Actor Dia Mirza says playing the role ofSanjay Dutt’s wife Maanayata in Sanjuwas a surreal experience

MEMORABLE MOMENTS

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Majority of the projects under BRI arepartially affected by thepandemic

COVID AFFECTS BRI

INTERNATIONAL | P10

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 88 | www.orissapost.com BHUBANESWAR | MONDAY, JUNE 29 | 2020

LEISURE | P2

Basement of a COVID facility in Surat wasflooded after water from an undergroundtank overflowed TWO STATES| P7

FLOODED COVID FACILITY

12 PAGES | `4.00

IRREGULAR by MANJUL

Do not step out even if lockdown ends.It could be fatal. Remember, police

are everywhere.

yy WEATHER

BHUB

35.2° 33.4°CTK

24.8°MAX

MINTE

MP

Humidity 98% 95%Rainfall 18.1mm 18mm

ForecastLight to

moderaterain likely

26.7°

AGENCIES

Beijing, June 28: China reinforcedits troops near the Indian borderwith mountain climbers and mar-tial arts fighters shortly before adeadly clash this month, state mediareported.

Tensions are common betweenthe two nuclear-armed neighboursin the mountainous border terrain,but this month’s fighting was theirdeadliest encounter in over 50 years.

Five new militia divisions in-cluding former members of a MountEverest Olympic torch relay teamand fighters from a mixed martialarts club presented themselves forinspection at Lhasa June 15, officialmilitary newspaper China NationalDefense News reported.

State broadcaster CCTV showedfootage of hundreds of new troopslining up in the Tibetan capital.

Tibet commander Wang Haijiangsaid the Enbo Fight Club recruitswould “greatly raise the organisa-tion and mobilisation strength” oftroops and their “rapid response andsupport ability,” China NationalDefense News reported, althoughhe did not explicitly confirm theirdeployment was linked to ongoingborder tensions.

Chinese and Indian troops clashedlater that day in the most violent con-frontation between the two pow-ers in decades, in the Ladakh region1,300 kilometres away.

India says 20 of its own soldierswere killed in brutal hand-to-handcombat that day, while China suf-fered an unknown number of ca-sualties.

Both sides have blamed eachother for the battle, which wasfought with rocks and batonswithout any shots fired. Indiasaid Thursday that it had rein-forced troops in the contestedHimalayan border region, saying itwas matching a similar buildupby China. In recent weeks, Chinesestate media have highlighted mil-itary activity including high-altitudeanti-aircraft drills in the Tibet re-gion bordering India.

The new troops were recruitedwith the aim of “strengthening theborder and stabilizing Tibet,” ChinaNational Defense News said.

India claims Chinese troops am-bushed Indian soldiers and forcedthem down a ridge where they hadgone to remove a Chinese “en-croachment”. A bilateral accordprevents the use of guns, but thefighting was still fierce, with rudi-mentary weapons.

China has in turn accused Indian

soldiers of twice crossing the Lineof Actual Control, the unofficialboundary, provoking its troops.

The two countries fought a warover the border in 1962. There is anunderstanding between the nu-clear-armed neighbours that theirtroops in the disputed and inhos-pitable region will not use firearms.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New York, June 28: In an openlycommunal appeal to Muslim voters,Joe Biden, the Democratic Partycandidate for President, has draggedKashmir into his campaignin a religious context ratherthan as a foreign policy ora general human rightsissue.

His “Agenda for MuslimAmerican Communities” publishedby his campaign also criticises theCitizenship Amendment Act andthe National Register of Citizens.

Biden is assured of being for-mally nominated by the Democratsas its candidate at the party’s na-tional convention in August to chal-lenge President Donald Trump inthe November election as he has

won the required delegates in theprimary elections.

Unlike in India, parties are al-lowed to openly appeal to voters onthe basis of religion.

Turning what are foreign policyor general human rightsmatters into a religiousissue, Biden’s Muslimagenda says: “In Kashmir,the Indian government

should take all necessary steps torestore rights for all the people ofKashmir. Restrictions on dissent,such as preventing peaceful protestsor shutting or slowing down theInternet, weaken democracy.”

Turning to other contentious is-sues, the agenda, which is the basisfor outreach to Muslim voters, says:“Joe Biden has been disappointedby the measures that the government

of India has taken with the imple-mentation and aftermath of theNational Register of Citizens (NRC)in Assam and the passage of theCitizenship Amendment Act (CAA)into law.”

“These measures are inconsis-tent with the country's long tradi-

tion of secularism and with sus-taining a multi-ethnic and multi-re-ligious democracy.”

While criticising the CAA, Biden’sMuslim agenda, however, is silenton the US legislation similar to theCAA. Tucked into the US budget bill,the Specter Amendment excludesMuslim refugees from Iran fromgetting preferential asylum as re-ligious refugees.

The Biden campaign has not is-sued so far an agenda for Hindu-Americans or Sikh-Americans orBuddhist-Americans.

But separately, Biden has takenup the issue of persecution ofHindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan.

After a terror attack on a gurd-wara in Kabul killed at least 25Sikhs in March, Biden issued astatement expressing concern over

the “intense persecution of themembers of the two religions inAfghanistan” and urged the StateDepartment to consider refugeeprotection for them.

Trump officials have declinedmake a commitment to allowingSikhs and Hindus in Afghanistancoming to the US as refugees toavoid persecution.

Biden’s Agenda for AsianAmerican and Pacific IslanderCommunities, which is not reli-giously-oriented, mentioned Hindusand Sikhs, along with Muslims, asvictims of “discrimination andhate” in the US and said the situa-tion was made worse by “Trump’sdangerous rhetoric”.

The Muslim agenda noted that theadministration of former PresidentBarack Obama in which he was

the Vice President began to sepa-rately monitor hate crimes againstHindus and Sikhs.

It said that the Obama-Biden ad-ministration “added ‘Anti-Sikh’ and‘Anti-Hindu’ to the Department ofJustice's hate crime reporting cat-egories”. It said “his (Biden’s) JusticeDepartment will prioritise prose-cuting hate crimes”.

But the Obama-Biden adminis-tration had failed to act on anti-Hindu hate crimes like the placingof a severed cow's head at a Hinducow sanctuary in 2016 inPennsylvania. Biden’s focus onKashmir, the CAA and the NRC isdriven by the ascendancy of theLeft in the Democratic Party, whichis led by House of Representativesmembers like Pramila Jayapal, IlhanOmar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes.

China sent martial artiststo India border before clash

Hectic constructionactivities at borderBEIJING: Construction activityappeared underway on both theIndian and Chinese sides of a con-tested border high in theKarakoram Mountains a week aftera deadly clash in the area left 20Indian soldiers dead, satelliteimages showed. The imagesreleased this week by Maxar, aColorado-based satellite imagerycompany, show new constructionactivity along the Galwan RiverValley, even as Chinese and Indiandiplomats said military command-ers had agreed to disengage from astandoff there. The imagesappeared to show that the Indianshad built a wall on their side andthe Chinese had expanded an out-post camp at the end of a long roadconnected to Chinese militarybases farther from the poorlydefined border, according toexperts. The contradictions inwords and deeds showed thefragility of an agreement followingthe worst violence since the Asiangiants went to war in 1962 overtheir competing claims to the aridborder region, experts said.

BEFITTING REPLY GIVEN: PMNEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi assertedSunday that India has given a befitting reply to thosewho cast an evil eye on its territory in Ladakh, statingthat its brave soldiers have shown that they will notallow the nation’s pride to be hurt. Modi’s strong wordson his monthly ‘Mann ki Baat’ broadcast came amid astandoff between Indian and Chinese armies in easternLadakh, with the opposition Congress constantly attack-ing the central government over the issue. India honours the spirit of friendship andis also capable of giving an appropriate response to any adversary, without shyingaway, Modi said without naming China. “A befitting reply has been given to thosewho cast an evil eye on Indian territory in Ladakh. Our brave soldiers have shownthat they will never allow the honour of mother India to be hurt,” Modi said.

Biden drags Kashmir in his campaign to woo Muslims votersBIDEN’S FOCUS ON KASHMIR, THE CAA AND THE NRC IS DRIVEN BY THE ASCENDANCY OF THE LEFT IN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

US PREZPOLLS 2020

SHORT TAKES

CBI to probe TNcustodial deathsSalem (TN): The Tamil Nadugovernment has decided totransfer the probe into thedeath of a father-son duo,alleged victims of policetorture in Tuticorin district, tothe Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI), ChiefMinister K Palaniswami saidSunday. P Jayaraj and his sonFennix, arrested for ‘violating’lockdown norms overbusiness hours of theircellphone shop, died at ahospital in Kovilpatti June 23,with their relatives allegingthey were severely thrashedat the Sathankulam policestation by police personnelearlier. The incident hastriggered a national furore,leading to the suspension offour policemen, including twosub-inspectors. P8

Crocodile kills boy Malkangiri: A 10-year-old boyhas been killed by a crocodile ina reservoir in Malkangiridistrict, police said Sunday. Theincident happened when twoschool students from JholagudaOperate Colony in Chitrakondawent to the reservoir on Sileruriver for a bath Saturdayafternoon, a police officer said.One of the boys, Kailash Majhi,was dragged into the water bya crocodile, he said. Somelocals later found his mutilatedbody floating on the reservoir,the officer said.

STATE’S COVID-19 TOLLMOUNTS TO 21

Ganjam dist takes theburden of highestreturnee population

BHUBANESWAR: The COVID-19 death toll in thestate mounted to 21 Sunday with three morepatients succumbing to the disease, while thecount of cases rose to 6,614 after 264 morepeople tested positive for the infection, ahealth official said. The fresh fatalities werereported from Bhubaneswar, Ganjam andCuttack districts, the Health and FamilyWelfare Department said in a statement.The deceased persons included a 73-year-old man from Bhubaneswar, who was suf-fering from diabetes, hypertension andchronic kidney ailments, a 65-year-old man from Cuttackand a 75-year-old man from Ganjam, both of whom had dia-betes and hypertension, the official said. The COVID-19death toll in Ganjam district has increased to 10, followed byKhurda (5), Cuttack (4) and one each in Bargarh and Puri, hesaid, adding that the state had reported its first COVID-19fatality in Bhubaneswar April 6. MORE P4

Total cases

6,614New cases

264

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 28: Amid po-litical mudslinging betweenthe opposition Congress andthe ruling BJP on the issue ofdonations from Chinese com-panies, the Congress has al-leged that PM-CARES fund alsoreceived donations from Chinesefirms.

Senior Congress spokesper-

son Abhishek Manu Singhvisaid, “Why has PM Modi re-ceived Chinese money in thePM-CARES fund, despite theovert Chinese hostilities? HasPM received `7 crore from thecontroversial company Huawei?Does Huawei have a direct con-nection with People’s LiberationAr my of China? Has theChinese company owningTikTok facilitated a donation of

`30 crore to the controversial PMCARES Fund?”

The Congress has also askedif Paytm, which has 38 per centChinese ownership, given ̀ 100crore, Oppo ̀ 1 crore and Xiomi`15 crore in the fund. “Has PrimeMinister Modi diverted the do-nations received in PMNRF tothe controversial PM-CARESFund and how many hundredcrores is the amount diverted?”

Singhvi asked.Singhvi said reports suggest

that as May 20, 2020, the fund re-ceived ̀ 9,678 crore. “The shock-ing part is that though Chineseforces have transgressed into ourterritory, Prime Minister has re-ceived money in the fund fromChinese companies,” he alleged.

“No one knows the consti-tutional or operational frame-work of the PM-CARES fund

and how it is controlled ormoney given to it utilised. Thefund is not even subject to auditby any public authority in-cluding CAG. PMO has gone tothe extent of saying this fundis not a public authority.”

“The fund appears to be solelyrun by the Prime Minister in anopaque and secret fashion withzero transparency and zero ac-countability,” claimed Singhvi.

Chinese firms contributed to PM-CARES fund: Cong

MANISH KUMAR, OP

Bhubaneswar, June 28:The state government hasbeen witnessing the returnof migrant workers sinceMay 3 when the partial lock-down relaxations were an-nounced and Ganjam dis-trict seems to be thedestination of a large chunkof them.

According to data fur-nished by the state HealthDepartment in their COVID-19 dashboard, a large chunkof the returnees from acrossthe country headed towardsthe coastal district ofGanjam after arriving intheir home state amid theCOVID-19 outbreak.

According to governmentestimates a total of 3,47,042stranded workers returnedto the state via ShramikSpecial trains till June 14. Atotal of 1,28,737 persons (37per cent) of them headedtowards Ganjam districtafter entering the state.

Aside from SharamikSpecials, of the 1,70,492stranded people who reachedthe state by road so far, 22,201(13 per cent) went to Ganjamtill June 26. This is the high-est influx of people regis-tered by any district in thestate.

In addition 3,345 peoplereached Bhubaneswar byair from different parts ofthe country as well as abroad

and travelled to Ganjam.The district administra-

tion claims that more than2 lakh people have arrivedin the district till now.“According to official esti-mates more than 2 lakh re-turnees have come to ourdistrict after the lockdownwas relaxed partially,”Ganjam Collector VijayAmrut Kulange said.

With the largest influx ofpeople from other states, thedistrict also witnessed thesteepest rise in COVID-19cases in Odisha. It also re-ported the maximum deathsowing to the virus. So far, 11people in the district havesuccumbed to their infections.

The district has also re-ceived the maximum allo-cations from the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund(CMRF) to tackle the pan-demic. Ganjam has so farreceived Rs20 crore addi-tional against the sched-uled funds sent to all DistrictCollectors to deal with thedisease.

Health department claimsthat the district now has atotal of 3,020 quarantine cen-tres spread across severalpanchayats with bed capac-ity of 1,46,457 – the highest inany district in the state.Ganjam is also harnessing fa-cilities at seven COVID CareHomes and one dedicatedCOVID Hospital with 200beds and 20 ICU beds.

CONVEYANCE ALLOWANCE

Workers cannow claim I-TexemptionPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: The government has al-lowed individuals under new lower tax regimeto claim I-T exemption on conveyance allowancereceived from employers.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) hasnow amended Income Tax rules to prescribecertain exemptions which can be availed by theemployees.

These include any allowance granted to meetthe cost of travel on tour or on transfer, any al-lowance, whether, granted on tour or for the pe-riod of journey in connection with transfer, tomeet the ordinary daily charges incurred byan employee on account of absence from hisnormal placeof duty.

It also in-cludes exemp-tion for any al-lowanceg ranted tomeet the ex-penditure in-curred on con-veyance in performance of duties of an officeor employment of profit, provided that free con-veyance is not provided by the employer. TheCBDT has further clarified that while deter-mining value of perquisites, no exemption willbe available in respect of free food and non-al-coholic beverage provided by employer throughpaid voucher.

Further, blind, deaf and dumb or orthopedi-cally handicap employees can also claim ad-hocexemption of transport allowance of ̀ 3,200 permonth while computing salaried income.

Offering an optional lower rate of incometax to individuals, Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in her Budget for 2020-21 proposednew optional tax regime under section 115BACof I-T Act for individuals willing to forego cer-tain specified deductions or exemptions whilecomputing total income for tax purpose.

Under this, annual income up to `2.5 lakh isexempt from tax. Those individuals earning be-tween `2.5 lakh and `5 lakh will pay 5 per centtax. Income between `5 and 7.5 lakh will betaxed at 10 per cent, while those between ̀ 7.5 and10 lakh at 15 per cent.

Those earning between ̀ 10 and 12.5 lakh willpay tax at the rate of 20 per cent, while those be-tween `12.5 and `15 lakh will pay at the rate of25 per cent. Income above ̀ 15 lakh will be taxedat 30 per cent. The new I-T slabs would be for in-dividuals not availing certain specified deduc-tions or exemptions.

Petrol, dieselprices unchanged New Delhi: In a big relief for thecommon man, the continuousrise in petrol and diesel pricescame to a halt Sunday. Fuelprices across the metros wereunchanged for the first timeafter price hikes for 21consecutive days. Petrol prices,however, were unchanged fora day during this 21-day periodafter the daily revision basedon dynamic pricing wasreinstated. In the nationalcapital, petrol price wasunchanged at `80.38 per litreSunday. Cost of diesel also wasthe same as Saturday at `80.40a litre.

Mumbai: Putting an end to all rumours of datingher Kasautii Zindagii Kay co-star Parth Samthaan,

actress Erica Fernandes has revealed that she isnot single and has been in a relationship with aperson who does not belong to the entertain-

ment industry.In a live chat on Instagram, Erica opened up

about her relationship status.“I am not single. I am in relationship andhe’s not from the industry,” she said.

She also spoke about her bond withher beau.

“It’s been over three years now. Weare very good friends. We speak aboutall kinds of nonsense..he doesn’t like

watching me romance any otherguy on screen,” Erica quipped.

Not only this, Erica also men-tioned how her linking ru-mours with Parth and herprevious co-star ShaheerSheikh forced her to speakabout her love life in pub-lic.

Mumbai: Putting oneself inanother’s shoes is never easy. Aconsiderable amount of empa-thy is expected, and that is theone experience actress Dia Mirzahasn’t forgotten, from her roleas Sanjay Dutt’s wife Maanayatain the 2018 biopic Sanju.

Directed by Rajkumar Hirani,the fi lm traces

Sanjay’s real-life as a

star

kid, his love affairs, encounterwith drugs, the 1993 Mumbaiblasts, and his imprisonment.

“Having worked with RajuSir before, the comfort level wasalready established. The entireexperience at the time was sur-real. Sanjay sir was always won-derful to me through all our

projects together. I owehim some of the most

special films in mylife, Sanju beingone of them,”

Dia said.While

Hirani’s asso-ciation with

the projectwas a bigfactor inthe actress’eagerness

to do therole, an-other spe-cial factorwas herpersonal

connectionwith Sanjay

Dutt himself.Dia has

shared screenspace with Dutt

in fi lms likeParineeta, LageRaho Munna Bhai

and Dus . Shefound that her role

as Maanayatabrought things

to full circle.IANS

Mumbai: Superstar Shah RukhKhan has completed 28 years inHindi film industry, and he feelsit’s the people who allowed him toentertain them for almost threedecades.

Taking to Instagram, SRKpenned a thank younote for his fans.

“Don’t knowwhen my pas-sion becamemy purposeand thenturned intomy profession.Thank you allfor so manyyears of allowingme to entertain you.

“More than my pro-fessionalism I believe my pas-sionalism will see me through manymore years of service to all of you.28 years and counting,” he wrote.

Shah Rukh madehis foray into actingwith small screenshows like Circus andFauji. Then, in 1992,Shah Rukh entered bigscreen with Deewana.

And with thehard work he

continued toput into hiscareer, hegraduallyfound a spe-cial place inthe history of

cinema and be-came one of the

top personalities ofthe country.

Some of his remarkablemovies include the names of Darr,Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, DilTo Pagal Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Haiand Chak De! India.

P2PUGH APOLOGISES FOR ABUSING INDIAN CULTURE

leisureActress Florence Pugh felt sad about Indianculture being abused for profit, and went on toapologise for disrespecting the beauty of thereligion that had been taught to her many yearsago. The 24-year-old actress posted thestatement on Instagram, reports people.com.

SHREK 2 DIRECTOR KELLY NO MOREKelly Asbury, best known for directingAcademy Award-nominated animation filmsSpirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Shrek 2,has died. He was 60. The director died Fridaymorning in Los Angeles following a long battlewith abdominal cancer, reports variety.com

MONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSAs the day begins, youwill be irritated and trou-bled by the most trivial ofmatters. But you won't letit hamper your pace and sincerely pur-sue your goals. Evening promisessome kind of monetary windfall. Makefull use of opportunities on the careerfront, if any, says Ganesha.

PISCESYour cauldron of conflictsboils over, says Ganesha.At work, confrontationswith your peers are a dis-tinct possibility. Domestically, property related squabbles with your siblings are pos-sible. Your family will be the cause of somemonetary loss today. Keep a calm head.

SAGITTARIUSBusiness tycoons, beready to scale newheights today! Ganeshasees a fantastic day ofmassive business growth. In the after-noon, your professionalism will be heldin high esteem by friends and foe alike.

LIBRADoes money really mat-ter when compared toyour loved ones? Youmight be asking yourselfthis question at some point in time duringthe day, foresees Ganesha. Chances arehigh that today, you may be at the receiv-ing end of some sort of financial lossaccelerated by someone close to you.

SCORPIOThe day will usher refresh-ing changes into your per-sonal life, foreseesGanesha. No matter whichside of the bed you woke up on, the daypromises to present itself in a cheerful light.You will build and enjoy harmonious andcordial relations with your peers at work.

LEOChampagne, anyone?Well, Ganesha seems tofavour a good celebra-tion today as you give amajor boost to your reputation in yourchosen field. You will bring success andglory to all your associates. Do not bemisled by the initial stress of your work-place, as it shall fade away with thepassage of day.

VIRGOReap and harvest thegood things in yourlife. You may seem toarrive at your wits'end today. Ganesha predicts that youwill probably sort all of it when you sitdown with your better half and discussthe issues at hand.

GEMINIThere are strong indica-tions that today will be anaction-packed day foryou, says Ganesha. Though you will be bur-dened with a lot of responsibilities, you willbe able to show your family members howmuch you care for them.

CANCEREarly today, you mayspend a great deal oftime thinking aboutyour career and future,predicts Ganesha. In the afternoon, youwill device a plan on how to go about it,and by evening, you may even put theplan into action.

ARIESYou realise it's a goodthing to share thesecrets of your success.Whatever you give, says Ganesha, willcome back to you multiplied by nine.Now that you seek to be open andaccommodating, more respect willcome your way.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSToday will be a day ofnostalgia as all your goodmemories bring a smileto your face. You might encounter a fewproblems that will drive you to the edge ofthe cliff. Do not delay pending conversationswith your better half and bring affection tothe table when you do so, says Ganesha.

CAPRICORNYou will be brimmingover with power andenergy, so much so thatyou may go head firstinto a new business venture, somethingthat can match your ability and bringyou the desired satisfaction. Pendingwork will be done away with, leaving youmore time for recreation, says Ganesha.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTSCROSSWORD

SUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

postTo solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to E.

N ew Delhi: Gaming is fornerds, a myth long ingrainedin us. Gone are the days

when gaming was associated withnegative connotations, and gamerswere stereotyped as lazy, inac-tive users.

“Gaming, as an industry,has exponentially grownover the years across mar-kets. Today, the gaming in-dustry has evolved from acasual hobby to a seriousbusiness perspec-tive, worth over abillion dollars.This has encour-aged celebritiesto be vocal abouttheir gaming in-terest, and in-vest in innova-t ive g amingcompanies,”says AntonRublievskyi,CEO, ParimatchInternational.

