3;A cVa`dVd WRZeY Z_ dZeeZ_X >=2d Z_ FA - Daily Pioneer

12
R eposing faith in sitting leg- islators, the BJP on Friday released another list of 91 can- didates for the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections where it has given tickets to 13 Ministers and repeated its sit- ting MLA in Ayodhya. In this list, majority of the names were from those con- stituencies where elections would be held in the fifth and sixth phases but names of can- didates for Lucknow, where the elections will be held in the fourth phase, are still under wraps. Similarly, the future of the Speaker of the Assembly, Hridaynarayan Dixit, hangs in balance as his name is also not there in the list. The party dropped Co- Operative Affairs Minister Mukut Bihari Verma but gave ticket to his son Gaurav who will be contesting from his Kaiserganj seat in Bahraich. Major seat holders are Sidharthnath Singh from Allahabad West, Chief Minister’s media adviser Shalabmani Tripathi from Deoria Sadar seat, Nand Gopal Nandi from Prayagraj South, Amit Chauhan from Bikapur in Ayodhya and Ramchandra Yadav from Rudauli. The BJP has allotted tick- ets to nine women candidates in the current list of candidates. The BJP women candi- dates in the new list are Sindhuja Mishra (Kunda), Neelam Karwariya (Meja), Aarti Kol (Karaon), Aarti Tiwari (Goshainganj), Saroj Sonkar (Balha), Anupama Jaiswal (Bahraich), A Neelam Sonkar (Lalganj), Manju Sonkar (Mehnagar) and Sunita Parishit Singh (Zamania). Apart from this, the BJP has allotted tickets to Akhilesh Mishra from Azamgarh Sadar seat and Prateek Bhushan Singh from Gonda. The party has fielded Sinduja Mishra against Raghuraj Pratap Singh, alias Raja Bhaiya, in Kunda and despite Opposition gave ticket to Rajesh Gautam from Kadipur (R) seat of Sultanpur. The party, however, denied ticket to sitting MLA from Haidergarh Baijnath Rawat and instead fielded Dinesh Rawat. The BJP has fielded new faces from Barabanki Sadar (Arvind Maurya) and Sharad Awasthi from Ramnagar. In Azamgarh, which is considered a strong- hold of the BSP and the SP, the BJP has declared candidates for nine out of ten constituencies. Party declared Satyendra Rai from Gopalpur, Akhilesh Mishra from Azamgarh, Manoj Yadava from Nizamabad, Krishna Murari Vishwakarma from Didarganj, former MP Neelam Sonkar from Lalganj, and Manju Saroj from Mehnagar. Manju Saroj, was the can- didate of Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party in 2017 but lost the poll. She is now face of the BJP. The BJP has not yet field- ed anyone from Phulpur-Powai where the SP has given ticket to Ramakant Yadav, father of BJP MLA Arun Kant. Among the Ministers who got tickets are: Suresh Pasi from Jagdishpur of Sultanpur, Rajendra Pratap Singh Moti from Pratapgarh, Sidharth Nath Singh from Allahabad West, Nand Gopal Nandi, Allahabad south, Rmapati Shastri from Mankapur, Gonda, Health Minister Jai Pratap Singh from Bansi in Siddharthnagar, Satish Dwivedi from Etwa in Siddharthnagar, Jai Prakash Nishad from Rudrapur in Deoria, Agriculture Minister Surya Pratap Shahi from Pathardeva in Deoria, and Upendra Tiwari from Phephna in Ballia. T he rebellion is brewing within the Punjab Congress over the distribution of tickets. The party is facing revolt at no less than 15 seats out of the total 109 declared so far, forc- ing the party high command to review its decision on at least five seats. The denial of party ticket has resulted in a massive resentment among the left out aspirants who have been demanding review, while many others have declared to contest as independents. In fact, its three sitting MLAs Rana Gurmeet Singh Sodhi (Guru Har Sahai), Fatehjung Singh Bajwa (Qadian), and Dr Harjot Kamal (Moga) have already parted ways with the party. Prominent among the rebels include former MP Mohinder Singh Kaypee, for- mer Minister Jagmohan Singh Kang, four-time Congress MLA from Samrala Amrik Singh Dhillon, Sunam halqa in- charge Daman Thind Bajwa, singer-turned-politician Satwinder Bitti, Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi’s younger brother Dr Manohar Singh, Cabinet Minister Rana Gurjit Singh’s son Rana Inder Partap Singh, among others. A day after Congress’ four- time legislator from Samrala Amrik Singh Dhillon filed his nomination papers as an inde- pendent, Channi’s brother Dr Manohar Singh on Friday filed his nomination from Bassi Pathana Assembly seat as an independent candidate against the Congress nominee and sit- ting MLA Gurpreet Singh GP. Dr Manohar, who resigned from the post of senior medical officer at Kharar Civil Hospital, was staking claims for ticket from Bassi Pathana. “Several prominent people of Bassi Pathana area have asked me to fight as an independent and I will go by what they have said. There is no chance of going back and I will surely fight the polls,” said Dr Manohar after filing the nominations. Kang, former MLA from Kharar, also revolted against the party and expressed anguish over denial of party ticket to him, while declaring that his son Yadevinder Singh Bunny Kang will contest as independent candidate from Kharar. I ndia on Friday entered the niche defence export market by inking a deal worth over 375 million dollars with the Philippines for BrahMos super- sonic cruise missile. It is the first big export contract by India. The country hopes to cross the five billion dollar mark by 2025. The Pioneer on January 14 had reported about the Government-to-Government deal between India and the Philippines for the missile sys- tem. While the Brahmos is a joint venture between India and Russia, the missile is indigenously designed and manufactured. The missile can be launched from land, air, sea and submarines. Announcing the deal, Defence Ministry officials said here on Friday that BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited (BAPL) signed a contract with the Department of National Defence of the Republic of the Philippines for supply of shore- based anti-ship missile sys- tem. The contract is an impor- tant step forward for India’s policy of promoting responsi- ble Defence exports. Though the Government did not specify the number of missiles to be supplied to the Philippines Navy, sources said at least three batteries will be sold. The signing ceremony took place in Manila. Moreover, the range of the missile for export is about 300 km with the capability of car- rying 200k warhead even though the Brahmos has the capability of hitting a target at more than 400 km, they said. Indian ambassador to the Philippines Shambhu Kumaran said he was privileged to wit- ness history in the making. “Signing of the Brahmos acqui- sition contract by Philippines Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana today marks a deci- sive step forward for Prime Minister’s Mission Sagar and India’s Indo-Pacific engage- ment,” he tweeted. He thanked Lorenzana and Philippines Cabinet Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr for their active support to build stronger rela- tions with India. “Today we are one step closer to elevating ties between our democracies to a strategic partnership and our shared objective of a free and peace- ful Indo-Pacific,” Kumaran noted. “It is also a moment of deep pride as India establishes itself as a source of high-tech- nology equipment and a trust- ed partner towards capability development of friendly nations,” he added. Reacting to BrahMos’s export order, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chairman G Satheesh Reddy said, “Surface to air missile Akash, Astra, anti-tank missiles, radars, torpedoes gain the interest of various coun- tries. More systems are being developed which have export potential.” A fter the exit of RPN Singh from the Congress, former Uttar Pradesh Congress presi- dent Raj Babbar too is likely to desert the party. Babbar is expected to join the Samajwadi Party. Interestingly on Monday, The Congress named him as one of the 30 star campaigners of the party for the first phase of the UP polls. Sources said Raj Babbar is in touch with SP supremo Akhilesh Yadav and can quit the Congress soon. Babbar, former cine star and native of Agra, began his political journey from Janata Dal in 1989. The actor subse- quently switched allegiance to the SP and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1994. In the 1999 general elec- tion, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Agra constituency and retained this seat in the 2004 Lok Sabha polls as well. However, he was suspended from the SP in February 2006 for his outbursts against the party. In October 5, 2008, he formally joined the Congress at a massive rally in Agra. In the by-election to the Firozabad Lok Sabha seat held in November 2009, he emerged victorious on a Congress tick- et. However, he suffered a set- back by losing to the BJP in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elec- tions from Ghaziabad and Fatehpur Sikri respectively. In the meantime, he was a member of the Rajya Sabha from March 2015 to November 2020. Most importantly, he served as the Uttar Pradesh Congress president from 2016 to 2019. A fter Chinese researchers said they have detected new type of coronavirus “NeoCov” among bats in South Africa which can pen- etrate human cells in the same way as SARS-CoV-2, the WHO on Friday said that its potential needs further clari- ty. Chinese researchers weighed in on the mortality rate stating that “one in every three infected persons dies”, highlighting the higher death rate. However, according to the reports, the NeoCov virus is not new. Associated with the MERS-CoV virus, it was dis- covered in outbreaks in West Asian countries in 2012 and 2015 and is similar to the SARS-CoV-2, which causes coronavirus in humans. It has latent ability to mutate.“It is only one mutation away from becoming dangerous for humans,” researchers said in a paper posted on preprint web- site bioRxiv, and not peer- reviewed yet. However, according to the WHO, the question of whether the NeoCov coron- avirus, recently discovered in bats in South Africa, poses a threat to humans requires fur- ther study.“Whether the virus detected in the study will pose a risk for humans will require further study,” said the health body. The WHO added that it “works closely” with the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the UN Environment Program (UNEP) in order to “monitor and respond to the threat of emerging zoonotic viruses.” F ollowing demands from various quarters, particu- larly parents, the Union Health Ministry is working on options for opening schools with Covid appropriate norms and may soon issue an advisory to States in this regard. “The Government is work- ing on some model to open the schools due to increasing demands by parents. The Ministry has already asked its expert team to look into all the options for opening schools,” sources in the Ministry said. There has been increased pressure on the Government from parents and schools to reopen education facilities as the number of Covid-19 cases in India is on the decline. Some States and Union Territories have already announced the reopening of schools for Classes 10 to 12 with the condition that stu- dents between the age group 15 to 18 can attend offline classes only if they had had at least one dose of vaccination. All staff and students above 18 must be vaccinated with both doses. Various global agencies like UNICEF and World Bank too have called upon the Governments to take steps in this direction. A day after the Tata Group took over Air India from the Government, passengers on Air India flights on Friday were addressed with a special welcome audio announcement. Pilots on all Air India flights greeted passengers with the line “Welcome to the future of Air India” on January 28. In an order, the opera- tions department told the air- line’s pilots to make a specific announcement after door clo- sure on every flight departing on Friday. “Dear Guests, This is your Captain (Name) speaking...Welcome aboard this historic flight, which marks a special event. Today, Air India officially becomes a part of the Tata Group again, after seven decades. We look forward to serving you on this and every Air India flight with renewed commitment and passion. Welcome to the future of Air India! We hope you enjoy the journey,” is the special wel- come announcement for pas- sengers. T erming as “undemocratic” and “irrational”, Supreme Court on Friday quashed the suspension of 12 BJP MLAs by the Maharashtra Assembly. In a landmark Judgment, the bench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar said that sus- pending a Member of the House or Legislative Assembly beyond the remain- der period of ongoing session would impact the democrat- ic setup as a whole by per- mitting the thin majority or coalition Government to manipulate the numbers of the Opposition party in an undemocratic manner. In its judgment delivered on the pleas filed by 12 BJP MLAs who had challenged their one-year suspension from Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for allegedly mis- behaving with the presiding officer, the bench comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and CT Ravikumar observed that one-year suspension is “worse than” expulsion, dis- qualification or resignation. “In conclusion, we have no hesitation in allowing these writ petitions and to declare that the impugned resolution directing suspen- sion of the petitioners beyond the period of the remainder of the concerned Monsoon ses- sion held in July 2021 is non est in the eyes of law, nullity, unconstitutional, substan- tively illegal and irrational,” said the bench. New Delhi: The Government has appointed Venkatraman Anantha Nageswaran as the next Chief Economic Adviser. Nageswaran assumed charge of his new role in the Finance Ministry on Friday, as per an official statement. Nageswaran was till recent- ly the Dean of the IFMR Graduate School of Business and a distinguished Visiting Professor of Economics at Krea University. He was also a part- time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India from 2019 to 2021. Agencies Bengaluru: Former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s granddaughter Dr Soundarya V Y was found hanging at her city residence here on Friday, with police sus- pecting it to be a case of sui- cide. Soundarya, daughter of BJP leader’s second daughter Padmavathi, was married to Dr Neeraj S, who works in same hospital where she is employed, in 2018, police said. On Friday morning, Neeraj left for duty while she was home at their Vasant Nagar residence here. The matter came to light when the maid came to house and knocked on door repeatedly but in vain. She informed Dr Neeraj, who too called on his wife’s phone but there was no response , the police said, adding, the door was then opened by force. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

Transcript of 3;A cVa`dVd WRZeY Z_ dZeeZ_X >=2d Z_ FA - Daily Pioneer

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Reposing faith in sitting leg-islators, the BJP on Friday

released another list of 91 can-didates for the upcoming UttarPradesh Assembly electionswhere it has given tickets to 13Ministers and repeated its sit-ting MLA in Ayodhya.

In this list, majority of thenames were from those con-stituencies where electionswould be held in the fifth andsixth phases but names of can-didates for Lucknow, where theelections will be held in thefourth phase, are still underwraps.

Similarly, the future of theSpeaker of the Assembly,Hridaynarayan Dixit, hangsin balance as his name is alsonot there in the list.

The party dropped Co-Operative Affairs MinisterMukut Bihari Verma but gaveticket to his son Gaurav whowill be contesting from hisKaiserganj seat in Bahraich.

Major seat holders areSidharthnath Singh fromAllahabad West, Chief

Minister’s media adviserShalabmani Tripathi fromDeoria Sadar seat, Nand GopalNandi from Prayagraj South,Amit Chauhan from Bikapurin Ayodhya and RamchandraYadav from Rudauli.

The BJP has allotted tick-ets to nine women candidatesin the current list of candidates.

The BJP women candi-dates in the new list areSindhuja Mishra (Kunda),Neelam Karwariya (Meja),Aarti Kol (Karaon), AartiTiwari (Goshainganj), SarojSonkar (Balha), AnupamaJaiswal (Bahraich), A NeelamSonkar (Lalganj), ManjuSonkar (Mehnagar) and SunitaParishit Singh (Zamania).Apart from this, the BJP has

allotted tickets to AkhileshMishra from Azamgarh Sadarseat and Prateek BhushanSingh from Gonda. The partyhas fielded Sinduja Mishraagainst Raghuraj Pratap Singh,alias Raja Bhaiya, in Kundaand despite Opposition gaveticket to Rajesh Gautam fromKadipur (R) seat of Sultanpur.

The party, however, deniedticket to sitting MLA fromHaidergarh Baijnath Rawatand instead fielded DineshRawat. The BJP has fieldednew faces from BarabankiSadar (Arvind Maurya) andSharad Awasthi fromRamnagar. In Azamgarh,which is considered a strong-hold of the BSP and the SP, theBJP has declared candidates for

nine out of ten constituencies.Party declared Satyendra

Rai from Gopalpur, AkhileshMishra from Azamgarh,Manoj Yadava fromNizamabad, Krishna MurariVishwakarma from Didarganj,former MP Neelam Sonkarfrom Lalganj, and Manju Sarojfrom Mehnagar.

Manju Saroj, was the can-didate of Suheldev BharatiyaSamaj Party in 2017 but lostthe poll. She is now face of theBJP.

The BJP has not yet field-ed anyone from Phulpur-Powaiwhere the SP has given ticketto Ramakant Yadav, father ofBJP MLA Arun Kant.

Among the Ministers whogot tickets are: Suresh Pasifrom Jagdishpur of Sultanpur,Rajendra Pratap Singh Motifrom Pratapgarh, SidharthNath Singh from AllahabadWest, Nand Gopal Nandi,Allahabad south, RmapatiShastri from Mankapur,Gonda, Health Minister JaiPratap Singh from Bansi inSiddharthnagar, SatishDwivedi from Etwa inSiddharthnagar, Jai PrakashNishad from Rudrapur inDeoria, Agriculture MinisterSurya Pratap Shahi fromPathardeva in Deoria, andUpendra Tiwari from Phephnain Ballia.

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The rebellion is brewingwithin the Punjab Congress

over the distribution of tickets.The party is facing revolt at noless than 15 seats out of thetotal 109 declared so far, forc-ing the party high command toreview its decision on at leastfive seats.

The denial of party tickethas resulted in a massiveresentment among the left outaspirants who have beendemanding review, while manyothers have declared to contestas independents.

In fact, its three sittingMLAs Rana Gurmeet SinghSodhi (Guru Har Sahai),Fatehjung Singh Bajwa(Qadian), and Dr Harjot Kamal(Moga) have already partedways with the party.

Prominent among therebels include former MPMohinder Singh Kaypee, for-mer Minister Jagmohan SinghKang, four-time CongressMLA from Samrala AmrikSingh Dhillon, Sunam halqa in-charge Daman Thind Bajwa,s inger-turned-pol it ic ianSatwinder Bitti, Chief Minister

Charanjit Singh Channi’syounger brother Dr ManoharSingh, Cabinet Minister RanaGurjit Singh’s son Rana InderPartap Singh, among others.

A day after Congress’ four-time legislator from SamralaAmrik Singh Dhillon filed hisnomination papers as an inde-pendent, Channi’s brother DrManohar Singh on Friday filedhis nomination from BassiPathana Assembly seat as anindependent candidate againstthe Congress nominee and sit-ting MLA Gurpreet Singh GP.

Dr Manohar, who resignedfrom the post of senior medicalofficer at Kharar Civil Hospital,

was staking claims for ticketfrom Bassi Pathana. “Severalprominent people of BassiPathana area have asked me tofight as an independent and Iwill go by what they have said.There is no chance of goingback and I will surely fight thepolls,” said Dr Manohar afterfiling the nominations.

Kang, former MLA fromKharar, also revolted againstthe party and expressedanguish over denial of partyticket to him, while declaringthat his son Yadevinder SinghBunny Kang will contest asindependent candidate fromKharar.

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India on Friday entered theniche defence export market

by inking a deal worth over 375million dollars with thePhilippines for BrahMos super-sonic cruise missile. It is thefirst big export contract byIndia. The country hopes tocross the five billion dollarmark by 2025.

The Pioneer on January 14had reported about theGovernment-to-Governmentdeal between India and thePhilippines for the missile sys-tem.

While the Brahmos is ajoint venture between Indiaand Russia, the missile isindigenously designed andmanufactured. The missile canbe launched from land, air, seaand submarines.

Announcing the deal,Defence Ministry officials saidhere on Friday that BrahMosAerospace Private Limited(BAPL) signed a contract withthe Department of NationalDefence of the Republic of thePhilippines for supply of shore-based anti-ship missile sys-tem. The contract is an impor-tant step forward for India’spolicy of promoting responsi-ble Defence exports.

Though the Governmentdid not specify the number of

missiles to be supplied to thePhilippines Navy, sources saidat least three batteries will besold. The signing ceremonytook place in Manila.

Moreover, the range of themissile for export is about 300km with the capability of car-rying 200k warhead eventhough the Brahmos has thecapability of hitting a target atmore than 400 km, they said.

Indian ambassador to thePhilippines Shambhu Kumaransaid he was privileged to wit-ness history in the making.“Signing of the Brahmos acqui-sition contract by PhilippinesDefence Secretary DelfinLorenzana today marks a deci-sive step forward for PrimeMinister’s Mission Sagar andIndia’s Indo-Pacific engage-ment,” he tweeted.

He thanked Lorenzana andPhilippines Cabinet SecretaryTeddy Locsin Jr for their active

support to build stronger rela-tions with India.

“Today we are one stepcloser to elevating ties betweenour democracies to a strategicpartnership and our sharedobjective of a free and peace-ful Indo-Pacific,” Kumarannoted.

“It is also a moment ofdeep pride as India establishesitself as a source of high-tech-nology equipment and a trust-ed partner towards capabilitydevelopment of friendlynations,” he added.

Reacting to BrahMos’sexport order, Defence Researchand Development Organisation(DRDO) chairman G SatheeshReddy said, “Surface to airmissile Akash, Astra, anti-tankmissiles, radars, torpedoes gainthe interest of various coun-tries. More systems are beingdeveloped which have exportpotential.”

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After the exit of RPN Singhfrom the Congress, former

Uttar Pradesh Congress presi-dent Raj Babbar too is likely todesert the party.

