bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

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A fter 70 years, the Tata Group on Thursday offi- cially took over the Air India, Air India Express and Air India SATS. The Government transferred 100 per cent shares to Tata’s wholly-owned sub- sidiary Talace Pvt Ltd shortly after Tata Sons chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Government also transferred the management control of the company to the new owners. This completed the process of the Government selling the debt-ridden airline to the Tata Group company. “Your arrival was much await- ed,” tweeted the Tata Group soon after the handover. Expressing his happiness over the development, Chandrasekaran said Tata Group was delighted to have Air India back and was com- mitted to making it a world- class airline. Ratan N Tata joined Chandrasekaran in expressing his “thankful recog- nition” to the Government and its various departments for the successful completion of this important transaction. Later Chandrasekaran reached out to employees of Air India asking them to work together to build the airline that the country needs, while assert- ing that the “golden age” of the carrier lies ahead. In a welcome letter, Chandrasekaran reflect- ed on the airline’s “brilliant past” and said the entire nation is now waiting to see what “we will achieve together”. Earlier, a new board of directors met formalising the management takeover. After the Government transferred its shares to the new owner of Air India, the Ministry of Finance in a state- ment said the Air India strate- gic disinvestment transaction has been completed on Thursday with the Government receiving a con- sideration of 2,700 crore from Talace Pvt Ltd. Continued on Page 2 P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday expressed concern on the development in Afghanistan and stressed on creating an “ambitious road map” for “regional connectivity and integration”. The PM was host- ing the first India-Central Asian countries summit. The virtual event was attended by Presidents of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. All of them greeted Modi on the just concluded Republic Day as India entered the 75th anniversary of its Independence. Stating that the diplomat- ic relations between India and Central Asian countries have “completed 30 fruitful years”, the Prime Minister expressed his concern about the devel- opments in Afghanistan and called for greater interaction between India and the Central Asia countries. The Prime Minister said “regional integration connec- tivity and integration” is important and there is a need to “make an ambitious road map to have regional connec- tivity and integration”. “India has deep relations with all of the Central Asian countries. Kazakhstan has become an important partner in India’s energy security. I express my condolences at the recent loss of lives in Kazakhstan,” Modi said as he welcomed Central Asian heads of states in his opening address. He said India and Central Asian nations share the same concerns and goals with regard to regional security. “We are all concerned about the developments in Afghanistan. In this context too, mutual cooperation among us has become more important for regional security and sta- bility,” he said. Modi said the summit has three key objectives. The first one is to make it clear that mutual cooperation between India and Central Asia is nec- essary for regional security and prosperity. “I want to make it clear that Central Asia is cen- tral to India’s vision of an inte- grated and stable neighbour- hood,” he said. “The second objective of today’s meeting is to give an effective structure to our coop- eration, which will pave the way for the establishment of a platform for regular interaction among all stakeholders,” Modi said. He said the third objective of the summit is to prepare an ambitious road map for our cooperation, which will enable them to adopt an integrated approach for regional connec- tivity and cooperation. The Presidents of the Central Asian countries in their address pointed to the age-old ties with India and its “unique civilisation”. Modi had paid historic visits to all Central Asian coun- tries in 2015. Following this, there has been continuous high-level dialogue at bilateral and multilateral forums. The first India-Central Asia Summit, the Ministry of External Affairs had said, is a reflection of the country’s growing engagement with the Central Asian countries, which are a part of India’s “extended neighbourhood”. T he prevalence of Omicron sub-lineage BA.2 is gradu- ally increasing in India, but there are indications of a plateau in the number of cases, with just the top 10 States contributing to 77 per cent of total active cases in the coun- try. Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said at a media briefing here that “Omicron sub-variant BA.2 is more prevalent in comparison to the BA.1 variant in India now. However, the BA.3 sub- variant has not been detected in India yet.” “The percentage of the highly transmissible Omicron variant increased rapidly in December and January and the prevalence of the Omicron subvariant called BA.2 is increasing in our community,” the NCDC director said. “Earlier, the BA.1 variant was dominant among the sam- ples collected from the trav- ellers. Now in community set- tings, we have found that the BA.2 sub-variant is gradually increasing,” he said. Talking about increasing cases of Omicron, Singh said that out of the total genome sequencing reports received so far, increasing cases of Omicron have been found in the month of January. Of the total reports received, 1,292 Omicron cases were found in December last year, whereas the number of Delta cases was over 17,000, he said. In January so far, 9,672 Omicron cases have been found against 4,779 Delta cases, which includes 3,201 AYC vari- ants and 1,578 Delta variants, Singh said. Mainly three States — Maharashtra, Odisha, and West Bengal — have reported the Delta variant on the basis of genome sequencing, said Singh, adding that it does not mean that only the Omicron variant is being reported every- where. Talking about Covid fatal- ities, he said that those unvac- cinated and people with comorbidities are in the high- risk group. “Around 64 per cent of those who died in Delhi were from the unvaccinated group with a major comorbid popu- lation,” he added. ICMR chief Balram Bhargava said that vaccines have remained beneficial for India. “Vaccine reduces deaths considerably in the vaccinated population compared to the unvaccinated individuals. Around 95 per cent of the adult population in the country have received the first vaccine dose, while 74 per cent have been fully vaccinated,” said Bhargava, as he urged the States lagging behind in vaccination to ramp up the drive. Recently, the Indian SARS- CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) too had in its bulletin cautioned that Omicron is now in communi- ty transmission in India and has become dominant in mul- tiple metros, where new cases have been rising exponential- ly. BA.2 lineage is in a sub- stantial fraction in India and S gene dropout based screening is thus likely to give high false negatives.” C aught in deep political waters following rift regarding captainship, Punjab Congress’ top leaders — Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and State party presi- dent Navjot Singh Sidhu — on Thursday exhorted party’s national vice-president Rahul Gandhi to give the stranded ship a thrust by announcing the Chief Ministerial candidate’s name in a run-up to February 20 elections. Rahul, who gave a major push to the party’s poll cam- paign in Punjab with his visit and also addressing a virtual rally, left it on the party work- ers to decide. In a clear cut departure from the party’s previous stand to contest polls under “collec- tive leadership”, Rahul Gandhi made it clear that the Congress would soon announce the name of the leader “who will lead the party in Punjab polls”. “The question here is who will lead the party in Punjab...the media calls this CM candidate...Both Sidhu ji and Channi ji told me in the car that in Punjab, the big question is who will lead Congress in Punjab....It is clear that two per- sons cannot lead, it has to be any one. Both also assured me...and I am happy...that who- ever leads, the other person would support and back him fully,” said Rahul. “Though we don’t do it (announcing CM face) nor- mally. But if the workers want, Punjab wants...We will decide on it...and for that, we will ask the party workers... Continued on Page 2 T he People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China on Thursday handed over the missing Arunachal Pradesh teenager to the Indian Army. The 17-year-old boy was now undergoing medical examina- tion. He returned home after nine days. Miram Taron was report- ed missing on Tuesday last week. One version claimed he was abducted by the PLA while sources in the Defence estab- lishment here said the boy had lost his way in the jungles. Announcing the boy’s release, Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju, who also hails from Arunachal Pradesh, said, “The Chinese PLA has handed over the young boy from Arunachal Pradesh, Miram Taron, to the Indian Army. Due procedures are being followed, including the medical examination.” He said the youth was handed over to India at Wacha- Damai interaction point in Arunachal Pradesh and thanked the Indian Army for pursuing the case “meticu- lously with the PLA and safe- ly securing our young boy.” The youth will return to his family after the completion of formalities in collaboration with the Army, police, health, and local officials, sources said here, adding all the Covid pro- tocols have also been followed. The boy hails from Jido vil- lage in the Upper Siang district and was reported missing from Shiyung La in the Indian ter- ritory’s Bishing Area. India and China on Wednesday had talked to each other on the hotline regarding the teenager and it was indi- cated he will be released soon after the weather improves. A day after he went miss- ing, the Indian Army contact- ed the PLA and the Chinese informed a few days later the boy was in their custody. Giving an update on Wednesday, Rijiju had said China indicated the release of the 17-year-old boy and will soon share the date and time. He had said, “Hotline exchanged on Republic Day by Indian Army with Chinese PLA. PLA responded positive- ly indicating handing over of our national and suggested a place of release.” A ir India will boom under the wing of the new own- ers and the airline will pave the way for a thriving and robust civil aviation sector in India, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said after the carrier was handed over to Tata Sons on Thursday. “It is indeed noteworthy that the disinvest- ment process of @airindiain has been brought to a success- ful conclusion in a time-bound manner,” Scindia said on Twitter. This proves the central government’s ability, and the resolve to carry out disinvest- ment effectively in non-strate- gic sectors in the future, he noted. “Best wishes to the new owners. I am confident that the airline will bloom under their wings, and pave the way for a thriving and robust civil avia- tion industry in India,” he mentioned. T he Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Thursday decid- ed to remove the weekend curfew and odd-even rule for shops and malls in the nation- al Capital. The night curfew, however, will remain in place. The authority also decided that weddings can be held with 200 people or 50 per cent capacity of the venue. According to Delhi Government sources, cinema halls, bars and restaurants can also operate at 50 per cent capacity. Delhi Government offices will also operate with 50 per cent capacity. A decision on the reopen- ing of schools will be taken up in the next DDMA meeting. Thursday’s decision on easing of curbs in the national Capital will be implemented after a for- mal order is issued to give them effect. According to sources, experts in the meeting sug- gested reopening of schools in a phased manner. In the first phase, schools from classes 9- 12 should be reopened, then classes 5-8 in the second phase, and classes 3-4 in the third phase. Delhi’s Covid-19 positivi- ty rate has dipped below ten (9.56) per cent. A total of 4,291 cases were reported in the last 24 hours from 44,903 tests. As many as 34 deaths were also registered. The DDMA’s meeting was attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, NITI Aayog member Dr VK Paul, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, DG ICMR Balram Bhargava and several top officials. Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, who is the chairman of the DDMA, chaired the meeting. The Delhi Government has been trying for the reopen- ing of schools. Hundreds of parents have joined ‘#BACK- TOSCHOOL” campaign and written to DCPCR division. Delhi Education Minister announced on Wednesday that he will recommend the DDMA for reopening of schools in Delhi as education and men- tal health of students were being hampered due to the curbs. Delhi schools have been closed since December 28. BJP leaders in Delhi also called upon Lieutenant Governor Baijal last Tuesday demanding that the weekend and night curfew should be withdrawn, while odd-even restrictions should also be lifted. New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday expunged remarks made in an order against actress Juhi Chawla that she had filed the lawsuit challenging setting up of 5G wireless networks in the coun- try, citing health hazards, for gaining publicity. A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh also reduced the costs imposed on Chawla from 20 Lakh to 2 lakh, saying that she did not take up the 5G issue in a “friv- olous and casual manner”. The court said part amount of the costs will be retained since some of the applications filed in the suit were indeed completely meritless. The division bench allowed Chawla’s appeal and set aside the single judge’s June 4, 2021 order by which the suit filed by the actress-environmentalist and two others was dismissed with the observations that it was “defective”, “abuse of process of law” and filed for “gaining publicity”. Continued on Page 2 F ive people died on Friday at a village in dry Bihar after consuming what the district administration called “a white chemical” though the locals alleged it was liquor. All deaths have been reported from Ansar village in Dumrao subdivision of Buxar district. Eight people fell ill within hours of consuming an intox- icant late on Thursday, said District Magistrate, Buxar, Aman Samir. “Five died while three oth- ers are suffering bouts of vom- iting. The boxes from which they had gulped down the white chemical are being sent for examination to ascertain the substance,” the District Magistrate told reporters after visiting the site. Residents of the village, however, claimed that the deceased and their surviving friends hand drank concoct- ed “daru” (liquor) from bottles of homeopathic medicine which they drank to get high, and not any white substance. Sale and consumption of liquor is completely banned in Bihar since April, 2016. It is a punishable act in the State. The State has, however, seen more than 50 hooch deaths in half a dozen districts since November last year. T he State continued to witness a downtrend in daily Covid-19 positive cases on Thursday with 5,901 infections registered in the 30 districts and the State pool. The total tally stood at 12,31,169. Among the newly-infected were 739 children in the age group of 0 to 8 years. In the last 24 hours, 63,209 samples were tested and the test positivity rate (TPR) was 9.33 per cent. The active cases reached 70,327. Out of the new cases, 3,413 were reported from quarantine and 2,478 local contacts. Khordha district reported the maxi- mum 1,430 cases followed by Sundargarh with 545, Cuttack 402, Baleswar 200, Jajpur 191, Nuapada 189, Balangir 184, Nayagarh 180, Kalahandi 168, Mayurnbhanj 149, Kendrapada 144, Sambalpur 138, Kenjhar 128, Puri 117, Nabarangpur 113, Bargarh 102, Rayagada 101, Bhadrak 96, Ganjam 95, Angul 93, Deogarh 89, Kandhamal 86, Subarnapur 86, Jagatsinghpur 82, Boudh 78, Dhenkanal 73, Gajapati 69, Koraput 64, Jharsuguda 63, Malkangiri 55 and the State pool 291. Eight more persons succumbed to the disease, mounting the total death toll to 8,550. Three deaths were reported from Sundargarh dis- trict and one each from Baleswar, Khordha, Keonjhar, Koraput and Rayagada. However, 11,147 more patients recovered, increasing the total recoveries to 11,63,396. Notably on Wednes- day, the State had reported 7,426 positive cases and 10 deaths. Capital Bhubaneswar registered 1,065 positive cases, with which the total tally in the city rose to 14,8020. The active cases were 11,298. One more patient died, increasing the total toll to 1,115. The city had registered 1,208 cases and three deaths on Wednesday. C hief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday asked the administration at all levels to fast-pace Covid awareness and underlined the need to admin- ister booster dose for frontline workers and senior citizens on a priority basis. “While active Covid cases are stable in the State, new cases are dropping. It’s good that there has no pres- sure on hospitals during the third wave. But this is no time to pat on back; rather, we should remain fully prepared and alert,” he said. He directed the administration to spread awareness on the pandemic in- volving the Mission Shakti groups. He advised police to ensure that people follow Covid protocols. Rapid response teams and field workers should super- vise and keep a track of home quarantine patients, he said. Patnaik appealed to people not to panic; rather be alert and fol- low Government regulations. The final candidates’ list of Zilla Parishad seats was an- nounced by the State Election Commission on Thursday. There are as many as 3,407 candidates for 852 ZP seats. Of them, the BJD has put of 851 candidates, the BJP 848, the Congress 836, the BSP 159, the CPI(M) 72, the JMM 47, the CPI 38, the AAP 32 and the AJSU 12. Indepen- dents and others number 298 and 214, respectively. In the case of rape of the five- year-old girl, police arrested the accused Mahesh Mohanty from a location near the Puri- Bhubaneswar border on Wednesday evening. After medical examina- tion, the accused was sent to jail on Thursday after being produced before the desig- nated court in Puri. A police team engaged since Sunday went to the area and nabbed Mohanty. According to ASP Mihir Nanda, the location from where the accused was arrested has been kept a secret to facilitate the investigation process. Notably, the accused had raped the minor girl after luring her to the terrace of a building in the Sidhabakula Math lane of Puri town when he found her alone in her house. He managed to escape from the spot when the girl’s mother reached there after hearing her screaming. Meanwhile, police ac- corded ‘Red Flag’ status to the case. “We are taking the case with all seriousness and it will be tagged as a ‘Red Flag’ case after a discussion with the Crime Branch,” said Puri SP Kanwar Vishal Singh.

Transcript of bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

Page 1: bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

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After 70 years, the TataGroup on Thursday offi-

cially took over the Air India,Air India Express and AirIndia SATS. The Governmenttransferred 100 per cent sharesto Tata’s wholly-owned sub-sidiary Talace Pvt Ltd shortlyafter Tata Sons chairmanNatarajan Chandrasekarancalled on Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

The Government alsotransferred the managementcontrol of the company to thenew owners. This completedthe process of the Governmentselling the debt-ridden airlineto the Tata Group company.“Your arrival was much await-ed,” tweeted the Tata Groupsoon after the handover.

Expressing his happinessover the development,Chandrasekaran said TataGroup was delighted to haveAir India back and was com-mitted to making it a world-class airline. Ratan N Tatajoined Chandrasekaran inexpressing his “thankful recog-nition” to the Government andits various departments for thesuccessful completion of thisimportant transaction.

Later Chandrasekaranreached out to employees of Air

India asking them to worktogether to build the airline thatthe country needs, while assert-ing that the “golden age” of thecarrier lies ahead. In a welcomeletter, Chandrasekaran reflect-ed on the airline’s “brilliantpast” and said the entire nationis now waiting to see what “wewill achieve together”.

Earlier, a new board ofdirectors met formalising themanagement takeover.

After the Governmenttransferred its shares to the newowner of Air India, theMinistry of Finance in a state-ment said the Air India strate-gic disinvestment transactionhas been completed onThursday with theGovernment receiving a con-sideration of �2,700 crore fromTalace Pvt Ltd.

Continued on Page 2

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Thursday

expressed concern on thedevelopment in Afghanistanand stressed on creating an“ambitious road map” for“regional connectivity andintegration”. The PM was host-ing the first India-CentralAsian countries summit.

The virtual event wasattended by Presidents ofKazakhstan, Tajikistan, theKyrgyz Republic, Uzbekistanand Turkmenistan.

All of them greeted Modion the just concluded RepublicDay as India entered the 75thanniversary of itsIndependence.

Stating that the diplomat-ic relations between India andCentral Asian countries have“completed 30 fruitful years”,the Prime Minister expressedhis concern about the devel-opments in Afghanistan andcalled for greater interactionbetween India and the CentralAsia countries.

The Prime Minister said“regional integration connec-tivity and integration” isimportant and there is a needto “make an ambitious roadmap to have regional connec-tivity and integration”.

“India has deep relationswith all of the Central Asiancountries. Kazakhstan hasbecome an important partnerin India’s energy security. Iexpress my condolences at therecent loss of lives inKazakhstan,” Modi said as hewelcomed Central Asian headsof states in his openingaddress.

He said India and CentralAsian nations share the sameconcerns and goals with regardto regional security.

“We are all concernedabout the developments inAfghanistan. In this contexttoo, mutual cooperation amongus has become more importantfor regional security and sta-bility,” he said.

Modi said the summit hasthree key objectives. The firstone is to make it clear thatmutual cooperation betweenIndia and Central Asia is nec-essary for regional security

and prosperity. “I want to makeit clear that Central Asia is cen-tral to India’s vision of an inte-grated and stable neighbour-hood,” he said.

“The second objective oftoday’s meeting is to give aneffective structure to our coop-eration, which will pave theway for the establishment of aplatform for regular interactionamong all stakeholders,” Modisaid.

He said the third objectiveof the summit is to prepare anambitious road map for ourcooperation, which will enablethem to adopt an integratedapproach for regional connec-tivity and cooperation.

The Presidents of theCentral Asian countries intheir address pointed to theage-old ties with India and its“unique civilisation”.

Modi had paid historicvisits to all Central Asian coun-tries in 2015. Following this,there has been continuoushigh-level dialogue at bilateraland multilateral forums.

The first India-CentralAsia Summit, the Ministry ofExternal Affairs had said, is areflection of the country’sgrowing engagement with theCentral Asian countries, whichare a part of India’s “extendedneighbourhood”.

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The prevalence of Omicronsub-lineage BA.2 is gradu-

ally increasing in India, butthere are indications of aplateau in the number of cases,with just the top 10 Statescontributing to 77 per cent oftotal active cases in the coun-try.

Sujeet Kumar Singh,Director, National Centre forDisease Control (NCDC), saidat a media briefing here that“Omicron sub-variant BA.2 ismore prevalent in comparisonto the BA.1 variant in Indianow. However, the BA.3 sub-variant has not been detectedin India yet.”

“The percentage of thehighly transmissible Omicronvariant increased rapidly inDecember and January andthe prevalence of the Omicronsubvariant called BA.2 isincreasing in our community,”the NCDC director said.

“Earlier, the BA.1 variantwas dominant among the sam-ples collected from the trav-ellers. Now in community set-tings, we have found that theBA.2 sub-variant is graduallyincreasing,” he said.

Talking about increasingcases of Omicron, Singh saidthat out of the total genomesequencing reports receivedso far, increasing cases ofOmicron have been found inthe month of January.

Of the total reportsreceived, 1,292 Omicron cases

were found in December lastyear, whereas the number ofDelta cases was over 17,000, hesaid.

In January so far, 9,672Omicron cases have beenfound against 4,779 Delta cases,which includes 3,201 AYC vari-ants and 1,578 Delta variants,Singh said. Mainly three States— Maharashtra, Odisha, andWest Bengal — have reportedthe Delta variant on the basisof genome sequencing, saidSingh, adding that it does notmean that only the Omicronvariant is being reported every-where.

Talking about Covid fatal-ities, he said that those unvac-cinated and people withcomorbidities are in the high-risk group. “Around 64 per centof those who died in Delhi werefrom the unvaccinated groupwith a major comorbid popu-lation,” he added.

ICMR chief Balram

Bhargava said that vaccineshave remained beneficial forIndia. “Vaccine reduces deathsconsiderably in the vaccinatedpopulation compared to theunvaccinated individuals.Around 95 per cent of the adultpopulation in the country havereceived the first vaccine dose,while 74 per cent have beenfully vaccinated,” said Bhargava,as he urged the States laggingbehind in vaccination to rampup the drive.

Recently, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium(INSACOG) too had in itsbulletin cautioned thatOmicron is now in communi-ty transmission in India andhas become dominant in mul-tiple metros, where new caseshave been rising exponential-ly. BA.2 lineage is in a sub-stantial fraction in India and Sgene dropout based screeningis thus likely to give high falsenegatives.”

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Caught in deep politicalwaters following rift

regarding captainship, PunjabCongress’ top leaders — ChiefMinister Charanjit SinghChanni and State party presi-dent Navjot Singh Sidhu — onThursday exhorted party’snational vice-president RahulGandhi to give the strandedship a thrust by announcing theChief Ministerial candidate’sname in a run-up to February20 elections.

Rahul, who gave a majorpush to the party’s poll cam-paign in Punjab with his visitand also addressing a virtualrally, left it on the party work-

ers to decide.In a clear cut departure

from the party’s previous standto contest polls under “collec-tive leadership”, Rahul Gandhimade it clear that the Congresswould soon announce thename of the leader “who willlead the party in Punjab polls”.