Here is a l is t o fcelebrities who havepoured their money andfame into exciting gam-

ing opportunities.SACHIN TENDULKAR

After dominating thecricket ground for two

decades, Tendulkar enteredthe gaming space by investing

in Smaaash Entertainment, asports and gaming arena, preva-

lent across India. Under Sachin'smentorship, Smaash developed

innovative gaming technologiessuch as Virtual Reality and multipledigital entertainments, to be estab-lished as an enhanced gaming expe-rience pioneer in the country. He hasalso launched and played an active partin developing innovative gaming ex-periences such as the Sachin Saga VR,which was India's first virtual real-ity cricket multi-player.MIKE TYSON

After retiring from the ring, the Hallof Fame boxing champion has takenan interest in the world of e-sports bypurchasing ownership stake inEsports company, Fade 2 Karma.

Tyson regularly puts out hisgaming videos on streamingchannels and has also shown

interest in reviving the Mike TysonPunch Out game, originally releasedby Nintendo in 1987.ASHTON KUTCHER

The star of That ‘70s Show, AshtonKutcher has stepped-up from beinga successful actor to a venture capi-talist by co-founding the investmentfirm, Sound Ventures, in 2015. Kutcher,an avid gamer since childhood, hasvoiced his opinion about the poten-tial of e-sports and the need to main-stream the segment, on numerousoccasions. DRAKE

Canadian rap sensation AubreyDrake Graham, popularly known asDrake, has been as consistent inpushing out hit singles, as he hasbeen in engaging with the e-sports andgaming world. Drake's love for gam-ing is widely known as he plays alot during his downtime in the record-ing studio. Drake took the centerstage in the gaming world when helive-streamed and played Fortnitewith a globally famous gaming

streamer, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins,which brought in more than 635,000concurrent viewers. MS DHONI

Known for his legendary helicop-ter shot and swift wicket keeping,former Indian cricket team captain,MS Dhoni, is also a gaming maver-ick off the field as he has been spot-ted gaming on his mobile duringcricketing tours. Taking his love forgaming further, Dhoni has also beenthe brand ambassador for Dream11,a fantasy sports, and gaming plat-form. Reportedly, MSD has a pen-chant for games like PUBG and Callof duty. MICHAEL JORDAN

The NBA superstar is an active in-vestor in the world of sports and tech-nology. The basketball legend enteredthe e-sports and gaming industry byinvesting in AXiomatic Gaming, whichowns the professional-gaming fran-chise Team Liquid. Over the years,Jordan has been a part of multiplevideo games and has actively sup-ported it, to the extent that he hasbeen widely credited for turning bas-ketball fans into hardcore gamers.

With more celebrities vying to geta slice of the gaming and e-sportspie, the day is not far when the gam-ing industry thrives and dominatesmajor markets across the world.

SRK clocks 28 yrs inmovies, thanks fansPlaying Maanayata

was surreal: Dia

ERICA OPENS UP ON HER LOVE LIFE

Starry faces of gamingAfter dominating cricket

grounds for nearly twodecades, Sachin Tendulkar has

played an active part in developing innovative gamingexperiences such as the Sachin

Saga VR, which was India’s|first virtual reality cricket

multi-player

P3 BALANCING ACT

A scooterist covers himself with apolythene sheet while travellingamid the rain at Rajmahal Squarein Bhubaneswar, Sunday

FULL OF VIGOUR

Kathajodi, a distributary ofMahanadi, in spate near Cuttack,Sunday, after the release offloodwater from Hirakud damdowntown

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MONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: OdishaCongress Sunday criticised thestate government for imposing theweekend shutdowns saying it “is af-fecting the normal functioning ofthe state during this critical hour.”

Congress leader Suresh Routraysaid that the government shouldmake the testing campaign more ag-gressive and go for more screen-ing of the population rather thanimposing shutdowns.

“The government has been strug-gling in managing Covid-19. Theyneed to scale up their testing. Thisweekly shutdown should come to anend and resource should be mo-bilised towards better managementof the disease,” he added.

He also said that the idea to bringback the migrants back to theirstate during the lockdown was abad idea.

“The idea to bring back the mi-grants during lockdown was not agood idea. I have been telling the gov-ernment to let the migrants remain

where they are, provide them foodand get them tested and treated inpositive cases.”

Routray said that as soon as theinflux of migrants started in the

state, the cases of Covid -19 sky-rocketed. “As soon as the migrantsstarted coming to the state, thecases went up significantly. Thewhole concept was flawed and

the consequences are before everybody.” He said that the gov-ernment is not hearing to the expertsand other experienced people.

Routray also raised concernsabout the livelihood of the peopleaffected by the lockdown and theshutdowns.

Party spokesperson SatyaPrakash Nayak also had attackedthe government “for doing lessertests” in the state if taken into ac-count the population.

REBUTTALThe government, however, has

been claiming that the state isdoing more tests per million pop-ulation compared to the nationalaverage.

National Health Mission (NHM)Managing Director Shalini Pandithas recently said that compared tothe national average the state isconducting far more than that whenit comes to per million of popula-tion. She also claimed that the pos-itive rate in the state is one of thelowest in the country.

Cong against weekend shutdownsCONGRESS MLA SURESH ROUTRAY BLASTS THE STATE GOVT AND DEMANDS AN END TO THE

WEEKEND SHUTDOWNS

NOT A SOUL IN SIGHT: The Bapuji Nagar market in Bhubaneswar, which rarelyremains devoid of crowd in the afternoon, wears a deserted look Sunday asthe weekend shutdown is on

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: Notedneurosurgeon and former neu-rosurgery head from the All IndiaInstitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), New Delhi, Dr AshokMohapatra Sunday voiced sup-port for the weekend shutdown inthe state.

Speaking to reporters hereSunday, the former director ofAIIMS Bhubaneswar said, “Thestate may be moving towards com-munity transmission but no onecan 100 per cent confirm it.”

“We can do some importantbasic things to reduce the chancesof spread of the disease. We needto have shutdowns on Saturdaysand Sundays,” he said.

“What is the need of the peoplenow to venture out of their homesif they don’t need to attend of-fices,” he asked.

Dr Mohapatra highlighted thata lot of people have succumbed tothe viral disease across the globeand “we should take every possibleprecaution to control the globalpandemic.”

“Close to 3,000 people are get-ting infected daily in metropoli-tan cities. Imposing lockdown isa good idea. We do not have anyclear idea on what could havehappened if lockdown was notimposed but seeing the large pop-ulation, the infection numberscould have been much higher,”he added.

Dr Mohapatra said that thelockdown helped in reducing thechances of infection to a greaterextent.

“People should abide by thestate government rules becausethe government relaxed lockdownand shutdown norms, and the

Union government went for un-locking India. But that does notmean that we become careless,”he stressed.

He said that a lot of people arenow rampantly flouting normsof social distancing and mask-wearing despite higher cases ofthe disease, especially in the mar-kets and haats.

It may be mentioned here thatDr Mohapatra has received na-tional and international awardsfor successfully operating on Jagaand Balia, the conjoined twinsfrom Kandhamal when he wasworking in the neurosurgery de-partment of AIIMS, New Delhi.

Weekend shutdowns necessary,says former City AIIMS director

The state may be movingtowards communitytransmission but no one canconfirm it. However, if peopledon’t follow the guidelines,Odisha will definitely movetowards communitytransmissionDR ASHOK MOHAPATRA | FORMER DIRECTOR,AIIMS BHUBANESWAR

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, June 28: Lord Jagannath and hissiblings Lord Balabhadra and DeviSubhadra would be offered Podapitha,a traditional cake, on their respective char-iots near Mausi Maa temple here duringthe Bahuda Yatra July 1.

Priests at the Mausi Maa temple herehave started baking the special cake forthe Srimandir deities.

As per tradition, the three deities areoffered the special cake on their chari-ots during their return journey fromSrigundicha temple to Srimandir.Nandighosa, Taladhwaja and Darpadalanchariots make a brief halt near theMausi Maa temple during Bahuda Yatrafor the unique ritual.THE LEGEND

According to legend, a river, named asMalini, was flowing in between Srimandirand Srigundicha temple long ago. TheGajapati rulers were then forced to con-struct six chariots for the annual Rath Yatra.

Three chariots were used to carry thedeities from Srimandir to the Maliniriverbank while another three chariotswere pressed into service for LordJagannath and his siblings’ journeyonce they were ferried to the opposite side.

It is believed that Lord Jagannath’s ma-ternal aunt, Devi Ardhashosini, was in-strumental in drying up Malini riverfor the smooth conduct of the Car Festival.In order to express his gratitude, LordJagannath had promised his aunt to

make a halt near her temple and acceptPodapitha during Bahuda Yatra.

Mausi Maa temple priests claim thatthey prepare the special cake by churn-ing flour, cheese, sugar, ghee and somearomatic substances. “We fry the mix withpure ghee after keeping it on hot steamfor seven to eight hours. Podapitha isbaked in traditional hearths. Pujapandaservitors distribute the specially-madecake among devotees after offering it todeities,” the priests said.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, June 28: A day after theperformance of Herapanchamiritual, the three chariots ofSrimandir deities were turnedsouthwards near Srigundicha tem-ple Sunday ahead of the BahudaYatra.

Lord

Jagannath and his siblings LordBalabhadra and Devi Subhadra,who are on a sojourn to Srigundichatemple, will return to the Lions’Gate of Srimandir by riding theirrespective chariots on the occa-sion of Bahuda Yatra July 1.

The three chariots were turnedsouthwards after receivingAagynamala (consent) from thedeities who are now being wor-shiped at the Adapa Mandapof Srigundicha temple.

“The Aagynamala ofthe deities were placedon their respective char-iots at 11.15 am followingthe completion of ritu-als like Mangala Alati,Abakash, Gopal Ballav,Sakala Dhoopa andBhogamandap,”said a servitor.

Darpadalan chariot of DeviSubhadra was turned southwardsby police personnel and parkedat the Nakachana g ate ofSrigundicha temple.Subsequently, Taladhwaja char-

iot of LordBalabhadra

and

Nandighosa chariot of LordJagannath were also given a south-ward turn and pulled to theNakachana gate.

“The three chariots were pulledto the Nakachana g ate ofSrigundicha temple by 5.55 pm,”added the servitor.

Earlier, a group of engineers, car-penters and blacksmiths Saturday

examined the status of the threechariots thoroughly.

Subsequently, some minorrepair works were car-ried on the chariots tomake them fully fit forthe Bahuda Yatra. ANGRY GODDESS

It is worth men-tioning here thatGoddess

Mahalaxmi, theconsort of

Lord Jagannath, was taken to theSrigundicha temple fromSrimandir on a palanquin for theconduct of the Herapanchami rit-ual Saturday.

As per the tradition and belief,Goddess Mahalaxmi was peevedat Lord Jagannath as she was leftout on the nine-day sojourn toSrigundicha temple.

Angry Mahalaxmi reachedSrigundicha temple and tried topersuade Lord Jagannath to re-turn to Srimandir. The Goddessbroke a small portion fromNandighosa chariot atSharadhabali after her master re-fused to accompany her.

Goddess Mahalaxmi wastaken back to Srimandir

soon after theHerapanchami

ritual.

Security personnel turn Darpadalan chariot southwards near Srigundicha temple in Puri, Sunday OP PHOTO

Chariots turn southward, reach Nakachana gateBAHUDA YATRA PREP Lord Jagannath, Lord

Balabhadra and DeviSubhadra will return to

the Lions’ Gate ofSrimandir by riding their

respective chariots onthe occasion of Bahuda

Yatra July 1 TheAagynamala ofthe deities wereplaced on their

respective chariots at11.15 am following the

completion of rituals likeMangala Alati, Abakash,

Gopal Ballav, SakalaDhoopa and

BhogamandapSRIMANDIR SERVITOR

Lord’s Podapitha being baked at Mausi Maa temple NANDIGHOSA, TALADHWAJA AND DARPADALAN CHARIOTS MAKE A HALT NEAR THE MAUSI MAA TEMPLE DURING BAHUDA YATRA

The delicacy being readied, Sunday OP PHOTOS

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: The EastCoast Railway (ECoR) has handledmore than 636 Shramik Specialtrains from the first week of Maythis year. It has almost completedthe task of ferrying migrants andmore than 3 lakh persons have sofar been brought to their homesin Shramik Special trains in itsjurisdiction during the massiveexercise.

While, the ECoR has receivedabout 250 Shramik Special trainsin its jurisdiction, as many as 14Shramik Special trains were sentfrom ECoR jurisdiction towardsdifferent places including one

fro m Samb alpur, two fromBhubaneswar and rest fromVisakhapatnam.

These inward trains to Odishahave been received from Gujarat,Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,Delhi and Andhra Pradesh.

More than 372 Shramik Specialtrains also passed safely throughECoR jurisdictions which wereprovided meals, water and otherservices at different stations inECoR.

Operation of Shramik Specialtrains was started from May 1, 2020to bring back migrant workers,tourists and students to their homesduring lockdown due to Covid-19

pandemic.Shramik Special trains were

provided as and when demand wasraised by the state governments, anofficial said.

As per the directives of Supreme

Court, ferrying of migrant labour-ers to their homes by ShramikSpecial trains was to be completedby June 24. In ECoR, this exercisewas almost completed well withintime, as currently there is very lit-tle demand for ECoR-boundShramik Special trains in any state,official sources said.

Apart from Odisha, ECoR hasalso fulfilled all the demands fromAndhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarhfor outward Shramik Special trains.

More than 12 lakh free mealsand drinking water bottles wereserved in the Shramik Specialtrains by ECoR with the assistanceof IRCTC.

ECoR has handled 636Shramik Special trains

DEADLINE METAs per the directives of Supreme

Court, ferrying of migrantlabourers to their homes byShramik Special trains was to becompleted by June 24. In ECoR, thisexercise was almost completedwell within time, as currently thereis very little demand for ECoR-bound Shramik Special trains in anystate, official sources said

3 LAKH PEOPLE FERRIED SINCE MAY 1

ECoR received about 250 ShramikSpecial trains in its jurisdiction

14 Shramik Specials were sentfrom its jurisdiction towardsdifferent places including one fromSambalpur, two from Bhubaneswarand rest from VisakhapatnamFILE PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: The stategovernment in a notification Sundayrevoked the suspension of BijayKetan Upadhyaya and reinstatedhim as Secretary, Board of Revenue,Cuttack.

Vigilance sleuths had arrestedUpadhyaya December 30 last yearon charges of accepting a bribe ofRs 1 lakh from the representa-tive of a private firm.

“This Department order No.14147/AIS dated 17.06. 2020 re-garding extension of suspensionof Dr. Bijay Ketan Upadhyaya,IAS w.e.f. 27.06.2020 is hereby su-perseded,” read the letter.

Earlier, the Vigilance depart-m e n t h a d w r i t t e n t o t h eHorticulture department askingto furnish details regardingUpadhyaya’s assets, sources said.

In its reply, the Horticultured e p a r t m e n t h a d i n f o r m e d

Vigilance sleuths that Upadhyayahad not submitted any informa-tion on his assets. Horticulture de-par tment had claimed thatUpadhyaya had worked as its di-rector from August 20, 2018 toDecember 30, 2019. During that pe-riod, Upadhyaya’s net salary wasRs 14,35, 830 while his gross salarywas Rs 17,60,935.

During his tenure, Upadhyayahad not withdrawn money fromhis provident fund.

Similarly, the IAS officer hadnot sought any permission fromthe Horticulture department tobuy any property. “Upadhyayahad not submitted any informa-tion on his assets. Besides, hehad not informed the departmentreading his spouse’s occupationand earnings. The IAS officerhad not sought the required per-mission to accept any gift fromany source,” said the Vigilance de-partment in its reply.

Suspended IAS officer BijayKetan Upadhyaya reinstated

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bhubaneswar, June 28: With theCOVID-19 pandemic casting ashadow on business and industrialactivities, top leaders of nationaltrade union organisations havepleaded with the government tosupport MSMEs to tide over thecrisis.

Participating in a web meetingconducted by the National Instituteof PersonnelManagement(NIPM), trade unionleaders emphasisedthat the government,management ofcompanies, and thelabour force mustwork in unison in acoordinated mannerto pull the economyout of the crisis andspur growth.

Seeking concretemeasures to increasethe purchasingpower of workers,the national presi-dent of theBharatiya MazdoorSangh (BMS), CKSaji Narayanan, said it will boosteconomic activities and facilitategrowth in the country.

The BMS leader also advocatedsteps to infuse a sense of ‘economicpatriotism’ among people.

“Efforts should be made to improve the purchasing power ofthe labour force... the best solutionis to have a wage-led growth mech-anism in the country,” Narayanansaid.

Indian National Trade UnionCongress (INTUC) president GSanjeeva Reddy stressed the needto consider workers as social part-ners, saying it will go a long way ininculcating a sense of belonging

among them.Amarjeet Kaur, the All India

Trade Union Congress (AITUC)general secretary, insisted that theMSME sector, which has been hithard by the pandemic, needs to begiven adequate support as it is verydifficult for them to get back ontheir feet at this hour.

The government should takesteps to provide more loans to theMSMEs, she said.

Centre of IndianTrade Unions(CITU) general sec-retary Tapan Senemphasised the needfor measures to en-hance trust betweenthe government andthe labour force,whose livelihoodsources have dwin-dled amid the lock-down.

Suggesting thatlabour code shouldbe done away with,he said privatisationshould also bestopped for ensur-ing proper growthof industry.

The national president of NIPM,Vishwesh Kulkarni, following theinauguration of the meeting, saidthat steps should be taken to ensurethat both management and tradeunion move in the same directionand at same speed for proper func-tioning of any business organisa-tion in the present scenario.

Summing it all up, AK Balyan,the former national president ofNIPM, who moderated the panel dis-cussion, said, “We have to face thesituation head on as a united team...the management, trade unions andthe government have to work intandem for the success of industryand economy.”

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: Another137 COVID-19 patients recoveredin the state Sunday taking the totalnumber of recovery cases in Odishato 4,743.

Official sources saidsamples of another 137COVID-19 patientstested negative forCOVID-19 and the re-covered cases are beingdischarged from hos-pitals.

A maximum num-ber of 33 patients fromGanjam district curedof the virus infection.

While 29 persons from Khurda,22 from Cuttack, 13 from Balasoredistricts recovered, nine from Jajpurand six from Kalahandi districtscured of the disease.

A total of four patients fromBhadrak, three each fromMayurbhanj, Nayagarh and Puridistricts recuperated and testednegative for the deadly virus.

Two each from Boudh, Baragarh,Jharsuguda and Kendrapara dis-tricts and one each from Angul,Balangir, Jagatsinghpur andNuapada districts recovered.

Odisha’s recovery rate is at astiff 69.64 per cent which is wayhigher than Uttar Pradesh which isat 64.86 per cent, followed byKarnataka at 62.86 per cent, Tamil

Nadu at 55.42 per cent and neighbouring Andhra Pradesh at45.23 per cent.

Similarly, the State’s death rateis at a moderate 0.39 per cent. Slightlyhigher than Odisha is AndhraPradesh with 1.27 per cent. Next

comes Tamil Nadu with1.28 per cent, Karnataka1.64 per cent, UttarPradesh 3.01 per centand Maharashtra at 4.65per cent death rate.

Coming to howOdisha has fared inter-nationally, first let’s ob-serve its stats. WhileOdisha’s population is4.4 crores, the total num-

ber of cases is at 6180 and the deathtoll stands at just 17. Comparatively,Spain with 4.7 crore population had2.95 lakh cases and 28,338 deaths. TheUnited Kingdom had 3.09 lakh casesand 43,414 deaths reported with apopulation of 6.6 crores.

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Cuttack: Despite pipelines being laid since long, residents of BidanasiNayak Sahi under Ward No 1 of Cuttack Municipal Corporation struggle toget proper supply of drinking water. With limited options, local residentshave to fetch water from tube wells and wells to meet daily requirements.This is despite the fact that the city is included under the AMRUT scheme.We are facing a lot of issues almost daily to fetch even drinking water. Thewater we get from wells is not fit for consumption,” said a local.“Eventhough pipelines were set up since long, supply of water is yet to beprovided by officials of PHD,” said another local resident. “All the issueshave been brought up before several corporators, but no concrete step hasbeen taken in this regard,” he added. When the matter was brought to thenotice of Collector Bhawani Shankar Chayani, he assured to takenecessary steps to resolve the drinking water issue of the residents. “I willask PHD officials to take immediate measures to resolve the drinkingwater issues in that locality,” said Chayani. Meanwhile, the work for layingof pipelines and completion of the drinking water project has now beenundertaken by the PHD officials.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Rayagada, June 28: Ask him any-thing about the solar system, the evo-lution of life and astronomy, thisseven-year-old kid’s impromptuand accurate answers will leaveyou spellbound.

Meet the prodigy BibhunandanNath, son of Gourahari Nath, a res-ident of Collectorate Road area inRayagada town. He is a Class II stu-dent.

Gourahari says they were notaware of the fact that Bibhu pos-

sessed such an amazing hiddentalent. It was Arabinda Takri, thetutor of Bibhu’s elder sister, who

first noticed this. “Bibhu used tosit next to his sister in tuitionclasses. Unbeknownst to him, Bibhu

was minutely listening to him, par-ticularly when he taught science.He often asked Takri several ques-tions relating to science. Most ques-tions often left Takri searching inGoogle. Later, Takri started ask-ing some questions only to findBibhu correctly answering all ques-tions,” Gourahari says.

"Realising the god-gifted talent,Takri one day called us to the tuitionclass and informed us about Bibhu’stalent. Like any other parents, wewere delighted to hear about our sonand started encouraging him to ac-

quire more knowledge," he adds. Seeing Bibhu’s interest in the

field of astronomy, his parents saythey are sanguine about their son’sfuture. “For last two years, we oftenspotted Bibhu watching videos onYouTube and Google on our mo-bile phones. We would take it ca-sually and think he might be watch-ing cartoons or something else,”they added.

While talking to Orissa POST,this little science wizard said thathe wants to join NASA and do re-search in astronomy.

7-year-old kid’s unending passion for astronomy

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: More se-crets have been coming out in theincident related to the visit of twosenior cops to the holy town, Purion the Rath Yatra day, June 23flouting the state government’sorder prohibiting entry to thePilgrim city till June 24 afternoon.

Sources revealed that the officersdid not visit Puri alone but wereaccompanied by some journalistfriends from Bhubaneswar.

