THE HILLS TIMESVoice of the hills people

Vol .No. XXIII Issue No. 83 Regd. NGG-709 RNI-ASSENG/2000/12862 DIPHU, KARBI ANGLONG, TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 PAGES 12 PRICE ` 8

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CM distributes cash assistance to Bihu committeesInitiative to benefit 1,265 Bihu committees of 30 districts

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4: Chief minister Dr.Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday ceremo-nially launched the distribution of one-timefinancial assistance to Rongali Bihu celebra-tion committees at a function organised bythe Cultural Affairs Department at SrimantaSankardeva Kalakshetra in Guwahati.

It is to be mentioned that the State govern-ment has decided to provide the one time fi-nancial assistance only to those Bihucelebration committees which organise Ron-gali Bihu functions from Sankranti to the 6thday of the Bohag month of Assamese calen-dar every year and are minimum 10 yearsold.

Under this initiative, the chief minister onMonday distributed ` 1.5 lakh per commit-tee to 138 nos. of committees of Kamrup(Metro) and 142 nos. of committees of Kam-rup district. Altogether 1,265 Bihu commit-tees of 30 districts will be given thisfinancial assistance and for this purpose theCulture Affairs Department has allocated asum of `18.97 crore.

Speaking on the occasion, chief ministerDr. Sarma said that the State government hasa bounded responsibility to work for socio-economic development of the people of the

State as well as promoting the State’s richculture. He said that considering the socio-cultural significance of Bihu for the peopleof Assam, the State government has decided

to provide one-time financial assistance tothe Rongali Bihu committees that organiseBihu functions from Sankranti to the 6th dayof the Bohag month of Assamese calendarevery year and are minimum 10 years old.

Underlining the history of Rongali Bihuwhich was originally celebrated for sevendays, the chief minister urged the Bihu com-mittees to maintain its originality so that theyouth could realise its true form instead ofconsidering Bihu just as a cultural function.The chief minister also called upon the Bihucelebration committees to use gamosawhich are produced locally in the hand-looms instead of power loom at Bihu func-tions.

While director, Cultural Affairs Dr. Debo-jit Khanikar delivered the welcome speech,the programme was also addressed by theCultural Affairs minister Bimal Borah. Sec-retary of the Cultural Affairs DepartmentLaya Madduri and representatives of Ron-gali Bihu celebration committees of Kam-rup (Metro) and Kamrup district werepresent on the occasion.

HT BureauDIPHU, April 4: In a majorbreakthrough, Karbi Anglong po-lice have arrested three car lifters,including a woman car lifter, dur-ing a regular naka check at Manjain Karbi Anglong on Mondayevening around 5 pm.

According to the police, a sus-picious SUV Baleno car bearingregistration number UP-15-DM-0963 coming from Bakalia andheading towards Dimapur waschecked. During the checking ofthe vehicle documents, the engineand chassis number reveal that itwas a (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

Three car lifters arrested from Manja

PM to lay base ofmajor projectsin KA on April 28

HT BureauDIPHU, April 4: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi will visit RongkutLoring-Thepi under Howraghatsub-division on April 28 to lay thefoundation stones for major proj-ects in Karbi Anglong and WestKarbi Anglong.

The chief minister of Assam, Hi-manta Biswa Sarma will also visitDiphu on 15-17 April 2022, in-formed by the official statementfrom the District Public RelationsOfficer (DIPRO) here on Monday.In view of the PM visits, a meetingwas held at Arboretum Hall,Matipung which was chaired bythe chief executive member ofKarbi Anglong Autonomous Coun-cil (KAAC), Tuliram Ronghangand had discussed the arrange-ments and (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

Pramod presents ` 113.65crore deficit budget

HT CorrespondentKOKRAJHAR, April 4: Chief ex-ecutive member of BTC PramodBoro, who also holds the financeportfolio, presented a `113.6515 crore deficitbudget at the currentbudget session ofBodoland TerritorialCouncil LegislativeAssembly (BTCLA)which began here onMonday.

A budget of Rs3271.3148 crore hasbeen presented against anestimated receipt of ` 3157.6633crore for the financial year 2022-23for consideration of the house.

In his budget speech, he informedthat the budget allocation for theyear 2021-22 includes consolidated

State Owned Priority Development(SOPD), Assistance to BTC for In-frastructure development as perBTR accord by Central Govern-

ment as One Time SpecialGrant, ex-gratia pay-

ment to as BodolandMartyrs, PradhanMantri Krishi Sin-chayee Yojana( P M K S Y ) ,Rashtriya Krishi

Vikas Yojana(RKVY), National

Food Security Mission(NFSM), 15th Finance

Commission, 6th Assam State Fi-nance Commission, Social Welfare(Central Share) and other financialassistance for construction of resi-dential accommodation for BTC,Legislative (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

‘Mysterious’ giant sandstone jars found in Assam The researchers said they only searched a very limited area so there are likely to be a lot more out there

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI): Re-searchers have unearthed 65 giant‘mysterious’ jars in Assam thatmay have been used for ancientburial practices.

The sandstone jars uncoveredby a team led by Tilok Thakuria,from North Eastern Hill Univer-sity in Meghalaya, and UttamBathari, from Gauhati Universityin Assam vary in shape and deco-ration.

Some of the jars are tall andcylindrical, while others are partlyor fully buried in the ground, ac-cording to the study published inthe Journal of Asian Archaeology.

Similar jars, some of whichspan up to three metres high andtwo metres wide, have previouslybeen uncovered in Laos and In-donesia, researchers said.

"We still don't know who madethe giant jars or where they lived.It's all a bit of a mystery," saidNicholas Skopal, a PhD student at

The Australian National Univer-sity (ANU).

The researchers said what thegiant jars were used for is still amystery, adding that it is likelythey were associated with mortu-ary practices.

"There are stories from theNaga people, the current ethnic

groups in north-east India, of find-ing the Assam jars filled with cre-mated remains, beads and othermaterial artefacts," said Skopal,who was a part of the researchteam. This theory, the researcherssaid, aligns with the findings fromthe other jar sites in countries in-cluding Laos, which are also tied

to burial rituals.The researchers said they only

searched a very limited area sothere are likely to be a lot more outthere. "It seems as though therearen't any living ethnic groups inIndia associated with the jars,which means there is an impor-tance to maintain the cultural her-itage," Skopal said.

"The longer we take to findthem, the greater chance that theywill be destroyed, as more cropsare planted in these areas and theforests are cut down," he said.

The researchers worked withlocal communities to uncover po-tential jar sites, often through areasof mountainous jungle that weredifficult to navigate.

"Once the sites have beenrecorded, it becomes easier for thegovernment to work with the localcommunities to protect and main-tain them so they are not being de-stroyed," Skopal added.

HT BureauDIPHU, April 4: Former HADminister and president of Karbi An-glong District Congress Committee(KADCC) Sum Ronghanglaunched a scathing attack on thepresent BJP government at the Cen-tre and the state over exorbitant risein prices of fuels and essential com-modities.

Ronghang was speaking to themedia in a protest demonstration or-ganised by KADCC with the slogan‘Mehenggai Mukta Bharat Abhijan’against the price hike by the BJP-led government in front of SemsonSing Engti Memorial Park here onMonday.

