda at 11.05 hrs, fromLucknow (Northern Railway) at 13.35 hrs, fromKanpur Central at 15.05 hrs, from Kannauj at16.28 hrs, from Farrukhabad at 17.37 hrs, fromKasganj at 19.20 hrs, from Mathura Jn at 21.35hrs, from Achhnera at 22.45 hrs, from Bharatpurat 23.37 hrs, from Kota at 02.20 hrs, from Ratlam

at 06.10 hrs, from Vadodara at 10.10 hrs, fromSurat at 12.20 hrs, from Vapi at 13.42 hrs, fromBorivali at 15.35 hrs and reach Bandra Terminusat 16.25 hrs. A total of 22 coaches, including 11of general class, nine of sleeper class and two ofSLRD will be attached in this special train.

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railway administration had decided to attachpantry car in the following train. In 12107/12108Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (LTT) - Lucknow Jn.-LTT Express from Lokmanya Tilak Terminus fromJanuary 5 and from Lucknow Jn from January 6 anadditional coach of pantry car will be attached. Asper the revised composition, a total of 22 coach-es, including one of AC second class, four of ACthird class, 12 of sleeper, two general second, oneof pantry car, one generator-cum-luggage van andone SLRD coach will be attached in the train.

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Police arrested two persons in connection withthe rape and murder of a minor girl. SP Ajay

Kumar Singh said body of a minor girl wasfound near her house in an area under KatraKotwali police station late on Sunday night.Police recovered the rope, a pair of anklet andone mobile phone. During interrogation the sus-pects confessed to their crime. They divulgedthat the deceased was playing in the afternoonand they called her to give her a kite, raped herand strangled her fearing that she might tell aboutthe incident to her parents. Police arrested the twoaccused from Shuklaha under Katra Kotwali policestation on Tuesday and sent them to jail. The SPannounced cash reward of �15,000 for the policeteam led by SHO Katra Kotwali Ram Narain.

MEETING: In a meeting of representativesof political parties with ADM(F&R) and deputyelection officer of the district Shiv PratapShukla at the Collectorate on Tuesday in viewof the forthcoming assembly election venues formeetings and public meetings were identifiedalong with fixation of estimated cost of election

materials. He made it clear that during electioncampaign as well as meetings and public meet-

ings Covid-19p r e v e n t i o nguidelines wereto be followed.He said the finalpublication of

the voters’ list after brief revision was to be pub-lished on January 5.

RANKING: Daffodils Public School (DPS)retained the top position in the district in year2021-2022. Director Aparajita Singh said underGrand Jury India School Ranking by EducationWorld the school secured second place in socialimpact at national level as well as at state level andfirst position in the district. The school stood at188th position in the nation, 54th in state and attop level in the district regarding the ranking infield of education, infrastructure etc. The direc-tor gave credit for the achievements to students,staff and guardians.

DISCOURSE: In a discourse organised atMahuaria on Tuesday Chinmayanand Baputhrew the light on life of Lord Rama.

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Divisional Railway Manager (DRM)Ramashray Pandey on Tuesday while

appreciating the honesty, devotion to duty andpraiseworthy work of Lallan Singh Yadav out-post incharge Government Railway Police

(GRP), PrayagrajRambag, andM o h a m m a dShoaib Ahmed,head constable(GRP) presentedcash prize alongwith a commen-dation letter inhis office. GRP

Prayagraj Rambagh, found an unclaimed bagcontaining jewellery worth about �5 lakh and�55,000 in cash at Prayagraj Rambag railwaystation which was later handed over to the pas-senger concerned. In Varanasi Division’sPrayagraj Rambag railway station S-I LallanSingh Yadav and head constable MohammadShoaib Ahmed while on night duty were check-ing its platform and circulating area. Duringplatform checking an unclaimed bag wasfound. On checking it with a metal detector,it was found to contain metal in excess. Whenthe bag was carefully searched due to the appre-hension of explosives, five rings, earrings, nosepins, two bracelets etc and various silver orna-ments worth about �5 lakh and �55,000 cashwere recovered and after contacting on themobile number mentioned on the receipt thebag owner was identified as Aradhana Dubey,wife of Raju Dubey, a resident of Pandri underRanipur police station in Mau district. Thefamily had come to Prayagraj to attend a mar-riage function and had accidentally forgottentheir belongings on the platform itself. GRPcalled both to the Prayagraj Rambag outpost andhanded over all the goods safely. Dubey fami-ly expressed gratitude to the North EasternRailway (NER) administration after receivingthe luggage. The honesty and integrity of GRPPolice Rambagh was highly appreciated by thepassengers as well, Public Relations Officer(PRO), Ashok Kumar said. On the occasion

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On the instructions of General Manager,North Eastern Railway (NER), Vinay

Kumar Tripathi, the morale of the railway per-sonnel in NER doing excellent work in the fieldof safety is boosted every month by honouringthem with the ‘Man of the Month’ award at theGM level. In this sequence in October a totalof 11 railway personnel, including four employ-ees of Izzatnagardivision, four ofLucknow divisionand three ofVaranasi divisionwere selected forbeing rewarded fortheir excellent workin the field of safe-ty whom the GMhonoured by givingcash prize and commendation letter here onTuesday. Izzatnagar Division’s Mahesh, seniortechnician (Carriage and Wagon), Lal Kuan, dur-ing Up goods train’s through pass at the time ofrolling in at Lal Kuan station on seeing hot axlegot it stopped thereby preventing a possible acci-dent. Rajesh Kumar, gangmate, Hathras City,while on duty noticed that AT weld in rail hadcracked and informing about it promptly pro-tected the crack weld. Jait Ram, track maintainer,Lal Kuan, while on duty at night during rainnoticed rain cut in the block section and pro-tected the train movement by informing aboutit. Vishwa Mohan Gupta, loco pilot/Goods, LalKuan, during the movement of goods train whilelooking back saw spark coming out of it. He

immediately stopped the train, detected hot axleand after extinguishing it protected the train.Lucknow division’s Shahnawaz Khan, StationSuperintendent, Gorakhpur Cantt, while on dutyon receiving information about falling of a treeon the track stopped 05003 special train goingtowards Down with his wisdom. PramodKumar, keyman, Razaganj, while patrolling hisarea found one support wire of the OHE mastbroken. By giving this information to the sta-

tion masteron time, heprotected therail route.S a r v e s hKumar, key-m a n ,Peppeganj,while on dutynoticed thata tree had

fallen on the track in block section due to whichOHE wire had broken. By giving this informa-tion to the officer concerned, he ensured safemovement of trains. Diwakar, Station Master,Biswan, during the passing of train noticed brakebinding in the wheel and got it stopped due towhich a possible accident could be averted.Besides, Yagya Narayan Singh, loco pilot andRavi Kumar Meena, assistant loco pilot, noticedduring night during the movement of expresstrain noticed an unwanted object lying on thetrack in block section and by applying emer-gency brake stopped it at a safe distance. For theircommendable work, these railway personnelwere honoured by the General Manager by beingpresented the monthly safety award.

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Under the aegis of the Department ofRajbhasha, Banaras Locomotive Works

(BLW), a quarterly meeting of BLW RajbhashaImplementation Committee was organised onTuesday which was presided over by GeneralManager Anjali Goyal. In her address, she saidthe use of Rajbhasha is a matter of pride. In AzadiKa Amrit Mahotsav year while taking the pledgeof self-reliant India we have to become self-reliantin the matter of lan-guage and in this goalwe have to take allIndian languages along.BLW is constantly striv-ing in this direction, sheadded. Receiving theRail Mantri Rajbhashamedal is a matter ofpride for BLW. Through the e-magazine ‘BLWDarpan’ it is also promoting creative writing. Sheinstructed all officers to use Hindi in new areasand stressed on use of simple Hindi in techni-cal areas. In the meeting principal heads ofdepartment and officers discussed the progressreport of Hindi related to their department andpresented their views. On the occasion PrincipalChief Materials Manager (PCMM) Ashok KumarRathore, Principal Financial Advisor (PFA)Yogesh Kumar Srivastava, Principal ChiefPersonnel Officer (PCPO) Pradeep Kumar Singh,Principal Chief Engineer (PCE) Santosh Shukla,Principal Chief Security Commissioner (PCSC)Ranveer Singh Chauhan and other heads ofdepartments were present. Earlier, welcoming theofficers Chief Rajbhasha Officer (CRO) PramodKumar Chaudhary apprised about the use ofHindi in BLW and creative efforts being made forits progress. The meeting was conducted by SeniorRajbhasha Officer Dr Sanjay Kumar Singh, whoalso proposed the vote of thanks.

Additional Divisional Railway Manager(ADRM/Infra) Gyanesh Tripathi and divisional offi-cers congratulated the S-I and head constable.

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Uttar Pradesh GovernorAnandiben Patel said that

parental focus should not beonly on the education of girlsbut also to ensure they werehealthy inwardly and outwardlyas it was only education whichmade a person self-reliant andpart of national uplift.

Addressing the 36th con-vocation ceremony ofChhatrapati Shahu Ji MaharajUniversity on Wednesday,Governor Anandiben Patel wasall praise for girls who haveexcelled boys in academic per-formance. She said it was goodthat girls were more focused onhigher education.

She said the new education

policy was quite flexible and afarsighted approach as it wouldnot only provide thememployment but also shapetheir character as well. Shesaid blood tests of all the girlstudents need to be mademandatory and awarenessshould be created to eradicatesocial evils like dowry. Shealso called for institutionaldeliveries and said womenshould be made aware of allthis. She said the place wherewomen lived, be it rural orurban, should be free of mal-nutrition and free of TB as well.

Rajya Sabha member DrSudhanshu Trivedi, who wasconferred DSc degree, alsoaddressed the convocation. Heexplained the true meaning of

convocation. Minister of Statefor Higher Education NeelimaKatiyar laid emphasis on‘vocal for local’ and saidprogress in the field of educa-tion would certainly bring backthe pristine glory of India as theVishwa Guru.

CSJMU Vice Chancellor,Prof Vinay Kumar Pathak, readout the progress report and saidthe university was striving hardto implement the NationalEducational Policy in the rightearnest. He said 26 new voca-tional courses had been intro-duced in the university and anincubation centre was being setup at a cost of Rs 1.50 crore.

He said introduction ofvocational courses was theneed of the hour and to bring

India at par with the otherdeveloped nations focus was tobe laid on information tech-nology and quality education.

The Best Student Awardwas given to Gulistan Naz whowas awarded five medals. Atotal of 56 students were given86 medals.

On this occasion, theKishori App was also launched.It would impart up to dateinformation to girls relating totheir health problems.

Prominent among thosepresent on the occasion wereDr RK Dwivedi, PS Chaudhary,Prof Sanjay Swarankar, Dr AnilYadav, Prof Sudhir Awasthi,Prof Nandlal, Prof SudhanshuPandya, Dr Rashi Agarwal andDr Pravin Katiyar.

KANPUR (PNS): Goods andservices tax (GST) registra-tion is a matter of pride fortraders and thus they shouldget themselves registered underit. There are many benefits ofbeing registered under the GSTlike being insured for acciden-tal death for a sum of Rs 10lakh. This insurance benefit isfree and the traders do not haveto pay any premium. Besides,GST registration also includesthe benefits of SamadhanYojana as well and the tradersneed not maintain any recordas well. This makes GST regis-tration very essential and ben-eficial for the traders. Thiswas stated by member of UttarPradesh Traders WelfareAssociation, Sunil Gupta, whileaddressing a seminar on ben-efits of GST at the GST audi-torium. He said once the out-put taxes were paid, the pro-ducers and service providerswould reduce the tax they hadalready paid on their productsby the sum they had paid. Hesaid the total tax burden formanufacturers or serviceproviders decreased thus lowerprices instilled more con-sumption. He added that theinput credit applied to therecipient producers or serviceproviders only if the specificswere given by the supplier as areturn and this supported thesuppliers of products and ser-vices and thereby tended tocontrol avoidance of taxation.

He said most small com-panies had reduced tax andcompliance burden so thechoice of the use of composi-tion schemes could be benefi-cial to small businesses withrevenues between Rs 20 lakhand Rs 75 lakh. He said restric-tions on the transfer of goodsbetween states had been less-ened with the introduction of

GST. He said several ware-houses had to be managed toprevent the new GST and stateentry taxes. He added thatincreasing the overall cost ofoperations and as an outcomeof GST, warehouses were set-ting up units at key locations,rather than every other city.

Gupta said earlier textileand construction industrieswere mostly unorganised andunregulated and under GST,there were arrangements foronline payments and compli-ances. He said the responsi-bilities and regulation of suchsectors were thus brought in.He said in addition to this GSTwas systematic and was struc-tured to remove the cascadingimpact, which implied the taxon a tax scheme where the taxburden was carried through atany point of the sale and as aresult, the value of the productor service had risen. He said theeffect of tax directly lay in thecost of goods and services,which eliminated this cascad-ing effect. He said the cost of atax was transferred close to thecustomer which supported thesector by improved cash flowsand also the working capitalmanagement. He said GST wasa clear tax structure wherelicensed retailers did not havea cost and hidden taxes. He saidthe cost of conducting businesswould be smaller with GST reg-istration. He said in addition tothis earlier tax laws allowedcompanies with a turnover ofmore than Rs 5 lakh to payVAT and as different states haddifferent value limits thethreshold in the GST systemhad been raised to Rs 20 lakhand this would exempt small-er businesses and serviceproviders. Gupta explainedthat previously, each tax leviedhad its returns and enforce-

ment and there was less com-pliance following the imposi-tion of GST and only one sin-gle return had to be filed.

C A R D I O L O G I S TWARNS AGAINST HOLI-DAY HEART SYNDROME:Holidays or year-ends may justbe the time for many peoplewhen their heart disease man-ifests, especially those withhigh blood pressure, diabetes,high cholesterol and smokinghabits. Doctors at RegencyHospital, Kanpur have notedthat year-end is a time of bothcelebration and stress; so manypeople indulge in drinkingalong with salty snacks or foodhigh in fats and oils. Thisoverindulgence can lead toHoliday Heart Syndrome(HHS) that is most common atthis time of the year.

While people with pre-existing heart issues are mostlikely to experience HHS, it canalso happen to people withoutany heart issues. HHS is alsoreferred to as alcohol-inducedatrial arrhythmias or an irreg-ular heartbeat. Atrial fibrilla-tion, triggered by excessivealcohol use, is commonlyreferred to as HHS. It occurswhen the heart chamberknown as ‘atria’ contracts in achaotic way, resulting in arapid, irregular pulse.

Addressing media persons,Dr Abhinit Gupta, consultant,interventional cardiology atRegency Hospital, Kanpur saidthat moderation was the key toavoid this heart risk whichcould also prove to be fatal insome cases. “Year-end is allabout celebrating with goodfood, family and friends, butsometimes we tend tooverindulge in alcohol alongwith fatty or oily delicacies inmerriment or joy. This can leadto some serious heart issues

and HHS is one of them. Witha continual flow of cocktailsand salty snacks, even healthypeople without any heart dis-ease can experience this con-dition. Every year, several peo-ple are hospitalised with heartarrhythmia after new year fes-tivities. Our hospital receivedvarious cases last year and wehad kept a dedicated team ofdoctors ready to handle theseemergency cases”. He said hol-iday heart attacks peaked dur-ing the New Year season aspeople tended to forget theirmedications, overindulge inunhealthy food and alcohol andskipped exercise due to coldweather. He said on top of this,high cholesterol and smokingcould make the matters worse,leading to heart failure or evendeath in many cases.

Atrial fibrillation is themost common rhythm disor-der which usually converts tonormal sinus rhythm within 24hours. The typical symptoms ofatrial fibrillation include heartpalpitations, chest discomfort,dizziness, lack of energy andshortness of breath. “Thosewho start to develop thesesymptoms should immediate-ly seek medical treatment or berushed to their nearest hospi-tal. People often delay in seek-ing timely treatment out of theguilt of inconveniencing othersduring holiday season, but anydelay may prove to be deadly,”he said and recommended notto overindulge in salty foodsand alcohol, stay away fromsmoking (even second-handsmoke) and seek immediatemedical attention. Delayedheart attack treatment cancause incremental heart mus-cle damage, which can lead toheart failure, arrhythmias, andother potentially lethal com-plications.

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Kanpur is among the 14 dis-tricts of Uttar Pradesh to be

included for the vaccineZyCoV-D. The UP govern-ment has also carried out spe-cial training for vaccinators ofZyCov-D and health officialshave been directed to work outon pharmajet-injector.

The health ministry hasdirected the officials to spreadawareness among the com-mon masses to take the vaccinedose.

According to DistrictImmunisation Officer Dr AKKanaujia, the vaccine is pro-duced on a DNA platform andintroduces a specific antigen-coding DNA sequence intothe cells of an organism to

induce an immune response.He said it was known to

have an estimated efficacy of66.6 per cent.

He said this vaccinationwas meant for children agedbetween 12 and 18 but therewere still doubts among theparents if the vaccine was real-ly needed. He said the UP gov-ernment had plans to reopenschools and thus it did not wantto take any risk and this wouldmotivate parents to send theirkids to school because it washighly essential to bring backthe children to the schoolsand classrooms.

He said ZyCov-D was thefirst DNA vaccine to beapproved in the world and itwas very safe and easy toadminister.

As per the research carriedout, this vaccine has alreadyexhibited robust immuno-genicity, tolerability and safetyprofile in the adaptive clinicaltrials carried out. Most of thosevaccinated did not show anyredness or soreness at the siteof injection or low-grade fever,both being common post-vac-cine side effects.

Dr Kanaujia said the trialsof this vaccine had been carriedout during the Delta variantsurge in India, unlike trials forother Covid vaccines, such asCovaxin and Covishield, whichwere conducted when the Deltawas not the dominant variantin the country. He said theDelta being a more contagiousand virulent strain of the virusdid mean that the efficacy fig-

ure for ZyCov-D should not bepitted against vaccines withhigher efficacy.

It contains DNA known asplasmids which carry the spikeprotein of novel coronavirus.They also contain a sequencefor turning the gene on.

Dr Kanaujia said ZyCoV-D was inserted into the skinand not into muscle tissue anda jet injector was pressedagainst the skin to create ahigh-pressure stream of liquidthat pushed through the upperlayers of skin. He said therewould be three doses and theperson had to be injected witha total of six shots of this vac-cine to be fully vaccinated andthe doses will be given in a gapof 28 days.