Babbar is expected to jointhe Samajwadi Party.Interestingly on Monday, TheCongress named him as one ofthe 30 star campaigners of theparty for the first phase of theUP polls.

Sources said Raj Babbar isin touch with SP supremoAkhilesh Yadav and can quitthe Congress soon.

Babbar, former cine starand native of Agra, began hispolitical journey from JanataDal in 1989. The actor subse-quently switched allegiance tothe SP and was elected to theRajya Sabha in 1994.

In the 1999 general elec-tion, he was elected to the LokSabha from Agra constituencyand retained this seat in the2004 Lok Sabha polls as well.However, he was suspendedfrom the SP in February 2006for his outbursts against the

party. In October 5, 2008, heformally joined the Congress ata massive rally in Agra.

In the by-election to theFirozabad Lok Sabha seat heldin November 2009, he emergedvictorious on a Congress tick-et. However, he suffered a set-back by losing to the BJP in the2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions from Ghaziabad andFatehpur Sikri respectively.

In the meantime, he was amember of the Rajya Sabhafrom March 2015 to November2020. Most importantly, heserved as the Uttar PradeshCongress president from 2016to 2019.

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After Chinese researcherssaid they have detected

new type of coronavirus“NeoCov” among bats inSouth Africa which can pen-etrate human cells in the sameway as SARS-CoV-2, theWHO on Friday said that itspotential needs further clari-ty.

Chinese researchersweighed in on the mortalityrate stating that “one in everythree infected persons dies”,highlighting the higher deathrate.

However, according to thereports, the NeoCov virus isnot new. Associated with theMERS-CoV virus, it was dis-covered in outbreaks in WestAsian countries in 2012 and2015 and is similar to the

SARS-CoV-2, which causescoronavirus in humans. It haslatent ability to mutate.“It isonly one mutation away frombecoming dangerous forhumans,” researchers said in apaper posted on preprint web-site bioRxiv, and not peer-reviewed yet.

However, according to theWHO, the question of whether the NeoCov coron-avirus, recently discovered inbats in South Africa, poses athreat to humans requires fur-

ther study.“Whether the virusdetected in the study will posea risk for humans will requirefurther study,” said the healthbody.

The WHO added that it“works closely” with the WorldOrganisation for AnimalHealth (OIE), the Food andAgriculture Organisation(FAO) and the UNEnvironment Program(UNEP) in order to “monitorand respond to the threat ofemerging zoonotic viruses.”

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Following demands fromvarious quarters, particu-

larly parents, the Union HealthMinistry is working on optionsfor opening schools with Covidappropriate norms and maysoon issue an advisory to Statesin this regard.

“The Government is work-ing on some model to open theschools due to increasingdemands by parents. TheMinistry has already asked itsexpert team to look into all theoptions for opening schools,”sources in the Ministry said.

There has been increasedpressure on the Governmentfrom parents and schools toreopen education facilities asthe number of Covid-19 casesin India is on the decline.

Some States and UnionTerritories have alreadyannounced the reopening ofschools for Classes 10 to 12with the condition that stu-dents between the age group 15to 18 can attend offline classesonly if they had had at least onedose of vaccination. All staffand students above 18 must bevaccinated with both doses.Various global agencies likeUNICEF and World Bank toohave called upon theGovernments to take steps inthis direction.

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Aday after the Tata Grouptook over Air India from

the Government, passengers onAir India flights on Fridaywere addressed with a specialwelcome audio announcement.

Pilots on all Air Indiaflights greeted passengers withthe line “Welcome to the futureof Air India” on January 28.

In an order, the opera-tions department told the air-line’s pilots to make a specificannouncement after door clo-sure on every flight departingon Friday.

“Dear Guests, This is yourCaptain (Name)speaking...Welcome aboard thishistoric flight, which marks a

special event. Today, Air Indiaofficially becomes a part of theTata Group again, after sevendecades. We look forward toserving you on this and everyAir India flight with renewedcommitment and passion.

Welcome to the future ofAir India! We hope you enjoythe journey,” is the special wel-come announcement for pas-sengers.

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Terming as “undemocratic”and “irrational”, Supreme

Court on Friday quashed thesuspension of 12 BJP MLAsby the Maharashtra Assembly.

In a landmark Judgment,the bench headed by JusticeAM Khanwilkar said that sus-pending a Member of theHouse or Legislat iveAssembly beyond the remain-der period of ongoing sessionwould impact the democrat-ic setup as a whole by per-mitting the thin majority orcoalition Government tomanipulate the numbers ofthe Opposition party in anundemocratic manner.

In its judgment deliveredon the pleas filed by 12 BJPMLAs who had challenged

their one-year suspensionfrom Maharashtra LegislativeAssembly for allegedly mis-behaving with the presidingofficer, the bench comprisingJustices Dinesh Maheshwariand CT Ravikumar observedthat one-year suspension is“worse than” expulsion, dis-qualification or resignation.

“In conclusion, we haveno hesitation in allowingthese writ petitions and todeclare that the impugnedresolution directing suspen-sion of the petitioners beyondthe period of the remainder ofthe concerned Monsoon ses-sion held in July 2021 is nonest in the eyes of law, nullity,unconstitutional, substan-tively illegal and irrational,”said the bench.

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New Delhi: The Governmenthas appointed VenkatramanAnantha Nageswaran as thenext Chief Economic Adviser.Nageswaran assumed charge ofhis new role in the FinanceMinistry on Friday, as per anofficial statement.

Nageswaran was till recent-ly the Dean of the IFMRGraduate School of Businessand a distinguished VisitingProfessor of Economics at KreaUniversity. He was also a part-time member of the EconomicAdvisory Council to the PrimeMinister of India from 2019 to2021. Agencies

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Bengaluru: FormerKarnataka Chief Minister B SYediyurappa’s granddaughterDr Soundarya V Y was foundhanging at her city residencehere on Friday, with police sus-pecting it to be a case of sui-cide. Soundarya, daughter ofBJP leader’s second daughterPadmavathi, was married toDr Neeraj S, who works insame hospital where she isemployed, in 2018, police said.On Friday morning, Neerajleft for duty while she washome at their Vasant Nagarresidence here. The mattercame to light when the maidcame to house and knocked ondoor repeatedly but in vain.She informed Dr Neeraj, whotoo called on his wife’s phonebut there was no response , thepolice said, adding, the doorwas then opened by force.

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After implementing 75 per-cent reservation for people

of the state in private jobs, theManohar Lal KhattarGovernment in Haryana hasdecided to set up a call centreto provide assistance to its cit-izens and seek feedback onvarious aspects related toemployment.

The outbound call centreis proposed to be launched toprovide personalized assis-tance to the job seekers, offerinformation on different gov-ernment policies and schemes,redress grievances of citizensand address the queries of jobseekers. Besides this, a bulkmessaging service is alsoplanned to be started by thegovernment to connect to thecitizens on employment relat-ed issues.

The Haryana StateEmployment of LocalCandidates Act, 2020 thatreserves 75 per cent of jobs inthe private sector in Haryanaoffering a salary of less than Rs30,000 a month only to localscame into effect on January 15,2022. Under this, any “local

candidate” (resident ofHaryana) aggrieved by theaction of any employer in vio-lation of any provision of theAct, can file a complaint withthe government.

“The State Governmentis in process of setting up anintegrated communicationsystem to redress the griev-ances of local youth besidesdisseminating information onvarious policies and pro-grammes related to providingemployment in Haryana.Under this system, an out-bound call centre, an onlinecontact centre (portal) and abulk messaging service will belaunched in the state,” said asenior official of the StateGovernment while talking toThe Pioneer.

The official said that thecitizens would be able to reg-ister their complaint and raisetheir queries on an onlineplatform.

They will also get phonecalls from the call centre totake their feedback onschemes and to know if theircomplaints were redressed.

The integrated commu-nication system would help ineffective implementation of

75 percent reservation lawand other policies of the StateGovernment, the officialadded.

The 75 percent reservationlaw is applicable to theemployers of private sectorcompanies, societies, trusts,limited liability partnershipfirms, partnership firms andany person who employs 10 ormore persons on salary, wagesor other remuneration for thepurpose of manufacturing,carrying on business or ren-dering any service in Haryana.

Till date, around 22000companies have registeredonline on the concerned por-tal in the state.

Notably, the unemploy-ment rate in Haryana stands at6.1 percent with around 10.59lakh people in the age groupof 18-58 years declaring them-selves as unemployed, accord-ing to the data collected underParivar Pehchan Patra (PPP)programme of the StateGovernment.

As per the data, there are1.73 crore people in the agegroup of 18- 58 years and outof them 1059530 persons havedeclared themselves unem-ployed in the State.

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Haryana Home and HealthMinister Anil Vij on

Friday said that the construc-tion work of War Memorial offirst rebellion of freedomstruggle of 1857 is ongoing inAmbala Cantt and it will beready soon as 80 percent workhas been completed.

Vij was presiding over areview meeting of variousdepartments in this regard.The Memorial is being built bythe Department ofInformation, Public Relationsand Languages and is beingbuilt on an area of 22-acres.

The Minister said that thisMemorial would develop intoa major tourist hub, whichwould probably be the largestand will also be equippedwith modern technology.

It was informed in themeeting that the Memorialwould be developed in threephases. Under the first phase,the turn of events related to thefirst battle of independence of1857 in Ambala will be shown.

In the second phase,where the first battle of inde-pendence was fought inHaryana will be described andin the third phase the freedomstruggle of India, includingstories of bravery of Rani ofJhansi, Bahadur Shah Zafaralong with other freedomfighters will be described.

It was also informed thatthis monument would be oneof its kind with latest technol-ogy in which today's moderndigital technology would beused to depict historicalevents. .

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Haryana Government hasconstituted an internal

grievance redressal committeefor employees belonging toScheduled Caste communityin the state.

IAS Anurag Agarwal willbe chairman of the committeewhile IAS officers D Suresh,A Sreenivas, RC Bidhan andHCS Varsha Khangwal will bemembers of the committee,stated an order issued byChief Secretar y SanjeevKaushal.

In pursuance of recom-mendation of NationalCommission for ScheduledCastes (NCSC), an internalgrievance redressal committeefor employees belonging to SCcommunity is constituted forHaryana Civil Secretariat. Thecommittee shall examine thecomplaints from SC employ-

ees in service matters includ-ing non-maintenance of reser-vation roster and not filling upof reserved vacancies, dis-crimination in promotion,seniority, ACP, non-appoint-ment on compassionategrounds, downgrading ofAPARs or ACRs, discrimina-tion in transfer or posting,denial of pensionary benefitsand disbursement of payarrears etc, the order stated.

The committee will exam-ine the complaints and submitits report within one month,the order added.

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The Union Health Ministryhas allowed Himachal

Government to procure addi-tional 50 ambulances fromfund available under ECRP-II(emergency response andhealth systems preparednesspackage). The Ministry hasapproved this after meeting ofChief Minister Jai Ram Thakurwith the Union Health andFamily Welfare MinisterMansukh Mandaviya at NewDelhi on Thursday.

A spokesman of StateGovernment said that Ministryhas agreed that State couldnow take up brick and mortarconstructions in place of prefabricated structures for con-struction of makeshift hospitalsif required to tackle Coronapandemic.

He said that this decision ofCentral Government wouldenable state to create permanenthealth infrastructure. Thiswould not only provide betterand reliable transport facilitiesto patients but would alsoensure prompt transportationof patients in any exigency.With this response time wouldbe less than 30 minutes, he said.

The spokesman said thatresource envelope of Himachalunder ECRP-II which was Rs203.86 crore has been enhancedto Rs 240.56 crore on request ofChief Minister. The spokesmanfurther said that Union HealthMinistry has also approvedproposals for rationalization ofsalary structure of staff underNHM and also engagement ofadditional urban ASHAs undersupplementary PIP.

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The untamed and unabatedwar of words between

Punjab Congress presidentNavjot Singh Sidhu and seniorAkali leader Bikram SinghMajithia is primed to developinto an even-handed battle ofballots with the two meetingeach other head-on forAmritsar (East) seat duringthe February 20 elections.

Majithia, who has con-tested and won the electionsthrice from his home turfMajitha, has this time decid-ed to confront Sidhu in hiscitadel — making it a battle ofprestige. Call it a battlebetween friends-turned-foesor between Lambu (as Sidhurefers to Majithia) and ThokoTaali (the way Majithia refersto Sidhu), Amritsar east hasturned into a hot seat.

By challenging Sidhu onhis home turf, Majithia hasmade an apparent attempt tosend across a message that hewould not be cowed down byregistration of criminal casesagainst him, police raids at hisresidences, and rejection of hisbail pleas.

Also, the Akali Dal, whichis struggling, to some extent,to regain its traditional votebank of farmers, and Sikh vot-ers while still living under theshadow of sacrilege incidents,has managed to shift the entirefocus of elections on just oneseat.SAD, including Majithiaand party chief Sukhbir SinghBadal, has all along beenclaiming that the case againstMajithia was because of “polit-ical vendetta”. In fact, Majithia,in his bail pleas, had also citedpolitical rivalry as a major rea-son behind the registration ofcase against him, while dub-

bing Sidhu his “arch rival”.As a part of the same,

Sukhbir Badal had also evendeclared to quit politics ifCongress produced any proofof drug trafficking againstMajithia.

Notably, Sidhu, since2017-18, has been taking onhis own party’s governmentfor not registering case againstMajithia by claiming that STFreport has enough proof tobook him. In fact, non-actionagainst Majithia was one ofthe prime reasons of revoltagainst the former ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh by his own party MLAs,which eventually led to hisouster from the Congress.

After gett ing CaptAmarinder removed as ChiefMinister, Sidhu kept up thepressure on new ChiefMinister Charanjit SinghChanni, to implement theIGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu-headed task force report,which probed Majithia’s rolein drug trafficking.

The hostility between thetwo was so much that bothleaders were seen losing theircool many times, even duringVidhan Sabha session. Theynearly came to blows duringthe previous assembly ses-sion two months ago inNovember. “Chitte da sauda-gar”, “Daaku” is how Sidhuaddresses Majithia at manyoccasions.Not leaving behind,Majithia has also nicknamedSidhu, and always make sure

not to take his name butaddress him as “Thoko Taali”.Now known arch-rivals, Sidhuand Majithia were once closeassociates. Before joiningCongress in 2017, Sidhu wasin BJP for 14 years and hadbeen party MP from Amritsarthrice. In 2009 Lok Sabhaelections, Majithia played asignificant role in assuringSidhu’s victory from the seat.

However, things startedchanging when Sidhu openedfront against its then allySAD, which is heading com-bine government in State, forstalling his developmentworks, and interfering in “his”constituency. He also accusedMajithia of undue interferencein his constituency.

Things turned worsewhen Sidhu’s wife, Dr NavjotKaur Sidhu, was elected thefirst legislator from AmritsarEast when the constituencywas carved out followingdelimitation in 2012. TheSidhu couple sharpened theirattack against the Akalis.Subsequently, SAD vocifer-ously opposed Sidhu’s candi-dature from Amritsar in 2014parliamentary polls, followingwhich the BJP fielded its stal-wart Arun Jaitley — whofought his one and only elec-tions and faced defeat againstCongress’ Capt AmarinderSingh. Since then, their enmi-ty is in public knowledge.

It was in 2014 whenJagdish Bhola, main accusedin a multi-crore drug cartel inPunjab, named Majithia alongwith others for their allegedinvolvement in drug traffick-ing. Making drug menace itsmain poll issue while promis-ing to act against “kingpin”Majithia, Congress contested2017 polls and the SAD Akalisfaced a humiliating defeat.In

2017, Sidhu shifted loyaltiestowards Congress and defeat-ed a low-profile BJP candi-date, Rakesh Kumar Honey,by over 40,000 votes.

Majithia, since long, hasbeen fighting against not justhis political rivals, but alsodrug taint. Currently also,Majithia is evading arrest bysecuring protection from theCourts after he was booked bythe Punjab police in an NDPScase.

The former Minister firstentered the electoral arena in2007. Since then, there is nolooking back. After winningthree consecutive polls —2007, 2012, and 2017,Majithia, this time again, isseeking re-election from hisbastion Majitha along withAmritsar east.

Brother-in-law of SADpresident, Majithia’s strong-hold over party, especially inPunjab’s Majha region, grewover the period, and that’s whyhe is commonly known as‘Majhe Da Jarnail’. Majharegion, primarily comprisesAmritsar, Gurdaspur districts,elects 23 MLAs to the 117-member state assembly.

Akali Dal has raised thestakes in Punjab elections,where all parties were pri-marily focussing on playingsafe considering that it will bea multi-cornered contest thistime, by pitting Majithiaagainst Sidhu. Also, the deci-sion is set to give a much-needed boost to the party’selection campaign.Majithia’sbail plea in drugs case ispending before SupremeCourt, which will now beheard on January 31. Tillthen, the Apex Court hasasked the state government tonot take any coercive actionagainst Majithia.

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In an apparent bid to reachout to Dalit voters, AAP

national convener ArvindKejriwal on Friday urged peo-ple to remember Dr BhimRao Ambedkar while voting innext month's Assembly pollsand said he ''worships'' theleader.

Addressing a public meet-ing in Phillaur, he urged peo-ple to choose an honest gov-ernment while accusing boththe SAD and the Congress oflooting the state turn-by-turnin the past. Phillaur is part ofthe Doaba region, having asizeable population of theScheduled Castes community.

Kejriwal also promised tofulfil the Dalit icon's dream ofproviding quality education tochildren if his party voted topower after the February 20Punjab assembly polls. ''I ama big fan, a big follower of BabaSaheb B R Ambedkar. I wor-ship him. Coming genera-

tions will not believe that sucha great person was born onthis planet,'' he said, addingthat he has recentlyannounced that BhimraoAmbedkar and Bhagat Singh'sportraits be kept in all Delhigovernment offices. He calledupon people to visualise theDalit icon while going topolling booths to cast theirvote.

''Ask yourself if Baba Sahibwas alive, then what wouldhave he done while voting,''said Kejriwal. ''On one hand,there will be people belongingto the sand mafia and drugmafia and on the other, therewill be die-hard honest can-didates of AAP like BhagwantMann,'' he said.

''Ask yourself what wouldBaba Sahib have done in sucha situation. He would have def-initely voted for an honest can-didate. Bring the picture ofBaba Sahib in your mind andvote for the honest candi-date,'' Kejriwal said.

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RAIPUR | SATURDAY | JANUARY 29, 2022 chhattisgarh 03

A picturesque view of the renovated hi-tech Kotwali police station of Raipur which was dedicated to the publicon Republic Day. Pioneer Photo

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel

on Friday called for strict

action against illegal sandminers. He told theCollectors andSuperintendents of Police tocheck illegal sand mining atall cost.

Baghel also urged theCollectors and the SPs to per-sonally monitor the situationto end illegal mining.

"Collectors and SPs ofconcerned districts will be

personally responsible for thecomplaints of illegal sandmining received from theirdistrict," he said.

"If the complaints are notaddressed and no action istaken to stop illegal sandmining, district officials con-cerned will be held account-able and strict disciplinaryaction will be taken againstthem”, he said.

The Chief Minister tookinto serious account reportsof illegal sand mining andtransportation by sand mafiain the state. He told theMining Department to takestern action against themafia.

He said the state was fac-ing loss in revenue due to ille-gal sand mining and trans-portation. Hence, regularinspection should be con-ducted in the areas fromwhere complaints of illegalmining and transportation ofsand were received.

Government cracks whipon illegal sand mining

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Chhattisgarh govern-ment, striving hard to

create a new Chhattisgarh onthe theme ‘Garhbo NavaChhattisgarh’, has decided toprovide potable water tapconnections in urban bodiesover the click of the mouse.

The connection is to beprovided to citizens within agiven time-frame withouthuman intervention on thelines of Direct BuildingPermission, an official state-ment said on Friday.

This year, theChhattisgarh governmentwill bring a practical, simpleand transparent law for regu-larization of all irregularbuilding construction works.

Thes law will largely ben-

efit people of the state byallowing them to regularizetheir construction work and

helping them to earn liveli-hood and live with dignity,the press communiqué said.

