5f1098afd0abc.pdf - OrissaPost

12
POST NEWS NETWORK Bhubaneswar, July 16: In view of the rising cases of COVID-19 in certain areas of the state, the Odisha government Thursday re-imposed 14-day lockdown in four districts of the state and Rourkela Municipal limits to contain the spread of the disease. Addressing a press meet through video-confer- encing, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy announced the government’s decision. The lockdown has been imposed in Ganjam, Khurda, Jajpur and Cuttack districts. The lockdown will come into effect from 9 pm July 16 and will remain in force till July 31 midnight. “We decided to impose the lockdown to contain the disease and use the opportunity to do enhance mon- itoring and surveillance of the cases. During this lock- down, all shops, commercial establishments, offices and institutions shall remain closed, while mobility of people will be restricted,” Tripathy said, seeking cooperation from one and all. The Chief Secretary said that only essential serv- ices such as grocery shops, medicine shops and healthcare institutions will be allowed to open. People in emergency services will be allowed to ven- ture out during the period. The government has allowed goods vehicle to move freely during the period, but barred public transport – except those ferrying passengers from rail- way stations, airports and bus stations. The lockdown guidelines claim that shops sell- ing vegetables, grocery and milk would remain open only between 6am and 1pm. “Home delivery of food, groceries, vegetables, egg, fish, meat and other essential items by restaurants and aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy, OPOLFED, OMFED, Chilika Fresh will also be allowed,” according to the lockdown norms. The government has, however, allowed agricultural activities, industries, fisheries, animal husbandry, IT firms and others to continue with their operations during the lockdown period with the least number of staff. “Please carry a copy of the authorisation letter from the office while traveling during the lockdown, as the enforcement authorities will scrutinize the docu- ments during checking,” Tripathy said. The government said that those violating the norms will be penalised. “Any person violating these norms will be liable for prosecution in ac- cordance with the provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. Besides legal action under Section 1BB of the IPC and other legal provisions such as Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 can be initiated against the violators,” Tripathy said. Actor Donal Bisht says she is yet to witness the ugly side of television industry POSITIVE ATTITUDE cmyk cmyk Pakistan has provided consular access to Indian prisoner on death row Kulbhushan Jadhav CONSULAR ACCESS INTERNATIONAL | P10 VOLUME 10, ISSUE 106 | www.orissapost.com BHUBANESWAR | FRIDAY, JULY 17 | 2020 LEISURE | P2 Actor Rhea Chakraborty has called for a CBI probe into Sushant Rajput’s death TWO STATES | P7 RHEA REQUESTS CBI PROBE 12 PAGES | ` 4.00 IRREGULAR by MANJUL My worry is not the decreasing tax collection, but your inability to save democracy by raiding our opponents! INDEX VARIATION SENSEX 36471.68 419.87 NIFTY 10740.00 121.80 DOLLAR 75.29 `0.09 EURO 85.87 `0.20 GOLD `49,005 `154 SILVER `52,960 ` 98 BULLION BOURSES CURRENCY MARKET WATCH WEATHER BHUB 33.0° 33.2° CTK 23.5° MAX MIN TEMP Humidity 97% 83% Rainfall 0.6mm 2mm Forecast Generally cloudy sky 25.0° PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, July 16: India has es- tablished individual bilateral bub- bles with France and the US that will allow airlines of each coun- try in the pact to operate inter- national flights, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Thursday, adding that similar arrangement with Germany and the UK will soon be permitted. Air France will be operating 28 flights between Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Paris from July 18 to August 1, the minister said at a press conference, adding that American carrier United Airlines will be fly- ing 18 flights between India and the US from July 17 to July 31. “They (United) are flying a daily flight between Delhi and Newark and a thrice-a-week flight between Delhi and San Francisco,” Puri noted. The minister said India is planning to establish a bubble with the UK soon under which there would be two flights per day between Delhi and London. “We have got a request from Germans also. I think the arrange- ment with Lufthansa is almost done...We are processing that re- quest,” Puri said. “Now we have many demands for air bubbles, but we need to be careful. We should permit that many only that we can handle,” the minister noted. From India, Air India will be op- erating flights to France and US under these bubbles. An air bub- ble is a bilateral arrangement with a set of regulations and restrictions in which the carriers of the two countries can operate interna- tional flights. PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, July 16: China and India are committed to “complete disengagement” of troops, and the process is “in- tricate” that requires “constant verification”, the Indian Army said Thursday after the fourth round of marathon military talks on de-escalation of the situation in eastern Ladakh. The Army said senior com- manders of the Indian and Chinese military reviewed the progress on implementation of the first phase of disengage- ment and discussed further steps for “complete disengagement”. The Corps commanders held 15-hour-long negotiations in Chushul on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) from 11 AM Tuesday to 2 AM Wednesday, covering var- ious aspects of the complex dis- engagement process including withdrawal of thousands of troops from the rear bases within a specific time frame. “The senior commanders reviewed the progress on im- plementation of the first phase of disengagement and discussed further steps to ensure com- plete disengagement,” Army spokesperson Col Aman Anand said in a statement. “The two sides remain com- mitted to the objective of com- plete disengagement. This process is intricate and requires constant verification. They are taking it forward through reg- ular meetings at diplomatic and military level,” he added. The formal process of dis- engagement of troops began July 6, a day after a nearly two- hour telephonic conversation between National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on ways to bring down tension in the area. Doval and Wang are designated special represen- tatives for boundary talks. On the fourth round of Corps commander-level talks, Col Anand said the engagement was consistent with the con- sensus reached between the special representatives of India and China July 5 to discuss complete disengagement. The Indian delegation was led by Lt Gen Harinder Singh, the Commander of the Leh- based 14 Corps, while the Chinese side was headed by Major General Liu Lin, Commander of the South Xinjiang military region. “Rebuilding mutual trust after the June 15 incident will take time. Therefore, speedy disengagement may be difficult to achieve. More talks at military level would be needed to achieve com- plete disengagement,” a sen- ior official familiar with the details of the negotiations told this news agency. Man moves around with severed head Kalinganagar: Police arrested a man who was roaming near Duburi here carrying the severed head of a woman in his hand Wednesday evening. Kartik Behera (24) had allegedly beheaded Nandini Purtty (60) of Chhatara village under Danagadi police outpost on suspicion of practicing sorcery. Sources said when Kartik’s cousin Sanatan fell ill. The family members took him to Nandini to get him cured. After having a look at Sanatan, she said his days were numbered. When Sanatan breathed breathed his last Wednesday, Kartik suspected Nandini did black magic on him and swore to avenge his cousin’s death. Wednesday he killed Nandini with an axe. ASSOCIATED PRESS Washington, July 16: Unidentified hackers broke into the Twitter ac- counts of technology moguls, politi- cians, celebrities and major compa- nies Wednesday in an apparent Bitcoin scam. The ruse included bogus tweets from former President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential front-runner Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires includ- ing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked. The fake tweets tweets offered to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to an anonymous Bitcoin address. There is no evidence that the own- ers of these accounts were targeted themselves. Instead, the hacks ap- peared designed to lure their Twitter followers into sending money to an anonymous Bitcoin account. The Biden campaign, for instance, said that Twitter's integrity team “locked down the account within a few minutes of the breach and re- moved the related tweet.” The FBI said it was aware of Twitter's security breach, but declined further comment. In a tweet, Twitter noted that it was aware of a “security incident im- pacting accounts on Twitter.” The San Francisco company said it is investi- gating and promised an update shortly. It did not reply immediately to re- quests for comment. The apparently fake tweets were all quickly deleted, although The Associated Press was able to capture screenshots of several before they dis- appeared. The security problem was severe enough for Twitter to warn that many of its more than 166 million daily users might be unable to tweet or reset their passwords while the company tried to lock things down. Among the political figures tar- geted, the hack mostly appeared to target Democrats or other figures on the left, drawing comparisons to the 2016 campaign. US intelligence agencies es- tablished that Russia engaged in co- ordinated attempts to interfere in those US elections through social media tampering and various hacks, in- cluding targeting the various cam- paigns and major party organisations. The hack might also be a simple demonstration of Twitter's weak se- curity controls as the US heads into the 2020 presidential election, a contest in which the service is likely to play an influential role. The Bitcoin account mentioned in the fake tweets appears to have been created Wednesday. By the end of the day, it had received almost 12.9 bit- coins, an amount currently valued at slightly more than $114,000. At some point during the day, roughly half that sum in bitcoin was withdrawn from the account. Bezos, Gates and Musk are among the 10 richest people in the world, with tens of millions of fol- lowers on Twitter. The three men are worth a combined $362 billion. Twitter’s security in doubt as hackers target famous users TWITTER’S STATEMENTS CONFIRM FEARS THAT THE SERVICE ITSELF HAD BEEN COMPROMISED, SAY SECURITY EXPERTS Disengagement process in eastern Ladakh intricate: Army THE CORPS COMMANDERS HELD 15-HR-LONG NEGOTIATIONS IN CHUSHUL ON THE INDIAN SIDE OF THE LAC FROM 11 AM TUESDAY TO 2 AM WEDNESDAY, COVERING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF THE COMPLEX DISENGAGEMENT INDO-CHINA STAND-OFF India announces air travel bubbles with US, France Students wearing protective face masks clap along instead of singing during a music class at Takanedai Daisan elementary school in Funabashi, east of Tokyo, Thursday REUTERS PHOTO BACK TO SCHOOL Telemedicine service at 41 hospitals soon 14-day lockdown in 4 dists Sachin Pilot takes Congress to court PRESS TRUST OF INDIA Jaipur, July 16: Sachin Pilot and 18 other dissident leaders Thursday moved the high court, challenging the notices from the Rajasthan Speaker over a Congress move to disqualify them from the state Assembly. But as the matter was taken up for hearing by Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, their advocate Harish sought time to file a fresh petition. The judge granted them time to draft a new petition. The matter will now be heard by a larger, division bench. Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi, who had writ- ten to the Speaker seeking the MLAs’ disqualification, also approached the court, asking to be heard before it passes any order. The 19 MLAs were sent notices Tuesday by the Speaker after the Congress complained that they had defied a party whip to attend two Congress Legislature Party meetings. The Pilot camp, however, argues that a party whip applies only when the as- sembly is in session. In its complaint to the Speaker CP Joshi, the Congress sought action against Pilot and the other dissidents under paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution. The provision disqualifies MLAs if they “voluntarily” give up the membership of the party which they repre- sent in the House. The Congress said in the letter to Speaker that the Supreme Court has “unequivocally held” in the past that the pro- vision comes into effect when the conduct of an MLA leads to this inference. In court, advocate Harish Salve argued that the MLAs wanted to challenge the Constitutional validity of the notices and needed some time to file it afresh. Among those sent notices are Vishvendra Singh and Ramesh Meena, who were sacked along with Pilot from the state Cabinet after their rebellion against Ashok Gehlot. HC defers hearing JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court has deferred the plea of the 18 MLAs led by Sachin Pilot against their disqualifi- cation from the Assembly, as the Pilot camp appealed to amend the plea. The petition was filed by PR Meena, an MLA from Pilot group on behalf of 18 other MLAs who were slapped notice for not attending two CLP meetings called recently. POST NEWS NETWORK Bhubaneswar, July 16: With a view to provide doctor consulta- tion without visiting hospitals, the state government has decided to start telemedicine service at 41 government-run hospitals from July 20, Health Minister Naba Das told the media here Thursday. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, various government hospitals have closed down their OPD units causing immense sufferings to the patients who have been forced to go to medicos sitting under trees or elsewhere. The facility will start in all 30 dis- trict headquarters hospital (DHH), seven government medical colleges, Ispat General Hospital in Rourkela, Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar, Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre in Cuttack and Sishu Bhawan also in Cuttack, Das said. Plasma Therapy commences Meanwhile, the state govern- ment Thursday commenced plasma therapy for the treatment of COVID- 19 patients at a hospital in Cuttack, an official said. The procedure was conducted on a 48-year-old patient at the Ashwini Hospital for the first time in the state, technical advisor to the health department Dr Jayant Panda said. “The patient has been administered B-positive plasma,” he said. The state government had ear- lier announced that the plasma therapy would also be introduced in the SUM Hospital and the Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences in Bhubaneswar. The lockdown has been imposed in Ganjam, Khurda, Jajpur and Cuttack districts and Rourkela Municipal area from tonight RESTRICTIONS WHAT WILL REMAIN OPEN n Grocery shops n Vegetable shops n Selected government offices n ATM machines n Emergency workers n Hospitals and Chemist shops n Home delivery of foods and other products n e-commerce deliveries WHAT WILL BE CLOSED n All shops n Commercial establish- ments n Private vehicles n Dining in restaurants n Public transport (except for stations, airport) n Eateries and dhabas n Educational institutions The government has allowed agricultural activities, industries, fisheries, animal husbandry, IT firms and others to continue with their operations during the lockdown period with the least number of staff Lockdown effective from 9 pm July 17 to July 31 midnight People venturing out during the lock- down period have been advised to carry a copy of the authorisation letter to avoid penalty for vio- lating lockdown norms during checking

Transcript of 5f1098afd0abc.pdf - OrissaPost

Page 1: 5f1098afd0abc.pdf - OrissaPost

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: In view of the rising casesof COVID-19 in certain areas of the state, the Odishagovernment Thursday re-imposed 14-day lockdownin four districts of the state and Rourkela Municipallimits to contain the spread of the disease.

Addressing a press meet through video-confer-encing, Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy announcedthe government’s decision. The lockdown has beenimposed in Ganjam, Khurda, Jajpur and Cuttackdistricts. The lockdown will come into effect from9 pm July 16 and will remain in force till July 31midnight.

“We decided to impose the lockdown to contain thedisease and use the opportunity to do enhance mon-itoring and surveillance of the cases. During this lock-down, all shops, commercial establishments, officesand institutions shall remain closed, while mobilityof people will be restricted,” Tripathy said, seekingcooperation from one and all.

The Chief Secretary said that only essential serv-ices such as grocery shops, medicine shops andhealthcare institutions will be allowed to open.People in emergency services will be allowed to ven-ture out during the period.

The government has allowed goods vehicle tomove freely during the period, but barred publictransport – except those ferrying passengers from rail-

way stations, airports and bus stations.The lockdown guidelines claim that shops sell-

ing vegetables, grocery and milk would remain openonly between 6am and 1pm. “Home delivery of food,groceries, vegetables, egg, fish, meat and other essentialitems by restaurants and aggregators such as Zomato,Swiggy, OPOLFED, OMFED, Chilika Fresh will alsobe allowed,” according to the lockdown norms.

The government has, however, allowed agricultural

activities, industries, fisheries, animal husbandry, IT firmsand others to continue with their operations during thelockdown period with the least number of staff.

“Please carry a copy of the authorisation letter fromthe office while traveling during the lockdown, as theenforcement authorities will scrutinize the docu-ments during checking,” Tripathy said.

The government said that those violating thenorms will be penalised. “Any person violatingthese norms will be liable for prosecution in ac-cordance with the provisions of the DisasterManagement Act, 2005. Besides legal action underSection 1BB of the IPC and other legal provisionssuch as Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 can be initiatedagainst the violators,” Tripathy said.

Actor Donal Bisht says she is yet towitness the ugly side oftelevision industry

POSITIVE ATTITUDE

cmyk

cmyk

Pakistan has provided consular access toIndian prisoner on death row KulbhushanJadhav

CONSULAR ACCESS

INTERNATIONAL | P10

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 106 | www.orissapost.com BHUBANESWAR | FRIDAY, JULY 17 | 2020

LEISURE | P2

Actor Rhea Chakraborty has called for a CBI probe into Sushant Rajput’s death TWO STATES | P7

RHEA REQUESTS CBI PROBE

12 PAGES | `4.00

IRREGULAR by MANJUL

My worry is not the decreasing tax collection, but your inability to save

democracy by raiding our opponents!

INDEX VARIATION

SENSEX 36471.68 419.87

NIFTY 10740.00 121.80

DOLLAR 75.29 `0.09

EURO 85.87 `0.20

GOLD `49,005 `154

SILVER `52,960 ` 98BULL

ION

BOU

RSES

CU

RREN

CY

MARKET WATCH

yy

WEATHERBHUB

33.0° 33.2°CTK

23.5°MAX

MINTE

MP

Humidity 97% 83%Rainfall 0.6mm 2mm

Forecast

Generallycloudy sky

25.0°

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, July 16: India has es-tablished individual bilateral bub-bles with France and the US thatwill allow airlines of each coun-try in the pact to operate inter-national flights, Civil AviationMinister Hardeep Singh Puri saidon Thursday, adding that similararrangement with Germany andthe UK will soon be permitted.

Air France will be operating 28flights between Delhi, Mumbai,Bangalore and Paris from July 18 toAugust 1, the minister said at a pressconference, adding that Americancarrier United Airlines will be fly-ing 18 flights between India and theUS from July 17 to July 31.

“They (United) are flying a dailyflight between Delhi and Newarkand a thrice-a-week flight betweenDelhi and San Francisco,” Purinoted. The minister said India isplanning to establish a bubblewith the UK soon under whichthere would be two flights per daybetween Delhi and London.

“We have got a request fromGermans also. I think the arrange-ment with Lufthansa is almostdone...We are processing that re-quest,” Puri said. “Now we havemany demands for air bubbles,but we need to be careful. Weshould permit that many only thatwe can handle,” the minister noted.

From India, Air India will be op-erating flights to France and USunder these bubbles. An air bub-ble is a bilateral arrangement witha set of regulations and restrictionsin which the carriers of the twocountries can operate interna-tional flights.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, July 16: Chinaand India are committed to“complete disengagement” oftroops, and the process is “in-tricate” that requires “constantverification”, the Indian Armysaid Thursday after the fourthround of marathon militarytalks on de-escalation of thesituation in eastern Ladakh.

The Army said senior com-manders of the Indian andChinese military reviewed theprogress on implementation ofthe first phase of disengage-ment and discussed further steps

for “complete disengagement”.The Corps commanders held

15-hour-long negotiations inChushul on the Indian side ofthe Line of Actual Control(LAC) from 11 AM Tuesday to2 AM Wednesday, covering var-ious aspects of the complex dis-engagement process includingwithdrawal of thousands oftroops from the rear baseswithin a specific time frame.

“The senior commandersreviewed the progress on im-plementation of the first phaseof disengagement and discussedfurther steps to ensure com-plete disengagement,” Army

spokesperson Col Aman Anandsaid in a statement.

“The two sides remain com-mitted to the objective of com-plete disengagement. Thisprocess is intricate and requires

constant verification. They aretaking it forward through reg-ular meetings at diplomaticand military level,” he added.

The formal process of dis-engagement of troops began

July 6, a day after a nearly two-hour telephonic conversationbetween National SecurityAdvisor Ajit Doval and ChineseForeign Minister Wang Yi onways to bring down tension inthe area. Doval and Wang aredesignated special represen-tatives for boundary talks.

On the fourth round of Corpscommander-level talks, ColAnand said the engagementwas consistent with the con-sensus reached between thespecial representatives of Indiaand China July 5 to discusscomplete disengagement.

The Indian delegation was

led by Lt Gen Harinder Singh,the Commander of the Leh-based 14 Corps, while theChinese side was headed byMajor General Liu Lin,Commander of the SouthXinjiang military region.

“Rebuilding mutual trustafter the June 15 incidentwill take time. Therefore,speedy disengagement may bedifficult to achieve. Moretalks at military level wouldbe needed to achieve com-plete disengagement,” a sen-ior official familiar with thedetails of the negotiationstold this news agency.

Man moves aroundwith severed headKalinganagar: Police arrested aman who was roaming near Duburihere carrying the severed head ofa woman in his hand Wednesdayevening. Kartik Behera (24) hadallegedly beheaded Nandini Purtty(60) of Chhatara village underDanagadi police outpost onsuspicion of practicing sorcery.Sources said when Kartik’s cousinSanatan fell ill. The familymembers took him to Nandini toget him cured. After having a lookat Sanatan, she said his days werenumbered. When Sanatanbreathed breathed his lastWednesday, Kartik suspectedNandini did black magic on himand swore to avenge his cousin’sdeath. Wednesday he killedNandini with an axe.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington, July 16: Unidentifiedhackers broke into the Twitter ac-counts of technology moguls, politi-cians, celebrities and major compa-nies Wednesday in an apparentBitcoin scam.

The ruse included bogus tweetsfrom former President Barack Obama,

Democratic presidential front-runnerJoe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and anumber of tech billionaires includ-ing Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoftco-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEOElon Musk.

Celebrities Kanye West and his wife,Kim Kardashian West, were alsohacked. The fake tweets tweets offeredto send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent toan anonymous Bitcoin address.

There is no evidence that the own-ers of these accounts were targetedthemselves. Instead, the hacks ap-peared designed to lure their Twitterfollowers into sending money to ananonymous Bitcoin account.

The Biden campaign, for instance,said that Twitter's integrity team“locked down the account within a

few minutes of the breach and re-moved the related tweet.” The FBIsaid it was aware of Twitter's securitybreach, but declined further comment.

In a tweet, Twitter noted that it wasaware of a “security incident im-pacting accounts on Twitter.” The SanFrancisco company said it is investi-gating and promised an update shortly.It did not reply immediately to re-quests for comment.

The apparently fake tweets wereall quickly deleted, although TheAssociated Press was able to capturescreenshots of several before they dis-appeared. The security problem wassevere enough for Twitter to warnthat many of its more than 166 milliondaily users might be unable to tweetor reset their passwords while thecompany tried to lock things down.

Among the political figures tar-geted, the hack mostly appeared totarget Democrats or other figures onthe left, drawing comparisons to the 2016campaign. US intelligence agencies es-tablished that Russia engaged in co-ordinated attempts to interfere in thoseUS elections through social mediatampering and various hacks, in-cluding targeting the various cam-

paigns and major party organisations.The hack might also be a simple

demonstration of Twitter's weak se-curity controls as the US heads into the2020 presidential election, a contestin which the service is likely to playan influential role.

The Bitcoin account mentioned inthe fake tweets appears to have beencreated Wednesday. By the end of theday, it had received almost 12.9 bit-coins, an amount currently valued atslightly more than $114,000. At somepoint during the day, roughly half thatsum in bitcoin was withdrawn from theaccount. Bezos, Gates and Musk areamong the 10 richest people in theworld, with tens of millions of fol-lowers on Twitter. The three men areworth a combined $362 billion.