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9������������'���������������������@��KANPUR (PNS): KanpurDevelopment Authority is allset to carry out planned devel-opment of the city and launchmany ambitious housing pro-jects in the year 2022.

Proposals for approval ofthe draft Master Plan 2031and four housing projects willbe placed at the KDA Boardmeeting scheduled to be heldon December 30. Afterapproval of the draft MasterPlan, objections from masseswould be invited for onwardresolution and enforcement ofthe plan within one month inthe New Year.

Hitherto, the developmentof the city was being carried outaccording to Master Plan 2021,the term of which would beended this year.

The Master Plan 2031envisages conversion of landuse for the launch of housingprojects which include theRing Road and Ganga basinarea also. A total of 18 pro-posals, including housing pro-jects, will be put up in theBoard meeting for its approval.

The KDA will also invitetenders for the 8th time toaward contract for thePhoolbagh multi-level parkingconstructed to park 1,026 vehi-cles at a cost of Rs 70 crore.From February 21, 2019 tonow, the KDA has invitedoffers seven times but no con-tractor turned up to managethe parking of vehicles. Nowthe tender is likely to befinalised at Rs 52.60 lakh forfive years with 10 per centincrease in annual fee after twoyears of the contract.

New housing projectsinclude the New Kanpur CityScheme to be developed fromMainawati Marg to Singhpurand Singhpur to Kalyanpur;housing and commercialscheme in Chakeri andBingawa housing scheme.Other proposals relate toincrease in funeral expenses onthe death of KDA officer oremployee from Rs 5,000 to Rs10,000; revise budget for 2021-22; appointing outsourced offi-cers of the rank of retiredtehsildar, nayab tehsildar oncontract; partial amendment tothe layout of Ram GangaEnclave scheme and appoint-ment of technology and strat-egy consultant to introducereform measures in KDA activ-ities.

Besides, the KDA has alsodecided to construct boundarywalls around its land freedfrom unauthorised possessionin the recent past. In the firstphase, it will construct theboundary wall involving anexpenditure of Rs 1.37 crore inShatabdi Nagar Scheme to pre-vent its plots and land frombeing encroached by mafias.For this, the tenders havealready been invited. Likewise,vacant lands of other schemeswould also be identified soonand covered by the boundarywalls.

.��#&����������#����#'����#�������'��KANPUR (PNS): Public trans-port system provides the mostimportant means of trans-portation for the residents ofKanpur and surrounding dis-tricts as they commute to otherlocations for daily social, eco-nomic, political, health reasons.However the ‘daggamar bus-es’ of Kanpur throw a chal-lenge to the district authorities.The ‘daggamar buses’have been plying for the pastthree decades and the operatorsof these buses are now wellentrenched. The UP RoadwaysEmployees’ Associationmembers met the managingdirector of UP State RoadTransport Corporation onWednesday and demanded aban on over 200 illegally runbuses in and around Kanpurand in every possible direction.Due to the RTO and policeworking hand in glove, thesebuses are able to cut into theprofits of the UP Roadways.Union president Ramji Tripathisaid that if the illegally plyingbuses were not impoundedand stopped, their associationwould be forced to resort toagitation. He said to reachabove 70 per cent load factorevery effort should be madeand the foremost was to banthe ‘daggamar buses’.Ironically, the UP Roadwaysbuses left for the surroundingdestination with a few passen-gers the illegally run busesremained overcrowded, up todouble the capacity of passen-gers.

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Kolkata: West Bengal BJP pres-ident Sukanta Majumdar onWednesday urged the StateElection Commission to recon-sider the date for the upcomingpoll to four municipal corpora-tions on January 22 next yeargiven the rising number ofCovid-19 cases in the state anda threat of a possible third waveof the pandemic looming large.

This drew a sharp retortfrom the ruling TMC, whichwondered whether the BJP-ledgovernment at the Centre willalso postpone the assemblyelection due in five states.

On Monday, the WestBengal SEC had announcedthat polls to Siliguri,Chandannagar, Bidhannagarand Asansol municipal corpo-rations will be held on January22.

"The SEC has announceddates for civic polls to fourmunicipal corporations. Butpresently, Covid-19 cases arerising in the state. So we requestthe SEC to reconsider the datesof the civic polls. It can discussthe matter with health expertsand then decide on the dates.We fail to understand what isthe hurry in holding the polland that too when there is athreat of a third wave,"Majumdar told reporters here.

Asked about the party'sreadiness for the coming civicpoll given its dismal perfor-mance in the December 19Kolkata Municipal Corporationelection, he said, "BJP is readyfor the polls. We are just ask-ing the SEC to at least recon-sider its decision once".

Mumbai: A special court onWednesday sentenced a priestto imprisonment for life forsexually assaulting a 13-year-old boy at a church in subur-ban Dadar here in 2015.

Special judge Seema Jadhavfound the accused FatherJohnson Lawrence guilty ofoffences under relevant provi-sions of the Protection of Childfrom Sexual Offences(POCSO) Act.

According to the prosecu-tion, the minor victim hadbeen assaulted twice by thepriest between August andNovember 2015.The victim,in his statement to police, hadsaid that he had gone to thechurch in Shivaji Nagar area ofDadar with his brother onNovember 27, 2015.

After the prayer, theaccused called the boy inside tokeep a box and then closed thedoor from inside and sexuallyassaulted him, the victiminformed the police.

Jammu: Two days after the Jammu andKashmir administration signed 39 MoUs withthe country's real estate investors, PDP's youthwing on Wednesday tried to march to the RajBhawan here against what it called “brazen saleof resources” to corporate houses.

However, they said the police stoppedthem from marching ahead.

The Jammu and Kashmir government onMonday opened the Union Territory to the

country's real estate investors by signingMemorandum of Understanding for projectspertaining to housing, hotel and other commer-cial activities worth nearly Rs 19,000 crore.

Raising slogans against the BJP and lieu-tenant governor administration, protesters fromthe Peoples Democratic Party alleged that theCentre, under the garb of bringing investment,was selling resources of the erstwhile state to cor-porate houses.

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Srinagar, the summer Capitalof Jammu & Kashmir, wit-

nessed highest number ofdeaths in incidents of terroristviolence in 2021. Compared tothe previous year the localrecruitment witnessed a mar-ginal decline while large num-ber of “Hybrid” terrorists wereinducted in the ranks of newterror outfits to target the secu-rity personnel in 'cold blood'.

Overall, around 20Pakistani and approximately160 local terrorists weregunned down by the jointteam of security forces sinceJanuary 1 in the UnionTerritory of Jammu & Kashmir.Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Taibafollowed by Jaish-e-Mohammad and pro PakistanHizbul Mujahideen terroristoutfits suffered maximumdamages during anti terroristoperations.

During these operationsaround 35 security personnel

and 40 civilians also sacrificedtheir lives.

Majority of local terroristskilled in the anti terrroist oper-ations were aged between 20-25 and had a shelf life rangingbetween three days to 1 year.The security forces also brokedown the backbone of the ter-rorist outfits by arrestingaround 600 over ground work-ers during crackdown.

During the year Srinagarfigured in the list of UNESCO'sNetwork of creative cities and'peacefully' hosted numerousevents which were attended byParliamentarians, UnionMinisters and foreign digni-taries but during the last quar-ter the capital city witnessedsudden surge in incidents ofterrorist violence. In most ofthe incidents the terrorist han-dlers deployed 'hybrid' terror-ists to target the security per-sonnel and civilians.

According to policerecords, around 11 policemen,nine civilians and 20 terroristswere killed in a series of gun-fights and targeted killingsduring the year. It includedkilling the son of a local dhabaowner, a jeweler, two schoolteachers from minority com-munities, kashmiri panditpharmacist and outsiders from

Bihar. Out of 128 local terrorists

recruited this year, as per policerecords, as many as 73 werekilled, 16 were arrested and 39were still active.

Security assessment madeby the various agencies claimedarlound 200 terrorists werestill active in the region .Out ofthese around 110 are local andaround 90 are foreign terrorists.

Majority of these anti ter-rorist operations were con-ducted across South Kashmirdistricts of Pulwama,Kulgam,Shopian andAnantnag. The highest num-ber of 51 terrorists were elim-inated in the last three monthsfollowing sudden surge in inci-dents of terrorist violence andtargeted killings of civiliansand others.

Last year, a total numberof 203 terrorists including 166local and 37 foreign terroristswere gunned down by thesecurity forces while 43 civil-ians were killed and 92 othersinjured in the union territory.

In 2019, 152 terrorists,including 120 locals and 32 ofPakistan-origin were killed bythe security forces in J&K. In2018, 215 terrorists were neu-tralized by security forces.

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Nearly two months after itarrested him in an alleged

money laundering and corrup-tion case, the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) onWednesday filed a compre-hensive supplementary chargesheet before a Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) court againstMaharashtra’s former HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh andnamed his two sons Hrishikeshand Salil in the case.

In a 7,000-page chargesheet filed before the PMLAcourt, the ED charged thatDeshmukh and his familymembers controlled 27 dummycompanies based in Delhi andused that money to donate Rs4.18 crore to the former StateHome Minister’s Sai ShikshanSanstha.

Among other things, theED alleged in its supplementarycharge-sheet that Deshmukhwas the prime beneficiary ofthe laundering of the bribemonies allegedly collected by

dismissed policeman SachinVaze, who is also an accused inthe same case.

Among other things, thesupplementary charge sheetcomrpises statements ofDeshmukh, Mumbai’s formerpolice commissioner ParambirSingh, ex-Chief SecretarySitaram Kunte, certain IPS offi-cers, police officials and otherwitnesses in the case. It alsocontains various documentsand other evidence that sur-faced during the investiga-tions.

In the first charge-sheetfiled on August 23, 2021, theED had named 14 accused,including Deshmukh’s privatesecretary Sanjeev Palande andpersonal assistant KundanShinde, a trust run by theDeshmukh family in Nagpur,and others. It contained Mr.Palande’s statement admittingthat Deshmukh had a role intransfer posting of police offi-cers, especially the posting ofIPS officers.

It may be recalled thatDeshmukh was arrested

November 2 in the allegedmoney laundering case linkedto the charges of extortionmade against him by Mumbai’sformer Police CommissionerParam Bir Singh.

An IPS officer of the 1988batch, Singh had on March 20made a sensational allegation ofcorruption against Deshmukhthat he had asked arrested andsuspended police officer SachinVaze to "collect" a staggering Rs100 crore per month frombars, restaurants and othersources.

Following the allegationsmade by Singh, Deshmukhhad resigned from his post asthe State Home Minister onApril 5, within hours after theBombay High Court ordered a“Preliminary Enquiry” (PE)by the CBI into the seriouscharges of corruption madeagainst him by Mumbai’s for-mer Police Commissioner.

Deshmukh is being inves-tigated by the CBI in connec-tion with a First InformationReport (FIR) registered by it on

April 24 section 7 of theamended Prevention ofCorruption Act and section120-b (conspiracy) of IPC foran “attempt to obtain undueadvantage for important anddishonest performance of thepublic duty”.

Having prima facie found“cognisance offences” of cor-ruption and conspiracyagainst him during aPreliminary Enquiry (PE) con-ducted by it into the allegationsmade against him by Mumbai’sformer Police CommissionerParam Bir Singh, the CBI onApril 21 registered a regularcase against him and otherunknown people.

The ED probe began afterthe CBI filed an FIR againstDeshmukh on April 21 accus-ing him of graft and misusinghis official position as minister.On his part, Deshmukh hasconsistently denied the allega-tions of corruption and moneylaundering against him.

Having established a trailfor Rs 4.7 crore allegedly paidby the 10 bar owners in

Mumbai over a period of threemonths December 2020 andFebruary 2021, the ED hadconducted raids on the threeresidences and one property ofDeshmukh on June 25.

The ED has alleged that ofthe total amount, Rs 4.18 crorewas then deposited in cash withfour Delhi-based shell compa-nies– Reliable FinanceCorporation Pvt. Ltd, VARealcon Pvt. Ltd., UtsavSecurities Pvt. Ltd. and SitalLeasing and finance Pvt. ltd.

These firms subsequentlydonated the entire money toShri Sai Shikshan SansthanTrust, a charitable trust head-ed by Anil Deshmukh and hisfamily.

Among other things, theED had told the court on June26 that Rs. 40 lakh was paid by60 bar owners to the now dis-missed and incarcerated APISachin Waze in December lastyear. The bar owners have toldthe ED that the amount waspaid for ‘smooth functioning’ oftheir establishments.

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The new found camaraderiebetween the Sangh Parivar

and the Church is likely tocome to end, as the observa-tions and apprehensions of theKerala Catholic Bishop Councilindicated.

The Union HomeMinistry’s decision not torenew the permission given toCalcutta based Missionaries ofCharity for receiving dona-tions under ForeignersContribution Regulation Act(FCRA) has upset the Catholiccommunity in the State.Deepika, the mouthpiece of thecommunity, in its editorial onWednesday has made ascathing attack on the BJP-ledGovernment at the Centre andtered the decision as a violationof privileges enjoyed by theminorities under theConstitution.

“Though the Missionariesof Charity has played down the

impact of the Home Ministry’sdecision, the community mem-bers have genuine concernsover the move by theGovernment of India. There isa concerted move by certainHindutwa forces to derail theoperations of the Missionariesof Charity lajnched by MotherTeressa. The Governmentshould allow the nuns of thecongregation to go ahead withtheir mission of helping thepoor and needy,” said the edi-torial.

The daily has also lambast-ed the Karnataka Government’sReligious Conversion Bill as yetanother proof that the minori-ties were not safe in the coun-try.

“This is a Bill with hiddenagenda as it would encouragethe zealots in the Hindu reli-gion, There is strong possibil-ities of the misuse of this Actagainst the minorities.

The editorial pointed outthat citizens in the country are

free to believe and propagate thereligion of their choice. “This isa Bill which would certainly bemisused against the Christiansin the country. The role playedby the Church in bringing edu-cation and health to the poorsections of society could neverbe ignored. We should get thefreedom and liberty assured bythe Constitution,” the editorialopined.

The Sangh Parivar hadtried to strengthen a rapportwith the Church following thedeclaration made by BishopKallarangattu of Pala that theJihadists were using narcotics towoo Christian girls and this hasgiven rise to a new term in theState’s narrative-Narcotics Jihad.

The Kerala CatholicBishops Council too issued astatement by Wednesdayevening demanding the Centreto initiate immediate action toprevent the “widespreadattacks” on Christians byHindu extremists.

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In an alarming development,Maharashtra on Wednesday

recorded an all-time of 85cases of Omicron, taking thetotal number of new Covid-19variant cases to 252.

Of the 85 Omicron casesrecorded, Mumbai accountedfor a maximum of 34 cases,while Nagpur and Pimpri-Chinchwad recorded threecases. The break-up of cases inother parts of the staten is asfollows: Navi Mumbai andPune Municipal Corporation(PPMC) –two each, Panvel,Kolhapur and Buldhana – onecase each

Of the 85 cases ofOmicron variant infectionsreported on Wednesday, 47patients have been reported bythe National Institute ofVirology (NIV, while 38 havebeen reported by the IndianInstitute of Science Educationand Research (IISER).

Of the 47 patients report-ed by NIV, 43 are internation-al travellers and 4 are close con-tacts. Of the 38 cases reportedby IISER are from communitysurveillance. The district-wisedetails are as follows: Mumbai-

19, Kalyan Dombivli-5, NaviMumbai and Pimpri-Chinchwad-3 each, Pune rural,Bhjiwandi-Nizampur, Panveland Thane MunicipalCorporation –1 each.

The following is the break-up of a total 252 Omicron casesrecorded in the state so far,Mumbai: 137, Pimpri-Chinchwad: 25, Pune rural --18,Pune Municipal Corporation(PMC)—11, Thane MC-8, NaviMumbai, Panvel and KalyanDombivli—7 each, Satara,Osmanabad – 5 each, Vasai-Virar-3, Auirangbad, Nanded,Buldhana, Bhiwandi-Nizampur—2 each and Latur,Ahmednagar, Akola, Mira-Bhayandar and Kolahpur—1each.

Of the total cases, 99patients have been dischargedafter a negative RT–PCR test.

Of the 26 cases reported onMonday, four are aged below 18years, while two are above 60years. Of the infected persons,14 are male, while 12 are female

Of the infected, all excepttwo patients have a history ofinternational travel, while theremaining two persons arehigh-risk contacts of an inter-national traveller.

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Several Maharashtra leaders,including two Ministers and

NCP MP Supriya Sule and herhusband Sadanand Sule, havetested positive for Covid-19.

Announcing that she andher husband had tested positivefor Covid-19, Supriya tweeted:“Sadanand and I, both of ushave tested positive for COVID- 19. We do not have anysymptoms. Requesting every-one who has come in contactwith us to get themselves test-ed. Take Care”.

Simultaneously, Congressministers - School EducationMinister Prof. Varsha Gaikwadhas tested positive for Covid-19 for the second time, whileTribal Development MinisterK. C. Padvi has also tested pos-itive for the pandemic.

Opposition BJP legislatorfrom Nagpur Sameer D Meghehas gone into isolation, after hetested positive for Covid-19.

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Page 8: (! 4`gZU dfcXV Z_ >f^SRZ &! Z_ 5V]YZ Z_ " URj - Daily Pioneer

Revolution when Mao steppedon and crushed thousands oftoes? Leader versus leader isanother level of struggle. EvenVladimir Lenin was shot at andwounded, apparently by a col-league or on his behalf. Chinawas not free of such power play.The dozens of leaders and fol-lowers of Stalin exterminatedthrough the 1920s and 1930sare legend. Leon Trotsky,Grigory Zinoviev and LevKamenev were only the topthree. Stalin is reputed to havetaken a toll of three millionbureaucrats, army officers,farmers and commoners. Thatwas the way he lasted until1953 when his over 30-yearinnings ended naturally. KarlMarx appropriately chose thecolour red for his cult!

Violence had to be adopt-ed by the communists as amethod of action. One reasonwas the lack of aversion to vio-lence, the virtual opposite ofGandhism which was a massmovement comprising alsowomen, children and the old.The Marxist support base wasa minority, namely the prole-tariat. Other classes did notexactly adore Marxists. Aminority ruling over the major-ity had necessarily to do so withan iron hand. Western Europe,

especially Germany, Italy andSpain had to evolve a new ide-ology, called Fascism, tocounter communism.Originally centred around classcollaboration, Fascism becamea synonym for violent despo-tism. A red bullet had to becountered with at least a swasti-ka and gun.

