Actor Payal Ghosh, who made rape chargesagainst Anurag Kashyap, terms #MeToomovement in India as fake

SHOCKING CLAIM

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Pak PM Imran Khan asks leaders to devise legalstrategy to bring back former PM NawazSharif from the UK

IMRAN AFTER SHARIF

INTERNATIONAL | P10

VOLUME 10, ISSUE 184 | www.orissapost.com

LEISURE | P2

With Kerala witnessing massive surge in Covidcases, prohibitory orders come intoforce across the state TWO STATES | P7

SEC 144 IN KERALA

12 PAGES + SUNDAY POST | `4.00

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IRREGULAR by MANJUL

So you are feeling bigoted, dumb,racist and full of hatred! Weren’tyou told not to go near Trump?

WEATHERBHUB

30.7° 31.6°CTK

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Humidity 98% 97%Rainfall 43.6mm 25mm

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SHORT TAKES

N-capable Shauryasuccessfully testedBhubaneswar: India successfullytest-fired an advanced version ofShaurya missile capable ofcarrying a nuclear warhead froma defence facility off the Odishacoast Saturday. The surface-to-surface missile can hit targets inaround 800 km range, saiddefence sources. Developed bythe DRDO, the missile was test-fired from the Abdul KalamIsland test range at 12.10 pm.Shaurya is about 10 metres longwith a diameter of 0.74 metre.September 30, India successfullytest-fired an extended-rangesupersonic cruise missileBrahMos with an indigenousbooster from a test facility offthe Odisha coast, with a range ofaround 400 km.

BHUBANESWAR | SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4 | 2020

AGENCIES

New Delhi/ Hathras (UP),Oct 3: Congress leaders RahulGandhi and Priyanka GandhiVadra Saturday met the fam-ily of the Dalit woman whodied this week after she wasallegedly gang-raped, trig-gering nationwide outrage.

Uttar Pradesh authori-ties had scuttled an earlierattempt by the two leadersto travel to Hathras, de-taining them and severalparty workers in GreaterNoida outside Delhi.

Saturday, the party stagedanother show of strength atthe Delhi-Noida border. TheUP Police said they will allowfive party representativesto meet the family in the vil-lage in Hathras district.

The 19-year-old woman wasalle gedly g ang-rapedSeptember 14 in an assaultby four men that left her crit-ically injured. She died at aDelhi hospital last Tuesday.

Meanwhile, talking aboutthe Saturday scene— thepolice had to resort to mildlathi charge to disperse thehuge crowd assembled atthe Delhi-Noida Direct(DND) flyway here.

Succeeding in his secondattempt to meet the victim’sfamily, Rahul made the an-nouncement from the DNDflyway.

Rahul, Priyanka meetgangrape victim’s kin

Bhubaneswar: The healthcondition of senior BJDlegislator and former ministerPradeep Maharathy remainedcritical, Saturday. Maharathy iscurrently undergoing treatmentat a private hospital inBhubaneswar after testingCovid positive. He was underventilator support as doctorskept him under observation.Expressing concern over thehealth condition of his partyman, Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik Saturday eveningspoke to the family members ofMaharathy and extended hisbest wishes and prayers for thelatter’s speedy recovery.Naveen also spoke to thedoctors supervising thetreatment of Maharathy anddirected to ensure bestpossible treatment for speedyrecovery of the legislator.

Maharathy underventilator support

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: The first half ofthe Saturday Assembly session wasmarked by ruckus in the house over thealleged gang rape in Uttar Pradesh’sHathras with Opposition CongressMLAs forcing the Speaker to adjournproceedings several times.

The issue was raised by CongressLegislature Party (CLP) leaderNarasingha Mishra when the House as-sembled for the day at 10.30 am. Heslammed the UP government and its po-lice over the incident and “misbehav-iour” towards Congress leaders RahulGandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Soon after Mishra completed his speech,Congress members stood up on theirseats and shouted slogans against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and UttarPradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath,protesting against the incident. Theyalso rushed to the Well of the House anddemanded resignation of the UP ChiefMinister. “Modi-Yogi hi...hi, Rahul GandhiZindabad”, they sloganeered.

Unable to run the House, Speaker SNPatro first adjourned the proceedingsfor 10 minutes at 10.58 am and thenfor 15 minutes later. Following this,

the Speaker invited CLP leader Mishra,Leader of Opposition Pradipta Naik,Parliamentary Affairs Minister BikramKeshari Arukha, Mishra and JajpurMLA Pranab Prakash Das for an all-party meeting in his chamber. However,as the situation did not improve, theHouse was adjourned till 3 pm. Nobusiness could take place in the first half.

Leader of Opposition Naik, of the

BJP, said that there is no point in dis-rupting the proceedings of the Houseover an incident in Uttar Pradesh. Hesaid similar incidents have also takenplace during the Congress rule. Naik’sstatement was not audible enough dueto the pandemonium in the House.

“Democracy has been murdered bythe BJP government in Uttar Pradesh.The Congress party will not tolerate

attack on its leaders Rahul Gandhi andPriyanka Gandhi Vadra. We will continueour agitation till Adityanath resigns,”Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipatitold media persons outside the House.

The ruling BJD too criticised theYogi Adityanath government and con-demned the incident. Outside the House,BJD MLA and for mer ministerSnehangini Chhuria said, “We stronglycondemn the Hathras incident. UPPolice and the civil administration arefunctioning under the direction of thestate government. We demand justicefor the Dalit girl. All Dalit women in thestate will resort to protest if justice isdenied to the victim.”

The Congress MLAs’ protest in theHouse was followed by the party’s ag-itation outside the Assembly for two daysover the alleged manhandling of theGandhi sibling-duo.

“The Congress and the BJD don’thave any moral right to raise the issue.Everyone knows about the incidentswhich happened in Pipili, Kunduli,Padmapur and Itishree cases. TheCongress should not forget its historyhow a woman was brutally murderedand cut into pieces,” BJP leader Naiksaid outside the Assembly.

NO BUSINESS COULD TAKE PLACE IN THE FIRST HALF OF SATURDAY SESSION

Hathras horror rocks Assembly

Democracy has beenmurdered by the BJPgovernment in UP. We will nottolerate attack on its leadersRahul Gandhi and PriyankaGandhi Vadra. We willcontinue our agitation tillAdityanath resigns

TARA PRASAD BAHINIPATI | CONG MLA

…We demandjustice for the Dalitgirl. All Dalitwomen in the statewill resort toprotest if justice isdenied to thevictim

SNEHANGINI CHHURIA | BJD MLA

The Congress and theBJD don’t have any moralright to raise the issue.Everyone knows aboutthe incidents whichhappened in Pipili,Kunduli, Padmapur andItishree cases

PRADIPTA KUMAR NAIK | BJP MLA

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 3: The AIIMS’medical board has ruled out mur-der in the death of actor SushantSingh Rajput, terming it “a caseof hanging and death by suicide”,the premier institute’s forensicchief Dr Sudhir Gupta said Saturday.

In its conclusive medico-legalopinion to the CBI, the six-memberteam of forensic doctors has dis-missed the claims of “poisoningand strangling” made in the case ofSingh’s death.

“It is a case of hanging and deathby suicide. We have submitted ourconclusive report to the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI),” DrGupta, who is also the chairman ofthe forensic medical board, said.

There was no injury on the bodyother than that of hanging. Also,there was no mark of struggle andscuffle, he said but refused to divulgeany further details stating the caseis sub-judice. September 28, CBIspokesperson in a statement saidthat the agency is conducting aprofessional investigation into thedeath of Sushant in which all as-pects are being looked at and noaspect has been ruled out as of date.

Sushant was found dead June14 in the Mont Blanc Apartment inBandra in Mumbai. His familymembers raised suspicion ofSushant having been murdered.

The CBI registered a case August6 on the notification of the Centreafter the Bihar government rec-ommended for a federal agencyprobe on the complaint of the lateactor’s father KK Singh.

The CBI team reached MumbaiAugust 20, a day after the SupremeCourt gave its nod for the federalagency probe. The CBI recordedthe statements of several peoplein the case and also visited his flat,

Cooper hospital and Waterstoneresort.

The CBI grilled Sushant’s girl-friend Rhea Chakraborty, herbrother Showik, father Indrajit,Sushant’s house manager SamuelMiranda, flatmate SiddharthPithani, personal staff – NeerajSingh, Dipesh Sawant and KeshavBachne. Besides the CBI, theEnforcement Directorate and theNarcotics Control Bureau (NCB)are probing the money launderingcharge and drugs angle respec-tively. NCB has also arrested Rhea,Showik, Miranda and Sawant inconnection with the drug case.

SUSHANT’S DEATH NOT MURDER BUT ‘SUICIDE’

In its conclusive medico-legal opinion tothe CBI, the six-member AIIMS’ team offorensic doctors dismisses the claims of“poisoning and strangling” made in the

case of Singh’s death

AGENCIES

Washington, Oct 3: US employ-ment growth slowed more than ex-pected in September and over 3,00,000Americans lost their jobs perma-nently, dealing a potential blow toPresident Donald Trump ahead ofthe fiercely contested November 3Presidential election.

The Labor Department’s closelywatched employment report Fridayunderscored an urgent need for ad-ditional fiscal stimulus to aid theeconomy’s recovery from a recessiontriggered by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The slowdown in hiring compoundsproblems for Trump, who an-nounced overnight that he hadtested positive for coronavirus.

Just over half of the 22.2 million jobslost during the pandemic have beenrecouped. Former Vice President JoeBiden, the Democratic Party nominee,blames the economic turmoil on theWhite House’s handling of the pan-demic, which has killed more than2,00,000 people and infected over sevenmillion in the nation.

“The jobs report adds to Trump’swoes,” said James Knightley, chiefinternational economist at ING in

New York. “Betting odds signal a di-minished chance he will win re-election and a much higher proba-bility of a Democrat clean sweep.”

Nonfarm payrolls increased by6,61,000 jobs last month, the small-est gain since the jobs recoverystarted in May, after advancing 1.489million in August. Every sectoradded jobs with the exception ofgovernment, which shed 2,16,000positions because of the departureof temporary workers hired for theCensus and layoffs at state and localgovernment education departmentsas many school districts shift to

online learning. Employment inthe leisure and hospitality sectorsincreased by 3,18,000, accountingfor nearly half of the gain in non-farm employment. Payrolls are 10.7million below their pre-pandemiclevel.

Economists polled by Reutershad forecast 8,50,000 jobs were cre-ated in September. Employmentgrowth peaked in June when pay-rolls jumped by a record 4.781 mil-lion jobs. The unemployment ratefell to 7.9 pc in September as 6,95,000people left the labour force from8.4 pc in August.

Student loses ̀ 1Lin online games,hangs self in JodaPOST NEWS NETWORK

Joda, Oct 3: A Class VIII stu-dent allegedly hanged himselfin Joda town of Keonjhar dis-trict after losing nearly `1 lakhwhile playing online game,Saturday. The deceased was iden-tified as 14-year-old Amitanshu,son of Binod Apat of Kamarjoda.

Reports said the victim’s par-ents had bought him a mobilephone for online studies duringthe Covid-19 lockdown period.However, he spent most of histime playing an online game onthe phone.

He lost ̀ 61,000 from his father’sbank account and `35,000 fromhis mother’s account.

When Binod Apat made in-quiry in the bank, the bank au-thorities told him that the amount

was paid towards an online gameplayed on the smart phones.

Fumed over his son’s act, Binodscolded him. Strongly reactingto it, the minor boy got inside atoilet and hanged himself.

The family members rescuedthe boy and rushed him to anearby hospital, where he wasdeclared dead.

Joda police registered a case ofunnatural death and started aninvestigation.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 3: The Centre inan affidavit has informed theSupreme Court that it has taken adecision to waive “interest on in-terest” on loans up to ̀ 2 crore dur-ing the six-month moratorium pe-riod.

The affidavit said the only so-lution is that the government shouldbear the burden resulting fromwaiver of compound interest.

“After careful consideration andweighing all possible options, therespondent Union of India has de-cided to continue the tradition ofhandholding the small borrowers,”said the Centre. The categories ofloans up to ̀ 2 crore include: MSMEloans, education loans, housingloans, consumer durable loans,credit card dues, auto loans, per-sonal loans to professional andconsumption loans.

The Centre said it is impossiblefor the banks to bear the burden re-sulting from waiver of compoundinterest without passing on the fi-nancial impact to the depositors oraffecting their net worth adversely,which would not be in larger pub-lic interest.

The affidavit said: “The gov-

ernment, therefore, has decidedthat the relief on waiver of com-pound interest during the six-monthmoratorium period shall be lim-ited to the most vulnerable categoryof borrowers.”

After the recommendations ofan expert committee, the Centre hasaltered its stand. Previously, theRBI and Centre had argued againstwaiver of interest on interest, as itwould be against the interests ofother stakeholders, especially de-positors, and also unfair to thosewho have paid their dues.

A bench comprising JusticesAshok Bhushan, RS Reddy andMR Shah had urged the Centre tohave a re-look at its decision in thebackdrop of financial hardshipfaced by many amid the ongoingCovid-19 pandemic – although, thetop court had agreed to not waiveinterest altogether.

6 MONTHS MORATORIUM

‘No interest on interest on loans up to `2 crore’

Waiver of six months’interest by SBI would

completely wipe out overhalf of the bank’s net worthwhich it has accumulatedover nearly 65 years of its

existence, says Centre

US jobless data may dent Trump’s reelection bidTHE US UNEMPLOYMENT RATE FELL TO 7.9 PC IN SEPT FROM 8.4 PC IN AUG. A BIG DROP IN NORMAL TIMES WOULD BE WELCOME

NEWS FOR A PRESIDENTIAL INCUMBENT SEEKING REELECTION IN JUST OVER A MONTH BUT THESE ARE NOT NORMAL TIMES!

n Walt Disney Co. to lay off 28,000 employees in its theme parks division

n American Airlines and United Airlines,two of the largest US carriers, have begunfurloughs of more than 32,000 workers

n Economists believe the unemploymentrate will not see its pre-crisis level of 3.5pc until mid-2024 and it could take a yearto regain the lost jobs

n The labour force participation rate fell to61.4 pc from 61.7 pc in August

n The participation rate for women droppedto 55.6 pc from 56.1 pc; it was littlechanged for men

JOBS FELL OFF A CLIFF

The victim’s parentsbought him a smart phonefor online studies duringthe Covid-19 lockdownperiod; however, the kidspent most of his timeplaying an online game in it

UP CM Yogi AdityanathSaturday recommended aCBI probe into the Hathrasgang-rape incident. Thedevelopment came withinhours of Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) AwanishAwasthi and Director Generalof Police HC Awasthi meetingthe victim’s family at herhome. The CMO tweeted confirming this. But the fam-ily members of the victimsaid they want a SupremeCourt-monitored inquiry.

Not CBI but SCmonitored probe

New Delhi: Actor Arjun Mathur has beennominated for an International EmmyAward at the upcoming 2020 edition of theglobal gala, but he insists he does not feel likea star.

Arjun makes the cut in the BestPerformance By An Actor list for his roleof the gay wedding planner Karan Mehrain the web series Made In Heaven. He recallsreceiving the news with a sense of disbelief.

“The first thing I did was not believe it,stare at my phone screen for a good five to10 minutes. I kept on looking for some wayto confirm if it was real or if I was dream-ing. Then I messaged my family. The firstphone call I made was to (series co-cre-ator) Zoya (Akhtar). I haven't yet had thechance to celebrate the news as such,”

Arjun said.On the show, his pro-tagonist Karan is

g ay. In thepast, too, heplayedgaycharac-ters inOnir'sfilm IAmandMiraNair'sshort filmMigration.

IANS

Mumbai:Actress Payal Ghosh Saturday termedthe #MeToo movement in India as fake. The ac-tress, who has levelled sexual harassmentcharges against filmmaker Anurag Kashyap,has also questioned the authenticity of themovement that started two years ago in thecountry.

“All the accused got a clean chit in the#Metooindia movement. So it deems the accuserto be false. Why are they not punished for ha-rassment then? Where is the truth. Up in the

air. Why are those women not behind the barsfor false accusations, as the accuser got a

clean chit?” Payal wrote on her verifiedTwitter account.

“The women posting in support ofthe accused know nothing about thesituation and can have an opinion thatthe accused can’t do this ever. It’s likethe rapist’s wife saying that the husbandis innocent and can never do this. Tellme otherwise,” Payal wrote in sepa-rate tweets, tagging her opinion with#fake and #Metooindia.

Payal’s claim over authenticity ofthe MeToo movement in India comes

at a time when Anurag Kashyap hasreceived the support of several

industry colleagues, including actresses he has worked with, as

well as his two ex-wives aftershe accused him of sexual harassment. IANS

Mumbai:When Sneha Ullal

made her Hindi filmdebut in 2005, she made in-

stant headlines. Not just be-cause she was cast opposite su-

perstar Salman Khan in her firstfilm, but because of the uncanny re-

semblance she bore with AishwaryaRai Bachchan.

Since her first outing, Lucky: No TimeFor Love all those years ago, Sneha has notshared much in common with Aishwarya.The film tanked despite Salman, and manyfeel the constant comparisons with formerMiss World Aishwarya were perhaps thereason that fans failed to fully see her po-tential as an individual artiste.

“I am so comfortable in my ownskin and all those comparisons did-

n’t bother me. Also, that was alsotheir PR strategy on how to de-

scribe me. That thing actuallyemphasised the entire com-

parison. Otherwise, it maynot have been such big

deal,” she claimed. She does

wish

she hadtrained her-self betterwhen shewasyounger.

IANS

P2 VIKANDER HOPES TO SHOOTTOMB RAIDER 2 IN 2021

leisure Oscar winner Alicia Vikander says the much-awaited Tom Raider 2 is expected to start shootingin 2021. Vikander, who took over the role fromAngelina Jolie, made her debut as the globetrottingtitular protagonist with 2018’s Tomb Raider.

Amazon Studios has set a release date for One Night inMiami, which marks the directorial debut of Oscarwinner Regina King. According to Variety, the film willrelease in select theatres December 25 and later launchon streamer Amazon Prime Video January 15, 2021.

SUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSYou will not need a rea-son to party today. Be itthe news of a friend get-ting married or you buy-ing a new car, you are in a mood to cele-brate life like anything! Apart from this, youwill have a smooth sailing through out theday, foresees Ganesha.

PISCESA day of mixed fortunesawaits you, where takingrisks could prove to beyour undoing, or provideyou with handsome returns, says Ganesha.This is because you could come out on top bytreading cautiously, but uncalculated risks willprobably throw your calculations out of gear.

SAGITTARIUSLady luck is all smiles foryou today, predictsGanesha. Suddenly, youfeel like multi-taskingand becoming a jack of all. This is likely tokeep you busy, almost throughout theday. If need be, your colleagues and peerswill lend a helping hand.

LIBRAGanesha says that todaywill be a lucky day foryou. You may receivesome financial gain.There will be some good news about yourchildren's progress. This is the right time toinvest in business. For financial investorsand share brokers this period is beneficial,so make the most of it.

SCORPIOYour energy levels arehigh as you as you gearup for new events.However, there arechances that these events may not meetyour expectations. But, don't lose hope andget disappointed. Keep your spirits high.

LEOUnlike Dennis or Calvin,expect your sometimeshaughty and mostlynaughty kids to behave‘just right' at the right time. It's not thatchildren like to break rules, they just wantto have some fun, reminds Ganesha.

VIRGOGanesha foretells thatyou will start off on along, arduous path tosuccess. Some toughwork will play a vital role in yourprogress. Don't cut corners, and yourlabours will pay rich dividends andyou will reap due rewards. Someopportunities are best left alone asthey involve too much risk.

GEMINIA crucial social event athome is on the anvil, andit will demand most ofyour attention. Intense business negotia-tions, which were going on for a long time,will come to a logical conclusion. The resultsare likely to be stacked in your favour.

CANCERToday, you are likely toachieve something thatyou have badly wantedfor a long time. It is verylikely that you will get very emotional inthe moment of victory today, predictsGanesha. Your arrogance and overconfi-dence can throw you off track.

ARIESYou will find some deci-sions difficult to make,but be intent and res-olute. Emotions may put you off rail, butonce you have resolved, don't stray fromit. Besides, Ganesha advises you to learnto endure setbacks in a mature manner.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSYou may find yourselfcompromising againstyour will today, predictsGanesha. Stand strong despite thingsgoing awry instead of feeling disillusioneddue to poor results. Ongoing negotiationsmight come to a logical end and a fewimportant decisions are likely to bedelayed due to lack of proper information.

CAPRICORNYou are in hot water, butdo not lose hope duringthese turbulent times.Maintain a calm headover your shoulders and deal with theproblems, guides Ganesha. Also, do notjump to conclusions or be argumenta-tive with the people around you, as youmay end up being at the losing end.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

SUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

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

KING’S ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI TO RELEASE IN SELECT US THEATRES

The national-levelchampionship will

begin inNovember 2020

which is opento students

of ClassesIV to XIIfrom all

education boards acrossIndia

AGENCIES

New Delhi: For school-goers,quizzes like olympiads canbe experimental learningoutside the classroom.With learning havinggone digital, an onlinenationwide GK olympiadfor school students is allset to test young mindson their general knowl-

edge, and make e-educa-tion a bit more exciting,

even during school closures.Mind Wars, a multiplatform

knowledge programme promotedby Zee Entertainment Enterprises

Ltd has announced India’s largest on-line general knowledge Olympiad 2020, in-

tending to identify, encourage, and pro-mote students towards achieving a bettertomorrow. The national-level championshipwill begin in November 2020, and it is

open to students of Classes IV to XII fromall education boards across India.

The 20-minute exam comprisesrelevant and interesting general

awareness question across 5 top-ics per class, that aims at im-

proving students’

ability and growth in the coming years.Furthermore, it is formulated based on theresults of a detailed survey of principalsand teachers from across 5,000 Indianschools pan India.

“Quizzes and puzzles are a great way of ex-periential as well as experimental learningfor kids. The play and competitiveness as-sociated with quizzing also makes it fun andengaging. Knowledge gained in such en-gaging manner is retained better by a bud-ding mind. Also, it helps develop positive be-havioural and response patterns for kids intheir formative years. The Mind Wars GKOlympiad provides platform for kids to pre-pare and practise for quizzes before theyplay the competitive Olympiad. It also providesopportunity for kids to re-try and improve theirscores. In this manner the program is de-signed to encourage kids for pursuing a goalof continuous learning and improvement,”said company’s senior vice-president UmeshKr Bansal.

Olympiads have been a part of the schoolactivities for decades. They are widely ac-cepted and respected form of evaluatingand recognising the capabilities of schoolstudents. Olympiad certificates have beenpart of the extra-curricular achievementsfor children as they appear for competitiveexams and higher studies, he added.

Going with the times, the organisershave made the Olympiad completely dig-ital from registration, to practise, to thefinal competitive exam as well. The par-ticipating students can give the exam ona date of their choice and from thesafety of their homes.

‘#MeToo movementin India fake’

When Arjun staredat his phone

for 10 minutes

PEANUTS post

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

CROSSWORD

E-OLYMPIAD SET TO ASSESS COUNTRY’S

BUDDING MINDS

Payal Ghosh

P3

downtown

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SUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARBUMPY RIDE

Poor condition of the RingRoad near the Collectoroffice in Cuttackinconveniences thecommuters, Saturday

INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 3,49,48,628 2,59,78,182 10,34,858

India 64,73,544 54,27,706 1,00,842

Odisha 2,29,387 1,98,194 892

COVID-19 TRACKER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: Several stateand central security forces Saturdayresolved to intensify operations inCommunist Party of India (Maoist)strongholds in Odisha by ensur-ing better coordination among them.

The decision was taken at a high-level meeting held at the office of theDirectorate of Intelligence here.Senior Security Advisor to theUnion Ministry of Home AffairsK Vijay Kumar, Director General ofthe Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) AP Maheswari and OdishaDGP Abhay along with many sen-ior officials of state and centralarmed police attended the meet-ing.

The officials deliberated on issuesrelated to the status of Maoist ex-tremism in the state, steps taken bysecurity forces to tackle the ultras,fresh operational strategy againstMaoists, redeployment of CentralArmed Police Forces (CAPFs) in

core areas, steps to achieve bettersynergy among the forces.

“It was emphasised to furtherintensify anti-Maoist operationsin the core operational areas of CPI(Maoist) in the state with greater syn-ergy with Central Armed PoliceForces. It was also emphasised to

fast-track the re-deployment ofCAPFs in Kalahandi, Kandhamaland Nabarangpur districts,” said apress note released by Odisha Policeafter the meeting.

The officials stressed on emu-lating a better ‘coordination mech-anism’ followed by police forces of

Odisha and Andhra Pradesh incombating the Maoists along theborder. Vijay Kumar commended thestate police for its successful oper-ations against the Left WingExtremism (LWE) in state and as-sured all possible help from cen-tral government in future too.