“The question here is whowill lead the party inPunjab...the media calls thisCM candidate...Both Sidhu jiand Channi ji told me in the carthat in Punjab, the big questionis who will lead Congress inPunjab....It is clear that two per-sons cannot lead, it has to beany one. Both also assuredme...and I am happy...that who-ever leads, the other personwould support and back himfully,” said Rahul.

“Though we don’t do it(announcing CM face) nor-mally. But if the workers want,Punjab wants...We will decideon it...and for that, we will askthe party workers...

Continued on Page 2

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The People’s LiberationArmy (PLA) of China on

Thursday handed over themissing Arunachal Pradeshteenager to the Indian Army.The 17-year-old boy was nowundergoing medical examina-tion. He returned home afternine days.

Miram Taron was report-ed missing on Tuesday lastweek. One version claimed hewas abducted by the PLA whilesources in the Defence estab-lishment here said the boy hadlost his way in the jungles.

Announcing the boy’srelease, Law and JusticeMinister Kiren Rijiju, who alsohails from Arunachal Pradesh,said, “The Chinese PLA hashanded over the young boyfrom Arunachal Pradesh,Miram Taron, to the IndianArmy. Due procedures arebeing followed, including themedical examination.”

He said the youth washanded over to India at Wacha-Damai interaction point inArunachal Pradesh andthanked the Indian Army forpursuing the case “meticu-lously with the PLA and safe-

ly securing our young boy.”The youth will return to his

family after the completion offormalities in collaborationwith the Army, police, health,and local officials, sources saidhere, adding all the Covid pro-tocols have also been followed.

The boy hails from Jido vil-lage in the Upper Siang districtand was reported missing fromShiyung La in the Indian ter-ritory’s Bishing Area.

India and China onWednesday had talked to eachother on the hotline regardingthe teenager and it was indi-cated he will be released soonafter the weather improves.

A day after he went miss-ing, the Indian Army contact-ed the PLA and the Chineseinformed a few days later theboy was in their custody.Giving an update onWednesday, Rijiju had saidChina indicated the release ofthe 17-year-old boy and willsoon share the date and time.

He had said, “Hotlineexchanged on Republic Day byIndian Army with ChinesePLA. PLA responded positive-ly indicating handing over ofour national and suggested aplace of release.”

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Air India will boom underthe wing of the new own-

ers and the airline will pave theway for a thriving and robustcivil aviation sector in India,Aviation Minister JyotiradityaScindia said after the carrierwas handed over to Tata Sonson Thursday. “It is indeednoteworthy that the disinvest-ment process of @airindiainhas been brought to a success-ful conclusion in a time-bound

manner,” Scindia said onTwitter.

This proves the centralgovernment’s ability, and theresolve to carry out disinvest-ment effectively in non-strate-gic sectors in the future, henoted.

“Best wishes to the newowners. I am confident that theairline will bloom under theirwings, and pave the way for athriving and robust civil avia-tion industry in India,” hementioned.

�&����*789:����� ����������������2��������!�� ���/2!0� �����;���������� ����� ���������������� ������������ ���������������������!���5��� � ������������� ���� ����$�!�� �������������������!���5��� ���������!����� ������� �����/!5�!�0�# �����������������������������$�� ����*78<:�������������������2�5������������������� �����9,������������ )�����!��5��� =���� �����*,������������� �#������������������$������ �����# ����>���������� )��??=?@*�������������������97����������������� ��� ������� ��������� ��������� ��)�$�&����*78<:���������������������������#����!���5��� �� ������������������������$

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&)����"�� ������������������������������� ��������

� ������� ��� �23�421%5

The Delhi DisasterManagement Authority

(DDMA) on Thursday decid-ed to remove the weekendcurfew and odd-even rule forshops and malls in the nation-al Capital. The night curfew,however, will remain in place.The authority also decidedthat weddings can be held with200 people or 50 per centcapacity of the venue.

According to DelhiGovernment sources, cinemahalls, bars and restaurants canalso operate at 50 per centcapacity. Delhi Governmentoffices will also operate with 50per cent capacity.

A decision on the reopen-ing of schools will be taken upin the next DDMA meeting.Thursday’s decision on easingof curbs in the national Capitalwill be implemented after a for-mal order is issued to give themeffect.

According to sources,experts in the meeting sug-

gested reopening of schools ina phased manner. In the firstphase, schools from classes 9-12 should be reopened, thenclasses 5-8 in the second phase,and classes 3-4 in the thirdphase.

Delhi’s Covid-19 positivi-ty rate has dipped below ten(9.56) per cent. A total of 4,291cases were reported in the last24 hours from 44,903 tests. Asmany as 34 deaths were alsoregistered.

The DDMA’s meeting wasattended by Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal, Deputy CMManish Sisodia, NITI Aayogmember Dr VK Paul, HealthMinister Satyendar Jain, DGICMR Balram Bhargava andseveral top officials. LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal, who isthe chairman of the DDMA,

chaired the meeting.The Delhi Government

has been trying for the reopen-ing of schools. Hundreds ofparents have joined ‘#BACK-TOSCHOOL” campaign andwritten to DCPCR division.Delhi Education Ministerannounced on Wednesday thathe will recommend the DDMAfor reopening of schools inDelhi as education and men-tal health of students werebeing hampered due to thecurbs. Delhi schools have beenclosed since December 28.

BJP leaders in Delhi alsocalled upon LieutenantGovernor Baijal last Tuesdaydemanding that the weekendand night curfew should bewithdrawn, while odd-evenrestrictions should also be lifted.

*�����+�����������"����� �������� ������������������������,-.

New Delhi: The Delhi HighCourt on Thursday expungedremarks made in an orderagainst actress Juhi Chawlathat she had filed the lawsuitchallenging setting up of 5Gwireless networks in the coun-try, citing health hazards, forgaining publicity.

A bench of Justices VipinSanghi and Jasmeet Singh alsoreduced the costs imposed onChawla from �20 Lakh to �2lakh, saying that she did nottake up the 5G issue in a “friv-olous and casual manner”.

The court said part amountof the costs will be retainedsince some of the applicationsfiled in the suit were indeed

completely meritless.The division bench allowed

Chawla’s appeal and set asidethe single judge’s June 4, 2021order by which the suit filed bythe actress-environmentalistand two others was dismissedwith the observations that itwas “defective”, “abuse ofprocess of law” and filed for“gaining publicity”.

Continued on Page 2

� �����!��!

Five people died on Friday ata village in dry Bihar after

consuming what the districtadministration called “a whitechemical” though the localsalleged it was liquor.

All deaths have beenreported from Ansar village inDumrao subdivision of Buxardistrict.

Eight people fell ill withinhours of consuming an intox-icant late on Thursday, saidDistrict Magistrate, Buxar,Aman Samir.

“Five died while three oth-ers are suffering bouts of vom-iting. The boxes from whichthey had gulped down the

white chemical are being sentfor examination to ascertain thesubstance,” the DistrictMagistrate told reporters aftervisiting the site.

Residents of the village,however, claimed that thedeceased and their survivingfriends hand drank concoct-ed “daru” (liquor) from bottlesof homeopathic medicinewhich they drank to get high,and not any white substance.

Sale and consumption ofliquor is completely banned inBihar since April, 2016. It is apunishable act in the State. TheState has, however, seen morethan 50 hooch deaths in half adozen districts since Novemberlast year.

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���������� ����� �������������������������

������������� ������������������������������ ���� ��� ������������ ������ ��� ������������� ����� � ������������

The State continued to witness a downtrend

in daily Covid-19 positive cases on Thursday with

5,901 infections registered in the 30 districts and

the State pool. The total tally stood at 12,31,169.

Among the newly-infected were 739 children

in the age group of 0 to 8 years. In the last 24

hours, 63,209 samples were tested and the test

positivity rate (TPR) was 9.33 per cent. The

active cases reached 70,327. Out of the new cases,

3,413 were reported from quarantine and 2,478

local contacts. Khordha district reported the maxi-

mum 1,430 cases followed by Sundargarh with

545, Cuttack 402, Baleswar 200, Jajpur 191,

Nuapada 189, Balangir 184, Nayagarh 180,

Kalahandi 168, Mayurnbhanj 149, Kendrapada

144, Sambalpur 138, Kenjhar 128, Puri 117,

Nabarangpur 113, Bargarh 102, Rayagada 101,

Bhadrak 96, Ganjam 95, Angul 93, Deogarh 89,

Kandhamal 86, Subarnapur 86, Jagatsinghpur 82,

Boudh 78, Dhenkanal 73, Gajapati 69, Koraput

64, Jharsuguda 63, Malkangiri 55 and the State

pool 291. Eight more persons succumbed to the

disease, mounting the total death toll to 8,550.

Three deaths were reported from Sundargarh dis-

trict and one each from Baleswar, Khordha,

Keonjhar, Koraput and Rayagada. However,

11,147 more patients recovered, increasing the

total recoveries to 11,63,396. Notably on Wednes-

day, the State had reported 7,426 positive cases

and 10 deaths. Capital Bhubaneswar registered

1,065 positive cases, with which the total tally in

the city rose to 14,8020. The active cases were

11,298. One more patient died, increasing the

total toll to 1,115. The city had registered 1,208

cases and three deaths on Wednesday.

������������ ���������! �"�#�"��$� %� �&��������� ��������� ��� ������ ��!�"�����#�$%�������� ����� � ������������

Chief Minister Naveen

Patnaik on Thursday asked the

administration at all levels to

fast-pace Covid awareness and

underlined the need to admin-

ister booster dose for frontline

workers and senior citizens on

a priority basis. “While active

Covid cases are stable in the

State, new cases are dropping.

It’s good that there has no pres-

sure on hospitals during the

third wave. But this is no time

to pat on back; rather, we

should remain fully prepared

and alert,” he said. He directed

the administration to spread

awareness on the pandemic in-

volving the Mission Shakti

groups. He advised police to

ensure that people follow Covid

protocols. Rapid response teams

and field workers should super-

vise and keep a track of home

quarantine patients, he said.

Patnaik appealed to people not

to panic; rather be alert and fol-

low Government regulations.

'( �� �)�����(���"��������"�����*��#

������

+,�-��������!� �.�/'�������������� ����� � ������������

The final candidates’ list of

Zilla Parishad seats was an-

nounced by the State Election

Commission on Thursday.

There are as many as 3,407

candidates for 852 ZP seats.

Of them, the BJD has put of

851 candidates, the BJP 848,

the Congress 836, the BSP

159, the CPI(M) 72, the JMM

47, the CPI 38, the AAP 32

and the AJSU 12. Indepen-

dents and others number 298

and 214, respectively.

�������� ����� '��0

In the case of rape of the five-year-old girl, police arrested theaccused Mahesh Mohantyfrom a location near the Puri-Bhubaneswar border onWednesday evening.

After medical examina-tion, the accused was sent tojail on Thursday after beingproduced before the desig-nated court in Puri. A policeteam engaged since Sundaywent to the area and nabbedMohanty. According to ASPMihir Nanda, the locationfrom where the accused wasarrested has been kept a secret

to facilitate the investigationprocess. Notably, the accusedhad raped the minor girl afterluring her to the terrace of abuilding in the SidhabakulaMath lane of Puri town whenhe found her alone in herhouse. He managed to escapefrom the spot when the girl’smother reached there afterhearing her screaming.

Meanwhile, police ac-corded ‘Red Flag’ status to thecase. “We are taking the casewith all seriousness and it willbe tagged as a ‘Red Flag’ caseafter a discussion with theCrime Branch,” said Puri SPKanwar Vishal Singh.

Page 2: bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

������������ ���������������������� ��������

��������������� �������� �������But health officialwarns people to becautious�������� ����� � ������������

With Odisha witnessing a

declining trend in the Covid-19

positive cases over the last week,

Publ ic Health Director Dr

Niranjan Mishra on Thursday

said it seems like the State has

touched the peak during the on-

going third wave of the pan-

demic.

Mishra said, “The State is re-

porting around 5,000 to 7,000

new cases daily. The single-day

cases and total active cases are in

a declining trend." “It seems, as

of now, the State has touched the

peak of the third wave, but other

countries have been hit by fourth

and fifth waves too. So, exact

prediction about the peak is dif-

ficult,” he observed. He further

said, “As the transmissibility of

Omicron is very high, it is diffi-

cult to exactly predict when will

the cases rise and fall. Therefore,

people need to be cautious. Un-

less the daily cases come to the

baseline, we have to monitor the

situation closely.”

Experts are also of the opin-

ion that the continuous decrease

in the daily cases during the third

wave of the pandemic is the in-

dication that the State has already

hit the peak and the graph is in a

plateau state at present.

�����������

1 ���'�0�)�##��! �2�2�"�3�2(��#��)�$�

MANAS JENA

The local self-government is

meant for realisation of grassroots

democracy. The PRIs have been

involved in addressing the most

basic need of the inhabitants. Day

by day, the institutional role of PRIs

has expanded in terms of financialspending and for implementation

of developmental activities ranging

from primary education, health,

hygiene and infrastructure expan-

sion to social security measures for

the most vulnerable sections.Today PRIs are playing more

meaningful role in identifying the

beneficiaries for a host of schemes

run by the Central and State Gov-

ernments and also for their timely

executions. So there must be every

effort to create an environment

where the voters can freely choose

representatives in the best interest

of their locals. But there are news

of violence and increasing role of

money and muscle power in the

election. This is not going to

strengthen grassroots democracy

and make accountable the elected

leaders to the locals. Now in Odisha,

it is a decent time for panchayat

elections because of Covid-related

restrictions over mass campaign

that has reduced the election ex-

penses in many ways. But infor-

mally, everybody knows that this

kind of restrictions will have very

less impact over election expenses.

The fact is that candidates having

money bag and support of ruling

parties usually have more influence

over the voters. The candidates

from marginalised sections, having

poor financial strength and social

influences without any institutional

financial support are facing a very

tough time in managing the elec-

tion expenses in a highly competi-

tive environment. In many places it

is a competition among the unequal.

Mostly it is found that a good

number of independent candidates

without any institutional backing

are facing challenge in many ways.

The SCs, STs and women and fi-

nancially poor candidates are rela-

tively in weak position to give a

fight at par with other contenders.

The ruling parties have well-estab-

lished official and non-official net-

works to reach to the voters while

others have poor access or restricted

access to the voters for a number of

reasons. The poor people and ben-

eficiaries of welfare schemes are eas-

ily trapped with attraction of free-

bies that are mostly used by the rul-

ing parties with support of local

administration, employees of wel-

fare schemes since these schemes

mostly under the control of the lo-

cal MLAs and MPs. Along with

poor economic status, existing caste

and gender based social barriers in

village society are restricting the

free mobility of candidates belong-

ing to socially deprived sections;

even in many places it is being shared

that SC candidates are not allowed

to upper caste hamlets for a digni-

fied interaction and campaign. The

restrictions over campaign activi-

ties of mass nature will affect them

more especially in reaching out to

a major section of voters.

Grassroots elections are build-

ing a scope to exercise political

rights by every citizen but the real-

ity is somewhat different. Many

times the dominant narratives are

being propagated to influence the

mass mind such as the poor people

should not contest elections or the

candidates having no money bag

or backing have very little chance

to win. These statements are dis-

couraging many genuine candi-

dates to keep aloof from local poli-

tics and leave the affairs of local

governance to the wish of the domi-

nant people who are mostly repre-

senting the ruling parties. The dis-

tribution of liquor and narcotics to

misuse our youths for petty short

term gain is going to be disastrous

for the whole society and we all have

to pay a heavy price for it. The

emerging sign of hope with

grassroot democracy is that there

are a good number of young inde-

pendent candidates, with higher

education and from different so-

cial groups, who are contesting in

the ongoing panchayat election. It

will give a break to our continued

traditional hegemonic leadership,

dynasty rule, and make available

alternative leaders before the people

to make a right choice. It will en-

courage youths to get involved in

local development work and in re-

solving many emerging new types

of local issues. They will be able to

use all their modern education and

skill while applying for native’s de-

velopment. Their participation can

be a good training ground for them

in realization of grassroot democ-

racy and its ongoing practices.

In the long run this will influ-

ence to improve the quality of poli-

tics at large. The success of democ-

racy and growth of a progressive

society mostly depends on the po-

litical awareness of the masses. The

corrupt leaders may offer bribe and

encourage all kinds of unfair means

to get vote but it is always the high

moral value of the people that can

save democracy.

([email protected])

���##�"�����"��4��.�.,�)�##�5�' �������&����' �'��������!� ��������� ���������� ����� � ������������

Former Pradesh Congress Com-

mittee president Prasad

Harichandan on Thursday an-

nounced that he would not contest

the 2024 elections as there has been

a deliberate slander campaign

against him in a section of media

and political circle despite his best

efforts to work for betterment of

the Congress.

The three-time Satyabadi MLA

broke down at his Press conference

here while clarifying his position

over the recent rumour of his join-

ing the BJD, making a deal with

BJD and knowingly abstaining

from coordinating panchyat polls

in his constituency Satyabadi. “I

shall continue in the Congress come

what may. I was in politics; I am in

politics and I will continue to be in

politics even with renewed vigour.

I will continue to fight for people

and interest of the State,” he said.

Obviously referring to PCC presi-

dent Niranjan Patnaik,

Harichandan, a former Minister of

State for Home, said he has never

been a businessman nor has he

mines or a newspaper; so, there is

no question of making a deal with

anybody, the State Government or

the Central Government to protect

his business. He dared his detractors

and even challenged anybody from

BJD or BJP to tell that he is having a

nexus with anybody. “If anybody

proves it, I will leave politics forever,”

Harichandan said.

He said the issuing of tickets for

party candidates for the panchayat

election in the Satyabadi area was the

organisational responsibility of the

PCC president. “The tickets reached

me at the last moment. I said I was

not in charge for this. Then, the PCC

issued only one ticket for one candi-

date. The mess was created by the

PCC and not me,” he said.

6 (7����)�#�����50"�� 8������7�"7��(����4 West Bengalcriminals held�������� ����� � ������������

An inter-State gang, which

was involved in looting money

from cash counters of several

medicine shops in

Bhubaneswar, was busted by the

Commissionerate police on

Thursday.

Four members of the gang

were arrested by the police.

Cash of Rs 39,000, four mobile

phones, two voter ID cards and

an Aadhaar card were seized

from their possession. Commis-

sioner of Police Saumendra

Priyadarshi said a special team

led by ACP Sanjeev Satpathy

was formed following s series of

loots reported from Badagada,

Nayapalli, Lingaraj Nagar and

Kharavel Nagar. “Our special

squad finally busted the gang

and arrested four miscreants in

connection with the heists.

Significantly, all the accused

are residents of West Bengal.

They were staying at a lodge

near Ashok Nagar area and

operating from there. They

were also planning to carry out

such loots in Cuttack when our

team nabbed," said Priyadarshi.

While the prime accused Raju

hails from Nadia district in

West Bengal, Deepak Biswas,

Sankar Dey and Sonu-are from

North 24 Parganas. The modus

operandi of the gang was to

loot, especially medicine

shops, by diverting the

attention of the shopkeepers,

he said. He further said,

"During investigation, we

found that the gang had

earlier carried out such loots

in Brahmaspur. We suspect

there may be some more

members of the gang. Our

investigation was still ongoing."

Priyadarshi has urged the

traders and businessmen to

remain vigilant during

transactions and keep cash

box locked.

' �)� �3���� �������"� �3�#�!�2�#3�2( �� �������� ����� ��99��:

Police on Thursday claimed that

the Wednesday’s murder in the

Kanika royal family at Sri Vihar

Colony here under the Bidanasi po-

lice station was fallout of property

dispute among siblings and also dis-

agreement between mother and son

over the latter’s marital life. Kanika

scion Soumendra Narayan

Bhanjdeo (57) alias Gopala had on

Wednesday morning hacked to

death his mother Paresh Kumari

Devi (75) with a sharp weapon in

their palace after a heated exchange

of words between them. On the ba-

sis of a complaint by Gopala’s sister

Jayanti Samantray, police arrested

the accused on Wednesday and for-

warded him to court on Thursday.

Paresh Kumari was the grand-

daughter-in-law of erstwhile Kanika

king Rajendra Narayan Bhanjdeo.

Police believe that it was not a pre-

planned murder. “It appears that the

extreme act was the outcome of a

fit of anger,” said city DCP Prateek

Singh, adding that the accused was

of the belief that his mother had

ruined his marital life.

Denying that the mother-son

dispute had earlier been brought to

the notice of police, as alleged by the

complainant, Singh said the brother

and sister, however, had a dispute over

the share of property and a case in

this regard is pending in court.

�;'����7(� ��2��(����!�)�"��3���!("��

�(��("!( #�9 ���#�( ��"������������� ����� � ������������

As chief guest, Governor

Ganeshi Lal unfurled the National

Flag at the state-level Republic Day

celebrations at Mahatma Gandhi

Marg here and took salute during

the parade on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik

attended the event as guest of

honour. In view of the Covid-19

situation, only 10 contingents took

part in the parade, in which the BSF

became a part for the very first time.

The parade was commanded by IPS

officer Rohit Verma.

As many as 25 platoons of po-

lice force and 70 officers were de-

ployed to maintain law and order.

Comes out withmanifesto�������� ����� � ������������

While releasing a party mani-

festo for the panchyat elections,

senior BJP leaders on Thursday an-

nounced that the party would

guard the funds sent by the Modi

Government at the Centre.

BJP State president Samir

Mohanty said the Modi Govern-

ment has sent crores of rupees

through the 14th and 15th Finance

Commissions. Besides, the State

Government is getting big chunks

of money from DMF and

OMBADC. The money meant for

panchayts should be utilised for

development of infrastructure and

people’s wellbeing. While describ-

ing the manifesto as ‘Ama

Pratishruti Aam Sankalpa’

Mohanty said that in the name of

‘Mo Sarkar’ or ‘Mo Parivar’, the

BJD Government has deceived the

people. The manifesto committed

to strengthen Palli Sabha and

Gram Sabha, stop PC Raj and em-

power Sarpanches and Ward mem-

bers and Zilla Parishads.

It promised to upgrade and

streamline the mandi system, em-

power SHGs, install streetlights

and deploy waste disposal system.