The errant officers also report-edly clicked selfies with their scribefriends near the chariots withoutcaring the imposition of section 144in Puri. This episode unraveledthe brazen show of misuse of powerby these two senior officers.

Meanwhile, the officials prob-ing into the incident have beenasked to submit the report at the earliest.

Notably, highly-placed sourceshave revealed that one DeputySuperintendent of Police (DSP)deployed at Khurda and an assis-tant commissioner of police (ACP)in Bhubaneswar Urban PoliceDistrict of Commissionerate Policehad visited Puri during Rath Yatradespite the prohibitory orders.

Following the incident, On June24, the state police, in haste, re-leased an advisory restricting the

visit of cops who were not on RathYatra duty to not visit Puri ap-parently to avoid any further em-barrassment.

However, the state police offi-cials are keeping mum over theincident in public. The depart-ment has also undergone embar-rassing moments due to the mis-deeds by the same officers in thepast too.

Cops violate orderswith scribe buddies

State’s recovery rate climbs to 69.64 per cent

It was ArabindaTakri, the tutor ofBibhunandan Nath’selder sister, who first noticed the hidden talent

The errant officers also clicked

selfies near the chariots with

complete disregardfor the imposition of

Section 144 in Puri

CDA Sec 9 declared containment zoneCuttack: The Sector-9 area underCuttack Development Authority(CDA) here was declared ‘con-tainment zone’ after a 46-year-oldmale resident of the locality wastested positive for novel coron-avirus, a civic body official saidSunday.

According to CMC commis-sioner Ananya Das, the civic bodymove follows a few hours after apersonnel of Odisha Police, a res-ident of the locality, tested positivefor the viral infection.

“As Sector-9 is populous, chancesof community transmission ofthe virus is high in the locality.Hence, active contact tracing is amust as it would go a long way tohelp curb spread of the virus. Thearea has been declared contain-ment zone to ensure curb on entry

to and exit from the locality. Theresidents have been asked to stayindoors,” Das said, adding thatprivate and government officesin Sector-9 have also been asked toremain shut till further orders.

Das further said that dedicatedteams have been constituted to en-

sure essentials and healthcare fa-cility reach to the residents ofSector-9. The containment zonecovers plot no. D-47 to D-49 in south,plot no. D-1 to D-49 in west, plot no.D-1 near Ambatota Road to B-34 inthe north and from the rear part ofplot no. B-35 to A-46 in the east.

Two newcontainmentzones inCapital city

BHUBANESWAR: Laxmi Bazar slumand Subhadra apartment in Patia areahere have been declared containmentzones after new coronavirus cases werereported from the localities, an offi-cial of Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC), said Sunday.

While a couple with no travel historywas tested positive for the viral infec-tion at Subhadra apartment in

Kalarahang a panchayat ofBhubaneswar block, four new caseswere reported from the Laxmi Bazarslum in Siripur. With this, a total ofnine cases have been reported fromthe slum in a span of 20 days, accord-ing to BMC.

“We have banned people’s movementin the containment zones until furtherorders. Civic teams will ensure that

residents in the containment zone getessentials and can avail medical facil-ities, if necessary. They have also beenasked to dial 1929 helpline for any as-sistance,” a senior BMC official said.

Moreover, the zonal deputy com-missioner (south west) has been di-rected to seal entry and exit points ofthe containment zones with the help ofpolice, a BMC official said.

Centre urged to save hotel industry

‘Economic patriotism’vital to tide over crisis

Trade union leadersemphasised that the government,management of

firms and laboursmust work in unison

to spur growth

Cheating chargesagainst movie producer in CityPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: A movieproducer has reportedly cheatedhis associate of Rs 6.5 lakhs onthe pretext of making an Odiafilm. The SDJM court has directedthe Commissionerate Police toinitiate a probe into the matterwhile hearing a plea filed by thevictim, Surya Narayan Behera,39, of Jagannathprasad area ofGanjam.

According to sources, the accusedPrasant Pal introduced himself asa producer and director of Odiamovies. Pal reportedly asked the vic-tim to invest money in his project asa co-producer. He promised to giveBehera his share after the moviehit screens. Accordingly, Beheragave Rs 6.5 lakhs to Pal through var-ious installments in 2015.

However, Pal did not pay Beherahis share from the profit despitethe lapse of more than four yearsfrom the receipt of the amount. Palalso allegedly threatened the vic-tim of dire consequences whenhe asked for his share.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: Youthsaspiring for jobs at various gov-ernment departments are the newtargets for the cyber fraudsters.Recently, several fake advertise-ments for various posts in theCentral Electricity Supply Utilityof Odisha (CESU) have been doingrounds for the past few days.

The fraudsters are reportedlydemanding high amounts to thetune of lakhs when contacted bythe gullible aspirants. Some alertyouths recently drew the atten-tion of the CESU authorities to-wards the fake job advertise-ments.

Subsequently, CESU officialswere directed by authorities tolodge complaints at their local po-lice stations.

Accordingly, Electrical man-ager of Bhubaneswar CityDistribution Division-I (BCDD-I)has filed a complaint with Capitalpolice which began investigationsand registered a case (238/20).

Cesu seeks policehelp against fakejob advertisements

PRECIOUS DROPS

A woman collects water from a leaking pipe junction near City College in Bhubaneswar, Sunday OP PHOTO

Odisha’sdeath rate

is at a moderate

0.39 per cent

AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, June 28: The Hoteland Restaurant Association ofOdisha (HRAO) Sunday urged theUnion Minister for Tourism,Prahalad Singh Patel, to help thehotel industry tide over the COVID-19 crisis.

In a letter to the Union Minister,HRAO Chairman JK Mohantysaid there is no occupancy in ho-tels as people are scared to travelby trains and flights due to thefear of pandemic. The hotel in-dustry in Odisha is bleeding dueto COVID-19 pandemic.

Although the Union Minister, in

response to the demands of var-ious associations, has asked thestate government to provide reliefto the industry, precious little hasbeen done in this regard as the in-dustry has neither received anyhelp from the state nor from theCentre, Mohanty said.

The HRAO chairman said theUnion Minister has directed toprovide relief among other thingson Excise License Fee, electricity

charges and duties as well as fixedcosts (Minimum Demand) chargeson electricity for hotels and es-tablishments’ property tax andreducing the current rate by halffor hotels and hospitality sector.

He said the Union and the stategovernment must realise that thebenefits of reviving the sectorwould be more than the assistancerequired by struggling hotels.

Mohanty appealed to the UnionMinister to think of the longterm benefit that the industrycan contribute to the country interms of employment, Indian andforeign exchange earnings andimage building of the country.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: Despitestrict guidelines being issued bythe state to prevent the spread ofcoronavirus, people are graduallybecoming callous in wearing masksand maintaining social distancing.

Odisha Police has collected heavyfines from people caught in publicplaces without face masks acrossthe state, a top police officer said.

To create awareness in this regard,police and others have employedvarious innovative methods. Onsimilar lines, a Std VIII student ofKendriya Vidyalaya in the city isusing puppetry videos to create

awareness on wearing mask. Herpuppetry video was also tweeted byCommissionerate Police.

The Commisionerate policetweeted “We are thankful to SnehaSaina of Standard-8, KV-3 for cre-ating this innovative puppet showto create awareness for wearing amask. We again request all to#MaskUpOdisha, for yourself, yourfamily, your country”

In the video the puppets are en-acting a scene of how police are stop-ping a person from going outsidewithout masks.

The Odisha Police is also usingsocial media regularly to createawareness on coronavirus.

Puppetry spreads awareness on masks

Drinking water blues in CMC’s Ward No. 1

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Binika, June 28: For people livingin Tileimal in Babupali panchayatunder this block in Sonepur dis-trict, drinking water has become poi-son.

Tileimal is a one ward revenuevillage with a 400-odd population.These people mostly belong to sched-uled tribe, scheduled caste andother backward classes and livelargely on agriculture.

The village seems to be stuck ina time warp. While the villagers’wish list is long, their primary de-mand is safe drinking water.

They complain the water avail-able in their locality, including thegroundwater, has become poisonous.“Consuming this water when manyof us are suffering from kidney re-lated problems has led to manydeaths,” they complained.

The village has a drinking waterproject run by solar power. However,it hardly meets the requirement ofthe people. Besides this, there arethree tube wells in the village. Ofthem, only one is functioning, butdispensing water rich in iron andfluoride content.

“Since we are not getting the re-quired quota of drinking water, weare forced to use the tube well water.We know that the water is making

us ill but we have no choice,” the vil-lagers lamented.

As a result of prolonged use ofiron and fluoride rich water, thevillagers are suffering from manykidney related ailments.

While Ranju Chhatar (25),Rajkumar Jal (40) and PratimaMallick (48) are among the villagerswho died of kidney disease,Bhanumati Bagh (60), LambodarBihar (50) and Laxman Mallick (48)are living with the complications ofthe disease.

“In absence of proper medicaltreatment, their body parts havestarted swelling,” they alleged.

The village is yet to be connected

with a fair weather road. The roadthey are using to reach nearby mar-kets or the panchayat office is ac-tually a bund passing through farm-lands. In rainy season, they remaincut off from the rest of the world asthe bund gets submerged for daystogether.

The literacy rate is abysmallylow in the village. The literate onesare no longer living in the villageas they have settled elsewhere.

Venting their ire against politi-cal leaders, the villagers said, “Theseleaders visit our village duringelection, promising us the moon. Butafter election, they visit us once ina blue moon.”

“If our problems are not ad-dressed, we will not participate inany kind of elections in the comingdays,” threatened Nrupa Bagh,Bichitrananda Padhi, Bimal Kudei,Tikilai Kudei and some others.

Sarpanch Chandra KumarMahapatra said the panchayat is con-structing Tileimal-Rampur canalroad from its own funds. It will becompleted soon. Similarly, a plan forTileimal-Talamunda main road hasalready been finalised.

“In the coming days, while em-phasis would be laid on healthcare,education and communication in thevillage, priority would be given tothe water problem,” he added.

Where water is not life but poison PEOPLE OF THIS VILLAGE ARE FORCED TO CONSUME WATER RICH IN IRON AND FLUORIDE

CONTENT IN THE ABSENCE OF SAFE SOURCES

VILLAGERS ALLEGED THAT BYCONSUMING THIS WATER MANYARE SUFFERING FROM KIDNEY

RELATED PROBLEMS WHICH HASLED TO MANY DEATHS

THE LITERACY RATE IS ABYSMALLYLOW IN THE VILLAGE. THE LITERATE

ONES ARE NO LONGER LIVING INTHE VILLAGE AS THEY HAVE

SETTLED ELSEWHERE.

THEY WARNED NOT TOPARTICIPATE IN ANY KIND OF

ELECTIONS IN THE COMING DAYS, IFTHEIR WATER PROBLEM IS NOT

RESOLVED

POST NEWS NETWORK

Athagarh, June 28: The inspec-tor-in-charge (IIC) of a police sta-tion under Athagarh subdivisionin Cuttack district has tested pos-itive for COVID-19, Athgarh SDPOAlok Ranjan Ray Sunday said.

As a precautionary measure tocontain the spread of the virus inthe nearby areas, the district ad-ministration has declared the po-lice station as containment zone.

According to a source, there area total of 22 staff working in the po-lice station and out of them eighthave complained of fever.

In view of the situation, a di-rection to collect the swabs of all

22 staffers including officers hasbeen issued, Ray said, adding thatall the 22 staffers have been di-rected to stay inside the police sta-tion till the release of their swabsample test reports.

Swab samples of the SDPO, whovisited the police station, and twodrivers will also be collected forCOVID-19 test.

IIC tests Covid-19+ve,8 cops down with fever

BERHAMPUR: Six streets underthe Berhampur MunicipalCorporation (BeMC) were declaredcontainment zones Sunday aftera few symptomatic people werefound in the areas during the spe-cial screening drive undertakenby Rapid Response Teams.

According to MunicipalCommissioner Chakravarti SinghRathore, on the basis of local inputs,it was apprehended that a goodnumber of people residing in thestreets might have come into con-tact with some positive cases andit is necessary to declare the streetsas containment zones to safeguardthe public and control the spreadof COVID-19.

Sahu Colony (Ward No. 4), Bhaba

Nagar 4th lane, Tulasi Nagar 6thlane, Bank Colony 1st lane nearAIR Office, Gandhi Nagar 4th laneand Burma Colony were declaredcontainment zones.

Rathore issued an order thatno people shall be allowed tomove into the containment zonesand the inhabitants within thecontainment zones shall remainin home quarantine till furtherorders.

All the shopping establishments,govt and private institutions lo-cated within the boundary of thecontainment zones should beclosed. The supply of essentialsand medical requirements willbe ensured through various teamsformed by BeMC.

BARIPADA: Amid the rising casesof local COVID-19 infections, peo-ple in some areas in Mayurbhanjdistrict started dreading com-munity transmission, a reportsaid. The district reported 15 newcases of infection, taking the tallyto 196, Sunday. Among the 15 in-fected people, four are from dif-ferent localities.

Eleven cases were detected inquarantine centres in Kaptipada,Khunta, Sukuruli , Udala,Gopabandhunagar, Badasahi,Jashipur and Bijatala blocks. Ifpeople don’t follow the guidelines,infection is likely to move towardscommunity transmission, it issaid. Despite the weekend shut-downs, positive cases are increasingin the district, which has becomea cause of concern for the ad-ministration. If people don’t followthe guidelines, infection is likelyto move towards community trans-mission, it is said. Meanwhile,the administration has launchedcontact tracing of the people hav-ing come in contact with the fourinfected local residents.As manyas 74 infected people are undertreatment in the district.

4 local cases triggercommunity spread fearin Mayurbhanj dist

All the 22 staffers havebeen directed to stayinside the police station till the releaseof their swab sampletest reports

Six streets of Berhampurdeclared containment zones

UNITED NEWS OF INDIA

Kendrapara, June 28: Thousandsof residential birds have started ar-riving at Matha-adiha andLaxmiprasad Dia heronry within theBhitarkanika National Park here forbreeding and nesting.

Rajnagar Mangrove Forest andWildlife Division DFO Bikash RanjanDas said Matha-adiha heronry seemsto be the favourite nesting and breed-ing place for these monsoon birds forthe last half a decade.

The monsoon birds choseLaxmiprasad Dia last year for nestingand breeding. However, the birdsskipped Bagagahan heronry, whichwas the favourite nesting place forthese residential birds for severalyears in the past.

The dense mangrove vegetationand its serene pollution free atmospherehave once again proved alluring for thewinged visitors. The DFO said 11 typesof residential birds—open bill stork,little cormorant, intermediate egret,

large egret, little egret, purple heron,grey heron, night heron, darter, whiteibis and cattle e g ret— throngBhitarknaika National Park everyyear for nesting and breeding duringthe monsoon.

The avian species selectively usespecies of mangroves for constructingnests in the trees of guan, sundari, sin-duka, bani and jagula. This time, 5,000birds of four species—egret, darter, cor-

morant, and open bill stork—throngedthe Bhitarknika National Park.

Every year, with the onset of mon-soon, these birds generally come inlarge numbers to BhitarkanikaNational Park and the nesting processgets over by the end of November.

Last year, an estimated 1,07,910 mon-soon bird species, including 50,022chicks, were spotted and 19,296 nestswere sighted during census drive at

Laxmiprasad Dia and Matha-adiaheronry. Similarly, the forest person-nel had spotted 2,541 birds, including1,155 chicks and 924 adults in 462 nestsat Matha-adia heronry during lastmonsoon.

As many as 10 out of 11 types ofspecies, which generally throngBhitarkanika every monsoon, came lasttime too to the Matha-adia andLaxmiprasad Dia heronry.

Monsoon birds throng Bhitarkanika for nesting n The dense mangrove vegetation of the

national park and its serene, pollutionfree atmosphere have once againproved alluring for the winged visitors

n Eleven types of residential birds —openbill stork, little cormorant, intermediateegret, large egret, little egret, purpleheron, grey heron, night heron, darter,white ibis and cattle egret— throng thepark every year

n Last year, an estimated 1,07,910monsoon bird species, including 50,022chicks, were spotted and 19,296 nestswere sighted

A man knitting a fishing net under a tree in Sambalpur OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Nuapada, June 28: A four-year-old girl, who was raped by a 15-year-old seven months ago, has been bat-tling for life as her poor parents areunable to provide her treatment atKhariar Road in Nuapada district.

The health of the rape victim isdeteriorating by the day as thewound in her private parts re-mains unhealed, her parents re-vealed before reporters while theyhad come to a private hospital forher treatment Sunday.

The victim’s father alleged thegirl was medically examined atVSS Institute of Medical Sciencesand Research, Burla, but she wasdischarged after two days.

District child protection offi-cer Baladev Rath said arrange-ments will be made for her treat-ment.

4-yr-old rape victimbattles for life

POST NEWS NETWORK

Soro, June 28: The residents ofMulisigh village under Soro blockin Balasore district chose a uniqueand creative way to expose the fail-ure of authorities in repairing a roadSunday. As a mark of protest, the vil-lagers planted paddy saplings on theone-km-long road in ReshiporaBudgam, some 35 km from the dis-trict headquarters office.

The unprecedented protest didnot just end there – the villagerstook it to the social media by up-loading photographs of the protest.“This is a silent protest to seekanswers from the administration.If we had blocked the road instead,it would have only added to theproblems of the public,” AnilKumar, a resident said. “Thanks tothe social media, everyone now

knows about it,” added Kumar.Residents said the rainwater and

leakage from the water pipes getsaccumulated on the road making itimpossible to walk. “Usually itshould take 15 minutes to reach thepanchayat office but because of thepoor road condition, it takes morethan an hour to travel the distance,”Sanjit, another resident, said. Theroad was constructed in 2002 bylaying a layer of soil. But after 18

years, the administration was un-able to construct the road properly.

It is yet to be completed owing towhich commuting on the road hasbecome a nightmare for villagers,especially patients and students.Some school children too joinedin the protest and planted paddysaplings on the slushy stretch of theroad. They said this was a silentprotest against the apathy of the ad-ministration towards their plight.

Locals protest by plantingsaplings on poorly laid road

Residents pointed out thatthe rainwaterand leakage fromthe water pipes gather on theroad all the time

POST NEWS NETWORK

Angul, June 28: The Angul forestdepartment has launched a mobilephone-based app which will alertpeople of approaching elephantherds.

There have been numerous in-stances of human-elephant con-flict in this district. Forest depart-ment feels that this app will helpresidents by warning them of ap-proaching jumbos. The app waslaunched at the local Odisha ForestRangers’ College here Saturday.

The ‘Angul Banasathi’ app willalert forest department staff when-ever an elephant herd strays awayfrom its original path and comesclose to human habitation. Villagerswho volunteer and register them-selves under this app will act asagents between the forest depart-ment and local residents.

The app will be functional inAngul, Banarpal, Talcher, Kanihaand Chhendipada forest ranges.Villagers can download this app

from Google Play Store free of cost.It will help them stay connectedwith Angul forest division. A cen-tralised control room to monitorthe movement of elephants willstart soon in this forest division,Angul DFO Kartik Prakash in-formed. “Real-time confrontations

between elephants and humanscan be averted as information onmovement of jumbos can be easilypassed on to locals and vice versathrough this app,” Prakash said.

Locals can pass informationabout other wild animals as well asillegal activities going on in forests,

directly by dialing toll free num-ber (18003155555). The app will bebeneficial for obtaining three typesof services. It will provide infor-mation on wild animals, also com-plaints can be lodged and the appwill provide news about distributionof free saplings.

App launched to avert man-elephant conflict

This app will help residents by warningthem of approaching jumbos

BERHAMPUR: Police detainedthree fish sellers including twowomen here on the charge of sell-ing fish in violation of shutdownnorms imposed by the district ad-ministration Sunday.

The administration has im-posed a four-day shutdown asthe Covid-19 situation in the dis-trict is deteriorating by the day.However, these three fish sellerwere found sel l ing f ish atJagabandhu Sahi in Bada Bazaarwhen all other business estab-lishments had downed theirshutters.

These three fish sellers werefound selling fish with some peo-ple crowding the area when thewhole city was deserted due tothe shutdown.

3 held for sellingfish in shutdown

TRADITIONAL OCCUPATION

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

P rime Minister Narendra Modi has, in his Mann Ki Baat radio programmethis Sunday, made a renewed appeal for purchasing and promoting local'Made In India' items. Notably, this has been the PM’s theme ever

since the start of his first term in 2014 when he came up with the Make InIndia slogan. How much progress India has achieved in this respect in re-cent years, or the lack of it, is evident from the way Chinese items have floodedthe Indian markets. Slogans were not limited to just this one scheme. It wasfollowed by many others such as Stand Up India, Walk Away India and soon. All such slogans actually made many crooked but state-favoured busi-nessmen to walk away from India with all our money.

At the same time, official claims are that the manufacturing sector hasthe ‘potential’ to reach a level of $1 trillion by 2025. This may sound as a tallclaim since the government is also claiming in the same breath that Indiawould attain rank among the top three manufacturing destinations of theworld soon. This claim is particularly hilarious as the government itself hasnot made any efforts at projecting India as a safe and secure option for for-eign investments. To imagine that Indian corporates can undertake thetask of meeting indigenous demands of a variety of products is similar toasking for a slice of the moon. Today, the situation that we see in India is anoutcome of government-corporate bonhomie at the cost of the nation’s tax-payers. Indian corporates have never made the effort to have a long-term goalof being long-term players. Our corporates have survived for long only be-cause no competition is allowed to thrive. This is where the government hasabetted the crimes of the Indian corporates.It is easier to understand this scenario if itis juxtaposed to the event of movie starSushant Singh Rajput. This young actor,we are told, was highly talented and hadwon the hearts of millions of viewers.However, his popularity and abilities turnedout to be his biggest enemies. The well en-trenched Bombay film world personalitieswere mighty threatened by the non-filmfamily youngster who emerged with prom-ise. Sushant Singh may not have been the onlyone in the film industry to have perished before shining. Similarly, theIndian corporate world also does not permit random growth of new play-ers. To attain their targets, the all powerful Bombay club type personalitieshave always used governmental methods of oppressing and destroying newentrepreneurs. This has resulted in India not being able to create many smalland medium industrialists or businessmen who could have met the challengeof Make In India now. Our system has always preferred to encourage growthof traders and shopkeepers.