Anti-Red ops to be intensified in core areasThe officials deliberated on issues

related to the status of Maoistextremism in the state, steps

taken by security forces to tacklethe ultras, fresh operational

strategy against Maoists amongothers

Anti-Maoist operations will beintensified in core operational

areas of CPI (Maoist) in the statewith greater synergy with CAPF

THRUST ON COORDINATION

SENIOR SECURITY ADVISOR TO MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS VIJAY KUMAR COMMENDED THE STATE POLICE FORITS SUCCESSFUL OPERATIONS AGAINST LEFT WING EXTREMISM IN STATE

POST NEWS NETWORK

Khurda, Oct 3: The Quick ActionTeam (QAT) of CommissioneratePolice seized 300 grams of brownsugar from a vehicle near Pahalaon the outskirts of Capital city,Saturday morning. The marketvalue of the sized narcotic wouldbe around Rs 35 lakh in grey mar-ket. Similarly, 700 kg ganja wasalso seized from a coir-laden trucknear Godipada toll gate in Khurda.

Acting on a tip-off, the cops in-tercepted a vehicle and the con-traband was found after a search.During investigation it was foundthat the narcotic was being trans-ported from Jaleswar area inBalasore to Bhubaneswar.

In another haul, the NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB) seized 700kg ganja from a coir-laden trucknear Godipada toll gate in KhurdaSaturday. The estimated value ofthe seized narcotic item is said tobe around Rs 70 lakh in grey mar-ket. The driver of the truck hasbeen arrested and his interroga-tion is underway, it was learnt.

The NCB had been tipped offabout the truck. Accordingly, theofficials intercepted the vehicleand the contraband was foundduring a raid. The narcotic itemwas being smuggled fromSrikakulam in Andhra Pradesh toBihar, it was learnt.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: A statementby Housing and Urban Development(H&UD) Minister Pratap Jenaclaimed that the Odisha govern-ment has spent a staggering `472crore on COVID management dur-ing the last seven months.

The written statement wastabled before the AssemblySaturday which gave an accountof the expenditure the govern-ment incurred out of the ChiefMinister’s Relief Fund (CMRF).The breakup of the data revealedthat the majority of the fundswere given to the District Collectorsto tackle the health disaster. Fundswere also spent on arranging traintickets for migrants returning tothe state. The detailed list of ex-penditure claimed that the Policedepartment, Housing and UrbanDevelopment department, NationalHealth Mission, selected civic bod-ies got the share to cater to theneeds of COVID management inthe last few months.

The data claimed that a largerchunk of `165 crore was utilisedto pay the returnee Odias as in-centives for successful completionof quarantine after their return tothe state. The incentives were routedeither through the Panchayati Rajdepartment or the Housing andUrban Development department.

On the other hand, nearly `194crore was allocated to different dis-trict administrations to managethe health disaster. The amountwas paid to different districts atmultiple transactions based on theneed of the districts. Ganjam,Khurda, Cuttack districts receivedthe highest allocations from theCMRF. The government has alsoallocated ̀ 17.5 crore to Bhubaneswar

Municipal Corporation (BMC), `3crore to Berhampur MunicipalCorporation and `7.5 crore to theCuttack Municipal Corporation.Out of the three civic bodies as-

sisted, BMC received the lion’sshare for COVID management.

Some other assistance included`15 crore to the police department,`46 crore to the National HealthMission and `9 crore given to theEast Coast Railway as train fare

for the migrant workers fromShramik trains.

Another expenditure shown fromthe office of the Special ReliefCommissioner (SRC) was ̀ 1.5 crore

which was given to the 30 districts forfood expenditure of the quarantinecentres, personal hygiene kits, bed-sheets/pillow covers for quarantinecentres and cleaning of the centres.These also include provision forhomeless, destitute and beggars.

`472Cr CMRF money spent on COVID mgmt

Alarger chunk of `165 crore wasutilised to pay the returnee Odias

as incentives for successful completion of quarantine after theirreturn to the state

Nearly `194 crore was allocated todifferent district administrations

to manage the health disaster

The govt has allocated `17.5 croreto BMC, `3 crore to Berhampur

Municipal Corporation and `7.5 croreto CMC

REPORT IN ASSEMBLY

BHUBANESWAR: Speaker SuryaNarayan Patro Saturday directedHealth and Family Welfare MinisterNaba Kishore Das to form a specialsquad for inspection of all gov-ernment and private COVID hos-pitals in the state.

Patro gave the ruling in the Houseas many opposition members havealleged gross mismanagement atCOVID hospitals across the state.The Speaker said he himself alsoreceived similar complaints. TheSpeaker directed the minister toset up a special team which willvisit all COVID hospitals in thestate to oversee their overall man-agement.

Speaker warns scribes The Speaker Saturday warned the

journalists against circulating mis-leading news about House pro-ceedings.

The Speaker, while giving a rul-ing on the matter, asked media-persons covering House proceedingsnot to misinterpret statements of thelegislators. He also urged mediahouses to ask their reporters out-side the Assembly to refrain frompublishing news about House busi-ness, failing which action will be ini-tiated against them.

Patro gave this ruling follow-ing a privilege motion movedb y s e n i o r C o n g r e s s M L ANarasingha Mishra on a mediareport about him. Though hehimself and his party and hadraised COVID issue and de-manded a debate inside theHouse, a misleading media reportis being circulated in WhatsAppabout him, Mishra said.

Form squad to inspectCOVID hosps: Speaker

BHUBANESWAR: Motor vehiclerevenue in the state has dipped by42 per cent till August end of this fi-nancial year as compared to thecorresponding period of FY 2019-20.

As per a written statement byTransport and Commerce MinisterPadmanabha Behera, the stategovernment has collected ̀ 382.78crore in between April and Augustof this fiscal as against `661.29crore during the period in last fis-cal. Motor vehicle revenue col-lection has fallen by 82.75 per centin the month of April, 66.69 per cent

in May, 15.61 per cent in June, 19.98per cent in July and 18.04 per centin August. About 1,40,063 vehi-cles were registered in the state tillAugust 2020 while 10,534 drivinglicences were renewed during thistime, he said. Behera said the statehas collected `4.14 crore as finefrom the violators while check-ing vehicles documents whereasthe amount was `35.13 crore dur-ing the same period last year.

Likewise, Behera said, about70.33 lakh registered vehicles areplying on state roads.

Motor vehicle revenue dips 42%

BROWN SUGAR,GANJA WORTH OVER`1 CRORE SEIZED

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Khurda, Oct 3: Baghamari po-lice Saturday registered a caseagainst OTV managing director(MD) Jagi Mangat Panda, her fa-ther and brother in connectionwith alleged land grab by themedia house at Sarua village underBegunia block here.

A case has been registeredagainst Panda, her father andbrother on charges of illegal ac-quisition of the landed propertiesof two Dalit persons and issuingthreat to the victim duo, policesaid. The case has been registeredunder SC/ST Act and Section 447,506 and 34 of the IPC, they added.

“SDPO Sushil Kumar Mishrahas been directed to probe the al-legation against the media house.We will take stern action if the al-legations are proved,” said KhurdaSuperintendent of Police (SP) AjayPratap Swain. According to police,Haluri Pahadsingh and SanatanPahadsingh, two Dalit persons ofSarua, had lodged a complaintagainst OTV MD, her father andbrother. As per the complaint,the duo has agricultural landsunder Sarua revenue village. Afew years ago, OTV authoritieshad tried to lure the duo to sell theirlands to the media house. However,Haluri and Sanatan refused topart their lands.

Subsequently, OTV authoritiespurchased landed properties closeto the duo’s lands and constructedbuildings and boundary walls,said the complainants, adding ac-cess to their farmlands has beenblocked. “The media house au-thorities have prevented us fromaccessing our agricultural lands.They threatened us when we raisedan objection,” alleged the duo intheir complaint.

LAND GRAB CHARGE

OTV MD, kin booked

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Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: Predictingheavy rainfall till October 6, theIndia Meteorological Department(IMD) Saturday issued yellowwarning for several districts.

The low pressure area (LOPAR)formed over northwest and ad-joining west central Bay of Bengaloff Odisha north Andhra Pradeshcoasts was located over northwestBay of Bengal & adjoining Odishacoast, the IMD said.

Under its impact, heavy rainfallwould occur at one or two placesin Ganjam, Koraput, Dhenkanal,Keonjhar, Sambalpur, Boudh,Angul, Cuttack, Deogarh, Gajapatiand Sonepur, Sunday.

The IMD said a few places inNuapada, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi,Kandhamal, Boudh, Bolangir,Bargarh, Balasore, Bhadrak,Kendrapara and Rayagada dis-tricts would witness heavy rain-fall, October 5. Similarly, heavyrainfall is very likely to occur atone or two places in Koraput,Nabarangpur, Bargarh, Bolangir,Jharsuguda, Nuapada,Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Boudh andKalahandi, October 6.

At the same time, light to mod-erate rain and thunderstorm willcontinue to occur at many placesof south and interior pockets ofOdisha. The highest 75 mm rain-fall was recorded at Nayagarh,followed by 48 mm at Angul and43.6 mm at Bhubaneswar.

HEAVY RAINFALLWARNING FOR 3 DAYS

Vehicles ply on a water-logged Bomikhal road in Bhubaneswar as heavy rain lashed the city, Saturday. (Bottom) Peopletravel on the Sachivalaya Marg amid the downpour in the Capital OP PHOTOS

RAIN-SOAKED CITY

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Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: In a bid tofacilitate transport services to can-didates appearing UPSC CivilServices Preliminary examina-tion, the Capital Region UrbanTransport (CRUT), Saturday, saidthat it would run Mo Bus serviceon Route No- 16 and 18 connectingthe twin cities.

In a tweet, CRUT stated that MoBus service will begin at 6am,Sunday. The two routes, 16 and 18,will see buses plying betweenMaster Canteen Square inBhubaneswar to Biju Patnaik Park,Cuttack and from Baramunda hereto Jagatpur in Cuttack. The buseswill be available in every 10 min-utes between 6 am and 6.30am.

Similarly, from Cuttack theMo Bus service will be available

in every 15 minutes between4.50pm and 5.35pm. The pre-liminary examination will beheld at 2,569 centres across 72cities in the country.

M e a n w h i l e , t h e I n d i a nRailways has decided to run spe-cial trains within jurisdictionof East Coast Railway (ECoR) aday before to facilitate candi-dates of UPSC examinationscheduled for October 4.

Mo Bus service forUPSC examinees

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Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: A havildarof Commissionerate Police hassustained severe injuries follow-ing a murderous attack by a formerspecial police officer (SPO) at RentalColony under Nayapalli police lim-its here.

The injured cop has lodged acomplaint with the police againstthe absconding SPO. The accused,a retired official of Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF), was workingas an SPO with CommissioneratePolice.

According to sources, the vic-tim has been identified as SantoshKumar Behera, a havildar in PCRvan at Nayapalli police station.Behera received an order from thepolice control room regarding abrawl at the Rental Colony. He alongwith some other cops rushed to

the spot. The locals informed thecops that the accused had beenbeating his wife and children mer-cilessly.

Meanwhile, when Behera wasclimbing the ladder, the accusedsuddenly came out of his houseand started attacking him with ashoe stand kept nearby.

An injured Behera soon calledmore forces to his help but the ac-cused succeeded in fleeing the spot.Police have launched a manhunt toarrest the accused after registeringa case in this regard.

Murderous attackon havildar in City

The accused, a retiredofficial of Central ReservePolice Force, was workingas an SPO withCommissionerate Police

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: Odia boySanat Rath has set a GuinnessWorld Record in holding ‘tree pos-ture’ (Brukhyasana) for the longesttime. Sanat achieved the rare featby holding this posture for onehour six minutes and 55 seconds.

Sanat said that the purpose ofthe attempt is to promote Yoga asa way of living and celebratinglife. “Yoga, cycling and exercise arevery important for youngsters.By pursuing these physical work-outs, a youth can remain fit andstress-free,” Sanat said.

Earlier, Sanat made it to LimcaBook of Records with the largestcollection of unique cycles. “I havealways cherished the dream ofsetting world records. As of now,I have entries in Guinness WorldRecord and Limca Book of Records.My dream has come true and Iam feeling very satisfied,” he said.

Odia boy sets worldrecord in holding‘tree posture’

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Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: An RTIquery revealed that utilization cer-tificates (UCs) that help rule out mis-appropriation and frauds have notbeen submitted by the Odisha gov-ernment to the Centre against re-lease of Rs 60 crore allocated in2014-15 for development of pil-grimage and heritage sites.

The Ministry of Tourism in 2015had launched the PRASAD(Pilgrimage Rejuvenation andSpirituality Augmentation Drive)scheme that aimed at integrated de-velopment of pilgrimage destina-tions in a prioritised, planned, andsustainable manner in order toprovide a complete religious tourismexperience.

The scheme which focused thedevelopment of lighting and illu-mination with renewable energysources, eco-friendly modes oftransport, first aid centres, inter-net connectivity and basic tourismfacilities like transport, last-mileconnectivity had shortlisted Puri’sJagganath Temple as one of the41 religious sites to be developed fortourism.

“The government of India has re-leased Rs 50 crore for infrastructuredevelopment for Jagannath Dhamand Ramachandi-Prachi river frontat Deuli under a mega circuit in2014-15 for Puri. Besides that theministry also released an amountof Rs 10 core to the government ofOdisha in the same year,” the

Ministry of Tourism responded toa query filed in the RTI.

“Though six years have passed,the government of Odisha has notsubmitted utilization certificates(UCs) of a single rupee to the CentralMinistry till date,” the ministryfurther added. Considered to bean important document, utiliza-tion certificates are mandatorysubmissions to the central gov-ernment which explains the break-down of usage of funds.

“In absence of utilisation cer-tificates, there is no assurance thatmoney disbursed has been usedfor the purpose for which they havebeen given. Moreover, high pen-dency of the certificates is fraughtwith the risk of misappropriationand fraud,” said Pradeep Pradhan,RTI activist here.

State yet to submitUCs of `60 cr: RTI

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Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: The state’sCOVID-19 tally rose to 2,29,387Saturday as 3,053 more people testedpositive for the infection, a healthofficial said. Seventeen fresh fatal-ities pushed the state's coronavirusdeath toll to 892, he said.

As many as 1,804 new cases weredetected in quarantine centres,while 1,249 people tested positive forthe infection during contact tracing,the official said. Khurda district,under which Bhubaneswar falls,reported the highest number ofnew cases at 561, followed by Cuttack(256) and Mayurbhanj (153), he said.

Three fresh fatalities each werereported in Balasore and Dhenkanal,two each in Jagatsinghpur, Khurdaand Puri, and one each in Bhadrak,Ganjam, Jajpur, Mayurbhanj andNayagarh districts, the official said.

Ganjam district has so far re-ported the highest number ofCOVID-19 deaths at 221, followedby Khurda (146) and Cuttack (74).

Fifty-three COVID-19 patients havedied due to other ailments so far,he said.

The state has so far tested over33.95 lakh samples for COVID-19,including 46,404 Friday, he added.

Capital records 329 fresh casesAs many as 329 COVID-19 cases

were detected under BhubaneswarMunicipal Corporation (BMC) lim-its over last 24 hours, BMC saidSaturday. While 110 of them werequarantine cases, remaining 219are local contact ones. Meanwhile,341 persons who earlier tested pos-itive for the disease have recovered.

According to a notification is-sued by the civic body, as of Saturday,22,876 persons have tested positivefor COVID-19 in Bhubaneswar outof which 19,255 have recovered.While there are 3,502 active cases,100 persons succumbed to the dis-ease. Cuttack records 168 new cases

As many as 168 new COVID-19c a s e s we re d e t e c t e d u n d e rCuttack Municipal Corporation(CMC) limits in last 24 hours,

CMC said Saturday.While 32 of them were home

quarantine cases, 67 were frominstitutional quarantine cen-tres and the remaining 69 werelocal contact ones. Accordingto a notification issued by thecivic body, as of Saturday, 12,577persons have tested positive forCOVID-19 in Cuttack out ofwhich 10,256 have recovered.There are 2,270 active cases and51 persons have succumbed to thedisease.

4,066 PERSONS RECOVER The state health department

Saturday said 4,066 persons whoearlier tested positive for Covid-19 have recovered and are being dis-charged. Out of the 4,066 persons,648 are from Khurda, 521 fromCuttack, 225 from Angul, 181 fromJajpur, 167 from Sundargarh, 152from Jagatsinghpur, 152 fromNuapada, 141 from Bargarh, 135from Nabarangpur, 128 fromSambalpur, 127 from Bhadrak, 119f ro m B a l a s o re, 1 1 4 f ro m

Mayurbhanj, 108 from Kandhamal,106 from Kendrapara, 105 fromPuri, 91 from Jharsuguda, 81 fromBolangir, 65 from Keonjhar, 65f ro m M a l k a n g i r i , 6 1 f ro mRayagada, 61 from Sonepur, 60from Ganjam, 60 from Kalahandi,60 from Koraput, 59 from Boudh,57 from Dhenkanal, 41 fromNayagarh, 14 from Deogarh, 13from Gajapati and 149 from StatePool. With this, total recoveriesin the state stood at 1,98,194.

3,053 FRESH CASES, 17 FATALITIES IN STATEGanjam district has so farreported the highestnumber of COVID-19deaths at 221, followedby Khurda (146) andCuttack (74). Fifty-threeCOVID-19 patients havedied due to other ailments so far

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Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: UnionMinister of Petroleum and SteelSaturday said farmers in the coun-try won’t be deprived of theMinimum Support Price (MSP) fortheir crops under the leadershipof Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

He was speaking in a press con-ference in the state capital to talkabout the recently passed three leg-islations on farmers. “Under theleadership of PM Modi, no farmersare going to suffer and receive prof-its below MSP. The three Acts will bea harbinger of an era of better profitfor the farmers unlike the 70 yearsof earlier governance,” he said.

When asked why the MSP has notbeen made part of any law, he said,“Even earlier the MSP was not wellprescribed in laws but it was given.Under our governance, the MSPwas strengthening. In last few years,farmers have been selling morepaddy under MSP. Earlier, MSP forpulses was hardly given which wasgiven in good numbers in the last

few years,” he said.The BJP leader from Odisha

claimed that the power to disman-tle or retain the APMC lay withthe states. He said that the three billswould bolster the selling power offarmers and weed out the middle-

men involved in trading of thecrops of farmers in the market.

He also tried to allay the fears ofmulti-national companies invad-ing the local markets and said thatin the past, several local playershad been buying crops from farm-ers in good amount and collabo-rating with them.

“Don’t we have good and capableplayers who can tie up with farm-ers. There are several examples inNabarangpur, Bolangir and otherswhere the local produce is procuredby local players. The talks of MNCsinvading agri markets are mis-leading,” he said.

Farmers wouldn’t be deprived of MSP: PradhanCUTTACK: Union PetroleumMinister Dharmendra PradhanSaturday afternoon donated plasmaat SCB Medical College and Hospitalhere after his recovery from Covid-19.

After his recovery, Pradhan do-nated plasma on the advice of doc-tors after necessary interval. ProfDatteswar Hota, principal of SCBMedical College and Dr SmitaMohapatra, nodal officer for plasmatherapy in the hospital were pres-ent at the time when Pradhan do-nated plasma at the plasma bank.

To make plasma donation move-ment a success, Pradhan appealedto all those who have recoveredfrom Covid-19 to come forward andvoluntarily donate their plasma.

He said that administration ofplasma therapy has been of suc-cess in case of critical and seriouspatients for which the movement forplasma donation should be mademore widespread. Speaking to me-diapersons, Dr Mohapatra, nodal

officer said that today’s event isquite inspiring for the residents inthe state as the Union Ministercame all the way from New Delhi todonate plasma in the hospital. Over482 recovered persons comprisingdoctors, police, defence personnel andothers have donated plasma at theplasma bank in the SCB MedicalCollege and Hospital since its in-auguration by the Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik July 15, she said. TheUnion Minister’s voluntary donationof plasma will help in an increaseof plasma donors, she hoped.Pradhan had informed in socialmedia of his getting infected withcoronavirus August 4. Later, he wasadmitted to a Gurugaon hospital .

UNION MINISTER DONATES PLASMA

LIVELIHOOD MATTERS

Hawkers from West Bengal selling fried groundnuts at the Ring Road near CDA in Cuttack, Saturday OP PHOTO

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Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: The stategovernment Saturday issued aStandard Operating Procedure(SOP) on how Favipiravir tabletscan be administered to COVID-19patients who are currently inhome isolation.

In a letter, Additional ChiefSecretary PK Mohapatra directedall District Collectors, municipalcommissioners, CDMOs, PHOsand superintendents of govern-ment medical college and hospitalsto ensure administration of favipi-ravir to patients in home isola-tion with strict adherence to SOP.

According to the SOP, rapid re-sponse teams will be trained toassess the patients in home iso-lation to see if they are eligible foradministration of the tablet. Thetablet can only be administered topatients in consultation withtrained doctors. The team willalso inform patients and their kinabout the side-effects, precautionsand actions to be taken after ad-ministration of the tablet.

COVID-19: S0P onuse of Favipiravirtablet issued

POST NEWS NETWORK

Cuttack. Oct 3: Noted gynaecol-ogist and obstetrician Dr AshisKumar Dey passedaway Saturday morn-ing at his Tulasipurresidence in the city.He was 87 and diedof cardiac arrest. Hisson, Debaloy Dey,daughter BarnaliSahu, grandchildrenand kin were presentat his bedside at the time of hisdeath.

Dey was bor n in Kolkata

December 12, 1932. After complet-ing his medical education from RGKar Medical College in Kolkata,Dey worked in the gynaecology

and obstetrics depart-ment of VSS MedicalCollege and Hospitalnow VIMSAR in Burla,MKCG Medical Collegeand Hospital inBerhampur and in SCBMedical College andHospital in Cuttack.His death was mourned

by people from all walks of lifeand the members of OdishaGynaecologist Association.

Noted gynaecologist dead POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: TheCongress party Saturday ap-pointed senior leaders in chargeof blocks in the Tirtol Assemblyconstituency to oversee party af-fairs for the bypoll.

Pradesh Congress Committee( P C C ) p r e s i d e n t N i r a n j a nPatnaik has appointed GurupadaNand and Manas Choudhury incharge of Raghunathpur blockwh i l e B a n d i t a P a r i d a a n dGaneshwar Behera will lookafter Biridi block and Amarnath

Pradhan, Shuvendu Mohantyand Arindam Sarkhel will be

in charge of Tirtol block.Various senior leaders includ-

ing state unit in-charge A ChellaKu m a r, N i r a n j a n P a t n a i k ,Congress Legislative Party leaderNarasimha Mishra, ChiranjibBiswal and Pradeep Majhi, JaydevJena, Sarat Patnaik and PrasadHarichandan, Ranjib Biswal,Saptagiri Ulaka, Suresh KumarRautaray, Taraprasad Bahinipati,Ramesh Jena, Santosh SinghSaluja and Mohammed Moquimwill campaign for the party can-didate. The seat will go for by-poll November 3.

Cong appoints leaders for Tirtol bypollThe seat will go forby-poll November 3for which seniorCongress leadersincluding state unitin-charge A ChellaKumar and otherswill campaign for theparty candidate

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Phulbani, Oct 3: Despite sufferingfrom locomotor disability by 80per cent, Suneli Digal, 11, has neverstopped from doing what she loves– dancing.

The tribal girl resides inBadabanga panchayat underDaringbadi block in Kandhamaldistrict along with her family.Owing to locomotor disability orOsteogenesis Imperfecta, her phys-ical growth has been restricted forpast several years. The nearest pri-mary school being almost a kilo-metre away from her village hin-dered her education.

While a normal person wouldhave moped for missing out on life,tough people like Suneli believes inliving life to the fullest. “Everybodyloves my dance,” gleams the littledancer. Her parents said Suneli

learnt to dance on her own bywatching videos. She fascinatedco-villagers with her moves andanimated expressions.

Notably, the block education of-ficer (BEO) along with other offi-cials met her family a few daysback and ensured her admissioninto a local school. The BEO gaveher school uniform, books and awheelchair which will facilitateher going to school. The officials alsopromised the family that Suneliwould receive all benefits as pergovernment norms.

Differently-abled girlshines through dance

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Phulbani, Oct 3: G UdayagiriTraders’ Association is observinga 48-hour shutdown from Saturday.All the shops and markets wereseen with their shutters down.

Such a decision has been takento stop the spread of coronavirusin the locality. They have also de-cided that they will open theirshops from 7am to 4pm fromMonday onwards.

The traders’ association has alsourged people not to come out oftheir houses unless there is an ur-gency. Kandhamal Saturday re-ported 32 fresh COVID-19 cases,

taking the district’s total tally to4,677. While 4,085 patients have sofar recovered from the disease, 569are still undergoing treatment. Thekiller disease has so far claimed 23lives in the district.

Earlier, Jharsuguda Chamberof Commerce and KaranjiaBusinessmen’s Association inMayurbhanj had taken similardecisions to curb the spread ofthe disease in their respectiveareas. The Jharsuguda Chamberof Commerce had observed aseven-day long shutdown endingOctober 2, Karanjia Businessmen’sAssociation’s three-day-shutdownended September 30.

