6jVd `_ 8fa\Rc 2]]ZR_TV RYVRU `W R]] aRcej ^VVe

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A ll eyes are set on the formal response of the People’s Alliance For Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) to the invitation from Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, to attend the all-party meet convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on June 24. The Prime Minister’s meeting on June 24 with the political leaders of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is expected to be about the delimitation exer- cise. The meeting is an attempt by the Centre to seek political validation of the administrative exercise which started in the first week of June. But Kashmiri leaders have their own agenda for initiating the talks. “We have stressed for a col- lective fight and hence the PAGD will send two repre- sentatives to the meeting in New Delhi,” a news channel quoted a senior leader, who attended the meeting, as say- ing. “Mehbooba has not decid- ed to boycott the meeting. We are in favour of a political process but it’s a collective fight and hence we will all meet to decide who all should rep- resent us in the meeting and convey the aspirations of the people,” senior leader stressed on condition of anonymity. T he bars in Delhi will be allowed to reopen with 50 per cent seating capacity from Monday. These bars will func- tion from 12 pm to 10 pm. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Sunday released the order allowing public parks and gardens also to reopen for public. As per the order, the own- ers of restaurants and bars will be responsible for strict implementation of Covid safe- ty measures and guidelines. While the parks and gar- dens will also be opened, the Resident Welfare Association (RWAs) will have to ensure the visitors follow Covid-appro- priate behaviour. "Public parks, gardens and golf clubs will be reopened and outdoor yoga activities will also be allowed," the DDMA stated in its order. Prohibited activities and services, including schools, colleges and educational insti- tutions, cinemas, gyms, spas, all kinds of political, social, cultural, religious gatherings among others, will remain closed till further orders or 5 am on June 28. The lock- down was imposed in Delhi amid a surge in second wave of Covid-19 on April 19. Many restrictions have been lifted in a phased manner with improvement in the Covid situation, starting with allow- ing manufacturing and con- struction activities on May 31.In its order, the DDMA said it has been observed that the number of coronavirus patients and positivity rate has declined considerably and the overall situation has improved, but due caution and care has to be maintained for consolidating the whole process of Covid-19 manage- ment. The prohibited and restricted activities, according to the DDMA order, will con- tinue with effect from 5 AM on Monday till 5 AM on June 28 or further orders, whichev- er is earlier. A mid speculations of Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), the Delimitation Commission is expected to hold a virtual meet in the next few days with all Deputy Commissioners to discuss various inputs on geo- graphical features of con- stituencies and the sugges- tions made by them. Delimitation involves redraw- ing the boundaries of Assembly and Lok Sabha con- stituencies in a State or Union Territory. Sources said that the Delimitation Commission is likely to visit J&K soon to begin the delimitation exercise which was on hold due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The com- mission had recently sought data from all Deputy Commissioners on the area of existing constituencies, includ- ing geography and facilities available, and had asked them for their suggestions to make them more "geographically compact." Having received the data and suggestions, the commis- sion has decided to hold a vir- tual meeting with the DCs to take forward the matter. “As far as possible, the constituency should be fully geographical- ly compact," sources said. After the delimitation exercise, the number of Assembly seats in J&K will go up from 83 to 90. Twenty-four seats of the Assembly contin- ue to remain vacant as they fall under Pakistan-Occupied- Kashmir (PoK). A fter Punjab and Rajasthan, trouble is brewing in the JMM-Congress Party-led Government in Jharkhand. Chief Minister Hemant Soren, who camped for four days in Delhi, could not get an audi- ence from either Congress chief Sonia Gandhi or senior leader Rahul Gandhi. The Gandhis, in between, however, found the time to meet the new Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, whose DMK is an ally of the Congress in the southern State. "Hemant returned to Ranchi on Saturday. He had been repeatedly making attempts to call on Sonia and Rahul but failed. The snub has not gone down well with the JMM. Moreover, their meeting with Stalin has only rubbed salt to the wound," sources said. Filling up the vacant Cabinet berth, a possible reshuffle in the Council of Ministers and appointments to corporations among others were high on Soren's agenda, sources said. "Such developments do not augur well for the coalition when there has always been an air of mistrust among the two major coalition partners. Particularly, given the buzz of a possible BJP-JMM alliance, that keeps the Congress and the RJD on their toes. Or for that matter, the BJP getting a size- able MLAs of the JMM and the Congress to resign just as it did in several States," they added. An AICC leader, however, asserted, "Sonia could not meet Hemant as she was too busy the entire week due to develop- ments in Punjab, Rajasthan and Maharashtra as well. There is no problem in the Jharkhand coalition." The Congress is saddled with the power tussles between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan and Navjot Singh Sidhu and Amarinder Singh in Punjab. Jharkhand Congress chief and Finance Minister in Hemant's Government, Rameshwar Oraon, too, had come to Delhi to discuss "party affairs" besides appointments in corporations and commissions etc under the State Government. Both Hemant and Oraon would have partic- ipated in the meeting with the Congress top brass to discuss all the pending issues. Both the JMM and the Congress have staked claim to the vacant 12th berth in the Soren Cabinet. Besides the CM, the JMM has five Ministers while the Congress has four and other ally RJD one ministerial berth. C ome Monday and the next phase of India's vaccina- tion drive will kick-off across the country with the Central Government providing free Covid-19 vaccines to every- one above the age of 18 years. Since the launch of the nationwide vaccination pro- gramme from January 16, the June 21 drive will mark a departure from its earlier "lib- eralised and accelerated" vac- cination policy. F rom political personalities to commoners, from Bollywood celebrities to jawans guarding India's borders, peo- ple from all walks of life will stretch and bend in their homes, parks and grounds to mark the International Yoga Day on June 21 , which will be celebrated amid the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic for the second year in a row. The Union Ayush Ministry, which is the nodal Ministry for International Day of Yoga (IDY), said in a statement that in view of the Covid-19 pan- demic and the consequent restrictions on congregational activities, the lead event of the day will be a televised pro- gramme. The highlight of course will be Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the nation. This year's theme is ‘Yoga for Wellness.’ The Prime Minister tweeted, "Tomorrow, June 21, we will mark the sev- enth Yoga Day. The theme this year is 'Yoga For Wellness', which focusses on Yoga for physical and mental well- being." Scheduled to start at 6.30 am on all Doordarshan chan- nels on Monday, the event will also include an address by Minister of State for Ayush Kiren Rijiju and a live Yoga demonstration by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga, the Ministry said in a statement. T he United Nations Special rapporteurs have criticised the new Information Technology (IT) rules, prompt- ing a strong rebuttal from the Government. In its letter dated June 11, UN special rappor- teurs on right to freedom of opinion, peaceful assembly, and privacy said India's Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, in their current form, do not conform with international human rights norms. The seven-page commu- nication expressed concerns on various other aspects of the IT rules, and asked the Government for a response. The letter is authored by Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Clement Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and Joseph Cannataci, Special Rapporteur on right to priva- cy. The UN special rapporteurs in its letter said India's new IT Rules are in violation of rules laid down in International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a key inter- national human rights treaty. A head of an expected Cabinet reshuffle and the June 24 Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) political outreach by the Central Government aimed at restarting the electoral process in the Union Territory (UT), a high-level ministerial meeting was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence here on Sunday. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh attend- ed the meeting. Besides the two bigwigs, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal are also learnt to have attended the discussions. T he Covid-19 positive cases increased marginally to 3,577 on Sunday from 3,427 on Saturday. The new cases were reported from the 30 districts and the State pool, with which the total tally surged to 8,77,502. A total of 64,112 samples were tested in the last 24 hours and the test positivity rate (TPR) stood at 5.38 percent. Out of the new cases 2,039 were from quarantine and 1,538 were local contacts.Besides, 84 cases were reported from the State pool. Khordha district again reported the highest daily cases at 571 followed by Cuttack with 407, Jajpur 337, Puri 237, Baleswar 205, Mayurbhanj 187, Bhadrak 186, Angul 127, Kendrapada 141, Nayagarh 114 and Jagatsinghpur 103. The districts which report- ed cases below 100 were Dhenkanal with 96, Rayagada 88, Malkangiri (86), Keonjhar 61, Koraput 59, Boudh 59, Nabarangpur 57, Bargarh 51, Sundargarh 43, Kandhamal 41, Kalahandi 41, Balangir 36, Sambalpur 31, Subarnapur and Gajapati 29 each, Ganjam 27, Nuapada 19, Jharsuguda 13 and Deogarh 12. The active cases in the State stood at 38,727; and so far. 8,35,132 patients have recov- ered.However, as many as 42 more patients succumbed to the virus in the State in the last 24 hours, mounting the total death toll to 3,590. Five deaths each were reported from Bargarh and Cuttack districts, four each from Koraput, Rayagada and Mayurbhanj and three each from Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Khordha. Besides, two deaths each were reported from Balangir, Puri and Sundargarh and one each from Angul, Malkangiri and Nayagarh. However, another 5,082 patients recovered on the day, increasing the total recoveries to 8,40,214. I n a significant decision, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on the Father’s Day on Sunday announced an ‘Ashirbad’ scheme, under which the State Government would provide monthly finan- cial assistance to the children who have been orphaned due to Covid-19. Rs 2,500 per month would be provided to the children who have lost both parents/single parent and Rs 1,500 per month to those who have lost earning parent due to Covid-19 on or after April 1, 2020. The amount would be transferred to the bank accounts of the guardians/ caretakers of the orphans till they attain the age of 18 years. The assistance would not be provided in case the child is adopted by someone. These beneficiaries would be included under the State Government’s Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana for availing free medical services and also under the Central/ State Food Security schemes. The State Government would facilitate continuation of these orphans’ education at their respective schools. If required, assistance would be provided for studying in Adarsh Vidyalayas and Central Schools. The chil- dren would be assisted for their higher education under the Green Passage scheme of the State Government. Pucca houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana/ Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana and benefits under other govern- ment schemes would be approved to the orphans’ guardians/ caretakers on a priority basis. If the children stay at childcare institutions, an amount of Rs 1,000 per month would be deposited in their bank account as recur- ring deposit till they attain 18 years of age. For those who have lost their earning parent, Rs 1,500 per month would be trans- ferred to the bank account of their living parent till they attain 18 years. Mothers of such children, if eligible for Madhu Babu Pension Scheme, would be provided the pension. The District Child Protection Units (DCPUs), Childlines, block and pan- chayat-level committees and frontline workers would iden- tify the children and prepare their list. The guardians/ care- takers can also approach the DCPUs with the children’s death certificate to avail the benefit under the scheme. BHUBANESWAR: Bhubaneswar on Sunday reg- istered 287 new Covid-19 pos- itive cases, with which the State capital city’s total tally increased to 86,689. This was a slight decrease from the 332 infections reported on Saturday.Out of the new cases, 255 were local contacts and 32 were quarantine cases. The local contacts includ- ed 19 in Chandrasekharpur, 18 in Patia, 12 each in Mancheswar and Baramunda, 11 in Nayapalli, 10 in Khandagiri, nine each in Old Town and Sailashree Vihar and seven each in Laxmisagar and Niladri Vihar. Currently, the active cases stood at 1,854 in the city. Meanwhile, two more patients succumbed to the disease in the city on the day, with which the total death toll to 402. However, 537 per- sons recovered on day, increas- ing total recoveries to 84,412. T he Regional Centre of the India Meteorological Department (IMD) here on Sunday issued thunderstorm and heavy rainfall alerts for several districts in the State from Monday till Thursday. Light to moderate rain or thundershower is likely to occur at a few places over the districts of north Odisha and at one or two places over the districts of south Odisha in the next 24 hours.“Due to steep pressure gradient and strong monsoon flow, squally weather with sur- face wind speed reaching 40-50 kmph gusting to 60 kmph very likely over north Bay of Bengal and adjoining central Bay of Bengal during next 24 hours,” said the weather office said. The IMD issued an yellow warn- ing and said thunderstorm with lightning likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Nuapada, Balangir, Subarnapur, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda, Deogarh, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjam and Bargarh on Monday, On Tuesday, heavy rainfall is very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, , Sambalpur, Bargarh, Nuapada and Subarnapur. Besides, thun- derstorm with lightning very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Balangir, Bargarh, Boudh, Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Deogarh, Angul, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Baleswar. On Wednesday, heavy rainfall is very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Malkangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Bargarh, Balangir, Sambalpur, Subarnapur, Jharsuguda and Nuapada. Thunderstorm with light- ning very likely to occur at one or two places over the districts of Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh, Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Subarnapur, Boudh, Nuapada, Balangir, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Koraput, Malkangiri, Gajapati, Ganjam, Nayagarh and Khordha. On Thursday, heavy rainfall is very likely to occur at one or two places over the dis- tricts of Koraput,Rayagada, Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Angul, Boudh, Sambalpur, Bargarh, Balangir and Kalahandi, the IMD said. T he State Government has paid a compensation of Rs 3 lakh to Hema Kadraka, mother of a student, Nandini, who died of electrocution on July 11, 2019. The National Human Rights commission (NHRC), acting on a petition filed by rights activist Radhakanta Tripathy, had asked the State Chief Secretary to provide the compensation to the parents of the student. Nandini Kadraka, a student of the Kasturba Residential School at Kumudapali in Rayagada dis- trict, had been electrocuted when her head came in contact with a low-lying live electric wire at around 11.15pm while she was going towards a bath- room of the hostel.

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All eyes are set on the formalresponse of the People’s

Alliance For GupkarDeclaration (PAGD) to theinvitation from Union HomeSecretary Ajay Bhalla, to attendthe all-party meet convened byPrime Minister NarendraModi in New Delhi on June 24.

The Prime Minister’smeeting on June 24 with thepolitical leaders of Jammu andKashmir (J&K) is expected tobe about the delimitation exer-cise. The meeting is an attemptby the Centre to seek politicalvalidation of the administrativeexercise which started in thefirst week of June. ButKashmiri leaders have theirown agenda for initiating thetalks.

“We have stressed for a col-lective fight and hence thePAGD will send two repre-sentatives to the meeting inNew Delhi,” a news channelquoted a senior leader, whoattended the meeting, as say-

ing. “Mehbooba has not decid-ed to boycott the meeting. Weare in favour of a politicalprocess but it’s a collectivefight and hence we will all meetto decide who all should rep-resent us in the meeting andconvey the aspirations of thepeople,” senior leader stressedon condition of anonymity.

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The bars in Delhi will beallowed to reopen with 50

per cent seating capacity fromMonday. These bars will func-tion from 12 pm to 10 pm. TheDelhi Disaster ManagementAuthority (DDMA) on Sundayreleased the order allowingpublic parks and gardens alsoto reopen for public.

As per the order, the own-ers of restaurants and bars willbe responsible for strictimplementation of Covid safe-ty measures and guidelines.

While the parks and gar-dens will also be opened, theResident Welfare Association(RWAs) will have to ensure thevisitors follow Covid-appro-priate behaviour. "Publicparks, gardens and golf clubswill be reopened and outdooryoga activities will also beallowed," the DDMA stated inits order.

Prohibited activities andservices, including schools,colleges and educational insti-tutions, cinemas, gyms, spas,all kinds of political, social,cultural, religious gatheringsamong others, will remainclosed till further orders or 5

am on June 28. The lock-down was imposed in Delhiamid a surge in second waveof Covid-19 on April 19. Manyrestrictions have been lifted ina phased manner withimprovement in the Covidsituation, starting with allow-ing manufacturing and con-

struction activities on May31.In its order, the DDMA saidit has been observed that thenumber of coronaviruspatients and positivity ratehas declined considerably andthe overall situation hasimproved, but due cautionand care has to be maintainedfor consolidating the wholeprocess of Covid-19 manage-ment.

The prohibited andrestricted activities, accordingto the DDMA order, will con-tinue with effect from 5 AMon Monday till 5 AM on June28 or further orders, whichev-er is earlier.

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Amid speculations ofAssembly elections in

Jammu and Kashmir (J&K),the Delimitation Commissionis expected to hold a virtualmeet in the next few days withall Deputy Commissioners todiscuss various inputs on geo-graphical features of con-stituencies and the sugges-tions made by them.Delimitation involves redraw-ing the boundaries of

Assembly and Lok Sabha con-stituencies in a State or UnionTerritory. Sources said that theDelimitation Commission islikely to visit J&K soon tobegin the delimitation exercisewhich was on hold due to theCovid-19 pandemic. The com-mission had recently soughtdata from all DeputyCommissioners on the area ofexisting constituencies, includ-ing geography and facilitiesavailable, and had asked themfor their suggestions to makethem more "geographicallycompact."

Having received the dataand suggestions, the commis-sion has decided to hold a vir-tual meeting with the DCs totake forward the matter. “As faras possible, the constituencyshould be fully geographical-ly compact," sources said.

After the delimitationexercise, the number ofAssembly seats in J&K will goup from 83 to 90. Twenty-fourseats of the Assembly contin-ue to remain vacant as they fallunder Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir (PoK).

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After Punjab and Rajasthan,trouble is brewing in the

JMM-Congress Party-ledGovernment in Jharkhand.Chief Minister Hemant Soren,who camped for four days inDelhi, could not get an audi-ence from either Congresschief Sonia Gandhi or seniorleader Rahul Gandhi. TheGandhis, in between, however,found the time to meet the newTamil Nadu Chief MinisterMK Stalin, whose DMK is anally of the Congress in thesouthern State.

"Hemant returned toRanchi on Saturday. He hadbeen repeatedly makingattempts to call on Sonia andRahul but failed. The snub hasnot gone down well with theJMM. Moreover, their meetingwith Stalin has only rubbed saltto the wound," sources said.

Filling up the vacantCabinet berth, a possiblereshuffle in the Council ofMinisters and appointmentsto corporations among otherswere high on Soren's agenda,sources said.

"Such developments do notaugur well for the coalitionwhen there has always been anair of mistrust among the twomajor coalition partners.Particularly, given the buzz ofa possible BJP-JMM alliance,that keeps the Congress and theRJD on their toes. Or for thatmatter, the BJP getting a size-able MLAs of the JMM and theCongress to resign just as it didin several States," they added.

An AICC leader, however,asserted, "Sonia could not meetHemant as she was too busy theentire week due to develop-ments in Punjab, Rajasthanand Maharashtra as well. Thereis no problem in the Jharkhandcoalition." The Congress issaddled with the power tusslesbetween Sachin Pilot andAshok Gehlot in Rajasthanand Navjot Singh Sidhu andAmarinder Singh in Punjab.

Jharkhand Congress chiefand Finance Minister inHemant's Government,Rameshwar Oraon, too, hadcome to Delhi to discuss "partyaffairs" besides appointments incorporations and commissionsetc under the StateGovernment. Both Hemantand Oraon would have partic-ipated in the meeting with theCongress top brass to discussall the pending issues.

Both the JMM and theCongress have staked claim tothe vacant 12th berth in theSoren Cabinet. Besides theCM, the JMM has fiveMinisters while the Congresshas four and other ally RJD oneministerial berth.

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Come Monday and the nextphase of India's vaccina-

tion drive will kick-off acrossthe country with the CentralGovernment providing freeCovid-19 vaccines to every-one above the age of 18 years.Since the launch of thenationwide vaccination pro-gramme from January 16, theJune 21 drive will mark adeparture from its earlier "lib-eralised and accelerated" vac-cination policy.

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From political personalities tocommoners, from

Bollywood celebrities to jawansguarding India's borders, peo-ple from all walks of life willstretch and bend in theirhomes, parks and grounds tomark the International YogaDay on June 21 , which will becelebrated amid the shadow ofthe Covid-19 pandemic for thesecond year in a row.

The Union Ayush Ministry,which is the nodal Ministry forInternational Day of Yoga(IDY), said in a statement thatin view of the Covid-19 pan-demic and the consequentrestrictions on congregationalactivities, the lead event of theday will be a televised pro-gramme. The highlight ofcourse will be Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's address tothe nation. This year's theme is‘Yoga for Wellness.’ The Prime

Minister tweeted, "Tomorrow,June 21, we will mark the sev-enth Yoga Day. The theme thisyear is 'Yoga For Wellness',which focusses on Yoga forphysical and mental well-being."

Scheduled to start at 6.30am on all Doordarshan chan-nels on Monday, the event willalso include an address byMinister of State for AyushKiren Rijiju and a live Yogademonstration by the MorarjiDesai National Institute of Yoga,the Ministry said in a statement.

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The United Nations Specialrapporteurs have criticised

the new InformationTechnology (IT) rules, prompt-ing a strong rebuttal from theGovernment. In its letter datedJune 11, UN special rappor-teurs on right to freedom ofopinion, peaceful assembly,and privacy said India'sInformation Technology(Intermediary Guidelines andDigital Media Ethics Code)Rules, 2021, in their currentform, do not conform withinternational human rightsnorms.

The seven-page commu-nication expressed concerns onvarious other aspects of the ITrules, and asked theGovernment for a response.The letter is authored by IreneKhan, Special Rapporteur onthe promotion and protectionof the right to freedom ofopinion and expression,Clement Nyaletsossi Voule,Special Rapporteur on therights to freedom of peacefulassembly and of associationand Joseph Cannataci, SpecialRapporteur on right to priva-cy. The UN special rapporteursin its letter said India's new ITRules are in violation of ruleslaid down in InternationalCovenant on Civil and PoliticalRights (ICCPR), a key inter-national human rights treaty.

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Ahead of an expectedCabinet reshuffle and the

June 24 Jammu & Kashmir(J&K) political outreach by theCentral Government aimedat restarting the electoralprocess in the Union Territory(UT), a high-level ministerialmeeting was chaired by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi at hisresidence here on Sunday.

Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh attend-ed the meeting. Besides thetwo bigwigs, Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanand Railway Minister PiyushGoyal are also learnt to haveattended the discussions.

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The Covid-19 positive casesincreased marginally to

3,577 on Sunday from 3,427 onSaturday. The new cases werereported from the 30 districtsand the State pool, with whichthe total tally surged to8,77,502.

A total of 64,112 sampleswere tested in the last 24 hoursand the test positivity rate(TPR) stood at 5.38 percent.Out of the new cases 2,039 werefrom quarantine and 1,538were local contacts.Besides, 84cases were reported from theState pool.

Khordha district againreported the highest daily casesat 571 followed by Cuttackwith 407, Jajpur 337, Puri 237,Baleswar 205, Mayurbhanj 187,Bhadrak 186, Angul 127,Kendrapada 141, Nayagarh 114and Jagatsinghpur 103.

The districts which report-ed cases below 100 wereDhenkanal with 96, Rayagada88, Malkangiri (86), Keonjhar61, Koraput 59, Boudh 59,Nabarangpur 57, Bargarh 51,Sundargarh 43, Kandhamal 41,Kalahandi 41, Balangir 36,Sambalpur 31, Subarnapur andGajapati 29 each, Ganjam 27,Nuapada 19, Jharsuguda 13and Deogarh 12.

The active cases in theState stood at 38,727; and so far.8,35,132 patients have recov-ered.However, as many as 42more patients succumbed tothe virus in the State in the last24 hours, mounting the totaldeath toll to 3,590.

Five deaths each werereported from Bargarh andCuttack districts, four eachfrom Koraput, Rayagada andMayurbhanj and three eachfrom Ganjam, Jharsuguda,Khordha. Besides, two deathseach were reported fromBalangir, Puri and Sundargarhand one each from Angul,Malkangiri and Nayagarh.However, another 5,082patients recovered on the day,increasing the total recoveriesto 8,40,214.