Conveniently forgetting Make In India because it made no headway, theUnion government is now pitching the new Atma Nirbhar scheme claim-ing that every Indian should be self-sufficient. Like Make In India, this newAtma Nirbhar slogan sounds pretty logical. But then, the preacher must showthe path by practicing what is preached. In other words, the Union govern-ment must first become self-sufficient and not collect billions through a de-vious indirect taxation system. If the government thinks fit to increasegas, diesel and petrol prices virtually every day to fill its coffers so that itcan implement these fancy named programmes then it becomes extremelydifficult for the poor of India to be Atma Nirbhar. No doubt, the mediacaters to only a certain part of the population. It is these very people whosat in the comfort of their homes and appreciated the visuals of inhuman-ities heaped on the migrant labourers by the police. It is these people whopresume their cities, amenities and work or business are the direct outcomeof their petty little income tax payments. We have to remember that a na-tion is created with the labour of millions. Therefore, to consider the migrantlabourer as deserving subjects of police brutality is demonstration of a mind-set that is unwilling to accept others’ contribution towards our own well being.Unfortunately, the Union government seems to be catering to this verycrowd. For instance, when China has killed 20 young Indian soldiers, the gov-ernment thinks it fit to divert attention and blame the opposition. The partyin power conveniently forgets that it, too, has been in the saddle for the sev-enth year now. That is a long enough time to stop blaming the past and ac-tively contribute towards course correction. E arlier this month, popular

actor without any B-Townblood Sushant Singh Rajput

was found dead in his apartment.He was 34; an excellent student,an astrophysics enthusiast, aphilosopher at core, a dance freak,social service-minded and philan-thropist. He was just out of theconventional fulcrum in his act-ing career. The suspected suicidehas upset his fans. As mystery con-tinues to shroud this unfortunateincident, the reality of India’s imag-ination personified through theHindi cinema is unfolding.

Popularly known as Bombay’sHollywood, the B-Town as an in-dustry is larger than life. FromDadasaheb Phalke’s silent cinemaRaja Harishchandra (1913) to thehighest Bollywood grosser till dateDangal, Bollywood has traversedmyriads of paths, woven manydreams and ruined dreams too, tonow stand as a ̀ 206-billion business.In this journey of more than 100years, Bollywood has not onlyevolved in its scope, scale and size,but also created a visibly protectedempire or power centres of a se-lected few in the lines of the lawsof inheritance. The two major ques-tions pertinent here are:

Firstly, why is the Indian filmindustry, particularly Bollywood,low in terms of its business thanof its global counterparts, despitemaking the largest number of films?Secondly, are protected empires orpower centres of Bollywood sys-tematically destroying its growthto protect the idea of a guardedkingdom? SSR, an “outsider” withno blood/or general connection toBollywood, has, with his death,pulled the G-string of Bollywood tofathom the outlined questions here.

While attempting to unfold therealities of the Bollywood, and inretrospect, one could perceive thatthe eventual process of cinematiccraft that started with a passion forthe professionhas over the yearsbred insecurities among its self-

proclaimed protagonists, pullingdown the Bollywood’s growth story.Power of being larger than life,power of becoming the superiorhuman, power of seeing everybodyas the “others” and power of shield-ing the hereditary journey ofBollywood empires have led to a sit-uation of black economy driving theindustry for a long time now. Thisis the primary reason whyBollywood has always been criti-cised as one of the most-unorgan-ised cinema industries in the world.

Until very recent, and now too,most of the movies are driven byeither specific individuals or home-grown empires of Bollywood, dis-allowing the craft called cinemato evolve. This nexus of power hasbeen age-old and history too sug-gests that there has been a huge in-fluence and investment of under-world dons in the Bollywood and inits actors. There were many cases,as also proofs against film per-sonalities in connection with theirinvolvement in illegal activities.Even the politics within has suc-cessfully salvaged the larger-than-life images of Bollywood, fetchingvotes and securing seats in cen-tral representative bodies.

When we vote for cinema celebri-

ties in elections, we as spectators aremaking these celebrities godly andpowerful. Popular stars likeRajinikanth and Amitabh Bachchanhave not only won a special placein the hearts of millions but havealso their statues put up in tem-ples. This culture of worship ofhumans has contributed immenselyto mediocrity in Bollywood, wherecinemas starring these godly celebri-ties usually become a blockbusterjust on the mention of their namesin the casting list. The worship cul-ture has stood in the way of theindustry achieving excellence andthis has also allowed the powercentres to breed within these set-ups.

So much so, today, though theopening of the Indian economysaw the Indian cinema being ac-corded Industry status, Bollywoodprimarily continues to be indi-vidual-driven and family-run busi-ness. It has worked as a major forcefor restricting the industry fromopening up for “others” (read out-siders), both in terms of creativityand business-wise. Though com-panies like Fox Star, Disney, UTV(now part of the Disney StarNetwork), Viacom etc have ven-tured, the obsession of ‘we vs oth-ers’ still rules Bollywood.

Bollywood – and idea of guarded kingdom

STORM IN THE WAITINGG

lobalisation may nothave been part of thediscourse 45 years agowhen Indira Gandhi

shelved Civil Liberties after de-claring the Emergency, but it isnot possible to sketch that bleakepisode on a wide enough canvaswithout touching such disparatepoints on the world atlas as LatinAmerica and India’s cow belt.Therewas, after all, an external and aninternal context to the Emergencyas, indeed, there is to the erosionof civil liberties in India today.

The coup in 1973 which oustedand killed Salvador Allende, theworld’s first Communist leaderto have come to power throughthe ballot box, had a ripple effecton the Communist movements inEurope. The counterpunch fromthe Right caused Enrico Berlinguer,leader of the powerful ItalianCommunist party, to nimbly dis-tance himself from the SovietUnion, invent Eurocommunismand seek a “historic compromise”with the Christian Democrats.Thiswas roughly the trajectory of allEuropean Communist parties.True, Communists had come topower in Angola in 1975, but WhiteSouth Africa was full square behindJonas Swimbi’s relentless guerillawar against the Angolan regime.

This was the state of play be-tween the power blocks, whenIndira Gandhi, weakened by defeatin eight states in 1967, sought to con-solidate her power by splitting theCongress party in 1969 and seek-ing support of the Left, speciallythe Communist Party of India(CPI), which attached itself toCongress (I).The (I) stood for Indira– as a sort of ideological motor.

“Unite and Struggle” was howSripatA Dange, party chairman,described the arrangement – unitewith the Congress but “struggle”against its “anti-people” policies.

India’s principal party, theCongress, in such apparent dal-liance with the Left, set against thebackdrop of the global Left-Rightcontest touched upon earlier, hadto invite a counter punch. A groupto administer such a counterpunchwas readily at hand: the “syndi-cate”, the Congress regional powerbrokers, placed by the split on theRight of the political spectrum –

CB Gupta, Atulya Ghosh, S.Nijalingappa, Morarji Desai etc.The RSS, Socialists and sundryanti-Communist forces began tohold a meeting here, a seminarthere, and plan.

At this stage, JayaprakashNarayan had more or less given uphis socialist party work. He be-came a heavy duty Gandhian at-taching himself to Acharya VinobaBhave’s Bhoodaan, or the land giftmovement. Then a series of youthmovements began to look for aleader; and typical of the Indianmind, a father figure to revere,which is not the same thing as“respect”.

It would be flawed to find linkswith Kent State campus in the US,barricades in Paris, and GrosvenorSquare pickets in London, but itis uncanny that the NavnirmanSamiti in Ahmadabad which wastriggered by an agitation againstincreased hostel fees erupted atthe same time.JP, as he was af-fectionately called, was now inthe drill to lead the much morepowerful Bihar movement fromthe cozy comfort of his house inPatna’s Kadamkuan, where he ac-commodated me in a room on theground floor. This gave me a ring-side seat to cover the story for The

Statesman along with my partnerin sin, the wonderful photogra-pher Raghu Rai. Remember, therewere no multiple channels then andRaghu’s photographs amplifiedthe movement sky high.The move-ment was primarily carried onthe shoulders of the RSS cadres,and under Nanaji Deshmukh’sfirm leadership. Paradoxically, italso spawned caste leaders likeKarpoori Thakur, Laloo PrasadYadav and Nitish Kumar.

1969, the year of so much po-litical upheaval, also happened tobe Mahatma Gandhi’s birth cen-tenary year. To celebrate the oc-casion, Frontier Gandhi AbdulGaffar Khan was invited for a tourof India. Indira Gandhi and JP(with RSS, Socialists, Gandhiansin tow) began to vie for favourableutterances from the FrontierGandhi. He collected shawls atevery function, diligently countedthem at night, and at every meet-ing the next day proceeded to chas-tise both the political formationsfor having “betrayed Gandhi”.

All concerned were in deep soupwhen the Frontier Gandhi arrivedin Ahmadabad in September, afew days short of the Gandhi cen-tenary on October 2. He decided toput down anchor in “Gandhi’s

and Sardar Patel’s city”. This to wit-ness firsthand the fiercest Hindu-Muslim riots in which the hand ofthe Gujarat Congress was dis-cernable. The Khan docketed allthese details which became in-puts for the hundreds of publicspeeches he delivered across thecountry during that tour.

According to the JaganmohanReddy Committee, the death toll was660; of which 430 were Muslims.Unofficial figures exceed thou-sands. That the great singerRasoolan Bai’s house was burnt isa detail etched on my memory.These were the first riots where Iheard the terrible slogan for the firsttime: “Musalmaan ke do sthan;Pakistan ya Qabrustan”, (Thereare two destinations for Muslims;Pakistan or the graveyard).

This was the beginning of theseries of riots climaxing with themacabre pictures that Gujaratyielded in February 2002. There isa major difference: an element ofretaliatory violence on the partof Muslims was on show in 1969;2002 was a pogrom, a trend inau-gurated with the anti-Sikh mon-strosity of 1984.

In a nutshell, the Emergency of1975 was in an East-West, Left-Rightcontext and it lasted 18 months.The East-West context disappearedin 1990, exactly when ManmohanSingh embarked on economic poli-cies which worldwide were creat-ing inequalities. Economic distressstrengthened demands for socialsecurity nets, and political estab-lishments channeled popular dis-content into identity politics which,in the Indian context, translatedinto rank communalism.

The global war on terror andsubsequent Islamophobia pro-vided just the tailwind the Hindutvaproject required. Now come theheadwinds – a shattered economy,dismally mismanaged pandemic,China hovering like Banquo’sghost, unknown fate of the millionswho walked in distress, and, FIRsupon FIRs as a preemptive strat-egy to cope with the gatheringstorm on the horizon.

Will the storm materialise givensuch a stale, limp Opposition at theCentre? The Jury is still out.

The writer is a seasonedjournalist.

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

The global war on terror and subsequentIslamophobia provided just the tailwind theHindutva project required. Now come the headwinds –a shattered economy, dismally mismanaged pan-demic, China hovering like Banquo’s ghost,unknown fate of the millions who walked in distress,and, FIRs upon FIRs as a preemptive strategy tocope with the gathering storm on the horizon

SLOGANS GALORE,NO RESULTS

FOOD

Ahusband and wife were at arestaurant for dinner. The

orders were placed and the waiterbrought the food to the table.When the husband started eating,the wife interjected with a question.“Darling, when you take food at

home, youhave prayers done

first. And, you arealready eating without prayersnow…”The husband smiled and replied.“That’s home sweetheart….Youknow this is cooked by the chef whoknows how to cook.”

MONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

A thought is an arrow shot at thetruth; it can hit a point, but notcover the whole target. But thearcher is too well satisfied withhis success to ask anythingfarther.

SRI AUROBINDO

ENTERTAINMENT

OPiateTathagata

Satpathy

WILL THESTORM

MATERIALISEGIVEN SUCH A

STALE, LIMPOPPOSITION AT

THE CENTRE?THE JURY IS

STILL OUT

Saeed Naqvi

WISDOM CORNEREducation is the best friend. An educated person is respectedeverywhere. Education beats the beauty and the youth.

KAUTILYA

NATION

Readers of Orissa POSTare most welcome to contribute letters(200 words), articles andcolumns (between 750-1250words). Contributors arerequested to send theircontact numbers and fullpostal address/email ID. They may alsosend in their valuable comments, opinionand suggestions, preferably by email, to: edit@orissapost.com

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

ARE PROTECTEDEMPIRES OR

POWER CENTRESOF BOLLYWOOD

SYSTEMATICALLYDESTROYING ITS

GROWTH TO PROTECT THE IDEA

OF A GUARDEDKINGDOM?

Santosh K Patra

RTI queries, CIC

Sir, It turns out that some organisations linked to the Congress partyreceived hefty funds from China. The Congress was the ruling party.Now, accusations are that UPA government led by the Congresshelped China hurt our trade interests and make gains for it. Way backin 2009, when the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation was asked through anRTI query to provide info on its funds and expenditure, the RGF gavea one-line reply that,"RGF doesn't comes under RTI”. Any public in-stitution setup under relevant rules, and receiving public or governmentfunds, is liable to share information.RGF did not, and a complaintfiled with the Central Information Commission (CIC) is left unattendedtill now. This shows the callous manner in which CIC functions. RGFis run by a single family with some of its loyalists too on board. Itdiverted a staggering ̀ 10,000crore from government when NarasimhaRao was PM, it is now reported. Several other trusts in the name ofGandhi, Nehru etc are also not revealing details of the funds theyreceived and the money spent on various purposes. CIC is keepingquiet when RTI questions are not answered. This is highly unacceptableand defeating the very purpose of setting up the RTI system.

Janaki Ballav Dash, MAYURBHANJ

cmyk

cmyk

Stemwinder

F or those who were in the US in the years just after the Civil War, thelatest and neatest thing to possess was a stem-winding watch. This had

been perfected by a French maker, Adrien Philippe, while working in Genevain the 1840s for a business known today as Patek Phillippe. Before hisinvention, watches were wound like clocks, using a key. This was anawkward procedure and wise watch owners kept the key on their fob chainto be sure of not losing it. M Philippe added a knurled knob attached to a rod(or stem), which was permanently connected to the spring mechanism,making it much easier to wind. Hence stem-winding watch or stem-winder(this was the US name: in Britain it was called a keyless watch). The idea ofwinding a watch at all now seems odd to most people, accustomed as weare to possess one with a battery or other energy-providing mechanism thatdoesn’t require us to think about it from month to month. But in the secondhalf of the nineteenth century, a stem-winder watch was state-of-the-art,something to boast about. As a result, by the end of the 19th Century theterm stem-winder had taken on a figurative meaning of something first-rateor excellent. As a further extension it meant something powerful orpersuasive, and became attached in particular to somebody who was aneffective public speaker or impassioned talker. Later still it was used of thespeech itself, if it were entertaining and tub-thumping oratory. Several ofthese senses were used by writers of the latter part of the nineteenth andbeginning of the twentieth centuries.

My tastes are simple: I am easily satisfied with the bestWINSTON CHURCHILL

That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to beasleep to believe it

GEORGE CARLIN

Boycott call

Sir, The recent face-off between Indianand Chinese armies at Galwan Valley hasleft many treaties and Confidence BuildingMeasures (CNMs) out in the cold. Thedeath of 20 Indian Army personnel in thetussle has shocked the people here. Thereare massive protests. Government de-partments such as the Railways went backon their pacts with China. There are thosewho call for a ban on Chinese products. Amonth ago, Prime Minister Modi appealedto the nation for "Atmanirbhar" in waysas to encourage local products. Undoubtedly,the cost factor is in favour of Chineseproducts. But the spirit of nationalismamong us would prompt us to pay more andstill buy local.

Santosh Kumar Satapathy, PARALAKHEMUNDI

China, media

Sir, News agency PTIreleased details ofan interview it didwith the ChineseAmbassador inIndia. Question is,will the Chinesemedia similarly in-terview the Indianambassador there?It is very unlikely.The way newspapersare publishing suchinterviews, in thepresent context, thisis disgusting too.

LakshmiNarayanan,

BHUBANESWAR

cmyk

cmyk

WESTBENGAL

MONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7

GUJARAT

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, June 28: Most of the peo-ple recovering from COVID-19 inWest Bengal are suffering from de-pression after being socially iso-lated by family members, relativesand neighbours, said a senior doc-tor at a state-run hospital in KolkataSunday.

Dr Sanjib Bandyopadhyay, in-charge of the post-COVID follow-upclinic at ID and BG Hospital inBeliaghata area, said the residencesof some of the recovered patientswere marked 'Corona flat' or 'CoronaHouse' by neighbours to warn peo-ple to keep out.

Dr Bandyopadhyay said somepeople, including police officers,had to return to their home townsafter their neighbours did not allowthem to enter their residences inKolkata. Even pathologists have re-fused to collect blood samples orconduct any clinical examinationof family members of several re-covered persons, he said.

No doubt the pandemic has ag-gravated the mental health issuesin many people, who are forced toremain indoors socially isolated

amid the uncertainties of the times.Experts say nervousness, fear of

contamination, constant reassur-ance-seeking behaviour, sleep dis-turbance, feelings of helplessnessand possibility of an economicslowdown are the major factorsleading to depression and anxietyamong people.

A recent study by the Assam gov-ernment has found COVID-19 pa-tients in the state too are facingmental health problems over is-sues such as job loss, financial dis-

tress and social stigma, and neededcounselling. Of the people surveyedfor the study, 97 per cent had theirsleeping pattern disturbed and 12per cent felt anxiety, fear and panic.At least 7 per cent were stressedbecause of the stigma attached tothe coronavirus disease.

“Almost 100 per cent of the peo-ple who have recovered from COVID-19 are suffering from depressionafter being totally left out by neigh-bours and relatives,” DrBandyopadhyay told PTI.

“Physically they are experienc-ing weakness, fatigue and loss of ap-

petite but almost all ofthem said they felt

detached fromthe society as

their neigh-bours havestopped in-teractingwith them.

This type ofstigmatisation

isrun-

ning deep under theirskin,” he said.

The follow-up clinic at ID andBG Hospital has been running fornearly a month to provide a propercounselling to recovered patients tostabilise them. People recoveringfrom COVID-19 are also being treatedfor diabetes, Chronic ObstructivePulmonary Disease (COPD) andhypertension.

“So far around 60 recovered peo-ple have consulted us and all ofthem have shared similar experi-ences of being socially isolated.Even though they have recovered,society is not ready to accept them.

This has led to deep psychologicalstress in them,” Dr Bandyopadhyaysaid. “Some patients are so de-pressed that we are prescribingseveral rounds of counselling forthem,” he said.

Criticising the trend of garlandingpeople and giving them sweets ontheir discharge from hospitals, thedoctor said such ways of ‘welcom-ing back’ is creating a sense of so-cial isolation. According to an il-lustrated guide issued by the UnionHealth Ministry, rumours and mis-information can create more stressand ‘hamper COVID-19 recovery’.

Also, it says, stigmatisation anddiscrimination can cause peopleto conceal symptoms and hesitatein seeking medical attention. Peoplerecovering from COVID-19 mightalso experience emotional isola-tion, guilt and anxiety and lack ofself-esteem.

The guide says patients and theirfamilies need support and cooper-ation and those who have recov-ered need to be treated as ‘winners’.

Recovered persons do not havethe virus in them anymore andthere is no risk of transmission,the guide says.

Isolated by kin, virus survivors slip into depressionResidences of some recovered patients were marked ‘Corona flat’ or ‘Corona House’ by neighbours to warn people to keep out

Almost100 per cent of thepeople who have

recovered from COVID-19are suffering from

depression after beingtotally left out by

neighbours and relatives DR SANJIB BANDYOPADHYAY

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Surat, June 28: The basement ofa civic hospital in Gujarat's Suratbeing used as a COVID-19 facilitywas flooded after water from anunderground tank overflowed caus-ing hardships to 65 patients, an of-ficial said Sunday.

The incident happened lateSaturday night and was set rightsoon after, he added. However,videos of the flooded facility wentviral on the social media some timelater.

Surat Municipal CorporationDeputy Commissioner (Health),Dr Ashish Naik, confirmed therewere 65 coronavirus positive pa-tients at the COVID facility set upin the multi-level parking of theSMIMER Hospital.

“Water from an undergroundtank overflowed and flooded thebasement briefly. The water wasflushed out and the issue resolvedwithin half an hour,” Naik said.

Meanwhile, state Congress pres-ident Amit Chavda shared the videoand attacked the Vijay Rupani gov-ernment over what he claimed wasthe ‘fake Gujarat model’.

Chavda also questioned stateHealth Minister Nitin Patel overpreparations to contain the out-break.

“See the condition of ward for pa-tients of #Covid_19 in #BJP-ruledSurat Municipal Corporation hos-pital in @narendramodi 's#Fake_Gujarat_model. @vijayru-panibjp@Nitinbhai_Patel pleasetell us, was this your preparationto defeat #Covid_19?" he tweetedalong with a 30-second video.

Surat has seen a rise in COVID-

19 cases recently, with the districtreporting its highest single-daytally of 184 cases Saturday, of which174 were in Surat civic limits.

‘Fake Gujarat model’:Flooded Covid facilitygives Congress ammo

Hospital fined forCovid-19 death

Ahmedabad: The AhmedabadMunicipal Corporation (AMC) hasimposed a fine of Rs 77 lakh on aprivate hospital and its manage-ment and filed an FIR for negligenceafter a COVID-19 patient died, anofficial said Sunday. RajasthanHospital, where a 73-year-old coron-avirus positive man died June 18while being shifted from anotherfacility, was issued a show-causenotice by AMC last Sunday, headded. “We have imposed a fine ofRs 77 lakh, which comprises Rs 25lakh on Rajasthan Hospital, Rs 2lakh each on eight board members(Rs 16 lakh) and on 18 trustees (Rs36 lakh). The money will used totreat COVID-19 patients," AMC incharge medical officer of healthBhavin Solanki said, adding that anFIR had also been lodged. AShahibaug police station officialsaid the FIR was under IPC sectionsrelating to death by negligence andcriminal conspiracy among others.The AMC action comes after GujaratHigh Court observed in an orderthat the incident was ‘very painful’and called for ‘strictest action’against those responsible. June 18,the COVID-19 patient was beingshifted to Rajasthan Hospital fromanother facility as he required ven-tilator support, but he had to waitfor 20 minutes at the corona gate ofthe hospital as the staff took time toopen it.

AGENCIES

Surat/Bhavnagar, June 28:Coronavirus infections are takinga toll on the diamond industry ofGujarat.

The sector has been hit ever sincethe nationwide lockdown was im-posed to contain the spread of thedeadly virus. Though many dia-mond units in the state resumedoperations in June, frequent casesof workers getting infected by thevirus are affecting the industry.