The Congress workers took out aprocession from KADCC office,went through the main thoroughfareof Diphu market to Semson SingEngti Memorial Park. The party

workers shouted anti-governmentslogans and asked for a reduction inthe prices of petrol, diesel and es-sential commodities.

Participating in the protest thepresident of KADCC and formerHAD minister, Sum Ronghang crit-

icised the chief executive member(CEM) of Karbi Anglong Au-tonomous Council (KAAC) as cor-rupt and is going to ruin KarbiAnglong. He also advised the votersto take the money, if offered, duringthe coming (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

KA Cong protests against pricehike of fuel, essential commodities

HT CorrespondentDONGKAMUKAM, April 4:The Garos of Karbi Anglong andWest Karbi Anglong under thebanner of Karbi Anglong GaroUnion (KAGU) held the 38th An-nual General Conference at IndiraNagar Playground, West Karbi An-glong, held from April 2 to 3.

Attending the Open Session onthe concluding day, the chief exec-utive member (CEM), Karbi Ang-long Autonomous Council(KAAC), Tuliram Ronghangthanked the Garo community formaintaining good relationshipswith other communities fordecades and asked to continue todo so. The CEM said, “Whateverproblem exists in the Garo com-munity, it is my problem. I knowtheir character, their traditionalsystem and behaviour since I rep-resent the Constituency (BithungRengthama) twice where the 2ndmajority community is Garo, afterKarbi.”

Asking for cooperation from the

Garo tribe, he assured to protectthe community wherever they livewithin Karbi Anglong and WestKarbi Anglong.

MP, Horensing Bey in hisspeech acknowledged that therewere many Garo cadres in the dis-banded insurgent organisationUnited Peoples Democratic Soli-darity (UPDS) who lost their livesduring the armed struggle for'Hemprek Kangthim' (SeparateState). (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

CEM pats Garos for maintainingcordial ties with Karbis

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Ukraine accuses Russia of massacre, city strewn with bodiesPak’s apex court adjourns hearingby a day on rejection of no-trust vote

Rajya Sabha proceedings washed out,Oppn walkout in LS over price riseFuel price hike: Buses, taxis in Bengalmay go off roads if fares not revised

HT CorrespondentBOKAJAN, April 4: Continuing its pres-sure on drug peddlers, police in Karbi Ang-long seized 400 grams of heroin and arresteda drug dealer from the Borlengri area underKhatkhati police station in Karbi Anglongon Monday.

As per reports, the Khatkhati police underthe leadership of SDPO Bokajan, APS, JohnDas carried out a raid in the Borlengri areaand recovered 33 soap cases containing 400grams of heroin valued at approximately `3 crore. Police arrested 3 persons, including a

woman, and seized cash of ` 3,58,000, jew-ellery and three vehicles in this connection.

The arrested have been identified as awoman LH Ranirou (45), her husband RNSurender (55) and Pfokho Mao (42). BothRanirou and Surender are residents of Ma-nipur, while Pfokho Mao is a local residentof Khatkhati.

The seized vehicles include an SUV, AS-01-AT-6020, a Maruti S-Cross, AS-01-DQ-5657 and an  auto-rickshaw, NL-07-F-4411.The vehicles are used for smuggling the con-signment into Assam.

Heroin worth ` 3 croreseized in Karbi Anglong

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS): Six newly electedmembers of the Rajya Sabha on Monday tookoath. Rajya Sabha chairman M. Venkaiah Naidupresided over the process of oath and affirmationof new members.

Those who took oath are Pabitra Margherita andRwngwra Narzary from Assam, Jebi MatherHisham, Sandosh Kumar and A. Rahim from Ker-ala and S. Phangnon Konyak from Nagaland.

BJP's Konyak, who was elected unopposed tothe lone Rajya Sabha seat from Nagaland, who be-came the first woman from the state to get a berthin the Parliament's Upper House.

Konyak is also president of Nagaland BJPwomen wing.

In the recent election of 13 Rajya Sabha seats,the BJP has won four Rajya Sabha seats from threeNortheastern states - Assam, Tripura and Naga-land. The saffron party alliance partner UnitedPeople's Party Liberal (UPPL) won one RajyaSabha seat from Assam.

6 newly elected Rajya Sabhamembers took oath

Sops for poor students, fish vendors,differently-abled etc. in BTC budget

COLOMBO, April 4 (PTI): Sri Lanka'sOpposition parties on Monday rejectedPresident Gotabaya Rajapaksa's invita-tion to join the proposed unity govern-ment as a "sham" after he fired his brotherand Finance minister Basil Rajapaksafrom his post, as protests were held na-tionwide over the ruling Rajapaksa fam-ily's poor handling of the country's worst

economic crisis.President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on

Monday fired Basil Rajapaksa from hispost and invited the Opposition parties tojoin a unity Cabinet to tackle the ragingpublic anger against the hardships causedby the economic crisis.

On Sunday night, all 26 Cabinet min-isters submitted letters of resignation after

thousands of people defied a countrywidestate of emergency and curfew and joinedstreet protests denouncing the govern-ment. The largest Opposition politicalparty, the United People's Force, or Sam-agi Jana Balavegaya, immediately re-jected the president's proposal of a unitygovernment and termed this spate of res-ignations a “sham”.

Party leader Sajith Premadasa said hewished to see a political model thatworks. “We want resignations and thenwe want a political model that works. Anew Sri Lanka will begin with strongerinstitutions and not just a change in lead-ership. An interim government is nothingbut internal party politics,” he tweeted.

Mano Ganesan, a Tamil leader fromthe Opposition said his party Tamil Peo-ple's Alliance and the main Muslim partySri Lanka Muslim Congress also on theopposition will also not join the unitygovernment. President Gotabaya Ra-japaksa named just four Cabinet mem-bers after the entire Cabinet other thanpresident Mahinda Rajapaksa resignedlast night. (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

Sri Lanka’s Oppn rejects President’sinvitation to join unity government

HT CorrespondentDIBRUGARH, April 4: Forestdepartment busted an illegal benchmill at Mohanbari, Nepali villageon Monday in Dibrugarh.

According to forest officials, amodern machine which was usedfor cutting timber and huge quan-tities of timber were seized duringthe raid. “After getting secret in-formation about the illegal benchmill functioning in the area, a teamfrom the Dibrugarh forest rangeoffice conducted a raid and bustedthe illegal bench mill. Huge quan-tity of timber was seized from themill, along with the machine," saida forest official. The seized timberhas been estimated to be nearlylakhs. (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

Illegal bench millbusted in Dibrugarh

HT BureauDIPHU, April 4: Karbi AnglongAutonomous Council (KAAC),Asam Sahitya Sabha (ASS) andKarbi Cultural Society (KCS)have jointly organised a two-dayAssam Tribal Literary and CulturalMeet at Joysing Dolloi Auditoriumfrom April 9 to 10 for the exhibitionof local art and craft, culturaldemonstration and literary meet.

Announcing this, the presidentof the reception committee, MLA,Bidyasing Engleng said that morethan 20 ethnic groups from thestate will participate in the pro-gramme to showcase their cultureand tradition. The event will be in-augurated by the chief executivemember (CEM), Karbi AnglongAutonomous (CONTD. ON PAGE-9)

Tribal literary and culturalmeet on April 9, 10

Page 1 April 05_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 10:45 PM Page 1

2 THE HILLS TIMES BUSINESS TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI): Inthe biggest merger in corporatehistory, India's largest housing fi-nance company HDFC Ltd willmerge with country's largest pri-vate lender HDFC Bank to createa banking behemoth.