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In a significant decision,Chief Minister Naveen

Patnaik on the Father’s Dayon Sunday announced an‘Ashirbad’ scheme, underwhich the State Governmentwould provide monthly finan-cial assistance to the childrenwho have been orphaned dueto Covid-19.

Rs 2,500 per monthwould be provided to thechildren who have lost bothparents/single parent and Rs1,500 per month to thosewho have lost earning parentdue to Covid-19 on or afterApril 1, 2020.

The amount would betransferred to the bankaccounts of the guardians/caretakers of the orphans tillthey attain the age of 18

years. The assistance wouldnot be provided in case thechild is adopted by someone.These beneficiaries would beincluded under the StateGovernment’s Biju SwasthyaKalyan Yojana for availingfree medical services and alsounder the Central/ State FoodSecurity schemes.

The State Governmentwould facilitate continuationof these orphans’ education attheir respective schools. Ifrequired, assistance would beprovided for studying inAdarsh Vidyalayas andCentral Schools. The chil-dren would be assisted fortheir higher education underthe Green Passage scheme ofthe State Government.

Pucca houses underPradhan Mantri Awas Yojana/

Biju Pucca Ghar Yojana andbenefits under other govern-ment schemes would beapproved to the orphans’guardians/ caretakers on apriority basis.

If the children stay atchildcare institutions, anamount of Rs 1,000 permonth would be deposited intheir bank account as recur-ring deposit till they attain 18years of age.

For those who have losttheir earning parent, Rs 1,500per month would be trans-ferred to the bank account oftheir living parent till theyattain 18 years. Mothers ofsuch children, if eligible forMadhu Babu PensionScheme, would be providedthe pension.

The Distr ict Chi ldProtection Units (DCPUs),Childlines, block and pan-chayat-level committees andfrontline workers would iden-tify the children and preparetheir list. The guardians/ care-takers can also approach theDCPUs with the children’sdeath certificate to avail thebenefit under the scheme.

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B H U B A N E S W A R :Bhubaneswar on Sunday reg-istered 287 new Covid-19 pos-itive cases, with which theState capital city’s total tallyincreased to 86,689. This wasa slight decrease from the 332infections reported onSaturday.Out of the new cases,255 were local contacts and 32were quarantine cases.

The local contacts includ-ed 19 in Chandrasekharpur, 18in Patia, 12 each inMancheswar and Baramunda,11 in Nayapalli, 10 inKhandagiri, nine each in OldTown and Sailashree Viharand seven each in Laxmisagarand Niladri Vihar. Currently,the active cases stood at 1,854in the city. Meanwhile, twomore patients succumbed tothe disease in the city on theday, with which the total deathtoll to 402. However, 537 per-sons recovered on day, increas-ing total recoveries to 84,412.

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The Regional Centre of theIndia Meteorological

Department (IMD) here onSunday issued thunderstormand heavy rainfall alerts forseveral districts in the Statefrom Monday till Thursday.

Light to moderate rain orthundershower is likely to occurat a few places over the districtsof north Odisha and at one ortwo places over the districts ofsouth Odisha in the next 24hours.“Due to steep pressuregradient and strong monsoonflow, squally weather with sur-face wind speed reaching 40-50kmph gusting to 60 kmph verylikely over north Bay of Bengaland adjoining central Bay ofBengal during next 24 hours,”said the weather office said.

The IMD issued an yellow warn-ing and said thunderstorm withlightning likely to occur at oneor two places over the districtsof Nuapada, Balangir,Subarnapur, Sundargarh,Sambalpur, Jharsuguda,Deogarh, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj, Gajapati, Ganjamand Bargarh on Monday,

On Tuesday, heavy rainfallis very likely to occur at one ortwo places over the districts ofSundargarh, Jharsuguda, ,Sambalpur, Bargarh, Nuapadaand Subarnapur. Besides, thun-derstorm with lightning verylikely to occur at one or twoplaces over the districts ofMalkangiri, Koraput,Nabarangpur, Kalahandi,Nuapada, Balangir, Bargarh,Boudh, Sambalpur, Subarnapur,Jharsuguda, Sundargarh,Deogarh, Angul, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj, Baleswar. OnWednesday, heavy rainfall is

very likely to occur at one or twoplaces over the districts ofMalkangiri, Koraput,Nabarangpur, Kalahandi,Kandhamal, Bargarh, Balangir,Sambalpur, Subarnapur,Jharsuguda and Nuapada.

Thunderstorm with light-ning very likely to occur at oneor two places over the districtsof Sundargarh, Jharsuguda,Bargarh, Sambalpur, Deogarh,Angul, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar,Mayurbhanj, Subarnapur,Boudh, Nuapada, Balangir,Kalahandi, Kandhamal,Nabarangpur, Rayagada,Koraput, Malkangiri, Gajapati,Ganjam, Nayagarh andKhordha. On Thursday, heavyrainfall is very likely to occur atone or two places over the dis-tricts of Koraput,Rayagada,Kandhamal, Nayagarh, Cuttack,Angul, Boudh, Sambalpur,Bargarh, Balangir andKalahandi, the IMD said.

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The State Government haspaid a compensation of Rs

3 lakh to Hema Kadraka,mother of a student, Nandini,who died of electrocution onJuly 11, 2019.

The National HumanRights commission (NHRC),acting on a petition filed byrights activist RadhakantaTripathy, had asked the StateChief Secretary to provide thecompensation to the parents ofthe student. Nandini Kadraka,a student of the KasturbaResidential School atKumudapali in Rayagada dis-trict, had been electrocutedwhen her head came in contactwith a low-lying live electricwire at around 11.15pm whileshe was going towards a bath-room of the hostel.

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The right to protest and dis-sent is an indispensable

aspect of the right to freedomof speech and expression andhas been accorded very highposition taking into accountour experience of freedomstruggle against the British.However, there has beenumpteen instances of right ofprotest have been confoundedwith sedition and terrorism.

Irrespective of all of this, therecent observation of DelhiHigh Court while granting bailto three students in the north-east Delhi riots “conspiracy”case has been quite encourag-ing, in which the court said, “Itseems that in its anxiety to sup-press dissent, in the mind of theState, the line between theright to protest and terroristactivity seems to be gettingsomewhat blurred. If thismindset gains traction it wouldbe a sad day for democracy.”

Over the years, theSupreme Court has demarcat-ed the line between the right toprotest and the Government'sauthority to suppress theprotests or agitations.

In Himat Lal K Shah vsCommissioner of Police, inthe year 1973 the SupremeCourt keeping in view thepublic safety and law and orderconcerns, had barred the citi-zens to stage a protest by form-ing unions and associations at

"whatever place they please",having said that it left the dutyof assigning place of protest tothe appropriate governmentand held, “the governmentcannot by law abridge or takeaway the right of assembly byprohibiting assembly on everypublic street or public place".

The Supreme Court hasfurther held against whimsicaland politically motivated gov-ernment diktats of muzzlingthe voice of protest in thename of law and order orendangering of public interest;hence in the case of SRangarajan vs Jagjivan Ram,1989, the court said, "Ourcommitment to freedom ofexpression demands that itcannot be suppressed unlessthe situations created by allow-ing the freedom are pressingand the community interest isendangered." It further clarifiedon what ‘danger’ would meanin the context of protests as,"The anticipated danger should

not be remote, conjectural orfar-fetched. It should haveproximate and direct nexuswith the expression."

Apart from this, in thecase of Re-Ramlila MaidanIncident vs Home Secretary,2011, in the issue involving thearrest of yoga guru RamdevBaba following his anti-blackmoney agitation, the courtrightly held that the right tofreedom of speech and expres-sion is the essence of a demo-cratic system.

Further the court said,"There could be no expressionwithout these rights. Liberty ofthought enables liberty ofexpression. Attainment of thepreambled liberties [of thought,expression, belief, faith, andworship] is eternally connect-ed to the liberty of expression."Last year while adjudicating amatter pertaining to theShaheen Bagh protest over theCitizenship Amendment Act(CAA), in Amit Sahni vs

Commissioner of Police case,the Supreme Court held thatpublic places cannot be occu-pied indefinitely in the pretextof protest and such occupationof public places "is not accept-able and the administrationought to take action to keep theareas clear of encroachment orobstructions".

However, such a view ofthe court was not anti-‘theright of protest’, but, as it clar-ified, "Democracy and dissentgo hand in hand, but then thedemonstrations expressing dis-sent have to be in designatedplaces alone. The present casewas not even one of proteststaking place in an undesignat-ed area, but was a blockage ofa public way which causedgrave inconvenience to com-muters."

Wherein the court alsosaid, "We have considered theearlier judicial pronounce-ments and recorded our opin-ion that the Constitutional

scheme comes with a right toprotest and express dissent butwith an obligation to have cer-tain duties." Additionally, thecourt held, "The right to protestcannot be anytime and every-where.

There may be some spon-taneous protests but in case ofprolonged dissent or protest,there cannot be continuedoccupation of the public place."While the court has been quitespontaneous and vocal in sup-port of upholding the right toprotest as an extension of rightof freedom of speech andexpression but it expects thecitizens to exercise the rightwith respect to the bound-aries drawn within the sameconstitutional scheme.

As under Article 51A it isa fundamental duty of the cit-izens to safeguard public prop-erty and abjure violence. It isnot difficult to understand thatfundamental rights are subjectto "reasonable restrictions" and

the right to protest is no excep-tion. Therefore, state can actagainst the protesters in orderto protect the sovereignty andintegrity of India, the securityof the State, friendly relationswith foreign countries, publicorder, decency or morality orin relation to contempt ofcourt, defamation or incite-ment to an offence.

However, any excess stateaction to curb any protestwithout the justifications of rea-sonable restrictions and just tosafeguard political interests isabsolutely unacceptable andagainst the spirit of democra-cy.

We must not forget despiteChina surpassing us on manyaccounts, it has not succeededin the field of being a democ-racy and that is precisely whyPrime Minister Modi wasasked to speak at the G7Summit and his Chinese coun-terpart lost the privilege.Besides, Modi in his address to

the G7 leaders has termedIndia as a democratic countryand therefore a natural ally oftheir group. Interestingly, theG7 statement which India sup-ports, reads as follows, “We willharness the power of democ-racy, freedom, equality, therule of law and respect forhuman rights to answer thebiggest questions and over-come the greatest challenges.”

The fact is we cannot con-tinue to stand anywhere nearthe G7 statement as above, if wefail to respect the right toprotest and dissent and put agenuine effort to understandthe voice of dissent, ratherthan punishing it.

(The writer is a lawyer andpublic policy expert and aDistinguished Adjunct Professorof Law and Media Studies atSchool of Mass Communication,KIIT University. He can bereached [email protected])

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With the Centre going tosupply free vaccines to

the States from tomorrow, theOdisha Government has set anambitious target to vaccinate 3lakh doses each day.

Additional Chief Secretary,Health, PK Mohapatra onSunday asked districtCollectors, MunicipalCommissioners and ChiefDistrict Medical and PublicHealth Officers to plan accord-ingly and meet the targets setfor their districts.

“Presently, the averagedaily coverage is less than 1.5lakh doses across the State. TheGovernment of India will sup-ply vaccines to our State basedon the vaccine consumption &vaccine wastage rate. Underrevised strategy of Covid-19vaccination drive, you aredirected to expand the 18-44years and above 45 years vac-cination drive in all blocks

and ULBs from 21 June in acampaign mode and com-pletely consume available stock(Both Central & State supply)within shortest possible time,”Mohapatra said in his com-muniqué. The district andmunicipal administrations havebeen asked to conduct at leastfive sessions in each block andNAC, 10 sessions in eachmunicipality and 20 in eachmunicipal corporation fromMonday onwards.

If required, additional ses-sions over and above the targetscan also be planned as perneed, Mohapatra stated.“Districts can plan for bothonline and on-site sessionsbased on feasibility. At thesame time, the beneficiariesalready due for the seconddose shall be mobilised toensure timely vaccination,” hetold the officers.

As per the letter, a daily tar-get of 30,000 doses has been setfor the Bhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation, 23,300 for

Ganjam district, 18,000 forCuttack, 16,100 forMayurbhanj, 15,500 forBaleswar, 14,000 forSundargarh, 12,300 for Jajpur,11,800 for Keonjhar, 11,600 forPuri, 10,650 in Balangir and10,000 each in Bargarh,Kalahandi and Bhadrak.

All other districts have adaily target of less than 10,000.The districts are Angul (8,600),Boudh (2,800), Deogarh(2,000), Dhenkanal (8,000),Gajapati (3,650), Jagatsinghpur(7,700), Jharsuguda (4,000),Kandhamal (4,600),Kendrapada (9,400), Khordha(8,400), Koraput (8,700),Malkangiri (3,850), Rayagada(6,150), Sambalpur (7,000) andSubarnapur (4,000).

The State target for 18years and above is 3.09 crorecitizens (6.18 crore doses).Since January 16 this year, theState has administered 93.73lakh doses, out of which 17.97lakh citizens have received twodoses.

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Ollywood mourned theuntimely demise of its

popular playback singer TapuMishra, who lost the battle toCovid-19 late on Saturdaynight.

Tapu’s body was consignedto flame at the Satyanagar cre-matorium here on Sundaymorning in the presence of herfamily members and manyOllywood actors. “An artist

never dies. Only her body hasleft us, but she will remainimmortal through her musicand songs,” said actress-turned-

politician Elina Dash. The 36-year-old Tapu had been on ven-tilator support some days afterbeing admitted to a private hos-pital here since May 19. Shedied at about 11 pm onSaturday. “Tapu, no one canbelieve that you will go like this.Another star has risen in thesky today. We could not doanything.

Rest in peace dear. OmShanti,” wrote actor SabyasachiMishra, who is working forpeople during the pandemic.Ac tor- tur n e d - p ol i t i c i anAnubhav Mohanty said, “Notonly was she the finest singerbut also she was a compas-sionate human being. I was inconstant touch with hospital

doctors attending to Tapu. Iwas praying for her recovery,but she lost battle.” Anubhavhad made debut in Ollywoodwith the movie ‘I Love You’, inwhich Tapu debuted in Odiafilm industry as a young play-back singer.

Actress-turned socialactivist Varsha Priyadarshiniwrote: “Tapu! You will alwaysbe remembered. The death ofTapu Mishra, a famous vocal-ist, is an irreparable loss for theOdia music and also for me.My condolences to her familyand friends and my prayers tothe Lord for her soul. Herfame in the world of Odiamusic will always be remem-bered.”

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The Commissioneratepolice on Sunday busted a

sex racket operating from arented house at BuddheswariColony under the Laxmisagarpolice station in Bhubaneswar.

Acting on informationfrom locals, the Laxmisagarpolice conducted a raid on thehouse, which was used as aguesthouse, and arrested threepersons, including the guest-house manager, and rescued awoman.

Sources said the racketwas functioning from theguesthouse for the last two to

three months. But since itdidn’t have any signboard,nobody had any inkling aboutit. Later, though the policereportedly had conductedraids on it twice, they wereunable to find anything illegal.However, after locals foundgirls and strangers frequentingthe house, they became sus-picious and informed police.

The cops were carryingout further investigation aboutthe kingpin of the racket, thehouse owner, from where thesex workers were brought intothe establishment and themodus operandi of contactingthe customers by the accused.

Notably, some sleazy hotelsand guesthouses in the city’sCuttack Road area and nearthe railway station are noto-rious for being used for pros-titution rackets and are mostof the time on the radar ofpolice.

But it is not clear whetherthese hotel managements areproviding space knowingly orunknowingly for these rackets.Besides, it is also not knownwhether police have, of late,held any meeting with hote-liers and guesthouse owners toensure that their propertiesare not used for immoralactivities.

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The Nalanda Institute ofTechnology (NIT)’s MBA

Department conducted a webi-nar on the topic “Future ofFinancial Planning and Covid-19” on Friday. In the webinarfounder president, AWOKEIndia, Praveen Kumar Dwibediwas the esteemed speaker. Over100 participants joined.

Dwibedi focused onknowledge regarding variouskinds of financial planning,products, insurance, invest-ments, savings, portfolio man-agement and earning of profitin the wake of Covid-19.

The welcome address wasgiven by HoD MBA Dr ManojKumar Sahoo.Professor DeeptiMishra conducted the webinarand lastly, ProfessorPrafullaKumar Dwibedi gave the voteof thanks.

The event was held withthe joint collaboration ofBombay Stock Exchange andAWOKE India with full coop-eration of B-School Forum,Knowledge Centre, Odisha.

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Even as the World Yoga Dayis celebrated on June 21

and despite the worldwidefocus on yoga for its potentialto prevent non-communicablediseases, it has yet to find wideacceptance among the urbanpopulation, a recent study hasrevealed.

A mere 17 per cent of peo-ple in Bhubaneswar practiseeither ‘asana’ or ‘pranayama’ or‘dhyana’ while only 10.7 percent of the city’s populationpractise all the yoga tech-niques, the study on theEpidemiology of Yoga amongthe Urban Population con-ducted by the CommunityMedicine Department of theInstitute of Medical Scienceshere said.

The study was conductedwith a sample size of a littleover 1,200 people inBhubaneswar, now rankedamong the top four LivableCapital Cities of the country,by three researchers Dr SatyajitMohanty, Dr Sandeep KumarPanigrahi and Dr JyotiranjanSahoo.

“Interestingly, participa-tion of women in yoga in thecity was more compared tomen and it was found that thelevel of education had a role inpeople wanting to accept andpractise yoga,” Prof E VenkataRao of the Department ofCommunity Medicine said.

Stating that this was thesecond study on people’sacceptance of yoga as a need-ed physical activity, Prof Raosaid it is prompted by an ear-

lier study, the findings ofwhich said only 5.3 per cent ofthe urban population in east-ern India practise yoga. Thestudy’s findings also said thatfamily bread winners or peo-ple belonging to higher socioe-conomic strata are less likely toparticipate in yoga, but thosewho practise it are physicallyactive and are eager to takepart in other forms of physi-cal activity. It also found that49 per cent of the physiciansin Bhubaneswar prescribeyoga to their patients as aphysical activity.

The study said the conceptof yoga originated in India inthe post-Vedic era (3000 BC).Yoga has been included as analternative to physical activi-ty in the recently publishedguidelines under the ‘Fit India’programme, in which it hasbeen recommended for all agegroups.

While recommendingspread of the practice of yogaacross Odisha for betterimpact in controlling non-communicable diseases, thestudy said the Covid-19 pan-demic has left everyone rattledand there is a requirement todeal with the post-Covid sce-nario. “The post-Covid chron-ic sequels can be ameliorated

by yoga and, hence, the needfor its spread,” it said. Amongthe eight yoga techniques,‘asana’ (yogic postures),‘pranayama’ (breath control)and ‘dhyana’ (meditation) arepractised most, but inappro-priately on many instances,‘asana’ is interchangeably usedwith the term yoga, the studysaid, adding that each of theeight steps has profound bio-logical impact on the humanbody and mind.

Yoga is being increasing-ly recognised as a medicaltherapy for several conditionsinvolving non-communicablediseases like high blood pres-sure, high blood sugar, sever-al lung conditions, joint con-ditions as osteoarthritis, lowback pain and mental disor-ders like anxiety and depres-sion.

Any exercise or physicalactivity with isocaloric energyexpenditure value equivalentto the World HealthOrganisation (WHO)-recom-mended 30 minutes of mod-erate to vigorous physicalactivity can prevent non-communicable diseases in allpopulation and yoga offered asuperior option than all otherforms of physical activity orexercise, the study said.

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Again the spat between theDhenkanal BJD MP and

Pallahara BJD MLA came tothe fore with the supporters ofthe two leaders accusing eachother over the June 5 incident.

On June 5, MP MaheshSahoo had a verbal duel withPallahara MLA Mukesh Pal

over breach of protocol ininauguration of a Covid careCentre in Pallahara. TheCitizen Forum gave a memo-randum to Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik through thelocal administration demand-ing an apology fromDhenkanal MP Sahoo forengaging in a brawl with MLAPal and using vulgar languageduring an altercation with Pal

and his supporters. Sahoo wasmiffed over the inauguration ofthe Covid Care Centre inPallahara by Pal without wait-ing for him though he wasinvited for the same.

Forum president SontoshDehury and secetary SusilSamal threatened to stage demoby wearing black badges infront of the Biju Patnaik stat-ue in Pallahara if Sahoo did not

apologise within a week.Meanwhile, another localforum, Bikash ParishadPallahara, countered the moveby sending a memorandum tothe CM seeking a properinquiry into the incident.Parishad president JogeshBukta and secretary SanjibBehera alleged that it was aconspiracy of MLA Pal todefame MP Sahoo.

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The BJP Mahila Morcha onSunday expressed concern

over the increasing atrocities onchildren like rape and murdercases in the State, especially inNayagarh district.

Morcha State presidentSmruti Patnaik alleged that dueto failure and insensitiveness ofthe BJD Government the crimeagainst women and children areon the rise. As the Governmentand particularly the Ministerfrom Nayagarh district maintain

do not take any action immedi-ately, the criminals have becomefearless.The recent Banigochhacase in the district in which aminor girl was raped and mur-

dered is a grim reminder of whathappened in the Pari case inMinister Arun Sahoo’s con-stituency a year back. A MahilaMorcha delegation led by

Archana Das visited the baby’sfamily and consoled them. TheMorcha demanded immediateaction and exemplary punish-ment to the accused.

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The BJP on Sunday warnedthe State Government to

withdraw the power tariff hikeor else face State-wide protests.Party leaders said the protestwould start from Bhubaneswarand then it would spread acrossthe State in the forms ofdemonstrations and meetings.

Addressing party workersat a virtual demonstration, BJPState president Samir Mohantydescribed the power tariff hikeduring the time of Covid pan-demic as an additional finan-cial burden on the people.Partyleaders alleged that the powertariff hike is the result of thebonhomie between the StateGovernment and the powerdistribution companies.

They pointed out that dur-ing the last 10 years, theGovernment has increased thetariff at regular intervals; andespecially during the last sixmonths, it has increased it by50 paise per unit in two phas-es. The virtual demonstrationwas organsied by the party’sBhubaneswar district unit.

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Atotal of 1,653 tankers orcontainers carrying

30799.662 MTs medical oxygenhave been dispatched under theescort and supervision of theOdisha police so far fromRourkela, Jajpur, Dhenkanaland Angul districts of Odishato 17 deficit States and UnionTerritories in the country. Moreare leaving on Friday.

During last 59 days, asmany as 125 tankers were dis-patched from Angul with2036.562 MT, 342 fromDhenkanal with 5720.41 MT,324 from Jajpur with 6594.433MT and 862 from Rourkelawith 16448.257 MT.

A total of 489 tankers with9587.32 MT of oxygen havebeen sent so far to AndhraPradesh, and 396 tankers with7058.579 MT of oxygen toTelangana. Tamil Nadu hasreceived 273 tankers with5064.888 MT of medical oxy-gen. Similarly, Haryana hasreceived 182 tankers filled with3331.793 MT of oxygen.