It also sai the party would stop

mortgaging of MGNREGA job

cards and the spread of liquor and

ensure clean and green villages.

9�2)�������)��"������! �2�����3

�<����!!��� �2�����)����#����3��������� ����� � ������������

The State Government on Tuesday

promoted 11 senior OAS officers,

including two district Collectors, to

the rank of Special Secretary. This

decision was taken based on the rec-ommendations of the Odisha Pub-lic Service Commission (OPSC).

These officers were designatedas Level 17 officials. Their recruit-ment would be made based on the

vacancies, said a release from theGA Department.

The officers are AbanikantaPattanaik, Sudarsan Panda, ShivaNrayan Nanda, Biswajeet KeshariDas, Saroj Kumar Mishra,

Sangram Keshari Moahapatra, Dr

ABHAYA Kumar Nayak,

Madhusudan Miahra, Dillip

Kumar Ray, Brajabandhu Bhol and

Sanat Kumar Mohanty.

�������� ����� � ������������

The cold wave conditions are

likely to return and sweep

several districts of the State

from Friday, predicted the

Regional Centre of the IMD

here on Thursday.

The IMD said that while dry

weather is expected to prevail

over the districts, minimum

temperature (night temperature)

is very likely to dip gradually by

3 to 5 degree Celsius during the

next three days in the State. The

weather office also issued a

Yellow Warning for cold wave

conditions in the districts of

Jharsuguda, Bargarh, Balangir,

Subarnapur, Sundargarh and

Keonjhar on Friday. Similarly, A

Yellow Warning for cold wave

conditions was also issued for

Jharsuguda, Bargarh,, Sambalpur,

Angul, Deogarh, Nuapada,

Keonjhar and Sundargarh on

January 29 and Jharsuguda,

Bargarh, Bolangir, Subarnapur

and Nuapada districts on January

30, said the IMD.

Such conditions are likely to

prevail in the districts till

January 30.

Page 3: bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

��������������������� ����������������������

��� ���������������������������� ��� �PPT celebratesRepublic Day�������� ����� '���60'

The Republic Day was celebrated

by the Paradip Port Trust (PPT)

With Chairman PL Harandh un-

furling the National Flag and stat-

ing that the PPT is determined to

cross 115-MMT cargo handling this

fiscal like the previous four years.

Mentioning about the path-

breaking decisions by the Union

Government for the port sector, he

said that with over Rs 10,000-crore

investment opportunity lined up,

the Paradip Port is now the main

driver for economic growth in the

Paradip region. Over Rs 3,500 crore

worth of projects for port

modernisation have been imple-

mented. Further, development of

the Western Dock at a cost of Rs

3,005 crore has been approved by

the Government and is in tender-

ing stage. On completion, this would

transform the port with facilities to

handle Cape-size vessels, Haranadh

said. The Haridaspur-Paradip railway

line, which has recently been com-

pleted, is a major game-changer

making the Paradip Port very com-

petitive in international trading.

Besides, the 8 laning of the Paradip-

Barbil Road by NHAI would further

improve the road connectivity to

the port, he informed.

He gave a list of the several ini-

tiatives taken under port-led

industrialisation. All efforts are

made to beautify parks, creek side

and walking paths, etc., to make

Paradip a walkers’ paradise. For the

fishermen community, the port has

undertaken lighting of the Fishery

Harbour road and dredging of the

navigational channel from the

Mahanadi mouth. For fishermen,

the port also plans modernisation

and upgradation of the fishing

harbour with Rs 100 crore under

the PM Mastya Sampad Yojana,

Harandh said.

He then awarded prizes to the

PPT Hospital for 52,000+ Covid-

19 vaccinations, employees and

Covid warriors of other depart-

ments and CISF, who have excelled

in their respective work area.

��� �����

=�"�����))�� ��#����"7�#���� �!� �!�2�#3��!�� �������������������������� �(��"������������ �!��" ���#������ ��>�����

An unfortunate incident has

shattered a family of Jaleswar after

it found a handwritten letter of a

missing member urging them not

to search him.

Uttam Kumar Panda (35) of

Sorisa village was working as a lab

assistant in a Haryana-based medi-

cine company. He had come on

leave on Friday to his home. How-

ever, he on Sunday afternoon went

out stating he was going to with-

draw cash from a nearby ATM

kiosk. When he didn’t return till 8

in evening, his family members

made calls to his phones which went

unanswered. The worried family

members later found a handwrit-

ten letter by Uttam for his wife on

his bed. In the letter he mentioned

that he was suffering from an in-

curable disease and won’t recover

since it was in an advanced stage.

He wrote that the money he

had could be spent for education of

his daughter instead of futile spend-

ing on his treatment. Panda has a

one year old daughter besides his

wife and father and mother. Al-

though the father of the missing

lodged a complaint with the local

police outpost at Nampo yet he

couldn’t be traced till date. The fi-

nancial condition of Uttam was not

sound and his father eked out a liv-

ing by performing house –to- house

puja rituals. Although he had not

disclosed any of his family mem-

bers about his ailments, yet he re-

portedly said to one of his friends

that he was suffering from cancer.

The police after registering a

missing case have launched a search

for him at various places by circu-

lating his photographs.

���� ��!�#���������� ���#�%���) �*���$���+�!�������� ����� � ������������

The National Bank for Agricul-

ture and Rural Development

(Nabard) Odisha Regional Office

celebrated the National Girl Child

Day across five districts of Koraput,

Kalahandi, Rayagada, Malkanagiri

and Deogorh.

The bank has been supporting

various tribal development

projects in these districts and 250

girl children of the project benefi-

ciaries were invited on the occa-

sion. Nabard has also identified

and felicitated fourteen girls who

have become inspiration for oth-

ers in their area. CGM Nabard

Odisha Regional Office C

Udayabhaskar advised the girl chil-

dren to focus on studies, nutri-

tional food and assured that the

support of Nabard will continue

in the project areas.

Project Director, Odisha Com-

munity Tank Development and

Management Society, Department

of Water Resources, Government

of Odisha, Madhusmita Sahoo was

the chief guest and interacted digi-

tally with the girl children. She

motivated the girl children and ad-

vised them about the importance

of education and hard work to ex-

cel in life. Further, the Nabard also

felicitated girl children of their sup-

port staff. All the District Develop-

ment Managers of Nabard from 30

districts of Odisha also participated.

'�"���3���)�##��"�6��"%���"�4��3 �������� ����� � ������������

The State Election Commis-

sion (SEC) has stated that elec-

tions to the post of Sarpanch of

Dhinkia gram panchayat in

Jagatsinghpur District will be

held next year.

SEC Secretary RN Sahu also

said that polls to the 23 Ward

Members in the area would be

held in 2023. The tenure of

Dhinkia GP would be over in

2023 as the last elections were

held in 2018, the SEC informed.

The election to Dhinkia

panchayat had been delayed by

over two years and was held in

2018 due to the agitation against

the Posco steel project. Later the

company abandoned its project.Recently, Dhinkia was in newsdue to an agitation by villagersagainst the proposed steel plantproject of JSW and police ex-cesses on them.

Notably, the three-t ierpanchayat election will be heldelsewhere in the State in fivephases from February 16, 2022.

?0=����6� ����%����#("�� 3� ��� �2�"�Move stirsspeculations������� �$����� ���������=��>'��

In a surprising but unbelievablestep, Director of VIMSAR, Burla,Prof Lalit Kumar Meher has soughtfor permission from the State Gov-ernment for voluntary resignationfrom his post.

Although he has stated the rea-son behind his voluntary retirement

to be physical illness, the real rea-

son is said and discussed to be some-

thing else. Unnecessary and undue

interference from political angels

and even higher authorities is said

to be the reason behind such a step

by Director Dr Meher, although he

refuses such assumption. “My

physical illness doesn’t permit me

to hold such a responsible post,” said

Dr Meher in an exclusive interview.

But the people of the region

know ‘what is what’ in VIMSAR

since they are well aware of the state

of affairs here based on their past

experience. But it is a fact that Dr

Meher is quite a gentle but strong

administrator. At the same time, he

is also a skilled medicine specialist

whom patients and their attendants

rely upon. In the month of October

last year, Dr Meher, for the first time,

applied for voluntary retirement.

But the State Government took no

step on it. Hence, he has sent it to

the State Government for the sec-

ond time this week with request to

consider his case on health grounds.

He has sent a copy of his re-

quest letter to the Governor of the

State whose office has also for-

warded it to the State Government

for consideration. “I have served the

people of the State for 35 years

with all sincerity. The people also

realize it very well. But my health

condition doesn’t permit me to

continue further and particularly

in the chair of an administrator,”

he wrote. It needs to be men-

tioned that normally Dr Meher

will retire in February 2023.

����%��&�&�

�%�##����"�!���� 3�3#�"�� ��#����������� ����� ;�������6�

A security guard was burnt alive

and three other persons were in-

jured when an oxygen cylinder ex-

ploded at a sponge iron factory at

Patrapali under the Kolabira police

station in Jharsuguda district late

on Wednesday night. All the in-

jured were admitted to the District

Headquarters Hospital. According

to the Jharsuguda SDPO Nirmal

Mohapatra, a fire engulfed the Klin

2 of the Jay Hanuman Udyo about

2.00 am and spread to nearby areas.

Spotting the fire, the security guards

tried to control the fire but an in-

dustrial oxygen cylinder exploded.A

security guard Sailesh Sahu died at

the spot. Three other security per-

sonnel sustained burn injuries and

were shifted to the DHH.

>��)� ��%�##��.��� ��"�� ����"%� �)� %�������� ����� ��>���0�

Panic spread among the locals in

and around the Harishankar temple

near Khaprakhol in the district fol-

lowing the killing of two deer in the

deer park by a leopard. While forest

officials are on their toes after a leop-

ard entered into the enclosure of the

deer park, people are frightened over

movement of the leopard.

Bolangir DFO Nitish Kumar

said that while a joint investigation

was on by the Forest and Veteri-

nary Departments to ascertain the

cause of the deer’s death, eight solar

street lights have been installed in

the deer park area and the whole

premises is already under CCTV

surveillance round the clock.

Kumar assured the people that

forest officials are keeping a tab on

the leopard’s movement and steps

are being taken to give a safe pas-

sage to the leopard.

����� '��$��(� �

��1�#�("�����������2�(#�"����� ������������ ����� =�>:���0�0

The Border Security Force (BSF)

launched a ‘Boat Ambulance Ser-

vice’ in the Balimela Reservoir for

the people of Swabhimaan Anchal

in Malkangiri district on the Re-

public Day on Wednesday.

BSF DIG Sanjay Kumar Singh

inaugurated the service by the side

of Gurupriya Bridge. This will fa-

cilitate in providing emergency

medical services to around 10,000

people of over 35 villages of the

area. Recently, BSF DG Pankaj

Kumar Singh, who visited the area,

had realised that the people of the

Swabhiman Anchal should be pro-

vided with medical facilities as pa-

tients face lots of difficulties to

cross the reservoir to visit hospital

in Chitrakonda. Though the State

Government has built the

Guripriya Bridge, most of the resi-

dents are unable to get ambulance

service due to lack of roads to come

to the main land. They used to

carry ailing persons to hospitals on

=�������!� ���"7(#!����#(%��"��)� %4 acre forest reducedto ashes�������� ����� '��0

In a major fire on Wednesday

evening, around four acres of plan-

tations in the Balukhand wildlife

sanctuary along the Puri-Konark

Marine drive was reduced to ashes.

Though the damages to wild-

life were yet to be ascertained, sanc-

tuary DFO Ramaswamy P said the

involvement of some miscreants

was suspected and investigations

were on to unravel it. The fire started

in Zone 13 of the sanctuary and

gradually spread to Zone 14, which

has dense casuarinas and mangrove

forests covering a vast patch near

the Beladala village under Puri

Sadar block. Getting information,

Fire Service personnel rushed to the

spot, but by that time plantations in

four acres were burnt. Notably, the

Balukhand sanctuary close to the sea-

shore on the outskirts of Puri town,

is a famous tourist destination for

its deer and other rare species of

animal, birds and aquatic species.

The sanctuary spread over an

area of 34 sqkm is also a nesting

ground for Olive Ridley turtles. It

had suffered severe damage in the

2019 Fani cyclone.

slings or bamboo stretchers

through forest areas. Swabhiman

Anchal, popularly known as Cut-

off Area, was created when the

Balimela Reservoir was erected in

1977 which isolated 151 villages

from the mainland. After the de-

cades, the turning point came in

2018 when the Gurupriya Bridge

was built, making feasible for the

security personnel and the State

administration to venture into the

Maoist bastion with a vision of

development in the region.

The boat ambulance is

equipped with oxygen cylinders,

drip system, emergency medi-

cines, a physician, paramedical

staffs and stretchers. BSF officers

will arrange the ambulance to

shift the patients to the nearby

hospital once they cross the

Balimela Reservoir.

�����' �!�@(����*�����"������!� ��� )�"��,� ���������-��������������� ���!��$��)� ��) )$������� :��6��'�6�

Meet the 36-year-old MTech

qualified Prajnaparamita Kar. She

was an Assistant Professor in an

engineering college in

Bhubaneswar but now she is in the

election fray and put her candida-

ture for post of sarpanch.

She has completed her BTech in

Marine Engineering and later stud-

ied MTech in Mechanical Engineer-

ing. Later, she joined Bhubaneswar-

based NM Institute of Engineering

and Technology. She had been

working as Assistant Profession in

Mechanical Engineering Depart-

ment for last 10 years. Kar has filed

her nomination for Sarpanch post

of Badakula Gram panchayat under

Mahakalapada block. "Development

of my panchayat is not up to the

mark despite generous flow of Gov-

ernment funds through various

schemes. There is rampant corrup-

tion. Time has come now to give

my service to my fellow panchayat

people. I have decided to enter poli-

tics to ensure the development of

my gram panchayat and serve the

people of my gram panchayat,” said

Kar. “My first priority would be to

restore the social fabric in the area. Iwould give importance on basic edu-

cation and would ensure the tiny

tots would get good education andmoral values,” Kar said.

She is sure that she would win

the sarapach post as the locals woulddefinitely cast their votes in her

favour as she is highly educated and

has calibre to develop the panchayatthan other candidates.

�&)( ����"��#(�����#�� ������ #����#��6�3�������� ����� � �����=�'��

Adolescents through the ‘teen

clubs’ celebrated the National Girl

Child Day here on Monday. The

members of the teen clubs organised

meetings and rallies at different slums

such as Uttaramukhi Street and

Jagabandhu Street and other places

to mark the event. Teen club mem-

bers conveyed the importance and

need of girl child to their parents and

communities. The speakers in their

address said that, girls touch the

heights with success in many sectors

like science, technology, politics, de-

fence and social work by innovating

ideas that change human lives. But

the irony is that the society still be-

lieves boys are better than girls. The

gender discrimination creates many

social problems like child marriage,

child trafficking and violence against

children and women. On the other

hand, girls' education also not that

encouraging in the society which is

due to the gender differences and

poor infrastructure for girls in vari-

ous institutions (e.g. unavailability

of separate toilets for girls in

schools), the speakers pointed out.

They particularly highlighted the role

of citizen and various committees

like slum committees, youth clubs,

mother’s committees and self-help

groups and citizen committees like

Gaon Kalyan Samiti, School Man-

agement Committee, Standing Com-

mittees of local self-Governments to

highlight the issues, monitor public

programmes and prioritise the needs

and aspirations of the girl children.

Page 4: bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

���� ��������������� ���� �������� ��������

����� ���������

Hospitals and clinics cannow purchase Covid-19

vaccines — Covishield andCovaxin but these will not beavailable at medical stores forgeneral public, as per the con-dition put by the India's drugregulator, Drugs ControllerGeneral of India (DCGI), onThursday which granted regu-lar market approval for the jabsfor use in adult population.

Vaccination data has to besubmitted to the DCGI everysix months and updated on theCoWIN app.

Under the said conditions,the firms shall submit data ofongoing clinical trials and thevaccines to be supplied forprogrammatic setting.Monitoring of adverse eventsfollowing immunization will becontinued.

“"The CDSCO has nowupgraded the permission forCovaxin and Covishield fromrestricted use in emergency sit-uations to normal new drugpermission in the adult popu-lation with certain conditions,"Union health ministerMansukh Mandaviya tweetedon Thursday.

The DCGI approval wasgranted under the New Drugsand Clinical Trials Rules, 2019.

The DCGI's approval cameafter the Subject ExpertCommittee (SEC) on Covid-19of the Central Drugs StandardControl Organisation(CDSCO) on January 19 rec-ommended granting regular

market approval to the SerumInstitute of India's (SII's)Covishield and Bharat Biotech'sCovaxin for use in adult pop-ulation subject to certain con-ditions.

Prakash Kumar Singh,Director, Government andRegulatory Affairs at SII, hadsubmitted an application tothe DCGI on October 25, seek-ing regular market authorisa-tion for Covishield. The DCGIhad sought more data anddocuments from the Pune-based company, followingwhich Singh recently had sub-mitted

a response along with moredata and information. "Such alarge-scale vaccination withCovishield and containment ofCovid-19 infection is in itself atestimony of the safety and effi-cacy of the vaccine," he hadsaid.

In an application sent tothe DCGI, V Krishna Mohan,whole-time director at theHyderabad-based BharatBiotech, submitted completeinformation regarding chem-istry, manufacturing and con-trols, along with the pre-clini-cal and clinical data whileseeking regular market autho-risation for Covaxin.

Bharat BiotechInternational Limited (BBIL)took up the challenge to devel-op, produce and clinically eval-uate a vaccine (Covaxin), fromthe SARS-CoV-2 strains iso-lated from Covid-19 patients inIndia, Mohan had said in theapplication.

����� ���������

The Supreme Court onThursday orally asked the

Punjab Government not totake any coercive step againstSAD leader Bikram SinghMajithia till January 31 when ithears his pre-arrest bail plea ina drugs case. In another case,the apex Court directedMaharashtra Police to not toarrest BJP MLA Nitesh Ranefor 10 days in an attempt-to-murder case registered inSindhudurg district.

A bench comprising ChiefJustice N V Ramana andJustices A S Bopanna and HimaKohli took note of the submis-sions of senior advocate MukulRohatgi, appearing forMajithia, that the plea seekinganticipatory bail plea neededurgent hearing as the accusedhas been facing "politicalvendetta". “This is politicalvendetta. He is called to policestation. This is all due to theelection fever", said Rohatgiwhile seeking urgent hearing ofthe plea of Majithia. "Is it elec-tion fever. All are rushing tothis court," the bench said.

The Punjab Police, whichis aware of the fact that a pleahas been filed in the apexcourt, is trying to arrest him, hesaid. Senior advocate PChidambaram, appearing forthe Punjab Government, said

that Majithia has gone into hid-ing and now appearing herethrough the counsel. "Is it fairMr Chidambaram, when youknow that his petition is goingto be listed,” the CJI observed,adding, "Tell your governmentto not do anything. We will liston Monday."

The pre-arrest bail plea ofMajithia, who was bookedunder the Narcotic Drugs andPsychotropic Substances(NDPS) Act on December 20last year, was dismissed by thePunjab and Haryana HC onJanuary 24 and an appeal hasbeen filed in the apex court.

In another case, sisposingof the pre-arrest bail plea ofRane, son of Union MinisterNarayan Rane, a bench head-ed by Chief Justice Ramanaasked him to surrender beforethe trial court in the mean-while, and seek regular bail inthe matter. The Bombay HighCourt on January 17 hadrefused to grant pre-arrest bailto Rane in the case, noting thata balance was needed betweenconflicting considerations ofpersonal liberty and a properinvestigation in the matter.

The high court had reject-ed the anticipatory bail appli-cations of Rane and anotheraccused Sandesh Sawant, buthad allowed a similar plea ofthe third accused in the case,Manish Dalvi.

����� ���������

Congress on Thursdayextended their full sup-

port to the protesting studentswho has called a `Rail RokoAndolan’ against the RailwayMinistry’s alleged irregularitiesin a recruitment exam.

While Congress Generalsecretary Priyanka Gandhispoke on a virtual mode to fewaspirants and also those affect-ed by the police lathicharge inPrayagraj, the Congress stu-dent’s wing workers held ademonstration in front of theRailway Bhawan against policebrutality on job aspirants.

During the interaction,Priyanka assured the studentsthat she would raise their voicefrom all forums. "Don’t getafraid. Ensure that elections areheld on your issues of youremployment. The Governmentdid not give you job but com-mit atrocities on you and sup-press you," said Priyanka,according to a statement, issuedby the Congress. Priyanka also

assured students she will visitthem in Prayagraj.

"When leaders come toyou for vote, fix their answer-ability. The solution to dealwith recruitment processes thatare held for years is preparationof a job calendar. We havetalked about job calendar inour youth manifesto," she said.

The Uttar Pradesh Policehad on Wednesday arrestedtwo people and lodged a caseagainst around 1,000 uniden-tified persons in connectionwith the alleged rioting andblocking of the railway track bysome job aspirants. Six police-men were also suspended withimmediate effect for using“unnecessary force” during theincident, which took place onTuesday.

President of the NationalStudents' Union of India NeerajKundan led a protest march to

the Railway Ministry, where aneffigy of minister AshwiniVaishnaw was burnt, the out-fit said in a statement.

"The protesters whocrossed the barricades erectedby the police were detained andwas taken to the Mandir MargPolice station," it stated.Kundan said that students werethe worst sufferers of the Covidpandemic. "The government iscompletely ignoring the edu-cation sector. Before takingvital decisions the governmentdoesn't consult the studentsconcerned, instead of imposingunnecessary new rules onthem. If they protest, they arebeaten," he alleged. The NSUInational president claimed thatover 1,40,000 posts are vacantin CBT 2 group D since 2019.

At a Press conferenceCongress spokesperson SupriyaShrinate said Modi govern-ment issued the notification ofthese jobs ahead of 2019 gen-eral elections which stated thatthere will be examination forGroup-D railway posts.

����� ���������

Top Congress leaders willhold deliberations on

Friday morning to discuss theparty's strategy during theupcoming Budget Session ofParliament.

Congress President SoniaGandhi will hold discussionswith senior party leaders at avirtual meeting of theParliamentary Strategy Group.

The group is headed bySonia Gandhi, who is also thechairperson of the CongressParliamentary Party (CPP) .