An autocracy, especially adictatorship that traverses allaspects of life, has necessarilya short life. The Soviet Unionlasted 74 years. With its demise,it took along with it nearly allcommunist States, exceptNorth Korea and China. TheCPC reacted with a novelexperiment of continuing withthe form but mostly abandon-ing its Marxist substance. Ifenterprises were promoted,their ownership was controlledwith part ownership of theParty and not the State. Thearmed forces are also owned bythe Party. The leadership’s inse-curity has so far been assuagedby such ownership. True, thesoldiers and sailors, as employ-ees, would fight for the Partyand against its enemies. I won-der how well they would fightfor the country against nation-al enemies. Perhaps the reasonis that the nation has beenlooked upon as an adversary of

the proletariat. Therefore, theParty general secretary wasmore important in SovietRussia than its Prime Minister.Stalin remained the CPSU(Party) general secretary untilhe died.

Chinese modernisationafter Mao Zedong’s deathbegan with limited capital. Itinsisted on foreign entrepre-neurs investing everything,including his working capitaloverdraft bank facility. Thelocal enterprise was financedby cheap leased land and termloans to build the factory.When required, this moneywas printed by the State. If theloans were not returned ontime, it was tolerated but theproduction had to be export-ed and earn up to 75-80 percent hard foreign currency.That explains China’s largeforeign exchange reservesabroad and banking crises athome. How to replace theprinted money?

It would be interesting tosee whether the Yellow Giantflourishes or perishes in thecoming years.

(The writer is a well-known columnist, an authorand a former member of theRajya Sabha. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

��������������� �������Sir — Despite being a small country witha scanty population in comparison toIndia, the British could conquer a lot ofthe world's countries for many centuries.It is totally unbelievable. The British van-quished the Mughals and reigned thecountry for around 200 years.Consequently, English has become thesole medium for communicationbetween countries with different lan-guages. In the long run, the British couldenforce their language, attire and othercultural peculiarities with global peoplewithout much distress.

Had the British not arrived and dom-inated India, we would be at least a hun-dred years behind the major countries.One of the prime advantages is that wecould emerge as a strong democraticcountry. The British built India’s basicinfrastructure foreseeing, they had theirown interests, of course. The very con-troversial Mullaperiyar Dam in Keralawas built by the British around 125 yearsago. Similarly, Asia’s first concrete bridge– Muvattupuzha Bridge in Kerala – wasbuilt by the English in 1914 and can stillsurvive for years. Though the infrastruc-ture was built on the backdrop of theirvested interests, it was one of the fewperks of British rule in India.

Thomas K M | Muvattupuzha

�������������������� �������� ��Sir —We all love gifts, especially whenthey are from our relatives and lovedones. A few decades back, gifts fromloved ones used to be fresh fruits orthings which nourish our body. I stillremember my relatives when they usedto visit us and bring along oranges, applesor fruits which were available in that sea-son. Gradually, the gifts started chang-ing as chocolates and potato chips tookthe form of gifts.

The change in gifting pattern waslargely due to advertisements of choco-lates, candies, chips, etc which were tele-casted during TV shows and cricketmatches. People were so into thesecommercials that taglines like “Kuchmeetha ho jaye”, “Tedha hai par mera hai”

were on the lips of every Indian. But nowwe can see that this tradition of gift giv-ing is slowly drifting away from our soci-ety. Relatives and loved ones have start-ed giving money for treats. Earlier, theyused to put some thought into gifting butthere is no time for it now. The world isat its usual pace; it seems it is us whowant to run with time.

Noopur Baruah | Tezpur

���� ������� ������������Sir — A survey conducted by an advi-sory board of experts of Mars Pet Careand Animal Welfare revealed that dur-ing the lockdown, when people wereforced to stay indoors away from allkinds of activities, the trend of adoptingpets was high. For most people, thisseemed to be an easy way to overcometheir loneliness. It was successful to alarge extent as well. In those times ofloneliness, these innocent animals wereproving to be good friends. But as the

world unlocked and life started return-ing to normalcy, these companions ofloneliness began to become a burden.

Therefore, there is a tendency toreturn them or leave them unannouncedon the market place or in the unknownstreets. This trend was visible across theworld, but India was at the forefront. Ofthe nine countries in which this surveywas conducted, India was found tohave the worst position in terms of pethomelessness. Interestingly, even whenthe trend of adopting pets was increas-ing during the lockdown, incidents of petabandonment were happening on alarge scale in the country. However,whether it is intentional or not, theseinstances of playing with the lives ofinnocent animals raises a big question onour sensitivity.

Abhijit Roy| Jamshedpur

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Since Deng Xiaoping’sreforms, it was clear that theclass profile of Chinesesociety would change. A

new bourgeoisie would emerge,and the petit bourgeoisie wouldenlarge itself with more money inits pockets. The proletariat wouldbecome prosperous. Perhaps theonly class of people who could getleft out of this economic revolu-tion was the peasantry. When Iasked my Marxist acquaintancesas to how the ruling party wouldremain communist and yet copewith the changing expectations ofpeople, their bland reply wasthat they will “manage”. After all,many of the national assets areowned by the party; even thearmed forces and the armamentsare party-owned. So are the sharesof newly created corporations.

To someone like me who hasgrown up in India, it seemed awonder as to how an ideological-ly dyed-in-the wool party canmanage all classes of society.Evidently by force, was the answer.The communists reckoned therewould be no problem since theCommunist Party of China(CPC) practices politics which atypical Marxist does not recog-nise. A European professor hadonce explained to me the reasonfor this. The communist obses-sion is with the proletariat; theother classes matter little. Thebourgeoisie and the landlordswere marked out for extermina-tion at the beginning of the rev-olution. The petit bourgeoisshould be watched and selective-ly also be exterminated. Thefarmers, other than the landlords,were the kulaks, peasants withlimited land and had to be col-lectivised. The landless peas-ants willy-nilly must join thecommunist movement. Inner-party democracy is all that is pos-sible; this is at best collective lead-ership as distinct from theFuhrerprincip practised by theNazis. At most, the entire com-munist party Politburo might beconsulted on policy.

Under democratic circum-stances, a communist party can-not survive in power. ImagineJosef Stalin as a democrat; or MaoZedong surviving in a democra-cy following the famine of 1962,when 30 million poor Chinesestarved to death. Or the Cultural

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In October 2021, the IMF publishedthree regular reports: The WorldEconomic Outlook, The FinancialStability Report and the Fiscal

Monitor. Omicron was as yet unborn, andeconomies were showing early signs ofrevival in those countries where a major-ity of the population were vaccinated andlife was slowly picking up its lost threads.Yet the reports predicted an uncertain yearahead, noting that the near-term disrup-tions caused by the pandemic will leavelasting imprints on the medium-term per-formance of the global economy, makingpolicy choices difficult with multiple chal-lenges to be faced from "subdued employ-ment growth, rising inflation, food inse-curity, setback to human capital accumu-lation, and climate change-with limitedroom to manoeuvre", as The WorldEconomic Outlook notes.

It projected the global economy togrow 5.9 percent in 2021 and 4.9 percentin 2022, then hovering around a moder-ate 3.3 percent over the medium term.Supply disruptions which have alreadycaused consumer price inflation in manycountries, rich and poor alike, is expect-ed to remain a cause of concern leadingto shortage of key inputs for manufactur-ing in many countries, but Central banksmostly have avoided any tightening ofinterest rates so far, adopting a wait andwatch policy instead. But the risk remainsthat waiting for too long without actingmay cause inflation to become self-pro-pelling in a spiral, creating more uncertain-ty. If not addressed timely, it could holdback private investment and recoveryfrom the loss of employment cause by thepandemic. Low-income countries havealready seen the highest rises in food priceshitting the poor hard.

Among the emerging marketeconomies, the report projected thatChina which had registered a positivegrowth rate of 2.3 percent in 2020 will growby 8 percent in 2021 and 5.6 percent in2022, while India, which had registerednegative growth of 7.3 percent in 2020 willgrow by 9.5 percent in 2021 and 8.5 per-cent in 2022. Most advanced economiesand emerging market and developingeconomies will reach or surpass their pre-pandemic output levels only by the end of2022, but the recovery in employment isexpected to lag behind output in manycountries. Vaccinating the entire worldpopulation as fast as possible must remainthe top policy priority to prevent the emer-gence of new variants and to hasten glob-al economic recovery; the Report laiddown a $50 billion plan to vaccinate at least40 percent of the population in every coun-try by the end of 2021 and 70 percent bymid-2022 through proactive vaccinationprogrammes and access to improvedhealthcare facilities. As long as the exist-ing enormous vaccine inequalities persistbetween countries, the risk of emergenceof newer mutants will only be heightened.As fiscal space gets limited in poor coun-

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tries, governmental transfers mustincreasingly target the worst affect-ed sections that cannot take the bat-tering any more. The year 2021 hasalready seen between 65 and 75million people slipping into pover-ty in low-income countries; unlessaddressed by a slew of measuresincluding fiscal transfers and inter-national aid, the resulting social dis-content may become a contagion ofunrest spilling across borders.

The report also noted that cli-mate will pose another seriouschallenge to policymakers, as thecurrent actions are grossly inade-quate to prevent a dangerous over-heating of the planet. Noting thearray of extreme weather-relatedevents, like the heat domes andintense wildfires in the USA andCanada, high precipitation andflooding in Europe, drought inBrazil, and floods in eastern andsouth Asia, combined with evidencefrom the Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change that the worldis experiencing the warmest periodin over 100,000 years, the reportnotes that "these events have furtherraised fears that the highly adverseconsequences of climate changemay arise sooner rather than later,increasing the urgency of actions toreduce these risks and improveresilience." That was before theNovember COP26 summit inGlasgow, and we have again seen theusual charade of unmet targets, half-hearted actions and lip-service toclimatic pledges by the developedcountries reflecting a yawning gapbetween expectation and reality.

As regards fiscal policy, thoughdeficits have declined by an aver-

age of two percent of GDP in 2021,they still remain well above pre-pandemic levels, and are projectedto return to their pre-pandemic lev-els not before 2026. In emergingmarkets and low-income coun-tries, output and tax revenues maynot regain their pre-crisis trajecto-ry and the reduction in deficits, ifany, will have to occur largelythrough lower spending, impactingthe poor again. The massive poli-cy stimuli given to battle the pan-demic have also increased thefinancial vulnerabilities in manysectors, leading to unintended con-sequences like stretched asset val-uations, which if left unchecked,may cause lasting damage to theglobal financial system. Globalgovernment debt is again reachingrecord peaks — close to 100 percentof GDP in many countries. InIndia, the general Governmentdebt, i.e., the combined debt of theCentre and the states, is expectedto reach an unprecedented 90.6 percent of GDP during the current fis-cal, before moderating to 88.8 percent during FY23, but still willremain over 85 per cent at least till2026-27. Though now there isconsensus that debt can be sta-bilised even at that level by main-taining healthy interest growth ratedifferentials (IGRD), such highdebt level increases the vulnerabil-ity to another economic shock likea protracted lockdown due to newemerging variants like the omicronthat has since taken the world by thestorm, increasing the vulnerabilitiesand the uncertainties manifolds.Though its impacts are as yet con-jectured to be milder than that of

the deadly delta variant, it hasalready clouded the economic out-looks almost everywhere andreplaced the optimism seen earli-er with a dark pessimism, as seenby the stock markets going into tur-moil the world over. Governmentsare weary of imposing another pro-tracted and costly lockdown, andare bracing for the worst.

As far as India is concerned,despite Omicron, most includingthe RBI agree that the IMF predic-tion of 9.5 percent growth in FY22is achievable. Everyone is waitingfor the budget with bated breath,hoping against hope that con-sumption will return to normalwith healthy increases in tax rev-enues from direct taxes and theGST, driving higher capex andcapacity expansion. For the timebeing, growth seems to be the pri-ority over inflation. But interestrates will have to be raised sooneror later, as indicated by the USFederal Reserve's decision to endthe easy money policy by March2021 and to raise the interest ratessignificantly in the next fiscal. Thismay lead to flight of capital fromIndia weakening the rupee, makingimports costlier, especially fuelprices that will hit us hard. Also,whether or not we develop a quickvaccine against Omicron, it is cer-tainly not the last of mutants, andthere will be others. Only throughincreasing our reliance on cut-ting-edge technology and faith inscience to combat the virus shouldwe expect to survive the pandem-ic and the economic gloom that isstaring at us as another new yearrings its bells.

(The writer is a formerDirector General,

Comptroller & AuditorGeneral of India, and

currently a professor at the Arun Jaitley National

Institute of FinancialAdministration. The views

expressed are personal.)

Recently, the office ofthe Economic Adviser,Department for

Promotion of Industry andInternal Trade released theindex numbers of wholesaleprice index for the month ofSeptember and November2021 (final and provisional,respectively). The WPI basedinflation rate (Y-o-Y) wasreported as 14.23 per cent(provisional) over 2.29 percent in November 2020. Therise in the rate of inflation issaid to be due to rise in pricesof mineral oils, basic metals,crude petroleum and naturalgas, chemicals, food productsetc. The rate has steadily risenover few months asNovember 2021 was the 8thstraight month when thewholesale inflation has grownby double digits.

The other indicator ofinflation, which Reserve Bankof India tracks under its man-date of keeping the rate at 4per cent with a margin of 2per cent on either side tillMarch 2026 is the retail infla-tion or CPI. The data on CPI-based inflation is compiled bythe Ministry of Statistics andProgramme Implementation.The overall measure of CPI,including food and energy,commonly referred to asheadline CPI has edged upto4.5 per cent in October 2021from 4.3 per cent inSeptember, mainly due tospike in vegetable pricesowing to crop damagebecause of heavy rainfalls inseveral states and fuel infla-tion which spiked due to ris-ing international prices ofliquefied petroleum gas and

kerosene. Core inflation,which excludes volatile itemssuch as food and fuel and isconsidered to be the indicatorof underlying long-term infla-tion, has risen to 6.1 per centin November 2021 increasingfrom 5.9 per cent in the pre-vious month. The MonthlyReview Report of the Indianeconomy for November 2021released by the Department ofEconomic Affairs recognisedthe fact that the core CPI "hasremained sticky throughoutthe first seven months of FY

22". A possible explanation isthe stickiness of prices in cat-egories which are the keycomponents of core inflationlike housing, education, trans-port and communication,household goods and ser-vices, etc.

WPI and CPI also differin their composition. WPIassigns maximum weight tomanufactured goods (64.23per cent) while CPI is domi-nated by the prices of foodarticles as the maximumweight is assigned to food andbeverages (45.86 per cent).Since the two inflation ratesare calculated based on twodifferent indices, there is avariance between them, as isalso evident in the presenttimes. As mentioned earlier,RBI targets retail inflation orCPI instead of the wholesale

inflation rate (WPI) as wasrecommended by an expertcommittee of the RBI onstrengthening monetary pol-icy framework in India.

With an aim of nurturingthe ongoing domestic recov-ery in the economy throughthe monetary policy channelRBI in its recent monetarypolicy meeting in October2021, chose to keep the reporate unchanged at 4 per centand reverse repo rate at 3.35per cent while maintainingthe 'accommodative' stance ofthe Monetary policy.

The Bank has projectedCPI inflation at 5.2 per centfor Q1 2022-23 taking intoconsideration the factors likevegetable prices which arelikely to remain soft with thearrival of Kharif harvest andsupply side interventions from

the government in case ofpulses and edible oils, upwardpressures from crude oilprices, acute shortage of keyindustrial components, risingmetals and energy pricesetc.RBI tried to ease the worryof rising prices by assuring itwill shall keep a close watchon inflation and take mea-sures as deemed necessary,pointing out that inflationwas not a major worry for theBank at this time.

However, many econo-mists expressed concernsabout how inflation wouldstart pinching consumershard in 2022. Goldman Sachsalso forecast a rise in coreinflation in India as the man-ufacturers pass rising inputcosts to consumers, with arecovery in demand. Itexpects CPI inflation to rise to

5.8 per cent in 2022.RBI's sud-den announcement of carry-ing out the three-day variablerate reverse repo (VRRR) wasinteresting.

The VRRR is an alternatewindow for banks to lend toRBI through auctions. Thedecision has hinted at theBank's intent of absorbingexcess liquidity with underly-ing inflation worries. As perthe Governor of RBI, theVRRR auctions would becomplemented by longer termVRRRs. Along with this, theBank would undertake'Operation Twists' and regu-lar 'Open Market Operations'to suck excess liquidity. Thisis enough evidence for mar-ket participants to expectheavy liquidity withdrawalfrom the system and interestrates rising gradually.