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The elders of a family are itsguide. They have full-of-life

experience, skill and living

philosophy to give right direc-tions to their inheritors. Theynever mislead family; ratherthey show the right path to pro-tect us and our family. Inreturn, they never wait for anykind of support from the inher-itors. In many cases, it has beenseen that after achieving thegoal, some inheritors forget theelders’ contribution for theirsuccess.

But no one can deny thatwithout elders’ support a per-son cannot stand strongly. Astudy reveals that the globalpopulation of people, aged 60years and older, will more thandouble from 900 million in

2015 to about 2 billion in 2050.Elder abuse is predicted toincrease as many countries areexperiencing rapidly ageingpopulations. Rates of elderabuse have increased duringthe Covid-19 pandemic. Elderabuse can lead to serious phys-ical injuries and long-termpsychological consequences.

There are several types ofabuse like hitting, punching,slapping, burning, pushing,kicking, restraining, falseimprisonment/confinementetc. Similarly mental abuses arehumiliating, verbal forms ofabuse, constantly criticising,accusations, blaming, or non-

verbal forms such as ignoring,silence, shunning or with-drawing affection etc. Also,financial exploitation involvingmisappropriation of financialresources by family membersor strangers, etc, is makingtheir life difficult and trouble-some.

Forcing elders to take partin sexual activity against theirwill and various types of neg-ligence depriving them of prop-er medical treatment are anoth-er major problem. Now-a-days, abandonment of elders isa matter of serious concern.Scars, broken bones, rope marketc are the signs to identify the

physical form of abuse againstelders. Unresponsive oruncommunicative social isola-tion, suspicious or fearful signsmay be the emotional abuse. Inmaximum cases, such emo-tional abuse go unreportedwhich are most damaging lead-ing to physical and mentalhealth problems of elders.

The study also says that therisk of death for elder abuse vic-tims is three times higher thanfor non-victims. An abusercan be a spouse, partner, rela-tive, friend, neighbour, volun-teer worker, paid worker, prac-titioner, solicitor, or any otherindividual with the intent to

deprive a vulnerable person ofhis/ her resources. Additionally,past studies have estimatedthat between 16% and 38% ofall elder abusers have historiesof mental illness. As most of theabuses are occurring within thefamily, the abusers may beunemployed, may have crimi-nal history, mental health prob-lems, or history of abusingothers.

Lower income or povertyhas been found to be associat-ed with elder abuse. Low eco-nomic resources have beenconceptualized as a contextu-al or situational stressor con-tributing to elder abuse. Living

with a large number of house-hold members other than aspouse is associated with anincreased risk of abuse, espe-cially financial abuse. In mostcases after abuse, the elders arehiding the problems. Elderabuse victims are often unwill-ing to report their abuse for fearof others' disbelief, loss of inde-pendence, of being sent to oldage homes and of losing theironly social support.

It can be prevented if theelders association at village orward level will be formed. Inthe informal small conflict res-olution within family or com-munity, and monitoring of

standard of care of elder per-sons in the families, the elderpersons of the locality shouldbe involved.

The mobile health team ofnearest health centers may visitregularly to the home of eldersfor periodical health check-upand to monitor their psycho-logical condition. It is neededto encourage elders to raisevoice against maltreatment andnegligence by their familymembers using various laws forthe protection of elder persons.

(The writer lives at Bijipur,Brahmagiri, Puri; M-09438432023)

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Two months ago, one RaviNarayan Rautaray had

opened a company called AUSmall Finance by renting aroom on Medical Road inUmarkote town ofNabarangpur district.

From April 31 to June 5,Ravi introduced himself as anassistant manager of the com-pany and assigned four girlsand a boy from Umarkote areato oversee the group's paper-work and online login. RaviNarayan's job was to bringwomen groups together toform new groups for providingthem loans.

He took a deposit of Rs 840for a loan of Rs 30,000 and Rs940 for a loan of Rs 40,000 asinsurance and processing fees.In this regard, Ravi Narayanasked innocent women SHGsto submit copies of bankaccounts, voter IDs andAadhaar card for registration

purpose. Sources said thatabout 2,500 women groupsfrom Chandahandi, Raighar,Jharigam and Umarkote areasof Nabarangpur district havepaid lakhs of rupees in thename of insurance and pro-cessing fees to get loan. Themoney was collected fromabout 2,500 groups.

However, on July 10 at 10am, the staff members foundthe office locked and the officesign board missing. They triedto contact Ravi Narayan overphone but his mobile wasswitched off.

Later, they went to Ravi’shouse near the office and foundthe door locked. Being asked,the house owner said Ravi hadnot been in his room since lastevening. The news spreadrapidly in the area. After see-ing closure of office, the womenwho had paid money insistedon return of the money. Finally,the employees lodged a writtencomplaint with the Umarkotepolice station for self-defence.Contacted, Umarkote PS IICNaresh Pradhan said, “Thecomplaint has been registeredand police have taken steps toapprehend accused.”

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Awebinar on ‘Relevance ofFolklore in the Present

Context’ was organised by theInternal Quality Assurance Cell(IQAC) of the CentralUniversity of Odisha, Koraput,on Friday here, in which ProfKrushna Chandra Pradhan,Visiting Professor, (OdiaLanguage and Literature) deliv-ered a lecture.

CUO VC Prof IRamabrahmam conveyed hisbest wishes for a successful pro-gramme and hoped the stu-dents of the CUO will learn theimportance of folklore in thepresent context.Prof SharatKumar Palita, Dean, SBCNRand Director, IQAC, chaired,while Dr Alok Baral, Head-in-Charge, Department of Odia

and Sanskrit, delivered theintroductory note andexplained the relevance of thetopic.

Delivering his address ProfPradhan highlighted differentfeatures and forms of folklorein the local as well as a globalculture. He also highlightedforms of folklore such as folkliterature, folk dance, folk cul-

ture and folk stories by givingexamples of different storiesand phrases of Odia literatureand their importance in day-to- day’s life. He said, “Folklorealways carries ethnic culture ofperiod reflected in the con-temporary dance, drama, songand literature. They are iden-tities of various cultures of anation.”

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Aperson was killed on thespot and two others sus-

tained critical injuries when anelephant attacked them whilethey were sleeping in a kenduleaf godown at Gadumundavillage under the RairakholWildlife Division in Sambalpurdistrict on Saturday night.

The deceased BimbadharMahakud was a labourer. Theother injured Binayak Dehuryand Pabitra Dehury were ini-tially admitted to the Rairakholhospital before being shifted tothe VIMSAR in Burla aftertheir health conditions wors-ened. Both legs of Binayakand Pabitra have been frac-tured.

Reports said six personswere sleeping in the godownafter having dinner when theelephant barged into the houseand attacked them. The threeother labourers, managed toescape.

Later, tension ran high inthe village as locals protestedwhen Forest Department offi-cials reached the spot late aftergetting information. However,the officials pacified the moband sent the deceased’s bodyfor postmortem.

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Two youths drowned whilebathing in the Brahmani

river near Shankarakul villagein Bari block of Jajpur districton Sunday.

The deceased were identi-fied as Sunil Mishra, 23, andJitendra Panda, 19, of Balia vil-lage. Upon hearing the news,locals had begun a search oper-ation in the river.

Jitendra’s body was firstrecovered by the villagers hoursafter he had gone missing.Later, Fire Services personnelarrived at the scene and fishedout Sunil’s body. The untime-ly demise of the two youngmen cast a pall of gloom overthe area.

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The office of the Engineer-in-Chief (Civil) PWD has

prepared a plan outlay of Rs426 crore for construction of a100-bed hospital and medicalcollege in Jajpur district.

21 acres of land out of theearmarked 40 acres for the pro-ject at Ankula has already beenhandedn over for purpose.Larsen and Toubro (L&T), thework execution agency, hassubmitted a master plan forconstruction of the main build-ing, hostel block, staff residen-tial quarters, ancillary buildingand parking slots for themed-ical college and hospital whichwill be constructed on turnkeybasis. Construction of a med-ical college at Jajpur was a long-

standing demand of local res-idents. Notably, the UnionCabinet had given its approvalfor establishment of aGovernment-run medical col-lege and hospital in Jajpurtown in this district inDecember, 2020. A lot of effortshave gone to make Jajpur med-ical college project a reality. Theresidents and various outfitshave been demanding estab-lishment of a medical college atJajpur Town.

They have alsostaged agi-tations on more than 100 occa-sions.The agitations got scaleddown after administrationannounced that it will set up atrauma care centre at Panikoili.The tender process for estab-lishment of trauma care centrehas been completed. The L&Thas prepared a three- phase lay-out for construction of parkingslots and site entry demarca-tion. The layout includes con-

struction of hospital block,medical college, auditorium,gents and ladies hostels, andquarters for resident doctors,nurses, teaching and non-teaching staff and pharma-cists.

The parking slot for two-wheelers will be constructed ona 1700-sq metre area. Thisapart, split floor parking, facil-ities for open parking of carsand other vehicles will also beconstructed. The layout alsoproposes to build main entrypoint to medical college fromAnkula Square and an emer-gency entry point at Baitaraniriver embankment, north ofhospital. Once completed, themedical college will providehealthcare services to people ofJajpur, Bhadrak, Keonjhar andKendrapada districts. JajpurMLA Pranab Prakash Dasplayed a crucial role in settingup medical college.

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Paradip's renowned socialactivists and trade union

leader Rakesh Pattnaik hon-oured mediapersons of Paradipon Wednesday for their relent-less and dedicated service dur-ing the fight against the Covid-19.

A felicitation programmewas held at Press Squire near toParadip Model police stationfollowing Covid-19 guidelines.

Nearly 40 journalists wereoffered sanitizers, masks andother Covid preventative andsafety materials.

Notably, the working jour-nalists are doing a great serviceto the State as well as countryby providing seamless newsfeeds, making people aware ofissues relating to Covid-19during these very trying timesand they are a great support forthe war against Covid-19. Morethan 100 journalists have lost their lives due to Covid-19, said the speakers on the occasion.

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The Utkal AluminaInternational Limited

(UAIL), a unit of HindalcoIndustries Limited signed anMoU on June 16 withE n t r e p r e n e u r s h i pDevelopment Initiative of India(EDII) to set up a rural businessincubation centre, Udyamee, inKashipur block of Rayagada.

The MoU was signed byUnit Head, Utkal AluminaMazhar Beig and DirectorCorporate Projects , EDII DrRaman Gujral in the presenceof senior delegates Bipul

Chatterjee, Head, CSR,Hindalco Industries, Dr SunilSukla, Director General, EDII,along with dignitaries fromthe UAIL and EDII.

Over the next three years,Project Udyamee will nurture300 entrepreneurs fromKashipur block and ThuamulRampur block of Kalahandi innon-farm and agri-allied sec-tors partnering with EDII.

Identification of aspiringyouths, mapping of their skillsets and providing businesssolutions are some of the keycomponents of the project.The project will converge var-

ious Government run schemesand programmes related toentrepreneurship development

and seed an entrepreneurialecosystem in the region.

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Ateam of volunteers led byBrahmapur MLA Bikram

Panda distributed dry foodpackets and ration itemsamong the poor people ofAyodhya Nagar under WardNo.34. More than 430 packetsof ration items and rice weredistributed in the area.

Among others, SubashMaharana, Sanjeet KumarPanigrahi, Srikanta Pattnaik,Srinivas Rao, Ajit Panda,Jagannath Sabat, Tapas Sahu,Nalinikanta Debdarshi,Surendra Maharana, Amit Das,

Sunil Panda, Aditya Pattnaik,Sarita Panda were present inthe relief distribution event.

Similarly on Thursdaynight at 10 pm, MLA Pandareceived a call from an old andailing woman of Brahmapurwho was literally crying forhelp to cremate her sonShankara Gouda who died ofcancer.

She was not getting sup-port of the relatives and neigh-bours who were scared ofCorona and not coming to herto lift the body to the burialground. Panda came with ateam of volunteers from “MoParibar” and arranged every-thing for the cremation of thebody.

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The BJP Mayurbhanj (East)unit held a news conference

here on Sunday to press for itsdemand for holding Rath Yatraon the Grand Road ofBaripada, which is described asthe second Shrikshetra. Partyleaders urged the Governmentto give permission for the fes-tival in full compliance withCovid norms as has beendecided for the Rath Yatra atShrikshetra Puri. The Pressconference was addressed bydistrict BJP president KandraSoren along with MLAs

Prakash Soren, BudhanMurmu and Sanatan Bijuli andleaders Kavi Vishnu Satpathy,Sanjeev Mohanty, KrushnaChandra Mohapatra and oth-ers. They said Baripada hasbeen witnessing the famousRath Yatra on its Grand Roadfor more than 400 years now.

Another speciality here isthat Devi Shubhadra's chariotDarpadalan is pulled bywomen devotees alone, whichhas been a practice here since1975. The Government’s deci-sion banning the festival hasshocked the people ofMayurbhanj.

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In connection with murder ofa helper of a cattle-laden

container, the Khantaparapolice arrested seven people.

They were identified asJogeswar Sahu, Abdul SultanKhan, Arabinda Mahalik,Ramakanta Das, BhuleswarSahu, Nirmalya Behera andKhitish Chandra Rout. SkSahrukh was stoned to death bythese accused when the cattleladen container was headingfrom Bhadrak towards Bengalnear Sergarh after they inter-cepted the vehicle there onThursday morning.

According to police, thesegoons in the name of cowsavers used to stop the cattlevehicles and extort money atdifferent points on the NH.And on that day, they haddemanded money from thecattle laden vehicle driver andhelper and when they didn’t getmoney there was an

altercation which led to theincident. Critically, woundedSaharukh had died on the wayto hospital. As the news spreada scuffle took place between thesupporters of Saharukh and thecow savers and KapileswarRout belonging to the lattergroup was injured.

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Cracking a loot incident,the Nilgiri police on

Sunday arrested six miscreantsand recovered cash worth Rs5.51 lakh and a pistol fromthem. Three other miscreantswere absconding.The arresteeswere identified as ChandrakantMohapatra,Surendra Pradhan,Madhusudan Behera, SusantaBarik, Pradip Pradhan andJatin Pradhan. They had loot-ed Rs 10 lakh from Dinesh

Sanghvi, a resident of Baleswarand a jeweller. On June 17,Dinesh had gone to buy goldfrom the Nilgiri area along withPradip Pradhan, who hap-pened to be the son of the for-mer’s friend.

While he was going withcash and a licenced gun to pro-cure gold, on way some peoplein uniform stopped him posingthemselves as Forest depart-ment personnel. They searchedhis scooty and took away thecash as well as pistol before flee-

ing spot. Dinesh while lodgedan FIR with police, the latterduring investigation couldlearn Pradip and Jatin werethe key conspirators whoinformed others that Dineshwas going to village Dwarikaunder Oupada block to buygold. Jatin had prepared a blue-print on how to execute lootalong with others. SDPONilgiri Ritesh Mohapatra saidloot was pre-planned and threeabsconders would be broughtto book soon.

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Arape accused who was sentfor medical examination

with escorts after his arrestmanaged to flee hospital inmovie style on Saturdayevening here. Police launcheda manhunt to nab him.

A married woman hadlodged a complaint at theChhend police station thatKishore Das, a resident ofChhend, had been forciblykeeping physical relationshipwith her for last few days andthreatening her of dire conse-quences if she told it to any-body. Police nabbed Kishore onSaturday afternoon.

The accused was sent formedical examination to theRourkela Government Hospital(RGH) at around 5 pm alongwith three escorting policemen.His first round of medicalcheckup was conducted and hewas asked to wait for a secondround. On the plea of going towashroom, he suddenly start-ed running out from the hos-pital premises.

The three escorts ran afterhim for a while, but he suc-cessfully escaped from the spotby pillion-riding a Bulletmotorcycle. The driver of theBullet is reportedly the nephewof the accused.

The incident, however, hascome as a major embarrass-ment for police since it clearlyappeared from the CCTVfootage that the accusedescaped in a planned man-ner."We will nab the accusedsoon," said Panposh SDPOSanta Nutan Samal, adding. “Adepartmental inquiry will beconducted; and if any policeofficial is found guilty, actionwill be taken against him.”

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The CRPF headquarters hasissued a directive to all the

formations across the countryto take pride in wearing theparamilitary’s Khaki/combatpattern uniform. The movecomes after CRPF chiefKuldiep Singh took exception to a number of offi-cers and men wearing theCoBRA pattern fatigue whiledeployed in Jammu andKashmir.

Despite repeated remindersfor following the uniform rules,even senior officials have beenflouting the norms in theValley.

“During the visit to oper-ational units in Jammu andKashmir, the DG, CRPFobserved that in spite of theinstructions, some officers/menare still wearing CoBRA pat-tern of combat uniform. It isonce again reiterated that we

need to take pride in wearingCRPF pattern uniform,” anofficial said, quoting the cir-cular sent recently across theformations.

The official further said,“The competent authority hasdesired that all officers/menincluding QATs/CTTs to wearonly prescribed patternkhaki/combat uniforms asapplicable in the area.”

While QAT refers to QuickAction Teams, the CTT impliesCounter-Terrorism Team.

Earlier, similar instructionswere issued on April 16 andApril 19 this year underscoringthe need to adhere to the uni-form rules.

In the circular issued onApril 16, the DG’s office hadsaid, “Competent authority hasobserved that officers areexhibiting complacencytowards their uniform.Uniform is a matter of prideand officers must have an

exemplary turn-out at all times.Commandants and senior offi-cers should not hesitate topoint out deficiencies.Henceforth, please ensure thatofficers and the men they com-mand are smartly turned out.”It called for a strict complianceof the order.

Likewise, in a separate let-ter on April 19, the Force reit-erated the importance of wear-ing proper uniform.

Combat Battalion forResolute Action (CoBRA) is aspecialized anti-Naxal forcewithin the overall command ofthe CRPF.

The CRPF was raised in1939 but despite being in exis-tence for over 80 years, theparamilitary does not have apatented pattern for uniform.Besides the CoBRA, the RapidAction Force (RAF) also has adistinctive pattern of fatigue.The RAF uniform pattern hasbeen copied by the West Bengal

police and the disruptive pat-tern of the CoBRA uniform hasbeen adopted by several statepolice forces in absence of anypatents for these uniforms.

Despite being the biggestparamilitary with lead roles invarious operational theatres,the provisioning directoratehas not been able to properlyaddress the continuity andcohesion factor that is instilledthrough a consistent pattern ofuniform.

A senior official said thatduring the entire winter seasonevery year, the CRPF has to relyon the Jammu and KashmirPolice pattern of jacket in theabsence of any authorised pat-tern of winter jackets (angoladark shade) of its own.

During various officialmeetings, even the senior offi-cers have been found asking thedelegates to wear the JKP pat-tern of winter jacket to main-tain uniformity.

“It is unfortunate that eventhe Police forces are having bet-ter and established dress codesand the lead paramilitary forcelike CRPF lacks any coherentuniform which is so important for inculcatingdiscipline in the ranks andimparting an unique identity,”the official added.

During the last 17 years,the CRPF uniform has beenchanged thrice and the fatiguein vogue currently was intro-duced during the then para-military chief K Vijay Kumar in2012.

This combat pattern uni-form has bright white patcheswhich could give a distinctiveadvantage to the ultras duringoperations in various theatresas they may not be so effectivein camouflaging, officials said.

“Frequent changes in theuniform pattern disrupts con-tinuity in outlook and leads tolack of cohesive continuumwith regard to the image of theforce,” this official added.

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New Delhi:The Centre hastold the Supreme Court that ex-gratia compensation of �4 lakhcannot be paid to the familiesof those who have died ofCovid-19 as it is beyond fiscalaffordability and the finances ofcentral and state governmentsare under severe strain.

In an affidavit filed beforethe top court, the Ministry ofHome Affairs said the Centresubmitted that it has by ways of“Minimum Standard Relief ”,under section 12 of the DisasterManagement Act, 2005, takenseveral steps providing for sub-stantial and speedy measuresby way of increase in health,infrastructure, ensuring foodsafety to every citizen.

“The prayer of the peti-tioner for payment of ex-gra-tia to all deceased persons dueto Covid-19 is beyond the fis-cal affordability of the state gov-ernments. Already the financesof state governments and thecentral government are undersevere strain due to the reduc-tion in tax revenues andincrease in health expenses onaccount of the pandemic.

“Thus, utilisation of scarceresources for giving ex-gratiamay have unfortunate conse-quences of affecting the pan-demic response and healthexpenditure in other aspectsand hence cause more damagethan good. It is an unfortunatebut important fact that theresources of the governmentshave limits and any additionalburden through ex-gratia willreduce the funds available forother health and welfareschemes,” the affidavit filed bythe Centre said.

It further submitted thatunder the DisasterManagement Act, 2005,Section 12, the “NationalAuthority” is empowered torecommend guidelines for theminimum standards of relief,including ex-gratia assistanceand the function entrusted tothe authority by the law passedby the Parliament.

“It is well settled throughnumerous judgements of theSupreme Court that this is amatter which should be per-formed by the authority, towhom it has been entrustedand not one where the Courtwill substitute its own judge-ment for the decision to be

taken by the Executive.“Any attempt to second

guess may create unintendedand unfortunate constitution-al and administrative ramifi-cations. It may also be notedthat the term ‘ex-gratia’ itselfconnotes that the amount is notbased on legal entitlement,”the affidavit stated.

The Centre told the apexcourt that it is wrong to statethat the help can be providedonly through ex-gratia assis-tance as “it would be a ratherpedantic and narrow approach”.

“A broader approach,which involves health inter-ventions, social protection, andeconomic recovery for the

affected communities, wouldbe a more prudent, responsible,and sustainable approach.Globally, the governments inother countries too have fol-lowed this approach, and haveannounced interventions thatprovide fiscal stimulus.Government of India has fol-lowed a similar approach,” itsaid.

Earlier, on June 11 , theCentre told the top court thatissues raised in the pleas, seek-ing directions for ex-gratiacompensation of �4,00,000 tothe families of those who havedied of Covid-19, are “genuine”and are under consideration ofthe government. PTI

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The Congress on Sundayalleged the Centre has

lost all sense of balance andresponsibility towards people.The Congress’’ chiefspokesperson RandeepSurjewala said, “Power-drunkModi government has lost allsense of balance and respon-sibility towards people. In anaffidavit to the SupremeCourt, the BJP governmentclaims it doesn’t have moneyto pay even ?4 lakh as ex gra-tia compensation to familiesof Covid victims.””Does ModiGovt even feel the pain andsuffering? No money forcompensation to COVID-19victim families but Rs 20,000crore are being spent onCentral Vista and a palace forprime minister. And whereare the �3,89,662 crore col-lected in the year 2020-21from the loot in prices ofpetrol and diesel?” he asked inanother tweet.

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Keeping an eye on the ongo-ing Covid-19 pandemic

and expected third wave in thecountry, BJP national presidentJ P Nadda on Sunday reviewedthe progress of party’s work onthe ground towards helpingout those affected by the viru-lent second wave of theCoronavirus infection.

In the backdrop of liveslost due to the pandemic acrossthe country and large-scaleunemployment following thelockdown, the BJP has re-assessed its approach andasked all its central and stateministers, MPs and MLAs topersonally focus on Covid-19-related work in their respec-tive areas and mitigate impactof the pandemic.

