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‘With deep sense of pain’ Naddawrites to Sonia: ‘Are you trying toweaken fight against Covid-19’

Fatality Rate Of Black Fungus High,Covid-Recovered Patients Need ToBe Watchful: Experts

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WEDNESDAY 12 MAY 2021

Indian wrestling’s image has beentarnished due to accusations againstSushil Kumar: WFI

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Chief Minister discussed on the health condition of Leaderof Opposition Sh Pradipta Naik with AIIMS Bhubaneswar

Bhubaneswar, May 11:Chief Minister ShNaveen Patnaik todaydiscussed with AIIMSdoctors on the healthcondition of Leader ofOpposition Sh PradiptaNaik. Sh Naik was af-fected due to Covid-19and is currently in ICUin AIIMS Bhubaneswarsince last 16 days. ChiefMinister interacted withthe AIIMS and SCBdoctors who are takingcare of the treatment of

Sh Naik. The Doctorsbriefed Chief Ministerthat Sh Naik is cur-rently Covid negative.However there is wide-spread inflammation andlung infection becauseof which he is on venti-lator and his conditioncontinues to serious.They are making bestpossible efforts for hisearly recovery. TheAIIMS Director MsG e e t a n j a l iBatmanabane thanked

the State government forall the support in thetreatment of Sh Naik,especially the timelysupport of critical medi-cines. Chief Ministerappreciated the effortsof the doctors and re-quested them to pro-vide the best health carefor Sh Pradipta Naikand assured all supportfrom the State govern-ment. The chief minis-ter also wished speedyrecovery of Sri Nayak.

PM Modi calls off planned visit to UK to attend G7 Summit as special inviteeNew Delhi, May 11:The move came daysafter Modi called off aplanned visit to thePortuguese city ofPorto to participate inthe India-EU Summiton May 8. Prime Min-ister Narendra Modihas called off his visitto the UK to attendthe G7 Summit as aspecial invitee be-cause of the Covid-19situation in the coun-try, the external affairsministry announced onTuesday. UK PrimeMinister BorisJohnson had invitedModi and the leadersof Australia, SouthKorea and South Af-rica as guests to theG7 Summit to behosted by the UK inCornwall during June11-13. This wouldhave been Modi’s sec-ond foreign visit thisyear, after a trip to

Bangladesh in Marchto attend celebrationsmarking the 50th an-niversary of then e i g h b o u r i n gcountry’s indepen-dence. “While appre-ciating the invitation tothe prime minister byUK Prime MinisterBoris Johnson to at-tend the G7 Summit asa special invitee, giventhe prevailing Covidsituation, it has beendecided that the primeminister will not attendthe G7 Summit in per-son,” external affairsministry spokespersonArindam Bagchi said.The move came daysafter Modi called off aplanned visit to thePortuguese city ofPorto to participate inthe India-EU Summiton May 8. The meet-ing was subsequentlyheld in a virtual for-mat. External affairs

minister S Jaishankarhad visited the UK toattend the G7 foreignministers meeting inLondon during May3-5, but he and hisdelegation had to gointo self-isolation aftertwo members testedpositive for Covid-19.The pandemic has alsoaffected the schedule for

bilateral visits betweenIndia and the UK thisyear. Johnson called offplans to visit India twice– he cancelled a trip thatwas to begin on April 25following a surge in in-fections, and in January,he cancelled a trip tofocus on hisgovernment’s responseto a new Coronavirus

variant that wasspreading rapidly. Modiand Johnson held a vir-tual summit on May 4,during which theylaunched an EnhancedTrade Partnership and aMobility and MigrationPartnership and un-veiled a roadmap toboost bilateral ties overthe next decade.

Another Drive-In Covid-19 Vaccination Centre To Be Launched In BhubaneswarBhubaneswar, May 11:The Bhubaneswar Mu-nicipal Corporation(BMC) today decidedto open another drive-in coronavirus vaccina-tion centre in the city.The municipal corpora-tion will set up the drive-in vaccination centre atDN Regalia Mall forsecond dose Covid-19vaccination of 45+agegroup. As per the mu-nicipal corporation, per-sons aged above 45years and have taken

cination slot can be donein https://selfregistration.cowin.gov.in/. The municipal corpo-ration further stated 300vaccination slots will beavailable daily fromMay 12, 2021 to May15, 2021. Earlier, drive-in coronavirus vaccina-tion centres wereopened at the UtkalKanika Galleria Parkinglot, KIIT University’sCricket Stadium andEsplanade Mall Parkinglot in the city.

the first dose at a gov-ernment or private facil-

ity of Bhubaneswar canbook slots for vaccina-

tion from 6PM today.The registration for vac-

CM Sanctions Rs 20 Cr For RTPCR Testing Centres In 16 DistrictsBhubaneswar, May 11:

Bhubaneswar, May 11: Chief

Minister Naveen Patnaik today

sanctioned Rs 20 crore for set-

ting up RTPCR testing centres in

16 districts. These districts are:

Bhadrak, Boudh, Dhenkanal,

Gajapati, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur,

Jajpur, Kendrapada,

Nabarangpur, Malkangiri ,

Nuapada, Sonepur, Kandhamal,

Sundergarh, Rayagada, and

Bargarh. These will be permanent

test centres catering to the needs

of the people. For each of these

centres, one Microbiologist, and

three Lab Technicians will be ap-

pointed by the State Govern-

ment, the Chief Minister’s Office

informed.

7 Oxygen Plants To Come Up In Odisha Soon

Bhubaneswar, May 11:While oxygen crisiscreating a havoc in thecountry amidst the sec-ond wave of COVID-19 pandemic, NationalHighway Authority ofIndia (NHAI) has ex-tended a helping handin setting up seven oxy-gen plants in Odisha.The seven oxygenplants will be con-structed in Jharsuguda,Boudh, Koraput,

Gajapati, Nayagarh,Cuttack and Bhadrakdistricts. The plants willbe setup at six DistrictHeadquarters Hospi-tals (DHHs) andAcharya Harihar Re-gional Cancer Center(AHRCC) in Cuttack,informed an official.Oxygen will be suppliedto hospitals throughpipes and the projectwill be completedwithin a stipulated time

period. Defence Re-search and Develop-ment Organisation(DRDO) will build theoxygen plants, whileNHAI will look afterthe civil and electricalworks. Sites have beenfinalised for setting upof the plants. The con-struction work has al-ready begun in Cuttackand Boudh, informedNHAI AGM RPPanda.

Weather Alert: Thunderstorm LikelyIn These Dists In Next 3 HrsBhubaneswar, May 11:Several districts ofOdisha are likely to ex-perience thunderstormduring the next threehours, the RegionalMeteorological Centreinformed at 12.20 AM.“Moderate thunder-storm accompaniedwith squall wind speedreaching 50–60 kmph,lightning and light tomoderate rain likely toaffect some parts of thedistricts of Nuapada,N a b a r a n g p u r ,Kalahandi, Rayagada,Ganjam, Gajapati,

Nayagarh, Puri,Dhenkanal, Jajpur,Jagatsinghpur, Bhadrak,Balasore, Mayurbhanj,Keonjhar, Angul,Deogarh, Balangir,Bargarh, Khurda,Cuttack(includingBhubaneswar AndCuttack cities) withinnext 3 hours,” the Me-teorological Centresaid. People of the ar-eas have been advisedto keep a watch on theweather for worseningconditions and be readyto move to safer placesaccordingly.

Odisha Forms 2 Panels For Procurement OfCOVID Vaccines Through Global TenderBhubaneswar, May 11:As the state Governmenthas decided to procureCOVID-19 vaccinesthrough global e-tender tobe floated by OdishaState Medical Corpora-tion Limited (OSMCL),two committees havebeen formed for supervi-sion of the same. While atechnical committee hasbeen formed consisting of10 members headed bythe Directorate of Medi-cal Education and Train-ing (DMET), a manage-rial committee constitutedwith nine membersheaded by OSMCL MDfor the purpose. To vac-cinate total 1,93,69,511people aged between 18and 44 years, the stateneeds to procure3,87,39,022 doses ofvaccines. The two manu-facturing companies aresupplying Covaxin andCovishield vaccines as

per the Centre’s alloca-tion. And , it will takemonths to complete thevaccination process if thetwo manufacturers–Bharat Biotech interna-tional and Serum InstituteLife Science Pvt Ltd–continue to supply vac-cines at the current pace.Hence, it has been de-cided to procure the vac-cine from the open mar-ket through global tenderby OSMCL, said an offi-cial statement. WhileOSMCL has placed apurchase order of 10.34lakh doses of Covaxin forthe third phase vaccina-tion, manufacturing com-

pany Bharat Biotech In-ternational has so far sup-plied 1.5 doses of the vac-cine. Similarly, only 1 lakhdoses of Covishield havebeen received from SerumInstitute as against the pur-chase order of 220 lakhdoses of the vaccine.Meanwhile, vaccination ofpeople in 18-44 age cat-egory today commencedin four municipal corpora-tion areas– Cuttack,Rourkela, Sambalpur andBerhampur. Vaccinationof the same age groupbeneficiaries had earlierbegun in BhubaneswarMunicipal Corporation(BMC) area on May 3.

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WHO official gives verdict on vaccine efficacy against Indian Covid variantThe B.1.617 variant,believed to be drivingthe deadly second waveof coronavirus disease(Covid-19) pandemic inIndia, is the fourth vari-ant that has been classi-fied as a variant of glo-bal concern. The WorldHealth Organization(WHO) representativeto India on Tuesday saidthat the vaccines, thera-peutics and diagnosticscontinue to be effectiveagainst the coronavirusvariant B.1.617, firstidentified in India, afterthe UN health agencyclassified it as a variantof global concern. Ac-cording to news agencyANI, Dr Roderico HOfrin’s statement onvaccine efficacy againstthe Indian variant of con-

cern was based on whatthe WHO knows so faras per the discussionswith experts globally.The B.1.617 variant,believed to be drivingthe deadly second waveof coronavirus disease(Covid-19) pandemic inIndia, is the fourth vari-ant that has been classi-fied as a variant of glo-bal concern. Dr MariaVan Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead atWHO, told a briefingthat there is some avail-able information to sug-gest increased transmis-sibility. Dr Kerkhovestressed that the scien-tists need much more in-formation about theB.1.617 variant and allof the sub-lineages."Our Epi teams and our

lab teams internally,there is some availableinformation to suggestincreased transmissibil-ity of B1617, as such weare classifying this as avariant of concern at theglobal level," she said.While the Union healthministry on Tuesday said

that an early trend ofdecline in daily newCovid-19 cases and re-lated deaths has beennoted in India, the coun-try continues to recordover 3 lakh daily infec-tions, overwhelming thehealthcare infrastruc-ture. In an interview with

ANI, WHO chief scien-tist SoumyaSwaminathan called ongovernments to boostexercises on reportingactual numbers, termingthe rate of infections andfatalities “worrying”. "Iwould say that at thispoint of time, the situa-tion is very worrying,the daily number ofcases and deaths thatwe are seeing today inIndia and other coun-tries in the Southeastarea region is a big con-cern for us and we alsorealise that these areunderestimates. Everycountry in the world, infact, the number ofcases and deaths hasbeen underestimated toits true number," she toldANI.