Govt to ease water tapconnection in urban bodies

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

A38-year-old man whoposed as an Additional

Collector was arrested fromJashpur and brought here onFriday for cheating people ofRs 23.65 lakh after promisingthem government jobs inChhattisgarh, the police said.

Raipur Superintendent ofPolice Prashant Agrawal saidMojahid Anwar alias MDalias Anand Kishore Tirkeywas a resident of Surguja dis-trict.

A village sarpanch inJashpur, Sarveshwar Sai

Paikra, lodged a cheatingcase against him inSeptember 2020.

In April 2020, Tirkey,who posed as an AdditionalCollector, made a phone callto Paikra and promised hima government job as therewill be direct recruitment on1,380 posts of data entryoperators, clerks, peons anddriver in Ambikapur,Balrampur, Surguja andJashpur districts.

The accused told Paikrathat he will fix jobs for hisrelatives and friends too.

Tirkey took a total of Rs23.65 lakhs from Paikrabetween July 2020 andSeptember 2020 in Raipur bypromising to secure a gov-ernment job for all of them.

Police brought him toRaipur from Jashpur Jail. Hewas arrested recently in thesame case in Jashpur.

Man held for cheatingyouths over govt jobs

nSURAJPUR

Chhattisgarh Police havearrested a 21-year-old

man for killing his grandfa-ther in Surajpur district twodays ago, officials said onFriday.

Surajpur AdditionalSuperintendent of PoliceHarish Rahtore identified theaccused as Sunil Singh ofBasdei (Bhandarpara) villagein the district.

On Wednesday night,Singh killed his grandfatherBhaiyalal over a money relat-ed issue.

Singh was asking formoney to return it to some-one from whom he had takena loan for treatment of hisfather in 2021.

Police nabbed Singh fromhis house on Thursday and heconfessed to killing his grand-father. A court sent to jail.

Man heldfor killinggrandfather

nJANJGIR-CHAMPA

Chhattisgarh Police on Friday arrested nine gamblers from avillage in Janjgir-Champa district.A raid netted Rs 74,000 in cash and playing cards from

them, Janjgir-Champa Senior Superintendent of Police DrAbhishek Pallava said.

They were gambling in the Shikaripara area on Thursdaynight.

Nine gamblers held in Janjgir-Champa

File Photo

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Political parties in Indiacumulatively hold assets

worth around a whopping�9,117.95 crore with the rulingBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)topping the list with a stagger-ing wealth including cash, bankinvestments, movable andimmovable properties, vehiclesetc — worth �4,847.78 crore.However, it is the BahujanSamaj Party (BSP), and not theCongress, which followed BJPdeclaring assets worth �698.33crore (9.99 per cent).

While the Congressdeclared assets worth �588.16crore (8.42 per cent), CPI(M)declared �569.51 crore,Trinamool Congress (TMC)�247.78 crore, CPI �29.78 croreand NCP �8.20 crore.

According to theAssociation for DemocraticReforms (ADR) analysis report,the seven national partiestogether hold �6,988.57 crorewhile 44 regional parties have�2,129.35 crore. All these par-ties together hold assets worth�9,117.95 as on 2019-20.

Among the national par-ties, the BJP and BSP declaredthe highest assets underFDR/Fixed Deposits, �3,253.00crore and �618.86 crore respec-tively while the Congressdeclared the highest assetsunder FDR/Fixed Deposits,�240.90 crore for the 2019-20.

The total liabilities declaredby the seven national and 44regional political parties for thesame duration amounted to�134.93 crore. The nationalpolitical parties declared thetotal liabilities of �74.27 crore,�4.26 crore under Borrowingsand �70.01 crore under OtherLiabilities. The Congressdeclared the highest total lia-bilities of �49.55 crore (66.72per cent) followed by All IndiaTrinamool Congress (AITC)declaring �11.32 crore (15.24per cent).

Among the 44 regionalparties, the assets of the top 10parties were worth �2028.715crore or 95.27 per cent of thetotal declared by them all com-bined. In 2019-20, among theregional parties, the highestassets were declared by theSamajwadi Party at �563.47crore (26.46 per cent), fol-lowed by the Telangana RashtraSamithi (TRS) worth �301.47crore and All India Anna

Dravid Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK) worth �267.61crore. Fixed Deposits/FDRconstituted the largest share of�1,639.51 crore (76.99 per cent)of the total assets declared byregional parties in 2019-20.

The highest assets weredeclared under FDR/FixedDeposits by SP (�434.219crore), TRS (�256.01 crore),AIADMK (�246.90 crore),DMK (�162.425 crore), ShivSena (�148.46 crore) and BijuJanata Dal, BJD (�118.425crore) among others. Theregional political partiesdeclared the total liabilities of�60.66 crore, �30.29 crore wasdeclared under Borrowingsand �30.37 crore under OtherLiabilities. Amongst them, theTelugu Desam Party (TDP)declared the highest total lia-bilities of �30.342 crore (50.02per cent) followed by DMKthat declared �8.05 crore (13.27per cent).

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Lauding the role played bythe National Cadet

Corps(NCC) in nation build-ing, Prime Minister NarendraModi said here on Friday theGovernment has prepared overone lakh new NCC cadets inthe border areas of the country.He also stressed the need forinducting more girls into theNCC.

Addressing the annualNCC rally on the occasion ofthe Republic Day, the PrimeMinister also gave credit to itfor shaping his personality.

"The training I got in theNCC and the things I learnedhere have provided meimmense strength in deliveringupon my responsibilities.Recently, I had also received anNCC alumni card as well," he

said."I am proud that I was also

an active member of NCC. Ourgovernment is taking severalsteps to strengthen NCC. Alarge number of girl cadets par-ticipated in the rally, this is thechange India is witnessingtoday," Modi said whileaddressing the cadets.

Earlier, he inspected theGuard of Honour, reviewedMarch Past by NCC contin-gents and also witnessed theNCC cadets displaying theirskills in army action, slithering,micro-light flying, para-sailingas well and cultural pro-grammes. The best cadets alsoreceived medals and batonsfrom the Prime Minister.

In his address, Modi noteda different level of enthusiasmin the celebrations as the coun-try is marking the Azadi kaAmrit Mahotsav. He paid trib-

utes to Lala Lajpat Rai and FieldMarshal K M Cariappa fortheir contribution in nationbuilding.

The Prime Minister talkedabout the steps being taken tostrengthen the NCC in thecountry in a period when thecountry is moving forwardwith new resolutions. In the lasttwo years, one lakh new cadetshave been created in the bor-der areas of the country, hesaid.

The Prime Minister elabo-rated on the steps being takento open the doors of thedefence establishments for girlsand women. He noted thepresence of the large number ofthe girl cadets and termed it tobe a symbol of changing atti-tude of the nation.

Noting the young profile ofthe cadets, who are mostlyborn in this century, Modiunderlined their role in takingthe country towards 2047. Healso underlined the major rolethat youngsters can play in the‘vocal for local’ campaign.

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The Supreme Court Fridayrefused to lay down a yard-

stick for granting reservation inpromotion to Scheduled Castesand Scheduled Tribes inGovernment jobs.

A three-judge bench head-ed by Justice Nageswara Raosaid States are obligated to col-lect data on inadequacy ofrepresentation of SCs/STs.

The apex court said it can-not lay down any yardstick todetermine the inadequacy ofrepresentation of SCs/STs andit for the states to do so.

The Centre had earlier toldthe bench that it is a fact of lifethat even after around 75 yearsif independence those belong-ing to SCs and STs have notbeen brought to the same levelof merit as the forward class-es. The apex court had reservedits verdict on October 26, 2021.

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The Supreme Court onFriday granted three weeks

to SpiceJet to resolve its finan-cial dispute with Swiss firmCredit Suisse AG and stayedthe Madras High Court orderon its winding up, saying thatit was a “serious matter” andthe airlines cannot say it is abusy organisation and wouldnot pay.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice N V Ramana, whilestaying the publication of wind-ing up notice and the orderdirecting the official liquidatorattached to the Madras HighCourt to take over the assets ofthe low-cost airline, questionedthe approach of SpiceJet.

The bench, also compris-ing Justices AS Bopanna andHima Kohli, took note of thesubmissions of senior advocateHarish Salve that SpiceJetwould try to resolve the issuewith the Swiss firm.

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The country’s top drug reg-ulator, DCGI, has given

permission to Bharat Biotech toconduct phase-3 clinical trialfor its intranasal COVID vac-cine as booster dose on partic-ipants who have been previ-ously inoculated with SARS-CoV 2 vaccines.

The trials will be conduct-ed at nine locations in thecountry. It will be done on 900subjects.

The trials would evaluatethe nasal vaccine for both thetwo-dose primary schedule

and also to use as a boosterdose schedule, said officials inthe DCGI.

DCGI's Subject ExpertCommittee (SEC) gave an ‘in-principle' approval toHyderabad-based BharatBiotech for the 'phase-III boost-er dose study' for its intranasalCovid vaccine, a first of its kindin India, and asked it to submitprotocols for approval 3 weeksago.

BBV154 (nasal covid vac-cine) has received approval forphase-3 clinical trials. The tri-als will evaluate BBV154 nasalvaccine for both the two-doseprimary schedule and booster

dose schedule, the sources said. An intra-nasal vaccine

would not only be simple toadminister but also reduce theuse of needles and syringes,among others. It would alsoimpact the overall cost of a vac-cination drive, chairman ofBharat Biotech Krishna Ellahad said.

Bharat Biotech is the sec-ond company to submit anapplication for the phase-IIItrial of the third dose in India.The intranasal vaccines report-edly have the potential to pre-vent transmission for newCovid-19 variants such asOmicron.

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India is a “vibrant” democra-cy and does not need any val-

idation or “certificate,” theMinistry of External Affairs(MEA) said here on Friday.This rebuttal came in the back-drop of former Vice PresidentHamid Ansari and four USlawmakers airing concern overhuman rights situation in thecountry.

Making India’s stand clear,MEA spokesperson ArindamBagchi said here said India is avibrant democracy, which doesnot require certification fromothers, and the track record ofthe event's organisers was aswell known as the biases and

political interests of the par-ticipants.

Asked about the virtualpanel discussion organised bythe Indian American MuslimCouncil on Wednesday duringwhich Ansari and the US law-makers expressed concern overthe current human rights situ-ation in India, Bagchi said, "Wehave seen reports on this event.India is a robust and vibrantdemocracy. It does not requirecertification from others."

The claim that others needto protect our constitution is"presumptuous and preposter-ous", he said. "The track recordof event organisers is as wellknown as the biases and polit-ical interests of the partici-pants," Bagchi said.

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At a time when the world isgrappling with the highly

transmissible Omicron variantof Covid-19, scientists at theBanaras Hindu University(BHU) have, in a first-of-its-kind study, found that anti-viral, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties in thefumes of Air Vaidya HerbalDhoopa (AVHD), an ayurvedicformulation, could be effectivein preventing air-borne infec-tions in humans and home set-tings.

Prepared by AIMILPharmaceuticals, ‘Air Vaidya’contains phytochemicals from19 medicinal ingredients suchas Raal, Neem Patr, Vasa,Ajwain, Haldi, Lemon grass(lamajjaka), Vacha, Tulsi, PeeliSarson, Safed Chandan, Ushir,Sudh Guggal, Nagarmotha,Mehendi, Tagar, Loban,Kapoor, Jigat and Cardamomhusk, which are known fortheir potential therapeuticeffects to combat the virus.

Dr. KRC Reddy, Professor,Department of Rasa Shastra(Ayurveda), Institute ofMedical Sciences, BHU, wholed the research, said, “ThoughDhoopan (fumigation), a med-icinal therapy has beendescribed in Ayurveda com-pendia for ages for its potencyin anti-microbial, anti-fungal,anti-viral action, in the back-drop of rising Covid-19 cases,this is the first scientific study.”

Dr. Reddy explained,“Participants were divided intotwo groups—interventiongroup (150 persons) and con-

trolled group (100 persons).Since the Covid-19 virus gen-erally enters through nose andmouth into the human body,medicinal fumigation therapywas given to the participants ofthe intervention group. Theywere asked to inhale ‘Air VaidyaHerbal Dhoopa’ (AVHD)fumes for ten minutes twice aday, while the control groupwas not given any such treat-ment.

“The results were encour-aging. Just 4 percent of theintervention group put on themedicinal therapy showedCovid like symptoms such asfever, cough, cold, or no tasteor smell; on the other hand, atleast 37 percent, who were notgiven such therapy, were foundto have Covid-19 like symp-toms.” The fumes were alsochemically safe on Drosophilaflies in the first phase of theclinical trial, Dr. Reddy said.

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The NIA on Friday filed achargesheet against eight

accused persons in ISIS KeralaModule case. The eightchargesheeted alleged ISIS ter-rorists are Deepthi Marla aliasMaryam, Mohammad WaqarLone alias Wilson Kashmiri,Mizha Siddeeque, Shifa Harisalias Ayesha, Obaid HamidMatta, Madesh Shankar aliasAbdullah, Ammar AbdulRahiman and Muzamil HassanBhat, the NIA said in a state-ment. The NIA had registeredthe case on March 5, 2021 per-taining to terrorist activities ofMohammed Ameen alias AbuYahya of Kerala and his associ-ates, who have been runningvarious ISIS propaganda chan-nels on different social mediaplatforms such as Telegram,Hoop and Instagram for prop-agating the violent Jihadi ideol-ogy of ISIS and radicalizing andrecruiting new members for the ISIS module.

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The Pakistan Hindu Council(PHC) ‘faith tourism trip’ to

India through chartered flightsbeginning from Saturday hasbeen postponed due to risingcases of COVID-19. PHC chiefpatron Ramesh Vankwani onFriday said that the tour hasbeen postponed for the timebeing after the Government ofIndia’s request due to the risingcases of COVID-19.

India on Friday said thereis an interest on both theIndian and Pakistani sides toexpand the agreed list ofshrines and mode of travelunder the 1974 protocol for vis-its to religious places, assertingthat it has a positive approachon the matter and is willing toengage with Islamabad on it.PHC has proposed to fly 160Pakistani Hindu pilgrims fromKarachi to Jaipur on Saturday.

The assertion comes daysafter Vankwani who is a mem-ber of the National Assemblyfrom Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan's ruling party,urged India to issue visas to a

delegation of pilgrims to visitthe country as part of his faithtourism initiative between thetwo neighbours.

Responding to a query, theMinistry of External AffairsSpokesperson Arindam Bagchisaid, "As you are aware, underthe 1974 Protocol betweenIndia and Pakistan, visits toreligious shrines are being facil-itated regularly. There is aninterest on both sides to expandthe agreed list of shrines andmode of travel." It naturallyneeds to be discussed under theprotocol, he said.

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The Centre on Friday said it has decided to convert as manyas 150 villages into 'Villages of Excellence' in 12 states with

technical assistance from the Israel government. Already, the Israelgovernment has established 29 Centre of Excellence (CoEs) in12 states, which are producing more than 25 million vegetableplants, over 3,87,000 quality fruit plants and can train more than1.2 lakh farmers per year. The 150 villages that are located aroundCoEs will be converted into 'Villages of Excellence.' "Out of these,75 villages are being taken up in the first year to commemoratethe 75th year of India's independence, where India and Israel willwork together," Union Agriculture Minister Narendra SinghTomar conveyed in a meeting with new Israeli Ambassador toIndia Naor Gilon on January 27.Gilon said these CoEs are a greatexample of cooperation between the two countries and proposedthe certification of CoEs to further enhance the standards andquality of services being provided to the farmers.He also evincedinterest in further collaboration with agri-research body ICARand making available the latest technologies available with Israel.Gilon also invited Tomar to visit Israel.

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The Covid-19 claimed asmany as 103 lives and left

24,948 people infected inMaharashtra on Friday, even asthe daily infections in Mumbaidropped to 1,312.

On a day when 110 freshOmicron cases were reportedin the State, as many as 103people succumbed to Covid-19in various parts of the state, asagainst 42 deaths reported onThursday. The number ofdeaths reported on Friday wasthe highest single fatalities inrecent months.

With 103 fresh deaths, thetotal number of deaths regis-tered in the state since the out-break of Covid-19 in the statein March 2020 went up from1,42, 358 to 1,42,461.

A day after Maharashtralogged 25,425 infections, thedaily cases in the state droppedto 24,948. With the fresh infec-tions, the total number ofCovid-19 cases in the staterose from 76,30, 606 cases to76,55,554.

Mumbai, where the dailyinfections have been droppingsteadily for more than eightdays, witnessed a drop in thenumber of cases from 1,384 to1312. With the latest cases, thetotal number of cases inMumbai mounted from10,41,747 cases to 10,43,059.

As 45,848 Covid-19patients were discharged fromthe hospitals across the stateafter full recovery, the totalnumber of people discharged

from the hospitals since thesecond week of March 2020increased from 71,97,001 to72,42,649. The recovery rate inthe state rose from 94.32 percent to 94.61 per cent.

The number of “activecases” in the state droppedfrom 2,87,397 to 2,66,586. Thefatality rate in the state stoodstatic at 1.86 per cent.

With no let up in the wors-ening Covid-19 situation inPune, the active cases in Punedropped from 90,303 onThursday to 85,629 on Friday.

The active cases in

Mumbai dropped from 18040cases to 14,344 cases, while theactive cases in the neighbour-ing Thane came down from24164 cases to 21342 cases.

Nagpur accounted for28402 cases, followed byNashik (17321), Ahmednagar(10587,Raigad (7973),Aurangabad (7921) and Satara(7407).

Of the 7,41,63,858 samplessent to various laboratoriesacross the state so far, 76,55,554 have tested positive (10.32per cent) for COVID-19 untilFriday.

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Out of the 1.15 lakh samplestested in Kerala on Friday,

54,537 persons were diagnosedwith Covid-19, that took theTest Positivity Rate to 47.05 percent according to VeenaGeorge, minister of health. Butshe said that people need notworry about the increase inCovid-19 cases as the State wasmanaging the pandemic inexcellent manner.

There is no need to be anx-ious about the number of casesin Kerala. Only those personswho attend to the Covid-19persons need to be quaran-tined. Moreover there is noneed for the Covid-19 patientsto come to hospital at all,” saidthe minister.

According to the minister,

the number of patients gettingadmitted to the hospital hascome down heavily despite theincrease number of cases in theState.

“The Omicron variant isresponsible for the present sce-nario and the cases wouldcome down in the next fort-night,” she said.

Meanwhile hundreds ofstudents belonging to the stu-dents wing of the CPI(M) tookto the streets in Kannur to cel-ebrate the victory of the partycandidates in the college unionelection.

This was against therestrictions imposed by theKerala High Court which hadruled that no rallies should beheld anywhere in the State inthe backdrop of the pandemic.

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The CBI on Friday said ithas arrested seven

accused persons during fur-ther investigation of a caserelated to alleged murder ofManik Moitra during post-poll violence in West Bengal.

The arrested accused areresidents of a village underCooch Behar district of WestBengal. The seven arrestedaccused are Saher Ali Mia,Purna Gobinda Singha, DilipKumar Roy, Lokman Mia,Jahedul Mia, Ajijul Miya aliasIshdul and Moslem Miah.

The arrested accused were

produced before theCompetent Court at CoochBehar that has remandedthem to judicial custody tillFebruary 11.

The CBI had registeredthis case on August 27 on theorders of Calcutta High Courtpassed on August 19, 2021.The agency had taken overthe investigation of the case,earlier registered at PoliceStation Sitalkuchi, CoochBehar vide FIR No. 104/21dated May 5, 2021 on a com-plaint against unknown per-sons.

It was alleged that theunknown persons who,according to the complainant,started beating her husband

arbitrarily with an iron rodand fired bullets at him. Thevictim was rushed to a localhospital where he died duringtreatment on May 3, 2021.

A chargesheet was filedon September 27, 2021 by CBIagainst six accused in thecourt of ACJM, Mathabhanga,Cooch Behar. Further inves-tigation is continuing in thecase.

The six accused againstwhom chargesheet was filedearlier on September 27Tahidul Mia, HaridasBarman, Madan Barman,Naba Kumar Barman,Shyamal Barman andArabindo Barman.

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Haryana Home and HealthMinister Anil Vij on

Friday said that the construc-tion work of War Memorial offirst rebellion of freedom strug-gle of 1857 is ongoing inAmbala Cantt and it will beready soon as 80 percent workhas been completed.