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(The writer is Joint Director,National Institute of Labour

Economics Research &Development (NILERD),

Niti Aayog. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

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NESTLEIND 19398.95 19450 19265.5 19404.05ONGC 140 140.8 137.35 138.85ASTRAL 2228.95 2309.9 2220.35 2275.45JUBLFOOD 3510 3575.05 3484.35 3549.7M&M 842.9 843.6 830.55 832.35L&TFH 78.65 78.95 77.6 77.95NAVINFLUOR 4238 4296.1 4200 4209.65NMDC 131.1 133.4 130.75 131.4GAIL 133 133.2 131.15 132.3TORNTPHARM 3140 3223.6 3131.6 3188.4JINDALSTEL 386.4 386.4 373.2 376TANLA 1811 1836.2 1754.05 1757.45GNFC 434.8 453 425.6 449.65CARBORUNIV 919.75 979.35 917.65 974.55IDFCFIRSTB 47.35 48.1 47.1 47.4ANGELONE 1150.3 1200 1150.3 1193BASF 2861.3 3119.3 2861.3 3060.1COALINDIA 148.6 149.15 146.35 146.8IRB 223.2 223.2 223.2 223.2SRF 2400 2409 2377 2390.6UPL 762.1 767 755.3 758.1CAMS 2609.95 2648.5 2603.85 2631DIVISLAB 4545 4625.45 4514.2 4619.75HEG 1603 1685.05 1603 1638.1BSOFT 541.9 542.8 532.95 534.6INDIAMART 6440.05 6451.15 6293.45 6333.95PIIND 3004.95 3018.9 2979.15 3006

MASTEK 2984.9 3048.9 2963.05 3034METROPOLIS 3457 3498 3409.8 3473.6HEROMOTOCO 2405 2441.5 2405 2435.8IPCALAB 2099 2131 2078.1 2122.4HDFCAMC 2415 2432 2407.55 2419.85MAXHEALTH 415.3 426.95 413.1 425INTELLECT 691.3 733 691.3 719.7AFFLE 1083 1119 1069.2 1102.8ABFRL 269 273 264.2 265.7DIXON 5592 5629.85 5540 5560.85STAR 459.2 465.05 446.3 448.85JKCEMENT 3337.6 3402.75 3167.6 3205.65NAUKRI 5465 5492.8 5426 5462.05MCX 1623.6 1634.1 1596 1600.8LICHSGFIN 371.85 372.25 364.45 365.65IOC 112.25 112.5 111.05 111.5TATACHEM 912.95 914.55 897.7 900.1EICHERMOT 2480 2570 2470.35 2562.45INDIANB 143 144.05 138.9 139.7NTPC 124.5 124.75 122.3 123.05UNIONBANK 44.2 44.65 43.25 43.55TATACOMM 1382.15 1416.75 1374.95 1403.1MPHASIS 3339 3343.7 3293.7 3310.25LODHA 1219.95 1268.55 1219.95 1249.05FORTIS 285 291.75 282.35 289.6NBCC 43.75 45.15 43.5 44.7ABB 2200 2250 2195 2228.25GRANULES 334.8 342.9 334.1 340.7CEATLTD 1230 1231.5 1182.2 1190.55DELTACORP 264.15 269.9 261.45 263.65VENKYS 2655 2751.05 2621.8 2677.55BATAINDIA 1831 1834 1795.2 1811.95MINDAIND 1239 1260 1182 1194.25CYIENT 998.1 1009 974.6 984.15HINDALCO 457.8 457.8 450.7 454.1SBILIFE 1178 1192 1167.2 1181.05DABUR 565.8 570.15 561 566.7PHILIPCARB 226.3 238.25 224.95 236.2PRAJIND 330 341.35 328 330.7IDBI 48.25 48.35 46.65 46.9MOTHERSUMI 216.3 219.05 216.15 218.4IIFL 274.3 287.55 273.2 286.8SJVN 29.7 30.7 29.5 29.65RAJESHEXPO 749 759.05 743.35 748.15CADILAHC 460 470.7 458.2 469.45MUTHOOTFIN 1490.3 1511.6 1488.2 1493.35ALKEM 3460.6 3551 3455.05 3520.85KNRCON 295 302 290.55 299.65INDHOTEL 182 184.2 180.9 181.95SONACOMS 730 734.6 705.1 709.8LTI 7280 7295 7213.5 7265.4SIEMENS 2406.95 2411.7 2372.15 2380.05FEDERALBNK 81.85 82.55 81.5 81.95HAVELLS 1399.95 1404.8 1387.05 1393.55RESPONIND 107.25 128.2 107.25 127.55WELCORP 179 181 175 180.2BALAMINES 3260 3289.95 3150 3201.85WOCKPHARMA 394.9 408.95 392.95 397.5VTL 2308.05 2416.5 2301.35 2318.8

SPICEJET 68.5 68.5 66.4 66.9MINDACORP 168.7 179 166.8 169.2ABBOTINDIA 18939.5 19384.85 18627 19299.05BEML 1618 1651 1618 1626.9CCL 444.4 444.95 430.1 433.7ICICIGI 1404 1407 1375.7 1382.75M&MFIN 147.7 149.9 146.3 147.1SUNTECK 489.5 494.45 467.95 477.7TATACOFFEE 212.3 216.8 210.1 211.3SOBHA 881.15 903.9 878.4 881.85MAZDOCK 268.7 277.35 268.7 274.05WELSPUNIND 151.2 152.95 146.45 147.8SHREECEM 26765 26765 26490.9 26660.15BIOCON 356 362.35 354.7 361.5COFORGE 5650.8 5690.45 5607.9 5649.8JUBLINGREA 543.5 559 543 545RECLTD 132.3 133.5 131.6 131.85UBL 1524 1576.75 1524 1568.7GODREJPROP 1855 1867.6 1846.2 1856.9MGL 859 864.5 853 857.45MFSL 972 987.8 957.5 960.9LINDEINDIA 2474.55 2501.05 2459.15 2491.9WHIRLPOOL 1783 1783 1745.2 1749.25IRFC 22.8 23.05 22.75 22.85APOLLOTYRE 216.1 217.8 213.15 217.5INDUSTOWER 248 248 243.8 244.8REDINGTON 144.85 149.3 144.85 145.65BAJAJELEC 1311 1337.3 1282 1294ELGIEQUIP 286.75 303.3 279.05 296.8MRF 71197.1 72678.85 71197.1 72569.5TV18BRDCST 45.2 45.3 44.35 44.45KPRMILL 674.9 689.3 658.1 678.45SHYAMMETL 349 349 335 336.35NOCIL 227.7 234 225.55 231.45BERGEPAINT 755 759.7 750.05 752.2SUNTV 493.9 493.9 487.25 489.7COLPAL 1465 1466.05 1450 1454.3PGHH 15599.9 15836.75 14800 15031.95TVSMOTOR 614.25 624.6 602.6 622.4SONATSOFTW 850 880 850 869.75NATCOPHARM 900 913.15 895 900.05GLAND 3875 3925 3842.8 3900.95CENTURYTEX 914.5 916.15 875 889.65SYNGENE 609.95 609.95 594.9 606.5INOXLEISUR 343.5 360 341.6 354.75PIDILITIND 2485 2485.1 2447.55 2450.3NHPC 31 31.65 30.5 30.65TATAMTRDVR 237.55 237.55 232.3 233.3PERSISTENT 4676.5 4678.9 4616.05 4648.05BANKINDIA 51.4 52 51.15 51.3IOB 20.6 20.75 20.3 20.5ROUTE 1735 1773.3 1697.1 1739.2FLUOROCHEM 2374 2417.55 2329 2343.7INFIBEAM 39.95 41.4 39.55 40.4JSL 195.6 198.4 192 195.05BRITANNIA 3574 3574 3526.6 3556.05ALLCARGO 377 392.45 374.7 384.45JKPAPER 203 209.65 201.25 206.2GREAVESCOT 140.8 142 137.95 138.25GODREJCP 971 972.55 958.8 960.8MOIL 182 183.3 180.75 181.75SEQUENT 163.5 164.2 160.5 161.25LALPATHLAB 3566 3668.45 3555.05 3663.45POLYCAB 2415 2423.45 2374.95 2404.55VBL 865.5 888 861.35 885NETWORK18 89.95 90.85 88 88.8OFSS 3975 3992.65 3925.05 3943.9CAPPL 839.8 879 834.45 868.05NCC 70.1 71.6 69.2 70.4DALBHARAT 1854.1 1854.1 1812 1819.45AARTIIND 992.1 997.45 983.3 994.3BHARATFORG 703.75 704.75 696 701.8STLTECH 290 293.75 288 292CHAMBLFERT 386.1 392.05 385 388.5SWSOLAR 380 384.7 378 378.95MMTC 45.7 45.85 44.5 44.8CUMMINSIND 936.35 947 935.9 938.6BOSCHLTD 16899.95 16899.95 16571.55 16656.55RVNL 34.2 34.8 34.15 34.25ICICIPRULI 564.95 565.7 553 555.3PRINCEPIPE 701 702.35 695.2 698POWERINDIA 2508.9 2678 2507.05 2561.8HINDZINC 318.75 320.35 315 315.7GMM 4771.15 4851 4771.15 4829.15TIINDIA 1737.4 1763.05 1711.25 1736.15HAL 1239 1246 1226 1228.85CHOLAFIN 529.6 529.6 513.8 517.3RCF 74.25 74.6 73.55 74.05LEMONTREE 46.35 46.35 44.6 45.55PFC 120.9 120.9 118.95 119.3JUSTDIAL 818.95 823 792.9 800.65PRESTIGE 483.45 483.95 469.35 473.75AMBUJACEM 383 383 374.45 375.5IOLCP 465.5 472 457.55 459.6TIMKEN 2062.85 2062.85 1980 1989.55CESC 87.7 88.6 86.5 87.9TORNTPOWER 548 548.35 539.2 540.95QUESS 805 833.5 800.55 824.6THYROCARE 1010 1080.45 1010 1072.7ALKYLAMINE 3305 3341.45 3299.55 3325APLLTD 804 809.3 795.3 804.55NLCINDIA 59.75 60.75 59.25 59.85NH 603 614 586.05 589.05MANAPPURAM 165.55 168.3 164.1 164.4TRENT 1034.6 1051.45 1028.1 1039.2MARICO 501 507.65 500.5 502.6BDL 385 402.65 384.45 399.8BURGERKING 142 142.45 140.75 141.45

OIL 187.3 191 183.4 184.95ADANIGREEN 1385 1407 1383 1392.5ROSSARI 1250 1271.35 1250 1266.2PAGEIND 40180 40180 39773.9 39921.35CANFINHOME 560.4 568.15 551 554.5JKTYRE 142.6 143 139.25 141.05DEEPAKFERT 365.6 384.4 365.6 379.7GESHIP 292.15 298.8 292.15 297.3PETRONET 217.35 219.35 216.05 217.1POLYMED 900.05 915.7 898 909.95LAOPALA 428.9 429.1 419.65 426.4CGCL 510.45 528.95 506.55 522.4ASAHIINDIA 465 483.8 463.8 477.9TTKPRESTIG 975 990 966.65 974.65ESABINDIA 3336.7 3449 3302.05 3439.65ITI 123.4 124.6 120 120.3AEGISLOG 217.8 221.95 216.95 217.85MAHSCOOTER 3809.9 3823 3706 3712.8ERIS 730.05 745.8 728.5 737.15JYOTHYLAB 138.75 141.9 138.05 139.2JAMNAAUTO 104.9 104.95 102.35 102.9HUDCO 39.6 39.75 38.65 38.8GUJGAS 636.05 639.55 627.8 631.5HONAUT 40850 41499.95 40621 41294.8MOTILALOFS 933.5 944.05 911.95 929.3MAHABANK 19.55 19.65 19.25 19.35HAWKINCOOK 5979.8 6010.05 5900.45 6007.25EIDPARRY 447.7 458.15 447.7 450.2TCIEXP 2152.85 2180 2043.65 2083.6CENTRALBK 21.6 21.7 21.3 21.45UFLEX 508.15 518.5 502.9 509.05ACC 2139.9 2166.5 2139 2162.65SCI 136.75 137.7 134.3 135.95LUXIND 3677.3 3695 3651.25 3673.2CONCOR 616 617.35 610.8 613.7GLAXO 1746 1767.85 1718.45 1727.05OBEROIRLTY 860.2 874.6 860.2 865.9INDIACEM 191.75 191.75 188.55 189.25SUMICHEM 385.6 394.55 385.6 391.15EDELWEISS 72.4 72.5 70.85 71.05NAM-INDIA 347 347 340.2 345.2PTC 108.5 109.25 107.3 108.15CROMPTON 439.35 439.35 426 430.4PFIZER 5010 5068.5 5010 5041.85ENGINERSIN 70.2 70.85 69.6 69.8SANOFI 7689 7830 7687.6 7776.3ASTERDM 174.7 182.15 174.05 175.55HATHWAY 21.65 22.15 21.6 21.8ANURAS 915 920 896.75 905.85KRBL 239.9 246 239.9 240.65GSFC 121.2 121.95 118.5 119.9DCBBANK 80 80.35 79.25 79.35KEI 1182.2 1182.2 1143.95 1159.1GRINDWELL 1890 1894.35 1841.4 1856.65RALLIS 267.9 271.45 264 267.1HIKAL 523.95 534 519.15 528.75ISEC 785 795 778.45 782.85

SCHAEFFLER 8599 8763.65 8536.55 8698.75ATUL 8760.4 8929.95 8760.4 8908.7AJANTPHARM 2297.85 2297.85 2238.05 2268.35TATAMETALI 845 853.15 834.05 845.65APLAPOLLO 1004.25 1004.4 993.65 996.3BLUEDART 6294.9 6294.9 6181.25 6193.15DBL 475 484.95 472.55 478.75EMAMILTD 517.1 522.85 510.4 514.5SUNDRMFAST 865.95 900 861.7 889.25TASTYBIT 12950.9 13773.95 12914.65 13353.8VAIBHAVGBL 560 572.5 557.05 562.1KALPATPOWR 361.25 368.3 354.8 356.3BIRLACORPN 1469 1486 1445 1469.65IRCON 44.9 45.1 44.7 44.8TCNSBRANDS 796.95 849.9 796.95 812.55SFL 3071 3258.1 3071 3240SHRIRAMCIT 1792 1792 1735.3 1743.85PNCINFRA 266.65 269 259.2 260.2KALYANKJIL 67.95 68 66.95 67.35DCAL 197.8 202.6 197 198.75BRIGADE 493.8 499 481.8 490JUBLPHARMA 573 583.95 567.15 578.1KEC 467.45 475.05 467.45 474.3TRITURBINE 176.05 180.55 176 177.2GDL 289.6 292.3 286.05 288.85JBCHEPHARM 1651 1693.95 1651 1669.4UTIAMC 1038 1054.3 1023.25 1048.15AVANTI 549.1 557 546 552.75ADANITRANS 1739.95 1750 1702 1725.45UCOBANK 12.97 13.08 12.93 12.94GUJALKALI 630 645.85 630 640.1PHOENIXLTD 1015 1025.3 988 992.55JINDALSAW 101.45 101.7 99.4 99.6GALAXYSURF 3072.9 3119.8 3072.85 3099.05JMFINANCIL 73 73.85 72.85 73.2

FINOLEXIND 206.25 206.8 203 203.65FINEORG 3753.2 3791.15 3712.7 3728.6VINATIORGA 1925.4 1970 1925.4 1963.35SUPREMEIND 2210.15 2253.55 2208.1 2235.85GILLETTE 5285.7 5323.5 5221 5242.2AAVAS 2479.15 2560 2474.45 2549.25JCHAC 1988.1 2028.6 1978.2 1987TATAINVEST 1376.3 1378.95 1341 1350.8SOLARINDS 2359 2391.8 2332.25 2363.6VIPIND 543 551.7 537.75 541.55BAJAJCON 203 203 199.1 200.05BBTC 1088 1118.65 1069.25 1101.85GODREJIND 635 648 635 640.65ATGL 1778 1778 1727.15 1742.3KSCL 542.3 547 539.8 544.25SUDARSCHEM 575 578.45 559.7 567.05SHILPAMED 548.15 554.7 543 546.5PNBHOUSING 499.6 501.05 485.35 489.35CENTURYPLY 597 616.25 595.95 601.2AARTIDRUGS 521.2 531.4 521.2 528.75KANSAINER 564.35 575.15 563.5 572.75JKLAKSHMI 571.1 580.75 566.1 574.75GICRE 135.05 137 133.65 134.95UJJIVANSFB 18.55 18.65 18.5 18.55RAMCOCEM 994.5 996.4 982.75 985.6SKFINDIA 3740 3806.8 3740 3792.1SOLARA 1059.65 1059.65 1020.5 1022.4COROMANDEL 749.2 751.55 745.05 750.15FINCABLES 529 530.9 526 527.45JSWENERGY 311.95 312 302.2 305.4JSLHISAR 349.5 349.6 342.8 346.1MAHINDCIE 227 234.7 227 231.65GULFOILLUB 442 442 437.3 438.55MRPL 43.4 44.2 43.3 43.45GSPL 295.6 296.3 292.95 294.3VGUARD 224 226.4 222.05 222.3BLUESTARCO 1019.3 1033.6 1008.15 1012.15NIACL 139.1 139.95 135.8 136VARROC 328.45 329.95 317.75 319.55RHIM 366.3 373.4 364.25 366.05GODREJAGRO 529.75 534.15 528.4 531.2THERMAX 1778.05 1816.5 1751 1762.65SUVENPHAR 487.85 496.9 487.85 492PRSMJOHNSN 132.05 134.9 131.05 131.65CRISIL 3008.7 3008.7 2919.6 2942.75RELAXO 1259.95 1260 1242.25 1255.5MHRIL 187 191.75 187 189.8AMBER 3350 3377.35 3330 3337.1BAJAJHLDNG 5090.75 5120.9 5024.6 5037EQUITAS 111.15 113.55 111.15 112VMART 3613.6 3752.55 3613.6 3700.4EQUITASBNK 60 62.15 58.75 61NESCO 586.7 591.05 577.5 581.2GARFIBRES 3240 3272 3217.4 3239.15GPPL 99.8 99.8 98.1 98.55FDC 292.3 302.35 292.3 298.05ENDURANCE 1633.5 1669.35 1630 1662.65CHALET 226.65 226.65 215.65 217.35INDIGOPNTS 1990 1993 1951.05 1970.35COCHINSHIP 337.95 346.7 337.85 345.1CASTROLIND 123.65 123.65 122.15 122.3RITES 258.2 262.55 258.2 259.25SPANDANA 446 451.45 436.55 439.25ADVENZYMES 325 327.45 321 321.8GHCL 380 380 372.8 374MAHLOG 671.65 677.95 668 670.8KIOCL 266.75 270.7 256.85 259.83MINDIA 25025 25181.95 24727.1 24905.15CREDITACC 602.3 614.8 601.5 605.7DHANUKA 723.1 728 717.15 724.9PGHL 5008.1 5045.6 5006.4 5021.65INDOCO 441 443.6 430.4 436.3KAJARIACER 1220.4 1236.85 1210.8 1233.85BAYERCROP 4902.65 4940 4892.9 4914.75WABCOINDIA 8365.2 8599.6 8365.2 8452.7ORIENTELEC 382 382 374.9 377.9MAHLIFE 226 235.55 225.85 232.2DCMSHRIRAM 973 980 960.1 964.35IIFLWAM 1436 1439.75 1405.6 1424.2VSTIND 3159 3159 3075 3105.45CSBBANK 234.85 242.95 234.85 237.8RUCHISOYA 855.95 859.95 852 852.35GODFRYPHLP 1120 1140.15 1120 1125.25HATSUN 1294.45 1321.75 1281 1287.35SIS 448.05 461 448.05 456.2SUNCLAYLTD 3851.1 3869.9 3786.15 3811.1MASFIN 650.85 657.25 645.3 646.15ZYDUSWELL 1918.05 1936.75 1894.05 1900.5ASTRAZEN 3045 3051.05 3010.35 3018.4AIAENG 1850 1850 1793.7 1804.85EIHOTEL 124.55 125.3 123.05 124.05HEIDELBERG 223.35 223.65 220 222.7INDOSTAR 237.4 242.65 236 241.05SUPPETRO 686.65 689.65 680 684.8KSB 1209.1 1232 1206.3 1229.5MIDHANI 178.5 181.05 178.05 180.3EPL 204.05 205.85 201.2 204.2SWANENERGY 149 150.2 148.05 148.45AKZOINDIA 2009.25 2025.85 1993.9 1998.5ITDC 359.9 361.25 355.3 356.7SYMPHONY 992.8 1004.35 992.8 1002.7NILKAMAL 2392.4 2445.8 2392.4 2430CHOLAHLDNG 659.3 674.2 653 661.9IFBIND 1132 1145 1117.95 1127.3WESTLIFE 567.6 570.95 562 564.15CERA 4896.1 4906.2 4876.1 4884.05STARCEMENT 95 95.2 94.15 94.45RATNAMANI 1916.3 1927.85 1908.9 1917.5