Once the deal is effective,HDFC Bank will be 100 per centowned by public shareholders, andexisting shareholders of HDFCwill own 41 per cent of the bank,according to stock exchange fil-ings by the firms. Every HDFCshareholder will get 42 shares ofHDFC Bank for 25 shares held.

"This is a merger of equals,"said Deepak Parekh, chairman,HDFC Ltd. "We believe that thehousing finance business is poisedto grow in leaps and bounds due tothe implementation of RERA, in-frastructure status to the housingsector, government initiatives likeaffordable housing for all, amongstothers."

HDFC vice-chairman and CEOKeki Mistry said, "This mergerwill make HDFC Bank a largelender even by global standards. Itwill make more room for FII hold-ing in HDFC Bank."

The HDFC-HDFC Bank mergeris expected to be completed by thesecond or third quarter of FY24.

HDFC said the Proposed Trans-action shall enable HDFC Bank tobuild its housing loan portfolio andenhance its existing customer base.

The merger is subject to regula-tory approvals from the RBI andother regulatory authorities.

As on date, HDFC has total as-sets of ` 6.23 lakh crore, whileHDFC Bank has assets worth `19.38 lakh crore. HDFC Bank hasa large customer base of 6.8 croreand a well-diversified low costfunding base for growing the long-tenor loan book.

"A combination of the Corpora-tion and HDFC Bank is entirely

complementary to, and enhancesthe value proposition of HDFCBank," HDFC said. "HDFC Bankwould benefit from a larger bal-ance sheet and net worth, whichwould allow underwriting of largerticket loans and also enable agreater flow of credit into the In-dian economy."

HDFC Bank will enable seam-less delivery of home loans andleverage on the large base of over6.8 crore customers of HDFCBank and improve the pace ofcredit growth in the economy.

"The proposed transaction is tocreate a large balance sheet andnet-worth that would allow greater

flow of credit into the economy," itsaid. "It will also enable underwrit-ing of larger ticket loans, includinginfrastructure loans -- an urgentneed of the country."

While HDFC Ltd is a significantprovider of home loans to the lowand middle income group segmentunder the affordable housing initia-tives of the government of India,HDFC Bank has a presence inmore than 3,000 cities/townsthrough its 6,342 branches.

Leveraging this distributionmight, the proposed merger wouldbroaden the home loan offering.

With this merger HDFC bankgets an unparalleled advantagethrough the mortgage portfolioproviding it a quantum leap in dis-tribution to semi urban and ruralareas with a huge opportunity tocross sell bank products to a verysticky client base. The combinedentity will be able to extract sub-stantial synergy benefits.

HDFC to merge with HDFCBank in largest merger ever

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS):With an aim to positively impact 20million lives directly and indirectlyin the next decade, the FlipkartGroup on Monday launched theFlipkart Foundation that will aim tobuild an inclusive, equitable andsustainable society in the country.Flipkart Foundation aims to drivetransformational work by collabo-rating with diverse stakeholdersacross government organisations,NGOs and community leaders.

The collaboration will be acrossfour key areas: Market access to theunderserved and underrepresentedsections, skill development, com-munity development and environ-mental responsibility.

“Our Prime Minister's vision of'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas' aimsto bring the government and the in-dustry on a common platform to

work harmoniously in achievingprosperity for all,” said Dr VirendraKumar, Union minister for SocialJustice and Empowerment. “Thelaunch of the Flipkart Foundation isa decisive step in this direction tocreate widespread social impact,”the minister added. The Foundation

was formally launched in the capitalby Dr Kumar; Union minister ofState for Micro, Small and MediumEnterprises, Bhanu Pratap SinghVerma; and Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti,Union minister of State for Con-sumer Affairs, Food and Public Dis-tribution.

Flipkart Foundation's operationsare grant-based, with contributionsfrom the Group and through the ‘aCharity Checkout’ feature availableon Flipkart platforms, according tothe company. “The Foundation willaddress several critical societal con-cerns ranging from art and craft re-vival to employment opportunitiesfor the underserved, to disaster re-lief -- all aimed at driving inclusivedevelopment and contributing to na-tion-building,” said RajneeshKumar, Chief Corporate Affairs of-ficer at Flipkart.

The Flipkart Group is one ofIndia's leading digital commerce en-tities and includes group companiesFlipkart, Myntra, Flipkart Whole-sale, Flipkart Health+ and Cleartrip.The Group is also a majority share-holder in PhonePe, one of the lead-ing Payments Apps in the country.

Flipkart Foundation to empower20 mn Indians in next decade

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS):The State-run oil marketing com-panies on Monday raised keytransport fuel prices for the 12thtime in the last 14 days.

]Consequently, in the past 14days, petrol prices have increasedby ` 8.40 per litre in the nationalcapital. These prices were revisedfor the very first time on March 22after a gap of more than fourmonths.

On Monday, the price of petroland diesel in New Delhi were in-creased again by 40 paise per litre.

As per pump prices, petrol nowcosts ` 103.81 per litre and diesel` 95.07 per litre in the nationalcapital.

In the financial capital Mumbai,prices were hiked to ` 118.83 perlitre for petrol and diesel to `103.07 per litre.

Besides, the prices of both thetransport fuels were raised inKolkata. The petrol prices rose to` 113.45 and diesel to ` 98.22 perlitre.

In Chennai too, they were in-creased and petrol there now costs

` 109.34 and diesel ` 99.42 perlitre.

Till last Tuesday, fuel priceswere steady since November 2021when the Centre reduced exciseduty on petrol and diesel by ` 5and ` 10 per litre, respectively.

The OMCs revised the trans-portation fuel cost based on vari-ous factors such as rupee to USdollar exchange rate, cost of crudeoil and demand of fuel amongstothers.

Resultantly, the final price in-cludes excise duty, value added taxand dealer's commission.

It was widely expected that theOMCs will revise the currentprices due to high crude oil cost.

Lately, crude oil prices havebeen volatile on fears of tight sup-plies due to sanctions against Rus-sia.

The crude oil price range is acause of concern for India as itmay ultimately add ` 10-15 inpetrol and diesel selling prices.

At present, India imports nearly85 per cent of its crude oil require-ments.

Petrol, diesel prices hikedfor 12th time in 14 days

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4: In a move to protect the bank customers againstlarge value cheque frauds, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has made thePositive Pay System (PPS) mandatory for cheques of ` 10 lakh and abovefrom April 4. As per the Positive Pay System (PPS) developed by the Na-tional Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), a customer issuing thehigh-value cheque has to reconfirm some essential details, which arecross-checked while presenting the cheque in clearing before payment.PNB customers need to share details like account number, cheque num-ber, cheque alpha code, issue date, amount, and beneficiary name forclearing the high-value cheques under PPS. These details are to be sharedwith the bank at least 24 working hours before the cheque is presentedfor clearing. Customers can share the details through internet banking,mobile banking, SMS banking, or their home branch in the prescribedformat. The cheques that are registered in the PPS will only be acceptedunder the dispute resolution mechanism. As per Reserve Bank of India(RBI) guidelines, PNB had introduced PPS for cheques of ` 50,000 andabove presented in CTS clearing from January 1, 2021, which has now be-come mandatory for the cheques of` 10 lakh and above from Monday.

