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12 PAGES | `4.00BHUBANESWAR | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 | 2021

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VOLUME 10, ISSUE 322 | www.orissapost.com

When Mahie Gill ‘got emotional’

Mumbai: Reuniting with Abhay Deol on screen 12 yearsafter Dev.D was an emotional moment for her, revealsMahie Gill. The actress shares screen space with Deolin the upcoming war-drama web series 1962: The WarIn The Hills.

The Socha Na Tha actor plays an Indian Army of-ficer Major Suraj Singh, Mahie plays his wife Shagun.

“I have always wanted to work with him but un-fortunately there was nothing coming our way. AbhayDeol is my first hero and he is an ex-tremely talented actor. I reallygot very emotional after Ilearned that Abhay is playingthe character of Major SurajSingh. At the same time Iwas very excited also,”Mahie said.

“Working with himagain was a wonderfulexperience and we havea good understanding.He is not only a goodactor but also helpfultowards co-actors andmakes them feelcomfortable,” sheadded. IANS

SNYDER’S ARMY OF THE DEADTO RELEASE ON NETFLIX IN MAY

leisure Filmmaker Zack Snyder’s zombie heist movieArmy of the Dead is set for a May 21 premiere onstreaming platform Netflix.The director sharedthe news on Twitter along with the film’s officialposter. “Survivors take all. #ArmyOfTheDead on@Netflix May 21,” Snyder tweeted.

Singer Louise Redknapp feels she should haveworked harder to save her 21-year marriage with herex-husband, former Liverpool and England footballstar Jamie Redknapp. “I should have paused for aminute. I wish I’d tried (to save the marriage?),”Louise said in an interview with You Magazine.

TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSAcademically, you haveperformed exceptionallywell, and Ganesha con-gratulates you for that.You will inspire and motivate a num-ber of people, and may create a fanfollowing, too. This, however, doesn'tmean that you throw your weightaround. Keep a humane and humbleapproach towards others.

PISCESYour planetary configura-tion not being favorable,you are advised not tostart any new projectstoday. The benefits accrued by any projectyou take up today might not justify the risksassociated with it. Businessmen need to beextra careful in all their dealings.

SAGITTARIUSGanesha predicts a dayfull of romantic develop-ments today. Mushytalks and whisperingsweet nothings in your beloved's earsmay give you little joys of life. However,brace yourselves as there are times whenrelationships do not workout, and youmay experience this soon.

LIBRAGanesha says that anypending legal issues willbe sorted out todayeither in court orthrough an out of court settlement. Yourworkload will get eased today and you willbe able to find your way out from certainproblematic situations.

SCORPIOYou can be fondly calledas 'the perfectionist'today. Right from beingpunctual to following asystematic method for your work, you do itall. All in all, you set an ideal example forthe people around you, says Ganesha.

LEOYou will seek the opin-ion of others in a lot ofmatters today. You needto patiently listen toothers and keep your lips sealed duringthe course of conversations today. Yourself-confidence may take a beatingtoday, hence do not take any importantdecisions.

VIRGOProfessionalism willbe overshadowed bypersonal preoccupa-tions. Drill your wayout of problems today by meeting themhead-on. Don't get stuck up on the emo-tional front, especially in the evening,cautions Ganesha.

GEMINIYour mind will be uneasyand anxious due to somereason today. You will beunable to express your anxieties. You willbe able to secure the love of your partnerby sharing your feelings. You need to let goof the past and strive to keep on movingforward with confidence, says Ganesha.

CANCERToday is a day for takingthings slowly, especiallyon the business front.This applies the most tothe stockbrokers and also others whoinvest in stocks or shares on the side.Stars are not so bright today and hastewill only worsen the matters.

ARIESInteractive sessions withpeople who think likeyou are on the cards. Atlast you may have an intimate talk withyour beloved and you will get a chanceto confide your commitment to the rela-tionship, says Ganesha. You may evenexpress your long-term dreams.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSThis is one of those dayswhen not goes well,warns Ganesha. No mat-ter how hard you try you may not be ableto keep problems and difficulties at bay.You may not be pleased or comfortabledoing what has been assigned, orrequired, and could simply sit sullenly,doing nothing.

CAPRICORNIt has become difficultfor you to bear the heavyweight of responsibilitieson your shoulders. But,be prepared for some more; the weightis about to get heavier as more respon-sibilities are going to be added.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORDSUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

SSW

ORD

SUD

OKU

CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

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

REDKNAPP REGRETS NOT TRYING TO SAVE MARRIAGE

Mumbai: Bigg Boss 14 winner RubinaDilaik had openly spoken about goingfor a divorce with husband and for-mer contestant Abhinav Shukla inthe show. However, she now tells that

their stint on the show mended the re-lationship and that she will not take theirbond for granted anymore.

“It will be ever evolving and not for a sin-gle day will I take my relationship forgranted again. That’s a promise I havemade,” Rubina said.

She had a clash with contestant RakhiSawant on the show, after the latter claimed‘crazy love’ for Abhinav.

Will she fix her relationship withRakhi? “Yes, like I said (I will move ahead)

with a clean slate. All relationships fromhere will evolve and I am going to carryforward the ones that are good. The bad

relationships, I have ended there(in Bigg Boss 14). The new

story and new beginningwill happen from here,”

she said. IANS

Mumbai: Actress TaapseePannu is all set to team upwith Scam 1992 fame actorPratik Gandhi in a new filmtitled Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan.This is the first collabora-tion between the two actors.The film will be directed byArshad Syed and backed bySiddharth Roy Kapur.

Confirming the news,trade analyst Taran Adarshtweeted Monday: “TAAPSEE- PRATIK GANDHI: NEW

FILM ANNOUNCEMENT...# Ta apseePannu and#PratikGandhi [won acco-lades for his act in# S c a m 1 992] to s tar in#WohLadkiHaiKahaan?...Starts 2021-end... Directedby Arshad Syed... Producedby Siddharth Roy Kapur.”

Meanwhile, TaapseePannu has her kitty full withupcoming projects likeRashmi Rocket, Looop Lapeta,Haseen Dillruba, Dobaaraa

and Shabaash Mithu.Pratik on the other hand

has started shooting for hisupcoming romantic comedyfilm Atithi Bhooto Bhava inMathura.

The film also featuresJackie Shroff in a pivotalrole, and actress SharminSegal in the female lead.Helmed by Hardik Gajjar,the film is slated to release

later this year. IANS

Taapsee, Pratik team up for Woh Ladki Hai Kahaan

Rubina not to takeher relationshipfor granted

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar: Odia so-cial drama Eka JidkhorJhia was staged at RabindraMandap Monday, on thesecond day of five-day the-atre festival Kalinga NatyaMahotsav, organised by theprominent drama troupeof the state SatabdiraKalakar.

While the play wasadapted by RamakantaBanerjee from a famouswork of leading Indian play-wright Vijay Tendulkar,troupe’s secretary DhiraMallik directed it for thetroupe.

The play is about the tri-als and tribulations ofMangala, a cultured butstubborn girl. She is alsoambitious and promising.However, influenced byuncle, a fol lower ofGandhian principle, shedecides to lead a life basedon truth, justice and hardwork. Incidentally, she endsup marrying a person witha criminal background.Now, her motto in life is tobring her husband and rest

of his family on the righttrack. Going against herprinciples, she even seekshelp from her uncle. Atthe beginning, she gets sup-port from her in-laws. Butultimately, she is desertedby everyone.

Santosh Mohanty,Srikanta Mishra, AlokAgnibesh, Apurba Sahoo,Bighnaraj Jena, SubhamSahoo, Minarani Sahoo,Monideepa Mallick, andSatyaprakash enacted theplay on the stage.

All the actors looked sin-cere and the play managedto hold the interest of theaudience till end.

The guests who gracedthe occasion includedPriyadarshi Mishra,Chairman Odisha StateHousing board, journalistPradosh Patnaik andJagatsinghpur CollectorSang ram KeshariMohapatra.

Sappho Chirangada, aplay by DumdumSabdomugdho Natyakendraof West Bengal will bestaged on the third day ofthe festival.

Odia social drama Eka Jidkhor Jhia

enthrals audience

MULTILINGUAL THEATRE FEST

Artistes of Satabdira Kalakar perform on the second day of23rd Kalinga Natya Mahatsov OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: With an aimto realise the vision of ‘New Odisha -Empowered Odisha’, Finance MinisterNiranjan Pujari Monday presentedthe annual state budget for 2021-22with an outlay of ̀ 1.70 lakh crore, a riseof 13.33 per cent over previous fiscal.

While `85,000 crore has been allo-cated as administrative expenditure,`75,000 crore is meant for programmeexpenditure, ̀ 3,050 crore for disaster re-sponse fund and `6,950 crore towardstransfers from the state, Pujari saidwhile presenting the budget in theAssembly. He has proposed to investabout `8,000 crore from off-budget re-sources like Odisha Mineral BearingAreas Development Corporation DistrictMineral Foundation, PSUs, among oth-ers to supplement the outlay.

Compared to last year, additional al-location of ̀ 19,345 crore was providedfor administrative expenditure and`1,000 crore for programme expendi-ture. Disaster response fund and trans-fers from the state allocation droppedby `150 crore and `195 crore, respec-tively. The capital outlay for 2021-22 is`25,788 crore -- - 4.4% of GSDP.Additionally, loans & advances, grantsfor the creation of capital assets andother expenditure for capital formationtogether accounted for `8,379 crore,which is 1.43% of GSDP, Pujari said.

The total investment for capital assetcreation would be of the order of 5.83per cent of GSDP, which will help boostthe economy, he said. The outlay isproposed to be financed mainly throughrevenue receipts of ̀ 1,25,600 crore andgross borrowing & other receipts of`44,400 crore. However, the net bor-rowing would be ̀ 18,465 crore. Further,the total revenue receipts for the year2021-22 include state’s own tax revenueof ̀ 37,500 crore, own non-tax revenueof ̀ 20,000 crore, state’s share in central

taxes—Rs 30,137 crore, and grants fromthe Centre including GST compensa-tion to the tune of `37,963 crore.

“The state economy is now showingsigns of recovery after pandemic in-duced slowdown. Time has come torevert to our growth trajectory andaspire for a transformative New Odishaonce again,” the minister said.

Presenting a separate farm budgetwith an outlay of ̀ 17,468 crore, Pujarisaid, “Odisha remains by and largea rural and agrarian economy. Theagriculture and allied sector formthe single largest employment sectorengaging 50 per cent of the totalworkforce. This contributes 21% to theGross State Value Added as per 2020-21 advance estimates.” Organic farm-ing has been promoted in more than20800 hectares. For accelerating thegrowth in organic farming,`35 crore

is proposed under theParamparagat Krishi VikashYojana. The state government hasdecided to convert SCB Medical

College into an AIIMS Plus instituteby spending around ̀ 3500 crore overthree years. The government hasmade a provision of ̀ 500 crore for theyear 2021-22. Similarly, `542 crorewas allotted under ABADHA schemefor the development of Puri and ̀ 200crore each for Ekamra Kshetra andSamaleswari temple. `90 crore wasallocated for construction of world-class hockey stadium at Rourkelawhile `1,353 crore was provided forBiju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana “Wepropose to implement a new schemeFree Treatment for Trauma Fundwith an outlay of `40 crore for pro-viding emergency healthcare andtrauma care facilities to the victimsof road accidents,” he said. Besides,`600 crore was allocated underNiramaya for free medicine, `229

crore under Nidan forfree diagnostics and `162 crore

under Odisha State Treatment Fund.To provide safe drinking water to

people, the government proposed toinvest `12,000 crore in 2021-22 frombudget and off-budget sources. ̀ 2,419crore will be spent under BASUDHA.

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P1BHUBANESWAR | TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23 | 2021

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Bigg Boss 14 winner Rubina Dilaik says she willnever take her relationship with husbandAbhinav Shukla for granted

HONEST COMMITMENTThe Congress government in Pondicherry fellMonday after CM V Narayanasamy resignedahead of a confidence vote

CONG GOVT IN PONDY FALLS

NATIONAL | P6LEISURE |

Jajpur Collector draws flak from Lokayuktafollowing fraud allegation in demarcationof black stone quarries STATE | P3

COLLECTOR PULLED UP

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: Theprime accused in one of themost infamous rape incidentsin India was finally arrestedby the commissionerate po-lice 22 years after the inci-dent. The case related to thegangrape of Anjana Mishra,the estranged wife of an OdiaIFS officer that created afuror in the state that led tothe ouster of then ChiefMinister Janaki BallabhPatnaik and the subsequentdownfall of the Congressparty government in the state.

The commissionerate po-lice in a secret operationnamed ‘Operation SilentViper’ nabbed the prime ac-cused, Bibekananda Biswal,alias Biban, fromAambyValley at Lonavala onPune-Mumbai highwayFebruary 20. Speaking tomedia, Commissioner ofPolice, Sudhanshu Sarangi,revealed that his absence wasan enigma for all during last22 years. Many claimed Bibandead while some suspectedthat he left the country.

On January 9, 1999,Anjana was returning toBhubaneswar along withher journalist friend whenthree bike-borne people,Biban and his two associ-

ates, Pradeep Sahoo aliasPadia and DhirendraMohanty alias Tunia, in-tercepted their vehicle. Thetrio waylaid the car andtook it to an isolated placenear Baranga and gan-graped Anjana before herjournalist friend.

One of the accused tookher to nearby Bhaluka jun-gle and raped her there onceagain. A case (3/1999) wasregistered at the Mahila po-lice station in Cuttack thenext day. Later, police ar-rested Padia and Tuniawhile Biban managed toflee. The case was handedover to CBI.

The sessions court ofKhurda sentenced Tuniaand Padia to lifer 29 April,2002. Padia had recentlydied in Jharpada jail whileTunia has been serving thejail term at Chaudwar jail.A chance meeting of thecommissioner with Tunialed to the arrest of Biban.Meanwhile, Anjana thankedCommissioner Sarangi andhis team for the feat .Explaining her ordeal, shesaid, “I stood firm to get jus-tice despite all threats tome over past decades.” Sherequested the CBI to unearththe conspirators behind theghastly gangrape. More-P2

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Feb 22: The IMAMonday expressed shock over the"blatant lie of WHO certification"for Patanjali's Coronil tablet, whichthe company claims is an evidence-based medicine to fight COVID-19,and demanded an explanation fromUnion Health Minister HarshVardhan in whose presence themedicine was launched.

This comes in the wake of globalhealth body, WHO, clarifying thatit has not reviewed or certified theeffectiveness of any traditionalmedicine for the treatment ofCOVID-19.

Yoga guru Ramdev's PatanjaliAyurved had February 19 said thatthe Coronil tablet had received cer-tification from the Ayush Ministryas a medicine supporting COVID-19 treatment as per the World HealthOrganization's certification scheme.

However, Patanjali's managing

director Acharya Balkrishna latermade a clarification about the cer-tification through a tweet saying, "Wewant to clarify to avoid confusionthat our WHO GMP compliant COPPcertificate to Coronil is issued byDCGI, Government of India. It isclear that WHO do not approve or

disapprove any drugs. WHO worksfor building a better, healthier fu-ture for people all over the world(sic)."

In a statement issued on Monday,the Indian Medical Association(IMA) said, “Being Health Ministerof the country, how justified is it torelease such falsely fabricated un-scientific product to people of thewhole country...Can you clarify thetime frame, time line for the so-called clinical trial of this said anti-corona product?"

"The country needs an explana-tion from the minister. The IndianMedical Association will also writeto National Medical Commission for

seeking suo moto explanation for hisblatant disrespect to the code ofconduct of Medical Council ofIndia,” the IMA said.

"Indian Medical Association isshocked to note the blatant lie ofWHO certification...," it said.Haridwar-based Patanjali Ayurvedhad also released what it claimedwas research work supportingCoronil's efficacy in COVID-19treatment.

The announcement regardingthe Ayush certification for Coroniland release of a research papercalling it the "first evidence-basedmedicine for COVID-19 by Patanjali"was done at an event here attended

by Vardhan. In a statement, Patanjalihad said: "Coronil has received theCertificate of PharmaceuticalProduct (CoPP) from the Ayushsection of Central Drugs StandardControl Organisation as per theWHO certification scheme."

However, WHO South-East Asiain a tweet said: "@WHO has not re-viewed or certified the effective-ness of any traditional medicinefor the treatment #COVID19."Patanjali had introduced ayurveda-based Coronil on June 23 last year,when the pandemic was at its peak.It had to face severe criticism as itlacked scientific evidence regard-ing its efficacy.

AGENCIES

Mumbai, Feb 22: The BombayHigh Court Monday granted in-terim bail for six months to ail-ing poet Varavara Rao onmedical grounds. Rao, 82,an accused in the ElgarParishad-Maoist linkscase being probed by theNational InvestigationAgency (NIA), is currentlyundergoing treatment in theMumbai-based Nanavati Hospitalwhere he had been admitted bythe Maharashtra government fol-lowing the high court's intervention.

Rao has been in custody since

August 28, 2018, awaiting trial in thecase. A bench of Justices SS Shindeand Manish Pitale ordered thatRao be discharged from the hospital,

depending on his current healthcondition, and released on

bail immediately after hisdischarge.

The HC said if it did notgrant Rao medical bail, it

would be abdicating its dutyto protect the principles of

human rights, and a citizen's fun-damental rights to life and health.The bench also imposed stringentconditions in Rao's bail, includinga direction to him to stay within thejurisdiction of the Mumbai NIA.

POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, Feb 22: The SupremeCourt Monday granted four weekstime to the state government to filea counter affidavit in a petitionfiled by Saudamini Sahu, the motherof the 5-year-old girl who was al-legedly kidnapped, raped and mur-dered in July last year, seeking a CBIinquiry into her daughter’sdeath.

The case was heard byRegistrar Rajesh Kumar Goelthrough video conferencingmode and posted for hearingApril 5. Advocate Swastik Dalai,who appeared for the petitioner inthe court, said the matter will beheard by the judges after plead-

ings, the filing of counter affidavitand rejoinder are completed in theregistrar’s court.

Earlier, a three-judge bench ofthe apex court comprising JusticesAM Khanwilkar, BR Gavai andKrishna Murari January 13 hadsought the response of the CBI andthe state government.

Significantly, the mother of Paripleaded before the court to order

an independent inquiry intothe alleged rape and murderof Pari in July last year atJadupur in Nayagarh dis-

trict. The petitioner also soughta direction to the CBI to investigate

all cases related to missing chil-dren in the state.

Pari’s mother accused Babuli

Nayak for the alleged murder ofher daughter and contended thatrampant organ smuggling is be-hind the murder. The petitioneralso contended that the state po-lice is treating the parents of Parias criminals. The police are com-pletely insensitive towards the fam-

ily members of Pari, she alleged.The petitioner submitted that

the preliminary investigation un-dertaken by the police, the crimebranch and the SIT illustrates thatall of them have made attempts tosabotage the investigation processinto the alleged incident and at-tempted all kinds of subversiontactics to influence the complainantand her relatives to discard theaforesaid allegations as false and friv-olous.