In the latest case, six workers ofa diamond polishing unit inBhavnagar have tested coronaviruspositive, following which the es-tablishment has been partially shut,officials said Sunday.

This comes amid COVID-19 casesbeing reported among the workersof the diamond polishing units inSurat, which is said to be the world'sbiggest diamond polishing hub.

Bhavnagar is one of the smallerdiamond polishing hubs in Gujaratwith around 800-1,000 units thatemploy around 1.25 lakh workers.

“Six workers of a diamond pol-ishing unit have tested COVID-19 pos-itive so far. We are analysing from

where they contracted the infec-tion. We have closed two floors of theunit and its other employees havebeen home quarantined,”Bhavnag ar MunicipalCommissioner M A Gandhi said.

Local authorities have asked thediamond units here to carry outoxygen saturation screening of theworkers, in addition to thermalscreening, for effective detectionof coronavirus cases.

“We have closed the floors of theunit from where the cases were re-ported and also sanitised the en-tire building. We have directed theunits to go for an oxygen saturationscreening of workers,” Gandhi said.

President of the BhavnagarDiamond Association, VitthalMendapara, said that the diamondunits in the district are taking spe-cial precautions to control the spreadof the infection.

The association has been run-ning an awareness campaign onCOVID-19 ever since the units startedfunctioning again from June 19, hesaid. “There are around 1.25 lakhworkers in around 800- 1,000 dia-mond polishing units in Bhavnagardistrict. These establishmentsstar ted working June 19,”Mendapara said.

“These units are ensuring that theworkers maintain social distance,”

he added. Bhavnagar district has re-ported 240 coronavirus positivecases so far, out of which 147 per-sons have recovered, while 13 oth-ers have succumbed to the infec-tion. A total of 80 cases are active.

In Surat, 300 diamond workershave so far tested COVID-19 positive,prompting the local authorities toimpose restrictions.

Three main diamond hubs inSurat are kept shut two days a weekto curb the spread of the virus.

The authorities there have de-cided to keep an entire unit shut fora week if three or more cases arefound there.

India is the world’s largest pro-ducer of cut and polished diamonds,with about 15,000 big and smallfirms in the western state of Gujaratsupplying processed diamonds tojewellery brands globally.

The industry employs more than1.5 million people, mostly in smallunits, with wages as low as onerupee. The chairman of the Gemand Jewellery Export PromotionCouncil (GJEPC), set up by theIndian government, warned the in-dustry stood to lose a billion dollarsin exports due to the coronavirus.

Virus takes a toll on Guj’s diamond industryn COVID-19 cases being reported among

the workers of the diamond polishingunits in Surat, which is said to be theworld's biggest diamond polishing hub

n In Surat, 300 diamond workers have sofar tested COVID-19 positive, prompt-ing the local authorities to imposerestrictions

n Local authorities have asked the dia-mond units to carry out oxygen satura-tion screening of the workers, in addi-tion to thermal screening, for effectivedetection of coronavirus cases

SOARING INFECTIONS

INDIA IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST PRODUCER OF CUT AND POLISHED DIAMONDS, WITH ABOUT 15,000 BIG AND SMALL FIRMS INTHE WESTERN STATE OF GUJARAT SUPPLYING PROCESSED DIAMONDS TO JEWELLERY BRANDS GLOBALLY

AGENCIES

Gandhinagar June 28: Taking aserious note of its amicus curiaereporting that the Ahmedabad CivilHospital has been keeping someCovid-19 beds vacant deliberately,the Gujarat High Court has warnedthe state’s top health official of ac-tion if this was found to be true.

Brijesh Trivedi, the amicus cu-riae in the Covid-19 issue taken upby the court suo motu, made ashocking observation that the hos-pital was keep-ing some bedsdeliberately va-cant, despite pa-tients needingit, so as to easethe pressureand burden ofworking.

A bench ofChief Justice Vikram Nath andJustice JB Pardiwala said: “This isserious, and if it is true, then wewarn the Principal Secretary, Healthand Family Welfare Departmentof Gujarat government, that ap-propriate action will be taken.”Hearing a number of petitions filedin conjunction with the suo motucase on the Covid-19 situation inGujarat, the court has sought re-sponse of the state government onvarious issues raised in the petitionsfiled by various applicants.

It has also directed the state gov-ernment to ensure some pointsraised in the PILs, especially en-suring that each of the private hos-pitals display, near the reception

table, the charges fixed by the stategovernment for Covid-19 testingand treatment. It has also directedthe government to give public-ity in daily newspapers, vernac-ular as well as English, and informthe medical associations in thestate, of the eligibility criteriaand procedures for private labs toobtain ICMR approval for con-ducting Covid-19 tests. All suchprivate labs shall be granted ap-proval from the ICMR in sevendays, and similarly, the NABL ac-

creditation isa l s o t o b eg r a n t e d i nseven days.

The cour thas also ques-tioned the stategovernmentwith regards tothe discharge

policy of cured Covid-19 patients pre-vailing on date, asking whether itwould be in larger interest of thepublic that patients are tested onelast time before their actual dis-charge. It has also sought a re-sponse from the state govern-ment regarding testing of allmedical practitioners and front-line health workers without theneed of any prescription, as theapex court has also declared thatanyone who desires, should bepermitted to be tested and thestate government was bound toimplement the same more par-ticularly with respect to med-ical practitioners and frontlinehealth workers.

Action if Covid bedskept deliberatelyvacant: Gujarat HC

Brijesh Trivedi, amicus curiae in the Covid-19 issue,made a shocking observation that the Ahmedabad Civil

Hospital was keeping some beds deliberately vacant,despite patients needing it, so as to ease the pressure

and burden of working

Zomato staff burn official T-shirts to protest Chinese investment in firm

AGENCIES

Kolkata, June 28: Over 14 per centof Kolkata residents have developedCOVID-19 antibodies, a seropreva-lence survey by Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR) has said.A seroprevalence survey conductedvia random and rapid tests -- theIgM and the IGg -- indicate the rateof transmission in a communityand whether it has started devel-oping herd immunity to a virus.

The survey was conducted onthe basis of random samples but thesample size was not mentioned.

According to senior doctors, thesurvey indicated that the trans-mission is high in the metropolis,

which is far from developing herdimmunity or antibodies to combatCOVID-19. In neighbouring South24-Parganas district, it is 2.5 percent while it is 1 per cent inAlipurduar district, the survey said.

There has been less than 1 per centof antibody positivity rate in districtsof Purba Medinipore, Bankura andJhargram, the survey stated.

Antibody is a protective proteinproduced by the immune systemin response to the presence of aforeign substance, an antigen. In thiscase it is the new coronavirus,SARS-CoV-2.

West Bengal Sunday registeredits highest single-day spike of 572fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the

tally to 17,283, while the toll mountedto 639 with 10 more deaths, a healthdepartment bulletin said.

The number of people who haverecovered from the disease reached11,193 Sunday after 404 patients were

discharged from different hospitals.The state now has 5,451 active COVID-19 cases, the health bulletin added.Since Saturday, 10,563 samples havebeen tested in the state.

Only 14 pc in Kolkata have antibodies: ICMR survey

The survey indicated thattransmission is high in the

metropolis, which is far fromdeveloping herd immunity orantibodies to combat COVID-19

Antibody is a protective proteinproduced by the immune

system in response to thepresence of a foreign substance,an antigen. In this case it is thenew coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2

NO HERD IMMUNITY

Athletes run a marathon towards the burial site of martyr Rajesh Orang, whodied during a clash with Chinese troops in Galwan valley, in West Bengal’sBirbhum district, Sunday. PTI PHOTO

FINAL JOURNEY

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, June 28: A group ofZomato food delivery platform em-ployees in Kolkata tore and burnttheir official T-shirts to protestChinese investment in the firm.

The agitation comes in the back-drop of the killing of 20 Indian sol-diers in a deadly clash with Chinesetroops in eastern Ladakh’s GalwanValley June 15. During the protestat Behala in the southwestern partof the city Saturday, some agitators

claimed that they have quit theirjobs as Zomato has a sizeable Chineseinvestment and urged people to stopordering food via the company.

In 2018, Ant Financial, a part ofChinese major Alibaba, had in-vested USD 210 million in Zomatofor a 14.7 per cent stake. The fooddelivery major recently raised anadditional USD 150 million fromAnt Financial.

“Chinese companies are mak-ing profits from here and attackingthe Army of our country. They are

trying to grab our land. This can-not be allowed,” one of the pro-testers said. Another protester saidthey were ready to starve but wouldnot work for companies that haveinvestment from China.

In May, Zomato laid off 520 em-ployees or 13 per cent of its work-force in a huge retrenchment ex-ercise due to the novel coronaviruspandemic. There was no immedi-ate reaction from Zomato andwhether the protesters were amongthose who were retrenched wasnot known.

In 2018, Ant Financial, a part ofChinese major Alibaba, had

invested USD 210 million in Zomatofor a 14.7 per cent stake

The food delivery major recentlyraised an additional USD 150

million from Ant Financial

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

P8

nationalMONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

There is noneed for Class10 board

exams for a whilefor these two years,this year and nextyear and then theycould relook at this policy

KAPIL SIBAL | CONGRESS LEADER

of theday uote

In the time ofa calamity,there is

torment of locustsand losers, and bothshould be dealt withstrongly. The entirecountry is strongly working forturning disaster into opportunitybut the Congress is trying to turndisaster into anarchy

MUKHTAR ABBAS NAQVI | UNION MINISTER

Modi-Shah ledBJP, is this thevision on New

India in the BJP,forcing the police torelease BJP workerscaught playingcards at 2 in the night

NARENDRA SALUJA |MP CONGRESS SPOKESPERSON

At a time whencoronavirus

cases are rising across thecountry, UP government’sdecision to start classesfor MBBS students canjeopardise their safetyPRIYANKA GANDHI VADRA | CONGRESS LEADER

Chief Minister Uddhav ThackeraySunday indicated that the ongoinglockdown restrictions will gobeyond June 30, though the unlockdown process is being graduallyimplemented to put the economyback on track

MAHA LOCKDOWN TO CONTINUE

Man, son killed Tikamgarh (MP): A 57-year-old man and his son wereallegedly beaten to deathwith sticks by theirneighbours in Tikamgarhdistrict of Madhya Pradeshfollowing an argument overwashing of sand, police saidSunday. The incidentoccurred in Baniyani village,about 25- kms from thedistrict headquarters, lateSaturday night, police said. Acase has been registeredagainst 17 persons inconnection with the offence,sub-inspector Brajesh Kumarof Baldevgarh Police Stationsaid.

Ex-Guj CM testsCovid positive Ahmedabad: A former chiefminister of Gujarat hastested positive forcoronavirus, his aide saidSunday. He was sufferingfrom fever for last three-fourdays and was quarantined athis home in Gandhinagarunder doctor's guidance, hesaid.

Tiger kills manChandrapur: A man who hadgone to collect bamboo in theforest in Chandrapur districtwas killed in a tiger attack, aForest DevelopmentCorporation of Maharashtraofficials said Sunday. Theincident took place incompartment number 26under Tohagaon forest rangein Gondpipri tehsil, come 60kilometres from the districtheadquarters, on Saturdayevening, said FDCM divisionalmanager Navakishor Reddy.

Another cop dies Mumbai: A 55-year-oldconstable has become the38th personnel of theMumbai Police to die ofCOVID-19, an official saidSunday. The deceased wasposted at Dharavi policestation in central Mumbai."The constable was firstadmitted to Seven Hillshospital on May 15. He waslater shifted to RelianceHospital in Marine Lineswhere he died on Saturdaylate night," the official said.

Woman diesLatur: A woman was killedwhile working at a dalprocessing machine in a millin Maharashtra's Laturdistrict, police said Sunday.The incident happenedSaturday afternoon in MIDCarea here when the 35-year-old woman, identified asMaya Bajulge, was putting dalfrom a height into themachine, an official said. "Theplate of the machine on whichshe was standing toppled andshe fell into the machine andgot killed," the MIDC policestation official said.

SHORT TAKES

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cmyk

cmyk

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: The gap be-tween recoveries and active casesof COVID-19 has crossed 1,00,000, theUnion health ministry said Sundayas coronavirus cases in Indiamounted to 5,28,859 and the deathtoll rose to 16,095.

The recovered cases have ex-ceeded the active cases by 1,06,661as on Saturday, the ministry said.A total of 3,09,712 patients havebeen cured of COVID-19 so far with13,832 patients having recoveredin the last 24 hours, it said.

"The recovery rate is 58.56 per centamongst COVID-19 patients," theministry said. "The graded, pre-emp-tive and pro-active steps taken bythe Government of India alongwith the states and UTs for pre-vention, containment and man-agement of COVID-19 are showingencouraging results," it said in a

statement.Presently, there are 2,03,051 active

cases and all are under active med-ical supervision, it said. India nowhas 1,036 diagnostic labs dedicated

to COVID-19. This includes 749 inthe government sector and 287 pri-vate labs.

"Daily more than 2,00,000 samplesare being tested. The samples tested

in the last 24 hours have furtherincreased to 2,31,095. The total num-ber of samples tested, as on date, is82,27,802," the statement stated.

As on June 28, the COVID re-lated health infrastructure has beenstrengthened with the availabilityof 1,055 dedicated COVID Hospitalswith 1,77,529 isolation beds, 23,168ICU beds and 78,060 oxygen sup-ported beds, it said.

Also, 2,400 dedicated COVIDhealth centres with 1,40,099 isolationbeds, 11,508 ICU beds and 51,371oxygen supported beds have alsobeen operationalised.

Besides, 9,519 COVID Care Centreswith 8,34,128 beds are now avail-able to combat COVID-19 in thecountry, the ministry said. TheCentre has also provided 187.43lakh N95 masks and 116.99 lakhPersonal Protective Equipment(PPEs) to the states, UTs and cen-tral institutions.

Covid recoveries exceed active cases

Presently, there are 2,03,051active cases and all are under

active medical supervision “The recovery rate is 58.56 percent amongst COVID-19patients," the ministry said

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Srinagar, June 28: A governmentorder asking oil marketing com-panies to stock up two months' sup-ply of LPG cylinders in KashmirValley has sparked speculations,especially in the wake of the LACface-off, with NC leader OmarAbdullah questioning the need forsuch a move.

According to the June 27 order is-sued by the director of the Food, CivilSupplies and Consumer AffairsDepartment in Kashmir, an adviserto Jammu and Kashmir Lt GovernorG C Murmu has passed directionsin a meeting on June 23 "to ensuresufficient stocks of LPG in the val-ley as the supply of the same getsaffected due to closure of theNational Highway on account offrequent landslides".

Describing the order as a "mat-ter most urgent", the director asked

the oil marketing companies tomake adequate stocks of LPG whichcan last up to two months both atbottling plants as well as godowns.Though similar exercises are com-mon in winter months in view of fre-

quent disruptions on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, suchhuge stocking does not usually takeplace in summers.

Former Jammu and Kashmirchief minister Omar Abdullah also

cited another communique by theGanderbal district police for mak-ing provisions for lodging of centralforces and said such orders createpanic in Kashmir and sought anexplanation from the government.

"Government orders are creat-ing panic in Kashmir & unfortu-nately after all the lies & false as-surances last year even if/whenthe government explains these or-ders hardly any of us will take theassurances at face value. That saidthey still need to explain these or-ders," Omar tweeted, referring to theCentre's decision to abrogate Article370 provisions in August last year.

In his communique, the senior su-perintendent of police (SSP) ofGanderbal has requested the districtadministration to make available 16educational institutes, includingITI buildings, middle and highersecondary schools, in the centralKashmir district.

The SSP said the buildings wereneeded to accommodate centralarmed paramilitary forces (CAPFs)."In view of the Shri Amarnath JiYatra-2020, and due to the dearth ofaccommodation facilities in dis-trict Ganderbal for incoming CAPFcompanies, it is requested that theseaccommodation centres/ educa-tion institutes may kindly be madeavailable for accommodation of theCAPF companies during the pe-riod of the yatra,” the SSP said.

National Conference leaderTanvir Sadiq also demanded an ex-planation from the government,saying the people of Kashmircannot afford to live another yearin "fear and uneasiness".

"It's summer so not many land-slides. Stock for two months.Matter most urgent. These threepoints need clarity at the highestlevel. People of Kashmir can't af-ford to live in yet another year of

fear and uneasiness,” he postedon Twitter. Shabir Ahmad, a res-ident of Ganderbal, sought tolink the orders with the situa-tion along the LAC. "...whateverit is, it is causing anxiety amongthe people in the valley,” he said.

Indian and Chinese armieshave been on a six-week stand-off in several areas of easternLadakh. The ties between thetwo countries came under se-vere strain after Chinese mili-tary killed 20 Indian Army per-sonnel and injured around 76in a violent clash in GalwanValley on June 15.

Another Ganderbal resident,Owais Mir, also raised apprehen-sions about the move. "We knowabout the yatra arrangements, butthis year the yatra is supposed to bea low-key affair, so what is the gov-ernment going to do with such ahuge number of forces,” he said.

Govt order to oil firms in Kashmir sparks speculations

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Salem/Tuticorin (TN), June 28:The Tamil Nadu government hasdecided to transfer the probe intothe death of a father-son duo, allegedvictims of police torture inTuticorin district, to the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI),Chief Minister K Palaniswami saidSunday.

The inspector of Sathankulampolice station where the duo was al-legedly thrashed has been sus-pended and replaced with a new of-ficial in his place, police said inTuticorin. The Opposition DMKsaid the Chief Minister had or-dered for a CBI probe due to "intensepressure" from people and politicalparties, besides the media.

The government's decision willbe informed to the Madras HighCourt, which is seized of the mat-ter, and secure its approval beforetransferring the case to the cen-tral agency, Palaniswami said inSalem. "The government has de-cided that the CBI will probe thecase," Palaniswami said.

He recalled the court had by it-self taken cognizance of the mat-ter. However, the family of the vic-tims said they will wait for thenext hearing in the Madurai benchof the Madras High Court onTuesday, when reporters soughttheir response to the chief minis-ter's announcement on handingover the probe to CBI.

DMK President M K Stalin saidif the government had the deter-mination to provide justice in thismatter, those allegedly involved inthe incident would not be "roamingfree" even now. "The chief minis-ter has transferred the probe tothe CBIdue to intense pressure

from the people, political parties andthe media," he said in a tweet.

P Jayaraj and his son Fennix,arrested for 'violating' lockdownnorms over business hours of theircellphone shop, died at a hospitalin Kovilpatti on June 23, with theirrelatives alleging they were se-verely thrashed at Sathankulampolice station by police personnelearlier.

The incident has triggered a na-tional furore, leading to the sus-pension of five policemen, includingan inspector and two sub-inspectors.Sunday, Palaniswami further saidguidelines have already been is-sued to police on how to deal withthe public and traders, indicatingthat the men in khaki must have ahumane approach towards them.

"They have been advised thatpublic cannot be disturbed. If thereis any issue, a case has to be filedand due action taken," he said.

Pigeons fly over the Besant Nagar beach as a volunteer feeds them, during the ongoing COVID-19 lockdown inChennai, Sunday PTI PHOTO

AVIAN CARE

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, June 28: The Bhilwaradistrict administration hasslapped Rs 6.26 lakh fine on afamily for organising a lavishwedding, attended by 250 guestsflouting all Covid-19 norms andrestrictions, on June 13.

While the number of guestswas much above the permitted 50,one person died and 15 atten-dees, including the groom, hadtested coronavirus positive byJune 27. Officials said the groom'sgrand-father died from Covid-19,and his aunt and uncle also testedcoronavirus positive. However,the bride and 17 others testednegative.

All the 15 Covid-19 patientshave been admitted to hospital andover 100 quarantined. The stategovernment slapped a notice onthe groom's father ordering himto foot the bill of the quarantinefacility and treatment of infectedpeople by paying Rs 6,26,600 fine.

Bhilwara District MagistrateRajendra Bhatt has asked the

Tehsildar to recover the fine fromthe groom's father within 3 days,and deposit that in the ChiefMinister Relief Fund. Other ex-penses, to be incurred in com-ing days, should also be recoveredfrom the groom's family, the order,issued under the Epidemic Act,added.

The order also said the groom,Rizul, and his father Gheesu LalRathi didn't follow the social dis-tancing norms, were not wearingmasks and there was no use ofsanitiser at the event.

IN SOUP

Family fined overlavish wedding

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Chennai, June 28: Drone-as-a-Service (DAAS) provider GarudaAerospace will soon start spray-ing anti-locust pesticide in severalparts of Uttar Pradesh, includingNoida near Delhi, said a top com-pany official.

"We have got the order to deployfive drones for anti-locust opera-tions from Banda University ofAgriculture & Technology, UttarPradesh. We will be sending 10 pi-lots for operating the drones. Themandate is to deploy the dronesfor a total of 50 hours at the loca-tions specified by the University,"Agnishwar Jayaprakash, ManagingDirector of city-based GarudaAerospace, said.

He said the company has alreadydeployed its drones in Rajasthan inlocust control operations. "This isthe first time drones are being usedin locust control measures in India.It is a new case scenario,"Jayaprakash said.

According to him, there are twomethods of spraying the pesticide-- one by flying above the swarm oflocust and spraying on them and theother is to spray the pesticide be-forehand on the areas where the lo-custs are expected to land.

He said the state governmentagencies predict the flight path of

the locust and give us one/two daysnotices on the location where thedrones are to be used. Sometimesthe notice is very short. Jayaprakashsaid the locust hit percentage isabout 70 per cent as per the state gov-ernment officials.

"Unlike bees that attack an ad-versary, locusts swarm does not at-tack drones. Perhaps they see it asa big bird, their enemy and avoid.Their main purpose is to eat, pro-create and fly," Jayaprakash said.

According to him, the BandaUniversity order will be executedin three/four days as the total 50hours of flying can be completed bythe five drones in that time.

"The five drones will be flownby air on Monday," he added. GarudaAerospace has been carrying outdrone based anti-coronavirus san-itation orders from several mu-

nicipal corporations and smartcities like Varanasi, Rourkela,Raipur, Chennai and Hyderabad.

"While the government contractsfor anti-coronavirus sanitation ordershave been completed, the corporatesector has started using our services.And now the orders are for locust con-trol operations," Jayaprakash added.According to him, the Covid-19 pan-demic and locust attack has increasedthe focus on drones and their use.Apart from spraying anti-coron-avirus disinfectants, drones wereused by police in Tamil Nadu tomonitor the lockdown violators.

Jayaprakash said GarudaAerospace has manufactured andserviced drones for several gov-ernment departments in TamilNadu, like forests, electricity, police,mining, agriculture, Indian CoastGuard and others.