Vij was presiding over areview meeting of variousdepartments in this regard.The Memorial is being built bythe Department ofInformation, Public Relationsand Languages and is beingbuilt on an area of 22-acres.

The Minister said that thisMemorial would develop intoa major tourist hub, whichwould probably be the largestand will also be equipped with

modern technology.It was informed in the

meeting that the Memorialwould be developed in threephases. Under the first phase,the turn of events related to thefirst battle of independence of1857 in Ambala will be shown.In the second phase, where thefirst battle of independencewas fought in Haryana will bedescribed and in the thirdphase the freedom struggle ofIndia, including stories of brav-ery of Rani of Jhansi, BahadurShah Zafar along with otherfreedom fighters will bedescribed. It was also informedthat this monument would beone of its kind with latest tech-nology in which today's mod-ern digital technology would beused to depict historical events.The plan of this battle of 1857

will also be shown with digitaltechnology and how the free-dom struggle continued for thenext 90 years.

The memorial will alsohave a comprehensive descrip-tion of the economic, political,administrative, religious andsocial conditions of 1857.Similarly, the museum to be setup in the memorial will displayartifacts related to history.

It was further informed inthe meeting that digital SankalpStambh would also be installedin the memorial so that thepeople coming would take apledge towards patriotism.

An open air theater is alsobeing built in the memorial inwhich the achievements of theHaryana Government will beshown and a light and soundshow will also be held there.

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Panaji: Karnataka Congressleader DK Shiva Kumar onFriday said the Narendra ModiGovernment had curtailed thebenefits of soldiers and had alsofailed to fill over 1.22 lakhvacant defence posts.

The Karnataka PradeshCongress Committee presidentwas campaigning for his partyin the Goa Assembly pollsscheduled for February 14.

"The Modi government iscompromising national secu-rity as around 1,22,555 postsare vacant in defence areas. Ithas also deprived 30 lakh ex-servicemen from getting ben-efits of 'One Rank OnePension'. While Congress gov-ernment always worked in theinterest of our soldiers, the BJPis playing politics with thenation's security," he alleged.

The KPCC chief said theCongress-led UPA governmenthad, on February 17, 2014,approved OROP effective fromApril 1 that year, but the BJPgovernment rejected it on

November 7, 2015 with anorder that laid down that mil-itary personnel who took vol-untary retirement after July 1,2014 will not get One RankOne Pension.

The Modi government alsorejected the demand to revisethe pension of 30 lakh soldiersevery year and kept this timeperiod at five years. He claimed.

The budget for the Ex-Servicemen Health Scheme(ECHS) facility was cut by Rs1,990 crore this year whencompared to last year, and theModi government had alsoimposed GST on CanteenStores Department (CSD) pur-chases, the Congress leadersaid.

"The Modi governmentimposed a tax on the 'disabili-ty pension' of soldiers. This isshameful. The Congress hasalways worked in the interest ofex-servicemen, giving themwork in petrol pumps, gasagencies, coal shipments, trans-port, etc post retirement," hesaid. PTI

Bhubaneswar: Daily Covid-19cases continued to dip inOdisha, where 5,057 more peo-ple tested positive on Friday,844 less than the previous day,the health department said.

As many as 667 childrenare among the newly infected,it said in a bulletin.

The coronavirus tally stoodat 12,36,226, while 10 freshfatalities pushed the death tollto 8,560.Fifth-three coron-avirus patients have died ofcomorbidities in the past, thebulletin said.

The state had logged 5,901single-day cases and eightdeaths on Thursday. A weekago, it had reported 9,833 freshinfections.

Odisha tested 61,635 sam-ples in the past 24 hours at apositivity rate of 8.2 per cent,it addedKhurda district report-ed 1,111 new cases, followed by495 in Cuttack and 429 inSundargarh, the bulletin said.

The Test Positivity Rate(TPR) was 17.1 per cent inKhurda and 12.9 inSundargarh. Nineteen moredistricts have a positivity rate ofover five per cent.

The coastal state now has64,217 active cases, and11,63,396 patients have recov-ered from the disease so far,including 11,157 sinceThursday.Public Health DirectorNiranjan Mishra said peoplewere developing less severesymptoms due to vaccination.

“The restrictions can berelaxed only when the cases arevery low as the highly-trans-missible Omicron variant canspread again,” he told reporters. PTI

Kota: Two men allegedly raped a 40-year-old woman while shewas alone in her hut in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district, police saidon Friday.

The alleged incident took place around five days ago in avillage under Bakani police station limits, they said.

However, the woman reported the incident to police onThursday evening after her husband reached home.

Investigating Officer (IO) of the case, DSP Devender Singhsaid based on the woman's complaint, a case of gang rape wasregistered against two people belonging to her village.

The survivor alleged that the two accused took turns to rapeher while she was alone in her hut built on agriculture field, theIO said. She also stated that the two accused threatened her ofdire consequences if she disclosed the incident to anyone, DSPSingh said. Based on the survivor's report, the police lodged acase under sections of the Indian Penal Code including 376 (D)that deals with gang rape, he said.

The medical examination of the woman was conducted onThursday evening while her statement under Section 161 of theCriminal Procedure Code (CrPC) was recorded on Friday.

Her statements under section 164 of the CrPC in the courtare yet to be recorded, the IO said. PTI

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Patna: Bihar bandh called onFriday by student bodies, andsupported by all parties in theOpposition and some in theruling dispensation, againstalleged irregularities in theRailway Recruitment Board'sNon-Technical PopularCategories examination processevoked a mixed response.

Citizens woke up to chant-ing of slogans by bandh sup-porters against the RRB whichhas conducted a staggered, andallegedly botched up selectionprocess, the Centre whichintervened not before the cri-sis snowballed, and the Government in the State whichhas booked many students andteachers for the large-scalearson and vandalism that tookplace in the past few days.

In Patna, bandh supportersburnt tyres on Ashok Rajpaththrowing out of gear traffic onthe busy street which leads to

the state's largest governmenthospital, its most esteemedschools and colleges and shopsdealing in medicines, booksand stationery.

At Dak Bungalow crossingin the heart of the city, they

staged a demonstration andrecited impromptu verses, tothe beats of tambourines, urg-ing RRB, the Centre and Bihargovernment to come to theirsenses.

They clashed with police

personnel upon being stoppedfrom marching towards theRaj Bhavan, which is a coupleof kilometres away.

In Samastipur districtacross the Ganga, a demon-stration by AISA membersstood out on account of par-ticipation by a noticeable num-ber of young women.

Legislators and cadres ofopposition parties, mostnotably the RJD and the CPI-ML, led the protests in Buxar,Jehanabad, Bhagalpur, Katihar,Begusarai and Munger. Inmany places, tyres were set afireon highways, causing the traf-fic to come to a standstill.

Former Bihar chief minis-ter Jitan Ram Manjhi, whoheads Hindustani AwamMorcha and minister MukeshSahani, founding chief ofVikassheel Insaaan Party, havealso expressed "moral support"to the bandh even though theyare aligned with the NDA.

Major constituents of the

ruling coalition like BJP andChief Minister Nitish Kumar'sJD(U) have also expressed theirsympathy for the cause beingespoused by the bandh sup-porters.

JD(U) national presidentRajiv Ranjan Singh alias Lalanhas come out with tweets blam-ing the unrest on the RRB'ssloppy work and demanding anearly resolution of the issue bythe high-powered committeeset up for the purpose.

He has also demanded"immediate withdrawal of theFIRs by Railways and police" atvarious places in connectionwith the violent protests whichhit the headlines earlier thisweek.

Former deputy chief min-ister and veteran BJP leaderSushil Kumar Modi has alsocome out with an impassionedplea for calm and the decla-mation that "Narendra Modigovernment will not allow anyinjustice". PTI

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Amaravati: Andhra Pradeshreported 12,561 fresh cases ofCovid-19 and 12 more deathson Friday.

The latest health bulletinsaid 8,742 infected people alsogot cured in the state in the last24 hours ending at 9 am onFriday. The active case countnow stands at 1,13,300, the bul-letin said.

The gross COVID-19 pos-itive cases in the state touched22,48,608 while the number ofrecoveries reached 21,20,717.The death toll now stands at14,591.

Kurnool district registered1,710, Guntur 1,625, Kadapa1,215, Visakhapatnam 1,211,East Godavari 1,067, Krishna1,056 and SPS Nellore 1,009

fresh cases.Of the remaining six dis-

tricts, three of them addedless than 900 each and threemore logged below 500 each.

Visakhapatnam reportedthree fresh fatalities whileKurnool and SPS Nellorerecorded two deaths each in aday. Anantapuramu, Chittoor,Guntur, Vizianagaram andWest Godavari added one moreCOVID-19 death each to theirtally. PTI

('"���:�,��'�1���# "'�&'����"'$ "�'&��%���Aizawl: Mizoram on Friday reported

2,064 new Covid-19 cases, the second-highest single-day spike since the adventof the pandemic nearly two years ago, tak-ing the tally to 1,67,725, a health depart-ment official said. The state had onTuesday registered the maximum one-daycount of 2,222 fresh coronavirus cases.The death toll remained at 591 as no newfatality due to the infection was report-ed for the second consecutive day, he said.

Aizawl district reported the highestnumber of new cases at 1,435, followedby Mamit at 171 and Lunglei at 137.

The daily positivity rate dipped mar-ginally to 27.32 per cent from 27.51 percent the previous day, he said, adding thatthe fresh infections were detected from7,554 sample tests. At least 325 childrenwere among the newly infected people,he said. Mizoram had on Thursdayreported 1,535 fresh infections. Thenortheastern state now has 13,721 activecases, while 1,53,413 people have recu-perated from the disease so far, the offi-cial said. PTI

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The Supreme Court’s verdictquashing the suspension

of 12 Opposition MLAs fromthe Maharashtra Assembly lastyear evoked mix response onFriday, with the OppositionBJP terming the SC ruling as a‘tight slap’ on the face of theMVA Government and theruling Shiv Sena saying that theapex court had ‘overstepped’the rights of the legislature inits order.

Soon after the SupremeCourt quashed the suspensionof its 12 MLAs as “unconstitu-tional” and “irrational,” theBJP went to town, welcomingthe apex court verdict andterming the ruling as a tightslap on the face of the MVAgovernment.

“Satyameva Jayate ! Wewelcome & thank the Hon SCfor the historic decision ofquashing the suspension ofour 12 MLAs, who were fight-ing for the cause of OBCs inMaharashtra LegislativeAssembly during the monsoonsession.. I congratulate ourBJP Maharashtra 12 MLAs forgetting justice,” former ChiefMinister and current leader ofthe Opposition DevendraFadnavis of the BJP tweeted.

“Since the beginning, wewere saying that it was com-pletely unconstitutional & grossmisuse of power to suspend ourMLAs for such a long period tocreate an artificial majority &that too for no valid reason &the Hon SC has upheld ourstand. It was not only a ques-tion of 12 MLAs but of morethan 50 lakh citizens in these 12constituencies. Democracysaved!!!”

Maharashtra BJP presidentChandrakant Patil tweeted:“The suspension was not at allwithin the framework of theConstitution. It was not inaccordance with the law, rather

it was arbitrary. The court hasalso expressed the same opin-ion.”

“The State Governmentshould realise that it is wrongto trample on the democraticvalues in such a manner. Nowthe question is what action theMVA Government will takeagainst those who orderedunjust suspension,” Patil won-dered.

The Shiv Sena and NCPleaders refused to accept thatthe Supreme Court’s decisionwas a ‘setback’ to the MVAGovernment since the decisionwas taken by the Speaker of theState Assembly and that theLegislature had the power tosuspend the MLAs

“The MaharashtraLegislature has the power tosuspend MLAs… Or, for thatmatter the Lok Sabha andRajya Sabha can suspend MPs,it is well within their powers,”Sena MP and ChiefSpokesperson Sanjay Raut said.

“I am surprised that the SCis going soft on 12 BJP MLAswho have been suspended fortheir alleged misbehaviour.The same SC is surprisingly notso considerate when it comesto 12 names nominated by thestate cabinet to be appointed asMLCs. The Governor is sittingon the file for some politicalvendetta. The SC has over-stepped on the rights of the leg-islators when it comes to sus-pension of 12 MLAs,” Rautsaid.

It may be recalled that onJuly 5 12 MLAs were suspend-ed after they created a ruckusover the OBC reservationsissue and alleged that Speaker-in-Chair Bhaskar Jadhav didnot give them enough time tospeak.

The BJP MLAs, who weresuspended from the Assemblyfor a year were Parag Alavani,Ram Satpute, Sanjay Kute,Ashish Shelar, Abhimanyu

Pawar, Girish Mahajan, AtulBhatkalkar, Harish Pimpale,Jayakumar Rawal, YogeshSagar, Narayan Kuche andKirtikumar Bhangdiya.

Reacting to the SupremeCourt’s ruling, Maharashtraminister and NCP’s chiefspokesperson Nawab Maliksaid: “The speaker of the leg-islative assembly will take adecision once the SupremeCourt’s written order is avail-able. The decision to suspend12 MLAs of BJP was taken bythe speaker and not by the gov-ernment.”

“The secretariat of theMaharashtra Assembly willstudy the SC decision afterwhich the speaker will decide,”Malik said.

State NCP president andsenior minister Jayant Patilsaid that the 12 BJP MLas cameto be suspended for their “mis-behaviour” with the thenspeaker. “The decision to sus-pend them was taken by thespeaker and not the state gov-ernment,” he said.

Now after the SupremeCourt’s verdict, the final deci-sion will be taken once thewritten order is made availableto the office of the speaker,” hesaid.

“What happened on thatday with the then speaker wasso extreme that it led to the sus-pension of the MLAs for 12months. Incidents had hap-pened in the past as well whenlegislators were suspended fora longer period,” he said.

Alluding to theMaharashtra Governor BhagatSingh Koshyari’s failure tonominate 12 members to theLegislative Council from hisquota based on the recom-mendation of the State Cabinet,Patil said: “Everything shouldhappen as per the law. The statecabinet had recommended 12names, but they are yet to beapproved by the governor”.

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Amid reports doing therounds that Bengal’s econ-

omy was in dire straits KolkataMunicipal Corporation onFriday made it clear that it wasimpossible for the civic body toclear pensions to its retired staffdue to fund crunch.

A circular issued by theKMC said that the employeeswho had retired afterSeptember 2021 may not gettheir pension for now.

According to the KMCcircular, “payments of pensionand pensionary benefits (to theretired employees who havebeen superannuated fromSeptember 2021) are not cur-rently released due to crisis offund.” There are 22,000 per-manent employees and 26,000contractual employees workingfor the Kolkata MunicipalCorporation.

The KMC’s circular comes

after Mayor Firhad Hakimmade it clear that the civic bodywas facing a financial crisis.According to sources theMayor has asked “all con-cerned” to put up with the sit-uation as the “KMC is taking allpossible steps to improve thesituation.”

The Corporation hasalready taken a loan of � 2,000crore from the AsianDevelopment Bank and askedfor a loan of �700 crore from theState Government which toowas facing a financial crisis.

The financial crunch ---that many a critic has blamedon the dole politics of ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee ---has reportedly affected a num-ber of sectors including theHealth Department which hasreduced procurement of med-icines meant to be distributedin Government hospitals.

The situation is such thatthe State Government hasalready been forced borrow�6,500 crore in three tranchesin the present month. Bengalstands second after UttarPradesh in terms of borrowingthis year.

While the Governmentofficials and ruling TrinamoolCongress leaders would notmake comments oppositionBJP attacked the “populist poli-cies of the Chief Minister” forthe situation the Governmentwas presently in.

“This Government isengaged in Khela, Mela anddole … it is spending hundredsof crores giving doles to theclubs that manage votes for theTMC … populist schemes likeLaxmir Bhandar has been ini-tiated with no pecuniary return… and now we are in this sit-uation,” said BJP leader SamikBhattacharya pooh-pooing theTMC for announcing �5,000for each woman in Goa shouldit come to power in that State.

“When the CPI(M) leftpower the Chief Minister begana propaganda that we had left adebt of �2 lakh crore --- thoughin real terms it was far less --- in34 years of our rule … but thisGovernment hasborrowed �6lakh crore in 10 years … this,whereas they have abolished5.5 lakh government posts,” saidCPI(M) central committeemember Sujan Chakrabarty.

CHENNAI: Jagmohan SinghRaju, the celebrated IAS officerin Tamil Nadu, has quit the ser-vice and entered the electoralfray in Punjab as a BJP candi-date. The BJP leadership hadfielded him as party candidatefrom Amritsar East assemblyconstituency where he willfight against Navjot SinghSidhu (Congress), BikramSingh Majithia (SAD) andJeevanjoth Kaur (AAP).

Raju, Chief ResidentCommissioner of Tamil Naduin New Delhi who has beenholding the rank of additionalchief secretary, had sought vol-untary retirement from theIAS in a letter addressed toChief Minister M K Stalin onJanuary 25 and this wasapproved by the latter.

“Of late, the painful condi-tions in my home State, Punjab,have been weighing heavy onmy conscience. As son of thesoil, I am agonised at the lin-gering socio-economic stressand the sufferings of theunheard, youth and the under-

privileged. At the same time,restraints of my service rulesconfine me from acting in sol-idarity with the causes espousedby my inner voice. My con-science and deep-rooted lovefor my home state has thereforebeen cajoling and nudging meto my service, return to Punjaband dedicate myself full-time inits service for the rest of my life,”said Raju in his letter to chiefminister Stalin.

1963 born Raju had almosttwo years of service in govern-ment before his superannua-tion. He was designated aschief secretary in 2016, there-by becoming the youngest IASofficer in India to hold the posi-tion. Described as the shiningstar among the country’s IASofficers by his colleagues, Rajuhas been accorded interna-tional honours for the merito-rious services rendered by him.

He is one of the few civil ser-vants in the country who havebeen honoured by the UNESCOwith the King Sejong LiteracyPrize. PNS

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� ���� ���,'"�� ���+���$ 00� %�������,;'���" #��#"����"� Mumbai: A special court here

on Friday took cognisance ofcharge-sheet filed by theEnforcement Directorate (ED)against former Maharashtrahome minister Anil Deshmukhand his two sons in connectionwith a money laundering case.

Special Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) court judge, R NRokade, issued process againstthe accused after taking cog-nisance of the charge sheet.

In December last year, theED had filed the 7,000-pagesupplementary charge sheet inconnection with the case.Besides Deshmukh, it hadnamed named his two sons asaccused in the case.

Prior to that, the probeagency had filed a charge sheetagainst 14 accused, includingDeshmukh's private secretary(an additional collector-rankofficer) Sanjeev Palande andpersonal assistant KundanShinde. Deshmukh was arrest-ed by the ED on November 1last year in connection with thecase and is currently in judicialcustody. PTI

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ourselves. One-fifth of thepopulation in India hasbecome Mohammedan.Whose fault is it? One of ourhistorians says in ever-mem-orable language: “Why shouldthese poor wretches starveand die of thirst when theperennial fountain of life isflowing by? The question is:What did we do for these peo-ple who forsook their ownreligion? Why should theyhave becomeMohammedan?”

To go back to Aurangzeb,over two centuries after thedesecration, F Growse, themagistrate of the district in the1870s, felt that of all thesacred places in India, noneenjoys greater popularity thanthe capital of Braj, the holycity of Mathura. For ninemonths in the year, festivalfollows upon festival in rapidsuccession and the ghats andtemples are daily thronged bynew troops of way-worn pil-grims. So great is the sancti-ty of the spot that its pane-gyrists do not hesitate todeclare that a single day spentin Mathura is more meritori-ous than a lifetime passed inBenares. All this celebrity isdue to the fact of it being thebirthplace of lord Krishna.

In his Mathura: A DistrictMemoir, Growse has record-ed his exhaustive survey of

Brajbhoomi. He was so over-whelmed by the vandalismthat visited the area repeated-ly that he wrote feelingly,although his home was in far-away England. To quote:“Thanks to Muhammadanintolerance, there is not asingle building of any antiq-uity either in the city itself orits environs. Its most famoustemple, which was dedicatedto Kesava Deva (Krishna), wasdestroyed in 1669, the 11thyear of the reign of the icon-oclast Aurangzeb. Themosque (idgah) erected on itsruins is a building of littlearchitectural value.”