Assam CM allots portfolios to ministers;keeps home, PWD, personnel with selfGuwahati, May 11: Ac-cording to details avail-able with HT, Sarmawould be in-charge ofhome, personnel, pub-lic works and all otherdepartments not allottedto any another ministerin the Cabinet. A dayafter taking oath asAssam’s 15th chief min-ister, Himanta BiswaSarma on Tuesday allot-ted portfolios to hisCabinet colleagueskeeping important port-folios to him. Accordingto details available withHT, Sarma would be in-charge of home, per-sonnel, public worksand all other depart-ments not allotted to anyanother minister in theCabinet. He had heldthe health, finance, edu-cation and public worksdepartments in theSarbananda SonowalCabinet and it was ex-pected that he wouldretain most, if not all, ofthem in the new govern-ment headed by him.The health portfolio hasbeen allotted to KeshabMahanta, workingpresident of BJP’s alli-ance partner AsomGana Parishad (AGP),who will also be in-charge of science andtechnology and infor-mation technology de-partments. Finance min-istry has been given toAjanta Neog, a formerCongress minister whoswitched to BJP justahead of election. She

will be responsible forthe social welfare de-partment as well. RanojPegu had been allottedthe education portfolioalong with the depart-ment for welfare of plaintribes and backwardclasses (those in non-Bodoland TerritorialCouncil (BTC) areas).Parimal Suklabaidyaretains forest and envi-ronment, fisheries andexcise departments.President of BJP’s stateunit Ranjeet Kumar

Dass will handlepanchayat and rural de-velopment, public healthengineering, food andcivil supplies and con-sumer affairs ministries.AGP?president AtulBora has been givenagriculture, horticulture,animal husbandry andveterinary and borderarea development port-folios. Chandra MohanPatowary gets transport,industries and com-merce, skill develop-ment and welfare of mi-norities departments.Urkhao Gwra Brahma,the lone United Peoples’

Party Liberal (UPPL)representative in thenew Cabinet, has beenallotted handloom andtextile, soil conservationand welfare of plaintribes and backwardclasses (those inBodoland TerritorialCouncil (BTC) areas.Ashok Singhal has beengiven charge ofGuwahati development,urban development andirrigation departmentswhile Jogen Mohan gotthe revenue and disas-

ter management, hillsarea development andmines and minerals port-folios. Sajay Kishan willbe in-charge of welfareof tea-tribes and labourand employment de-partments and BimalBora got sports andyouth welfare, culturalaffairs, power and tour-ism departments. PijushHazarika, a close asso-ciate of the CM and theformer minister of statefor heath, has been al-lotted water resources,information and publicrelations and parliamen-tary affairs departments.

Google adds vaccine info panels to search; Maps show hospital bed availabilityNew Delhi, May 11: Theaim of rolling out thesefeatures is to health au-thorities and affectedgroups find assistancequicker, as massive sec-ond wave of the pan-demic sweeps thecountry. Tech giantGoogle has made dis-covering vaccine-re-lated information easierby carrying out a scopeof updates across itsdifferent services. Theaim of rolling out thesefeatures is to health au-thorities and affectedgroups find assistancequicker, as massive sec-ond wave of the pan-demic sweeps the

country. According toMashable, to help insearching for vaccineinformation, GoogleSearch will show the lat-est updates on vaccinesafety, efficacy and sideeffects. "You will alsofind information aboutprevention, self-care,and treatment under thePrevention and Treat-ment tab, in easy-to-un-derstand languagesourced fromauthorised medicalsources and the Minis-try of Health and Fam-ily Welfare," said thesearch giant in a blogpost. In addition to thetesting centres, people

can also access the lo-cation of 23,000 vacci-nation centres nation-wide in English and 8other regional lan-guages. Mashable de-tailed that another ele-ment has been added onGoogle Maps. The ap-plication will currentlyshow a user if a hospitalhas beds and access tomedical oxygen, basedon crowd-sourced in-formation. This datamay not be right on tar-get - yet it very well maybe convenient detail forsomebody hoping to geta friend or family mem-ber hospitalised closeby. At the same time,

Google Pay too has aCOVID aid campaign.where the individualswho wish to donate toorganisations that helpCOVID-influencedresidents can do assuch. A portion of theassociations highlightedas a feature of this cam-paign includeGiveIndia, Charities

Aid Foundation,Goonj, Save the Chil-dren, Seeds, UNICEFIndia (National NGOs)and United Way. "Thiscampaign has raisedover USD 4.6 million[INR 33 crore] to dateand continues to gener-ate much-needed sup-port for relief efforts,"it said.

Cloudburst hits Devprayag in Uttarakhand

New Tehri, May 11: Acloudburst hitDevprayag in Tehri dis-trict of Uttarakhand onTuesday, razing twomunicipal buildings tothe ground and damag-ing several shops. It alsodamaged pedestrianbridges, water pipelinesand electricity supplylines, an official said. Thecloudburst occurredover the Shanta river,causing inundation of

areas along its bankswith a huge amount ofslush containing boul-ders, SHO of theDevprayag police sta-tion Mahipal SinghRawat said. Two mu-nicipality buildings, in-cluding the multi-pur-pose Nagar PalikaBhawan, caved in afterbeing hit by the rubblebrought down by thecloudburst, he added. Anumber of shops in the

Dashrath Danda Parvatarea of Devprayagwere also damaged inthe cloudburst, the SHOsaid. However, therewas no loss of life aspeople were alert andhad moved to safe lo-cations like the busstand and police stationpremises, he said. Mu-nicipal CommissionerKK Kotiyal said theextent of damage is yetto be assessed.

Farmers returning to protest sites after harvest season: Samyukta Kisan MorchaNew Delhi, May 11: Ina statement, the SKMsaid that large convoys offarmers arrived at thetwo border points onMonday and this willnow continue. TheSamyukta KisanMorcha (SKM), an um-brella body of over 40farmer unions, on Tues-day said that farmerswere returning to Singhuand Tikri border protestsites after finishing har-vesting their crops. In a

statement, the SKM saidthat large convoys offarmers arrived at thetwo border points onMonday and this willnow continue. "Yester-day, large convoys offarmers arrived on theSinghu border and Tikriborder. Farmers werewelcomed at manyplaces on their way tothese sites from Punjab.These farmers, who havetravelled in tractors, carsand other vehicles, have

made arrangements tolive in tents and trolleysas they were living be-fore harvesting," it said."The farmers' strike isgetting stronger and the

protest sites are also be-coming larger. Farmers'tents, trolleys and othervehicles have been per-manently there for the lastfive months in long

queues. The pattern offarmers coming back af-ter the harvesting seasonwill now continue," itadded. "The governmentshould increase invest-ment in education, healthand agriculture sectors.Along with taking guar-antee of the purchase andremunerative price for thecrops of the farmers, thegovernment should makea law on MSP and repealthe three anti-farmer lawsimmediately," it said.

‘With deep sense of pain’ Nadda writes to Sonia: ‘Are you trying to weaken fight against Covid-19’

New Delhi, May 11: TheCovid-19 vaccinesmade in India does notbelong to any politicalparty or leader-it belongsto the nation. Yet theCongress did not do theright thing instead did thewrong politics,” Naddasaid. Asserting that thePrime Minister NarendraModi-led governmenthas been and continuesto be “proactive” in itsattempts to defeat thecoronavirus, BJP presi-

dent J P Nadda askedCongress presidentSonia Gandhi, who hasbeen critical of thegovernment’s handling ofthe situation, if she andher party are trying to“weaken this fightagainst Covid-19?. Aday after the CongressWorking Committeeblaming the Modi gov-ernment for its “indiffer-ence, insensitivity and in-competence”, Naddawrote a four-page letter

to the Congress presi-dent listing the measuresthe centre has been tak-ing for vaccination, aug-menting medical facilitiesand coordinating with thestates in containing thepandemic and the in-stances in which theCongress was “mislead-ing people, creating falsepanic and even contra-dicting their stands justbased on political con-siderations.” Naddawrote: “You must askyourselves – in times asthese, is your party’sconduct weakening themorale of these Covidwarriors? Deliberatelyor otherwise, are youractions trying to weakenthis fight against Covid-19?” “I am writing thisletter with a deep senseof pain,” Nadda said

adding that leaders of theCongress party includingthe chief ministers hadcreated “confusion.” Hesaid Congress leaderstried to ridicule the vac-cines made in India andcreate doubts in theminds of the people. Hestated that the centralgovernment has alreadyensured considerablecoverage for the prioritygroups by providing over16 crore vaccines to thestates in the first phases.Pointing out that theBJP-ruled states haveannounced their resolveto help the poor and theunderprivileged by pro-viding free vaccines,Nadda asked if the Con-gress ruled states cancome out with a similardecision. “The Covid-19vaccines made in India

does not belong to anypolitical party or leader-it belongs to the nation.Yet the Congress did notdo the right thing insteaddid the wrong politics,”he said. He alleged in thefight against the pan-demic, the conduct ofsenior leaders of theCongress including RahulGandhi “will be remem-bered for duplicity andpettiness.” Naddapointed out that theCongress had opposedlockdown, but now ask-ing for it, held massiveelection rallies in Keralacausing a spike in Covidcases while grandstand-ing about election rallieselsewhere. Nadda tooka strong exception to theCongress party, for put-ting all the blame on theCentral Vista Project.

Pappu Yadav arrested for violating Covid-19 norms in BiharNew Delhi, May 11: Af-ter he was arrested for vio-lating Covid-19 norms,Jan Adhikar Party leaderand former MP PappuYadav on Tuesday saidthat “if it is a crime to savelives during Covid, then heis a criminal”. Yadav wasarrested from his residencein Patna today morningafter he was seen outsidewithout a Covid-19 per-

mit. Yadav claimed that hewas helping people af-fected by the virus. React-ing to the arrest, Yadavtweeted this afternoonsaying, “To save lives inthe Corona era if it is acrime to risk your own life,then yes I am a criminal.”Directing his tweet atPrime Minister NarendraModi and Bihar ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar,

Yadav said, “Hang me,send me to Jail, but I willsave people, I will exposethe dishonest.” Yadav al-leged he was arresteddue to political reasonsand said “lockdown” wasbeing used as a cover forit. The Bihar govern-ment has imposed astatewide lockdowntill may 15 in the wakeof rising covid cases.

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Drive-In Covid Testing Facility In Bhubaneswar

(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:After launching thedrive-in Covid vaccina-tion facility in differentparts of Bhubaneswarcity, the BhubaneswarMunicipal Corporation(BMC) today declaredto kick-start drive-inCovid testing facility.The municipal corpora-tion stated the drive-infor RT-PCR and RapidAntigen Testing will be

carried out at the park-ing lot of BMC BhawaniMall from tomorrow.Those who want to availthe testing facility willenter the mall’s parkinglot at Gate No – 4. Thetesting will be donefrom 8:30 AM to 12:30PM. If someone hassymptoms, the con-cerned person can cometo the drive-in testingcentre in a vehicle andwait for his/her turn. The

sample will be collectedat the testing point at theparking lot. Persons willhave to provide correctmobile number and ad-dress at the testing point.The municipal corpora-tion has been carryingout drive-in Covid vac-cination at the UtkalKanika Galleria Parkinglot, KIIT University’sCricket Stadium andEsplanade Mall Parkinglot in the city.

Commissionerate police launch helpline number 8093028100 for senior citizen(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:With an aim to assistsenior residents of thetwin cities ofBhubaneswar andCuttack over law andorder issues during theongoing Covidlockdown and shut-down period, the TwinCity CommissioneratePolice today launcheda helpline for them.

Commissioner of Po-lice, Saumendra KumarPriyadarshi said thehelpline will help thepolice connect with se-nior citizens of the twincity and get to knowabout the well being.The helpline numberlaunched for senior citi-zens is 8093028100.Priyadarshi addedaround 25,000 seniorcitizens have registered

themselves with theCommissionerate ofPolice. The helpdeskwill connect with 70-80 senior citizens everyday in the twin city andget details about theirwell being, he added.The lockdown andweekend shutdownwhich are in force in theState from May 5,2021 will end on May19, 2021.

No Public Darshan At Chandan Jatra Of Lord Jagannath In Puri This Year

(A.O. Bureau)Puri, May 11: The 21-day Chandan Jatra ofLord Jagannath in Puriwill be held at NarendraPokhari from May 15

with strict adherence toall COVID-19 proto-cols. However, generalpublic will not be allowedto witness the ‘ChapaKhela’ ritual of the Lord.