Other members of thegroup include former primeminister Manmohan singh,Leader of Opposition in RajyaSabha Mallikarjun Kharge and

leader of the Congress inLok Sabha Adhir RanjanChoudhary, senior party lead-ers A K Antony, KC Venugopal,Anand Sharma, Gaurav Gogoi,K Suresh, Jairam Ramesh,Manickam Tagore and RavneetSingh Bittu.

The meeting is calledbefore every Parliament sessionto decide the party's strategy.The Budget Session ofParliament starts on January 31with the president's address tothe joint sitting of both hous-es. The Union Budget will bepresented on February 1.

����� ���������

The Centre is rethinkingover the relevance of the

precaution Covid-19 dose to allthe categories. Currently thejabs are being administered tothe frontline and healthcareworkers along with 60 pluspopulation in the country.

The National TechnicalAdvisory Group onImmunisation (NTAGI) forCovid-19 held a high levelmeeting with NITI Aayog a dayago and sources said that thehigh-level panel members wereskeptical about the benefits ofthe third dose being adminis-tered. "The NTAGI presentedsome research papers on thirddoses administered in severalcountries which have nothelped in curbing infection, tothe NITI Aayog in the meet-ing", a source told .

Some cases of gettinginfected even after a third dosehave also been reported inIndia. The source said that theexperts from NTAGI haveassessed the data from thecountries where booster doseshave been administered. It hasalso studied the impacts of thethird dose against the infection.

The NTAGI is expected tomeet the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR) next

week with some more factfinding papers on the thirddose, source said. However, thepolicy on booster or precautiondose could be revisited for theextension of the policy amongother age group beneficiaries.As per the source, the precau-tion dose may continue amonghealthcare and frontline work-ers and 60 plus population.

The NTAGI for Covid-19also met WHO officials andsaid that India “will not blind-ly follow others” on its boost-er dose policy.

During the meeting, offi-cials assessed real-world datafrom countries across the worldthat are administering boosterdoses to their population.

“Boosters have not helpedthe cases in any country thathas administered the thirddose. Besides, we will notblindly follow what other coun-tries have done. We have tolook at our local epidemiologyand science, and our decisionshave to be based on that assess-ment,” the NTAGI membersdiscussed

Apart from local data, pub-lic health experts are also ana-lyzing the infection patterns,behaviour of the virus, emerg-ing variants and viral loadsalong with breakthrough andreinfections.

����� ���������

Amid internal rumblings inthe Congress over Ghulam

Nabi Azad being awardedPadma Bhushan, seniorCongress leader Karan Singhon Thursday said nationalawards should not becomesubject of intra-party contro-versy and if “one of our col-leagues” is honoured, he shouldbe greeted with warm appreci-ation rather than “snideremarks”.

Singh’s comments comeamid a controversy triggeredsoon after the announcementof the Padma awards onTuesday evening whenCongress leader JairamRamesh, while commentingon CPI (M) leader BuddhadebBhattacharya’s refusal to acceptthe award, said, “He wants to beAzad not Ghulam”.

Several members of thegroup of 23 leaders who hadwritten to Sonia Gandhidemanding an organisationaloverhaul in the Congress con-gratulated Azad for beingawarded Padma Bhushan, say-ing it was “well-deserved”.Reacting to the row, Singhsaid he was distressed at the“unseemly controversy” overthe well deserved PadmaAward to Azad.

“These National Awardsshould not become subject ofinter-party controversy, far lessof intra-party ones,” Singh, aformer Union minister andparty stalwart, said in a state-ment.

“I have known GhulamNabi for half a century since he

first started his political careeras an active participant in mysecond election campaign forthe Lok Sabha in 1971 from theUdhampur constituency, towhich he belongs,” he said.

Since then, Singh said, hehas seen Azad rise throughsheer dint of hard work, dedi-cation and administrative abil-ity to becoming a CabinetMinister, both with P VNarasimha Rao and DrManmohan Singh.

As Leader of theOpposition in the Rajya Sabhafor seven years, he played apositive and constructive rolein our Parilamentary system,Singh said.

Azad also served as the firstChief Minister of Jammu andKashmir from the Jammuregion, and his short stint is stillremembered positively in bothregions, he said. “If one of ourcolleagues is honoured heshould be greeted with warmappreciation rather than snideremarks,” Singh said.

Congress veteran and for-mer law minister AshwaniKumar also came out in sup-port of Azad and hit out atRamesh, saying his criticism ofAzad is nothing less than a“shameful innuendo” and doesnot do justice to the ethos of theCongress.

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The active Covid-19 caseshave decreased to 22,02,472

and now comprises 5.46 percent of the total infections,while the national Covid-19recovery rate has decreased to93.33 per cent. However, morethan 400 districts are stillreporting over 10 per centpositivity rate. Also, the dailypositivity rate - the share ofcoronavirus tests that returnpositive and considered a keymarker of the pandemic's sta-tus - is up from 16.10% to19.59% while the weekly pos-itivity rate was recorded at17.75 per cent, as per the dataavailable from the UnionHealth Ministry.

The active cases havedecreased to 22,02,472 andcomprise 5.46 per cent of thetotal infections, while thenational COVID-19 recoveryrate has decreased to 93.33 percent, the Health Ministry said.

The death toll has climbedto 4,91,700 with 573 freshfatalities, the data updated at 8am stated. The number of peo-ple who have recuperated fromthe disease surged to3,76,77,328 and the case fatal-ity rate was recorded at 1.22 percent. The cumulative dosesadministered in the country sofar under the nationwide Covidvaccination drive has exceed-ed 163.84 crore. India's Covidtally had crossed the 20-lakhmark on August 7, 2020, 30lakh on August 23, 40 lakh onSeptember 5 and 50 lakh onSeptember 16.

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After Congress leader RahulGandhi wrote to Twitter

CEO Parag Agrawal last monthflagging a sharp drop in his fol-lowers, Twitter on Thursdaysaid numbers are ‘meaningfuland accurate’. Twitter alsopointed out that it does notarbitrarily censor political con-tent and elevating politicaldebate and open discourse isfundamental to its service andcore values.

Responding to him,Twitter's vice president, GlobalPublic Policy and Philanthropy,Sinead McSweeney has said,"Twitter is deeply committed toIndia" and will ensure thatpublic conversation is healthy,which includes diverse voices,diverse points of view, allowingpeople to be better informedand to participate safely andcomfortably.

The Twitter spokespersonsaid the platform has beenfighting spam and maliciousautomation strategically and atscale with machine learningtools, and as part of thoseconsistent and ongoing effortsto ensure a healthy serviceand credible accounts, follow-er counts can and do fluctuate."We remove millions ofaccounts each week for violat-ing our policies on platformmanipulation & spam. You cantake a look at latest TwitterTransparency Center updatefor more context. While someaccounts notice minor differ-ence,in certain cases no.couldbe higher," it added.

Reacting to the Twitter’sresponse, Congress chief

spokesperson RandeepSurjewala said Rahul Gandhi'sstand has been that socialmedia platforms cannot besuppressed, subjugated anddenigrated to trolls' space andthere should instead be ahealthy debate and discussionon them. "The plurality, themulti-culturalism, the opendebate, the critique of policiesand programmes of the gov-ernment and that the socialmedia patforms should behealthy forum for debates anddiscussions has been the standof Rahul Gandhi, which nowstands vindicated," Surjewalaadded.

In the letter datedDecember 27, last year, Rahulalleged that there is a shadowban on him which restricts histweets and the number of peo-ple who can follow him. “I wantto bring your attention to whatI believe is Twitter’s unwittingcomplicity in curbing free andfair speech in India,” Rahulwrote. He further wrote that hehas been “reliably, albeit dis-creetly, informed by people atTwitter India that they areunder immense pressure by thegovernment to silence” hisvoice. Along with the letter,Rahul also sent an analysis ofdata from his Twitter accountshowing that his followers havebarely increased for severalmonths since August when his

account was suspended foreight days.

"Perhaps not so coinci-dentally, it was precisely duringthese months that I raised theplight of a rape victim's fami-ly in Delhi, stood in solidaritywith farmers and fought thegovernment on many otherhuman rights issues. In fact, avideo of mine that promisedfarmers that the 3 infamousfarm laws will be repealed isamong the most watched videoon Twitter posted by any polit-ical leader in India in recenttimes,” Rahul said in the letter.

Rahul had pointed out thatthe ideological battle betweenliberal democracy and author-itarianism across the world isbeing shaped on social mediaplatforms and this places ahuge responsibility on thosethat are at the helm of compa-nies such as Twitter. As a leaderof India's largest oppositionparty, Rahul said it is his dutyto raise my voice on behalf ofour people against injustice.Rahul’s followers crossed 19.6million on Thursday morning,after being stagnant at 19.5 mil-lion for many months.

Responding to him,McSweeney said,"We under-stand increased transparency isat the foundation to promotehealthy public conversation onTwitter and to earn trust. Weknow it is critical that peopleunderstand our processes andthat we are transparent aboutwhat happens as a result. Weassure you that Twitter, Inc.Treats its role as a platform ser-vice provider with utmost seri-ousness and we are deeplycommitted to India".

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has arrest-

ed CMD ComandurParthasarathy and CFO GKrishna Hari of Karvy Groupunder Prevention of Moneylaundering Act (PMLA) in amoney laundering case con-nected with the fraud com-mitted through illegal diversionof clients’ securities by KarvyStock Broking Ltd worth Rs2,873.82 crore and pledging ofthese securities with banks/NBFCs for seeking loans lead-ing to subsequent loan default.

The ED had initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion based on the FIR filed byHDFC bank with CCSHyderabad Police under vari-ous sections of IPC for defraud-ing HDFC bank.

Subsequently, more FIRshave been filed by other banksand few investors.

The ED has recorded thestatement of various employeesof the Karvy Group, and con-ducted searches at nine loca-tions on September 22, 2021.

“The ED has uncovered thecomplex web of transactionsdesigned by the senior man-

agement of the Karvy Group tomisuse the securities of theirclients and to raise loans fraud-ulently which were then rotat-ed via multiple related compa-nies and diverted away fromthe stated purpose,” the agencysaid in a statement.

The shares of clients whodid not owe any funds to KSBLwere also transferred to themargin/pool Account of KSBLand were pledged with thebanks/ NBFCs, it said.

The Power Of Attorney(POA) given by the clients toKSBL to facilitate exchangesettlements was grossly mis-

used by KSBL at the directionsof the CMD and senior execu-tives. Comandur Parthasarathyand G Krishna Hari were themain conspirators who gaveinstructions to others, it said.

Fund trail investigation hasshown that the borrowed fundswere transferred to other groupcompanies, particularly to onewholly owned subsidiary ofKSBL---Karvy Realty (India)Limited (KRIL) and then to 14shell companies floated byKarvy Group, it said.

These have been furtherdiverted by layering donethrough complex web of trans-actions from the severalaccounts of group companieswithout any financial ratio-nale, the agency further said.

Various financial consul-tants and defunct NBFCs wereused to route the funds.Further, it was found that KSBLavailed loans from NBFCs tothe tune of Rs 400 crore in thename of five such shell com-panies by pledging shares of

clients of KSBL after illegallytransferring these shares totheir account.

The fraudulently availedloans were used to clear pend-ing loans of related companies,do massive stock transactionswhich have allegedly turnedinto complete losses and divert-ed to personally-held familycompanies.

The ED had earlier frozenshareholding of Parthasarathyworth about Rs 700 crore.

The ED is investigatingthe money trail to trace theproceeds of crime which areclose to Rs 2,000 crore.

Parthasarathy and Hariwere lodged in Central Jail,Bangalore and on productionwarrant of ED court, they wereproduced before the PMLASpecial Court MSJ Hyderabadon January 20, 2022. Throughan order dated January 25, theCourt has remanded the CMDand CFO of the Karvy Groupto four-day ED custody fromThursday to Sunday.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has pro-

visionally attached immov-able properties worth Rs 43.25crore belonging to Hyderabad-based Sheetal RefineriesLimited and its promoter andMD Jitender Kumar Agarwalunder Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) fordefrauding State Bank ofHyderabad and PunjabNational Bank in a bank fraudcase.

The ED had initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion on the basis of an FIR reg-istered by Bank Securities andFraud Cell, Bengaluru forcausing a total loss of Rs 87

crore, the ED said in a state-ment.

“The ED investigationrevealed that the accused pro-moters availed various creditfacilities from SBH and PNBHyderabad, by submitting fab-ricated financial statements,invoices, etc. They got Lettersof Credit (LCs) issued fromlending Banks in the name ofrelated shell entities as if mate-rial is being purchased.,” it said

Letters of Credit were dis-counted by the related entitiesand the money so received wasrouted back to the promotersof Sheetal Refinery.

The company defaultedin payment of LCs on due dateand LCs devolvement causedloss to the banks. Sheetal

Refineries owe Rs 146 crore tothe banks.

The diverted loan pro-ceeds which are nothing butproceeds of crime were utilizedfor purchase of properties andto foreclose older loans andwere not used for the statedpurposes, it said.

In this case, the ED hadearlier attached six immovableproperties of registered valueof Rs 8.30 crore and five mov-able assets worth Rs 1.23 crore.

Now, the ED has attached15 more assets. The purchasevalue of these assets is Rs43.25 crore. With the presentattachment of 15 more prop-erties located in Telangana, thetotal attachment in this case isRs 52.78 crore.

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Page 5: bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

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Guwahati: A total of 246 mili-tants of United Gorkha People'sOrganisation (UGPO) and TiwaLiberation Army (TLA) for-mally surrendered before AssamChief Minister Himanta BiswaSarma here on Thursday.

Welcoming the 169 UGPOand 77 TLA insurgents into themainstream, Sarma said thattwo more Bru-Reang militantoutfits in Barak Valley will laydown arms in February.

Speaking at a formal arms-laying ceremony, the chief min-

ister said that ULFA(Independent) and KamtapurLiberation Organisation (KLO)will then be the only remain-ing active insurgent groups inthe state.

"Two Bru-Reang groupsin the Barak Valley will sur-render in the coming days. Wewill try to settle them byFebruary," he said.

A senior police officer, whois involved in the surrenderprocess of the militants, told PTIthat the chief minister referredto the Bru Revolutionary ArmyUnion (BRAU) and UnitedDemocratic Liberation Front(UDLF).

The UGPO and TLA mil-itants deposited 277 firearms ofvarious types, 720 cartridgesand grenades in front of Sarma. PTI

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The Trinamool Congress isgoing to raise a host of

‘contentious issues’ in parlia-ment in the upcoming BudgetSession, inside sources saidquoting Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee.

The Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee has directedher MPs to raise the issue ofproposed amendment ofIndian Administrative Services(cadres) rules in Parliament,the party sources on Thursdaysaid.

Banerjee who on Thursdayhad called a meeting of TMCMPs ahead of the BudgetSession is known to havechalked out a battle plan for herMPs guiding them on how toraise various issues including“the most contentious” issuerelated to the mandatory dep-

utation of IAS officers in Delhi.Claiming that proposed

amendment of the IAS CadreRules, 1954 would disturb thefederal structure of the coun-try compelling the StateGovernments to release thebureaucrats once they are askedto do so by the Centre, Banerjeeearlier said that the proposedamendment is“against spirit ofcooperative federalism and thatit upsets harmonious arrange-ment between Centre andStates in the matter ofpostingof IAS and IPS officers.”

In her letter written toPrime Minister Narendra Modion the issue,Banerjee earliersaid, “I express my strongreservations to the approachfollowed by the CentralGovernment in proposing suchanamendment to the CadreRules which unilaterally man-dates the State Government tomake such a number of officersavailable for deputationas pre-scribed under (the) centraldeputation reserve.”

Apart from the IAS issuethe TMC is also likely to raiseother issues regarding “someBills sent by the State and have

been lying pending with theCentre,” sources said.

Besides, the party is alsolikely to move a resolution inRajya Sabha seeking with-drawal of Bengal GovernorJagdeep Dhankhar who hasnot been in good terms withthe Chief Minister. The twosides have been at loggerheadsever since the Governorassumed office in 2019.

The Chief Minister is per-sonally likely to take up theissue and start a movementdemanding the Governor’sremoval from Bengal, sourcessaid.

With the Governor often

raising issues like increasingviolence, lack of model politi-cal culture, alleged politiciza-tion of bureaucracy and disre-gard for the gubernatorial chairthe Bengal ruling outfit have-often accused Dhankhar ofconverting the Raj Bhavan intoa BJP party office.

One such war of wordsensued on Thursday whenBengal Opposition LeaderSuvendu Adhikari attacked theChief Minister for subvertingthe dignity of her chair ... shehas been conducting herself inmost undignified manner. Heearlier said how during theRepublic Day Parade in Kolkata

she broke the protocol by notproceeding to receive theGovernor who was the ChiefGuest.

“Outrageous protocol vio-lation by CM… She did notreceive Hon'ble Governor atRepublic Day function. But heshowed grace by walking upto-her and greeting her on thisspecial National day. Her con-duct left much to be desiredand goes against the proprietyand culture of WB”, Adhikarisaid adding “the office of theChief Minister has been dis-graced like never before.”

Adhikari staged a shortdharna at a Vikas Bhavan thathouses Education Ministrydemanding early opening ofthe educational institutions.

“TheTMC Governmenthas opened bars, liquor shops,malls and even allowed wed-dings with 200 people but haskept the educational institu-tions closed … this is becausethey do not want educatedpeople in Bengal as after gettingeducation they will want jobswhich the Government cannotcreate,” Adhikari said.

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Bengaluru: Senior Congressleader M Veerappa Moily saidon Thursday the NarendraModi Government's decision toconfer Padma Bhushan onGhulam Nabi Azad was a polit-ical one and not based onmerit.

He said the former Jammuand Kashmir Chief Ministershould not accept the award ifhe thinks that it harms theinterest of the Congress party.

"Narendra Modi took apolitical decision," Moily toldPTI here. "They have taken adecision politically; not weigh-ing on any merit or otherwise.Now, it's for him (Azad) to takea decision (on whether toaccept or decline the award).

The former UnionMinister, who was among theCongress group of 23 leaderswho wrote to the party chiefSonia Gandhi in 2020 seekinginternal reforms, said Azadshould think whether it's in theinterest of the party or notbefore accepting it. PTI

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ADivision Bench of theKerala High Court on

Thursday acquitted two allegedextremists of all charges inconnection with the twin blastcases that shook Kozhikode cityon 3rd March 2006. JudgesVinod K Chandran and AAZiyad Rehman quashed the lifesentences slapped onThadiyantevida Nazeer andShafaz by the NIA special courtand set them free.

The twin blast cases whichwas investigated by the Kerala

Police was transferred to theNational Investigating Agencyin 2009 which arrested Nazeerand Shafaz along with otheraccused persons.

The prosecution chargewas that the accused resortedto the twin blasts following thedenial of bail to the personswho were arrested for the 2003Maradu massacre in whicheight Hindu fishermen wereslaughtered by a group of per-

sons.While allowing the appeal

filed by Nazeer and Shafazquestioning the trial court ver-dict, the High Court camedown heavily on the NIA for itslopsided investigation. “Thecase has been set up by theprosecution merely on sur-mises and conjectures, whichthe Trial Court swallowedwithout further ado and throw-ing to the winds the funda-

mental principles of criminaljurisprudence. It is pointedout that the charge under theExplosive Substances Act couldnot have been levelled, since

the Act provides a consent ofthe District Magistrate, fromthe year 2001 onwards, whichhas not been obtained,” said thejudges.

The NIA came underscathing attack by the DivisionBench. “The investigatingagency has carried out noinvestigation and has put wordsinto the mouth of the accused,recorded them as disclosurestatements, which is the only

basis of the conviction. Theconduct of the Court below isseriously assailed for having notconsidered the objectionsraised by the defence, in thecourse of chief-examinationregarding the admissibility ofthe confessions; which are quitea few in number,” they said.

The Division Bench alsopointed out that the seventhaccused turned approver and

the NIA’s allegations were basedon his statement. “The onlyevidence before Court was thatof the approver and the lack ofidentification demolishes theprosecution case.

There were four persons inthe dock and each should havebeen identified separately bypointing them out from thedock by their position, dress orstand-out features,” said thejudges.

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India’s Panchayath Raj lawsneed urgent amendments

and reforms to make the localgovernment system more effec-tive and strong, according to SM Vijayanand, Chairman.Kerala’s Finance Commission.Vijayanand, former chief sec-retary to Government of Keralawho is the longest servingPanchayath Raj Secretary in theState, wanted the system of 50per cent reservation of localgovernment seats for womenand scheduled caste/scheduledtribe should be reformed at theearliest.

Interactions with thosewho get elected to the localgovernment bodies under thesecategories revealed the truththat they were not at all inter-ested in taking up major worksin their wards. This is becausethe reservation of the wardfrom where they get electedwould become general ward inthe subsequent election and thechances of them getting re-elected become bleak.

A member should get min-imum tenure of two terms toundertake major initiatives,”Vijayanand told a congregationof senior lawyers, judges,

Panchayat raj members in aseminar held to mark the con-clusion of the ninth and lastworkshop organized by CG3(Connecting Governed,Governing and Governance),an initiative launched toempower local body membersto take up causes for their elec-torate.

The veteran IAS officer,who is rated as one of the mas-ter brains in the country in thesystem of decentralisation ofpower reiterated that those inpower dare to bring in anti-people measures because of thefailure of Grama Sabhas andWard Committees which hedescribed as the Basic Units ofThe Republic.

“What former PrimeMinister Rajiv Gandhi dreamtwas transferring power to peo-ple . He had visualised GramaSabhas and Ward Committeesas institutions which were asimportant as legislatures andparliament. If these GramaSabhas and Ward Committeesdo not succeed, the concept ofdecentralisation too fail,” saidVijayanand.

While exhorting the localbody members to reject pop-ulism, he said they could playa major role in eliminating cor-

ruption. “Always bear in mindthe fact that local self govern-ments are part of federalism.

The Panchayath Raj insti-tutions should have the powerand right to tax.,” he said.

According to Vijayanand,Kerala would not have experi-enced the deluge and landslidesit suffered since 2018 had thelocal self governments madeuse of their power and freedomeffectively.

“The massive floods andlandslides in the State were fallout of the failure to implementthe recommendations of theMadhav Gadgil Committeethat was constituted to preservethe sanctity of the WesternGhats, the water tower of SouthIndia. Massive deforestationand quarrying had almostrobbed the Ghats of its rainforests.