COVID-19: G UDAYAGIRI TRADERS’BODY OBSERVES 48-HOUR BANDH

The Ministry of Tourism in 2015 hadlaunched the PRASAD (Pilgrimage

Rejuvenation and SpiritualityAugmentation Drive) scheme thataimed at integrated development ofpilgrimage destinations

The government of India hasreleased `50 crore for

infrastructure development forJagannath Dham and Ramachandi-Prachi river front at Deuli under amega circuit in 2014-15 for Puri underPRASAD scheme for development of pilgrimage and heritage sites

Considered to be an importantdocument, utilization certificates

are mandatory submissions to thecentral government which explainsthe breakdown of usage of funds

FACT FILE

The three Acts will bea harbinger of an eraof better profits forfarmers unlike the 70years of earlier govt,Pradhan said

POST NEWS NETWORK

Dhenkanal/Angul, Oct 3: In an-other incident of man-elephantconflict, a 48-year-old womanwas trampled to death by an ele-phant at Majhikhaman villageunder Kamakhyanagar sub di-vision in Dhenkanal districtSaturday morning.

The deceased has been iden-tified as Netramani Sahoo ofMajhikhaman village underMuktaposi section of westernrange. According to sources,Netramani was on way to herfarmland in the morning. It waswhen she was passing througha forested area, a wild elephantcame from nowhere and beforeshe could do anything to save

her life, the animal caught herby its trunk, tossed her on theground and trampled her underits feet.

As the news broke, familymembers and villagers rushedto the spot where tension flaredup for sometime as the villagersdemanded compensation andsteps to save their lives and prop-erties. On being informed, forestdepartment officials also rushedto the spot. They pacified thevillagers, promising compen-sation as per government rule.They recovered the body for postmortem.

In a related development, anelephant was found dead at nearMlaygiri resertve forest underDeogarh forest division in thisdistrict. Forest officials are yetto ascertain the cause of itsdeath. It was suspected to be anact of poaching as its tusks aremissing. The animal had stayedfrom Keonjhar to Pallahand area.

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Sonepur, Oct 3: In a first, sevenvillages out of 43 identified as mostvulnerable in terms of child mar-riage in this district have the pres-tigious tag of ‘child marriage-freevillage’.

In past years, the district had re-ported many cases of child mar-riages. Waking up to the alarmingsituation, the district administrationtook several initiatives to put anend to this evil practice. A move-ment in the name of ‘Sankalp’ isunderway across the district. Underthe movement, the administrationis taking various steps to sensitiseparents about the adverse impactof the early age marriages of theirdaughters.

Similarly, various programmeshave been taken into hands to givethe victims of child marriage a bet-ter and secured life. The adminis-tration has identified 43 villages asmost vulnerable villages in terms ofchild marriage.

The administration’s efforts havefinally paid dividends. Seven of the43 villages have become child mar-riage-free villages.

On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti,the district administration in asso-ciation with Action Aid and UNICEFdeclared the villages as free from theheinous practice of marrying offchildren at a tender age.

The villages which have receivedthe tag for the first time in the dis-trict are Janamura of Sonepur block,Salipali of Ulunda block, Jampali of

Binika block, Gajabandh ofDunguripali block, Kheramal ofBiramaharajpur block andSurajimund and Bhurad villages ofTarabha block.

Due to the steps the government

has been taking for the last twoyears, these villages have not re-ported even a single case of childmarriage in the period.

Child marriage protection offi-cer (CMPO) Sabita Dora, members

of the child marriage protectioncommittees, teachers and villagerstook a pledge not to allow child mar-riage in their village.

With a view to make all the 43villages as free from child marriage,another initiative has been takensince July, 2020.

Under this initiative, village level‘child marriage protection com-mittees’ have been formed at all thevillages and every week activities likerallies, meetings and pledge takingevents involving girls, youths, vil-lagers, parents and women of SHGsare being organised.

The administration in associa-tion with Action Aid and UNICEFhas formed task force and takensome more steps to check child mar-riage in the district, it was learnt.

Sonepur villages declared ‘child marriage free’n The villages which havereceived the tag for the first timein the district are Janamura ofSonepur block, Salipali of Ulundablock, Jampali of Binika block,Gajabandh of Dunguripali block,Kheramal of Biramaharajpurblock and Surajimund andBhurad villages of Tarabha block

n In past years, the district saw many cases of child marriages. Waking up tothe alarming situation, the district administration took several initiatives toput an end to this evil practice. A movement in the name of ‘Sankalp’ isunderway across the district with the administration sensitising parentsabout the adverse impact of the early age marriages of their daughters

POST NEWS NETWORK

Papadahandi, Oct 3: A non-de-script village under this block inNabarangpur district has recentlybeen in news for a surprising reason.Here there is an ashram at Basini vil-lage under this block and Kodingaforest range which plays host to wildbears who come here every eveningto eat prasad.

Reports said these wild animalsvisit the Baba Gangadhar Ashramevery evening to eat prasad and re-turn to the forest in night. Peoplethrong the ashram to get a glimpseof the wild animals as the clockstrikes 4 pm. Animal lovers claimedthe visit of wild animals to theashram for food is indicative of foodshortage they are facing in the for-est due to loss of green cover.

The bears are dependent on foodthat is provided to them by devoteesand inmates in the ashram and visit

it regularly. These ferocious wildanimals are tied to a string of loveand do not harm anybody duringtheir stay in the ashram.

A report coming from a villagein Nabarngapur district has sur-prised many as there is a Chanditemple at Ghunchapali inMahasamund district of

Chhatishgarh where wild bears fromthe forest frequent every evening toeat prasad offered by devotees andothers every evening.

Sources said the ashram of BabaGangadhar, a monk of Mahima cult,is situated at Basini village. Thevisit of the wild animals started a fewmonths back when a bear suddenly

strayed into the ashram. The monkinstead of fearing the animal fed itwith prasad. Later, the animal re-turned to the forest.

Since then it has become a reg-ular affair as six bears visit theashram every evening. They quietlyeat the food prepared from flat-tened rice and jaggery and return

back to forest.The monk has to keep 50 kg flat-

tened rice and jaggery before thearrival of animals. The scene of thecarnivorous animals having vege-tarian food is to be seen to be be-lieved. He buys the food with thealms he has received and with con-tribution from devotees.

Wild bears visit this place every evening to eat prasad

LOVE FOR ANIMALS

The ashram of BabaGangadhar, a monk of

Mahima cult, is situated atBasini village. The visit of thewild animals started a fewmonths back when a bearsuddenly strayed into theashram. The monk instead offearing the animal fed it withprasad. Later, the animalreturned to the forest

Since then it has become a regular affair as six bears visit the ashramevery evening. They quietly eat the food prepared from flattened rice and

jaggery and return back to forest

POST NEWS NETWORK

Jajpur, Oct 3: Taking a serious noteof growing pollution of the water ofthe Brahmani river in Jajpur, theHigh Court had directed the stategovernment to set up common ef-fluent treatment plants (CETPs) bythe industrial units operating onalong the river banks, but the orderhas not been implemented till date,a report said.

The NGT has also issued a simi-lar order on an appeal (593/2017) andbased on a writ petition (375/2012) filedin Supreme Court. Despite all this,the government sits pretty cool overthe issue.

The report added that in the ab-sence of CETPs, the water of Brahmaniis getting polluted with the effluentsbeing discharged from the industrialunits in Kalinganagar. People and do-mestic animals of Danagadi, Korei,Rasulpur, Jajpur, Binjharpur and Bariblocks have to bear the brunt of pol-luted water when they are using the pol-luted water.

The river water is allegedly unfitfor human consumption and has af-fected the lives and livelihood of peo-ple in these riparian pockets.

The industrial units and mineshave violated the orders of HC, SCand the National Green Tribunal by

not setting up CETPs.The Brahmani with a 480-km

course originates from the confluenceof Koel and Sankha rivers at Panposhnear Rourkela in Sundargargh dis-trict and flows through parts ofSundargarh, Deogarh, Angul,Cuttack, Jajpur and Kendrapara dis-tricts before merging with the Bayof Beng al at Dhamra underChandbali in Bhadrak district. AtJenapur in Jajpur, the Brahamani hasbranched itself into two parts asBrahmani and Kharashrota.

In the upstream area, the riverwater is also polluted by effluents fromindustrial units in Angul and

Rourkela. Upset over continued pol-lution of the river water, people hadstaged agitations in the past while aPIL was filed in the High Court.

Hearing the PIL August 28, 2015,the HC had issued notices to theChief Secretary and secretaries of in-dustry, mines, water resources, for-est and environment departments,chairpersons of state and centralpollution control boards as well as theCollectors of Jharsuguda, Jajpur,Keonjhar and the ADM of Talcher.

The High Court also directed theauthorities concerned to ensure thatCETPs are installed by industrialunits on demarcated areas on the

riverbank so that the water ofBrahmani and its distributary willnot polluted.

Later, water samples of theBrahmani and the Kharashrota werecollected at Kabatabandh, Jokadiabridge, Deulakana, Kusunpur Bridge,Marthapur and Tisco Intake point andGanda nullah December 29, 2015.The laboratory tests found presenceof highly toxic chemicals like cyanideand phenolic compound.

The National Green Tribunal tookup hearing of the issue September20, 2018 and ordered formation of afive-member committee under thechairmanship of the forest and en-vironment secretary. It also wantedan action plan to tackle the riverwater pollution.

The CPCB had then directed theSPCB to form a five-member com-mittee but the order is yet to be im-plemented while at least 10 indus-trial units are allegedly releasingtoxic elements into the water ofBrahmani and Kharashota with-out treating their effluents. As forthe water pollution issue, regionalofficer of the SPCB Pramod KumarBehera said following the orders ofthe higher authorities, steps arebeing taken in this direction.However, he said he has no ordersregarding the CETP issue.

No action yet on CETP use for industrial unitsPOLLUTION OF BRAHMANI WATER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Keonjhar, Oct 3: DistrictCollector Ashish ThakareSaturday issued notice to chiefgeneral manager and regionaloffice of the National HighwaysAuthority of India (NHAI) to un-dertake repair of the dilapidatednational highways – NH-215 andNH-49 on a war footing.

In a letter, Thakare warnedthe NHAI authorities of legalaction if the repair work is notundertaken immediately.

“Despite informing the NHAIauthorities about the poor stateof the roads for several times,no action has been taken yet.Henceforth, the NHAI will beheld responsible in case acci-dents take place along the roads.Legal action will be taken againstthem,” the letter written by theDistrict Collector read.

“More than 95 percent of theaccidents and causalities are oc-curring on the national high-

ways because of their deplorableconditions. We have pursued theNHAI authorities to finish the re-pair work in time. We hope thatafter receiving this Office letter,the authorities will take necessarysteps forward,” Thakare ex-pressed.

Notably, the national high-ways known as the lifelines ofKeonjhar district are in a run-down condition, thereby caus-ing water logging due to rain.The poor state of these roadshas been posing serious threatsto local commuters – reportedlysevere accidents and causalities.

“The national highways hereare in precarious condition. Manydrivers have lost their lives in se-vere accidents. We had stagedprotests for several times, but invain,” a local truck driver alleged.

“It is very tough to drive onthese roads, which have com-pletely run down. The roads re-quires immediate repair,” an-other driver said.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Nayagarh, Oct 3: By 2000, fourforests around Tanganadi village inKulurukumpa panchayat underDasapalla block in Nayagarh dis-trict had stood almost denuded, be-cause of rampant tree felling by thetimber mafia. Now, these forests havegot back their virgin look and be-come verdantly rich thanks to com-munity efforts by local people. Theyhave set an example for others inthe forest conservation.

Reports said, when forests atTabakli hill, Chariaban, BhaluMundia and Biluapada continued todeplete because of tree felling, liveli-hood of tribals living in the area wasaffected.

Locals realised their blunder in2003 and resolved to safeguard the de-pleting forests.

They were earlier making attemptsto protect the forests and their green-ery, but timber mafia used to threatenthe for mer. They had to face their fury.

Seven years of zealous guardinghas rejuvenated the forests sprawl-ing over 45 acres. Trees like Sal,Piasal, Asana and Kusuma have

grown luxuriantly. Villagers have ensured that the

ecosystem in the region is protected.As a result of the vigil, a variety ofwildlife which had disappeared fromthe area, have reappeared region.

Wild animals such as jungle cats,civet cats, mongooses, jackal, hye-nas, foxes, wild boars, gaur, bats, ro-dents, owls, jungle babblers, bulbuls,blue jays, cuckoos, crows, doves pea-cocks, jungle fowls, mynas, partridges,peafowls, golden orioles and brah-many kites and paradise fly catchersare seen here.

This forest conservation is per-haps one of the best success storiesabout safeguarding of forests throughcommunity participation. Now, trib-als get sal leaves, siali leaves, wild rootsand grass, which fetch them a scopeof earning. Tribals are happy afterregeneration of the lost forests.

“The villagers’ effort is the main-stay for this successful conservationprocess. Such forest conservationcan be referred to as a model of com-munity-forest relationship for otherareas across the state,’’ some socialactivists observed.

The local residents have applied forland pattas under Forest DwellersRights Act.

Padmacharan Majhi,NirupamaMajhi and Manoranjan Behera said,”United efforts of the tribals savedthe forests which ensure their liveli-hood. 27 families of the village dependon the forests. The government shouldprovide them land pattas.”

Admin ultimatumto NHAI for repairof NH-215, 49

Guardians of Dasapalla forests

POST NEWS NETWORK

Jharsuguda, Oct 3: Despite talltalks of the state government boast-ing of its popular schemes aimedat uplifting the poor and the down-trodden, many needy are still de-prived of governmental benefits.

An old man identified asJogendra Nikhunti, a resident ofPujaripalli village under Lakhanpurblock in Jharsuguda district, hasbeen languishing in a toilet forover a year as his kutcha housewas damaged in rains.

The daily-wage labourer hasbeen living in the toilet, built underthe Centre’s flagship programmeSwachh Bharat Mission. Despiteseveral pleas, no one has extendedany help to the helpless old man.

“My house got damaged in therain last year. Since then, I have beenliving in the toilet with all my be-longings. It is very difficult to fit intothe small room. I am forced to live

here sans any option,” Jogendra said.

Adding to his woes, Jogendradoes not get any ration under thestate government’s scheme. Ironyis that, he has got a hefty electric-ity bill though he does not have ahouse or electric connection.

On being contacted, localsarpanch Krushna Kalo said that,“Ration card has been provided toJogendra, but he is ineligible toget ration as his Aadhaar card hasnot been linked to it. We will lookinto the matter to provide ration anda pucca house to him soon”.

Lakhanpur block developmentofficer (BDO) Sanjiv Patel said that,he will conduct an inquiry intothe matter.

“We have a Permanent WaitingList (PWL) of beneficiaries. Weprovide houses to the beneficiariesas per their turn in the waitinglist. We have to check the list beforeextending any help,” said Patel.

Elderly person languishes intoilet for years in Jharsuguda

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhadrak, Oct 3: Tension grippedBhadrak district headquartershospital (DHH) after family mem-bers of a deceased accused theDHH authorities of negligenceFriday afternoon.

According to sources, SatyanduMallick, a retired army man, ofThakurtpatna village underDhushuri police limits in Bhadarkdistrict accidentally fell into apond and suffered injuries. Familymembers rescued him and rushedhim to Dhushuri communityhealth centre (CHC) and then toBhadrak DHH.

The family members allegedthat despite the serious conditionof the patient the medical staffdid not attend to him, suspectinghim to have contracted coron-avirus. This resulted in his death.

Alleging medical negligence,family members allegdly misbe-haved with the medical staff, giv-ing rise to tension at the DHH.Later, town police pacified theirked family members.

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE

Tension gripsBhadrak DHH afterpatient’s death

Man-elephant row: Womantrampled to death, jumbo dies Bangiriposi on edgeBangiriposi: Even as paddycrop is ripening, elephantmenace has been a cause ofconcern for farmers inBangiriposi area ofMayurbhanj district. Theanimals have been on adamaging spree, a reportsaid. A herd of 11 elephantsunleashed a reign of terror inBalikhani and Kuabasar ofDhobishola panchayat. Theyhave damaged paddy over 10acres while people inJhinkapahadi, Neturapat,Chaulaghori, Anlagunja andShyamsundarpur villageshave been spending sleeplessnights for the last severaldays. The animals havedamaged four houses atBanakati village Thursdaynight. Locals alleged thatthough the forest departmentis aware of the elephants, nostep is being taken to driveaway the animals. They aretrying their best to scareaway the animals withtorches and crackers, but it isineffective. “The animalsagain come back to thevillages at night and causemayhem,” locals rued.

When forests at Tabaklihill, Chariaban, BhaluMundia and Biluapada gotdepleted, livelihood oflocal tribals was affected

COMMUNITY EFFORTS SAVE GREENERY

ENDING A SOCIAL EVIL

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

T he Indian State, meaning the government in all its forms but especiallythe Union government, is a slightly strange creature. It is in name andform a democracy and even a liberal one. A liberal democracy is de-

fined as “a democratic system of government in which individual rights andfreedoms are officially recognised and protected, and the exercise of polit-ical power is limited by the rule of law.”

This is both true and not true of the Indian State. It is democratic in thesense that it is controlled by political parties which are elected to office forfixed terms. Individual rights and freedoms exist in theory but in largemeasure do not exist in reality. Political power is not limited by rule of lawbut by how much authority the individuals in power are willing to assert.When the individuals in office are modest and conscious of their positionwithin the constitutional framework, the State will appear to be both dem-ocratic and liberal.

However if individuals are authoritarian (meaning willing to enforcestrict obedience to authority at the expense of personal freedoms), like theprime minister and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, then the sameState appears undemocratic. Rule of law exists in States where there is nospace for authority to exercise arbitrary power. By that definition India isnot a rule of law State. There is actually very little restriction on the arbi-trary exercise of authority.

Parliament can be denied the right to vote. People can be denied the rightto freedom of peaceful assembly (guaranteed under Article 19) by declaringSection 144 at India Gate. An entire village can be denied the right to liberty(guaranteed under Article 21) by simply locking it up and not allowing any-one to either go in or out. This is not how democratic States function but itis happening in India. There is no limiting el-ement to how much arbitrary authority canbe exercised. The Constitution does not changeand nor are any laws required to be altered here.The State just doesn’t have the internal capacityto resist misuse. Theoretically, the judiciarycan check the overreach of the government.But the Indian judiciary can be managed bya strong authority in ways that it cannot bein other nations. Judges can be given RajyaSabha seats and governorships as a reward.Indian judges can appear in their own matterwhen they are accused of sexual harassment,and their fellow judges will not object to this.This is a violation of one of the fundamentalprinciples of justice, referred to as ‘nemojudex in causa sua’ (nobody can be a judge intheir own cause) but it has happened in Indiarecently. This is not a rule of law State.

For it to become one, it must have strongerinstitutional capacity than it does. And itmust have more participation from the citi-zenry than it does. Indians pride themselveson having one of the highest voting rates inthe democratic world and that is somethingto be justifiably proud of. In the United States,for example in the 2016 election that broughtDonald Trump to power, 55 per cent of Americavoted. This was 12 per cent less than theturnout in India’s 2019 election, when 67 per cent of the electorate voted. Thatis a substantial difference. But Americans participate in the democracyoutside of the electoral process also. Protests against the arbitrary use of au-thority, as seen in the Black Lives Matter movement, in which millions ofpeople dissented against the use of force against African Americans, havebrought changes to law and policy.

In India such protest is restricted severely by the State, but it appears alsoto be the case that there is less interest at the level of the Indian citizen instanding up for constitutional rights. This is particularly so in issues wherethere is no individual or selfish interest. Standing up for others is somethingthat is the bedrock of rule of law and democratic States. In India the authorityassumes, perhaps rightly, that protest is localised and limited to those im-mediately concerned with the issue and will die down in time. How do wemove from this place to becoming a rule of law nation (something that pre-sumably most of us want)? The answer is not easy and it is not even clear.For instance, it cannot just be the defeat of one party and the election of an-other. Because there is no limit to the supply of strong-willed authoritari-ans and the problem will recur in future.

Something deeper needs to be changed and it is not clear whether this changecan be produced by external forces or by a single event. The ownership ofIndia as a rule of law democracy must be ultimately with the citizenry. Atthe moment it is not. The expectation is that the government will not abuseits authority and that a political party not misuse the State. What we are see-ing today is the clear evidence that this is not enough.

T he importance of rice inOdisha is enormous as thismajor staple is embedded in

the diet, economy, culture, and his-tory of the state. Production of ricedetermines the state’s food secu-rity at a significant scale. Rice alonemakes up 24.4 per cent of the totalagricultural output in the Odisha-- the highest by any single cropand employs more than 50 per centof total workforce. However, thestate’s glaring gap in rice produc-tivity is a huge challenge to optimisethe economics of cultivation. Odishacuts a dismal figure in terms ofrice productivity that stands at only1.74 tonne per hectare comparedto the national average (2.57 ton/ha).

Intending to actualise the ob-jective of paddy productivity en-hancement and farm income aug-mentation, the state government hastaken several steps in recent times.However, certain critical areas war-rant a strategic focus.

First, the state’s rice area ischronically prone to abiotic stresses-- submergence, drought, and salin-ity of varying degrees. Theseweather-shocks damage crops al-most every year. Of the total 3.7million ha rice area, 1.15 million ha(31 per cent) suffers a setback offlood while 1.25 million ha (34 percent) witnesses intermittent oc-currence of drought. Besides, theproblem of salinity impedes farm-ing in 0.15 million ha, mostly incoastal areas. Interestingly, recent

advances in rice research havemade remarkable strides to offerfarmers climate-resilient varieties.CR 1009 sub 1, Swarna sub 1, BINAdhan 11 are some of those recentlybred varieties. Unlike tradition-ally grown varieties these can tol-erate inundation for at least twoweeks without yield penalty.Likewise, DRR 44, DRR 43,Sahabhagidhan, CR 201, CR 205can considerably safeguard farm-ers in the event of a drought spell.But insufficient awareness aboutthese varieties and their slow-paced diffusion are leading tounder-utilisation of research out-comes. The state’s seed system andextension apparatus should revi-talise their outreach approach forfaster uptake of these potentialvarieties to better equip farmersin mitigating recurrent climaticaberrations.

Second, a rice variety after astipulated period of 10 years shouldideally be discouraged for culti-vation since genetic purity and re-sistance to diseases and pests starteroding considerably. But in Odisha,three varieties (Swarna, Pooja, andVijetha) that rule the rice area aremore than 20 years old. Availablesubstitutes (e.g. in place of Swarna,Swarna sub 1 recommended) forthese varieties should be appro-priately explored and disseminatedto raise crop productivity. The lat-est arrival of high yielding varieties(HYVs) suitable in different ecolo-

gies should be field-assessed and pro-moted aggressively.

Third, only 33.7 per cent cul-tivable area of Odisha is under ir-rigation compared to 95 per cent ormore in states like Punjab, Haryanaand Andhra Pradesh. Rice is awater-guzzling crop that consumesabout 4500-litre water to produce akg. Therefore, ongoing efforts tocreate or reform canals and micro-irrigation structures should befast-tracked to bring more rice areaunder assured irrigation. The othertwo emerging eco-friendly ways toavoid excessive use of water areDirect Seeded Rice (DSR) and adop-tion of Green Super Rice (GSR)varieties. DSR requires at least 30per cent less water transplantingmethod. GSR is a relatively newinvention, where a variety will pro-vide a stable yield with fewer inputslike water, fertilizer, and pesticide.

Fourth, the quality of seeds alonecan boost rice productivity by atleast 5-10 per cent. But farmershave little access to quality seedsdue to limitations in formal seed sys-tem and credibility issues of in-formally managed seed chain. A re-cent study by International RiceResearch Institute observed that64 per cent of rice farmers relyupon their farm kept seeds whileonly 36 per cent purchase it fromcredible market sources.

Fifth, farmers in Odisha growpulses after harvesting of Kharifrice. However, longer duration of

rice doesn’t free up enough time fortaking up pulse cultivation. Theadvent of early-maturity HYVs—both for rice and pulse-- createsopportunities to grow both crops.

Sixth, Odisha is a place of ge-netic diversity of rice. There are tra-ditional varieties such as Kalajeera,Machakanta, Haladichuda withunique qualities including healthbenefits. However, due to low pro-ductivity, farmers show little ea-gerness to grow these varieties.Their commercial viability can beachieved by positioning them aspremium quality rice for betterprice realisation through develop-ment of a well-studied value chain.

Finally, despite significant break-throughs in research, there stillexist gaps in breeding varieties forextremely marginal environments(stagnant flooding for more than 15days, severe water deficit) and in-corporating better resistance tovarieties for pests and diseases.Research institutes should collab-orate with departments and agri-culture universities to deliver onthese gaps. Given the vital contri-bution of rice to the state’s foodsecurity mission and agriculturalGDP, all productivity-boosting meas-ures should be strategically explored and implemented.

The writer works with theInternational Rice Research

Institute, Bhubaneswar. Views are personal.

How to boost Odisha’s rice harvest?

CHINA’S RESOURCE GRIPT

he climate crisis and theFour th IndustrialRevolution – with itsbreakthrough technolo-

gies such as artificial intelligenceand 5G networks – are setting theworld on a geopolitical collisioncourse. Both the drive to decar-bonise and the battle for globaltechnological supremacy dependon critical minerals like rareearths, lithium, and cobalt – allof which are highly concentratedin a few locations, including China.

The scramble to control these el-ements’ supply chains is intensi-fying. For example, the electricvehicles made by Tesla and otherautomotive firms run on lithium-ion batteries, but just a handful ofcountries produce most of theworld’s lithium. The tension be-tween the geographic concentra-tion of critical resources and theincreasing global competition forsupply will further unsettle geopol-itics in the twenty-first century.