Informing this, Puri Col-lector Samarth Vermasaid only 50 to 60 servi-tors will be allowed atthe Holy pond to performthe rituals. RT-PCR testof the participants will beconducted 72 hours be-fore the festival. How-ever, arrangements arebeing made for live tele-cast of the festival. AStandard Operating Pro-

cedure (SOP) in this re-gard will be issued laterin the day following theChhattisa Nijog meeting,he added. Earlier, districtSP K Vishal Singh in-formed that around 10platoons of police forcewill be deployed alongthe stretch fromSinghadwara toNarendra Pokhari everyday during the festival.

Besides, prohibitory or-ders under Section-144will be imposed aroundthe pond. The decisionon observance of thefestival outside Srimandirwas taken earlier at ameeting chaired by theShree JagannathTemple Administration(SJTA) Chief Adminis-trator Krishan Kumaron May 6.

OPGC Dispatches 4,000 MT Fly Ash To Cement Plant In Assam

(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:The Odisha PowerGeneration Corporation(OPGC) Limited hasachieved a major mile-stone by dispatching ashfrom the Fly Ash Silo atIB Thermal to Star Ce-ment Plant in Assam.OPGC’s ash will be

used by Star Cement tomanufacture PortlandPazzolana cement.“About 4,000 metrictonnes of fly ash wasdispatched today fromOPGC’s IB ThermalPower Station with theuse of railway rake,” theCorporation stated.OPGC is having state of

art technology to disposeash directly through rail-way rake. “With today’slandmark event, OPGCgains a significant poten-tial to dispose around90,000 MT of ash permonth which can be fur-ther increased in monthsto come,” OPGC statedfurther.

Fatality Rate Of Black Fungus High, Covid-Recovered Patients Need To Be Watchful: Experts(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:While India is facing anacute crisis amid the sec-ond wave of Covid-19pandemic, there hasbeen a rise in cases ofblack fungus, a rare fun-gal infection, also knownas Mucormycisis, incoronavirus patients.Black fungus or Mucor-mycosis is an infectioncommonly being seen inCovid-19 patients whoare at the recovery stagebut have comorbiditiessuch as diabetes, kidneyor heart failure or can-cer, said DrRadhamadhab Sahu,Consultant and Head ofENT & Skull Base Sur-gery, SUM UltimateMedicare. “In Odisha,we are getting instancesof Covid patients con-tracting black fungus in-

fection. If a person whohas recovered fromCovid complains ofblackish discharge fromnose, he or she becomesa suspect for mucormy-cosis infection. Othersymptoms are a feel ofconstriction in eyes, red-ness in eyes, chokednose, a black spot inmouth cavity, head reel-ing. etc,” said Dr Sahu.A Covid-19 patient un-der treatment at theSUM Ultimate Medi-care has been detectedwith Mucromycosis. The71-year-old patient withuncontrollable diabetes,who was detected asCovid-19 positive onApril 20, was kept inhome isolation. The pa-tient was admitted onSaturday to SUM Ulti-mate, with swelling in theeyes and a blackish dis-

charge from the nose. DrSahu said it was the firstsuch case in the State.“The nasal endoscopy ofthe patient showed ablack deposit on the tur-binate. The patient’s his-tory revealed that he hadnoted symptoms afterusing an air-cooler whichwas unused for some-time with water stored init,” he added. The dis-ease is usually seen inthose patients whoseimmunity has been af-fected after sufferingfrom Covid-19 or inthose whose immunitywas weak and theywere afflicted with

Coronavirus. This fun-gus has been there in theatmosphere. The diseasewas also there. But all ofa sudden, its incidencehas increased manifoldlike a Tsunami in metro-politan cities, and someStates, Dr Sahu said.The mortality rate of thisrare infection is around50 per cent. This is aninvasive fungus whichenters through nasal cav-ity and spreads to or-gans. It ultimately de-stroys the organs adja-cent to the nose. Mucor-mycosis blocks the me-dium and small bloodvessels thereby ceasingRBC supply to the or-gans. The fungus rendersthe organs black as theblood supply is cut-off.Dr Sahu said to protectourselves from black fun-gus, we need to strictly

monitor the comorbidityfactors of persons whohave recovered fromCovid. For example, theblood sugar level of a dia-betes patient who has re-cuperated fromcoronavirus infectionneeds to be carefullywatched. “We shouldcheck from administeringsteroids to Covid pa-tients unless and until ithas been duly prescribedby doctors. The ste-roids need to be admin-istered rationally.” Na-sal endoscopy of a sus-pected patient can re-veal whether he or shehas been afflicted by thisfungus. It has beenproved that at times, thefungus enters throughoxygen mask or pipewhich was used to sup-port the patient whilebeing treated for Covid.

New Rules For Unit-I Vegetable Market Amid COVID Surge

(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:With Odisha capital re-porting around/over1000 daily COVID-19cases in the secondwave of the pandemic,

the Bhubaneswar Mu-nicipal Corporation(BMC) has issuednews rules for thecrowded Unit-I veg-etable market here tofacilitate social distanc-

ing. As per the rules,wholesalers will be al-lowed for trading be-tween 3.30 am and6.30 am while the samefor retailers is between6.30 am and 12 noon.The rule will be in effecttill further orders by theBMC. This apart, two-wheelers will not be al-lowed inside the veg-etable market during theperiod. Strict action willbe taken against the vio-lators, the BMC said.

COVID Vaccination For 18-44 Age Group Begins In 4 Municipal Corporations(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:COVID-19 vaccinationfor 18-44 age categorycommenced in four mu-nicipal corporation areasof Odisha– Cuttack,Rourkela, Sambalpurand Berhampur, today.Vaccination for the agegroup had earlier startedin Bhubaneswar Munici-pal Corporation (BMC)area on May 3. The stategovernment had re-ceived 1 lakh doses of

COVISHIELD vaccineand distributed thoseamong the four munici-pal corporation. Regis-tration and slot bookingfor receiving the vaccinecan be done at https://selfregistration.cowin.gov.in/. The Odisha Govern-ment has decided tocarry out the COVID-19 vaccination for 18-44age category in the fivemunicipal corporationareas initially and later inother parts of the state.

Sevayats Of Puri Srimandir To Be Vaccinated Ahead Of Rath Jatra(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:Ahead of the world-famousRatha Jatra this year, Sevayats(servitors) of the ShreeJagannatha Temple in Puri willbe vaccinated. Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik to-day approved a proposal re-garding this. Earlier, ShreeJagannatha Temple Adminis-tration (SJTA) Chief Admin-istrator, Krishan Kumar hadrequested the State govern-ment to inoculate the Sevayatson priority basis. Meanwhile,a high-level review meeting

was held under the Chair-manship of Chief SecretarySC Mahapatra on Covidmanagement among fami-lies of Sevayats of the ShreeJagannatha Temple. TheAdditional Chief Secretary

of Health and Family Wel-fare Department, SJTAChief Administrator, Direc-tor NHM, DMET Odisha,Collector Puri, and othersenior officials also at-tended the meeting.

Bharat Biotech Begins Covaxin Supplies To 14 States Including Odisha(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar, May 11:Bharat Biotech has starteddirect supplies of its Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin to 14states. The states areAndhra Pradesh, Assam,Chhattisgarh, Delhi,Gujarat, Jammu & Kash-mir, Jharkhand, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra,Odisha, Tamil Nadu,Telangana, Uttar Pradeshand West Bengal. TheHyderabad-based com-pany said it started the sup-plies based on the alloca-

tions received by the Gov-ernment of India. “Re-quests have been receivedfrom other states, & will beprocessed for distributionbased on availability ofstocks 24×7,” tweetedBharat Biotech co-founderand Joint Managing Direc-tor Suchitra Ella. It fixed theprice of Covaxin at Rs 600per dose for state govern-ments. However, it laterslashed the price to Rs400. This came after Se-rum Institute of India (SII)cut the price of Covishield

to Rs 300 from Rs 400earlier. The two vaccinemakers slashed the pricesafter the central govern-ment reportedly made arequest to them amid therow over different pricingfor the central and stategovernments. For private

hospitals, Bharat Biotechfixed the price at Rs 1,200per dose. This is twice thecost fixed for Covishield.For exports, BharatBiotech has priced India’sfirst indigenous Covid vac-cine at $15-$20 (Rs1,125-1,500). Ever since

the launch of Covid vacci-nation programme in India,Bharat Biotech and SIIhave been supplying theirvaccines to the Centre atRs.150 per dose. WhileBharat Biotech is likely tocontinue the supplies to theCentre at the same price,SII is seeking to revise thisto Rs 400. Both BharatBiotech and SII have an-nounced that they are re-serving 50 per cent of theirproduction capacities forsupplies to the central gov-ernment.

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EDITORIALHope floats

The resounding victory of Mamata Banerjee against theBJP’s concerted effort to wrest power in West Bengal

has allowed the languid Opposition to dream afresh of ananti-BJP alliance well in time for 2024. Such buoyed spiritswere seen in the past, too, but the current one stands out.One, the West Bengal victory following the never-seen-before hype created by Prime Minister Narendra Modiand Home Minister Amit Shah left a strong message in itswake. Two, the satraps hailed Mamata, but of greater im-port was a congratulatory tweet by JD(U) parliamentaryboard chairman Upendra Kushwaha about Mamatabreaching the BJP’s “chakravyuh” (a circular, military for-mation). The tweet by the BJP’s ruling ally in Bihar causedits own ripples and raised eyebrows. Three, Shiv Sena’sSanjay Raut took the narrative forward not only by assert-ing that the shrivelling Congress continued to be the “soul”of any Opposition alliance, but also by presentingMaharashtra’s Maha Vikas Aghadi as a model of a politicalalliance against the BJP at the national level. The positivereception to Mamata’s victory in the Opposition-ruled Stateswill not automatically lead to a common national front; itmerely points to such a possibility. There are many pre-conditions to be met first: The next round of Assembly elec-tions in Uttar Pradesh, for example. Can the SP and theBSP reach an electoral understanding? Will the Left, AAPand even the Trinamool Congress allow a straight fight be-tween the Congress and the Akali Dal and/or the BJP inPunjab? Both States will test the Opposition’s resolve, whilethe UP result will be the clincher. The regional leaders arecoming to terms with their shared problems of one-upmanship, a Congress snapping at their heels and a BJPtrying to poach their brood. Will the prospect of a unitedfight against the BJP prompt them to adopt the jointly-at-the-Centre-and-severally-in-States formula of decentralisedunity? One way to find out is for them to overcome theCOVID-19 challenge by opening two-way communica-tion channels among themselves. The Congress cannot au-tomatically stake claim to be the “soul” just because its lead-ership may favour a default principle that the index of Op-position unity will work in its favour and it can seek the toppost by getting most seats in the Opposition camp. It hasshown maturity to be the junior-most partner inMaharashtra. It may believe that the satrap’s inability toleave their States for a national role for fear of politicalbackstabbing will leave the Congress as a default alterna-tive. The MVA model has worked because the Shiv Sena,NCP and the Congress were compelled to bury their dif-ferences. Noticeably, the Sena did not interfere with theAnil Deshmukh case and left it to the NCP to sort it out.Also, all the partners fared reasonably well in the State elec-tions without having to be a drag on the alliance. The ques-tion therefore is: Should the Opposition search for a leaderfirst or an alliance? To date, six Prime Ministers have comefrom the Congress and an equal number from the formerlyCongress but non-BJP fold. Who can break the tie?