Twitter’s security in doubt as hackers target famous usersTWITTER’S STATEMENTSCONFIRM FEARS THATTHE SERVICE ITSELF HADBEEN COMPROMISED,SAY SECURITY EXPERTS

Disengagement process in eastern Ladakh intricate: ArmyTHE CORPS

COMMANDERSHELD 15-HR-LONG NEGOTIATIONS INCHUSHUL ON THE

INDIAN SIDE OFTHE LAC FROM

11 AM TUESDAY TO2 AM WEDNESDAY,

COVERING VARIOUS ASPECTSOF THE COMPLEX DISENGAGEMENT

INDO-CHINA STAND-OFF

India announcesair travel bubbleswith US, France

Students wearing protective face masks clap along instead of singing during a music class at Takanedai Daisanelementary school in Funabashi, east of Tokyo, Thursday REUTERS PHOTO

BACK TO

SCHOOLTelemedicine service at 41 hospitals soon

14-day lockdown in 4 dists

Sachin Pilot takesCongress to court

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Jaipur, July 16: SachinPilot and 18 other dissidentleaders Thursday moved thehigh court, challenging thenotices from the RajasthanSpeaker over a Congressmove to disqualify themfrom the state Assembly.

But as the matter wastaken up for hearing byJustice Satish ChandraSharma, their advocateHarish sought time to file afresh petition. The judgegranted them time to drafta new petition. The matterwill now be heard by a larger,division bench.

Congress chief whipMahesh Joshi, who had writ-ten to the Speaker seekingthe MLAs’ disqualification,also approached the court,asking to be heard beforeit passes any order. The 19MLAs were sent noticesTuesday by the Speaker afterthe Congress complainedthat they had defied a partywhip to attend two CongressLegislature Party meetings.

The Pilot camp, however,argues that a party whipapplies only when the as-sembly is in session.

In its complaint to theSpeaker CP Joshi, the

Congress sought actionagainst Pilot and the otherdissidents under paragraph2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Scheduleof the Constitution.

The provision disqualifiesMLAs if they “voluntarily”give up the membership ofthe party which they repre-sent in the House. TheCongress said in the letterto Speaker that the SupremeCourt has “unequivocallyheld” in the past that the pro-vision comes into effect whenthe conduct of an MLA leadsto this inference.

In court, advocate HarishSalve argued that the MLAswanted to challenge theConstitutional validity ofthe notices and needed sometime to file it afresh. Amongthose sent notices areVishvendra Singh andRamesh Meena, who weresacked along with Pilot fromthe state Cabinet after theirrebellion against AshokGehlot.

HC defers hearing JAIPUR: The Rajasthan HighCourt has deferred the pleaof the 18 MLAs led by SachinPilot against their disqualifi-cation from the Assembly, asthe Pilot camp appealed toamend the plea. The petitionwas filed by PR Meena, anMLA from Pilot group onbehalf of 18 other MLAs whowere slapped notice for notattending two CLP meetingscalled recently.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: With aview to provide doctor consulta-tion without visiting hospitals, thestate government has decided tostart telemedicine service at 41government-run hospitals fromJuly 20, Health Minister Naba Dastold the media here Thursday.

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic,various government hospitals haveclosed down their OPD units causingimmense sufferings to the patientswho have been forced to go to medicossitting under trees or elsewhere.

The facility will start in all 30 dis-trict headquarters hospital (DHH),seven government medical colleges,Ispat General Hospital in Rourkela,Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar,Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer

Centre in Cuttack and Sishu Bhawanalso in Cuttack, Das said. Plasma Therapy commences

Meanwhile, the state govern-ment Thursday commenced plasmatherapy for the treatment of COVID-19 patients at a hospital in Cuttack,an official said.

The procedure was conductedon a 48-year-old patient at theAshwini Hospital for the first timein the state, technical advisor tothe health department Dr JayantPanda said. “The patient has beenadministered B-positive plasma,”he said.

The state government had ear-lier announced that the plasmatherapy would also be introducedin the SUM Hospital and the KalingaInstitute of Medical Sciences inBhubaneswar.

The lockdown has been imposed in Ganjam, Khurda, Jajpur andCuttack districts and Rourkela Municipal area from tonight

RESTRICTIONSWHAT WILL REMAIN OPENn Grocery shopsn Vegetable shopsn Selected government

officesn ATM machinesn Emergency workersn Hospitals and Chemist

shopsn Home delivery of foods

and other productsn e-commerce deliveries

WHAT WILL BE CLOSED n All shops

n Commercial establish-ments

n Private vehicles

n Dining in restaurants

n Public transport (exceptfor stations, airport)

n Eateries and dhabas

n Educational institutions The government has allowedagricultural activities, industries, fisheries, animalhusbandry, IT firms and others to continue with theiroperations during the lockdown period with theleast number of staff

Lockdowneffective from 9 pm July 17

to July 31 midnight

People venturing outduring the lock-down periodhave beenadvised tocarry a copy of theauthorisation letter toavoid penalty for vio-lating lockdown normsduring checking

Page 2: 5f1098afd0abc.pdf - OrissaPost

New Delhi: Actress Donal Bisht hasbeen in the TV industry for a while,but she says she is yet to witness itsugly side.

Known for shows like Dil TohHappy Hai Ji and Ek Deewaana Tha,Donal is set to feature in a musicalweb series that will highlight thestruggles faced by budding and in-dependent artistes in the musicindustry.

Asked if she wouldlike to act in a seriesthat showed theugly side of the

TV industry, shesaid: “Yes, if itspreadsawareness forthe upcomingtalent thenwhy not? Therewere films madein the past whichwere based on the

same concept but different industrieswere highlighted in it. If somethinginteresting comes up regarding theTV industry then I would definitelylike to be a part of it. But honestly,I am yet to witness the ugly sideas I have not faced any of it inmy career.”

Meanwhile, she will beseen in musical web

series The SochoProject.

“I amplaying a

diva. Sheis a pop

star, andstill wants toachieve more. Sheknows the nerveof the audienceand works to-

wards it accord-ingly,” said Donal.

IANS

Mumbai: Actress Payal Ghosh has pledgedto donate her organs after she lost a friend whowas suffering from a kidney ailment andthere were no donors available.

“I pledge to donate my organs once I am nomore. I requested my family to give my or-gans once I am dead. It’s great to donate so thatthey can save other lives. I lost a friend today.She was suffering from a kidney ailment andbecause of the lockdown, she could not get adonor,” Payal said, adding that our organs can

help others lead a good life when we areno more.

“It’s my earnest request to every-one to come forward and pledge todonate their organs once theyare dead. Let’s all make theearth a better place,” she added.

The actress was last seen inPatel Ki Punjabi Shaadi, whichwas released in 2017.

IANS

P2 DONOVAN NARRATES DOCU-FILM ON EVEREST

leisure Actor Tate Donovan has lent his voice for adocumentary, Expedition Everest. The film isabout the journey of a team of internationalscientists, climbers and storytellers to thetop of the world's highest peak.

CARREY FEELS ZELLWEGER WAS HIS ‘LAST GREAT LOVE’Actor Jim Carrey says actress Renee Zellweger wasthe love of his life. He dated the Case 39 actress fora year after meeting her in 2000. Now, while talkingto Howard Stern on SiriusXM, Carrey said Zellwegerwas very special to him, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

FRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSToday is a day of commu-nication and associations.While at a family gather-ing, you will enjoy chat-ting nineteen to the dozen! But atwork, you may be left teaching,explaining, negotiating, co-ordinatingand arranging meetings. A productivebut draining day, says Ganesha.

PISCESCompromise is the nameof the game when itcomes to relationships,and you are adept at it.You realise the importance of losing an argu-ment to win over a heart, and do so withpanache. Indeed, this is an area where oth-ers emulate you, says Ganesha.

SAGITTARIUSMurmurs of discontentwill reach your ears,especially from thosevery near. But if you goabout pleasing one and all, you maynot defuse the bomb completely.Exercise caution, and a lot of patience,says Ganesha. Your tolerance will notonly help you overcome the problem,but also help you in addressing dissentin your cadres.

LIBRAEveryone has a dream,but only few have thefortune to realise them.Be among the luckyones today as you see your dream proj-ect materialise and take its first stepstowards a successful future. But all goodthings have humble beginnings.

SCORPIOGanesha predicts that youshall work towards build-ing a better future. But donot expect radical ordynamic changes. Cruise control is thebest way to go for now, says Ganesha.Patience in itself will reap rich benefits.

LEOEver been surprised atyour own abilities?Today you shall be, saysGanesha. With the per-fect blend of amicable gestures andlack of inimical actions, you arepoised to become the cynosure of alloccasions.

VIRGOChildren will ring inapplauds and praises –in the classroom andoff it too! Processinglogic and reasoning will improve too.Ganesha asks you to keep calm andenjoy the joy ride, irrespective of any-thing that happens during the day.

GEMINIEven though it is for yourown benefit, you willspend the day safeguard-ing the sentiments of others. Not toouncharacteristic, but unusual nonetheless.For most part of the day, you will be awayfrom your family, mostly on a trip for busi-ness or leisure purposes.

CANCERThe workaholic Bull willhave more on their platethan they can chew. Theywill be under so muchwork pressure that their otherwise robustshoulders may wilt under pressure.

ARIESYou may find yourself ina precarious positiontoday, says Ganesha. Youmay feel challenged and swim againstthe current, which will be counterpro-ductive. Nothing may seem to work out.Taking a break will ease the stress atsuch a time.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSAlmost as if crafted byCervantes himself, youmight wake up today feel-ing passionate and quixotic. Make up andmake overs may be on the cards as you willhave the urge to be groomed. Once you aredone without yourself, you will shower oth-ers with attention, says Ganesha.

CAPRICORNThe chances of youmeeting financial suc-cess are few, but theyare there nonetheless,says Ganesha. If you really want toimprove your account balance and settleall the burgeoning debts, focus on whatall needs to be done, and get it donewithout delay. You will make merry laterin the day and will enjoy the company ofyour loved ones.

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.

‘YET TO WITNESS UGLY SIDE OF TV INDUSTRY’

Mumbai: Hrithik Roshan madeThursday morning bright for fans,with a dazzling Instagram selfieand a one-word caption.

“Morning,” he wrote on a newimage that highlights the su-perstar’s hazel-green eyes anda designer beard.

“Wow..so hot,” a user com-mented.

“This picture reminds meof Kareena’s dialogue of‘good looks, good looks andgood looks’ from KabhiKhushi Kabhie Gham,” an-other one wrote.

Friends in the film industrywere impressed, too.

Actress Preity Zinta wrote:“Wow”

“What a lovely picture,” actorKunal Kapoor posted.

Hrithik is currently spendingtime with his sons and formerwife Sussanne Khan at his homein Mumbai. IANS

Hrithik’s selfieleaves fansimpressed

Payal pledges for organ donation

‘Best stories come out of real world’

Mumbai: Director-play-wright Purva Naresh saysher writing has a ring oftruth to it because beststories come out of thereal world.

“My thoughts have al-ways taken shape from whatI see, feel, and interact witharound me. I think the artshave always presented theopportunity to discoverthrough various lenses whatothers sometimes fail tosee,” Naresh said.

“All of my writing has aring of truth to it, and I

think that is what makesthe plot and characters re-latable yet insightful. Thebest stories are always out

there in the real world,”she added.

She has yet again pre-sented a mirror image ofa community that oftenfalls prey to prejudice andscrutiny in Zee Theatre’sOk Tata Bye Bye.

The teleplay brings to

the spotlight the authen-ticities of India’s rural sexworkers from their per-spective, and presents astory of resilience and in-dividuality.

The story is about a ded-icated filmmaker couplethat wants to shoot a doc-umentary on the topic buthas to face a lot of diffi-culties and roadblocks.The plot involves a pas-sionate filmmaker, a brazensex worker, a rogue truckerand a village where oneneeds to pay a price for everything.

“As with all my sto-ries, this one too is heav-

ily inspired by the reallives of sex workers. I was

inspired by the spiritedyoung girls I interactedwith and strongly felt thattheir story needed to betold. But I didn’t want theplot or its characters topreach, instead, conveyemotions that are univer-

sal and relatable, howeverfar removed their realitiesmay seem from ours,” she said.

The teleplay that starsGeetika Tyagi, Jim Sarbh,Prerna Chawla, and SarikaSingh, and is available onTatasky Theatre.

Uttar Pradesh bornPurva, who has been writ-ing, directing, choreo-graphing and producingdramas, has more than 10plays to her credit and all ofthem have been staged inIndia and abroad.

She has been invited bythe Royal Court, Londonand Curve Theatre,Leicester to read and pres-ent her new plays. IANS

Purva has been invited by the Royal Court,London and Curve Theatre, Leicester to

read and present her new plays.

Purva’s popular plays

Afsane

Aaj Rang Hai

Bai se bi-scope tak

Umrao

OK Tata Bye-Bye

PretAab-o-Daanaa

Do Deewane Shaher Mein

Ok Tata Bye Bye is about adedicated unmarried

filmmaker couple that wantsto shoot a documentary onthe lives of sex workers but

has to face a lot of difficulties and roadblocks Playwright

Purva Naresh

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P3 FARM WORK

Women transplant paddyseedlings on a farmland onthe outskirts ofBhubaneswar, Thursday

DUTY IS GOD

A man pulls a trolley-loadof bamboos on theKathajodi Ring Road inCuttack, Thursdaydowntown

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FRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

POLITICKLE by MANJUL

KULDEEP SINGH, OP

New Delhi, July 16: Justice wouldremain a far cry for many if the ju-diciary and the government con-tinue to show a laidback attitude,especially when there is a stagger-ing 3.33 crore cases pending in thelower courts.

It is high time the governmentthought about appointment of re-tired judges of district courts andHigh Courts as ad hoc judges toclear the pending cases, said aSupreme Court judge.

As per official data,over 3.33 crore caseshave been pending inthe lower courts acrossthe country. Out ofthese, around 1.86 crorecriminal cases are morethan one-year old.

In Odisha, the courts have a back-log of over 14.5 lakh cases. TheOrissa High Court has as many as1,28,252 cases pending for morethan one year while 8,884 criminalappeals are pending for 10-20 years.Significantly, the HC has been func-

tioning witharound 60 percent strength ofjudges.

Taking cogni-sance of the pen-dency of thecases in the high

courts, the Supreme Court said thatthe backlog of cases poses a chal-lenge to the judiciary, inasmuch asto speedy disposal of appeals of theconvicted.

In order to deal with this hugebacklog, Supreme Court judge Justice

DY Chandrachud emphasised onadopting out-of-the-box thinking.During an event earlier, JusticeChandrachud had said that retireddistrict judges could be appointed asad hoc judges in the high courts toclear the pending cases.

It’s pertinent to mention herethat the Constitution does providefor appointment of ad hoc judgesto mitigate the problem of pend-ing cases.

The judiciary can invoke Article224 of the Constitution which al-lows appointment of retired judi-

cial officers as additional judges inthe courts.

Article 224-A says, “...the ChiefJustice of a High Court for anyState may at any time, with theprevious consent of the President,request any person who has held theoffice of a Judge of that Court orof any other High Court to sit andact as a Judge of the High Court forthat State.”

Article 127 of the Constitution hassimilar provision for appointmentof ad hoc judges in the SupremeCourt too.

Causes of pendencyWhile poor infrastructure and

staff crunch are believed to be thereasons behind the backlog ofcases across the country, frequentstrikes by lawyers in some partsof Odisha overburdened the judi-ciary in the state.

Moreover, many litigants file an-ticipatory bail applications in theHigh Court directly under Section438 of CrPC, bypassing the districtcourts. This has been resulting inpendency of bail pleas in the HC.

The outbreak of Covid-19 pan-demic has handicapped the judici-ary across the country. The courtsswitched to virtual mode amidst thevirus spread in order to make jus-tice accessible to citizens. But due totechnical snags, the move does notmake a big difference. The numberof daily cases taken up for hearinghas taken a nosedive in virtual modetoo. Other than appointment of adhoc judges, the judiciary can also con-sider setting up of holiday bencheswhile the lawyers can refrain fromtaking frequent adjournments tomitigate pendency issue.

INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE DAY

Art 224 can help clear pendencyNOW OR NEVER...

Over 3.33 crore cases have been pending inthe lower courts across the country

Out of these, around 1.86 crore criminalcases are more than one-year old

In Odisha, the courts have a backlog of over14.5 lakh cases

The Orissa High Court has as many as1,28,252 cases pending for more than one

year while 8,884 criminal appeals are pendingfor 10-20 years

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: With theemergence of Covid-19 as a majorpublic health hazard, the future ofnext session of Odisha Assemblyhangs in balance. It appears almostimpossible to convene the monsoonsession this month, said sources.

The 147-member House had itslast sitting in the month of Marchthis year during the Budget Sessionbut soon after the lockdown and out-break of the pandemic, the pro-ceedings have been affected.

In the meanwhile, someAssembly staffers and legislatorshave been tested positive for thedeadly virus. The plan to conductonline sessions and committeemeetings has also not gone well asper expectations.

Assembly Speaker SuryaNarayan Patro has been consultingthe Lok Sabha Speaker andParliament secretaries on ways toconduct the business of the Houseas per the plans and also regardingthe meetings of different commit-tees of the Assembly.

“I have consulted the Lok Sabhaspeaker and Parliament secretaries.It is not possible to conduct thebusiness of the House in July. Wehave to think beyond this month.No decision has been taken tillnow. We are working out the plan

for the same,” he said.The Speaker said the Assembly

must conduct its session withinsix months. It is likely that themeeting could be held amidst strictsocial distancing nor ms in

September.The Speaker said that the House

had planned for online sessionsbut it could not get approval fromthe Parliament and found least tak-ers. However, he said that theAssembly Committees are free toconduct their meetings headed bythe respective chairpersons.

“Some Committee meetings wereheld in the last few months but itreceived a jolt after some legislatorswere tested positive for novel coro-navirus. Now, such meetings havebeen suspended till July end butmembers of different committeesare at liberty to convene a meetingonline this month,” Patro said.

The Speaker said that the legis-lators can participate in the com-mittee meeting from their blocksand districts.

Patro in talks with LSSpeaker for next session

I have consulted theLok Sabha speakerand Parliament

secretaries. It is notpossible to conduct the businessof the House in July. We have tothink beyond this month. Nodecision has been taken till now

SN PATRO I ASSEMBLY SPEAKER

Bhubaneswar: A constable attached to accounts sectionof Commissionerate Police, Bhubaneswar was Thursdaycaught red-handed by Vigilance sleuths while acceptinga bribe of `8,000. As per Vigilance sources ofBhubaneswar division, accused SureshChandra Das accepted the bribe fromcomplainant Ratnakar Pedenti ofEmaliguda in Rayagada district. Das tookthe bribe to process the recovery ofhouse rent without interest, the officialssaid. The Vigilance officials registered acase 18/2020 U/S 7 PC (Amendment Act), 2018 andseized the bribe money. According to CommissioneratePolice, the constable was immediately placed undersuspension after the incident came to light.

Cop caught taking bribe

POSTS NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: Aspart of its ongoing organisa-tional restructuring, rulingBiju Janata Dal (BJD),Thursday, appointed 36 lead-ers as general secretaries.

BJD general secretary(media af fairs) ManasMangaraj said new generalsecretaries--Susanta Singh,Manohar Randhari, AnantaNarayan Jena and BiswajitMohanty have been givencharge of Sashakta Odishaprogramme of BJD. The re-gional party has named itsmanifesto for 2019 electionsas "Naveen Odisha, SashaktOdisha" (new Odisha, strongOdisha).

The party has given chargeof ‘Odisha Mo Parivar' pro-gramme to four new generalsecretaries—Debesh Acharya,Sudhir Kumar Samal, SasmitPatra and Bikram Panda.

Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik was reelected as a

BJD president for the eighthconsecutive term in Februarythis year. Due to Covid-19 pan-demic, the appointment ofnew office bearers was halted.On Bahuda Yatra, Naveen has

started appointing his newteam leaders.

BJD sources said the partymay appoint about nearly twodozens of secretaries in thenew team. The regional party

will very soon restructure itsthree key frontal organisations— students, youth and women— and for m committees for various district units, thesource said.

BJD appoints 36 gen secys

Leaders Responsibility

1. Sushanta Singh Sashakta Odisha2. Chandra Sarathi Behera SC Empowerment3. Manohar Randhari Sashakta Odisha4. Purna Chandra Swain Social Welfare5. Snehangini Chhuria SC Empowerment6. Jagannath Saraka Tribal Empowerment

and Minority Affairs7. Haji Md Ayub Khan Minority Affairs8. Debesh Acharya Odisha: Mo Paribar9. Umakanta Samantaray Social Welfare10. Byomkesh Ray Student Affairs11. Ananta Narayan Jena Sashakta Odisha12. Rajashree Mallick Women Empowerment13. Priyadarshi Mishra Art, Culture and HRD14. Dhruba Charan Sahoo Environment15. Pranab Kumar Balabantaray Youth Affairs16. Dr Raseswari Panigrahi Regional Development17. Rajib Lochan Patra Social Welfare18. Sudhir Kumar Samal Odisha: Mo Paribar19. Dr Sasmit Patra Odisha: Mo Paribar

Leaders Responsibility

20. Bikram Panda Odisha: Mo Paribar21. Jogesh Singh Tribal Empowerment

and Minority Affairs22. Basanti Hembram Tribal Empowerment

and Minority Affairs23. Bijaya Kumar Nayak Regional Development24. Lopamudra Buxipatra Women Empowerment25. Geeta Bastia Women Empowerment26. Shreemayee Mishra Women Empowerment27. Prafulla Singh Social Welfare28. Debasis Marndi Tribal Empowerment

and Minority Affairs29. Manash Mangaraj Media Affairs30. Janmejaya Lenka Art Culture and Human

Resource Development31. Biswajit Mohanty Sashakta Odisha32. Satyabrata Patra Art, Culture and HRD33. Sarada Prasanna Jena Art, Culture and HRD34. Gitanjali Sethi SC Empowerment35. Pramod Kishore Jena Environment36. Shyama Prasad Behera Regional Development

36 NEW OFFICE BEARERS

Amid Covid, Cuttack traderflaunts gold-studded maskCuttack: The Covid-19 pandemic might have brokenthe financial backbone of many but that does notprevent a trader of the Silver City here from wearing

a gold-studded mask.The ever increasing goldprice has also failed toput a dent on AlokMohanty’s love for theyellow metal. Mohanty,62, owns a furniture shopat Meria Bazar in the cityhere. He has reportedlyspent `3.5 lakh to have agolden mask for himself,sources said.

Mohanty is well-known for his love for goldornaments. Many locals call him as the ‘gold man’ ofCuttack. “I wear gold chains weighing 2 kg aroundmy neck. I am also using a gold studded cap. My lovefor the yellow metal started around 15 years ago. Iwas inspired by Hindi film singer Bappi Lahiri whowears a lot of gold,” Mohanty revealed.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, July 16: Huge amounts of or-naments and other precious met-als had reportedly been stolen fromthe Ratnabhandar (treasury) ofSrimandir 11 years ago.

A social media post on the al-leged incident has gone viral re-cently. This apart, posters describingthe alleged theft were stuck at sev-eral places in the Holy City hereThursday. The social media postand the posters claimed that severalsenior officials, police personnel andSrimandir servitors were involvedin the alleged theft. The socialmedia post also claimed that a devo-tee had witnessed the theft but hekept his mouth shut due to threatfrom the servitors and securitypersonnel.