A long era of stable resourcecompetition is thus rapidly ending.Historically, empires locked intheir economic supply chains andmanaged competition. And in thelong post-1945 cycle of decoloni-sation, the US, as the global eco-nomic hegemon, backstopped therules and norms of world trade. Atthe same time, supplies of criticalresources – in particular, fossilfuels – became more dispersed asimproved geological informationand new technologies (like deep-sea drilling and fracking) helpedto loosen OPEC’s grip.

But today, conditions haveflipped. Critical minerals for thedigital and post-carbon economyare highly concentrated geo-graphically, while the end of USunipolarity and increasing globaltrade uncertainties have triggereda rush to secure them.

China’s global rise underpins thecompetition-concentration ten-sion. Industrial innovation andproduction are no longer the ex-clusive purview of the OECDeconomies, especially the US,European Union member states,and Japan. These major powers pre-

viously secured critical inputsthrough colonial expansion and re-source carve-ups, but China’s ex-port ambitions, and its control ofkey supply chains, have changedthe game. Moreover, China’s Beltand Road Initiative (BRI) – atransnational infrastructure in-vestment scheme with partici-pating countries across Africa,Eurasia, and South America –openly challenges earlier modelsof access and cooperation.

Governments in the Global South,where many critical resources arelocated, are frequently willing tostrike exclusive deals. They have wel-comed China’s one-stop-shop fi-nancing schemes, increased en-gagement, and narrative of ‘win-winpartnerships’ that offer a reliablealternative to Western funding andnorm-setting.

China’s resource domination isreshaping geopolitics. In 2010, Chinahalved its export quotas for rareearths, and also reportedly bannedtheir sale to Japan following atrawler incident near Japan’sSenkaku Islands, which China callsthe Diaoyu Islands and claims asits own. The episode awakenedother leading economies to the factthat a major competitor and rivalcontrolled 97 per cent of the globalsupply of these vital inputs formagnets, glass, electronics, defensesystems, wind turbines, and hy-brid and electric vehicles.

The US, the EU, and Japan re-acted in a piecemeal manner at

best, and ten years later still haven’tproduced effective strategies tofree themselves from China’s re-source grip. Rare earths made head-lines again in 2019, when Chinaindicated that it might ‘weaponise’them in its trade dispute with theUS. Meanwhile, breathless mediareports of rare-earth discoveries inAfghanistan, Greenland’s meltingglaciers, the abyssal sea, asteroids,and planets demonstrate that mag-ical thinking continues to trump ef-fective policymaking.

Likewise, decarbonisation placesa premium on further break-throughs in battery technologyand storage, which is why globallithium production skyrocketedfrom 32,500 tonnes in 2015 to 95,000tonnes in 2018. Two of the three po-litically and economically volatilecountries in the so-called ‘lithiumtriangle’ – Chile, and Bolivia – areall BRI participants and receivesubstantial Chinese investment,the third, Argentina, is consider-ing joining. Because none has thecapacity for vertical integration,China controls more than 60 per centof global manufacturing capacityfor lithium-ion batteries. EvenAustralia, which has substantialrare-earth and lithium reserves,has so far failed to become an ‘in-dependent’ alternative supplier.

Cobalt, another key batteryinput, is overwhelmingly mined inthe Democratic Republic of theCongo. The DRC has the world’slargest cobalt reserves – three times

those of Australia, which rankssecond – and produces 60 per centof global mined cobalt. The coun-try remains the most cost-compet-itive producer, with China the dom-inant investor, although an outcryover labour practices has raisedquestions about ethical mining.

How might rich-country gov-ernments best manage the com-petition-concentration tension re-garding critical minerals, especiallyif traditional global institutions areon the wane? One option is to re-vive the old colonial model of carv-ing up regions to manage compe-tition. But although China hasbeen able to extend its global eco-nomic influence without the bag-gage of having been a colonialpower, the EU, US, and Japan canno longer play that game success-fully. Smaller developing countriesnow have other options and pref-erences, and often side with China,Russia, India, or other powers.

Alternatively, the traditionalpowers could begin to build a newframework for cooperation. ButPresident Trump’s ‘America First’posturing and a lack of coordi-nation among former allies cur-rently stand in the way. In addition,business is not wired to put geopol-itics above the bottom line.Repeated calls by governments todesinicise supply chains achievelittle; ministers fulminate aboutcompetition but do not addressthe needs and interests of countrieswhere key strategic resources areconcentrated.

China has demonstrated its in-creasing economic power by sys-tematically forging a global networkof partners. The powers of oldmust now build new avenues oftrust and cooperation with de-veloping countries, not only to se-cure the critical minerals vital topowering the world in theAnthropocene era, but also be-cause a perilous planet is a threatto everyone.

The writer is Professor ofEnvironmental Studies and

Public Policy at New YorkUniversity/NYU Abu Dhabi.

©PROJECT SYNDICATE

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

Tension between geographic concentration of critical resources and the increasing global competition for supply will further unsettle geopolitics in the twenty-first century

Whither rule of law

CARPET

Acarpet layer had just finishedinstalling carpet for a lady. He

stepped out for a smoke, only torealise he’d lost his cigarettes.In the middle of the room, under thecarpet, was a bump.“No sense pulling up the entire floorfor one pack of smokes,” he said to

himself. Heproceeded

to get out hishammer and

flattened the hump. Ashe was cleaning up, the lady

came in. “Here,” she said, handinghim his pack of cigarettes. “I foundthem in the hallway.” “Now,” she said,“if only I could find my parakeet.”

SUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

There is no greater pride andglory than to be a perfectinstrument of the Master.

SRI AUROBINDO

AGRICULTURE

CRITICAL MINERALS FOR

THE DIGITAL ANDPOST-CARBON

ECONOMY ARE HIGHLY

CONCENTRATEDGEOGRAPHICALLY,WHILE THE END OF

US UNIPOLARITYAND INCREASING

GLOBAL TRADEUNCERTAINTIES

HAVE TRIGGEREDA RUSH TO

SECURE THEM

SophiaKalantzakos

WISDOM CORNERTrust in dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

KAHLIL GIBRAN

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The most positive men are the most credulous. ALEXANDER POPE

GEOPOLITICS

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

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

THE STATE’S SEEDSYSTEM AND

EXTENSION APPARATUS

SHOULD REVITALISE THEIR

OUTREACHAPPROACH FOR

FASTER UPTAKE OFPOTENTIAL

VARIETIES TO BETTER EQUIP

FARMERS IN MITIGATINGRECURRENT

CLIMATIC ABERRATIONS

Mosharaf Hossain

Witch-hunt against NGOs

Sir, The Narendra Modi government has had arun in with quite a few NGOs. Any NGO per-ceived as ‘uncomfortable’ has been put under thescanner by the gover nment. AmnestyInternational’s stinging reports against theIndian government on “human rights abuses,”made the Centre see red. Already reeling underthe onslaught of Opposition parties, sections ofthe press and rights activists over its debatablestand on Kashmir, the government was miffedby Amnesty’s propensity to “breach set conven-tions.” That is to say any rights body it consid-ers inconvenient is put under the scanner by anoverzealous government. True, the government,on its own, did not shut down Amnesty. But whenit chokes an international organisation of reputeby creating a non-conducive functional envi-ronment the organisation is left with no optionbut to shut. Ganapathi Bhat, AKOLA

UP cops draw flak

Sir, The police in UttarPradesh, who have comeunder a cloud for their han-dling of the Hathras gan-grape and murder case,have further eroded theirimage by snatching awaythe mobile phones of thevictim’s family and in-timidating them. The policealso used strong-arm tac-tics to seal the victim’s vil-lage and sever communi-cation lines. Thehappenings of the last fewdays have dented the police’s image.

NJ Ravi Chander,BANGALORE

Communalism rages on

Sir, The lukewarm reaction of the political class to the verdictin the Babri Masjid demolition case is on expected lines. Giventhat the demolition of Babri Masjid involves the religious sen-sitivities of the majority community, most of the mainstreampolitical parties have been cautious about their response.However, prominent Muslim and Left leaders from south Indiacame down heavily on the verdict. AIMIM president and MPfrom Hyderabad Asaduddin Owaisi said this judgement was givenonly to appease the Hindutva brigade. After a series of lengthydelays, the verdict was pronounced after 28 years. In spite of beingan important case, successive governments at the Centre andin UP were not interested in fast-tracking the case. Their dis-interest showed that they didn’t want to alienate the Hindus. Thisputs a spotlight on the fact that political parties are concernedmore with political gains than with moral principles. As the con-struction of the Ram Mandir is underway, the demolition of theBabri Masjid continues to be a festering wound for Indiandemocracy and constitutional values. The social evil calledcommunalism rages on. Venu GS, KOLLAM

cmyk

cmyk

Truepenny

Though it appeared earlier, this word is best remembered because itfeatures in Hamlet, in the scene in which his father’s ghost tells

Hamlet of his murder and asks him to avenge it. When Marcellus andHoratio enter, the ghost cries from the cellar below for them to swear thatthey will never divulge what Hamlet is about to tell them. Hamlet shoutsto his father, “Art thou there, truepenny?” It was a term of affection,comparing an honest or trustworthy man to a genuine coin. This maystrike us today as not being important, when pennies are mere tokensmade of base metal, but in Shakespeare’s day, pennies were silver andwere comparatively valuable. Counterfeiting was rife. The word has neverbeen common. Sometimes it appears as a direct quote of Hamlet’s words,as a humorous way of asking “who’s there?” (as in Colin Wilson’s Ritual inthe Dark of 1976: “He pulled her shoulders back on to the bed, and kissedher. There was a heavy thump from overhead. Sorme looked at the ceiling,saying: Are you there, truepenny?”).

Aakar PatelRule of law exists inStates where there

is no space forauthority to

exercise arbitrarypower. By that

definition India isnot a rule of

law State

cmyk

cmyk

KERALA

SUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWARP7

DELHI

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 3:With Kerala witnessing massivesurge in COVID-19 cases, prohibitoryorders came into force across thestate Saturday as per which notmore than five people can assembleat any place, including banks, shopsand commercial establishments.

There is no restriction on move-ment of public transport and gov-ernment institutions, commercialestablishments, industries, hospi-tals can function adhering to so-cial distancing and break the chainprotocols.

While in Idukki, only town areas,including the tourist hotspot ofMunnar, Adimali and Vandiperiyar,the CrPC 144 order will come intoforce, in Kasaragod district, theorder would be implemented tillOctober 9.

In the remaining12 districts, theprohibitory orders would be in placetill the month end. Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan warned that thoseflouting the new restrictions will facestringent action.

While visiting shops, peopleshould wear masks and gloves, en-sure social distancing, and if theyfail to adhere to the COVID-19 pro-tocol, they will have to face action,Vijayan said speaking at an onlinefunction here Saturday.

As gatherings pose an impend-ing danger of a super spread ofthe infection, the prohibitory order,which came into effect from 9 AMSaturday, has been issued by the stategovernment.

Kerala Friday had reported the

biggest single day surge of 9,258coronavirus cases after over 60,000samples were tested, forcing thegovernment to take stringent meas-ures to halt the spread of the virus,which has so far claimed 791 livesin the state.

The total infection tally hassoared to 2.12 lakh. In the order is-sued by ThiruvananthapuramDistrict Collector Navjot Khosa,more than five people cannot gatherin public places in the entire district,

where till now 36,433 people havebeen infected with COVID-19 and12,223 are presently undergoingtreatment.

As a further surge in COVID-19cases is imminent and with categoryB and C patients, who need hospi-talisation and intensive care, in-creasing, strict prohibitions needto be put in place, failing which itwill seriously endanger humanlives in large numbers, the collec-tor said in the order.

Khosa stated that the DistrictMedical Officer had informed thatin the event of unmanageable surge,the health infrastructure of thedistrict will be overwhelmed whichcan lead to high mortality.

Within containment zones anycongregation or public functions (in-door and outdoor) of more thanfive people will not be allowed, ex-cept for marriages and funerals,where upto 20 people will be per-mitted, the collector said.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 3: The COVID-19situation in the city is far betternow as compared to September andthe daily cases have also begun toshow a downward trend, DelhiHealth Minister Satyendar Jainsaid Saturday.

Delhi was at number two butnow has come down to the sixthspot in the country in terms of thenumber of COVID-19 cases, he toldreporters.

The minister reiterated that thecity government had significantlyramped up testing capacity due towhich a rise in COVID-19cases was

recorded for a long period inSeptember.

“But now cases have begun tocome down and it's sort of sta-bilised. Also, the positivity ratehas fallen to less than 5.5 per centfrom 8.5-9 per cent recorded earlier.So the situation is far better now,”he said.

The national capital recorded 37more COVID-19 fatalities Friday asthe toll climbed to 5,438, while 2,920fresh cases took the tally to over2.85 lakh, authorities said.

The number of containmentzones in Delhi jumped to 2,648Friday from 2,615 Thursday.

Friday, the positivity rate stoodat 5.19 per cent while the recoveryrate was over 88 per cent, the bul-letin said, adding that the fatalityrate was 1.9 per cent.

The Delhi government has sig-nificantly ramped up testing in thepast few days.

The number of tests conductedand corresponding fresh cases re-ported, ranged from 24198 (2,312)September 1 to 61,973 (4,071)September 19.

On India crossing the one lakh-

mark in terms of COVID-19 deaths,Jain said it is a "grim milestone".

Asked about the protests overthe Hathras incident, he said, tough-est punishment should be metedout to culprits so that "such peo-ple have fear of the law and thinkten times before taking such a step".

On the BJP-led civic bodies claim-ing crores of money due from thecity government in terms of prop-erty tax to them, the AAP leader said"all payments have been done".

"BJP has been ruling the MCD forover a decade. It will get done onlyif they go out of MCD," Jain saidwhen asked about the mitigation inthe level of landfill sites in Delhi.

NEW DELHI: The nationalcapital recorded 2,258 freshCOVID-19 cases Saturday,taking the tally to over 2.87lakh, while 34 more fatalitiestook the death toll to 5,472,authorities said. This is thesecond day in a trot that thecity reported less than 3,000new cases. Authoritiesreported 2,920 new casesFriday. The city reported 34deaths Saturday, the lowestsince September 25 when 24fatalities were recorded. Forty-eight deaths were reportedSeptember 29, the highest in aday since July 16, when the cityreported 58 deaths. Thecumulative COVID-19 casecount rose to 2,87,930 with2,258 more people contractingthe viral disease. The death tollstands at 5,472, according tothe Delhi government's latesthealth bulletin.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kochi, Oct 3: Scientists from India,Germany, United Kingdom andSwitzerland have discovered a newfamily of bony fish from the WesternGhats, and named itAenigmachannidae.

Results of this study were pub-lished in ‘Scientific Reports,’ theopen-access mega-journal of theNature Publishing Group.

A year after the discovery of theenigmatic Gollum Snakehead,Aenigmachanna gollum from therice fields of northern Kerala, sci-entists have now conducted detailedstudies on its skeleton and geneticassembly.

The study led to the recognitionthat this species, and its congenerAenigmachanna mahabali, repre-sents a new family different fromChannidae, in which both specieswere initially placed.

Rendered images obtained fromhigh-resolution CT scans revealedthat Aenigmachanna gollum hasa surprisingly large number ofprimitive characters, and detailedmolecular phylogenetic analysesincluding of its mitogenome, sug-gested an ancient separation fromChannidae, the study said.

These suggest that members ofAenigmachannidae are ‘living fos-sils’ and comprise an ancient gond-wanan lineage that survived the

break-up of the supercontinentand the northward drift of theIndian subcontinent, about 100million years ago, it added.

The research team comprisedscientists from SenckenbergNatural History Collections inDresden (Germany), the NaturalHistory Museum in London (UK),Natural History Museum in Berne(Switzerland), Indian Institute ofScience Education and Research(IISER) - Pune (India), NirmalagiriCollege in Kannur (India), and theKerala University of Fisheries andOcean Studies in Cochin (India).

Assistant Professor at the KeralaUniversity of Fisheries and OceanStudies, Rajeev Raghavan, who waspart of the study, said the recogni-tion of Aenigmachannidae as a

new family of bony fish comes sixyears after the description ofKryptoglanidae, another uniquefamily of freshwater fish endemicto Kerala.

“The presence of two unique en-demic families of freshwater fish ina small region like Kerala is un-paralleled, and indicates the ex-ceptional diversity and endemic-

ity of fish in this part of the world,”said Raghavan.

The gollum snakehead,Aenigmachanna gollum and themahabali snakehead,Aenigmachanna mahabali areknown to occur in the aquifers andsubterranean channels connected

to paddy fields and dug-out wellsin Malappuram and

Pathanamthitta districts of Kerala.While Aenigmachanna gollum

was discovered by pure chance ina rice field not long after the dev-astating floods that raged in Keralain August 2018, Aenigmachannamahabali was discovered oppor-tunistically from a dug-out well.

“The aquifers of Kerala have awealth of enigmatic and relic fauna,the diversity of which we are only

slowly uncovering. But subterraneanecosystems are under high levels ofthreat due to indiscriminate groundwater extraction and pollution, andintroduction of alien species in thedugout wells. As a result, we may belosing unique habitats and speciesmuch before they are known to sci-ence,” said Neelesh Dahanukar,Research Scientist at the IISER,Pune, who co-authored the paper.

According to scientists, the sub-terranean ecosystems of Keralaharbour some of the planet’s mostbizarre species such as Horaglaniskrishnaii, Kryptoglanis shajii,Aenigmachanna gollum andMonopterus digressus.

Many of these species are blind,pigment-less, and have peculiarmorphological characters that areotherwise not seen in species oc-curring in surface waters.

Around 10 such enigmatic species of subterranean fish arecurrently known from Kerala, thescientists said.

“Throughout my career I haveworked on many strange fishes,but the Gollum Snakehead is eas-ily the weirdest of them all. If Ihad been asked whether such a fishexisted in the Western Ghats oranywhere in the world, I wouldhave said, no way. Yet here it is," re-marked Ralf Britz, based at theSenckenberg Museum at Dresden,Germany, who led this paper.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kochi, Oct 3: Kerala is one amongthe few handful states in Indiawhich can leapfrog into a new worldby 2030 if it transforms its econ-omy beyond the conventionalbounds, former Union FinanceMinister P Chidambaram has said.

The senior Congress leader saidthe state should transform to aknowledge-based economy by em-bracing Infor mation andCommunications Technology,Artificial Intelligence of Roboticsand a highly networked world.

“These are the concepts whichMalayalees can easily absorb be-cause of their high literacy,”Chidambaram said, inauguratinga virtual summit on developmentof Kerala, titled Pratheeksha 2030,organised by the Rajiv GandhiInstitute of Development Studies(RGIDS).

Emphasising the need for build-ing a knowledge-based economy,he said the school education systemin Kerala must jump into the syl-labus and curriculum that are

adopted today in European coun-tries, in Singapore and in China.

“That is the curriculum youshould adopt,” he said. The Congressleader urged the people and poli-cymakers in the state to pay suffi-cient attention for “re-imaginingKerala which becomes an advancedstate within India.”

He said only a handful states inIndia can imagine, leapfroggingfrom today into a new world which

is based on an advanced knowl-edge-based economy, advanced ICT-enabled economy and an advancedeconomy.

“China, for example, in the last5 to 10 years has leapfrogged into thatnew world. Most European countriesare already in that new world. Youhave the strength, you have theability, you have the capacity toleapfrog into a world that embracesa knowledge-based economy by

2030,” Chidambaram said at thevirtual programme attended byKeralites based in UAE October 2.

Besides Kerala, other states whichcan aspire to do that include Delhi,Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu andperhaps one or two other states,Chidambaram said. He said Keralamust continue to invest in agri-culture, livestock, fisheries, forestry,traditional industries and tourism.

“But you should not stop there.You have to imagine a new Keralabeyond the conventional bounds,”Chidambaram added.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, Oct 3: With the ‘10Hafte 10 Baje 10 Minute’ campaignof the Delhi government gaining mo-mentum amongst various sectionsof the society, the fifth week of thecampaign seeks to engage schoolchildren in creating awareness re-garding measures to prevent dengue.

Last week, Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal had asked all theResident Welfare Associations(RWAs) to come forward and makethe residents in their localitiesaware of the measures to be takento prevent the most prevalent viralinfection transmitted by Aedesmosquitoes.

In the fifth week of the denguecampaign, the school children willbe encouraged to do their homeworkby inspecting their houses at 10a.m. for 10 minutes for signs of

stagnant clean water, said a Delhigovernment statement Saturday.

After inspecting their housesand draining the accumulatedwater, the children will also be en-couraged to call their friends andmotivate them to inspect theirhouses for clean stagnant waterand participate in the campaignas per the government's plan.

Taking to social media last week,Kejriwal had tweeted, "Taking for-ward the campaign against denguetoday on the fourth Sunday by re-placing the water collected at home.In this way, we have to stop thebreeding of dengue mosquitoesand protect our family and the en-tire Delhi from Dengue."

The Delhi government haslaunched a telephonic helpline -01123300012 and WhatsApp helpline- 8595920530 to assist the general pub-lic with dengue this year.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 3: The country's‘cheapest’ diagnostic facility willstart functioning at GurdwaraBangla Sahib in December and anMRI here will cost just `50, ac-cording to the Delhi SikhGurdwara ManagementCommittee (DSGMC).

A dialysis centre is also beingset up at Guru HarkrishanHospital on the gurdwara prem-ises. It will start functioning nextweek. A dialysis procedure willcost only `600, DSGMC presidentManjinder Singh Sirsa said.

Diagnostic machines worth`6 crore were donated to the hos-pital. These include four ma-chines for dialysis, and a ma-chine each for ultrasound, X-Rayand MRI, he said.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging(MRI) services will be availablefor the needy for just `50. For oth-ers, an MRI scan will cost `800. Acommittee of doctors has been setup to decide who needs concession,Sirsa said.

In private laboratories, an MRIcosts at least `2,500.

People from lower incomegroups will be able to get an X-Rayand ultrasound done for just`150.

The machines are being in-stalled and the diagnostic centrewill be operational in the firstweek of December. These will bethe most affordable diagnosticservices in the country, Sirsa said.

‘Delhi virus cases showing downward trend’TALLY JUMPSTO 2.87 LAKH

NEW DELHI: Lack of adequatePPE kits, inadequate techniqueof PPE donning and doffing, non-disclosure by patients of their ex-posure to possible Covid-19 infec-tion, excessive working hours, andpoor doctor-patient ratio are the rea-sons for higher fatality among doc-tors, according to an analysis.India currently has the most num-ber of Covid-19 cases in the worldafter the US.

The pandemic has also causedhigh mortality, not only in patients,but also in the healthcare frater-nity. According to an analysis of thepandemic’s impact on the health-care community, the other recog-nised risk factors among doctorsare close contact in physical ex-amination and therapy of infectedpatients, direct contact with body

fluid and excreta from the patients,suctioning of airways, endotra-cheal intubation, and cardiopul-monary resuscitation. As per aresearch paper by AananditaKapoor and Krishan MohanKapoor, the maximum number ofCovid-19 fatalities have beenrecorded among general practi-tioners. Among the specialists,most deaths are seen among pe-diatricians, followed by medicalspecialists, general surgeons, ob-stetricians, gynecologists and anes-thesiologists. A total of 382 Covid-related deaths and 2,174 infectionswere reported among doctors inIndia till September 10, with a casefatality rate of 16.7 per cent amongIndian doctors, which was 10 timesthe rate of 1.7 per cent in the gen-eral population.

Sec 144 comes into force tocheck virus spread in Kerala

Scientists discover new family of bony fishTHE SUBTERRANEAN ECOSYSTEMS OF KERALA HARBOUR SOME OF THE PLANET’S MOST BIZARRE SPECIES MANY OF

WHICH ARE BLIND, PIGMENT-LESS, AND HAVE PECULIAR MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS

Thepresence of twounique endemic

families of freshwater fishin a small region like Kerala

is unparalleled, and indicatesthe exceptional diversity andendemicity of fish in this part

of the worldRAJEEV RAGHAVAN I ASST PROF,

KERALA UNIVERSITY OFFISHERIES AND OCEAN

STUDIES

Delhi to rope in schoolkids for dengue campaign

High Covid deaths amongdocs due to inadequate PPE

Kerala can leapfrog into new world by 2030: PCEmphasising the need for building a knowledge-based economy, Chidambaramsaid school educationsystem in Kerala mustjump into the curriculumadopted today inEuropean countries

‘Cheapest’ diagnosticfacility: MRI scan at `50

While visitingshops, peopleshould wearmasks and

gloves, ensure socialdistancing, and if they fail toadhere to the COVID-19protocol, they will have toface action PINARAYI VIJAYAN I CM

P8

nationalSUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Adityanath'sDIG, Law andOrder, now

says no rape tookplace. If you had adaughterAdityanathji, youwould understand the pain. If anyuntoward incident takes place witha daughter or a son, how much painone faces

RANDEEP SINGH SURJEWALA | CONGRESS

LEADER

of theday uote

There is noagitationagainst the

farm laws anywherein India exceptPunjab. You shouldnot hold agitationsas a part of political agenda

PRAKASH JAVADEKAR | BJP LEADER

The CBIshould soonmake public

its inquiry reportinto Sushant SinghRajput’s death sothat people knowwhether it was a case of suicide ormurder

ANIL DESHMUKH | MAHARASHTRA HOME

MINISTER

A dictatorship is going onacross the country. Instead ofgovernment for the people, itis running a governmentagainst the people, the Dalitsand the farmersMAMATA BANERJEE | WEST BENGAL CM

A naval officer died Friday in aparamotoring accident inKarnataka when the engine of theparamotor developed a snag andhe plunged into the Arabian Sea

NAVY CAPTAIN DIES INPARAMOTORING MISHAP IN K’TAKA

Driver burnt alive astruck catches fireKota (Raj): A man was burntto death after the truck hewas driving caught fire whenit rammed into the rear of astationary vehicle whilenegotiating a turn inRajasthan’s Bundi district,police said Saturday. Theaccident occurred on theintervening night of Fridayand Saturday. The 46-year-old driver died after beingtrapped inside the cabin ofthe truck, they said. Thetruck loaded with woodenfurniture was heading toKota from Churu when theaccident took place around2.30 am, he added.