Six States are going to pollnext year including UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand, Goaand Gujarat.

Nadda will now be meet-ing ministers every Sundayfor the next 6 weeks to bringparty work in sync with thegovernment’s development andwelfare policies, an excercisethat party has been doing inthe first inning of the Modi-

government.The government has

recently been criticised by theopposition for being caughtoff-guard during the secondwave of the Covid19 in April-May, leading to major casual-ties.

Nadda’s meet will alsofocus on preparations for thethird wave of COVID and beprepared with all that neces-sary to deal with the pan-demic.

Nadda assessed the workdone under the programmes‘Sewa hi Sanghthan’ and‘Vaccination Drive’ saying,“Today, a review meeting washeld with all the national vicepresidents of the BJP on “SewaHi Sangathan”, “vaccinationdrive” and other programmesand all partymen are doing

their best under the ableguidance of the PrimeMinister.”

As part of its ‘Sewa hiSangathan’ , BJP has plans totrain a woman and a youthworker each in two lakh urbanneighbourhoods and villagesin the country.

The Bengal, Assam, Kerala,Tamil Nadu and Puducherryelection campaigns had invit-ed public criticism ofGovernments and political lead-ers who were seen to be busywith ‘power games’, ignoring thesurge in the Covid-19 secondwave.

The review meeting byNadda is an attempt to be alert,this time round, to the publicsentiments, and ward off oppo-sition attack in view of theapproaching assembly polls.

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Embroiled in a power tusslewith his uncle, Lok Janshakti

Party (LJP) leader ChiragPaswan on Sunday announcedan “aashirvaad yatra” from July5, the birth anniversary of hisfather and party founder RamVilas Paswan, from Hajipur inBihar. The move is to popularlegitimacy in his battle for theparty’s ownership with the rivalfaction, headed by his unclePashupati Kumar Paras.

Accusing his family rivals of“stabbing” him in the back,Paswan made the announce-ment following a meeting of theLJP national executive whichendorsed his leadership and hitout at the faction headed by hispaternal uncle for workingagainst the party’s constitution.

Paras, in turn, dismissed themeeting as an assembly of “rent-ed crowd” and claimed that itheld no legitimacy.

The Election Commissionwill now decide whether hisgroup is the real LJP or whetherthe Chirag-led faction is right, hetold reporters.

The meeting chaired byChirag also urged the Modi gov-ernment to confer Bharat Ratna,India’s highest civilian honour,on Ram Vilas Paswan, a popu-lar Dalit leader from Bihar whodied last year.

He claimed that over 90 percent of the national executivemembers were in the meeting.The decision to launch the yatrafrom Hajipur is significant as

Paswan’s father was electedto the Lok Sabha from there foreight times, and Paras representsthe seat now in the House.

Chirag said Hajipur hadbeen “karmabhoomi” of hisfather and the yatra will roll outacross the state and culminatewith a meeting of the party’snational council.

As he fights an all out bat-tle to reclaim his father’s legacywith all other party MPs, includ-ing his cousin Prince Raj, sidingwith Paras, Paswan launched anemotional attack on the rivalmembers of his family for notwaiting for even the first deathanniversary of Ram VilasPaswan and stabbing him in theback.

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The Congress on Sundayalleged a scam in the pur-

chase of land by the RamTemple Trust in Ayodhya andurged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and theSupreme Court to “fulfil theirresponsibility” by ordering acourt-monitored probe to findthe truth.

AICC chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala alleged thatthe “loot” of funds collected inthe name of Lord Ram is “con-tinuing” at the hands of BJPleaders in Ayodhya and ques-tioned the “silence” of theprime minister and theSupreme Court.

He alleged that a BJP leaderbrought 890 metres of land inAyodhya for Rs 20 lakh inFebruary and sold it to theTemple Trust for a whoppingRs 2.5 crore, making a profit of1250 percent in only 79 days.

“Lord Ram’s temple isbeing constructed as per theorders of the Supreme Court.Is it not the responsibility of the

Supreme Court and its judgesand the prime minister whoformed the Trust, to find outthe truth and investigate this.

“Shouldn’’t the SupremeCourt take cognisance of thematter? The Supreme Courtshould discharge its duty... holdan audit of the entire transac-tions under its monitoring andpunish the culprits,” Surjewalasaid when asked if the partywould move the court.

“Now the question iswhether the Supreme Court and the primeminister will discharge theirduty, we leave it to their dis-cretion,” he said.

Surjewala said if it is anyone’’s responsibility, it isPrime Minister Modi’s as heformed this trust.

“It is not only a question ofmorality, but it is also a ques-tion of constitutionality,” hesaid, adding that the ball is nowin the prime minister’’s court onwhat action he takes.

He said the people willnever forgive anyone who lootsdonations in the name of Lord

Ram.The Congress had earlier

alleged that land purchased forRs 2 crore was sold for Rs 18.5crore to the Trust “within min-utes”, as per the land deed reg-istered on March 18 this year,and demanded an SC-moni-tored probe into the “scam”.

BJP leaders had hit out atthe Congress, claiming thosewho were opposed to the Ramtemple constructions were nowtrying to derail it by makingfalse and misleading allega-tions.

Surjewala said with the“facts” now in the publicdomain, an investigation isrequired under the supervisionof the Supreme Court to ascer-tain the truth.

Posing five questions toPrime Minister Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath, he asked,“What is the reason that Modi-Adityanath ji are completelysilent on taking action againstthe sinners who openly lootedfunds for the construction ofthe Ram temple.

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The Covid-19 cases in Indiacontinued to witness a

declining trend in the countrywith 58,419 new cases record-ed on Sunday, lowest in the last81 days. In the same timespan, 1,576 fatalities werereported which was lowest in63 days, according to datareleased by the Government.

India recorded less than60,000 new coronavirus infec-tions after 81 days taking thetotal tally of Covid-19 cases to2,98,81,965, while the activecases further reduced to7,29,243. The death tollclimbed to 3,86,713 fatalities.

The active cases furtherdeclined to7,29,243 comprising2.44 per cent of the total infections, while thenational Covid-19 recoveryrate improved to 96.27 percent. A net decline of 30,776cases has been recorded in theovid-19 caseload in a span of24 hours.

As many as 18,11,446 testswere conducted on Saturday

taking the total cumulativetests conducted so far for detec-tion of Covid-19 in the coun-try to 39,10,19,083.

The daily positivity ratewas recorded at 3.22 per cent.It has been less than 5 per centfor 13 consecutive days, theministry said, adding the week-ly positivity rate has declined to3.43 per cent.

Recoveries continue to out-number daily new cases for the38th consecutive day. Thenumber of people who haverecuperated from the diseasesurged to 2,87,66,009, while thecase fatality rate stands at 1.29per cent, the data stated.

India’s Covid-19 tally hadcrossed the 20-lakh mark onAugust 7, 30 lakh on August 23,40 lakh on September 5 and 50lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh onSeptember 28, 70 lakh onOctober 11, crossed 80 lakh onOctober 29, 90 lakh onNovember 20 and surpassedthe one-crore mark onDecember 19.India crossed thegrim milestone of 2 crore onMay 4.

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Those who survived Covid-19 but are now battling

with too much sugar in theirblood, a condition calledhyperglycemia that is a sig-nature feature of diabetes,can look towards ayurvedicformulations like BGR-34which are based on naturalbioactive compounds withDipeptidyl-peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitory effects to man-age the health issues.

According to a globalanalysis published in the jour-nal, Diabetes, Obesity andMetabolism, at least 14.4 percent of Covid survivors havereported hyperglycemia caus-ing dysfunctioning of theirimmune response.

Though a plethora ofmedicines are available in themarket to check hyper-glycemia, DPP-4 inhibitorshave been found to be mostsafe to arrest the condition, asper a recent study in Elsevierjournal. Symptoms of hyper-glycemia are frequent urina-tion, excessive thirst, blurryvision, or unexplained weight

loss.Developed by one of the

labs of the Council Scientificand Industrial Research(CSIR), BGR-34 has naturalbioactive compounds ofDaruharidra with DPP-4inhibitory effects. In fact, asper a research published inthe Journal of Drug Research,the primary source of DPP-4inhibitors is the herbal plantDaruharidra.

Dr AKS Rawat, scientistfrom CSIR’s lab NationalBotanical Research Institute(NBRI), Lucknow, which hasdeveloped the ayurvedic drug,said, “Because of this proper-ty, the Daruharidra was addedin the herbal formulationBGR-34.

The scientists hadresearched extensively tostudy its efficacy.”

Besides Daruharidra,BGR-34 has two other herbalelements that control hyper-glycemia.

One of these isGymnemic acids, whichagain, according to aChemRxiv journal, controlshyperglycemia in the dia-

betes patients. These aresourced from Gudmaarherbal plants.

Similarly, the chemicalelement Trigonoside foundin fenugreek, yet anotherherbal plant, too checks highblood sugar levels, as hasbeen detailed in the journal,Environmental Challenge.BGR-34 too, among variousother herbal ingredients, con-tains bioactive compoundsof both these medicinalplants.

Giloy, Vijaysaar andMajeeth, all known for theiranti-diabetic properties, arealready found in BGR-34. Dr Rawat said thatthese studies are proof thatthe herbal formulation is alsoeffective in treatment ofhyperglycemia in covid sur-vivors.

While nearly one in sixpeople with diabetes in theworld being from India whichis reeling under Covid-19,cases of hyperglycemia causedby damage of the pancreaticbeta cells, leading to insuffi-cient insulin production, is onincrease.

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The Lakshadweep adminis-tration, which has been

facing widespread protestsfrom the islands' people oversome of its policies, has moot-ed a proposal to shift its legaljurisdiction from the KeralaHigh Court to the KarnatakaHigh Court, officials said.

The proposal was initiatedby the administration afterseveral litigations were movedbefore the Kerala High Courtagainst the decisions taken by

the islands' new administratorPraful Khoda Patel.

These decisions includedrevising standard operatingprocedures for Covid appro-priate behaviour, introductionof the "goonda act" and demol-ishing hutments of fishermenfor widening of roads.

Patel, who is the adminis-trator of Daman and Diu, wasgiven the additional charge ofthe Union Territory ofLakshadweep in the first weekof December last year, whenthe former administrator

Dineshwar Sharma died after abrief illness.

This year, as many as 23applications, including 11 writpetitions, have been filedagainst the administrator ofLakshadweep and also againstthe alleged high-handedness ofeither the police or the localgovernment of the islands.

However, for reasons bestknown to the island's admin-istration, which is under thespotlight over its handling ofthese issues, it has made a pro-posal for shifting its legal juris-

diction from the high court ofKerala to Karnataka.

Efforts to seek commentsfrom the advisor of the admin-istrator, A Anbarasu, andCollector of Lakshadweep SAsker Ali did not fructify.

Mails to their official e-mails and WhatsApp messagesdid not elicit any response to aquestion asking the rationalebehind mooting of the proposalfor shifting of legal jurisdiction.

The jurisdiction of a highcourt can be shifted onlythrough an act of Parliament,

according to the law."Parliament may by law

constitute a high court for aUnion Territory or declare anycourt in any such territory to bea high court for all or any of thepurposes of this Constitution,"according to Article 241 of theConstitution.

Section 4 of the same arti-cle mentions that "nothing inthis article derogates from thepower of Parliament to extendor exclude the jurisdiction of ahigh court for a state to, orfrom, any Union Territory or

part thereof ". Talking to PTIover phone, Lok Sabha mem-ber Mohammed Faizal P P said,"This was his (Patel) firstattempt to shift the judicialjurisdiction from Kerala toKarnataka." "Why was he soparticular to transfer it... it'stotally a misappropriation ofthe post. The mother tongue ofthe people on these islands isMalayalam," he said.

"One should not forget thename of the high court isKerala and Lakshadweep HighCourt. This proposal was con-

ceived during his first visit tothe islands," Faizal said andasked was there a need for thisand how could he justify theproposal. Faizal said there havebeen 36 administrators beforePatel and no one had this kindof an idea."However, if this pro-posal will see any light of theday, we will oppose it tooth andnail on the floor of Parliamentas well as with the judiciary,"the Lok Sabha member fromNationalist Congress Party said.

He said the SaveLakshadweep Front (SLF) has

been making appeals to theCentre for changing the admin-istrator at the earliest.

"The SLF is a non-violentpeople's movement which hasbeen requesting the centralleadership to change Patel withsomeone who can be people'sadministrator," he added.

Legal experts fromLakshadweep said thatMalayalam is the spoken as wellas the written language both inKerala and Lakshadweep and,therefore, the process could bestreamlined.

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There is no end in sight for theCovid-19 pandemic in Kerala

despite the triple lock downs anddouble lockdowns slapped on theState since April 2021. The Statediagnosed 11,647 new cases onSunday while 112 persons suc-cumbed to Covid-19 on a singleday that took the total fatalitiestill date to 12,060.

The Test Positivity Rate,according to the press releaseissued by the Department ofHealth was 10.84 per cent. Butelsewhere in Kerala, there weremany regions with higher TPR,according to GovernmentMedical Doctors.

More than 300 local selfgovernment bodies in the Statehave TPR of 30 per cent andhigh. There were 1.05 lakhpatients across the State under-going treatment for the pan-demic.

Though the Governmentclaimed that the situation isinching to normalcy, there hasbeen no dearth of ambulancesblaring their sirens ferrying crit-ically ill patients from homes tohospitals.

The Government release onSunday said that 1.07 sampleswere tested in the last 24 hours.Thiruvananthapuram topped thetable of districts with the high-est number of patients-1,600while Ernakulam came closebehind with 1,461 cases.

Monday will be crucial forKerala as the lock down is beinglifted in stages. All liquor outletshave been opened while bars,popularly known as wateringholes too have started sellingdrinks, though in parcel mode.Leaders of Islamic organisationsare expected to call on ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan to seekhis permission to get themosques opened.

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Tamil Nadu has succeeded intaming the Covid-19 pan-

demic to a great extent, accordingto the data for Sunday released bythe Directorate of PreventiveMedicine and Health.

The State logged 7, 817 newcases of Covid-19 on Sundaywhile the fatalities for the daystood at 182. Across the State, 1.66lakh persons were subjected toRT-PCR tests. Coimbatore, theindustrial capital of Tamil Nadu,

which had showed more thanthousand cases on an average perday, registered just 904 new caseson Sunday while neighbouringErode (870) and Tirupur (477)districts too showed that theCovid virus was getting flattened.

Chennai logged 455 caseswhile the death till date rose to31,197. At the time of going toPress, Tamil Nadu as a whole wasin different stages of lifting of lockdowns indicating that normal lifeis returning to the State thoughwith restrictions.

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Kochi: The CustomsDepartment probing the Keralagold smuggling case has issuedshow-cause notices to 53 peo-ple including prime accusedSwapna Suresh, suspended IASofficer M Sivasankar and twoformer diplomats in the UAEc o n s u l a t e ,Thiruvananthapuram, officialsources said here on Sunday.

The notices asking whyaction under Customs Actshould not be taken againstthem in the smuggling caseswere issued by Customs(Preventive) CommissionerSumit Kumar on June 16 Thecase against them involvessmuggling of a total of 167 kgof gold 23 times including theillegal trade of 30 kilograms goldworth nearly �15 crore that wasseized by the Customs atThiruvananthapuram Airportfrom a diplomatic bag on July5, 2020, the sources told P T I. PTI

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Guwahati: Assam's Environmentand Forest Department hasemerged as a front-runner in theLife on Land category of the 2020edition of the Niti Aayog'sSustainable Development Goal(SDG) India Index.

The index for SDGs, launchedin 2018, evaluates the progress ofstates and union territories onsocial, economic, and environ-mental parameters.Among the17 broad-based global SDG goalswith 232 indicators,

Assam ranks fifth in the cat-egory 'Life on Land' with a com-posite score of 78 per cent, accord-ing to the Niti Aayog's report.

Arunachal Pradesh tops thelist with a composite score of 93per cent, followed by MadhyaPradesh 84 per cent, Odisha 83per cent, and Telangana 81 percent.

To be enlisted in the catego-ry of front-runners, a state orUnion Territory needs to score inthe range of 65-99, includingboth. PTI

Hassan (Karnataka): Hunt fortreasure purportedly buriedunder the sanctum sanctorumof a century-old temple in a vil-lage in Karnataka's Hassan dis-trict led seven people, includinga priest, to try to dig up thestructure, police said on Sunday.

This seven-member gang,which also included a promi-nent astrologer and AssistantDirector of Co-operativeSocieties, however, developedcold feet after digging around a10 feet pit in front of the chiefdeity of their villageBosmanahalli, abandoned theirmission halfway through, andleft the temple. All seven havebeen arrested.

According to the policestatement, the arrested wereidentified as Manjunath, anastrologer from Bosmanahalli,L. Thippeswamy, a templepriest, Hassan Co-operativeSocieties Assistant DirectorNarayan, B. H. Jayaram, Chetan,Manjunath, and Kumar.

The police said that theentire treasure hunt plan washatched by Manjunath, anastrologer from Bosamanhalli,who often used to visit the oldChowdeshwari (Parvatamma)Temple, of the village's deity, sit-uated on the outskirts of the vil-lage.

"Most of the arrested aredevotees of this temple. Theastrologer persuaded these fivegullible residents and a priestfrom a temple in Davangere dis-trict. Manjunath thought thatunder the lockdown, templeswhich are locked may not attractany notice of residents of thisvillage, besides the incident willonly come to public notice oncelockdown measures are eased.

"Hence, they decided tocarry out digging after per-forming 'homa-havana' (offer-ings poured in sacred fire whilechanting vedic Mantras) onintermediate night of Friday-Saturday," a police officersaid. IANS

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Amid the ruling MaharashtraCongress’ latest posturing

that it wanted to go it alone in the2024 State Assembly polls, ShivSena leader Pratap Sarnaik hasshot off a letter to Chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray, saying thatthe Sena must patch up with itserstwhile alliance partner BJP.

In a letter written to Uddhavwho is also the Shiv Sena presi-dent, three-time MLA fromThane Sarnaik said: “The munic-ipal corporation elections inMumbai, Thane and NaviMumbai Municipal Corporationare round the corner. Ouralliance with the BJP may haveended, but we as the erstwhilesaffron alliance leaders are main-taining good relations betweenus. Instead of letting the relationsbetween us deteriorate further, itis better we come closer to other”.

we come together, it willbenefit the party workers like meand the Shiv Sena in the long run.This is what I feel.. It is for youto take a proper decision in thematter,” Sarnaik said in a letterwritten to the Chief Minister onJune 9. The June 9 letter made itsway to the media on Sunday.

Alluding to the bickeringwithin the ruling Maha VikasAghadi (MVA), Sarnaik said:“On one hand, setting aside pol-itics, you (Uddhav Thackeray)are doing justice as the ChiefMinister, while on the other, ouralliance partners Congress andNCP have gone to town saying

that it is because of them that youhave become the chief minister.And the Congress is talkingabout going it alone in the 2024State Assembly polls”.

‘Instead of weaning awayleaders and workers from otherpolitical parties, the Congressand NCP are trying to break theShiv Sena. Simultaneously, someMVA Ministers and IAS officersare cosying up to the BJP lead-ers at the Centre to ensure againstthe central investigating harass-ing them,” Sarnaik said.

“In certain quarters of ourparty level, the talk that goesaround is; the works of theCongress-NCP workers get donefaster at the State Governmentlevel. But, despite having ourparty’s Chief Minister in thestate, the Shiv Sena MLAs are notable to get work done in variousGovernment departments. Thequestion that is being asked inthe party circles is: whether theShiv Sena broke its alliance withthe BJP and formed the MVA tomake the Congress- NCPstronger,” Sarnaik said.

“At a time when theCongress and NCP are trying toweaken our party by weaningaway our party workers, I feelpersonally that it is better that weget closer to Shri Narendra Modi.If the party does that, harassmentbeing meted out to Sena leaderslike Pratap Sarnaik, Anil Paraband Ravindra Waikar will stop.This is what the Sena workersfeel,” the Sena leader said.

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Patna: A 12-year-old girl, residing in a schoolhostel in Bihar's Aurangabad district, wasallegedly sexually assaulted by the schoolowner, police said on Sunday.

As per the FIR registered with the womenpolice station, the victim alleged that theaccused Raju Kumar, the owner of the school,located in Daudnagar locality in Aurangabad,raped her for the last two days.

On Sunday, she managed to escape fromthe hostel and reached the nearest police sta-tion. When she revealed her ordeal, she wasimmediately sent to the women police stationunder police custody.

"The victim was the only girl student liv-ing in the hostel. Her father and mother areemployed with a private firm in Gujarat. Theowner knew the status of the girl and tookadvantage of it. He sexually assaulted the vic-tim on Friday and Saturday night. Theaccused also threatened her to dire conse-quences if she revealed the incident to any-one," Suman Kumar, investigating officer ofthe women police station, said. "We have con-ducted medical examination of the victimwhich confirms rape. An FIR under POCSOAct has been registered against Raju Kumar. Heis at large now," she added. IANS

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Bahraich (UP); A stone idol ofLord Vishnu was unearthed onSunday morning during diggingwork undertaken at an oldmound in a village here, policesaid.

Ramgopal, a resident ofAnwarganj village under Nanparatehsil, had brought some labour-ers to level his land. As they wentabout digging the earth, theworkers stumbled upon a stoneidol.

The labourers dug out thestone idol of Lord Vishnu, whichwas three feet high, Nanparapolice station SHO Sanjay Singhsaid. As news spread of the find-ing, villagers gathered at the spot.

Later, police and adminis-tration officials arrived at the spot,took the idol in their custody, anddeposited it in the tehsil treasury.

The SHO said the dis-trict administration has informedthe archaeology departmentabout the idol. PTI

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The Uttar PradeshGovernment set a target

of administering 7 lakh Covidvaccine doses per day whichwill be ramped up from July1 and 10 crore people will bejabbed by the end of August.

“The administration haschalked out an action planand made all arrangements tomeet the target smoothly andswiftly,” a Governmentspokesman said. Earlier, thestate was administering about4.5 lakh vaccine doses a dayunder ‘Mission June’.

While chairing a high-level Covid review meetingon Sunday, Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath stated, “Thedecision of the prime minis-ter to give free vaccines to allcitizens above 18 years willboost the vaccination cam-paign. Taking advantage ofthis opportunity, we have toconduct our vaccination cam-paign to full capacity. Makepreparations with a goal to

administer 7 lakh doses perday and then ramp it up toaround 12 lakh doses fromJuly 1,” he said.

In this regard, the CMhas ordered to increase thevaccination centres from6,000 to 10,000. The Healthdepartment has directed thedistrict magistrates to makeall the arrangements accord-ingly. The cold chain capaci-ty has been doubled in thestate. From 80,000 litres, thecapacity has been increased to2.25 lakh litres to stock up thevaccine doses provided by theCentre, the spokespersonsaid.