Today, Balkrishna is wor-shipped in a little room whichappears like a servant quarteradjoining the back of theidgah. Pathos can be experi-enced by any visitor, whethera devotee or otherwise. Themischief with masjids extendsfrom Somnath in the west toAdina mosque on theBangladesh border in theeast. The Adina mosque is sit-uated on National HiighwayNo.34 near Gaur. On thewall outside, distinct rem-nants of Hindu deities are vis-ible. One stone slab displaysGanesh by the side of his con-sort. Inside the mosque, thestone work is equally con-vincing that the originalbuilding was a temple. There

has obviously been done a fairamount of work on this placeof worship. Memoirs of Gaurand Pandua by M Abid AliKhan, subsequently revisedby HP Stapleton, prove this.

A more recent work ofscholarship is entitled MosqueArchitecture of Pre-MughalBengal by Dr SyedMahmudul Hasan. Evidently,local legend as to who builtthe Adina mosque and why,appears to be incorrect.According to scholars, it wasestablished by SultanSikandar Shah between 1366and 1374 AD. There is a dif-ference of opinion, especial-ly between JH Ravenshawand other scholars as towhether Gaur, the famouscapital of medieval Bengal,was older or whether HazratPandua, where Adina is locat-ed, flourished earlier. Thesignificance of the controver-sy is about how much rubblefrom pre-Islamic edificescould have been used. DrHasan is impartial enough toquote various scholars atlength, although he betrayssome unhappiness at the alle-gation about the use of Hindumaterials.

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

����������������� �����Sir — For the Tatas, the original ownersof Air India, nothing can be greater delightthan the homecoming of the debt-laden,yet the nation’s prestigious, air carrier afternearly seven decades. Air India, whichgave wings to the nation, was much morethan a business venture to the country’sbiggest conglomerate. (‘Air India lands upin Tatas’ hands’; January 28). From the firstoperation from Karachi to Bombay inOctober 1932, with JRD Tata steering aPuss Moth aircraft, to seizing control ofAir India 89 years later, the Tata Grouphas had a rollercoaster ride in Indian civilaviation history.

While normally aircraft head back totheir original destinations after flying,perhaps for the first time in aviation his-tory has an airline company itself head-ed back to its original roots. The skiesof independent India had long witnessedthe dominance of the country’s flagshipairliner, and perhaps they are eagerlywaiting to welcome the beginning of anew era in India’s aviation ecosystem.And the Maharaja, whose famous mous-tache was designed by Bobby Kooka, aclose associate and friend of JRD Tata,is truly back with a bang.

Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai

��������� �������������� �����Sir — We observe the InternationalHolocaust Remembrance Day on January27 every year to mark the liberation ofNazi Germany concentration camp,Auschwitz Birkenau, from the historicalatrocities committed on Jews. This dayreminds us of the crimes committed byNazi Germany in concentration camps,leading to about 1.1 million deathsbetween 1940 and 1945. On this day, thequalities of tolerance, equality, freespeech and human rights need to beinculcated in this world beset by a num-ber of challenges and inequalities. As theholocaust memories fade in the mist oftime, anti-Semitic, religious and racialintolerance are taking the centre stage.

Since the number of Holocaust sur-vivors is showing a downward trend, theyounger generation must be made aware

of it so as to be able to separate facts fromfalsehoods and hatred. Enlightening theyouth about the agony of Holocaust is atool that can spring them into actionagainst the scourge of hatred. WhenHolocaust survivors’ memories becomeours, the future generations will avoid themistakes of their ancestors. Collectivememory has the propensity not just toserve as a blueprint for the future but alsoto rekindle the past memories and avoidrepeating mistakes.

Vijay Singh Adhikari | Nainital

������������������������ �� ����Sir — Cricket is like a game of chess andso every move counts in its shortest form.Having lost the Test series in a one-dayfashion, we could have chalked out astrategy to avoid the mistakes commit-ted in the longest form of the game. Theblame game has started. It started fromthe Kohli era but we blame Rahul for the

downfall. The ex-captain is enjoying hiscricket just like it is an outing in the park.As the captain, he was sending flying kiss-es to the pavilion and now, as a player,he is doing a cradle celebration.

The batting standards have gonedown considerably, which forced such asituation that the bowlers were put to test.In the event of a small total to defend, mostof the time on the tour our strategy shouldbe to dismiss the opposition early. We lostto South Africa 1-2 in Test matches and0-3 in One-Day matches. As a result, wesacked certain star bowlers as scapegoats.How long can we bank on our home wins?What is wrong with Indian cricket? ThusIndia’s T-20 ranking is by far the best, com-pared to Test (3rd) and ODI (4th) after thedebacle in South Africa.

Bal Govind | Noida

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There is no doubt thatHindus have had theimage of being soft and,therefore, a useful

punching bag. It was overdue fora firm stand to be taken as wasrightly done by TS Tirumurti,the Indian permanent repre-sentative to the United Nations,very recently. SwamiVivekananda was palpably awareof the Hindu image having beentarnished and there being aHindu phobia. Accorded atumultuous welcome upon hisreturn after making a greatname for himself and his faithoverseas, Swamiji gave a frankexplanation for why there wasHindu phobia.

Sir Sankaran Nair, a memberof the Viceroy’s Council, in hisbook called Gandhi and Anarchy(published by Tagore &Company; Madras, 1922), wrote:“For sheer brutality on women,I do not remember anything inhistory to match the Malabarrebellion. It broke out about the20th of August (1921). Even bythe 6th of September, the resultswere dreadful.” Gandhiji’s com-ment which he wrote in YoungIndia of September 29, 1921:“We have forgotten the divineout of dying for our faiths with-out retaliation… The Hindusmust have the courage and thefaith to feel that they can pro-tect their religion in spite ofsuch fanatical eruptions.” Hewarned the Government againstexcessive repression of theMoplahs. The ending of therevolt was a matter not only ofurgency, but of simple human-ity: “Be the Moplahs ever sobad, they deserve to be treatedas human beings.”

Amongst Swami Dayanand’successors, SwamiShraddhananda was the mostsuccessful in implementingshuddhi. He was murdered in hissick bed. Gandhi’s commentwas: “I have called Abdul Rashida brother and I repeat it. I do noteven regard him as guilty ofSwami’s murder. Guilty indeedare those who excited feelings ofhatred against one another.”

The message of Vivekanandawas clear that many problemshave their roots in us. There isno power in the universe toinjure us unless we first injure

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The Enforcement Directorate’sraids on the house and businesspremises of the relatives ofPunjab chief minister Charanjit

Singh Channi follows a set pattern beingfollowed by the central agencies for awhile now in poll-bound states.

“This will generate a lot of smoke, thissmoke will remain visible for a while butit will have little or no adverse politicalconsequences for those who have beentargeted,” a leader in Punjab quipped onthe timing of the raids when electionshave been announced and the electoralprocess has begun.

Those who are knee-deep into poli-tics say that the ED or Income Tax raidsor any raid by a central agency hardly ben-efits the BJP in the elections as the fire isextinguished by those affected by the raidthe very next day by playing the victimcard to the hilt. The smoke too clears inthe next 3-4 days after the agencies givean account of the recoveries and the dustit generates settles down in a week.

So, BJP in Punjab will have to relysolely on the charisma of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and the political guile oftwo-time chief minister Amarinder Singh,having a combined tenure of nine and ahalf years in the top job of the state.

As we all know by now, Modi has agreat influence when it comes to some-thing like presidential type electionswhere he hardly has any political rivalsand easily towers over others. It happenedin 2014 and 2019 where the election wasclearly Modi versus the rest. Obviously thecombined “rest” was no match to Modiand the results hardly had any element ofsurprise. Not much has changed even in2022 on this front.

However, at the same time, theAssembly elections in several states clear-ly showed that Modi alone cannot be theface of BJP and it has to get that extra zing,that extra person or an issue to ride home.Even in the home state of the PrimeMinister, Gujarat, Congress did reason-ably well despite the fact that Modi andHome Minister Amit Shah hailed fromthe same state. There were a string of loss-es in states all over the country, suggest-ing that local and regional leaders held ontheir own in their home turfs.

In Chandigarh MunicipalCorporation elections, Modi was the onlyface of the BJP in the polls and the partycould not win a majority despite rulingthe civic body for five years. It’s a differ-ent matter that through political machi-nations, it managed to get its “minority”Mayor elected, though the Aam AadmiParty had two seats more than the BJP inthe House.

So in Punjab, it is unlikely that Modiwill have a big influence in the votingprocess and outcome, whatever his sup-porters say. The only rally he was sup-posed to address before the polls wereannounced, in Ferozepur, had to be can-celed after the much-publicized security

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breach. Though the weather wasbad on that day and preventedpeople from getting out, the lowpresence at the rally ground sug-gested that despite the repeal of thethree farm laws, BJP has still tocross several more bridges to gainthe trust of the Punjabis. To bridgethat gap, one election is too shorta time. It will take a while and sus-tained political efforts before BJPcomes with the right formulae andlocal social engineering to getgoing in Punjab.

As far as Amarinder Singh isconcerned, many in the state,some even his supporters, nowbelieve that for him, formingPunjab Lok Congress and aligningwith BJP is not a serious shot atpower but only an attempt toensure that Congress which hefeels humiliated him, is defeated.Also, many in his old party believethat Amarinder could well belooking at fishing in troubledwaters with half a dozen MLAs ina possible hung Assembly.

Without getting into ifs andbuts of what would happen afterthe polling, it is clear that BJPwants to have a roadmap of its ownin the Sikh majority state in thenear future. It was in alliancewith the Shiromani Akali Dal forover two decades in the borderstate and used to contest 20 seatsin the urban areas as a junior part-ner. The two parties complement-

ed each other well-SAD, claimingto put across Sikh point of viewwhile BJP the Hindu point of viewin a state which was badly affect-ed by militancy in the 1980s andearly 1990s.

The now repealed three agri-cultural laws changed the politicaldynamics of the state and no oneeither from the BJP or the SADcould envisage the consequencesit would have on state politicsbefore the bills were conceptual-ized and eventually passed. As Sikhfarmers from the state gathered atDelhi borders in one of the mostvisible non-violent protests indecades, opposition to the farmlaws became a sort of mass move-ment in Punjab which a partycould neglect only at its peril. SADtook the initiative and parted wayswith its partner BJP and withdrewits minister Harsimrat Kaur Badalfrom the Modi Cabinet.

Even when BJP was in alliancewith SAD, particularly, during theten years of its rule (2007 to20017), there were demands with-in BJP to test electoral waters inde-pendently. This chorus grew loud-er since 2014 when Modi emergedas a towering leader and BJP wonseveral state elections and changedthe political dynamics of the coun-try. So, in 2022 it will be the firsttime in decades that BJP would bethe big brother in the alliance withCongress turncoat and PLC chief

Amarinder Singh and would con-test 65 odd seats. If BJP managesa decent show and the definitionof a decent outing would vary fromone leader to the other, a newalignment could emerge in Punjab.But given the fact that BJP hasbeen unable to grow in ruralPunjab due to multiple factors, itlooks like a long haul for the saf-fron party at present.

Many in the SAD believe thatAmarinder Singh’s PLC is only aone election wonder and theyhave little or no differences withBJP, more so when the reason fortheir differences-Farm Acts-nolonger exists. So there would hard-ly be much surprise if the SAD isback in alliance with the BJP forthe 2024 Lok Sabha polls and a softunderstanding soon after the 2022Assembly polls. In fact, none of thetwo parties-SAD and BJP-are mak-ing noises against each other in thecampaign, making it clear thatthere is hardly any difference ofopinion amongst them. If BJPdoes reasonably well in assemblypolls, it will then bargain for moreseats in the 2024 Lok Sabha pollsfrom SAD. That seems to be therefrain of some BJP leaders as wellas an aging Captain Amarinder isno guarantee for their future polit-ical plans in the state and SADcompletes the Hindu-Sikh politi-cal stereotype which helps BJP inrest of the country as well.

(The writer is SeniorResident Editor, ThePioneer, Chandigarh.The views expressed

are personal.)

Solid Waste ManagementRules, 2016 brought in bythe Ministry of

Environment, Forests andClimate Change ( MoEFCC) andmonitored by the CentralPollution Control Board ( CPCB) are having limited suc-cess. Authorities right from theMinistry of Urban Development,CPCB, State pollution ControlBoards, Municipalities, andGram Panchayats have beenmade accountable.Implementation is mainly bymunicipal authorities and grampanchayats as per rules.Segregation at source is themainstay of the Rules as has beenamply demonstrated by munic-ipalities like Indore, making cit-izens and institutions responsi-ble for primary segregation.

The ministries of of UrbanDevelopment and Rural

Development are the main mon-itoring agencies at the nationallevel.

Ministry of Chemicals andFertilizers, according to clause 7,has to ensure market develop-ment assistance and promotionof city compost with chemicalfertilizers in the ratio of 3:4, butthe ministry has done nothing toassist the municipalities andgram panchayats, where com-post is being produced.

Similarly, the Ministry ofAgriculture, as per clause 8, hadto set up labs for checking thequality and propagation of com-post on farmland, but it has donelittle. Central Pollution ControlBoard (CPCB) hardly monitorsState Pollution Control Boardsfor implementation. Even Delhiis not segregating waste as perrules right under the nose ofCPCB. According to SWM Rules

2016, Clause 15 makes localauthorities responsible for solidwaste management. Except formunicipalities like Indore,Ambikapur and a few others, nomunicipality is following therules. Cities like Noida are final-ly working on different types ofwaste and segregation atdoorsteps but implementation isinsufficient even though Citymanagers like Salil Yadav workedhard to implement and succeed-ed partially. He has been trans-ferred to Greater Noida

Industrial DevelopmentAuthority (GNIDA) to imple-ment in the planned township ofGreater Noida.

GNIDA was fined Rs 2crore by National Green Tribunalin 2019 for not properly imple-menting SWM 2016 rules. Sincethen, it has taken action forempanelment of private agenciesfor bulk waste generators (apart-ments) and has empaneled morethan 17 agencies in category 2 ofits notification.

Sources said three attemptswere made by GNIDA toempanel vendors for coloniesbut due to unfavourable condi-tions such as unwillingness topay or pay very little, harassmentof sanitary workers and collec-tors, the attitude of residents,foiled the initiative.

A look at the implementa-tion of apartments and colonies

like Jalvayu Vihar, AWHO,Gurjinder Vihar, Jaypee Greens,La Residentia, NHPC Employeecolony, Greenwoods Society,Ansal Golf Links, Gaur City 1 &2 throws up interesting facts.

Jaypee installed a com-poster machine in July 2021, inaccordance with the SWMrules of GNIDA and CentralGovernment, but the machinehad not worked properly due toits vendor’s inadequacies.Segregation at the residentiallevel was patchy at best. A per-son from the machine makerexplained that it is a proper aer-obic composter and not a burn-ing machine as used in manysocieties. Sources from GNIDAinformed that Jaypee had beenfined heavily on quite a fewoccasions as waste was notbeing processed and was pickedby a company, K waste, which

disposed of all wastes in landfills.Penalty amount could not beverified. La Resdentia was ear-lier a joint venture withAmrapali. After being fined byGNIDA they have bought themachine and are finalizing thevendor. In the case of Gaur City,a huge residential complex, seg-regation, and processing werenot visible.

AWHO, similar to JaypeeGreens, has a very big aerobiccomposter and a proper struc-ture allotted and one of the firstto implement in 2019. It wasinaugurated by Deputy CEO ofGNIDA, but the machine is notworking since September 2021.A source in the RWA officeinformed that a company wasdoing the composting till August2021 but the RWAHousekeeping committee andthe company had their differ-

ences and so, the company wasasked to wait till they try a newvendor from September 2021.But it has been months and nei-ther the current vendor K Wastenor the current RWA commit-tee has taken action to rectify themachine. The plant did nothave any workers and no evi-dence of any waste managementwork was seen. GNIDA has nottaken action against AWHO asper rules. The earlier companywas not available for comments.

In the case of AWHO, oneRWA committee was the initia-tor and the committee whichcame later played the spoil-sport and violator. GNIDAsources informed they haveblacklisted certain vendors likeSVM, who were throwing wastein landfills in Greater Noida oreven transported it toGhaziabad.

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(The writer is SpecialCorrespondent, The Pioneer.

The views expressed are personal.)

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Russia’s top diplomat saidFriday that Moscow will

not start a war in Ukraine butwarned that it wouldn’t allowthe West to trample on its secu-rity interests, amid fears it isplanning to invade its neighbor.

U.S. President Joe Bidenwarned Ukraine’s leader a dayearlier that there is a “distinctpossibility” that Russia couldtake military action againstthe former Soviet state inFebruary.

“There won’t be a war as faras it depends on the RussianFederation, we don’t want awar,” Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov said in a live interviewwith Russian radio stations.“But we won’t let our interestsbe rudely trampled on andignored.”

Tensions have soared inrecent weeks, and United Statesand its NATO allies warilyeyed a buildup of more than100,000 Russian troops nearUkraine, worrying thatMoscow was preparing toattack. Russia has repeatedlydenied having any such plans,but has demanded that NATOpromise Ukraine will never beallowed to join and that allianceroll back deployments of troops

and military equipment inEastern Europe. The U.S. andNATO formally rejected thosedemands this week, thoughWashington outlined areaswhere discussions are possible,offering hope that there couldbe a way to avoid war.Russia’sofficial response to those pro-posals will come fromPresident Vladimir Putin, butKremlin has said there was “lit-tle ground for optimism.”

Lavrov echoed that grimnote Friday.“While they saythey won’t change their posi-tions, we won’t change ours,” hesaid. “I don’t see any room forcompromise here.”Putinopened the weekly meeting ofhis Security Council on Friday,saying only that it wouldaddress foreign policy issues.

Later, in a video call withFrench President EmmanuelMacron, the Kremlin said heemphasized that U.S. andNATO failed to considerRussia’s key demands: pre-cluding NATO’s expansion,stopping the deployment ofalliance weapons near Russianborders and rolling back itsforces from Eastern Europe. Atthe same time, Putin spoke infavor of continuing talks abouta stalled peace agreement foreastern Ukraine, where Russia-

backed rebels are fightingUkrainian forces. Those talksare among Russia, Ukraine,France and Germany, and pres-idential envoys from four coun-tries met in Paris onWednesday and agreed to haveanother meeting in Berlin intwo weeks.Following 2014ouster of a Kremlin-friendlypresident in Kyiv, Moscowannexed Ukraine’s CrimeanPeninsula and began backinginsurgency in country’s easternindustrial heartland.

Earlier, Lavrov noted thatU.S. suggested two sides couldtalk about limits on deploy-ment of intermediate-rangemissiles, restrictions on mili-tary drills and rules to preventaccidents between warshipsand aircraft.

He said that Russia pro-posed discussing those issuesyears ago — but Washingtonand its allies never took themup on it until now. While hedescribed U.S. offers as rea-sonable, he also emphasizedthat Russia’s main concernson NATO. He noted that inter-national agreements say thatsecurity of one nation must notcome at expense of others’ —and that he would send lettersto ask his Western counterpartsto address that obligation.

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The White House saysPresident Joe Biden warned

Ukraine’s president Thursdaythat there is a “distinct possi-bility” Russia could take mili-tary action against Ukraine inFebruary. The Kremlin likewisesounded a grim note, saying itsaw “little ground for opti-mism” in resolving the crisisafter the U.S. this week againrejected Russia’s maindemands.

Russian officials said dia-logue was still possible to endthe crisis, but Biden againoffered a stark warning amidgrowing concerns that RussianPresident Vladimir Putin willgive the go-ahead for a furtherinvasion of Ukrainian territo-ry in the not-so-distant future.

The White House saidBiden’s comments to Ukraine’sVolodymyr Zelenskyy in aphone call amplified concernsthat administration officialshave been making for some

time.“President Biden said thatthere is a distinct possibilitythat Russians could invadeUkraine in February,” WhiteHouse National SecurityCouncil spokesperson EmilyHorne said. “He has said thispublicly and we have beenwarning about this for months.”Tensions have soared in recentweeks, as United States and itsNATO allies expressed concernthat a buildup of about 100,000Russian troops near Ukrainesignaled that Moscow plannedto invade its ex-Soviet neigh-bor. Russia denies having anysuch designs — and has laidout a series of demands it sayswill improve security inEurope. But as expected, theU.S. and Western alliance firm-ly rejected any concessions onMoscow’s main pointsWednesday, refusing to per-manently ban Ukraine fromjoining NATO and saying allieddeployments of troops andmilitary equipment in EasternEurope are nonnegotiable.