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 17,220.10 17,285.95 17,176.65 17,213.60 -19.65EICHERMOT 2,471.00 2,571.70 2,470.00 2,565.00 84.6BAJAJ-AUTO 3,188.75 3,269.00 3,152.05 3,269.00 92.95SUNPHARMA 822.5 843.65 816.5 834.1 19DIVISLAB 4,529.80 4,625.80 4,517.25 4,618.00 92.65INDUSINDBK 854.05 874.9 854 867.25 14.6DRREDDY 4,743.80 4,848.15 4,743.80 4,822.00 78.2MARUTI 7,297.70 7,365.00 7,240.45 7,350.00 52.55BAJAJFINSV 16,100.30 16,330.00 15,966.00 16,215.00 114.15TITAN 2,379.00 2,416.45 2,370.35 2,396.60 16.75HCLTECH 1,283.00 1,299.00 1,277.10 1,291.50 7.6HEROMOTOCO 2,421.00 2,442.80 2,410.00 2,430.00 12.2NESTLEIND 19,355.00 19,451.00 19,251.55 19,440.00 85HDFCLIFE 645 646.75 639.1 645 2.7BRITANNIA 3,550.65 3,569.80 3,525.20 3,565.00 14.35BPCL 381 382.85 377.15 381.3 0.9SBILIFE 1,177.60 1,192.20 1,167.00 1,180.40 2.8ULTRACEMCO 7,385.00 7,460.00 7,373.70 7,419.50 13.4HINDUNILVR 2,314.90 2,321.85 2,299.05 2,312.00 2.9CIPLA 938 947.6 933.25 934.2 0.9BAJFINANCE 6,884.90 6,949.95 6,853.05 6,906.00 -0.65RELIANCE 2,391.00 2,419.00 2,382.10 2,398.00 -0.4HDFC 2,575.00 2,581.00 2,551.00 2,563.00 -2.35ASIANPAINT 3,372.20 3,386.00 3,346.20 3,362.05 -6.15WIPRO 705.25 710 700.05 703.8 -1.65LT 1,895.00 1,908.95 1,890.05 1,895.00 -4.5INFY 1,883.50 1,893.80 1,876.40 1,883.25 -4.75TATACONSUM 728 728.9 720 724.85 -2.1POWERGRID 203 205.9 202.7 204.9 -0.7JSWSTEEL 655.1 657.2 644.95 655 -2.35ICICIBANK 738 744.95 731.9 732.85 -2.95TCS 3,692.25 3,719.95 3,685.00 3,688.05 -18.5SHREECEM 26,624.00 26,745.15 26,460.10 26,550.00 -166.8BHARTIARTL 679.95 683.5 675 675.55 -4.5HDFCBANK 1,456.05 1,461.00 1,447.40 1,451.00 -9.8IOC 112.4 112.5 111 111.5 -0.8UPL 759 767.7 754.6 756.35 -5.4ONGC 140.2 140.85 137.45 138.5 -1M&M 843.45 843.45 830.85 832 -6.7KOTAKBANK 1,774.00 1,780.00 1,754.10 1,758.85 -16.05ADANIPORTS 729 734.2 720.1 722.4 -6.85HINDALCO 457 457.65 450.5 453.85 -4.3TATASTEEL 1,120.00 1,126.65 1,108.00 1,115.75 -11.7AXISBANK 674.5 679.6 667.25 668.4 -7.05TECHM 1,800.50 1,821.00 1,782.75 1,787.00 -19.1TATAMOTORS 478.75 481.6 474.25 474.75 -5.45NTPC 124.6 124.75 122.2 122.6 -1.5GRASIM 1,624.00 1,638.90 1,598.00 1,602.00 -19.95COALINDIA 149.25 149.25 146.3 146.6 -2.25ITC 220 220.3 216.3 216.6 -3.45SBIN 461 462.15 451.4 453.2 -8

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 42,002.05 42,117.10 41,836.00 41,898.10 -95.5YESBANK 13.5 14.15 13.45 13.9 0.45APOLLOHOSP 4,865.00 4,991.30 4,833.00 4,985.00 140.8CADILAHC 459 470.5 458 470.4 12.2BIOCON 355 362.35 353.8 361.4 5.45TORNTPHARM 3,142.40 3,225.00 3,120.00 3,181.00 38.6LUPIN 918 934.9 918 927.15 10.55JUBLFOOD 3,499.00 3,577.45 3,478.55 3,542.00 34.55DABUR 563.45 570.3 561 567.05 4.6SBICARD 918 927.5 913.05 920 7.2PEL 2,590.00 2,654.50 2,590.00 2,615.00 17.2ACC 2,154.00 2,166.85 2,137.05 2,164.35 13.1GLAND 3,875.00 3,926.55 3,845.00 3,898.00 22.9MARICO 501 507.5 500.45 502.5 1.75PIIND 3,000.00 3,020.30 2,977.50 3,010.00 8.5BERGEPAINT 755.8 759.85 750 754.3 1.7BANKBARODA 80.5 81.4 80.4 80.85 -0.05MUTHOOTFIN 1,500.60 1,511.95 1,488.10 1,491.05 -1.15HDFCAMC 2,415.00 2,433.95 2,406.05 2,415.00 -2.9AUROPHARMA 732 735.65 723 724.25 -1NAUKRI 5,450.00 5,492.80 5,422.55 5,458.10 -7.45INDIGO 1,990.00 2,017.90 1,970.10 1,996.75 -4.2LTI 7,263.80 7,293.70 7,205.00 7,256.00 -15.95DLF 386.1 389 381.2 384.95 -0.85IGL 481.35 482.8 477 477.7 -1.25BOSCHLTD 16,773.80 16,794.75 16,570.00 16,628.40 -51.6ADANIGREEN 1,398.50 1,407.35 1,382.60 1,393.95 -4.85ADANITRANS 1,730.00 1,730.00 1,700.00 1,728.00 -8.7GAIL 132.85 133.5 131.1 132.35 -0.7PNB 37.4 37.5 37 37.1 -0.2COLPAL 1,463.95 1,466.30 1,450.80 1,454.35 -9.85GODREJCP 965.3 972.85 958.35 961 -6.7HAVELLS 1,390.00 1,405.30 1,388.00 1,390.00 -9.85ICICIGI 1,397.15 1,407.25 1,375.45 1,378.85 -10.45NMDC 131.7 133.45 130.7 131.5 -1.2PIDILITIND 2,486.60 2,489.00 2,448.00 2,450.00 -22.8DMART 4,739.00 4,748.70 4,675.00 4,677.50 -44.45HINDPETRO 294.5 296.45 290.3 291.35 -2.9BAJAJHLDNG 5,091.15 5,125.60 5,020.00 5,035.45 -55.7SIEMENS 2,399.00 2,412.00 2,373.05 2,378.15 -27.65MCDOWELL-N 896.1 902.8 887.65 889 -10.65AMBUJACEM 380.75 382.15 374.5 375 -5.2CHOLAFIN 525.4 525.4 513.45 515.85 -7.15INDUSTOWER 247.95 248.4 243.6 244.15 -3.5VEDL 342.55 345.8 337.5 339.75 -5.05ICICIPRULI 563.8 565.8 553 554.9 -8.85BANDHANBNK 254 258.45 249 249.7 -4.05JINDALSTEL 383.7 383.75 373 375.5 -7.7ADANIENT 1,751.00 1,755.00 1,709.40 1,712.70 -38.3SAIL 108.5 108.6 105.7 106.35 -2.45PGHH 15,578.00 15,846.95 14,756.00 15,000.00 -466.4

��24������������������������ �������� � Mumbai: Benchmark indices

Sensex and Nifty retreatedfrom over one-week highs toclose lower on Wednesday dueto profit booking in banking,IT and metal stocks amid weakglobal trends.

After a two-day rally, the30-share BSE Sensex droppedby 90.99 points or 0.16 per centto settle at 57,806.49 in volatiletrade. As many as 19 of its con-stituents declined while 11advanced.

The broader Niftyslipped by 19.65 points or 0.11per cent to close at 17,213.60with 31 of its stocks ending inthe red. SBI was the toploser in the Sensex pack, shed-ding over 1 per cent. ITC,NTPC, Tech Mahindra, TataSteel, Kotak Bank and M&Mwere among major1losers.

On the other hand,gains in Sun Pharma, IndusIndBank, Dr Reddy's, Bajaj Finservand Reliance Industries

restricted Sensex losses.Markets were choppy throughout the session ahead

of the F&O expiry and a weaktrend in global markets, experts said. PTI

New Delhi: The GST Council,chaired by Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, will meeton December 31 and discuss,among other things, report ofthe panel of State Ministers onrate rationalisation.

This will be a physicalmeeting, which will also dis-cuss correction in duty inver-sion in certain goods.

The 46th GST Councilmeeting will be held onDecember 31 in Delhi, an offi-cial said, adding that it will bean extension to the pre-budgetmeeting with state financeministers on December 30.

The Group of Ministers(GoM) on rate rationalisationwill submit report to theCouncil. The panel hasreviewed items under aninverted duty structure to helpminimise refund payout.

Besides, the Fitment com-mittee, comprising tax officersfrom states and the Centre, hasmade many "sweeping" rec-

ommendations to the GoMregarding slab and rate changesand taking items out of theexemption list.

Currently, GST is a four-tier slab structure of 5, 12, 18and 28 per cent. Essential itemsare either exempted or taxed atthe lowest slab, while luxuryand demerit items attract thehighest slab. On the top of thehighest slab, a cess is levied onluxury and demerit goods.

There have been demandsfor merging the 12 and 18 percent slabs as also taking outcertain items from the exemptcategory to balance the impactof slab rationalisation on rev-enue.

West Bengal's formerFinance Minister Amit Mitrahas urged the Union financeminister to roll back a pro-posed hike in textile from 5 percent to 12 per cent saying thiswould lead to closure of aroundone lakh textile units and 15lakh job losses. PTI

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As many as 15 notices havebeen issued by the

Central Consumer ProtectionAuthority (CCPA) against e-commerce companies andsellers for selling pressurecookers online that are non-compliant with Bureau ofIndian Standards (BIS)norms.

These notices have beenissed by the CCPA as part ofits suo moto action. The BIShas also issued three noticesfor violation of quality con-trol order of domestic pres-sure cookers and two noticesfor helmets.

Previously, CCPA had alsoissued Safety Notice to alertconsumers against buyinghelmets, pressure cookersand cooking gas cylinderswhich violate compulsorystandards. Goods which vio-late compulsory standardsare liable to be held ‘defective’under the ConsumerProtection Act, 2019.

The cases have also beenfor warded to Bureau ofIndian Standards (BIS) fortaking necessary action underthe BIS Act, 2016, it said. TheMinistry of Consumer Affairssaid that Goods which violatecompulsory standards are

liable to be held 'defective'under the ConsumerProtection Act, 2019.

The ministry said theCCPA has decided to take upcases involving sale or offer-ing for sale goods that violatecompulsory standards as amatter of prevent ing unfair trade practice and toprotect, promote and enforcethe rights of consumers as aclass.

Any person found selling11 household items like hel-mets, pressure cooker, electriciron, microwave oven, alu-minium foil for food pack-aging, water heaters andsewing machines — withoutconforming to compulsorystandards and holding validlicence as prescribed by BISis liable for violation of con-sumer rights and unfair tradepractices and face actionunder the ConsumerProtection Act, 2019.

As part of celebrations of75 years of India's indepen-dence 'Azadi ka AmritMahotsav', the CCPA hasalready initiated a country-wide campaign to preventsale of spurious and coun-terfeit goods that violateQCOs and raise awarenessamong consumers to pur-chase goods that conform to

BIS Standards.In this regard, the CCPA

has written to Distr ic tCollectors across the countryto investigate unfair tradepractice and violation of con-sumer rights concerningmanufacture or sale of hel-mets, domestic pressurecooker and cooking gas cylin-ders.

The government said thatviolat ion of standards mandated by the QCOs can-not only endanger publicsafety, it can make

consumers vulnerable tosevere injuries.

"This is a critical causefor concern especially in thecase of household goods,since such goods are presentin most homes and are in theimmediate vicinity of familymembers," it said.

To protect consumersfrom risk of suffering injuryand harm and ensurerequired safety and technicalstandards are followed, thecentra l government isempowered to direct confor-mity to standard and com-pulsory use of standard markunder Section 16 of BIS Act.These directions are general-ly published in the form ofQual ity Control Orders(QCO).

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New Delhi: Gold price in thenational capital onWednesday declined by �216to �47,010 per 10 gram in tan-dem with decline in interna-tional precious metal prices,according to HDFCSecurities.

In the previous trade, theyellow metal settled at �47,226per 10 gram. Silver alsotanked �179 to �61,348 per kgfrom � 61,527 per kg in theprevious trade. In the inter-national market, gold wastrading lower at USD 1,804per ounce and silver was flatat USD 23.07 per ounce.

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�03�����������������9�����"�!7�"�����������������������������New Delhi: Employmentopportunities in the e-com-merce and allied industrieswitnessed a 28 per cent surgein 2021, and recruitment activ-ities in this segment will gainfurther momentum driven byeconomic recovery and aggres-sive vaccination drive, accord-ing to TeamLease Services.

The e-commerce sector

grew by 8 per cent in 2020 and30 per cent in 2021. It is nowpoised to reach USD 111 billionby 2024 and USD 200 billion by2026. The stellar growth in thissector has provided the much-needed impetus to the econo-my and created a multitude ofemployment opportunities.

Looking at the employ-ment ecosystem, there was a 28

per cent surge in employmentopportunities in e-commerceand allied industries (e-com-merce, social commerce, onlinegrocery/ essentials) in 2021,according to TeamLeaseServices.

"With the aggressive vac-cination drive pan India andeconomic activities gainingnormalcy, next year is going to

be very optimistic. Hiringactivities have resumed in mostof the industries, even the oneswhich faced maximum impactlast year," said Ajoy Thomas,VP & Business Head (Retail, E-Commerce, Logistics &Transportation), TeamLeaseServices.

For e-commerce and star-tups, which have been reward-

ing throughout, many new jobopportunities will be added in2022, and hiring will further goup by 32 per cent, Thomasadded.

Over the year, the demandwas high for roles like supplychain management, warehouseroles, support services, andcustomer service management.

PTI

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Daily COVID-19 infectionshave hit record highs in

the United States, swathes ofEurope and Australia as thenew Omicron variant of thevirus races out of control,keeping workers at home andoverwhelming testing centres.

Almost two years afterChina first reported a cluster of"viral pneumonia" cases in thecity of Wuhan, the regularlymutating coronavirus is wreak-ing havoc in many parts of theworld, forcing governmentsto rethink quarantine and testrules.

Although some studieshave suggested the Omicronvariant is less deadly thansome of its predecessors, thehuge numbers of people test-ing positive mean that hospi-tals in some countries mightsoon be overwhelmed, whilebusinesses might struggle tocarry on operating because ofworkers having to quarantine.

France, Britain, Italy,Spain, Portugal, Greece andMalta all registered a recordnumber of new cases onTuesday.

The average number ofdaily COVID-19 cases in theUnited States has also hit arecord high over the past sevendays, according to a Reuterstally. The previous peak was inJanuary of this year.

New daily infections inAustralia spiked to nearly18,300, on Wednesday eclips-ing the previous pandemichigh of around 11,300 hit a dayearlier. Australian PrimeMinister Scott Morrison saidhis country needed "a gearchange" to manage overbur-dened laboratories, with longwalk-in and drive-in queues

reported in a number of areas.Testing bottlenecks have alsobuilt in European nations,including Spain where demandfor free COVID-19 testing kitsprovided by Madrid's region-al government far outstrippedsupply on Tuesday, with longqueues forming outside phar-macies.

"I JUST WANT TO GOHOME"

A number of governmentswere also increasingly worriedby the huge numbers of peo-ple being forced into self-iso-lation because they had been incontact with a coronavirussufferer.

"We just can't have every-body just being taken out ofcirculation because they justhappen to be at a particularplace at a particular time,"Australia's Morrison toldreporters.

Italy was expected to relaxsome of its quarantine rules onWednesday over fears thecountry will soon grind to ahalt given how many peopleare having to self-isolate pro-tectively, with cases doublingon Tuesday from a day earlierto 78,313.

However, China showedno let up in its policy of zerotolerance to outbreaks, keeping13 million people in the city ofXian under rigid lockdown fora seventh day as new COVID-19 infections persisted, with151 cases reported onTuesday."I just want to gohome," said a 32-year-oldmechanic, who was in Xian lastweek for a business trip whenthe city was effectively shut offfrom the outside world. Nocases of Omicron have beenannounced in Xian so far.

PARIS: France’s govern-ment is forging ahead withefforts to increase pressure onunvaccinated people to getcoronavirus jabs, as omicronvariant fuels a record surge ininfections. At a parliamentaryhearing on Wednesday after-noon, the health minister willdefend a government plan toallow only fully vaccinated toenjoy continued access toplaces such as restaurants, cin-emas, theaters, museums, andsports arenas. The speeded-upintroduction of so-called “vac-cine pass” forms part of a gov-ernment strategy to use vacci-nations, rather than new lock-downs, to try to soften impactof fast-spreading omicron vari-ant on already overburdenedhospitals. France reportednearly 180,000 new cases ofCOVID-19 infection onTuesday, a record, and is brac-ing for that number to keepincreasing, with forecasts warn-ing of more than 250,000 dailyinfections likely by January.France has vaccinated morethan 75% of its populationand is rushing out boostershots, again to combat omi-cron. But more than 4 millionadults remain unvaccinated.The government wants vaccinepass to be in place by mid-January. If approved by parlia-ment, its introduction willmean that unvaccinated peoplewill no longer be able to usenegative test results to accessplaces where vaccine pass isrequired. AP

TAIPEI, Taiwan: Much ofAsia has largely managed tokeep omicron at bay even asvariant rages in other parts ofworld, but region that is hometo most of the globe’s populationis bracing for what may be aninevitable surge.