In the slow laneT he world applauded us for supplying indigenous

COVID vaccines under the “Vaccine Maitri” initiative.Well, that was before the second wave hit home. When itcomes to dealing with the pandemic in our own backyard,our vaccination efforts run into a wall of challenges — frommanufacturing to pricing to supply chain bottlenecks. SeveralStates had expressed inability to start the vaccination drivefor 18-44 years, citing shortage of vaccines. The situationhasn’t improved yet; if anything, inequable vaccine prices haveonly exacerbated it. No doubt, there exists a wide demand-and-supply gap and India needs to ramp up its vaccine pro-duction capacity manifold. While the nation faces a vaccinedeficit, how logical is it for the Pune-based Serum Institute ofIndia (SII) to plan to pump 240 million pounds (Rs 2,400crore) for making vaccines in the United Kingdom? This hugeamount should have ideally been spent on increasing the pro-duction capacity in India. In the looming shadow of a morelethal third wave, achieving herd immunity seems to be theonly way out. However, going by the current pace — Indiafares poorly on the index of percentage vaccination — achiev-ing herd immunity is easier said than done. Since most of thepredictions by our scientists with respect to the nature andpeak of the second wave have fallen flat, there is no pointrelying on their predictions on the timing and intensity of thethird wave. Adding to these woes are disturbing reports thata “black fungus” is maiming those who have recovered fromCOVID. The rare infection, called “Mucormycosis”, has anoverall mortality rate of 50 per cent. Doctors believe it maybe triggered by the use of steroids that are given as life-savingdrugs to critically ill COVID patients. If that is true, fightingSARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants is not the only challengethat we face. We must also get ready to face the fungal infec-tion that severely damages our skin, lungs and brain. Thecrisis is certainly deepening as the Government’s best effortsto contain the pandemic notwithstanding, the desired resultsare nowhere in sight. The Centre has claimed in the SupremeCourt that its vaccine policy is “just, equitable and non-dis-criminatory” and there is no need for the courts to interfere.However, this explanation doesn’t agree with the situation onthe ground. Far from reaching even the halfway point in thefight against COVID, the Government must employ sincere,coordinated and gigantic efforts to deal with the crisis.

Modi vs Didi- A lesson to allNow in few pockets of West Bengal,you may be confused on the territoryseeing what's happening there. You mayfeel that you are inside Pakistan orBangladesh instead of Hindustan. If weanalyse the last election in West Bengalwe may learn lot of lessons. By default Iwas close to few RSS people. One ofmy classmate Mr Das never rest in anyholidays and Sundays due to his en-gagement in social work. Few other so-cial work lovers like Priyabhai,Srustibhai, Sumanta and Ramnarayanetc. are all supporters of RSS ideologyand work for BJP. However, I liketosee political news and living in illusionthat this time BJP will come to power inWB. But got disappointed as just re-verse happened. Most of the RSS vol-unteers, who were supporting BJP fora change,now became underground tosurvive in WB. Few of them are killedand few of them are still fighting to live inIndia. We could see in media the post-election violence on breaking asbestos,snatching hairs of ladies on roads andcrying over loosing father &brother in-cluding lot of events lake rape and mur-der happening with election workers.Result came on May 2nd and Didisworn after 3days to give a space tothose criminals to fulfil their vested inter-est of crimes perhaps. Home ministerof our nation didn't bother who all aredied or who all are injured? They didpress conference and informed the na-tion that few BJP workers have beenkilled by TMC supporters and post-election violence is happening due toDidi's silence, she never approached hercadre for peace and harmony. It's allgood to listen only.How many of us believe it? Accordingto you what should be the duty of PrimeMinister and Home Minister of thecountry in this scenario? Just briefingthe sad news and condemning the factin press conference? In a federal sys-

tem like India Centre has some powerover states. Why Article 356 is in ourConstitution? Leaders won election dueto workers but if they don't value the lifeand sufferings of a worker, then what isthe use of giving our hearts. In WestBengal Didi is not only CM who is do-ing like this and walking oppositedirectionto the of central government,we find the same case with Panjab,Maharastra, Rajasthan, Keral and evenin national capital Delhi too. Delhi riotwas a tailor and original picture may re-lease in 2024. Most of the learnedpeople agreed that Centre didn't handleDelhi case properly.In farmer's agitationfirst time in the his-tory of our indepen-dent, the national flagis insulted at Redfort. So, what should be our limit of tol-erance? Why should we prefer a manin top post tolerating these entire nui-sances and labelling with them politelyand ignoring the masses?Few people surround few prominentleaders of our country, who are practis-ing corruption in large scale. I may briefown experience of my last project inwhich I am a victim and forced to re-sign. I was working as a Resident Engi-neer in NHAI for Balasore-Baripada-Jharpokhria Project with M/s Sheladia,an USA Consulting firm. Er.BiseswarTudu, MP of Mayurbhanjaconstituency became PMO (PrimeMinister Office) representative in be-tween June-Jul 2020 and empoweredby Minister Mr.Gadkari to review thenational highway projects in that area.Till that point he was honest withoutchance, but while he gut some additionalpower he got mad. He started review-ing the things each month and becameclose to all contractors. Within a monthor two he could find a partner (nonoffi-cial personal assistance to bargain and

collect for him) a local business manHemant Shaw to start initial talks forshare. The Contractor denied meet-ing high demand of Tudu, Member ofParliament. So, he made hue and crywith our NHAI officers first topressurise contractor to fulfil his de-mand but failed. Then he went to Delhiand met Mr.Gadkari, who believed allhis words and immediately issued sus-pension order for RO and PD ofNHAI. RO has joined before 3/4months, so he could manage to savehis skin and left aside but PD got sus-pended. Hemant Shaw asked PD

Mr.Rao 50lakh tocancel his suspen-sion order, forwhich he declined.After that he mademe the scape goat

to pressurise contractor to fulfil theirdemand and he asked NHAI officersto make me out of that project. NHAIRO asked our Sheladia management,so they asked me to resign. I tried withall my RSS friends to approach MPTudu and met him five times person-ally to explain that I am nobody to helphim in getting his share from contrac-tor. Finally, he got his share, little lesswhat he was demanding but I lost myjob in Covid-19 time, which can't berepaired as I don't want to serve out-side of Odisha. One of his close asso-ciate was telling me that he is repent-ing now for his removal recommen-dation and feeling sorry but what is theuse of it? This is high time to identify allthe people like Tuduand show themred signal for 2024. At least they shouldbe removed from the PMO office asrepresentative to help the public andcontrol the large scale corruption prac-tice in public.Almost four days after the results ofthe West Bengal Assembly poll thatgave a major victory to the TMC, vio-

Apocalypse and the leadershipThe handling of the pandemic,both by the Centre and the States,since the first wave leaves muchto be desired. Despite the dark-ness and the chaos that currentlyengulf us, one can say with cer-tainty that this, too, shall pass. Un-doubtedly, the cost has been tragi-cally unconscionable, and nothingcould have prepared us for thetrauma and heartbreak that con-fronts us on a daily basis. The factis that we had expected to beoverwhelmed by the pandemic’simpact during the first wave, giventhe state of our health infrastruc-ture and the Government’s apa-thy. Especially, since the latter’scomplete focus was on DonaldTrump’s visit, the opposition to theCitizen’s Amendment Act and theDelhi riots. For reasons that westill do not fully understand, thatdid not happen and we got awaylightly, believing for some reasonthat our generally poor standardof hygiene and prevalence of dis-ease had made us immune to thevirus. Clearly a combination ofinverse snobbery, arrogance andcomplacency gripped us, allow-ing us to forsake common senseand ignore basic science in an ef-fort to quickly regain our pre-pan-demic lives. Suffice it to say, thehandling of the first wave by thosemandated to do so was apatheticin the initial stages and panic-stricken subsequently, especiallyafter they saw it decimate Europe,the US and South America. Welocked ourselves in, at a moment’snotice, without any considerationfor our less fortunate brethren, thedaily wage earners, whose liveli-hoods disappeared overnight.The inability of the State to an-ticipate the consequences or miti-gate their suffering resulted in thelargest migration of population

seen since Partition. The migrantsattempted to get back to the safetyof their villages, treks on foot in-volving thousands of kilometresfor some. To compound their mis-ery, the Centre as well as mostState Governments responded, asthe Governments here invariablydo, with inherent savagery, totallybereft of empathy or compassion.As a result, thousands died by thewayside. The Government wasseemingly unaware that even inthe tragedy that was Partition, thefledgling Government of the timeutilised the military to establish theMilitary Evacuation Organisationto coordinate the movement of allrefugees and helped them reachtheir destinations in relative safety.In complete contrast, despite thegrave nature of the threat con-fronting the Government, the mili-tary remained a mere bystander,utilised for such “critical” tasks asserenading hospital staff and otherfrontline workers by showeringhospitals and police memorialswith flowers from helicopters!Even now, there are allegations

that the military has been used toestablish field hospitals in theconstituencies of a few VIP poli-ticians. Clearly, in hindsight, itwas not our systems and pro-cesses in place to deal with justsuch a contingency that werefound wanting, as Keralashowed us, but the lackadaisicalapproach of most Ministers andbureaucrats whose responsibilityit was to ensure their implemen-tation. They, in their wisdom, orrather the lack of it, treated theNDMA’s detailed guidelines andSOPs with contempt, leaving itto their minions to handle theproblems. Inherent arroganceand a belief that we had put thepandemic behind us ensured thatthe Narendra Modi Governmenttook its eyes off the ball, evengoing so far as to ignore advice,received in early March from itsown advisory group, on the like-lihood of a second wave impact-ing us with even more ferocity.As a result, it didn’t bother tomake up for the infrastructuraland procedural deficiencies ob-

served earlier but, worse, refusedto hold accountable for acts ofomission and commission thoseresponsible for the lapses and de-lays that led to unnecessary andavoidable deaths of thousands. Inshort, it was a Government morefocused on garnering power andprestige than ensuring the well-be-ing of its citizens. An uncaring civilsociety, a divided and defunct Op-position spearheaded by a partyin the death throes and a pro-Gov-ernment media preferred to remainsilent on these issues. By doing so,we enabled them to cover up theirmisdeeds and perpetuate false nar-ratives and bold- faced lies. WhileModi may have excellent reasonsfor not venturing outside his bio-bubble at the Race Course Road,preferring to lead from within, heshould note that leaders need tobe seen, otherwise they are redun-dant. Interestingly, such an ab-sence in a war zone on the part ofa military leader would result in hisimmediate removal from com-mand, probably on grounds of in-competence, if not sheer coward-ice. Whatever the spin this Gov-ernment may attempt to push,Modi has been completely shornoff all the gloss and charisma heearlier projected. His unwilling-ness to take responsibility for thedisaster implies that he lacks themoral fibre. The question thatarises is if he will do the right thingand fall upon his sword. One wayor the other, we will know the an-swer soon. But let us be totallyclear that his reputation is doneand dusted, forever connected tohis handling of the pandemic andwhat it has wrought. As the Bard,insightful as ever, wrote: “The evilthat men do lives after them; thegood is oft interred with theirbones.”

Deepak Sinha

lence rocked the State. On Thursday,there were reports of TMC leaderUdayanGuha being attacked at Dinhatain Cooch Behar district. The BJP hasclaimed that over a dozen of its partyworkers have been killed in the post-election violence. There are reports offour TMC workers also being killed.InWest Bengal, reports poured in ofparty-versus-party violence. Most ofthese reports suggested that theTrinamool Congress was responsible forthe incidents. However, in some cases,the Trinamool Congress also alleged thatits workers had been attacked and killedby members of the BharatiyaJanataParty. A four-member team of the HomeMinistry arrived in West Bengal onThursday to take stock of post-elec-tion violence.The members of the teamheld a meeting with senior officials ofState government at the State Secre-tariat 'Nabanna Buildings'. They arelikely to visit violence-affected areas.Thedevelopment comes a day after MamataBanerjee was sworn in as the Chief Min-ister of the State for the third consecutiveterm. Soon after being sworn in, Ms.Banerjee urged all political parties to re-frain from violence.The Trinamool Con-gress (TMC) leadership said that insteadof sending teams, the Union governmentshould send vaccines. The Centre shouldnot send teams but instead send vaccines,"senior party leader Firhad Hakimsaid.Mr. Hakim said a few people haddied in the violence but there were hun-dreds who were dying daily due to short-age of vaccines in West Bengal.The ShivSena on Friday said the violence that haserupted in West Bengal after the Assem-bly election results, reveals the gory sideof politics and it shows that the rule offorce prevails instead of democracy. Theparty also said that maintaining law andorder in the state was equal responsibil-ity of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeeand the central government.