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Japan’s government saidFriday it will watch the World

Health Organization’s investi-gation into staff complaintsover racism and abuse by a topJapanese official at the agencybut denied it inappropriatelyreceived sensitive vaccineinformation from him.

Meanwhile in Geneva,France’s diplomatic missionsaid that if the allegations areproven to be true, the possibleconsequences include the ter-mination of the WHO direc-tor’s contract.

An investigation by theAssociated Press this weekfound WHO staffers allegedthat Dr. Takeshi Kasai, theU.N. health agency’s top direc-tor in Western Pacific, engagedin unethical, racist and abusivebehavior, undermining WHO’sefforts to curb the coronaviruspandemic, according to aninternal complaint filed lastOctober.The complaints werealso emailed to senior WHOleaders last week and describea “toxic atmosphere” with “aculture of systemic bullying” atWHO’s regional headquartersin the Philippines.

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China said on Friday UnitedNations human rights chief

Michelle Bachelet is welcome tovisit Xinjiang, where Beijingfaces serious human rightsallegations against UygurMuslims, after Winter OlympicGames to promote cooperationand not an investigation basedon "presumption of guilt".

Foreign Ministryspokesman Zhao Lijian said ata media briefing here that invi-tation was extended a long timeago and two sides have beenmaintaining communica-tion."China welcomes MadamBachelet to visit China, includ-ing Xinjiang," Zhao said.

"Our position is consistentand clear. The purpose of thevisit is to promote exchangeand cooperation, not investi-gation based on presumption ofguilt. We oppose anyone usingthis for political manipulationto pressure China," he said.

The spokesman, however,skirted a direct answer whenasked to comment on a mediareport stating China is alsoinsisting Bachelet should not

release her report on Xinjiangbefore February 4 BeijingWinter Olympics opening cer-emony as demanded by USpoliticians."I can tell youXinjiang enjoys economic pros-perity and social order andpeople there are leading happylives with their human rightsfully protected," he said. Chinafirmly opposes tactics of usingXinjiang to smear country bydistorting facts, he said.

China has launched adiplomatic offensive tomobilise world leaders toattend February 4 opening cer-emony of Winter Olympics asUS, the EU and several westerncountries announced a boycottof event by their diplomats tohighlight allegations of humanrights violations in Xinjiang,including incarceration of overa million Uygur Muslims incamps.

A host of world leadersincluding Russian PresidentVladimir Putin and PakistanPrime Minister Imran Khan,besides UN Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres are due toattend opening ceremony toshow solidarity with Beijing.

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Russian authorities on Fridayreported over 98,000 new

confirmed coronavirus cases,but according to the Kremlin,the actual number is likely tobe much higher as the highlycontagious omicron variantcontinues to rage through thevast country.

Russia's state coronavirustask force on Friday registered98,040 new infections talliedover the past 24 hours - anoth-er all-time high for the coun-try that in recent weeks hasfaced its biggest surge of con-tagions in the pandemic.Kremlin spokesman DmitryPeskov told reporters Friday

that "it is obvious that thisnumber is higher and possiblymuch higher," because "manypeople don't get tested" andhave no symptoms. Peskovnoted that Russia's numbers are"so far lower than in WesternEuropean countries, than in theUS, so one can't rule out thatthey will grow further".

The Kremlin spokesmanalso admitted that a lot of peo-ple in the presidential admin-istration have gotten infectedwith the virus. "The vast major-ity continue to work fromhome after having isolatedthemselves," Peskov said. "Thisexplosive contagiousness ofthe omicron, it demonstratesitself in full." Coronavirus

infections in Russia started tosoar nearly three weeks ago,with daily tallies of new casesspiking from about 15,000 onJan 10 to almost 100,000 onFriday.

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Scotland Yard on Friday said ithas sought "minimal refer-

ence" to events it is investigatingfrom a UK Cabinet Officeinquiry, being led by top civil ser-vant Sue Gray over so-called"partygate" scandal of allegedgatherings within governmentquarters that may have breachedCOVID lockdown rules in 2020-2021.Gray's inquiry report,which poses a serious threat toBritish Prime Minister BorisJohnson's leadership, is said to becomplete but there has been adelay since some of its findingswere passed on to London'sMetropolitan Police earlier thisweek, to probe "serious and fla-grant" breaches of corona laws.

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Manila: The Philippineswill lift a ban on the entry offoreign tourists and businesspeople next month after near-ly two years, in a move to revivethe battered tourism industryas the latestcoronavirus out-break started to ease, officialssaid Friday. AP

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North Korea said Friday itstwo latest rounds of

weapons tests this week weresuccessful while vowing to bol-ster its nuclear “war deterrent”and speed up development ofmore powerful warheads.Itappeared North Korean leaderKim Jong Un did not attendtests on Tuesday and Thursday,which were detected by mili-taries of neighbors South Koreaand Japan. But Kim did inspecta munitions factory whereworkers pledged loyalty to theirleader, who “smashes with hisbold pluck challenges of U.S.imperialists and their vassalforces,” state media said. NorthKorea has been ramping up itstesting activity in recentmonths, including six rounds ofweapons launches so far in2022, demonstrating its militarymight amid pandemic-relateddifficulties and a prolongedfreeze in nuclear diplomacywith the United States.

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Six rockets struck Baghdad’sinternational airport facili-

ty on Friday, damaging twocommercial planes but causingno casualties, Iraq’s militarysaid in a statement.

The rockets fired in earlymorning landed on planesparked in a waiting area of IraqiAirways, the country’s nation-al carrier, the statement said.One rocket punched a gapinghole in cockpit area of plane.

The attack marks an esca-lation of a series of rocket anddrone strikes that have target-ed U.S. and their allies as wellas Iraqi government institu-tions since start of year. Mostattacks targeting airport did notcause heavy damage or affectcivilian areas of airport facili-ty. The recent uptick followedsecond anniversary of U.S.strike that killed Iranian Gen.Qassim Soleimani and Iraqimilitia commander Abu Mahdial-Muhandis.

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Supreme Court JusticeStephen Breyer’s retirement

gives President Joe Biden achance to make his first nom-ination to high court. It’s alsoa chance for Biden to fulfill acampaign promise to nominatethe first Black woman to be ajustice. Some things to knowabout the women seen as lead-ing candidates:

KETANJI BROWN JACK-SON

Ketanji Brown Jackson hasknown Breyer for decades. Agraduate of Harvard andHarvard Law school, she was alaw clerk to Breyer from 1999to 2000. She is comfortableenough with her former boss tohave a little fun at his expense.In 2017, after Breyer acciden-tally brought his cellphone tocourt and it rang, Jacksonintroduced him at an event andpretended to get a call mid-

introduction from Breyer’s col-league, Justice Neil Gorsuch.After clerking for Breyer,Jackson was as a lawyer in pri-vate practice, worked as a pub-lic defender and served onU.S. Sentencing Commission.President Barack Obama nom-inated her to be a federal trialcourt judge in District ofColumbia in 2013. Biden ele-vated her to U.S. Court ofAppeals for District ofColumbia Circuit, where shehas served since June 2021.

Recently, Jackson was partof a three-judge panel thatruled against former PresidentDonald Trump’s effort to shielddocuments from House com-mittee investigating Jan. 6,2021, insurrection at Capitol.Jackson, 51, also has advantageof a connection to Republicans.She is related by marriage toformer House Speaker PaulRyan, R-Wis. Jackson’s hus-band, Dr. Patrick Jackson, asurgeon, is the twin brother ofRyan’s brother-in-law.

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President Joe Biden stronglyaffirmed Thursday that he

will nominate the first Blackwoman to the U.S. SupremeCourt, declaring such historicrepresentation is “long over-due” and promising toannounce his choice by the endof February.

In a White House ceremo-ny marking a moment ofnational transition, Bidenpraised retiring Justice StephenBreyer, who will have spentnearly 28 years on the highcourt by the time he leaves atthe end of the term, as “amodel public servant at a timeof great division in this coun-try.”

And with that the searchfor Breyer’s replacement wasunderway in full. Bidenpromised a nominee worthy ofBreyer’s legacy and said he’dalready been studying the

backgrounds and writings ofpotential candidates.“I’vemade no decision except one:The person I will nominatewill be somebody of extraor-dinary qualifications, charac-ter and integrity,” he said.“And that person will be thefirst Black woman ever nom-inated to the United StatesSupreme Court. It is longoverdue.”Biden’s choice will

be historic on its face: NoBlack woman has ever servedon the high court. But thedecision is also coming at acritical time of national reck-oning over race and genderinequality.

However, the court’s 6-3conservative majority is des-tined to remain intact.Biden isusing his choice to fulfill oneof his early campaign promis-es, one that helped resurrecthis moribund primary cam-paign and propel him to theWhite House in 2020.

And it gives him thechance to show Black voters,who are increasingly frustrat-ed with a president theyhelped to elect, that he is seri-ous about their concerns, par-ticularly with his voting rightslegislation stalled in theSenate. It also could help driveDemocratic enthusiasm amidconcerns about a midtermrouting in congressional races.

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Mumbai: Warning that any sudden and sharpfiscal consolidation steps can throttle the nascentand uneven recovery of the Indian economy, aWall Street brokerage has said the Budget shouldinstead focus on boosting overall demand, fromrural consumption in particular, and investmore in infrastructure.

The successive waves of the pandemic hasmade it more difficult to reduce government debtas a share of GDP in the medium-term, saidGoldman Sachs in a pre-Budget note.

It thus pencilled in a gradual fiscal consol-idation with FY23 falling by 50 basis points to 6.3per cent from 6.8 per cent in FY22, and set a tar-get of bringing it down to 4.5 per cent by FY26.

The brokerage believes that even though allo-cation for COVID related expenses will comedown, the government will have to continue tofocus on welfare spending and also expects capexto increase 12 per cent.

But the higher spending will most likely befinanced by higher tax revenue in FY23 anddeferred asset sales from the current year, help-ing reduce the deficit.

It also sees the general government fiscaldeficit falling to 9.3 per cent of GDP in FY23 from10.1 per cent in FY22 on the back of strongernominal GDP growth.

If the Budget removes capital gains tax andwithholding tax on foreign bond investments inthe country, India will likely be included in theglobal bond index by Q4 of 2022 and this can helpthe country attract an additional USD 30 billioninflows in 2023, which again will lead to lowerdeficit.

Gross tax collections in the first eight monthsof FY22 rose to 70 per cent of budget estimateswhich is the highest in the last 10 years. Directtaxes have grown 66 per cent on-year, led byincome and corporate tax growth while indirecttaxes have grown 39 per cent driven by buoyantGST and excise duties on fuel prices.

The report expects gross tax revenue to over-shoot budget estimates by about 1.1 per cent ofGDP in FY22 and non-tax revenue to be high-er by 0.1 per cent of GDP driven by increased div-idends from the RBI and higher deferred pay-ments from telcos. PTI

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The Swadeshi JagaranManch has said that taxing

the beedi industry at par withsin tax levied on the cigarettemanufacturers has internalsecurity imperatives especiallyin the Naxal-hit States.

As many 95 lakh people,including 85 lakh tribalwomen, mostly in Naxal-hitStates are directly engaged inbeedi rolling and the industryprovides employment to anoth-er three-and-a-half crore morepeople, like those engaged incollection of tendu leaves.

“These women in theimpoverished regions sustaintheir families through earningsat their homes generated frombeedi rolling, essentially a cot-tage industry in which the rawmaterials are provided to theworkers at their homes on adaily or weekly basis,” SJMCo-convenor Dr AshwiniMahajan said onThursday.

While in the long termwinding up the industry couldbe a desirable option but notbefore providing sustainablealternate employment oppor-tunities to those engaged in thebeedi industry, he said.

Stating that even theBharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, anaffiliate of the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh, hasbacked handling of the beediindustry in right perspective, hesaid there is need to undertakescientific studies to ascertainthe health hazards of smoking

beedis and till then decisionsshould not be based on narra-tives of certain lobbies likecigarette industry or NGOsbacked by them.

“The issue of employmentof women in mostly backwardregions must be balanced withpublic health as women par-ticipation is maximum in thebeedi industry,” he said.

The beedi industry, unlikethe cigarette industry, does nothave lobbies to protect its inter-ests, he said and justified hisbacking for the make in Indiacottage industry.

“Even Home Ministryreports have suggested thatthere are foreign lobbies work-ing against the beedi industryand thereby hitting local Indianinterests. This has also led tocancellation of FCRA licencesof certain NGOs,” he said.

Higher taxes on beedisalso lead to increased smug-gling of Chinese cigarettes,further adding to New Delhi’strade imbalance with Beijing.Higher taxes on beedis alsolead to increased consumptionof non-smoking productswhich pose a higher health riskto the consumers, he said,demanding reduction in theGST imposed on the beedis atthe rate of 28 percent.

He also demanded thatbeedis should be kept out of thepurview of the Cigarettes andOther Tobacco Products Act(COTPA) and backed innova-tions to exploit export poten-tial of the homegrownproduct.

Mumbai: The BSE gaugeSensex dived nearly 900 pointsfrom the day's peak to finishFriday's highly volatile session77 points lower at 57,200, trig-gered by a late sell-off mainly inbanking and auto shares.

Starting off on a high note,the 30-share index soared totrade briefly above the key58,000-level in afternoon trade,before plunging to a low of57,119.28. After fighting boutsof volatility towards the fag-endof the session, the index finallyclosed 76.71 points or 0.13 percent lower at 57,200.23.

Likewise, the NSE Nifty tooswung between gains and loss-es before ending 8.20 points or0.05 per cent down at 17,101.95.

The Sensex was pulledlower mainly by Maruti, TechMahindra, PowerGrid, ICICIBank, Axis Bank and SBI --which suffered losses to the tuneof 3 per cent.

Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices, said, ''After the decentopening post yesterday's weakclosing, domestic bourses againstaged a quick sell-off, trackingweak European trend. Policytightening by the US Fed andrising geopolitical tensions inUkraine coloured global senti-ments.” PTI

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J.B. Chemicals &Pharmaceuticals Limited

(JBCPL), one of the fastestgrowing pharmaceutical com-panies in India, on Fridayannounced that it will acquirebrands for the India marketfrom Sanzyme Private Limited(Sanzyme), a leading player inthe probiotics and reproductivehealth segment in the country.

The transaction is valued atRs 628 crore and is expected

to be completed in the next twoweeks subject to customaryclosing formalities. Sanzyme,ranked amongst the top fiveprobiotics players in the coun-try, is engaged in the manu-facture, distribution and mar-keting of specialty probioticsformulations, infertility man-agement products andnutraceuticals products.

It operates in the gastroen-terology, nephrology, urologyand gynecology therapy areaswith leading brands.

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The Union Ministry of Labour has considered the long pend-ing demands of the Indian Railway Mall Godam Workers’

Union by approving the registration of workers on the e-shramportal paving a way for recognition of the railways mall godamworkers across India.

In view of this, the Indian Railway Mall Godam WorkersUnion held meetings with railway mall godam workers and theirfamilies at various places across India from January 26-28 to solvethe problems and demands like all the Railway Good shed work-ers need to provide a fixed contract for “Wages”, proper to “WageReceipt” for preventing corruption, as per “Ayushman Bharat”all workers should have proper basic amenities like drinking water,proper restroom, canteen at railway shed, free medication forworkers and their families, accidental insurance, rail pass etcbesides Pension benefits and job replacement for their familymember in case of any mishappening.

Spokesman for the organisation Parimal Kanti Mondal saidMinistry of Labour has led our Mall Godam workers to a newdirection in life by giving them the identity.

Chief Labour Commissioner DPS Negi encouraged the workdone by the Mall Godam workers and their families.

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Mumbai: Worried over risingincidence of cyber frauds, theReserve Bank of India (RBI) onFriday issued a public noticeasking people to follow safe dig-ital banking practices to preventany possible financial loss.

Observing that unscrupu-lous elements are defraudingpeople by using innovativemodus operandi, includingsocial media techniques andmobile phone calls, the RBIurged the members of public totake all due precautions whilecarrying out digital financialtransactions.

"... The Reserve Bank cau-tions members of public to beaware of fraudulent messages,spurious calls, unknown links,false notifications, unautho-rised QR codes, etc. Promisinghelp in securing concessions/expediting response from banksand financial service providersin any manner," the centralbank said. Fraudsters attemptto get confidential details likeuser id, login/ transaction pass-word, OTP (One TimePassword) as well as debit/credit card details and other per-sonal information.

The RBI has highlightedsome of the typical modusoperandi being used by fraud-sters like Vishing, Phishing,and Remote Access. "RBI

urges the members of public topractice safe digital banking bytaking all due precautions whilecarrying out any digital (online/mobile) banking/ paymenttransactions. These will help inpreventing financial and/ orother loss to them," the noticesaid.

Vishing refers to phonecalls pretending to be frombank/ non-bank e-walletproviders/ telecom serviceproviders in order to lure cus-tomers into sharing confidentialdetails in the pretext of KYC-updation, unblocking ofaccount/ SIM-card, and credit-ing debited amount. Phishingmeans spoofed emails and/ orSMSes designed to dupe cus-tomers into thinking that thecommunication has originatedfrom their bank/ e-walletprovider and contain links toextract confidential details.

By using Remote Access,fraudsters lure customer todownload an application ontheir mobile phone/ computerwhich is able to access all thecustomers' data on that cus-tomer device.

Fraudsters also misuse the'collect request' feature of UPIby sending fake paymentrequests with messages like'Enter your UPI PIN' to receivemoney. PTI

Mumbai: The rupee snappedits three-day losing streak toclose 2 paise higher at 75.07against the US dollar on Fridayamid expectation of better dol-lar inflows from upcomingIPOs.

However, the rebound inthe rupee was restricted amidweakness in domestic equities,analysts said.

Forex traders said geopo-litical tensions, elevated crudeoil prices and hawkish US Fedstance also weighed on the localunit.At the interbank foreignexchange market, the rupeeopened at 75.12 a dollar andwitnessed an intra-day high of74.88 and a low of 75.13.

The domestic unit finallysettled at 75.07 against theAmerican currency, up 2 paiseover its last close of 75.09.PTI

New Delhi: The Governmenthas notified the second phaseof the Scheme onEnhancement ofCompetitiveness in the IndianCapital Goods Sector for pro-viding assistance for commontechnology development andservices infrastructure, with afinancial outlay of �1,207 crore.The outlay includes Budgetarysupport of �975 crore andindustry contribution of �232crore.

The scheme was notifiedon January 25. "The objectiveof Phase II of the Scheme forEnhancement ofCompetitiveness of the CapitalGoods Sector is to expand andenlarge the impact created byPhase I pilot scheme, therebyproviding greater impetusthrough creation of a strongand globally competitive cap-ital goods sector that con-tributes at least 25 per cent tothe manufacturing sector," theHeavy Industries Ministry saidin a statement . PTI

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Vikrant Massey, the name almostalways conjures up the adjectiveearnest, followed by humble,

grounded and all the antonyms forbratty, entitled and high-headed.

Right from the time hecaught popular attention

— as Shyam MadanSingh —in the memo-

rable Balika Vadhu,Massey played everycharacter, includingthose who were adeep shade of grey,with deep convic-tion. Whether itwas DevdasMukherjee, athief, in hisdebut filmLootera (2013)or a cuckoldedh u s b a n d ,Rishu in themore recentH a s e e nD i l l r u b a(2021) oreven Bablu,the brainsbehind the

gang inMirzapur (2018)

it was this total beliefin his character that made

him shine with a boy nextdoor ordinariness.

So, it isn’t surprisingthat a TV media housezeroed down on him toplay anchor for the showKahani Navbharat Kiwhich charts the history ofthe country. We connectover a call and chit-chatabout the world asMassey reciprocates withhis customary warmth.

He informs me that though he had aCovid scare, the tests thankfully werenegative. The discussion then switchesto his latest venture. Excerpts from theinterview:

�Why and how did you decide toswitch back to TV?

It was a no-brainer. The teamexplained the concept, that they hadbeen researching for two years. The larg-er context of the show was to celebrate75 years of Independence. When Iread the script, I immediately wanted tobe a part of it. It might sound reallycliched, but main sach keh raha hun (Iam being honest), it seemed God-sent.