Strict quarantine rules forarrivals and widespread maskwearing have helped slowspread of the highly contagiousvariant in Asia. Countries suchas Japan, South Korea andThailand quickly reinstatedentry and quarantine restric-tions in recent weeks after relax-ing them in fall.

But cases are mounting,and experts say next few monthswill be critical. Those fearshave been amplified by doubtsabout effectiveness of Chinese-made vaccines used in Chinaand much of developingworld.“Once pace picks up, itsupsurge would be extremelyfast,” said Dr. Shigeru Omi, a topmedical adviser to Japan’s gov-ernment.

In India, which has beengetting back to normal after adevastating COVID-19 out-break earlier this year, omicronis once again raising fears, withmore than 700 cases reported incountry of nearly 1.4 billionpeople. The capital, New Delhi,banned large gatherings forChristmas and New Year’s, andmany other states haveannounced new restrictions,including curfews and vaccina-tion requirements at stores and

restaurants. At crowdedChandni Chowk market in NewDelhi, many people were shop-ping without masks this week.Cycle rickshaw driver MaheshKumar said he is afraid of pas-sengers who don’t wear masks.“There are many people whodon’t believe in this disease.They think it doesn’t exist. ButI am very scared. I have childrenand a family,” he said. “If some-thing happens to me, who willtake care of them?

Australia is already dealingwith multiple COVID-19surges, with a state leader say-ing Wednesday that “omicron ismoving too quickly.” Elsewhere,Thailand has topped 700 cases,South Korea has more than 500and Japan, over 300. China,which has some of strictestvirus controls in world, hasreported at least eight.

Only four cases have beenreported in Philippines, wherepeople flocked to shoppingmalls ahead of Christmas and toMass in biggest Roman Catholicnation in Asia.

Some hospitals have evenbegun dismantling COVID-19wards in a move experts saycould prove to be premature.Japan managed to delay spreadof new variant for about amonth largely thanks to itsreimposition of entry restric-tions, mandatory COVID-19tests for all arrivals and the iso-lation of all passengers on aflight if anyone tested positivefor omicron. AP

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Avocal pro-democracy web-site in Hong Kong shut

down Wednesday after policeraided its office and arrested sixcurrent and former editorsand board members in a con-tinuing crackdown on dissentin the semi-autonomousChinese city.

Stand News said in a state-ment that its website and socialmedia are no longer beingupdated and will be takendown. It said all employeeshave been dismissed.

The outlet was one of thelast remaining openly criticalvoices in Hong Kong followingthe shuttering of the AppleDaily newspaper, which closedafter its publisher, Jimmy Lai,and top editors were arrestedand its assets frozen.

Police raided Stand News’office earlier in the day afterarresting the six, includingpopular singer and activistDenise Ho, a former boardmember, on charges of con-spiracy to publish a seditiouspublication.

More than 200 officerswere involved in the search,police said. They had a warrantto seize relevant journalisticmaterials under a nationalsecurity law enacted last year.

The six were arrestedunder a crime ordinance thatdates from Hong Kong’s days asa British colony before 1997,when it was returned to China.Those convicted could face upto two years in prison and afine of up to 5,000 Hong Kongdollars ($640). Police did not

identify who was arrested, butHong Kong’s South ChinaMorning Post newspaperreported they were one currentand one former editor of StandNews, and four former boardmembers including Ho andformer lawmaker Margaret Ng.

A Facebook post earlyWednesday morning on Ho’saccount confirmed that she wasbeing arrested. A subsequentmessage posted on her behalfsaid she was OK and urgedfriends and supporters not toworry about her.

That post drew nearly40,000 likes and 2,700 com-ments, mostly from supporters.

Early Wednesday, StandNews posted a video onFacebook of police officers atthe home of a deputy editor,Ronson Chan. Chan, who isalso chair of the Hong KongJournalists Association, wastaken away for questioning, theorganization confirmed in astatement.

Chan, who was laterreleased, told media the policeseized his electronic devices,bank cards and press card.Thearrests come as authoritiescrack down on dissent in thesemi-autonomous Chinese city.Hong Kong police previouslyraided the offices of the now-defunct Apple Daily newspa-per, seizing boxes of materialsand computer hard drives toassist in their investigation andfreezing millions in assets thatlater forced the newspaper tocease operations.Police chargedthe Apple Daily’s Lai, who isalready jailed on other charges,with sedition on Tuesday.

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Authorities in Pakistan'sPunjab province on

Wednesday said they havedetained 85 main suspectsafter determining their role inbrutal lynching of a SriLankan national in Sialkotcity earlier this month.

In a shocking incident, amob of 800 men, includingsupporters of radical Islamistparty Tehreek-e-LabbaikPakistan (TLP), attacked agarment factory in Sialkot onDecember 3 and lynched its49-year-old general manager- Pr iyantha KumaraDiyawadana - before settinghis body on fire over allega-tions of blasphemy.

"Currently 85 main sus-pects whose role has been

identified through videofootages and investigation inbrutal lynching of PriyanthaKumara are detained onphysical remand,” an officialof Punjab police told PTI onWednesday.

The official said over 100other suspects were alsoincluded in investigation butno evidence of their involve-ment in case was detected,thus they were not named inthe FIR and some of themwho were detained werereleased.

“We want to present astrong case against primesuspects in court and inves-tigation teams are workinghard on it,” he said, addingpolice will submit investiga-t ion report against 85detained suspects in anti-terrorism court likely at endof next month.

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Meanwhile, of the 85 cases of Omicron vari-ant infections reported on Wednesday inMumbai, 47 patients have been reported by theNational Institute of Virology (NIV), while 38have been reported by the Indian Institute ofScience Education and Research (IISER).

Of the 47 patients reported by NIV, 43 areinternational travellers and 4 are close contacts.The 38 cases reported by IISER are from com-munity surveillance. The district-wise details areas follows: Mumbai-19, Kalyan Dombivli-5, NaviMumbai and Pimpri-Chinchwad-3 each, Punerural, Bhjiwandi-Nizampur, Panvel and ThaneMunicipal Corporation -1 each.

The following is the break-up of a total 252Omicron cases recorded in the State so far,Mumbai-- 137, Pimpri-Chinchwad--25, Punerural --18, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)-11, Thane MC--8, Navi Mumbai, Panvel andKalyan Dombivli-7 each, Satara, Osmanabad -5 each, Vasai-Virar--3, Aurangabad, Nanded,Buldhana, Bhiwandi--Nizampur-2 each, andLatur, Ahmednagar, Akola, Mira-Bhayandar andKolahpur-1 each.

Of the total cases, 99 patients have been dis-charged after a negative RT-PCR test. Of the 26cases reported on Monday, four are aged below18 years, while two are above 60 years. Of theinfected persons, 14 are male, while 12 arefemale

Of the infected, all except two patients havea history of international travel, while theremaining two persons are high-risk contactsof an international traveller.

Meanwhile, the authorities said the totalnumber of passengers who arrived at Mumbai,Pune and Nagpur airports since December 1 was1,94,361 (27,107 from at-risk countries and rest1,66,254 are from other countries), while pas-sengers whose RT-PCR tests have been done are37,847 (28,107 are from high-risk countries and9470 are from other countries). Similarly, RT-PCR positive and samples sent for genomicsequencing was 286 (204 are from at-riskcountries and 82 are from other countries).

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Crowds will be controlled at tourist desti-nations and beaches. Night curfew from 11 p.m.to 5 a.m. was reimposed in Uttar Pradesh fromDecember 25 while gatherings of over 200 peo-ple were banned.

While Karnataka announced a 10-daynight curfew on Monday as New Year partiesand public gatherings were banned, orderedpatrolling and surveillance in districts adjoin-ing Maharashtra and Kerala to prevent thespread of the virus, Assam has reintroducednight curfew from 11.30 p.m. to 6 a.m., whichwill not be applicable on New Year’s Eve. TheState Government has urged people to maintainCovid-appropriate behaviour and warned oflegal action against those who do not comply.

The Gujarat Government has imposed anight curfew in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat,Rajkot, Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Gandhinagar,and Junagadh to check the pandemic spread.Ditto with Haryana where public gatherings ofover 200 people and events have been barred tillfurther notice. Odisha has imposed restrictionstill January 2. Christmas celebrations were lim-ited to churches, where a maximum of 50 peo-ple were allowed as per Covid-19 protocols.Night celebrations on New Year have also beenbanned across the State. All events except wed-dings have been barred in the State.

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The committee is headed by RegistrarGeneral and Census Commissioner of IndiaVivek Joshi and Additional Secretary in theUnion Home Ministry Piyush Goyal is theMember-Secretary. The Chief Secretary and theDirector General of Police (DGP) of Nagalandand the DGP of Assam Rifles will be the othermembers. It is expected to file its report with-in 45 days.

As regards the Army team’s visit in Otingin Mon district on Wednesday, officials had saidon Monday here and Kohima the “Indian ArmyInquiry Team solicits from the public at largeany primary information (not forwarded or notfrom secondary source) pertaining to the inci-dent. “Any person having such information anddesirous of deposing before the Inquiry isrequested to do so at Tizit Police Station,” it said.

This statement came a day after the IndianArmy in a communique on Sunday said: “Weonce again deeply regret the loss of lives dur-ing the December four incident in Mon District.Loss of lives is indeed sad and unfortunate.

The inquiry ordered by the Army is pro-gressing expeditiously and all efforts are beingmade to conclude it at the earliest. “We havetaken out notices for people to come forwardand assist us in the inquiry by providing anyinformation including videos, photos or anyother material from original sources and will begrateful for the same. This can be conveyed onWhatsApp Messenger at +916026930283 orArmy Exchange Helpline +913742388456.

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Among other places in Punjab, Barnala,Jalandhar, Gurdaspur and Pathankot reeledunder intense cold recording respective mini-mum temperatures of 2.7 degrees celsius, 3.9degrees celsius, 3.3 degrees celsius and 4.6degrees celsius. Ludhiana recorded a low of 7.1degrees celsius. Patiala’s minimum temperaturesettled at 6.5 degrees celsius. Chandigarh, thecommon capital of the two states, recorded a lowof 5.8 degrees celsius.

In Haryana, Hisar, Sirsa and Narnaul expe-rienced a cold night recording respective min-imums of 5 degrees, 4.6 degrees and 6 degreescelsius. Ambala recorded a low of 6.9 degreescelsius while Karnal’s minimum temperature set-tled at 7.7 degrees celsius. Gurugram recordeda minimum temperature of 8.2 degrees celsius.

Meanwhile, the cold wave conditionsintensified across Kashmir as Gulmarg skiingresort witnessed the season’s record low withmercury plunging more than 10 degrees belowthe freezing point, officials said on Wednesday.

Kashmir valley is currently under the gripof the 40-day harshest winter period known as‘Chilla-i-Kalan’ which began on Tuesday.

Gulmarg, the famous skiing resort in northKashmir, recorded a low of minus 10.4 degreescelsius. It was down one degree from minus 9.4degrees compared to the previous night, the offi-cials said.

Pahalgam, which serves as the base campfor the annual Amarnath yatra, recorded a lowof minus 6.6 degrees celsius - up from minus7.9 degrees celsius the previous night Srinagarsaw a low of minus 2.3 degrees celsius last night- down from the previous night’s 1.4 degrees cel-sius. Qazigund, the gateway town to the valley,recorded a minimum of 0.6 degrees celsius.’

The nearby south Kashmir town ofKokernag recorded a low of minus 0.4 degreescelsius.

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As the Government focus-es its attention on con-

taining Covid-19, the deathtoll due to neglected diseasevisceral leishmaniasis, com-monly known as Kala Azarhas cl imbed to 33 t i l lNovember 2021, highest inthe past seven years.

As per the data from thewebsite of the NationalCentre for Vector BorneDiseases Control Programme(NVBDCP), Bihar tops thelist with 24 mortalities fol-lowed by Jharkhand whichreported 7 deaths. Both theStates had not reported anydeath due to Kala Azar lastyear. (see box)

The deaths suggest thatthe infections are not beingtreated on time, taking a tollon the pat ients . Healthexperts say that if left untreat-ed, visceral leishmaniasiswhich is otherwise a curabledisease can be fatal in over95% of cases.

It is caused by the proto-zoan parasite of the genus

Leishmania. Its clinical man-ifestations include irregularbouts of fever, weight loss andanemia.

Post-Kala-azar DermalLeishmaniasis (PKDL) casestoo have increased from 617in 2020 to 653 till November2021. Kala-azar is the seconddeadliest parasitic killer inthe world after malaria. TheWHO estimates that 50,000to 90,000 people globally areinfected each year.

India accounts for abouttwo-thirds of the total glob-al cases, and Kala-azar isendemic to Bihar, Jharkhand,Kerala, Sikkim, Uttar Pradeshand West Bengal.

Though its incidence inIndia has declined overdecades, the country hasmissed several deadlines –2010, 2015 and 2017 – for its‘elimination’.

This year till November,1163 cases have been report-ed against over 1900 report-ed last calendar year.

According to the WHO,poverty is an increased riskfactor as is poor housing and

domestic sanitary conditions(such as a lack of waste man-agement or open sewerage).Other factors include mal-nutrition, population mobil-ity and environmental andclimate changes.

The only drug availableagainst leishmaniasis, milte-fosine, is rapidly losing itsef fectiveness because ofemerging resistance to thisdrug due to a decrease in itsaccumulation inside the par-asite, which is necessary forthe drug to kill the parasite,say the experts.

The National Kala-AzarElimination Programme hasmade it mandatory for allstates to report diseases,including zero cases.

To compensate for loss ofwages by Kala Azar andPKDL cases, the Governmentprovides Rs 4000 per PKDLcase and Rs 500 per treatedKA case. Bihar andJharkhand, in which mostKala Azar and PKDL casesoccur, provide an additionalRs 6600 in compensation forwage losses.

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In the past seven years, India’sSex Ratio at Birth (SRB)

improved by 19 Points atNational level: From 918 In2014-15to 937 in 2020-21. TheMinistry of Women and ChildDevelopment said that ‘BetiBachao Beti Padhao’ move-ment has stirred up collectiveconsciousness towards chang-ing the mindset of the Nationtowards valuing the girl child,reflecting improvement in sexratio of birth.

“Beti Bachao Beti Padhaoscheme is being implementedacross India and covering 640districts (as per Census 2011)across the country. Out of 640districts, 405 districts are cov-ered under multi-sectoral inter-vention along with MediaAdvocacy under direct super-vision of DMs/DCs and all 640districts are covered throughadvocacy and media cam-paign,” said WCD Ministryheaded Smriti Irani in a state-ment on Wednesday.

Releasing year end review

of 2021, the Ministry said thatto promote the nutritional sta-tus of women and children, atransparent and enabling envi-ronment is being created thatnurtures health, wellness andimmunity.

“Poshan Tracker applica-tion has been built on latesttechnology for ensuring real-time monitoring of supple-mentary nutrition and pro-viding information for promptsupervision and managementof services,” said the Ministry,adding that over two crorewomen benefitted underPradhan Mantri MatruVandana Yojana scheme forpregnant women and lactatingmothers

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The resident doctors contin-ued their protest which

entered into the 13th day onWednesday, in support of theirdemands, including seeking earlyNEET-PG 2021 counselling andthe withdrawal of the FIRs filedagainst them. The meet betweena delegation of the protestingdoctors and the Union HealthMinister on Tuesday had failedto make any headway.

In a statement, theFederation of Resident DoctorsAssociation of India (FORDA),

which is leading the protestnationwide, said that the FIRhas been filed by the policeagainst the protesting residentdoctors.

“After discussion with theRDA representatives, it hasbeen decided to continue theagitation till our demands aremet,” said the doctors’ associ-ation. On Wednesday, theprotesting doctors got supportfrom Satyendar Jain, DelhiHealth Minister who demand-ed that the Center expediteNEET-PG Counseling in orderto prevent a medical staff short-

age at hospitals due to Covidsurges.

The junior Indian MedicalAssociation (IMA) has alreadywritten a letter to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi toresolve the NEET-PG coun-selling crisis and augment man-power to face a possible thirdwave of COVID-19 infections.

As the protest, includingthe withdrawal of all medicaland emergency services,entered into the 13th day,patient care has largely beenaffected across the hospitals inDelhi.

Safdarjung Hospital inDelhi, which has emerged asthe main centre of protest, isrunning with only senior doc-tors in the OPD andEmergency services. However,doctors are planning to take theprotest forward with Covidnorms as Delhi has been placedunder yellow alert after theCovid spike.

The twitter is flooded withthe comments from theprotesting doctors and theirsupporters. Dr Pankaj Solanki,Surgeon with DharamveerSolanki Hospital tweeted that

“Dear Citizens, these youngdoctors are not protesting forpay hike or perks but for morenumber of doctors (45k) foryou only. With the 3rd wavelooming, the politicians will nottreat you, it's the doctors.” DrRahul Bharhgava, Director-Bone Marrow TransplantProgram, Fortis MemorialResearch Institute, Gurgaonminced no words as he com-mented that “election can takeplace on time but counsellingfor NEET can take time or bepostponed indefinitely wowwhat a country we are in!”

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Congress on Wednesdayslammed the Government

over the purchase of a luxurycar for Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's cavalcade ata time when the economy hastaken a hit due to the Covid-19pandemic.

Recalling the prime minis-ter's description of himself as‘fakir' (ascetic), Congressspokesperson Gourav Vallabhsaid “every person in the coun-try desires to be a fakir likeModi who flies in an �8,000crore aircraft, rides in �20crore car and spends �2,000crore on building a home”.

At same time Congressaccused Modi government of“compromising” the country'sstrategic interests by selling a“profitable” PSU CentralElectronics Limited (CEL) to aprivate firm with no domainexperience.

Vallabh claimed that thevaluation of the CEL using dif-ferent methods was between�957 crore and �1,600 croreand said the government hadsold the Ghaziabad-based PSUto Nandal Finance and LeasingPvt Ltd for �210 crore.

On PM’s new cavalcade,Vallabh alleged that the primeminister had changed five carsin seven years.

“In the last two years, peo-ple have lost jobs, seen theirsalaries decline, businesses havewitnessed a downturn, butthere is no change in the primeminister's pace of changingcars. … Why are you buyingcars,” he said.