PNB announces mandatoryverification of high-value cheques

MUMBAI, April 4 (PTI): Equity bench-mark Sensex surged over 1,300 points onMonday to reclaim the 60,000-level,boosted by intense buying in banking andfinancial stocks after the announcement ofmerger between HDFC and HDFC Bank.

Strong global cues and receding crudeoil prices also propped up the domestic eq-uity markets, according to traders.

Shares of HDFC and HDFC Bank ralliednearly 10 per cent as investors lapped upthe merger deal.

In the biggest merger in corporate his-tory, India's largest housing finance com-pany HDFC Ltd will merge with thecountry's largest private lender HDFCBank to create a banking behemoth.

The 30-share BSE index closed 1,335.05points or 2.25 per cent higher at 60,611.74.Likewise, the NSE Nifty jumped 382.95points or 2.17 per cent to end at 18,053.40.

The scrip of HDFC Bank surged 9.97per cent to ` 1,656.45, while HDFC Ltdjumped 9.30 per cent to ` 2,678.90.

The other gainers in the Sensex pack in-cluded Kotak Bank, HUL, L&T, IndusIndBank and Sun Pharma.

On the other hand, Titan and Infosyswere the laggards.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Tokyo,Seoul, Hong Kong and Shanghai closedwith healthy gains.

Stock exchanges in Europe were alsotrading significantly higher in mid-sessiondeals.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmarkBrent crude declined 1.05 per cent to USD103.29 per barrel.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs)were net buyers in the capital markets asthey bought shares worth ` 1,909.78 croreon Friday, as per exchange data.

Sensex rallies over 1,300 pts;Nifty recaptures 18k mark

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS): The merger of HDFCinto the HDFC Bank will enable value unlocking forthe latter in order to build a solid housing loan portfo-lio by enhancing its existing customer base, said bro-kerage house Axis Securities.

In a major development, Housing loan firm Hous-ing Development Finance Corporation on Monday ap-proved the merger of its wholly owned subsidiariesHDFC Investments and HDFC Holdings with HDFCBank. Upon the merger scheme becoming effective,the subsidiaries or associates of HDFC will becomesubsidiaries or associates of HDFC Bank.

The proposed transaction was to create a large bal-ance sheet and net-worth that would allow greaterflow of credit into the economy. It would also enableunderwriting of larger ticket loans, including infra-structure loans.

The merged entity could become the highest weigh-tage single company in the Nifty 50 basket, the bro-kerage house said.

"Further, this merger enables confidence in the In-dian economy and looks for a brighter long-term pic-ture beyond the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict andthe rising inflationary concerns. We believe the nextleg of the rally in the benchmark index will be drivenby the BFSI space, as banking companies are likelyto post solid Q4FY22 earnings, driven by sequentialimprovement in loan growth," said Naveen Kulkarni,

chief investment officer at Axis Securities. Moreover,the improving asset quality trend will continue for thequarter, bringing further confidence to the bankingspace, Kulkarni said. "The proportion of unsecuredloans will be narrowed down and it will drag downthe risk weight, hence improvement in the capitalbuffer," said Ajit Kabi, Banking Analyst at LKP Se-curities. The valuation of the HDFC Bank is still at-tractive after double-digit single day growth, and it'sa win-win situation for the both entities, Kabi said.

The HDFC Bank has a presence in more than 3,000cities/towns through its 6,342 branches, with about 50per cent of these branches in semi-urban/rural geog-raphies in the country. Leveraging this distributionmight, the proposed transaction would broaden thehome loan offering, synonymous with the national ob-jective of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana that intends toprovide housing for all.

Post announcement of the merger on Monday,shares of HDFC and HDFC Bank rose as high as 14per cent and 11 per cent, respectively, during the open-ing session.

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4: KFC Indiamarked the milestone of growing600 restaurants strong with theBucket Canvas campaign. The cam-paign brought together young artistsfrom across the country who to-gether, transformed the iconic KFCBucket with a unique design foreach city where the brand has a pres-ence. Drawing inspiration from theart, architecture, and cultural ele-ments of different cities, these 150limited edition designs are on dis-play across restaurants. Speakingabout this interesting display of arton the KFC Bucket, Moksh Chopra,chief marketing officer, KFC Indiasaid, “It’s been an amazing journeyfor KFC in India, with the brandnow present across 150+ cities andcrossing 600 restaurants. So, whatbetter way for us to mark this mo-ment, than by partnering withyoung, upcoming artists across thelength and breadth of our country.

Merger to unlock value for HDFC Bank,positive for macro economy: Brokerage

KFC collaborateswith budding artistswith Bucket Canvas

MUMBAI, April 4 (IANS): TheReserve Bank of India's monetarypolicy committee is expected to re-tain key lending rates during theupcoming monetary policy revieweven as inflationary pressures con-tinue to build-up.

The MPC will review the mon-etary policy in its meeting duringApril 6-8.

Accordingly, economists and in-dustry experts cited the MPC'sstrategic focus on growth as a keyconsideration to hold on rates.

Nonetheless, the central bank'sMPC might do away with the ac-commodative stance in an indica-tion of future rate hikes.

Lately, high crude oil and com-modity costs have started to reflectin retail prices.

The official gauge of retail infla-tion - CPI - has been printingabove the MPC's upper thresholdof 6 per cent in January and Febru-ary 2022.

“We expect a status-quo to bemaintained in rates during theApril's review, however, MPC'scommentary is expected to be lessdovish, preparing the ground for animminent stance change,” ICRAchief economist Aditi Nayar said.

“We expect the monetary policystance to be changed to neutral inJune 2022, accompanied by a hikein the reverse repo rate, narrowingthe corridor. Subsequently, we ex-pect a shallow rate hike cycle, withtwo repo hikes of 25 bps each inAugust-September 2022.”

At present, the MPC of the cen-tral bank has maintained the reporate, or short-term lending rate, forcommercial banks, at 4 per cent.

Besides, the reverse repo ratewas kept unchanged at 3.35 percent.

“We remain watchful of infla-tion push-and-pull factors and theirimpact on MPC's reaction func-tion, which we think will be in await-and-watch mode untilH1FY23,” Emkay Global Finan-cial Services lead economist Mad-havi Arora said.

Last month, official data showedthat higher cost of food items, aswell as manufactured goods likeclothing and footwear, kept India'sFebruary 2022 retail inflationabove the six-per cent-mark on asequential as well as on a year-on-year basis.

The Consumer Price Index(CPI) rose to 6.07 per cent in Feb-ruary from 6.01 per cent in January2022.

According to Suman Chowd-hury, chief analytical officer atAcute Ratings: “Given the growthheadwinds generated from theRussia-Ukraine conflict, we expectthe MPC to continue with the ac-commodative stance in the nearterm.”

“There is also a low likelihoodof any revision in the reverse reporates although short term interestrates have already seen a materialincrease since the last MPC meet-ing in Feb-22.”

In addition, Chowdhury expectsa significant revision in the head-line inflation forecast for FY23which has been previously peggedby MPC at 4.5 per cent, sincecrude oil and other commodityprices have risen over the last twomonths.