Drones to go after locustsWINGED MENACE

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Kannauj (UP), June 28: In atragic incident, a bride died evenbefore the wedding rituals couldbe completed and the groom hadto return without the bride.

The incident took place inBhagatpurwa village underThathia police circle in Kannauj.The groom, Sanjay, arrived withhis family members and the wed-ding rituals began Friday night.

As the rituals began 19-year-old bride Vinita, suddenly com-plained of uneasiness and col-lapsed. Her family members rushedher to a medical facility that deniedher admission until she testednegative for corona.

Her father, Kishora Batham,rushed her to Kanpur but by thenher condition had deterioratedand Vinita passed away. The fam-ily informed the police on emer-gency number 112 and the body hasnow been sent for post-mortem.

"We will take action, if needed,after the post-mortem reportcomes," said the Kannauj policespokesman. While the family per-formed the cremation of Vinita onSaturday evening, the baraat re-turned without the bride.

Bride dies duringwedding rituals

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 28: To counterthe Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP)virtual rallies, the Congress hasdecided to launch five-day protest,starting on June 30, against fuelprice hike in each block of thecountry.

The party would also holdprotests, between 11 a.m. and 12noon Monday in front of the cen-tral government offices againstthe fuel price hike, said seniorCongress leader K.C. Venugopal.

The protest is aimed at high-lighting the people's plight due to therising fuel prices and also to counterthe BJP's policies and programmes.Criticising the BJP for virtual ral-lies, the Congress said the rulingparty was only targeting votes andwas insensitive towards the prob-lems, like Covid-19 pandemic, lo-cust attack and Chinese trans-gression. The prices of motor fuelhad been rising for the past 21 days.

Fuel price hike:Congress plans stir

DAMAGE-CONTROL EXERCISE

CBI TO PROBE TN CUSTODIAL DEATHS

The inspector of Sathankulampolice station where the duo

was allegedly thrashed has beensuspended and replaced with anew official in his place, policesaid in Tuticorin

The government's decisionwill be informed to the

Madras High Court, which isseized of the matter, and secureits approval before transferringthe case to the central agency,Palaniswami said in Salem

P9

nationalMONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

We havereceived good

results of ‘Chase theVirus’ campaign inMumbai and we have nowdecided to implement itacross the stateUDDHAV THACKERAY | MAHARASHTRA CHIEF MINISTER

Madhya Pradesh has received 88 percent excess rainfall in June so far ascompared to the normal averagedue to the early onset of monsoonand conducive atmosphericsystems, an IMD official said Sunday

EXCESS RAINFALL

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As theKarnatakagovernment

has not maintainedtransparency in itsmeasures to controlthe spread ofcoronavirus, it has given rise tosuspicion, insecurity among people

SIDDARAMAIAH | CONGRESS LEADER

of theday uote

Our PrimeMinisterlaunched a

scheme, whichcovers 116 districtsin the country, butnone from Bengalcould be included as the TMCgovernment didn’t bother to shareany data with us

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN | UNION FINANCE MINISTER

50 prisoners testcorona positiveAkola: Fifty prisoners of theAkola district jail and 28other people here inMaharashtra tested positivefor coronavirus Sunday,health authorities said. Thedistrict jail currently hasnearly 300 prisoners, a jailofficial said, adding that thefacility has not taken in anynew prisoner in the recentpast. On Sunday morning,reports of 78 people,including 50 male prisonersof the district jail, came outpositive, an official from theGovernment Medical Collegeand Hospital here said.

Bihar minister, wifetest Covid positiveKatihar: Bihar's Backwardand Extremely BackwardClasses Welfare MinisterVinod Kumar Singh and hiswife tested positive forCOVID-19 Sunday and weresent to an isolation ward at acity hotel in Katihar district,officials said. Katihar DistrictMagistrate Kanwal Tanujconfirmed that both theminister and his wife havetested positive for thepathogen. The couple hasbeen kept at an isolationward created at a city hotelhere, the DM said.

Jawan cremated Midnapore (WB): The lastrites of CRPF jawan ShyamalKumar, who was killed in amilitant attack in Kashmir'sAnantnag, were conductedwith full state honours at hishome town in WestMidnapore district Sunday.The 27-year-old was the onlychild of his parents BadalKumar De and Shibani. Hehad joined the CentralReserve Police Force (CRPF)in 2015, a family membersaid. Kumar was killed asterrorists, belonging toJammu Kashmir Islamic State(JKIS), opened indiscriminatefire on a road opening partyof the CRPF in Anantnag'sBijbehara area Friday,according to officials. Aneight-year-old boy was alsokilled in the attack, they said.

Three killedJammu: Three people werekilled and as many injured onSunday in a car accident onthe outskirts of the city here,police said. The speeding carwas carrying some locallabourers for work in thefields when its driver lostcontrol over the vehicle atGondla village in R S Puraarea around 8.15 am, a policeofficial said. The car rolledover several times afterskidding off the road andrammed into some trees, hesaid, quoting eye-witnesses.

SHORT TAKES

India snubs China

I ndia snubbed China by deciding to keepmajor Chinese telecom company, Huawei

out of the 5G technology trials. Huawei hadbeen selected at the last minute by thegovernment in the 5G trials race ignoringstrong US protests in December 2019. Anumber of Indian security experts andothers had also raised objections overHuawei for the 5G technology trials. Theyhad said inclusion of Huawei will be great

risk to national security apparatus and willhave far-reaching consequences if allowedto enter 5G technology. Some of the top USofficials had even visited India to dissuadethe Modi government in December itself.But the Indian government ignored thesewarnings and went ahead by includingHuawei to be part of the 5G trials. However,the Galwan Valley crisis that erupted on theLAC in the Ladakh region changed all this inone stroke. At a high-level meeting amongthe top ministers and DoT officials it hasbeen decided to postpone the 5G trialsitself and reverse the entire process thatbegan in December 2019.

Physical meeting nixed

No Opposition party leader supportedthe idea floated by the Congress that

the Prime Minister should hold a face-to-face meeting rather than "virtual." TheCongress wanted the PM should meetleaders physically for effective interactionon Galwan Valley crisis. NationalistCongress president Sharad Pawar rejected

the proposal saying "virtual meeting is asgood as physical in the times of Covid."Pawar reminded that Sonia Gandhi hadherself held a virtual meeting with leaderson May 22. DMK leader M K Stalin did notagree. A top aide of Sonia Gandhi contactedleaders personally after the governmentinitiated move to hold the meeting on June19. But there was no positive response fromleading parties. CPI's Secretary D Rajaconfirmed saying, "I personally had noobjection to the physical meeting. But otherleaders were perhaps not willing," he said.West Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee was also contacted. But she toodeclined to agree with the proposal.

Covid deaths highest in Guj

Contrary to popular perception thatsituation is worst in Delhi and

Maharashtra, the Centre is more worriedabout the death rate in Gujarat. Thenumber of deaths in India may show asudden jump in these two states during thepast three days. But experts say it’s an

aberration as this steep rise is because thestates updated the death toll after auditwhen they got a rap from the Centre andcourts for hiding data. An in-depth analysisof toll data collated of between June 1and17 clearly showed that India's death rateand numbers are far below the worldaverage. But shockingly Gujarat is highestin the country in death toll average at6.23% on June 17 and Maharashtra was4.88% and Delhi was 4.11%. Tamil Naduwhich imposed lockdown due to Covid-19,the death toll rate is lowest at 1.09%.

PM to perform ‘Bhumi Poojan’

Narendra Modi, who was keeping awayfrom Ram Janmabhoomi issue after

taking over as the PM due to the matterbeing in the Supreme Court, is likely to bepart of Bhumi Poojan ceremony inAyodhya virtually. UP CM Yogi Adityanathwill be present in Ayodhya in person toperform necessary rituals. It is likely to

happen in the first week of July. It islearnt that senior VHP leader and theperson involved with Ram Janmabhoomimovement Champat Rai met with the PMrequesting him to join the Bhumi Poojan.The PM apparently accepted the proposalbut due to distancing norms in place, heis likely to perform it from Delhi itself.

Modi tightens ministries

Acting swiftly on the directions of thePrime Minister, the Railways and other

Central ministries have acted fast to cutcosts. The PMO directed that the ministriesto avoid holding ceremonial functionsphysically and move over to digitalplatforms. The Railways under Piyush Goyaland, Road Transport under Nitin Gadkariand others used to hold at least 6-7functions per day on an average. Notanymore. The Ministries have been told tocut down the use of stationary at least by50 per cent and identify areas where costscan be cut immediately by 20%-25%.

KuruKolumn

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: The countrywill have to focus on defeating coro-navirus and bolstering the econ-omy as it exits from the lockdownand enters the "unlock" phase,Prime Minister Narendra Modisaid on Sunday underscoring theneed to keep guard against thedeadly virus.

He also stressed that India has al-ways transformed adversities intostepping stones to success and thisyear won't be different."During thisunlock period, one will have tofocus on two points -- defeatingcoronavirus and strengthening theeconomy," Modi said in his monthly"Mann ki Baat" radio address.

He said as people move out dur-ing the unlock period, they haveto remain more vigilant comparedto the lockdown period. His re-marks come against the backdropof rising cases of coronavirus insome parts of the country.

"Always remember, if you do notwear a mask, do not observe the two-yard social distancing norms ordo not take other precautions, youare putting others at risk besidesyourselves, especially the elderly andchildren at home," he cautioned.

Referring to the recent deci-sions taken by his government,Modi said during this unlockphase, "many other things aregetting unlocked", which hadshackled the country for decades.He referred to reforms in themining, space, agriculture andother sectors, saying these will not

only pace up the movement to-wards self-reliant India, but alsob o o s t t h e a dv a n c e m e n t o f technology in India.

On the various challenges thrownup during the year 2020, Modi saidpeople often discuss as to when theyear will end. Referring to coron-

avirus, the prime minister said asif one calamity wasn't enough, thecountry has had to face an unend-ing slew of challenges.

"A few days ago, our east coast hadto face the fury of cyclone Amphan;on the West coast it was cycloneNisarg. In many states, farmershad to bear the brunt of swarminglocust...many parts of the countryhave been witnessing intermittentearthquakes," he said. In an ap-parent reference to China's actionsin east Ladakh, he said, "Amidst allthese, the country has had to dealwith the designs of some of ourneighbours."

Rare are the occasions when onegets to hear of adversities of thiskind, that too simultaneously, he said.The prime minister was of the viewthat despite adversities, people shouldnot consider 2020 as a bad year.

India unlocking sectors inlockdown for decades: PM

BOLSTERING GROWTH

n He stressed that India hasalways transformedadversities into steppingstones to success and thisyear won't be different

n He said as people move outduring the unlock period,they have to remain morevigilant compared to thelockdown period

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: The CentralInformation Commission has dis-missed in one go 141 petitions filedby an RTI applicant against theDelhi Lt Governor's office, callingit a misuse of the transparencylaw to inundate the office withpleas seeking information unre-lated to it.

War ning the applicant,Information Commissioner Y KSinha said in case such an ava-lanche of "frivolous, vexatious andwasteful" litigation is received bythe Commission, it will be com-pelled to dismiss such applica-tions without hearing on thegrounds of being repetitive andas such adjudication will serveno larger public interest.

The applicant, Dinesh, had fileda number of pleas under the Rightto Information (RTI) with the LtGovernor's office seeking detailsof properties, illegal construc-tions, and allotment of housesamong other things through sep-arate petitions. Claiming that hehad not received any informationin response, he approached theCIC seeking directions to the LGoffice for issuance of the infor-mation sought by him.

The LG's office represented bynoted RTI activist Subhash

Agrawal said the applicationshave been replied to or trans-ferred to the concerned authori-ties after intimating the appli-cant.

Sinha said, "...it is noted that theappellant has consistently statedthat he has not received any in-formation from the PIO or theFAA and yet he incessantly keptfiling all the RTI applications inthe LG's office. Response/s re-ceived from the Respondent, how-ever reveals a different story".

Dismissing all 141 petitions infive separate orders, Sinha notedthat though the queries raisedby the appellant are claimed to bein the larger public interest, hismodus operandi is to file a largenumber of pleas which are "ir-relevant" and "unrelated". "In thecurrent environment with theoutbreak of the pandemic, COVID-19, and with the consequent lock-down the normal functioning ofall organisations has been severelyimpacted. For the Commission,this only adds to the already hugebacklog of cases," Sinha said.

He said in such circumstances,there is a pressing need to iden-tify cases such as the ones underreference for cumulative disposalin order to facilitate expeditiousadjudication of cases of genuineinformation seekers.

The applicant, Dinesh, had filed a number of pleasunder the Right to Information with the

Lt Governor's office seeking details of properties, illegalconstructions, and allotment of houses among other

things through separate petitions

CIC junks 141 RTIpetitions in one go

Salons reopenin MumbaiPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, June 28: With thefurther easing of coronavirus-induced curbs in Maharashtra,some salons opened in MumbaiSunday after a gap of threemonths while many remainedclosed due to lack of manpower.

The parlours and salonsfalling under the COVID-19 con-tainment zones did not open.Salon owners, who opened theirshops for restarting business,said they were adhering to thegovernment's guidelines likechecking temperatures of theircustomers, asking them to usehand sanitisers before enter-ing the premises, and servingcustomers in small batches.

Some, however, complained oflow turnout, saying people werescared of availing salon serv-ices. The Maharashtra govern-ment earlier said salons andbeauty parlours will be allowedto reopen from Sunday with re-stricted entry and prior ap-pointments for customers.

A revised set of guidelines, is-sued as part of the government's'Mission Begin Again' phase four,said only select services like haircut, dyeing, waxing will be al-lowed as of now in these outlets.

Vice Prez, PMpay tributes toNarasimha Rao

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: VicePresident M Venkaiah Naiduand Prime Minister NarendraModi Sunday paid tributes tothe late P V Narasimha Rao onhis birth anniversary, sayinghe led the country through acritical phase.

In his monthly "Mann ki Baat"radio address, the prime ministersaid June 28 marks the com-mencement of the birth cente-nary of Rao. He said the formerprime minister led the countrythrough a "critical phase".

Rao was the prime ministerbetween June 21, 1991 and May16, 1996. "He was rooted in Indianvalues; and had knowledge ofwestern literature and scienceas well," Modi said, adding thatRao was one of the most expe-rienced leaders of India. Theprime minister recalled thatRao had joined the freedommovement in his teens.

When the Nizam ofHyderabad refused permissionto sing "Vande Mataram", hetook an active part in the move-ment against the Nizam. Froma young age, Rao raised his voiceagainst injustice, Modi said.

"His rise from a very simplebackground, his emphasis oneducation, his eagerness to learn,and, along with all these quali-ties, his leadership ability are allmemorable," Modi noted. Healso urged people to know moreabout Rao in his centenary year.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Guwahati, June 28: The flood sit-uation in Assam worsened furtherSunday with two more persons los-ing their lives in the deluge whichaffected nearly 9.3 lakh people in 23districts, the State DisasterManagement Authority (ASDMA)said.

According to the ASDMA dailyflood report, one person died atJonai revenue circle of Dhemaji dis-trict and another at Udalguri rev-enue circle of Udalguri districtdue to flood. With two more deaths,the fatalities due to flood this yearhas gone up to 18.

ASDMA said more than 9.26 lakhpeople have been affected due tofloods in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur,Biswanath, Udalguri, Darrang,Nalbari, Barpeta, Bongaigaon,Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara,Goalpara, Kamrup, Morigaon,Hojai, Nagaon, Golaghat, Jorhat,Majuli, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh,Tinsukia and West Karbi Anglongdistricts.

Barpeta has emerged as theworst-hit district with nearly 1.35lakh people having been affected,followed by Dhemaji with almost

one lakh people and Nalbari withmore than 96,000 persons hit bythis natural calamity. SDRF, dis-trict administrations, civil defenceand Inland Water Transport de-partments have evacuated 9,303people during the last 24 hours infive districts, the bulletin said.

Till Saturday, more than 4.6 lakhpersons were affected due to the del-uge across 21 districts. At present,2,071 villages are under water and68,806.73 hectares of crop areashave been damaged, ASDMA said.

It further said authorities arerunning 193 relief camps and dis-tribution centres across 12 dis-tricts, where 27,308 people havetaken shelter.

The authorities have distributeda total of 1,206.32 quintals of rice,dal and salt, and 2,195.92 litres ofmustard oil along with other re-lief materials such as tarpaulin,baby food, snacks, candle, matchbox, drinking water, milk, biscuitand mosquito coil.

The Brahmaputra is flowingabove the danger mark at Guwahati,Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur inSonitpur, Goalpara town inGoalpara and Dhubri town inDhubri districts.

Assam flood worsens POLITICKLE by MANJUL

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: The Railways'air conditioned trains will nowhave operation theatre-like freshair pumped into its coaches, re-placing the circulated air whichraises the chances of spread of in-fections, officials have said.

The experiment, started with15 pairs of air conditioned trainsbeing run by the Railways on theRajdhani routes since May 12,will be replicated in all AC trainsas part of the national trans-porter's preparations for post-COVID operations."The RoofM o u n t e d AC Pa ck a g e U n i t( R M P U ) s y s t e m o f I n d i a n

Railways AC coaches replacesair more than 16-18 times perhour just like in OTs," officialssaid.

Previously, these AC trains hadair change six to eight times perhour and 80 per cent of the air thatwas pushed into coaches was re-circulated air, while 20 per cent

was fresh air. However, with theincrease in the number of airchanges, there has been a 10 to 15per cent increase in energy con-sumption.

"This is the price one has topay for the safety of passengers.This is the new normal. The wayan AC works is that it uses re-circulated air so that it gets coolerfaster. When we use fresh air ittakes more time to cool, so there'sadditional energy consumption,"an officer said.

The Railways has also increasedthe centralised AC's temperaturefrom the usual 23 degrees to 25 de-grees as passengers are no longerbeing provided linen.

FIGHTINGCOVID New normal in AC trains

Theunemploy-ment in the

state is at the 45-year high, asrevealed by thegovernment data.The unemployed youth are beingcane-charged for demanding jobs

AJAY KUMAR LALLU | UP CONGRESS CHIEF

PTI PHOTO

Kathmandu:Nepalese officials

have confirmed thatswarms of

desertlocusts,which ravagecrops, have

entered thecountry after more than two decades. The locusts were

spotted in Nepal's southern plains of Bara, Sarlahi, Parsaand Rupandehi districts Saturday morning, Hari Bahadur KC,spokesperson of the Ministry of Agriculture and LivestockDevelopment, told Efe news. The government officials,however, have not ascertained the scope of the swarms thathave wreaked havoc in 60 countries.

P10MONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalUntil avaccine is

found, we areunlikely to see a return to our pre-COVID-19 way of lifeLEE HSIEN LOONG | PRIMEMINISTER OF SINGAPORE

Most children with COVID-19fared better than adultsduring the first four monthsof the pandemic, accordingto a systematic review of 131studies worldwide

KIDS MORE RESILIENTAGAINST CORONAVIRUS

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The economicpressure thatbegan in 2018

has increased andtoday it is thetoughest pressureon our country

HASSAN ROUHANI | IRANIAN PRESIDENT

of theday uote

We’re going tomake surethat we have

plans to help peoplewhose old jobs arenot there anymoreto get theopportunities they need. We areabsolutely not going back to theausterity of 10 years ago

BORIS JOHNSON | UK PRIME MINISTER

I will not besilenced by@UKLabour

MPs who continueto dismiss thecontributions ofthose who don’tconform to their view of how ethnicminorities should behave

PRITI PATEL | UK HOME SECRETARY

Dozens heldin Hong KongHong Kong: Hong Kongpolice arrested at least 53people Sunday after scuffleserupted during a relativelypeaceful protest againstplanned national securitylegislation to beimplemented by themainland Chinesegovernment. Armed riotpolice were present as acrowd of several hundredmoved from Jordan to MongKok in the Kowloon district,staging what was intendedas a “silent protest” againstthe planned law.

Largest LGBTQIonline pride eventMexico City: Mexico'sLGBTQI community alongwith celebrities cametogether for the world'slargest online pride event,held virtually this year due tothe coronavirus pandemic.Organised and coordinatedby the Incluye T (IncludesYou) Committee, the eventwith the hashtag#ElOrgulloPermanece(#PrideEndures) took placeSaturday evening and wasaired live on Youtube,Facebook and Mexicanbroadcaster Canal Once,reports Efe news.

B’desh braces formassive floodsDhaka (Bangladesh): Weatherofficials in Bangladesh havepredicted massive floods inthe northwest and southeastportions of the countrybordering India, as incessantrains have inflated rivers,posing serious threat to lifeand damage to farmland.

Shootings acrossChicago kill 3 kidsChicago: Shootings acrossChicago over the weekendhave left three childrendead, including a 10-year-old girl who was struck inthe head by a stray bulletthat came through anapartment window. TheSaturday night death wasamong at least 10 shootingfatalities since Fridayevening, which follow a deadly Father’s Dayweekend and fresh concerns about a violentsummer ahead.

Lanka lifts curfewColombo: The Sri Lankangovernment Sundaycompletely lifted a curfewimposed to contain thespread of the coronavirusafter no new case ofcommunity infection wasrecorded for nearly twomonths in the country. SriLanka has been under acontinuous lockdown sinceMarch 20, a week after thefirst local victim of thepandemic was reported.

SHORT TAKES

JOVIAL MOOD

A boy plays in the lavender fields at Cotswold Lavender bear to Broadway, England, as virus restrictions are relaxedallowing people to visit the tourist destinations PTI PHOTO

GLO

BAL

BRIE

FS Locust swarms enter NepalBlantyre(Malawi):LazarusChakwera hasbeen sworn inas Malawi'snew PresidentSunday aftertheannouncementthe previous night that he had won the southernAfrican country's rerun elections. Chakwera isMalawi's sixth President after winning the historic election held last week, the first time acourt-overturned vote in Africa has resulted in thedefeat of an incumbent leader.

Malawians elect new PrezWarsaw: Polesvoted in apresidentialelection Sundaythat was delayedby the coronaviruspandemic and wastaking place amiddeep cultural andpolitical divisions in the European Union nation.President Andrzej Duda, a 48-year-old conservativebacked by the nationalist ruling Law and Justice party,was running against 10 other candidates as he sought asecond 5-year term. Whether Duda wins or not willdetermine whether the ruling party keeps its near-monopoly on political power in Poland.