A Mercedes-Maybach S650Guard was added to the PrimeMinister's cavalcade by theSpecial Protection Group.Government sources said thatthe new car was a replacementof the BMW used by the primeminister as the German car-maker stopped production ofthe vehicle.

Official sources also saidthe SPG security detail has a

six-year norm to replace vehi-cles used for the protectee andthat Prime Minister Modi hasnot given any preference onwhich cars to use. They alsosaid that the car costs aboutone-third of the price quoted inthe media.

The Congress spokesper-son said India had seen primeministers who cared for thepeople and not who changedcars every alternate year.

“It was Mahindra Scorpioin 2014, BMW 7 Series in2015, Toyota Land Cruiser in2017, Jaguar Range RoverVogue in 2019 and MercedesMaybach in 2021,” Vallabhstated. Taking a dig at the

Prime Minister's pitch for Makein India, Congress said PrimeMinister Modi has not board-ed an India-made car since2014 when he used MahindraScorpio for his travels.

“Vocal for Local,Aatmanirbhar Bharat have remained mere slogans…there is no India-made car. Itstarted with Scorpio, but theprime minister has neverturned to an Indian car afterthat,” he said. “Our buyingcapacity has been hit due to thepandemic. We have to thinktwice before buying a pair ofclothes. The RBI also says con-sumer sentiment is depressed,”Vallabh said.

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the Government. We were able tocombat the second wave of COVIDpandemic as a result of our combinedefforts. Similarly, now we mustimmediately unite all of our effortsbecause the number of Omicronpatients is steadily increasing.

As per the tests conducted atInstitute of Genomic and IntegrativeBiology, nearly one out of every fivetravellers testing COVID-positive atIGI airport is infected with theOmicron variant. Omicron variety hasstronger transmissibility than Delta,which means we'll have to put in moreeffort to stop it.

It is necessary that thecitizens take the initiative to

get vaccinated themselves.People should alsocontinue to diligentlyfollow COVID protocolsincluding proper use ofmasks, maintainingsocial distance and handhygiene. We can counter

the looming threat of athird wave of COVID

pandemic if we allwork together.

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� 3� � �����4���� : : :2021was a grim year, but

music emerged as ahealer and a much

needed source of entertainment. Audiocontent received healthy traction andemerged as a way to engage consumerswith screen-free entertainment. TanishkBagchi was the most heard artist in 2021with over 1.2 billion streams on Gaana,followed by Arijt Singh and NehaKakkar.

Consumption of podcasts grew by40 per cent Y-O-Y. Love for regionalmusic was also more powerful than everin 2021 contributing 40 per cent to thetotal streams. Bhojpuri and Haryanviwere the biggest gainers with more than15 per cent increase compared to lastyear.

The 2021 has been a rollercoaster ride for everyone.As much as we all had tosit at home and be safe,we all also wanted to get

out of the homes in search of ournormal lives. These two minds ofours definitely reflected on thetrends we all referred to for fashion.The year 2021 was a lot about self-expression and we all preferredto slip in what made us happy ratherthan following certain specifictrends. In spite of this, some verypopular trends were seen in 2021.

COMFORT FITSWe all got so used to wearing

lounge wear after 2020, slippinginto bodycons and body huggingstyles was a little far fetched becauseof which we saw a lot of oversizedshirts and tshirts, wide leggedpants, parallels and similar styleswhich took preference. Oversizedsweaters and sweatshirts was alsoa big trend for this winter.

TIE & DYEThe dull life we all experi-

enced in the past couple of yearscalled for some brightness anddazzle in everyday fashion. Brightcoloured tie and dye has been anon and off trend for a while now,but in 2021, this trend took off insummers and is still popularamong women specially in casu-al wear. Co-ords & jackets are themost popular category with brightcoloured tie & dye surface.

CO-ORDSCo-ords have been a big

category this 2021. It gainedits popularity when celebsstarted sporting co-ordsin their airport looks. Beit from printed floral co-ords or athleisure co-ords, they have beenwidely popular and peo-ple have found comfortin wearing as well asstyling this category.

BOLD & BRIGHTBe it in prints or solids,

the hues this year were farbrighter and dazzling. Notjust summers, but wintersin 2021 also witnessed thebrightness. People loved tocolour block with compli-menting colours and we allsaw a lot of fashion bloggersand influencers helpingtheir audience to pick theright colour combinations.

The 2021 seemed like an aftereffect of 2020, but it was great to

see everyone moving out oftheir comfort zones and

experimenting withcolours, styles andfits.

LILACDidn’t you observe

everyone starting to rave aboutLilac in 2021. Actually, Lilacwas revived right in 2018when Victoria Beckham wasspotted in a lilac suit. It took2021 for us to start using thiscolour so confidently with-out any hesitation. Peoplegot a hang of styling thiscolour. It was styled eitherwith solid whites to keepit classic or people lovedstyling it with compli-menting neons to makeit a statement outfit.

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Never had anyone imagined that an outbreak ofsevere viral pneumonias, first reported inWuhan city, Hubei province China in December

2019, would, in the months to come, create havoc inthe world. Coronaviruses which usually cause com-mon colds in humans and also infect animals, like-ly, though still not apparent, jumped from an ani-mal in a seafood market in China to infecthumans.

On February 11, 2020, the InternationalCommittee on Taxonomy of Viruses adopted theofficial name Severe acute respiratory syndromecoronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The World HealthOrganization (WHO) on March 11, 2020, hasdeclared the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) out-break, a global pandemic.

“According to the transmissibility, virulenceand effectiveness of therapeutics, vaccines anddiagnostics, WHO has classified SARS-CoV-2 intovariants of concerns (VOC) and variant of inter-est (VOI). VOC include Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gammaand latest being Omicron,” Dr Gurmeet SinghChabbra, Director Pulmonology, QRG Super SpecialityHospital, Faridabad says.

Throughout the world, 5,410,984 people have diedso far from the coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak as onDecember 25, 2021 including 4,79,520 in India. TotalCoronavirus cases in India till date are 34,779,815.

Omicron virus is a new mutant of SARS-CoV-2,which was first documented in South Africa onNovember 24, 2021. On November 26, 2021,WHOdeclared it as variant of concern.

India has so far recorded 415 cases of the Omicronvariant across 15 States and Union territories. Omicronhas more than 50 mutations with more than 30 beingin spike protein itself which makes it highly transmis-sible.

“In countries with documented community spread,doubling time of Omicron is one-and-a-half to threedays. Omicron spreads three times faster than the deltavirus which caused the brutal second wave in India. Itevades immunity acquired due to previous COVIDinfection or vaccination and causes reinfections andbreakthrough infections,” Dr Gurmeet tells you.

There is a possibility of decreased effectiveness ofavailable vaccines and also cocktail therapy, given formild to moderate high risk COVID-19 cases, in

The third wave could be larg-er than the first two. Tocombat this, we strongly

advise everyone to get vaccinatedwith two doses of the vaccine. Thegeneral public should also takeextra precautions against newviruses and variations of novelcoronavirus. People should keep

wearing masks in public places,avoid crowds, maintain social dis-tance, and adhere to all directivesissued by the Government of Indiafrom time to time. Private health-care companies are already provid-ing the Government all of theresources it requires, includingtesting, isolation beds for treat-

ment, medical personnel, andequipment at Government Covid-19 hospitals. We were hope-ful that with our combined efforts,we will be able to defeat theOmicron variant too.

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DILIP KUMAR: Better knownby his stage name Dilip Kumar,was an Indian actor and film pro-ducer who worked in Hindi cin-ema. Referred to as the TragedyKing for his portrayal of seriousroles and retrospectively as TheFirst Khan of Bollywood. RAJIV KAPOOR: He was anactor, producer, director and amember of the Kapoor family.He is best known for his lead rolein Ram Teri Ganga Maili. SIDDHARTH SHUKLA: Hewas an actor, host and modelwho appeared in Hindi televisionand films. He was known for hisrole in Balika Vadhu.SUREKHA SIKRI: She was atheatre, film and televisionactress. She received threeNational Film Awards and aFilmfare Award. She made herdebut in Kissa Kursi Ka.ANUPAM SHYAM: He was anIndian film and television actor,who usually played villainousroles. RAJ KAUSHAL: was an Indiandirector, producer who wasactive during the 1990s and mid2000s. He was married toMandira Bedi. AMIT MISTRY: He appeared ina number of tele serials, dramaas well as films.GHANSHYAM NAYAK: Hislast memorable role was ofNatwarlal PrabhashankarUndhaiwala aka Nattu Kaka inTaarak Mehta Ka OoltahChashmah.

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NEERAJ CHOPRA was the mostsearched face of 2021 and why not. Hebrought home the Gold at the Olympicsheld this year in Japan in javelin throw.He is ranked No 2 internationally byWorld Athletics.

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Omicron infectedcases. Still vaccination

would prevent severe disease,hospitalisation and deaths in infectedpatients.

In India, more than 80 per cent havetaken a single shot of COVID vaccine andabout 50 per cent are fully vaccinated.Those who have not yet got vaccinatedshould get vaccinated.

“Wearing a mask properly, keeping asafe distance of six feet, maintaining handhygiene, avoiding gatherings and crowd-ed places and social meetings would pre-vent spread of this disease. It is expectedthat about 1.5 to 1.8 lakh cases per daywould be recorded by the end of February2022,” Dr Gurmeet says.

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As we prepare to welcome 2022,India, particularly the Indianhealth sector, will face new

challenges. Omicron has already arrived,which means we must intensify andexpand our efforts to halt its spread. Thefirst line of defense against Omicron willbe COVID-appropriate behaviour andimmunisation. It is stronglyrecommended that all citizens get bothdoses of Covid vaccines as soon aspossible.

The Delta strain causedunprecedented mortality in 2021, forwhich no country, includingIndia, was prepared. As thenumber of deaths increased,we rose to the occasionand joined forces with

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Pravir Krishna (IAS MP1987), has held variousposts from being an assis-

tant collector to secretaryGOMP and GOI in which heearned the image of a ‘doer andchange maker’. He charted astellar career course over thepast 34 years, setting new par-adigms of empathetic service inall the roles that he assayed.These years also helped himcurate his vision for servingpeople in a manner he knowsbest- with a blend of thoughtand action.

Krishna came face-to-facewith the stark realities of theexploitation of tribal people inSarguja, Madhya Pradesh. Itaffected him so deeply that heembarked on a journey towards

bettering the lives of tribalpeople. Ever since, he hashelped create an atmospherewhere tribal people tradedfreely and earned more. Infact, his market reforms werelisted by the UNO-FAO asamong 32 global best practices.Krishna’s close association withthe tribes continued in Bastar,and now as MD of TRIFED, ithas become even more impor-tant with the pan India roll outof the Van Dhan Program. Heearned the title ‘Imli Krishna’,when he conceptualised andspearheaded the Imli Andolanof Bastar, helping 30 lakh trib-als to get fair deal for their tradeand become masters of theirdestinies.

It is important that we

ensure that the tribal commu-nities maintain their tradition-al skill sets and at the same timewe ought to open up new cre-ative livelihood and incomeenhancing opportunities for

them. This is what Krishna hasbeen consistently strivingthrough his stint in the tribalareas and now, with great suc-cess.

Revolving around theaforementioned theme anddrawing from his experiences,Krishna has written a book,Tryst with the Tribes.

About the bookTryst with the Tribes is an

inspirational story about howa sensitive, committed andintelligent civil servant cantransform an entire ecosystemof livelihoods from survivaland abject exploitation to oneof mutual help, entrepreneur-ship, and holistic empower-ment.

The book encapsulates histryst with the tribes of Indiathat he has adopted as hisown.

His witty writing style andstrong emotional quotientplace him in the genre ofthoughtful writers who makefacts seem more interestingthan fiction.

The story of how a youngIAS officer fell in love withIndia’s tribal heartland, andhow this experience changedhim forever.

“I am sure that this bookwill be very well received as awindow to a creative blend oftradition and modernity thatthe author has brought to thefield of tribal development,”commented M Venkaiah

Naidu, the Vice President ofIndia.

“He is now applying allthese learnings to makingtribes of India the ‘ethical-ecological’ brands of our times,”expresses Sanjeev Chopra, for-mer director of Lal BahadurShastri National Academy ofAdministration, Mussoorie.

The book is a labour of loveand sweat, hard work and per-sistence, telling the story of howhe led the Imli Andolan to anation-wide platform,whichhe fondly calls the ‘TribalAMULTransformation’. It isthe remarkable story of abureaucrat whose destiny isforever entwined with that ofmany of India’s tribal commu-nities.

Chief Minister of Rajasthan,Ashok Gehlot, said that the

state government is working withdedication to promote the tourismindustry of the state. For this,many important decisions havebeen taken. In order to takeRajasthan to new heights in thefield of tourism, the governmenthas taken the decision to create atourism development fund of�500 crores. With this fund, workslike development of infrastructurefacilities at tourist places, theirconservation and strong brandingat national and international levelwill be done.

Gehlot addressed the inaugu-ration ceremony of the light andsound shows at five major touristplaces of the state on Monday. Inthis programme organisedthrough video conference, theCM visited Jai Niwas Udyan locat-

ed in Govind Dev Ji TempleComplex, the main religiousplace of Jaipur, MirabaiMemorial in Merta, worldfamous fort of Chittorgarh,attractive light and sound showat Machkund in Dholpur and thehistorical Gadsisar of Jaisalmer.He inaugurated the laser watershow in the lake.

Rajasthan has a unique iden-tity in the field of tourism in thecountry and the world. A largenumber of domestic and foreigntourists come here to see the pleas-ing culture, forts, palaces, stepwells

and attractive places related towildlife, desert etc. The tourismindustry plays an important rolein employment. The livelihood oflakhs of people is linked to it. Theeconomy of many countries ofthe world depends on thetourism industry.

The tourism minister saidthat domestic tourism can betaken to new heights by promot-ing air connectivity in the stateand the tourism department willwork in this direction with a pos-itive attitude.

Out of eight approved projects

in the state under the SwadeshDarshan scheme of the Ministryof Tourism, five light and soundshows and laser water shows wereinaugurated. The shows will startsoon at the remaining 3 locationsas well. Due to the efforts of thestate government, Rajasthan hasreceived the Best Iconic LandscapeDestination Award in India TodayTourism Award-2021, BestFestival Destination Award, BestState in Travel and Leisure India’sBest Awards-2021 and BestWedding Destination in the fieldof tourism among many others.

On the occasion of GoodGovernance Day, CCS

(Pension) Rules Book 2021was released by Amit Shah,Minister of Home Affairs, DrJitendra Singh, Minister ofState, Personnel, PG and pen-sions, and Sanjay Singh, sec-retary, department of pen-sion & pensioners’ welfare.

Department of pension& pensioners’ welfare hasreviewed and rationalised thepension rules of the CentralCivil Government servantsand has notified the CentralCivil Services (Pension) Rules2021 superseding the CentralCivil Services (Pension) Rules1972. The Central CivilServices (Pension) Rules coverthe Central Civil Governmentservants appointed beforeJanuary 1, 2004. The employ-ees appointed on or after thesaid date are covered by theNational Pension System. Therules encompass provisions

for regulating pension andretirement gratuity on retire-ment of a Government servantand family pension and deathgratuity on death of a govern-ment servant/pensioner.

The government decidedto rationalise these rules andto bring out a revised andupdated version of the rules.The revised rules do not makeany changes in regard to enti-tlement of amount of pension,family pension or gratuity.However, while incorporatingthe amendments and instruc-tions issued during the last 50years, the Central CivilServices (Pension) Rules,2021 bring about several newpolicy and proceduralimprovements over theCentral Civi l Ser vices(Pension) Rules, 1972.

(Pension Rule Book 2021is available on DOPPW

website viz pensioner-sportal.gov.in)

In yet another recognition forexcellence in operations, Power

Finance Corporation, a MaharatnaCPSE and India’s leading power sec-tor focussed non-banking financialcompany has been conferred withthe prestigious ‘IEI IndustryExcellence Award 2021’.

The award was presented by DrMahendra Nath Pandey, Minister ofHeavy Industries, Government of

India. R Rahman, ExecutiveDirector (PR & CSR) and PKSinha, Executive Director (Projects)received the award on behalf of PFCduring the 36th Indian EngineeringCongress. The ceremony was heldat Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

The award recognises PFC’sdedication to nation building andits major role in the development ofthe power sector.

Ashutosh Gangal, general managerof Northern Railway conducted an

inspection of the Saharanpur-Moradabad section of the MoradabadDivision on Monday. The GM wasaccompanied by Ajay Nandan,Divisional Railway Manager,Moradabad Division, Principal Headsof Department, Northern Railway andsenior officers of the division.

The GM initiated his inspectionfrom Balia Khedi. He inspected the sta-tion area, yard and the railway colonyand also inaugurated the newly reno-vated RPF Barrak. Moving by a specialtrain, the entourage stopped at levelcrossing gate number 521 betweenChidiyala and Ikbalpur and Bridgenumber 1282 Dn before reachingRoorkee.

At Roorkee, the GM inspected thestation, and the staff colony. On reach-ing Najibabad, he inspected the station,washing pit for train cleaning, runningroom for drivers, health center, yardand a level crossing near the station. Healso inspected a newly upgraded firstAC coach in which several passengerconducive features have been intro-duced.

The GM reached Dhampurinspecting the track and other railstructures enroute. Here, he visited thestation and witnessed a demonstrationon the working of the bio-vacuum toi-let. An exhibition was put up by dif-ferent departments. A Nukkad Natakwas also staged on the occasion.

Cash awards for exemplary perfor-

mance were given to Bindu Singh,gateman, Roorkee, Md Yunus,mate/gang Ikbalpur, S K Verma, sta-tion superintendent, Roorkee andMohan Singh, senior section engi-

neer/works, Roorkee.Addressing a press meet, the GM

assured them that Railways is commit-ted to complete these projects on timeso that all can benefit from them.

RITES Ltd, a Miniratna (Category–I) Schedule‘A’ Public Sector Enterprise, has been con-

ferred ‘IEI Industry Excellence Award 2021’ bythe Institution of Engineers (India) in theEngineering Services and Consultancy (ESC) cat-egory.

The award, presented by Minister of HeavyIndustries, Government of India, Dr MahendraNath Pandey during the 36th Indian EngineeringCongress — Centenary Celebrations in NewDelhi, recognises RITES’ efforts towards innova-tion and excellence in engineering operations andconsultancy services, thereby building capacityto sustain excellence in competitive manner.

On the occasion, RITES Ltd said, “RITES isdelighted with this honour. It is a testimony toits contribution towards the advancement andapplication of ‘sustainable’ engineering.”