The petitioner also contendedthat the SIT has not investigated therole of local inspector in-chargewho was hand in glove with the ac-cused and was shielding the real cul-prit and the local MLA has also notbeen interrogated by the SIT.

State ups spend at ̀ 1.7L cr

VARAVARA RAO GETS 6-MONTH INTERIM BAIL

IMA ‘shocked’ over Coronil, seeks reply from Harsh Vardhan

SC grants 4 weeks to state to file counter

MAJOR ALLOCATIONS

Agri and alliedactivities

`17,468 cr

Piped drinkingwater

`12,000 cr

Disastermanagement `3,050 cr

Rural housingscheme

`3,000 cr

MGNREGA`2,001 cr

KALIA scheme

`1,800 cr

Fisheries &animal

resources`1,415 cr

ABADHA scheme `542 cr

AIBP projects `2,258 cr

Biju Krushak Vikas Yojana `400 cr

Distribution of rice @ Re1 per kg `969 cr

Madhubabu Pension Yojana `1,509 cr

Supplementary NutritionProgramme `1,113 cr

Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana `500 cr

Scholarships for ST and SC students `903 cr

WODC `180 cr

MLALAD `441 cr

PARICASE

`1,25,005crTOTAL DEBTS

`1,25,600crREVENUE RECEIPTS

`44,400 crBORROWING & OTHER RECEIPTS

Finance Minister Niranjan Pujari handing over a copy of the e-budget to CM.

RUPEECOMESFROM

26.12%Capital

Receipts11.76%Own

Non-Tax

17.73%Share inCentral

taxes

22.33%Grant fromthe Centre

4.09%Transfers

from States

50.00%Adminstrative

expenditure

22.06%Own Tax

1.79%Disaster

ResponseFund

44.12%programmeexpenditure

RUPEEGOES

TO

It is a pro-people,pro-growth andtransformativebudget in our journeytowards “New Odisha– Empowered

Odisha”. This is a holistic andfiscally prudent budget of Rs 1.76lakh crore. Congratulations toeveryone involved

The Budget is notmeant to realize thevision of SusthaOdisha Sukhi Odisha'(Healthy Odisha,Happy Odisha). It is

just a magic of statistics. The govthas failed to make any attractivescheme to bind the Odia youthsinside the state

The allocation hasbeen slightlyincreased, but, thestate doesn’t havemoney to meet it.Though special

agriculture budget was presented,nothing is there for the farmersand agriculture

FINALLY, JUSTICEFOR ANJANA

NAVEEN PATNAIK | CHIEF MINISTER PK NAIK | LEADER OF OPPOSITION SANTOSH SINGH SALUJA | CONGRESS MLA

DEBTS BALLOON

T he debt burden of the state govern-ment by the end of financial year 2021-

22 is estimated to reach `1,25,005 crorewhich is 21.3 per cent of the GSDP. Thedebt stock at the end of December, 2020was `1,02,593 crore which was 20.1 percent of GSDP. By end of 2020-21 fiscal, thedebt load is estimated to reach `1,06,540crore which is 20.9 per cent of GSDP.

SAVING TREES

As part of a green initiative, the governmentpresented the annual budget 2021-22 on an

online mode. The state has done away with theprinting of budget documents by introducingthe e-budget. The budget was presented in acomplete electronic form through the Nationale-Vidhan Application. “This initiative would cutprinting of about 1.5 crore pages of paper andsave about 2000 large trees,” Pujari said.

downtownTUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP2

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AFFIDAVITBy virtue of an affidavitsworn before theExecutive Magistrate,Sambalpur, I SubarnalataNayak, W/o. PradeepKumar Nayak, R/o-At/PO. Budharaja, Fatak,Dist. Sambalpur declarethat before marriage I wasknown as SubarnalataDandia. But aftermarriage I have changedmy surname from Dandiato Nayak and known asSubarnalata Nayak. ThatSubarnalata Nayak andSubarnalata Dandia is thesame and one person.

CLASSIFIEDAFFIDAVIT

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: HealthMinister Naba Kishore Das Mondayinfor med the Assembly that the state government has incurredan expenditure of `389 crore forproviding treatment to Covid-19patients at 32 dedicated Covid hospitals.

The minister also gave a breakupof the funds provided to each ofthe dedicated Covid hospitals. Dasmade the statement in the Houseafter the Leader of OppositionNarasingha Mishra raised the issueMonday.

Mishra had asked about theexpenditure the govern-ment has incurred intreatment, settingup of Covid hos-pitals and procur-ing equipment.The governmenthowever de-clined to give in-formation on thepurchase of equip-ment saying theprocess of calculatingthe same is underway.

The Health minister also saidthat no Covid hospital was set upin the state in PPP mode but agree-ments were made with private play-ers for the same. In a written replyto the House, the minister said,“No Covid hospital had been es-tablished in the state in PPP mode,but 32 Covid facilities have beenestablished by the government withthe support from private partners.”

As per the list given by the min-

ister, the state incurred an expen-diture of`389,59,66,466 (Rs 389 crore)till date. The minister claimed that the 32 designated Covid hos-pitals treated a total of 47,055 per-

sons between March 1, 2020and Feb 11, 2021.

As per details,Salandi Hospital in

Bhadrak treatedthe maximum of4,330 Covid pa-tients followedby Hi TechMedical College,

Bhubaneswar(3258), Hi Tech

Medical College,Rourkela

(3591 patients)and KIMS Campus,

Baripada (2321).The documents as furnished by

the government claimed that amechanism was approved by the em-powered group of ministers March26, 2020 for a tripartite agreementbetween the state government, re-puted hospital operators and cor-porate partners to set up exclusiveCovid hospitals and MoUs weresigned accordingly.

The state government Mondaytold the Odisha Assemblythat it collected revenue of

around `48.49 crore as fines fromerring citizens who were caughtflouting Covid-19 safety norms dur-ing the pandemic.

In a written statement, the stateHome Minister Dibya ShankarMishra told the House that the gov-ernment took several stern steps topunish defaulters.

The minister said that betweenMarch 1, 2020 and February 11,2021, the government has filed 24,685cases against persons/institutionsand arrested 20,693 persons. Thepenalties collected from them dur-ing the period went up to`48,49,48,370.

A close analysis of district-wisefine collection and arrests maderevealed that Ganjam administra-tion led the state with 17,055 casesregistered against defaulters. It

also arrested 4,123 persons for flout-ing the norms. Moreover, `2.21-crore fine was also collected fromthe unruly denizens. Ganjam wasfollowed by Jajpur which saw 712cases and 1,414 arrests while it wasable to collect fines to the tune of`4.3crore

Other districtswhich showed goodscrutiny includedBolangir which sawfiling of 407 cases and 1,884 arrests. Itcollected `52.69 lakhas fines.

Notably, the stategover nment hadamended epidemicact rules and imposedpenalty for spittingin public, not wearingmasks and not fol-lowing social dis-tancing during the pandemic.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: OppositionBJP and Congress members in theAssembly Monday demanded lift-ing of paddy lying in various mar-ket yards and mandis across thestate. They also staged walkoutwhile Food Supplies & ConsumerWelfare and Cooperation Minister

RanendraPratap Swainwas making astatement inthe House.

As per theannouncementmade bySpeaker SNPatro, a two-hour long de-bate was con-ducted in theHouse over thematter relatedto paddy pro-curement.

BJP MLA from SambalpurJayanarayan Mishra said district-level procurement committeesshould be activated and power givento the panel to take decision onpaddy procurement. “The govern-ment should either abolish thetoken system or the primary soci-eties should be entrusted with thejob of issuing tokens,” Mishra said.

Alleging that the state govern-ment has failed to deliver its re-sponsibility the BJP leader said in

the name of FAQ, the authoritiesare cutting down 5 to 12 kg paddyin every quintal.

Congress Legislator Party LeaderNarasingha Mishra said it is the re-sponsibility of Food Corporation ofIndia (FCI) to procure paddy fromthe farmers. However, it has shiftedits responsibility to the state gov-ernment and allowed corruption,he said.

Stating that a registered farmerhas the right to sell his/her paddy,Mishra urged the minister to assurethe House that the paddy of regis-tered farmers would be lifted.

The Congress MLA also de-manded criminal action againstthe persons found guilty in mismanagement in paddy pro-curement.

“Both the state and the Centralgovernments are responsible iffarmers’ paddy is not being liftedfrom the mandis. We are not happywith the minister’s reply in theHouse,” said Congress MLA TaraPrasad Bahinipati.

Admitting that there are some is-

sues in the process of paddy pro-curement, senior BJD member PK Deb said, as per norms, theCentre should procure paddy fromfarmers and release the amount to them through concer ned agency. In Odisha, the state gov-ernment is procuring the paddyon behalf of FCI.

However, the FCI is not releasingthe food subsidy to the state gov-ernment. As a result, the state isforced to raise loan to make paymentto the farmers, Deb said.

Slamming the BJP for its allegeddouble standard on farmers’ issue,the BJD leader said, “The entirecountry is boiling over implemen-tation of three farm laws by theCentre.”

Minister Swain said a record55.97 lakh tonne paddy has beenprocured from 10.13 lakh farmersby Monday mor ning. Paddy procurement will continue in thestate for another 35 days. “As ondate, we have procured 21 per centmore paddy as compared to lastyear”, he added.

Swain said action has been takenagainst those who were allegedly in-volved in irregularities. He saidthat the proposal of the StandingCommittee for the installation ofCCTV is under the active consid-eration of the government. Somepeople are trying to push paddyfrom outside the state in the stateprocurement system, which willnot be allowed, he added.

Lift paddy from mandis, Oppntells govt; stages walkout

Minister and BJD membersattack Centre for not

releasing the food subsidy

Arecord 55.97 lakh tonnepaddy has been procured

from 10.13 lakh farmers byMonday morning, says F&CWMinister RP Swain

`389Cr spent on Covid treatmentState got ̀ 48.49 croreas nCoV penalties: Min

TOP 5 DISTS WITH MAX CASESDISTRICTS CASES FILED ARRESTS MADE PENALTY IMPOSED

Ganjam 17,055 4,123 `2.21 crore

Jajpur 712 1,414 `4.3 crore

Mayurbhanj 421 3,764 `1.6 crore

Bolangir 407 1,884 `5.2 crore

Angul 402 57 `36 lakh

Puri 325 324 `20 lakh

NoCovid hospital

had been establishedin the state in PPP mode,

but 32 Covid facilities havebeen established by the

government with thesupport from private

partnersNABA KISHORE DAS I HEALTH

MINISTER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: A chancevisit to Choudwar central jail bythe twin city Police CommissionerSudhanshu Sarangi led to the ar-rest of prime accused BibekanandaBiswal alias Biban in infamousAnjana Mishra gangrape case.The idea to reopen the 1999 gan-g r ap e c a s e s t r u ck t oCommissioner’s mind during aconversation with another ac-cused Dhirendra Mohanty aliasTunia in the jail.

Speaking to media persons atCuttack DCP office, Sarangi re-vealed that Biban’s absence was amystery for the last 22 years. Many

claimed Biban dead while someothers suspected that he had leftthe country, he said.

“However, we opened the fileonce again three months back to findhim from his hibernation. We namedthe top secret mission as ‘OperationSilent Viper’. We wanted to knowwhere the viper (Biban) is lyingsilent. I was personally supervisingthe operation while only four offi-cers including DCP Prateek Singh,Additional DCP Pramod Rath,Inspector Special Branch, AjayDash and IIC Barang police stationwere in the team which labored ex-tremely hard and achieved whatthe CBI failed to do,” said the policecommissioner.

The team examined the old filesand came to know that Biban has

been staying at Lonavala imper-sonating Jalandhar Swain with

new Aadhaar card, voter ID card andbank account. Biban was workingas a plumber at Aamby Valley inPune. The team found the perma-nent address of Biban in the doc-uments as Naranpur onBhubaneswar outskirts.

He was also found to be in regu-lar touch with his family membersand was sending money to his sons.He was also visiting his villageNaranpur on several occasions.

Later, Sarangi contacted his batchmate and friend Bipin Singh, theCommissioner of Navi Mumbai,seeking his help in arresting Biban.Subsequently, a CP team headedby the IIC of Badambadi, RashmiRanjan Mohapatra, left for Navi

Mumbai February 18, 2021. The Maharashtra police also cre-

ated a team under DCP (CID)Praveen Kumar Patil that accom-panied the CP team to AambayValley in Lonavala February 20.Both the teams with the help of SP(rural) Abhinav Desmukh and ASPNavneet Kanwal carried out a raidat Aambey Valley Staff accommo-dation and arrested Biban, whowas trying to give police a slip.

Commissionerate police later in-formed the CBI officials about thearrest of Biban. The commissionerrequested the CBI authorities topay the monetary reward announcedin this regard to the officers in-volved in ‘Operation Silent Viper’.

How Commissionerate Police pinned down the ‘silent viper’The team examined the old files and found that Biban was staying at Lonavala impersonating Jalandhar Swain with new Aadhaar card, voter ID card and bank account

Police commissioner Sudhanshu Sarangi addresses the media in Cuttack

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Feb 22: Researchers atIndian Institute of Technology (IIT)Kharagpur have transformed thedumpsites of Odisha’s steel plantsinto greenbelts using traditionalIndian organic components andJapanese afforestation techniques.

According to the team, a drivethrough the Dhenkanal region ofOdisha will give one the chance towitness the vast stretches of greencanopy and vegetation developed bythem on what was once industrialdumpsites.

The transformation to a greenbeltis not a natural reclamation butthe ‘Midas touch’ of the Post MiningMine Site Restoration group of theDepartment of Mining Engineering

of IIT-Kharagpur through a projectsupported by Tata Steel BSL, ac-cording to the team that worked onthe project.

The researchers afforested over32,000 square feet in the region fol-lowing a rapid forest regenerationtechnique by using a unique mix ofthe traditional resource ofPanchagavya with the Miyawakiplantation technique of ecologistAkira Miyawaki from Japan.

The dumping of blast furnaceslag by steel plants has been a peren-nial challenge in India and even insome of the developed countriesin the world, said IIT-Kharagpurprofessor Khanindra Pathak.

“These steel slag dumps con-tribute to the generation of air-borne particles causing air pollution

and also to groundwater and surface-water contamination through dif-ferent pathways. The slag-coveredland is unsuitable for vegetation

growth and associated problemslead to the ruination of vegetationand health hazards for both hu-mans and animals,” he said.

“Researchers at IIT-Kharagpurhave devised a bioremediationmethod to reduce the concentrationof these polluting slags to an in-nocuous state. They have turnedthis slag suitable for plant growth bymixing it with topsoil, cow dungand other organic enhancers. Plantscarefully chosen for the Miyawakitechnique and 22 native species weregrown on the mix with a 30-cm layerof topsoil over it after administeringthem with Panchagavya,” he added.

According to the team, periodicadministration of Panchagavyachecked the problem of nutrientscarcity while mulching helped re-tention of water and nutrients.

“In a span of one year, we wit-nessed the growth of a self-sus-taining mini-forest, dominated by

plants belonging to the Fabaceae andSesbania grandiflora family. Theplants with long root systems couldutilize the steel slag with their rootspenetrating up to a depth of 2 m fromthe ground surface, thus reducingthe effects of groundwater con-tamination and surface runoff ofwater in the monsoons,” said Pathak.

The process turned an unsup-portive steel slag dump to a self-sus-taining primary succession over it.

“Vetiver grass was used as aboundary for the plantation tocheck migration of nutrients. Thisgrass, if grown over the slopes ofthe slag dumps, will further checkthe fugitive emissions and therebyreducing air pollution and ero-sion of slag onto adjacent habita-tions,” he added.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: HealthMinister Naba Kishore DasMonday said that if the threatperception from Covid-19 risesand citizens continue to ignoreCovid-19 safety protocol, the stategovernment might impose lock-down in the days to come.

The health minister said, “Wehad fought a long war to preventCovid-19. I want to urge the peo-ple to follow the safety protocols.If people will not abide by therules, we will be forced to imposelockdown. Instructions have beengiven to officials to tighten thecompliance and increase testing too.”

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: The OdishaState Commission for Protection ofChild Rights (OSCPCR), in collab-oration with Centre for Child andWomen Development (CCWD) andActionAid, Monday reached out toseveral slums under BMC as part ofthe ‘Sishu Sampark Yatra’.

OSCPCR chair personSandhyabati Pradhan said theCovid-19 pandemic has thrownlife out of gear. “But the impact hasbeen disproportionately felt bychildren from vulnerable com-munities. All aspects of their life—protection, nutrition and educa-tion— have taken a hit.”

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: OdishaSkill Development Authority chair-man and chief spokesperson,Covid-19 Subroto Bagchi said anaction plan is needed on how ed-ucational institutions/organisa-tions should combat crisis preva-lent in the current scenario.

He emphasised upon 20 differ-ent strategies to manage crisisthe three things required in thetime of crisis – by creating caution,creating urgency and most of allcreating hope.

He was speaking at the firstchapter of SAI Thought Leadershiporganised by SAI InternationalEducation Group here, Monday.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: Amid fearof Covid-19 resurgence, a school inthe Capital city reopened Mondayonly two days after a teacher testedpositive for the deadly virus.

Informing about the infectedteacher, Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) commis-sioner Prem Chand ChaudharyMonday said, “A teacher wastested positive for Covid-19 in aschool in Bhubaneswar followingwhich we had closed the schoolfor two days after consultationwith the school authorities,”Chaudhary said.

Briefing media persons, he said that they are in touch with the school’s principal and districteducation officer (DEO) and that they are keeping a close watch on the at IRC Village inNayapalli area.

He also informed that the in-fected teacher had come in con-tact with many students duringclassroom teaching. If anyone de-velops any sign of Covid-19, theywill be subjected to tests.

The BMC Commissioner alsosaid that five special squads havebeen formed for enforcement ofCovid-19 guidelines in the Capital city.

IIT-KGP researchers turn steel plant dumpsites into greenbelt

Bagchi thrust on actionplan for edu institutions

City school reopens 2 daysafter teacher tests +ve

OSCPCR holds SishuSampark Yatra

Health ministerwarns of lockdown

Radha Ballav Mutt in Puri being demolished to give way to the Srimandir Heritage Corridor, Monday OP PHOTO

GIVING WAY

REPRESENTATIONAL IMAGE

stateTUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP3

cmyk

cmyk

n How did Kalamandir become thestate’s most-loved fashion des-tination?

n With its humble beginning 40years back, it has now becomethe favorite fashion destina-tion for most households. Wehave received maximum af-fection, support, and trust ofour customers spread all overOdisha, particularlyBhubaneswar. We garneredtheir love because we believe inproviding our customers withthe finest collections of gar-ments for gents, ladies and chil-dren beside an excellent rangeof sarees and lehngas. Anotherreason for success is our rea-sonable price policy.

n How was the business duringCovid-19?

n We went through a very dif-ficult situation duringthe lockdown period.Showrooms wereclosed from March15 to May end.After reopening,sales weredown by 25-30 per centbetweenJune and

September. However, with theblessings of Lord Jagannath,sales have substantially im-proved from the month ofOctober. Now our current salesfigures are getting closer tothe pre-Covid levels.

n What’s your opinionon the Budget?

n Under difficultcircumstances,the UnionFinanceMinister pre-sented a verygood, bold andgrowth orientedBudget. I believethis Budget willeventually helpmost seg-

ments of business to revive. I be-lieve it will enhance the confi-dence of the people and they willstart spending more which willlead to growth of businesses.