Poland holds election

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Islamabad, June 28: Pakistanwill hold general elections in Gilgit-Baltistan August 18, the govern-ment has announced after thecountry's top court allowed hold-ing of polls in the region, notwith-standing India's strong protest toIslamabad for its efforts to bring"material change" to the territoriesunder its "illegal and forcible" oc-cupation.

The Pakistan Supreme CourtApril 30 allowed the governmentto amend a 2018 administrativeorder to conduct general electionsin the region. President Arif AlviSaturday approved August 18, 2020as the poll day for general electionsto the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB)Legislative Assembly, accordingto a statement from the PresidentHouse. The Gilgit-Baltistan orderof 2018 provided for administra-tive changes, including autho-rising the Prime Minister ofPakistan to legislate on an arrayof subjects. India last month is-sued a demarche to a seniorPakistani diplomat in New Delhiand lodged a strong protest overthe apex court ruling.

GILGIT-BALTISTANELECTIONS TO BEHELD AUGUST 18

AGENCIES

Beijing, June 28: Worldwide con-firmed coronavirus infections hitthe 10 million mark Sunday as voters in Poland and France wentto the polls for virus-delayed elections. Vice President Mike Pence calledoff campaign events in Floridaand Arizona after surges in infec-tions prompted worries that theUS has lost control of its outbreak.

The figure is roughly double thenumber of severe influenza ill-nesses recorded annually, accord-ing to the World HealthOrganisation.

The milestone comes as manyhard-hit countries are easing lock-downs while making extensive al-terations to work and social lifethat could last for a year or moreuntil a vaccine is available. Somecountries are experiencing a resur-gence in infections, leading au-thorities to partially reinstate lock-downs, in what experts say couldbe a recurring pattern in the com-

ing months and into 2021. NorthAmerica, Latin America andEurope each account for around25% of cases, while Asia and theMiddle East have around 11% and9% respectively, according to theReuters tally, which uses govern-ment reports.

The first cases of the new coro-navirus were confirmed on Jan.10 in Wuhan in China, before in-fections and fatalities surged inEurope, then the United States,and later Russia.

The pandemic has now entereda new phase, with India and Brazilbattling outbreaks of over 10,000cases a day, putting a major strainon resources.

AGENCIES

Louisville, June 28: Authoritieswere investigating a fatal shootingSaturday night at a park in down-town Louisville, Kentucky, wheredemonstrators had gathered toprotest the death of Breonna Taylor.

Reports of shots fired at JeffersonSquare Park came in around 9 p.m.,Louisville Metro police said in astatement, followed by calls thatthe Jefferson County Sheriff'sDepartment was performing life-sav-ing measures on a male who diedat the scene.

Shortly after, police were told ofa shooting victim across the street

at the Hall of Justice. That personwas hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries. Officers clearedthe park and police “are trying togather as much information as pos-sible in order to identify all who wereinvolved in the incident,” the state-ment said. No information about ar-rests, possible suspects and the vic-tims' identities and ages wasimmediately released. Officials didnot immediately release additionalinformation. “I am deeply sad-dened by the violence that eruptedin Jefferson Square Park tonight,where those who have been voicingtheir concerns have been gathered,"Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said

in a statement. The Saturday nightshooting was at least the secondduring nearly a month of protestsin Louisville over Taylor's death.Seven people were wounded May 28when gunfire erupted near CityHall, prompting a statement fromTaylor's mother asking people to de-mand justice “without hurting eachother.” Taylor, a 26-year-old Blackwoman, was killed in her Louisvillehome in March by police who wereserving a no-knock warrant.Kenneth Walker, Taylor's boyfriend,was originally charged with at-tempted murder after he fired ashot at one of the officers who cameinto the home.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Washington, June 28: Two infive Indian-Americans are wor-ried about their long-term fi-nancial stability due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, but almostall are changing their lifestyle,according to a first-of-its-kind sur-vey about the contagion's im-pact on the community.

Similarly, 30 per cent of theIndian-Americans have had fi-nancial impact on their job andinternship, the Foundation forIndia and Indian DiasporaStudies (FIIDS) said in a report.

According to the report whichis based on a recent COVID-19survey, one in six tested posi-tive or know a family memberof the Indian community mem-ber who tested positive. However,only a few Indian-Americans

faced immigration impacts fromthis pandemic.

“FIIDS conducted the surveyof Indo-Americans to find out theimpact of the COVID-19 on themand the community's response,”said Khanderao Kand, directorof FIIDS. This is the first of itskind survey about the impact ofthe coronavirus pandemicamong the Indian-Americans.The US is the worst affectedcountry with over 2.5 millioncases and more than 1,25,000deaths. The COVID-19, whichoriginated in China's Wuhancity in December last year, hasalso battered the world econ-omy with the InternationalMonetary Fund saying that theglobal economy is bound to suf-fer a "severe recession".

CORONA IMPACT

INDIANS IN US WORRIEDABOUT FINANCIAL STABILITY30% of the Indian-Americans have had financial

impact on their job and internship

Protests turn deadly in LouisvilleVideo footage showed aman firing more than a

dozen shots at a park inLouisville, Ky., where

protesters had gatheredto call for justice for Ms.

Taylor, who was killed bythe police in March

Global nCoV casesexceed 10 million

A COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by aBeijing unit of China National Biotec Group (CNBG)

has shown positive results in early human trials

Pandemic hits China’s BRI projectsAEGNCIES

Beijing, June 28: Majority of theprojects under China’s ambitiousmulti-billion-dollar Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI) are either adverselyor par tially af fected by the coronavirus pandemic, accordingto a Chinese official.

About a fifth of the projects underthe BRI, which aims to boost trade and investment across Asia,Africa and Europe to further China’sglobal influence, had been “seriously affected” by the pan-demic, according to Wang Xiaolong, director-general of the foreign ministry's international economicaffairs department.

About 40 per cent of the projectswere “adversely affected”, and afurther 30-40 per cent were “some-what affected”, Hong Kong-basedSouth China Morning Post quotedWang as saying.

It aims to link Southeast Asia,Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africaand Europe with a network of landand sea route. The CPEC, whichconnects Gwadar Port in Pakistan'sBalochistan with China's Xinjiangprovince, is the flagship project ofthe BRI. China last week held thefirst video conference of the BRI aspart of its efforts to kick start theprojects. The projects which weredisrupted included $60 billion China-

Pakistan Economic Corridor(CPEC), the report said. For in-stance, COVID-19 disruptions haveaffected the CPEC, Cambodia'sSihanoukville Special EconomicZone and Indonesia's Jakarta-Bandung high-speed rail, it said.Many projects under BRI are ei-ther on hold or receiving minimalworks. The BRI is seen as an at-tempt by China to further its in-fluence abroad with infrastructure projects funded byChinese investments all over theworld. The initiative also led to al-legations of smaller countries reel-

ing under mounting Chinese debtafter Sri Lanka gave its Hambantotaport in a debt swap to China in 2017on a 99-year lease. By early January,2,951 BRI-linked projects valued at$3.87 trillion were planned or un-derway across the world, the Postquoted research and publishingfirm Oxford Business Group. Manycountries in Africa and Asia havenot been able to continue with megaprojects, mostly funded by Beijing,because they are struggling to serv-ice debts, the report said. In Nigeria,a $1.5 billion rail project is facingdelays because of coronavirus dis-ruptions, while many Chinesefunded projects in Zambia,Zimbabwe, Algeria and Egypt havebeen put on hold or may be delayedas the countries fight to control thespread of COVID-19, it said. Manyof the countries that took billions

of dollars in loans from China tobuild mega projects – includingmotorways, ports, dams and rail-ways – are knocking on Beijing'sdoor, asking for debt repaymentfreezes or some debt cancellations,according to the Post report. Earlier,President Xi promised Africancountries to write off all their in-terest-free loans due this year andasked Chinese financial institu-tions “to conduct consultationswith African countries on com-mercial sovereign loan arrange-ments”, it said.

China's overall lending to Africastood at $152 billion worth of loancommitments between 2000 and2018, the report said, citing datacompiled by the China AfricaResearch Initiative at the JohnsHopkins University School ofAdvanced International Studies.

GODZILLA DUST COULD MAKETHE PANDEMIC EVEN WORSEREUTERS

New York, June 28: A massiveplume of dust whipped up fromthe Sahara desert will hover overthe US Southeast, forecasters say,shrouding the region in a brownhaze and raising more health con-cerns in stateswhere the coron-avirus crisis isworsening.

The 3,500-mile-long (5,600 km)cloud, dubbed the“Godzilla dustcloud,” traveled 5,000 miles (8,047km) from North Africa before reach-ing the region stretching fromFlorida west into Texas and northinto North Carolina throughArkansas, the National WeatherService (NWS) said. “It’s a really drylayer of air that contains thesevery fine dust particulates. It occursevery summer,” said NWS mete-

orologist Patrick Blood. “Some ofthese plumes contain more parti-cles, and right now we expecting avery large plume of dust in theGulf Coast.” This year, the dust isthe most dense it has been in a halfa century, several meteorologistssaid earlier this week as it crossed

over theCaribbean. TheSaharan dustplume will hangover the regionuntil the middle ofnext week, deteri-orating the air

quality in Texas, Florida and otherstates where the number of COVID-19 cases has recently spiked. “There’semerging evidence of potential in-teractions between air pollutionand the risk of COVID, so at thisstage we are concerned,” saidGregory Wellenius, an professorof environmental health at BostonUniversity’s School of Public Health.

INDIA HAS PROTESTED TO CHINA OVER THE CPEC AS IT

IS BEING LAID THROUGH PAKISTAN-OCCUPIED KASHMIR

SOME ASIAN COUNTRIES,INCLUDING MALAYSIA,

BANGLADESH, INDONESIA, PAKISTAN,CAMBODIA, AND SRI LANKA HAVE IN THE RECENT PAST EITHER SLAMMED THEBRAKES ON OR REPORTED DELAYSFOR CHINESE-FUNDED PROJECTS

AEGNCIES

United Nations, June 28: UNGeneral Assembly President TijjaniMuhammad-Bande has changed aphrase in the draft declaration tocommemorate the 75th anniver-sary of the United Nations afterIndia along with countries in-cluding the UK and the US raisedobjection to the sentence, under-stood to be similar to wording usedby the Chinese Communist Party.

According to United NationsAssociation–UK (UNA-UK), acharitable company focusing onUK action at the UN, Britain'sacting ambassador JonathanAllen broke the silence proce-dure June 24 “on behalf of themembers of the ‘five eyes’ intel-ligence community - the UK, US,Australia, New Zealand, Canadaand India. It said that the sixcountries objected to one phrasetowards the end of the declara-tion that read - "to realise ourshared vision for a common fu-ture". The countries wanted thiswording to be replaced with "to re-alise our shared vision for a bet-ter future as envisaged in the pre-amble of the UN Charter.” Thedeclaration by the “Heads of Stateand Government representing thepeoples of the world” to com-memorate the 75th anniversaryof the UN is to be adoptedSeptember 21, 2020 and takes noteof the COVID19 pandemic that“continues to reverberate aroundour world."

UN CHANGES PHRASEAFTER OBJECTION BYINDIA, FIVE OTHERS

The BRI was launchedby Chinese President

Xi Jinping when he came to power in 2013

AGENCIES

New Delhi, June 28: The govern-ment has again extended the dead-line to bid for Air India by two monthstill August 31 as the COVID-19 fall-out has disrupted economic activi-ties globally. This is the third time thedeadline has been extended. The di-vestment process for the nationalcarrier was initiated January 27.

Issuing a corrigendum to theExpression of Interest (EoI) forsale of Air India, the Departmentof Investment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM) said thedeadline has been extended in viewof the "request received from the IBs(interested bidders) in view of theprevailing situation arising out ofCOVID-19." While issuing the EoIin January, the last date for bids waskept at March 17, which was laterextended till April 30. This was fur-ther extended to June 30, and nowtill August 31.

Also, the date for intimation toQualified Interested Bidders (QIBs)has been extended by two monthstill September 14, the DIPAM saidin the corrigendum posted on itswebsite.

"Further changes with respect to

the Important Dates, if any, willbe communicated to the InterestedBidders subsequently," it added.

The COVID-19 pandemic and sub-sequent lockdowns have disruptedeconomic activities globally.

The aviation sector has been hithard by the coronavirus pandemic,with airlines cancelling flights andannouncing pay cuts for employees.

The government has already ex-

tended the time given to investorsto bid for its entire 52.98 per centstake in Bharat Petroleum CorpLtd (BPCL) to July 31. The initialdeadline was May 2, which was ex-tended till June 13.

After its unsuccessful bid to sellAir India in 2018, the governmentin January 2020 restarted the di-vestment process and invited bidsfor selling 100 per cent equity inthe state-owned airline, includingAir India's 100 per cent sharehold-ing in AI Express Ltd and 50 per centstake in Air India SATS AirportServices Private Ltd. In 2018, thegovernment had offered to sell 76per cent stake in the airline.

Of the airline's total debt of`60,074crore as of March 31, 2019, the buyerwould be required to absorb`23,286.5crore, while the rest would be trans-ferred to Air India Assets HoldingLtd (AIAHL), a special purpose ve-hicle.

For the current fiscal, the Budgethas pegged disinvestment proceedsat `2.10 lakh crore. This includes`1.20 lakh crore from CPSE sharesales and `90,000 crore from sharesales in public sector banks and fi-nancial institutions, including list-ing of insurance behemoth LIC.

P11

businessMONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Developing astrong agriecosystem by

providing access tobetter marketingavenues for farmers’produce and freeingup the sector from restrictive lawsis a key focus area for thegovernment

SANJAY AGARWAL | SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF

AGRICULTURE & FARMERS’ WELFARE

of theday uote

I expect theretailers tocontinue with

the momentum theyhave built for onlinebusiness during thelockdown andextend to their wider categories inthe future to build a truly omnichannel business

PINAKIRANJAN MISHRA | PARTNER AND

NATIONAL LEADER, CONSUMER PRODUCTS AND

RETAIL, EY INDIA

Amazon Pay isalreadyaccepted at

millions of localshops, we are tryingto make customers’buying experienceat local shops even moreconvenient and safe through SmartStores

MAHENDRA NERURKAR | CEO, AMAZON PAY

The answer to calls forboycotting Chinese imports

lies in making Indian manufacturingmuch more competitive, deeper andwidespread, but people shouldremember that shunning (Chinese)products may lead to them payingmore for goodsRC BHARGAVA | CHAIRMAN, MARUTI SUZUKI INDIA

The Indian auto components industry shouldlook at enhancing exports by targetting 5% ofglobal trade, which stands at around $1.3tn, innext 5 years. To achieve this feat, government’ssupport in terms of favourable policies wouldbe crucial, ACMA India DG Vinnie Mehta said

‘AUTO COMPONENT INDUSTRY SHOULDTARGET 5% OF GLOBAL TRADE’

Marriott to expandfood delivery bizMumbai: Leading hotel chainMarriott International, whichhas seen its business plungeover 90% across its 123properties since thelockdown, will expand andcontinue its delivery and take-away business even after thepandemic-induced lockdownand social distancing end, asit does not see normalcyturtling back anytime soon.The American group runs 123hotels under 16 brands in thecountry, offering a little over24,000 rooms.

‘No plans to sellnon-core assets’New Delhi: There are noplans to sell non-core assets,including subsidiaries, in thecurrent financial year,Punjab National Bankmanaging director SSMallikarjuna Rao has said.However, the bank intends tosell some of its real estateassets and properties,including its old headquarterbuilding, he said. "We have alot of real estate assetsbecause of the merger. Weare planning to sell a goodamount of these assets bythe end of the third quarterprovided the market isavailable," he said.

Govt to auctionmineral blocksNew Delhi: The governmentwill beginning Mondayauction five mineral blocks inGujarat and Karnataka havingreserves of 667.2 milliontonnes. The developmentassumes significance in thewake of the Centre askingeach state having mineralresources to identify at leastfive new mining projects forauction with pre-embeddedclearance on a pilot basis, with a view toexpediting the sale processas well as operationalisationof the blocks.

‘Demand torebound by 2021’Dubai: Careem, a unit ofUber Technologies, expectsride-hailing demand torecover to pre-pandemiclevels “sometime” in 2021,encouraged by a better-than-expected pickup as countriesstarted to ease coronavirus-related curbs. “It’s been atough couple of months,”Careem Chief ExecutiveMudassir Sheikha said. “It’sreally anyone’s guess. Wehave planned for a recovery(in ride-hailing) sometimenext year but...the recoveryhas begun and it has beenfaster already than our initial projections.”

SHORT TAKES

cmyk

cmyk

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: The WorldBank Sunday said its Board ofExecutive Directors has approvedUSD 500 million (about`3,700 crore)loan to improve quality and gov-ernance of school education in sixIndian states.

The board approved a loan forStrengthening Teaching-Learningand Results for States Program(STARS) June 24, 2020, the WorldBank said in a statement.

"Some 250 million students (be-tween the age of 6 and 17) in 1.5million schools, and over 10 mil-lion teachers will benefit from theprogram. The STARS programbuilds on the long partnership be-tween India and the World Bank(since 1994), for strengthening pub-lic school education and to support

the country’s goal of providingEducation for All," it said.

Prior to STARS, the bank had pro-vided a total assistance of more thanUSD 3 billion towards this goal at thenational level, through the SamagraShiksha, and in partnership withOdisha and five other states like

Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan,it said. STARS will also help improvelearning assessment systems,strengthen classroom instruction andremediation, facilitate school-to-worktransition, and strengthen governanceand decentralised management. India

recognises the need to significantly im-prove its learning outcomes to fuelfuture growth and meet the demandsof the labour market, World BankCountry Director in India JunaidAhmad said. "STARS will supportIndia's response to this challenge bystrengthening implementation at the

local level, investing in teacher ca-pacity and ensuring that no childof any background is left behindfrom the right to education," hesaid.

Investing more in the early years of education will equip chil-dren with the skills required tocompete for the jobs of the future,he added. The multilateral fundingagency noted that India has, overthe years, made significant stridesin improving access to educationacross the country; between 2004-05 and 2018-19, the number of chil-dren going to school increasedfrom 219 million to 248 million.

However, the learning outcomesof students across all age groups con-tinue to remain below par. The USD500 million loan from WB forReconstruction and Development,has a final maturity of 14.5 years.

WB approves $500mn to boost quality of education

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, June 28: SmallIndustries Development Bank ofIndia (SIDBI) is setting up‘Swavalamban Crisis ResponsiveFund’ to support free on boardingof MSMEs on Trade ReceivablesDiscounting System (TReDS).

Receivables Exchange of IndiaLtd. (RXIL), M1xchange andInvoicemart are three TReDS plat-forms which help MSMEs gainaccess to working capital throughinvoice discounting via multiplefinanciers. SIDBI CMDMohammad Mustafa said, “Thegovernment has been taking sev-eral steps to strengthen the MSMEecosystem and these vehicles to im-plement several GoI initiatives to-wards quick response to COVID-19 fallout.

The present endeavour of set-ting up Swavalamban CrisisResponsive Fund (SCRF), underSwavalamban Resource Facility,where SIDBI partners withDepartment for InternationalDevelopment (DFID) UK, is yetanother differentiated interven-tion by the Bank.”

SIDBI aims to helpMSMEs tide overCOVID-19 crisis

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, June 28: AmazonIndia Sunday announced that it hasopened close to 20,000 seasonal ortemporary employment opportu-nities in its customer service or-ganisation to ensure customersworldwide continue to have a seam-less online shopping experience.

The new positions are now openin Hyderabad, Pune, Coimbatore,Noida, Kolkata, Jaipur,Chandigarh, Mangalore, Indore,Bhopal and Lucknow. Most of thepositions are part of Amazon's'Virtual Customer Service' pro-gram that provides flexible work-from-home options, the companysaid in a statement.

"The new associates who willjoin us in our offices or work fromhome through our Virtual CustomerService program will play a key rolein relentlessly advocating for ourcustomers and raising the bar ontheir experience," says AkshayPrabhu, Director for CustomerService, Amazon India.

"Over the past few months, wehave scaled up to prioritise thesafety of our CS associates andcontinue to serve our customers'needs. These new seasonal positionswill provide candidates job secu-rity and livelihood during these un-precedented times," he added.

Earlier this year, Amazon hadannounced that it plans to create10 lakh new jobs in India by 2025through continued investmentsin technology, infrastructure, andits logistics network.

Amazon Indiaannounces 20Kseasonal jobs

As healthcare costs are

on a constant rise, plan-ning financial resourcestowards unanticipatedmedical costs is ab-

solutely imperative. While, sus-taining a few medical expensesfrom one’s own pocket may not hitthe bank balance hard, it is notablethat a single critical medical con-dition is well capable of perturbingyour finances.With increasing aware-ness and well contemplated em-ployee benefits, though many are cov-ered under basic retail and groupmediclaim health insurances, it isideal to have double protection to facesuch exigencies. Typically, the optedsum insured range for basic healthinsurance policies varies between`3-5 lakh. Bearing medical expensesbeyond this sum can take a toll onan individual’s hard earned sav-

ings.Super top up health

insurance plans are anadded protection in sce-narios when the maxi-mum payout from abasic health policy getsexhausted. Under SuperTop Up policies, acustomer canchoose aspecificlimit/de-ductibleamountthat a pol-icyholderwillhave tobear,

before the insurance policystarts paying out during‘claim’. This limit is termedas aggregate deductible ininsurance parlance and acustomer can opt for thefigure depending on the

maximum coverageof his or her

basic medicalpolicy or theexpense onemay extractfrom one’sown in-come.

In asupertop upplan,your

insurer considers the sum total ofall the eligible medical expenses ina given policy period and if thisamount crosses the chosen de-ductible in the policy, you becomeeligible for a claim payout. Thus,Super Top Up plans are a compre-hensive and economical shieldagainst the unforeseen medicalcosts that may be incurred beyondthe cap of a basic health policy.

In order to offer maximum cov-erage, Super Top Up policies canbe availed either as an individualor as a floater policy. With thistype of policy one can cover self,spouse, dependent children andparents under the same policy andtotal number of family memberscovered in one policy can go upto six members.

The entry age criteria for de-pendent children and parents mayvary from one insurer to another.There are a number of benefitsthat a super top up plan offers be-sides the regular inpatient, preand post-hospitalisation expensecovers such as aggregate de-ductibles, road and optional airambulance covers, cover for organdonor expenses and free medicalcheck-ups. There are plans avail-able in the market with sum in-

sured ranging from `3 lakh to `50lakh with the aggregate deductiblesoptions from `2 lakh to `10 lakh.Waiting period for pre- existingdiseases remains to be there in theSuper Top Up plans.