The Local Self bodies inKerala which had the power toaccept the recommendations ofMadhav Gadgil Committee intotality failed to do so becauseof the intervention of vestedinterests. Had these local bod-ies put their foot down, theState administration would nothave been able to over rulethem,” he said.

Kylasanadha Pillay, senioradvocate, Supreme Court, whoconceived the concept of CG3disclosed that LAMP (LegalAwareness and MotivationProgramme), a mission to takelegal awareness to schools andstudents have found takersfrom Kayamkulam in Kerala toNepal. “Though the workshopfor Panchayath members hasconcluded, we are launchingthe next step of CG3. Themembers of urban local bodieswould be trained in taking upthe causes of the people,” saidDr Pillay.

The Kerala Institute ofLocal Administration underthe Kerala Government hasextended a hand of cooperationand collaboration with theCG3 and this is expected toturn a new page in the historyof local governance in theState.

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Lucknow: Amidst continuingunrest among railway job aspi-rants in Uttar Pradesh andBihar, BSP chief Mayawati onThursday accused the BJP ofhaving a narrow mindset ofmaking the youth sell “pako-ras”.

“There has been a hugeuproar in Uttar Pradesh andBihar over UPTNT and nowover Railways' RRB-NTPCresults, this is a proof of the fail-ure of the governments.Beating up poor and unem-ployed youths for protesting,and playing with their future istotally unjustified,” she said ina tweet in Hindi.

“Due to the wrong policies

of the government, povertyand unemployment havereached the peak. Governmentjobs and reservation facility inthem have become secondary.In such a situation, it is unjustto not have the examinationeven for small governmentjobs for years. BJP shouldchange its narrow mindset ofmaking the youth sell ‘pakoras'(snacks)," she added.

Mayawati was apparentlyreferring to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's commentsduring an interview to a TVnews channel in 2018 that sell-ing pakoras is also a form ofemployment and can be seen inthe light of “job creation”.

Meanwhile, the railwayshad on Wednesday suspendedits Non Technical PopularCategories (NTPC) and Level1 exams after candidates wenton a rampage in some statesalleging irregularities in theprocess, whilst ministerAshwini Vaishnaw urged themnot to destroy public propertyand assured redressal of theirgrievances.

On Tuesday, the railwayshad issued a general notice,warning its job aspirants thatthose found involved in van-dalism and unlawful activitieswhile protesting would bebarred from ever gettingrecruited in the railways. PTI

Jammu: The Jammu-Srinagarnational highway was closed forvehicular traffic for the secondconsecutive day on Thursdaydue to a landslide in Rambandistrict, sources said.

The 270-km-long stretch,the only all-weather road link-ing Kashmir with the rest of thecountry, was blocked by a land-slide in the Panthiyal area inRambam, they said.

As a result, hundreds ofvehicles are stranded at differ-ent points on the highway,they added.

Men and machinery havebeen deployed to clear the areafor the traffic, the sources said.

The highway was closedon Wednesday after a landslidein the Duggi area of the district. PTI

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Kolkata: Activists of the ABVPon Thursday staged a demon-stration outside the main cam-pus of the Calcutta Universitydemanding that schools, col-leges and universities bereopened in the interest ofstudents.

Saptarshi Sarkar, the nation-al secretary of the right-wingstudents' organisation, told PTIthat its activists had gatherednear the main gate of CalcuttaUniversity's college street cam-pus to hold a peaceful demon-stration, but the police forcedthem to vacate the spot.

"The area was suddenlycordoned off by the police. Outactivists did not get into anyconfrontation and left the spot.A woman member of the out-fit was, however, injured in themelee," Sarkar said

Sarkar said the demon-strators demanded resumption

of classes in schools, collegesand universities, given the factthat the COVID-19 situationwas showing signs of improve-ment and "everything else frommalls to restaurants and barsare in operation”.

Describing the state gov-ernment's 'Paray Sikshalay' ini-tiave as a "farce", he said nor-mal classes should resume atthe earliest as "students hadbeen suffering for about twoyears".

Under the 'Paray Sikshalay'project, the state governmenthas decided to hold classes inthe open for pre-primary andprimary students of state-runschools.

A Kolkata Police officersaid around 50 ABVP activists,who had assembled before theCU main gate around 2 pm,were dispersed without theuse of any force. PTI

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In a political coup of sortspulled off by the Sharad

Pawar-led Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) ahead of theMalegaon MunicipalCorporation (MMC) elections,all the 28 Congress corporators– including current MayorTahera Shaikh Rashid – onThursday defected to the NCP,thus causing an earthquake inthe State Congress.

In a development that thatdiminished the Congress in theMuslim-dominated town innorth Maharashtra but alsobrought about strains in theNCP and Congress which areconstituents in the Shiv Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA),the 28 Congress corporatorsjoined the Sharad Pawar-ledparty in the presence of Deputychief minister Ajit Pawar, stateparty president Jayant Patil,senior minister ChhaganBhujbal and Minority AffairsMinister Nawab Malik.

At a function held at thestate party quarters in southMumbai, Malegaon MayorTahera Shaikh, her husband,former MLA and current cor-

porator Rashid Shaikh and 26corporators entered the NCP,taking the NCP’s strength fromthe 20 corporators to 48 cor-porators. Hitherto, theCongress and NCP were rulingthe MMC as an alliance.

Informed sources said thatThursday’s mass-defection wasan off-shoot of the resignationtendered by Rashid Shaikh asthe Malegaon Congress presi-dent last year. Though theState Congress had thoughtthat the crisis triggered byShaikh’s resignation had blownover, his wife and MMC MayorTahera Shaikh dropped thebombshell on the SoniaGandhi-led party and led theentire team of disgruntled partycorporators into the NCP.

Though jolted to the core,Maharashtra Congress presi-dent Nana Patole sought tounderplay the development, bysaying this kind of defectionsdid happen in politics and thatsome people from the NCPwould soon be joining his party.

“Some persons fromCongress have joined the NCP.Similarly, a few people fromNCP will also be joining us.But, I am not revealing details

now. We may be in alliance inMVA, but this is after all poli-tics,” Patole said.

With the defection of the28 Congress corporators tothe NCP, the political arith-metic has vastly changed in thepowerloom town of Malegaonin general and the MMC inparticular in the run-up thelocal civic body polls scheduledto be held next month.

Prior to the defection of the28 Congress corporators tothe NCP, the party-wise break-up in the MMC was as follows:Congress 28, NCP 20, ShivSena 12, BJP 9, AIMIM 7 andJD(S) 7. But, post- en massedefection of corporators fromCongress to the Congress, theSharad Pawar-led party’sstrength has gone to 48, whilethe Congress reduced to zero.

Earlier, welcoming 28Congress corporators to hisparty fold, deputy chief ministerAjit Pawar recalled that RashidShaikh, who was elected to theState Assembly in 1999, was tak-ing along with him all sectionsof the society in Malegaon. “Ourparty president Sharad Pawar hasbelieved and practised inclu-siveness in politics.

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Srinagar: The minimum tem-perature across Kashmirplunged below the freezingpoint with the tourist resorts of

Gulmarg and Pahalgam reelingunder extreme cold, officialssaid here on Thursday.

Srinagar, the summer cap-ital of Jammu and Kashmir,recorded a low of minus 1.3degrees Celsius – down from1.3 degrees Celsius the previousnight, they said.

Gulmarg recorded a low ofminus 10 degrees Celsius –slightly up from minus 10.4

degrees Celsius the previousnight.

Pahalgam, which alsoserves as the base camp for theannual Amarnath yatra,recorded a low of minus 10.9degrees Celsius – down fromthe previous night's minus 5.6degrees Celsius, they said.

The officials said Qazigundrecorded a minimum of minus0.2 degrees Celsius, while the

nearby south Kashmir town ofKokernag recorded a low ofminus 4.3 degrees Celsius.

The minimum tempera-ture in Kupwara in northKashmir settled at a low ofminus 3.4 degrees Celsius.

Kashmir valley is current-ly under the grip of the 40-dayharshest winter period knownas 'Chilla-i-Kalan' which began

on December 21 last year.

'Chilla-i-Kalan' is a periodwhen a cold wave grips theregion and the temperaturedrops considerably leading tothe freezing of water bodiesincluding the famous Dal Lakehere as well as the water sup-ply lines in several parts of thevalley.

The chances of snowfall are

the most frequent and maxi-mum during this period andmost areas, especially in thehigher reaches, receive heavy tovery heavy snowfall.The 'Chilla-i-Kalan' will end onJanuary 31, but the cold wavecontinues even after that inKashmir with a 20-day-long'Chillai-Khurd' (small cold)and a 10-day-long 'Chillai-Bachha' (baby cold). PTI

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response to her uncompro-mising right-wing way ofrule was to bring forth TonyBlair, but with the novel labelof New Labour, whichshunned Leftism during its 10years in power. The SovietUnion collapsed and scatteredinto 16 Republics with theadvent of the 1990s. TheFrench and Italian commu-nist parties went virtuallyout of existence just a littleearlier.

Nor did Leftism revive inthe rest of Europe after 1991.China learnt its lesson fromthe Soviet Union and con-verted itself into a pseudo-capitalist system. The Beijingexperiment is a novel onewith the Communist Party ofChina owning the armedforces and controlling, withshares, many or most ofChina’s mega enterprises.This was done perhaps withthe objective of thwartingany revolt against the regime.Citizens there aren’t allowedto set up a political party tocompete for votes. But isn’tthis a new version of fascism?

Can it last? If so, for howlong? After all, the CPCmembers are not blood rela-tions, and they cannot remainbeholden forever.Nevertheless, the Chineseexperiment is unique andhas been studied by experts,although one must add that it

is a work in progress.Until the 18th century,

religion, particularlyChristianity, provided thegoverning ideologies throughmonarchs. The FrenchRevolution shook up this ide-ological duality and gavebirth to a kind of pseudo-nationalism. To preventnationalism being used ormisused by capitalists, thecommunists supported bythe industrial classes becamethe antidote to the SovietUnion in the lead. The spec-tre of communism spreadingthroughout the continent andengulfing European civilisa-tion was very real, and it wasin order to prevent such aneventuality that fascism wasborn. It first came into beingin Italy under BenitoMussolini and was soonadopted by Adolf Hitler inGermany with all its conse-quences, particularly WWII.Today, both communism andfascism have virtually expired.Some former communistsbelieve that they lost becauseof their lack of democraticfunctioning within the party.There can be no denyingthat parties that spawned andbrought this ideology topower acquired dictatorialauthority over their respectivecountries. The result was thatthe fascist leadership did notobtain any regular feedback

nor authentic informationabout how people felt, orwhere their country washeaded. Third, people in theworld outside also did notcome to know as to what washappening in a particularcommunist country.

Regimes did not changeoften; it was only when a rev-olutionary cataclysm tookplace that everyone, insideand outside the country,became aware of what hadbeen wrong. By the time theydid become aware, they foundthat it was too late; they wereswept away by the tide ofchange. It needs no reiterationthat communism as an ideol-ogy has no future anywherein the world. Places likeChina and North Korea haveto use the State’s brute mus-cle to remain in power. Forany political future in freecountries, former commu-nists have to jettison theirhidebound mindset andembrace a democratic way offunctioning, beginning withtheir own parties.

But given the inherentcontradiction betweendemocracy and communism,this does not look like mate-rialising.

(The writer is a well-known columnist, an authorand a former member of theRajya Sabha. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

�������������� �����������Sir —Those who believe in the adage,“Coming events cast their shadow earli-er” were already perking their ears whenthe Prime Minister got emotional andbroke down during Ghulam Nabi Azad’sfarewell function in February last year dueto his long association with the latter. Now,several people, including some of Azad’scolleagues, are casting aspersions on himupon being conferred the prestigiousPadma Bhushan, though some expressedhappiness and extended their greetings.Among the G-23 members, AnandSharma heaped praise on his friend beingawarded the country’s third highest hon-our but Kapil Sibal’s tweet,“Congratulations bhaijan; ironic thatCongress does not need his serviceswhen the nation recognises his contribu-tions to the public service”, carried a sar-castic touch.

Jairam Ramesh came up with thephrase “Ghulam, not Azad” (enslaved, notfree) and simultaneously referred to for-mer West Bengal Chief MinisterBuddhadeb Bhattacharjee who refused toaccept the honour. Film star-turned-politician Raj Babbar, however, felicitat-ed Ghulam Nabi Azad, calling him anelder brother whose immaculate public lifeand commitment to Gandhian ideals havealways been an inspiration. The Congressleadership, meanwhile, has maintained astudied silence. All these scenarios havemade public the ideological fissures con-tinuing unabated among the grand oldparty members.

Azhar A Khan | Rampur

�����������������������Sir —On the one hand, the spirit of peo-ple has been just amazing and an exam-ple is the way people have been ventur-ing out in large numbers to celebrate fes-tivals and functions. On the other hand,most people have been turning a blindeye to the current COVID status, espe-cially in the wake of the Omicron vari-ant, by not wearing masks. Ignoring suchserious yet simple protocols as wearingmasks, these people pose a great threatto society. Incidentally, I see numerous

people venturing out for their dailyneeds without wearing masks. Sticking tomy own mask, I have been advising towear masks to many people in my nativeareas in Tamil Nadu.

As for the Omicron threat, it dependson us to keep away these fears. Eventhough vaccination has been a big hitworldwide, people should come out onlyafter wearing masks. Plus, the Governmentand all media houses should come forwardto churn out daily local feeds aboutimportant Corona protocols with a strongmessage and celebrity voice/word ofadvice. After all, countries have to look intotheir economic needs like agricultureactivities and industrial operations. Forthis, the international community mustcome out of the COVID loop soon.

P Senthil Saravana Durai |Mumbai

� �� ������������������Sir — This refers to three different issues,with the common agenda to defame PrimeMinister Modi, that are hitting the head-

lines in media during the last three days.I would like to repudiate these one by one.The first issue pertains to withdrawal of“Abide with me” from the Beating Retreatceremony. The Scottish-origin tune hasbeen replaced by Lata Mangeshkar’s pop-ular “Ae mere watan ke logo”.

The second controversy which shouldbe laid to rest is the shifting of Amar JawanJyoti to the National War Memorial. Theeternal flame at India Gate has still notbeen extinguished. The third dissent is therefusal to accept the Padma Vibhushanbestowed on former West Bengal ChiefMinister Budhadeb Bhattacharjee and itsacceptance by Ghulam Nabi Azad, withcastigation of the latter by his party col-leagues. The corollary of all theseuncalled-for situations is that since all thishas been done by the Modi dispensation,it is not acceptable to those who hate himad nauseum.

Sagar Singh | Muzaffarnagar

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It is a pity that BuddhadebBhattacharjee, WestBengal’s former ChiefMinister, has refused to

accept the Padma Bhushan hewas offered this Republic Day bythe President of India. The offerwas not from the BharatiyaJanata Party Government orthe Prime Minister. Even hisrefusal was confused; no oneinformed him or any member ofhis family, said Buddhababu, asif that was the reason for declin-ing the honour. The late JyotiBasu had declined the opportu-nity of becoming a coalitionPrime Minister when DeveGowda had to resign as the PM.Later, he described it as “a his-torical blunder”. The immediatereason given then was his party,the CPM, did not permit him toaccept the post. While onemight not question the genuine-ness of these persons in notaccepting the honour/executivepost, their refusals certainly dosay something.

With the demise of Marxismas an ideology the world over,these could be the little oppor-tunities to re-enter the main-stream of politics, at the Centreor in States. Why not seizethem like floral bouquets? Isthere something inherently dif-ferent about communists? It istrue that in Eastern Europe,some of them have managed tocreep into the mainstream.However, in Europe, politicshas swung towards the Right,especially because of a wave ofmigrants from Africa andArabia, more so from Syria. InIndia, the Left is vacant withoutany prejudicial obstruction as inEurope. In fact, in our countrythere has been increasing spacefor politicians of quality; theCongress continues its decline,which increasingly looks termi-nal, while no replacement for itas a national Opposition hascome up. The communists can-not, it appears, see this widen-ing gap.

Is this because the commu-nists are essentially trade unionleaders and not politicians?When their trade unions weak-en, they sink with their cadres.In the free world, MargaretThatcher blew the whistle andbest the Left could do in

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The Texas hostage crisis at a syna-gogue that US President Joe Bidencalled an ‘act of terror’ has beenresolved with the release of four

hostages and the death of the hostage-takerbut the dreadful situation has brought backthe focus on Al Qaeda and its Pakistanconnection.

The hostage taker identified by FBI asa British citizen named Malik FaisalAkram demanded for release of a terror-ist in the US prison called ‘Lady AlQaeda’, who is a Pakistan-born neurosci-entist, Aafia Siddiqui. The case of the so-called Lady Al Qaeda has exposed links ofPakistan government, Al Qaeda andTaliban as Islamabad has joined forces withthe terror groups to seek release of AafiaSiddiqui from the US prison.

The hostage-taker, Malik FaisalAkram, who stormed a Texas synagogueon the Sabbath and was holding hostagesbefore he was shot and killed was demand-ing the release of ‘Lady Al Qaeda,’ who isserving 86 years in a federal prison lessthan 30 miles from where the hostagestandoff took place for attempting to mur-der US soldiers in Afghanistan.

Siddiqui was arrested in Afghanistanin 2008 with cyanide and plans to attackthe Brooklyn Bridge and Empire StateBuilding. Later she was extradited to theUS and convicted in 2010. The demand forher release has brought a number of ter-ror and jihadists groups together alongwith Pakistan establishment, who havebeen plotting or negotiating to seekSiddiqui’s release. Terror groups inPakistan, Afghanistan, who have taken UScitizens hostage have tried to negotiate withthe US Government offering they wouldfree US citizens in return for Siddiqui’srelease.

This curious case of Aafia has alsoexposed how Al Qaeda, Taliban andPakistan government are operating handin glove with one another. Their causes arecommon and they work in collaborationwith each other keeping the terror networkvery much activated.

Aafia was born in Karachi, Sindh inPakistan to a Sunni family and later wentto the US to study. Aafia returned toPakistan from America for a time follow-ing the 9/11 attacks and again in 2003 dur-ing the war in Afghanistan. Khalid SheikhMuhammad, a Pakistani Islamist militantand the principal architect of the 9/11attacks, held by the US at the GuantanamoBay detention camp, named Aafia as acourier and financier for Al-Qaeda. Shewas later placed on the FBI SeekingInformation- Terrorism list and remainsthe only woman to have been featured onthis list.

Pakistanis view her as the ‘nationalsymbol of honor and victimization’ and thePakistani news media have called her triala ‘farce’ and ‘politicized’ from the start. InJuly 2019, while visiting Washington DC,Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan sug-gested Siddiqui should be exchanged for

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Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctoraccused of helping the Americansconfirm the identity of Osama binLaden, in advance of the raidwhere he was killed.

Earlier, the Pakistan embassy inthe US hired a three-person defenceteam to supplement Al Qaida ter-rorist Aafia’s two existing publicdefenders during her trial. ThePakistani government paid $2 mil-lion for the services of three lawyersto assist in the defense of Siddiquiduring the trial. This is a curiouscase, where a Government has soopenly come out to support an AlQaeda terrorist exposing its ownnefarious designs, how Pakistanharbours Al Qaeda militants anduses them too, all the while givingfalse assurances to the Americansthat it is helping them to finish AlQaeda, which is very much activeand calling shots more after lyinglow for some time until the Talibanconsolidated its takeover ofAfghanistan in 2021.

Terror groups carried out anumber of attacks to take revengefor Aafia’s imprisonment, whichagain exposes whether it is AlQaeda, Taliban or Tehreek e TalibanPakistan or Haqqani netwok orJeM; they all are one when itcomes to jihad or targeting foreignnationals or people of other reli-gions. They join forces with covertsupport from Pakistani establish-ment to target whom they brand asan ‘enemy of Islam.’ According toa video released by HakimullahMehsud, head of the Tehreek eTaliban Pakistan (TTP) at the time,the 2009 Camp Chapman attack inAfghanistan that killed seven CIAofficers was partly in revenge forAafia’s imprisonment. The 2010Times Square car-bombing attempt

occurred one day after Mehsudreleased another video promising toavenge Siddiqui. The perpetrator ofthe attempt was Faisal Shahzad, arecently naturalized Pakistan-borncitizen who had contacts withJaish-e-Muhammad andHakimullah Mehsud.

The Taliban threatened to exe-cute US soldier Bowe Bergdahl,whom they had captured in 2009 inretaliation for Lady Al Qaeda -Siddiqui’s conviction. Bergdahl waslater released in 2014 in exchangefor five Guantanamo Bay detainees.In September 2010, the Taliban kid-napped Linda Norgrove, a Scottishaid worker in Afghanistan, andTaliban commanders insistedNorgrove would be handed overonly in exchange for Siddiqui. Butlater Norgrove was accidentallykilled. In July 2011, then-deputy ofthe Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan,Waliur Rehman, announced thatthey wanted to swap Siddiqui fortwo Swiss citizens abducted inBalochistan. The Swiss coupleescaped in March 2012.

In December 2011, al-Qaedaleader Ayman al-Zawahiri demand-ed the release of Siddiqui inexchange for Warren Weinstein, anAmerican aid worker kidnapped inPakistan in August 2011.Weinsteinwas accidentally killed in a dronestrike in January 2015.

Al Qaeda, Taliban, TTP and ahost of other affiliated outfits havebeen kidnapping Americans,Europeans to make an exchangeoffer for Siqqiqui’s release and therecent hostage taking in a Texassynagogue is just another incidentin the long series of events for sev-eral years. Given Pakistan’s insis-tence on release of Siddiqui, nowquestions are being raised whether

all the kidnappings, hostage takingsfor Siddiqui was at the behest ofPakistan or whether Pakistan gavea tacit approval for the same?Pakistan’s role in these terror activ-ities has become more and moresuspect.

Pakistan has been disowningterrorists of Pak origin wheneverthey are arrested in other countriesbut not so in the case of Aafia. InAugust 2009, Pakistani PrimeMinister Yusuf Raza Gilani metwith Siddiqui’s sister at his residenceand assured her that Pakistanwould seek her release from the US.In 2010, President Asif Ali Zardarirequested Richard Holbrooke, USSpecial Envoy to Afghanistan andPakistan, that the U.S. considersrepatriating Siddiqui to Pakistanunder the Pakistan-US PrisonerExchange Agreement. Siddiqui,who had links to al Qaeda and thebanned jihadi group Jaish-e-Muhammad has received supportnot only from Islamic terror groupsbut Pakistan Government too andthis in itself is a clear sign of hob-nobbing between jihadists andPakistan.