RAJINDER SINGH

Kalamandir is a household brand in Odisha that has garnered love from all across the state. Since its first store in1977 till date, the brand has never failed to provide best of quality products and services. Despiteincreasing competition, the family fashion store is committed to satisfying its customers. During an interaction with Orissa POST, Managing Partner ofKalamandir, Rajinder Singh shared the company’s journey.

KALAMANDIR GARNERSLOVE FROM ONE AND ALL

POST NEWS NETWORK

Jajpur, Feb 22: The district Collectorhere has drawn flak from theLokayukta following allegation offinancial fraud in demarcation ofthe black stone quarries underDharmasala tehsil in the district andinstalling boundary pillars on theland, a report said.

Justice Ajit Singh, Chairmanof the Lokayukta has expressedhis displeasure in this regard in theorder sheet of case no-1249/2020.Justice Singh has mentioned inthe order sheet that a previousorder to the district Collector to filereply in the matter has not beencomplied with.

The district Collector has beengiven another chance to file his de-tailed reply in the matter. Any non-compliance of the order will beviewed seriously if the districtCollector fails to file his reply on thematter by March 8, the date sched-uled for next hearing.

Moreover, the reply filed by theDharmasala tehsildar on the matterappears mysterious and vague. Allthis has been taken on record, JusticeSingh has mentioned in his order.

Reports said that in its bid to checkblack stone theft, Dharmasala tehsilhas reportedly spend around`1, 80,180 towards installation of pillarsin demarcated quarries and on itstransportation. A human rights ac-tivist Sarbeshwar Behura allegingsevere irregularities in the workfiled a case before the LokayuktaNovember 2, 2020. The Lokayukta

admitted the petition for hearingand directed Jajpur Collector, Sub-collector and Dharmasala tehsildarto file their reply.

The Dharmasala tehsildar in hisreply filed February 10, 2020 said thatthe proprietor of a private firmGayatri Marbles at Jaraka was as-signed the task of installing pil-lars on the demarcated quarriesin 2018. The cost incurred towardsinstallation of pillars was to him ina cheque November 19, 2018.

However, the concerned revenueinspector and revenue supervisorhave stated in their probe reportsthat the pillars have been destroyed.The Lokayukta has termed the re-port as mysterious.

MLAs Bishnu Charan Sethi,Sukant Nayak, Mukesh Mahalingand Mohan Charan Majhi hadbrought an adjournment motionin the state Assembly questioning

when the state government willtake on the revenue loss arisingout of illegal mining of minor min-erals from Dankari hill in Jajpur dis-trict, November 20, 2019.

The state Revenue ministerSudam Marandi submitted a nine-point answer in reply to the motionin the Assembly. The ministerreplied that a task force has beenformed at district, sub-division,and tehsil levels to check illegalminers and transporters of minorminerals. Penalty to the extent of`5 lakh would be collected fromthem, it was said. Moreover, withthe approval of Home Ministry asection of APR police force hasbeen deployed in eight sensitivetehsils and two sub-divisions ofeight districts.

Moreover, a budget worth`5 crorein 2018-19 and `4.63 crore in 2019-20was approved and released to all dis-

trict Collectors which will be utilisedin checking illegal mining. TheSteel and Mines department hassanctioned `1.86 crore for installa-tion of pillars in the quarries. Plansare also afoot to open directorate ofminor minerals in the state, theminister had said. However, noneof the steps has been implementedin quarries in Jajpur district, a re-port said.

Dharmasala tehsildar PrasantSamantray said a reply has been filedbefore the Lokayukta while neces-sary steps will be taken on his fur-ther order.

Collector Chakraborti SinghRathore said he is unaware aboutinstallation of pillars and has notreceived any notice from theLokayukta. He refused to comment“without having any informationon the issue.”

Lokayukta pulls up Jajpur CollectorIn its bid to check black stone

theft, Dharmasala tehsil hasspent around `1,80,180 towardsinstallation of pillars indemarcated quarries and on itstransportation

Ahuman rights activistSarbeshwar Behura,

alleging severe irregularities inthe work, filed a case before theLokayukta November 2, 2020

The Lokayukta admitted thepetition for hearing and had

directed Jajpur Collector, sub-collector and Dharmasalatehsildar to file their reply

POST NEWS NETWORK

Gunupur, Feb 22: The govern-ment in Andhra Pradesh is tryingto seize one after another village inthe state after being able to con-duct panchayat elections in Kotiaof Koraput district.

Recently, the AP administrationtried to grab a road in Badalukutivillage under Bairagihalua pan-chayat of Rayagada block but its ef-forts were frustrated after the ad-ministration intervened.

Similar efforts by the neigh-bouring state have also been wit-nessed in this block where the for-mer is trying to construct a road inthe area. The matter came to fore ateam of senior officials led by sub-collector Sonal Jena visited Eridighat, about three km from Kataguda

village under Marama panchayat ofGunpur block and took stock of aroad construction work by the gov-ernment of the neighbouring state.The Andhra Pradesh administrationwas reportedly found constructinga road at Eridi ghat to Munimkholin the state.

BDO Shantiprabha Pradhan andtehsildar (in-charge) FerdinandEkka accompanied the sub-collec-tor on the visit.

During the probe, the Revenue of-ficials were found unaware about

the jurisdiction of the area lying inwhich state. Later, the forest officialsvisited the area Sunday and re-viewed the situation.

Friday, Andhra Pradesh was car-rying out concrete road laying workat Kashinagar in Gajapati. The il-legal road laying work was objectedby the district administration on thespot. The administration also seizedseveral bags of cement, constructionmaterials and mixer machines beingused at the site, an administrativeofficial of the district informed.

After Kotia & Kashinagar, AP sets eyes on Gunupur THE ANDHRA PRADESH ADMINISTRATION WAS FOUND CONSTRUCTING

A ROAD AT ERIDI GHAT TO MUNIMKHOL

A team of senior officials led by sub-collector Sonal Jenavisit Eridi ghat, about three km from Kataguda in Maramapanchayat of Gunpur, and take stock of the situation

POST NEWS NETWORK

Padmapur, Feb 22: Farmers herein Bargarh district Monday in-tensified their agitation againstthe paddy procurement centreswhich have affected the sale oftheir produce. The agitation en-tered its 12th day Monday.

The agitating farmers have pre-vented the Sub-Collector and tehsil-dar offices for carrying out their nor-mal functions. However Monday,they locked all other governmentoffices in Padmapur. Among themwere the block, treasury, horticul-ture and assistant registrar of co-operative societies’ office.

According to the farmers, threemonths have passed since the be-ginning of paddy procurement inBargarh district. Even as their pad-dies are still lying unsold, the paddyprocurement centres have beenclosed. On the other hand, the pe-riod of the tokens given to the farm-

ers has also expired, causing agreat deal of mental pressure tothem. Over 2,47,000 quintals ofpaddy are still lying unsold in dif-ferent centres. And the farmersare undergoing a lot of hardshipwhile guarding them.

Demanding reopening of thecentres, the agitating farmers stageda road block at Kansingha Chowkhere. The road block was still con-tinuing at the time of filing this re-port. Hundreds of framers havejoined in the agitation going onunder the banner of RajbodasambarKrushak Sangathan.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Balasore, Feb 22: The DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) success-fully test fired the VerticallyLaunched-Short Range Surfaceto Air Missile (VL-SRSAM) fromthe Launch Pad No-3 of IntegratedTest Range (ITR), Chandipur, offthe state coast Monday.

The test was carried at 1:28 pm. The indigenously developed

VL-SRSAM is an advanced air de-fense system. The canister-basedweapon system can identify, track,engage and destroy its target withhigh kill probability. It has a strikerange of about 40 km. The defenseexperts are analysing the radarfootage to study.

It is observed that the missile willgive teeth to the Indian Army.

Prior to the test, as a part ofthe safety measures, about 8,000people residing within 2.5 kilo-metre radius of the Launch PadNo- 3 were evacuated to tempo-rary shelter homes by 9am.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Angul, Feb 22: In a crackdown, po-lice arrested a man namedGhanashyam Mishra and his sonof Similipada area in Angul districtMonday for allegedly duping a localyouth on the pretext of giving hima job at a multinational company.

According to sources, the ac-cused had duped PranabandhuJena of Benagadia area in Anguldistrict of `4.50 lakh on promiseof helping him to fetch a lucrativejob. The accused duo had acceptedthe money around three years agoand failed to keep their words.

Subsequently, the victim de-manded his money back as he gotfrustrated over the approach of thefather and son duo. The accused hadearlier paid back `80,000 toPranabandhu in three installments.

However, the duo played mis-chief with Pranabandhu and didnot pay the remaining amountback to him. When the youth ap-proached them for refund of hismoney, they misbehaved with him.Pranabandhu lodged an FIR withlocal police leading to the arrest.

“We have received complaintfrom one person based on whichwe have registered a case at CollieryPolice station and arrested the ac-cused. We will move court seekingtheir remand for further probe.,” SP Jagmohan Meena said.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhawanipatna, Feb 22: The live-stock inspector of Karlapat WildlifeSanctuary in Kalahandi was placedunder suspension Monday by theChief District Veterinary Officer(CDVO) for dereliction of duty.

According to sources, the offi-cial Ganesh Pujari allegedly failedto discharge his duty during vac-cination of cattle in nearby vil-lages of the sanctuary. The vacci-nation drive was carried outfollowing consecutive deaths of

seven elephants in the sanctuaryowing to hemorrhagic septicemia,Additional Director of stateFisheries and Animal ResourcesDevelopment (FARD) departmentPratap Keshari Khamari informed.

“He (Pujari) had not maintained

records of vaccination of cattleproperly as per guidelines. He hasbeen suspended from the services

in order to set an example for oth-ers,” Khamari expressed.

Notably, the Forest Departmenttook measures including disinfec-tion of water bodies, vaccination andsanitisation works in order to pre-vent any probable spread of thedeadly bacteria in the region.

A three-member Central teamhad visited the sanctuary to find outthe cause of jumbo deaths. Theteam collected samples and sentthem to the Indian VeterinaryResearch Institute (IVRI), Bareillyfor testing.

Maiden test of VL-SRSAM successful

KARLAPAT LIVESTOCK INSPECTOR SUSPENDED He (Pujari) hadn’t

maintained recordsof vaccination of

cattle properly as perguidelines. He has beensuspended from the services in order to set anexample for othersPRATAP KESHARI KHAMARI | ADDITIONALDIRECTOR, FARD DEPT

Agitating farmers in Padmapurshut down government offices

Farmers say three monthshave passed since the

beginning of paddy procurementin Bargarh district

Even as their paddy is lyingunsold, the paddy

procurement centres have beenclosed

FATHER-SON DUOHELD FOR JOBFRAUD IN ANGUL Members of All India Democratic Women’s Association, led by their national secretary Tapasi Praharaj, stage a demonstration over rising fuel prices in Berhampur

FUEL ANGER

DEMOLITION DRIVE

A demolition drive underway in Bolangir, Monday OP PHOTO

OP PHOTO

WORDSWORTH

power post P4

T his government, claiming to be the strongest ever, now seems to be lurch-ing from one crisis to another and it seeks remedies not by looking withinitself but by blaming everyone else. The blame game happening now,

in the seventh straight year of being in government, does not seem to washany more with citizens who were earlier vehement supporters of the rulingpolitical party, the BJP.

The government is still trying the same tactic of Congress-bashing whenthe runaway fuel prices are soaring record high, burning holes in the pock-ets of the common man. These continuous increases have taken place in spiteof the international prices of crude having been on the lower side. Now, how-ever, the world seems to be steadily revving up, indicating a possible upwardspurt in global demand for petroleum. The pandemic had forced a dull sea-son for crude. Market for petroleum had drastically shrunk but things arechanging and once this new situation entrenches itself strongly in the newnormal scenario, the demand for energy could shoot up. Should that happenthen barrel prices would also go up.

Ironically, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman now expects thestate governments to bail her out by sharing with the Centre the burden ofits failure to check fuel prices. It was she who has levied cess on fuel on theostensible plea of improving agriculture infrastructure. The real purposeof the measure is to deny the states their share of tax on fuel and corner themoney accruing from cess for defraying Central expenditure.

Many economists have written articles reminding the Centre of the rationalebehind the fuel cess. Since cess is not given back to the states, the Centre isdeducting a major amount under that head. In taxes, states get back 42 percent as devolution and hence the Centre is acquiring a major portion as fuelcess instead of tax.

When the NDA came to power in 2014 the total aggregate cess was eightper cent of gross tax collections and now it has increased to 14.5 per cent. Thatis why the CAG has questioned the central government on why they are in-creasing cess and not tax. This, many observe, is an attack on the federal struc-ture of the country.

The Union Finance Minister is smart to go on the defensive and admit thatthe common man would like only to see the Centre reduce the fuel prices andwon’t listen to any arguments of decrease of international crude productionor the pricing matrix. The fact remains that people owning personal vehi-cles are already hit hard, while the continuing hike in the fuel prices will havecascading effects on almost all items of daily consumption due to the rise intransportation costs.

The Prime Minister’s attempt to deflect criticism by squarely blaming pre-vious Congress-led governments’ huge oil import bills sounds as poor poli-tics and poorer economics. The Congress may not be wrong when the party’sinterim president charged that the NDA has been in government for sevenlong years which is time enough to fix the problems and formulate its ownfuel policies. It, of course, is time the government stops passing the buck toits predecessors and especially the Nehruvian economic model.

The PM recently said the middle class is being burdened because Indiafollows a mechanism where it imports almost 85 per cent of its fuel needs.He also shared a plan about reducing India’s import dependency. But, thatis too futuristic. People are paying today and living now and so one hears thedesperate clamour for immediate course correction. The need of the houris not government publicity patting its own back, but solid, tangible actionsand policy initiatives exclusively aimed at benefitting the common man.

F rom all accounts, the PrimeMinister and his team havebeen unable thus far to meet

the challenge posed by the clean andclear opposition to the farm lawsfrom ordinary farmers and theirquickly emerging and evolvingleadership. Unlike the establish-ment, the farmers do not have ac-cess to unlimited resources, supe-rior org anisation skil ls orcommunications reach of offi-cialdom. Yet, they have been ableto present their case in a languageand with stories that hit back hardat the makers of these laws, ridi-culing in particular the PrimeMinister and his party, but alsoraising serious issues that havegot many in India rethinking themerits of not only these laws buta lot else about the Modi style andmanner of working.

So much has been written aboutthe so-called legendary communi-cation skills of the Prime Minister,yet he pales in front of the roaringrhetoric and upbeat imagery emerg-ing from protest camps that arealive with ideas and imagination.Irrespective of the merits or de-merits of the case, or the eventualoutcome of the protests, the tri-umph of the protesters in settingthe agenda and pushing their pointat least in the immediate is evi-dent. Police has been used to try andtame the protests and charges ofsedition are being thrown around

in attempts to use administrativeguile and power to secure politicalprocess. As Yogendra Yadav putit: “The government is adoptingall the repressive measures, mischiefand manipulation including ar-rests, detentions and registrationof cases against the protesters.The Singhu border has been forti-fied and appears to be an interna-tional border.”

Yet, the agitation has grown andsustained over a long enough periodof time to become the most potentand powerful challenge to the lead-ership of Modi and his brute ma-jority in Parliament. Protests havenow continued for over 100 days,have led to the loss of several livesfrom among the protesters and thishas only increased the resolve of thefarmers and got more people andgroups over to their side as neweralliances are tested and built.

This celebrates the idea of ac-tive resistance against an over-bearing authority, particularly inthese times when the brute ma-jority is prone to excesses anddoes not hesitate to push any andevery button to make its point andget its way. At another level, we candespair at the ease with whichthis force is being used and thelack of any pushback from amongour institutions or even withinthe BJP that is known to talk somuch about inner party democracy.The BJP is now and has been for

some time almost a one-man party,or one-and-a-half man party (tocount both the Prime Ministerand his Home minister) that hasno dissent in its ranks. They allspeak in one voice.

The latest was over the weekend,which offered dramatic contrastsat play in an India that is in-creasingly being divided at mul-tiple levels. Barnala in Punjabwitnessed the biggest rally yetagainst the farm laws with somedramatic pictures indicating thesize of the protest. In New Delhi,a meeting of the newly-appointednational office bearers of the BJPthanked the Prime Minister for thefarm reforms and also for steer-ing the nation successfully in themidst of a pandemic. The farmerscheered and agreed to intensifytheir protests. The BJP behindclosed doors apparently clappedand patted itself. It was a pictureof the Orwellian classic ‘AnimalFarm’ at work.

The power centres of New Delhiare today occupied by a newLutyens’ class that appears weddedto the idea of breaking India andrebuilding it in a mould that issteeped in a convoluted ideology,a misunderstood sense of India’spast and its glory and a vision thatexcels in bulk buying of preju-dice. These shape today’s idea ofperformance and governance, andits one big idea is showmanship for

the sake of showmanship. Modishaped this idea of India even be-fore 2014 when he said at a meet-ing in Mumbai that India musthave the bullet train not becausepeople will travel in it but becausewe can show the world what a greatpower we are. To boot, he added,China does it, too. They show ustheir Shanghai and not the rest ofChina, don’t they?

A world view arising from theseways of thinking was always goingto be disastrous. We are seeingonly bits and parts of this at work.When blind ideology of the ex-tremes, be it Left or Right, social-ism or capitalism, license Raj or freemarkets, becomes an end in itself,disconnected from the needs andmood of our times and the realityon the ground, policy gets reducedto pushing propaganda. Views areturned to extreme. Positions getrigid. Divisions are created.Breakdowns will follow.

We don’t know where the farm-ers’ agitation will take us. The gov-ernment is unlikely to give in. Thefarmers are standing their ground.In this confrontation, a lot else thatwill have a longer-term impact onthe future of India is at stake andwill be decided.

The writer is a journalist anda faculty member at Bhavan’sSPJIMR. Views are personal.

©THE BILLION PRESS

Farmers’ protest holds key to India’s future

PRIVATISATION NO SOLUTIONT

he country is in aquandary about the pri-vatisation of public sec-tor banks. Amendments

to the Banking Companies(Acquisition and Transfer ofUndertakings) 1970 and 1980 are onthe cards. The two laws led to banknationalisation in two phases.

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman has announced pri-vatisation of PSBs as part of dis-investment drive to garner `1.75lakh crore, in reality not a verylarge sum. That has raised an-other question whether for suchsmall gains, the nation should sellthe family silver. Or why should itgo back to 1969 when these weretaken over? The banks were inthe hands of large houses. Theyhave been defying regulations andmany unsavoury practices were inuse, including taking out fundsrisking the banks and quietly re-funding causing immense interestand operation cost losses. Thisapart, the small lenders had littlespace in the controlled practices.Some banks were off and on in thenews of facing liquidation through-out the 1960s.