He said from Julyonwards, to meet the target of10 crore doses, the govern-ment will aim to administernearly 12 lakh doses a day.Therefore, the next task forthe state is to ensure that ithas enough manpower andvaccine delivery centres. Theservices of more than 12,000new nursing students will betaken for the purpose. The

UP Government has tweakedits strategy and adopted a‘cluster approach’ to ensuremaximum vaccination. Theentire population will bedivided into clusters.Focusing on rural areas, morethan 97,000 revenue villagesof all the development blocksin the state will be dividedinto clusters. The campaignpromising ‘ease of vaccina-tion’ aims to vaccinate onecluster a week in the villagepanchayat ghars. The dateand place of vaccination willbe given to the villagers inadvance in the form of‘bulawa parchis’.

In each revenue village ofthe state, mobilisation teamswill be constituted with grampradhans, lekhpals, ASHA &Anganwadi workers, teachersof primary schools, panchay-at secretaries andYuvak/Mahila Mangal Dal.The cluster mobilisationteams will start the awarenessdrive three days prior to thepilot project.

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The Covid-19 deaths in Maharashtradropped to 605 and the infections

went up marginally to 9,361 on Sunday,even as 9,101 patients were dischargedafter full recovery from various hospi-tals across the State.

A day after the State logged 8912infections and 682 pandemic deaths,the infections rose to 9,361, while thedaily deaths came down by 77. Of the9361 deaths reported on Sunday, 190were current ones, while 415 were “oldunaccounted” fatalities.

With 605 deaths reported onFriday, the Covid-19 toll in the statejumped from 1,17,356 to 1,17,961.

With 9,361 fresh infections, thetotal infections in the state rose from59,63,420 to 59,72,781.

As 9,101 patients were dischargedfrom the hospitals across the State afterfull recovery, the total number of peo-

ple discharged from the hospitals sincethe second week of March last yearincreased from 57,10356 to 57,19,457.The recovery rate in the state stood sta-tic at 95.76 peer cent

The total “active cases” in the statedropped from 1,32.595 to 1,32,241. Thefatality rate in the state stood static at1.97 per cent.

Mumbai recorded 19 deaths and747 infections. As a result, the Covid-19 toll in the metropolis increased from15,279 to 15,298, while the infectedcases in Mumbai went up from 7,19,266to 7,20,013.

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Restaurants and malls will openfrom Monday across the state as

the government has announced fur-ther relaxation, extending the timingsof markets from 7 am to 9 pm onweekdays and allowing full attendancein government offices. However, theguidelines issued late Saturday nightby Chief Secretary RK Tiwari made itclear that all the relaxations would bewithdrawn immediately in the districtswhere the number of active casesexceeded the 500-mark.

The weekend curbs will stay forwhile educational institutions, cinemahalls, clubs, swimming pools andgyms will remain closed till furtherorders. According to the fresh guide-lines to be enforced from Monday, allthe markets can open from 7 am to 9pm from Monday to Friday.Government offices will open with fullattendance while restaurants and eat-ing points will have to follow the 50per cent capacity rule. Private com-

panies can also function under Covidprotocol but they have been asked topromote work from home as far aspossible.

The government also allowed thereopening of malls and roadsideeateries, fast food joints and sweetshops. Vegetable markets will be openlike before, but people have to followCovid-appropriate behaviour.

The movement of UPSRTC buseshas been allowed with some riders.The Transport department has beenasked to carry out regular sanitisationof the buses. Only two passengers areallowed in three- wheelers and e-rick-shaws while only four in cars.

In closed or open wedding venues,only 50 guests will be allowed at a timewhile not more than 50 devotees areallowed to gather at religious places ata time.

The corona curfew was clampedin UP on May 1. The Governmentstarted extending relaxation fromJune 1 when the number of Covidcases started coming down.

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Sikkim reported 87 newCovid-19 Cases in the last

24 hours, pushing the coron-avirus tally to 19,296, a healthdepartment bulletin said onSunday.

The Covid-19 death tollrose to 293 as two more personssuccumbed to the infection, itsaid. The new cases werereported from East Sikkim dis-trict (57), West Sikkim (22),South Sikkim (6) and NorthSikkim district (2).

The Himalayan State nowhas 2,697 active Covid-19cases,while 16,056 patients haverecovered from the disease, thebulletin said.

At least 250 Covid-19patients have migrated toother states, it said. Sikkim'sCovid-19 recovery rate now is83.2 per cent.

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that Muslims should have aseparate homeland even ifinside an Indian confederation.Most Hindu leaders, Gandhijidownwards, ignored thesestatements and continued tobelieve that the Congress Partyrepresented all communities.Rightly or incorrectly, becausethe Congress had members ofall communities, the leaderspresumed that all of their com-munities followed the Party.Eventually, Mohammad AliJinnah had the PakistanResolution passed by theMuslim League at its Lahoresession on March 23, 1940. Yet,the Hindus took only limitednotice. Nor did the Britishrealise how serious was theMuslim desire for a separatehomeland, a New Medina.

On August 16, 1946,Bengal Chief Minister HSSuhrawardy directed a massivepogrom, later called the GreatCalcutta Killing; which overthree days saw the bloodyend of thousands of people.This was Jinnah’s way of prov-ing particularly to the Britishthat Hindus and Muslims can-not coexist in the same coun-try. India had to be divided.This is also based on theIslamic theology that Muslimsneed a Dar-ul-Islam, whereinthe law laid down by Sharia is

the only land wherein Muslimscan flourish and fulfil them-selves. Today, India still hostsmore Muslims than any coun-try except Indonesia. This is anunusual paradox. If so manyMuslims can happily live inIndia, where was the need forPartition? Yet, the Hindushave accepted this contradic-tion without a protest. Myquestion is if the Hindus canbe so tolerant, why cannot theHans of China be considerateenough to let the Uyghurs be?

After all, China has tocoexist with many other peo-ples and countries. There are57 Islamic countries and theyhave not yet protested becauseof what? Possibly sheer fear orbusiness interests. But for howlong? Sooner or later, theIslamic fury must explode. Inany case, I appeal to the Hanrace for tolerance in the causeof peace.

In a spirit of freedom andbrotherhood, we allowed theAyodhya litigation to go on fornearly a century, waiting for acourt judgment. Then only wehave begun to build a templefor lord Ram whom poet Iqbalhad described as “Imam-e-Hind”. The Muslims ofAyodhya were in favour ofbuilding the temple because itwould multiply pilgrimage

and consequently bring pros-perity. The fight was about anedifice which had no minarets,no woozu for washing handsand feet before proceeding toprayers. In fact, it must havebeen meant as a mazar inBabar’s memory after he died.

India has had threeMuslim Rashtrapatis, ZakirHussain, Fakhruddin AliAhmed and Abdul Kalam,plus several judges includingSupreme Court Chief Justicesand election commissionersappointed by, of course, HinduGovernments.

When it comes to elec-tions, all adult citizens havethe right to vote. There is nodiscrimination. In the bargain,Muslims in earlier electionsvoted en masse for one partyand it won. The others wereslack in casting their votes. Butthis was tolerant and no solu-tion was applied to stop thispractice. The easy solutionwas compulsory voting; thatwould have neutralised the enmasse voting. But the Hinduethos was too liberal for adrastic measure althoughnearly a dozen countries, ledby Belgium and Australia,practise it.

(The writer is a well-knowncolumnist and an author. Theviews expressed are personal.)

����������������� �������Sir — In the first political engagementsince the August 5, 2019, move by theCentre to end J&K’s special status, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi will on June 24give an audience to the region’s mainstreamleadership, including those who wereincarcerated for opposing the Centre’smove. Modi will chair the meeting. All theleaders have been asked to go for a RT-PCR test before attending the meeting.

It will be the second major peace movein J&K after the successful renewedceasefire agreement in February this yearwith Pakistan, which has been demand-ing a roadmap on J&K to expand theengagement with New Delhi. The suddenmove by the Centre also comes in thewake of pressure from the internationalcommunity, especially the United States,to restore democratic and electoralprocesses in J&K, which remains underthe Centre’s rule since 2018. It is a step inthe right direction but how far this movewill succeed remains to be seen.

CK Subramaniam | Navi Mumbai

���������������������� ��Sir — Yoga means “to add”; to add to thegood habits in life, to add to peace and pros-perity. In the current scenario, the COVIDpandemic has devastated almost everythingbut one thing remains that has helped lifemove on smoothly, and that’s HOPE.

During the troubled days, yoga can bea step towards positivity, relaxation ofmind and physical strength. The UnitedNations gave its nod to the idea onDecember 10, 2014, and from June 21,2015, the entire world started celebratingthe International Yoga Day. The theme for2021 is “Yoga for the wellbeing”. India hascontributed a lot but the patent of thatinvention was in the hands of the white-skinned developed nations.

We have contributed zero, decimal anda lot more to the world. Several inventionsby Indians were being taken away and cred-ited to foreigners. However, we never crit-icised such moves because we wanted peaceand prosperity, unity in diversity. Yoga is not

of any particular religion but it’s for thegoodness of the entire humanity. Therefore,we all need to add yoga as an irreplaceablepart of our daily routine and life. This willnot only make us physically, but also men-tally and spiritually, stronger.

Aman Jaiswal | New Delhi�����������������������������Sir — As India prepares to battle the thirdwave of the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccinat-ing as many citizens as possible with bothdoses is unquestionably the most rationalway of countering the virus. However, it isequally important for each one of us to proveour pertinacity by wearing face masks.

A face mask is a crucial protective gearto safeguard ourselves. Scientific evidencegoes deep into the containment of the NovelCoronavirus by wearing face masks. When

a person expels droplets into the air, theyquickly evaporate and shrink to become tinyairborne particles, called “droplet nuclei”.

But in a moist atmosphere, between aperson’s mouth and the mask, it takes near-ly a hundred times as long for a droplet toevaporate and shrink into droplet nuclei.This means that nearly any kind of simplecloth mask is great for source control. Themask creates humidity, and prevents thevirus-containing droplets from turninginto droplet nuclei, allowing the fabric of themask to block the droplets. Studies suggestthat if 80 per cent of people wear masks inpublic, the COVID-19 transmission can cer-tainly be halted.

Ranganathan Sivakumar | Chennai

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Reports about the treat-ment of Uyghurs in gen-eral and their pregnantwomen in particular in

Xi Jinping’s China sound barbar-ic. If the purpose is family plan-ning, fair enough, but it shouldbe implemented by law and notby force. Cases were reported inthis journal from Istanbul whichmentioned several women whowere up to six-and-a-half monthspregnant being forcibly aborted,evidently posing a threat to theirlives. True, Muslims are reputedto procreate much more prolifi-cally than other people but thatdoes not mean that theGovernment should resort toviolent means to achieve small-er families.

According to the Hadith(Traditions), ProphetMuhammad once asked a manwhether he was married. Onbeing replied in the negative,Muhammad reacted by saying:“Then you are a brother of theDevil.” In Islam, even asceticorders are expected to marryrather than remain single. One ofthe Prophet’s companions, Usmanibn Maz’un, wished to lead a lifeof celibacy; Muhammad forbadehim. Normally such consent isgiven on condition of the celibatebecoming a eunuch. In the samecontext, the Prophet exhorted hisfollowers to marry women whowill love their husbands and bevery prolific: “For I wish you tobe more numerous than anyother people.” (Mishkatu’lMasabih book XIII)

We in India have a long andenormous experience of beingruled by Muslim sultans and, ofcourse, coexisting with them forcenturies. This led to serious andprolonged oppression in the 50-year reign of Aurangzeb, whichended in 1707. There was a seri-ous emotional parting of ways. In1887, the then most prominentIslamic leader Sir Sayyid AhmadKhan of Aligarh fame declared ina public speech that the Hindusand Muslims were separatenations. He repeated his con-tention the following year.

The next eminence to pro-nounce the same sentiments inthe early 20th century was JusticeSyed Ameer Ali. Then in 1930,poet Mohammad Iqbal voiced

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Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister, NationalCapital Territory (NCT) of Delhi hasjustified his much-trumpeted schemefor door-step delivery of ration on the

ground that this will help rein in what hedescribes as 'ration mafia' while ensuring thatevery grain of the subsidized food reaches theperson (read: the poor) for whom it is intend-ed.

Who is this 'ration mafia'? How does it plun-der the subsidized food? Can the scheme pre-vent it?

Under the National Food Security Act, 2013,the Union Government directs the FoodCorporation of India and other state agenciesto procure food from the farmers at MSP (min-imum support price) and organize its distribu-tion to a mammoth population of 800 millionpeople through an elaborate network of fair priceshops (in common parlance, these are called'ration shops') at the subsidized price of �2, �3and Rs 1 per kg for wheat, rice, and coarse cere-als, respectively. Each person is eligible to receive5 kg of cereals per month.

Considering that the cost of procurement,handling, and distribution is higher (in fact,many times more) than these ridiculously lowselling prices, the Centre reimburses the excessamount as 'food subsidy' to the FCI and otheragencies and is paid from the Union Budget.

During 2020-21, a total of �463,000 crorewas paid to FCI. Apart from regular paymentof �215,000 crore, this included about �150,000 crore towards free food given to all the800 million beneficiaries as also to the migrantlabour during April-November, 2020 under theAatmanirbhar package. The balance amount wasused for paying off a good slice of the loan takenby FCI from the National Small Savings Fund(NSSF) to finance the shortfall in subsidyreimbursements by the Centre in the past.Additionally, Rs 40,000 crore was paid to otherstate agencies under decentralized procurement(DCP).

During 2021-22, payment to FCI is expect-ed to be about �302,000 crore including�202,000 crore being the budget allocation andan additional about �100,000 crore to providefor free food under Aatmanirbhar till November2021 (announced subsequently to mitigate theimpact of the second pandemic wave). A fur-ther �40,000 crore is available for DCP.

The scheme is pan-India, covering all the 28states and eight union territories including theNCT of Delhi. The stuff unveiled by Kejriwal ismerely an improvisation of this scheme. Unlikethe latter wherein the beneficiary has to go tothe ration shop for collecting 5 kg of cereals permonth, under the former, the State Governmentwill arrange for delivery of 4 kg of wheat flourand one kg rice at his/her doorsteps. Hopefully,he/she need not pay extra for getting 'wheat asflour' or receiving ration at home.

However, the delivery will be at a huge costto the state exchequer by way of the Governmenthaving to pay vendors for picking up wheat fromthe ration shop, process it into flour and deliv-er back to the shop in round one, and then lift-ing the wheat flour plus rice and delivering thepacket to each of the millions of beneficiariesat their homes in round two. This cost will haveto be funded by the state as an 'additional sub-sidy' over and above what is given by the Centre.

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The Covid-19 pandemichas facilitated the rapidexpansion of e-com-

merce and digital trade, com-merce, and financial transac-tions. At the same time, it putpaid to socially interactivemarketplaces and face-to-facecontacts. Safety is the key con-cern that confines citizens todigital platforms and shrinksthe space of personal liberty,social interaction, and humancollectives and communities.One is reminded of BenjaminFranklins' warning, "Thosewho would give up essentialLiberty, to purchase a littletemporary Safety, deserve nei-ther Liberty nor Safety."

If in the name of safety, the'social contract' is relinquishedand it is replaced by theauthority of the State to gov-

ern the lives of private citizensin exchange for safety andsecurity, it ends up benefitingthe minions of the digitalmarkets that set up a new nor-mal for citizens.

What philosopher MichaelSandel characterized as a tran-sition from market relations insocially necessary fields likehealth, education, and humansecurity to an overall 'marketsociety' is seemingly taking adigital turn during the pan-demic. This picture of digitalmarkets restrains choice-basedconsent and limits it to partial-ly informed advantages. Digitaleconomy tweaks choices,restrains access to essentialresources, and dilutes ethicalpractices to market sentiments,even if it creates moral hazards.

An AI-controlled collusive

behaviour on the part ofhuman traders and customersis the outcome of uncontrolleddigital deals that might tamperwith the sovereign individuals.

A moral hazard of such adigital marketplace is the waythe bot called Tay on Twitter,which learned abuses from thetrolls, heaped it back upon a

feminist activist. Both Stateand non-state actors use bot-nets to surreptitiously controlinfected devices to hack, spy,and disable targets. As botnetscannot be attributed withintent, it helps to distance theactus reus of the perpetratorand allow them to escape withimpunity. As a result, botmas-ters enjoy economic incentivesto spread these bot networksthat can be used for miningcryptocurrency, credit cardfraud and distributed denial ofservices, etc. The bots canfurther position themselvesas autonomous agents (AA) bycamouflaging their point oforigin, while they can feedtheir masters confidentialinformation so that the target-ed victim suffers definitiveharm in multiple socio-eco-

nomic parameters. Given this default and

design difficulty in fixing lia-bility on cyber-attackers, thereis a greater risk for liberty andfreedom of speech of internetusers. In a sense, cyberspaceitself can be used to curtail andabridge various freedoms likeprivacy rights and the right todissent by deploying surveil-lance and secret watch. Digitalmarketplaces facilitated adirect connection betweencyberattack and surveillance,as personal data breaches arethe route through which theseactions are carried out.Though cyberattacks are ille-gal, surveillance assumes bothlegality and legitimacy by sub-jecting users to irrevocablemeta consent as the new socialcontract in digital, virtual, and

cyberspaces. The ecosystem ofthe digital market, therefore,constructs the human agencyand utilizes underlying techno-logical structures to give mean-ings to both security and sur-veillance mechanisms. Digitalmarkets create contested infor-mation spaces where thedefense of users' rights versusthe powers of governmentalinstitutions remain locked upin a battle of legitimacy.

The digital marketplacemakes it possible to reduce thehuman being to a node, or bet-ter, into datasets on its net-works. The digital life of sucha reduced person is endowedwith nominal rights of priva-cy and liberty, as such rightsare subjected to the arbitraryordeal of policing, profiling,moralizing. This is how digi-

tal marketplaces make itimpossible for the marginal-ized segments of society bymaking them 'illegible' in polit-ical and economic affairs, if notcompletely 'ineligible'.

In the name of safety andsecurity concerns, privacybreaches have been normal-ized by thinning down the linebetween legal surveillance andillicit attacks. The growth ofdigital trading and the increasein economic transactions incyberspace now provides boththe final reason and justifica-tion for increased control byboth state and non-state actors.Once the right to privacy isbreached in this manner, theresultant insecurity defeats allethical-legal injunctions thatcould have given healthyimmunity to digital markets.

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Fundamentally, the Delhischeme being the same as theCentre's, if the charge (read: 'rationmafia') leveled by Kejriwal holdsfor the latter then this will also holdfor the former. Let us examine.

When the owner of a rationshop has in his stock wheat/ricemeant for distribution to rationcard holders (RCH) at �2/�3 perkg, he may get a strong temptationto divert it to the open marketwhere they can fetch a minimumof �25/�35 per kg. He will takedeliveries from the FCI godown inthe name of a 'fictitious' RCH andsell all those quantities in themarket raking in a clear bonanzaof �23 and �32 per kg on wheatand rice, respectively. This indeedis happening on a massive scale allover India and has been recog-nized by the Prime Minister too.

To stem the rot, the ModiGovernment has taken severalmeasures including the OneNation One Ration Card(ONORC) scheme which has at itscore, the e-POS machine at allration shops. Under this modusoperandi, supply of the subsi-dized food to the beneficiary ismade conditional upon him/herauthenticating - using Aadhaar -taking delivery with the sale get-ting registered on the e-POSmachine. This is uploaded onto theweb portal on a 'real time' basiswhich should help in detecting

dubious sales if any. Since 2014, reportedly, the

Government has weeded out closeto 44 million bogus ration cardswhich are equivalent to 176 mil-lion beneficiaries (assuming fourpersons on a card) or nearly 20 percent of 800 million covered underNFSA. This is a creditable achieve-ment. However, considering thelarge-scale diversion which insome states could be as high as 50per cent, there is still a long wayto go.

The menace of bogus rationcards is only a part of a larger prob-lem in the public distribution sys-tem (PDS) as pilferage could behappening even at other levels inthe supply chain; for instance, atthe rake unloading points andgodowns of the FCI. Reports of thedisappearance of food stocksworth about �20,000 crore inPunjab in 2016 is a glaring exam-ple. The misuse of budgetaryresources also manifests in otherforms such as inefficiencies in han-dling operations of FCI/other stateagencies and inflated claims(including bogus claims) towardsvarious expenses.

All this happens because,under the existing system, theagencies get reimbursement for thecosts on an 'actual' basis. Thisindeed is the most serious flaw inthe scheme. Camouflaged underthe noble banner of 'food subsidy',

albeit, for the millions of poor, thisoften goes unchallenged evenwhen irregularities are pointed outby Comptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG).

The scheme mooted by theDelhi Government does nothing toaddress this flaw. It will only cre-ate more avenues for middlemento make money at the cost of thetaxpayer. What is the way forward?

The solution to the problemcannot be seen in isolation from itssource. It has to do with plenty offood available 'virtually for free'which ignites the greed of stake-holders leading to pilferage andother ills. This free cult has to stop.

The Government shouldunshackle the food supply and dis-tribution chains. It should put thesubsidy currently built into the saleprice of food, say, �32 per kg onrice (cost: �35 per kg minus sub-sidized price: �3 per kg) or �160per person per month (under theNFSA, he/she is eligible to get 5 kgin a month) in the account of abeneficiary who can use it to buyfrom wherever he/she chooses.This is the Direct Benefit Transfer(DBT) of subsidy. While fullyprotecting the poor, it can help incurbing the colossal loot andwastage of public money that isgermane to the existing dispensa-tion.

Will Prime Minister Modibite the bullet?

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Afghanistan's formerPresident said on Sunday

the United States came to hiscountry to fight extremismand bring stability to his war-tortured nation and is leavingnearly 20 years later havingfailed at both.

In an interview with TheAssociated Press just weeksbefore the last US and NATOtroops leave Afghanistan, end-ing their forever war,' HamidKarzai said extremism is at its“highest point” and the depart-ing troops are leaving behind adisaster.

“The international com-munity came here 20 years agowith this clear objective offighting extremism and bring-ing stability...But extremism isat the highest point today. Sothey have failed,” he said.

Their legacy is a war-rav-aged nation in “total disgraceand disaster."

“We recognise as Afghansall our failures, but what aboutthe bigger forces and powerswho came here for exactly thatpurpose? Where are they leav-

ing us now?" he asked andanswered: "In total disgrace anddisaster.”

Still, Karzai, who had aconflicted relationship withthe US during his 13-year rule,wanted the troops to leave, say-ing Afghans were unitedbehind an overwhelming desirefor peace and needed now totake responsibility for theirfuture.

“We will be better off with-out their military presence,” hesaid. “I think we should defendour own country and lookafter our own lives...Their pres-ence (has given us) what wehave now...We don't want tocontinue with this misery and

indignity that we are facing. Itis better for Afghanistan thatthey leave.”

Karzai's rule followed theoverthrow of the Taliban in2001 by a US-led coalitionthat launched its invasion tohunt down and destroy the al-Qaida network and its leader,Osama bin Laden, blamed forthe 9/11 attacks on America.

During Karzai's rule,women re-emerged, girls againattended school, a vibrant,young civil society emerged,new high-rises went up in thecapital Kabul and roads andinfrastructure were built. Buthis rule was also characterizedby allegations of widespread

corruption, a flourishing drugtrade and in the final yearsrelentless quarrels withWashington that continue evenuntil today.

“The (US/NATO military)campaign was not againstextremism or terrorism, thecampaign was more againstAfghan villages and hopes;putting Afghan people in pris-ons, creating prisons in ourown country...And bombing allvillages. That was very wrong.”