Growth Oriented: RBI’sMPC expected to hold rates

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS): The growth rate ofIndia's manufacturing sector sequentially slowed inMarch 2022 due to softer rise in demand. Accordingly,the seasonally-adjusted S&P Global India Manufac-turing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) came in at54 (index reading) from 54.9 in February. The PMIranges between 0 and 100, with a reading of above 50indicating an overall increase compared to the previ-ous month. As per the PMI report, business conditionsimproved in March, but the latest results showedslower expansions in factory orders and production aswell as a renewed decline in new export orders. Be-sides, it cited that price indices increased since Feb-ruary to signal mounting pressures. Notably,inflationary concerns dampened business confidence,which fell to its lowest level in two years.

India’s March manufacturingsector growth weakens: PMI

Samsung revamps galaxyA series; Unveils 5 newsmartphones in India

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4: Samsungannounced the addition of five newmodels including the Galaxy A13,A23. A33 5G, A53 5G, and A73 5Gto its portfolio. This is a revamp tothe Galaxy A series and is aimed atoffering a complete package of thelatest Galaxy innovations at an af-fordable price. Notably, Galaxy A735G comes with a flagship-level108MP camera with Optical ImageStabilisation (OIS), enhanced dura-bility with an IP67 rating for waterand dust resistance, and a powerfulSnapdragon 778G 5G processor,and a Super AMOLED+ display at120Hz refresh rate. “At Samsung,we believe in Openness with theGalaxy experience powering end-less possibilities. The Galaxy A se-ries epitomises that belief by makingflagship-like features accessible atan affordable price point. The fivenew models we are launching arecurated to inspire consumers withstyle, power, and versatility. GalaxyA73 5G stands out with best in seg-ment 108MP OIS camera, flagshipfeatures like Object Eraser & AIPhoto Remaster, fluid smooth 120Hzsuper AMOLED+ display, and a hostof meaningful innovations like water& dust resistance to deliver an un-matched experienc e,” said Raju Pul-lan, senior vice president, MobileBusiness, Samsung India.

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4:With the onset of the summer season, Ama-zon. has announced some fresh offers on ‘Super Value Days.’ 45%off on grocery, household essentials, packaged foods, personal care,and baby and pet care products among others shall continue fromApril 1-7 next. In addition, customers can avail of an instant discountof 10% on SBI Credit Card and Credit EMI from April 1-3, 2022, andICICI Credit Card from April 4-7, 2022 with a minimum transactionof ` 2500 and discounts up to ` 300.

Amazon.in launches newoffers with Super Value Days

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS): Union Finance ministerNirmala Sitharaman on Monday, while responding duringQuestion Hour in the Lok Sabha, said that Indian retail in-vestors should be appreciated. “We must appreciate the In-dian retail investors and their shock absorbing capacitybrought into the Indian markets. “Investment will have tobe gauged not just looking at FPIs and FIIs which by verynature depend on the interest rate and also keep movingups and downs,” said the Finance minister. She addedthat FPIs and FIIs can be very tempted by interest rateselsewhere and prospects anywhere else. “So FPIs andFIIs are obviously going to be coming in and goingout because of their typical nature,” she told theHouse. “What must be considered is the inflow offoreign direct investment,” she said, adding that theFDI continued during and subsequently thereafter.

Must appreciate Indianretail investors: Sitharaman

Page 2 April 5_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 7:48 PM Page 1

TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 REGION THE HILLS TIMES 3

Venture school teachers stagesit in protest demonstration

KOKRAJHAR, April 4: The All-BodolandTerritorial Region (BTR) Venture Elemen-tary Teachers Association staged a three-hour sit in protest demonstration at MG Parkin Kokrajhar on Monday demanding earlyprovincialisation of the venture schoolsacross the BTR districts as per the spirit of6.3 clause of the BTR accord signed on Jan-uary 27,2020.Hundreds of venture school teachers from

the districts of Bodoland Territorial Regionparticipated during the protest demonstrationholding placards, banners and shouted slo-gans demanding immediate steps to makeprovincialisation of the non-provincialisedschools across the BTR districts.Expressing resentment on the state gov-

ernment and Bodoland Territorial Regiongovernment for not initiating any step for theprovincialisation of venture schools inBodoland region, All BTR ElementaryTeachers' Association has been carrying outa series of agitational programmes to pres-

surise the government for the provincialisa-tion of venture schools in Bodoland Territo-rial Region districts with immediate step.A memorandum was submitted to the state

chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma andBTR CEM Pramod Boro through the Kokra-jhar deputy commissioner.Notably, there are nearly 2700 teachers

who are rendering services without any re-muneration in 842 LP and UP ventureschools (both in Bodo & Assamese) acrossthe four districts of Bodoland Territorial re-gion. Speaker of the association, Nur Jamal

Sheik has slammed the state government andBTR administration for not initiating anystep for provincialisation of the ventureschools in the region even after the state gov-ernment had announced one-lakh's job en-gagement in the state.He has demanded that the 6.3 clause of the

BTR accord must be implemented properlywith letter and spirit while provincialisationof the venture schools is a must to facilitatequality educational environment for the stu-dents."We have been demanding for the provin-

cialisation of venture schools across theBTR districts, yet the government has notgiven any response to our demands and is-sues," said Sheik.

HT CorrespondentTEZPUR, April 4: As part of the Women’sSafety Accelerator Fund (WSAF) projectSeSTA, a non-government organisation in col-

laboration with the Harchura Tea Estate nearBalipra area here organised an awareness pro-gramme among the women workers of the teagarden on Sunday aiming at creating awarenesson domestic violence and other issues often wit-nessed in the garden environment. Dignitarieswho took part in the event were PriyankaSaikia, judicial magistrate, District Legal Serv-ices Authority and Priya Gupta and MusfikaSultana from special cell of office of the super-intendent of police, Sonitpur district.The trio dignitaries attending the event as

special resource persons spoke on ways to erad-icate domestic violence from the tea gardenareas and discussed how it stands as a hindrancein front of the developmental aspects and peace-

ful environment of a family. Urging the partic-ipants to avoid every possible violence whichis usually witnessed in a tea garden family,Priyanka Saikia, judicial magistrate, DistrictLegal Services Authority mentioned that thereare many ways to get legal aid, if required.Echoing the same sentiment, other two resourcepersons present in the programme, namelyPriya Gupta and Mufika Sultana from specialcell of office of the superintendent of police,Sonitpur district mentioned that avoiding suchnegative issues which is faced quite often by thefamilies in the tea garden areas is necessary.They should try to build a conducive environ-ment that will help in the development of thechildren of the area.