Retired CBI officerheld for graftNew Delhi: The CentralBureau of Investigationarrested its recently retiredsuperintendent of police NMPSinha in connection with analleged bribery case, officialssaid Saturday. Sinha, whoretired in August this year,was the superintendent ofpolice in the economicoffence wing of the CBI,officials said. NMP Sinha wasonce part of the team thatprobed the fodder scam inBihar. He was arrested in the`25-lakh bribery case,officials said.

Minister dies afterdefeating nCoVRanchi: A day after he testednegative for coronavirus,Jharkhand Minority WelfareMinister Haji Hussain Ansaripassed away Saturday at theMedanta Hospital here, aJMM leader said. Accordingto Jharkhand Mukti Morcha spokespersonSupriyo Bhattacharya,Ansari’s coronavirus reporthad come negative Friday.The 73-year-old leader wasmade Minister for the secondtime in January this year inthe Hemant Soren'sgovernment. He wasadmitted in the hospital for treatment of coronavirus earlier on.

Rlys allows saleof cooked food New Delhi: In a huge relief forpassengers ahead of thefestive season, the Railwayshas allowed the sale of cooked food at its cateringand vending units on stations for the first timesince the coronavirusoutbreak but said the foodplazas, Jan Ahars, cellkitchens and refreshmentrooms will open only fortakeaways. These units wereearlier allowed to sell onlypackaged food. No dine-in tobe allowed stated the order bythe Indian Railway Cateringand Tourism Corporation.

SHORT TAKES

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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Patna, Oct 3: A multi-party GrandAlliance took shape here ahead ofthe Bihar Assembly polls Saturdaynotwithstanding a minor fissure,with Rashtriya Janata Dal’sTejashwi Yadav being backed unan-imously as the face of the coali-tion and the party ending up witha lion’s share of the seats.

Announcing the seat-sharing for-mula in presence of leaders ofCongress, CPI(ML), CPI and CPI(M),Yadav said his party will accom-modate old alliance partnerVikashheel Insaan Party (VIP) andJMM its al ly in adjoiningJharkhand from its quota of 144seats in the 243-strong Assembly.

Among other allies, Congresshas been given 70 seats, nearly twiceas many as it had contested in the2015 Assembly polls in alliance withthe RJD and Chief Minister NitishKumar’s JD(U).

The Congress will also be field-ing its candidate in Valmiki NagarLok Sabha seat where by-poll willbe held November 7.

Among the Left parties, theCPI(ML) has been given 19 seats, fol-lowed by CPI (six) and CPI(M).

Yadav vowed to dislodge the gov-ernment headed by Nitish Kumar,whom Congress leader AvinashPandey in his address accused of“apharan” (hijacking) of the man-

date in the previous elections.The JD(U) chief had fought 2015

elections opposing the BJP led byPrime Minister Narendra Modi butended up re-aligning with the saf-

fron party, Pandey said.The disjointed formation, how-

ever, continued to be in disarrayas VIP president Mukesh Sahni aHindi film set designer-turned-politician announced soon afterthe press conference that he wasquitting the Grand Alliance sincehe did not get “a respectable offer”.

“This is a fight between the peo-ple and the double-engine govern-ment,” Tejashwi Yadav told reporters.

The announcement comes a dayafter filing of nominations for thefirst phase of voting started Thursday.The last date for filing nominations

is October 8. Seventy-one of the total243 constituencies will see votingin the first phase October 28.

Voting will take place from 7 a.m.to 6 p.m. instead of 5 AM this time.Covid patients, suspects and thosein quarantine will vote separatelyand there will be no physical con-tact during meetings and rallies,Chief Election Commissioner SunilArora said. Voters have to use masksand gloves. The number of phaseshas also been reduced from five tominimise infection. “Covid-19 pa-tients can vote in the last hour of theday,” he added.

Tejashwi Yadav to lead Grand Alliance in Bihar

THREAT TO ENVIRONMENT

A farmer burns paddy stubble burning at a village near Sanaur in Patiala district, Saturday PTI PHOTO

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, Oct 3: The NarcoticsControl Bureau (NCB) has busteda drug syndicate with the arrestof four Afghan nationals who weresmuggling a consignment of 380gm of “premium quality Afghanheroin” concealed in a special cav-ity made inside a metal piston.

The syndicate was unearthedSeptember 30 after the four for-eign origin members of the mod-ule were held during a two-dayoperation in which the NCB seizedthe Afghan heroin from a courierservice in Delhi. The consignmentwas shipped from Afghanistanand was destined for Delhi.

“The arrested Afghan refugeeswere staying in Delhi. Theywere doing drug business in theguise of interpreters. They usedto get instructions from theirhandler or the drug kingpinwho is based in Afghanistan tocollect the parcel and hand itover to the next channel,” saidNCB’s Zonal Director KPSMalhotra in a statement.

The kingpin had created mul-tiple identities so that a personhanding over the parcel did notknow the identity of the next one,said the officer.

“All the four persons arrested arebelieved to be a part of an Afghan-Nigerian drug syndicate.” Thefour accused – RahimullahSakhizada, Shekib Ahmed,Abdullah and Agah Wali – havebeen sent to judicial custody.

According to the NCB, the par-cel was booked in the name ofSakhizada who received it on be-half of his Afghan handler namedPopal.The parcel was then col-lected by Ahmed as directed byPopal. He was working as an interpreter.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Pune, Oct 3: Life came crashingdown for 51-year-old Biju Pushkaran,the head clown of India’s famousRambo Circus, along with it’s over100 artistes when the coronavirus-induced lockdown was imposed inMarch this year, forcing the circusto fold its tent.

But after six months of despon-dency, smile returned on the facesof these artistes as the circus wentonline and presented a virtual showfor the first time September 25.

The crew members say that theyfelt hopeless and dejected during thelockdown, but this virtual way ofpresenting the show through pre-recorded videos has given a new

lease of life to the circus.The artistes, especially the clowns,

say that although they are happy tobe back in the game, they are miss-ing the fun of the live shows like get-ting hugs from children and selfieswith them.

Overwhelmed by the responseto this special fundraising show‘Life Is A Circus’, organised in as-sociation with LaQshya LiveExperiences and Production CrewEntertainment, the circus is nowplanning to hold more such showsin the near future.

“After the lockdown was imposed,we thought it was a temporaryphase, but as the severity of thepandemic increased so as the lock-downs, our artistes stranded at

Airoli in Navi Mumbai, started feel-ing the pinch in terms of food andincome,” said Pushkaran.

He said local politicians and so-cial groups lent a helping hand,

which made them sail through dur-ing tough times as they provided gro-cery and other items.

“While I was here inMaharashtra, my family, includ-ing my wife and children, back inKerala were also going throughhard times and I had to send what-ever money I had,” he said.

Pushkaran added that as the pan-demic situation was worsening inMumbai, at least 40 artistes andworkers at the circus left for homeafter special trains were started bythe government.

“I felt dejected, defeated and sankinto depression as the future lookedbleak, but my owner Sujit Dilip in-fused confidence in me and said al-though we are down, we are defi-

nitely not out,” he said.According to Pushkaran, the cir-

cus was then approached byProduction Crew for online shows.Thereafter, shooting for the virtualshows took off. He said that on thefirst day of the shooting, he frozebefore the camera.

“The director asked me whathappened. I told him that I am miss-ing hugs, selfies and dancing withlittle kids, which used to take placeduring a live show in the actualcircus,” he said.

Pushkaran, a circus clown for21 years, said that after the firstshow, he felt happy after seeingchildrens sitting holding placardswith messages like 'We Love RamboCircus' written on it.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Srinagar, Oct 3: Bodies of threemen from Rajouri, killed in an al-leged fake encounter by Army inShopian district of Jammu andKashmir in July this year, havebeen exhumed and handed over totheir families, officials said Saturday.

The exhumation was done lateFriday night at an unidentified lo-cation in north Kashmir – hoursafter Director General of Jammuand Kashmir Police (DGP) DilbagSingh said the legal process to ex-hume and handover the bodies wason and would be completed soon.

The bodies of the three personswere exhumed and then handedover to their families, the officials said.

They said the families of thethree men were called from Rajouridistrict in Jammu region and takento the spot where the trio wasburied. The families will take thebodies to their native village tobury them, they added.

The DGP had Friday said that thelegal process to exhume the bodieshad been started and will be com-pleted soon. On September 30, in-spector general of police (IGP),Kashmir, Vijay Kumar said since

the DNA samples matched with thefamily, the three bodies will be ex-humed and handed over to familiesafter due process of law. On July 18,the Army claimed three militantswere killed in Amshipura village inthe higher reaches of south Kashmir’sShopian district.

However, the Army initiated aninquiry after social media reportsindicated the three men were fromRajouri district in Jammu and hadgone missing at Amshipura.

The families of the trio fromRajouri who worked as labourersin Shopian had also filed a policecomplaint. The Army completed theprobe in record four weeks andSeptember 18, the force said it hasfound “prima facie” evidence thatits troops “exceeded” powers underthe Armed Forces Special PowersAct during the encounter and ini-tiated disciplinary proceedings.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Guwahati, Oct 3: When 12-year-old Bhanita Boro from Assam’sUdalguri district was diagnosedwith the deadly JapaneseEncephalitis in June, her poor par-ents had left the hope of gettingtheir daughter back.

However, due to the coordinatedefforts of doctors, officials andpeople empathetic to her situa-tion, the Class VII student fromSimliguri village is standing onher feet again.

One of the three daughters of apoor farmer who mortgaged histiny plot of land for `70,000 to treather, Boro is now looking forwardto rejoining her school once theCovid-19 pandemic ends.

“For any JE patient, the real

struggle starts after being diag-nosed. If proper care is not takenduring the treatment and afterdischarge, then the person mightbecome paralysed for his/her en-tire life or even lose his/her life,”Health and Family Welfare(Commissioner and Secretary)Monalisa Goswami said.

After her release in July, a teamof doctors and officials from thestate headquarters met Boro andher parents to check her condi-

tion and tried to communicatewith the patient to analyse whethershe is able to respond to commands,Goswami added.

Health Services (Malaria) JointDirector Harpal Singh Suri said,“The girl was earlier physicallydisabled and unable to move herlimbs or body parts. She had triedto move her hands and tonguewhen asked to but was unable to doit. Then, we provided her with awheel-chair and her physiother-apy began.”

“Though she has not been com-pletely cured of the disease, herrate of recovery is satisfactory andcommendable,” Senior Medical andHealth Officer Parashee Choudhurysaid, sharing some photographs ofBoro in the post-JE stage and hergradual betterment.

AGENCIES

Patna, Oct 3: Amid nationwideoutage against the alleged gan-grape and murder of a 20-year-old woman in Uttar Pradesh’sHathras, a Dalit teenage girl inpoll-bound Bihar’s Gaya districtdied by suicide Friday after al-legedly being gangraped by fourmen, the police said.

According to the police, the girl’sparents have filed a case of gangrape naming three of the four ac-cused as Rahul Kumar, ChintuKumar and Chandan Kumar. Thefourth accused remains unidenti-fied, the police said.

According to sources, the body’s

autopsy was done at Gaya Medical College and the resultsare awaited.

The case comes close on heels ofa Dalit woman’s alleged gang rapeand murder by four men from aso-called “upper caste” commu-nity in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras.

Opposition parties, includingCongress and RJD, are likely tocorner Bihar’s ruling coalition ledby Nitish Kumar Yadav overwomen's safety, atrocities againstDalits, the three controversial farmbills okayed by the President amidcontinued opposition by farmersstill on protest, its handling of thecoronavirus pandemic and the mi-grant crisis.

RJD leaders Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap raise hands with Bihar Congress in-charge Avinash Pandey, VIP party chiefMukesh Sahni and Left party leaders during the Grand Alliance’s press conference ahead of Bihar Assembly electionsin Patna, Saturday PTI PHOTO

AMONG OTHER ALLIES,CONGRESS HAS BEEN GIVEN

70 SEATS, NEARLY TWICE ASMANY AS IT HAD CONTESTED INTHE 2015 ASSEMBLY POLLS

AMONG THE LEFT PARTIES,THE CPI(ML) HAS BEEN

GIVEN 19 SEATS, FOLLOWED BYCPI (SIX) AND CPI(M)

SHOPIAN FAKE ENCOUNTER

BODIES OF SLAIN TRIO EXHUMED

NCB cracks Afghanheroin traffickingmodule, 4 held

Bihar Dalit teen endslife after ‘gangrape’

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 3: India Saturdaysaid a decision to re-open theKartarpur corridor would be takenin accordance with the protocols re-lating Covid-19 and easing of re-strictions.

The comments by spokespersonin the Ministry of External AffairsAnurag Srivastava came in thewake of Pakistan's proposal to re-open the corridor which was shutin March in view of the coron-avirus pandemic.

In November last year, the twocountries threw open the corridorlinking Dera Baba Sahib inGurdaspur in India and GurdwaraKartarpur Sahib in Pakistan, in ahistoric people-to-people initiative.

“As you are aware, movementwas suspended in the wake ofCOVID-19 outbreak. We remain intouch with all concerned authori-

ties including ministries of homeaffairs and health and family wel-fare,” Srivastava said, respondingto a media query on the issue. ”Adecision on re-opening of the cor-ridor would be taken in accordancewith the Covid-19 protocols andeasing of restrictions,” he said.

Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara islocated in Pakistan’s Narowal dis-trict across the river Ravi, about fourkilometres from the Dera BabaNanak shrine. It is the final restingplace of Sikh faith’s founder GuruNanak Dev, who had spent the last18 years of his life in Kartarpur.

In his comments, Srivastava alsosaid that Pakistan is yet to con-struct a bridge at Budhi Ravi chan-nel as promised last year.

“One year hence, Pakistan is yetto construct the bridge while it isready at our end. A technical meet-ing with Pakistan was also facili-tated and two teams met August 27.”

Kartarpur corridor re-openingsubject to Covid protocols: MEA

Hit hard by pandemic, circus goes onlineThe artistes, especially the clowns, say that although they are happy to be back in the game, they are missing the fun of the live shows

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

JE-afflicted Assam girl starts walking againDaughter of a poorfarmer, Boro is now looking forward torejoining her school oncethe pandemic ends

P9

nationalSUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

The country iswatching, chiefminister Adityanathtender yourresignationPRIYANKA GANDHI | CONGRESS GENERAL SECRETARY

The Maharashtra government islikely to seek a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site status for therenowned Gandhi SevagramAshram in Wardha, where MahatmaGandhi lived for nearly 12 years

MAHA MAY SEEK WORLD HERITAGETAG FOR WARDHA ASHRAM

yy

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There hasbeen atransformation

in the government’sway of work. Now,schemes are notmade based on howmany votes are there in an area.Now the effort is that no Indian isleft out

NARENDRA MODI | PRIME MINISTER

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We are lackingin a basicsense of

humanity andcompassion. Wehave failed toprotect ourdaughters and hold our sonsaccountable for their actions

KAILASH SATYARTHI | NOBEL LAUREATE

Chief MinisterYogi will dojustice in this

matter. ButCongress leadersRahul Gandhi andPriyanka going toHathras is just playing politics

SMRITI IRANI | BJP LEADER

PAKISTAN’S SINISTER PLAN IN PoK BOOMERANGS

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, Oct 3: On January 16,1948, in the 228th meeting of theSecurity Council, Sir MohammadZafrullah Khan, the then PakistanForeign Minister and a delegate tothe UN, made it clear that Gilgit-Baltistan is a part of the state ofJammu and Kashmir.

In March 1963, the Pakistan ForeignMinister ZA Bhutto, wrote to thePresident of the Security Councilsaying: “It is necessary for me to pointout the evident fact that the territoryof Jammu and Kashmir is not a part,integral or otherwise, of the terri-tory of the Union. The territory ofJammu and Kashmir belongs to thepeople of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Last year, a seven-member benchheaded by the Chief Justice ofPakistan Supreme Court MianSaqib Nisar, while sealing theUN resolution on the Kashmirissue, also declared Gilgit-Baltistan a part of the stateof Jammu and Kashmir.

A resolution unanimously adoptedby the leadership of Pakistan oc-cupied Kashmir (PoK) Assembly in2014 mentioned: “Making Gilgit-Baltistan a fifth province will weakenPakistan’s national stand on Jammuand Kashmir at the internationallevel.” Political parties like MuslimLeague Nawaz, Muslim Conference,Peoples Party of Pakistan, Jamaat-e-Islami, Azad Kashmir People’sParty and others also joined in send-

ing aloud and clearmessage that “mak-ing Gilgit-Baltistan aprovince of Pakistan will have dis-astrous consequences for the dis-puted territory of Jammu andKashmir.”

Even the separatist leaders likeSyed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz

Umar Farooq, and Mohammad YasinMalik had in March 2016 opposed

a similar proposal which wasbeing floated by Riaz HussainPirzada, Pakistan’s minister for

inter-provincial coordi-nation reasoning that

“any pro-posal todeclare

Gilgit-Baltistan as

the fifth provinceof Pakistan is unaccept-

able as it tantamount to changing thedisputed nature of Kashmir”.

Despite knowing the political, ge-ographical, economical, and strate-gic implications of dabbling withthe status of the Gilgit-Baltistan re-

gion, Imran Khan, at the behest ofhis bosses in the Pakistani army,has gone ahead with his plan to el-evate the region to fifth providenceof Pakistan. Ali Amin Gandapur,Minister of Kashmir Affairs andGilgit-Baltistan, had announced thesame September 17.

But, the move boomeranged on thevery first attempt. Khan and themilitary establishment are facinga stiff resistance as the people ofthe region have come out in largenumbers to oppose the proposalstraightaway.

Manzoor Parwana, Chairman ofGilgit-Baltistan United Front, said:“If you want to make a province,negotiate with the nationalists. Notwith the political parties like Tehreek-

e-Insaf and Muslim League-N. Theseparties don’t truly represent thepeople of the region.”

Senator Sherry Rehman, a seniorleader of the Pakistan People’s Party,had recently exposed the plan forGilgit-Baltistan hatched by the mili-tary command and the ISI inRawalpindi. The move to amend theArticle 258 of the Pakistan constitu-tion has been postponed due to the se-vere reaction of political parties.

While Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Maryam Nawaz said thatthe Gilgit-Baltistan issue is a politi-cal issue that should be solved in theparliament, PPP chairman BilawalBhutto is of the opinion that the peo-ple of Gilgit-Baltistan have the rightto decide the future of region.

DESPITE KNOWING THE IMPLICATIONS OF DABBLING WITH THE STATUS OF THE GILGIT-BALTISTAN REGION, IMRAN KHAN HASGONE AHEAD WITH HIS PLAN TO ELEVATE THE REGION TO FIFTH PROVIDENCE OF PAKISTAN

REUTERS

New Delhi/Bangalore, Oct 3:India’s death toll from the novelcoronavirus rose past 100,000Saturday; only the third countryin the world to reach that bleakmilestone, after the United States andBrazil, and its epidemic shows nosign of abating.

Total deaths rose to 100,842, theHealth Ministry said, while thetally of infections climbed to 6.47 mil-lion after a daily increase in casesof 79,476. India now has the high-est rate of daily increase in infec-tions in the world.

The Centre, faced with a col-lapsing economy after imposing atough lockdown to try to stem thespread of the virus in late March,is pushing ahead with a full open-ing of the country. Cinemas were al-lowed to re-open at half capacity thisweek and authorities can decideto re-open schools from the middleof this month.

Heading into winter and the hol-iday season, including the Hindu fes-tival of Diwali next month, theworld’s second most populous coun-try could see a jump in cases, health

experts said.“We have seen some recent slow-

down of the virus curve but thismay be a local peak, there may be an-other coming,” said BhramarMukherjee, a professor of biosta-tistics and epidemiology at theUniversity of Michigan.

She said data showed a little over7% of the population of 1.3 billionhad been exposed to the virus, mean-

ing India was still far from any sortof herd immunity. The number ofcases could rise to 12.2 million bythe end of the year but the rate ofspread would depend on how ef-fective measures such as social dis-tancing were, she said.

“So it will continue like a slowburning coil, that is my hope, andwe have to play the long game to stopit from being a wildfire.”

Data questionedThe United States, Brazil and

India together account for nearly45% of all COVID-19 deaths globally.

Death rates in India, however,have been significantly lower thanin those other two countries, rais-ing questions about the accuracy ofits data. India has, on average, lessthan one death from the diseasefor every 10,000 people while theUnited States and Brazil have seensix deaths per 10,000.

US President Donald Trump, de-

fending his administration’s han-dling of the pandemic in this week’spresidential debate, said countriessuch as India were under-report-ing deaths.

Shashank Tripathi, of the Centrefor Infectious Disease Research atthe Indian Institute of Science inBengaluru, acknowledged there couldbe problems with the data thoughIndia’s young population might helpexplain the lower death rate.

“In India, even without a pan-demic, all deaths are not properlyregistered,” Tripathi said.

“I’m not very confident that themortality rates reflect the rightnumbers, though the younger de-mographic has given us some ad-vantage.”

Representatives of the HealthMinistry and the Indian Councilof Medical Research did not im-mediately respond to calls or emailsfor comment.

Health experts said there couldbe greater immunity in India be-cause of the high incidence of in-fectious diseases such as tubercu-losis. Nearly 1,200 people in India dieof TB every day, roughly the sameas deaths from Covid-19.

India’s Covid death toll passes 100,000

Covid-19 cases vs recoveries: India, Brazil and US

Total deaths rose to 100,842,while the tally of infections

climbed to 6.47 million after adaily increase in cases of 79,476

The United States, Brazil andIndia together account for

nearly 45% of all COVID-19deaths globally

Heading into winter and theholiday season the world’s

second most populous countrycould see a jump in cases, healthexperts said

GRAPH

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 3: The IndianArmy has built a memorial forits 20 personnel who were killedwhile valiantly fighting Chinesetroops in Galwan Valley in easternLadakh June 15, official sourcessaid Saturday.

The memorial, located at Post120 in eastern Ladakh and inau-gurated earlier this week, men-tions the heroics of the ‘Gallants ofGalwan’ under operation ‘SnowLeopard’ and the way they evictedthe Chinese People's LiberationArmy (PLA) troops from the areawhile inflicting “heavy casualties”on them in “hand-to-hand combat”.

China is yet to disclose the num-ber of its soldiers killed and injuredin the clash though it officiallyadmitted to have suffered casual-ties. According to an Americanintelligence report, the numberof casualties on the Chinese sidewas 35. Post 120 lies along theShyok-Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) road.The names of all the 20 IndianArmy personnel were inscribed atthe unit-level memorial.

Colonel B Santosh Babu, thecommanding officer of the 16Bihar regiment, was among theIndian Army personnel killed inthe clash that had significantlyescalated the border tension be-tween the two countries.

Memorial for soldiers martyred in Galwan Valley

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Rohtang (HP), Oct 3: PrimeMinister Narendra Modi Saturdayinaugurated the strategically im-portant all-weather Atal Tunnel,which reduces the distance be-tween Manali and Leh by 46 km andthe travel time by four to five hours,at Rohtang in Himachal Pradesh.

Atal Tunnel, built by the BorderRoads Organisation, is the longesthighway tunnel in the world.

The 9.02-km tunnel connectsManali to Lahaul-Spiti valleythroughout the year, the PrimeMinister’s Office has said, notingthat the valley was earlier cut offfor about six months every year dueto heavy snowfall.

Modi was accompanied byDefence Minister Rajnath Singhand Chief of Defence Staff GenBipin Rawat.

The Atal Bihari Vajpayee gov-ernment had taken the decision toconstruct a strategic tunnel belowthe Rohtang Pass June 3, 2000, andthe foundation stone for the ac-cess road to the south portal ofthe tunnel was laid May 26, 2002.

PM opens world’slongest highwaytunnel in Rohtang

RISE AGAINST RAPE

NCP activists raise slogans during a protest over the death of a 19-year-old Dalit woman after an alleged gangrape inUP’s Hathras, in Surat, Saturday PTI PHOTO

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 3: RJD MP ManojJha has moved the Supreme Courtchallenging the Constitutional va-lidity of the newly enacted threeagriculture laws, saying they are“discriminatory and manifestlyarbitrary” and will expose mar-ginal farmers to exploitation bybig corporates.