Er. Bidyadhar PandaB.Tech. Civil., M.Tech. Env.,

Mob. 9439128050

12 MAY 2021

WEDNESDAYBHUBANESWAR

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Paresh receives one lakh as govt.assistance from the CM's Relief Fund

(A.O. Bureau)Aska, May 11:PareshNayak of Mamujhiavillage in Aska block ofDevbhumi panchayathas received rupee'sone lakh in governmentassistance from theChief Minister's ReliefFund. Paresh has beengiven a grant from theChief Minister's ReliefFund for medical ex-

penses in a joint effortof local Zilla Parisada,sarpanch's and samitimembers. Paresh isnow kind of physicallychallenged by paralisestate of position. At thesame time, local zillaparisada GaurahariBehera thanked to thegovernment for its sup-port for medical treat-ment.

The role of the police in vaccination at 13 centers in Berhampur is commendable(A.O. Bureau)Berhampur, May 11:Vaccination withlockdown continues in thestate. Vaccines play a keyrole in the fight againstglobal epidemic corona.However, the state gov-ernment of Odisha hasalways been very sen-sible on disasters man-agement. The role of theGanjam district adminis-tration and theBerhampur police ad-ministration in the firstwave of the corona willnever be forgotten. Now,in view of the secondwave of the corona, thepolice administration un-der Berhampur SP PinakMisheard make them-selves ready to take ontheir responsibilities at the

thirteen vaccination cen-ters opened inBerhampur city in view ofthe crowds and disciplineat various vaccinationcenters. In Berhampur, allcitizens between the agesof 18 to 44 have been

vaccinated at various cen-ters in the city today. Thevaccination program was

co-sponsored by thehealth department andadministrative officials,while the police role wasvery important. The po-lice were only found to beused to collaboratepeople in all Vaccinations.

In between the time of 8to 1 o'clock and secondsession 3 to 6 o'clock the

high numbers of citizenscome to near every vac-cination point as they ap-pointed. As a precaution-ary measure, the entirepolice team was presentat all centers in the city to-day to monitor the vacci-nation. The people whocame for the vaccinethanked the police for theircooperation. The people,along with the administra-tion, thanked the peopleof Berhampur for theirpro-government work forthe government's pro-people work. BerhampurSuperintendent of PoliceSri Pinak Mishra alsoapeal to all general pub-lic to cooperate all citi-zens in that big eventthe battle against thePandemic Corona.

Aska IIC in reel to teach people's how fight in break life against Corona(A.O. Bureau)Aska, May 11:'ANIKA' a short filmreleased at the pre-mises of MaaKaranjei Temple nearAska, bearing mes-sage of awareness onscenario of presentdeadly covidsituation.On behalf ofNrityam, this film is di-rected by Krishna DKand in the lead roleplayed by PrashantKumar Sahu IIC ofAska P.S. and childActor PrasarikaPanda. With in a shortspan of time this filmmay leave a specialimpression in the so-

ciety with its beautifulmessage and naturalacting said by IICPrashant Kumar Sahu.Nrityam institutionmade a social aware-ness film on covid saidby President of

Nrityam NilamaniPattanaik sir. Thestory and direction isgiven by Krishna DKwhile the film assistedby PriyambadPattanaik and E.Sanchita Patra. The

cinematography setdone by TaniruSreenu, and assistedby Gopal Mohanty.Kajal Behera andRashmita were thementors. As said bydirection Krishna DK,

this movie is made todemolish the fear ofcorona among thepeople of society andimportance of wearingmask. In this program,IIC Aska PrashantK u m a rSahu,President ofNrityam NilamaniPattanaik SeniorLit terateur LaxmiNarayan Pattanaik,Litterateur & lectureSanjay KumarSadangi are pres-ences there.This pro-gram was coordinatedby anchor and poetRatnakar Siya and heexpressed his heartfulgratitude in the event.

The two deads final rituals coordinated byBerhampur MLA Vikram Panda

(A.O. Bureau)Berhampur, May 11:Dandasi Sahu, a 76-year-old man fromNilanchal Nagar inBerhampur, and JaydevNayak,age 36 youth, ofRangunibandha Sahi,died in normal deathcase. However, due tothe fear of the corona, noneighbors resident at-tended his funeral. Theincident was reported byBerhampur Youth MLA

Bikram Panda. He wasaccompanied by a groupof volunteers and per-formed his last rites at theNilakantheshwar crema-torium. Even during thefirst wave of the corona-tion, Mr. Panda wasseen repeatedly per-forming the funeral ofmany such people. To-day, the intellectuals ofBerhampur praised Mr.Panda for such a piousendeavor.

Ten Maoists were died in corona Dantewada district on the Malkangiri border(A.O. Bureau)MalKangiri, May 11:Malkangiri : TenMaoists were killed inDantewada district ofC h h a t t i s g a r h ' sMalkangiri border.Ten Naxalites havedied in the Bastar for-est after food poison-ing and affected byCarona. Dornapal in

Sukuma district, alongwith Konta area, alsolooted vaccines andmedicine. DantewadaSP Abhishek Pallavinformed about this.Dantewada SPAbhishek Pallav hadearlier reported thatmore than 50 Maoistshad been affected bycorona. Sujata, a

Maoist leader of theSpecial Zonal Com-mittee, has been an-nounced a prizeamount 25 lakh in-cluding there alongwith a number of hard-core Maoists .SPAbhishek Pallav, how-ever, called on theMaoists to return tothe mainstream of so-ciety after the coronainfection. But nowthat the Naxals havelost their l ives inKarona, there isgrowing concernabout innocent tribalsin the villages who arein contact withMaoist.

Police SDPO and district administration have shown greatness for migrant worker

(A.O. Bureau)Malkangiri, May 11:

Sudhir Ranjan Bishwal,a migrant of Kumbhi vil-

lage Soro BlockBalesore District was

working at singaranicoal mines of Telenganadue to lockdown he setout for own village dueto illness he died near theSileru bridge on the out-skirts of AndhraPradesh Immediatelyafter hearing the inci-dent, the district admin-istration reached out tothe Andhra police onhow to cremate the en-tire tehsildar ShashankKumar Mishra, the gen-

eral police officer andthe SDPO AnshumanDwibedi,Block JEBasanta BeheraTeacher Ranjit sarkarand presence of AndhraPradesh administration.Sudhir's body was cre-mated in a forest nearSileru Bridge in AndhraPradesh His own elderbrother DhirendraBishwal has crematedSudhir’s body in a for-est near the sileru river.

Community drying yards are occupied by Kendu leaf traders(A.O. Bureau)MalKangiri, May 11:The incident tookplace in Niliguda vil-lage under the Padiablock in Malkangiridistrict The Kenduleaf trader occupiedthe village communitydrying yards .Gener-ally Government con-structed these dryingyards for thr tribals todry the NTFP prod-

ucts They dry Ricepaddy,Mahua Tola,Tamarind etc but nowall this in the districtin the hands ofKendu leaf traders.The main livelihoodsof the t r iba l andbackward classes aremahul, toll, indig-enous mangoes, siadiseeds and Kendu leafas the main incomec o m m o d i t i e s .Malkangiri, a Naxal-

dominated and tribal-dominated district,has become a hotbedof green gold. FromFebruary onwards, itwill begin bush cut-ting to collect money.The Kendu leaf iscollected from theend of March It is indemand in states likeUttar Pradesh, Bihar,Wes t Benga l ,Madhya Pradesh ,

C h h a t t i s g a r h ,Maharashtra. Thereare various govern-ment and pr iva tegram panchayat lev-els for col lect ingKendu lea f . Butnowadays, privatecompanies are moreinterested in buyingdry Kendu leaf thangovernment depart-ments. They appearto have committed avariety of illegal ac-

tivities, including thecollection of Kenduleaf from rural areas.Dry leaves and non-payment of Kendufad i workers fo rpacking, employmentof child labor, etc.Unauthorized use ofv i l l age schools ,clubs, panchayat soconstruction somewarehouses . Butnow a different trend

has been seen in theKendu leaf traders,who are occupyingthe group farms builtby the Department ofAgriculture, DRDA,ITDA, and the water-shed project for theuse of small farmers,the poor. Neither thesarpanch nor any ofthe officials have timeto l is ten to them,even though innocentvillagers oppose it.

Chief Medical Officer has admitted to the theft and misappropriation of cow vaccines at the Niali Group Health Center(A.O. Bureau)Niali, May 11: TheChief Medical Officerhas admitted to the theftand misappropriation ofcow vaccines at theNiali Group HealthCenter. While the sec-ond phase of vaccina-tion work was under-way at the Niali Group

Health Center on Mon-day, there were wide-spread irregularities,while the Chief Medi-cal Officer of the healthcenter, Dr. Jainek, ad-mitted the incident ofunauthorized accessand manipulation of Jainwomen. S. Naveen.The "woman" was, in

fact, an undercover de-tective mounting a stingoperation. "The womeninvolved will not be al-lowed to enter the vac-cination center in thecoming days," he said."If such a recurrence ismade, firm action willbe taken against him,"he said. A large number

of people were re-ported to have beenvaccinated in Niali onMonday. A female em-ployee was accused ofstealing the vaccine.People even grabbedhim and handed himover to the doctor.There was a lot of ex-citement in front of the

vaccination centerabout this. People havestrongly opposed suchmanipulation andwarned that the move-ment would comedown in the comingdays. "The rescuesquad wasn't called forhim," she told the As-sociated Press.

The villagers caught the mobile thief and tied him to a tree(A.O. Bureau)Niali, May 11: A mo-bile thief was appre-hended by villagers andtied to a tree andhanded over to the po-lice. The incident tookplace in Kulshree villageof Eranch panchayatunder Niali police sta-tion. The incident hasbecome a hot topic inthe local area. Accord-ing to reports, a mobile

phone was stolen fromthe house of NiranjanMohapatra of Kulshreevillage on Mondaynight. According toCCTV footage from hishome, Kalandi Bhoi ofthe nearby village ofAltalang stole his mobilephone. He was arrestedTuesday and is believedto have stolen a mobilephone. He also handedover a cell phone bur-

ied in the ground and re-covered the stolen mo-bile phone from otherpeople. He was tied toa tree and handed overto police. Fouch hasgone repeated ladled inthe middle of the abilitywhile the 4 mecious la-dies exceeded. He isthought to have survivedan earlier attempt tooust him following MrJiang's intervention.