The takeover was then con-sidered a bold step as now the an-nouncement of selling off is beingprojected as a bold decision. TheModi government is in a finan-cial crisis and wants the nation tosteer out of it. All of it though isnot the doing of this government.The bank crisis has built up withthe changes in Basel recapitali-sation norms as well as the grow-ing NPAs.

As of March 31, 2010, gross PSBNPAs were`8.06 lakh crore. A 2020JC Review study by four acade-micians -- Sunita Sharma, RajeshKothari, DS Rathore and JagdishPrasad -- says that the private sec-tor banks were not doing well post2012 (as also were many PSBs)and the NPAs have been growing.They say that the economic per-formance had not declined in 2012-2019 but sharp rise in NPAs raisequestions on transparency in show-ing correct picture of their health.

The banks, they note had beenconcealing facts particularly abouthigh value accounts, which intheir opinion, had come underNPA even before 2010-13.“Increasing NPAs suggest thathigh number of credit defaultsaffect profitability, liquidity and sol-vency positions of (all) banks,”they say.

They found Axis Bank prof-itability since 2017 has continu-ously been falling due to rise inNPAs till partly checked in 2019.Similarly, ICICI Bank NPAs con-tinuously increased since 2015and reached a peak of 8.85 percent in 2018. Though in 2019 it re-duced to 6.7 per cent the net profitfurther came down due to higherprovisioning.

Banks in general have wit-nessed a decline in profitability dur-ing the last about eight years. Thatraises a question whether the PSBsshould be singled out in a choppymarket particularly when someprivate sector banks indulged inmajor malpractices. Does it meanthat privatisation is not a panacea?This is a critical question that thegovernment and the society needto have a review. Privatisation

cannot be a mantra. It seems theproblems lie in practices and thosein the country need severe cor-rections.

The study is almost in tune withthe 2018 re por t of theParliamentary StandingCommittee on Finance where it ob-served that the capacity to lendhas been severely affected due toNPAs. It says, “A lot of the loanscurrently classified as NPAs orig-inated in mid-2000s, at a time whenthe economy was booming andbusiness outlook was very positive.Large corporations were grantedloans for projects based on ex-trapolation of their recent growthand performance. With loans beingavailable more easily than before,corporations grew highly lever-aged, implying that most financ-ing was through external bor-rowings rather than internalpromoter equity. But as economicgrowth stagnated following theglobal financial crisis of 2008, therepayment capability of these cor-porations decreased. This con-tributed to what is now known asIndia’s Twin Balance Sheet prob-lem, where both the banking sec-tor (that gives loans) and the cor-

porate sector (that takes and hasto repay these loans) have comeunder financial stress.”

So, the prescription of pri-vatising PSBs needs a review anda new approach to curing the dis-ease than shifting it from one clinicto another. Poor regulatory frame-works and related problems aresome of the pitfalls. Additionallyprofit-centric and shareholderwealth maximising monopoliesby banks will not to cater to theneedy individuals.

The government would also belosing out on potential dividendsthat give significant budgetarysupport. In 2014, `88,188 crore waspaid by PSEs, including `43,996crore from PSBs. Since, however,the PSB dividend contributionhas been dwindling though RBI haspaid about`2 lakh crore during thepast two years.

A problem the government facesis of continuous recapitalisation– pumping in funds as per Baselnorms. This is natural if the prof-itability of banks comes down.But so it has happened to privatebanks as well. It means there is abasic flaw in the banking opera-tions. The PSB losses mounted to`85,000 crore in FY2018 and camedown to `50,000 crore in 2019.

Suggesting a solution is not easy.The deposits with PSBs are rising.In FY2018, it rose to`128 lakh crorefrom`117 lakh crore. Savings bankdeposits also rose by`4 lakh crorebetween FY2018 and FY2019 from`35.9 lakh crore to`39.1 lakh crore.

But liabilities are rising due todefaults, increase in operationalcosts of larger low-quality ac-counts like Jandhan, digital andother populist operations.

The faults are for extra-bankingcauses. Privatisation is not likelyto solve these. Even in their dwin-dling health, the PSBs have enor-mous wealth and before these aresold to a select group of eagerlarge corporate buyers, the coun-try needs to wait and reconsidermassive revamping of the systemand through that how to strengthenthe economy. INFA

LOL

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

Banks in general have witnessed a decline inprofitability during the last about eight years.That raises a question whether the PSBs should be singled out in a choppy market particularly when some private sector banks indulged in major malpractices

Political Fuel

How you made money

Ayoung man asked an old rich manhow he made his money.

The old guy said, “Well, son, it was1932. The depth of the GreatDepression. I was down to my lastnickel.”“I invested that nickel in an apple. Ispent the entire day polishing theapple and, at the end of the day, I soldthe apple for ten cents. The nextmorning, I invested those ten cents in

two apples. Ispent the

entire day polishingthem and sold them at

5:00 pm for 20 cents. I continued thissystem for a month, by the end ofwhich I’d accumulated a fortune of$1.37.”“And that’s how you built an empire?”the boy asked. “Heavens, no!” the man replied. “Thenmy wife’s father died and left us twomillion dollars.”

TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

Each victory gained over oneselfmeans new strength to gainmore victories.

SRI AUROBINDO

NATION

EVEN IN THEIRDWINDLING

HEALTH, THEPSBs HAVE

ENORMOUSWEALTH AND

BEFORE THESEARE SOLD TO ASELECT GROUP

OF EAGER LARGECORPORATE

BUYERS, THECOUNTRY NEEDS

TO WAIT ANDRECONSIDER

MASSIVEREVAMPING OF

THE SYSTEM

Shivaji Sarkar

WISDOM CORNERThe only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men todo nothing. EDMUND BURKE

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.SAMUEL BECKETT

Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with thedarkness of other people. CARL JUNG

BANKING

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 TRIUMPH OFTHE PROTESTERS

IN SETTING THEAGENDA AND

PUSHING THEIRPOINT AT LEAST IN

THE IMMEDIATE IS EVIDENT

Jagdish Rattanani

Battling depression

Sir, Discussion on some matters related to health is still considered a taboo in India.Nevertheless when their ‘idols’ come out with their agonies of the past or present, peopleare inspired to follow suit. Having said that, it is not easy for celebrities themselves to shedtheir inhibitions to detail the sickening stint of theirs with health disorders like depression.Indian cricket captain Virat Kohli is the latest addition to a reasonably long list of celebri-ties who did not care about their ‘image’ to talk about mental health disorders. Kohli saidhe was battling depression in 2014 during the England tour and that was a transient phasein his life. Approximately, five crore Indians suffer from depression, and thirty six percentof the population has symptoms of depression at any point in time. When a famous personalitylike Kohli openly announces his past battle with depression, it is significant on many counts.Since cricket connoisseurs adore cricketers and consider them as ‘gods’, it helps them to knowthat mental problems are not confined to the common man alone. The Indian skipper hassaid the inability to ‘talk’ to people around him compounded his problem. Therefore, the basictenet of management of depression -- pulling the patients out of self-created shells -- shoulddawn upon every stakeholder. Admittedly, Kohli was down in 2014. But following that leanpatch, he has proved why he is a batting maestro. Any disorder or disease is totally curable,and both anxiety and depression are no exceptions. So, in more ways than one, Kohli hassent a strong message to the society on issues that haunt the mind.

Ganapathi Bhat, AKOLA

Conserve nature

Sir, It is welcome to note that the HimachalPradesh government is involving schoolstudents in planting saplings and ensur-ing their survival to build awareness. TheForest Department has set up the ‘VidyarthiVan Mitra Yojana’ under which eco clubshave been set up in schools to identify openor degraded forest areas for carrying out aplantation of indigenous species. The stu-dents and school administration play a vitalrole in identifying the site for the plantationof saplings. The school administration pre-pares a micro plan for the plantation, andthe Divisional Forest Officer gives approvalto it. The students are not only responsiblefor the plantation of saplings, but also main-tain the area on a long-term basis. This isa commendable move.

Amit Singh Kushwaha, SATNA (MP)

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Mansuetude

The word — meaning gentleness or mildness — comes from Latinmansuetus, tamed or made gentle. It contains manus, hand (from

which English got manicure, manufacture, command, manual and otherwords), and suetus, accustomed (which is from the verb suescere, thesource of a few words, of which the best known is desuetude). The ideabehind mansuetus is that if an animal has become accustomed to thehand, it has been tamed. An example of the English word appears in TheLetter of Marque by Patrick O’Brian, in which Dr Stephen Maturin isextolling the virtues of laudanum: “Presently, with the blessing, you willsee Padeen’s face return to its usual benevolent mansuetude; and a fewminutes later you will see him glide insensibly to the verge of an opiatecoma.” This is a more recent example: While her voice may have an air ofmansuetude, she proved that she could easily cut above the din of the boysin her band (Boston Globe, 24 Jun. 2004). The word is not entirely obsolete,though it is rare to the point of being marked as archaic in mostdictionaries and is definitely literary even when it does appear. To use it may be to gratify the ego of the writer rather than communicate with the reader.

Mari-fuel

So far as online records show, this word burst upon the world for the firsttime on 17 December 2008, in a press release announcing that European

Union funding of €6m (£5m or $8.5m) had been won for the BioMaraproject. This is a cross-border project involving researchers from Scotland,Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The aim is to find ways toconvert seaweeds and marine algae into fuels. One hope is that it will helprural communities in these countries, who may be able to use fast-growingseaweeds such as kelp to make a locally produced and cheap fuel thatwon’t take up valuable agricultural land. Mari-fuel is an obvious parallel tothe better-known agri-fuel, for fuels derived from agricultural products.The development of mari-fuels could have a lasting impact on remote andrural communities by providing locally produced, relatively cheap, lowimpact fuel as well as serving the local public transport infrastructure(Daily Telegraph, 18 Dec. 2008). Motorists may soon be driving carspowered by kelp and algae after scientists in Scotland and Ireland wonEuropean funding today for a new research project to create “mari-fuels”— the marine equivalent to plant-based biofuels (Guardian, 18 Dec. 2008).

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bhopal, Feb 22: With coronaviruscases showing an upward trend inMaharashtra, people coming toMadhya Pradesh from the neigh-bouring state will be subjected tothermal screening, government of-ficials said Monday.

Chief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan issued directives in thisregard while reviewing the coron-avirus situation in Madhya Pradeshat a meeting in the state secretariathere.

“Start health examination of per-sons coming in Madhya Pradeshthrough districts borderingMaharashtra,” Chouhan told offi-cials at the meeting.

After the Chief Minister’s order,the Home Department issued di-rectives for authorities of districtsbordering Maharashtra.

Madhya Pradesh, too, is wit-nessing a steady rise in new COVID-19 cases in the last few days.

One of the directives asked dis-trict collectors to ensure tempera-ture-based screening of people com-ing from Maharashtra, where 6,971new coronavirus cases wererecorded Sunday, the highest single-day count in nearly four months.

Thermal screening involveschecking the body temperature ofa person to ascertain if he/she hassymptoms of viral infections.

The Home Department askeddistricts bordering Maharashtrato hold meeting of their crisis man-agement group Tuesday and take ap-propriate decisions in view of the

prevailing coronavirus situation.It said a large number of devotees

from Maharashtra visit fairs in thecentral state organised on the oc-casion of Mahashivratri (whichfalls on March 11 this year).

Hence, the district-based crisismanagement groups should dis-

cuss essential measures duringsuch religious fairs, the depart-ment said.

The department asked the districtauthorities to take action againstthose not wearing face masks andviolating social distancing norms.

Earlier at the meeting, the CMsaid government staff should startan immediate campaign to createawareness about COVID-19 in ruralareas of districts borderingMaharashtra, the officials said.

Chouhan directed the officialsto ensure mask mandate is strictlyimplemented in Indore and Bhopal,the districts affected the most byCOVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh,they said.

After registering a drop in COVID-19 cases for some weeks, the viral

disease is again showing an up-ward trend in Madhya Pradesh, es-pecially its industrial hub Indore,with health experts blaming peoplefor lowering their guard againstthe pandemic.

Since the past one week, morethan 200 COVID-19 cases are beingreported daily in MP, promptingthe state government to send somesamples of patients to labs in Delhiand Pune to check whether a newvariant of the virus has found itsway into the state, a government of-ficial said.

In September 2020, MadhyaPradesh witnessed a daily countof more than 2,000 cases for 10 con-secutive days, but the graph startedgoing down by the year-end.

Earlier this month, the dailyCOVID-19 cases were below 200 inthe state, but crossed the markFebruary 14. Till Sunday evening,the state had reported a total of2,59,427 COVID-19 cases and 3,854deaths due to the disease.

Sunday, All India Institute ofMedical Science (AIIMS), Bhopal,Director Dr Sarman Singh told PTIthat the cases were rising as MPshares borders with Maharashtra,which has been badly hit by thepandemic. Besides, people have be-come complacent against the pan-demic, he said. Maharashtra hasbeen reporting a spike in newCOVID-19 cases in the last one week.On Sunday, the state recorded morethan 6,000 for the third consecu-tive day. The western state hadrecorded over 6,000 cases after agap of three months Friday.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Jabalpur, Feb 22: A Public InterestLitigation was filed in the MadhyaPradesh High Court Monday seek-ing reduction in fuel prices, with thepetitioner claiming that consumershave to pay high levies for mixingof ethanol in petrol and diesel.

Petitioner Manish Sharma, co-ordinator of NGO Nagrik UpbhoktaMargdarshak Manch, told PTI taxon ethanol was 5 to 7 per cent butthe levy charged from consumersis as high as 25 to 35 per cent per litreof petrol and diesel, which meansthe buyer ends up paying Rs 4 to Rs5 extra as tax.

Oil companies blend 6 to7 percent of ethanol in petrol and dieselper litre under the National Policyon Biofuels, he said, adding thatfuel pumps do not mention theethanol details in the purchase bill.

He said he had issued legal no-tices to the Union Minister of

Petroleum and Natural Gas andoil companies to seek informationon the policy under which con-sumers were taxed for ethanolblended in fuel but only one firm re-sponded, after which it was decidedthat a PIL be filed in HC.

Additive-mixed petrol is retail-ing at over Rs 102 per litre inBhopal while the cost of normalpetrol and diesel is Rs 98 and Rs89 respectively.

Amid pressure to check the fuelprice rise, oil marketing compa-nies on Monday decided to keeppetrol and diesel prices unchangedMonday for the second consecu-tive day. Across the country as well

the petrol and diesel price remainedstable after rising for 12 consecutivedays till Saturday. The increase inthe previous weeks has taken petrolto cross historic high levels of Rs100 a litre in several cities across thecountry. The petrol and diesel priceshave increased 24 times in 2021with the two auto fuels increasingby Rs 6.87 and Rs 7.10 per litre re-spectively so far this year. Oil com-panies executives said that petroland diesel prices may increase fur-ther in coming days as retail pricesmay have to be balanced in linewith global developments to preventOMCs from making losses on saleof auto fuels.

Rahul takes dig at PM for ridiculing NREGA

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MADHYA PRADESH

TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP5

KERALA

MP MINISTER SITS ON 50-FEETSWING TO GET MOBILE SIGNAL

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 22:The Kerala government Mondaydecided to cancel the controversialMoU signed between US-basedEMCC International and the KeralaShipping and Inland NavigationCorporation, against which theOpposition has levelled seriouscharges, drawing a strong reactionfrom EMCC.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayandirected the officials concerned tocancel the deal and probe the cir-cumstances under which such anMoU was signed, governmentsources told PTI.

The step was taken reportedly toavoid further controversies, with theopposition levelling fresh chargesand bringing out what they term as'evidence' almost every day.

Meanwhile, EMCC InternationalIndia Private Limited presidentShiju Varghese came out against thecancellation of the agreement.

“On what basis is the govern-ment cancelling the MoU? We are

not any monopoly who are com-ing to plunder the fish stock of thestate. Why did the Fisheries Ministernot tell us prior if the project isagainst the state's Fisheries' Policy?”he told a television channel.

KSINC Managing Director NPrasanth and Shiju Varghese re-cently inked a Rs 2,950 crore pactto build 400 deep sea fishing trawlersand new harbours and for the portdevelopment activities.

However, Opposition leaderRamesh Chennithala had allegedthat this particular MoU was part

of a Rs 5,000 crore mammoth proj-ect promoting deep sea fishing inthe state waters.

It was against the proclaimedFisheries' Policy of the state andwould adversely affect the inter-ests of lakhs of fishermen, he al-leged. Vijayan had Saturday dis-missed the charge that thegovernment entered into an agree-ment for the deep sea fishing con-tract with the US-based firm, say-ing no foreign company would beallowed to engage in deep sea trawl-ing in the state's waters.

Under fire from Oppn, Kerala govt to scrap MoU with US firm

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Wayanad, Feb 22: Congress leaderRahul Gandhi Monday saidNarendra Modi, who "ridiculed"MGNREGA when he took over asPrime Minister in 2014, was "forcedto accept" the fact that the ambitiousrural job scheme brought in bythe previous UPA governmentplayed the role of "saviour" of peo-ple of the country during theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Inaugurating a KudumbasreeSangamam at Poothadi GramaPanchayat in his constituencyhere, the Congress leader said theCongress works for the empow-erment of the poor and allegedthat the idea of the ruling BJPwas to empower the most power-ful.

"When Modi became PrimeMinister, in the Parliament House,in front of all of us, he ridiculedMGNREGA. He said MGNREGAwas an insult to the Indian people,"Gandhi alleged, as he began histwo-day visit to his constituencyin poll- bound Kerala.

He said the Prime Minister wasforced to increase the work andmoney of the scheme during thespread of coronavirus in the coun-try. "And he was forced to accept

during COVID-19 that only MGN-REGA played the role of saviourof our people," Gandhi said.

He noted that the demand forMGNREGA, which provides so-cial protection for the most vul-nerable people living in rural Indiaby guaranteeing wage employ-ment opportunities, "skyrocketed"during COVID.

The Wayanad MP said bothSHGs and the MGNREGA were

brought in by the UPA govern-ment not as a "gift" but as "tools forempowerment for making our peo-ple stronger."

He said when the MGNREGAwas brought in to provide at least100 days of guaranteed wage em-ployment in a financial year toevery rural household whose adultmembers volunteer to do unskilledmanual work, lots of people ques-tioned it asking why we are spoil-

ing our people by giving charity.Many claimed MGNREGA

scheme was going to ruin the peo-ple but the same people are notsaying anything while the gov-ernment is "giving lakhs of croresof rupees to the big business" and"privatising huge public sectorcompanies," Gandhi alleged.