In April, when PresidentJoe Biden announced the finalwithdrawal of the remaining2,500-3,500 troops, he saidAmerica was leaving havingachieved its goals. Al-Qaida

had been greatly diminishedand bin Laden was dead.America no longer neededboots on the ground to fight theterrorist threats that mightemanate from Afghanistan, hesaid.

Still, the US' attempts tobring about a political end tothe decades of war have beenelusive. It signed a deal with theTaliban in February 2020 towithdraw its troops in exchangefor a Taliban promise todenounce terrorist groups andkeep Afghanistan from againbeing a staging arena for attackson America.

There is little evidence theTaliban are fulfilling their partof the bargain. The UnitedNations claims the Taliban andal-Qaida are still linked. Thearchitect of the US deal andcurrent US peace envoyZalmay Khalilzad says someprogress has been made butwithout offering any details.

Karzai has had harsh wordsand uncompromising criticismof US war tactics over the pasttwo decades in Afghanistan.Yet he has become a linchpin ofsorts in a joint effort beinglaunched by the US and Britainto get a quarrelsome Afghanleadership in Kabul unitedenough to talk peace with theTaliban. The insurgent grouphas shown little interest innegotiating and instead hasstepped up its assaults on gov-ernment positions.

The Taliban have madeconsiderable strides since theMay 1 start of the US and

NATO withdrawal. They haveoverrun dozens of districts,often negotiating their surren-der from Afghan national secu-rity forces.

But in many instances thefighting has been intense. Justlast week a brutal assault by theTaliban in northern Faryabprovince killed 22 ofAfghanistan's elite comman-dos, led by a local hero Col.Sohrab Azimi, who was alsokilled and widely mourned.

“The desire of the Afghanpeople, overwhelmingly, allover the country is for peace,”said Karzai, who despite beingout of power since 2014 has lostlittle of his political influenceand is most often at the centreof the country's political machi-nations.

Diplomats, Western offi-cials, generals, tribal eldersand politicians on all ends ofAfghanistan's political spec-trum regularly beat a path toKarzai's door in the heart of theAfghan capital.

As the final military with-drawal is already more than50% complete, the need for apolitical settlement or even avisible path to an eventual set-tlement would seem to be tak-ing on greater urgency even asAfghans by the thousands areseeking an exit.

They say they are frustrat-ed by relentless corruption,marauding criminal gangs —some linked to the powerfulwarlords in Kabul — and wors-ening insecurity. Few see afuture that is not violent.

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Australia's suppression ofinformation seen as pivotal

to a free and open media is atthe centre of accusations thatthe country has become one ofthe world's most secretivedemocracies.

Last week, a formerAustralian spy was convictedover his unconfirmed role as awhistleblower who revealedan espionage operation againstthe Government of East Timor.

It's the latest high-profilecase in a national system inwhich secrecy laws, some dat-ing back to the colonial era, areroutinely used to suppressinformation. Police have alsothreatened to charge journalistswho exposed war crime alle-gations against Australian spe-cial forces in Afghanistan, orbureaucrats' plan to allow anintelligence agency to spy onAustralian citizens.

Australians don't evenknow the name of the formerspy convicted Friday. TheCanberra court registry listedhim as “Witness K". His lawyerreferred to him more respect-fully as “Mr K” in court.

K spent the two-day hear-ing in a box constructed fromblack screens to hide his iden-tity. The public and mediawere sent out of the courtroomwhen classified evidence wasdiscussed, which was abouthalf the time.

The only sign that anyone

was actually inside the box waswhen a voice said “guilty” afterK was asked how he pleaded.

The Australian govern-ment has refused to commenton allegations that K led anAustralian Secret IntelligenceService operation that buggedgovernment offices in the EastTimorese capital in 2004, dur-ing negotiations on the sharingof oil and gas revenue from theseabed that separates the twocountries.

The government cancelledK's passport before he was totestify at the Permanent Courtof Arbitration in The Hague in2014 in support of the EastTimorese, who argued thetreaty was invalid becauseAustralia failed to negotiate ingood faith by engaging in espi-onage.

There was no evidenceheard in open court of a bug-ging operation, which mediareported was conducted underthe guise of a foreign aid pro-gramme.

K was given a three-monthsuspended sentence. If he'dbeen sent to prison, there werecourt orders designed to con-ceal his former espionagecareer by restricting what hecould tell friends and associates to explain hispredicament.

He had faced up to twoyears in prison. Since hisoffence, Australia has contin-ued to tighten controls onsecrecy, increasing the maxi-mum sentence to 10 years.

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In the wake of loominguncertainty in Afghanistan

due to the withdrawal of theUS troops, Pakistan hasannounced that it would com-plete the fencing of its borderwith the war-torn country bythe end of June.

Minister for InteriorSheikh Rashid Ahmed statedthis on Saturday on the floorof the National Assembly, thelower house of parliament, theDawn newspaper reported.

The minister informedthe house that 88 per centwork on the fencing of theborder with Afghanistan hasbeen completed and the “restwould be completed by June30”, it said. The fencing of the2,640 km land border withAfghanistan began in March2017 after a spate of attacksfrom across the porous border.

Pakistan shares a longand porous border withAfghanistan, which runsthrough mountainous terrainand is largely unpatrolled.The Durand Line was drawnby the British rulers in 1896and is disputed byAfghanistan, which also resistsPakistani attempts to erectany border fence.

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Top diplomats said Sundayfurther progress had been

made at talks between Iran andglobal powers to try to negoti-ate and restore a landmark2015 agreement to containIranian nuclear developmentthat was later abandoned by theTrump administration.

They said that it was nowup to the governments involvedin the negotiations to makepolitical decisions.

It was the first officialmeeting since Iran's hard-linejudiciary chief won a landslidevictory in the country's presi-dential election last week.

Some diplomats expressedconcern that Iran's election ofEbrahim Raisi as presidentcould complicate a possiblereturn to the agreement.

Enrique Mora, theEuropean Union official whochaired the final meeting of thesixth round of talks betweenRussia, China, Germany,France, Britain and Iran, toldreporters that "we are closer toa deal, but we are not still there.”

“We have made progresson a number of technicalissues," Mora added. “We havenow more clarity on technicaldocuments - all of them quitecomplex - and that clarityallows us to have also a greatidea of what the political prob-

lems are."He did not further elabo-

rate on the nature of the tech-nical issues.

Top Russian representa-tive Mikhail Ulyanov said themembers of the JointComprehensive Plan of Action,or JCPOA, "took stock of thesignificant progress made at theVienna talks, including at thesixth round, and decided tomake a break to allow partici-pants to consult with theircapitals in preparation for whatis supposed to be the finalround of negotiations.”

“There are a few contro-versial points which requirepolitical decisions. Apparentlydiplomatic efforts to find com-mon language have been

almost fully exhausted. So thetime has come for politicaldecisions,” Ulyanov added.

The nations involved in thenegotiations have been tryingto resolve the major outstand-ing issues on how to return theUS into the landmark agree-ment, which then-US PresidentDonald Trump pulledWashington out of unilateral-ly in 2018. Trump also restoredand augmented sanctions to tryto force Iran into renegotiatingthe pact with more concessions.

Ulyanov said that afterheading back to report on thetalks' results to their respectivegovernments, he expected thediplomats to return for the finalround of talks in Vienna in 10days or by mid-July.

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Jerusalem: Israeli PrimeMinister Naftali Bennett onSunday opened his firstCabinet meeting since swear-ing in his new coalitionGovernment last week with acondemnation of the newIranian president. He said Iran'spresidential election was a signfor world powers to “wake up”before returning to a nuclearagreement with Tehran.

Iran's hard-line judiciarychief, Ebrahim Raisi, was elect-ed Saturday with 62% of the voteamid a historically low voterturnout. He is sanctioned by theU.S. In part over his involvementin the mass execution of thou-sands of political prisoners in1988, at the end of the Iran-Iraqwar. Raisi has not commentedspecifically on the event.

Bennett said at the Cabinetmeeting in Jerusalem that “ofall the people that (IranianSupreme Leader Ayatollah Ali)Khamenei could have chosen,he chose the hangman ofTehran, the man infamousamong Iranians and across theworld for leading the deathcommittees that executed thou-sands of innocent Iranian cit-izens throughout the years.”

Iran and world powersresumed indirect talks inVienna on Sunday to resurrectTehran's tattered 2015 nucleardeal. AP

Baghdad: At least oneKatyusha rocket fell close to theperimeter of a military basethat hosts US troops in north-ern Iraq on Sunday, Iraq's mil-itary said. The rocket fell nearthe sprawling Ain al-Asad airbase in western Anbar provincebut did not explode, the mili-tary said in a statement.

There was no significantdamage, the statement said. AnIraqi security official said afence at the perimeter of thebase was minimally damaged.The official spoke on conditionof anonymity in line with reg-ulations.

An investigation by secu-rity forces found the projectilehad been launched from thenearby al-Baghdadi area.

The attack is the latest tar-geting the American presencein Iraq. Rockets and, morerecently, drones have targetedmilitary bases hosting UStroops and the US Embassy inthe heavily fortified GreenZone in Baghdad. AP

��� +44+1�F3@9.+1G

Jordan's version of a trial ofthe century gets under way

Monday when a relative ofKing Abdullah II and a formerchief of the royal court are tobe ushered into the defen-dants' cage at the state securi-ty court to face charges ofsedition and incitement.

They are accused of con-spiring with a senior royal -Prince Hamzah, a half-broth-er of the king - to foment unrestagainst the monarch whilesoliciting foreign help.

The palace drama eruptedinto the open in early April,when Hamzah was placedunder house arrest. It has sincebroken taboos in Jordan andsent jitters through foreigncapitals, with Western powersrallying behind Abdullah, anindispensable ally in an unsta-ble region.

The case exposed rivalriesin Jordan's traditionally discreetHashemite dynasty andspawned unprecedented pub-lic criticism of the monarch.The defendants are the mostsenior establishment figuresto appear before the securitycourt, which typically goesafter drug offenders or sus-pected militants.

“As far as I know, there hasnot been a case this big in thehistory of Jordan,” said defenselawyer Ala Khasawneh. Thestate news agency Petra said thetrial starts Monday.

The 41-year-old Hamzah isthe central figure, though he isnot facing charges. In clashingnarratives, he is either a cham-pion of ordinary Jordanianssuffering from economic mis-management and corruption,or a disgruntled royal whonever forgave Abdullah fortaking away his title of crownprince in 2004 in favour of theking's oldest son.

The indictment, leaked tostate-linked media, allegesHamzah “was determined toachieve his personal ambition”of becoming king. It says theprince and the defendants —Sharif Hassan bin Zaid, a royal,and Bassem Awadallah, a for-mer royal adviser — conspiredto stir discontent.

Security agencies beganmonitoring them in mid-March, at a time of publicuproar over an oxygen outageat a hospital in the town of Saltthat killed eight coronaviruspatients.

Hamzah met withbereaved families just after theking visited Salt.

Cairo: When Libyan securityforces rescued her earlier this year,the young Somali womanthought it would be the end of hersuffering. For more than twoyears, she had been imprisonedand sexually abused by humantraffickers notorious for extorting,torturing and assaulting migrantslike her trying to reach Europe.

Instead, the 17-year-old said,the sexual assaults against herhave continued, only now byguards at the government-runcenter in the Libyan capitalTripoli where they are being kept.

She and four other Somaliteenagers undergoing similarabuses are pleading to bereleased from the Shara al-Zawiya detention center. It isone of a network of centers runby Libya's Department forCombating IllegalImmigration, or DCIM, whichis supported by the EuropeanUnion in its campaign to buildLibya into a bulwark againstmainly African migrants cross-ing the Mediterranean Sea.

"While it is not the firsttime I suffer from sexualattacks, this is more painful asit was by the people who shouldprotect us," the 17-year-oldsaid, speaking to The AssociatedPress by a smuggled mobilephone. AP

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Air India has time till mid-July to challenge the law-

suit filed by Britain's CairnEnergy PLC demanding that aUS federal court force the air-line to pay a $1.26 billion arbi-tration award it had wonagainst the Indian Governmentin December last year, sourcessaid.

Air India is controlled bythe Indian Government somuch that they are "alter egos",Cairn had said in the lawsuitfiled with the US District Courtfor the Southern District ofNew York. The court shouldhold the airline company liablefor the arbitration award, thecompany had said.

A three-member interna-tional arbitration tribunal thatconsisted of one judge appoint-ed by India had unanimouslyin December overturned levyof taxes on Cairn retrospec-tively and ordered refund ofshares sold, dividend confis-cated and tax refunds withheldto recover such demand.

The government of India,despite participating in thearbitration proceeding overfour years, has not accepted theaward and has filed a 'settingaside' petition in a court in TheNetherlands - the seat of the

arbitration.With Cairn seeking to

recover the award from state-owned entities such as AirIndia, the government has saidit will contest any enforce-ment. Air India has timetill mid-July to file a plea con-testing Cairn lawsuit, threesources aware of the mattersaid.

The airline, which is in theprocess of being privatised, islikely to argue that it is a sep-arate entity and not the alterego of the Indian governmentand cannot be forced to pay forany liability of the govern-ment, they said.

Air India spokespersondeclined to comment on thestory.

Cairn has identified USD70 billion of Indian assets over-seas for potential seizure to col-lect award, which now totals toUSD 1.72 billion after includ-ing interest and penalty.

The assets identified rangefrom Air India's planes to ves-sels belonging to the ShippingCorporation of India, andproperties owned by statebanks to oil and gas cargoes ofPSUs, the sources said.

These assets are across sev-eral jurisdictions, they saidwithout giving further details.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

The Commerce and IndustryMinistry has floated a draft

Cabinet note seeking inter-ministerial views on a propos-al to allow up to 100 per centforeign investment under auto-matic route in oil and gasPSUs, which have an 'in-prin-ciple' approval for disinvest-ment, sources said.

The move, if approved bythe Union Cabinet, would facil-itate privatisation of India'ssecond biggest oil refinerBharat Petroleum Corp Ltd(BPCL).

The government is pri-vatising BPCL and is selling itsentire 52.98 per cent stake inthe company.

Sources said that as per thedraft note, a new clause wouldbe added in the FDI policyunder the petroleum and nat-ural gas sector.

According to the proposal,foreign investment up to 100

per cent under the automaticroute would be allowed incases where an 'in-principle'approval for disinvestment of aPSU has been granted by thegovernment.

For BPCL privatisation,mining-to-oil conglomerateVedanta had put in an expres-sion of interest (EoI) for buy-ing the government's 52.98 percent stake in the PSU. Theother two bidders are said to beglobal funds, one of thembeing Apollo GlobalManagement.

After collating the views,the commerce and industryministry would seek approvalof the union cabinet on the pro-posal.

At present, only 49 per centFDI is permitted through auto-matic route in petroleum refin-ing by the public sector under-takings (PSU), without anydisinvestment or dilution ofdomestic equity in the existingPSUs.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

The demand for talent willoutpace supply and become

a "key dependency" for growthas enterprises globally acceler-ate digital adoption with vir-tual, Wipro Chairman RishadPremji said.

The Bengaluru-based com-pany has effected "boldchanges" in the last six monthsto help serve customers betterand is well-positioned to lever-age as well as enable digitaltransformations for itsclients,

Premji said in the com-pany's annual report for FY21.

The former Nasscomchairman noted that tech-nology is often at the fore-front of economic recovery,but especially now, as thepandemic precipitated struc-tural changes across indus-tries and challenged estab-lished ways of working.

Whether it is digital com-merce, online education, ortelemedicine, technology-enabled business models haveemerged across the board,with cloud technology as thecornerstone of this transfor-mation, he added.

"With the rapid shift todigital, the demand for talentwil loutpace supply, andbecome a key dependencyfor growth. Already we seenew delivery models, such as'work from anywhere' and

'Crowdsourcing', become themainstay. We expect virtual,remote, community-based,and distributed work modelsto be the future of work,"Premji said.

He added that as vacci-nation efforts ramp up glob-ally and economies start see-ing a rebound, clients keen toinvest in and accelerate theirdigital transformation andthe key to success for ITplayers would be "to respondto this opportunity with speedand agility".

Premji said the companyhad triggered its businesscontinuity plans to quicklyenable remote working as thepandemic broke out, and lessthan 3 per cent of its globalworkforce currently is work-ing from office.

"We have settled well intothis new way of working andhave continued to make ourcustomers successful. Weenjoy their confidence, and Ihave no doubt that a hybridmodel may well be how wework in the future," he added.

Premji said global coop-eration is critical, especially inview of the pandemic and thatvaccines for COVID-19 areone of the greatest examplesof collaboration and pioneer-ing science.

"We must now work toscale the supply chain, buildmechanisms for equitable dis-tribution and drive an effi-

cient administration for theselife-saving vaccines," headded.

Rishad, who took over aschairman in 2019 succeedinghis father Azim Premji, saidWipro Ltd, Wipro Enterprisesand Azim Premji

Foundation, togethercommitted about Rs 1,125crore (about USD 150 mil-lion) in April 2020, towardstackling the unprecedentedhealth and humanitarian cri-sis arising from the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

"Over the past 12 months,we have supported more than1,500 projects coveringhumanitarian aid, integratedhealthcare support, and liveli-hood regeneration.Cumulatively, we have reachedout directly to more than 18million people through ourcoordinated and comprehen-sive COVID-19 response, toprovide humanitarian aid andhelp with livelihood regener-ation," he said.

For employees, the com-pany has undertaken a num-ber of initiatives, includingproviding COVID-19Isolation Care centres forstaff and their families, part-nering with major hospitals toprovide medical support tocritically ill employees, addi-tional medical reimburse-ment and leaves related toCOVID-19, as well as vacci-nation at campuses.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

The domestic life insur-ance industry may see

pressure on its profitability inthe short-term as the coron-avirus pandemic has castdoubt on the certainty relat-ed to morbidity and mortal-ity in the country, ICICIPrudential Life said in itsannual report.

India became an epicen-tre with a spike in cases in thesecond wave of the pandem-ic, amidst shortage in medicalsupplies. There are concernsabout the possibility of athird wave hitting the coun-try, ICICI Prudential Life saidin its annual report for 2020-21.

In FY21, the life insuranceindustry reported a modest 3per cent growth in new busi-ness premium, said thereport, adding the industrycontinues to get a highershare of household savingsbecause of the increasedattractiveness of life insurancesavings products, the uniqueproposition of protection andannuity products among oth-ers.

"In the short-term, theprofitability of the insuranceindustry is expected to be anarea of concern given theincrease in mortality andmorbidity rates induced bythe pandemic. Even more

than a year after the pandemicfirst struck, there continues tobe significant uncertaintyregarding its absolute impacton mortality and morbidityexperience," the insurer said.

The pandemic has posedmultiple challenges for theIndian life insurers. The onsetof the pandemic saw a sharpfall in equity prices, whileinterest rates also declined.

Insurers have exposureto equities in unit-linked andparticipating businesses. Thusinterest rate movementsimpact their liabilities andguarantees based basedschemes. While, a credit riskcan impact their investmentsmade incorporates.

The sharp movements inmarkets, coupled with anyasset liability mismatches thatinsurers may have, can impactthe solvency position.

The report said there areemerging risks related to envi-ronmental, social and gover-nance (ESG) issues on theinsurance industry of whichclimate change is a biggerchallenge.

Apart f rom climatechange, there are emergingrisks associated with publichealth trends such as increasein obesity related disordersand demographic changessuch as population urbanisa-tion and ageing, said the

report.Industry's growth even

during the pandemic shows apromisingfuture for thedomestic life insurance sector,however, the pandemichasalso exposed the gap the pro-tection gap in the country,said the report.

The number of Covid-19related death claims is frac-tion of the number of overalllives lost, highlighting thevulnerability of the families,ICICI Pru Life said.

The insurer said it hasbecome imperative for everyworking individual to addlife insurance as a key ingre-dient of f inancial planning.

During the year, the pan-demic amplified the need forlife insurance among people,leading to the category slow-ly moving from being a "pushproduct" to a "nudge prod-uct", ICICI Prudential LifeInsurance said.

The company's total pre-mium income during FY21was Rs 35,733crore of whichRs 13,032 crore was new busi-ness premium.

"On the back of the risk-averse behaviour of our cus-tomers,there was consider-able interest for traditionallong-term savings productswhich grew by 61.2 per centfor the year," said the insur-er.

� �� 21.@9,

Astudy by the Indian Institute of TechnologyIndore in Madhya Pradesh has found that

aloe vera has an "electronic memory effectchemical" that may be useful in making memo-ry chips and other data storage devices, an offi-cial from the premier facil ity said onSunday.

The study was carried out by the Materials andDevice (MAD) laboratory of the institution'sphysics department, he said.

"As part of our study, we used electric currentin aloe vera fruit juice, which brought forth that ithas an electronic memory effect chemical, and asper need, its conductivity can be increased anddecreased," Dr Rajesh Kumar, Associate Professorof the Physics Department of IIT Indore told PTIon Sunday.

"Synthetic chemicals are used for making datastorage devices like memory chips. If experts onthe subject go for in-depth research, the naturalchemical found in aloe vera fruit juice might openup a new vista in place of synthetic chemicals withwhich these devices are made," he informed.

Kumar said the study was conducted by thephysics department's Materials & Device (MAD)laboratory with the participation of PhD studentTanushree Ghosh along with Suchita Kandpal,Chanchal Rani, Manushree Tanwar, Devesh KumarPathak and Anjali Choudhary.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

The Government is open tocoming out with more

measures to boost the econo-my which has been hit by thesecond wave of the coron-avirus pandemic, says ChiefEconomic Advisor (CEA) K VSubramanian.

He, however, added thatthe demand for a fresh stimu-lus package has to be consid-ered against the backdrop of ahost of initiatives taken byFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman in her budget for2021-22 presented in February.

The Chief EconomicAdvisor was responding to asuggestion made by someindustry bodies that the gov-ernment needed to come outwith a Rs 3 lakh crore stimu-lus package to boost the econ-omy which was badly hit by thesecond wave of the coron-avirus pandemic in April-May.According to an assessment bythe Reserve Bank, the secondwave has cost the nation aboutRs 2 lakh crore in terms of out-put lost.

"Like last year, we doremain very open to comingup with more measures aswell...But I think it is reallyimportant to take intoaccount the big differences

between last year and thisyear when we talk about stim-ulus," he told PTI in an inter-view.

Elaborating his point, theCEA said that unlike the pre-vious budget which was framedbefore the pandemic, the 2021budget was presented amidthe pandemic and had alreadyincorporated significant fiscalexpansion.

The focus is particularly oninfrastructure spending whichleads to construction activityand subsequently creation ofjobs in the informal sectorand demand generation, hesaid. It was witnessed duringthe January-March quarter ofthe last financial year, he added.

The significant capitalspending by the governmentled to a 15 per cent increase inthe construction sector in thefourth quarter and the grossfixed capital formation to GDPsurged to 34 per cent, thehighest in the last six years.

Emphasising that the finalobjective is to ensure that theeconomic recovery gatherspace, he said, the governmentwill do whatever is necessary toensure that.

With regard to food secu-rity for the poor, he said, thegovernment has already

extended the free food pro-gramme for 80 crore popula-tion till November.