According to the social mediapost, a mini-truck was used to carry

the stolen ornaments from the WestGate of Srimandir. And it was a win-ter night.

Some servitors reportedly openedthe Ratnabhandar after the Pahudaritual and carried huge amount ofornaments to the mini-truck parkedoutside the shrine.

The servitors reportedly toldthe devotee concerned that the or-naments were being taken to somejewellers for repair work.

The social media post claimedthat a road near the West Gate ofSrimandir was sealed by the policeto facilitate the burglary. Someservitors and police personnel re-portedly threatened the devoteeconcerned and asked him not to re-veal the incident to anyone.

The post also sought a high-levelprobe to find out the servitors, of-ficials and police personnel in-volved in the incident.

‘Ratnabhandar looted 11 yrs ago’

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downtownFRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP4

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INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Bhubaneswar, July 16: A dayafter ace sprinter Dutee Chand is-sued a clarification saying she isn’tselling her luxury four-wheeler toraise training funds, the state gov-ernment Thursday highlighted thefinancial support given to her overthe years.

It was earlier reported that Dutee,who put up a now-deleted Facebookpost asking potential buyers to getin touch with her manager, wasforced to sell her car to raise fundsfor her Tokyo Olympics training.

The Sports and Youth Services de-partment said, in statement, that atotal of Rs 4.09cr has been given toDutee since 2015.

“Rs 3 crore as financial incen-tive for medals won at AsianGames 2018. Rs 30 lakh for train-ing and financial support during2015-19. Rs 50 lakh for trainingsupport for Tokyo Olympics (re-leased in two instalments August2, 2019 and December 27, 2019),” the

statement read.“The state government appointed

Dutee Chand as Group-A level officerin Odisha Mining Corporation (AGold Category PSU). She is cur-rently drawing gross salary of Rs84,604 (June 2020 salary) per month.She is not required to come to officeso that she is able to concentrate full-time on training.

Accordingly, since her appoint-ment in OMC, no official work hasbeen allotted her. OMC providedRs 29 lakh for training and finan-cial incentives,” the statementadded.

On Wednesday, Dutee had saidthat she sold her sedan to get some‘breathing space’. “I took to so-cial media to sell my car. I don't

have the resources to maintainluxury cars, though I love them.I never expressed that I am sellingit to fund my training,” Duteesaid in a statement on her Twitteraccount.

“Odisha Government and myown KIIT University have alwayssupported me. This does not denythe fact that my training is veryexpensive, especially for the 2021Olympics. I just wanted to make apoint that this money could be di-verted for my training and a car canbe bought post Covid once I receivethe money from the state govern-ment,” the ace sprinter said.

“With folded hands, I want tosay that I was neither complain-ing nor making a show of my lackof finance because I am a daughterof the country and my well-wish-ers are there to keep me going.Bless me for my training at KalingaStadium so that my dream of get-ting a Gold for my country comestrue,” wrote the 24-year-old on so-cial media.

Since 2015, Dutee got `4.09cr: GovtSTATE GOVERNMENT HIGHLIGHTS FINANCIAL AID TO THE ACE SPRINTER AMID TRAINING FUNDS ROW

THE SPORTS AND YOUTHSERVICES DEPARTMENTSTATED THAT THE GOVTAPPOINTED DUTEE CHANDAS GROUP-A LEVELOFFICER IN ODISHAMINING CORPORATION

THE ACE SPRINTER ISCURRENTLY DRAWINGGROSS SALARY OF RS84,604 PER MONTHALTHOUGH SHE IS NOTREQUIRED TO COME TOOFFICE TO FOCUS ONTRAINING

POST NEWS NETWORK

Khurda, July 16: Blowing the lidoff the sensational murder of abar employee here July 14, the dis-trict police claimed to have ar-rested six persons from near Ranpurforests in Nayagarh and recoveredweapons ‘used in the killing’ fromtheir possession, Thursday.

According to Khurda superin-tendent of police (SP) Ajay PratapSwain, Mrutyunjay Nayak (29), hisbrother Dhananjay Nayak (28),Amit Kumar Pradhan (23) andNandan Behera (20), Rakesh Sahoo(23) of Daleiputa and Debakanta Das(25) of Lokeswarpur under KhurdaTown police limits here have beentaken into custody for killing AmiyaBarik, an employee of a bar underKhurda Town police limits here,July 14 evening. The SP, in a mediabriefing, said that the footage fromthe CCTV installed near the crimescene and a few eyewitnesses helpedcrack the case. The accused are his-tory-sheeters as they have multi-ple criminal cases registered againstthem with Nayapalli police.

“We tracked the mobile phonesof the accused to track them. We’verecovered a blood-stained shirt and

murder weapons as well. The lux-ury car in which they had come tothe bar and fled as well besides a mo-torcycle has also been recoveredfrom them,” Swain said.

The incident took place whenNayak, along with a few of his friends,had come to booze at the bar July 14.

“While parking the car, they hada heated exchange of words witha security guard at the parking lot.Soon after, they left the place tobuy some sharp weapons from anearby hardware store. On return,they failed to find the securityguard and instead attacked Barikwho was standing near the parkinglot with one of his colleagues.Barik’s colleague, however, managedto flee the scene,” the SP informed.

Barik suffered multiple stab-bing injuries and succumbed atthe spot. Soon after, a case (243/20)was registered in this regard andfive special teams were formed totrack the culprits.

Swain said, “After the incident,the accused initially fled toKandhamal and then to Brahmapurvia Boudh. On being informed by theNayagarh police, we nabbed themfrom near Ranpur forests. Charge-sheet will be filed within a month.”

To spread awareness on coronavirus, an artist draws graffiti at Nayapalli in Bhubaneswar, Thursday OP PHOTO

SPREADING AWARENESS

Khurda bar staffer’s murder case solved6 HELD FROM NAYAGARH WITH BLOOD-STAINED

SHIRT, CRIME WEAPON

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: East CoastRailway (ECoR) has taken proactivesteps to ensure timely disposal ofscrap. Scrap disposal through e-Auction has resumed immediatelyafter the Unlock in the month ofJune by the ECoR.

A total of 11 e-Auctions havebeen conducted by ECoR in all thethree divisions in June. In the monthof July also, six e-Auctions havebeen conducted till date.

Materials Management depart-ment of ECoR is conducting e-Auction through its dedicated IREPS(Indian Railways E-ProcurementSystem) portal since 2013, which is

a transparent process for disposalof scrap material and this givesequal opportunity to all the bid-ders in a transparent manner, freefrom any manual intervention.Over 3,700 vendors were registeredon the portal.

In the process of e-Auction, lotsare published online on IREPS plat-

form and bidders are allowed tobid online. If the highest bid re-ceived, is higher than pre fixed re-serve price then the bid is acceptedby the system and the lot is de-clared as sold to the participant.The complete process is online.

In the last financial year, ECoRhas disposed scrap which was about

34 per cent higher in value terms,than the target set by the RailwayBoard. This was highest ever scrapsale by ECoR, by putting all-out ef-forts in making the entire zone asscrap free and environment friendly.This will be continued in rightearnest this year.

Notably, scrap is generated inany industrial activity involving ma-chinery, tools and other assets.After completion of the life of theseassets, these are to be replaced forbetter performance. Scrap shouldbe disposed timely so that it can berecycled to convert it into otherusable forms. This also helps inmaking environment cleaner andhygienic.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: State’sCOVID-19 caseload crossed the15,000-mark with 494 more personstesting positive for the viral infec-tion Thursday, while two more fa-talities pushed Odisha’s death tollto 79, an official of the Health andFamily Welfare (H&FW) depart-ment said.

The fresh cases reported from 23districts have taken the state’scount to 15,392, said the official.

Of the 494 new cases, 322 were re-ported from quarantine centres,

while 172 are contacts of COVID-19 patients, the official pointed out.

Ganjam, state’s worst-hit dis-trict by the viral infection, reportedthe highest number of fresh casesat 246, taking its caseload to 4,867.Khurda reported 64 new cases,Cuttack 38 and Balasore registered21 cases of COVID-19.

Two patients— a 51-year-old man,who had morbid obesity, and a 34-year-old man, who was sufferingfrom hypertension—died of COVID-19 while undergoing treatment ata hospital in Ganjam, the H&FW de-partment said in a statement.

The fresh deaths have taken thenumber of coronavirus fatalities inthe state to 79, while 24 patientshave died due to other ailments,the official said.

Ganjam has reported 48 of the 79COVID-19 deaths, followed by 13in Khurda, eight in Cuttack, two inPuri and one each in Angul,

Bargarh, Bhadrak, Gajapati, Jajpur,Kendrapara, Rayagada andSundargarh, added the official.

Meanwhile, 401 persons recoveredfrom the viral infection.

The number of active cases instate stands at 4,412, while 10,877 peo-ple have recovered from the dis-ease.

The Capital city, meanwhile, re-ported 60 COVID-19 cases Thursday.

While 40 were quarantine cases,20 were detected through contacttracing exercise. On the other hand,18 persons in the City who were ear-lier tested positive for COVID-19

recovered from the viral infectionThursday, Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) twitted.

With this, Bhubaneswar has 504active coronavirus cases while 403persons have so far recovered fromthe disease. BMC has so far reported919 COVID-19 cases and 11 deaths.

The Cuttack MunicipalCorporation (CMC), on the otherhand, took to the Twitter to informthat 19 coronavirus cases were de-tected from its jurisdiction in theSilver City.

While five cases were from in-stitutional quarantines, one frompaid quarantine and 13 are homequarantine cases, said the civicbody.

With this, CMC has 150 activeCOVID-19 cases, while 157 have re-covered from the infection. TheCMC has so far seen 314 COVID-19cases and seven deaths in its ju-risdiction.

494 more infectionsin state; deaths at 79

State urges industrial cos tocreate Covid Care CentresPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: Taking astep forward in Covid management,the state government Thursdayurged industrial units to establishnew Covid Care Centres (CCCs)for their employees.

This was revealed during an on-line interactive session of ChiefSecretary Asit Tripathy andIndustries Secretary Hemant Sharmawith the chairmen and chief exec-utives of the industrial houses fromthe Lok Seva Bhawan here Thursday.

Addressing the industry lead-ers, Tripathy said the state gov-ernment has created a three-tierCovid care system—the CCCs, CovidHeath Centres (CHCs) and Covidhospitals.

Asymptomatic or mild-sympto-matic coronavirus positive personsare being taken care at CCCs. Otherpatients are being admitted to CHCsand Covid hospitals depending onthe degree of infection and thekind of care they need, the Chief

Secretary said, adding that morethan 80 per cent of the Covid casesneed care at CCCs.

“Taking the asymptomatic ormild-symptomatic persons awayfrom their home and detachingthem from all social contacts is notgood for their physical as well asmental wellbeing. At times, it be-comes a traumatic for them.Considering this, government hasdecided to allow home isolation orinstitutional isolation in their ownsocial setting,” Tripathy said.

The Chief Secretary and Sharmadiscussed with around 40 leadersfrom big industries including MCL,

NALCO, OCL, Paradeep Refinery,NTPC, RSP, IOCL, HAL, STPI, IDCO,OPTCL, Tata Power, power distri-bution companies, OMC, Tata Steel,JSW, IMFA, DAMLIA Cement, HIN-DALCO, Laxmi Cement, ACCCement, Vedanta Ltd, JK Paperand JSPL among others.

Sharma urged them to come upwith the CCCs within a week. Thegovernment assured the industrialleaders to provide all technical guid-ance and training facilities and crit-ical medicines. To make the processhassle-free, the industrial houseswere advised to coordinate with therespective district Collectors andmunicipal commissioners wherethey would create the facilities.

Appreciating such decisions ofthe government in Covid fight, theindustry leaders came forward toset up CCCs in their facilities fortheir employees and their familymembers. They mentioned thattheir employees were happy about such decisions of government, sources said.

ECoR thrust on timely disposal of scrap

Cybercrooks dupe 2 including SBI BMPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: Cybercriminalsduped two people including a bankerrecently. Commissionerate Police hasbegun investigations into the case byregistering two separate cases, 149/20and 270/20 at Kharavela Nagar andCapital police station here respectively.

According to sources, Ajit KumarAcharya of Pokhariput who currentlyworks as the branch manager of StateBank of India’s Satyanagar branchwas duped by unknown miscreants bycreating a fake Whatsapp account withthe image of ex-regional manager ofSBI’s Phulbani Region as DP.

Meanwhile, the miscreant sent textmessages to Acharya’s Whatsapp accountasking money for urgent medical pur-poses July 8. Later, he asked for moremoney on two occasions.

Acharya sent him the money in twoinstallments. Upon enquiry, he foundthat it was a hoax. Acharya lodged a com-plaint with Kharavela Nagar policestation. Similarly, a musician, SatyaShankar, in the city has lost aroundRs 7 lakh in a cyber fraud incident.

AFFIDAVITI, Satyavama Behuraspouse of No. 4374314NNK Susil Kumar Behurapresently residing at Vill:Raiberuan, Post: Sisua,Teh: Astarang, P.S.:Astarang, Dist.- Puri, PIN- 752109 (Odisha) havechanged my name fromSatyavama Behura toSatyavama Swain videaffidavit dated 02.07.2020before Notary Public,Nimapada.

Sd./- Satyavama Swain

CLASSIFIEDAFFIDAVIT

The number ofactive COVID-19cases in statestands at 4,412,while 10,877 people have so farrecovered from theviral disease

In the last financial year,ECoR has disposed scrapwhich was about 34 percent higher in value terms,than the target set by theRailway Board

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: The stategovernment Thursday includedthe transgender community underMadhu Babu Pension Yojana(MBPY) and released a notifica-tion in this regard.

As per the notification issuedby the Social Securities andEmpowerment of Persons withDisabilities (SSEPD) department,the government made amendmentsto Rule 6 (eligibility criteria) of theMadhu Babu Pension Rules 2008.

The department has included anew criterion to include the trans-gender as one of the eligible cate-gories. According to the notifica-tion, the beneficiaries should havecertificate issued under Section 6 of

the Transgender Persons (Protectionof Rights) Act 2019. It also man-dated that the income of the bene-ficiary must not exceed Rs 40,000 perannum and should not have a mem-ber paying income tax or a gov-ernment servant.

“This was one of the progres-sive policies of the government.Eligible candidates from the com-munity can avail the facilities fromthe government on fulfilling all theprescribed criteria,” SSEPD de-partment secretary Bhaskar JyotiSarma told Orissa POST.

Transgender advocacy groupshave welcomed the step. “We wel-come the step of the government toassist the community. However, thedisbursement of pensions to themcould be delayed as the rules of

Transgender Act, 2019 are yet tobe formulated and issue of ID cardsto them as per the act will taketime,” said Biswa BhushanPattanayak, Assistant Director,SAATHI, Bhubaneswar.

He also requested the govern-ment to include Section 7 of theTransgender Act to also includesuch transgender who undergo sexchange operation.

The community members mean-while welcomed the step. “This isa welcome step. This shows thatthe government is now recognisingthe community. This is likely towork in reducing the discrimina-tion in society and expedite theirsocial acceptance,” said MeeraParida, a transgender right activistfrom the state.

To make the process hassle-free, theindustrial houses were advised to coordinate with respective district

Collectors and municipal commissionerswhere they would create the CCCs

The state government has created athree-tier Covid care system—the CCCs,Covid Heath Centres (CHCs) and Covid

hospitals

Transgenders now coveredunder Madhu Babu Pension

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stateFRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP5

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Keonjhar, July 16: The forest de-partment spends cores of rupees onprotection of elephants in Keonjhar,but casualties of the animals are onthe rise in the mineral-rich dis-trict, a report said.

Lapses in monitoring of the move-ment of elephants under Keonjharforest division recently came tolight. The department suspended aforester and a forest guard June 18for negligence in duty after two ele-phants were found electrocuted bypoachers in Joda section ofChampua range June 14.

The killing raised serious ques-tions on the field intelligence andpatrolling as forest officials of Jodasection were clueless about the in-cident till locals informed them.

Apart from poaching, accidentsand electrocution, the animals havebeen facing a threat from the shrink-ing of the forest cover and loss ofhabitat owing to mining.

The report said over last two

months, five elephants were founddead in Champua and Barbil rangeswhere the animals are said to be un-safe for various reasons.

Statistics have it that since 2010till date, Keonjhar forest divisionalone has reported 51 elephantdeaths. In 2010-11, the district sawdeaths of nine elephants while fourdied in 201-12.

Nine elephants died in 2012-13;four each in 2013-14 and 2014-15; six

in 2015-16; two each in 2017-18 and2018-19; six in 2019-20 and five in2020-21(till date).

According to official data, thereare 92 elephants in the Keonjhardivision. To track the movementand ensure their safety, the de-partment has engaged 110 peoplewhile 19 vehicles are pressed intoservice.

Range officers, foresters andforests guards are also on the act.

Trenches have been dug aroundforests to prevent intrusion of an-imals into human habitations.

Environmentalists expressedconcern over the growing casu-alties of the elephants. Theypointed out that despite all pre-ventive and protective measures,elephants still face dangers due tovarious factors.

Concerned over elephant casu-alties, environmentalist and hon-

ourary wildlife wardenHarekrushna Mohant said,”Unabated mining, and declining for-est cover resulted in loss of habitatand shortage of fodder. Increasingmovement of mineral-laden vehi-cles, encroachment of forests, in-frastructure development like roadsand railways and industrial unitsin the forested pockets have posedserious threat to the elephants.With the habitat loss, the animalsstray out of forests and enter villages,leading to man-elephant conflicts.”

Experts suggested that under-passes, overpasses, check gates andbridges should be incorporated intoa development plan in the forestedpockets to mitigate elephant casu-alties. DFO Santosh Joshi said forprotection of elephants, specialsquads have been formed for 24X7monitoring while local people arebeing sensitized to the need for ele-phant safety so that man-elephantconflict can be avoided.

“Each elephant herd is beingtracked by a team,” he added.

Elephant casualties in Keonjhar on riseTHE FOREST DIVISION HAS REPORTED DEATHS OF 51 PACHYDERMS FROM 2010 TILL DATE

According to official data, there are92 elephants in the Keonjhardivision. To track the movement andensure their safety, the departmenthas engaged 110 people while 19vehicles were pressed into service

Nine elephants diedin 2012-13

Four each in 2013-14and 2014-15

Six in 2015-16

Two each in 2017-18and 2018-19

Six in 2019-20

Five in 2020-21

RED ZONE

POST NEWS NETWORK

Dhenkanal, July 16: Even as thereis a spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases in the state, blood donors inthe district are in low spirits.

They allege that blood units theyare donating can no longer be ad-ministered to patients because theHIV testing machine at the bloodbank has gone out of order.

The blood bank has three HIVtesting machines. The rule is that thecollected blood units undergo anHIV test and then allowed for trans-fusion. But as of now, two of thethree machines have developed prob-lems and stopped functioning.Similarly, another machine procureda year ago has also been lying dysfunctional.

According to volunteers, organ-ising blood donation camps is verydifficult during the pandemic. Yet,they organize such camps so thatpatients should not die due to paucity

of blood. However, their efforts godown the drain as HIV test of the col-lected blood units cannot be per-formed as the machines are out of order.

“The recently procured machinehas a warranty period. Yet, no stepis being taken to get it repaired,”alleged irate volunteers.

When contacted, the staff of theblood bank said though the me-chanics have been contacted, they failto turn up due to prevailing COVID-19 situation.

Meanwhile, the District CitizenForum vice chairman Pankaj KumarNayak demanded a new HIV testingmachine to be immediately provided

to the blood bank. When asked, chief district medical

officer Dr Sujata Mishra said me-chanics had visited the blood bankWednesday. Quoting the mechanics,she said some parts are to be re-placed with new ones. After repair-ing, the machines will take one or twodays to start performing.

Blood goes waste as HIV-testing machines conk outn The blood bank has three HIV testing machines. The rule is that the collectedblood units undergo an HIV test and then allowed for transfusion. But as of now, twoof the three machines have developed problems. Similarly, another machineprocured a year ago has also been lying dysfunctional

n CDMO Dr Sujata Mishra saidmechanics visited the blood bank andsome parts are to be replaced withnew ones. The machines will take oneor two days to start performing

n According to volunteers, organisingblood donation camps is very difficultduring the pandemic. Yet, theyorganize such camps so that patientsshould not die due to paucity of blood

POST NEWS NETWORK

Angul, July 16: A woman fromSiling village under Samal policelimits in Angul district killed herhusband late Wednesday nightafter he protested her extra-mari-tal affair. The woman, sources said,is in relationship with anotherman of the same village. Her twodaughters also helped in finishingtheir father.

The victim has been identifiedas Sunad Pradhan (51). The ac-cused were Sunda’s wife Bharati(45), daughter Bunu (24) and Lunu(20).

Police said that the sister of thevictim has lodged an FIR at the po-lice station. In it she has alleged thather sister-in-law and two nieceshave illicit relationship with a manof that village. However, Sunad re-

cently found out about the matterand voiced his protests over theissue.

Sunad had a heated argumentwith his wife and daughtersWednesday night. In the course ofthe argument, some men enteredthe house and beat up Sunad. Hiswife and daughters also took partin the thrashing. They then bangedSunad’s head against the wall re-peatedly leading to his death.

After allegedly killing Sunad,the trio surrendered at the localpolice station. Police have regis-tered a case and launched a probeinto the matter.

Wife, daughters kill manfor opposing illicit affair

POST NEWS NETWORK

Patnagarah/ Belpada, July16: Police Thursday arrestedseven persons including a minorin connection with the murderof a father-son duo at Mundagaonvillage under Belpada police lim-its in Bolangir district.

This was stated hereby Patnagarh SDPOSuresh Kumar Nayakand IIC Sachidananda Bariha ata press meet at Belpada police sta-tion Thursday. The accused wereidentified as Balmiki Rout,Mangal Rout, Fakir Rout, BipinRout, Sankirtan Rout, KaentiRout and a minor. The accusedwere forwarded to court while theminor was produced before a ju-venile justice board.

The murder took place fol-lowing a fight between Banchhorand Rout families over non-pay-

ment of dues of a tractor driver. T h e S D P O s a i d M o t i l a l

Banchhor owed Rs 10,000 toMangal Rout who was workingas a driver of his tractor. Rout re-peatedly demanded his moneybut Banchhor kept on dilly-dal-lying on the payment. The in-

cident occur redwhen family mem-bers of Banchhorhad gone to Rout’s

house to calculate the dues whenRout’s family members attackedthem with sharp-edged weapons.

In the attack, Motilalal diedo n t h e s p o t w h i l e h i s s o nChandramani succumbed in thehospital. His two sons Kailashand Hemant were admitted tohospital and are undergoingtreatment. Mangal and his twokin also sustained critical in-juries and were admitted to hospital.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Ganjam, July 16: The migration-prone Ganjam district is close to reg-istering 5,000 COVID-19 positivecases. The COVID-19 hotspot dis-trict reported 246 new casesThursday. The current COVID-19cases in Ganjam district stand at1,845 while 2,971 people have re-covered from the disease.