He also said implementation ofthe MGNREGA scheme was themajor reason for the "tremendouseconomic growth" during the UPAperiod.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi takes out a tractor rally from Muttil to Kalpettain Wayanad district in Kerala, Monday. PTI PHOTO

WHEN MODI BECAME PRIMEMINISTER, IN THEPARLIAMENT HOUSE, INFRONT OF ALL OF US, HERIDICULED MGNREGA. HESAID MGNREGA WAS ANINSULT TO THE INDIANPEOPLE... AND HE WASFORCED TO ACCEPT DURINGCOVID-19 THAT ONLYMGNREGA PLAYED THE ROLEOF SAVIOUR OF OUR PEOPLERAHUL GANDHI I CONGRESS LEADER

‘FISHING’ IN TROUBLED WATERSKSINC recently inked a Rs 2,950 crore pact tobuild 400 deep sea fishing trawlers and new harbours and for the port development activities

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala hadalleged that this particular MoU was part of a`5,000 crore mammoth project promoting deepsea fishing in the state waters

IT WAS DECIDED TO CANCEL THE MOU TO AVOID FURTHER CONTROVERSIES, WITHTHE OPPOSITION LEVELLING FRESH CHARGES AND BRINGING OUT WHAT THEY

TERM AS 'EVIDENCE' ALMOST EVERY DAY

Thermal screening for people coming to MP from Maha

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Ashoknagar, Feb 22: Even as mostregions of the country have beenconnected with telecom networks,there are still some areas where onedoesn't get a mobile signal.

One such area is the Surel villagein Madhya Pradesh's Ashoknagar dis-trict.

Madhya Pradesh's minister of statefor health and public health engi-neering Brajendra Singh Yadav needsto climb up on a 50-feet hammock

whenever he wants to talk to offi-cers and fellow ministers.

Yadav is in Surel vil lage ofAshoknagar district these days, par-ticipating in a religious ceremonyand is committed to spend the nextfew days here.

People are sharing their prob-lems with him but the ministerisn't able to convey the same to theofficers.

Since there is a village fair goingon, Yadav thought of putting up ahammock on a 50-feet swing bor-

rowed from the fair. He climbs upon the swing at a height of 50 feet andgets the mobile signal easily. His im-ages and videos have gone viral onsocial media.

Yadav told journalists: "Many vil-lagers are coming to me with theproblems that they face every day.But owing to a bad mobile network,I wasn't able to help them. So, to geta better mobile connectivity, I amsitting on a 50-feet high swing inorder to speak to the officers andsolve their problems."

After registering a drop in COVID-19 cases forsome weeks, the viral disease is again showing an upward trend in Madhya Pradesh, especially in its industrial hub of Indore

Fuel price: PIL in MP High Courtclaims discrepancy in ethanol taxOIL COMPANIESBLEND 6 TO 7 PERCENT OF ETHANOL IN PETROL AND DIESEL PER LITREUNDER THE NATIONALPOLICY ON BIOFUELS

Many villagers are coming to mewith the problems

that they face every day. But owing

to a bad mobilenetwork, I wasn't able

to help them. So, toget a better mobileconnectivity, I am

sitting on a 50-feet high swing

in order to speak tothe officers and

solve their problems

BRAJENDRA SINGH YADAV IMINISTERScreenshot of a viral video shows Minister Brajendra Singh Yadav (L) talking over mobile phone

atop the swing ride.

P6

nationalTUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

yy

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You flatly sayrevoke thelaws...It

doesn’t happen thatcrowd gathers andthe laws get revoked

NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR |UNION AGRICULTURE MINISTER

of theday uote

Let the workrelated todelimitation

get completed, theElectionCommission willdefinitely conductelections in Jammu and Kashmir

MANOJ SINHA | J&K LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR

The BJPgovernment’sBudget

presented in the UPAssembly today isextremelydisappointing to thestate

MAYAWATI |BAHUJAN SAMAJWADI PARTY CHIEF

Dalit girl raped inUttar PradeshMahoba (UP): A 16-year-oldDalit girl was allegedly rapedby two men here, followingwhich the accused werearrested, police said Monday.The incident took placeFriday night when the minorwas standing outside herhouse. Jai Hind (23) andAshish Sen (22) forcibly tookher to a secluded place andallegedly raped her, SHOSunil Kumar Tiwari said. Thegirl later narrated her ordealto her elder sister who filed apolice complaint and on thebasis of that, an FIR wasregistered on Sunday, theSHO said.

Chopper servicebegins in VrindavanMathura: A private companyhas started a chopper servicefor people to have a bird's-eye view of the VrindavanKumbh fair and temples insurrounding areas, an officialof the company said Monday.The service was startedSunday, he added. “It wouldfacilitate people visitingVrindavan Kumbh to watchmajestic events like ‘ShahiSnan’ besides camps ofsaints and ‘akharas' withtheir flags in the Kumbh,”said the firm’s managingdirector Vishal Jain.

EC official to visitBengal FridayKolkata: Deputy ElectionCommissioner Sudip Jain,who is in charge of WestBengal, will be visiting thestate Friday to oversee thepreparedness for theupcoming assemblyelections, officials said.During his visit, Jain isscheduled to hold meetingswith district magistrates,police superintendents andother senior officials of thestate, they said. Jain isscheduled to come thisFriday to have a look at theoverall preparedness for theAssembly elections. He willalso take stock of the law andorder situation in the state.

Blast possiblyaccidental Kolkata: West Bengalminister Jakir Hossain, whowas seriously injured in anexplosion last week inMurshidabad district, mightnot be the target of theperpetrators and the bombseemed to have gone offaccidentally, an officer of thestate Criminal InvestigationDepartment (CID) saidMonday. The miscreants whocould have links to aninternational terror grouppossibly brought theexplosive kept in a bag fromoutside the state and were ontheir way to take it to Kolkataor somewhere else, the topCID official told PTI oncondition of anonymity.

SHORT TAKES

Maharashtra reported deaths of 381 birdsSunday amid the avian influenza scare.Samples are being sent to National Instituteof High Security Animal Diseases (NIHSAD)in Bhopal and Disease InvestigationSection, Pune, for bird flu testing

FLU SCARE: 381 BIRDSFOUND DEAD IN MAHA

Petrol is at`100 a litre.

The Modi governmentis doing the great workof emptying yourpockets and filling thepockets of its friends

RAHUL GANDHI | CONGRESS LEADER

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Pondicherry, Feb 22:The Congressgovernment in Pondicherry fellMonday after Chief Minister VNarayanasamy resigned ahead ofthe confidence vote sought by himin the Assembly after his govern-ment was reduced to a minoritydue to a spate of resignations ofparty MLAs and a DMK legislatorover the past few days.

Narayanasamy met Lt GovernorTamilisai Soundararajan and sub-mitted the resignation of hisCabinet, even as the ruling side’sstrength was reduced to 11 as againstthe 14 of the Opposition.

The Opposition, led by NRCongress chief and Leader ofOpposition N Rangasamy said ithas no plans to stake claim to formthe government as of now and thatdiscussions would be held.

Soundararajan had earlier sum-moned the one-day special sessionMonday, mandating that its agendabe confined only to the trust vote,after the Opposition petitioned herlast week saying the government hadbeen reduced to a minority due tothe resignations.

A fresh bout of resignationsSunday took the tally in the lastfew days to three and the cumula-tive since last month to six and fur-ther reduced the strength of theCongress-DMK combine in the as-sembly to 11 after Congress mem-ber K Lakshminarayanan andDMK's K Venkatesan quit on Sunday.

Subsequently, the party positionin the assembly was: Congress(nine, including Speaker), DMKtwo, All-India NR Congress seven,AIADMK four and BJP three (allnominated with voting rights) andone independent who has supportedthe government. There are seven va-cancies. Those who had resigned in-cluded for mer ministers A

Namassivayam (now in BJP) andMalladi Krishna Rao. On Monday,after mounting an attack on theNarendra Modi-led Centre and for-mer Lt Governor Kiran Bedi withwhom he had frequent run-ins onadministrative matters,Narayanasamy led his colleaguesout of the Assembly after a debateover the rights of nominated mem-bers to vote during the floor test.

Subsequently, Speaker VPSivakolundhu announced that themotion for confidence vote moved

by the Chief Minister in the morn-ing was defeated, even as it wasnot taken up for either voice voteor division.

“Our view that only the electedmembers can vote in the Housewas not accepted by the Speaker. Sowe walked out of the Assemblyand met the Lt Governor and gaveresignation letter of my Cabinet,"Narayanasamy later told reporters.

Narayanasamy said he was ac-companied by his ministers,Congress and DMK MLAs besidesthe independent legislator who hadearlier supported the government.

It was now up to the Lt Governorto decide on their resignation, headded. He, however, did not respondto queries on his next course of ac-tion. Earlier, after moving the con-fidence motion, Narayanasamy madea detailed speech blaming both theNDA government at the Centre andopposition parties including AINRC,AIADMK and BJP as "being re-sponsible for stalling implementationof welfare schemes proposed by theelected government”.

Cong govt in Pondicherry falls

Chief Minister VNarayanasamy resigned

ahead of the confidence votesought by him in the Assemblyafter his government wasreduced to a minority

Narayanasamy met LtGovernor Tamilisai

Soundararajan and submittedthe resignation of his Cabinet,even as the ruling side’sstrength was reduced to 11 asagainst the 14 of the Opposition

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Dhemaji, Feb 22: Opening the cof-fers of his government for election-bound Assam, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi Monday slammedthe successive Congress dispensa-tions that ruled the country sinceIndependence for the “neglect” of thestate and the northeast for decades.

On his third visit to Assam in amonth, Modi, who dedicated to thenation three major projects in thepetroleum sector worth over ̀ 3,222crore, enumerated steps taken bythe state gover nment led bySarbananda Sonowal and the cen-tre over the past few years for itsbalanced growth.

He also inaugurated DhemajiEngineering College and laid thefoundation stone for SualkuchiEngineering College with initialproject cost of `45 crore and `55crore respectively in this town onthe nor ther n bank of theBrahmaputra. He had unleashed amajor development offensive inthe run up to the state polls onFebruary 7 when he laid the foun-dation of and dedicated to the na-tion infrastructure projects in-volving `9,310 crore.

Again, February 18, he had gifteda bouquet of development projectsworth about `10,000 crore to thestate. “Those who ruled for decadessince Independence believed Dispurwas too distant from Delhi. ‘Dilli abdoor nahi aapke darwaaze par hai’(Delhi is not far now, it stands at yourdoorstep," he told a massive gath-ering. The previous governmentsadopted “step-motherly” approachto the north bank region and neg-lected connectivity, health, educa-tion and industry, he alleged.

“I had come earlier to Gogamuk

in the state’s north bank and saidthat Assam and the northeast willbecome the new growth engine ofthe country and now we see this be-lief bear fruit,” he said.

Modi opens coffers forAssam before polls

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Rampur (UP), Feb 22: The 12-year-old son of Shabnam Ali, a deathrow convict lodged in Rampur jail,has met his mother.

The boy, accompanied by hisguardian, Usman, met his motherfor about 45 minutes Sunday. Helater told the media his mother hasurged him to focus on his studies.

“My mother asked me to focus onmy studies. I am requesting‘President uncle’ again to forgiveher,” he said.

Earlier, a photograph of the boyholding a placard that said,“President uncle, please forgive mymother Shabnam,” had gone viralon the social media.

Rampur Jail Superintendent PDSalonia said: “After the news ar-rived that preparations had begunto hang Shabnam at Mathura jail,the mother and son desperatelywanted to meet each other.”

“The boy, who otherwise visits hismother in Rampur jail along withhis guardian every three months,came to visit her here Sunday af-ternoon. The meeting continuedfor around 45 minutes followingwhich he left.”

Shabnam, now 38, had been con-victed of killing seven of her fam-ily members – her mother, father, twobrothers, sister-in-law, cousin and10-month-old nephew – after herfamily opposed her relationshipwith Salim.

The two of them slit their throatsafter serving them sedative-laced

milk. Shabnam was pregnant atthe time.

She gave birth in Moradabad jailin December 2008. When he turnedsix, the Child Welfare Committee(CWC) in Amroha handed him overto his guardian, a resident ofBulandshahr district.

Shabnam and Salim, meanwhile,were convicted in 2010 and, then, sen-tenced to death. Shabnam chal-lenged the Amroha sessions courtverdict in the Allahabad High Courtand the Supreme Court, and alsosought mercy from the Presidentafter all three did not accept herplea. She went back to the the apexcourt which again rejected her re-view petition in January last year.

Over the past six years, everythree months, the boy is taken to theAmroha CWC and then the Rampur

jail, where his mother is lodged.Usman, who has been taking care

of the boy, told reporters thatShabnam told her son that she is notguilty of the crime she has beenconvicted of.

“She wants a CBI inquiry be-cause she insists that she has beenframed in the matter,” he said.

While she has not exhausted herlegal options, the Mathura jail ispreparing to hang her.

Director General of PrisonsAnand Kumar said: “As and whenthe date is finalized and the deathwarrant issued, Shabnam will betaken to Mathura jail for hanging.”

Shabnam will be the first womanin Independent India to be taken tothe gallows.

Death row convict Shabnam meets son, urges him to studyEarlier, a photograph of the boy holding a placard that said, “President uncle, please forgive my mother Shabnam,” had gone viral on the social media

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, Feb 22: A team of CBIvisited the residence of TMC MPAbhishek Banerjee’s sister-in-lawMenaka Gambhir in KolkataMonday to examine her in con-nection with the coal pilferagecase, officials said.

Two women officers of the CBIare examining Gambhir at herresidence after a notice was servedto her Sunday, they said.

Gambhir is the sister ofAbhishek’s wife Rujira Banerjeewho told the CBI earlier in theday that she will be availablefor examination in connectionwith the case at her residence inHarish Mukherjee Road between11 am to 3 pm on February 23,they added.

Abhishek, the TrinamoolCongress' Diamond Harbour MP,is the nephew of Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee.

The CBI had registered anFIR in November last yearagainst the alleged kingpin ofthe pilferage racket Manjhi aliasLala, Eastern Coalfield LtdGeneral Managers Amit KumarDhar (of then Kunustoria areanow Pandaveswar area) andJayesh Chandra Rai (Kajor area),besides ECL Chief of SecurityTanmay Das, Area SecurityInspector, Kunustoria DhananjayRai and SSI and security in-charge Kajor area DebashishMukherjee.

It is alleged that accused ManjhiLala is involved in the illegal min-ing and theft of coal from leaseholdmines of ECL in Kunustoria andKajora areas, sources said.

COAL THEFT CASE

CBI EXAMINESABHISHEK’SSISTER-IN-LAW

Chief Minister V Narayanasamy submitting his resignation to Lt GovernorTamilisai Soundararajan, Monday

Members of Indian Youth Congress hold placards during a protest against the arrest of climate activist Disha Ravi, inNew Delhi, Monday PTI PHOTO

SHOWING SOLIDARITY

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Chennai, Feb 22: Wary of the VKSasikala factor, the AIADMKMonday asked its cadres to take apledge, in the name of J Jayalalithaaon the former Chief Minister’sbirth anniversary February 24 bylighting a lamp in their houses, toguard the party.

While the “test” of Assemblypolls is round the corner in abouttwo months, enemies and betrayershave joined hands to defeat theAIADMK, top party leaders OPanneerselvam and K Palaniswamisaid in a letter to cadres.

Vowing to retain power for the sec-ond time in a row, they said such'anti-people' forces must be taughta lesson again by vanquishing themthrough hardwork, unity and alle-giance to the party.

Palaniswami, co-coordinator and

Chief Minister and Panneerselvam,coordinator and Deputy ChiefMinister, however, did not explicitlyname anyone.

Their call to cadres assumes sig-nificance against the backgroundof the recent return of expelledleader VK Sasikala to Tamil Nadufrom Karnataka and her nephewAmma Makkal MunnetraKazhag am leader T TVDhinakaran’s stand to ‘retrieve’the AIADMK.

Panneerselvam and Palaniswamiasserted that the loyalty of AIADMKworkers cannot be 'purchased'through any manner be it allure-ment or by hurling accusations.

The cadres’ allegiance is onlytowards late matriarch Jayalalithaa,the AIADMK and people, they added.

By lighting a lamp at 6 pm onFebruary 24, they should offerprayers to Jayalalithaa’s ‘atma’ and

take a vow in her name to protectpeople and guard the AIADMK tilltheir last breath, they said.

Sasikala is late AIADMK supremoJayalalithaa's confidante and she re-turned here recently after servinga four year prison sentence inBengaluru following conviction inan assets case.

Loyalty is only towards lateJayalalithaa, the AIADMK and theTamil Nadu people, Palaniswamiand Panneerselvam said.

‘Amma's soul’ would protect theAIADMK and punish through thepath of righteousness those try-ing to work against the party in-terests they said, which is seen asa reference to Sasikala andDhinakaran camp.

The benign protection to themfrom Amma’s ‘atma’ is a matter offaith and it gave them the courageto face challenges, they said.

SASIKALA FACTOR

AIADMK asks cadres totake vow in ‘Amma’s name’

WARY OF THE VK SASIKALA FACTOR,THE AIADMK MONDAY ASKED ITSCADRES TO TAKE A PLEDGE, IN THENAME OF J JAYALALITHAA ON THEFORMER CHIEF MINISTER’S BIRTHANNIVERSARY, FEBRUARY 24

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kasaragod (Ker), Feb 22: Withthe Karnataka government rein-stating stricter control of transit pas-sengers from Kerala in view of in-creasing COVID-19 positive cases,people bound to Mangalore andother parts of Dakshina Kannadafrom here for various purposes, in-cluding medical needs and stud-ies, are in a fix again.

Long queues of vehicles could beseen in the border areas since morn-ing as Karnataka authorities sealedmany roads, including nationalhighways and restricted entry onlyfor those with COVID-19 negative

certificates. The Dakshina Kannadaauthorities sealed all borders fromMonda, except four to cross over,sources said.

According to Karnataka officialsat the borders,those who wish toenter the state have to produceCOVID-19 negative certificatethrough an RT-PCR test taken 72hours prior to their cross over time.

Health and police personnel areon duty at the four borders,viz.Talapady in Mangalore taluk,Saradka in Bantwal, Nettanige-

Mudnuru in Puttur taluk andJalsoor in Sullia, to verify and allowpeople's entry into Karnataka.

Meanwhile, Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan said theissue would be brought to the no-tice of the Centre.

“Karnataka’s move closing theborder roads and blocking vehi-cles is against the Central govern-ment’s guidelines that no stateshould impose any restriction on theinter-state travel,” he said.

Speaking at the COVID-19 re-view meeting , he also said state DGPLoknath Behera had alreadybrought the matter to the notice ofhis counterpart in Karnataka.

K’TAKA CLOSES BORDERS WITH KERALA

Modi attacks Mamataover ‘cut money’Chuchura (WB): Launching afrontal attack on the MamataBanerjee government, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi allegedMonday it has perpetuated“syndicate raj” in all spheres oflife in West Bengal where no workgets done without commonpeople having to pay “cutmoney”. He accused the TMCgovernment of pursuing"appeasement politics" to protectits vote bank while neglecting itscultural heritage and icons. “Thestate government’s cut moneyculture has vitiated theatmosphere to such an extentthat you cannot even take ahouse on rent without payingit....You cannot rent a housewithout the syndicate’spermission,” he said. Heattacked the Banerjeegovernment for not allowingcentral schemes like the PM KisanSamman Nidhi and AyushmanBharat, depriving farmers and thepoor of its benefits.