The extension of PM GaribKalayan Yojana would costabout Rs 70,000 crore, he said,adding free vaccination for allis another important econom-ic measure.

"Vaccine as you wouldappreciate is by far the mostimportant from the perspec-tive to get back into the pathof economic recovery," he said.

On the effect of the secondwave on growth, Subramaniansaid, there will be some impactbut it is not likely to be verylarge.

The Economic Survey2020-21 released in Januarythis year had projected GDPgrowth of 11 per cent duringthe current financial year end-ing March 2022.

India's economy contract-ed by less-than-expected 7.3per cent in the fiscal yearended in March 2021 aftergrowth rate picked up in thefourth quarter, just before theworld's worst outbreak of coro-navirus infections hit the coun-try.

The GDP print was betterthan expected contraction of 8per cent for 2020-21 as pro-jected by the EconomicSurvey.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

Markets regulator Sebi hasreconstituted its

Takeover Panel, which looksinto the applications seekingexemption from the manda-tory open offer that an acquir-er needs to make to minorityshareholders.

The regulator hasappointed N Venkatram MDand CEO, Deloitte India asthe new member of theTakeover Panel, latest

update with Sebi showed.

The panel, chaired by N KSodhi, the former ChiefJustice of the High Courts ofKarnataka and Kerala, makesits recommendations to Sebion such applications afterwhich the regulator gives anopportunity to concerned par-ties before passing an order.

Sodhi was also the formerpresiding officer of theSecurities Appellate Tribunal.

The other members of thepanel are Darius Khambata(former advocate general,Maharashtra) and ThomasMathew T (former chairman ofLife Insurance Corporation ofIndia).

Sebi had first constituted afour-member Takeover Panelin November 2007, underchairmanship of former Bankof Baroda chairman K Kannan.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

Petrol price in the nationalcapital crossed �97 a litre

and diesel neared �88 after fuelprices were raised yet again.

Petrol price was hiked by29 paise per litre and diesel by28 paise, according to a pricenotification of state-owned fuelretailers.

The hike -- 27th in sevenweeks -- pushed fuel pricesacross the country to new his-toric highs.

In Delhi, petrol hit an all-time high of �97.22 a litre,while diesel is now priced at Rs87.97 per litre.

Fuel prices differ from stateto state depending on the inci-dence of local taxes such asVAT and freight charges.

And because of this, petrolretails at over Rs 100 per litremark in eight states and unionterritories -- Rajasthan,Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,Karnataka, Jammu andKashmir and Ladakh.

Among the metros, petrolis already above Rs 100 inMumbai, Hyderabad andBengaluru.

In Mumbai, petrol nowcosts Rs 103.36 a litre and dieselcomes for Rs 95.44.

� �� �@��+�+

The Direct TaxesProfessionals Associations

(DTPA) claimed that manytax professionals are facingnumerous problems or teethingissues in the revamped IncomeTax portal which was launchedrecently.

The DTPA in a letter toUnion Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman claimedabout 40 problems in the newincome tax portal for filing ofreturns.

The DTPA has also urgedthe Finance Minister to extendby two months date for pay-ment of tax under Vivad SeVishwas Scheme as also datefor furnishing TDS/ TCS state-ments and for other compli-ance which are due by June 30as offices are non- functional inmost states due to COVID-19pandemic.

DTPA RepresentationCommittee chairman NarayanJain said, "No option for VivadSe Vishwas Scheme (VSV) alto-gether despite the scheme isstill on for payments, unable tofile TDS /TCS statements, form10A for making application forfresh registration of societiesand trusts etc, under Sec 12ABand 80G not also available in

this portal while its last date isJune 30."

He told PTI that "ITacknowledgements andIntimation under Sec 143(1)cannot be downloaded, DINNumber is not getting auto-populated, IT payment challannumbers not getting validated,digital signature certificate notgetting registered or updated,new incorporated companiesor firms are not able to get reg-istered, e-proceedings tab notworking".

DTPA president NK Goyalsaid that many taxpayers havegot notices from NationalFaceless Assessment Officersand Faceless CIT (Appeal)but taxpayers are unable tocomply in the absence of e-proceeding tab in the portal.

Taxpayers are also unableto file Income Tax Returns forAY 2020-21 and of earlier yearsas there is no facility or optionseven for furnishing incometax return under Sec 148 ormaking application againstissuance of notices u/s 148,Goyal claimed.

Professional urged the gov-ernment to resolve these issuesimmediately as the date forcompliance is approaching.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

In a rare regulatory move, Sebihas restrained PNB Housing

Finance from going ahead withshareholders' voting on theproposed � 4,000 crore-dealwith Carlyle group and direct-ed the company to carry out thevaluation process as per the rel-evant legal provisions.

The watchdog said the res-olution regarding the deal,which was to be put for share-holders' vote on June 22, was"ultra-vires" of the company'sArticles of Association (AoA).

The transaction, which hascome under the lens of Sebiand Reserve Bank of India(RBI) following concerns raisedin certain quarters, includingby a proxy advisory firm,would eventually see privateequity major Carlyle grouptaking control of PNB HousingFinance, which is a subsidiaryof Punjab National Bank.

The company's meeting isscheduled for Tuesday (June22) to take up the matter forapproval of the shareholders.

"The current resolutionbearing item no. 1 (issue ofsecurities of the company andmatters related therewith) ofEGM notice dated May, 31,

2021 is ultra-vires of AOA andshall not be acted upon until thecompany undertakes the valu-ation of shares as prescribedunder 19(2) of AOA, for pur-pose of preferential allotment,from an independent regis-tered valuer as per the provi-sions of applicable laws," PNBHousing Finance said in a latenight filing referring to Sebi let-ter to ensure compliance.

The company, promoted byPNB, said it had received the let-ter from Sebi on June 18, 2021,calling upon the company tocomply with the legal provisionsin the matter. The said reportshall be considered by the com-pany's board while deciding onthe preferential issue of sharesand warrants, Sebi has asked.

"The company and itsboard of directors have con-sidered the Sebi letter, andcontinue to believe that thecompany has acted in compli-ance with all relevant applica-ble laws, including the applic-able pricing regulations pre-scribed by Sebi, and the AOAof the company, and that suchpreferential allotment is in thebest interests of the company,its shareholders and all relevantstakeholders," PNB HousingFinance said in the filing.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

Foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) pumped in a net

�13,667 crore so far in June asIndian markets continued toremain attractive to overseasinvestors.

However, market expertsnoted that FPIs withdrewmoney from Indian equitiesthis week.

According to depositoriesdata, FPIs invested �15,312crore in equities between June1 and June 18.

"The US Federal Reservehas signalled that it will startraising interest rates in 2023.This caused a sell-off on a glob-al level that caused somemoney to be withdrawn fromIndian equities," said HarshJain, co-founder and COO atGroww.

However, India is not adestination where investorsput in money based on short-term trends.

India has always been anattractive spot for FPIs andthese short-term trends willhave short-term effects only, headded.

In the longer horizon, Indiawill continue to get invest-

ments as its economy contin-ues to expand, Jain furthersaid.

"Of late, INR depreciationis attracting incremental buy-ing interest in IT stocks," notedVK Vijayakumar, chief invest-ment strategist at GeojitFinancial Services.

During the same period,overseas investors withdrewRs 1,645 crore from the debtsegment.

The total net inflow stoodat Rs 13,667 crore.

Prior to this, they hadpulled out Rs 2,666 crore inMay and Rs 9,435 crore inApril.

"The US Fed's hawkishstatement that it might raiseinterest rates much earlier thanassumed could further adverse-ly impact flows into Indian debtmarkets," said HimanshuSrivastava, associate director -manager research, MorningstarIndia.

Regarding other emergingmarkets, Shrikant Chouhan,executive vice president, equi-ty technical research at KotakSecurities, said that most ofthem have seen FPI inflows thismonth to date except forTaiwan and South Korea.

� �� 1,6�.,��2

The Ministry of Labour and Employmentis considering extending the timeline of

the Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana(ABRY) till March next year from the exist-ing June 30, in a bid to boost fresh hiring inthe country amid the pandemic, said sources.

Under the ABRY approved by the UnionCabinet in December last year, theGovernment pays mandatory employeesprovident fund contributions of workers aswell as employers for new recruits for a peri-od of two years.

Under the scheme with an outlay of Rs22,810 crore, workers recruited from October1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, were covered.

"The Ministry of Labour and Employmentis in the process of circulating a Cabinet pro-posal for extending the timeline for ABRY tillMarch 2022," sources told PTI.

The source explained that about 21 lakhnew recruits are benefitted so far which is farless than government's expectation of 58.5 lakh.

Therefore, the labour ministry wouldpush for extending the deadline of thescheme till March next year as the allocationof funds for the scheme was done keeping inmind the 58.5 lakh beneficiaries, the sourceadded.

During the pandemic, the governmenttook a series of steps to boost employmentgeneration and to give relief to workers grap-pling with job loss and pay cuts.

The ABRY was one of those measures.Government had allocated Rs 22,810 crore forthe entire period of implementation of thescheme from 2020 to 2023.

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�������������� �The life of a transwoman who has just gained herindependence takes an unexpected turn when anunknown son she had with a woman 10 years ago showsup out of the blue. This series releases on June 25 onAmazon Prime.

���� ��Based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling novel The

Burning Room, the final season of Bosch puts DetectiveHarry Bosch's famous motto center stage — “Everybodycounts or nobody counts.” Releases on June 25 onAmazon Prime.

����������S1 of this original Marathi series revolved around the

life of Kumar Mahajan, who realises that he is living a lifethat some other man named Sudarshan Chakrapani hasalready lived. After S1 ended in a cliff hanger, watch theforthcoming season to know what happens next. It releas-es on June 24 on MX Player.

; � , , � �

Over the past year, we have invari-ably seen the decline of theentertainment real estate indus-

try due to the pandemic. As people areturning to the internet to help fill thevoid, OTT platforms are booming, andtheatres and cinema halls have been leftabandoned, grim and desolate. All otherservice sectors like salons and restau-rants are opening up, but entertainmentzones remain at the bottom of the list,given the crowds that throng theseplaces, leaving them jam-packed andgasping for air.

Industry experts have been tryingto put together new rules for theatresthat help offset the adverse effect of thepandemic by distancing people throughstrategic and well-planned seating.One or two seats left between eachoccupied seat compel people to stay ata distance. However, when families goout to entertain, their sole purpose isto spend time together instead ofbeing alienated, thereby failing the dis-tancing approach. Entertainment spacesare social areas and a system that triesto separate people becomes the antithe-sis of its typology. Moreover, ailmentssimilar to COVID-19 in the years tocome will remain highly infectious andairborne. So, if one needs to rethink

entertainment design, one needs to goway beyond this basic concept.

Bearing in mind the collapse andturmoil caused by the malady in enter-tainment industries, one can’t expect asweeping upgrade in these spaces at themoment. Therefore, allotting morearea per person is not an option, as ithas substantial cost repercussions.How, then, can one stay in the domainof cost-effectiveness and yet keep thespaces safe during these unprecedent-ed times?

When we think of virus transmis-sion, the first thing that comes to ourmind is the spread caused by comingin close contact with someone ortouching surfaces which have been incontact with someone else who wasinfected. A practical solution to keepsurfaces touch-free and uncontaminat-ed is automation. Sensors and automa-tion technology must be integratedwithin every micro-system, allowingpeople to move through doors and

carry out mundane tasks without hav-ing to lay a finger on any object. Onesuch example is washrooms. When weopen the door to a restroom, we needto press the push-plate that has alsobeen touched by many others, makingit a virus hotspot. A door that sensesyou and opens on its own and sanitaryfixtures that can function with the waveof a hand can dramatically reduce virustransmission and enable hygienic safe-ty to a large extent.

Nonetheless, some surfaces likeseating upholstery or carpets can’t be leftuntouched. To optimise their hygienevalue, we need to become mindful ofthe specifications of the materials weuse. Stainless steel was considered ahero material for clean, hygienic spaces,employed everywhere from small doorhandles to bulkier furniture pieces. Themost sought-after metal has now iron-ically become one of the least preferableones, quickly being replaced by alter-natives to avoid creating habitable sur-

faces for the virus. Swinging away fromsteel surfaces and carpet materials thatare a breeding ground for biologicalentities, we need to shift our focustowards materials like Flotex, whichhave a high surface tension, making itdifficult to absorb any particles. Analternative is utilising surfaces that canbe sanitised in a jiffy at regular inter-vals. Laminate companies are alreadyleading in the race with newer technolo-gies that enable such safe resources.

The air in urban cities was previ-ously chock-full with pollutants, and theinflux of the virus added to the prob-lems, making it much worse. Airpurification systems which regulate thePM level of air are now passé; we mustupgrade to technologies that can elim-inate biological aerosol contents fromthe air. Air conditioning will become acrucial element since controlling theviral load suspended in these enclosedspaces is tricky when people spend sev-eral hours inside the room. Owing toseveral hazardous accidents that haveoccurred in the past, the fire safety cer-tification has become a compulsion forall buildings to ensure public safety. Therecent turn of events will bring in a ‘newnorm’ wherein air quality certificationwill be required to gain people’s confi-dence and trust.

Perhaps, a technology that canaccommodate social interaction aswell as social distancing within the samerealm, is a ‘bubble’ or ‘pod system’ thatcan be installed for families to spend

some leisure time while remaining con-fined within their micro-environments.Similar to this concept is the idea of adrive-in cinema from yesteryear thathas begun trending again. But it doesnot come without cons, as these cine-mas take up ample area and only func-tion in a limited capacity for a limitednumber of hours during the day.

Another way to relook entertain-ment design is to change how we per-ceive these spaces. In the prosaicmodel, we are accustomed to enclosedrooms that are glammed-up with arti-ficial mood lighting. Breaking this con-ventional style, lobbies can beredesigned into porous structures thatopen up to the outside world, allow-ing breeze and sunlight to wash theinteriors. It ultimately boils down topeople’s choice — whether they preferopen, airy spaces or enclosed ones.

While the world is struggling torelease itself from the clasps of the pan-demic, people are trying to find newerways to go out, interact and redeem thelifestyles they had in the pre-pandem-ic times. While eradicating the dead-ly disease stays a far-fetched dream,there will be innovations and ideasgalore to restore our entertainmentspaces to their livened-up state, bustlingwith people and energy that onceoffered us some recreational plea-sures...

(The spokesperson is founder anddesign ideator of an award-winningarchitectural and interior design firm.)

Singer, music director, recordproducer and occasional actor,

Shekhar Ravjiani happens to bea busy man. Currently inSingapore, he talks about hisSchool of Music, which will cel-ebrate its one year anniversarytomorrow.

�How has your experiencebeen providing personalisedmusical training to handpickedstudents across 21 campuses ofthe Global International IndianSchool?

It has been an exciting andsatisfying journey. We are cele-brating one year of GIIS-ShekharRavjiani School of Music, and Iwant to say despite the pandem-ic-related challenges, this hasbeen a successful journey.

The School of Music was ameeting of minds for me andGIIS, as both parties wanted toencourage talent in youngsters.Children are our future, and Irealised that many of them areblessed with oodles of talent.

The first year had 14 gradu-ates from Singapore, Japan, UAEand Malaysia. Each one of themwas mentored by me. We hadone-on-one sessions wherein Ilistened to them, shared myinputs, gave them assignments onthe parts they needed to work onet al. Six of them have now beenselected for the second level of thementorship programme for 2021.

This year, we have seen a five-fold increase in the number ofaspirants and we are excited at theprospect of working with morechildren.

�While online classes are ahandy tool in the backdrop of

the pandemic, did you experi-ence any difficulties while vir-tually imparting musical train-ing?

I agree virtual classes cannotreplace physical classes, no doubt.However, given the situation,virtual classes worked out fine.GIIS is a smart school. Its infra-structure is state-of-the-art. Thefounders have really invested inmaking it a school of the future.GIIS gave us a great licensed plat-form to hold virtual classes, gaveus audio-visual equipment thatwas of excellent quality, and thestudents were given ample timeand resources to practise and per-fect their art. Of course, therewere some technical glitches like

internet lag, but that was nothingcompared to what the studentswalked away with. Overall, therewere more positives than therewere hiccups, and I am glad wedid not let the pandemic damp-en our spirits.

�Do you have any plans foryour music school in the nearfuture?

This music school is mydream, so of course, I have a lotof ideas for the school and its tal-ented students. As of now, I amworking on pushing them to thenext level through proper expo-sure and guidance. We haveplanned some collaborative activ-ities with established members of

the industry for the students toget hands-on experience. It isgoing to be an amazing experi-ence for them and this is just thebeginning of our school’s journey.

In the future, we will ideateon many such avenues to give thebest to our students. Dependingon the type of talent pool weacquire, we will determine thetype of platforms they will haveexposure to. We would not like todisclose much at this time but weare brainstorming and we arepositive that many more avenueswill open up in the foreseeablefuture.

�We would love to knowwhat are the forthcoming pro-jects you are working on.

We are currently working onthe music for Pathan andJayeshbhai Jordar. Both of thesefilms are set to release later thisyear.

I also have an extremelyinteresting surprise in store,something you will be hearingabout, soon.

�What is your message topeople on the occasion of WorldMusic Day?

In a world filled with uncer-tainty and anxiety, I believe thatmusic has the power to help us allfeel centred and loved. Our coun-try has an undiscovered treasuretrove of musical talent that iswaiting to be heard. I urge musiclovers to open their minds andhearts to these musicians andhelp them find their audience. Itis also my dream that more andmore kids pursue their love formusic and I hope to do my bit inmaking this happen.

Our B-town stars devote an incred-ible amount of hardwork and

dedication to do justice to their on-screen characters. Celebrating the zealof such film stars, today we list down4 Bollywood actors who underwentmajor physical transformation fortheir roles. Take a look...

�� �!����!�����Just when the

nation tried to labelAditya as the chocolateboy next door, the ver-sati le actor leftcinelovers with hismassive physicaltransformation forhis blockbusterrelease Malang. Adark thriller whichwon the audienceswith its unpre-dictable and edgystoryline, Malangturned out to be agame changer forAditya. It was impres-sive how the actorunderwent a massivephysical transformationto perform deadly, highoctane actionsequences in the filmwherein Aditya was seen in twoextremely distinct looks in the film,one being lean and the other being abulky avatar. Even for his next Om,Aditya has worked hard to achieve thedesired look.

���%��� ���Known to be a direc-

tor’s actor, Ranveer hastime and again under-gone physical trans-formations for hisrole in various films.The actor hadworked really hardon his body forRohit Shetty’s copdrama Simmba andunderwent weighttraining to attain abeefed-up body. Andyet again, not too longago, Ranveer workedhard on his physicalappearance and looksfor his upcoming film 83,for which he developed alean physique. We hear thatbesides the intense workoutsessions, the actor also hada meticulous diet regime in place for

the same.

���= �������Ranbir has

earned himself aspot in everytop filmmak-er’s wishlistwith his per-f o r m a n c e s .The actor whowill be nextseen inB r a h m a s t r a ,

opposite girl-

friend and actor Alia Bhatt, under-went a solid physical transformationfor his critically acclaimed film,Sanju. In order to get the requiredbulked up look for the Sanjay Duttbiopic, Ranbir used to have eightmeals a day and woke up at 3 AM todrink a protein shake,along with intenseworkouts.

% ��!��������Last seen in Bhoot

Part One : TheHaunted Ship ,Vicky is knownnot just for hisexemplary actingskills but also forhis incrediblephysical transfor-mations. For thesuperhit film, Uri:The Surgical Strike,Vicky went through acomplete change andgained 15 kilos to por-tray the role of a mili-tary man. In order toget the right look for hischaracter in the film,Vicky followed a strictdiet regime and didimmense training, build-ing muscles for the desiredsculpted structure. Next tobe seen in Sardar UdhamSingh, we hear he will beagain seen in a never seen beforeavatar.

WALK INTO THE

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Mother nature is a con-stant reminder of liv-ing in harmony. A

forest, for instance, “has anamazing ability to communicateand behave like a single organ-ism,” says Dr Suzanne Simard, pro-fessor of Forest and ConservationSciences at the University of BritishColumbia. Her research studiesreveal how underground fungi net-works of forests facilitate plantsand trees to exchange water, nutri-ents, defence signals, and muchmore.

Along somewhat similar lines, thescience of Yog has ventured deep andrevealed to us that this whole creationis one system and that we are an inte-gral part of one sublime energy. Thespirit of yoga is the spirit of unity andunion. We have a very subtle, yet deepand symbiotic relationship with oneanother at different levels. Hence,International Yoga Day not onlyemphasises the sense of oneness andwholeness within an individual but alsoour intertwined wellness and existencein this universe.

We all are oneNow more than ever we need to

help one another achieve all-aroundwellness while navigating throughthese formidable times. If we work inunison with one another, cooperate,and share vitality, we will eventuallyconquer the virus. We have succeededin doing so before — our coordinatedefforts eradicated smallpox, whichonce killed 35 per cent of its victims.

Developing a vaccine againstCOVID-19, although the most press-ing challenges of our time, is a remark-able achievement of medical science. Itis heartwarming to watch the globalcommunity donate vaccines to COVAX(COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access),a global initiative unlike any other.However, success depends upon the

percentage ofthe global popula-

tion that accepts vaccination. Asthey say, no one is safe, unless every-one is safe.

Enhancing the psychological immunesystem is equally important

The psychological immune systemencompasses all our cognitive mecha-nisms, which fortify us from experienc-ing despondent or low-spirited emo-tions. Over the past 16 months, I havebeen witnessing several members ofour spiritual congregation remainingstrong and soldiering through thepandemic. It is the wealth of scriptur-al knowledge and practise of yoga thathas been their paramount aid in rid-ing out the pandemic. The science ofyoga provides a holistic approach todevelop not only physical resilience, butalso mental, intellectual, emotional, andspiritual vigour.

Perils and arduous circumstances

are an integral part of our journey inthis world. While some hardships arepredictable and preventable, others areinescapable. A degree of emotionalmaturity is necessary to develop an ade-quate reserve of mental energy tocome up with creative solutions to theproblems that arise in life. Empoweringthe mind through meditation bringsstability to emotions. Most ailmentshave their roots in the mind. When oneharbours anxiety, tension, fear et al, itdisturbs the mental sheath (one of the

five sheaths in the body). This dis-turbance is then passed on to

the pranic sheath, whichthen manifests in the phys-ical sheath of the body asdisease. Meditation onGod heals the various ail-ments of the mind, result-ing in the enhancement ofvital energy and the

improvement of physicalhealth.

Nurture positive inner ecol-ogy with yogic practices

Sage Patanjali hasgiven us five niyma (observances)

that help us live in peace: saucha (puri-ty of thought), santosh (contentment),tapas (self-discipline), svadhyaya (con-templating on the self/self-reflection),isvarapranidhana (devotion and surren-der to God). Engaging in these practis-es sincerely, especially devotion and sur-render to the Supreme Lord will ignitethe lamp of wisdom.

There is a tremendous organisationmanifesting around us in every aspectof God’s creation — from a tiny atom toour DNA. If we transcend our internalimperfections, we can then discern theperfect world. This world is perfectlydesigned in a manner to bring about thegradual flowering of the consciousnessof the soul over the continuum of life-times. The entire universe prods ustowards the evolution of consciousness.The challenges that we come across area part of the process that enriches usinternally.