The death toll in the district wentup to 48 with two new fatalities atthe TATA COVID-19 hospital atSitalapalli in this town reportedwithin 24 hours.

Some relief is expected as thedistrict administration has man-aged to turn 84 per cent of the vil-lages, coronavirus free zones.

On the other hand, a door-to-doorscreening has started in rural pock-ets as 16 per cent of villages arestill under the red-zone category.

According to the plan, “MissionGanjam”, the focus has been kepton contact tracing, testing and quar-antines. The screening is being car-ried out by 60 doctors’ teams toidentify people with influenza-likesymptoms.

As the corona positive cases arerising continuously in urban area,Ganjam Collector Vijay AmrutaKulange declared a five-day shut-

down (July 16-July 21) in 7- NACsunder Chhatrapur subdivision.

For this the district administra-tion has deployed police forces at var-ious chowks of the district. Thepolice are checking each and everyvehicle in the district and ensuringwearing of masks by the people.

Meanwhile, the war against co-rona in Ganjam district got morepower with the state government de-ploying 130 more doctors and 37OAS, ORS officers.

7 including minor held

Concerned over elephant casualties,environmentalist and honourary wildlife wardenHarekrushna Mohant said,”Unabatedmining, and declining forest cover resulted in loss of habitat andshortage of fodder

BOLANGIR DOUBLE MURDER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Paradip, July 16: The driver ofa truck had a lucky escape whena goods train rammed the vehiclein the restricted area of theParadip port Thursday morning.The truck driver escaped withminor injuries and has since beentaken to a hospital.

According to sources, the ill-fated truck was crossing the rail-way tracks when the train rammedit. A portion of the vehicle wascompletely damaged as it cameunder the wheels of the train.Eyewitnesses said that the drivemanaged to jump out of the cabinin the nick of time. Otherwise hewould certainly have been killed.

On being informed, officialsrushed to the spot and initiated

restoration. Officials are also try-ing to ascertain how the truck man-aged to get into the restricted area.They are waiting for the driver torecover so that they can talk tohim. Usually a special permissionis needed for vehicles to enter intothe restricted zones in the portarea. An investigation has beenlaunched to ascertain the cause ofthe accident.

Goods train rams truck at Paradip Fight against Covid-19: Ganjam tally inches to 5KCHHATRAPUR: Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik Thursday praiseda female teacher from Hinjili areain Ganjam district for defeatingCOVID-19 and rejoining duty im-mediately after recovery.

Sangeeta Panigrahi, a teacherby profession, had been workingat a quarantine centre. During herduty, her swab sample was collectedand sent for testing. A day later,her report came out to be positivefor coronavirus.

Sangeeta was then immediatelyshifted to COVID-19 hospital atSitalapali. While she was under-going treatment there, ChiefMinister Patnaik, 5T secretary VK

Pandian and Collector VijayAmruta Kulange wished her aspeedy recovery over phone.

By dint of her indomitable de-termination, she finally defeated the

virus and proved herself to be areal COVID warrior.

After recovery, she did not pre-fer to remain confined to her housein fear of the virus. She has againjoined her duty.

Naveen took to Twitter to ap-preciate her work and said that thefrontline COVID-19 warriors’ de-termination and sacrifice is unimaginable.

"She works day in and day out tosave people’s lives. Even after herrecovery, she has not desisted fromher responsibility. SangeetaPanigrahi has set an example for oth-ers to imitate," Naveen said in hiscongratulatory message to her.

CM hails lady warrior for defeating virus

Sangeeta Panigrahi

2 more docs, 2 nursesof VIMSAR infected SAMBALPUR: RDC(NorthernRange) Niranjan Sahu reviewedthe ongoing Covid prevention ex-ercise in Sambalpur districtThursday, even as two more doc-tors and two nurses of VIMSARwere found infected with CovidThursday.

The spread of Covid Infectionin VIMSAT and VISSUT was focalpoint of the discussion at the re-view meeting, attended byCollector Subham Saxena, SPKanwar Vishal Singh and CDMOSashi Bhusan Patel.

Meanwhile, some areas inSambalpur town were declaredas containment/buffer zones. Therestrictions were enforced from 7am Thursday till further orders.

Gurudwara Colony, Burla,Telgupada, Ward-7 Burla are incontainment zones while E and Ftype quarters lines of ForwardColony, Ward-4, Burla, Nuapada,OHPC Colony, Friends Colony,Binayak Hospital and SouravVihar are in buffer zones.The ad-ministration prohibited vehicularmovements in these areas.

SUNDERGARH: The district ad-ministration decided to declare a 3-day shutdown in BirmitrapurMunicipality area amid a rise inCOVID cases in the region.

The shutdown will be in forcefrom 6 am of July 17 to July 19 nightin all eleven wards under the mu-nicipality area.

During the shutdown, activities

such as medical establishments,clinics, nursing homes, includingmedicine stores, movement of am-bulances and all medical personnelshall be allowed.

Telecom services, petrol pumps,print and electronic media identi-fied by police, water supply, sani-tation, electricity supply will go onas usual.

3-day shutdown in Birmitrapur from today

POST NEWS NETWORK

Jeypore, July 16: Hailing fromJeypore town in Koraput district,Diptirani has qualified for com-peting in the Miss India 2020 pag-eant org anised by ZeroneProduction House.

After registering for ZeroneProduction House’s Miss India2020, she cleared all the roundsand reached the semifinals of thecompetition.

“It was actually my childhooddream to be a model. My parentshave supported me a lot. I haveworked hard to participate in this.I am trying to represent Odisha atthe national level and if I get achance, it will be an honour to rep-resent India. Also, I want to promotemy city Jeypore through my suc-cess,” said an excited Diptirani.

Diptirani tasted success in OdiaTV shows like ‘Mun bi Heroine’,‘Mithamitha Katha’, ‘Mun HeroMun Odisha’ and ‘Eka BharatSrestha Bharat’.

The model said after the com-petition she will try to enterOllywood as it is her base and peo-ple have given her so much loveand affection for acting in differentOdia reality shows.

Odia girl Diptirani stormsinto Miss India semifinals

STRICT VIGIL

Two policemen patrol at the entry point of Gurudwar Colony in Sambalpur which was declared as a containment zonefollowing a rise in Covid infections in the area, Thursday OP PHOTO

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WORDSWORTH

power post P6

T he state government last week announced a slew of austerity meas-ures in view of the falling revenues and to pool resources for meet-ing contingency spending arising out of multiple anti-Covid-19 pro-

grammes launched by the government. Expenses of every departmentbarring the Health and Family Welfare have been stopped. All air travel andfirst class train journey by officers have been disallowed. A complete banhas been put on purchase of new vehicles. Officers have been told to reducetravelling and monitor programme implementation through video-confer-encing instead. All expenditures for renovating government buildings andguest houses and re-furnishing of offices have been stopped. Expendituresbeyond `5 lakh for repair and renovation of government office buildings andover `2 lakh for repair and renovation of government residential quarterswould not happen without special approval. There has been a complete banon meetings, seminars, workshops and holding of official lunch and dinnerin hotels with government funds. Officers have been told to go for video-con-ferencing mode instead. A ban has been put on leave travel allowance of gov-ernment employees. No new state scheme or projects to be taken up by theadministrative department except for Health and Family Welfare department.A complete freeze has been put on fresh recruitment while permission hasbeen given for hiring for existing posts.

The cost-cutting measures announced in the wake of the pandemic areonly a repetition of an extant policy that the government had brought in totamp down spending in 2001 – years after the Biju Janata Dal governmentcame to power. In fact, checking the runaway expenses leading to a mount-ing debt burden was a priority area for the new government. Even thoughthe memorandum was still in force, the government allowed every depart-ment to splurge money on luxuries. Scores of populist schemes were introducedwithout statutory monitoring for political considerations. Thousands ofcrores of rupees were spent on unplanned programmes. The governmentallowed itself to violate its own circular. The Finance department is re-sponsible for such gross financial indiscipline. The department allowedwasteful expenditures by senior bureaucrats who spent big on their tours,foreign jaunts and remodeling of office chambers, among others. TheFinance department approved proposals for purchase of costly vehicleswhen there were curbs on purchase of luxury cars. Bureaucrats were allowedto blow money on office decorations and fancy furniture as if these were theirrights. All such wasteful expenditures would not have taken place withoutthe consent of the Finance department. The result was the total debt bur-den of the state shot up from below `20,000 crore in 2001 to above `1lakh crorenow. The per capita debt load has gone up to `20,000.

India has been going through an unforeseen economic recession. Countriesacross the world are jacking up public spending to create opportunities andemployment. The Centre on is part has earmarked `20 lakh crore to bespent under different welfare programmes and to help people overcome thecrisis triggered by the pandemic. The coronavirus has exasperated the con-temporary economic slump. Millions of people have lost jobs. The rate of un-employment is at a record high. The general despondency among public isnot going to go in near future, at least until the discovery of a vaccine. Insuch times, a blanket ban on state spending on schemes and developmentprogrammes may not make much economic sense. A ban on wasteful gov-ernment expenditure is welcome. But banning all expenditures regardlessof their implications for the poor could have been avoided. A public an-nouncement banning all government spending will exasperate the depres-sion. Cutting down the flab is welcome, but extending the ban across all spend-ing including welfare and development may be a mug’s game.

U N Secretary-GeneralAntonio Guterres hasstressed that every death

in police custody with signs of tor-ture should be investigated. TheSouth Asia Director of HumanRights Watch has said that it is im-portant for the authorities in Indiato embark upon robust efforts “toensure police reform, accounta-bility, and putting an end to theculture of immunity”.

Two incidents– one in TamilNadu in a place notorious for cus-todial violence and the other inUttar Pradesh – involving policehandling of accused person(s) intheir custody have rocked the entirenation in recent days. The first re-lated to the death of a father and sonin police custody for interrogationand the other to encounter killingof an arrested person. The TN caseis entrusted to an eight-memberCBI team for investigation.

The Tamil Nadu case apparentlyarising from a minor offence of vi-olation of lockdown rule on closingtime of shops led to arrest of ashop owner and his son and shut-ting them in police lock-up. The

allegation is about merciless tortureof the traders in police custody tothe extent of causing their death.The irony is that the incident hap-pened close to the InternationalDay in Support of Victims ofTorture observed on June 26. Theoffence in this case is not grave byany stretch of imagination to re-quire excessive use of police force.The UP case is a clear case of po-lice excessafter murder of eightcops by the accused.

It is for the government and legaland judicial authorities to dealwith the cases. They will do it withreference to existing laws and reg-ulations and prescribed procedures.For the society, more important isthe criminal law and procedureand the role, responsibility, andauthority of the police includingmethods of investigation and treat-ment of the accused and witnesses.Union Home Minister Amit Shahhas categorically asserted a fewdays back that the age of third de-gree torture is over. He had been say-ing that the central governmenthas “zero tolerance on custodialdeaths, extra-judicial deaths, and

police atrocities”. A Member of Parliament has

pointed out to the Home Ministerthat during 2019, the NationalHuman Rights Commissionrecorded 1,723 cases of death ofpersons in judicial and police cus-tody across the country. Thoughthere could be many reasons fordeath, the number, if accurate is acause for concern and remedialaction. NHRC has registered over400 cases of alleged death in po-lice custody and over 5,000 cases ofdeath in judicial custody. The MPhas also referred to an analysis bythe National Convention AgainstTorture for the period 2005-2018which revealed that of the 500deaths in police custody, only 281cases were registered and 54 po-licemen were charge-sheeted andno one has been convicted.

The UN Convention AgainstTorture was adopted by the UNGeneral Assembly on 10 December1984 and came into force in 1987.India became a signatory in 1997,but has not yet ratified theConvention by a comprehensivelaw. By June 2020, the Convention

had 170 state parties. Prohibitionof torture has long been estab-lished as a universal code or jus co-gens that all countries have agreedto abide by. The Committee AgainstTorture (CAT) is a body of humanrights experts that monitors im-plementation of the Conventionby State parties.

To ratify the convention, thePrevention of Torture Bill was in-troduced in the LokSabha in May2010, but it lapsed. Its main provi-sion was to make torture a pun-ishable offence. The bill was againbrought in the LokSabha in 2017 and2018 as a Private Member’s Bill,but could not be passed. Some MPsare now demanding promulgationof an ordinance to curb custodialviolence and police brutality.

Under NHRC Guidelines of 1993,every incidence of custodial deathor rape must be reported to theCommission by the concerned Statewithin 24 hours, and should be fol-lowed by post-mortem report, a video report, and a magisterial enquiry. INFA

The writer is a formerDirector of ICSSR, New Delhi.

Hell in uniform, killer cops on the prowl

TIME TO SPEND, NOT SAVEW

ith shrinking rev-enue, the Union gov-ernment hasrepri-oritized its spending

and taken a slew of new austeritymeasures to contain the fiscaldeficit and overcome the mount-ing debt burden. The current fis-cal, the government banned newpublic-funded schemes and freezedcreation of new posts.

Various states including Odishahave also taken similar steps as theCentre had imposed limits onstates’ borrowing capacity in con-travention of the principles of co-operative federalism. While theCentre has allowed states to in-crease fiscal deficit from 3 per-cent to 5 per cent of the GSDP,fact is also that out of this 2 per cent,an additional borrowing space of1.5 percent is conditional.

In reality,austerity measureswill effect a contraction of theeconomy, while the Covid-linkedlockdown scenario would requireperusal of an expansionary policythrough higher spending. Sinceprivate spending got subdued dueto supply disruptions, restrictionof people’s movement and businessactivities, an increase in govern-ment spending, more of job cre-ation and new schemes are vitalfor a revival of the economy fac-ing recessionary trends.

While the world has announceda$1100 billion package for revival,India has come up with around$226 billion, of which fiscal outgois around $27 billion. Monetarymeasures like liquidity infusionand lower interest rates are aimedat addressing supply-side prob-lems or supply disruption. Butproblems are from the demandside, especially a compression ofdemand. Supply disruption canbe eased only when people movearound freely.

The present situation is de-manding more of expenditure, asopposed to austerity, and has link-ages with the concept of the “para-dox of thrift” popularised by JohnMaynard Keynes. The theory hasit that if households decide to savemore and consume less during aslowdown or recession, then theresulting reduction in aggregatedemand will aggravate the eco-nomic decline.

In the present Covid-inducedrecession, people are forced tosave more due to uncertainty aboutthe future and the ban on freemovement, economic activitiesand business transaction. As a re-

sult, aggregate demand has comedown, leading to a further declinein growth.As such, the correctpolicy response is to increase gov-ernment spending, and not resortto austerity measures.

No investment will come and noindustry will function if there isno demand for products. Hence,spending is vital. Each spending,whether public or private, createsjob opportunities. While publicexpenditure leads to equitablegrowth, private sector expendi-ture is inequitable in nature. Thegovernment must spend moneyor have it spent in large quantitiesto create the demand needed tofuel economic growth.

Hence, steps like a ban on re-cruitment as also stalling newschemeswill have potentially cata-strophic consequences. Any spend-ing cut or job squeeze would hurt theeconomy, hinder recovery, under-mine long-term growth, and in-crease inequality and discrimination.

A major question is whetherthe implementation of immedi-ate fiscal austerity during a frag-ile economic recovery is justifiedand whether it will help in deficitreduction. According to PaulKrugman, Nobel Prize-winningeconomist and columnist, cuttingspending in a depressed economyis a bad idea.

Past experience shows that aus-terity measures in times of de-mand compression or recessionhave backfired or boomeranged.

Amid the 2007-08 financial crisis inthe US that later spread to Europe,the principle of austerity as a curewas adopted by central banks andencouraged by economists. Theybelieved that a tough fiscal policywas the only treatment for exces-sive debt and any easing wouldspell disaster. As countries startedto act this way, many realised thatsuch policies were self-defeating andcounterproductive. Economies al-ready hurt by the crisis were con-demned to perpetual stagnationand shoulder even larger debt bur-dens. The IMF report reveals thatthe belt-tightening by the Europeangovernments has had a negative ef-fect on the economies of thesecountries and unemployment sce-nario became more acute.

An examination of how statesfared during and after the eco-nomic downturn a decade agohints that states which preservedor expanded their public sectorworkforce weathered the reces-sion better and came out withfewer job losses, fewer private sec-tor job cuts, and saw lesser growthin unemployment and faster jobgrowth during the recovery.

It is argued that a country wad-ing in a sea of debt needs to tightenits expenditures. Although theausterity strategy can lead todeficit reduction and prevent in-solvency in the case of an indebtedindividual, this may not neces-sarily be the outcome in the caseof national indebtedness. The

problem is accentuated when aus-terity measures are replicated byother countries or by variousstates.

It is argued by fiscal hawks thatan increase of expenditure with-out generating commensurate rev-enues will led to a rise in fiscaldeficit; and that large fiscal deficitswill cause high interest rates,larger government debts, and in-flation. Even if the deficit doesn’tspark high interest rates and in-flation, they erode business con-fidence.

There are also those who arguethat deficit should be contained asit hurts the welfare of future gen-erations through a rise in debt. A na-tion that is heavily indebted needsto implement more borrowings topay back its lenders. But the prob-lem is not a rising debt.Problem isthat beneficiaries of debt-drivengrowth are not the masses but richand corporate honchos. This needsto be reversed first.

In general, drastic cuts in gov-ernment spending increase un-employment and may drag theeconomy down to a degree that thegovernment’s tax revenues fall.TheGDP also declines and as a resultfiscal deficit and borrowing as per-centage of GDP also rise. This out-come defeats the intention of low-ering government debt. It would beequally bad for the government,as a shrinking economy also meansshrinking tax receipts.

If the government is reluctantto borrow from market beyond acertain limit, it should resort tomonetization of spending throughmonetization of some parts itsdeficit or through resort to spreadof helicopter money. Central gov-ernment should provide adequatefunds to state governments so thatthey need not have to cut any spend-ing and schemes, and can sustainjobs and growth momentum.

Does austerity at this pointmake any sense? This may well bethe issue of the moment, but rightnow a resort to austerity would bea huge mistake. There is need fordeveloping a workable recoveryprogramme. Otherwise, the ‘Great Shutdown’ could take the nation, and the world, to another Great Depression, withenduring low growth and highrates of unemployment. A de-pressed economy would be a dis-astrous proposition.

The writer is an Odisha-basedcolumnist and economist.

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

The present situation demands more expenditure, as opposed to austerity, and haslink with the concept of the “paradox of thrift”popularised by John Maynard Keynes. The theory has it that if households decide to save more and consume less during a slowdown or recession, then it will aggravatethe economic decline

A mug’s game

BLONDE

There are 11 people hanging onto arope that comes down from an

airplane. 10 of them are blonde, andone is a brunette. They all decide thatone person should get off because ifthey don't, the rope will break andeveryone will die. No one can decide

who shouldgo, so finally

the brunettedelivers a very

touching speech, endingwith the words, "I'll get off." Theblondes, all moved by the brunette's speech, start clapping.Problem solved.

FRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

There is nothing mind can dothat cannot be better done inthe mind’s immobility andthought-free stillness.

SRI AUROBINDO

POLICING

AN INCREASE INGOVERNMENT

SPENDING,MORE OF JOB

CREATION ANDNEW SCHEMES

ARE VITAL FOR AREVIVAL OF THE

ECONOMY FACING

RECESSIONARYTRENDS

Dr Santosh KumarMohapatra

WISDOM CORNERAs a calf follows its mother among a thousand cows, so the (good orbad) deeds of a man follow him. CHANAKYA

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best timeis now. CHINESE PROVERB

Nobody has the power to take two steps together; you can take onlyone step at a time. OSHO

ECONOMY

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: [email protected]

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

Oli’s Ayodhya

Sir, Nepal Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Oli has claimedthat the 'real Ayodhya' is in Nepal, not in India. He has beenquoted as saying that Ayodhya of India is 'fake Ayodhya',and the real Ayodhya is in Thori near Kathmandu. TheAyodhya there is a village, West of Birgunj. Perhaps Oli’sRamayan replaces Valmiki’sRamayan in Nepal. The bizarreexplanation given by him is, "Why would Lord Ram travelas far as Janakpur to marry Sita, had Ayodhya been in India".Of late, Oli has been in news more for the wrong reasons.He issued a new Nepal map claiming Kalapani, LipuLekhand Limpiyadhura as Nepal’s territories. He has startedplaying into the hands of China. China is believed to havetaken away 33 hectares of Nepal’s land. Oli has also incurredthe wrath of people from his own party for 'junking India'and 'joining China'. David Frawley has advocated re-merging of Nepal with India. A good suggestion.

KV Seetharamaiah, EMAIL

Covid, healthcare

Sir, India’s healthcare workers havebeen fighting a fierce battle againstCovid-19 since February last. It isworrisome to learn that over 100 doc-tors have lost their lives to Covid-19 in India. Though there is no dataon infection cases among healthcareworkers, about 2,000 of them have con-tracted the disease in Delhi alone.This is indicative of the extreme vul-nerability of healthcare workers tothe disease. The current crisis mustbe used as a wake-up call to gov-ernments to provide occupationalsafety to healthcare workers. Theirlife is important.

Venu GS, EMAIL

Congress’ plight

Sir, It should finally dawn upon everyparty worker that there is no waythe Congress can detach itself fromthe Gandhi family. The ageing oldguard is not open to fresh ideas;Young Turks like JyothiradityaScindia and Rajesh Pilot were madeto feel unwanted by the party. BothScindia and Pilot worked unfalteringlyfor the party in the 2018 assemblyelections in their states. Ashok Gehlotand Kamal Nath were the picks ofthe high command. However, changeis the need of the times. Can Pilot weanmore legislators away from Gehlotnow that he has been eased out?

Ganapathi Bhat, EMAIL

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Sudoku

Sudoku refers to a puzzle consisting of a 9-by-9 grid of squares, eachdivided into nine 3-by-3 squares. Some of the squares already contain a

number. The aim is to fill in the remainder so that every horizontal andvertical line, and every 3-by-3 square, contains the numerals 1 to 9 with norepeats.The puzzle first appeared in the USA in the early 1980s under thename Number Place and was taken up by the Japanese publishing houseNikoli in 1984. Its current Japanese name is formed from the original title atthat time, which may be translated as “only single numbers allowed”. Theshort form is a compound of the Japanese words su and doku, whichrespectively mean “single” and “number”.It has recently become awidespread and addictive craze here in the UK (the derived termsudokumania has been coined for it). It has now returned to the USA and hasalso become common in other countries.The first puzzles were featured inThe Times back in November 2004 and soon after in the Daily Mail andseveral other newspapers, though the craze really took off around May 2005.

Suffonsified

The phrase seems to be a variation on a polite rejoinder that was oncequite widely known and is still around. A host might ask if you have had

enough to eat. Rather than just say that you had had enough, being fearfulthat so bald a statement might be taken as unrefined or ill-bred, you mightinstead say, “I’ve had an elegant sufficiency”. This presumably has its originin some catch phrase old enough that it has had time to disseminate widely,since I’ve seen examples from Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Australia, and theUSA. A possible source is a poem called Spring by James Thomson, datingfrom the middle of the eighteenth century, very widely quoted during thatcentury and the following one: “An elegant sufficiency, content, retirement,rural quiet, friendship, books, Ease and alternate labor, useful life,progressive virtue, and approving Heaven; These are the matchless joys ofvirtuous love.”