COVID PROTOCOL

P7

nationalTUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

The British had triedto divide the

country by fanning separatistsentiment among theMuslims community. I appealto all to live with unity andcontribute to thedevelopment of the countryMOHAN BHAGAWAT | RSS CHIEF

Train services resumed in theKashmir Valley Monday afterremaining suspended foraround 11 months due to theCOVID-19 pandemic

TRAIN SERVICES RESUME INVALLEY AFTER 11 MONTHS

yy

cmyk

cmyk

MK representsa bad, virulentideology

which is anti-Hindu.Every Tamil is aproud Hindu

TEJASVI SURYA |BJP YUVA MORCHA CHIEF

of theday uote

Incidents likeMuzaffarpurand Gopalganj

are happening inother states toodespite strict ban onliquor due to liquortraders and mafias

NITISH KUMAR | BIHAR CHIEF MINISTER

We did notask for it(new

Parliamentbuilding). It is not anecessity now inthis pandemicperiod. If they had constructed ahospital and cut our funds for fiveyears (for such purpose), I wouldhave gladly given it

SUPRIYA SULE | NCP LEADER

IED detected onSrinagar highwaySrinagar: A major tragedywas averted Monday whenthe security forces detectedan improvised explosivedevice (IED) near the railwaycrossing in the Nowgam areaof Jammu and Kashmir'sBudgam district on theSrinagar-Jammu nationalhighway. Police said apatrolling party of thesecurity forces detected theIED on the national highway.“Movement of traffic hasbeen halted in the area. Bombdisposal squad has beendeployed to defuse the IED,”police sources said.

Five killed in car-bus collisionAhmednagar (Maharashtra):Five persons travelling in acar were killed in a head-oncollision with a private travelbus near Devgad, earlyMonday morning, policeofficials said. According toan official of Nevasa policestation, the accidentoccurred around 2 a.m. onthe Ahmednagar-Aurangabad Highway. “Whenthe car was approaching theDevgad Phata, it was hit by aprivate tourist bus comingfrom the opposite direction.All the five occupants of thecar were severely injuredand are believed to havesuccumbed on the spot," theofficial said.

Son held forkilling motherAligarh (UP): The 24-year-oldson of a jeweller allegedlymurdered his mother andlooted valuables worth over`1 crore from her house in theSaroj Nagar Colony ofAligarh. The accused, Yogesh,and his three associates,including two women, werearrested Sunday and thestolen gold, diamond andsilver jewellery wererecovered from them.Jeweller Kuldeep Verma's sonYogesh, a commercegraduate, was livingseparately in a rentedaccommodation for the pastsix months after he tied aknot with a married woman,Sonam, against his parents’wishes.

5 killed in Biharroad mishapKatihar (Bihar): Five peoplewere killed and five werecritically injured in a truck-auto collision near Pothiapolice station in Katihardistrict of Bihar. All thedeceased were identified asthe members of a band. Theincident happened on NH-31when a truck coming fromBhagalpur lost control nearKhaira Mod and collided withan auto coming from theopposite direction, a policeofficial said.

SHORT TAKES

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lucknow, Feb 22: Religious de-velopment is a major aspect of thebudget tabled by the Yogi Adityanathgovernment in its last Budget beforeAssembly elections.

The Budget focuses on funds fordevelopment of religious cities in-cluding Ayodhya, Chitrakoot,Varanasi, Naimsharainya andVindhyachal.

Tourist amenities in these placesof religious significance will be up-graded in the coming year andair and road connectivity will beupgraded. Talking to reporters,Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaid that the state governmentwould make efforts to take thesecities to a global level.

He said that memorial and li-braries would be set up to com-memorate the memory of freedomfighters like the government haddone with the Chaura Chauri in-cident.The Budget earmarks `200crore for development of tourismin these sectors.

Ayodhya, alone, has been allo-cated ̀ 100 crore while another ̀ 300

crore will be spent on road con-nectivity to the holy city.

The state government has al-lotted `140 crore for develop-ment and renovation of theSuryakund temple. Chitrakootdevelopment has been allotted`20 crore in the Budget whileVindhyachal and Naimsharainyaget `30 crore.

Varanasi has been given `100crore for beautification and devel-opment of tourist amenities.

The state government proposesto set up a tribal museum inLucknow with `8 crore and a free-dom fighters ' museum inShahjahanpur with `4 crore.

The Chief Minister said that theBudget for 2021-22 was welfare-ori-ented and focused on all sections ofsociety.

“This will give new wings to de-velopment and aspirations ofthe people. We are aiming at all-round development, electricity for

all, drinking water for all androads for all. There are schemesfor farmers, youth, women andwe are moving ahead with ourpromises,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that thetarget for excise revenue was ̀ 41,500crore and the government was con-fident of achieving this.

He said that the state was at-tracting investments mainly dueto ease of doing business and thepolicies being formulated.

THE BUDGET FOCUSES ON FUNDSFOR DEVELOPMENT OF RELIGIOUS

CITIES INCLUDING AYODHYA,CHITRAKOOT, VARANASI,

NAIMSHARAINYA ANDVINDHYACHAL

AYODHYA, ALONE, HAS BEENALLOCATED `100 CR WHILE

ANOTHER `300 CR WILL BE SPENTON ROAD CONNECTIVITY TO THE

HOLY CITY

CHITRAKOOT DEVELOPMENT HASBEEN ALLOTTED `20 CR IN THE

BUDGET WHILE VINDHYACHAL ANDNAIMSHARAINYA GET `30 CR

Yogi's Budget focuses on religious development

Uttar Pradesh Finance Minister Suresh Khanna presents the paperless stateBudget 2021-22 in the UP Legislative Assembly in Lucknow, Monday PTI PHOTO

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Feb 22: Fresh COVID-19 cases continue to show an upwardtrend over the past one week. Indiareported 14,199 new cases in thelast 24 hours on Monday with theoverall tally mounting to 1,10,05,850,health officials said.

The Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare said that therewere 83 more deaths, taking theoverall toll to 1,56,385.

Over past one month, the coun-try has been recording less than15,000 new infections daily withthe toll not crossing the 200-mark.

However, in the past few daysthe coronavirus cases in variousparts of the country suddenlyshowed a spike. On Saturday, 14,264cases were reported, February 20,there were 13,993, February 19, thecount of new cases was 13,193,February 18 it was 12,881, February17, the number was 11,610, February16 the number was 9,121.

Last week, the health ministryofficials said that the average dailynew infections for the last 15 dayswere oscillating between 9,000 and

12,000 while the deaths were be-tween 78 and 120.

On February 9, India had reported9,110 new cases, the lowest this yearso far. Last year, the lowest 9,633cases were recorded June 3.

As per the Ministry's data, thereare 1,50,055 active cases at presentafter 9,695 patients were dischargedin a day. Till now, 1,06,99,410 personshave been discharged so far.

The recovery rate has remainedto 97.22 per cent, while the fatalityrate is 1.42 per cent.

The ministry also informed that6,20,216 samples were tested Sunday.The cumulative tests done by IndianCouncil of Medical Research (ICMR)so far stands at 21,15,51,746

Meanwhile, more than 1,11,16,854doses of corona vaccine have beenadministered in the country sincethe drive began January 16 after ap-proval for ‘Covishield’ and ‘Covaxin’.

As per the Union HealthMinistry, India has become thefastest nation in terms of the vac-cine doses administered, eventhough many countries hadlaunched their vaccination cam-paigns much earlier.

India’s COVID casesresurge: Over 14Kcases in 24 hours

The recovery rate has remained to 97.22 per cent,while the fatality rate is 1.42 per cent

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Guwahati, Feb 22: With Assamgearing up for an intense battle ofvotes in the upcoming Assemblyelections, the Opposition Congresshas adopted the “Chhattisgarhmodel of booth management” toreclaim power from the ruling BJP-

led alliance.In 2018, Chhattisgarh Congress

had defied all exit polls and shockedpolitical pundits winning 68 seatsout of 90, thereby snatching powerfrom BJP after 15 years. Congresscurrently has 70 MLAs there as itwon two by-elections.

A senior official of the Congressparty, who came from outside Assamand has been camping here for al-most one month, told PTI that anew energy level is seen in the partyworkers after a team fromChhattisgarh started working onthe ground. “Former Chief Minister

Tarun Gogoi’s demise affected themorale of the Assam Congress to alarge extent as he was a father-fig-ure to all. When we came in earlypart of January, people were notvery enthused against BJP’s ag-gressive campaign,” he added.

After Chhattisgarh Chief MinisterBhupesh Baghel was appointed asthe observer by the All IndiaCongress Committee for its Assamunit for the upcoming Assemblypolls things started moving veryfast in a positive direction.

“In the last 15-20 days, the entireatmosphere has changed and it isnow the rejuvenated Congress car-rying out an aggressive campaignagainst the BJP and its allies. Now,the party is very confident to givea tough fight to the ruling NDA,” saidthe official, who did not wish to beidentified.

Baghel was by the side of party

leader Rahul Gandhi when he kickstarted Assam campaign with arally at Sivsagar February 14.

The Chhattisgarh CM is makingfrequent trips to the poll-boundnortheastern state to take stock ofthe party readiness for the elections.Explaining the strategy, the officialsaid, the Chhattisgarh team is fo-cusing on micro-level booth man-agement, which helped them regainpower from the BJP there in 2018.“Around 15 specialised trainers havecome and they have already con-ducted nearly 100 training sessionssince February 1, covering 100 con-stituencies. Within next 2-3 days,we will cover all the 126 constituenciesin Assam,” the official said.

After the first level of training isover, senior party functionarieswill visit each constituency to assessthe ground situation, followed by sec-ond and third level of trainings by

different set of trainers until the elec-tions are over.

“BJP has the concept of ‘PrishthaPramukh’ or ‘Panna Prabhari’ tomanage voters in each polling booth.However, we have seen their modelfailing in Chhattisgarh as it is moreof a psychological game plan. We areworking on pure science and math-ematics,” he said without explain-ing further.

The official, however, clarifiedthat the Chhattisgarh team underBaghel will not have any say in se-lection of candidates and it will befully decided by the Assam Congressas local politics are understood bet-ter by the leaders from the state.

When contacted, Baghel’s polit-ical adviser Vinod Verma said, “Ourteams are working closely with theAssam Congress. We want to createa system, which is election agnos-tic and candidate agnostic.”

Cong adopting ‘Ch’garh model’ to regain power in Assam IN 2018,

CHHATTISGARHCONGRESS HADDEFIED ALL EXIT

POLLS ANDSHOCKED

POLITICAL PUNDITS WINNING 68

SEATS OUT OF 90

ON POLL DUTY

Paramilitary jawans patrol at Pathar Chapuri village ahead of the upcoming state Assembly polls in Birbhum districtof West Bengal, Monday PTI PHOTO

AGENCIES

Mumbai, Feb 22: Mohan Delkar,seven-term Lok Sabha memberfrom Dadra and Nagar Haveli,was found dead in a Mumbai hotelMonday, police said.

The body of Delkar (58) ,Independent MP from Dadra andNagar Haveli Union Territory,was found at the sea-facing hotelin south Mumbai’s Marine Drivearea, a police official said.

The official said a suicidenote in Gujarati was also foundalong with the body. The causeof death will be known afterautopsy, he added. An acciden-tal death report is being regis-tered based on preliminary in-formation, the official said.Delkar was in May 2019 electedto the 17th Lok Sabha, his sev-enth term in the House.

He was also a member of theStanding Committee on Personnel,Public Grievances, Law and Justiceand a member of the ConsultativeCommittee, Ministry of HomeAffairs of the Lower House.

DADRA AND NAGARHAVELI MP FOUNDDEAD IN HOTEL

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Jammu, Feb 22: NationalConference (NC) president FarooqAbdullah has advocated dialoguewith Pakistan to end terrorism inJammu and Kashmir, saying friend-ship holds the key to developmentin the region.

“Terrorism is still prevalent (inJammu and Kashmir) contrary totheir (BJPs) claim that we havefinished it. If we want to finish it,we have to talk with our neigh-bour,” Abdullah said. Talking toreporters during a visit to a mar-ket here, the former Chief Ministerof the erstwhile state rememberedfor mer Prime Minister ABVajpayee’s words “you can changeyour friends but not your neigh-bours” and said “either we grow

friendship and prosper or continuethe enmity”. He was respondingto a question about the terrorist at-tack on police in Bhagat locality ofSrinagar February 19, which left twopolicemen dead.

“This is the reality of the day. Iappeal to the government to adoptthe same approach as they hadwith China over the standoff inLadakh and started withdrawal ofits troops. The same is needed hereto pull out J&K from this (terror-ism),” he said.

Abdullah said the world hasshrunk and the country like rest ofthe world is fighting coronavirus.“We have to solve this issue aswell.” Asked whether he is hopefulof success of the ongoing Indo-China talks, the NC leader said“the issue is big.”

FAROOQ ADVOCATESDIALOGUE WITH PAK AGENCIES

New Delhi, Feb 22:Delhi Police hasgot a day's custody of Disha Ravi inthe 'toolkit' case for interrogationand confrontation with the co-ac-cused. Disha Ravi, an accused in the'toolkit' case registered by the DelhiPolice, was produced before a Delhicourt upon the expiry of her ex-tended judicial custody Monday.

A court in Delhi sent 22-year-oldenvironmental activist Disha Ravito three days' judicial custody onFriday in the 'toolkit' case. DishaRavi was arrested earlier this monthfrom her residence in Bangalore bythe Delhi Police.

The Delhi court Saturday heardDisha Ravi's bail plea and reservedits order till Tuesday. The 22-year-old environmental activist was ar-rested from Bangalore by the DelhiPolice in connection with the 'toolkit'

case earlier this month. Co-accusedShantana Muluk and Nikita Jacob,on the other hand, are out on an-ticipatory bail.

The Delhi Police Cyber Cell hadar rested Disha Ravi fromBangalore claiming that she hadsent the toolkit to teen climate ac-tivist Greta Thunberg throughthe Telegram app, and also "coaxedher to act on it". Officials claimedthat Disha Ravi was an editor of

the "toolkit Google doc" and "keyconspirator" in its formulationand dissemination.

A day ahead of the hearing of thebail plea on Saturday, the DelhiHigh Court had remanded DishaRavi to three days' judicial custodyafter her five-day custodial inter-rogation ended.

Delhi Police had said her custo-dial interrogation was not requiredfor the time being and the agencymay seek her further interroga-tion once her co-accused – ShantanuMukul and Nikita Jacob – join theinterrogation.

Investigators also said DishaRavi was evasive during her pre-vious interrogation and tried toshift the blame on the co-accused.Shantanu Mukul and Nikita Jacobhave been asked to appear before theinvestigating agency February 22,Delhi Police told the court.

Disha sent to 1-day police custody INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Lucknow, Feb 22: Even asSamajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav dilly-dallies overhis pact with his estranged uncleShivpal Yadav’s PragatisheelSamajwadi Party Lohia (PSPL), thelatter is wasting no time in mak-ing new friends in politics.

Shivpal Yadav had a long meet-ing with All India Majlis-e-IttehadulMuslimeen (AIMIM) chiefAsaduddin Owaisi in AzamgarhSaturday. The occasion was a wed-ding in the family of AIMIM UttarPradesh chief Shaukat Ali andboth leaders were there to attendthe wedding. “Shivpal and Owaisihad a lengthy discussion, appar-ently on the political situationand possible alliances. Shivpal,later, side-tracked queries on whathad transpired between them.

Shivpal-Owaisi pacton the cards in UP

FAA orders United toinspect Boeing 777sASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington, Feb 22: Federal avi-ation regulators are orderingUnited Airlines to step up in-spections of all Boeing 777sequipped with the type of enginethat suffered a catastrophic failureover Denver Saturday.

United said it is temporarilyremoving those aircraft from serv-ice, as meanwhile Boeing recom-mended grounding aircraft withthat model engine until the FederalAviation.

The announcements come aday after United Airlines Flight 328had to make an emergency land-ing at Denver International Airportafter its right engine blew apart justafter takeoff. Pieces of the casingof the engine, a Pratt & WhitneyPW4000, rained down on suburbanneighborhoods.

The plane with 231 passengersand 10 crew members on boardlanded safely, and nobody aboardor on the ground was reportedhurt, authorities said.

The Federal AviationAdministration FAAAdministrator Steve Dickson saidin a statement Sunday that basedon an initial review of safety data,inspectors “concluded that the in-spection interval should be steppedup for the hollow fan blades thatare unique to this model of en-gine, used solely on Boeing 777airplanes.”

Boeing said it supported deci-sions by the Japan Civil AviationBureau and FAA to suspend op-erations of all 777 aircraft poweredby Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 en-gines. It said there were 69 of theengines in service and another 59in storage.

“We are working with theseregulators as they take actionswhile these planes are on theground and further inspectionsare conducted by Pratt & Whitney,”it said in a statement issued Sunday.

REUTERS

Beijing, Feb 22: Senior Chinesediplomat Wang Yi said Monday theUnited States and China could worktogether on issues like climatechange and the coronavirus pan-demic if they repaired their dam-aged bilateral relationship.

Wang, a Chinese state councilorand foreign minister, said Beijingstood ready to reopen constructivedialogue with Washington after re-lations between the two countriessank to their lowest in decadesunder former president DonaldTrump.

Wang called on Washington to re-move tariffs on Chinese goods andabandon what he said was an ir-rational suppression of the Chinesetech sector; steps he said wouldcreate the “necessary conditions”for cooperation.

Before Wang spoke at a forumsponsored by the foreign ministry,officials played footage of the “ping-

pong diplomacy” of 1972 when anexchange of table tennis playerscleared the way for then USPresident Richard Nixon to visitChina.

Wang urged Washington to re-spect China’s core interests, stop“smearing” the ruling CommunistParty, stop interfering in Beijing’sinternal affairs and stop “conniv-ing” with separatist forces forTaiwan’s independence.

“Over the past few years, theUnited States basically cut off bi-lateral dialogue at all levels,” Wang

said in prepared remarks trans-lated into English.

“We stand ready to have candidcommunication with the U.S. side,and engage in dialogues aimed atsolving problems.” Wang pointed toa recent call between ChinesePresident Xi Jinping and U.S.President Joe Biden as a positivestep.

Washington and Beijing haveclashed on multiple fronts includ-ing trade, accusations of humanrights crimes against the UighurMuslim minorities in the Xinjiangregion and Beijing’s territorialclaims in the resources-rich SouthChina Sea.

The Biden administration has,however, signaled it will main-tain pressure on Beijing. Biden hasvoiced concern about Beijing’s“coercive and unfair” trade prac-tices and endorsed of a Trumpadministration determinationthat China has committed geno-cide in Xinjiang.