I always wanted to be a part ofsomething like that... a show which is amix of history, knowledge, hope andeverything worthwhile. It was ready-made and offered to me on a plat-ter. I recognised that in some way or theother I would be contributing my bit. Iwant to do that through the films andshows that I take up.

The younger generation, unfortu-nately, is engrossed in consumerism.Research shows that grown-up adultsspend about a quarter of their wakingtime on mobile. So, I wanted to comeout with something unobserved, kept onthe rack for the longest of time and dustit off to present it nicely and bring it outin a manner that we can take pride inour history. It really encapsulates thatmood. It is full of hope, pride and whatbetter time than 75 years ofIndependence to share these stories.

�Was there any particular incidentthat got your attention?

There were so many things. It is a10-episode series and I really can’t pin-point one. Our history is so vast that wehad to filter out some things. Everythinghas its significance and place. There areso many people in the younger gener-

ation who are not aware of the manychallenges we faced and overcame as ayoung country or the many hurdles thatwere thrown at us. Take our approachto Science in the 50s... Or the fact thatwe practised secularism with all ourheart and soul... Or that we gave mar-ginalised women the right to educationand to vote. How did we overcome allof that? Despite all trials and tribulations,the way we liberalised our economy.How we are one of the largest democ-racies in the world. Despite the ups anddowns, we are facing... these are thethings that, I strongly feel, we need totake cognisance of, feel proud of andshare with our people. When we areapproaching this milestone, we canalso think about what the coming 75years would be like. How will we chartthe future... depends on the present.

�The show talks about history... of late,it has become a contentious issue. Howhave you tackled that?

History has always been a con-tentious issue. Our generation is seeingit for the first time. But these things havealways existed. However, the history weare talking about is devoid of any tilt,tint, lineage or conformism. Yes, Iagree that the public discourse, especial-ly on social media, is marred by politi-cisation. We consciously tried to refrainfrom that. We had academicians andhistorians who worked diligently on theshow. It was a conscious decision tounderstand and take pride in our iden-tity as Indians first and share these high-ly significant stories. And the rest is upto the audience. We have cooked up thedish with fair diligence and honesty.

�Anchoring and acting are two differ-ent ball games. What are the points ofdifferences and similarities?

Acting for fiction is a completely dif-ferent ball game. It is a make-believe

world that you are trying to encapsulateyour audience with and convince themof the story. But when I’m hosting ashow, I’m sharing my privacy, openingthe door for the audience to come in toalso share my experiences. It’s far morechallenging and I enjoy that. People seeme as an actor and here I’m sharing apiece of my heart, ideology, hope andbelief. I am proud to be associated withthe show as, I said, we tried to highlightthe story and history of India and hopeto inspire people who will shell out theirvaluable time and watch it.

�You’ve dabbled in TV, OTT andfilms. Do you approach the roles dif-ferently in each? And does each helpyour growth as an actor?

I have never limited myself to themedium. I have always believed that Iam a storyteller. I have also believed thatI have a knack for being able to adaptto changing times, which everyoneshould. But my larger idea is to go outand tell stories. Till the time I am ableto do that, I am sleeping soundly.When I am unable to do so, I will be fac-ing another set of challenges.

What makes you take up any roleor show?

It’s a mix. The challenges that it putsout for me as an artiste, my belief in thestory. I also strongly feel that, as a cre-ative independent artiste, it’s my respon-sibility to be in sync with current times.And as long as I tick off these boxes, I’lltake up these stories. I think it is anamalgamation of things.

�You have done a wide variety of roles— Mirzapur, Haseen Dilruba, Lootera... what goes into making a characterthat is believable? Is it by observing thepeople or discussions with the direc-tor?

Can I cut you in? This set of ques-

tions, we can keep for another day. I joinhands and apologise for this. We will sitand discuss this.

�So, coming back to the show, werethere any challenges during its shoot-ing or content development?

As an actor, there were not manychallenges. I can be so proudly indul-gent and say that we had a great teamof statisticians, data analysts, histori-ans, technicians who made this showgood. But there were challenges thatevery team goes through, whether it isfiction or non-fiction. And especiallywhen you are dealing with a sensitivetopic like history. And as you said, itis a contentious issue. You are actual-ly treading landmines. So, those werethe set of challenges we faced but didmanage to overcome smoothly. Therewere historical and factual challenges.

�Was there a lot of back and forth inthe script?

That happens everywhere. It is likecooking a recipe. Mid-way you realise,haldi thodi kam pad gai hai. Thodihaldi daal den (The turmeric is a lit-tle less. We should add more of it). Itis a part of storytelling. As long as youstay true to the idea of storytelling,without any indulgence or con-formism, these are likely to happen. Ithappens everywhere. Even in journal-ism, when you have written a pieceand are revising it... you edit a fewwords, add others. It is applicableeverywhere.

�What are the future projects that wesee you in?

Love Hostel will be out soon. I amdoing the official remake of Forensic.There is also Mumbaikar with SantoshSivan. I am filming for Blackout andwaiting to start Gaslight with PavanKriplani who is a dear friend.

An entrepreneur and venturecapitalist, Rattan Joneja’s

work mainly focusses on theapplication of creating share-holder value to corporates andmergers, divestitures and acqui-sitions.

He is also the founder andCEO of CoValue TechnologiesPvt Ltd. Co Value is an applica-tion with an aim to empowerinvestors and businesses, to cre-ate wealth.

His recent book, Value It Up:Simplifying the Art of IntrinsicValuation, takes the reader on ajourney of learning about intrin-sic valuation. With real-lifeinvestment success stories thatdraw instances of how value canbe a key determinant of invest-ment decisions narrated by cel-ebrated investors. The book canbe used as a helpful ladder ofunderstanding the world ofinvesting, and is designed forinvestors, analysts, stock marketresearchers, business students, orjust anyone planning to enterinto the field of stocks andinvesting. It is divided into 22chapters where every chapter isaphoristically framed withquotes and concepts supportedby the life story of a celebratedinvestor.

Read on for excerpts froman exclusive interview with theauthor:

�Please give us an overview ofValue It Up: Simplifying the Artof Intrinsic Valuation.

Value It Up is a book thatsimplifies and elucidates the‘Art of Valuation’. The bookfocusses on the key growth dri-vers of any given stock to explainthe concepts of IntrinsicValuation with real-world exam-ples and computations.

�What was the inspirationbehind the book?

Primarily, most investors

are investing based on priceand momentum without under-standing any concept of value.The subject is not as difficult aspeople think it is. It is a simplesubject that people need tounderstand while making invest-ments.

I wanted to bring this con-cept forward in a very straight-forward and lucid manner, par-ticularly, since the number ofinvestors across the world areincreasing.

�Your book is a fast-track pro-gramme for learning businessvaluation. Give us a brief as tohow it will benefit this era ofentrepreneurs.

In today’s start-up world,entrepreneurship is all aboutCapital, Capital, and Capital. Itis difficult to build and survivewithout significant capital. Be itan old economy company or anew age start-up, an entrepre-neur needs to understand thevalue of what he/she is building.

The quintessence of suc-cessful investment is to under-stand if the market is ignoringanything and how the market isvaluing, thus, making it essentialto understand the worth of acompany before investing.

At the end of the day, youmay be more valuable than youthink.

So many entrepreneurs

today end up diluting so muchequity even after having a suc-cessful venture. Thus, it is veryimportant to determine howmuch capital is required duringthe journey of a company andwhat wi l l the exist ingfounders /shareholdersleft with at theend of eachstage of thecompany.

For existingcompanies, thereare many decisionsand value-creatingstrategies that need tobe taken such asdivestitures, mergersand acquisitions, goingpublic share repurchases,business model changes,and so on, for maximisingvalue where valuation is the keydecision-maker.

�Fortunately, the current gen-eration is trying to be moreinformed about healthy invest-ing. However, due to the lack ofprior knowledge, there's notmuch to start with.

What will you suggest to anaspiring investor (also an ama-teur) to begin with? Shouldthey read books or just trackthe market mindfully, or both?

Both, actually! Ever yinvestor needs to do a lot ofreading. Even celebratedinvestors like Warren Buffettoday spend most of their timereading and learning. Reading isa must, and they have to readbooks, news, companies andannual reports simultaneouslyand give equal importance to all.

They need to track the mar-ket too, to analyse what signalsthe market is giving, or if themarket is behaving irrationally.

�When does the stock marketbecome harmful, if at all?

The stock market in the

long term is not going to beharmful and will continue togrow. It becomes harmful whenpeople start building expecta-tions more than what the com-

pany can achieve. Forming of bubbles in a

sector, for instance, valua-tion of companies without

meaningful earnings builton narratives, which

when it does meetexpectations, which

can lead to stockprices crashing. We

have seen whathappened duringthe dot combubble and you

may see it in somenew-age companies in this

era.When markets start pricing

stocks for high growth rates,value growth duration andimprovement in margins that arenot achievable or not sustain-able, it may all lead to a bust.

In bull markets, the stockmarkets start valuing stories.When stories fall short, the mar-kets will punish them.

�Why, in your opinion, doschools not talk about real-lifestuff like mental health, taxes,or investing?

Very few business schoolscover business/investment val-uation in depth. There needs tobe a significant time and depthrequired to teach and promotethe understanding of the sub-ject. It is very briefly touchedupon and not explained ingreater depth.

Similarly, teaching taxesrequires a lot of time andschools can’t cover them all intheir course. And, so, specificcourses and books play an inte-gral part in enhancing knowl-edge in these subjects for peo-ple who really want to under-stand them.

Tahir Raj Bhasin, whose performancein Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein is being

considered one of the best acting piecesin the Indian digital space, is a big fanof Manoj Bajpai and Kay Kay Menon.The versatile actor’s career is on a hugehigh after he delivered a smashing per-formance in the recently released webseries Yeh Kaali Kaali Ankhein. Bhasinsays he is humbled that people are peg-ging his performance to be amongst thebest delivered by a leading man in a webseries. He reveals that he is a ‘big binger’of Indian content on OTT and his per-sonal favourite performances have beenfrom Manoj Bajpai for The Family Manand Kay Kay Menon for Special Ops.Bhasin says, “I was awestruck seeing themagnificent performances by ManojBajpai in The Family Man and Kay KayMenon in Special Ops. They are two ofmy favourite actors to have ever gracedthe screen and if my show and perfor-mance is being rated as amongst the best

performances by a leading man in anOTT web series, I feel deeply honouredand humbled.” He adds, “As an actor, I’mconstantly inspired by great work aroundme. I am a big binger of Indian andInternational shows and I’m alwaysexcited by the outstanding acting perfor-mances that the digital space has to offertoday. I’m also a big rooter for Indiancontent because we have producedamazing authentically Indian showsover the last couple of years.”

Bhasin has had two back to backOTT releases in Ranjish Hi Sahi and YehKaali Kaali Ankhein and these projectsare amongst the highest rated contentever in the digital space in India. Theactor says, “I’m honoured that my showsare among the top-rated shows of all timeand my intent will be to pick andchoose disruptive content that trulystands out, entertains the audience andenables me to showcase my talent as anactor who can perform any role.”

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Rafael Nadal is within one victory of amen's record 21st Grand Slam singlestitle.

The 35-year-old Spaniard advanced tothe Australian Open final for the sixth timewith a 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over seventh-seeded Matteo Berrettini on Friday.

He'll have to beat U.S. Open championDaniil Medvedev on Sunday to make his-tory. And Medvedev is chasing a piece of his-tory of his own after reeling off the last fivegames to defeat Stefanos Tsitispas -6 (5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in a heated semifinal. He's aim-ing to be the first man in the Open era towin his second Grand Slam title at the nextmajor tournament.

The second-seeded Medvedev has hadan emotional and challenging run to back-to-back Australian Open finals. He had todeal with a hostile crowd in his second-round win over Nick Kyrgios, had to savea match point and rally from two sets downto beat Felix Auger-Aliassime in a nearlyfive-hour quarterfinal win, and had to regainhis composure after an angry outburst at theumpire on Friday.

He yelled at chair umpire JaumeCampistol after dropping serve in the sec-ond set, demanding that Tsitsipas be cau-tioned for receiving coaching from his fatherin the crowd. He took a five-minute breakafter dropping the set, took control late inthe third set and then dominated the last fivegames after Tsitsipas was eventually cau-

tioned for getting coaching from the stands.Nadal's run to a 29th Grand Slam final

has been comparatively serene.After the last point, he stopped, beamed

a wide grin and then punched the air threetimes.

Nadal arrived in Australia not knowinghow long he would last after months off thetour dealing with a serious foot injury andthen a bout of COVID-19. He skippedWimbledon after losing in the FrenchOpen semifinals to Novak Djokovic, anddidn't play at all after August.

“Every day has been an issue in termsof problems on the foot. Doubts still here... Probably for the rest of my careerbecause I have what I have and that's some-thing that we cannot fix," Nadal said.

“But for me it's amazing ... (to) just com-pete and play tennis at the high level again,facing the most important players of theworld.”

Last month, he wasn't even sure he'd beable to return to the tour.

But he won a tune-up tournament inMelbourne to start 2022 and has taken sixstraight matches at the first Grand Slamevent of the year.

One more and he'll break the record of20 major championships he shares withRoger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Nadalwould also become just the fourth man towin all four Grand Slam titles at least twice.

Nadal's win over Wimbledon runner-up Berrettini, under a closed roof at RodLaver Arena because of heavy rain, was his

500th on hard courts at tour level. He's onlywon the Australian Open once, in 2009.

Adding a second was his lone focus afteryet another semifinal win.

“For me, it's all about the AustralianOpen more than anything else,” Nadal saidin his on-court TV interview.

“I have been a little unlucky (here) inmy career with some injuries.

I played some amazing finals with goodchances."

He lost classic five-set finals atMelbourne Park to Djokovic in 2012 andFederer in 2017. Nadal lost in four sets toStan Wawrinka in 2014 and had a straight-set defeat against Djokovic three years ago.

“I feel very lucky that I won once," hesaid. "I never thought about anotherchance in 2022.” Nadal broke Berrettini'sopening service games in the first two setsand, after dropping the third set on a rareservice lapse, he rallied to finish off thematch in just under three hours. That in itselfwas a relief after his long five-set win overDenis Shapovalov two days earlier in thequarterfinals. Nadal was the only memberof the so-called Big Three who had a chanceto break the deadlock in Australia this time.

Federer missed the tournament to con-tinue his recovery from knee surgery.Djokovic, who has won nine of his GrandSlam titles at Melbourne Park, was deport-ed after an 11-day visa saga on the eve ofthe tournament because he failed to meetAustralia's strict COVID-19 vaccinationrequirements.

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Among the "friends of India" whoreceived a letter of appreciation from

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the 73rdRepublic day of the country, former Englandcricket captain Kevin Pietersen on Fridaythanked him for the gesture and said thenation of over a billion is a global "power-house". Sharing the letter on Twitter,Pietersen said he was thankful to the PrimeMinister for acknowledging his "affectiontowards India". South African great JontyRhodes and West Indies swashbucklerChris Gayle had also received similar lettersfrom the PM. "Dear, Mr @narendramodi,Thanks for the incredibly kind words in yourletter to me. Ever since stepping foot in Indiain 2003, I've grown more in love with yourcountry on every visit.

"I was recently asked, ‘what do you mostlike about India' & my answer was easy -THE PEOPLE," he posted.

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Having missed a chance ofemulating his idol Thierry

Henry by playing for Arsenal inthe English Premier League,Stephy Mavididi is now mak-ing a name for himself inFrench soccer.

The 23-year-old forward isdoing well with Montpellierand will be leading his side's bidto reach the French Cup quar-terfinals away to Marseille onSaturday. Mavididi scored asuperbly-taken winner in stop-page time last weekend asMontpellier beat Monaco 3-2to move sixth in the league. Healso played a part in the firstgoal against Monaco andscored the second.

Last season, he grabbednine league goals forMontpellier supporting first-

choice duo Andy Delort andGaetan Laborde.

Since they both leftMavididi has thrived in thespotlight. He leads the clubwith eight league goals and issecond in assists with three,behind silky playmaker TejiSavanier. Mavididi showedstrong potential early on.

He joined Arsenal's acad-emy at the age of 13 and wascoached by the club greatHenry for the under-19s side.

“He's been my idol, still ismy idol,” Mavididi told theFrench league's podcast.

“The socks (pulled right upover the knees like Henry usedto), the boots, everything real-ly.” But while Henry lit upEnglish soccer for years,Mavididi never made it into theGunners' first team. After loanspells with modest sides

Charlton, Preston and Oldhamhe joined Italian giant Juventusin 2018. Initially signed to playonly for the third-tier reserve

side, he netted six goals in 32Serie C games during the 2018-19 season and made oneappearance in Serie A.

It made him the firstEnglishman to play in Italysince midfielder David Platt in1992, but his lone game was notenough to earn him a titlemedal.

After a loan move to Dijonwhen he scored five leaguegoals in the first division — thefirst Englishman to score in theFrench top flight since formerEngland midfielder Joe Cole forLille in 2011 — he joinedMontpellier two years ago for6.3 million euros ($7 million).

It was not easy to breakinto the side last term, withLaborde and Delort combiningfor 31 league goals. Laborde isnow scoring freely for Rennesand Delort nets regularly forNice, but a new partnership isblossoming at Montpellierbetween Mavididi and the 19-year-old Elye Wahi.

����� 7;8�:;6"&

Still smarting from the semi-final exit at the Asia

Champions Trophy, Indianmen's hockey team chief coachGraham Reid on Friday saidthe setback came as a realitycheck for the Tokyo Olympicbronze medal winners ahead ofa busy calendar year.

Defending championsIndia were stunned 3-5 byJapan in the semifinal of theACT in Dhaka last month.

"It's always difficult. Youhave to be put in situations.Everybody including myselfhated that semifinal loss toJapan in ACT. No one likes toexperience something like that.But sometimes you have toexperience that to learn fromit," Reid said in a virtual pressconference. "The message afterthat tournament was 'Lookthis is what happens if wedon't treat every single gamewith the utmost importance. Ithink it was really good learn-ing experience."

Reid said his message tothe team after the historicOlympic medal was straight

forward: "This is just the begin-ning and not the end of theroad" and the loss against Japanwill act as reminder for themahead of a busy year thatincludes FIH Pro league match-es, Commonwealth Games andthe Asian Games. "Straightafter the Olympics I also saidthat 'This is not it, this is justthe start' and that's has beenour message from the momentwe won the bronze medal inTokyo. "...We have to take thebest out of the opprtiunitiesfrom here," he said.

India will start the yearwith back-to-back Pro Leagueties against South Africa andFrance in Potchefstroom fromFebruary 8 to 13. Olympicbronze medal-winning cap-tain Manpreet Singh will leada 20-member Indian team inthe double-leg contests inSouth Africa. The team willalso have its veteran goalkeep-er PR Sreejesh back besides get-ting two new faces -- youngdragflicker Jugraj Singh andstriker Abhishek. "We wereable to do that in Bangladesh(give chances to new players).

We were able to give the

players who haven't had theopportunity for a while.

"We also needed to bringback some of the other playerswho haven't had a game sincethe Olympics. The otherimportant message is that thesewill be very tough games, weare taking them pretty serious-ly so the team we picked isreflective of that," the coachsaid about the squad.

Talking about the two newplayers, Reid said: "Jugraj isquite a versatile player who canplay in both midfield anddefence. He is also very quickwhen he dragflicks. I am quiteexcited if we can get him littlemore consistent where he putsthem. "Abhishek likes scoringgoals, a prolific scorer. He isstrong and young."

The Australian tactician isalso impressed with thelongevity and commitment ofveteran goalkeeper Sreejesh.

"He (Sreejesh) is backagain, he had a long break butyou don't get to play so long foryour country as he has withoutbeing open to new ideas andchanges and development andcontinual improvement.

����� 5 � .

Kiran George upset thirdseed Subhankar Dey to

advance to the men's singlessemifinals while in-form shut-tler Malvika Bansod alsocruised to the last four roundin the women's event at theOdisha Open badminton tour-nament here on Friday.

The unseeded Kiran ekedout a hard-fought 21-16 10-2121-19 win over the higherranked Subhankar, who was thelast remaining seed in themen's singles event.