Parliament has recently passed thethree Bills – the Far mers’(Empowerment and Protection)Agreement of Price Assurance andFarm Services Act, 2020, the Farmers’Produce Trade and Commerce(Promotion and Facilitation) Act,2020 and the Essential Commodities(Amendment) Act 2020. These have

come into effect from September 27after President Ram Nath Kovindgave his assent.

Jha, a Rajya Sabha member of theRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), hasfiled the plea in the top court throughlawyer Fauzia Shakil. Besides Jha,Congress Lok Sabha member fromKerala TN Prathapan and DravidaMunnetra Kazhagam (DMK) RajyaSabha member from Tamil NaduTiruchi Siva had moved the top

court against the farm laws.Jha, in his plea, said, “The im-

pugned legislations corporatise agri-culture and ushers in an unregulatedand exploitative regime. A farmerwould not have the knowledge tonegotiate the best terms with a pri-vate company. This leads to unequalbargaining position in negotiatingthe farm agreement with corpo-rates would lead to corporates mo-nopolising the agriculture sector.”

The plea said the laws have beenpassed by Parliament “in breach ofthe Parliamentary Rules and con-vention and the impugned Acts areunconstitutional on the ground thatit is discriminatory and manifestlyarbitrary and further violates theBasic Structure of the Constitution.”.

AGENCIES

Bijapur, Oct 3: The police said thata senior Naxal leader who was behindmany killings in the Bijapur dis-trict has been killed by his cadresFriday. According to the police, he wascarrying a reward of `8 lakh on hishead and was responsible for the re-cent killings in the Gangaloor area.

“In the Bijapur district, a majorincident has come into light per-taining to Naxals where DivisionalCommittee Member Modiyam Vijjawas killed by his own cadres ofthe Gangaloor Area Committee,”Inspector General of Police inBastar Range of Chhattisgarh PSundarraj said.

“Vijja was behind most of thecivilian killings in West BastarDivision region of Bijapur district,”

the inspector general said furtheradding, “There is a lot of dissentamong the senior cadres and localcadres with regard to mindless vio-lence against the innocent tribals.”

This is a very important devel-opment in the background of recentcivilian killings in the South Bastarregion. The matter is currentlyunder investigation, the inspectorgeneral said.

Meanwhile, a report from Raipursaid that a villager was axed todeath by Naxals in Chhattisgarh’sBastar district, police said Saturday.

The incident took place inGumalwada village under Nagarnarpolice station area Friday night,an official said. “As per prelimi-nary information, a dozen uniden-tified men dragged Budra Nag outof his house and killed him with.”

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Lucknow, Oct 3: Uttar PradeshCongress president Ajay KumarLallu Saturday said he had been putunder house arrest in order to“stop” him from going to Hathrasand fight for justice for theDalit woman who diedafter she was assaultedand allegedly gan-graped.

Congressspokesperson AnshuAwasthi alleged thatthe step had been takento prevent Lallu from join-ing party leaders Rahul Gandhiand Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, whoare again headed towards Hathrasin another effort to meet the fam-ily of the victim.

“I’m under house arrest. I ambeing treated as a criminal,” Lallusaid. “This is only to stop me fromgoing to Hathras and fight for jus-tice for the gang-rape victim.”

“This shows how scared thisgovernment is. Is it wrong to fightfor the victim or meet the familymembers?” he asked.

The state Congress said Lallu, dis-trict heads and more than 500 work-ers had been placed under house ar-

rest. “Yogi ji, don't stopthose who fight for jus-

tice. Stop thecrimes,” it tweeted.

According toLallu, police cameto his house in

Lucknow around1.30 am and started

banging on the door. Hewas handed over a notice

that a case has been filed againsthim at the Hazratganj police stationand he has to appear next Friday.

“This morning, I saw policemenat my door and they stopped mefrom going for morning walk, tellingme that I’m under house arrest.Force has been deployed at mydoor,” Lallu said.

UP Cong chief putunder house arrest

Naxal leader killed by hisown cadres In Chh’garh

RJD MP moves SC challenging validity of new farm laws

Teenage girl kidnapped, raped Ballia (UP): A 15-year-old girlwas allegedly kidnapped andraped in Sikandarpur PoliceStation area here, police saidSaturday. The girl wasrescued Friday morning fromRasra bus stand and theaccused identified as 23-year-old Asif has been arrested,SHO, Sikandarpur AmarjeetYadav said. The girl wasallegedly kidnapped onWednesday by Asif andraped, the SHO said. On thecomplaint of the victim’sfather a case was registered,he added.

Senior citizenstabbed to deathMumbai: A 70-year-old manwas allegedly stabbed andbludgeoned to death insuburban Mulund here, policesaid Saturday. Vijaynagarresident Maruti LaxmanGavali was found dead at ashop on Walji Wadda RoadFriday morning, an officialsaid. The deceased wasallegedly stabbed with asharp weapon and his facewas bashed in with a cementblock, the official said. Basedon a complaint lodged by thevictim’s son, the police haveregistered a case of murderagainst an unidentifiedperson and further probe isunderway, he added.

Lion cub founddead in Gir forest Junagadh: A female lion cubwas found dead in Dedakdirange of Gir forest in Gujarat’sJunagadh district Saturday, aforest department officialsaid. The carcass of a six toseven-month-old female lioncub was found in Dedakdirange of Gir West divisionforest, said DT Vasavada,chief conservator of forests(wildlife), Junagadh. Noexternal injury marks werefound on the carcass. Gujaratis the only abode of Asiaticlions, and a full-moon lightobservation carried out by theforest department in Juneestimated its population torise 29 per cent to 674.

T’gana cops nab4 cyber criminals Hyderabad: Police Saturdaysaid they have arrested a four-member gang of cybercriminals from Rajasthan whoallegedly created fake socialmedia accounts of policeofficers and sent messages,seeking money, to those intheir friends list. It has beenfound that fake social mediaaccounts of 350 police officers,belonging to Telangana,Andhra Pradesh, Karnatakaand Himachal Pradesh havebeen created. Fake accountshave been created in the nameof 81 police officers fromTelangana, police in Nalgondadistrict of Telangana said.

SHORT TAKES

P10SUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalIndia, which espouses the policy of ‘No First Use’ against nuclear

weapon states, believes that nucleardisarmament can be achieved throughagreed multilateral framework and NewDelhi is convinced of the need for meaningfuldialogue among nations possessing nucleararms for building trust and confidenceHARSH VARDHAN SHRINGLA | FOREIGN SECRETARY OF INDIA

There was a three-foldincrease in the number ofpeople reportingsignificant depressionand anxiety problemsduring lockdown,according to a new study

COVID-19 IMPACT

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The Quadseeks toestablish,

promote, and secureIndo-Pacificprinciples,especially as PRCtactics, aggression, and coercionincrease in the region

DAVID R. STILWELL | ASSISTANT SECRETARY

FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS

of theday uote

The world isliving in theshadow of

nuclearcatastrophe,fuelled by growingdistrust andtensions between the nuclearpowers

ANTONIO GUTERRES | UN

SECRETARY-GENERAL

Sending myprayers (for)health and

safety of the firstlady and thePresident of theUnited States afterthey tested positive for COVID-19.My wife Jill and I pray that they willmake a quick and full recovery

JOE BIDEN | EX-VICE PRESIDENT OF US

Two killed, 24 missing Paris: Flooding from recordrains in the mountainousregion that spans France andItaly killed two people in Italyand left at least 24 people inthe two countries missingSaturday. A storm thatmoved overnight acrosssoutheastern France andthen northern Italy causedmajor flooding on both sidesof the border, destroyingbridges, blocking roads andisolating communities. InItaly, a firefighter was killedduring a rescue operation inthe mountainous northernregion of Val d'Aosta. Anotherbody was found in Vercelliprovince, near where a manhad been swept away byflood waters late Friday.

770 studentscontract Covid London: At least 770 studentsat the UK's NorthumbriaUniversity have been testedpositive for the novelcoronavirus, leading tohundreds of other pupils toself-isolate. In a statementFriday, a university spokesmansaid that of the 770, 78 weresymptomatic and all theinfected students and theirclose contacts were currentlyself-isolating for 14 days in linewith the governmentguidelines, the BBC reported.

Partial lockdownimposed in MadridMadrid: A partial lockdownhas been imposed in Madridas Spain was trying to controla second Covid-19 wave in theone of the worst-affectedcountries in Europe, the mediareported Saturday. Accordingto authorities, more than threemillion people will be affectedby the new measure underwhich the capital city'sresidents will be allowed totravel outside their homedistricts for essential journeysonly starting from theweekend, the BBC reported.Also under the new lockdown,bars and restaurants will notbe allowed serve after 10 p.m.,and a maximum of six peoplewill be permitted to meet inany setting.

Oli’s key advisorsCovid positiveKathmandu: Nepal PrimeMinister K P Sharma Oli'schief advisor and his othertwo aides have contractedcoronavirus that has claimed528 lives and infected over84,500 people in the country.During the tests conductedFriday, Oli's chief advisorBishnu Rimal, press advisorSurya Thapa, and foreignaffairs advisor Rajan Bhattaraitested positive for COVID-19.

SHORT TAKES

ASSOCIATED PRESS

San Francisco, Oct 3: Californiais poised to hit a fearsome mile-stone: 4 million acres burned thisyear by wildfires that have killed 31people and incinerated hundreds ofhomes in what is already the worstfire season on record.

Flames have scorched an arealarger than Connecticut. Fire crewsat a blaze in the wine country northof San Francisco were on high alertFriday as forecasters warned of ex-treme fire danger into Saturday.

Powerful winds didn't materi-alize early Friday, allowing firecrews a chance to make gains. Butwinds up to 30 mph (48 kph) wereforecast to push through the hillsof Napa and Sonoma counties as

the Glass Fire, which exploded insize earlier in the week, threat-ens more than 28,000 homes andother buildings.

“So far we have not seen the ve-locity of the winds that we wereexpecting,” Cal Fire Battalion ChiefMark Brunton said. “But there willbe gusts and ... we do have hot em-bers and it won't take much to takethat and blow it into a very dry re-ceptive fuel bed. That gives us causefor concern.”

Winds were blowing at higher el-evations on the western side ofthe fire. Crews expected a long bat-tle to keep flames from jumpingcontainment lines and to preventspot fires from leaping ahead tospark new blazes.

More crews and equipment were

deployed in and around Calistoga,a town of 5,000 people known for hotsprings, mud baths and wineries inthe hills of Napa County about 70

miles (110 km) north of SanFrancisco.

The area was also experiencinghigh temperatures and thick smoke

that fouled the air throughout theSan Francisco Bay Area. Numerousstudies have linked bigger wildfiresin America to climate change fromthe burning of coal, oil and gas.Scientists say climate change hasmade California much drier, mean-ing trees and other plants are moreflammable.

The Glass Fire is the fourthmajor blaze in the region in threeyears and comes ahead of the thirdanniversary of an October 8, 2017,wildfire that killed 22 people.Around the state, 17,000 firefight-ers were battling nearly two dozenmajor blazes. Virtually all the dam-age has occurred since mid-August,when five of the six largest fires instate history erupted. Lightningstrikes caused some of the most

devastating blazes.Cal Fire Deputy Chief Jonathan

Cox said wildfires have scorched3.9 million acres in California sinceAugust 15. That figure, which worksout to more than 6,000 square miles(15,500 square km), is astonishingeven in a state that has had its fairshare of fires.

“We're at a historic momentwhere we are going to cross the 4 mil-lion acres burned mark in Californiathis year,” Cox said. “And unfortu-nately, we're just getting into someof the most critical fire months inCalifornia.”

The death toll increased to 31people after a person burned inthe LNU Lightning Complex diedfrom their injuries, Cal Fire saidin a statement.

California nears milestone: 4 mn acres burned this year

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington, Oct 3:An election yearalready defined by a cascade of na-tional crises descended further intochaos Friday, with President DonaldTrump quarantined at a militaryhospital with the coronavirus afterconsistently playing down the threat.

Democratic challenger Joe Bidentook down his attack ads and presseda bipartisan message in battle-ground Michigan after he and hiswife tested negative.“This cannot bea partisan moment. It must be anAmerican moment. We have tocome together as a nation," Bidendeclared at a speech in Grand Rapids,warning that the virus “is not goingaway automatically.”

While Biden vowed to continuehis cautious approach to cam-paigning during the pandemic, thePresident's diagnosis injected evengreater uncertainty into an elec-tion already plagued by crises thathave exploded under Trump's watch:the pandemic, devastating economicfallout and sweeping civil unrest.

With millions of Americans al-ready voting, the country Fridayentered uncharted territory that

threatened to rattle global marketsand political debates around theworld. The development focusesthe campaign right where Bidenhas put his emphasis for months —and where Republicans don't wantit: on Trump's uneven response toa pandemic that has killed morethan 205,000 people in the U.S. Andfor the short term, it's groundedTrump under quarantine at Walter

Reed National Military MedicalCenter, denying him the large pub-lic rallies that fuel his campaignjust a month before the election.

Biden and other Democratic of-ficeholders wished Trump well inthe wake of his diagnosis, althoughsome could not help but admonishthe Republican president, whoopenly ignored his own adminis-tration's social safety recommen-

dations for much of the year. “Goinginto crowds unmasked and all therest was sort of a brazen invita-tion for this to happen,” HouseSpeaker Nancy Pelosi said.

The White House reported Fridayevening that Trump will spend “afew days” at the military hospital;the president's doctor reported thatTrump was “fatigued” and hadbeen injected with an experimen-tal antibody drug combination stillin clinical trials. His campaign an-nounced that all of Trump's sched-uled campaign events were beingmoved online or temporarily post-poned. Trump's family, a steadypresence on the campaign trail,was also grounded.

Trump campaign manager BillStepien and Republican NationalCommittee Chair Ronna McDanielhave tested positive for the virus aswell. But Vice President Mike Pence,who has tested negative, will at-tend his campaign events as planned.

Other world leaders, includingBritain's Prime Minister BorisJohnson, have contracted the virusand made full recoveries. But strate-gists in both parties acknowledgedthe timing is bad. Millions of

Americans have already begun vot-ing in several key states, and tens ofmillions more will receive absen-tee mail-in ballots or begin in-personearly voting in the coming weeks. “Trump's main ad-vantages, including incumbency,have been removed. Rallies, his mainvehicle for mobilizing his base, willno longer be possible. Fly-bys withAir Force One as a backdrop aregone,” said Republican strategistRick Tyler, a frequent Trump critic.

He said that Trump's infectionalso “fundamentally undercuts hisentire campaign strategy, whichwas to ignore the pandemic andmake unsubstantiated claims thatwe've turned the corner and aremaking an economic comeback.”

Biden, meanwhile, moved to takedown his ads attacking Trump, ac-cording to deputy campaign man-ager Kate Bedingfield, who notedthat the campaign would continuerunning positive ads. The decisionwas made before news surfacedthat Trump would be moved to a mil-itary hospital. Otherwise, Biden isnot expected to alter his approachto the campaign significantly asTrump recovers.

Trump’s hospitalization rocks final stage of campaign

The White House reported Friday evening that Trump will spend a fewdays at the military hospital

The President's doctor reported that Trump was “fatigued” and had beeninjected with an experimental antibody drug combination still in clinical trials

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Islamabad, Oct 3: PakistanInternational Airlines (PIA) hassacked 54 more employees for hav-ing fake degrees, abusing drugs andfor poor performance, accordingto a media report Saturday.

Of the 54 employees sacked bythe national carrier, seven weredismissed for tampered documents,eight for absence, two for takingbribe, four for immoral acts and onefor being intoxicated, The Dawnnewspaper reported. Another twoemployees were removed for theft.

Apart from the sacked personnel,13 employees were given letters ofappreciation. Seven officials gotbonuses for excellent performance.Now, the number of employeessacked in the airline in the last fourmonths has gone upto 220. The PIAhas taken up a so-called 'cleaning up'exercise of its staff followingAviation Minister Ghulam SarwarKhan's probe report into the May 22Karachi plane crash. The domesticflight from Lahore to Karachi hadcrashed in a residential area nearthe Jinnah International Airportin Karachi.

PIA SACKS 54EMPLOYEES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Islamabad, Oct 3: Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan has askedhis party leaders to devise a legalstrategy to bring back former pre-mier Nawaz Sharif from the UK asin the absence of an extraditiontreaty between the two countries itwould be difficult to get him ex-tradited, according to a media report.

Presiding over the first meetingof a committee recently formed tocounter the Opposition, PrimeMinister Khan Friday askedPakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) lead-ers to foil all moves of the Oppositionaimed at destabilising the govern-ment and "maligning" the Army,the Dawn News reported.

The government had earlier senta request to the British govern-ment for the Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz (PML-N) leader'srepatriation to ensure that he facesthe corruption cases pending againsthim in the courts.

Sharif has been living in Londonsince November last year when hewas allowed to go there for medicaltreatment. His recent speeches tar-geting the army for political in-terference has apparently unnervedthe Imran Khan government.

A source privy to the meetingtold Dawn that the Prime Ministerwas committed to bringing backSharif from London and directedthe committee members to devise

a legal strategy because in the ab-sence of an extradition treaty be-tween Pakistan and the UK, it wouldbecome difficult to get him extra-dited.

The committee comprises fed-eral ministers Shah MehmoodQureshi, Asad Umar, FawadChaudhry, Shafqat Mahmood andPervez Khattak. Adviser to thePrime Minister on Interior andAccountability Shahzad Akbar hadearlier said that he had writtenfresh letters to the British author-ities for Sharif's repatriation, addingthat a formal application has alsobeen sent for his extradition.

The adviser was of the view thatthough both countries have no ex-tradition treaty, wanted peoplecould be handed over to each otherunder special arrangement. OnSeptember 15, the Islamabad HighCourt issued non-bailable arrestwarrants for Sharif who failed tosurrender before it despite clearwarning by the bench.

Imran seeks legal strategySharif has been living in London since November last year when

he was allowed to go there for medical treatment PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

London, Oct 3: There is growinghope that a vaccine against coro-navirus may be given the greenlight by health regulators by the endof this year to be rolled out for a vac-cination programme in six months'time or even less, according to a UKmedia report.

The vaccine candidate undertrial by University of Oxford sci-entists in collaboration with phar-maceutical giant AstraZeneca isthe furthest in the process of trialsand, according to a report in ‘TheTimes', it could be given the re-quired clearances by Christmasin December.

The newspaper quoted UK gov-ernment sources involved in themaking and distribution of vac-cines as saying that a full vaccineroll-out programme for adultscould take six months or less afterapproval.

“We are looking at closer to sixmonths and it is likely to be farshorter than that,” a governmentsource said. Under a protocol de-veloped by the UK's JointCommittee on Vaccination andImmunisation, any approved vac-cine will then be given to all over65, followed by younger adults athigher risk, which could includethose from ethnic minorities aswell as those with serious health

issues based on their higher riskfrom the deadly virus. People over50 will be next in line, with youngeradults at the back of the queue.

The UK government has ordered100 million doses of the Oxfordvaccine once it is ready for roll-out and the doses are being man-ufactured before it has been shownto be successful in order to savetime once it clears all the regula-tory stages.

According to the newspaper re-port, scientists on the trial arehopeful that they will get results be-fore the end of this year, and thatthey will at the very least showthat it prevents 50 per cent of in-fections, the threshold for success.

If it is approved by the regula-tors, the UK's National HealthService (NHS) is said to be in a po-sition to begin mass vaccinationalmost immediately. There areothers within the UK government,however, who are more cautiouson the timelines as vaccinatingevery adult is a big challenge.

Vaccine could be rolledout within 6 mths: Report

REUTERS

Kabul, Oct 3: Attackers set off atruck bomb in Afghanistan’s east-ern Nangarhar province Saturday,killing at least 15 people and wound-ing dozens, according to provincialofficials, as violence continues inthe war-torn nation despite peacetalks taking place in Qatar.

Attaullah Khug yani, aspokesman for the provincial gov-ernment, said the number of ca-sualties, most of whom were civil-ians, could rise and that dozens ofpeople were also injured by theblast in Ghani Khel district.

Obaidullah Shinwari, theNangarhar provincial council’smember, said 52 people were in-jured in the blast. No group im-mediately claimed responsibilityfor the attack. Ministry of Interiorspokesman Tariq Arian blamed theinsurgent Taliban for the attack,saying in the last two weeks theyhad carried 650 attacks which hadkilled 69 civilians.

The Taliban did not immedi-ately respond to calls requestingcomment. Afghan government ne-gotiators are holding talks with theinsurgent Taliban in their politi-cal capital of Doha in attempts toend decades of conflict, but callsby the government and interna-tional community for a ceasefireor reduction in violence have so farbeen rejected by the Taliban.

15 KILLED INEXPLOSION

Antarctic Peninsula at warmest in decades: StudyAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Santiago, Oct 3: The year 2020is the hottest in the AntarcticPeninsula in the past threed e c a d e s, a s t u dy by t h eUniversity Of Santiago De Chileout Friday found.

Between January and August,temperatures reached between2 and 3 degrees Celsius (35.6and 37.4 degrees Fahrenheit)on the peninsula, which is thenorthernmost part of main-land Antarctica, according to re-searchers at the Chilean AirForce's Frei Base on King

George Island. Those tempera-tures are "more than 2 degreesCelsius over typical values," cli-matologist Raul Cordero said ina statement released by theChilean Antarctic Institute(INACH).

"In the far northern tip of theAntarctic Peninsula, the aver-age maximum temperature sofar this year has been above 0degrees. This had not happenedfor 31 years," Cordero added.

He called that fact "alarming,"since it could indicate that therapid rate of ocean warming ob-served in the area at the end of the20th century is resuming. Thehigh Southern Hemisphere win-ter temperatures are in contrast,however, with those registeredbetween August and September,which reached -16.8 degreesCelsius, the lowest since 1970.

RISKY JOURNEY

Migrants ride on the back of a truck that slowed down to give them an opportunity to jump on in Rio Dulce,Guatemala PTI PHOTO

We arepleased tolaunch the

generic version ofSapropterinDihydrochlorideTablets, for oral use,illustrating our continuedcommitment to bring affordablegeneric medicines to market forpatients

MARC KIKUCHI | CEO (NORTH AMERICA

GENERICS), DR REDDY’S LABORATORIES

P11

businessSUNDAY | OCTOBER 4 | 2020 | BHUBANESWAR

Sustainabilityshould include

employment. Unemployedyouth is probably themost dangerous situationany economy or anycountry can facePREETHA REDDY | VICE CHAIRPERSON,APOLLO HOSPITALS GROUP

State-owned RINL has said it has supplied over8,500 tonne of steel for the all-weather Atal Tunnelwhich reduces the distance between Manali andLeh by 46 kms and travel time by four to five hours.PM Narendra Modi inaugurated the tunnel Saturdayalong with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

‘SUPPLIED 8,500 TONNES OF STEEL’

cmyk

cmyk

India isdeveloping AI-based

solutions for socialempowermentacross spheres likehealthcare,education, finance, agriculture andgovernance. On the strength of itsdata and innovation prowess, Indiacan become the AI laboratory of theworld

AMITABH KANT | CEO, NITI AAYOG

of theday uote

The firstFMCG clusterwill be set up

at Dharwad tocreate 5 lakh directand indirect jobsand generate `25,000 crore sales turnover perannum when fully commissioned

JAGADISH SHETTAR | INDUSTRY MINISTER,KARNATAKA

Audi opens SUVQ2’s bookingsNew Delhi: German luxurycar maker Audi Saturdayopened bookings for itsupcoming SUV Q2 in Indiawhich will be launched in themarket in the second half thismonth. The Audi Q2, whichwill be the company's fifthproduct launch this year inIndia, can be booked with anamount of `2 lakh onlinethrough the company’swebsite or at the nearestAudi India dealership, AudiIndia said in a statement.

‘Farm budgetrises 11-fold’New Delhi: Labour MinisterSantosh Gangwar onSaturday said budget of theagriculture ministry has beenincreased 11 fold to `1.34lakh crore from `12,000 crorein 2009-10 during the UPAregime, which reflects PrimeMinister Narendra Modi'scommitment for welfare offarmers. The government hasbeen under attack forbringing in new farm lawswhich are aimed at providingmarketing freedom tofarmers for selling theirproduce.

ATDC ties upwith factoriesNew Delhi: Apparel exportersbody AEPC Saturday said itstraining arm ATDC has tied upwith 77 manufacturing unitsin Tamil Nadu for a WorldBank funded skilling project.Apparel Export PromotionCouncil (AEPC) Chairman ASakthivel said ATDC (ApparelTraining and Design Centre)will impart three-monthclassroom training to 240apprentices in five differentcourses followed by 12-monthon-the-job training.

Meity to seekCabinet approvalNew Delhi: The IT ministry islooking to use artificialintelligence for addressingproblems such as languagebarrier that are faced byIndians in communicationand expects to get Cabinetapproval in a month tolaunch programmes based onthe next generationtechnology, seniorgovernment officials saidSaturday. Niti Aayog CEOAmitabh Kant said that Indiais organising a conference onAI, RAISE 2020, which will beinaugurated by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onMonday evening.

SHORT TAKES

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Mumbai, Oct 3: Expectations fornew stimulus measures along withhealthy macro-economic data willpush India's equity markets higherduring the coming week, analystssaid. Accordingly, investors are bet-ting on the new stimulus measuresbeing announced in the US andIndia to accelerate economic ac-tivity.