Sugar and sure

The early history of sugar is obscure, especially the way it was said. Butvariations in the way it was spelled in old documents suggest strongly

that the u was said as a diphthong. Help with IPA, very much the way wenow say the word you, and that the initial s was said like that, not as sh.Sometime in the Middle English period the initial letters su shifted to thepronunciation they now have. If you relax the mouth and tongue somewhatwhen you are saying the older form, your pronunciation shifts to the modernone, as you’ll realise if you try out the two sounds in turn; the modernversion is actually rather easier for slack-jawed English speakers to say.

THE NATIONALHUMAN RIGHTS

COMMISSIONRECORDED 1,723

DEATHS IN JUDICIAL AND

POLICE CUSTODYIN 2019. THOUGHTHERE COULD BEMANY REASONSFOR DEATH, THE

HIGH NUMBER IS ACAUSE FOR

CONCERN ANDREMEDIAL ACTION

Dr S. Saraswathi

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MADHYAPRADESH

FRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7

MAHARASHTRA

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, July 16: Actor RheaChakraborty Thursday requestedUnion Home Minister Amit Shahto order a CBI inquiry to under-stand what “pressures” promptedactor Sushant Singh Rajput to takethe extreme step of suicide.

Rajput, 34, was found dead inhis Bandra apartment June 14. Inthe initial investigation, MumbaiPolice had found that the actor wasunder medication for depression.

Addressing herself as Rajput’s“girlfriend” for the first time inpublic, Chakraborty said though

she has “complete faith” in the gov-ernment, a CBI inquiry would helpbring justice to the case.

“Respected @AmitShah sir, I’mSushant Singh Rajput’s girlfriendRhea Chakraborty. It is now over amonth since his sudden demise. Ihave complete faith in the govern-ment, however in the interest ofjustice, I request you with foldedhands to initiate a CBI enquiryinto this matter,” the 28-year-oldactor wrote on Instagram along-side Rajput's photo.

“I only want to understand whatpressures prompted Sushant totake this step. Yours sincerely, RheaChakraborty. #satyamevajayate,”she added.

Earlier in the day, Chakrabortyrequested the cyber crime cell to lookinto rape and murder threats shewas receiving ever since Rajput'sdeath, with social media users blam-ing her for his suicide.

The actor, known for films suchas “Mere Dad Ki Maruti” and“Jalebi”, eventually disabled thecomments section of her Instagrampage. “I was called a gold digger. Ikept quiet I was called a murderer.I kept quiet, I was slut shamed, I keptquiet. But how does my silence giveyou the right to tell me that youwill get me raped and murdered ifI don't commit suicide@mannu_raaut?” she wrote tag-ging one of the accounts from whichshe received threat.

No one should be subjected tothis kind of “toxicity and harass-ment”, she urged. Shortly afterRajput’s death, Maharashtra HomeMinister Anil Deshmukh said theMumbai Police would also probethe angle of “professional rivalry”,which was alleged to be the cause ofthe suicide. On June 18, Chakrabortywas called to Bandra police stationto record her statement.

SUSHANT SINGH RAJPUT DEATH CASE

Rhea requests Shah for CBI probeADDRESSING HERSELF

AS RAJPUT’S “GIRLFRIEND” FOR

THE FIRST TIME IN PUBLIC,

CHAKRABORTY SAIDTHOUGH SHE HAS

“COMPLETE FAITH” INTHE GOVERNMENT, ACBI INQUIRY WOULDHELP BRING JUSTICE

TO THE CASE

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, July 16: As many as90.66 per cent -- 12,81,712 studentsof the total 14,13,687 -- were de-clared pass in the HSC examinationsconducted by the MaharashtraState Secondary & HigherSecondary Education Board (MSSH-SEB), top officials said hereThursday.

The studentswrote the exams inArts, Commerce,Science andVocationalEducation streamsacross the nine Divisional Boards,said MSSHSEB ChairpersonShakuntala Kale.

Announcing the results, shesaid that of the total number ofcandidates, there were 6,35,519girls and 7,78,168 boys, but thegirls outraced the boys with 93.88per cent passing compared to the

boys' passing percentage of 88.04.Among the nine boards, theKonkan Division grabbed the tophonour with 95.89 per cent stu-dents passing, followed by PuneDivision (92 .50) , KolhapurDivision (92 .42) , AmravatiDivision (92.09), Nagpur (91.65),Latur Division (89.79), MumbaiDivision (89.35), Nashik (88.87)and Aurangabad (88.18).

The students inthe Science Facultyled with 96.93 percent passing fol-lowed by CommerceFaculty (91.27) ,

Vocational Education (86.07) andArts Faculty (82.63). According toMSSHSEB Secretary AshokBhosale, compared to last year(2019)'s 85.88 per cent, the per-formance of students improved by4.78 per cent to 90.66 per cent pass-ing this year despite the Covid-19fears and its effects.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Palghar (Maharashtra), July16: A day after the MaharashtraCID filed its charge sheet in thesensational Palghar lynchingcase in which three people werekilled, a Magistrate Court inDahanu, has set the date forhearing in the matter to July28, official sources said hereThursday.

The charge sheets signify theend of the investigations intothe sensational case in whichtwo 'sadhus' and their driver werelynched near Gadchinchale vil-lage in the district.

On Wednesday, the state CrimeInvestigation Department (CID)Dy. Superintendent of PoliceVijay Pawar, filed two separatecharge sheets of around 11,000 pages, in two separate cases,naming a whopping 126 accusedi n b o t h c a s e s , b e f o r e t h e Dahanu Magistrate Court, offi-cials said.

The CID has invoked IndianPe n a l C o d e, D i s a s t e rManagement Act, EpidemicDiseases Act, Maharashtra PoliceAct and Maharashtra Damage toPublic Property (Amendment) Act, with charges pertaining tomurder, armed rioting, usingcriminal force to prevent a pub-lic servant from discharging hisduties, etc.

HEARING INPALGHAR LYNCHINGCASE FROM JULY 28

AGENCIES

Mumbai, July 16: Maharashtrahas retained its second positionamong states with low maternalmortality rate, according to theSample Registration Survey (SRS)whose findings were publishedThursday.

An official statement here,q u o t i n g t h e s u r ve y, s a i d ,Maharashtra's maternal mor-tality rate has gone down to 46from 68 three years ago and thestate has fulfilled the sustain-able development goal in this re-gard set by the United Nations.

The maternal mortality raterefers to deaths due to birth or preg-nancy-related complications per

1,00,000 registered live births.The statement said Kerala, whose

rate is 43, has topped the list ofstates in the survey carried outduring 2016-18 by the Office of The

Re gistrar General of India.Maharashtra Public Health MinisterRajesh Tope said that the develop-ment gives relief to the state whichis leading in efforts to contain the

spread of COVID-19.According to the statement, Tamil

Nadu (60), Telangana(63) and Andhra Pradesh (74)

also have found place among thefirst five states in the countrywith low mortality rate. Indians

mortality rate, according to thesurvey, is 113 and it has gone downby 7.4 per cent compared to the 2015-17 study, it said. It is a relief toknow that Maharashtra has re-tained second position in the listof states with low mortality rateat a time when the state is leadingin the country in containing thespread of COVID-19.

The success is due to the ef-forts taken by the healthcare sys-tem of the state, Tope said, ac-c o r d i n g t o t h e s t a t e m e n t .Meanwhile, now the pandemicand strict lockdown in India haveaffected reproductive servicessuch as maternal health, familyplanning, and abortion servicesadversely.

Maha's maternal mortality rate has gonedown to 46 from 68three years ago and thestate has fulfilled the sustainable development goal inthis regard set by the UN

Maha retains second spot in maternal mortality rate

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, Jul 16: The Aam AadmiParty's Maharashtra unit haslaunched a website to campaignagainst high power bills in thestate, where consumers can alsosend their complaints to theMaharashtra ElectricityRegulatory Council (MERC), an of-ficial said Thursday.

The party has launched 'HisaabDo', a website where consumerscan file their complaints about highelectricity bills and compare themwith the power tariffs under theDelhi government, a release issuedby the party stated. "In Maharashtra,we have had some of the highest tar-iffs in the country, coupled withthe issue of load shedding in ruralareas. Such high power bills areunacceptable," the party said.

MAHA HSC RESULT

Girls outshine boys,overall 90.66% pass

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, July 16: Multi-facetedpersonality and retired IAS offi-cer Neela Satayanarayana - whocreated history as the first womanState Election Commissioner(SEC) - succumbed to Covid-19 ata hospital, official sources saidhere Thursday.

An IAS officer of the 1972 batch,Satyanarayana, 71, held manyimportant posts in the state gov-ernment and finally crowned her42-years of bureaucratic servicewith the post SEC.

Popular as "a people-friendlyIAS officer", she was reputed forher fearless approach, never bend-ing before the political class vis-A-vis public interest during thecourse of duties across several de-partments in the state govern-ment. Besides, Neela

Satyanarayana made mark as aprolific writer, poet, lyricist, singer,

composer and music director whohad composed songs for scoresof Marathi films and a couple ofBollywood movies.

She had been admitted to asuburban government hospi-tal a few days ago for Coronatreatment and breathed herlast early today, shocking statepolitical circles.

Condoling her death, ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray saidthe state will always remember heras "an experienced and sensitiveperson who excelled in the fieldof arts and literature, inspiredyouth towards civil services" andmaking the SEC closer to themasses.

Expressing shock, Deputy ChiefMinister Ajit Pawar said that hercontributions to governance andliterature will always be an in-spiration for all.

AAP starts campaignagainst high powerbills in Maharashtra

Maha’s 1st woman SEC Neela succumbs to Covid

An IAS officer of the1972 batch,Satyanarayana heldmany important postsin the state govt andfinally crowned her 42-years of bureaucratic servicewith the post SEC

AGENCIES

Bhopal, July 16: The case of po-lice atrocity on members of a Dalitfamily in Guna district has heatedup the politics of Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress has gone belligerenton the Shivraj Singh Chouhan gov-ernment accusing it of persecutingDalits and the poor, even as the ad-ministration in a strong move re-moved the IG of Gwalior division,the Guna Superintendent of Policeand the District Magistrate.

The Dalit family was brutallybeaten up by the police during ananti-encroachment drive. Videoson social media showed a man, hiswife and two children at the re-ceiving end of the police action.The man was seen being draggedby the police after being beaten upas the woman and the childrenbegged and grovelled in the dust ofthe open field, where he was en-gaged.

The man faced the brunt of po-lice action for occupying the pieceof land meant for college buildingin Cantt area of Guna. This incidentdates back a few days ago. The Dalitcouple had then consumed insec-ticide. The video of the incidentwent viral on the social media andnow, the matter has taken on po-litical hue with the Congress tar-geting the state government forbeing anti-Dalit.

The government also swung intoaction and removed the adminis-trative staff after ordering an in-quiry.

Political analysts say that theincident happened in the area fromwhere Jyotiraditya Scindia, whomoved to the BJP in March after top-pling the Congress government,has been MP and the assembly by-

polls are going to be held in 16 con-stituencies in the Gwalior-Chambaldivision soon.

It is for this, the Congress hasstarted training guns at the Shivrajgovernment. Former Chief MinisterKamal Nath, who is also the MPCCpresident, has questioned the ex-cesses that were inflicted to theDalit family and asked, "Will Shivrajgovernment show such courage toredeem thousands of acres of gov-ernment land occupied by the so-called public servants and influ-encers in these areas? Such anincident cannot be tolerated.Immediate action should be takenagainst the culprits, otherwise theCongress will not remain silent."

Retweeting a tweet of theCongress party, the former chiefminister said, the Congress has al-ways supported the poor and farm-ers in their fight against injustice."This inhuman act of the Shivrajgovernment has exposed the dic-tatorship in him. This is the be-ginning of the end of the Shivrajgovernment in Madhya Pradesh,"he said.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, now RajyaSabha MP from the BJP, quicklydamage controlled with the state-ment that Guna SP and Collectorhave been removed, and the incidentis being investigated. "I am confi-dent that action will be taken againstall those responsible for this heinouscrime," he said.

Home Minister NarottamMishra said that there is a rule oflaw in Madhya Pradesh. "As soonas we came to know about the un-fortunate incident in Guna, wetook prompt action. This is nott h e C o n g re s s g ove r n m e n t .Immediate action was taken inthis case. IG, Collector and SPhave been removed as soon as wecame to know of the incident,"Mishra said. Former MadhyaPradesh Congress president andformer Union Minister ArunYadav said that the police areruthlessly attacking the unarmedDalit farmers in the state while bigcriminals roam freely. The criesof these innocent poor people willlead to the fall of the Shivraj gov-ernment, he said.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bhopal, July 16: Madhya PradeshCongress chief Kamal Nath is setto become the Leader of Opposition(LoP) when the monsoon session ofthe state Assembly begins fromJuly 20.

"We have sent a letter to theAssembly secretariat stating thatour leader in the House is going tobe Nath," said Congress spokesper-son Bhupendra Gupta on Thursday.

Nath was elected as leader of

the Congress Legislative Party afterthe 2018 elections when the partycame to power in the state, Gupta

said. Nath had to resign as chiefminister in March this year afterthe Congress government lost ma-jority with the exit of 22 MLAswho joined the BJP along with sen-ior leader Jyotiraditya Scindia.

With 91 MLAs, the Congresswould be the main opposition partyin the house. Assembly principal sec-retary A P Singh said he had learntabout the letter sent by the Congress."I have not received it yet. It mightbe with our Dak (postal) sectionright now," he added.

MONSOON WOES

Passengers push a bus after it broke down on a flooded road following heavy rain, at Wadala in Mumbai, Thursday PTI PHOTO

AGENCIES

Indore, July 16: In an attempt tocontain the spread of COVID-19 inIndore, the district administrationhas prohibited gathering of morethan 20 people at weddings and fu-nerals, an official said Thursday. Asper an order issuedby district collectorManish Singh, whichcame into effect im-mediately, not morethan 20 people cantake part in weddingsand funeral proces-sions.

As per the previousorder issued in thelast week of June, the district ad-ministration had allowed 50 gueststo attend a wedding, apart from 10service providers like bands, hair-dressers, etc.

The official said that as per thefresh order, not more than 10 peo-ple can attend the wedding an-niversary celebrations and birth-day parties organised at home.Religious functions and public cer-emonies have been banned in therun up to the festive season, he

said. Meanwhile, at least 136 per-sons tested positive for coronavirusin Indore in the last 24 hours, tak-ing the tally

in the district to 5,632, chief med-ical and health officer PraveenJadia said. While 280 persons havedied in the district so far, 4,087 have

recovered from theinfection, he added.

This is for thefirst time in a monththat the figure offresh Covid-19 caseshas crossed themark of 100.

A local healthbulletin said asmany as 2,658 sam-

ples were tested for Covid-19Wednesday, of which 2,517 weretested negative for the infection. Asmany as 1,265 active Covid-19 casesare reported and are being treatedat different hospitals in the dis-trict.

The number of coronavirus casesin India neared one million onThursday as infection numbersrose in the countryside, pushing au-thorities to reinstate lockdownsacross several states.

Only 20 personsallowed at weddings,funerals in Indore

At least 136 persons tested

positive for COVID-19in Indore in the

last 24 hours, takingthe tally here to 5,632

MP politics heats up over Guna’s Dalit beating

Kamal Nath to become LoP in MP Assembly

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P8

nationalFRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

False rumoursspread tomalign. Pilot:

'I am not joiningBJP'. I guess thenlegislators at a hotelin Manesar ismerely a vacation in Haryana'scomfort zone under BJP's watchfuleye. What about ‘ghar wapsi’

KAPIL SIBAL | CONGRESS LEADER

of theday uote

As per thisreport,Mumbai

Congress leadershave demandedaction against me.Because, I wanted aprobe into Shiv Sena leaders' landscam...Is speaking against ShivSena an anti-party activity? IsMumbai Congress merged intoShiv Sena?

SANJAY NIRUPAM | CONGRESS LEADER

The rulingYSRCPgovernment in

the last one year hasbeen relentlesslypursuing anti-peoplepolicies, and in theprocess pushing the state towards‘jungle raj’

JAYADEV GALLA | TDP LEADER

As far as tests areconcerned, Goa is doinggood. Covid caremanagement is also goodSATYA PAL MALIK | GOA GOVERNOR

Rain and drainage water enteredinto state-run Osmania GeneralHospital in Hyderabad Wednesday,turning the oldest and one of thebiggest healthcare facilities inTelangana into a cesspool

HISTORIC OSMANIAHOSPITAL FLOODED

Six die in TN Chennai: Six personsincluding a three-year-old girldied when the car in whichthere were travelling veeredoff the road and fell into aditch on Thursday morning inVillupuram district of TamilNadu, police said. Two injuredchildren have been admittedto hospital. The car wascoming from Tirunelvellidistrict to Chennai and nearTindivanam the car veered offthe road as the driver lostcontrol. The dead include thedriver and five others. TheVillupuram police isinvestigating the case.

Shanties gutted New Delhi: At least 70shanties were gutted in fire atShahbad Dairy area of Delhi'sRohini, police said. At least 26fire tenders were rushed tothe spot after the incidentwas reported on Wednesdaynight and the fire fightingofficials managed to controlthe raging blaze at around 2a.m. on Thursday. "Wereceived a call at 11.30 p.m.on Wednesday night. Thesewere small shanties wherepeople mostly did the scrapwork. No causality has beenreported so far due to the fire," said a senior police officer.

Militant killed Srinagar: An unidentifiedmilitant was killed whentroops foiled an infiltrationbid along the Line of Control(LoC) in Kupwara district ofJammu and Kashmir onThursday, an Army officialsaid. He said the alert troopseliminated the intruder whenthey noticed suspiciousmovement across the LoC inKeran sector. "Terrorists triedto infiltrate but wereintercepted by our troops.One terrorist was killed," theofficial said, adding an AKrifle was recovered. Theoperation was in progresswhen the last reports camein, he added.

Woman founddead in Shimla Shimla: A 23-year-old womanworking as an assistant to ahigh court lawyer was founddead at her rentedaccommodation hereThursday, the police said.Prima facie, it seemed that shedied due to electric shock,they added. The woman is aresident of Solan district andlived at a rented house here.An expert team from the stateforensic science laboratory(SFSL) has been asked to visitthe spot for inspection, theysaid. The additionalsuperintendent of police (ASP)and the Sadar SHO visited thespot and the body has beensent to IGMC hospital for post-mortem, the police added.

SHORT TAKES

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UNLOCK 2.0

A shopkeeper waits for customers at a gift shop during Unlock 2.0 in Kolkata, Thursday PTI PHOTO

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Chennai, July 16: Modulus Housing,a startup incubated at the IndianInstitute of Technology Madras(IIT-M) has developed a portablehospital unit that can be installedanywhere within two hours by fourpeople, said the IIT-M.

In a statement issued hereThursday, IIT-M said the portablehospital called MediCAB is a de-centralised approach to detect,screen, identify, isolate and treatCovid-19 patients in their local com-munities through these portablemicrostructures.

According to IIT-M, MediCABhas been recently deployed in theWayanad district in Kerala to treatcorna patients. The startup is de-veloping micro hospitals that can

be deployed rapidly across the na-tion.

The MediCAB is foldable and is

composed of four zones - a doctor'sroom, an isolation room, a medicalroom/ward and a twin-bed ICU,

maintained at negative pressure.The startup collaborated with SreeChitra Tirunal Institute for MedicalSciences and Technology (SCTIMST)who provided inputs on the certi-fications and customisations nec-essary for the project.

The company Modulus Housingfounded by two IIT alumni in 2018,was supported by the IIT-M

Incubation Cell and has a visionto revolutionise housing throughmodular prefab structures. Theyhave re-purposed their designs tosupport the fight against Covid-19.

"The outcome of this pilot proj-ect in Kerala will help in proving theapplicability of the technology andadvantages of micro hospitals, withMediCAB as an instant infra-structure solution. It can be easilyassembled in eight hours by four peo-ple. When folded, our collapsiblecabins are reduced five-fold, mak-ing it very cost-effective for trans-portation," Shreeram Ravichandran,Chief Executive Officer said.

"Health infrastructure is crucialin fighting any pandemic. With a con-tagious disease such as Covid-19, itis essential to have smart healthinfrastructure to screen, contain

and treat people. Unlike urban areaswhere there is plenty of existing in-frastructures that can be convertedto hospitals, rural areas do not havea lot of infrastructure. It is diffi-cult to construct buildings fromscratch as the requirement is im-mediate. As the rural populationdensity is relatively low, more microhospitals help greatly in tacklingCOVID-19 cases."

Modulus is working on a dualdesign where these can be rapidlylaunched as Covid-19 isolationwards. Post Covid-19, these can betransformed into micro-hospi-tals/clinics in rural India wherethe medical infrastructure needsto be augmented. Modulus Housinghas set up its manufacturing unitat Chengalpet (located about 35 kmsfrom Chennai).

DECENTRALISED APPROACH

IIT-M startup develops portable hospital for corona patients

LJP targets Bihar govtPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, July 16: The LokJanshakti Party Thursday joinedthe opposition in attacking theBihar government over the col-lapse of a road in floods, saying itraises questions on the claim of"zero corruption" and demands ac-tion against the "guilty".

The state government has in-sisted that it is an approach roadto a new bridge connectingGopalganj to East Champaranwhich has been washed away, andnot the bridge itself as alleged byopposition leaders like RashtriyaJanata Dal's Tejashwi Yadav. In atweet, LJP president ChiragPaswan targeted the Bihar gov-ernment headed by Chief MinisterNitish Kumar.

"Part of a bridge built at the costof`264 crore has collapsed today. Anywork done with public moneyshould be carried out maintain-ing quality standards. Incidentslike this raise questions in thepublic eye over zero corruption.The LJP demands a high-levelprobe to punish the guil tyquickly," he said.

His tweet is seen as yet an-other instance of Paswan criti-cising Kumar's government inwhich the BJP is a partner.Though the LJP is a BharatiyaJanata Party ally, it is not part of

the Bihar government led byJanata Dal (United) chief Kumar.

Sharing an image of the caved-in portion of the road on hisTwitter handle, leader of the op-position Tejashwi Yadav de-manded resignation of Kumar,wh o h a d i n a u g u r a t e d t h eSattarghat bridge on June 16.

The Bihar government, how-ever, quickly came out with aclarification that it was not thebridge itself that had collapsed.

The state's Road ConstructionDepartment issued a statement,saying the caved-in portion ofthe road was situated "two kilo-metres away from the bridge"and that it was the approachroute for an 18-metre-long cause-way that leads to the Sattarghatbridge.