The latest hostage crisis at aTexas synagogue and number ofsimilar incidents in Af-Pakdemanding release of Lady AlQaeda must be taken as a warning;the threat of Al Qaeda remainsimminent, Taliban takeover ofAfghanistan would only worsen it.Now there are no US- Nato forcesin the region to check these rogueelements and they have the entireAfghanistan to themselves to trainmilitants and suicide bombersbacked by Pakistan governmentand ISI; this is a dangerous scenarioand the sooner the world takes notethe better.

(The writer is a seniorjournalist. The views

expressed are personal.)

Good Governance is nec-essary for developmentand citizen’s satisfac-

tion. One of the indicatorsused by the World Bank tomeasure Governance is itsEffectiveness, measured interms of the quality of the civilservice and the degree of itsindepen-dence from politicalpressures, the quality of policyformulation and implementa-tion, and the credibility of thegovernment’s commitment tosuch policies. India hasimproved its Percentile Rank inGovernance Effectiveness, butremains low (66.8), much belowDenmark and Norway (98),Australia (93.8), New Zealand(93) and even a single-partyruled country like China (72.6).Did our founding fathers err intheir vision for the CivilService?

As early as October, 1945,Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel had aresolution adopted at confer-ence of Congress ChiefMinisters authorising the set-ting up of two all-India services,the IAS and the IPS, to succeedthe ICS (Indian Civil Service).Despite oppositions, SardarPatel stood his ground for var-ied reasons - avoid an admin-istrative gap and to retain thesteel frame for a diverse repub-lic as India.

A permanent civil servantisnot bound to any politicalparty or leader, its autonom-ousnature makes it stand uniqueand therefore work indepen-dently for the welfare of societyhence, is also accountable to theConstitution of India on whichthey take oath of allegiance.Patel’s public acknowledgmentof the patriotism and dedication

of public servants and hisexpression of trust in them,gave them the self-assurancewithout which they could nothave given their best.

The services need to shedthe colonial legacy that makesofficers act as the rulers ratherthan as public servants. RapidAssessment System (RAS) inwhich a generic technology-enabled platform is used forseeking real-time citizen feed-back on public services havebeen tried in many countrieswith success.

A lack of articulated andconsistent goals, mismatch

between authority and accoun-tability which loosens the scopefor fixing responsibility, duplica-tion of roles, absence of a systemof strong incentives or disincen-tives, in-adequate delegation orexcessive discretion - all thesebring slack in the system. Lean,accountable, empowered workteams with clear responsibilitiesare likely to deliver better results,as in the case of Elections,Census or disaster relief.

Interference by or collu-sion with politicians can comein the way of delivery of ser-vicesas per rules. Sometimes, cases oftransfer and posting receivegreater attention that those ofpublic policy. Tenures of officersare one indicator of the flux inthe dynamic systems of gover-nance. For example, tenures ofChief Medical Officers rangefrom eight months to three

years across the States. Whilepolitical engage-ment and par-ticipation in governance is essen-tial for ensuring accountability,trans-parency and garneringcitizen’s perceptions, the boundsand norms of acceptable con-duct are social constructs builtover time.

The New PublicManagement (NPM) in the UK,Australia, New Zealand,Scandinavian countries repre-sented an attempt to make thepublic sector more businesslikeand in order to increase the per-formance of government, privatesector management principlesborrowed. It seeks to borrowfrom the private sector principlesof flexibili-ty, transparency, min-imum Government, de-bureau-cratisation, decentralisation andmarket orientation. The mainprinciple of NPM is to empha-

sise economy, efficiency, andeffectiveness by downplayingthe importance of regulation. Itis not surprising that thesecountries score high on gover-nance effectiveness index.

Today’s government is try-ing to inject more specialists intothe bureaucracy through later-al hires at the level of Directorand Joint Secretary. Globally,countries like US, Belgium, UK,Australia have in fact institution-alized this practice as a part oftheir system. Debates around lat-eral hires have centered aroundperceived lack of rigour in theselection procedure. It is fearedthat due to the pressure of a fixedtime con-tract, the lateral hiresmight not express or put forwardtheir views freely and in an unbi-ased manner.

There is no doubt thatIndia’s permanent civil service

needs reform. This is vital to thecountry’s progress and develop-ment. While the country needstalent and exper-tise to manspecialized assignment, Patel’sideals of permanent, unbiased,indepen-dent administratorswho can work for the better-ment of county with a loyaltyto-wards the people and com-mitment to rule of law shouldbe kept alive. The ideas of theConstitution makers need to beimbibed in the process of later-al hires. In addi-tion, principlesof new public managementneed to be mainstreamed byamending our regulations tomake the administration facil-itatory, rather than regulatory toprivate enterprise and capital.This way the administrationwill be strengthened and mademore relevant to currentrequirements.

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(Sarwal is AdditionalSecretary,NITI. Dudi is

anintern at NITI. The viewsexpressed are personal.)

Page 8: bhubaneswar-english-edition-2022-01-28.pdf - Daily Pioneer

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The U.S. rejection of Russia’smain demands to resolve

the crisis over Ukraine left lit-tle ground for optimism, theKremlin said Thursday, whileadding that dialogue was stillpossible.

Tensions have soared inrecent weeks, as the UnitedStates and its NATO alliesexpressed concern that abuildup of about 100,000Russian troops near Ukrainesignaled that Moscow plannedto invade its ex-Soviet neighbor.Russia denies having any suchdesigns — and has laid out aseries of demands it says willimprove security in Europe.

But as expected, the U.S.and the Western alliance firm-ly rejected any concessions onMoscow’s main pointsWednesday, refusing to per-manently ban Ukraine fromjoining NATO and saying allieddeployments of troops andmilitary equipment in EasternEurope are nonnegotiable.

The U.S. did outline areasin which some of Russia’s con-cerns might be addressed, pos-sibly offering a path to de-esca-lation.“There is no change,there will be no change,” U.S.Secretary of State AntonyBlinken said, repeating thewarning that any Russianincursion into Ukraine wouldbe met with massive conse-quences and severe economiccosts.All eyes are now onPresident Vladimir Putin, whowill decide how Russia willrespond amid fears that Europecould again be plunged intowar.

Kremlin spokesmanDmitry Peskov told reportersthat response from the U.S. —and a similar one from NATO— left “little ground for opti-mism.” At same time, he addedthat “there always are prospectsfor continuing a dialogue, it’s ininterests of both us andAmericans.” Russian ForeignMinister Sergey Lavrov notedthat U.S. response containedsome elements that could leadto “the start of a serious talk onsecondary issues” but empha-sized that “the document con-

tains no positive response onthe main issue.” Those are theRussian demands for the non-expansion of NATO and thenon-deployment of weaponsthat may threaten Russia.

Lavrov told reporters thattop officials will now submittheir proposals to Putin, whohas the American response, andPeskov said the Russian reac-tion would come soon.

The evasive official com-ments reflect the fact that it’sPutin who will single-handed-ly determine Russia’s nextmoves. The Russian leader haswarned that he would orderunspecified “military-techni-cal measures” if the West refus-es to heed the demands.

Peskov added that Putinand U.S. President Joe Bidenwill decide whether they needto have another conversationfollowing two calls lastmonth.While the diplomacysputters on, so, too, do maneu-vers that have escalated ten-sions.

Russia has launched aseries of military drills:Motorized infantry andartillery units in southwesternRussia practiced firing liveammunition, warplanes inKaliningrad on Baltic Sea per-formed bombing runs, dozensof warships sailed for trainingexercises in the Black Sea andthe Arctic, and Russian fight-er jets and paratroopers arrivedin Belarus for joint war games.

Meanwhile, NATO said itwas bolstering its deterrence inthe Baltic Sea region, and theU.S. ordered 8,500 troops onhigher alert for potentialdeployment to Europe.

Amid the tensions, thou-sands of Ukrainians expressedtheir resolve to stand up to theRussian pressure under thehashtag #UkrainiansWillResiston Twitter and Facebook. “Noone will force Ukrainians toaccept the Kremlin ultima-tum,” wrote Andrii Levus, whoinitiated the online campaign.

Beyond the fears of aRussian invasion in Ukraine,there also has been speculationthat Moscow’s response couldinclude military deploymentsto the Western Hemisphere.

While a senior Russian diplo-mat recently pointedly refusedto rule out such deployments toCuba and Venezuela, a topPutin associate expressed skep-ticism Thursday at thatprospect.

“Cuba and Venezuela areaiming to come out of isolationand restore normal relationswith the U.S. to a certain extent,so there can’t be any talk aboutsetting up a base there as hap-pened during the Soviet times,”Dmitry Medvedev, a deputyhead of Russia’s SecurityCouncil, said in an interviewwith Russian media.

While he charged that theWest is using Ukraine as a wayto contain Russia, he somber-ly acknowledged that a Russia-NATO conflict “would be themost dramatic and simply cat-astrophic scenario, and I hopeit will never happen.”

As concerns rise about apossible Russian invasion,another conflict still simmers inUkraine. In 2014, followingthe ouster of a Kremlin-friend-ly president in Kyiv, Moscowannexed Ukraine’s CrimeanPeninsula and threw its weightbehind a separatist insurgencyin the country’s eastern indus-trial heartland.

Fighting betweenUkrainian forces and Russia-backed rebels has killed over14,000 people, and efforts toreach a settlement have stalled.

Ukrainian and Russianenvoys and others sat down inParis on Wednesday to discussa resolution to that conflict, butMedvedev said that Moscowsees no point in talking toUkrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy — andsuggested that only a change inleader would defuse tensions.

He expressed hope thatthe Ukrainians would eventu-ally become “weary of thatbedlam and elect the leadershipthat would pursue policies ...aimed at normal economicrelations with Russia.” Thatcomment follows a Britishclaim that the Kremlin is seek-ing to replace Ukraine’s gov-ernment with a pro-Moscowadministration — an allegationRussia denied.

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The United States onWednesday rejected

Russia's key demand to barUkraine from NATO and saidit believed Moscow was readyto invade but offered what itcalled a new "diplomatic path"out of the crisis.

Secretary of State AntonyBlinken said he would speakagain in the coming days toRussian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov, whom he metFriday in Geneva, as a separateinitiative by France brought apromise by Moscow at least tokeep talking to Ukraine's gov-ernment.

One month after Russiaput forward sweeping securityproposals, having sent tens ofthousands of troops toUkraine's border, the UnitedStates delivered a reply in coor-dination with NATO allies andsaid it was ready for any even-tuality.

"It sets out a serious diplo-matic path forward shouldRussia choose it," Blinken toldreporters of the US response,which he said would remainconfidential.

He renewed an offer on"reciprocal" measures toaddress mutual security con-cerns including reductions ofmissiles in Europe and trans-parency on military drills andWestern aid to Ukraine.

But he made clear that theUnited States would not budgeon Russia's core demand thatUkraine never be allowed tojoin NATO, the US-backedmilitary alliance.

"From our perspective, Ican't be more clear -- NATO'sdoor is open, remains open,and that is our commitment,"Blinken said.Russia, which hasa complicated historical rela-tionship with Ukraine, hasfueled an insurgency in formerSoviet republic's east that haskilled more than 13,000 peoplesince 2014. Russia that year alsoseized Crimea after the over-throw of a government in Kyivthat had resisted efforts to

move closer to Europe. TheUnited States has warned ofsevere and swift consequencesif Russia invades, includingpossible personal sanctions onPresident Vladimir Putin, andNATO has put 8,500 troops onstandby.

"While we are hoping forand working for a good solu-tion -- de-escalation -- we arealso prepared for the worst,"NATO Secretary General JensStoltenberg said.

Blinken's deputy WendySherman, who led a previousround of talks with Russia, saidPutin seemed ready to invadedespite the US warnings.

"I have no idea whetherhe's made the ultimate deci-sion, but we certainly see everyindication that he is going touse military force sometimeperhaps (between) now and themiddle of February," Shermantold a forum.

She said Putin may bewaiting so as not to overshad-ow February 4 start of WinterOlympics in Beijing, whichRussian leader will attend amida diplomatic boycott by UnitedStates and several of its allies.

French-led talks

In another bid to defusetensions, senior Russian andUkrainian officials met foreight hours in Paris with rep-resentatives of France andGermany.Dmitry Kozak, theKremlin deputy chief of staff,said talks were "not simple" butthat another round would takeplace in two weeks in Berlin.

France said after so-calledNormandy Format talks thatenvoys committed to a fragileJuly 2020 ceasefire in easternUkraine between governmentforces and pro-Moscow sepa-ratists.

"We need a supplementarypause. We hope that thisprocess will have results in twoweeks," Kozak said. An aide toFrench President EmmanuelMacron also called talks "diffi-cult," but told reporters, "Incurrent circumstances, wereceived a good signal."

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Holocaust survivors andpoliticians warned about

the resurgence of antisemitismand Holocaust denial as theworld remembered Nazi atroc-ities and commemorated the77th anniversary of the liber-ation of the Auschwitz con-centration camp on Thursday.

"I have lived in New Yorkfor 75 years, but I still remem-ber well the terrible time ofhorror and hatred," survivorInge Auerbacher, 87, told theGerman parliament."Unfortunately, this cancer hasreawakened and hatred of Jewsis commonplace again in manycountries in the world, includ-ing Germany."

Commemorations are tak-ing place amid a rise of anti-semitism that gained tractionduring lockdowns as the pan-demic exacerbated hatredonline. "This sickness must behealed as quickly as possible,"Auerbacher said.German par-liament speaker Baerbel Basnoted that the coronavirus

pandemic has acted "like anaccelerant" to already bur-geoning antisemitism."Antisemitism is here - it isn'tjust on the extreme fringe, notjust among the eternally incor-rigible and a few antisemitictrolls on the net," she said. "Itis a problem of our society - allof society."

The UN General Assemblyadopted a resolution inNovember 2005 establishingthe annual commemoration,and chose Jan 27 - the day thatAuschwitz-Birkenau was liber-ated by Soviet troops in 1945.

Due to the coronaviruspandemic, many InternationalHolocaust Remembrance Dayevents were being held onlinethis year again. A small cere-mony, however, was to takeplace at the site of the formerAuschwitz death camp, whereWorld War II Nazi Germanforces killed 1.1 million peoplein occupied Poland. Thememorial site was closed ear-lier in the pandemic butreopened in June. In all, about6 million European Jews and

millions of other people werekilled by the Nazis and theircollaborators during theHolocaust. Some 1.5 millionwere children."Our countrybears a special responsibility -the genocide against EuropeanJews is a German crime," Bastold a special parliamentarysession in Berlin attended bycountry's leaders. "But at sametime it is a past that is every-one's business -- not justGermans, not just Jews."Israel'sparliamentary speaker, MickeyLevy, broke down in tears atGermany's Bundestag whilereciting Jewish mourner'sprayer from a prayer book thatbelonged to a German Jewishboy who celebrated his barmitzvah on eve of Kristallnacht.

Levy said Israel andGermany experienced "anexceptional journey on way toreconciliation and establish-ing relations and brave friend-ship between us". Auerbacherrecalled being nearly hit by astone thrown by Nazi thugsduring the anti-Jewish pogromof November 1938.

New Delhi: France onThursday announced thatunder its presidency of Councilof European Union, it willhost a ministerial meetingfocused on Indo-Pacific --Paris Forum -- on February 22.French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced thisduring an online discussionand extended an invite toExternal Affairs Minister SJaishankar, who also took partin the event titled "The FrenchPresidency: EU-IndiaPartnership in Indo Pacific". LeDrian said it will be first timethat in EU council presidencythere will be an event focussedon relations between EU andIndo-Pacific. This Indo-Pacificmeeting will be held onFebruary 22 and HighRepresentative of EU forForeign Affairs and SecurityPolicy Josep Borrell Fontelleswill be in Paris for it, he said.Le Drian hoped for Jaishankarand other partners to partici-

pate in event and contribute topeace and stability in region."What I wish is for this ParisForum to allow for concretisa-tion of the principles we sharewith respect to rule of law, har-monious relations and post-Covid recovery," he said. LeDrian said security anddefence, connectivity and dig-ital issues and global chal-lenges will be on the agenda ofthe Indo-Pacific ministerialmeeting in Paris.The Frenchforeign minister asserted thatIndia plays a key role in theIndo-Pacific.

In his remarks, Jaishankarsaid the French aircraft flyingat the finale of the RepublicDay parade was a visible exam-ple of the strategic ties betweenIndia and France. Assertingthat France has an Indo-Pacificresident presence, Jaishankarcalled for strengthening theIndia-France partnership andsaid that focusing it on theIndo-Pacific is timely." PTI

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Berlin: The archbishop ofMunich said Thursday thatCatholic church needs deepreform to overcome "disaster" ofsexual abuse and made clearthat he intends to stay in his job,after a report faulted him andpredecessors including retiredPope Benedict XVI for theirhandling of abuse allegationsand cases in Germany. CardinalReinhard Marx last year offeredto resign over church's abusescandal, an extraordinary ges-ture at time which was rejectedswiftly by Pope Francis. Marx,a prominent reformist ally ofpontiff, was faulted over hishandling of two cases in reportcommissioned by his archdio-cese from a Munich law firm.He told a news conference aweek after report's release thathe will look over those cases "tolearn from them."Marx said hehadn't renewed his resignationoffer. "In current situation, thatstruck me as just disappearing,"he said. AP

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The U.N. Chief urged nationsWednesday to greatly boost

humanitarian aid for millionsof Afghans living in "a frozenhell" and release nearly $9 bil-lion in frozen assets to pullAfghanistan's economy backfrom brink of a collapse thatcould set off a mass exodus ofpeople fleeing country. "Timeis of essence," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres toldSecurity Council. "Withoutaction, lives will be lost, anddespair and extremism willgrow." Guterres said liquiditymust be urgently restored toAfghan economy. He said thatmeans freeing up country'sfrozen currency reserves, re-engaging with its Central Bankand finding othr ways to injectmoney, including allowing

international funds to paysalaries of doctors, teachers,sanitation workers, electriciansand other civil servants.Chinaand Russia reiterated their callsfor unfreezing Afghan assets,while U.S. Ambassador LindaThomas-Greenfield said Bidenadministration is examining"various options to ease liq-uidity crunch.

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Channels of Iran's state tele-vision broadcast images

Thursday showing the leadersof an exiled dissident groupand a graphic demanding thecountry's supreme leader bekilled, an incident state TVlater described as a hack. Thegraphics showed the leaders ofthe Mujahedeen-e-Khalq andthe name of an account on twosocial media platforms, whichclaimed to be a group of hack-ers who broadcast the messagepraising the dissidents.TheMEK, now largely based inAlbania, did not immediatelyanswer telephone calls fromThe Associated Press. The inci-dent marked a serious breachfor Iranian state TV, which iscontrolled by hard-liners in thecountry.

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North Korea on Thursdayfired two suspected bal-

listic missiles into the sea in itssixth round of weaponslaunches this month, SouthKorea's military said. Expertssay North Korea's unusuallyfast pace in testing activityunderscores an intent to pres-sure the Biden administrationover long-stalled negotiationsaimed at exchanging a releaseof crippling U.S.-led sanctionsagainst the North and theNorth's denuclearization steps.The renewed pressure comesas the pandemic further shakesthe North's economy, whichwas already battered by crip-pling U.S.-led sanctions over itsnuclear weapons program anddecades of mismanagementby its own government.SouthKorea's Joint Chiefs of Staffsaid the weapons, which werelikely short-range, werelaunched five minutes apart

from an eastern coastal areaand flew 190 kilometers (118miles) on an apogee of 20 kilo-meters (12.4 miles) beforelanding at sea. Japanese PrimeMinister Fumio Kishida, whodescribed North Korea'srepeated missile firings as"extremely regrettable," butsaid there has so far been noreports of damage to vessel andaircraft around the Japanesecoast. The North also last weekissued a veiled threat to resumethe testing of nuclear explo-sives and long-range missilestargeting the American home-land, which leader Kim JongUn suspended in 2018 whileinitiating diplomacy with theUnited States.Kim's high-stakes summitry with then-President Donald Trumpderailed in 2019 after theAmericans rejected NorthKorea's demands for majorsanctions relief in exchange fora partial surrender of itsnuclear capabilities.

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Current and former staffershave accused top director

of World Health Organizationin Western Pacific of racist,unethical and abusive behav-iour that has undermined UNhealth agency's efforts to curbcoronavirus pandemic.

The allegations were laidout in an internal complaintfiled in October and again inan email last week, sent byunidentified "concernedWHO staff " to senior leader-ship and the executive boardand obtained by theAssociated Press. Two ofauthors said more than 30staffers were involved in writ-ing it, and that it reflectedexperiences of more than 50people.The internal complaintand email describe a "toxicatmosphere" with "a culture ofsystemic bullying and publicridiculing" at WHO's WesternPacific headquarters inManila, led by Dr. TakeshiKasai, director of a vast region

that includes China and hishome country of Japan. TheAP also has obtained record-ed snippets of meetings whereKasai is heard making deroga-tory remarks about his staffbased on nationality. Elevenformer or current WHOstaffers who worked for Kasaitold AP he frequently usedracist language. Staffers, whodid not identify themselves toWHO "for fear of retaliation,"said in the email that Kasai'sauthoritarian style has led todeparture of more than 55 keystaff in past year and a half,most of whom have not beenreplaced.

This resulted in a lack ofunderstanding and involve-ment with member countriesthat "significantly contributed"to a surge of cases in manycountries in region, they said.However, other WHO stafferspointed out that spikes inCOVID cases were due tonumerous reasons, includingcountries' own resources andtiming of their national efforts.

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New Delhi: A consortium oflenders led by State Bank ofIndia (SBI) will soon provideloans to Tata Group for theoperations of Air India as wellas to retire the airline's highcost borrowings.

After nearly 70 years, TataGroup on Thursday regainedownership of Air India. Withthe completion of the deal, thegroup will own 100 per centstake in Air India, Air IndiaExpress and a 50 per centshareholding in AISATS.

Bankers said the SBI-ledconsortium has agreed to grantboth term loans and workingcapital loans depending on theairline's requirements.