SeSTA organises awarenessprogramme on domestic violence

HT CorrespondentJORHAT, April 4: Assam Agri-cultural University dean ProfessorJayanta Deka emphasised on theimportance of applying biotechno-logical methods to develop varietyof tolerance to various stresses andto mitigate the challenges faced bythe farmers due to the change inthe climatic conditionDeka was speaking at the inau-

gural function of a five-day na-tional workshop-cum training on‘Advanced Biotechnology Knowl-edge and Skills for Research andInnovation’ at the Assam Agricul-tural University, Borbheta on Mon-day.The workshop which will be

held from April 4 to 8 was inaugu-rated by the dean, Faculty of Agri-culture, and the chief guest of theworkshop, Professor Jayanta Deka.An AAU official informed that

the workshop-cum training pro-gramme has been organised by theDBT-Northeast Centre for Agricul-

tural Biotechnology (DBT-NECAB) with support from theCentre as part of the Azadi KaAmrit Mahotsav, under the chair-manship of professor and directorof DBT-NECAB, Bidyut KumarSarmah.Thirty researchers from various

institutions of the north-east regionare attending the programme while

over 70 attendees from across thecountry were joining virtually, theofficial stated.In his welcome address, Profes-

sor Sarmah said that Indianbiotechnologists had contributedsignificantly during the pandemicby developing vaccines against theCovid virus, which was a testa-ment that biotechnology can help

save lives of many.He also highlighted that GM va-

rieties developed using biotechnol-ogy tools have contributedimmensely to protecting cropsfrom various stresses and moderngenome editing techniques havethe potential to generate climate-smart crops, the official stated.The head of the department of

Biotechnology, AAU, and co-chairman of the workshop, Profes-sor Mahendra K Modi, deliveringhis speech, stressed on learningdata science to use powerful com-putational and statistical methodsto decode the functional informa-tion hidden in DNA sequences.The coordinator of the work-

shop, Dr Sumita Acharjee, in heraddress, stated that the workshopwas aimed to help participants gaininnovative ideas and new researchskills so that they could conductinnovative research and contributetoward India’s mission to becomeAatmanirbhar, the official stated.

Biotechnological methods can helpreduce climate stress: AAU Dean

BAYM Udaipurbranch committee

formed

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4: The week long Gauhati University Varsity Weekheld from March 28 ended successfully on April 3. Prof Pratap JyotiHandique, vice chancellor, Gauhati University inaugurated the VarsityWeek by hoisting the Gauhati University flag which was followed by amarch past at the university Sports Complex on March 28. All the PostGraduate Students’ Union members successfully conducted their respec-tive events during the Varsity Week. On the last day, a colourful culturalrally was taken out showcasing different arts and cultures of Assam andthe north-east. In the prize distribution ceremony, Prof Pratap Jyoti Hand-ique, vice chancellor, Gauhati University, Dr HK Nath, registrar, GauhatiUniversity, Dr RK Kakati, director, Students’ Welfare, Gauhati Univer-sity, Sankar Jyoti Baruah, general secretary, AASU, Hemen Kalita, pres-ident, PGSU, Gauhati University and Biki Sarma, general secretary,PGSU, Gauhati University graced the closing ceremony as guests andgave away the prizes to the winners of various events. The winners areJyotirupa Sarma - best singer, Hridayananda Nath – 2nd best singer, Abi-nash Saikia – best actor, Kasturi Shivam – best actress, Dengkhw Brahma– best athlete, Urmila Borgohain – best athlete, Harshajit Kalita – bestliterary, Mriganka Bania – best fine arts, etc. The program ended withthe performance of noted singer Prabin Das and Achurjya Borpatra duringthe cultural night.

GU Varsity Weekends successfully

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4: Northeast Frontier Railwayhas been continuously registering growth in freightloading. NF Railway loaded 1.204 MT during March,2022. This is an increase of over 60% in comparisonto the corresponding period of last year. NF Railwayloaded 10.387 MT during the period from April, 2021to March, 2022 as compared to 7.683 MT done in cor-responding period of last year. This is an increase of35.2%. During March, coal loading was increased by

1690.9% and loading of a few other commoditieswere also increased by a good margin in comparison

to the corresponding period of last year. During themonth, dolomite loading increased by 104.8%, fer-tiliser loading increased by 120%, POL loading in-creased by 16.1%, container loading increased by 10%and loading of other commodities increased by 42.8%. During the fiscal year from April, 2021 to March,

2022, coal loading increased by 138.4%, dolomiteloading increased by 170.8% in comparison to previ-ous fiscal year. Food grains loading increased by8.4%, fertiliser loading increased by 21.4%, containerloading increased by 57.1% and other commoditiesincreased by 83.8%.Freight transportation by railways is covering new

boundaries as it provides the most economical & en-vironment friendly mode for transportation of goods(perishable & non-perishable) available for customers.NF Railway is constantly exploring areas which lackproper mode of mass transportation and develop thoseareas at a steady pace. Business Development Units(BDUs) at NF Railway headquarters and divisionallevels have helped in capturing new traffic as well asaddressing the limitations during the loading processso as to eliminate those hindrances and boost freightloading and trade.

NF Railway marks a steadygrowth in freight loading

HT Bureau GUWAHATI, April 4: TheAmazing Namaste Foundation, aSection B company has organiseda nine-day bike expedition ‘NorthEast on Wheels’ from April 9 toApril 17 to boost and promotetourism in the north-east regionand will highlight the entire re-gion through various lenses. The chief minister of Assam,

Himanta Biswa Sarma will flag-off the bike expedition. During the journey, the riders

will pay tribute to our national he-roes and interact with the localcommunities. They will ridethrough different internationalborders which includes BhuniaPass, Jaigaon, Moreh and Dawkiduring their journey.Speaking about the initiative,

Atul Kulkarni, chairman, Amaz-ing Namaste Foundation said,"North-east region is not justunique but also strategically veryimportant for India's neighbour-hood initiatives. We are happy

that the bikers across the countryrepresenting all ages and genderhave responded in an overwhelm-ing manner. Our endeavour is toprovide an experience of a life-time to the people."He further showed gratitude by

thanking all the state governmentsof the north-east region for ac-tively supporting the initiative. Healso thanked all the sponsors andpartners for taking a keen interestin promoting the beauty and vi-brancy of the region.

Bike expedition to celebrateAzadi ka Amrit Mahostav

HT CorrespondentDEMOW, April 4: A meeting wasorganised in Udaipur FakmoniaPrimary School on April 1. MukibAli, organising secretary of Brihat-tar Asomiya Yuva Mancha(BAYM), Demow town committeepresided over the meeting andShakti Das, former student leaderspoke about the aim of the meet-ing. Jadab Gogoi, BAYM, centralleader, Jadumoni Kalita, presidentof BAYM, Demow town commit-tee, Biki Dutta, organising secre-tary, Reba Kanta Tai, culturalsecretary of BAYM, Demow towncommittee spoke the aims and ob-jectives of the BAYM. In the meet-ing Mukib Ali was selected asadviser, Shakti Das was selected aspresident, Ramjan Ali was selectedas chief secretary of the 41-mem-ber of the Brihattar Asomiya YuvaMancha (BAYM), Udaipur branchcommittee.

HT CorrespondentSIVASAGAR, April 4: ‘Barnam’, a new bi-monthly literary maga-zine published by Prajna Prakashan, Sivasagar was released by DrBhisma Hazarika, principal, Ved Academy, Boliaghat, in a functionheld in Rongpur Sahitya Sabha Bhawan on Monday. The magazine,edited by Prasanta Borgohain, will rekindle an urge for literary cre-ations among the readers and writers of Sivasagar, Dr Hazarika saidin his speech. Manoj Kumar Borthakur, Samsul Barik, Mukul Nath,and Tulika Chetia Yien lauded the effort of the young group for takingup the literary pursuit in the backdrop of fast food and internet brows-ing for cheap, sensational elements by others.