Vejendla SrinivasaChakravarthy has

taken charge as director(commercial) of SteelAuthority of IndiaLimited (SAIL). A chem-ical engineer fromLaxminarayan Instituteof Technology, NagpurUniversity, ShriChakravarthy joinedSAIL in 1987 in the com-pany’s Central MarketingOrganization.

Rising through theranks, Chakravarthybecame the ExecutiveDirector, Marketing in

SAIL before taking overas the Director(Commercial) of thecompany. He is knownfor his commercial andmarketing acumen.Chakravarthy hasworked on variousimportant projectsincluding formulation ofthe company’s Annual

Business Plan forMarketing and con-tributed to productionplanning which hasguided the company’slong term marketingstrategy. As ED, he hascontributed to formula-tion and implementa-tion of various productsand price strategy.

The Chief ElectoralOfficer has organised a

Blind Cricket tournamentbetween both the team tocreate awareness among thevoters about the inclusiveelection initiatives ofElection Commission ofIndia for the forthcomingGoa Assembly Election.

After winning the toss,South Goa Blind Teamasked the North team to batfirst. North Goa openingplayer Yeshwant Gosavi (65runs) and Prajyot Jha (70runs) scored 160 withoutloss, setting a big target forSouth Goa team to win in12 overs. However, SouthGoa could not chase the tar-get and scored just 125 los-ing five wickets in 12 overs.

The District North Goateam received an �11,000/-cash prize, certificate andtrophy. �5,500 cash prizewas given to the runner upteam. Participation certifi-cates were given to the play-ers of both the teams.

Kunal, IAS, while dis-tributing the prizes, con-gratulated both the teamsfor showing sportsmen spir-

it. He pointed out thatsportsmen spirit and partic-ipation in elections areinterrelated. The electionis a festival of democracyand in election, we needsportsmen spirit, commit-ment and participation forthe success of democracy, heremarked.

He also said thatElection Commission hasset up a helpline number

(1950) for all assistance.Urging the voter to partic-ipate ethically, he explainedthat people can call for anyinquiry/complaint, if theyfind anyone influencing thevoter by distributing free-bies, using muscle power orare threatened in any man-ner. He further stated thatabsentee voter facilities havebeen set up for PwD elec-tors and senior citizens

above 80 years of age andthey have the choice toeither come to polling sta-tion or to opt for absenteevoting system by casting apostal ballot at home. Healso appealed PwD electorsto use PwD App of ElectionCommission of India.

Many people acquaint-ed themselves with EVMand VVPAT demonstra-tions. There was livestream-ing of the match onFacebook and YouTubechannel of CEO Goa. Personwith Disabilities from vari-ous categories participatedto see the match as well asEVM/VVPAT demonstra-tion. Divyang LokshahichoRath was also made avail-able at the venue with allaccessible material related toElection including theAssured minimum facilitiesfolder in braille for Personwith Visual Impairment.Person with visual impair-ment also expressed theirinterest in creating aware-ness among other personswith disabilities on ethicalvoting and participationacross Goa.

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NTPC Ltd, India’s largest integrat-ed energy company in an

endeavour towards a sustainabledevelopment, signs anMemorandum of Understanding(MoU) with Greater NoidaIndustrial Development Authority(GNIDA) for supply of ‘RefusedDerived Fuel’ (combustible fraction

of the municipal solid waste).As per the MoU, GNIDA will be

supplying 20 Tonnes per Day (TPD)of Refused Derived Fuel (RFD) toNTPC for period of ten years.

This initiative will help NTPC todemonstrate an environment-friend-ly technology to produce greenpower and chemical from RDF andis planned under the theme of‘NETRA Green Campus’ where thecampus will have 24*7 Green Powerfrom Solar PV, Battery Storage, H2and RDF.

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Defending champion Koneru Humpyfailed to live up to her billing, finish-

ing sixth with 7.5 points in the women’ssection of the FIDE World Rapid ChessChampionship 2021 here.

In the open event, young IndianGrandmaster D Gukesh scored ninepoints to finish a creditable ninth, just halfa point behind champion NodirbekAbdusattorov (9.5) of Uzbekistan.

Gukesh pulled off a superb winagainst veteran Israeli player Boris Gelfandin the 10th round and followed it up witha victory over Jobava Baadur of Georgiain the next round late on Tuesday.

He drew his last two games againsteventual winner Abdusattorov andAlexander Grischuk.

Humpy, who began the final day of theRapid event with a draw against AlexandraKosteniuk, also split points in her subse-quent matches against AntoanetaStefanova of Bulgaria and Gulnar

Mamadova of Azerbaijan. R Vaishali was the next best Indian

performer in the women’s section, finish-ing in the 14th spot with seven points fol-lowed by Vantika Agrawal (6 points,38th place), and Padmini Rout (5.5,

49th). Kosteniuk did not lose a singlegame, scoring seven victories (6 in a rowin the first six rounds) and settling for fourdraws in 11 rounds to finish with ninepoints.

In the open section, Mitrabha Guha,who recently became a Grandmaster,logged 8.5 points to finish an impressive15th. Vidit S Gujrathi (7.5 points) took the45th spot while Harish Bharathakoti,who had a good start, settled for 60th placewith 7 points.

The experienced P Harikrishna, thehighest ranked Indian player here, ended99th with 6.5 points.

The triumph for 17-year oldAbdusattorov ended world championand no.1 player Magnus Carlsen’s reign.He edged out Ian Nepomniachtchi in a tie-break.

Four players — Abdusattorov,Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen and FabianoCaruana of USA had finished with 9.5points each and the first two went on toplay the tie-break.

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An Ashes series win in England in2023 and defeating India in their own

backyard are the two important mile-stones

Australia opener David Warner iseyeing before calling it quits from Testcricket.

After retaining the Ashes with anunassailable 3-0 lead inside 12 days,Warner, who turned 35 in October thisyear during the T20 World Cup, wherehe won the player-of-the-tournamentaward in Australia’s title triumph, admit-ted that there are still a few goals he’d liketo achieve before quitting the longest for-mat of the game.

“We still haven’t beaten India inIndia. That would be nice to do. Andobviously, England away, we had a drawnseries (in 2019), but hopefully, if I man-aged to get that chance and opportuni-

ty, I might think about going back,”Warner was quoted as saying by‘ESPNcricinfo’.

Warner has played 13 and eightTests across three series in England andtwo in India, respectively. But he has apoor record in both the countries, aver-aging 26 and 24 respectively without acentury.

Warner would turn 37 by the nextAshes trip to England, but for the left-handed opener age is just a number.

“I think James Anderson sets thebenchmark for older guys these days,” hesaid.

“We look up to him as we’re gettingon in our days. But for me, it’s about per-forming to the best of my ability andputting runs on the board.

“I feel in good touch. As I said, I wasout of runs not out of form, so hopeful-ly, I can put some more numbers on theboard leading into this new year.”

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The continuation of I Leaguewas on Wednesday thrown

into doubt after multipleCOVID-19 cases were report-ed among participating teams,staying and competing insidebio-bubbles.

It has been learnt that morethan 10 people, including atleast seven players, have testedpositive for the virus after testsconducted on Tuesday.

Five players from RealKashmir FC and at least oneeach from MohammedanSporting and debutantsSreenidi Deccan FC wereamong those who returnedpositive results.

“Five players and threeofficials from Real Kashmirand at least one player eachfrom Mohammedan Sportingand Sreenidi Deccan FC are

among those positive cases,” atop league source told PTI.

The outbreak happened atthe Novotel Hotel, one of thethree bio-bubbles, set up by theorganisers for the footballLeague that began on Sunday.

Besides RKFC, SreenidiDeccan and MohammedanSporting, the three other teamsstaying at the Novotel Hotel areRajasthan United, Aizawl FCand NEROCA.

An emergency meeting ofthe League Committee hasbeen called to take a decisionon continuation or suspensionof the league.

“We are having an emer-gency meeting of the Leaguecommittee at 4pm to decide onfuture course of action. Thesafety of players and officials isparamount,” I-League CEOSunando Dhar said.

Dhar did not divulge the

exact number of positive cases.“There have some positive

cases reported among certain#HeroILeague teams. TheLeague is keeping a close tab onit and have already spoken tothe clubs. In addition, an emer-gency meeting of the LeagueCommittee has also been sum-moned in the afternoon.Further details soon,” tweetedthe official handle of league.

Thirteen teams are compet-ing in this year’s I-League acrossthree venues -- the MohunBagan Ground in Kolkata, theKalyani Stadium at Kalyaniand the Naihati Stadium atNaihati.

RKFC owner SandeepChattoo admitted some of histeam’s players have tested pos-itive, though he did not sharehow many and who.

“Yes, RKFC has also somepositive cases, players from all

(six) teams are suspected (ofCOVID-19). But we have notyet been told officially by theleague organisers or the AIFF,”he said.

“There was one round oftests on December 21 and allmy players were negative. Thislatest tests were done yesterday.”

He said the next few match-es may be postponed but hop-ing that the I-League continues.

There are no matchesscheduled for Wednesday.

Sreenidi, MohammedanSporting, NEROCA andAizawl FC have matches onThursday while RKFC have agame on Friday.

All the players and officialswere required to remain inquarantine for six days intheir respective hotels afterarrival from there bases. Theywere to be tested twice duringthose six days.

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Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the ATPCup in Australia ahead of the first Grand

Slam tournament of the season, organizers saidWednesday.

No reason was given but the top-rankedSerb has declined to comment on his vaccina-tion status in recent months and Australia’s strict

regulations require all players, officials and fansto be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

ATP Cup organizers disclosed Djokovic’swithdrawal in a roster update that includedFrance replacing Austria in the 16-country eventfollowing the withdrawals of Dominic Thiemand Dennis Novak. Dusan Lajovic will replaceDjokovic for Serbia.

Fifth-ranked Andrey Rublev of Russia alsopulled out, as did teammates Aslan Karatsev andEvgeny Donskoy.

The ATP Cup begins Saturday in Sydney.The Australian Open men’s entry list announcedin early December had the 34-year-old Djokovicat No. 1 in what was seen as a further indica-tion that he’ll be playing at Melbourne Parkbeginning Jan. 17 despite Australia’s tight reg-ulations.

The nine-time Australian Open championis tied with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal forthe men’s record of 20 Grand Slam singles titles.

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Indian Blind Cricket teamcompleted a 3-0 rout of

Bangladesh on Wednesday bywinning the final ‘ODI’ by 177runs in a bilateral series organ-ised by the Cricket Associationof Blind in India (CABI).

The series was sponsoredby IndusInd Bank.

Electing to bat first, open-er Durga Rao’s 173 runs off 113balls and skipper SunilRamesh’s 177 off 76 ballsensured a mammoth total of466 for India in 40 overs.

In reply, Bangladesh wererestricted to 289 withMohammad Abdul Malek con-tributing 138 runs off 129deliveries.

Durga Rao was adjudgedPlayer of the Match.

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Flamboyant opener Prithvi Shaw was onWednesday named captain of Mumbai for

the first two matches of the upcoming RanjiTrophy season.

The 41-time Ranji champions Mumbai areplaced in Elite nine-team Group C and will opentheir campaign against Maharashtra on January13. They will clash against Delhi from January20 in Kolkata.

“Prithvi is a brilliant captain and fantabu-lous opening batsman, what else you need,”

Mumbai chief selector Salil Ankola told PTI. Young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal, middle-

order batters Sarfaraz Khan, Arman Jaffer andAakarshit Gomel have made it to the 20-mem-ber squad along with experienced stumper-bat-ter Aditya Tare.

All-rounder Shivam Dube, who has playedone ODI and 13 T20Is, has been also picked bythe selection committee that has Gulam Parkar,Sunil More, Prasad Desai and Anand Yalvigi.

The bowling attack will be led by experi-enced pacer Dhaval Kulkarni. Medium pacerMohit Awasthi, left-arm spinner Shams Mulani,off-spinner Shashank Attarde and left-armmedium pacer Roystan Dias form the attack

Pace all-rounder Arjun Tendulkar is alsopart of the squad.

Squad: Prithvi Shaw (Captain), YashasviJaiswal, Aakarshit Gomel, Arman Jaffer, SarfarazKhan, Sachin Yadav, Aditya Tare (wicket-keeper), Hardik Tamore (wicket-keeper),Shivam Dube, Aman Khan, Shams Mulan,Tanush Kotian, Prashant Solanki, ShashankAttarde, Dhaval Kulkarni, Mohit Awasthi,Prince Badiani, Siddharth Raut, Roystan Diasand Arjun Tendulkar.

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Former championsChennaiyin FC would look

to recover from a heavy defeatand get back to winning wayswhen they take on strugglingBengaluru FC in an IndianSuper League match here onThursday.

Chennaiyin defence wasput to the sword by high-flyingKerala Blasters who ran out 3-0 winners, leaving BozidarBandovic’s wards sixth in thetable with 11 points from sevenmatches.

In Bengaluru FC,Chennaiyin will know theyhave an opponent who are notvery high on confidence afterremaining winless in their lastseven games.

Languishing at 10th place,the Blues got off to a winningstart this season but since thenhaven’t managed to muster asingle victory, pocketing just sixpoints from eight outings. Theyplayed out a dour 0-0 draw intheir last game, showing the lackof creativity in the final third.

The Marco Pezzaouli-coached team kept a clean sheetin the last game but in generallacked spark, which has beentheir bane for quite some timenow. Skipper Sunil Chhetri has-n’t been at his best, forcing thecoach to relegate him on thebench.

“Sunil is very professional,he works very hard and I see theluck is coming back in training,and it’s only a matter of timebefore it comes back in thegames as well,” Pezzaouli said onthe eve of Thursday’s game.

“It’s not difficult for me totell Sunil that he isn’t starting.

He’s a professional whoassesses himself, and he knowsvery well how to deal withthese situations. He is an optionfor tomorrow because he hasbeen training well.”

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Jasprit Bumrah produced acouple of magic deliveries atthe fag end of the fourth day

as India remained on course foran emphatic victory against arattled South Africa in the firstTest here on Wednesday.

The home side would bepraying for their captain DeanElgar’s dogged defiance and some rain on the final dayon Thursday.

Chasing a never achievedvictory target of 305 at theSupersport Park, South Africafinished the day at 94 for 4 withElgar unbeaten on 52 afterIndian batters caved in on atrack with uneven bounce, get-ting all-out for 174 in just 50.3overs.

It was another failure for theseasoned trio of skipper ViratKohli, Cheteshwar Pujara andAjinkya Rahane but the pacersagain swung the match in India’sfavour.

With 211 runs required andsix wickets in hand, an intrigu-ing battle could be on the cardson the final day but the Indianteam would pray that forecast ofa steady afternoon shower onThursday doesn’t come true.

Elgar and Rassie van derDussen (11 off 65 balls) added40 runs but more importantlybatted for more than 22 overs asthe pitch looked like easingdown a bit.

Just when the game lookedlike meandering, Bumrah (2/22)went wide off the crease and gotthe ball to cut back late just when

Van der Dussen decided toshoulder arms thinking that itwould go straight.

And then at the stroke ofstumps, a lethal deliveryknocked the stuffing out ofnight watchman KeshavMaharaj (8) to leave the Proteas

in complete tatters.Even Mohammed Siraj

(1/25) bowled one that wasangled in and moved away latetaking Keegan Peterson’s (17)outside edge. Aiden Markramwas the first to be dismissed ashe failed to take his bat away

from a Mohammed Shami(1/29) delivery that bounced atad extra after landing on theperfect upright seam.

The Indian bowlers wouldbe aware that there had beeninstances when they have failedto get the tail knocked off the

final day, latest one being theKanpur Test and here with rainset to be a factor, they will berunning against time.

However, it must be men-tioned that the cracks hadwidened and helped the SouthAfrican pacers in the morning

session with some deliveriestaking off from back of length.

The use of heavy roller andthe Kookaburra getting old bythe 15th over did work to SouthAfrica’s advantage but only fora limited period of time beforethe quality and skill-set of Indian

pacers found the oppositionwanting.

If there is one worry, it’sPujara (16), Kohli (18) andRahane (20) playing some indis-creet shots while the otherswere done-in by wideningcracks that led to deliveriesrearing up awkwardly fromshort of length.

KL Rahul (23), RishabhPant (34) and RavichandranAshwin (14) got snorters thatgrew big on them as KagisoRabada (4/42), debutant MarcoJansen (4/55) and Lungi Ngidi(2/31) looked menacing duringthe one and half sessions that theIndians batted.

South Africa have morethan 140 overs to score 305 buton this Supersport Park track, itwill be a herculean task to makea match of the target with high-est successful chase here being251 by England back in 2000-01.

For South Africa’s battingline-up that distinctly lacks classof bygone era, facing Bumrah,Shami and Siraj remains a tallorder. The Indian team certain-ly owes it to openers on Day oneand the ever-consistent fastbowling unit that has helpedthem gain control of proceed-ings. Otherwise, the middle-order has cut a sorry picture andmore so skipper Kohli, who ispromising a lot with some delec-table boundaries but the propen-sity to drive anything pitchedfuller outside the off-stump isbringing about his downfall.

Young Jansen, who hadimpressed the India skipper asa net bowler during their last

tour of 2018, would certainlyremember his debut as he angledone across at fuller length entic-ing the skipper to go for adrive.

Pujara once again played alot of dot deliveries and thentickled one down the leg-side toQuinton de Kock off Ngidi.

The most embarrassing ofthe dismissals was Rahane’safter he had hooked and coverdrove Jansen for a six and a four.The first hook shot was off abouncer above his left shoulderand the second one was over hisright shoulder at a slightlylower height. He couldn’t checkhis pull-shot and holed out atdeep square leg. Had it not beenfor Pant’s counter-attackingrun-a-ball 34, India wouldn’thave gained the psychologicaladvantage of a target of 300plus.

Day 4 ScoreboardSouth Africa 2nd Innings:

Aiden Markram b Shami 1Dean Elgar batting 52Keegan Petersen c Pant b Siraj17Rassie van der Dussen bBumrah 11Keshav Maharaj b Bumrah 8

Extras: (LB-1 NB-4) 5Total: (For four wickets in

40.5 overs) 94Fall of wickets: 1/1 2/34

3/74 4/94Bowling: Jasprit Bumrah

11.5-2-22-2, MohammedShami 9-2-29-1, MohammedSiraj 11-4-25-1, Shardul Thakur5-0-11-0, RavichandranAshwin 4-1-6-0.


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