All large lenders, includingPunjab National Bank, Bank ofBaroda, and Union Bank ofIndia, are part of the consor-tium, they added.

"Many banks have agreedfor refinancing of Air Inidadebt to Tatas and the processhas begun," one of the bankerssaid. Existing lenders who donot wish to participate in refi-nancing of debt to Tatas will get

their money repaid through therefinanced amount, the bankersaid.

Life Insurance Corporationof India (LIC) is among theentities that had given loansearlier to loss-making AirIndia. Now, the IPO-boundLIC has decided not to extendmore loans to the airline andwill not participate in the cur-rent funding round led by theSBI, the bankers said.

Talace Private Limited -- asubsidiary of the Tata Group'sholding company Tata Sons --on October 8, 2021, won thebid to acquire debt-ridden AirIndia. It had offered Rs 18,000crore, including cash of Rs

2,700 crore which has nowbeen paid to the government.

The term loans to Talacewill help in retiring the highcost borrowings of Air India,the bankers said.

The amount of loans like-ly to be extended by the con-sortium could not be immedi-ately ascertained.

"The strategic disinvest-ment transaction of Air Indiasuccessfully concluded todaywith transfer of 100 per centshares of Air India to M/stalace Pvt Ltd along with man-agement control," DIPAMSecretary Tuhin Kanta Pandeysaid in a tweet on Thursday.

PTI

New Delhi: After a hiatus ofnearly two decades, theGovernment's programme toprivatise state-owned firmsrestarted with the handing overof debt-laden national carrierAir India to the Tata Group.

With the new ownershelling out Rs 18,000 crore forthe buyout of the 'Maharaja', thiswould be the highest-everamount garnered through pri-vatisation, and is even morethan the cumulative summopped up through strategicsales from 1999-00 to 2003-04.

The Government had inOctober last year inked theshare purchase agreement withthe Tata Group for sale of

national carrier Air India for Rs18,000 crore.

Tatas would pay Rs 2,700crore cash and take over Rs15,300 crore of the airline'sdebt. The deal also includes saleof Air India Express and ground handling armAISATS.

The government had gar-nered roughly over Rs 5,000crore during that five-year peri-od by privatising 10 CPSEs.Besides, three hotel propertiesof Hotel Corporation of Indiaand 18 of ITDC were also soldoff by way of slump sale.

Here is a timeline of strate-gic sale of central public sectorenterprises

(CPSEs) to private entitiesbetween 1999-00 to 2003-04:1999-00 - Modern FoodIndustries Ltd -- Rs 105crore2000-01 - BALCO , LaganJute Machinery Co Ltd -- Rs 554crore 2001-02 - VSNL,Computer MaintenanceCorporation (CMC), HindustanTeleprinters Ltd (HTL),Paradeep Phosphate Ltd (PPL),some hotel properties of HCIand ITDC -- Rs 2,089 crore2002-03 - Hindustan Zinc Ltd(HZL), Indian PetrochemicalsCorporation (IPCL), someITDC hotel properties -- Rs2,335 crore 2003-04 - HZL(second tranche), Jessop & Co-- Rs 342 crore. PTI

Mumbai: Equity benchmarkSensex tumbled 581 points onThursday, in tandem with aglobal selloff after the USFederal Reserve signalled pol-icy tightening from March.

A depreciating rupee andpersistent foreign fund out-flows further weighed on sen-timent, traders said.

The 30-share BSE indexended 581.21 points or 1.00 percent lower at 57,276.94.Similarly, the broader NSENifty plunged 167.80 points or0.97 per cent to 17,110.15.

HCL Tech was the toploser in the Sensex pack, skid-ding 4.17 per cent, followed byTech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's,Wipro, TCS, Titan and Infosys.

On the other hand, AxisBank, SBI, Maruti, Kotak Bank,Sun Pharma and IndusIndBank were among the gainers,climbing as much as 2.81 percent.

The Federal Reserve leftpolicy rates unchanged onWednesday, but chairman

Jerome Powell said the UScentral bank is likely to raiseinterest rates in March and endits massive bond buying pro-gram to combat surging infla-tion. Investors fear foreign cap-ital outflows from emergingmarkets like India after ratehikes in the US.

''As the Fed left key inter-est rates near zero, its hawkishcommentary quickly washedaway gains in global markets,leading to a gap down openingin indices back home.

"As FPIs continued to bookprofits from Indian equities,value stocks made a comebackwith the PSU Bank Index ral-lying over 5 per cent in after-noon trade today, well sup-ported by auto stocks to stagea smart recovery. As IT andpharma stocks witnessed prof-it taking, textile stocks weresought after in the broadermarket on the back of earn-ings,'' said S Ranganathan,Head of Research at LKPSecurities. PTI

New Delhi: BharatPe, a fintechcompany for merchants, onThursday said it has witnessed200 per cent growth in annu-alised transaction value to USD4 billion (about Rs 30,078crore) from its POS businessover the last 12 months.ThePoint of Sale (POS) business -BharatSwipe - now contributesabout 25 per cent to the over-all payments TransactionProcessed Value (TPV) of thecompany, a statement said.

BharatPe has ramped upthe reach of its POS business by25X to over 250 cities in the last12 months and since the launch

in the second half of 2020, com-pany has deployed more than1.25L BharatSwipe machinesacross offline shops, it added.

"The growth can be attrib-uted to the expansion of thecompany's POS business innon-metro cities, with morethan 50 per cent of BharatSwipemachines being deployed intier II/tier III towns and citiessince 2021. BharatSwipe hasbeen universally adopted bysmall merchants and retailersacross categories including gro-cery, food and beverage, elec-tronics and durables, amongothers," it said. PTI

New Delhi: With the forth-coming high stake assemblyelections in states like UttarPradesh and Punjab, the freezeon petrol and diesel prices isnow the longest ever even asinternational oil prices climbed to USD 90 per barrelfor the first time in sevenyears.

Brent - the key global oilbenchmark - soared to USD90.02 per barrel on Thursdayamid tensions between Ukraineand Russia, the world's second-largest oil producer that havefanned fears of energy supplydisruptions to Europe.

Analysts expected weakerOmicron impact to keep priceselevated.

But domestic fuel prices -which are directly linked tointernational oil prices - havenot been revised for 83 daysnow, beating the 82-day hiatusof 2020.

Petrol costs Rs 95.41 a litrein Delhi and diesel is priced atRs 86.67 - the same as it didafter accounting for the exciseduty cut and a reduction inVAT rate by the Delhi govern-ment.

PTI

New Delhi: Gold in the nation-al capital on Thursday plungedRs 563 to Rs 48,215 per 10grams amid weak internation-al precious metal prices,according to HDFC Securities.

In the previous trade, theprecious settled at Rs 48,778per 10 gram.

Silver also tumbled Rs1,186 to Rs 62,792 per kg fromRs 63,978 per kg in the previ-ous trade. In the internationalmarket, gold was trading lowerat USD 1,810 per ounce. PTI

New Delhi: In a move aimed tofurther safeguard the interest ofmutual fund investors, Sebihas made it mandatory fortrustees of mutual funds toobtain the consent of unithold-ers when majority of trusteesdecide to wind up a scheme.

Under the new norms,mutual fund trustees will berequired to obtain the consentof the unitholders when themajority of the trustees decideto wind up a scheme or pre-maturely redeem the units of aclose-ended scheme.

The trustees will have toobtain consent of unitholdersby simple majority of theunitholders present and votingon the basis of one vote per unitheld and publish the results ofvoting within 45 days of thepublication of notice of cir-cumstances leading to windingup, Sebi said in a notificationissued on Tuesday.

In case the trustees fail toobtain the consent, Sebi saidthe scheme would be open forbusiness activities from thesecond business day after pub-lication of results of voting.

Amending mutual fundnorms, Sebi said the trusteeswill give notice within oneday, disclosing the circum-stances leading to the winding

up of the scheme to the regu-lator and in two daily newspa-pers having circulation all overIndia as well as a vernacularnewspaper circulating at theplace where the mutual fund isformed.

The decision to amend theregulations came after theSupreme Court in July held thatthe trustees are required to seekconsent of majority unit-hold-ers for closing mutual fundschemes after publishing noticedisclosing reasons for theirdecision to wind up schemes.

The Supreme Court's deci-sion came in the case pertain-ing to winding-up

of Franklin TempletonMutual Fund's six debtschemes. The fund house shutits six debt mutual fundschemes on April 23, 2020, cit-ing redemption pressures andlack of liquidity in the bondmarket.The schemes - FranklinIndia Low Duration Fund,Franklin India DynamicAccrual Fund, Franklin IndiaCredit Risk Fund, FranklinIndia Short Term Income Plan,Franklin India Ultra ShortBond Fund, and Franklin IndiaIncome Opportunities Fund -together had an estimated morethan Rs 25,000 crore as assetsunder management. PTI

New Delhi: Sebi will now besending show cause noticesand summons to allegedoffenders of securities marketrules through instant messag-ing services, a move that willmake the process faster.

At present, the regulatorsends such documents througheither registered post, courieror electronic mail. Also, Sebihas tweaked norms pertainingto powers of investigatingauthority for seeking informa-tion and documents in respect

of any transaction in securitiesmarkets, which are underinvestigation.

To effect these, the regula-tor has amended Prohibition ofFraudulent and Unfair TradePractices (PFUTP) norms relat-ing to securities market,according to a notificationissued on Tuesday. Summonsor notices issued by Sebi underPFUTP norms will be servedon the person by delivering ortendering it to that person orhis duly authorised agent. PTI

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It is said that breakfast, the most important mealof the day, should ideally never be skipped. In

the pandemic, there has been a sudden changein people's eating habits where they are optingfor healthier and more nutritious food.

While breakfast looks different in differentparts of the world, it is most eclectic in India,where there are so many food choices — fromfruits and juices to oats, Indian staples like poha,idli, dosa, parathas and more. Over the last cou-ple of years, Indians have discovered ‘smooth-ies and smoothie bowls’, which are packed withhealth benefits and are known to make a personfeel fuller for a longer period.

Our body needs proteins and nutrients tofunction properly and, when it's not providedwith healthy food and fluids, it deteriorates.Smoothies and smoothie bowls are an excellentsource of vitamins, folate, minerals, dietary fibre,proteins and carbohydrates besides being a deli-cious addition to breakfast.

Eating healthily and keeping healthy issuch an overrated concept that it has been madeto appear like a difficult task when, in truth, itis as simple as returning to our origins. We havea body that, like any other machine, has to beused to maintain it. When it comes to food, it'sthe same thing as machine fuel. The tougher thefuel is for the body, the more adulterated (farfrom natural food) it is. The most significantchange we need to make is to eat more naturalfoods and avoid manufactured foods.

The simplest way to do this is by inculcat-ing the habit of increasing the fruit intake in allforms, either as cut fruits or simple blends suchas smoothies. Starting your day with smoothieswill help detox, recharge and refresh the body.Fruits and vegetables in smoothies act as detox-ifying agents and help cleanse the body. Thesesmoothies have great health benefits due to theirnutritious elements like vitamins, minerals,iron, fibre and proteins. They also help in weightloss and re-energise the body to attain a betterimmune system.

Here are some interesting smoothie ideas thatare not just tasty but rich in health while help-ing you lose weight as you kick start your daywith these. The best thing about a smoothie isthat you can include different fruits like apple,banana, pineapple and more to create yourflavours. Drinking smoothies makes it easier toabsorb water into our body helping us stayhydrated throughout the day.

Fruits like watermelon, pineapple, date,musk melon have a lot of water content in them.These fruits not only keep you hydrated but also

decrease your risk of obesity, diabetes, heart dis-ease, increase your energy levels and keep yourcells active. Bananas and apples are rich in fibre,protein and help blood glucose control.

MAKING YOUR MORNING SMOOTHIE EFFECTIVE: Liquids are a must. Water, juice, non-dairy

milk, coconut water are some of the low calo-rie, fewer sugar options that should be added toyour meal smoothie.

Add protein and natural flavours. Avocadois one option that gives great flavour to yoursmoothie.

Fill it with something fresh. Add some fruitsand vegetables like watermelon, apple, banana,muskmelon, carrots, baby spinach to make it fill-ing and nutritious.

Blend until smooth. Put all your ingredientsinto the blender jug and let it work its magic tillit looks smooth. So, just feed your body with theright nutrition and your body will love you forit. Do try replacing your morning routinebreakfast with a smoothie sometime and you willknow why people are making a switch.

Swap your regular breakfast with a smooth-ie and smoothie bowl to turn on the nutrientpowerhouse in your body. Hydrate yourself withthe abundant fibres in farm-fresh fruits and veg-etables and stay fit with power-packed smooth-ies.

Drinking a smoothie will not only keep youhydrated throughout the day but will be bene-ficial for your body with a boost of all vitaminsand proteins.

(The author is the founder, DrunkenMonkey, a smoothie delivery chain with more

than 200 options.)

If I say that there is a realdearth of Middle Easternrestaurants in Delhi/NCR,

I am confident that therewould hardly be anybodywho would accuse me ofexaggeration. There are onlya handful of eateries and I amsurprised why, over the years,Levantine food concepts havenot captured the imaginationof restaurateurs. After spend-ing a few years in Dubai, Ican safely say that Indianshave a palate for MiddleEastern flavours and texturesand it’s only a matter of timebefore the cuisine becomes arage in India. Thankfully,concepts like the newlyopened Cafe Mez in DLFCyberhub, Gurgaon rein-force my point and givemy ‘Arabic food’deprived body somerespite.

I visited Cafe Mez afew days ago and wasimmediately transportedto a different world assoon as I stepped into therestaurants. Large win-dows which allowed abun-dant natural light, casualyet comfortable seating and asoothing blue & white colourscheme made it seem that Icould very easily be eating ata cafe in Beirut, dining at aGreek restaurant in Athens orenjoying a Lebanese meal inDubai. Well, that was theimpression if I looked at theoptics in isolation.

“I wanted to create a cafewhere you could enjoy greatbreakfast options from theMiddle East to theMediterranean and, at thesame time, use the freshest ofingredients to create a friend-ly cuisine throughout theday”, says Ashish Dev Kapur(co-owner, Cafe Mez). Super-talented chef Megha Kohli is

at the helm of affairs in thekitchen. I have known Meghafrom her time at Lavaash bySaby and she comes in witha lot of pedigree. She has anindividual style and most ofthe preparations on the menuare a nifty amalgamation ofMiddle Eastern andMediterranean elements.Almost all the dishes danceon the periphery of authen-ticity due to a unique twist.Most of the preparations

carefully thread the needlebetween creativity andauthentic flavours. And Ishall explain how.

We started with theMuhammara, Gazan guacand Fattoush salad. Red pep-pers, walnuts and pomegran-ate molasses are the mainingredients for aMuhammara along withsome olive oil and spices butI loved the way the dip is dec-orated with black olives and

cucumber peel. Even withoutthat, the dish would havebeen complete but I lovedthat little touch. Also, whenyou look at a Fattoush salad,in its original form, it istoasted pita or khubz withmixed greens, tomatoes,

cucumber, peppers andonions drizzled withsumac and pomegranatemolasses. Chef Megha’sversion is sans thetoasted pita and driz-zled with lemon herbdressing and fetawhich adds theMediterranean ele-ment to it. I must con-fess that, at an individ-

ual level, I missed thetoasted pita in the mix of

things and feel that a fat-toush is incomplete without

it. The Gazan guac thoughwas a stunning preparation.So unique, so subtle but yetso familiar.

Next up was the Baconand egg pide. I have sampledthat before during a meal atLavaash by Saby a few yearsago and had very high expec-tations. It was that and muchmore. It is chef Megha’s takeon Georgian bread with anegg and cheese at the coretopped with generous chunksof bacon. When you cutthrough the bread, the runnyegg yolk oozes out of impris-onment and lusciously lacesthe bread. Gastronomic heav-en! For the mains, we

requested the ChickenShawarma roll and theIranian lamb koobideh. Theshawarma was decent withsucculent chunks of chickenand pickle engulfed in a pitaand served with fries but theshowstopper was theKoobideh. Flavourful andjuicy ground lamb kebabson a bed of thin bread witha side of spiced onions andTzaziki. Absolutely brilliant.Every bite is an experience initself. One prep that is defi-nitely for the Gods.

I culminated the mealon a sweet note with somePonchikis, an Americandoughnut filled with Nutellaor rose-scented custard. It’s aserving of two ponchikis andI chose one of each. Best deci-sion ever as the custard andchocolate provided a greatcontrast. All in all, we had afabulous meal. The restauranthas a well-stocked bar andyou can have a lazy afternoonout with some cocktails orsavour your favourite bottleof wine with the lovely food.The service orientation of thestaff is also top-notch andthey would ensure that youhave a pleasant dining expe-rience. As I was stepping outof the restaurant, my tastebuds couldn’t thank meenough for the tantalisingplay of flavours and textures.I made silent promises tomyself that I shall be backsoon. Very soon!

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Their title hopes already over,India would be desperatefor at least a podium finishwhen they take on China in

the third-fourth place play-offmatch of the women's Asia Cuphockey tournament here on Friday.

Lack of match practice due tothe COVID-19 pandemic after asuccessful 2020, where they finisheda historic fourth at the TokyoOlympics, cost India dearly as theyproduced inconsistent performancesin crucial matches to crash out of thetitle race.

After thrashing lowly Malaysia9-0 in their opener, India suffereda 0-2 defeat against Asian Gameschampions Japan before thrashingSingapore 9-1 to qualify for thesemifinals.

But in the semifinals, somesloppy defending and poor penaltycorner conversions put paid toIndia's hopes as they were beaten 2-3 Korea, who set up a clash againstJapan in the summit clash on Friday.

The Indians controlled the gamein the first two quarters to go intohalf time with a slender 1-0 lead.

But a determined Koreastunned the Indians in the 31st, 45thand 47th minutes beforeLalremsiami reduced the margin

just six minutes from the hooter butin the end it proved to be too late.

After resolute defending in thefirst two quarters, the Indian defence

led by skipper and goalkeeper Savitaconceded three soft goals to hand

over the match to Korea.And come Friday, the Savita-led

Indian defence, which also includesthe experienced duo of Gurjit Kaurand Deep Grace Ekka, will have tobe on their toes to finish on thepodium.

While the Indian forwardlinehave enjoyed decent outings in thetournament so far with the likes ofVandana Katariya, Monika, NavneetKaur and Lalremsiami finding thenet on more than one occasion, it isthe lack of co-ordination betweenthe midfield and backline that putpaid to India's hopes.

Penalty corner conversion isanother key area where Indian needto improve by leaps and bounds.

Barring a hat-trick againstSingapore, seasoned drag-flickerGurjit Kaur and her partner Ekkalooked off-colour from set piecesthroughout the tournament.

Going by world rankings andrecent head-to-head record, Indiadefinitely hold an edge over Chinain Friday's match.

While India are placed 10th inthe world rankings, China areranked 13th.

In their last three outings, Indiahad defeated China twice -- 3-1 inthe Asian Champions Trophy in2018 in Donghae, Korea and 1-0 winin the last Asian Games -- beforeplaying out a 0-0 draw in the TokyoOlympic Test event in 2019.

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Captain of India's 1964 TokyoOlympics gold medal-winning hock-

ey team, Charanjit Singh, died onThursday at his home in Una, HimachalPradesh after suffering a cardiac arrestthat followed prolonged age-related ill-nesses.

The former mid-fielder was 90 andwould have turned a year older nextmonth. He is survived by two sons andone daughter.

Charanjit suffered a stroke five yearsback and was paralysed since then.

"Dad was paralysed after suffering astroke five years back. He used to walkwith a stick but since the last couple ofmonths, his health deteriorated and thismorning he left us," his younger son VP Singh told PTI.

Besides captaining the Olympic gold-winning team in 1964, he was also a partof the silver-winning side in the 1960 edi-tion of the Games. He was also a part ofthe 1962 Asian Games silver-winningteam.

"His last rites will be performed todayafter my sister reaches Una from Delhi,"V P Singh said.

His wife died 12 years ago. While hiselder son is a doctor in Canada, hisyounger son was next to him when hebreathed his last.

His only daughter is married andbased in New Delhi.

His last rites will be performed thisevening in Una.

The two-time Olympian was a partof India's glorious days. A charismatichalfback, Charanjit had led the Indianteam to a historic gold medal in 1964Tokyo Olympics, beating Pakistan in thefinal and also featured in the Indian teamthat won silver in the 1960 Games inRome.

Charanjit was an alumni of ColBrown Cambridge School, Dehradun andPunjab University. After his illustriouscareer in international hockey, he workedas the director of the physical educationdepartment in Himachal PradeshUniversity in Shimla.

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Unseeded Mithun Manjunath stunned seventhseed June Wei Cheam of Malaysia in straight

games to storm into the men singles quarterfi-nals of the Odisha Open here on Thursday.Manjunath took 40 minutes to outclass Cheam21-11 21-18. He will next face Priyanshu Rajawat.

Third seeded Indian Subhankar Dey, whohad beaten sixth seed Xiaodong Sheng ofCanada on Wednesday, also eased into the last-eight with a 21-16 21-14 win over compatriotRahul Yadav Chittaboina.

Kiran George also moved to the men's sin-gles quarterfinal with an easy 21-12 21-13 winover compatriot Chirag Sen.

Subhankar will play George in the nextround. Continuing her good run of form, youngIndian shuttler Malvika Bansod got the better ofcompatriot and junior world no 1 Tasnim Mirin straight games to advance to the women's sin-gles quarterfinals. Bansod took just over half anhour to dispatch 16-year-old Tasnim 21-13 21-15 in the women's singles pre-quarterfinals of theBWF Super 100 tournament.

The 20-year-old Bansod, who had lost to PVSindhu in the final of the Syed Modi Internationallast week before defeating her idol Saina Nehwalat the India Open earlier this month, will takeon the winner of the clash between TanyaHemanth and Vijetha Harish.

Fifth seed Ashmita Chaliha also booked aquarterfinal spot as she got the better of compa-triot Anupama Upadhyay 21-17 21-16. She willtake on Rucha Sawant, who defeated Nikki Rapriato reach the final eight.

Chaliha will face Rhucha Sawant in the quar-terfinals. Qualifier Unnati Hooda cruised pasteight seed Disha Gupta of USA 21-6 21-9 in just20 minutes to set up a quarterfinal clash againstSamiya Imad Farooqui.