P8TUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalI ask everyonewho has not

been vaccinated – go bevaccinated. You willhave the Green Passand you will also beable to benefit from itBENJAMIN NETANYAHU | PRIME MINISTER, ISRAEL

After beating bone cancer, HayleyArceneaux, a 29-year-old physicianassistant and a former patient is all setto join entrepreneur Jared Isaacman inSpaceX's first private spaceflight andbecome the youngest American in space

BONE CANCER SURVIVORON SPACEX FLIGHT

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The fact thatrefugees andmigrants

continue toundertake fataljourneysaccentuates theneed for immediate and collectiveregional response to search, rescueand disembarkation

INDRIKA RATWATTE | UNHCR DIRECTOR FOR

ASIA AND THE PACIFIC

of theday uote

We are verydetermined,very

committed to rollingout a free anduniversalvaccinationprogram for the people of HongKong so that we could get ourselvesout of this epidemic as soon aspossible

CARRIE LAM | CHIEF EXECUTIVE

OF HONG KONG

I think we're ina key strategiclocation to be

able to deliver thesevaccines to thedevelopingcountries that reallycan't get them

JULIAN SUTCH | COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

MANAGER, EMIRATES SKYCARGO

Terrorists kill 4 Pak womenIslamabad: Four women wereshot dead by terrorists inPakistan's North Waziristandistrict, police said Monday.The North Waziristan policesaid in a statement thatunidentified gunmen fired ata vehicle carrying the womennear Mir Ali, a major town inthe district that bordersAfghanistan, Xinhuareported. A search and strikeoperation is being continuedin the Mir Ali area to trackdown the terrorists. Policesaid the driver of the car wasinjured and is undergoing atreatment. No group orindividual has so far claimedresponsibility for the attack.

Afghan parlokays BudgetKabul: The AfghanParliament Monday approvedthe current fiscal year'sBudget with a majority ofvotes after weeks of tensionsbetween the two statebranches over the document.The fiscal year beganDecember 21, 2020, even asthe Parliament rejected theBudget draft twice, Tolo newsreported. Lawmakers and theFinance Ministry officialsagreed on almost all the 19disputed points Monday.

7 killed inNigeria crashLagos: Seven persons werekilled after a military planecrashed in Abuja, Nigeria'scapital Sunday, an officialsaid. Ibikunle Daramola, theair force spokesperson,confirmed the crash in astatement in Abuja, sayingthat “a Nigerian Air Force(NAF) Beechcraft KingAirB350i aircraft crashed whilereturning to the Abuja Airportafter reporting engine failureenroute Minna”, capital of theNiger state in the country'scentral-north region.

Philippines okaysChina’s SinovacManila: The Philippines hasofficially approved theemergency use of China'sSinovac Covid-19 vaccine, thecountry's Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) saidMonday. China's SinovacBiotech is the third vaccinemaker that was given thegreen light by the FDA,Xinhua reported. The FDAalso granted last monthemergency authorisation tothe coronavirus vaccinesmade by US pharmaceuticalfirm Pfizer and its Germanpartner BioNTech, and thoseby the University ofOxford/AstraZeneca.

SHORT TAKES

US Covid death toll nears milestone of 500,000

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington, Feb 22: The US stoodSunday at the brink of a once-un-thinkable tally 500,000 people lost tothe coronavirus.

A year into the pandemic, therunning total of lives lost was about498,000 — roughly the population ofKansas City, Missouri, and just shyof the size of Atlanta. The figurecompiled by Johns HopkinsUniversity surpasses the numberof people who died in 2019 of chroniclower respiratory diseases, stroke,Alzheimer’s, flu and pneumoniacombined.

“It’s nothing like we have everbeen through in the last 102 years,since the 1918 influenza pandemic,”

the nation’s top infectious diseaseexpert, Dr Anthony Fauci, said onCNN’s “State of the Union.”

The US virus death toll reached400,000 Jan 19 in the waning hoursin office for President DonaldTrump, whose handling of the cri-

sis was judged by public health ex-perts to be a singular failure.

The nation could pass this nextgrim milestone Monday. PresidentJoe Biden will mark the US cross-ing 500,000 lives lost from Covid-19with a moment of silence and can-

dle lighting ceremony at the WhiteHouse.

Biden will deliver remarks atsunset to honor the dead, the WhiteHouse said. He’s expected to bejoined by first lady Jill Biden andVice President Kamala Harris andher husband, Doug Emhoff.

The first known deaths fromthe virus in the U.S. happened inearly February 2020, both of themin Santa Clara County, California.It took four months to reach thefirst 100,000 dead. The toll hit200,000 deaths in September and300,000 in December. Then it tookjust over a month to go from 300,000to 400,000 and about two months toclimb from 400,000 to the brink of500,000.

REUTERS

London, Feb 22: England’s coro-navirus vaccine campaign is sig-nificantly reducing cases of Covid-19, with a drop of around 70% ininfections among healthcare work-ers who have had a first dose of thePfizer-BioNTech shot, British healthofficials said Monday.

Data analysed by Public HealthEngland (PHE) showed the Pfizerprovided high levels of protectionagainst infection and symptomaticdisease from a single dose, andthat hospitalisation and death fromCovid-19 will be reduced by morethan 75% in elderly people whohave had a first dose.

“Overall, we’re seeing a reallystrong effect to reducing any in-fection, asymptomatic and symp-tomatic,” PHE’s strategic responsedirector Susan Hopkins told amedia briefing.

PHE’s head of immunisationMary Ramsay described the dataas “strong evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is stopping peo-ple from getting infected, whilealso protecting cases against hos-

pitalisation and death”.“We should be very encouraged

by these initial findings,” she said.PHE’s findings came from two

separate analyses - one is an on-going study in healthcare work-ers, and the second is an assessmentof testing data in people aged 80 and over.

Evidence from the elderly groupshowed that one dose of the Pfizershot is 57% effective against symp-tomatic COVID-19 disease, PHEsaid, and early data suggest thesecond dose improves protectionto more than 85%.

“Hospitalisation and deathsrates are falling in all age groups,but the oldest age groups are see-ing the fastest decline since thepeak in mid-January,” a PHE state-ment said.

The vaccine also provides pro-tection against the so-called Britishvariant of the SARS-CoV-2 coron-avirus, it added.

The PHE data come as prelim-inary study findings from Scotlandon Monday also showed the vac-cination drive there is working,markedly reducing the risk of hos-pitalisation for COVID-19.

Scottish researchers said thosefindings suggested that both thePfizer and the Oxford-AstraZenecaCOVID-19 vaccines are highly ef-fective in preventing severe infections.

ANTIQUE ABODE

A truck pulls a Victorian home built in 1882 which was moved to a new location in San Francisco, Sunday

AGENCIES

Berlin, Feb 22: Some microbesfound on Earth may temporarily sur-vive on the surface of Mars, ac-cording to a study that could bevital for the success of future mis-sions to the Red Planet.

The researchers from NASA andGerman Aerospace Center tested theendurance of microorganisms toMartian conditions by launchingthem into stratosphere, the secondmajor layer of Earth’s atmospherewhich closely represents key con-ditions on Mars.

The study, published in the jour-nal Frontiers in Microbiology, pavesthe way for understanding not onlythe threat of microbes to space mis-sions, but also the opportunities forresource independence from Earth.

“We successfully tested a newway of exposing bacteria and fungito Mars-like conditions by using a

scientific balloon to fly our exper-imental equipment up to Earth’sstratosphere,” said Marta FilipaCortesao, joint first author of thestudy from the German AerospaceCenter.

“Some microbes, in particularspores from the black mold fungus,were able to survive the trip, evenwhen exposed to very high UV ra-diation,” Cortesa said.

When searching for extra-ter-restrial life, the scientists need tobe sure that anything that they dis-cover has not just travelled fromthe Earth.

“With crewed long-term missionsto Mars, we need to know howhuman-associated microorganismswould survive on the Red Planet, assome may pose a health risk to as-tronauts,” said joint first authorKatharina Siems, also based at theGerman Aerospace Center.

“In addition, some microbes could

be invaluable for space exploration.They could help us produce foodand material supplies independ-ently from Earth, which will becrucial when far away from home,”Siems said.

Many key characteristics of theenvironment at the Martian sur-face cannot be found or easily repli-cated at the surface of Earth; how-

ever in middle stratosphere theconditions are remarkably similar.

“We launched the microbes intothe stratosphere inside theMARSBOx (Microbes inAtmosphere for Radiation, Survivaland Biological Outcomes experi-ment) payload, which was kept atMartian pressure and filled with ar-tificial Martian atmosphere through-

out the mission,” explained Cortesao.“The box carried two sample lay-

ers, with the bottom layer shieldedfrom radiation,” she said.

This allowed the researchers toseparate the effects of radiationfrom the other tested conditions: des-iccation, atmosphere, and temper-ature fluctuation during the flight.

The top layer samples were ex-posed to more than a thousandtimes more ultraviolet (UV) radia-tion than levels that can cause sun-burn on our skin, they said.

“While not all the microbes sur-vived the trip, one previously de-tected on the International SpaceStation, the black mold Aspergillusniger, could be revived after it re-turned home,” Siems explained.

“Microorganisms are closely-connected to us; our body, our food,our environment, so it is impossi-ble to rule them out of space travel,”she said.

CHINA CALLS FOR RESET IN SINO-US RELATIONS

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Port Louis, Feb 22: India Mondaysigned a landmark ComprehensiveEconomic Cooperation andPartnership Agreement (CECPA)with Mauritius, the first if its kindwith an African nation, makingthe strategically-located countrya launch-padfor businessexpansioninto the hugeAfrican con-tinent.

Today is in-deed a specialday in ourspecial rela-tionship, External Affairs MinisterS Jaishankar said while jointly ad-dressing the media with PrimeMinister Pravind Jugnauth hereafter calling on the Indian-originleader.

India is privileged to have en-tered into a ComprehensiveEconomic Cooperation and

Partnership Agreement (CECPA)with Mauritius. This agreement isIndia’s first-such agreement with anAfrican country, Jaishankar said.

He said it will provide a timelyboost for the revival of the post-COVID economies and also enableIndian investors to use Mauritiusas a launch-pad for business ex-

pansion intocontinentalAfrica help-ing theprospect ofMauritiusemerging asa ‘hub ofAfrica’.

PrimeMinister Jugnauth also noted that theCECPA is the first of its kind signedby India with an African country.

This landmark agreement is far-reaching and will unleash new andexpanded opportunities in tradein goods and services, investment,economic cooperation and techni-cal assistance, he said.

India, Mauritius inklandmark agreement

Italian envoy killedin attack in Congo

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Kinshasa, Feb 22: The Italian am-bassador to Congo, an Italiancarabineri police officer and theirCongolese driver were killedMonday in an attack on a UNConvoy in an area that is hometo myriad rebel groups, theForeign Ministry and local peo-ple said.

The ambush occurred as theconvoy was travelling from Goma,Congo’s eastern regional capital,to visit a World Food Programschool feeding project in Rutshuru,the UN Agency said in a state-ment.

WFP said it was seeking in-formation from local authorities,as the ambush occurred on a roadthat had previously been clearedfor travel without security es-corts.

Luca Attanasio, Italy’s ambas-sador to the country since 2017,carabinieri officer VittorioIacovacci and their driver werekilled. Other members of the con-voy were injured, WFP said.

PTI PHOTO

COVID infectionsdrop by 70pc postfirst Pfizer shot

Data analysed by PHEshowed the Pfizer

provided high levels ofprotection against

infection and symptomaticdisease from a single dose,

and that hospitalisationand death from Covid-19will be reduced by more

than 75% in elderly peoplewho have had a first dose

A YEAR INTO THE PANDEMIC, THE RUNNING TOTAL OF LIVES LOST WAS ABOUT 498,000 - ROUGHLYTHE POPULATION OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, AND JUST SHY OF THE SIZE OF ATLANTA

‘Earth’s microbes could temporarily survive on Mars’

P9

businessTUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

The worst is overfor the aviation

sector which hassuccessfully transformedits image as an elitist modeof transportation to that ofa bare essential onePRADEEP SINGH KHAROLA | CIVIL AVIATION SECRETARY

Buoyed by the tremendous growth inthe life sciences industry in Telanganaamidst the pandemic over the last oneyear, the state government has set thevision to growing the sector to $100billion dollars by 2030

LIFE SCIENCES TO BECOMEA $100 BILLION INDUSTRY

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We are gladthat despitethe global

pandemic and itsadverse impact,Udaan kept thewheels of smallbusinesses across Bharat movingby leveraging the power and scaleof e-commerce

KUMAR SAURABH |HEAD (LIFESTYLE BUSINESS), UDAAN

of theday uote

We know thatthe new USadministration

is reviewing andassessing its foreignpolicy. We hope thatthe policymakerswill keep pace with the times, seeclearly the trend of the world,abandon biases, give upunwarranted suspicions and ensurea steady development of China-USrelations

WANG YI | FOREIGN MINISTER, CHINA

Despite thepresence ofprevalent

challenges like localpolitical hindrancesand naturalcalamities in themicrofinance segment, thecollections in ICRA-ratedmicrofinance pools saw a healthyrecovery after dipping to the lowersingle digits in April 2020

ABHISHEK DAFRIA | VP AND HEAD

(STRUCTURED FINANCE RATINGS), ICRA

CCI approvesstake purchaseNew Delhi: The CompetitionCommission of India (CCI)Monday said it has approvedacquisition of shares of TataCommunications Ltd (TCL) byPanatone Finvest Ltd. Theproposed deal envisagesacquisition of shareholdingnot exceeding 26.12 per centby Panatone Finvest Ltd inTata Communications Ltd(erstwhile VSNL). PanatoneFinvest Ltd is a non-deposittaking core investment armof Tata Sons. TheGovernment of India looks todivest its 26.12 per centequity stake in TCL.

Amazon summit tobe held virtuallyBangalore: Amazon IndiaMonday announced that itwill host the second editionof 'Amazon Smbhav' duringApril 15-18, 2021. A companystatement said that the eventwill be held virtually. Smbhav2021 will bring togetherindustry and thought leadersfor invigorating discussionson way ahead towardscreating an AatmanirbharBharat by unlockingpossibilities for businessesand entrepreneurs throughpartnership with Amazon, itsaid.

MediBuddy raises$20mn fundingNew Delhi: Health-techcompany MediBuddy Mondaysaid it raised $20 million(about `145 crore) earlier thismonth from India LifeSciences Fund III, LLC andothers. The company hadannounced an initial fundingof $20 million in June lastyear under the series Bround, a statement said. "Theadditional infusion of $20million led by India LifeSciences Fund III, LLC, withparticipation from otherinvestors," it added.

OLX Autos getnew Global CEONew Delhi: Prosus-ownedOLX Group Monday said ithas appointed former StarSports President and CEOGautam Thakar as GlobalCEO of its pre-owned carmarketplace OLX Autoseffective March 15 of thisyear. Thakar will lead aworldwide organisation with a workforce of morethan 4,000 employees across Asia, Africa, LatinAmerica, and the US.

SHORT TAKES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, Feb 22: The growth mo-mentum needs to be strengthenedfor a sustained revival of the econ-omy and quick return to the pre-COVID trajectory, opined RBIGovernor Shaktikanta Das whilepitching for a status quo on ratesat the last meeting of the MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC).

All the six members of the MPChad voted for keeping the policyrepo rate unchanged at 4 per centat the three-day meeting whichbegan on February 3, citing simi-lar reasons.

Das, according to the minutesof the meeting released by RBIMonday, had said: "Growth, al-though uneven, is recovering andgathering momentum, and the out-look has improved significantlywith the rollout of the vaccine pro-

gramme in the country.""The growth momentum, how-

ever, needs to strengthen further fora sustained revival of the economyand for a quick return of the levelof output to the pre-COVID trajec-tory," he added.

Given the sharp moderation ininflation along with a stable near-term outlook, he said, the monetarypolicy needs to continue with theaccommodative stance to ensurethat the recovery gains greatertraction and becomes broad-based.

The RBI kept the policy rate un-changed for the third time in a rowin its last monetary policy reviewfor 2020-21 February 5.

The MPC, headed by the RBIGovernor, also decided to continuewith the accommodative stance aslong as necessary.

The RBI has been set a mediumterm target to keep retail inflation

at 4 per cent with a bias of +/- 2 percent on the either side.

The other members of the com-mittee are Shashanka Bhide, SeniorAdvisor, National Council of AppliedEconomic Research, Delhi; AshimaGoyal, Professor, Indira GandhiInstitute of Development Research,Mumbai; Jayanth R Var ma,Professor, IIM-Ahmedabad; MridulK Saggar, Executive Director, RBI;and Michael Debabrata Patra,Deputy Governor in charge of mon-etary policy.

Bhide, said the MPC is commit-ted to continuing with the accom-modative stance as long as neces-sary -- at least during the currentfinancial year and into the nextfiscal.

He said the stance is in conso-nance to revive growth on a durablebasis and mitigate the impact ofCOVID-19 on the economy, whileensuring that inflation remainswithin the target going forward.

"The current macroeconomicconfiguration and its expected fu-ture evolution as outlined aboveimplies there is space for the MPCto continue to support the revivalof the economy with inflation re-maining in the target band. Thus,I vote to maintain the status quo inpolicy rate and stance," Goyal said.

Growth momentum needsto be strengthened: RBI Guv

Growth, althoughuneven, is recovering

and gatheringmomentum, and the outlookhas improved significantly

with the rollout of thevaccine programme in the

countrySHAKTIKANTA DAS I GOVERNOR, RBI

REUTERS

Canberra, Feb 22: Australia willnot alter legislation that wouldmake Facebook and Alphabet Inc’sGoogle pay news outlets for content,a senior lawmaker said Monday,as Canberra neared a final vote onwhether to pass the bill into law.

Australia and the tech giantshave been in a stand-off over the leg-islation widely seen as setting aglobal precedent. Other countriesincluding Canada and Britain havealready expressed interest in tak-ing some sort of similar action.

Facebook has protested the laws.Last week it blocked all news con-tent and several state governmentand emergency department ac-counts, in a jolt to the global newsindustry, which has already seen itsbusiness model upended by the ti-tans of the technological revolution.

Talks between Australia andFacebook over the weekend yieldedno breakthrough.

As Australia’s senate began de-bating the legislation, the coun-try’s most senior lawmaker in theupper house said there would be nofurther amendments.

“The bill as it stands ... meets theright balance,” Simon Birmingham,Australia’s Minister for Finance,

told Australian Broadcasting CorpRadio. The bill in its present formensures “Australian-generated newscontent by Australian-generatednews organisations can and shouldbe paid for and done so in a fair andlegitimate way”.

The laws would give the gov-ernment the right to appoint anarbitrator to set content licencingfees if private negotiations fail.

While both Google and Facebookhave campaigned against the laws,Google last week inked deals withtop Australian outlets, including aglobal deal with Rupert Murdoch’sNews Corp.

No further FB, Googleamendments as finalvote nears: Australia

Australia and the techgiants have been in a

stand-off over the legislation widely

seen as setting a global precedent

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Feb 22: India Ratingsand Research Monday revised its out-look on the overall banking sectorto stable for the fiscal 2021-2022 fromnegative even as it sees higher stressemerging in the retail loan segmentgoing ahead.

For public sector banks (PSBs),the outlook has been revised to sta-ble from negative and for privatebanks, the agency continues to havestable outlook.