A caterpillar takes on strong wings,transforming into a beautiful butterflyonly after going through the struggle.Similarly, this creation hurls processes atus to bring about transformation. If wecan perceive this aspect of God’s design,and align ourselves with it, we begin tounderstand his grand plan for us. Whenthis dawns upon us, we not only takeeverything in our stride but also learn theart of dedicating our deeds to the Lord.

(The writer is an author, a yogi,world-renowned spiritual teacher, anauthority on mind management, IIT &IIM alumnus and the founder of JKYog.)

Yoga. The word has now become omnipresent and isliterally on everyone’s mind. It’s unbelievable how this

euphoria has touched the hearts of people across 192countries. This whole thing started with our PM,Narendra Modi’s address at the United Nations in 2014where he expressed his wish to dedicate one day as theInternational Day for Yoga. To everyone’s surprise, theUN agreed to sanction the event and nine months later,the entire world was preparing for a yoga spectacle anda couple of Guinness world records too.

Yoga as a method and practise has evolved over cen-turies since the time it was developed in ancient India.As of today, for a seeker, there are so many forms andbranches of yoga to choose from, hence at times, one getsconfused as to which would be best for them. However,from a practical point of view, real yoga is not the onethat just gives temporary health and happiness but onewhich transforms theworld into one with nobehavioural ailments,mental tensions orworries. It won’t bewrong to say that it isan ideal method ofcuring physical andpsychological disordersfor several births.Today it is being statedby political punditsthat yoga is the bestsoft power that Indiapossesses to bring theworld together and endthe increasing trend ofviolence.

Of all the yogatechniques taught by various yogis over centuries, Raj yogahas been termed as the king among them all. Before prac-tising this unique method, an aspirant needs to have aclear image of the supreme. The holy Gita says ‘An idealyogi is the one who has purity and chastity in thought,word and deed, who has knowledge and wisdom. Onewhose mind is subdued and remains constantly in soul-consciousness and yogic meditation. One who has con-quered temptation of senses, who has cast aside ego, lust,anger, attachment and neither grieves at loss nor is jubi-lant with success. Someone in whose eyes all are equal,who is selfless and peaceful, whose diet is pure and inwhose life there is austerity, who is upright, who knowsthe Almighty in his true essence and performs all deedswhile in yoga with the Supreme’. So, to become an idealyogi, one needs to, first of all, understand the nuancesof the definition that is mentioned above and then starthis/her journey.

Yoga in an actual sense means union or link. It is aunion of the self (soul) with the Supreme (Almighty) forwhich there is a prerequisite that an aspirant needs to fol-low. One must understand that we are the soul and notthe body. All our physical and mental sufferings are aresult of our failure to remain in soul consciousness, andthis has made our lives miserable. However, through Rajyoga, we can change this situation because every soul ispure and peaceful, in its original nature, and with prop-er guidance and practise it is possible to live a life with-out stress, worries and tension. Dedicating few minutesdaily to Raj yoga is a meaningful expression of caring foryourself that can help you move through the mire of feel-ing unworthy. It involves the turning of one’s mind andlove towards the direction of the Almighty, to commu-nicate with him.

Thus, it is a technique of self-exploration, leadingto the experience of heightened and expanded aware-ness, reaching God and letting your soul focus on him.In short, the principal objective of Raj yoga is to bringthe self in conscious touch with the Almighty, thus mak-ing it increasingly aware of its divine origin, divine des-tiny and its divine nature. So, be a Raj yogi and redis-cover yourself.

In October, after the body of aCOVID-19 patient in

Sundergarh town, the districtheadquarters of Sundergarh inOdisha, reached ‘RanibagichaSwargadwar’ cremationgrounds, the administrationrealised there was no one pre-sent to help with the cremation.The son of the deceased waitedfrom morning till 4 in the after-noon when the sub-collectorand executive officer ofSundergarh Municipality con-tacted Siddhant Panda, ShishirKumar Behera, Manoj KumarTripathy and Kamlesh KumarNathani. The four friends, wear-ing the PPE suits, cremated thebody. The next day, the mediacovered the story and namedthese Samaritans ShamshanBandhu (friends at cremationground).

Their journey of crematingdead bodies began two decadesago. “In those days, when a per-son died in our colony or sahi,all the male members wouldjoin to help shoulder the bodyto the cremation grounds andconsole family members of thedeceased. We had joined onesuch instance, back then,” said48-year-old Siddhant, who was28 at that time. Whenever therewas a call from their locality orneighbouring colonies thesefour friends would extend sup-port. Initially, it was this inter-est that later transformed intodedication. “My mother wouldoften say that Shamasane je sabandhabah — a real friend is theone who stands with you dur-ing the funeral. We neverstepped back from our mission,”said Siddhant. They also helped

with the cremation of aban-doned bodies. “In a small tinbox, we would collect moneyfrom shops and people to cre-mate those who had no one tohelp them. During that time werelied on crowdfunding till weset up our respective business-es in 2003. Since then, westopped collecting money fromothers and spent it from ourpocket. This comes between�4,000-5,000 for the cremationof one abandoned body,”informed Shishir. To date, theyhave cremated nearly 700 bod-ies from Sundergarh town,which has a population of45,036 (2011 Census).

In 2020, when the firstCOVID-19 death was reported,the administration thought ofonly these four friends whocould help with the cremation.“When the administrationcalled, although we had agreedto do the work, we were scared— not for ourselves but our fam-ily members,” said Siddhant. Inthe first wave, they had cremat-ed 78 infected bodies, while inthe second wave till (June 4) thenumber had reached 240.

� �)���������Sharing the heart-wrench-

ing incidents they experiencedduring the second wave of the

pandemic, Siddhant said, “Wehave seen people become inhu-mane. The fear of infection wassuch that the relatives didn’tcome to even light the funeralpyre and claim the ashes. Out ofthe 240 Covid-positive deaths,we lit the mukhagni (funeralpyre) of 56 people.” To date, therelatives of the deceased have notturned up to collect the asthi(ashes), kept in different earth-en pots with names and mobilenumbers of the departed per-sons. “We keep calling theirfamily members to collect theashes, no one turned up toreceive these as they fear theinfection,” said Siddhant. Theyshared that they will wait for afew days more, if no one turns upthey have decided to proceedwith the asthi visarjan (immer-sion of the ashes) themselves.“We don’t want to disrespect thedead and once the lockdowneases, we would performsamuhik visarjan (collectiveimmersion) of the ashes,” saidManoj.

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Talking about the challengeswhile performing this work dur-ing the Covid-19 pandemic,

Siddhant shared, “It was terribleduring the peak period. In May,every day nearly 12-15 bodieswere coming to the cremationground. In the morning, wewould light the funeral pyres forfour bodies then after finishingthe ceremony (Agni Shanti), wewould get another call from themunicipality informing us thatsome more bodies were on theway to the crematorium. Therewas no rest till midnight.” As perManoj, the most difficult partduring the peak period of thesecond wave was to perform thework wearing a PPE suit in thescorching heat of 44 to 45°. “Wehad to stand for three-four hoursin front of the pyre. We couldn’tdrink enough water as urinatingafter wearing PPE was a chal-lenge. Sometimes, we felt suffo-cated while working for longhours,” he added.

These four friends have beenconducting this work followingall the necessary COVID-specif-ic protocols. The local adminis-tration has provided them witha vehicle to carry the dead bod-ies and PPE kits to perform thework.

“After the work is done, wecome to the room provided bythe municipality where we dis-infect ourselves, take off thePPE kit and after a small break,get ready for the next round ofcremation work,” said Manoj.Besides appreciating their work,Abhimanyu Behera, sub-collec-tor of the district, declared themas COVID-19 Warriors and vac-cinated them on a priority basis.

When the family has aban-doned their dead relatives, othercommunity members have come

forward to support their funer-als. They have donated 70-80tonnes of wood, ghee, sanitiser,water bottles and other thingswhich are necessary for the cre-mation. These four friends, how-ever, need more hands to supportthem.

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When asked how their fam-ily and neighbours react to theirwork, Siddhant said with a smile,“Last year, when media high-lighted our work, my father-in-law and brother-in-law asked usto not undertake the task as theybelieved cremations should beperformed by people belongingto the lower caste.” His wife, how-ever, stood by his side. Manoj —a Brahmin — also faced suchissues. “This work gives us sat-isfaction, so we never pay heedto what others think of it,” hesaid. Kamlesh explained, “Wereceive calls from all over the dis-trict as people understand theimportance of the work we do.Sometimes, we travel to differentcorners of the district to bringinfected bodies for cremation.”

Seeing their dedication, thelocal administration and otherorganisations have felicitatedthem and their work. Whenthey were asked about the nameof their organisation, bothSiddhant and Manoj laughedsaying that they have been doingthis work voluntarily and neverthought of giving any name to it.It was the media that namedthem Shamshan Bandhu, a namepeople now associate them with.A name they are happy with.

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Shafali Verma’s spectaculardebut has caught the imag-

ination of the Indian women’steam Test skipper Mithali Raj,who feels the teenager wouldbe a key member of the sidein all the formats of the gamein future.

The 17-year-old, who hadsmashed a stroke-filled 96 inthe first innings, made 63 inthe second innings, to becomethe youngest woman andfourth overall to score twinhalf-centuries in her debutTest and was rightfullyadjudged player-of-the-match.

“She will be very, veryimportant to the Indian bat-ting unit in all formats. Shebeautifully adapted to thisformat,” Mithali said in a vir-tual media interaction afterIndia, following on, salvageda draw in the one-off Testagainst England.

“She didn’t go like how shewould go bonkers in the T20format. She played sensiblyagainst the new ball and it’sgreat to have her.”

Asked what prompted theIndian team management tohand Verma a Test debut inEngland, Mithali said: “She hasgreat range of shots, and she

can be very, very, effective ina format like this if she getsgoing. In no time, we could seethat the score would be some-where else if she gets going.

“Once we knew that it’s aused wicket and there won’t bemuch of a movement, wethought it would be a goodtime to give her a Test debutand she lived up to it.”

Mithali rated the youngopener’s knock in the second

innings ahead of her firstinnings score of 96 as theteenager showed utmost com-posure and maturity.

“The (second innings)fifty came with a little moresorted head and a little bitmore experience. Thosesweetly-timed drives, it wasbeautiful to watch her. I’msure she will grow fromstrength to strength from hereon.”

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England captain HeatherKnight has hailed the one-

off Test against India as a greatadvertisement for the women’sgame and said she would sup-port five-day matches, insteadof the current four-day contests.

“What a brilliant game ofcricket. It was unfortunate itdidn’t have the dramatic andexciting finish that it couldhave done but what a game ofcricket,” Knight said after thematch.

“It’s been a great advert andshows that women’s Test crick-et has a place in thegame...Maybe even play a five-day Test match.”

Asked if she would be opento women playing five-dayTests, Knight said, “I would def-initely be open to it. There hasbeen a lot of draws in women’scricket, so it’s definitely some-thing that should be looked at.

“(We were) almost robbedof that finish because therewasn’t an extra day and we did-n’t have the time in the game. So,yes, something I’d definitely beopen to.”

“I think if there was anoth-er day what a great finish itwould have been,” said Knightwho hit 95 in England’s firstinnings and took three Indianwickets in the match.

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The Tokyo Olympic organis-ers are working on how to

ensure safe stay and seamlesstraining of the Indian athletesinside the Games Village,according to a letter they havesent to the Indian OlympicAssociation (IOA).

The Indian athletes andofficials travelling for theOlympics have been asked bythe Japanese Government toundergo daily Covid-19 tests fora week prior to their departureand not to interact with anyonefrom another country for threedays upon arrival, strictures thathave left the IOA fuming.

Stricter regulations havebeen put in place for all trav-ellers — including athletes,coaches and support staff — of11 countries, including India,

where different variants ofCovid-19 have been identified,within 14 days of their arrival

in Tokyo.Terming the rules as “unfair

and discriminatory”, the IOA

had written to the TokyoOrganising Committee of theOlympic Games (TOCOG) to

ensure that mechanisms to pre-vent Covid-19 do not have any“adverse and detrimentalimpact” on performance ofathletes.

In reply to the IOA letter,TOCOG said: “Tokyo 2020 isworking to define how athletesof your NOC as well fromother 10 countries and all other195 NOCs can stay safe in theVillages and have training.

“We hope to provide youwith those information anddiscuss together as soon aspossible we develop it,” theGames organisers said in a let-ter to the IOA.

The IOA, on its part, saidthat its president and secretarygeneral were in discussion withTOCOG and seeking clarifica-tions on the conditionsimposed on the Indian contin-gent for Tokyo Olympics.

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Amember of the UgandaOlympic team has tested

positive for coronavirus onarrival in Japan, just over amonth before the pandemic-postponed Games, officials said.

The first group to arrivefrom Uganda — a nine-strongparty, including boxers,coaches and officials — land-ed at Tokyo’s Narita airport onSaturday. They are the secondteam to arrive after Australiawomen’s softball squad onJune 1.

But one of the Africannation’s delegation tested posi-tive during screening at the air-port, a Government official toldreporters. The person testedtwice but their condition

remained unknown, reportedlocal media.

“I heard the person hasbeen isolated based on regula-tions,” Hidemasa Nakamura,the Tokyo 2020 Games delivery

officer, told reporters, renewinga pledge to take strict measuresagainst infections.

Public broadcaster NHKsaid the group had all been vac-cinated and tested negative inUganda before they came toJapan.

The team was originallydue to have arrived in Japan onJune 16, but their flight was can-celled following a surge inCovid-19 cases in Uganda, localmedia said.

The other members of theUgandan party have alreadyleft the airport for Osaka, west-ern Japan, where they will trainahead of the Games.

This was the first case show-ing positive Covid test resultsamong Olympic arrivals fromoverseas, local media said.

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Luis Enrique admitted heexpected more from Spainat Euro 2020 after a 1-1

draw with Poland on Saturdayleft his team facing a fight toreach the last 16.

Gerard Moreno missed apenalty and Alvaro Moratasquandered the rebound asSpain’s scoring woes struck again,with Robert Lewandowski’sheader earning Poland a valuablepoint in Seville.

After starting with a stale-mate against Sweden, Spain sitthird in Group E and may wellnow have to beat Slovakia intheir f inal game onWednesday to avoid an embar-rassing early exit.

“I was expecting more,” saidLuis Enrique. “I was expectingsix points and zero goals conced-ed. But this is the situation.

“We’re coming into thecrunch match now and if wewant to progress we need to win.If we win, we’ll go through. If not,we’ll be out. That’s the reality.”

Morata poked in from closerange to put Spain in front butLewandowski’s 60th goal of theseason pulled Poland level beforeMoreno’s penalty hit the post.

The rebound came quicklyto Morata but with WojciechSzczesny committed down to hisright, the goal was open for thestriker to score his second.

Instead, the whistles thataccompanied Morata againstSweden last week were saved forthe whole Spanish team at thefinal whistle.

Poland, meanwhile, formeda huddle on the pitch beforegoing to over to salute their sup-porters, after the deadlyLewandowski came up trumpsagain to keep his own team’shopes of progress alive.

Luis Enrique had launched

a passionate and prepareddefence of Morata on Friday ashe said the team would be“Morata and 10 others”.

But he also replaced FerranTorres in the starting line-upwith Moreno, the Villarrealstriker whose 23 goals was sec-ond only to Lionel Messi last sea-son in La Liga.

Morata’s best moment camein the 25th minute and it couldhardly have been easier, even ifa little shuffle put him in theright position to poke inMoreno’s shot from the right.

The offside flag went up andSpain’s players appeared toexpect the cancellation butinstead the goal stood.

Poland came again thoughand twice went close beforehalf-time, Karol Swiderski hit-ting the post with a curling shotthat came back forLewandowski, but he smashed

at Unai Simon, who saved.Lewandowski made no mis-

take nine minutes after half-time, peeling to the back post,nudging Aymeric Laporte tomake the space and glancing adeft header into the corner.

Spain should have restoredtheir lead after being gifted adubious penalty for Klich leav-ing a late foot on Moreno.

Moreno stepped up butdrove his penalty against thepost and with the goalkeeper onthe ground, Morata could havescored too but scuffed therebound wide.

Moreno was taken off notlong after while the openingskept coming for Morata asTorres chested down to him butSzczesny smothered the finishand the collision caused Moratato hobble off with four minutesleft. He was applauded this timebut the whistles came shortlyafter.

Amsterdam: Netherlandscoach Frank de Boer is hopefulMemphis Depay’s Euro 2020form will be positively impact-ed after the confirmation thestriker will play for Barcelonanext season.

Depay has long been linkedwith a move to the Camp Nouand on Saturday Barcelonaannounced the 27-year-old hadsigned a two-year deal to join ona free transfer from Lyon.

“Maybe the transfer toBarcelona will give him some-thing extra to help him performat his best,” De Boer toldreporters ahead of the Dutchteam’s final Group C gameagainst North Macedonia.

“We need Memphis at his

best to go as far as we want inthis tournament but we haveconfidence in him and he is aconfident player.”

Depay, who scored 20goals in Ligue 1 for Lyonin the season just fin-ished, converted a penal-ty in the Netherlands’2-0win over Austria.However he hascome in for somecriticism fromsome fans andmedia for failing totake other chances.

“I thinkMemphis is his firstcritic and I’m surethe criticism does-n’t affect him,” De

Boer said of the formerManchester Unitedplayer, who is ahuge star in theNetherlands.

“He knows if heplayed well or not so let’s

hope for the Netherlands thathe can reach the level that we

have in mind.”The Oranje have

already secured qual-ification for thelast 16 as winnersof Group C after

beating bothUkraine and

Austria in theirfirst majortournamentsince the 2014

World Cup.“When we are doing well

we can beat anybody. Hopefullywe can grow into the tourna-ment and we still have somebetter performances to come,”said De Boer, whose team willplay in Budapest in the firstknockout round against one ofthe best third-placed sides onJune 27.

Victory there would set upa quarter-final in Baku againstthe runners-up in either GroupA or B.

“We know our path to thefinal and to get to the final youhave to win every game, so Idon’t really care who we playnext,” De Boer said. “We haveno influence on it.” AFP

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Kyle Jamieson continued hislove affair with the Indian

team, tormenting the star-stud-ded line-up with disconcertingbounce and swing as NewZealand bowled out the oppo-sition for 217 on day three of theWorld Test Championship finalhere.

Jamieson decimated Indiawith marvellous figures of 22-12-31-5 as New Zealand tookcontrol of the Test match byreaching 36 for no loss at tea.Openers Devon Conway (18batting) and Tom Latham (17batting) negotiated the Indianpace attack pretty well.

However, it was 6 feet 8 inchtall Jamieson, who after lastyear’s series in New Zealand, hasonce again turned into a night-mare for the Indian batsmen.

Having removed RohitSharma on Saturday morning,Jamieson was relentless with hislength and the bounce did therest with clever traps laid forskipper Virat Kohli and thedangerous Rishabh Pant.

Kohli and his deputyAjinkya Rahane walked into anicely laid traps as India failedto reach 250, a good total in theprevailing conditions as per bat-ting coach Vikram Rathour.

The overcast conditionsmade batting difficult and thelikes of Jamieson, Trent Boult

(21.1-4-47-2) and Neil Wagner(15-5-40-2) indulged in a ‘whoblinks first’ game with the Indianbatters and came out trumpswith some incisive seam, swingand short pitched bowling.

Kohli (44, 132 balls) could-n’t add a single run to hisovernight score as his RCBteammate Jamieson made life

difficult for him.Boult and Jamieson kept

bowling outside the off-stumpchannel and Kohli kept onleaving before the lanky seam-er went slightly wide off thecrease and got one to aim atrival skipper’s boot laces.

Rishabh Pant (4) didn’tscore a run for 19 balls and

then got a boundary with aflick through mid-wicket. Twoballs later, he took the baitwhen Jamieson angled one onthe imaginary fifth off-stump.He went for an expansive driveonly to be snapped in thethird slip by Tom Latham.

Once the 61-run standwith Kohli had ended, Rahane(49, 119 balls) sensed that thescoreboard needed a move onand started playing a few shots.

But perhaps, the mile-stone was working on hismind and despite playing amistimed pull-shot one ballearlier, Wagner with his sig-nature short ball prevented

him from reaching a well-deserved fifty.

Rahane’s disappointmentwas evident as he fell into thetrap to play the pull-shotdespite knowing that Wagnerhad kept a deep fine leg andlong leg for the shot.

Ravichandran Ashwin (22,27 balls) threw his bat aroundand got some useful runs butwas never going to last long asTim Southee (22-6-64-1) tookcare of him just before lunchbreak.

Post lunch break,Jamieson removed IshantSharma and Jasprit Bumrahoff successive deliveries butMohammed Shami preventedhim from completing a hat-trick.

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F1 championship leader MaxVerstappen overtook Lewis

Hamilton on the penultimatelap to win the French GrandPrix on Sunday and extend hislead over his title rival to 12points.

Verstappen used the DRSsystem to catch Hamilton onLap 52 and pass him on theinside before zooming off toclinch his third win of the sea-son and 13th of his career. Abonus point for the fastest lapmade it a great day for Red Bull,which had never beatenMercedes on the Paul Ricardcircuit in southern France.

It was a close call, though,with Red Bull’s gamble on atwo-stop strategy forVerstappen countered by a one-stopper for Hamilton asMercedes kept him out on thesame tires.

With five of 53 laps left,Hamilton was only 3.5 secondsahead.

Verstappen quickly ate intothat lead, kept calm and thenpositioned himself perfectly toattack on a long straight in the

way Hamilton has done count-less times in his record 98 wins.

“When we made the call todo a two-stop, luckily it paid off,”Verstappen said. “We had towork hard for it.”

Verstappen, who won by 2.9seconds, has 131 points toHamilton’s 119 after seven races.

Red Bull’s Sergio Perezsneaked past a dejected ValtteriBottas to take third place andstrengthen Red Bull’s lead in theconstructors’ championship:215 points to 178.

“We pulled the trigger andwe went with the two-stopper(for Verstappen) and it worked.And great job from Sergiomaking the one-stop work,”Red Bull team principalChristian Horner said. “It’s ateam effort, the strategy guysare working the numbers andthey go for it.”

Verstappen has alreadymatched his career best for aseason with three wins and isemerging as a massive rival forthe defending championHamilton, who is trying to wina record eighth F1 title to moveone ahead of MichaelSchumacher.

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Thomas Müller said confi-dence is now sky high in the

Germany camp after gettingtheir Euro 2020 campaign backon track with a 4-2 thumping ofholders Portugal on Saturday.

“We are allowed to feel a lit-tle euphoria,” said Müller afterGermany moved second inGroup F, level on three pointswith Portugal and a pointbehind leaders France.

“It’s just fun playing in thisatmosphere. The cauldron isboiling.”

Germany now need to beatHungary in Munich onWednesday to be sure of reach-ing the knock-out stage.

“Now we have the threepoints, we are well in the tour-nament and have it in our ownhands,” added Müller.

“We mustn’t get carriedaway and become arrogant —but we must believe in ourquality.”

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