Incidentally, the department isa part of the ministerial portfolioof senior BJP leader Nand KishoreYadav in the state government.

ROAD COLLAPSE

Dubai hosp waives `1.52 crCovid bill of Indian workerINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Hyderabad, July 16: A hospitalin Dubai has waived the `1.52 crore bill of a labourer fromTelangana, who was treated therefor Covid-19.

Odnala Rajesh, who was undertreatment at the Dubai Hospital for80 days, reached Hyderabad in theearly hours of Wednesday and leftfor his village in Jagtiyal district.The 42-year-old was admitted toDubai Hospital on April 23 andhad tested positive for Covid-19. Herecovered after 80 days of treatmentand the hospital handed him a billof 7,62,555 Arab Emirate Dirham(Rs 1 crore 52 lakh).

Gundelli Narasimha, presidentof the Gulf Workers' ProtectionSociety in Dubai, who took theworker to the hospital and wasvisiting him regularly, brought thematter to the attention of SumanthReddy, an Indian Consulate vol-unteer in Dubai. Reddy and Ashok

Kotecha of BAPS SwaminarayanTrust requested Harjeet Singh,Consul (Labour) of IndianConsulate in Dubai, to help thepoor worker. Harjeet Singh wrotea letter to the Dubai Hospital man-agement, requesting them to waivethe bill on humanitarian grounds.They responded positively andwaived the bill.

Dubai Hospital is a multi-spe-cialty hospital and is a part of theDubai Department of Health andMedical Services.

Ashok Kotecha provided freeflight ticket to Rajesh and his es-cort Dyavara Kankaiah and paid`10,000 for pocket expenses. Theyreached Hyderabad by an Air IndiaExpress flight.

Gap in cured and active Covidcases quadruples in 30 daysINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, July 16: India remainsthe third worst COVID-19 affectedcountry in the world after the USand Brazil with over 9.68 lakh con-firmed cases and the gap though be-tween patients who have recoveredand those still infected by the virushas almost quadrupled in the lastone month.

The trend was noted from June16 and July 16 (Thursday) by theMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare (MoHFW). As per the data,a total of 63.25 per cent COVID-19patients have recovered so far whilethe active cases are 34.18 per cent.

Accordingly, in the one month,there is a gap of 29.7 per cent betweenthe recovered patients and activenovel coronavirus cases. There werea total of 52.47 per cent recoveredcases on June 16 while the activecases were 44.65 per cent. It showeda gap of around 7.82 per cent then.

As per MoHF graph, from mid-June 2020 after crossing the 50 percent mark in recovery rate, there isa steady increase in the recoveredpatients and decline in the numberof active cases. Simultaneously,there has been a steady dip in theactive cases.

"63.25 per cent of the COVID-19patients have recovered so far and

from around 45 per cent in mid-June 2020 to around 34.18 per cent,as of now."

A total of 20,783 people cured ofCOVID in the last 24 hours hastaken the total number of recoveredcases among COVID-19 patients to6,12,814, said the Ministry data,adding the gap between recoveredpatients and active COVID-19 caseshas further increased to 2,81,668.

A graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach under the ‘Wholeof Government" strategy has beenadopted by the Central govern-

ment along with the states andUTs for prevention, containmentand management of COVID-19, theMinistry said.

"The collective efforts are regu-larly reviewed and monitored atthe highest level. The targeted meas-ures have contributed to a steadydecline in the number of activecases."

As on date, the actual caseload ofCOVID-19 patients in the countryis only 3,31,146. These contribute toa little more than a third (34.18 percent) of total cases detected so far.

The data further shows that onlytwo states-- Maharashtra and TamilNadu-- constitute 48.15 per cent ofthe country's total active case load.Maharashtra remained the worst-hit state, with 2,75,640 cases and10,928 casualties followed by TamilNadu with a total 1,51,820 cases,including 2,167 deaths.

Of the total 36 states and UnionTerritories (UTs), the data says,only 10 states constitute 84.62 percent of the total active case load.

States with more than 10,000cases included Gujarat (44,552),Uttar Pradesh (41,383), Rajasthan(26,437), Madhya Pradesh (19,643),West Bengal (34,427), Haryana(23,306), Karnataka (47,253), AndhraPradesh (35,451), Telangana (39,342),Assam (18,666), and Bihar (20,612).

According to IIT-M,MediCAB has beendeployed in Wayanad totreat corona patients.The startup is developingmicro hospitals that canbe deployed rapidly

LJP president Chirag Paswan

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, July 16: Two personswere killed and 15 others res-cued from debris of two buildingsthat crashed in the city and its suburbs Thursday afternoon, the BMC Disaster Cell said. Afew others could also be trapped,it added.

In the first case, two personswere killed and 13 others weredug out of debris of a three-storiedtenement that crashed due to heavyrains at Malvani in Malad West.Four-five persons are feared to betrapped there. The Mumbai FireBrigade and disaster teams aretrying to rescue them.

The victims have been identifiedas 23-year-old woman Anjum S.Shaikh and an 18-year- old FaizalW. Sayyed. The rescued peoplewere treated for minor injuriesand discharged by Hayat Hospitalnearby. In the second accident,the rear part of a five-storiedBhanushali Building collapsed atthe Fort in South Mumbai due torain, which lashed the city sincethe past four days.

2 killed, 15 rescuedas buildings collapse

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, July 16: After criti-cism from various political par-ties, the Election CommissionThursday said that it has decidednot to extend the facility of postalballot to electors above 65 yearsof age in the coming BiharAssembly elections and in bypollsdue in near future.

The Commission, in a state-ment, said that it "has been con-stantly monitoring the electoralpreparedness" for the coming by-elections and the Bihar polls "inview of this unprecedented envi-ronment".

"The Commission has alreadylimited the number of electorsto one thousand for each pollingstation for ease of voting, especiallyfor elderly and vulnerable sec-tions of electors, in Covid-19 sit-uations." However, facility of op-tional postal ballot to electors whoare above 80 years of age, dis-abled voters, the electors engagedin essential services and voterswho are Covid- 19 positive/sus-pect in quarantine will be ex-tended, it said.

The commission said in view ofits restrictions on number of vot-ers at a polling station, Bihar is cre-ating approximately 34,000 addi-tional polling stations (45 per centmore), which will increase thetotal number of polling stations toaround 1,06,000.

"This would entail formidablelogistical challenges of mobilizing1.8 lakh more polling personnel andother additional resources in-cluding requirement of muchlarger number of vehicles in thestate of Bihar. Similar challengeswould be there for the coming by-elections also," it said.

No postal ballot forvoters above 65 yrs

Girl raped outside Covid wardINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Patna, July 16: A security guardof Patna Medical College andHospital (PMCH), the largest hos-pital in Bihar, has been arrested forallegedly raping a minor girl out-side a Covid ward in the hospital,police said.

A police official said Thursday,that July 8, the minor girl was seenwandering at Barh railway sta-tion. The child helpline rescuedthe 15-year-old girl and handedover to the PMCH for Covid test.

It has been alleged that on thenight of July 8, the ward's secu-

rity guard Mahesh Prasad (40) tookthe victim to the bathroom andraped her.

The victim did not reveal this toanyone out of fear. When the mem-bers of Child Helpline came to seeher on Wednesday, she narratedthe ordeal. Aarti Jaiswal, in-chargeof Patna Mahila Police Station,said an FIR has been lodged in thisconnection on the basis of victim'sstatement and the accused has beenarrested. She said that the victimhas been medically examined, thereport of which is yet to come.Police is investigating the entirecase, she added.

Assam flood situation grimINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Guwahati, July 16: Amid the ris-ing COVID-19 cases, the flood situ-ation in Assam remained grimThursday, as five more deaths werereported from four districts, takingthe death toll due to the deluge to71, while around 40 lakh peopleacross 27 of the state's 33 districtshave been affected.

According to officials of forest de-partment and Assam State DisasterManagement Authority (ASDMA),at least 76 animals were killed,while 121 animals were rescued as

95 per cent of the world-famousKaziranga national park, home tomore than 2,200 one-horned Indianrhinoceros, was inundated.

An ASDMA official said thatover the past more than a month,71 deaths due to the floods were re-ported from Sonitpur, Biswanath,Tinsukia, Lakhimpur, Bongaigaon,Kamrup, Golaghat, Sivasagar,Morigaon, Tinsukia, Dhubri,Na g aon, Nalbari , Bar peta ,Dhemaji, Udalguri, Goalpara andDibrugarh districts, while 26 oth-ers have been killed in separatelandslides since May 22.

The officials said that more thanseven rivers, including the mightyBrahmaputra, are flowing abovethe danger mark in many places inmore than 12 districts.

Quoting reports from the dis-tricts, they said that the floodwaterhas submerged 3,218 villages, af-fecting around 40 lakh people and131,368 hectares of crop area in 27districts.

The District Administrationshave set up 748 relief camps and dis-tribution centres in 25 districts,where around 50,000 men, womenand children have taken shelter.

As per the data, a total of63.25 per cent COVID-19

patients have recovered so far while the active cases are34.18 per cent

Accordingly, in the onemonth, there is a gap of 29.7

per cent between the recoveredpatients and active novelcoronavirus cases

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To force a couple toattempt suicide by damagingtheir crop sown by taking debtwith the help of JCB machine,in the name of encroachment,is most cruel and shameful MAYAWATI | BSP PRESIDENT

P9

nationalFRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

More than 2,000 people haveregistered to volunteer as civil policewardens with Bangalore policedepartment's south division to assistin regulation and anti-Covidmeasures, an official said Thursday

DEFEATING CORONA

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The BJPgovernment inKarnataka has

made amendmentsto the land reformsAct and brought outan ordinance on July13 despite stiff opposition. I hadinitially thought that thegovernment will not come out withthe ordinance at a time whenCOVID-19 is spreading, but thegovernment did

SIDDARAMAIAH |LEADER OF OPPOSITION IN KARNATAKA

of theday uote

Gold recoveredPalghar: Gold, jewellery andcash worth Rs 1.77 crorelooted by a gang of robbersfrom the office of a gold loancompany in Maharashtra'sPalghar district last year hasbeen recovered fully, thepolice said. DistrictSuperintendent of PoliceDatta Shinde said Wednesdaythose ten persons have beenarrested in the case so farand hunt is on for a fewothers.

Two arrestedMumbai: The Maharashtrapolice's Anti-Terrorism Squadhas arrested two persons forthe alleged possession ofmephedrone worth Rs 1.10crore in the western suburbof Saki Naka here, an officialsaid Thursday. Acting on atip-off, the Juhu unit of theATS laid a trap at Wahid AliCompound at 90-ft RoadWednesday evening andnabbed two men, whileanother accused fled thescene, the official said.

Farmer found deadBulandshahr: A farmer wasfound murdered in a field inUttar Pradesh's Bulandshahr,police said on Thursday.According to them, theincident took place atVidhipur village when VeerSingh (45) went to his fieldson Wednesday night. He wasfound dead by villagers onThursday morning after whichthey informed the deceased'srelatives and police.

NTPC manager heldNew Delhi: The CBI hasarrested a manager of NTPCLimited in Jodhpur forallegedly receiving Rs onelakh as bribe for clearing billsand allowing smoothfunctioning of a firm engagedfor the maintenance of asolar plant of the PSU,officials said Thursday.

Two quakes hit AssamGuwahati: Two earthquakes of 4.1 and 2.6 magnitudes onthe Richter scale hit someparts of Assam and adjoining northeast areas onThursday. No damage orcasualty has been reported.According to a IMD official,the first quake of themagnitude of 4.1 on theRichter scale hit southernAssam's Karimganj, Silcharand adjoining areas at 7.57a.m. Another tremor of 2.6magnitude on the Richterscale hit the Kokrajhar districtin western Assam at 1.9 p.m.

SHORT TAKES

Air India'scompulsoryleave without

pay scheme isunprecedented inthe history of publicsector undertakings.Obvious ploy to protect topmanagement and sacrificeemployees

DEREK O’BRIEN |TRINAMOOL CONGRESS LEADER

We have fullfaith in theIndian culture.

Whenever any suchcrisis like coronatakes place, we holdreligiousprogrammes to pray to god

JAI RAM THAKUR | HIMACHAL CM

ANOTHER STORM?

J’khand Cong fearslosing MLAs to BJPJharkhand BJP spokesperson Pratul Shahdev said, “There is no value

of Congress ministers' words for the government. In this situationthey want to create pressure on Chief Minister Hemant Soren”

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Ranchi, July 16: After facing po-litical storms in Madhya Pradeshand Rajasthan, the fear of losingMLAs is now haunting Congressleaders in Jharkhand. SeniorCongress leader and Jharkhandminister Rameshwar Oraon saidthat the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) is trying to break the CongressMLAs. The BJP, however, deniessuch allegations, calling it a strat-egy of the Congress to pressurizethe Chief Minister.

Oraon said that many of hisMLAs were lured by the BJP andan attempt was made to buy themduring the Rajya Sabha elections.He alleged that the BJP is con-stantly trying to lure the Congresslegislators.

However, expressing confidencein his MLAs, he said that they areloyal Congressmen and will not goto any other party. Oraon alleged thatduring the Rajya Sabha elections,a conspiracy was hatched to formthe government by offering moneyand posts to MLAs.

Congress MLA Irfan Ansari alsoclarified the situation by tweetingand retweeting from his officialTwitter account. Ansari tweeted, "I

would have crossed the river withlies and flattery. But the habit oftelling the truth drowned me."

Ansari has also retweeted a tweetthat reads, "Your pain is valid Dr.Irfan Ansari. Rahul Gandhi, whathas happened in Madhya Pradeshand Rajasthan, the evidence of it willcome forward in Jharkhand. Is theMBBS degree not sufficient of aman who carries Congress flag dayand night and is educated andstraightforward. Matriculation fail-ure is a must. This is the problemof Congress. Change with the times."

The BJP denies any such alle-gations. Jharkhand BJP spokesper-son Pratul Shahdev said, "There

is no value of Congress ministers'words for the government. In thissituation they want to create pres-sure on Chief Minister Hemant."

He said that the Congress is a partof the government. If somethinglike this is happening, they shouldregister an FIR and get the matter in-vestigated. Shahdev added that thesituation regarding coronavirus inJharkhand is getting frightening.In such a situation, the Congress istrying to divert the people's attentionby raising such issues. However,sources say that many Congressleaders are angry with the govern-ment and they have raised questionsabout the government's decisions.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Kolkata, July 16: West BengalGovernor Jagdeep DhankharThursday criticised the state's ed-ucation system saying the qualityof education here is rapidly de-clining due to political control andaffiliations.

"It is unfortunate that in ourstate the education is politicallycontrolled. Politically controllededucation system can never servethe wholesome purpose. What Ifind now is that the political gripon education is tightening in Bengal.It will hurt the students. It willhurt the education scenario. It willhurt the society at large," theGovernor told a pressconference here.

He said that the im-portance of educationis finished in society. Ifa country has grown ithas grown on the basisof quality education."Education is impor-tant and it is the soul ofthe society as it passesfrom one generation toanother. Neglect of ed-ucation will hurt generations aftergeneration," he said.

"I am here for a year now and Iam trying to improve the educationsystem. I have interacted with for-mer vice-chancellors. I have in-teracted with students, guardiansand academicians. They all sharemy anguish that the state of WestBengal which is gifted with finestand oldest institutions is rapidly de-clining in quality of education onaccount of political control and

political affiliations," Dhankharpointed out.

The Governor said that duringCovid-19 he had scheduled a virtualconference with the vice-chancel-lors. "You will be shocked. The gov-ernment said there is no provision

for virtual conference.Can you ever imagine inchanging India the vir-tual conferences arebeing held day in andday out by the chief min-isters, the governmenthas the audacity to writeto the Governor sayingthat there is no rule,"he said.

He said students cando well only if the edu-

cation system is good. "If I am rais-ing the issue of quality education,if I want students to get the best ofeducation I do not understand whythe government is objecting tothis," he added.

The Governor's reactions camea day after the state government hadrefused to give permissions to allvice-chancellors to attend a vir-tual meeting called by Dhankharon July 15, citing the on-goingCovid-19 pandemic situation.

GRIM SCENARIO

Dhankhar slamsWB’s edu system

The Governor'sreactions came a

day after the stategovernment hadrefused to give

permissions to allvice-chancellors to

attend a virtualmeeting called byDhankhar July 15

Haryana gearsup for intenselocust attackINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Chandigarh, July 16: TheHaryana government has steppedup efforts to control locust swarmsand crop damages in view of warn-ing about potential intense attacksin several districts after July 22.

Additional Chief SecretarySanjeev Kaushal said, hereThursday, arrangements had beenmade to stock additional quanti-ties of pesticides. The locustswarms in the region had becomeresistant to the commonly used pes-ticide Chorpyriphos, he added.

To prevent homogeneity in useof pesticides during repeatedspraying, arrangements are beingmade to stock 20,000 litres of LamdaCyhalothrin in addition to exist-ing stocks of pesticide.

Three drones were being pur-chased for aerial spray of pesticide,he said.

According to Kaushal, 66 fire-ten-ders are available along with 3,540tractor-mounted spray pumps.The state would also acquire fog-ging machines being bought bythe Centre from the UK for useon trees.

The Locust War ningOrganisation has warned of highintensity attacks in Nuh, Rewari,Mahendragarh, Bhiwani andCharkhi Dadri districts after July22 as large-scale locust breedingwas observed in the Jhunjhunu dis-trict in Rajasthan.

These attacks are likely to be farmore severe than the previousones over 13,038 acres in Jhajjar,Charkhi Dadri, Palwal, Sirsa, Nuh,Rewari, Bhiwani and Narnaul dis-tricts between June 26 and July 16.

Kaushal said farmers in Jhajjar,Palwal and Nuh didn't report anylosses due to locust swarms.

Fresh lockdown in Goa to affect tourist sentiment

Panel to examine4G service, SC toldHigh speed internet in Jammu and Kashmir hasbeen suspended since August 5, 2019 when the

Centre announced revocation of its special statusand bifurcation of the state into union territories

of Ladakh and Jammu and Kashmir

PNN & AGENCIES

New Delhi, July 16: The Centreand Jammu and Kashmir admin-istration Thursday told the SupremeCourt that a special committee hasbeen constituted to consider theissue of restoration of 4G inter-net services in the Union Territory.

High speed internet in Jammuand Kashmir has been suspendedsince August 5, 2019 when the Centreannounced revocation of its specialstatus and bifurcation of the stateinto union territories of Ladakh andJammu and Kashmir.

Attorney General K K Venugopaltold a bench headed by Justice NV Ramana that no contempt ismade out against the authorities as

they have complied with the May11 directive of the apex court.

The bench, also comprising jus-tices R S Reddy and B R Gavai,asked the Centre and Jammu andKashmir administration to file af-fidavits detailing the setting up ofthe committee and also the decisionstaken by it.

The apex court was hearing a pleaseeking initiation of contempt pro-ceedings against the Union homesecretary and chief secretary ofJammu and Kashmir administra-tion for their alleged "wilful dis-obedience" in complying with thecourt's May 11 order for setting upa "special committee" to considerrestoration of 4G internet serv-ices in the Union Territory.

On May 11, the top court had or-dered setting up of a "special com-mittee" headed by the Union homesecretary to consider pleas forrestoration of 4G internet serv-ices in Jammu and Kashmir, say-ing national security and humanrights needed to be balanced inview of the fact the union terri-tory has been "plagued with militancy".

‘REAL TOURISM’ YET TO BEGIN

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Panaji, July 16: The Goa govern-ment's sudden announcement of alockdown may have affected thetourist sentiment and confidencebuilding efforts made by the state'stourism industry to lure touristfootfalls to the coastal state, Traveland Tourism Association of Goapresident Nilesh Shah said Thursday.

Shah, who heads one of the old-est bodies of travel and tourismstakeholders in Goa, also said thatdespite the state government open-ing its doors to the tourists from July1, trade had not picked up and thatonly "5 to 7 per cent" hotels were wit-

nessing some bookings."What is badly affected is the

sentiment and the confidence thatwe were gradually building. Thecontinuity has also been inter-rupted. The sentiment was alreadydecreasing because of the risingnumber of cases and there is noclear way forward. Now it has gonedown even more," Shah told re-porters here. The comment fromthe president of the industry stake-holders' body comes a day afterChief Minister Pramod Sawant onWednesday announced a two-tieredcurfew in the state.

While a complete lockdown (bar-ring essential and medical services)

has been ordered in Goa fromThursday night to Monday morning,a night curfew has been imposed

until August 10, in view of the pro-longed spike in the number of ac-tive Covid-19 cases in the state which

have crossed 1,000, in India's small-est state with a population of just 1.5million. Most of the cases have beenreported over the last one month.Sawant had said the state could beheading towards peak numbers, es-pecially in view of the monsoons,when he said there was a tendencyfor viral infections to increase.

Shah said that despite the stategovernment opening up the state fortourism on July 1, "real tourism" hadnot started. "Generally speaking,tourism hadn't really picked up inthe state with only 5-7 per cent hotelshaving some occupancy and that toowas only people of the younger, morecare-free generation," Shah said.

"The real tourism in which peo-ple travel with their families has yetto begin and with bars and swim-ming pools closed that will takesome time to restart," he added.The official also said that the in-dustry stakeholders were awaitinga formal notification from the dis-trict administration explaining fur-ther details about the lockdown.

"We are awaiting the notifica-tion from the (District) Collectorswhich will tell us what exactly willbe opened and closed. But we un-derstand that flights will not be af-fected. So tourists already in thestate may not be affected a greatdeal," Shah said.

REACHING OUT

Assam CM Sarbananda Sonowal takes stock of flood situation and conditions of animals during his visit to Centre for WildlifeRehabilitation and Conservation, at Borjuri village near Kaziranga National Park, in Nagaon district PTI PHOTO

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, July 16: A 35-year-oldman was found hanging in thebathroom of the All India Instituteof Medical Sciences (AIIMS), po-lice said Thursday.

The man was found hangingwith a plastic pipe, which is usedwith glucose bottles, in the bath-room of the Yellow Zone in theAIIMS Trauma Centre. No sui-cide note was recovered from him,said police.

"On July 16 at 12.55 a.m., an in-formation regarding the suicidein the bathroom at the AIIMSTrauma Centre' was received in thePolice Station Hauz Khas fromAIIMS Hospital, New Delhi. Oninspection, a ligature mark overthe anterior aspect of Neck wasfound on the deceased," said AtulThakur, DCP South Delhi.

The deceased was identifiedas RajMani Patel, a resident ofdistrict Satna in Madhya Pradesh.The deceased underwent intes-tinal surgery at the AIIMSHospital in July 2019. In contin-uation of his treatment on July15, he came for further treatmentin the AIIMS Trauma. His ad-mission was made at about 11.30p.m. on Wednesday. In the mean-time, the deceased went missingfrom the admission area.Thereafter, he was found hang-ing in the bathroom at YellowZone, AIIMS Trauma Centre.