Besides, recently released autosales numbers and macro economicdata points also indicate towards asustained economic recovery.

"In the coming week, we willhave a tug-of-war between a seriesof encouraging macro numbers inIndia, including PMI, monsoon,auto sales numbers, Septembertrade deficit numbers, rail freight,power consumption, fuel sales, GSTcollections, coal despatches, andon the other hand we have the global

nervousness due to Dolnald Trumpgetting infected with Covid-19," saidDeepak Jasani, Head of RetailResearch at HDFC Securities.

"We think the positive Indiamacros will have an advantage andthe Indian markets could rise somemore," he added.

Jasani said that sectors which

have underperformed so far coulddo well, including banks and re-alty, among others.

"Select small and midcap stockscould continue to perform. Nowonwards, the focus will also shift toQ2 results that will kick off in thecoming week," Jasani said. As perschedule, the Q2FY21 results season

will begin from October 5.IT major TCS is expected to come

out with its quarterly resultsWednesday.

Apart from quarterly results,markets will also get direction fromthe decision on the loan morato-

rium case Monday."The second quarter results would

also begin next week with TCS re-porting its numbers Wednesday,"said Siddhartha Khemka, Head,Retail Research, Motilal OswalFinancial Services.

"Decent auto sales numbers forthe month of September also pro-vided support to the market. Goingahead, the market may continuewith its positive trend in near termamid hopes of stimulus an-nouncement -- both from the USgovernment and the Indian gov-ernment," Khemka said.

According to Vinod Nair, Head ofResearch at Geojit FinancialServices, "The market is expectedto be guided by announcement ofstimulus measures by the US andthe outcome of the Supreme Courtmoratorium hearing."

"We expect Unlock 5.0 to boostinvestor sentiments for the media

and the tourism sectors which hadfallen significantly since the lock-down. Investors should remain cau-tious, as markets are keenly focus-ing on the court hearings onmoratorium to be held next weekand volatility might spike onceagain," Nair said.

Last week, Indian markets gainedon the back of positive global cues,better-than-expected domestic macronumbers and decent auto sales inSeptember.

The risk appetite also improvedas the Central government October1 issued new guidelines for openingup of more activities in areas out-side the containment zones.

Consequently, the NSE Nifty50closed the week higher by 3.3%,while the BSE Sensex gained by3.5%. The equity markets endedhigher on 3 out of the 4 tradingdays during the truncated tradeweek.

Stimulus, healthy macros expected to lift marketsIn the coming week,we will have a tug-of-war betweena series of

encouraging macro numbersin India, including PMI,monsoon, auto salesnumbers, rail freight, fuelsales, GST collections, andon the other hand we havethe global nervousness dueto Trump getting infectedwith Covid-19DEEPAK JASANI I HEAD OF RETAILRESEARCH, HDFC SECURITIES

MARKETOUTLOOK

Microsoft to endOpen LicenseProgramme for SMBsINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, Oct 3: Microsoft hasannounced to end its 20-year-oldOpen License programme for smalland midsize organisations fromJanuary 1, 2022. The organisa-tions can continue to renew andpurchase new software licenses,software assurance and onlineservices through the Open Licenseprogramme until December 31,2021.

"As of January 1, 2022, com-mercial customers won't be able tobuy new or renew software li-censes or online services throughthe Microsoft Open License pro-gramme," the tech giant said in anupdate.

"New license-only purchasesshould be transacted through part-ners in the Cloud Solution Providerprogramme".

The Microsoft Open Licenseprogramme was created over 20years ago for small and midsizedcustomers to buy multiple per-petual software licenses at a vol-ume price.

Microsoft said it is taking a sig-nificant step to simplify licens-ing by introducing perpetual software license purchases throughthe new commerce experience, aspart of its Cloud Solution Providerprogramme for partners, with a target availability date of January 2021.

"Small and midsize customerswill benefit from a simplified ap-proach and greater flexibility inhow you purchase software li-censes in a way that's easy to un-derstand, that directly improveslicensing asset management, andwith predictable costs," the com-pany said. Some companies mayhave purchased "tokens" to useMicrosoft's online services.

REUTERS

New Delhi, Oct 3: Dozens ofIndia’s technology startups, chaf-ing at Google’s local dominance ofkey apps, are banding together toconsider ways to challenge theUS tech giant, including by lodg-ing complaints with the govern-ment and courts, executives toldReuters.

Although Google, owned byAlphabet Inc, has worked closelywith India's booming startup sectorand is ramping up its investments,it has recently angered many techcompanies with what they say areunfair practices.

Setting the stage for a potentialshowdown, entrepreneurs held twovideo conferences this week to strate-

gise, three executives told Reuters."It's definitely going to be a bit-

ter fight," said Dinesh Agarwal,CEO of e -commerce f ir mIndiaMART. "Google will lose thisbattle. It's just a matter of time."

He said executives have discussedforming a new startup associationaimed chiefly at lodging protestswith the Indian government andcourts against the Silicon Valleycompany.

Nearly 99% of the smartphonesof India’s half a billion users runon Google’s Android mobile oper-ating system. Some Indian start-ups say that Google exerts excessivecontrol over the types of apps andother services they can offer, an al-legation the company denies.

The uproar began last month

when Google removed popular pay-ments app Paytm from its PlayStore, citing policy violations. Thisled to a sharp rebuke from theIndian firm’s founder, Vijay ShekharSharma, whose app returned to theGoogle platform a few hours later,after Paytm made certain changes.

In a video call Tuesday, Sharma

called Google the “big daddy” thatcontrols the “oxygen supply of (app)distribution” on Android phones,according to an attendee. He urgedthe roughly 50 executives on the callto join hands to “stop this tsunami.”

“If we together don’t do any-thing, then history will not be kindto us. We have to control our digi-

tal destiny,” Sharma said.One idea raised was to launch a

local rival to Google’s app store,but Sharma said this would not beimmediately effective given Google’sdominance, one source said.

Sharma and Paytm, which isbacked by Japan's SoftBank GroupCorp 9984.T, did not respond to re-quests for comment. Google declinedto comment. It has previously saidits policies aim to protect Androidusers and that it applies and enforcesthem consistently on developers.

STRAINING TIESThis week the US company an-

gered some Indian startups by de-ciding to enforce a 30% commis-sion it charges on payments madewithin apps on the Android store.

Indian startups vow to fight Google’s cloutSTARTUPS SAY THAT GOOGLE EXERTS EXCESSIVE CONTROL OVER THE TYPES OF APPS AND OTHER SERVICES THEY OFFER

AS 99% OF THE SMARTPHONES IN INDIA RUN ON GOOGLE’S ANDROID MOBILE OS

GIC, TPG to invest `7,350 cr in RRVLAGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 3: RelianceIndustries Limited and RelianceRetail Ventures Limited (RRVL)have announced that Singapore'sGIC will invest `5,512.50 crore for1.22% equity share on a fully di-luted basis into RRVL, a subsidiaryof Reliance Industries. On the otherhand, global investment firm TPGwill be investing `1,837.50 crorefor 0.41% stake.

Mukesh Ambani, Chairman andMD of Reliance Industries, said: "Itgives me great pleasure to wel-come GIC to the Reliance Retailfamily. I am delighted that GIC,with its track record of close tofour decades of successful long-term value investing across theworld, is partnering with RelianceRetail in its mission to transformthe Indian retail landscape.

GIC's global network and trackrecord of long-term partnershipswill be invaluable to the transfor-mation story of Indian Retail. Thisinvestment is a strong endorse-ment of our strategy and India's po-tential."

Lim Chow Kiat, CEO, GIC, said:"GIC is pleased to partner withReliance through this new invest-ment, which will enable the com-pany to position Reliance Retailfor the strong secular growth in

India's retail market. We believeReliance Retail will continue touse its extensive supply chain andstore networks, as well as strong lo-gistics and data infrastructure, toadd value to its customers andshareholders."

GIC is a leading global investmentfirm established in 1981 to man-age Singapore's foreign reserves. Adisciplined long-term value in-vestor, GIC is uniquely positionedfor investments across a wide rangeof asset classes, including equi-

ties, fixed income, private equity,real estate and infrastructureIndians.

Meanwhile, TPG’s is the secondinvestment announced in half anhour by RRVL around midnightfollowed by GIC. Ambani, said: "Iam pleased to welcome TPG as a val-ued investor in Reliance Retail’s mis-sion of growing and transformingthe Indian Retail ecosystem for thebenefit of all Indians.

TPG has a proven track recordof being a valuable partner toglobal technology businesses andindustry leaders and we look for-ward to their guidance and sup-port in our journey."

Jim Coulter, Co-CEO, TPG, said:"Regulatory changes, consumerdemographics and technologicaldisruption are creating seismicshifts across the entire retail valuechain in India. In the midst of thistransformation, Reliance Industrieshas utilized technology and scaleto position Reliance Retail as an in-credibly strong, well-organised,and innovative leader.

We are excited to join with themas they seek to create a more in-clusive retail industry that allowsKiranas and Indian consumers tobenefit from the connectivity, efficiency, and accessibility of theReliance Retail omnichannel platform."

GIC is pleased topartner with Reliancethrough this new

investment, which will enablethe company to positionReliance Retail for the strongsecular growth in India'sretail marketLIM CHOW KIAT I CEO, GIC

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, Oct 3: Commerce andIndustry Minister Piyush Goyalsaid Saturday that India has the ca-pability to become a global playerin many sectors and needs to scaleup its manufacturing activities.

Speaking at a webinar organ-ised by EXIM Bank, he said sectorswhich have potentials to becomeglobally competitive are requiredto be identified.

"There is no need to segregate be-tween products for exports and do-mestic sector. We require quality,good technology and scale, thoughsome support may be needed attimes," Goyal said.

Exports will definitely happen au-tomatically if products are "goodand competitively priced", the min-ister said, adding that the industriesshould not expect that subsidieswill be the "only solution".

Speaking on the free trade agree-ments (FTAs), he said, "We haveto foster such collaborations withthe developed countries which havelarge markets, and not nations likeChile and Peru." India can surelybe part of the global supply chainand also a reliable partner, Goyalsaid, adding that "building capa-

bilities, scale and good manufac-turing practices are the need ofthe hour".

EXIM Bank Managing DirectorDavid Rasquinha said India's man-ufacturing and export sectors haveto become globally competitive.

"Despite the growing privateconsumption demand, India's grossvalue added (GVA) has decreased.EXIM Bank has commissioned astudy on the policy constraintsfaced by some sectors like textiles,apparel, automobile, electronicsand pharmaceuticals," he added.

‘India can be a globalplayer in many sectors’

Piyush Goyal

Speaking at a webinar,Goyal said sectors which have potentials to become globally competitive are requiredto be identified

SBI, HUL join hands to digitise small retailersPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: Country’slargest lender State Bank of India(SBI) and Hindustan UnileverLimited (HUL) joined together tocater to the needs of small retailersby providing them digital paymentand financing solutions. The pactwas declared during a webinar heldrecently.

This partnership will help in thedigital empowerment of HUL re-tailers and distributors throughSBI’s customised solutions. Underthis collaboration, the bank willoffer an instant paperless overdraftfacility of up to `50,000 to retail-ers for their billings with distrib-utors as well as financing facili-

ties to HUL’s distributors.To ensure customers get the op-

tion of digital payments in smallertowns as well, the bank will installSBI Point of Sale (POS) machinesat multiple HUL touch points acrossthe country. Additionally, SBI willprovide UPI based solutions to HUL

retailers for hassle-free, safe and in-stant cashless payments to theirdealers from HUL’s retailer appli-cation Shikhar.

SBI Chairman Rajnish Kumarsaid, “SBI has got an opportunityto leverage its strong geographicpresence and strategic digital so-lutions to simplify the financialneeds of HUL’s customers, retail-ers, dealers, and employees.”

HUL CMD Sanjiv Mehta said,"General trade is a very importantchannel for the country as it serves theneeds of millions of consumers by mak-ing essential products available.

This channel also plays a signif-icant role in our economy by creatingemployment opportunities for awide spectrum of people.”

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 3: In the mid-dle of ongoing COVID-19 crisis, amajor coal producer MahanadiCoalfields Limited (MCL) releaseddata of its total coal production dur-ing the month of August 2020. Thedata revealed that MCL fell shortto meet total target for the month.

According to MCL’s website data,the subsidiary of Coal India pro-duced around 98.033 lakh tonne of

coal in August. The company hadtargetted to reach coal productionof 116.798 lakh tonne from its open-cast and underground mining.

MCL’s coal production in un-derground reached 0.584 lakh tonnein same month while 108.215 lakhtonne of coal production was madepossible during opencast mining.

The coal producer had produced67.320 lakh tonne in same month ofprevious fiscal. MCL has targetted toproduce 173 million tonne of coalduring current fiscal in Odisha. Anofficial said that the company is likelyto extract around 5 lakh tonne of coalper day and 15 MT coal in a month.

As of now, MCL has producedaround 532.836 lakh tonne in last fivemonths including August during cur-rent fiscal.

MCL produces 98Ltonnes coal in Aug

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Dubai, Oct 3: Hit hard bya start that least definesthem, Chennai SuperKings (CSK) would bedesperate to find answersto their predicamentwhen they take on Kings

XI Punjab (KXIP) in an IPL match hereSunday.

So used to be on top of their game inthe previous editions, sitting at the bot-tom of the points table now with threelosses in four matches is an unknownterritory for the MS Dhoni-led side.

Nothing has worked for them de-spite having the resources. They evenmade three changes to their playing XIfor Friday’s game against SunrisersHyderabad but neither comeback of

Ambati Rayudu nor the presence ofDwayne Bravo could lift the gloom.

A misfiring top-order, save Faf duPlessis, combined with inadequate run-flow in the middle overs and the habitof leaving way too much for the cli-max, proved to be their bane in thethree consecutive defeats.

They have it in them to turn it aroundbut everything – fielding, bowling andbatting – has to come together. Whenthe result go a team’s way, many of thefrailties gets hidden but even the small-est of things get exposed when the op-posite happens.

The desperation was palpable onDhoni’s face after the latest loss. CSKwill need one of their top-order bats-men to put runs on the board and run-rate in the middle overs need to betaken care of, too. If that happens, it willallow Dhoni to find his feet.

Dhoni has batted under tremendouspressure in the initial games and thehuge expectations make his and histeam’s failure look worse. By the timehe goes after the attack, the asking ratewould soar to unprecedented levels.

If the team can manage enough runsin the middle overs, it will give somecushion to Dhoni and other capablebatsmen down the order. But the jobwould be easier said than done sincethey are up against a side which hasbeen batting well, though results havenot exactly gone in their favour.

Skipper KL Rahul and MayankAgarwal have been in top form. Butdespite scoring in excess of 200 twice,the Punjab side lost those matches be-cause of their limited bowling re-sources. None, expect MohammedShami, gives confidence of stoppingthe rival batsmen.

This is exactly what CSK must lookto exploit. They need to get Punjab’s top-order early. Overall, CSK have better re-sources but they must utilise them tothe hilt.

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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PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Sharjah, Oct 3: Boasting an explosivebatting line-up that complements theiraffective death bowling, Mumbai Indians(MI) will have their nose ahead in theIPL match against Sunrisers Hyderabad(SRH) here Sunday.

To add to SRH’s worry, doubts re-mained over lead seamer BhuvneshwarKumar’s participation in the match.Bhuvneshwar picked up an injuryFriday night and was unable to completehis final over in the game againstChennai Super Kings. He walked offthe field with the help of the teamphysio.a

In the event the experienced seamermisses out, table-toppers Mumbaiwill fancy their chances more at theSharjah Cricket Stadium, whoseboundaries are much shorterthan Dubai and Abu Dhabiand have been a paradisefor power-hitters.

The defending champi-ons, having humbled astrong Kings XI Punjab intheir last game, are unlikelyto make any changes to thewinning combination.

Skipper Rohit Sharma isin sublime form and he can

pummel any attack into submission onhis day. While the poor form of Quintonde Kock is worrisome, the prolificSuryakumar Yadav would be more thankeen to convert his starts.

The biggest positive for the defend-ing champions is that their middle-order has finally delivered with IshanKishan, Hardik Pandya and KieronPollard launching into opposition attackswith their big-hitting prowess.

Mumbai are unlikely to make anychanges to their bowling combination,

with all their bowlersputting up a splen-

did show againstK i n g s X IPunjab.

S R H w i l lalso take a lot

o f c o n f i d e n c efrom their

seven-run win over CSK, where all theiryoungsters delivered after the big gunsfailed to fire.

The team management would be hop-ing that skipper David Warner, JonnyBairstow and Manish Pandey are amongthe runs again. Kane Williamson alsois a certainty in the playing XI, givenhis ability to take the innings deep andhold one end up.

If the seniors fire,that will reduce the pres-sure on young guns

Abhishek Sharma,Priyam Gargand AbdulSamad. But ifBhuvneshwarmisses out, that

would meanmore pressure on

yorker specialist T Natarajan,left-arm pacer Khaleel

Ahmed and star spinnerRashid Khan.

In that case, they willhave to choose from theirother pacers – BasilT hampi, Sandee pSharma or SiddharthKaul – but none canmatch up Bhuvneshwar’s

skills and experience.

MI FAVOURITES AGAINST SRH CSK seek changein fortune vs KXIP

TODAY’S

MATCH

MI SRHAT 3:30 PM

KXIP CSKAT 7:30 PM

TELECAST: STAR SPORTS

CORRUPTAPPROACHREPORTED

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 3: A cricketer, com-peting in the IPL in the UAE, has‘reported a corrupt approach’,putting BCCI’s anti-corruptionunit (ACU) on a high alert.

The IPL is played in a bio-secureenvironment, which has signifi-cantly reduced the chance for per-sons with dubious credentials ap-proaching the player directly. Thethreat though still remains by andlarge due to the online network ofcorruptors.

BCCI ACU chief Ajit Singh con-firmed the development to thisagency. “Yes (a player has reportedapproach),” Singh, the former DGPof Rajasthan Police confirmed thenews. “We are tracking him. It willtake some time,” he said when askedif the alleged corruptor or ‘personof interest’ has been nabbed.

As per anti-corruption proto-cols, the name of the player (Indianor overseas) or franchise is notrevealed for confidentiality pur-poses. With players and supportstaff staying in a bio-bubble, un-like other years, the ACU is con-centrating more on the possible on-line corrupt approaches.

Most of the players, especiallythe younger ones are mostly on so-cial media platforms like Instagramand Twitter where unknown peo-ple masquerading as fans try to be-friend them.

A senior BCCI official said allthe players whether overseas orIndian international, uncappeddomestic players have all attendedmultiple anti-corruption classes.

“The best part is that the playerwho was approached immediatelysensed that something is fishy. He hadsuspicion and he immediately sharedhis concerns with the ACU. Everyplayer, even those who have comefrom the U-19s are well aware abouteach and every anti-corruption pro-tocols,” the BCCI official, privy to thedevelopment, told this agency onthe condition of anonymity.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paris, Oct 3: Neymar scored his firstgoals of the season to help ParisSaint-Germain make up some lostground in the French league witha 6-1 rout of visiting Angers.

PSG moved up to second in thesixth round after winning fourgames straight. The defendingchampion started with two defeats.

Kylian Mbappe, who also scored,had the first big chance at Parc desPrinces in the fifth minute saved bythe quick reacting Angers goal-keeper Paul Bernardoni.

But the home side did not haveto wait long for the breakthrough,a fine goal from Alessandro Florenziin the seventh minute. The Italiandefender lifted the ball over an op-ponent with his fist touch, thenlobbed it over another defender in-side the far post with his next. It washis first goal for PSG since his sum-mer switch from Roma.

Neymar was next to test the goal-keeper, but Bernardoni wasn’t beatenuntil the 36th, when Mbappe cut in be-tween two defenders before teeingthe ball up for Neymar to shoot in offthe underside of the crossbar.

The Brazilian got his second goal

from close distance in the 47th, andAngers defender Ismael Traorepulled one back in the 52nd as thehome side relaxed.

PSG defender Presnel Kimpembewas forced to clear from Stephane

Bahoken shortly afterward. ButJulian Draxler’s goal in the 57thremoved any notion of suspense,substitute Idrissa Gueye made it 5-1 in the 71st, and Mbappe wrappedup the scoring in the 84th.

Neymar helps PSG rout Angers

Neymar wheels away in celebration after scoring against Angers, Friday

RCB THRASH ROYALSPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Abu Dhabi, Oct 3: Captain ViratKohli (72 n o, 53b, 7x4, 2x6) roaredback to form with an unbeatenknock and stitched a 99-run standwith Devdutt Padikkal (63, 45b, 6x4,1x6) to power Royal ChallengersBangalore (RCB) to a comfortableeight-wicket win over RajasthanRoyals (RR) in an IPL match hereSaturday.

This was after wrist-spinnerYuzvendra Chahal (3/24) snaredthree wickets in an impressivebowling show that helped them re-strict RR to 154/6. It was RCB’sthird win in four matches.

Padikkal yet again produced animpressive innings before he wasdismissed by Jofra Archer (1/18) inthe 16th over. The young RCB openerallowed his captain to get in and set-tle down before Kohli producedsome of his trademark shots later

on to accelerate.The RCB needed 31 runs after

Padikkal’s dismissal and another in-form batman AB de Villiers (12 notout) ensured that his side reachedthe target with five balls to spare.

Having failed to score big in hisearlier three innings (14, 1, 3), Kohlitook time to settle down and scoredmostly in ones and twos initially.

Padikkal continued his goodform having scored 56, 1, 54 in histhree earlier innings. He reached tohis fifty in 34 balls. He was the dom-inant batsman in RCB’s openingstand of 25 runs with Aaron Finchwho was out in the third over.

Earlier, Chahal jumped to jointtop spot in the bowlers’ chart withKings XI Punjab’s MohammedShami on eight wickets.

Opting to bat, the Royals lost theirtop order cheaply inside the pow-erplay overs but recovered to someextent to post a decent total, thanks

to Mahipal Lomror’s knock of 47. The Royals were 31/3 and they

reached 70/3 at halfway mark withRobin Uthappa (17) and Lomrorstitching a 39-run stand for thefourth wicket. But Uthappa failedagain with Chahal getting himcaught at long off.

Chahal ended Lomror’s inningsin the 17th over as the batsmansliced up a widish delivery toDevdutt Padikkal at long off.

Rahul Tewatia (24 not out), look-ing for yet another explosive in-nings after the one against KingsXI Punjab, hit two sixes in the lastover after enduring a beamer fromNavdeep Saini on his chest.

BRIEF SCORES: RajasthanRoyals 154/6 (Mahipal Lomror 47,Rahul Tewatia 24 n o; YuzvendraChahal 3/24) lost to RoyalChallengers Bangalore 158/2 (ViratKohli 72 n o, Devdutt Padikkal 63;Jofra Archer 1/18) by eight wickets.

STAR TROIKA: Virat Kohli and Devdutt Padikkal (left inset) in action; Yuzvendra Chahal celebrates a Royals’ wicket

Chilwell helps Bluescrush Crystal Palace REUTERS

London, Oct 3: Chelsea thrashedCrystal Palace 4-0 at home in thePremier League Saturday as BenChilwell marked his league debutfor the Blues by scoring a goal andcreating another for fellow defenderKurt Zouma before Jorginho sealedthe win with two penalties.

Palace had stifled Chelsea in agoalless first half but Chilwell pun-ished them for their first defen-sive error, scoring from close rangein the 50th minute after MamadouSakho fluffed a clearance and al-lowed Cesar Azpilicueta to line upa cross.

Chelsea doubled their lead inthe 66th minute when the visitorsfailed to clear a corner and Zoumarose above everyone else to meet across by Chilwell and send a headerpast Vicente Guaita.

Jorginho made sure of the winwhen he converted two penalties inthe space of five minutes late in thegame. Chelsea coach FrankLampard will be as happy with his

team’s first clean sheet of the sea-son as the four goals they scored.

Lampard made six changes to theteam that salvaged a 3-3 draw afterbeing 0-3 behind at West BromwichAlbion last weekend, four of themat the back as he gave league debutsto left back Chilwell and goalkeeperEdouard Mendy.

Chilwell, who signed fromLeicester City in August, had adebut to remember, showing hispace down the wings and firingcrosses into the Palace box all af-ternoon.

BEN CHILWELL

ROLAND GARROS ROUND-UPJabeur creates Arabian history on clayParis: Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur became the firstArab woman to reach the fourth round ofthe French Open as she beat eighth seedAryna Sabalenka 7-6(9-7), 2-6, 6-3 Saturday.The 30th seed displayed her trademarkcourt craft to undermine Sabalenka’s poweras she surpassed her previous best thirdround showing at Roland Garros in 2017.The Tunisian had also become the first Arabwoman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinalin Australia this year.

Zverev advancesGermany’s Alexander Zverevdismantled Marco Cecchinato 6-1,7-5, 6-3 in under two hours Friday tomove into the French Open last 16where he will meet Italy’s risingstar Jannik Sinner. Zverev, who didnot play any claycourt eventsfollowing last month’s run to the USOpen final, was dominant andgrabbed two quick breaks to wrapup the first set after 25 minutes.