New magazine released

HT CorrespondentTEZPUR, April 4: Deba KumarMishra, ACS (DR-93) officiallytook charge as the deputy commis-sioner of Sonitpur district on Mon-day. Previously, he was serving asdeputy commissioner ofBiswanath district. He took charge from the outgo-

ing deputy commissioner BhupeshChandra Das, ACS (DR-92) whohas been transferred and posted asjoint secretary to the governmentof Assam, Transformation and De-velopment department.

Deba Kumar Mishraassumes charge as

Sonitpur DC

HT CorrespondentMORIGAON, April 4: SAKHI-one stop centreunder the initiative of district Social Welfare depart-ment, Morigaon was formally inaugurated by thedeputy commissioner Prakash Ranjan Gharphalia inthe premises of Morigaon Civil Hospital on Mon-day. The deputy commissioner Prakash RanjanGharphalia inaugurated the centre in the presence ofADC Arundhuti Nipun Narah, joint director ofHealth Fani Pathak, DSWO Santosh Kutum, super-intendent of MCH Dr Arun Kumar Nath, doctors,co-ordinators of the one stop centre, Poshan Ab-hiyaan, PMMVY, MSK, supervisors and nurses. TheSAKHI-one stop centre was set up with an aim toprovide shelter to the oppressed women.

SAKHI-one stop centreinaugurated by Morigaon DC HT Bureau

GUWAHATI, April 4: Goldenjubilee celebration of BathouMandir Gosala, Maligaon washeld on Saturday and Sunday atthe Mandir premises.A souvenir ‘Bwrai Bathou’

was opened by Ratiram Boro,assistant secretary. DBG andmemoir of Late GhanashyamDas Narzari was inaugurated onSunday by Kabaram Swargiary,president, BMC. Distinguished

guests in the dias include Pad-mashree Mangal Singh Ha-jowary; Taren Ch Boro,president, Bodo Sahitya Sabha.Kabaram Swargiary presided

over the open session. Mah-eswar Basumatary, Arabinda Swargiary, AswiniNarzari, Deben Boro, speaker,DBG and Dr Ajanta Brahma,joint director, SCERT,Assam were present as atten-dees.

Golden jubilee celebrated

HT BureauGUWAHATI, April 4: National Assessment and Accreditation Council(NAAC), Bangalore, has invited Gauhati University vice chancellor ProfPratap Jyoti Handique as a resource person to NAAC Manthan programwhich was being organised by the Raj Bhavan, Lucknow on Monday andTuesday. The participants of the program are the vice chancellors of In-dian universities and chairpersons of NAAC Peer Teams. Professor Hand-ique will deliberate on three criteria (1, 2, and 3) of NAAC assessmentand accreditation process (A/A). It is to be mentioned that only four vicechancellors of “A” grade universities including Professor Handique fromGauhati University are selected and invited as resource persons byNAAC. In recent times, NAAC has infused a new spirit into its processesof assessment and accreditation. This has been attempted as a continuanceof the NAAC’s concern for ensuring that its A/A processes are in tunewith the needs and changes in the local, regional and global scenario ofhigher education. The mandate of NAAC is to make quality assurance asa vital part of the functioning of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)and to motivate them to build a strong quality culture within. Inclusionof Professor Handique as resource person in NAAC manthan program isconsidered as a notable honour to Gauhati University.

GU vice chancellor for NAACManthan at Raj Bhavan, Lucknow

HT Correspondent HOJAI, April 4: 'Gangaur', the18-day festival concluded with theimmersion of the idols of LordShiva and Parvati at Shivbari Ghatin Hojai on Monday. It is pertinentto mention here that this puja is es-pecially done by the newly marriedbride and young girls. Talking tothis correspondent, Puja Sharma, adevotee said, "Young girls andnewly married brides celebrate thisfestival to appease Lord Shiva andParvati and seek their blessings fora happy and prosperous marriedlife." After the immersion, thewomen and the girls were seensmearing colours on each otherwith religious fervour.

Gangaur festivalconcludes

Page 3 April 5_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 9:12 PM Page 1

The Narendra Modi government maybe elated at the ever increasing GSTcollections in recent months with the

revival of the economy. A record GST col-lections of Rs 1.42 lakh crore in March thisyear is good and it also indicates that moreand more industries and traders are gettinginto the tax net besides gradual shrinking ofgrey market and tax evasion by business.This also reflects of the fact that more and

more of the economy is getting formalizedand opportunity for evasion decreasing.Though implementation of GST in the initialstages was faulty and tardy, it is now gainingmomentum which augurs well for the econ-omy. Bringing Diesel and petrol into GST net

will do a lot of good in reducing the fuelprices provided government abolishes vari-ous cess, whose revenue is not shared withstates and only goes to the central tax kitty.Shedding various cess on fuel will enablethe central government to push through thisidea in the GST council with more statessupporting. This has however to be workedupon in GST council.At the moment both centre and states

bleed the common man, poor and middleclass by collecting whopping Rs 6 lakh crorefrom petrol, diesel and other fuel oil taxesby way excise and stateVAT. This is not sustainablebesides being inflationary.Both centre and states maybe happy it is easy and lazy way of collect-ing huge taxes from one commodity. Liquorand tobacco, called sin goods, are the fewother items, which are exploited year afteryear to mop up huge revenue at the cost ofcommon man. Irrespective of high taxes al-coholics and tobacco users do not reducetheir consumption of liquor and tobacco de-spite being injurious to health because theybeing addictive in nature. The high taxes tooin a way ruin these poor families. High taxesdo not deter them from their consumptionbut instead these families have less incomefor other necessities. This is a dilemma anda paradoxical situation as high taxes hardlyfulfils the social responsibility. Prohibitiondoes not work as it is difficult to implementand hence it leads to more tax evasion andmalpractices. So instead both central and

state governments are happy to collect morerevenue from just one source though detri-mental to social well-being and health of thepeople.Be that as it may there is another serious

issue which needed to be pondered over thatis balancing the proportion of direct taxesand indirect tax collections. It is a known

fact indirect taxes are con-sidered regressive and di-rect taxes progressive. Asper OECD recommenda-

tions, ideally every country should collected60 per cent of their tax revenue from directtaxes and 40 per cent from indirect taxes. Incase of India, the best case scenario wasachieved during UPA government when itcollected close to 55 per cent of tax revenuefrom direct taxes and 45 per cent from indi-rect taxes. Lately with GST, high excise dutyon petrol, diesel, ATF, LPG and so on be-sides high taxes on alcohol and tobacco, cen-tral government gets 55 per cent of itsrevenue from indirect taxes and around 45per cent from direct taxes. This has put thegovernment in bind in achieving OECD tar-gets.Indirect taxes are considered regressive

because it does not differentiate betweenrich and poor. For example a steep hike inindirect taxes of fuel affect poor and the

middle class most as compared to the rich.To cite an example, a person earning Rs5000 may be spending Rs 500 on fuel,which accounts for 10 per cent of his in-come. A person earning Rs 50000 may bespending Rs 3000 on fuel, which may ac-count for six per cent of income. Likewise aperson with Rs 5 lakh income may be spend-ing Rs 5000 which accounts from one percent of his income and a person with Rs 50lakh income may be spending 10,000 to12,000 on fuel for his personal vehicle,which forms just half a per cent of his in-come. Proportionately the incidence of tax de-

creases. In other words, it rewards the richmuch more than the poor. In reality the richshould pay more proportion of their incomeas taxes and the poor less and that does nothappen in the case of indirect taxes.While in the case of direct taxes, there is