It estimates that overall stressedassets (gross non-performing as-sets (GNPA) + restructured) couldincrease 30 per cent for the bankingsystem, the increase is almost 1.7

times in the retail segment in thesecond half of the fiscal 2020-21.

According to the agency’s Director(financial institutions) Jindal Haria:“The last nine months have pro-vided banks the opportunity to beefup their provisions even more forlegacy stressed assets, which wereexisting before the pandemic. We ex-pect that by the end of FY21, the pro-visions will go up to almost 75-80 percent on those NPAs. This will givebanks space to absorb COVID stress.”

With the last year's change in ac-counting norms, which allows pub-lic sector banks (PSBs) to offsettheir profit and loss balance sheetswith share premium account, largebanks would be able to manage to

raise additional tier 1 capital ontheir own.

The agency also revised its creditgrowth estimates to 6.9 per cent in

FY21 from earlier 1.8 per cent, and8.9 per cent in FY22.

It said that about 1.24 per cent ofthe total bank book is under in-

cremental proforma NPA and about1.75 per cent of the total book couldbe restructured by end-FY21. Thisis the incremental stress purely onaccount of the COVID-19 pandemicand does not include the slippagesthat banks would witness in thenormal course of business, it said.

Haria said a lot of the retail stressis coming from unsecured advancesand it would be more seen in privatesector banks than public sectorbanks because of the former's higherexposure to unsecured loans.

The stock of stressed retail assetsfor PSBs could increase to 2.9 percent in FY22 from 2.1 per cent inFY21, while it could increase from1.2 per cent to 4.3 per cent for pri-

vate banks, it said.Through a bottom-up analysis

of stressed corporates using twofilters- revenue above `100 croreand interest coverage below 1.5x, theagency has assessed that stressedcorporate assets as a percentage ofgross bank credit declined to 15.3 percent at end-1HFY21 from 15.7 per centat end-FY20. "The key reasons forthe reduction are low slippages(standstill classification, morato-rium etc), write-offs of 0.9 per cent,and no advances growth in the firsthalf of FY21," it said.

The agency expects the depositrates to rise as credit growth re-vives as well as capital market flowsare enhanced.

Ind-Ra revises outlook on banking sector to ‘stable’SWINGING BACKFor PSBs, the outlook has beenrevised to stable from negative

With the last year's change inaccounting norms, large bankswould be able to manage toraise additional tier-1 capital ontheir own

The agency also revised itscredit growth estimates to 6.9%in FY21 from earlier 1.8%, and8.9% in FY22

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: The Odishagovernment Monday announcedthe allocation of `465 crore, dur-ing the presentation of ‘State Budget-2021-22’ for the promotion of stateMSME sector. The allocated amountis a jump of 86 per cent in allocationas compared to the previous year.

State MSMEs representing bod-ies like OSSIA, OYEA, UCCI,OASME breathed a sigh of relief forstate’s unexpected budget presen-tation to support the sector.

Secretary-General of OASMESatwik Swain said, “The MSME

budget has increased like never be-fore. There is a provision for censusof MSMEs which is most essentialto make the database of MSMEspresent in Odisha. All major in-centives have been increased. Thebudget has been made for inclu-sive growth of the MSME sector.”

About `125 crore has been allo-cated to provide financial assis-tance to the MSME sector, ̀ 80 crorefor promotion of the sector, and`27 crore for promotion of Khadi &village industries.

Smarajit Mohanty of OSSIA,said, “Allocation of `465 crore forMSME is more than double as com-

pared to 2020’s budget allocation. Itwill boost the sector. Also, the stategovernment has decided to makecensus to find out total MSMEs inthe state, which is a welcome step.”

Also, the state has announcedan outlay of ̀ 163 crore for handloom,

handicrafts, sericulture and tex-tile sectors. The associations hadurged state government to give spe-cial incentive to Fani but no suchannouncement was made duringthe budget session, which was dis-appointing for them.

Also, the state announced `155crore financial support to Idco forthe development of industrial in-frastructure. Swain said, “The al-located amount is seriously used byIdco. There will be a big exposurein infrastructure.”

The impact of the pandemic onthe MSME sector was severe.Considering the crisis, the state

government had already announceda special COVID package of around`289 crore to support the distressedsector. Over 1 lakh MSME unitsfaced severe loss due to the pan-demic last year. The associationsclaimed that total units faced a lossof over `1000 crore.

Reacting to the Odisha State Budget2021-22, President of the state con-federation of Credai SK Routray ex-pressed his happiness over an in-crease of around 13 per cent in budgetspending this time as compared tothe previous fiscal, amid the severeimpact of the Covid-19 pandemicand decline in the central transfer.

Big boost for MSMEs as govt allocates `465 crSTATE BUDGET 2021

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: VedantaLimited bagged the CSR ShiningStar Award under the category ofChild Development for NandGhar,Vedanta Group’s flagship corporatesocial responsibility project. Therecognition was given by Governorof Maharashtra, Bhagat SinghKoshyari in an award ceremonyheld at the Raj Bhavan, Mumbai.

The award recognises Vedanta’sefforts towards the holistic de-velopment and growth of chil-dren contributing towards build-ing a stronger and healthier nation.

Vedanta Director Priya Agarwalsaid: “We are committed in a vi-sion of eradicating child malnu-trition, providing education andhealthcare, and empowering ruralwomen through skill developmentand NandGhar will be the changeagent for the same. NandGharwill continue to create a better to-morrow for the children and theirmothers at the grassroots level.”

The NandGhar journey beganin 2015 with a vision to transformthe lives of 8.5 crore children and2 crore women across 13.7 lakhanganwadis. A dream project ofVedanta Chairman, Anil Agarwal,NandGhar is a network of modelanganwadis where the thrust is oninclusive development of chil-dren, women and local com-munities.

The NandGhars are set up in col-laboration with the Union Ministryof Women & Child Development.

VEDANTA NANDGHARBAGS CSR AWARD

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: ParadipPort authorities Monday saidthat the port handled 100 millionmetric tonnes (MMT) of cargo,fourth year in row. It once againrepeated the feat by crossing the100 MMT mark in succession andachieved cargo throughput of100.30 MMT till February 21, 2021in the current fiscal.

According to the officials, theabove achievement of 100 MMT ofcargo again by PPT in the cur-rent fiscal is despite global COVID-19 crisis and 2 of its existing berthsare not available for handling ofcargo these are under mechani-sation process.

For the above feat , PPTChairman Vinit Kumar congrat-ulates the user industries,Stevedores, Steamer Agents, TradeUnions to have their continuedfaith on the ability of the Port toserve them.

Congratulating the employeesand officers of the Port for theircontinued commitment to serve thetrade, Chairman, PPT takes thepleasure of appreciating the sup-port of Govt. authorities likeMinistry of Ports, Shipping &Waterways (GoI), Govt. of Odisha,Indian Railways, Customs,Immigration Department, DockSafety, MMD as well as all ServiceProviders/Terminal Operatorsfor their sustained effort in achiev-ing the above feat.

Paradip port handles100 MMT cargo again

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Feb 22: The SupremeCourt barred Monday a final rul-ing by a tribunal reviewingFuture Group’s $3.4 billion saleof retail assets until the top courthears objections from aggrievedpartner Amazon.com Inc, threesources said.

Amazon appealed to the SupremeCourt this month against FutureGroup’s sale to market leaderReliance Industries (RIL), accus-ing its partner of violating con-tracts by agreeing to the sale.

The outcome of the tussle in-volving two of the world’s rich-est men, Amazon’s Jeff Bezosand Reliance‘s Mukesh Ambani,could reshape India’s pandemic-hit shopping sector and decide ifAmazon can blunt Reliance‘sdominance of retail.

Three people familiar withMonday’s proceedings said theSupreme Court ordered that whilethe tribunal can continue to re-view the deal and oversee the ap-proval process, it could not pass a

final order while the court hearsAmazon’s concerns.

“This is a good thing for Amazon,”said one of the sources, who has di-rect knowledge of events.

Indian stock exchanges and theantitrust watchdog have alreadycleared the deal, which now awaitsclearance by the National CompanyLaw Tribunal (NCLT), in line withregulatory procedures.

A second source said Future hadonly asked the NCLT to let it to callmeetings to seek shareholder ap-provals of the deal. That process will

continue, and Future will later seekfinal approval from the tribunal, thesource added.

Amazon declined to comment,while Future Group and Reliancedid not immediately respond to arequest for comment.

The sources sought anonymityas they were not authorised tospeak to media. In its SupremeCourt appeal, Amazon will arguethat an arbitration order in Octoberthat put the Future–Reliance dealon hold remains valid, Reutershas reported.

SC bars Future Group’s RILdeal on Amazon appealAGENCIES

Frankfurt, Feb 22:Optimism roseamong German businesses inFebruary, according to a closelywatched survey - despite a worri-some flattening out in the declineof infections.

The index of business sentimentcompiled by the Ifo institute showedthat industry continues to hold upbetter than public-facing servicesduring the pandemic, even as bat-tered tourism businesses expressedcautious optimism about the up-coming vacation season.

The survey index for Europe’slargest economy climbed to 92.4points after a reading of 90.3 pointsin January, the institute said in anews release Monday.

The results show brighteningoutlooks among thousands ofGerman businesses, particularlyin manufacturing and industry,where the index rose in all im-portant sectors.

Retailers were somewhat lesspessimistic than the month be-fore, despite collapsing sales. Forhospitality businesses such as ho-tels and restaurants, “the situa-tion remains difficult,” the Munich-

based institute said, while “in thetourism sector there is cautious op-timism again regarding the va-cation season.”

The outlook brightened despitecaution from German HealthMinister Jens Spahn, who Fridaynoted that infection numbers havestopped declining in recent days.Elementary schools and kinder-gartens reopened in 10 of the 16German federal regions Monday butwidespread restrictions on busi-ness activity remain in force.

Manufacturing businessessuch as the auto industry, a majoremployer, have been able to copebetter with anti-pandemic meas-ures than companies that de-pend on face to face contact withcustomers.

GERMAN BIZ OPTIMISM UPAMID PANDEMIC BURDENS

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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sportsTUESDAY | FEBRUARY 23 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

BACKPAGE

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Ahmedabad, Feb 22: On the cuspof becoming only the second Indianpacer after the legendary KapilDev to play 100 Tests, Ishant Sharmaon Monday attributed his remark-able longevity in the game to un-derstanding what the ‘captain wantsfrom him’.

Ishant made his Test debut as agangly 18-year-old in Bangladeshwhen Rahul Dravid was the captainand subsequently was led by AnilKumble, Mahendra Singh Dhoni,Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahaneduring the last decade and half.

So which captain understoodhim the best in all these years? “Itis difficult to say who understood methe most as all of them understoodme really well. But more than thecaptain understanding me, it was al-ways important as to how I under-stood the captain,” Ishant said dur-ing a virtual press conference aheadof the third Test against England,beginning here, Wednesday.

“That’s very important. Whatdoes the captain want from mespecifically. If those things are clear,communication becomes easier,”said the man who has 302 wicketsfrom 99 Tests so far.

Does he think that being droppedfrom white ball squads and alsomissing out on a couple of seasonsof IPL helped him reach the mile-stone quicker than many others?

“I normally treat this as a bless-ing in disguise. It’s not that I don’twant to play white ball as that’swhat is the job of a sportsman butif he is not playing, what does hedo? At best he can train.”

For him, it was important that heforgets what’s not there and be grate-ful for what he has. “I didn’t want myTest cricket to get affected becauseof my non-selection in ODIs. I shouldbe grateful that I am at least playingone format,” he said.

“May be it helped me in com-pleting 100 Tests. Having said that,I don’t think had I played three for-mats, I couldn’t have played 100Tests. May be it would have takena bit longer. I am only 32 and not 42.”

So does crossing Kapil Dev’s 131Tests cross his mind? “(Crossing)131 will take a long time. I onlywant to think about qualifying forthe World Test Championship (WTC)final. This is my World Cup whereif I win, I can have the same feel-ing that others had while winningthe ODI World Cup.”

Ask him about Jimmy Andersonplaying at 38 and if he could con-tinue till that age, he laughs. “I willgo one game at a time. You neverknow what comes next. Yes, I ammore professional about my re-covery now. Earlier, I would trainhard but didn’t focus on my re-covery. As you grow older, you needto recover well to bowl long spells,take care of your body.”

He doesn’t have a roundabout wayof speaking and when a veteran jour-nalist asked him about a whopping76 wickets in his last 20 games at anaverage of less than 20, his disarm-

ing answer would floor anyone.“I played more outside India, so

I got those wickets. If you don’tbowl in India, how would you getwickets? To be very honest, it wasjust overseas conditions.”

On who will be the leader of thepack once he leaves the scene, Ishantpicked Jasprit Bumrah. “I think Idon’t want to take one name. Youare good and that’s why you play forIndia. But I think, after me, it isJasprit Bumrah, who will play mostmatches for India.

“I think he has to lead the way andalso it will depend on how he speaksto youngsters, take them under hiswings, grooms them.”

For fast bowlers to blossom, oneneeds to understand their skill setsand plan accordingly. “(Navdeep)Saini has pace, (Mohammed) Sirajhas control. You have to under-stand people’s strength. Skill setsare different and if you tell Sainito bowl one area and Siraj to hit 140k,then you are not doing justice totheir strengths,” he explained.

As a parting shot, Ishant added: “Aslong as I can maintain the intensityin my game, I will play for India.”

Jimmy sure of no-grass wicket in MoteraPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Ahmedabad, Feb 22: Veteran fastbowler James Anderson is prettysure that the newly laid track atthe Motera Stadium will be devoidof any grass for the upcomingDay/Night Test against India eventhough there is a nice green coveron it at the moment.

The third Test under lights will startfrom Wednesday and for England’spremier fast bowler, he doesn’t expectit to behave much differently from thesecond Test track at the Chepaukwhich India won by 317 runs.

“The pitch, it has got grass on itbut I am pretty sure it’s not goingto be there when we turn up on thematch day,” Anderson said with awry smile during a virtual confer-ence with British media Sunday.

“So we have to wait and watch.As seam bowlers, we have to be

prepared to bowl as best we can inany given condition. If it swings, it’sgreat and if it does not, we stillhave a job to do,” Anderson said.

He felt that the pink SG Test ballthat he bowled with during the net ses-sions, swung more than its red coun-terpart. “Look this is the second pinkTest in India and first in February sowe don’t know how it would behave.”

He urged critics of the much-de-bated rotation policy to look at the‘bigger picture’, considering themassive amount of cricket to beplayed by the England team in thecoming days.

England did not play JonnyBairstow and Mark Wood in thefirst two Tests but have broughtthem back for the final two gamesas part of a rotation policy whilefirst-choice keeper Jos Buttler isback home after the opening Test.The idea is to help players cop up

with life inside the bio-bubble.“You have got to try and look at the

bigger picture. The idea was if Imissed that one, that would give methe best chance of being fit and fir-ing for the pink-ball Test,” Andersonsaid during virtual press conference.

Former players, especially KevinPietersen, have criticised ECB’sthought process, saying the boardmust play its best players in a bigseries like this against India.

Anderson, 38, himself played theseries-opener where he took fivewickets in England’s victory butwas rested for the second whereIndia emerged triumphant by amassive 317-run margin.

“I am feeling good and fresh andready to go again if called upon. It’sfrustrating to an extent but I can seethe bigger picture with the amountof cricket that we have got.”

To make his point, Anderson cited

injuries he had to endure in the lasttwo years when he missed matches inthe 2019 Ashes series and also couldnot play two Tests against South Africa.

“It’s the same for all bowlers, notjust me. We’ve got 17 Test matchesthis year and the best way of get-ting your best players firing for asmany of those as possible is to takelittle rests every now and then.

“It’s not a case of shielding, it’sjust a case of trying to make sureyou’re not wearing someone outuntil they completely break in half.”

England have called back pacerWood but Anderson definitely wouldnot mind bowling in tandem withStuart Broad. “That has definitelycrossed my mind. Ideally, we wouldget into a position where there willbe times – a crucial game poten-tially – when they want the expe-rience there of both of us and thatmight get called upon.”

10-man Hyderabadhold ATKMB in ISLAGENCIES

Goa, Feb 22: Hyderabad FC (HFC)were excellent against ATK MohunBagan (ATKMB), but they have toblame themselves only as lack of con-centration allowed the Kolkata sideto find the equaliser in the added-on time to finish off the match 2-2in their ISL encounter, Monday.

But credit goes to HFC as theyled at the half time by one goal,courtesy Aridane Santana (eighthminute), despite being reducedto 10 men inside opening threeminutes of the match. ManvirSingh restored parity for ATKMBin the 57th, but the Nizams re-stored their lead in the 75ththrough Roland Alberg. However,Pritam Kotal found the last-gaspequaliser to save the second-placedATKMB the blushes.

Only five minutes into the gameit looked like it would be all ATKMB.As HFC’s Chinglensana Singh sawhimself go off for an early shower afterhe pulled down David Williams and

denied him a goalscoring opportunity.But to everyone’s surprise, it wasthe Nizams who took the lead.

Three minutes after the send-ing off, an error from Pritam Kotalsaw Santana open the scoring.

ATKMB have attacked and hadsome half chances but HFC’s de-fense has been top class. TheMariners have not looked very as-tute at the back and have made afew errors. HFC themselves had afew opportunities to double thelead but have not been able to do so.

Odisha suffer 8-wicketdefeat against RailwaysPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Feb 22: Odishasuffered an eight-wicket loss intheir one-dayer of Vijay HazareTrophy against Railways at the MChinnaswamy Stadium inBangalore, Monday. They will nextface Karnataka at the Alur CricketStadium in Bangalore, Wednesday.

Odisha were bowled out for 231in 49.3 overs after being invited tobat first as Railways won the tossand opted to field.

Odisha players have got starts,but couldn’t convert those scoresin to big ones, which resulted themto be bundled out for not-so-chal-lenging total. Ankit Yadav was the

top scorer for Odisha with a 42-ball 48-run knock.

Rajesh Dhuper (36, 46b) ,Shantanu Mishra (36, 63b) andGourav Choudhury (24, 27b) alsoplayed handy knocks to help Odishago past 200-run barrier. PradeepPoojar (3/54) was the pick ofRailways bowlers and he was ablysupported by Himanshu Sangwan(2/34) and Amit Mishra (1/37).

In reply, Shivam Chaudhary ledthe run chase with an unbeaten 81off 84 balls. He was ably supportedby Pratham Singh (63, 86b), whoalso scored a half century, andMrunal Devdhar (44, 48b). Shantanu(1/36) and Saurabh Kanojia (1/48)bagged a wicket each.

Bhubaneswar: The Major Sandeep Mahapatra Memorial Open TennisChampionship will be played March 3-7 at the Gurukul Tennis Resort inMendhasal. There are five event categories – men’s singles, men’sdoubles, women’s singles, boys’ U-16 & girls U-16. The total prize moneyin the competition is `1,70,000. The men’s singles’ category carries aprize money of `30,000 to the winner and `15,000 for the runner-up.

MSSM Open Tennis C’ship from March 3

HFC players celebrate AridaneSantana’s (C) goal, Monday