In the mixed doubles event, the India pair-ing of Dhruv Rawat and Shikha Gautam lost 11-21 14-21 to the Sri Lankan duo of Sachin Diasand Thilini Hendahewa in the second round,while Ayush Makhija and Deeksha Choudharhanded Chirag Arora and Nish Rapria a 21-5 21-16 loss to move to the quarterfinals.

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China is demanding the US end“interference” in the Beijing

Winter Olympics, which begin nextweek, in an apparent reference to adiplomatic boycott imposed byWashington and some of its allies.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi madethe demand in a phone call with U.S.Secretary of State Antony Blinken onThursday Beijing time, according toa news release posted on the ForeignMinistry's website.

The U.S. Has said it will not senddignitaries to the Games, which openFeb. 4, in a protest over China'sdetention of an estimated 1 million ormore Uyghur and other Muslims inthe northwestern region of Xinjiang,along with crackdowns on humanrights elsewhere in the country.

The boycott does not prevent U.S.Athletes from taking part in theGames, which are being held understrict anti-pandemic restrictions.

China has also protested what it

says are calls within the StateDepartment to withdraw staff andtheir dependents from the embassyand consulates around China over thetightening rules.

The news release said Wang alsocalled for an end to U.S. Support forself-governing Taiwan, which Chinaclaims as its own territory.

Wang also complained that the

U.S. Hasn't altered tough political andeconomic policies toward China underthe administration of President JoeBiden, despite its expressed wishes fora less confrontational relationship.

A brief statement from the StateDepartment said that Blinken andWang exchanged views on how tomanage strategic risk, health securityand climate change.

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World No. 1 tennis playerAsh Barty became the

first Australian woman to reachthe final at her home major since1980 by defeating a resurgentAmerican Madison Keys 6-1, 6-3, here on Thursday.

The crowd at Rod LaverArena enjoyed a rendition of'Girl on Fire' prior to the semi-finals at the Australian Open.American Keys, too, had beenon fire, tallying a career-bestwinning streak of 10 after a dif-ficult 2021 that saw her rankingsfall outside the top 50. ButBarty is on another level at themoment, showing her impecca-ble skills at the Australian Open.

The world No.1 increasedher own winning streak to 10,the last nine in straight sets.Opponents have grabbed a totalof 21 games off the Queenslandnative this fortnight. An indica-tion of Keys' night came in theopening game. Leading 30-0,Barty thwarted three gamepoints before taking advantageof a first break-point.

The serve, slice, and fore-hand all make up Barty's vastweaponry yet so does her move-ment. She scurried to a Keysdrop shot, then ripped a fore-hand cross-court. A hefty sec-

ond serve - an ace if not for agood stretch from the 2017 USOpen finalist - helped Barty con-solidate for 2-0.

But at 30-all in the nextgame, Barty's floated slice on asecond-serve return barelydropped in. There was no luckinvolved on the next point whenBarty curled a forehand for 4-1.

Still one of the hardest hit-ters around, Keys found the rightbalance between aggression andnot going for too much, whichhas been an issue throughout

her stellar career. Only once thisAustralian Open had Keys hitmore unforced errors than win-ners in a match.

On Thursday, pressed byBarty, though, she committed 24unforced errors, coupled witheight winners. Barty bypassed abreak-point with an ace to lead5-1 and sent a forehand returndown the line to seal the open-er.

Keys' defending, not thatbig-hitting, aided in escapingfrom 0-30 at 0-1 in the second.A fist pump ensued from the 26-year-old after holding at deucefor 2-2.

Barty miscued on a drivevolley after stretching the WorldNo.51 and suddenly faced abreak-point. But a fine forehandapproach close to the net -made more difficult given theslight momentum change -allowed the Australian to laterfinish at the net.

Keys, maybe and under-standably, dwelled on her oppor-tunity. Barty took advantage for4-2 after Keys decided toapproach from deep in thecourt.

Friends, both smiled at thenet after Barty caressed a fore-hand on match point for winnernumber 20 on the night, mixedwith a mere 13 unforced errors.

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Vietnam and Myanmar played a 2-2 draw in their f inal AFC

Women's Asian Cup India 2022 GroupC tie at the D.Y. Patil Stadium, here onThursday.

Vietnam came from behind twiceto salvage a point and finish third butwill have to wait till the Group Bmatches conclude later on Thursday toknow their knockout stage fate, withthe two best third-placed teams to jointhe respective group winners andrunners-up in the quarter-finals.

Myanmar, needing a win to finishabove their Southeast Asian rivals,started the more aggressive of the twosides and had a first look on goal inthe second minute after Tun WinTheingi's threaded pass found ThawThaw, whose shot failed to troubleVietnam custodian Tran Thi KimThanh.

Vietnam came close to finding thenet a minute later when Nguyen ThiMy Anh tried to catch Myanmar goal-keeper Nwe May Zin off her line buther shot from distance was denied by

the crossbar.That set the stage for a well bal-

anced game as both teams createdopportunities with Nwe denying

Vietnam's Huynh Nhu in the 13th,while Tun's header from inside the boxwas cleared away two minutes later.

However, it was Vietnam who

conceded the first goal when NguyenThi Thanh Nha brought down anadvancing Noe Khin Myat inside thebox, with Tun making no mistake inconverting the penalty.

Vietnam fought back and after sev-eral missed opportunities, they final-ly levelled the score at the stroke ofhalf-time, with Nguyen Thi TuyetDung beating Nwe off a corner set-piece. Mai Duc Chung's charges werewasteful in front of the goal after therestart with Huynh Nhu and NguyenThi Tuyet Dung both missing chances.

Myanmar, however, edged aheadagain in spectacular fashion in the 49thminute when Tun set up Tun KhinMarlar, who found space before smash-ing her effort into the back of the net.

Vietnam were given a lifeline whenMyanmar's Saw Thaw Thaw conced-ed a penalty in the 62nd minute aftershe brought down Nguyen Anh ThiMy inside the six-yard-box.

Huynh Nhu made no mistakefrom the penalty spot, sending Nwe thewrong way to level the tie for a secondtime as both teams had to settle for ashare of the points.

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Even before he hit his first ball at thisyear's Australian Open, Rafael Nadal

knew he had an open door to set the men'srecord for most career Grand Slam singlestitles.

So far he hasn't let it close.Nadal plays Matteo Berrettini in one

semifinal on Friday at Melbourne Park,knowing he's potentially two match winsfrom a 21st major title.

He's tied for the record of 20 withRoger Federer, who is recovering fromright knee surgery, and Novak Djokovic,who was deported from Australia on theeve of the tournament following an 11-dayvisa saga over his decision not to be vac-cinated for COVID-19.

In the other semifinal, DaniilMedvedev plays Stefanos Tsitsipas in arematch of their 2021 Australian Opensemifinal. Medvedev won last year's semi-final, then lost to Djokovic in the final.

After Nadal's tough five-set win overDenis Shapovalov on Tuesday, he lookedto take away some of the pressure of that

21st major. “I don't believe that my hap-piness, my future happiness is going todepend on if I achieve one more GrandSlam than the others, or if the othersachieve more Grand Slams than me,” Nadalsaid.

“For me, the fact that we are equal at20 ... The only thing that says is that weshare an amazing part of the history of oursport, and for me it's a real honor to be part

of it." Nadal spoke highly of Berrettini,among the players like Tsitsipas andShapovalov who could replace the BigThree who have dominated the sport fornearly 20 years.

“Matteo, he's one of the best players ofthe world,” Nadal said.

“I need to play my 100% and my high-est level if I want to keep having chancesto fight, to be competitive, and to try tobe in the final."

The pair have only played once —Nadal beat the Italian in the semifinals ofthe 2019 U.S. Open in straight sets.Berrettini has matured since, having lostthe Wimbledon final last year to Djokovicin four sets. Nadal gives a decade in ageto Berrettini — 35 to 25.

U.S. Open champion Medvedev willhave to overcome the fatigue from a late-night, 4 hour, 42-minute, five-set come-back win over Felix Auger-Aliassime onWednesday.

Djokovic was firmly on Medvedev'smind during his escape over Auger-Aliassime, who won the first two sets andhad a match point in the fourth.

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China demands US halt Olympics ‘interference'

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Seasoned pacer Kemar Roach andyoung all-rounder Nkrumah

Bonner have been recalled to theWest Indies ODI squad for thethree-match series in India begin-ning February 6. Roach, who hasnot played any List A cricket sincehis last ODI in 2019, has made thereturn with West Indies greatDesmond Haynes picking him in hisfirst squad selection since takingover as lead selector. Six additionshave been made to the squad, to beled by Kieron Pollard, that lost toIreland at home. The ODIs againstIndia will be played at the NarendraModi Stadium in Ahmedabad on

February 6, 9 and 11.The T20Is will be played at Eden

Gardens in Kolkata on February 16,18 and 20 and the Caribbean squadfor that is expected to be announcedon Friday. Besides the experiencedRoach, the 22-year-old Bonner, amiddle-order batter whose last ODIappearance was exactly a year ago,and Brandon King, an opener, havebeen recalled to the squad.

The 27-year-old King's last one-day outing in national colours wasback in 2020. Roach has so farplayed 92 ODIs with 124wicketsBonner made his ODI debutin Bangladesh a year ago and has sofar played three matches, whileKing has appeared in four matches

in this format."Kemar Roach is one of our

leading fast bowlers and we believewe need bowlers upfront to get earlywicket, and Kemar, with an econo-my rate of five, is certainly goodenough to play. "Over the last fewyears, Nkrumah Bonner's crickethas come on leaps and bounds andwe believe he should be given anopportunity to play in the 50-overformat," said Haynes in a statement."

The series will be part of theICC ODI Super League and theWest Indies will have the opportu-nity to win points to be one of thetop seven teams, excluding hostsIndia, to gain automatic qualifica-tion for the 2023 World Cup.

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Jacob Bethell's blistering batting displayhelped England advance to the semi-

finals of the ICC U-19 World Cup witha six-wicket win over South Africa here.

Bethell was one of the bowlers torestrict South Africa to 209 all out beforehitting 88 to see England set up a clashwith either Sri Lanka or Afghanistan.

South Africa endured a slow starthaving won the toss and chosen to bat,their first boundary came off the finalball of the fourth over, before JoshuaBoyden dismissed Valentine Kitime offthe next delivery.

Boyden would claim his 12th wick-et of the tournament to send the otheropener Ethan-John Cunningham backto the hutch and reduce South Africa to21 for two.

Dewald Brevis and GerhardusMaree combined to steady the SouthAfrican ship, adding 55 runs to the totalbefore Bethell dismissed Maree.

Brevis remained a familiar strong-hold for South Africa as he brought uphis fourth fifty-plus score in a row even-

tually falling just short of a century on97.

His dismissal brought about a bat-ting collapse for South Africa as threewickets fell for one run as the batterswent in search of boundaries, but onlyfound the grateful hands of fielders with

Rehan Ahmed claiming figures of fourfor 48.

The final-wicket partnership ofMatthew Boast and Asakhe Tsaka frus-trated England adding 40?runs as SouthAfrica ended on 209 all out.

Bethell came out all guns blazing in

England's chase, hitting the fourthfastest half-century of U19 World Cuphistory, reaching fifty off just 20 balls,as the Young Lions went at over 10 anover.

George Thomas was a delightedonlooker at the non-striker's end only

moving into double figures in the tenthover, before smacking a six to bring upEngland's hundred.

South Africa finally struck as Bethellwent for one heave too many but notbefore he had put on 88 from 42 deliv-eries to place England as overwhelmingfavourites.

That tag was backed up by goodpartnerships in the top order, beforeWilliam Luxton came in at five to strike47 from 41 balls and get England intothe semi-finals with a six.

Zimbabwe, West Indies win in thePlate competition

Matthew Welch's 78 helpedZimbabwe set Scotland a tricky chase of249 in their Plate quarterfinal.

Scotland were unable to build part-nerships as they slumped to 140 all outto see Zimbabwe advance to meetIreland. They will be joined in the semi-finals by hosts West Indies who were toogood for Papua New Guinea in a 169-run win. The West Indies will now facethe United Arab Emirates, while PapuaNew Guinea are set to take on Ugandain the Plate play-offs.

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The Indian women's teamwill play all its six upcom-

ing matches against NewZealand in Queenstown asNZC on Thursday announceda revised schedule to reducechances of a COVID-19 out-break.

The Indian women'steam, which is already in NewZealand, is now scheduled toplay all five ODIs and a T20I,starting February 9 at JohnDavies Oval in Queenstown.

The bilateral series, whichis key for India ahead of theWorld Cup in March-April,was earlier scheduled to beginwith with the one-off T20I atMcLean Park in Napier fol-lowed by the first ODI at thesame venue two days later.

The Saxton Oval inNelson was to host the secondand third ODIs on February14 and 16, with the final twoODIs to be played inQueenstown on February 22and 24.

Other changes in theschedule announced by NZCinclude the South Africa men'sside remaining inChristchurch for the entireduration of its visit, playingboth its scheduled Tests atHagley Oval rather than

decamping to Wellington forthe second match, as initiallyscheduled.

Australia's three T20sagainst the New Zealandmen's side will now be host-ed in Napier (subject to MIQavailability), and theNetherlands men's tour is setto be split between MountMaunganui (one T20 and oneODI) and Hamilton (twoODIs). All matches have beenkept on originally-scheduleddays. The changes in thevenues is aimed to cut downon domestic travel and theincreased likelihood of expo-sure to the Omicron variant ofCOVID-19.

“These risk mitigations

are based on avoiding knownCovid-19 hotspots, andinclude limiting air travel,limiting accommodationtransfers and, essentially, oper-ating in safer environments,”NZC chief executive DavidWhite said in a statement.

“We know the moredomestic flights we have, andthe more movement there isbetween hotels, the greater thechance of a match or even aseries being put at risk,” headded.

White added the intent isto explore the concept ofallowing multiple pods, eachof no more than 100 specta-tors, in venues in accordancewith government guidelines.

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Rovman Powell hit 10 sixes among his 107 runsfrom 53 balls to lead West Indies to a 20-run

victory over England and a 2-1 lead in the five-match Twenty20 series.

Powell, brought in for Odean Smith, formedthe backbone of the home side's 224 for five, withNicholas Pooran clubbing 70 off 43 deliveries.England finished at 202-9.

Tom Banton gave England hope of pulling offits third-highest chase ever with a 39-ball 73 buthis dismissal left the tourists needing 96 from 45deliveries before Phil Salt kept its flickering hopesalive.

Salt, one of three T20 debutants alongsideGeorge Garton and Harry Brook, brought theequation down to 36 in an over, flaying the firsttwo deliveries for six en route to a 22-ball 50before being bowled.

England was captained by Moeen Ali becauseof a slight quad injury to Eoin Morgan.

The final two matches are on Saturday andSunday, also in Bridgetown.

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When Kuldeep Yadav hadgone for a skier during a

Kolkata Knight Riders practicesession in the UAE lastSeptember, little did he knowthat within seconds his worldwould come crashing down witha twisted knee.

Those present at the Dubaitraining facility were horrifiedseeing his condition as he laythere writhing in pain, waiting tobe stretchered out.

In a week's time, he under-went a major knee surgery inMumbai, which cast doubts onhow long it would take for himto get fit for competitive crick-et. He visited Mathura with hisfamily on Thursday to offer

prayers on his comeback, forKuldeep really needed somedivine intervention to make hisway back into the Indian team.

Otherwise, all that he couldhave done was to wait at hometo hear from the BCCI if it wouldhold the now-postponed RanjiTrophy, where he was supposedto lead Uttar Pradesh.

"It will be a very tough roadahead for Kuldeep. He hasn't hadany proper domestic gamesunder his belt and it's not easy tomake an international come-back just like that," one of India'sgreatest spinners, HarbhajanSingh, told PTI when askedabout his expectations.

"He wasn't playing regular-ly before surgery and when youare making a comeback in white

ball, the first thing that's at theback of your mind is 'I don't wantto get hit'.

"So it's like striking a balanceas you are naturally dealing witha lot of insecurities. It's a test ofmental fortitude," saidHarbhajan, who saw Kuldeepfrom close quarters at KKR nets.

But Kuldeep has the skillsand the 'Turbanator' expects thathe can get a few early wickets andmake it a different ball-game.

"Let me make it clear. If hegets a couple of early wickets, hewill be a different bowler butthings may not go as per plan. Itmight take some time for him toget back the rhythm.

"My only suggestion wouldbe that stick with him since youhave shown conviction based on

his past performances and givehim enough time and confi-dence. He is a man who candeliver the goods for India,"said the holder of 700-plus inter-national wickets.

The national selectors madean exception for him as he is oneof the rare cricketers who is com-ing back without having to provehis match-fitness as there is nodomestic cricket at the moment.

The rub of green finallyseems to be going Kuldeep'sway after enduring rough timesas his exclusion from the playingXI wasn't always a cricketing oneduring the earlier regime ofVirat Kohli and Ravi Shastri.

Call it India's bare spin cup-board and injuries or poor formof some elite spinners.

�!��� ����6�>�0

Young leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoiwas on Wednesday rewardedwith a maiden India call-up for

the upcoming Twenty20 series againstthe West Indies, while senior wristspinner Kuldeep Yadav also returnedto the white-ball setup after a kneesurgery.

Skipper Rohit Sharma on the daycleared his fitness test and as report-ed by PTI on January 17, was back in-charge for the series that starts withODIs in Ahmedabad from February6.

Among senior players,Ravichandran Ashwin has beendropped from the white-ball team,while Washington Sundar, whomissed the South Africa series due toCOVID-19, was back in the squad."Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shamihave been rested from the series,"

BCCI secetary Jay Shah was quot-ed as saying in a press release.

While Ashwin is believed to be

injured and out for six weeks, BCCIstatement didn't mention his injurystatus so it can be concluded that evenif he is fit, he wouldn't have beenpicked after an indifferent white-ballseries in South Africa.

The other notable comeback hasbeen Baroda batter Deepak Hooda,who had changed states and didwonderfully well for Rajasthan in theSyed Mushtaq Ali Trophy as well asVijay Hazare Trophy.

Hooda is being looked as a poten-tial finisher in shorter formats and fornow in the ODI team. He was part ofthe Nidahas Trophy squad in SriLanka four seasons back but didn't geta game.

"If you go and look at Hooda'sperformances in white-ball cricket thisseason, most of his runs have comewhen the team has been in trouble.That shows he can take pressure. Theselectors would like to see more of MShahrukh Khan, who is a good talent.There are a lot of matches and if hehas a good IPL, who knows, he will

be right there," a BCCI sourceinformed PTI on condition ofanonymity.

However it is understood thatHimachal Pradesh captain RishiDhawan wasn't in consideration as hisbowling is friendly medium paceand can't be seen as a finisher in

white-ball cricket.It is also learnt that vice-captain

KL Rahul will be available from thesecond ODI onwards as he is set tomiss the first 50-over game due to per-sonal reasons.

"Ravindra Jadeja is undergoinghis final stage of recovery post his kneeinjury and will not be available for theODIs and T20Is. Axar Patel will beavailable for the T20Is," Shah added.

Bishnoi has been one of the findsof the Indian Premier League for thePunjab outfit and has been picked upby new franchise Lucknow SuperGiants from the drafts for the nextIPL. In 42 T20 games, he has 49 wick-ets at a great economy rate of 6.63. In17 List A games, he has 24 wickets andan economy rate of 5.48.

He primarily bowlsgooglies which is his stock deliveryand occasionally

bowls leg-breaks. With Kuldeep,Yuzvendra Chahal and Bishnoi, India

is again going back to the trust-ed formula of wrist spin which gave

them lot of success between 2017to 2019.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar has beendropped from the ODI squad butretained for the T20Is while formerskipper Virat Kohli featured in boththe teams.

It is understood that Kuldeep, whohad lost his mojo in the Kohli-RaviShastri era, has been called back as thecurrent team management and selec-tors feel that he has the X-factor tocontribute to the team's cause.

He underwent a knee surgery inSeptember last year.

Avesh Khan and Harshal Patel,who were part of the New ZealandT20 Internationals are predictablyback as reported by PTI.

The six-match series against theWest Indies will feature three ODIsstarting in Ahmedabad from February6, followed by as many T20Internationals in Kolkata.

Due to COVID-19 protocols, theBCCI has curtailed the number ofvenues from six cities to two.

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The International Cricket Council on Thursdayreleased 'ICC Crictos', the official range of digi-

tal (NFT) collectibles, in partnership with FanCraze.Crictos enables fans to collect and trade their

own slice of cricket history from a range of ICC events.Featuring 75 unforgettable moments from the

2015 and 2019 editions of the ICC Men's CricketWorld Cup, fans can start their Crictos collection withone of three packs: a Base Pack, a Booster Pack anda Hotshots Pack.

Fans that have reserved a pack will be the first tohave the chance to own NFTs of some of the mosttalked-about shots, catch-es and wickets in interna-tional cricket.

The roster of col-lectibles will continue togrow and will includeclassic plays from pastICC Men's and Women'sevents as well as iconicmoments created at future events.

The number of Crictos vary by pack-type andCrictos will vary in their rarity across four tiers:Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary with CommonCrictos being the most minted whilst Legendary willbe the rarest.

Finn Bradshaw, ICC Head of Digital said: "We areso excited to drop our first packs of Crictos todaywhich is a unique opportunity for fans to own andbe part of historic moments in cricket. Crictos willbe a digital record of those moments cricket fans love,and enable them to collect these legendary video high-lights. "This Beta launch is our first step into the crick-et metaverse and those lucky enough to be part of itcan start their Crictos collection today and shortlystart growing it by trading on the peer-to-peer mar-ketplace through our partners FanCraze before wemove to a full launch in the near future."

Some of the digital collectibles include GlennMaxwell whipping one over square leg for a bound-ary against Sri Lanka, Hardik Pandya smashingMohammad Amir through the covers at Old Traffordin 2019 and Joe Root drilling one over long-on in theWorld Cup 2019.

Alongside MS Dhoni and Steve Smith moments,a Lasith Malinga yorker from the ICC Men's WorldCup 2019 can be found.

Other NFT products of 2019 edition includeDavid Warner executing a checked lofted drive downthe ground for six at the 2019, KL Rahul lofting AkhilaDhananjaya over long-off for a six and AB de Villiersshowing his 360-degree range against Andre Russell.

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