The 21-year-old will meetthe winner of the quarterfinalbetween Ansal Yadav andTharun Mannepalli.

Malvika, who reached thefinal of the Syed ModiInternational where she lost toPV Sindhu before defeatingSaina Nehwal at the IndiaOpen earlier this month, con-tinued to impress as she regis-tered a 21-13 16-21 21-17 vic-tory over fellow Indian TanyaHemanth in a gruelling 58-minute quarterfinal contest.

Fifth seed Ashmita Chalihagot the better of Rhucha Sawant21-17 21-15 to book her spot

in the last four of the women'ssingles, where she will meetcompatriot Smit Toshniwal,who came from behind to beatUSA's Ishika Jaiswal 8-21 21-921-14. In another women's sin-gles quarterfinal, UnnatiHooda handed fellow IndianSamiya Imad Farooqui a 21-1021-15 defeat in 26 minutes.

She will lock horns withMalvika, who is ranked 87th, inthe semifinal.

Unseeded Mithun

Manjunath, who had stunnedseventh seed June Wei Cheamof Malaysia on Thursday, losta hard fought battle 21-13 14-21 8-21 to Priyanshu Rajawatin 51 minutes in another men'ssingles quarterfinal match.

In the mixed doubles event,three Indian pairings -- MRArjun-Treesa Jolly, BalkeshariYadav-Swetaparna Panda andMauryan Kathiravan-KuhamBalashri -- advanced to thesemifinals.

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Ecuador is one win away fromreturning to the World Cup after

a 1-1 home draw with SouthAmerican qualifying leader Brazil.

Coach Gustavo Alfaro's team willqualify to play in Qatar if it beats Perunext week.

Chile, once a force in the region,saw its chances shrink dramaticallyafter a 2-1 home loss to second-placeArgentina. The Chileans will have topull good results at Bolivia and Brazil,with their last match in the competi-tion likely to be in Santiago againstbitter rival Uruguay.

Uruguay rose back to contentionafter a 1-0 win at Paraguay, with a goalby veteran Luis Suárez. It was theteam's first win for new coach DiegoAlonso, who took over after veteranÓscar Tabárez was fired due to poorresults.

Brazil (36 points) and Argentina(32) have already qualified for theWorld Cup. Ecuador has 24 points,five ahead of Uruguay. Colombiaand Peru, which will clash inBarranquilla, Colombia, on Friday, areat 17 points. Chile has 16 and couldbe overtaken by Bolivia (15), whichwill travel to Venezuela — the onlyteam in the region out of contentionfor a spot.

South America has four directWorld Cup spots, and the fifth-place

team will play an international play-off for a berth.

Ecuador drew at home againstBrazil to boost its chances of qualify-ing in a game that saw two players sentoff and a number of major refereeingdecisions overturned by video review.

Casemiro opened the scoring bytapping into an empty net in the sixthminute for Brazil — which has alreadyqualified for the World Cup in Qatar— before Ecuador equalized in the75th minute with a header by FelixTorres. But it was Colombian refereeWilmar Roldan who drew the most

attention by getting a series of keydecisions overturned after VAR —with Brazil goalkeeper Alisson beingshown a red card twice only to haveboth rescinded.

Roldan did not even whistle fora foul when Ecuador goalkeeperAlexánder Dominguez planted hisstuds into the neck of Brazil strikerMatheus Cunha as he challenged fora ball at the edge of the area in the16th minute. After a VAR review,Dominguez was handed a straight redcard. Brazil defender Emerson Royalwas then handed a second yellow inthe 20th minute and Alisson appearedto become the third player sent off 10minutes later after also hitting anopponent in the head with his leg aftera clearance. However, Roldan changedhis mind and only showed a yellowcard after VAR stepped in.

The second half had a similartheme as the Colombian refereeawarded two penalties to Ecuadoronly to reverse both decisions after areview.

The second penalty was in injurytime and involved Alisson getting asecond yellow, which was alsorescinded.

“I was sent off playing forLiverpool, I touched the ball outsidethe penalty box,” Alisson said.

“In situations like that you shouldnot complain, you should accept thereferee's decision.

����� 45� �

Last edition champions Indiadefeated China 2-0 to reg-

ister a consolation third placefinish at the women's AsiaCup hockey tournament hereon Friday.

The Indians left behindthe disappointment of theirsemifinal defeat to Korea andcontrolled the proceedings inthe first two quarters, scoringtwo goals in the process, to gointo half time with a 2-0 leadagainst China.

They, however, failed toscore any more goals in the sec-ond half.

The Indians started bright-ly and earned a couple ofpenalty corners and from onesuch situation, Sharmila Devigave her side the lead in the13th minute, scoring from a

rebound after Gurjit Kaur'sinitial flick was saved by theChinese defence.

India continued in thesame vein in the second quar-ter and had the better share ofchances.

The Indians kept up thepressure on the Chinesedefence with relentless raidsand secured another penaltycorner in the 19th minutewhich was converted by Gurjitwith a superb drag-flick tomake the scoreline 2-0.

China responded swiftly,securing a penalty cornerwhich was brilliantly kept awayby India captain and goalkeep-er Savita Punia.

Down by two goals, Chinacame out with more intentafter the change of ends andtried to put pressure on theIndian defence but to no avail.

The Indians kept up thepressure on the Chinesedefence at the start of thefourth and final quarter butfailed to create any clear cutchances.

China earned a penaltycorner 10 minutes before timebut the Indians defended innumbers to thwart any dangerto their citadel.

Towards the end of the

match, China pressed hardand secured three consecutivepenalty corners with two min-utes left in the clock but lackedin final execution as thechances went wasted.

Japan will be up againstKorea in the summit clashlater on Friday.

Lack of match practice dueto the COVID-19 pandemicafter finishing a historic fourthat the Tokyo Olympics, costdefending champions Indiadearly as they produced incon-sistent performances in crucialmatches to crash out of the titlerace.

After thrashing lowlyMalaysia 9-0 in their opener,India suffered a 0-2 defeatagainst Asian Games champi-ons Japan before beatingSingapore 9-1 to qualify for thesemifinals.

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COVID-hit India will be bol-stered by the return of key

players, including skipper YashDhull, when the record four-timechampions meet holders Bangladeshin the third quarterfinal of the U-19 Cricket World Cup here onSaturday.

Most of the half a dozen Indiaplayers, who were affected by thedreaded virus, have recovered andare set to feature in the crucial clash.However, Nishant Sindhu, who wasstand-in captain of the team, hastested positive and will miss thematch. He will be replaced by

Aneeshwar Gautam in the squad.Six players -- Dhull, his deputy

Shaik Rasheed, Sidharth Yadav,Aaradhya Yadav and Manav Parakh-- had returned positive RTPCRtests before the Ireland game. All ofthem are available for Saturday'sgame.

Dhull and other infected play-ers reached Antigua on Fridaymorning after undergoing sevendays of isolation in Trinidad.

"They have been medicallydeemed fit to play. They have a dayor so to train and be game ready,"an ICC source told PTI.

They had gone into isolationahead of India's second league fix-

ture against Ireland, dealing a bigblow to the record four time cham-pions. Five of them tested positive

in the RTPCR tests and also endedup missing the last league gameagainst Uganda.

However, the depth in the squadensured India won both thosegames comfortably and qualified forthe quarterfinals as group toppers.

Sindhu led the side in Dhull'sabsence as India struggled to field11 fit players on the park in thegame against Ireland.

"Most of the players have recov-ered and should be fit enough toplay tomorrow," a BCCI official toldPTI. Both Dhull and Rasheed areimportant batters for the team and

had looked in good touch againstSouth Africa in their tournamentopener.

Opener Angkrish Raghuvanshiand all-rounder Raj Bawa's confi-dence must be sky high after theyscored match winning tons againstUganda. Left-arm spinner VickyOstwal has been India's stand outbowler in the tournament withseven wickets.

Another left-arm spinnerSindhu has been tidy with the ball,taking four wickets at an economyrate of 2.76 runs per over.

The Bangladesh batters willalso not have an easy time nego-tiat ing the extra pace of

Rajvardhan Hangargekar.The game will be a rematch of

the previous edition's final in2020 when Bangladesh hadstunned the favourites to wintheir maiden t it le. CurrentBangladesh skipper Rakibul Hasanwas part of that memorable final.

In the recently held Asia Cupsemifinal in the UAE, India hadoutplayed Bangaldesh and gone onto win the title.

Bangladesh's entry into theknockouts here wasnt as smoothas India's. England outplayedthem in the first game before theyqualified with wins over Canadaand UAE.

����� 45� �

Former West Indies captain DarrenSammy feels Indian cricket is in "good

hands" under Rohit Sharma's leadershipas he bracketed the senior India batteralongside the legendary MS Dhoni intheir ability to get the best out of theirteammates.

A five-time IPL winning captain, afit-again Rohit will take charge as fulltime India white ball captain in theupcoming three ODI and three T20Isseries against the West Indies beginningin Ahmedabad on February 6.

Rohit was made the captain after theBCCI removed Virat Kohli as the ODIskipper following his war of words withthe Board.

"Kohli has been exceptional with hisperformances on the field.

I don't think it will affect the team,"Sammy told PTI on the sidelines ofLegends League Cricket here.

"Rohit has been an excellent captain(with Mumbai Indians), a good motiva-tional leader. I've watched him captain-ing Mumbai in the IPL.

He's among the captains who havewon like MS Dhoni, (Gautam)Gambhir..."

"All these guys can manage to getperformances from their teammates.

These captains normally get resultsand win trophies. I'm not worried aboutIndian cricket. It's in good hand," the 38-year-old added.

Sammy recollected how Dhoni fin-ished the game for Chennai Super Kingswith a six-ball 18 not out, smashing threeboundaries in the last over against DelhiCapitals in the semifinal last season.

CSK won their fourth IPL title in2021 beating Kolkata Knight Riders inthe final.

"You see guys like MS... He didn't domuch the entire season but when theteam needed him to fire in the playoffs,

he was out there in full flow," Sammysaid.

Sammy said it will not be a cakewalkfor India in the upcoming white-ballseries and the Kieron Pollard-led sideshould "fancy their chances".

West Indies had bounced back froma shock 1-2 ODI series defeat againstIreland to lead the ongoing five-matchT20I home series against England 2-1.

"I believe Pollard will definitelyfancy his chances (against India).

He has been playing in India for solong, he knows the conditions well.

"At the (ongoing) England series, wehave unearthed some new talents.

I think West Indies could go outthere (India) and do well."

India struggled in their last ODIseries in South Africa as the KL Rahul-led side were routed 0-3 by the Proteas.They had lost the preceding Test series1-2.

Asked whether it would be anadvantage for the West Indies consider-ing

India's struggle in their last series,Sammy said: "India have always beenstrong at home, they are a force to reck-on with because of some really good one-day players."

����� 7;8�:;6"&

BCCI Secretary Jay Shah onFriday said that the post-poned Ranji Trophy will beheld in two phases starting

next month, clearing the decks forIndia's premier domestic competi-tion to resume after being cancelledlast season.

It is expected that the 38-teamtournament will begin in the secondweek of February and the firstphase will continue for about amonth.

The tournament, which wasnot held last year due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, was sched-uled to begin on January 13 but waspostponed owing to a third wave ofinfections across the country.

"The Board has decided to con-duct the Ranji Trophy this season intwo phases. In the first phase, weplan to complete all matches of theleague stage while the knockoutswill be held in June," Shah said in astatement.

"My team is working closely tomitigate any kind of health riskcaused by the pandemic, while at thesame time ensuring a highly com-petitive red-ball cricket contest."

Shah said that the BCCI under-stands the significance of RanjiTrophy.

"Ranji Trophy is our most pres-tigious domestic competition, whichhas been providing Indian Cricket

with an enviable talent pool everyyear. It is absolutely important thatwe take all necessary steps to safe-guard the interest of this premierevent," he said.

The BCCI announcement hascome a day after its treasurer ArunDhumal had said that the Boardintends to host the event.

The two phases are required

since the BCCI also plans to host theIPL from March 27 and hosting twobig tournaments would not be pos-sible practically as the players' avail-ability would also be an issue.

����� :5��&

The ICC women's ODIWorld Cup CEO Andrea

Nelson on Friday assertedthat there will be no change inthe number of venues orscheduling of the event despitethe recent spread of theCOVID-19's Omicron variantin host country New Zealand.

The World Cup is sched-uled to be held in NewZealand from March 4, withthe hosts taking on WestIndies in the tournamentopener.

However, New Zealandhas seen a surge in COVID-19cases recently leading to sev-eral restrictions.

"We have been in prepa-ration to host the World Cuphere in 2022 for quite a some-time, originally it was sched-uled for 2021. We are well ontrack and 35 days away fromthe opening match inTauranga and 66 days awayfrom the final at the HagleyOval in Christchurch.

"The first thing to say isthat the tournament scheduleis remaining as it is, and thatinvolves moving around NewZealand," Nelson told a selectgroup of reporters on a con-call on Friday morning.

"We are working with theICC at a managed environ-ment. But broadly speaking,the tournament will proceed

nationwide as planned," sheadded.

On Thursday, NewZealand Cricket announced areworked schedule to curb therisk of COVID-19 by ensuringthat the teams will not have totravel a lot for matches in bothmen's and women's events.

"The big change in the lastweek or so has come aboutthough is New Zealand has theOmicron variant. But whathasn't changed is our fullcommitment to staging anincredible event for the ath-letes," stated Nelson.

The World Cup is slated tobe played at six venues - -Tauranga, Dunedin, Hamilton,Wellington, Auckland andChristchurch and Nelsonmaintained that as of nowthere was no change in loca-tion. "The plan is to retain theschedule as it is with the sixvenues. The contingency mea-sures were put in place relat-ed to protecting the travelbetween those venues as muchas possible.

"We are currently stagingthe event as per the schedulethat has been previously pub-lished with no changes oflocation."

"So, there are no signifi-cant changes to the way theevent will be delivered for theplayers. Predominantly thechanges are related to specta-tors inside the stadium."

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Afghanistan sneaked into theUnder-19 World Cup semi-

finals after edging out Sri Lankaby four runs, courtesy a sensa-tional fightback, here.

The odds were heavilystacked against them when theyposted just 134 on the board afterSri Lanka asked them to take firststrike but Afghanistan produceda superb performance with theball to bowl the island nation outfor 130 in 46 overs.

A composed stay at the creasefrom Sri Lanka skipper DunithWellalage (34 off 61) looked likewould pull his team over the line,but it was not meant to be.

Afghanistan will now faceEngland in the first Super Leaguesemifinal on February 1.

Put to bat, Afghanistan open-ers Nangeyalia Kharote and BilalSayedi looked solid for the open-ing 10 overs before TraveenMathew struck with a wickeddelivery that removed Sayedi.

Kharote departed in the verynext over and when skipperSuliman Safi was trapped LBW

after making just one,Afghanistan were reeling.

Ijaz Ahmadzai lost his wick-et without troubling the score-board, but fellow middle-orderbatter Abdul Hadi was able tosteady the ship with a crucial 37-run knock.

Vinjua Ranpul then helpedclear-out the tail for Sri Lanka,ending with a five-wicket haul atthe expense of just ten runs.

The Sri Lankan reply was

shaky from the start. OpenerSadisha Rajapaksa went for aduck in the opening over, and hisreplacement Shevon Daniel wentfor just 2 after he was cleanbowled by Bilal Sami.

After 13 overs, they were ina worse position thanAfghanistan were during theirinnings. Noor Ahmed then pro-duced a cracking delivery toremove Ranuda Somarathne andput Sri Lanka in real trouble.

Their dreams of lifting a firstU-19 World Cup trophy werefading fast. However, the eighthwicket partnership between cap-tain Wellalage and Raveen deSilva looked like it might save theday, taking Sri Lanka from 43runs for seven to 112.

Kharote took the crucialwicket of the skipper, who playedcheaply, before Naveed claimedthe wicket of de Silva to set-up anerve jangling finish.

Sri Lanka got to within fiveruns of victory, but their fourthrun-out of the innings costMathew the final wicket andgave Afghanistan a dramatic vic-tory

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Defending champion MultanSultans thumped Karachi

Kings by seven wickets asPakistan's premier domesticTwenty20 league opened with sev-eral players and support staff mem-bers already in isolation after test-ing positive for COVID-19.

Led by Mohammad Rizwan'sunbeaten 52 off 47 balls, Multancruised to 126-3 with 10 balls tospare after South Africa leg-spin-ner Imran Tahir took 3-16 and hadrestricted Karachi to 124-5.

The spread of coronavirus hasalready seen several players likeWahab Riaz and Kamran Akmal ofPeshawar Zalmi and Imad Wasim

of Karachi going into isolation. Starallrounder Shahid Afridi was thelatest to test positive on Thursdayand was ruled out of his teamQuetta Gladiators' first four games.

Afridi, who was due to miss atleast two games due to back pain,will remain in isolation for at leastone week before he will be reinte-grated with his team in a bio-securebubble after getting a negativeCOVID-19 test.

“I have unfortunately testedpositive but have no symptoms atall,” Afridi tweeted.

Karachi missed allrounderWasim, who helped the team winthe tournament in 2020 but now isbeing replaced by Babar Azam asskipper. To make things worse forKarachi, its premier fast bowlerMohammad Amir had to sit outthe first game due to a side strain.

Babar, leading Karachi for thefirst time, and Sharjeel Khan strug-gled to set the tempo against sometidy bowling by fast bowlers DavidWilley and Shahnawaz Dahani upfront after Rizwan won the toss andelected to field.

����� :5��&

Former Zimbabwe cap-tain Brendan Taylor

was on Friday banned forthree and a half years bythe ICC for failing toreport a 2019 spot-fixingapproach by an Indianbusinessman on time andwas also handed a onemonth suspension for fail-ing a dope test which waslinked to his intake ofcocaine during the episode.

In a statement, theICC said Taylor admittedto being in breach of theprovisions of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.

"Former Zimbabwecaptain Brendan Taylorhas been banned from allcricket for three and a halfyears after he acceptedbreaching four charges ofthe ICC Anti-Corruption

Code and, separately, onecharge of the ICC Anti-Doping Code," the ICCsaid.

On January 24, Taylormade a stunning disclosurethat he was blackmailedafter "foolishly" takingcocaine during his meetingwith an Indian business-man.

Taylor said he is facinga multi-year ban from theICC for delay in reportinga corrupt approach by anIndian businessman in2019.

Taylor had claimedthat he was invited by thebusinessman to India todiscuss "sponsorships" andpotential launch of a T20event in Zimbabwe besidesan offer of USD 15,000 inOctober 2019. He did notname the businessman inquestion.

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Former head coach Ravi Shastri on Friday said thatIndian cricket would become "spineless" if the

Ranji Trophy is ignored, his comment coming justbefore the BCCI announced that themarquee domestic event will be heldin two phases starting next month.

The Ranji Trophy was scheduledto start on January 13 this year butwas postponed indefinitely by theBCCI due to the third wave of the pan-demic.

"The Ranji Trophy is thebackbone of Indian cricket.The moment you startignoring it our cricketwill be SPINE-LESS!," Shastritweeted.

Just about ahour afterShastri's com-ment, BCCI secre-tary Jay Shah issueda statement, confirmingthe phased resumption ofthe tournament.

"The Board has decided toconduct the Ranji Trophy thisseason in two phases. In the first

phase, we plan to complete all matches of the leaguestage while the knockouts will be held in June," Shahsaid in a statement.

It is expected that the 38-team tournament willbegin in the second week of February and the firstphase will continue for about a month.

BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal, after a meetingof the Board on Thursday, had said that the bodyintends to hold the tournament in "two phases".

This is because the BCCI is planning to start theIPL from March 27 and it will be practically impos-sible to hold the Ranji Trophy at a stretch.

Dhumal had said this after many stateunits and the BCCI brass held a meet-

ing to discuss the way forward.The meeting was alsoattended by BCCI president

Sourav Ganguly andShah.

The pandemichad played spoilsport

last season as well whenthe BCCI could only

organise two men's white-ball tournaments (Vijay Hazare

Trophy and Syed Mushtaq AliTrophy).The BCCI paid 50 per cent of the ear-

lier match fee as compensation to all first-class cricketers who endured financiallosses due to Ranji's cancellation last year.

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