However, few insurers have nowstarted introducing a much shorterwaiting period such as 12 monthsfor pre-existing diseases.

Opting for affordable super topup plans can be a good way of

keeping your finances in goodhealth, as they come at a less pre-mium and shield you during the

critical medical needs. Waitingfor a bad experience to teach youmay not be wise, when a stich in

time can save you nine.

(The writer is the ChiefTechnical Officer of Bajaj

Allianz General Insurance)

SUPER TOP-UP HEALTH PLANS: AN AFFORDABLE AID

REUTERS

New Delhi, June 28: India willgradually end Central controls ongas pricing as it seeks to attractforeign investment and technol-ogy to lift local output, Petroleumand Natural Gas ministerDharmendra Pradhan has said.

India, which is a large emitter ofgreenhouse gases and has multiplegas pricing regimes, aims to raisethe share of gas in its energy mixfrom the current 6.2% to 15% by 2030.

“This is an incentive we are giv-ing to investors to come to India andtake advantage of pricing and mar-keting freedom and produce moreand invest more,” Pradhan said atthe BNEF summit.

To boost gas usage, India is ex-panding infrastructure includingbuilding new liquefied natural gas(LNG) import plants and connect-ing households with an expand-ing gas pipe network. New Delhisaid recently that no authorisa-tion was needed to set up LNG dis-pensing facilities for vehicles.

India’s top gas importer PetronetLNG said Friday it wants to part-

ner with fuel and gas retailers onLNG stations along highways forlong-haul trucks and buses.

Petronet wants to set up 5 LNG sta-tions in the fiscal year ending March2021, and 300 by 2023. It eventuallyaims to have 1,000 LNG stationsacross India, it said on its website.

Meanwhile, Indian Oil Corp, thecountry’s top refiner and fuel re-tailer, said it wants to start LNG re-tailing through its fuel pumps.

GAIL (India) Ltd’s executive di-rector Rajeev Mathur said his firmis looking for partners to set upLNG dispensing facilities.

Mathur said India’s gas demandis expected to rise by 3%-4% be-tween October 2020 and March2021, after witnessing a huge fall inApril-May due to a coronaviruslockdown.

India to end Centralcontrol of gas pricesTo boost gas usage, India is expanding infrastructure

including building new LNG import plant

PNN/PTI

Bhubaneswar, June 28: In thewake of the COVID-19 crisis, theRourkela Steel Plant (RSP) Sundaysaid it bagged an order of over 6,000tonne of special grade plates forsupplying to the European market.

RSP, a unit of state-run SAIL, willsupply CE-marked plates con-forming to the European stan-dards, mentioned in a company’sstatement.

According to RSP’s statement,the 'CE' is defined as the EuropeanUnion’s (EU) mandatory conformitymarking for regulating goods soldwithin the European Economic Area.

The 4.3 metre wide new platemill of RSP is equipped with state-of-the-art technology and producesa wide range of plates with close tol-erance to meet stringent interna-tional standards.

The steel maker also said platesproduced by the mill are utilised in

earth moving equipment, wagonbuilding, railway projects, bridgesand highways, nuclear power plantsand many other sectors.

The mill has got an approval ofDNV-GL (Det Norske Veritas-Bermanischer Lloyd) business as-surance to produce CE-markedplates for the European market andhas been exporting its products todifferent countries.

The fresh order has been baggedby the steel plant a few weeks afterit completed exports of 60,000 tonneof special grade slab to China and2,700 tonne of plates to Vietnam, theRSP sources said.

While putting up a tough fightagainst COVID-19, the RSP is si-multaneously making all-out ef-forts to generate revenue in one ofthe most sluggish market envi-ronments the world has ever seen,the statement said.

RSP bags over 6K tonne ofCE-mark plate order for EU

Super top up healthinsurance plans are anadded protection in scenarios when the maximum payout from a basic health policy gets exhausted

TA Ramalingam, CTO, Bajaj Allianz General Insurance

FOR A CAUSE

The Board of Executive Directors approved a loan forStrengthening Teaching-Learning and Results for

States Program (STARS) June 24, 2020

Prior to STARS, the bank had provided a totalassistance of more than $3 billion towards this goal at

the national level in partnership with Odisha and fiveother states

The multilateral funding agency noted that India has,over the years, made significant strides in improving

access to education across the country

BIZ BUZZ

New Delhi: India will block therequests of Japan and ChineseTaipei for setting up of a disputesettlement panel at the WorldTrade Organization (WTO) againstNew Delhi's customs duties onimports of certain information andcommunications technology (ICT)products, an official said. The

requests ofboth thecountries arescheduled tocome up onMonday in thedispute

settlement body meeting in Genevaand "we will block it", the officialadded. According to the tradedispute norms of the WTO, if thesecountries would come with theirrequests for second time, the panelwill be set up in the case. In Maylast year, both the countries filed acase against India in the WTO overthe import duties imposed oncertain electronic goods.

Bhubaneswar: Dvara KGFS, aleading NBFCin India, announcedtransactions worth `7 croreachieved since April 19, 2020through its Aadhar EnabledPayment System (AEPS). It has astrong presence in Odisha and fiveother states, spread across 48districts with 297 branches andmore than 1 million enrolledcustomers. Dvara KGFS officialsaid, “We are happy that we wereable to provide AEPS service toaround 45,000 villagers andfacilitate a gross cash withdrawalof more than 7 crore through our300 odd branches in such a shortspan of time. Our wealthmanagers have received a lot ofappreciation from the villagers onfacilitating this service and we areseeing this as an effective toolwhich will help us move closertowards our mission ofmaximising financial well-beingfor every individual in remoterural India.”

ICT tariff case: Indiato block Japan

Dvara KGFS facilitatesdigital banking

Govt again extends deadline tobid for Air India by 2 months

The divestment process for thenational carrier was initiated

January 27

This is the third time that thedeadline has been extended

owing to the disruption created bythe COVID-19 pandemic

While issuing the EoI in January,the last date for bids was kept

at March 17, which was laterextended till April 30 before furthergetting extended to June 30

According to RSP, 'CE' isdefined as the EU’smandatory conformitymarking for regulatinggoods sold within the European Economic Area

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: Women’scricket needs better marketing andinvestment to grow, and not ‘dubi-ous’ innovations like a shorter pitchor smaller boundaries, according toIndia pace bowler Shikha Pandey.She said she finds suggestions suchas use of smaller balls and shorterpitches to make women's game ap-pealing to be ‘superfluous’. Pandeyurged the ICC ‘not to tinker’ withrules to attract more audience.

Pandey, one of India’s finest newball bowlers after Jhulan Goswami,shared a series of tweets in thewake of a recent ICC webinar fea-turing New Zealand captain SophieDevine and India’s rising starJemimah Rodrigues where someof the suggestions were floated.

“I have been read-ing/ hearing a lot aboutthe changes being sug-gested to help growwomen’s cricket/ makeit a more attractive prod-uct. I personally feelmost of the suggestionsto be superfluous,” 31-year-old Pandey, a serv-ing officer of the Indian AirForce (IAF), wrote.

Pandey, has 113 wickets from104 international appearances.She drew the analogy of 100msprints while describing what alight weight ball and 20-yard pitchwould mean for women’s cricket.

“An Olympic 100m female sprinterdoesn’t run 80m to win first placemedal and clock the same timing asher male counterpart,” Pandey said

“So the whole idea of ‘decreasingthe length of the pitch’ for what-ever reasons seems dubious.Also, it almost definitelytakes the double headersout of question,” shewrote.

Pandey iscom-

pletelyagainst re-

ducing theweight of the cricket

ball simply because ofthe perception that they

can’t hit long.“Please don't bring the bound-

aries in! We have surprised youwith our power-hitting in re-cent times, so remember, this is

only the beginning; we will get bet-ter. We are players, who are evolv-ing,” Pandey wrote.

What Pandey finds objectionableis trying to achieve growth throughtinkering of rules rather than ro-bust marketing. “Growth can alsobe achieved by marketing the sportwell. We don’t have to tinker withrules to attract an audience. Weneed to have more investment atthe grassroots,” asserted Pandey.“Please, don’t compare women’ssport, women’s cricket, in this case,

with men’s sport,” she added.She took one game as an exam-

ple. “We need to see it as a differ-ent sport altogether... A sport that86,174 spectators turned up to watchMarch 8, 2020 and several millionwatched live on their televisionsets,” Pandey said, referring totheir T20 World Cup final againstAustralia at the MCG.

“They saw something special inus, and here’s hoping you do too,”Pandey concluded with a hastag‘champions in our own rights’.

AGENCIES

Vigo (Spain), June 28:Spain striker Iago Aspasdealt a fresh blow toBarcelona’s La Liga titlehopes by striking a latefree-kick to snatch a 2-2draw for Celta Vigo hereSaturday at home to theCatalans as Quique Setien’sside twice threw away thelead in a thrilling match.

The draw putBarcelona back on topof the table on 69points after 32games but RealMadrid, on 68,can go twopoints clear atthe summit ifthey beatEspanyol awayfrom homeSunday.IncidentallyReal haveplayed a gameless.

LuisSuarezheaded Barcain front in the20th minutethanks to a pieceof ingenuity fromLionel Messi, who looked certain tofire at goal from a free-kick but in-stead lofted the ball towards hisUruguayan strike partner.

Russia striker Fedor Smolovequalised for Celta early in the sec-ond half, knocking in a pass fromOkay Yokuslu to complete a quickcounter-attack after Barca’s IvanRakitic had given the ball away.

But Suarez restored Barca’s leadin the 67th minute after combin-ing again with Messi, swivellingto fire into the bottom corner.

The second goal looked to haveaverted a second consecutive awaydraw for Barca after last week’sgoalless stalemate at Sevilla.However, Aspas won a late free-kick after falling over the out-stretched legs of Gerard Pique.

Celta’s talismanic striker madethe late opportunity count by send-ing a low drive around the wall and

into the near bottomcorner, flummox-

ing Barca goal-keeper Marc-Andre terStegen.

Celtashould have

won the game in added time whenNolito arrived at the far post withthe goal gaping, but instead of tap-ping into the net his shot wentstraight at Ter Stegen.

The draw left Suarez, who scoredboth Barcelona goals, fuming. “I’m

happy tohave

been able to help the team with mygoals but overall I’m left with sen-sations of anger and frustration,”Suarez said.

“We feel as though we havedropped two points and there aremany things we need to improve. Weare giving away a lot of points awayfrom home which we didn’t used todo in previous seasons,” he added.

Barcaelona’s next match is a test-ing home fixture against third-placed Atletico Madrid. Real havea slightly more comfortable run-in, with their hardest match look-

ing like being an away gameagainst Athletic Bilbao.

“We’re feeling very negativebecause we have lost two more

points in the fight for thetitle,” Suarez asserted.

I am happyto havescored

goals for myteam, but overall I

am angry andfrustrated at the result

LUIS SUAREZ

Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/37159

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sportsMONDAY | JUNE 29 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Exposure needed New Delhi: Former Australiaand Jamshedpur FC strikerTim Cahill believes Indianfootball’s young talents canflourish with systematicexposure at the top level.Cahill ended his career in the2018-19 season after a stint atJamshedpur FC. “Indiantalents just need more games,get them playing all the timeand competing and when theygo into international fixturesyou (will) see that they canhandle the pressure,” Cahill was quoted as sayingby the Asian FootballFederation website. The 40-year-old said India is movingtowards the right direction toachieve greater heights. “TheISL and the leagues that arebeing played with theirinfrastructure are great. Theonly thing that the gameneeds more than anything isunity,” added Cahill.

Sharp eye Sydney: Former Australian all-rounder Tom Moody has saidthat wicket-keeping great RodMarsh had earmarked RickyPonting for greatness rightfrom the latter’s teenageyears. “Ponting was part ofthe Australian Academy evenbefore he played a first-classgame. Marsh was head of theacademy. He told me that hehad never seen anyone picklength as quickly as Pontingdid,” Moody said during ashow on the ICC website.“This was when Ponting wasa 16-year-old kid and Marshhad said he is going to be asuperstar,” Moody added.Ponting became Australia’s alltime highest run scorer inODIs and Tests. He also wonthree consecutive World Cup titles and was captain in two of the editions.

Noble gesture Paris: Marseille’s clubpresident Jacques-HenriEyraud has praisedplaymaker Dimitri Payet foraccepting a significant paycut when signing a new two-year deal until 2024. Eyraudsaid Payet will slash hisreported monthly salary of5,00,000 euros (USD 5,61,000)in half next season, then by30 per cent the followingseason and 40-60 per cent forthe two extra years on hisnew contract. “Dimitri cameto see me to tell me that hewants to be ‘Marseille forlife’. I really liked hearingthese words,” Eyraud said.“Saying you love the club isall well and good, showing itis better. I really want to be apart of Marseille and help theclub grow,” Payet said.

Rising starMumbai: Maharashtra’s risingracing star Aashi Hanspal hasbeen shortlisted for FIA’sambitious ‘Girls on Track-Rising Stars Project’, theFMSCI announced hereSunday. Thirteen-year-oldAashi has been selectedalong with 19 others in theage group of 12-16 out of 70entries from five continents.As the first step, she will takepart in the ‘aShoot Out’ at thePaul Ricard Circuit in FranceOctober 12 and 13. “Shouldyou be successful, you willjoin our training camps, andpotentially have the oppor-tunity to become (TeamFerrari’s) first ever femaledriver, Michele Mouton,president of the FIA Womenin Motorsport Commission,said in her letter to Aashi.

Unrealistic schedule Madrid: World No. 2 RafaelNadal’s uncle and formercoach Toni Nadal hascriticised the ATP forhurriedly arrangingschedules. He said Rafa isunsure about whichtournament to play in. TheATP has announced that theUS Open and French Open willbe played within four weeksof each other. Toni said it isunfair on veterans like Rafaand Novak Djokovic. Inciden-tally Rafa is the defendingchampion in both the events.“The schedule is unrealistic,especially for veteran players,who cannot compete for somany weeks in a row,” Tonisaid during a TV show. “Ithink it is a bit ugly what theATP has done. This decision istotally against players likeRafa and Novak (Djokovic).“With everything they havedone for tennis for years, I amsurprised that they do this,”Toni added. AGENCIES

SHORT TAKES

AGENCIES

London, June 28: ManchesterCity will give newly crownedPremier League championsLiverpool a guard of honour whenthe teams meetThursday at theEtihad Stadium.This informationwas given Sundayby City managerPep Guardiola.

Liverpool endedtheir 30-year waitfor a top-flight titlewhen last season’schampions Citywere beaten 1-2 byChelsea last week. It handed theMerseyside club an unassailable 23-point lead at the top of the table.

Liverpool’s first match sincebeing confirmed as champions is atCity’s stadium and Guardiola saidhis players would pay tribute toJuergen Klopp’s title-winning side.

“We are going to do the guard ofhonour of course,” Guardiola said.“We will greet Liverpool, when theycome to our house, in an incredibleway. We are going to do it becausethey deserve it,” Guardiola added.

The 49-year-old stated that hewas already looking forward tohelping City come back stronger

next season.“In sport you have to live in the

future,” Guardiola said. “Nevercan you have one eye on what youhave done. Never forget that weare an incredible club and organ-

isation and what youhave to do is learn. Ithink we know thereason why we suf-fered this season andwe are going to try tosolve it for next sea-son,” he signed off.

Meanwhile Klopphas said his mainfocus is to ensure thesquad that deliveredthe title is not broken

up in the near future.Klopp, who took charge of

Liverpool in 2015, has overseen aperiod of sustained dominance,delivering the Champions Leaguelast season and the Premier Leaguetitle this year.

“I cannot promise we will dom-inate football now, nor do I know ifit is time to talk about major up-heavals,” he was quoted as sayingby German newspaper ‘Bild’. “ButI know our goal is to keep the teamtogether. It would help in setting thepace every season. I am a personwho believes in retaining players,”Klopp added.

IAGO ASPAS’ LATE STRIKE FORCES CATALAN GIANTS TO DROP POINTS IN 2-2 DRAW

Barca title hopes dented again City to honourKlopp’s Liverpool

INDIAN PACE BOWLER AGAINST TINKERING OF RULES TO BRING IN MORE SPECTATORS IN WOMEN’S CRICKET

Not innovations, bring investments, Pandey tells ICCWomen’s cricket is completely different fromthat of men. You have to see it from adifferent perspective. Women’s cricket needsinvestments, not tinkering of rules

SIKHA PANDEY

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, June 28: Former Indiapacer Irfan Pathan has revealedthat World Cup-winning ex-skip-per Mahendra Singh Dhoni liked tocontrol his bowlers when he startedhis captaincy stint back in 2007.However, he started trusting themby 2013, a phase during which he alsobecame a calmer leader.

The 35-year-old Pathan playedunder Dhoni as part of both the2007 T20 World Cup-winning teamand the 2013 Champions Trophy-clinching side. He said the years, asthey went by, changed Dhoni the cap-tain in more ways than one.

“In 2007, it was the first time andyou understand that when you aregiven a big responsibility of lead-ing a team, you get excited," Pathansaid on a TV show when asked howDhoni changed as a captain be-tween 2007 and 2013.

“The team meetings were alwayssmall though, both in 2007 and 2013during Champions Trophy. Mostmeetings lasted just five minutes,”added the bowler, who announcedhis retirement from all forms ofcricket earlier this year.

Pathan also talked about the one

change that he noticed in Dhonias he evolved as a captain. “Whenyoung Mahendra Singh Dhoni be-came a captain in 2007, he used torun from the wicket-keeping end tothe bowler in excitement and try tocontrol the bowler as well,” Pathaninformed.

“By 2013, he was letting the bowlercontrol themselves rather he con-trolling them. He understood thatand he was very calm and in con-

trol in the 2013 Champions Trophy,”added the bowling all-rounder.

Dhoni has not played any cricketsince India's semifinal exit fromthe ODI World Cup last year. Pathansaid by 2013, Dhoni had started em-ploying the spinners in crunch sit-uations to win matches. “He (Dhoni)slowly grew in experience. By 2013,he was very clear that in crucial timehe needs to get his spinners into playto win the games,” Pathan said.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Manchester, June 28: West Indiesskipper Jason Holder has calledfor strict action against playersfound guilty of making racist com-ments. He has said that they shouldbe penalised just like dope offend-ers and match-fixers.

“I don’t think the penalty fordoping or corruption should beany different for racism,” Holdertold BBC Sport. “If we’ve got is-sues within our sport, we mustdeal with them equally.”

According to ICC rules, a playercan be banned for life for on-pitchracist abuse if he breaches the anti-racism code three times. A first of-fence results in four to eight sus-pension points. Two suspensionpoints equate to a ban for one Testor two one-day internationals ortwo T20 international matches.

Holder said anti-racism featurecan be introduced where players willbe briefed about the issue ahead ofeach series.

“We have anti-doping briefings

and anti-corruption briefings.Maybe we should have an anti-racism feature before we start aseries,” he said. “My message ismore education needs to go aroundit. I’ve not experience any racialabuse first hand but have heardor seen a few things around it. It’ssomething you just can’t stand for,”added Holder.

The death of African-AmericanGeorge Floyd at the hands of a whitepolice officer has triggered global out-rage. The ‘Black Lives Matter’ move-ment has grown by the day. Holderhad earlier said that the West Indiesteam is firmly behind the ‘BlackLives Matter’ movement.

West Indies begin their three-Test campaign against Englandwith the first starting July 8.

FORMER LEFT-ARM PACER EXPLAINS HOW DHONI EVOLVED AS A SKIPPER

MSD’s trust for bowlers grew slowly: Irfan

Irfan Pathan (left) and Mahendra Singh Dhoni

‘Dressing roomfull of thinkers’Johannesburg: A vital cog inthe Chennai Super Kings(CSK) wheel, the seasonedFaf du Plessis has said thesuccessful IPL outfit’sdressing room comprisesmany ‘thinking cricketers’.One of them is theirlegendary skipper skipperMahendra Singh Dhoni.“With Chennai, myexperience there has beenthat of a calm dressing room.There are a lot of thinkingcricketers in the room,” DuPlessis said. “There is aconfidence in the CSKdressing room that someonewill pull the team through.On each occasion, it issomeone different. The guysshare the load in winninggames, it is a confidencefactor by doing it again andagain,” Du Plessis added.CSK won the IPL trophy in2010, 2011 and 2018 withDhoni as skipper.

WINDIES SKIPPER WANTS RACISM OUT OF SPORTS

Holder advocates harshpunishment for racists

There’s no place forracism in sport.

Racists should be punishedthe same way dopers andmatch-fixers are. The actionshould be the same

JASON HOLDER

AGENCIES

Manchester, June 28: CaptainHarry Maguire fired ManchesterUnited into the semifinals ofthe FA Cup with a winner deepinto extra-time Saturday against10-man Norwich City at theCarrow Road ground

The game looked to be headingfor a penalty shootout afterNorwich, who had Timm Klosesent off in the 89th minute, de-fended superbly against constantpressure from Ole GunnarSolskjaer’s side before Maguire’sgoal two minutes from the end,ended their hopes.

The win extended United’s

unbeaten run in all competi-tions to 14 matches. It also secureda 30th appearance in the lastfour of the FA Cup for the club.

“It wasn’t a spectacle, we did-n’t threaten enough or createenough chances,” said Solskjaer.“But I am delighted we are intothe last four and it was a goodworkout, we got some minutesfor a lot of players. We arethrough and that is what countsin the Cup,” said the Norwegian.

After a low-key first half, theRed Devils went ahead in the51st minute when Juan Mataflicked on a cross from LukeShaw and Nigerian striker OdionIghalo did well to hook the falling

ball home.But Norwich stuck to their

task and drew level through asweetly struck long-range drivefrom Todd Cantwell, the wingerdrilling into the bottom cornerfrom 25 yards out with 15 min-utes remaining.

Solskjaer threw on Paul Pogbaand Nemanja Matic as Unitedlooked to avoid extra-time.However, the game went intothe extended period. It was one-way traffic in extra-time butNorwich’s defence did well.

But with Norwich agonisinglyclose to the shootout, Maguirewas able to strike a loose ballafter a scramble in the box.

CRUCIAL STRIKE: Harry Maguire (No. 5) dinks the ball home to get the crucial winner forManchester United against Norwich City in their FA Cup encounter, Saturday

Maguire fires United into FA Cup semifinals

I know what thedeficiencies were thisseason for which wesuffered. We will tryto overcome thosefaults next time

PEP GUARDIOLA

Luis Suarez sets off in celebration Saturdayafter scoring Barcelona’s opening goal

against Celta Vigo