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Vitamin D intake is vital

New Delhi, May 11:Many studies have nowfound high associationbetween Vitamin D lev-els and COVID-19 se-verity and mortality.Such studies showedthat patients withCOVID-19 had signifi-cantly lower Vitamin Dlevels. In addition, feverwas significantly higherin patients who had de-ficient Vitamin D levelscompared with patientswho had sufficient lev-els. Additionally, it hasbeen found that olderadults with Vitamin Ddeficiency andCOVID-19 had worsemorbidity outcomescompared with thosewho were notdeficient.Vitamin D is afat-soluble vitamin thatplays a number of criti-cal roles in body. Thisnutrient is especially im-portant for immune sys-tem health. Since, it is agroup of fat-solublecompounds responsiblefor intestinal absorptionof calcium, magnesium,and phosphate, and fora variety of additionalbiological effects; lowlevels of Vitamin D canincrease the likelihoodof developing multipleacute and chronic ail-ments. A weaker im-mune system meansbody’s weak defenceagainst infection anddisease. A prospective,interventional studyfound that a high doseof calcifediol reduced

the need for intensivecare stays in patients in-fected with COVID-19. Because Vitamin Ddeficiency has beenshown to potentially in-crease the risk of severerespiratory infections,Vitamin D supplementsare suggested for pre-vention and treatment ofCOVID-19 complica-tions, especially acuterespiratory disease.Nowadays many brandsof Vitamin D supple-mentation are availablein market like D3 Must,Caldikind, Calshine,etc. It is noticed thatthose receiving VitaminD supplementation havefewer respiratory tractinfections. According tothe SHADE study pub-lished by BMJ and ledby Dr Rastogi and histeam, greater proportionof vitamin D-deficientindividuals with SARS-CoV-2 infection turnedSARS-CoV-2 RNAnegative with a signifi-cant decrease in fibrino-gen on high-dose chole-calciferol supplementa-tion. We have seen thatseven days high dose ofVitamin D3 (60000 IU)supplementation helps inCoronavirus clearance.Given the evidence sup-porting the role of vita-min D in modulating im-mune function, and theimpact of vitamin Dsupplementation on vi-tamin D-deficient pa-tients with COVID-19,practical recommenda-

tions should besynthesised as follows:Current public healthguidelines for optimisingvitamin D status shouldbe followed always Pa-tients hospitalised withCOVID-19 shouldhave baseline serum25(OH)D concentra-tions measured andshould be supplementedto a level >30ng/mL(optimal 40-60ng/mL),especially when thebaseline level is <10ng/mL. In COVID-19 pa-tients with 25(OH)Dserum concentrationsunder 20ng/mL the rec-ommended dose forcorrection of deficiencyis 6000-7000 oral IU/day for 6-8 weeks. Formaintenance, the dosevaries from 2000 to3000 oral IU/day de-pending on the age andclinical condition of theindividual up to reachoptimal concentrations.When it is not possibleto measure baseline25(OH)D concentra-tions in COVID-19 pa-tients, it seems essentialsupplementing with2000-3000 oral IU perday up to the suggestedoptimal serum concen-trations (40-60ng/mL).Though India is a sub-tropical country withadequate sunlight, Vita-min D deficiency isprevalent. Sunlight rap-idly inactivate SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces, sug-gesting that there maybe an environmentalbenefit associated withVitamin D as a result ofsun exposure. It is nec-essary for people to un-derstand the importanceof Vitamin D so thatthey can take relevantmedications.

Dr Ashu RastogiAsso Professor, Dept of

Endocrinology at PGI Chandigarh

Maheep predicts Sanjay's reaction to Shanaya going 'intimate' on screenMumbai, May 11:Sanjay Kapoor'sMaheep Kapoor haspredicted her husband'sreaction to their daughterShanaya doing an 'inti-mate' scene on screen.Shanaya is gearing up tomake her debut inBollywood. MaheepKapoor, the wife of ac-tor Sanjay Kapoor, hasspeculated about herhusband's reaction if theirdaughter Shanaya wereto ever participate in akissing scene in her futurefilms. Shanaya is gearedup to make her debut inBollywood under KaranJohar’s Dharma Produc-tion. In a recent interview,Maheep revealed thatSanjay will be takenaback but won't interferewith Shanaya's work.

Sanjay's protective sidewas glimpsed in theNetflix 'reality show'Fabulous Lives ofBollywood Wives lastyear. "Inside, Sanjay willbe like, 'Oh no, what amI watching?' but when itcomes to her work, he’llkeep quiet," Maheep told

PeepingMoon. Maheepalso spoke on Sanjaysometimes replying tofans of Shanaya's, mis-taking them for her. Shesaid, "She's got so manyof those fan mails, youknow? Sanjay is confus-ing Shanaya with thesepeople also. Some fan

had written 'love you,dad', and Sanjay hasmessaged, 'love youback, Shanaya'. I said,'but which Shanaya areyou messaging?' He wasvery confused. He said,'oh, this is not Shanaya?'I said, 'no'. So we weren'texpecting it, but it came,

and it was overwhelm-ing." In March, Shanayahad shared a video an-nouncing her debut, withthe caption, "Woke uptoday with the mostgrateful heart! Here's toa great journey aheadwith the DC talent fam-ily. Excited to kickstartmy first film (Ahhh!) thisJuly by Dharma Movies,can't wait for you all tosee what we're up to!Stay tuned." She has al-ready worked as an as-sistant director in GunjanSaxena: The Kargil Girl,the 2020 Netflix film.The movie features hercousin Janhvi Kapoor inthe lead role. Shanayahas also made an ap-pearance in FabulousLives Of BollywoodWives.

Shweta's friends voice support after watching 'inhuman' events in latest postNew Delhi, May 11:Actor Shweta Tiwari'sfriends from the industryhave spoken in her sup-port after she shared avideo on Instagram, amidher bitter custody disputeover her child with es-tranged husbandAbhinav Kohli. ActorShweta Tiwari's friendsand colleagues from theindustry have voiced theirsupport for her amid herongoing custody battlewith estranged husbandAbhinav Kohli. OnMonday, Shweta shareda video on Instagram,which showed a scufflebetween the formercouple over their son. Inthe comments section,actors Karanvir Bohra,Teejay Sidhu, and sev-

eral others expressedtheir shock at what theysaw. "Omg !!! And ev-eryone is just standingand watching !!!" wroteactor Kishwer Mer-chant. "This is supersad! Stay Strong," wroteSrishty Rode, addingheart emojis. Karanvir

commented, "Mommiepls file a case immedi-ately.. this is inhuman...really really can’t see this,I can imagine what shemust be going thru... plspls get him off ur life." Hiswife Teejay wrote, "It isa very sick and sad men-tality that everyone is

shamelessly standingthere and watching? Andsome even walked awayThere was a struggle andNOBODY tried to helpor find out what was go-ing on!" Producer EktaKapoor wrote, "Why isthis guy not arrested."Mahhi Vij commented,

"You are such an inspi-ration for mother’sstrong hardworkingmother god is with you."Rashami Desai wrote,"This is so weird that pplare watching all this butnot helping the lady &the child. God knowwhat child most be go-ing thru. Stay strong."Shweta recently flew toCape Town, South Af-rica, to participate in thereality show Khatron KeKhiladi 11. Her refusal toleave her son withAbhinav triggered him tolaunch a slew of new al-legations against her.Abhinav has been post-ing regular videos onInstagram, accusingShweta of not allowinghim to meet their son.

Exes Jennifer Lopez, Ben Affleck enjoy weeklong vacation in MontanaNew York, May 11: Ex-couple and Americanactors Jennifer Lopezand Ben Affleck spent awhole week together ontheir trip to Montana.Friendly exes andAmerican actors Jenni-fer Lopez and BenAffleck spent last weektogether as the duo tooka trip to Montana, con-firmed sources. Ac-

cording to E!News, af-ter JLo and Affleck ap-peared separately at theVAX LIVE concert inLos Angeles on Sunday,they jetted off togetherto the Yellowstone Clubin Montana, where theyvacationed together for

about a week. "Theywere alone. Just the twoof them," said thesource. In photos ob-tained by Daily Mail,Lopez and Affleck canbe seen driving togetherin Montana. E!Newsreported that this newscomes about a monthafter Jennifer and AlexRodriguez confirmedthey split after four years

together. Days later, sheand A-Rod reunitedbriefly in L.A. in lateApril and a source toldthe outlet that he wantedto "work things out" withher. However, Ben wasthen spotted at her homein the city. At the time,

another source said theywere "just friends.""They have been in touchhere and there through-out the years," a secondsource close to Jennifertold E! News, noting theduo reunited after she re-turned from filming in theDominican Republic."Ben reached out to herto see how she was do-ing and they had dinner

together a few timeswithin this last month. It'snatural between themand the chemistry is un-real. They picked upwhere they last left offand are enjoying eachother's company rightnow," the source added.

Wonder Woman 1984 will start streaming on Amazon Prime Video from May 15New Delhi, May 11:Thesuccessful sequel to theblockbuster WonderWoman, WonderWoman 1984, is comingto Amazon Prime Video.The movie will startstreaming on the OTTplatform from May 15.

Wonder Woman 1984sees Gal Gadot’s Won-der Woman and ChrisPine’s Steve Trevor face-off against the dangerousduo of Max Lord and theCheetah (Pedro Pascaland Kristen Wiig, respec-tively). Set in the Cold

War era, the film has beenhelmed by Patty Jenkins,who directed the first partof the franchise. WonderWoman 1984 received amixed response upon itsrelease last year, withRotten Tomatoes giving ita 59 per cent score.

Khatron Ke Khiladi 11’s Varun Sood: Divya Agarwal is more excited than me

Mumbai, May 11: Afterbeing a contestant onSplitsvilla and Roadies,as well as a ‘gang leader’on the latter, Varun Soodis all set to participate inKhatron Ke Khiladi 11.Before heading off toCape Town, Varunspoke toindianexpress.com aboutbeing nervous and ex-cited about his journey inthe Rohit Shetty-hostedseries. He also sharedthat he wants to show theyouth that being scared isnormal. “I was offeredKhatron Ke Khiladi 11 amonth and a half back.While I was still contem-

plating my participation, Irealised that there are alot of young people whofollow my work. And Iwanted to tell them thatno matter how strong youare, one can be afraid ofcertain things. That’s nota negative trait. What’smore important is howyou use your mentalstrength to overcomeyour fears. I really hope Ican pass this messagealong,” shared the 26-year-old, adding in thesame breath that he ispetrified of ‘snakes andclowns’. Given Varun hasbeen associated with ad-venture-based reality

shows, one may wonderif it’s going to be a smoothride for him. The host-actor shared that hemight have an upper handwhen it comes to physi-cal tasks, but Khatron KeKhiladi is much morethan that. “There is al-ways a loophole in suchtasks, and it’s easier forme to figure that out.However, the show ismore about mental tasks,and thus I am at the samelevel as anyone else at theend of the day. As read-ers would know, this sea-son of Khatron KeKhiladi 11 would seeVarun Sood, DivyankaTripathi, Arjun Bijlani,Nikki Tamboli, VishalAditya Singh, Aastha Gill,Sana Makbul, AnushkaSen, Shweta Tiwari,Mahekk Chahal, RahulVaidya, Abhinav Shuklaand Sourabh Raj Jain ascontestants. The MTVyouth icon, however, re-

fused to pick one nameas a competition and rea-soned that whoever saysyes to the show has al-ready mentally preparedthemselves. “I don’t evenknow anyone personallyto pass a judgment.Once the show starts wewill get to know who is areal competition. As ofnow everyone is, andmost importantly it’s mydarr. I need to fight itfirst,” he said with a smile.Varun also added thatgiven each task is de-signed to an exactingstandard, he doesn’tknow what to expect.However, he wants tohave fun and also win theshow. Talking aboutRohit Shetty, he men-tioned that he has cometo know that the hostgets infuriated whensomeone gives up on atask. “I will make sure Icomplete my challengesas Rohit sir is also quite

a helpful person, and Iwant to get all his guid-ance. He really motivatesand pushes one ahead.”Girlfriend Divya Agarwalhad recently posted onInstagram on how shecannot wait for him to bewith creepy crawlies.Laughing at her com-ment, Varun mentionedhow Divya is more ex-cited about the showthan him. “I think I amalso a little nervous. Wewill be away from homein a different country, anddon’t really know whatto expect. However, sheis very confident aboutme and keeps telling methat once I get on a task,I will finish it to win. So Iam taking that positivityalong,” concluded VarunSood. Khatron KeKhiladi 11 would be shotin South Africa till the endof June. Its launch dateis yet to be announcedby Colors.