The deceased was rushed to theemergency area where doctor de-clared him brought dead.

AIIMS PATIENTHANGS SELF

CBSE, IBM introduce AI curriculum in schools INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, July 16: The CentralBoard of Secondary Education(CBSE) Thursday announced apartnership with tech giant IBMto introduce artificial intelligence(AI) curriculum for classes 11 and12 in about 200 high schools across13 states in India.

Developed in collaboration withIBM, the curriculum is part ofCBSE's Social Empowermentthrough Work Education andAction (SEWA) programme.

The curriculum is structuredaround a course framework forstudents consisting of base strandsof knowledge (basics, history, ap-plications), skills (design think-ing, computational thinking, datafluency, critical thinking) and val-ues (ethical decision making, bias)in AI.

"The objective of our excitingcollaboration with CBSE is tohelp address some of those chal-

lenges by designing one of themost accessible and comprehen-sive gateways for students to begintheir AI journey," Sandip Patel,General Mana g er, IBMIndia/South Asia said in a state-ment.

According to the company, itis further made robust with prob-lem-based learning outcomes andassessment methods for teach-ers, to build foundational skills ofAI in students making them notjust consumers of AI, but cre-ators as well.

BOOSTING SKILLS

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P10FRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalThe worldis waking

up to the threatsfrom China and itwill be confrontedas never before bydemocraciesMIKE POMPEO | USSECRETARY OF STATE

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaroconfirmed that he has once againtested positive for the novelcoronavirus, roughly a week afterhe contracted the virus

BOLSONARO AGAINTESTS COVID+VE

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Masks will bemandatory inclosed public

places as of nextweek

JEAN CASTEX | NEW

FRENCH PRIME MINISTER

of theday uote

The Victoriagovernmentresponded to

the latest spike byreducing non-urgentsurgeries allowed inhospitals to increasebeds available for COVID-19patients

JENNY MIKAKOS | AUSTRALIAN POLITICIAN

The UnitedStates thinksthat

everything Chinadoes is a threat,such attitude wouldbecome self-fulfilling

HUA CHUNYING | CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY

SPOKESWOMAN

30 killed in flash floodsIndonesia: Flash floods andlandslides killed at least 30people on the Indonesianisland of Sulawesi and lefthundreds displaced,authorities said Thursday.Fifteen people remainmissing, Indonesia searchrescue agency spokesmanYusuf Latif said in astatement. The flash floodsstruck the North Luwu districtof South Sulawesi provinceafter heavy rain on Mondaycaused three nearby rivers toburst. More than 4,000residents were affected.

Netanyahu’spopularity drops Jerusalem: Israeli PrimeMinister BenjaminNetanyahu's popularity hasdropped as he is facing acriminal trial, the coronaviruscrisis and an economicsetback, according to a newpoll. The poll, issuedWednesday by Israel's Radio103fm, the popularity of theembattled leader has beendecreasing even amongvoters of his right-wing Likudparty, reports Xinhua newsagency. Some 41 per cent ofthe Likud voters said that theybelieve the government hasfailed in handling the crisis.

Iran faces shortage of medicsTeheran: Hospitals in Iranface acute shortages ofmedical personnel and bedsas the country tackles apowerful second wave of theCOVID-19 pandemic, a seniorofficial of Tehran’s anti-coronavirus task force saidThursday. Iran, the MiddleEast country hardest hit bythe pandemic, began relaxingits lockdown in mid-April.

‘Climate changeas urgent as nCoV’London: Swedish activistGreta Thunberg urgedEuropean leaders onThursday to take emergencyaction on climate change,saying people in power hadpractically “given up” on thepossibility of handing over adecent future to cominggenerations. In an interviewwith Reuters television, the17-year-old said governmentswould only be able to mounta meaningful response oncethey accepted they needed totransform the wholeeconomic system.

Smoking raises risksWashington: Close to onethird of young US adultsappear to have an elevatedrisk for severe Covid-19, withsmoking their strongest riskfactor, according to surveydata.

SHORT TAKES

REUTERS

Hanoi, July 16: The United Statesthis week hardened its position onthe South China Sea, where it hasaccused China of attempting tobuild a “maritime empire” in the po-tentially energy-rich waters, de-spite regional concerns.

The rivals have accused eachother of stoking tension in thestrategic waterway at a time ofstrained relations over everythingfrom the new coronavirus to tradeto Hong Kong.

A statement from U.S. Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo on July 13 wasthe first time the United States hadcalled China’s claims in the sea un-lawful and accused Beijing of a“campaign of bullying”.

But heated rhetoric has also beenon the rise in the region, where

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines,Taiwan and Vietnam challengeChina’s claim to about 90% of the sea.

REGIONAL TENSIONSVietnam, frequently at logger-

heads with China over the issue, isthis year chairing the 10-memberAssociation of South East AsianNations (ASEAN).

At a June 26 summit in Hanoi,Vietnam and the Philippines -China’s most vocal challengers overthe sea - warned of growing re-gional insecurity amid concernthat Beijing was advancing terri-torial claims under the cover of theCOVID-19 pandemic.As China heldmilitary drills in the South ChinaSea this month, Vietnam saidBeijing’s actions were “detrimen-tal” to its relationship with theSoutheast Asian bloc. The United

States simultaneously deployed twoaircraft carriers to the area forwhat it said were pre-planned ex-ercises.

In a blustery response to theChinese drills, Philippine ForeignMinister Teodoro Locsin said China“will be met with the severest re-sponse, diplomatic and whatever

else is appropriate”, if the exercisesencroached on Philippine territory.

That followed a surprise moveby President Rodrigo Duterte - whohad courted Beijing since takingoffice in 2016 - to suspend his deci-sion to scrap a two-decade-old troopdeployment agreement with theUnited States.

TROUBLED WATERSChina illustrates its claims with

a vague, U-shaped “nine-dash line”that includes swathes of Vietnam’sexclusive economic zone, or EEZ, aswell as the Paracel Islands andSpratly Islands. It also overlaps theEEZs of Brunei, Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwanand Vietnam.

A tribunal at The Hague, basedon a suit brought by the Philippines,ruled in 2016 that China has no “his-toric title” over the waters, and thatits line was superseded by the 1982 U.N.Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Last year, Chinese andVietnamese vessels became em-broiled in a months-long standoff inVietnam’s EEZ where a Chineseresearch vessel conducted a sweep-ing seismic survey of waters over-lapping Vietnamese oil blocks.

What’s behind rising tensions in the SCS?

Oxford UniversityCovid-19 vaccineraises hopes AGENCIES

London, July 16: Researchers atthe University of Oxford believethey may have a breakthrough intheir search for a Covid-19 vac-cine after the team discoveredthat the jab could provide "doubleprotection" against the deadlycoronavirus following early stagehuman trials, according to mediareports in the UK.

Blood samples taken from agroup of UK volunteers given adose of the vaccine showed that itstimulated the body to produceboth antibodies and killer T-cells,a senior source from the trial wasquoted by The Daily Telegraph'as saying. The discovery is prom-ising because separate studieshave suggested that antibodiesmay fade away within monthswhile T-cells can stay in circula-tion for years. However, the sourcecautioned that the results, whileextremely promising, did not yetprove that the Oxford vaccine pro-vides long-lasting immunityagainst the deadly virus.

The vaccine development, bythe university's Jenner Institute,is being supported by the UK gov-ernment and AstraZeneca, whichwill support the production phase.

A girl plays with water on a warm summer day at a shopping complex in Beijing, China REUTERS

CHILLING OUT

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

London, July 16: ShamimaBegum, a British resident whoran away in 2015 to become anIslamic State (IS) jihadi bride,has won a legal bat-tle to be allowed to re-turn home to fightthe government's de-cision to remove herUK citizenship, amedia report saidThursday.

In its ruling, theCourt of Appeal saidshe had been denied a fair hear-ing because she could not makeher case from the camp, the BBCreported.

The judgement means the gov-ernment must now find a way toallow the 20-year-old to appear incourt in London despite repeatedlysaying it would not assist removingher from Syria.

Responding to the develop-

ment, Daniel Furner, Begum'ssolicitor, said: "She has neverhad a fair opportunity to giveher side of the story. She is notafraid of facing British justice, shewelcomes it.

"But the strippingof her citizenshipwithout a chance toclear her name is notjustice, it is the oppo-site." Begum had ar-gued that the govern-ment's decision torevoke her citizenshipwas unlawful because

it left her stateless. In 2015, Begum,then aged 15, was one of threeschoolgirls from Bethnal GreenAcademy who left their homesand families to join the IS.

Kadiza Sultana, then 16, andAmira Abase, then 15, and Begumboarded a flight from GatwickAirport to Istanbul, Turkey, onFebruary 17, 2015, before makingtheir way to Raqqa in Syria.

UK IS bride can returnto fight citizenship

Russia trying to stealvaccine data, sayUK, US and Canada

REUTERS

London/Ottawa, July 16: Hackersbacked by the Russian state are try-ing to steal COVID-19 vaccine andtreatment research from academicand pharmaceutical institutionsaround the world, Britain’sNational Cyber Security Centre(NCSC) said Thursday.

A co-ordinated statement fromBritain, the United States andCanada attributed the attacks togroup APT29, also known as ‘CozyBear’, which they said was almostcertainly operating as part ofRussian intelligence services.

“We condemn these despicableattacks against those doing vitalwork to combat the coronaviruspandemic,” said NCSC Director ofOperations, Paul Chichester.

Russian news agency RIA citedspokesman Dmitry Peskov as say-ing the Kremlin rejected London’sallegations, which he said werenot backed by proper evidence.

In a separate announcementBritain also accused “Russian ac-tors” of trying to interfere in its2019 election by trying to spreadleaked documents online. Russia’sforeign ministry said those accu-sations were “foggy and contra-dictory”. Britain is expected topublish a long-delayed report intoRussian influence in British pol-itics next week.

“SELFISH INTERESTS”British foreign minister Dominic

Raab said it was “completely un-acceptable” for Russian intelli-gence services to target work onthe pandemic.

India gets second ‘consular access’AGENCIES

Islamabad, July 16: PakistanThursday provided consular ac-cess to Indian prisoner on death rowKulbhushan Jadhav, days aheadof a deadline to file a review peti-tion in a court here against hisconviction by a military court.This was the second consular ac-cess to Jadhav. The first consularaccess was provided by Pakistan onSeptember 2, 2019, the ForeignOffice said in a statement.

Jadhav, the 50-year-old retiredIndian Navy officer, was sentencedto death by a Pakistani militarycourt on charges of "espionageand terrorism" in April 2017. Weekslater, India approached the ICJagainst Pakistan for denial of con-sular access to Jadhav and chal-lenging the death sentence. TheHague-based ICJ ruled in July lastyear that Pakistan must under-take an "effective review and re-consideration" of the convictionand sentence of Jadhav and also togrant consular access to India with-out further delay.

"Two consular officers of theIndian High Commission inIslamabad were provided unim-peded and uninterrupted consularaccess to Commander Jadhav at1500 hours,” the FO said in thestatement on Thursday.

It also recalled that the motherand wife of Jadhav were allowed tomeet him on December 25, 2017.

"Pakistan remains committedto fully implementing theInternational Court of Justice(ICJ)'s judgment of 17 July 2019.It is hoped that India will cooper-ate with the Pakistan court in giv-ing full effect to the said judge-ment,” the statement said.

Pakistan enacted an ordinancecalled the “International Court ofJustice Review and ReconsiderationOrdinance 2020” on May 20 under

which a petition for the review ofa military court's decision can bemade to Islamabad High Courtthrough an application within 60days of its promulgation.

The ordinance would expire onJuly 19.

Last week, Pakistan's AdditionalAttorney General Ahmed Irfansaid that on June 17, 2020, Jadhavwas offered to file an appeal in theIslamabad High Court for reviewand reconsideration of his sen-tence and conviction.

Meanwhile, External AffairsMinistry Spokesperson AnuragSrivastava said Jadhav was "visi-bly under stress" and indicatedthat clearly to the Indian consularofficers, adding the arrangementsdid not permit a free conversationbetween them.

KULBHUSHAN JADHAV CASE

India said Pakistan did not give"unimpeded, unhindered and

unconditional" consularaccess to Indian death rowconvict Kulbhushan Jadhav

India had earlier soughtunrestricted consular access

to Kulbhushan Jadhav

This request was made ahead ofthe July 20 deadline to file a

review petition

AGENCIES

Kathmandu, July 16: With em-battled Prime Minister K P SharmaOli refusing to resign or give up hisposition as chairman of the rulingNepal Communist Party talksaimed to strike a new power-shar-ing deal between him and formerpremier Pushpa Kamal Dahal'Prachanda' failed to make anyheadway Thursday on the eve ofa crucial meeting of the party.

Prime Minister and party chair-man Oli, executive chairman'Prachanda' and former premierMadhav Kumar Nepal held an in-formal meeting at the PM's official

residence at Baluwatar onThursday, ahead of the meeting ofthe party's 45-member powerfulStanding Committee. However,the three leaders failed to reach adeal after Oli and Prachanda, whois leading the dissident group,stuck to their demands, saidStanding Committee memberGanesh Shah.

The trio tried to sort out dif-ferences between Oli and the dis-sident group. But, as the PrimeMinister didn’t accept their con-dition of a one-man-one-post, thetalks failed, he said. Oli andPrachanda have failed to reach apower-sharing deal even after at

least eight rounds of talks in recentweeks. Thursday's talks took placejust ahead of the StandingCommittee meeting on Fridaywhich is expected to determinethe political future of the 68-year-

old prime minister who has pre-viously alleged that his detrac-tors were trying to remove himwith India's help. Top party lead-ers, including 'Prachanda', havebeen demanding Prime MinisterOli's resignation, saying his re-cent anti-India remarks were "nei-ther politically correct nor diplo-matically appropriate." They arealso against Oli's autocratic styleof functioning

There could be a middle pointfor compromise even if the PrimeMinister agreed to quit either ofthe two key positions, which he didnot accept, resulting in a dead-lock in the talk, Shah said.

Oli-Prachanda meeting ends without progress

Chinese executives get ‘pre-test’injections in nCoV vaccine raceAGENCIES

Beijing, Jul 16 : In the global raceto make a coronavirus vaccine, astate-owned Chinese company isboasting that its employees, in-cluding top executives, receivedexperimental shots even before thegovernment approved testing inpeople. “Giving a helping hand inforging the sword of victory,” readsan online post from SinoPharmwith pictures of company leadersit says helped “pre-test” its vac-cine. Whether it's viewed as heroicsacrifice or a violation of interna-tional ethical norms, the claim un-derscores the enormous stakes asChina competes with US and Britishcompanies to be the first with avaccine to help end the pandemic— a feat that would be both a sci-entific and political triumph.

“Getting a COVID-19 vaccine isthe new Holy Grail,” said LawrenceGostin, a global public health lawexpert at Georgetown University.“The political competition to bethe first is no less consequentialthan the race for the moon betweenthe United States and Russia.”China has positioned itself to be astrong contender. Eight of the nearlytwo dozen potential vaccines in

various stages of human testingworldwide are from China, the mostof any country. And SinoPharmand another Chinese company al-ready have announced they're en-tering final testing.

Both China and SinoPharm haveinvested heavily in a tried-and-truetechnology — an “inactivated” vac-cine made by growing the wholevirus in a lab and then killing it,which is how polio shots are made.Leading Western competitors usenewer, less proven technology totarget the “spike” protein that coatsthe virus.

That protein is "a good place tomake our bet,” Dr Gary Nabel, chiefscientific officer of the French

pharmaceutical company Sanofi,said at a US biotechnology indus-try meeting. But “it's good to havesome diversity. I like the fact thatthere is an inactivated, whole vac-cine. That provides an alternativein case one of these should fail.” SinoPharm's claim that 30 “spe-cial volunteers” rolled up theirsleeves even before the company gotpermission for its initial humanstudy raises ethical concerns amongWestern observers. The company'spost cites a “spirit of sacrifice”and shows seven men in suits andties — a mix of scientists, busi-nessmen and one Communist Partyofficial with a background in mil-itary propaganda.

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businessFRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

All industryplayers should

join hands with thegovernment to rescue theCOVID-19-hit economy bytaking up projects throughPPP modeNITIN GADKARI | UNION MINISTER, MICRO,SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

Domestic rating agency Icra hasrevised its forecast forcontraction in the country’s GDPin the current fiscal to 9.5 percent from 5 per cent earlier

ICRA REVISES INDIA’SGDP FORECAST SHARPLY

cmyk

cmyk

The past fewmonths havebeen very

challenging, butthey have also beena greatdemonstration ofthe value of collaboration

N CHANDRASEKARAN | CHIEF, TATA GROUP

of theday uote

India'spharmaceuticalindustry will be

able to produceCOVID-19 vaccinesnot just for thecountry but also forthe entire world

BILL GATES | PHILANTHROPIST

Thegovernment isconsidering a

proposal by theMinistry of New andRenewable Energyto impose 20 percent basic customs duty on solarmodules

ANURAG THAKUR |MINISTER OF STATE, FINANCE

Govt puts curbson some importsNew Delhi: The governmenthas imposed curbs on importof power tillers and itscomponents, a move whichcould discourage inboundshipments of these products."Import policy of powertillers and its components isamended from free torestricted," the DirectorateGeneral of Foreign Trade(DGFT) has said in anotification. Putting aproduct under a "restricted"category means the importerwould have to seek a licensefrom the DGFT for theimports.

Tata Power armbags huge orderNew Delhi: Tata PowerThursday said its wholly-owned subsidiary TPGEL hasbagged an order to develop a225 mega watt hybridrenewable power project."Tata Power Green EnergyLtd (TPGEL), the company'swholly owned subsidiary,received a letter of awardfrom Tata Power MumbaiDistribution on July 13, 2020to develop a 225 MW hybridrenewable project," TataPower said in a BSE filing.TPGEL won this capacity in abid finalised recently by TataPower Mumbai Distribution,the filing said.

Prabhjeet newUber India chiefNew Delhi: Ride hailingplatform Uber Thursday saidit has elevated PrabhjeetSingh as President of Indiaand South Asia operations. Inhis new role, Singh willoversee the next phase ofgrowth in the company'smobility business and ensuresafety of riders and driversacross India, Sri Lanka andBangladesh, a statementsaid. His appointment iseffective immediately, itadded. Singh was previouslyserving as DirectorOperations (India and SouthAsia) and Head of Cities.

India’s edibleoils export rises New Delhi: India's edible oilexports rose 54 per cent to80,765 tonne in the financialyear 2019-20, on a sharpincrease in shipment ofgroundnut oil especially toChina, trade body SEA saidThursday. In value terms, theedible oil shipments increased52.36 per cent to `955.51 crore,against 52,490 tonnes valued at`627.11 crore in 2018-19, it saidin a statement. The countryexports edible oils in smallquantities to meet expatriatedemand. Of the total exports,groundnut oil shipments morethan doubled to 38,225 tonnesin 2019-20, from 15,532 tonneslast year. It was mainlyexported to China.

SHORT TAKES

REUTERS

New Delhi, July 16: A $20 bil-lion fund raising spree may takeIndia’s Reliance closer to itsdream of becoming a digital giant,further threatening the ambi-tious plans U.S. companies likeAmazon, Walmart and Zoom havefor India.

Stake sales in Reliance’s digitalunit Jio Platforms attracted notjust private equity and sovereignwealth funds but also Google andFacebook, a strong endorsementfor an enterprise that until a fewyears ago focussed largely on oilrefining.

Some industry watchers equateReliance’s digital plans - which ex-tend from online shopping andcloud computing to telecom anddigital payments - to China’s Alibabaand Tencent, companies Reliance it-

self calls “global peers”.Reliance has a track record of

disrupting rival businesses. Withcheap smartphones and data plans,its telecom venture Jio has in fouryears dethroned market leadersVodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel to

become the largest telecom opera-tor in India.

On Wednesday, billionaire chair-man Mukesh Ambani said Reliancewill expand e-commerce platformJioMart - which connects small re-tailers with consumers - to offer

not just groceries but also elec-tronics and fashion goods.

“Jio Platforms not only has thebackend infrastructure and devel-opment capabilities but also an everexpanding captive consumer base,”said Mayank Vishnoi of Singapore-

based financial advisory firmResfeber International.

“The addition of new digital prod-ucts targeting various sectors willpose threats to many large dominantplayers. Having strategic partnerslike Facebook and Google validates thatReliance gameplan is real.”

The recent stake sales gaveReliance a foreign partner forJioMart, which was launched thisyear. Facebook’s WhatsApp, whichcounts India as its top market with400 million plus users, will workclosely in connecting small retail-ers to JioMart.

“We will cover many more cities,serve many more customers acrossIndia, and expand to many morecategories,” said Ambani.

Asked about the potential im-pact on foreign businesses eyeingIndia, one local industry executivewho advises U.S. multinationalssaid: “Amazon and Walmart should be scared.”

Reliance emerges as bigger threat for Amazon, Walmart

WhatsApp, which counts India asits top market with 400 million

plus users, will work closely inconnecting small retailers to JioMart

Reliance will face stiffcompetition from Amazon and

Walmart’s Flipkart, as bothcompanies have deep pockets andan already well-established supplychain

STIFF COMPETITION

JIOMART CURRENTLY DELIVERS GROCERIES IN ONLY 200 CITIES, WHILE AMAZON AND FLIPKART DELIVERA WIDE RANGE OF GOODS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

BIZZ BUZZJewellery industry in dire need of digitalstrategiesNew Delhi: The jewelleryindustry which is goingthrough a slowdown inconsumption demand amidthe pandemic would requiredigital strategies for itsgrowth post the Covid-19crisis, according to a report by the World Gold Council. The report notedthat although the online gold market is still in its nascent stage in India,digital and social activity plays a key role in the purchase journey. "Inurban India, consumers browse online/mobile apps pre-purchase and useonline blogs and social media for ideas and inspiration. Mobileapps/wallets are playing a key role in the growth of Internet InvestmentGold," it said. The WGC report noted that the outbreak of COVID-19 andconsequent closure of stores from mid-March caused jewellery sales tocollapse.

Vivo to set up industrial design centre in IndiaNew Delhi: Smartphone maker Vivo willset-up an industrial design centre inIndia to develop devices locally, andincrease its headcount to 50,000, a topcompany official said Thursday. VivoIndia director for brand strategy NipunMarya said the company hasannounced `7,500 crore investment inIndia to increase smartphonemanufacturing capacity from 3.3 croreunits to 12 crore. "Very soon we will be setting up our industrial designcentre in India too. We will not only make in india but also design in India.This design centre will focus on understanding the needs of Indianconsumers. The first product from Vivo that will be designed and made inIndia will be rolled out in 2020-21," Marya said.