Rafa marches onClaycourt master Rafa Nadalpowered his way into the fourthround of his beloved French Openas his campaign for a record-extending 13th title picked upmomentum with a merciless 6-1, 6-

4, 6-0 demolition of Italian StefanoTravaglia Friday. The second seed,looking to match Roger Federer’srecord of 20 men’s Grand Slamsingles titles, will next meet 20-year-old American Sebastian Korda,one of his biggest admirers.

Altmaier stuns German qualifier Daniel Altmaier,ranked 186th in the world, bundledout Italian seventh seed MatteoBerrettini from the French Open witha comprehensive 6-2, 7-6(7-5), 6-4victory Saturday. The 22-year-oldwas not even sure he would makehis debut at this year’s claycourtGrand Slam as he was strugglingwith an injury and needed a go-ahead from a doctor at the lastminute to take part in the qualifiers.

Iyer, Shaw, Nortje lift DC

DC skipper Shreyas Iyer and Prithvi Shaw (inset) in action against Kolkata Knight Riders in Sharjah, Saturday

AGENCIES

Sharjah, Oct 3: Shreyas Iyer (88 no, 38b, 7x4, 6x6) showed his classwith a captain’s knock after PrithviShaw’s (66, 41b, 4x4, 4x6) opening actbefore Anrich Nortje (3/33) bowledsuperbly to help Delhi Capitals (DC)seal a commendable 18-run winover Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR)in their IPL match here, Saturday.

Chasing a mammoth 229 on abatting paradise, KKR got a won-derful start, despite losing openerSunil Narine in the second over.Shubman Gill (28) and Nitish Rana(58, 35b, 4x4, 4x6) added 64 runs be-fore the former’s departure reducedKKR to 72/2 in 8.1 overs.

After then KKR lost wickets atregular intervals trying to keep upwith the required rate. KKR were122/6 in 13.3 overs, when Eoin Morgan(44, 18b, 1x4, 5x6) and Rahul Tripathi(36, 16b, 3x4, 3x6) joined hands andalmost pulled off a miracle.

Nortje broke the stand in thethird ball of the 19th over, dis-

missing the England skipper. Bythen, Morgan and Tripathy hadadded 78 runs, with the scoreboardreading 200/7. There was still aslim hope, but Marcus Stoinis (1/46)wrapped up the things getting ridof Tripathi in the final over througha slower yorker.

KKR finished their innings on210/8. Besides Nortje, Harshal Patel(2/34) and Amit Mishra (1/14) bowledwell for the winning side.

Earlier, Iyer and Shaw demon-strated a batting masterclass withsplendid knocks up the DC battingorder. Later, Rishabh Pant (38, 17b,5x4, 1x6) dusted off his rustinesswith a quickfire knock.

Containment was never possibleon such a track with Capitals bats-men hitting as many as 14 sixes and18 boundaries in the entire innings.

After two good games, youngKamlesh Nagarkoti (1/35) andShivam Mavi (0/40) got harsh les-sons as Dinesh Karthik couldn’trisk completing their quota of overs.

Patrick Cummins (0/49) was takento task by Shaw in the Powerplay ashe repeatedly cleared the in-field.Mavi opening the bowling also gotthe hammering as he lost his lengthearly on, bowling either too full ortoo short to the DC openers.

Such was Shaw’s form that evenShikhar Dhawan (26, 16b, 2x4, 2x6)was overshadowed despite some de-cent hits in a 56-run opening stand.

The two spinners VarunChakravarthy (1/49) and SunilNarine (0/26) were simply sent intothe orbit. Andre Russell (2/29), whoconceded only seven runs in thefinal over and also dismissed MarcusStoinis in that over, was brilliantamong the KKR bowlers.

BRIEF SCORESDELHI CAPITALS 228/4

(Shreyas Iyer 88 n o, Prithvi Shaw 66,Rishabh Pant 38; Andre Russell 2/29)beat KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS 210/8

(Nitish Rana 58, Eoin Morgan 44, Rahul Tripathi 36; Anrich Nortje 3/33,

Harshal Patel 2/34) by 18 runs.

P3,4C O V E R S T O R Y

VOICES FOR THE

VOICELESS

OCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020

HERE . NOW

W O R L D A N I M A L D A Y – O C T O B E R 4

A WORD FOR READERSSunday POST is serving a platter of delectable fare everyweek, or so we hope. We wantreaders to interact with us. Pleasesend in your opinions, queries,comments and contributions to

features.orissapost@gmail.comB-15, Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar – 751010, Orissa.Phone (0674) 2549982, 2549948

EXCHANGE OF IDEAS ENGAGING STUFF LETTERS

SARITA MOHANTY, SECTOR-6, CDA, CUTTACK

Sir, I was delighted to read the story ‘Expanding liter-ary Horizons’ published for the InternationalTranslation Day. The story highlights the importanceof translation through which a writer can reach out tovarious sections of people speaking and writing in adifferent language from the former. With the worldbecoming a global village, translation makes it easierfor people to connect with their counterparts living invarious parts of the world. It gives the pleasure ofreading to people various books which is alien totheir culture and philosophy. It is an exchange ofideas between two regions for which the translatorshould take care while translating text from one lan-guage to another as little mistake in understandingits essence might mar his/her effort. It should not beverbatim but a synopsis of the original writing.

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SITAKANTA PALAI, BHADRAK

Sir, I found the last edition of Sunday supple-ment interesting. The cover story OffbeatDestination is an informative piece. I got tolearn about Baneswar and Harihareswar tem-ples. I was unaware of these shrines. Thanks toSunday POST, I learned about these sites.Giving facelift to these unknown temples is theneed of the hour. I liked reading My Sunday segment too because Antara Chakraborty is myfavourite singer. She has a soothing voice. Hervoice works as an antidote when I getdepressed. Literature segment was also interesting. Tinseltown page looked attractive. I expect Sunday POST to continue its good workin future as well.

MIXED BAGOCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020SUNDAY POST

RASHMI REKHA DAS, OP

Author, model and social worker Kalpasa Ankita Shaw loves to visit eldercarecentres Sunday and spend time with the senior citizens.

FitnessenthusiastI never skip my Yogasession on holidayswhich is essential for my mental wellbeing. Thisapart, I take to dancing to maintain my fitness.

Day of giving backI am pretty satisfied with my life and haveno complaint whatsoever. Therefore, onSundays, I offer food and medicines topeople who struggle to meet ends.

Seeking inner peaceI get mental peace by visiting old agehomes and spending quality time withelderly people.

Mommie dearestI am a diehard fan of my mom. Ilove some delicacies cooked byher and enjoy select movies toowith my little sister.

Cousin bondingSpending time with my cuteniece who lives in the USAthrough video call is a must forme on Sundays.

With old-age home inmates

With her niece

Kalpasa offering clothes to a needy

RASHMI REKHA DAS, OP

Young Sneha Aryan (name changed),a creative writer working with aBhubaneswar-based publishing house,one day spotted an injured pigeon

writhing in pain while she was having lunchon her office terrace. Though new to the city,she managed to rush the distressed animal toan animal care centre taking help of an officeboy. Fortunately, the attending doctor wasan ardent animal lover who took all care forthe bird’s recovery. Though many of Sneha’s

colleagues were present on the terrace,most of them thought taking strain of

treating a bird is wastage of time.It is not only Sneha’s friends,

many among us think thesame way undermining

the fact that every an-imal on the earth

has right likehumans to

live

with dignity and they too deservethe care like we do.

In order to raise status of animalsand their welfare standards acrossthe globe, World Animal Day isobserved October 4 every year.The day also meant for celebratingthe human-animal bonding. But in this dog-eat-dog world, how many people really carefor the well-being of these voiceless creatures.Moreover, cruelty against the animals in thesociety is growing by the day. Here is what afew advocates for animals have to say on whyanimals, especially strays, are being ill-treatedin our country.

Purabi Patra, founderand chairperson ofAnimal Welfare Trust,Ekamra, attributes lackof awareness and lackof stricter punishmentare the reasons behindgrowing number ofanimal cruelty cases.Besides, she feels thatpeople don’t have com-passion towards animals

these days. The seed of kindness and com-passion towards animals should be

sown in kids right from the child-hood so that they can develop

respect and love for ani-mals.

Recalling a fewanecdotes, she

says,“Recently,

a

pregnant dog was beaten merci-l e s s l y by two women a tSamantra rapur a rea inBhubaneswar. On being informed,we rescued her in dying condition.Naming the dog April, we startedan online campaign to get justice

for April. April delivered two puppies followinga surgery but succumbed to the injuries. Thenewborns also did not survive due to prematurebirth. Justice for April soon became a movementacross social media platforms after her death.We also lodged a police complaint demandingexemplary punishment against the offenders.However, police served notices on the accusedbut took no action against them. Lack ofpunishment encourages many to commit suchcrimes and get away with them.”

Citing one more instance of cruelty, Purabicontinues: “In another incident, a 68-year-oldman was arrested and remanded in judicialcustody for his alleged sexual assault on astray dog at Patia, Bhubaneswar. The accused,a security guard, was booked under relevantsections of IPC. After the animal’s medical ex-amination was conducted at Saheed NagarVeterinary Hospital, it was handed over tome. However, the accused is roaming scot-free.”

Purabi feels that stricter amendment ofPrevention of Cruelty to Animals (PCA) Act,1960 is the need of the hour. “In most casesof animal cruelty, the accused get bail as casesare often registered under Sections 428 and429 of IPC. For these sections, the maximumsentence period is less than seven years. Besides,most sections of PCA Act treat several offencesas non-cognizable and bailable. This makeseasier for the accused to escape imprisonment

ei-ther bysecuringbail or payingpenalty, often aslittle as ̀ 50. The stategovernment has to comeup with stringent laws forcrime against animals.”

“In India, it is common sight tosee people pelting stones at stray animalsfor the sake of fun. Besides, people alsoengage bulls and hens in fights for entertainment.In villages, people also organise cart raceswhere bullocks are treated as playful objects.As if this was not enough, animals are sacrificedat many shines flouting laws. Gone are thosedays when animals were not only consideredpart of our habitation but also worshiped”,says Sanjib Das, secretary of People for Animal.

Sanjib, who recently helped Athagarhforest officials bust a pangolin smugglingracket , says “Animals are important componentsof the ecosystem. Their role as consumers

helps maintain the cycleof energy in the envi-ronment. We don’t takestray dogs seriously al-though their role inecosystem cannot beignored. Be it straydogs or wild animals,we need to conserveall animal species. So,government should ini-

tiate action against those who torture the an-imals.”

SUNDAY POST COVEROCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020

Lack of awareness and stricter punishment are of the few reasons behind growingcases of animal cruelty in India, says well-known animal rights activist Purabi Patra.

for the

SUNDAY POST COVEROCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020

CELEBRATING WITH STRAYSBichitrananda Biswal popularly known as

Bichi Bhai has dedicated his life for wildlife con-servation. A farmer by profession, he is the foundingmember of Sea Turtle Action Programme (STAP).He has been monitoring the long term Olive RidleyConservation Programme of Action for Protection

of Wild Animals (APOWA)in Puri and Jagatsinghpur inassociation with Departmentof Forest and Environment,Government of Odisha.Hailing from Astaranga, hehas also undertaken commu-nity-led conservation pro-grammes to protect wildlife,sparrow and biodiversity. Heis also a part of the Mangrove

Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration programmeat Astaranga. In the last 26 years, he has savedmore than 1100 venomous snakes, 200 Dolphinsand 100 sparrows. He has been working tirelesslyto safeguard all kinds of wild animals and mammalsfrom poaching.

He maintains that cruelty against animals is acognizable offence under Sections 428 and 429 ofIPC. There is an urgent need to implementeffectively the laws made for theprotection of animals. Whenit comes to conservationof Olive Ridley, of-ficials of forest,f i she ry andIndian CoastGuards haveto work to-gether tosave turtlesfromclutches ofpoachers.Lack o fcoordina-t ion be -tween thesethree depart-ments leads tol a rge s ca l epoaching of OliveRidley.”

Rajesh Prusty isone of the most sought

after names in Bhubaneswarwhen it comes to animalrescue work, cows and bullsin particular. He says “Lawagainst animal cruelty is notimplemented properly whichis why the mute creaturesare subjected to ill-treatmentand torture. Besides, enoughawareness is not created on

the issue. Moreover, incidencesof human-animal conflict are highlighted in themedia. But animals are abused across the globe -in laboratories, farms and pet shops for humangood.”

Akash Ranjan Rath,former honorary wildlifewarden of Pur i , s ays ,“Human beings are selfish.They use animals for theirown interest. Ironically, weall like animals, be it wildor domesticated, and takepleasure watching them ontelevision screen but hardly

do anything worth-while to ensure their dignity. If

everyone starts to look at an-imals with love and com-

passion, we will see farfewer cases of cruelty

towards animals.There are rules

and laws inplace againstthe ill-treat-ment of an-imals, butare rarelyfollowed.We all needto developan emotional

bonding to-wards animals

and try to instillthe feeling of love

and respect for an-imals as they are an

important part of ourecosystem.”

Marriage certainly is one of life’smost significant events and

couples leave no stone unturned tomake the occasion special. But hereis a couple who made it truly mem-orable by spending time with strayand rescued animals in a Bhubaneswar-based animal shelter home.

Eureka Apta and Joanna Wang,both residents of Bhubaneswar, wentfor a simple temple wedding so thatthey can spend little more for thewellbeing of stray animals. They do-

nated food and other daily essentialsto an animal shelter centre in thecity and also spent time with the an-imals to celebrate their marriage.

Apta is a filmmaker who hadworked with Odisha Tourism andNFDC while Wang is a dentist. “Wealways had this plan. We wanted todo something for these voiceless an-imals instead of going for a lavishcelebration,” said the duo.

Eureka and Joanna spending time with stray dogs

ARINDAM GANGULY, OP

With number of Covid +ve caseson the rise, one of the easiestbut most important ways toprotect you and your loved ones

is to wash hands frequently. Proper handwashing which takes at least

20 seconds not only reduces the spread ofcoronavirus but can also prevent the spreadof viral illnesses such as cold and flu andother infections.

As we diligently wash hands more frequentlythan usual to slow the spread of the virus,unfortunately, the practice often removesthe natural, protective oils from our skin,exacerbates dry skin issues, causes dry, crackedand raw skin. It can also lead to conditionslike eczema.

Besides, this can cause open wounds inyour skin that can allow in bacteria and othergerms and increase your riskfor infection through thefissures.

Here’s everythingyou need to knowabout how towash your handsand take theirproper care.

Actually, theskin on the backof the hands isthin and lacks oilglands. That is whythe hands are proneto wrinkles and lines.The nails also be-come dry andbrittle, break-ing or chip-ping easily.So a longwith pro-tecting our-selves fromthe new dis-ease, we alsoneed to pro-tect our hands.

The outermostlayer of our skin iscomposed of oils and wax,and it acts as both a shield from the outsideand a guard that maintains natural moisture

in the skin. This natural barrier is brokendown by the suds created by soap whilewashing hands.

Bath time is appropriate for pam-pering the hands and supplyingthem with the oil and moistur-ising they need. Before yourbath, apply warmed oil onthe hands and massage itinto the skin. This helps tosoften the skin. You can usecoconut oil, which is verynourishing. Or, use purealmond oil. Immediately,after your bath, apply amoisturising lotion orcream, while the skin is stilldamp. This helps to seal inmoisture. Twice a week, have

a pre-bath treatment bymixing ground almonds

with curd and a pinchof turmeric. Apply

on hands. After 15minutes, rub the pastegently on the skin andwash it off with water. Atnight, massage cream on

your

hands,working it into the skin. You can also try some home reme-

dies to keep the skin soft and smooth.Among many kinds of moisturisers, hand

creams are better than body lotion becausethey are more nourishing. Lotions, whichare primarily water-based, can further dry

outskin be-cause the water evap-orates. Creams, which are often oil-based,

are more effective after washing hands. Alternatively, you can take four teaspoon

almond oil and mix one tablespoon rosewater. Add half-teaspoon tincture benzoin,drop by drop. Mix together. Apply thison your hands. Put hands inside loosecotton socks and leave on the preparationall night. Rinse off with plain water next

morning.Use hand ointment or cream instead

of a lotion as these are more effective.Vaseline is still the most effective moisturizerused by many.

Lemon juice and sugar rubbed togetherwith the hands helps to soften the skin. Taketwo tablespoons sunflower oil, 2 tablespoonslemon juice and 3 tablespoon coarse sugar.Mix together till it becomes a paste. Applyand rub into hands. Wash off after 15 minutes.Repeat the process three times a week.

Take fresh orange peels, pierce them with

a fork. Rub the peels on thehands to brighten them.

Choker (wheat bran)and besan (gram

flour) can be mixedwith turmeric and

milk into a pasteand applied onthe hands .Wash off after20 minutes.This softens,cleanses andtightens theskin.

Mix a l -mond oil andhoney in equal

parts and mas-sage into the

nails and cuticles.For dry nails,

warm any vegetableoil and soak fingers in

it for ten minutes. Wipeoff with a moist towel.A few almonds eaten daily

make the nails strong. Includewhole grains, yogurt, leafy green veg-

etables, sprouts and fruits in your diet.If your skin is sensitive to harsh chemicals

then you should handle cleaning supplieswhile wearing gloves.

One-teaspoon Brewer’s yeast added to oneglass of fresh fruit juice also keeps the nailsand skin in good condition.

Apply thick moisturiser and then coverwith cotton gloves to increase absorptionbefore going to bed at night. Consider ahumidifier at night—raising the humiditylevel in a room to help dry skin.

Germs spread more easily from wet skinthan from dry skin, so drying your handscompletely is an important step. Paper towelsor clean clothes are the most effective wayto remove germs without spreading them toother surfaces.

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BEAUTYSUNDAY POST

SHAHNAZ HUSAIN

OCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020

Hand care coronatimes

Though the glorification of toxic masculinity in KabirSingh (2019) had raised many eyebrows, there’s nodenying that Shahid Kapoor dominated the box-office

with the runaway hit. A year on,having sealed his place as a bank-

able star, it is heard that theactor is set to take a leapof faith and turn pro-ducer.

Over the past fewmonths, Kapoor has ap-parently been in talks with

a leading OTT giant for amulti-project deal. “He is

expected to headline three of-ferings, thus foraying into digital

entertainment. Shahid, who hasbeen considering turning producer

for a while, is keen to bankroll oneof the projects with the OTT plat-

form. He has begun thegroundwork to

set up his stu-dio,” revealsa source.

AGENCIES

Actor Russell Hornsby has boarded the cast ofthe third and final season of Netflix sci-fiseries Lost in Space.

The actor is best known for starring in shows suchas Lincoln Heights, In Treatment, Grimm and theAcademy Award-nominated movie Fences.

According to Deadline, the details of Hornsby’scharacter have been kept under wraps.

The show was renewed for the final season inMarch this year.

Lost in Space is a re-imagining of the classic sciencefiction series of the same name in the 1960s.

It is set 30 years in the future, where colonisationin space is now a reality, and the Robinson family is

among those tested and selectedto make a new life for them-

selves in a better world.The Netflix Original

stars Toby Stephens, MollyParker, Jenkins, MinaSundwall, Taylor Russell,Ignacio Serricchio and

Parker Posey. PTI

Hornsby to star inLost in Space Season 3

Actress Kangana Ranaut recently travelled down Southto finish pending work of her film, Thalaivi.

“Dear friends today is a very special day, resuming workafter 7 months, travelling to southern India for my mostambitious bilingual project THALAIVI, need your blessingsin these testing times of a pandemic,” she tweeted.

Along with her tweet, Kangana posted a few morningselfies for her fans.

“P.S just clicked these morning selfies hope you all likethem,” she added.

Kangana was spending timewith her family in Manaliever since lockdown hap-

pened. She was inMumbai for a few

days in between,whenBrihanmumbaiMunicipalCorporation(BMC) initiated

a demolition driveat her office in thecity claiming illegal

construction.Thalaivi is the

biopic of lateTamil chiefmin i s t e r JJayalalithaa,directed byAL Vijay.

IANS

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TINSELTOWNSUNDAY POST

1OCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020

Even a s the governmentWednesday evening announced its

decision to open cinema theatres in aphased manner, several film units havealready started shooting amid the newnormal.

Among units that are filming overseasis the Akshay Kumar-starrer Bell

Bottom. The cast and crew havebeen shooting in Glasgow,

Scotland. Actress Vaani Kapoor,who is paired opposite su-

perstar Akshay in the film,says she is happy to see

the industry bouncingback.

“Shooting for BellBottom has

been fun and a good experience.Despite the ongoing challenges amidthe ongoing pandemic, the team man-aged to have a really smooth and safeshooting experience while filming witha large crew, for which they deserve allthe credit,” said Vaani.

“We were made to feel safe on thesets because of their commitment tosafety and hygiene,” she added.

Vaani is also gearing up to startshooting for Abhishek Kapoor’suntitled romantic drama oppositeAyushmannKhurrana.IANS

Kangana resumes woafter seven month

to see industry bouncing back

Shahid to turnproducer soon

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SUNDAY POST

Scrumptiousbiryanis

FOODOCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020

PROCEDUREDry roast all the spices. Once they are roasted, transfer them to amasala grinder and grind them finely. Now marinate mutton. Tohalf kg mutton, add ginger-garlic paste, turmeric and chilli pow-der. Then add cashew nut paste, garam masala, curd and whisk it.Cover it with the lid and put it in the refrigerator for an hour. Letthe meat come to room temperature. Season the meat with salt.Soak basmati rice in water for about 30 minutes. Grease the handiwith some ghee and oil. Transfer the marinated meat from thebowl to the handi. Now stir and cook the meat for a few minutes.Cover with the lid and simmer it for another half an hour. Nowlayer the mutton with cooked rice and pour a little saffron inducedmilk over it. Add a little salt, garam masala, roasted onions andghee over it. Cover the handi with the lid and weight it down withsomething heavy. Keep the flame low. Cook for about half an hour.Serve it hot.

Mutton biryaniINGREDIENTSFor garam masala:

n Cinnamon stick: 1

n Cloves: 8-10

n Cumin seeds: 2-3 tsp

n Fennel seeds: 1 tsp

n Coriander seeds: 2-3 tsp

n Pepper corns: 1 tsp

n Star anise: 2

n Mace

n Brown cardamom: 2-3

n Green cardamom: 3-4PROCEDURETo begin making the Prawns Biryani recipe, firstly dryroast the ingredients like the ajwain seeds, fennel seeds,cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and grind them into afine powder. Add oil in a wok/kadhai and saute the onionson medium heat till the onions are brownish and crispy.Soak basmati rice in water for about 30 minutes. In a mix-ing bowl, add cleaned and de-veined prawns, turmericpowder, 1 tablespoon of biryani masala, red chilli powder,half lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 cup of choppedmint leaves, 1/2 of the fried onions and curd. Combineeverything well with the prawns and set aside for aboutan hour. In a medium sized saucepan, add 5 cups ofwater, 1 tablespoon of biryani masala, cloves, cinnamon,bay leaves, 1/4 cup of mint leaves, 1 tablespoon of oil andremaining salt. Boil water over high flame. To the boilingwater, add the soaked rice and cook on high flame forabout 4 to 5 minutes. Do not overcook the rice.Overcooking rice may make them mushy and rice mightbreak. Drain the water from the rice immediately and setaside. Meanwhile, in another medium wide saucepan,spread the remaining half tablespoon of oil on the bottomof the pan. Spread the marinated prawns at the bottomlayer of the pan. Add half of the remaining fried onionsand spread them evenly above the prawns. Sprinkle themint leaves evenly. Layer the rice over the prawn masalasand spread them evenly. Garnish with the leftover friedonions. Dissolve a pinch of saffron in hot water and pourthem on top of the layered rice. Cover the pot with the lidand cook the layered rice on high flame for about 10 min-utes. Do not open the lid while cooking. Reduce the flameand cook the biryani for about 20 minutes. Turn off theheat and remove the lid after 15 minutes of resting time.Combine the biryani well in such a way that the masalasand rice is well combined. Do not stir hard as rice mightbreak. Garnish with cilantro and it is ready to be served.

Prawn BiriyaniINGREDIENTSFor biryani masala:

n Carom seeds: 1 tsp

n Fennel seeds: 1 tsp

n Cardamom pods: 5

n Clove: 5

n Cinnamon Stick: 4

For biriyani:

n Sunflower Oil: as required

n Onions, finely sliced: 2

n Bay leaves: 2

n Cinnamon Stick: 1

n Cloves: 1

n Cardamom: 4

n Star anise: 1

n Basmati rice: 2 cups

n Prawns ( cleaned anddeveined): 1-1/2 cups

n Red chilli powder: 2 tsp

n Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp

n Lemon juice: ½ tsp

n Curd: 1/2 cup

n Mint leaves: 1/2 cup

n Salt according to taste

For mutton marination:

n Mutton: 1/2 kg

n Ginger-garlic paste: 2-3 tsp

n Turmeric: 1 tsp

n Chilli powder: 1 tsp

n Cashew nut paste

n A pinch of garam masala

n Curd: 4-5 tsp

For cooking:

n Salt: 2-3 tsp

n Basmati rice: 2 cups

n Ghee: 3 tsp

n Oil: 2-3 tbsp

n Milk: 2-3 cups

n Saffron

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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PHOTO CREDIT: CHANDAN

Subhankari

OCTOBER 4 - 10, 2020