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Doubt IPL 2021 will continue in India: NeeshamChristchurch, May 11:New Zealand all-rounder JimmyNeesham doesn’t thinkthat there is any chanceof the remaining 31matches of Indian Pre-mier League happeningin India this year, afterthe tournament got post-poned due to Covid-19cases inside the bio-bubble. He also has se-rious doubts whetherIndia would be able tohost the 16-team T20World Cup later thisyear. Both IPL and T20World Cup are set to bere-scheduled to theUnited Arab Emirates.“If it did start up again,I doubt the IPL wouldbe in India again,” saidNeesham toldNewshub. “I thinkwe’ve already seenplans for the T20 WorldCup to move out of In-dia later in the year andthey’re going to be ul-tra-cautious about thatsort of thing,” saidNeesham, who wasplaying for Mumbai In-dians in the now sus-pended league.Neesham feels the bio-security lapses could bedue to the fact that theteams were travelling

across the country.“Even though we wereflying on charteredplanes, we have to gothrough customs, handyour details over topeople, walk throughterminals, so there werealways going to bepinch-points there,” hesaid. Neesham said thatit is difficult to compre-hend how the bubblewas breached. “We ob-viously don’t know yetexactly how teamswere infiltrated, but...It’s such a difficult pros-pect to keep everything

perfect and whenyou’ve got so many guysthat are close to eachother, there are going tobe social interactionsafter games. “Once oneteam has it, you startlooking back throughyour last week at whoyou talked to and whoyou shook hands with.It certainly gets yourmind racing.” HoweverNeesham isn’t averse tothe idea of going backto India again and play-ing the IPL if it resumes.“For me, I signed up forthe IPL knowing what it

might be like. I felt likeit was an obligation — Imade the commitmentto go and never had anythoughts of pulling outindividually before thetournament finished,” hesaid, “Guys will havedifferent opinions onthat, but it’s my job, I’ma professional and youhave plenty of times youtour countries you’renot that keen on goingto, but it’s about gettingon the field and gettingthe job done. “I wouldsign up again, especiallyonce vaccinations start

rolling out. I don’t thinkanyone really predictedhow quickly it would allcome crashing downover there and howquickly we would be onthe first plane out.” TheIPL was suspended lastTuesday after four play-ers and two coachesfrom four differentteams tested positive forthe dreaded diseasewithin a space of 48hours. “To be honest, Iwasn’t expecting it toget called off. I think,when you’ve got somany teams in differentbubbles, the expectationwas that there would al-ways be some cases atsome point during thetournament,” Neeshamsaid. “We thought teamsmight have to lock downand miss a couple ofgames, like we’ve seen inother organisations, likethe NBA. The show mustgo on. “The thing that wasso shocking was howquickly it came up in somany different teams at thesame time and we didn’treally have an option in theend.” Neesham said theywere “not out of thewoods yet” and may de-velop symptoms in thecoming days.

Poms won’t force quarantining IPL stars back for NZ seriesLondon, May 11: Team directorAshley Giles says England have noplans to “rush” their IPL stars backfor next month’s Test series againstNew Zealand and could introducenew faces to cope with a packedschedule. The suspension of the IPLbecause of the devastatingcoronavirus outbreak in India has leftEngland with a potentially largerplayer pool than they envisaged forthe two-Test series against NewZealand. Among those currently serv-ing quarantine periods are Jos Buttler,Chris Woakes and Sam Curran, allof whom have Test contracts withEngland. They could be available forCounty Championship matches start-ing on May 20 before joining the En-gland ‘bubble’ ahead of the first Testagainst New Zealand at Lord’s,which begins on June 2. But even ifthe trio are in contention, England mayhave to call up fresh reinforcements

given Ben Stokes and Dom Sibley arecurrently injured, while fast bowlerJofra Archer has only recently re-turned to action with Sussex’s 2nd XI.“All these guys (returning from theIPL) are currently in quarantine andhave had a number of spells in quar-antine and bubbles,” Giles said onMonday. “We need to look afterthem, with the amount of cricketthey’ve got coming up. We’re notgoing to rush or force them back intocricket. “Chris Silverwood (the En-gland coach) will work with each andevery one of them, as will our medi-cal teams on what’s best for theirprogress.” After the New Zealandseries, England have five Tests athome to India before travelling toAustralia later this year in a bid to re-gain the Ashes. England also havenumerous white-ball commitments,including the planned T20 World Cupin India.

Checkmate COVID: Vishy Anand and 4 other GMsto play exhibition matches to raise COVID relief fund

New Delhi, May 11:Any player who hasa Chess.com blitz orFIDE standard ratingof under 2000 canplay wi th formerwor ld championAnand by donatingUSD 150 and withthe other four GMsby paying USD 25 asregistration amount.F ive- t ime wor ldc h a m p i o nViswanathan Anandand four other IndianGrandmasters willplay simultaneousonl ine exhib i t ionmatches aga ins tother chess playerson Thursday to raisefunds for COVID-19relief work in thecountry. Any playerwho has a Chess.comblitz or FIDE stan-dard rating of under2000 can play withformer world cham-pion Anand by donat-ing USD 150 andwith the other fourGMs by paying USD25 as registrat ionamount. Donationswill also be acceptedduring the exhibitionmatches to be broad-cast on Chess.com at

19 :30 IST. Thewebsite said it willmatch all donationsup to a total of USD10,000. All the pro-ceeds from the simul-taneous exhibitionsinvolv ing Anand,Koneru Humpy,Dronavalli Harika,Niha l Sar in andP r a g g n a n a n d h a aRameshbabu will goto RedCross Indiaand the CheckmateCOVID initiative ofthe All India ChessFederation (AICF). Idon’t think there is asingle person youngor old who haven’tbeen a f fec ted bythis.“We all know In-dia is struggling hardagainst COVID-19.At this time, we allhave been affected insome way. I don’tthink there is a singleperson young or oldwho has not been af-fec ted by th i s , ”Anand said in a videomessage posted onChess.com. “Let ussupport COVID re-lief in India. You canplay some of India’sfinest grandmasters,and have Chess.com

match your dona-tions. Please sign upto par t i c ipa te inCheckmate COVIDthis Thursday. This isa little contributionfrom our chess fra-ternity. “I look for-ward to being thereand hope we raisemoney and spirits!”International MasterDanny Rensch andSamay Raina willhost the livestream onChess.com/tv. “Withover one hundredgames running con-currently across allsimuls, a time controlof 30 minutes with a30-second incrementwill be used for allgames,” a statementf rom Chess .comsaid. “With a limitednumber of boards,make sure to registerearly for this uniqueand charitable op-por tun i ty to p layIndia’s best players.”India is currently reel-ing under a devastat-ing second wave ofCOVID-19 pan-demic with more than3 lakh new cases andabove 3000 deathsreported daily.

Indian wrestling’s image has been tarnished due to accusations against Sushil Kumar: WFINew Delhi, May 11: Atthe peak of his prowess,Sushil Kumar single-handedly lifted Indianwrestling to unprec-edented heights but aspolice looks for him inrelation to a murder case,the sport’s image hastaken as much a beatingas that of the trailblazinggrappler. Sushil’s interna-tional success triggered arevolution and created aninspirational legacy. Thereserved grappler fromNajagarh’s Baprola vil-lage is till date India’sonly world champion(2010) in the sport. He isalso the only one to claimtwo individual Olympicmedals, an exceptionalfeat for a country whichhas seen very limited suc-cess at the Games. TheWrestling Federation ofIndia (WFI) is concerned

that the good reputationbuilt over the years withstupendous internationalperformances, many ofthem given by Sushil him-self, has been ruined.“Yes, I must say that theimage of Indian wrestlinghas got hurt badly by this.But we have nothing todo with what wrestlersdo away from the mat.We are concerned withtheir on-mat perfor-mance,” WFI AssistantSecretary Vinod Tomartold PTI. Sushil’s bronzemedal at the 2008 Beijing

Olympics ended India’s56-year-long wait for anOlympic medal in wres-tling. The achievementhad a tremendous impactas Indian wrestling wit-nessed the rise ofYogeshwar Dutt, Geetaand Babita Phogat, theircousin Vinesh, Rio bronzemedallist Sakshi Malikand World medallistsBajrang Punia, RaviDahiya and DeepakPunia after that. How-ever, the fraternity is nowshell-shocked as the po-lice on Monday issued a

‘Look-out Circular’(LoC) against the cham-pion wrestler, who is un-traceable since the brawlthat led to the death ayoung wrestler. The inci-dent has come at a timewhen Indian wrestling iscelebrating its highestnumber of quotas —eight — for the Olym-pics. The anticipation ofa best ever performanceat the Tokyo Games ishard to miss. The policeis ascertaining the role ofSushil in a May 4 brawlthat led to the death of 23-year-old Sagar Rana out-side the Chhatrasal sta-dium. “Not only this, butthe incident that hap-pened in February hadalso tarnished the imageof Indian wrestling. Thesport has struggled hardin earning a reputationbecause for long wres-

tlers were known only asa bunch of goons,”Tomar lamented. TheWFI official was referringto coach SukhwinderMor’s involvement in themurder of five people, in-cluding a fellow coachManoj Malik, in JaatCollege in Rohtak districtof Haryana. Sukhwinderhad allegedly gunneddown five people due tohis personal enmity withMalik and was arrestedfrom New Delhi in a jointoperation by Delhi andHaryana police. Asked ifWFI will remove Sushilfrom the annual contractslist, Tomar said they “werenot mulling any such moveas of now.” Sushil washanded an A grade con-tract in December 2018along with four others foran annual financial supportof Rs 30 lakh.

Sai Praneeth, Ashwini-Sikki withdraw from Singapore Open; others may followNew Delhi, May 11:Reluctant to undergothe 21-day quarantinein which he wouldhave to forego prac-tice, Tokyo-bound BSai Praneeth with-drew his entry fromthe Singapore Open,scheduled for June 1-5. “It’s because wehave to do 21 daysquarantine and youcan’t play even it is 14days quarant ine .Without practice it isvery tough to play,”Praneeth sa id .Women’s doublespairing of AshwiniP o n a p p a - S i k k iReddy have a lsowithdrawn from thetournament endingtheir qualification

hope. Indians willhave to undergoobligatory 21 days ofquarant ine inSingapore, which hasanyway s toppedflights from India.While other shuttlershaven’t yet wi th-drawn, the 21 day

window shuts today.While Praneeth re-ceived the first doseof the vaccine, thatalone would not suf-fice to open up trav-elling restrictions ap-plicable to Indians,after the variants haveput travellers from the

country on a red list.“The vaccine statusas of today can’t beused for travel or toseek exemptions forquarantine as an In-dian,” he explained.“Maybe in the future,but I doubt it’ll helpthis early,” he added.

India is recording thehighest Corona casesworldwide. WithTelangana going intolockdown from May12 for 10 days, SaiPraneeth will take abreak from training. “Iwas preparing from avery long time for Ma-laysia and Singapore.But once i t gotcancelleded, I thoughtI’ll take a break andthen start preparingfor Olympics. I’ve al-ready done 7 weeksof hard training so Ithought I could take abreak,” he said. “Thenext 3 months will betough non-stop andnow that we aren’ttravelling, we can trainwith focus,” he added.