P-notes investmentclimbs to `62,138 crNew Delhi: Investments throughparticipatory notes (P-notes) inthe domestic capital marketsurged to `62,138 crore till June-end, making it the thirdconsecutive monthly rise. P-notesare issued by registered foreignportfolio investors (FPIs) to

overseas investors, who wish to bepart of the Indian stock marketwithout registering themselvesdirectly. They, however, need to gothrough a due diligence process.According to Sebi data, the valueof P-note investments in Indianmarkets -- equity, debt, hybridsecurities and derivatives -- stoodat `62,138 crore until June, whilethe same was at `60,027 crore atthe end of May. Prior to that,investment level was at `57,100crore at the end of April.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, July 16: The RBI hasreduced its benchmark repo rate by115 basis points between Marchand May to support the economy inlight of the Covid-19 induced slow-down. As a result, banks have hadto reduce their lending and depositrates to adjust to the new interestrate scenario.

Economists say real returnsshould be judged over a period of timeand cannot be gauged from a month’sdata. A sharp fall in deposit rates dueto aggressive rate cuts by banks inresponse to the Reserve Bank ofIndia's (RBI) reduction in the bench-mark rates coupled with a rise in con-sumer prices have pulled real in-terest rates into negative territory,disincentivising savings.

The RBI has reduced its bench-mark repo rate by 115 basis pointsbetween March and May to sup-

port the economy in light of theCovid-19 induced slowdown. As a re-sult, banks have had to reduce theirlending and deposit rates to adjustto the new interest rate scenario.

One basis point is 0.01 percentagepoint. Meanwhile, consumer priceshave risen to 6.09% in June due tothe supply side constraints inducedby the lockdown enforced to check

the spread of the pandemic. As a re-sult, savers who would want to keeptheir money in the one-year termdeposit of State Bank of India (SBI),the country's largest bank, cur-rently risk earning almost a per-centage point lower than the currentinflation rate.

SBI’s one-year term deposit rateis at 5.10%. “Savers will now startasking how much to save and alsowhere to put their money. The eco-nomic uncertainties at presentwould mean that returns would notbe at top of savers mi11nd but itcould have an impact on domesticsavings,” said Saugata Bhattacharya,chief economist, Axis Bank.

The benchmark consumer priceindex (CPI) had eased to 5.91% inMarch from a peak of 7.52% inJanuary. But the supply side con-straints due to the lockdown haveagain led to a spike in June even asdeposit rates have fallen sharply.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16:Agriculture minister Arun KumarSahoo said that the governmentof Odisha has declared a hugepackage of `200 crore for the sec-tor which will be benefit 25 lakhsof farmers.

Sahoo made the announcementduring an e-conference on Paradigmof Covid-19: Challenges &Opportunities for Agri, FoodProduction & Horticulture Sectorin Odisha. The event was organisedby Indian Chamber of Commercehere Thursday.

“The government had also an-nounced a special livelihood in-tervention package worth `17,000crore. The move aims to generateemployment opportunities throughvarious sectors like agriculture,fisheries, MGNREGS, SkillDevelopment, handloom, Forestry& handicrafts,” he said.

He also informed about AmaKrushi helpline which has beencreated for the farmers to receivehelp on farming and marketing re-lated information. Recently, theGover nment of Odisha haslaunched a scheme called“Balaram” to provide agriculturalcredit of ̀ 1040 cr to landless farm-

ers facing hardship due to the pan-demic. Around 7 lakh landless cul-tivators will be benefited from thisprogramme in the next 2 years.

Principal Secretary ofDepartment of Agriculture &Farmers’ Empowerment SaurabhGarg launched the MukhyamantriKrushi Udyog Yojna. Garg said,“Under Atma Nirbhar Schemes,Odisha is inviting interested par-ties to setup cold storage & pri-mary storage facilities. Govt. hasalso issued an ordinance aboutcontract farming to be started inOdisha by which quality & quan-tity of the produce will improve &will be helpful to create more jobopportunities. Govt. is working onland leasing ordinance too.”

Beginning of the end for savings A sharp fallin depositrates due toaggressiverate cuts bybanks havepulled realinterest ratesinto negativeterritory

AGENCIES

New Delhi, July 16:The cap on air-fares will be extended after August24, the civil aviation ministerHardeep Singh Puri said Thursday.Expect a short extension of air-fare cap beyond August 24 as de-mand still muted, the civil avia-tion minister said in apress conference.

In the wake of coro-navirus outbreak, theaviation ministry im-plemented a cap on do-mestic airfare in May.India started operat-ing domestic flightsafter a gap of twomonths in the lastweek of May. The do-mestic flights in Indiahave a cap on fareswith both an upperand lower limit.

While the upperprice limit is aimed atpreventing any sharp rise in faresdue to pent-up demand, the lowerlimit will help ensure that financialviability of airlines does not sufferamid high costs, Puri said.

Flights between cities that areunder 40 minutes have been clas-sified under section one, whilethose under 40-60 minutes are undersection two.

Section three consists of desti-nations 60-90 minutes apart byflight, section four comprises cities90-120 minutes apart, section fiveconsists of cities 120-150 minutes

apart. Destinations between 150-180 minutes and 180-210 minuteshave been classified under sections6 and 7, respectively.

The base minimum airfare of do-mestic flights ranges from `2,000 to`6,500 and the maximum range from`6,000 to `18,600. Airlines have tomake available 40% of total seats in

an aircraft at lessthan the mid-pointprice between thehighest and lowestfares, aviation sec-retary PradeepSingh Kharola ear-lier said.

Explaining themechanism, Puriearlier said themove will meanthat the lowestfare betweenDelhi andMumbai, thebusiest route inthe country, will

be capped at ̀ 3,500 and ̀ 10,000 at thehigher end.

On the resumption of interna-tional flights,he said, "We are at avery advanced stage between ofnegotiation with at least three coun-tries for bilateral air bubble."

"Till international civil aviationcan reclaim its pre-COVID num-bers, I think answer will lie throughbilateral bubbles, which will carrya possible number of people butunder defined conditions as coun-tries are still imposing entry re-strictions," Puri said.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, July 16: GodrejProtekt, India’s trusted hygienebrand from Godrej ConsumerProducts Limited (GCPL)Thursday launched a personaland home hygiene range of twelveproducts.

The range includes Godrej ProtektHealth Soap, Body Wash, GermProtection Fruit & Veggie Wash,Germ Protection Dish Wash Liquid,INR 1 Hand Sanitiser Sachet, Air&Surface Disinfectant Spray, Onthe Go Disinfectant Spray, Surface& Skin Anti-Bacterial Wipes, PW95Face Masks, and MultipurposeDisinfectant Solution.

The company claimed that theseproducts offer 99.9% protectionagainst germs, bacteria andviruses. CEO - India and SAARC,GCPL Sunil Kataria said, “Wehave become a complete hygiene-suite for home, kitchen and per-sonal use. As a brand, GodrejProtekt aims to be `500 crore innext 3 years.”

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, July 16: As the dead-line for submitting the Expressionsof Interest (EoI) for 52.98 per centstake in the Bharat PetroleumCorporation Ltd (BPCL) nears, bignames in the global oil market areshowing interest in picking up themajority stake in the state-run oilcompany.

According to official sources,Saudi Aramco, Abu Dhabi NationalOil Co (Adnoc), Rosneft of Russia andExxon Mobil intend to participatein the bidding process for the PSU.The deadline for submitting EoIshas been postponed twice and the cur-rent deadline ends on July 31.

Indian oil majors are not behindtheir global counterparts and arealso actively pursuing the prospectsof bidding for BPCL. Oil-to-tele-com major Reliance Industries is un-derstood to have shown interestfor the bid.

The disinvestment in BPCL in-volves the government selling its en-tire 52.98 per cent stake in the com-pany to a strategic investor withtransfer of management control.

The Centre has allowed prospec-tive bidders with a minimum networth of $10 billion to present theirbids. Another condition pertains toa maximum of four members arepermitted in a consortium, and thelead member must hold 40 per cent

in proportion. Other members of theconsortium must have a minimum$1 billion net worth.

The EOI allows changes in theconsortium within 45 days, thoughthe lead member cannot be changed.

The Indian government proposesto disinvest its entire sharehold-ing in BPCL comprising1,14,91,83,592 equity shares heldthrough the Ministry of Petroleumand Natural Gas. which constitutes52.98 per cent of BPCL's equityshare capital, along with the trans-fer of management control to thestrategic buyer (except BPCL's eq-uity shareholding of 61.65 per centin Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL)and management control.

Global oil giants eye BPCL SAUDI ARAMCO, ABU DHABI NATIONAL OIL CO, ROSNEFT AND EXXON

MOBIL INTEND TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BIDDING PROCESS

Reliance-Aramcopartnership stallsReliance Industries' planned saleof a fifth of its oil-to-chemicalbusiness to Aramco has stalledafter the Saudi company soughtat least 20 per cent cut in $75billion valuation billionaireMukesh Ambani's firm wasseeking. Sources privy tonegotiations said Saudi Aramcohad right from the beginningresisted the $15 billion price tagReliance had put for the 20 percent stake in O2C business,which comprises of thecompany's twin refineries atJamnagar in Gujarat,petrochemical plants and 51 percent in fuel retailing venture.

Cap on airfaresto be extendedbeyond Aug 24

IN THE WAKE OFCORONAVIRUS OUTBREAK,THE AVIATION MINISTRYIMPLEMENTED A CAP ON

AIRFARE IN MAY

THE DOMESTIC FLIGHTS ININDIA HAVE A CAP ONFARES WITH BOTH AN

UPPER AND LOWER LIMIT

GODREJ PROTEKTUNVEILS RANGE OFHYGIENE PRODUCTS

State envisions huge growth in agriculture

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar,July 16:: UnionBank of India inaugurated fournew loan processing centres inthe twin cities of Bhubaneswar andCuttack Thursday.

Ramakanta Pradhan, FGM,Bhubaneswar, Sudarshan Sethi,DGM, Bhubaneswar andBhubaneswar Nayak, RM, Cuttack

Region inaugurated the centres.These centres are SaralBhubaneswar and Saral LiteCuttack for MSME andCommercial Finances and UnionLoan Point Bhubaneswar andUnion Loan Point Cuttack forRetail Advances. Vice Chancellor,Ravenshaw University IshanKumar Patro appreciated the ef-forts taken to provide one point so-lutions for loan disbursal.

Four loan processingcentres inaugurated

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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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sportsFRIDAY | JULY 17 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

ASSOCIATED PRESS

London, July 16: Liverpool willhave to settle for just lifting thePremier League trophy next week.It won’t be accompanied by a record-breaking points total after losing 2-1 at Arsenal.

Having ended the club’s 30-yeartitle drought, Liverpool has easedup and the bid to match or overhaulManchester City’s 100-point recordis over.

Arsenal scored from their first twoshots on target — to cancel outSadio Mane’s opener — andLiverpool provided the assiststhrough carelessness Wednesday.

“We are all human,” Liverpoolmanager Jurgen Klopp said. “I can-not make a negative out of some-thing so positive — becoming cham-pions so early in the season. Theseboys have played an exceptionalseason and no one can take thataway from them.”

Under pressure from Arsenalforward Reiss Nelson on the edgeof the penalty area, Virgil van Dijkopted for an ill-judged back-pass.Alexandre Lacazette interceptedthe ball and rounded goalkeeperAlisson before tapping in Arsenal’sequaliser in the 32nd minute.

Alisson was at fault for Arsenal’swinner by clearing the ball straightto Lacazette, and Nelson appliedthe finish in the 44th.

“The goals we gave them were apresent,” Van Dijk said. “Until thefirst goal it was totally us and wewere dominant. But if you givegoals like that away, including my-self, you get what you deserve.

“Goals like that shouldn’t happenand it happened twice tonight. UntilI make the mistake, we did nothingwrong. I take the blame for it, ofcourse, I take it as a man and wemove on.”

It had initially been Arsenal’sdefending that was providing gifts.Mane was left unmarked to meetAndrew Robertson’s cross and putLiverpool in front in the 20th minute.

But Liverpool now has just onepoint from its last two games afterbeing held 1-1 by Burnley at Anfield,ending a bid to become the firstteam to finish a Premier Leagueseason with a perfect record athome. This was only Liverpool’sthird loss of the season but it meansit can only finish with 99 points bywinning its remaining two matches.

The title was sealed in recordtime three weeks ago, with sevengames to spare after a three-monthpandemic-enforced break in theseason.

The trophy will be presented toLiverpool players after final homematch of the season next Wednesdayagainst Chelsea.

With no fans allowed into Anfield

due to the coronavirus, a podium willbe built in the iconic Kop stand forJordan Henderson to become thefirst Liverpool player since 1990 tolift a league championship trophy.

Arsenal has won the PremierLeague four times since then, butnot since 2004. The north Londonclub is way off the pace this season,40 points adrift. This win only liftedMikel Arteta’s side to ninth place,but it remains in the hunt for EuropaLeague qualification.

A route into Europe also remainsthrough the FA Cup with Arsenalplaying defending championManchester City in the semifinalsSaturday.

“We’ve been working hard andgetting the win here against theleaders is good for us,” Nelson said,“and we will take it into the nextgame.”

GUNNERS CRUSHLIVERPOOL HOPESArsenal break Reds’

hearts ending newly-crowned

champions’ bid for100 points in

Premier League

ECSTASY & AGONY: Arsenal players celebrate one of their two goals in London, Wednesday

KLOPP’S MEN TO GET TROPHY ON THE KOPLONDON: Liverpool’s players will be presented with the Premier League trophyon a special podium built on the iconic Kop stand at Anfield after the team’smatch against Chelsea next week. The league is describing it as a ‘unique’ cere-mony that has been designed because fans won't be able to celebrate themoment with the team, as matches are being held in empty stadiums during thepandemic. Jordan Henderson will be the first Liverpool player to lift a leaguechampionship trophy in 30 years, and for the first time since the Premier Leagueera began in 1992. The specially erected podium will be surrounded by fan ban-ners in the Kop at the July 22 match. Players have been involved in the planningof the ceremony, with club great Kenny Dalglish – the last manager to leadLiverpool to a league title – among the trophy presentation party. The matchagainst Chelsea will be shown on free-to-air TV in Britain, and Liverpool and thePremier League are urging fans to stay at home to watch it rather than congre-gate at Anfield.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Manchester, July 16: The highlightreel of David Silva’s decade atManchester City is getting sometop-quality bonus material fromhis last games with the club.

Silva scored from a direct free-kick for the second straight homematch to lead City to a 2-1 win overrelegation-threatened Bournemouthin the Premier League onWednesday.

The former Spain playmakeralso set up Gabriel Jesus for thesecond goal in City’s first matchsince winning its appeal against atwo-year ban from European com-petition.

Silva will leave City at the end ofthe season after a 10 year spell thatwill see him go down as one theclub’s greatest players, if not the best.

His display against Bournemouthhad other Premier League playerstaking to social media to praiseSilva, whose curling free-kick fromthe right edge of the penalty areain the sixth minute touched thecrossbar as it went in.

“Sorry,” Leicester midfielderJames Maddison wrote on Twitterafter Silva scored his free-kick,“but David Silva is a true PremierLeague great. Have so much re-spect for him. Admire his charac-ter and ability. Genius at work andwill miss watching him, won’t missplaying against him whatsoever.”

City fielded a heavily rotatedside in view of the FA Cup semifi-nal match against Arsenal onSaturday but still just about hadtoo much for Bournemouth, whichgrabbed its goal through DavidBrooks in the 88th minute and more

than matched City in spells.In fact, the visitors had two great

chances to equalize in stoppagetime through Callum Wilson andSam Surridge. Bournemouth stayedin third-to-last place and threepoints adrift of safety with twomatches remaining. West Ham andWatford, the teams directly aboveBournemouth, have a game in hand.

Bournemouth had a second-halfgoal by Josh King ruled out for anarrow offsides — a VAR reviewbacked up the on-field decision —while City goalkeeper EdersonMoraes tipped a free-kick from Junior

Stanislas onto the post in the first half.Jesus has now scored in three

straight games for City and is thriv-ing as the replacement for injuredfirst-choice striker Sergio Aguero.

His improved confidence washighlighted in the way he took hisgoal, receiving a short pass fromSilva just inside the area beforecutting inside past Jack Stacey andSteve Cook and driving a low shotinto the corner in the 39th minute.

It was Silva’s 10th assist of thePremier League season, the fourthtime he has reached double figuresfor assists in a single campaign.

Silva brilliance lifts Man City

TRUE MASTERCLASS: David Silva (R) rejoices with teammates following hisgoal from a free-kick, Wednesday

Hurri-Kane blows Newcastle awayREUTERS

Newcastle, July 16: Harry Kanewent past 200 club career goals witha second-half double as TottenhamHotspur won 3-1 at Newcastle Unitedin the Premier League Wednesdayto boost their European qualifica-tion hopes.

Minutes after Matt Ritchie’spiledriver had drawn the hostslevel, Kane’s clinical header on thehour put the visitors back in front,

taking him to another landmark.Kane sealed the points in the lastminute with another header to takehis career tally to 201.

Son Heung-min had givenTottenham the lead in the 27th minutewith his 11th league goal of the cam-paign. Tottenham rose to seventhon 55 points with two games re-maining, one point behind sixth-placed Wolverhampton Wanderersin the race for a Europa League spot.

Kane’s 201 club goals have come

in 350 appearances in all competi-t ions with 185 of them forTottenham. It was also a milestoneof sorts for Spurs manager JoseMourinho who claimed a first leaguewin at Newcastle.

Newcastle were unfortunate to bedown at halftime, although theywere culpable for Son’s strike. Thehosts lost the ball trying to playout from the back and Spurspounced with Giovani Lo Celsomoving the ball across to Son whoseshot beat Martin Dubravka at hisnear post.

Newcastle had the better chances,though, with Miguel Almiron’s ef-fort cleared off the line by DavinsonSanchez, captain Jonjo Shelveyheading over and Dwight Gayleheading against the post.

Ritchie scored a deservedequaliser in the 56th minute whenhe gathered a poor clearance fromSerge Aurier before lashing a fizzingshot past Hugo Lloris. Aurier wasplaying despite his brother beingmurdered in France this week.

Newcastle were only level forthree minutes, however, with Spurssubstitute Steven Bergwijn’s firstcontribution being a superb crossthat was met by Kane with an an-gled header. Kane dived in to headhis second after substitute ErikLamela’s shot was parried.

ON A ROLL: Harry Kane strikes past a hapless-looking Newcastle custodianfor one of his two goals, Wednesday

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Milan, July 16: Juventus wereheld to a 3-3 draw at Sassuolo in SerieA, although that will do little toslow its seemingly unstoppablemarch to a record-extending ninthstraight league title.

Juventus are seven points aheadof Atalanta, which beat Brescia 6-2 Tuesday, and eight points ahead

of Lazio five games remaining afterthe capital side also drew — 0-0 atrelegation-threatened Udinese.Fourth-place Inter is nine points be-hind Juventus and visits SpalThursday.

It was Juve’s third straight matchwithout a win after a 2-4 loss againstAC Milan — after going 2-0 up — anda 2-2 draw against Atalanta.

Juve seemed to be cruising early

as it went 2-0 up within 12 minutesfollowing goals from Danilo andGonzalo Higuain. However, FilipDuricic pulled one back in the 29thminute and Sassuolo had the bet-ter of the chances at the end of thefirst half.

Sassuolo turned things aroundshortly after the break as DomenicoBerardi equalised with a free-kickand set up Francesco Caputo threeminutes later.

Alex Sandro headed in a cornerfor Juventus to level in the 64thand Bianconeri goalkeeper WojciechSzczesny pulled off a number ofimportant saves throughout thematch to leave the Bianconeri ul-timately grateful for a point.

Lazio has struggled since therestart and was somewhat fortu-nate not to lose against Udinese.Rodrigo De Paul hit the post instoppage time for Udinese, whichinched seven points clear of therelegation zone.

Lazio came into the match onthe back of three successive de-feats and had only won two of itsprevious six matches since Serie Aresumed following the break be-cause of the coronavirus pandemic.

AC Milan boosted their chancesof qualifying for Europe as it camefrom behind to beat Parma 3-1.Milan moved level on points withsixth-place Napoli, which drew 1-1 at Bologna. Roma is four pointsahead after beating Hellas Verona2-1.

Elsewhere, Sampdoria beatCagliari 3-0 to move eight pointsabove the drop zone and 18th-placeLecce, which lost 3-1 at home toFiorentina.

Juventus held 3-3 at Sassuolo

SAVING THE VISITORS’ DAY:Alex Sandro heads in the equaliser against Sassuolo,Wednesday

Sibley props England to 112/3 at tea

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Manchester, July 16: DominicSibley (46 batting) dug deep to holdone end up but Alzarri Joseph () builton from Roston Chase’s (2/24) earlyinroads by sending skipper JoeRoot (23) back in the hut as Englandwere 112/3 at tea on the openingday of the second Test at OldTrafford here, Thursday.

After off-spinner Chase reducedthe hosts to 29/2 either side of thelunch break, opener Sibley and

Root – back leading the side aftermissing the first Test – shared a53-run stand for the third wicket.

But fast bowler Joseph endedRoot’s vigil with a classic outswingerthat grazed the right-hander’s batand flew to his counterpart JasonHolder at slip. At the break, talis-manic all-rounder Ben Stokes (18 bat-ting) and Sibley were at the crease.

Shortly after the second sessionbegan, Zak Crawley (0) was sentback for a golden duck by Chasewho had the young No.3 batsman

caught at leg slip by Holder. Havingremoved Burns in the last ball be-fore lunch, Chase was on a hat-trick but missed the landmark.

Root and Sibley then steadied theship before the former departed withStokes joining Sibley and both try-ing to negotiate Joseph and Holder’sfiery little spell where the ball movedsideways under overcast conditions.

Earlier, England openers Burnsand Sibley got off to a cautiousstart but Chase provided West Indieswith the crucial breakthrough at the

stroke of lunch.With rain playing spoilsport, the

first session saw only one hour ofplay on the opening day of the Testof #raisethebat series. England,who are gunning to level the series,were put to bat by Holder after hewon the toss, which was delayed bymore than an hour because of rain.

BRIEF SCORES: England 112/3(Dom Sibley 46 batting, Joe Root23; Roston Chase 2/24, Alzarri Joseph1/19). Match to continue.

Archer misses Testfor protocol breachManchester: England dropped pacerJofra Archer from the second Testagainst West Indies following abreach of the team’s bio-secure pro-tocols, announcing the decision hoursbefore the start of the match at OldTrafford Thursday. “Archer will nowcommence five days of isolation andwill undergo two COVID-19 tests inthis period, which have to test nega-tive before his self-isolation period islifted,” the England and Wales CricketBoard (ECB) said in a statement. TheECB did not specify the nature of thebreach in the statement but mediareports said Archer exited the bio-secure bubble to visit his flat inBrighton between the series opener inSouthampton and the second matchhere. The ECB said the West Indiesteam were satisfied with the measurestaken. “I have put, not only myself, butthe whole team and management indanger. I fully accept the conse-quences of my actions, and I want tosincerely apologise to everyone in thebio-secure bubble,” said Archer.

Dom Sibley looks on after defending one into the leg side during the opening day’s play in Manchester, Thursday


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