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Rourkela's enthusiasm for the Covid vaccine among the youth, on the first day, 3,400 people took the safety netn Vaccines on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Satur-

days for 18 to 8 categories

n Wednesday, Friday and Monday for the 65-

plus, only second dose vaccine

n The youth thanked the Chief Minister for the

vaccine

(A.O. Bureau)Rourkela, May 11: Thefirst dose was given topeople between the agesof 18 and 8 on Tuesdayin Rourkela. There wasa lot of excitementamong the younger gen-eration when they werevaccinated. Many stake-holders thanked the lo-cal administration for theorderly arrangement atthe vaccination center.They thanked ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaikfor the security mea-sures, especially againstKovid.““A new schedulefor the vaccination wasdrawn up by the districtadministration after re-ceiving information thatRourkela had been vac-

cinated from the stategovernment's quota. Forthe first time, it was an-nounced that the vaccinewould be in the 18- to7-year-old category.People who registeredonline and got a slotcame to the designatedcenter to be vaccinated.Four centers have beenset up in Rourkela forvaccination. A total of3,600 people were vac-cinated on Tuesday. Theadministration aims tovaccinate 500 people ateach center. Accordingto the new vaccinationschedule, 18 to 7 peopleare currently vaccinatedon Tuesday, Thursdayand Saturday. Similarly,the 45-plus is scheduled

for Wednesday, Fridayand Monday. They areonly given a second doseof vaccine. No advanceregistration is requiredfor this category. The ad-ministration has informedthem to reach the near-est vaccination centerand register. As per thedirectives of the Hon'bleChief Minister, the youthof Rourkela have beenvaccinated. "I would liketo thank them for keep-ing the vaccine and co-operating with the ad-ministration," said NikhilPawan Kalyan,Sundergarh district com-missioner. Vaccines havebeen vaccinated in fourYak centers in Rourkelatoday. I would like to

thank the district admin-istration, the municipaladministration, the policeadministration, the doc-tors, the health workers,the volunteers and every-one involved in this com-prehensive program. Myspecial request to theyounger generation isthat they come and vac-cinate according to theirslot and follow the co-chlear rules. Do not rushto the vaccination center,”said Divyajyoti Paridaof the Metropolitan Cor-p o r a t i o nCommission.“Specialpreparations were madeby the administrationduring the vaccinationfor 18 to 8 categories.500 vaccination targetswere set daily at eachcenter. Thirty-five healthworkers, 17 data entryoperators and 25 volun-teers were deployed atsix centers. Police offic-ers were present at vari-ous centers. RourkelaAdditional District Mag-istrate Aboli Sunil

Narwane and thecommission's DivyajyotiParida visited variouscenters.“Special em-phasis was placed oncompliance with theCovid rule at the vacci-nation center. The manwho came to vaccinatewore a mask and kepthis distance from eachother. The administra-tion arranged for him tosit at the center. Micro-phones were installedfor various announce-ments, including drink-ing water. Selfie cor-ners were set up at vari-ous places to encouragethe younger generation.Many people have ex-pressed their enthusi-asm by posting photosof the vaccine on socialmedia, thanking thechief minister and theadministration. Exten-sive efforts have beenmade by the adminis-tration to inform thepublic about the newvaccination schedule inRourkela.

UAIL's Project Saksham Empowering women in Rayagada(A.O. Bureau)Bhubaneswar: AdityaBirla Group's Utkal Alu-mina International Lim-ited (UAIL),is engageddeeply in meaningfulwelfare initiatives incommunities living inproximity of its plant.One of its project"Project Saksham" isreaching out to the un-employed rural womenand through income gen-eration helping them be-come self-reliant. Sinceits commencement inFebruary 2015, it has

trained around87marginalizedwomen.These women havebeen given an intense 6months training in tailor-ing catering to everyneed. During the train-ing period, participantslearnt basic machineoperations, cutting andstitching of dress mate-rials such as tops, kurtis,chudidar, salwarkameez, skirts, shirts,trousers and manymore.UAIL has pro-vided these women withthe state of the art 30sewing machines. Inthose six months, theseenthusiastic women hadmastered the art ofstitching garments andmost of the uniforms arestitched by them.Among their patronisersare from schools(Jawahar NavodayaV i d y a l a y a -N a w a r a n g p u r ,Malkangiri, EMRS,Nabarangpur, KasturbaGandhi BalikaVidyalaya - Koraput,

Anganwadi Centres,GNFA school, Tikiri,Aditya Birla PublicSchool, SaraswatiSishu Vidya Mandir,Rayagada), shirts, kidsdress for Private ven-dors (Ms/ Hirawats -Visakhapatnam, M/sRam & Sons and S RVendor, Vizag,BOYANIKA" M/s.Ludupali Khadi & SilkWeaving Samiti,Bargarh). Alongsidethey make fancydresses for children andshirts for companies

such as Hindalco-Power, Smelter & FlatRolled Product (FRP)at Sambalpur, AdityaAluminium, Lapanga,UAIL, Utkal Hospital atTikri,Hindalcoat Belur,Gare Palma, & EsselMining at Barbil etc.The Aditya Birla Groupis their strongest sup-porter. Besides, theyhave made nearly 1 lacface masks so far. Sev-eral women who havereaped a rich economicreward, thank to thisproject and have ac-knowledged UAIL's ini-tiative. Listen toMadhusmita Benia (36)of Kampar who worksin the manufacturingunit. She is happy thatshe has now a substan-tial incomeof Rs 10,000/- every month. Besidesrunning the house, shefinancially supports herbrother who is pursuingan engineering course.In Project Saksham,Banita Majhi, (22) fromNaktiguda village has

played an importantrole.She is the spirit be-hind the making ofmasks. She feels thatbesides earning a liveli-hood, this is her way ofgiving back to the soci-ety, helping them stemthe corona virus attackthough the use of facemask.Interacting withthe trainees, Mr. MazharBaig, who heads UAILurged them "to put intheir best efforts inlearning the advancedskills required to pro-duce designer clothes."

Reposing faith in thetrainees and trainers, hehoped that the productsfrom the unit would cer-tainly carve out a nichefor themselves in themarket and said "this ini-tiative will empowerand transform the livesof the rural women fora better tomorrow".Elaborating further Mr.Baig says, "We aremuch encouraged byour iconic Chairper-son, Mrs. RajashreeBirla, Chairperson,Aditya Birla Centre forCommunity Initiativesand Rural Develop-ment, who believes thatwe must Engage, Up-lift and Empower ourwomen". Our Projectis in line with her vi-sion. "This is a smallstep in our journey tohelp the underprivi-leged women stand ontheir own feet. It hasbolstered their confi-dence as well as self-esteem significantly,adds Mr Baig.

MCL releases Rs 32 cr for COVID19 in Q1; raises coal supply by 15%(A.O. Bureau)Sambalpur, May 11:Mahanadi CoalfieldsLimited (MCL) hastaken a series of steps atan estimated cost ofover Rs 32 crore in thefirst quarter of current fi-nancial year tostrengthen the fightagainst COVID19surge, besides ensuringincreased quantity ofcoal to power plants.MCL had spent Rs 135crore in differentCovid19 mitigating ac-tivities in the state ofOdisha during last finan-cial year 2020-21, andhas further extended itssupport to state govern-ment in establishingCOVID19 hospitalsand providing other in-frastructure support. Thecompany is procuring200 oxygen cylindersand concentrators tohelp Sambalpur,

Jharsuguda, Sundergarhand Angul districts tocombat Covid-19 pan-demic. Anticipating a risein power demand in thecountry, the companyensured more than 4.25lakh daily supply of coalfrom its mines during cur-rent fiscal, which was15% higher than the des-patch of dry fuel duringsame period last financialyear 2020-21. Mr P KSinha, Chairman-cum-Managing Director,MCL has exhorted the

General Managers in themonthly coordinationmeeting to ensureCOVID appropriatebehaviour in the work-place. “The health of ourofficers, staff and con-tractors’ workers shouldbe given paramount im-portance, as coal supplyto power plants is di-rectly dependent onthem,” the CMD said,asserting that at this junc-ture, when all the systemshave been realigned tosupport in fight against

COVID19, country can-not afford dearth of es-sential commodities dueto shortage of power.Mr Sinha also stressedon regular health moni-toring of coal warriors,who are under treatmentat various hospitals aswell as at their resi-dences. MCL has lost18 employees toCOVID19 pandemic,while 420 officers andstaff are still under treat-ment for infection. MrKeshav Rao, Director

(Personnel), in his letterto Odisha government,has offered to establishCOVID19 vaccinationcenters at five healthcarefacilities the company inAngul, Sambalpur,Jharsuguda andSundergarh districts, andsought help of the govern-ment for vaccinating com-pany employees, contrac-tors’ workers, their familymembers and peripheralpopulation at the earliest.MCL, which contributesabout 20% to the total coalproduction in the country,has supported the stategovernment and district au-thorities to set-up and runCOVID19 hospitals witha total 1405 bed capacity,including 189 in ICUs.Besides sanitization of of-fices and other work-places, MCL is also con-ducting sanitization drivesin peripheral localities, us-ing ‘fog cannons’.

Apollo Hospitals Group Extends Support Fight Against Covid, Donates Oxygen Concentrators & Opens Community Covid Centre(A.O. Bureau)Hyderabad, May 11: Thewhole nation is fighting anunprecedented global cri-sis and to support thepeople of Chittoor District,Andhra Pradesh in theirstruggle against COVID-19, Apollo HospitalsGroup today donated 50Oxygen Concentrators,reaffirming the Group'scommitment to serve themat all times. Apollo Hos-pitals also inaugurated a'Community Covid Cen-tre' at the Total HealthComplex in Aragonda,the native village of Dr.

Prathap C Reddy, Chair-man of the Group. Thecentre will specificallymeet the needs ofCOVID-19 patients inAragondaand providethem with comprehensivecare. Dr. Prathap CReddy announced thesame today during a vir-tual meeting with ShriNarayana Swamy,Hon'ble Deputy ChiefMinister, Excise & Com-mercial Taxes and ShriHari Narayanan. M, Col-lector and District Magis-trate, Chittoor District. Dr.Reddy also informed

about the upgradation ofthe Chittoor DistrictHeadquarters Hospitalcompleted by the ApolloHospitals group Dr.Prathap C Reddy, Chair-man, Apollo HospitalsGroup said, "Led by theHon'ble Chief Minister,Jagan Mohan Reddy

Garu, the Andhra PradeshGovernment has beenhandling the COVID cri-sis with a strong sense ofcommitment and purpose.As a small step in the col-lective fight againstCOVID-19, the Apollofamily is privileged to ex-tend support through vari-ous initiatives includingdonation of 50 oxygenconcentrators to thepeople of Chittoor, open-ing of 'Community CovidCentre' at Aragonda, andupgradation of ChittoorDistrict HeadquartersHospital. I am sure that

with our combined energy,positive thinking, and col-lective resources, we willbe able to tide over thishealth crisis soon." The 50oxygen concentrators willhave a capacity of 5 litres/minute and provide pa-tients with purity of oxy-gen more than 90 per centsuitable for COVID-19and critical care patients.The second wave ofCOVID-19 has seen amajor challenge in access-ing oxygen to treat patientswith respiratory complica-tions who require oxygentherapy.

NTPC Talcher Kaniha extends support to its Community Health Centre

(A.O. Bureau)Talcher, May 11:NTPC Talcher KanihaCSR has come for-ward amidst the sec-ond wave ofCoronavirus that hasstruck the country andrecognised the hard-ships and vulnerabili-ties faced by the front-line health workers,

and undertook to dis-tribute a total of 300masks, 10 nos 100mlsanitizer bottles and 5nos 500ml sanitizerbottles to support thebattle of the KanihaCommunity HealthCentre as the foremostdefence to curb the ris-ing covid cases innearby villages. This

activity was conductedwhilst following all thecovid-19 protocols, in-cluding regular use ofsanitizer and followingsocial distancingnorms. The KanihaCHC frontline healthworkers welcomed thisinitiative and showedimmense gratitude to-wards NTPC.