a slab system and higher the income, higherthe taxes. So also corporate taxes. Unfortu-nately in India corporate taxes have been re-duced substantially to enable companieshave more of their profits with them to in-crease their investments. But in reality lastseveral years, corporates have not been in-vesting due to excess capacity across theboard in all industries. As a result the com-panies have higher earnings because of less

taxes and this is given by of higher dividendsputting more money in the hands of rich forbuying more luxury items. Due to higher de-mand from luxury items, the manufacturingtoo become lopsided. As it is only six croreof the 140 crore population pay direct taxesby way of income tax and industrialistsforming very small percentage pay corporatetax. Rich farmers do not pay tax on theirfarm produce as agriculture income is ex-empt from tax. One failed to understand whyshould their not be agriculture income taxwith a threshold limit just as in the case ofpersonal income tax so that poor and mar-ginal farmers do not pay agriculture incometax. This will not only make rich farmers paytax but also bring about equity in the tax sys-tem. But rich farmers lobby is strong be-cause many of them are politicians as well.While it is welcome that GST has helped

in gradually reducing tax evasion by busi-ness community, the idea of not widening di-rect tax net and giving huge concessions toindustries by way of relief, exemptions andlower corporate taxes are not appropriate forhaving balanced tax structure with fair pro-portion of direct and indirect taxes. In ad-vanced economies get much more revenuefrom direct taxes and a large section of thepopulation pay direct taxes. Hence they alsohave good social safety net, which is lackingfor majority of the population in India. Thisalso helps in keeping the tax rates lower withthe tax net widening without impingingupon higher revenue. GST is a good indirecttax but the rates have to be lower and the at-tempt should be to move towards single ratefor easy administration. Corporates shouldalso be made to pay more by eliminatingvarious exemptions they get so that rich con-tribute more to the tax kitty.Tamil Nadu finance minister P T R Thiaga

Rajan has been vociferously advocating theneed to reverse the topsy-turvy tax systemin the country. One only hopes the debate tobring about an appropriate mix of direct andindirect tax collections gather momentum soas to ensure poor and middle class pay lesspercentage of their actual income as taxes.It is also time to look at taxing agricultureincome. Besides equity in tax structure itwill also help in plugging tax evasion. (IPAService)

Fuel price hike rekindles debate on balancing direct and indirect taxes

DEGREE OF THOUGHTBy: K R Sudhaman

4

The proposed rupee-rouble trade for oil will be a key in-gredient, along with Russian insistence on rouble pay-ments from European gas customers, in Putin’s

sanctions-busting program. The Biden administration has ob-viously seen the implications of an India-Russia oil deal and itis no surprise, therefore, that Washington is trying to put pres-sure on New Delhi and yet without pushing things too hard asit is well aware of the limited scope of US pressure in this re-gard. Russia has reportedly offered a USD 35 per barrel dis-count for its best crude, and that too on prices that prevailedbefore the Ukraine invasion took place. This means that atprevailing crude prices, Russia is offering oil at about halfprice, which is an irresistible offer even in normal situations,but given the precarious condition of India’s oil economy atpresent, it is nothing less than a providential helping hand. Ontop of that, on offer is for upwards of 15 million barrels. India’soil major Indian Oil has had a contract for such quantity for along time but has barely drawn down on it as the deal providesfor purchases only when it is economical for the company.For Putin, a rupee-rouble trade in oil will take some sting out

of the US-sponsored sanctions as the Biden administration’sgambit of starving Russian oil of demand through the embargowill fail to deliver the desired results. Russia is a leading playerin the international oil market and any plan to banish it fromthe market would have brought disastrous consequences,which Moscow could not have withstood easily. This is whatPutin has checkmated through his currency standoff with theWest as well as the rupee-rouble trade with India. The two to-gether will limit the shock of Russia’s exclusion from SWIFT,the most critical messaging interface that facilitates globalbanking transactions. By insisting on rouble payments to Eu-rope for the Russian gas supplies, Putin has thrown the ballin the European court, leaving it to Europe to figure out howto deal with the problem. Moscow plans to circumvent theSWFT embargo through its indigenous ‘System for Transferof Financial Messages’ (SPFS), which is used by Russianbanks to complete financial transactions. Spearheaded by theRussian central bank, SPFS has been under developmentsince 2014, when the US had threatened to cut Russian ac-cess to SWIFT.The Modi government has so far maintained that there has

been no deal with Russia for rupee-rouble trade in oil amidstmedia reports that the two countries are moving towards suchan arrangement as it serves the purpose of both sides. Thedenial, however, needs to be looked at only as technical as atthe time of making the statement there did not exist any suchdeal. Russian gas major Gazprom was reportedly insisting onrouble payments for gas to be bought by GAIL. But as Indianand Russian delegations thrash out various issues related toan oil deal using the rupee-rouble platform, everything ap-pears to be falling in place for a win-win deal between twolong-time partners, whose defense partnership lends cre-dence to closer economic and commercial relations betweenthe two major players.

Rupee-Rouble oil deal

THE HILLS TIMESVOL. XXIII, ISSUE 83, DIPHU, TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022

QUOTE OF THE DAYWhenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause

and reflect. - Mark Twain

India charting its own path

By: Asad Mirza

Last week saw a flurry of diplo-matic activities in New Delhi,with quite a large number of

foreign ministers and security advis-ers coming over to convince the In-dian leadership to change its standon the Russia-Ukraine war and sup-port the western coalition againstRussia.The week also saw stern condem-

nation and accusation of the Indianstand by the US leaders and India re-sponding in a befitting diplomati-cally astute manner. Before thearrival of the US Deputy NSA onEconomics, Daleep Singh to India,the US Commerce Secretary GinaRaimondo urged nations to stand onthe right side of history, and notfund, fuel and aid President Putin’swar, on Wednesday 30 March.On his part Singh in his meetings

with Union Commerce MinisterPiyush Goyal and Foreign SecretaryHarsh Shringla, reportedly “cau-tioned India against enhancing tieswith Moscow” and made it clear thatIndia runs the risk of being caught upin a web of secondary sanctions if ittries to do business with Russia.On Thursday 31 March, hours be-

fore Russian foreign minister SergeiLavrov’s arrival, Singh told reportersin India that the US won’t like to seean increase in India’s imports fromRussia particularly of energy prod-ucts. He reportedly also warned thatthere would be “consequences” forcountries, including India. The Indian government consid-

ered these remarks and public threatsraised as quite undiplomatic. SyedAkbaruddin, former Indian envoy tothe UN, Tweeted that “This is not thelanguage of diplomacy… This is thelanguage of coercion… Somebodytell this young man that punitiveunilateral economic measures area breach of customary interna-tional law…”Further, Foreign Minister S Jais-

hankar pointed out at a panel discus-sion with the British ForeignSecretary Liz Truss, that Russian oilimports form a miniscule part of

India’s energy basket, while the UKincreased its already substantial pur-chase of Russian oil and gas betweenFebruary and March - well afterMoscow sent its forces into Ukraine.

Lavrov’s visitThus in a well-crafted response

the Indian government was able toshow both the UK and US theirplace. Both these countries weremore concerned about the visit of theweek i.e. of the Russian ForeignMinister Sergei Lavrov to NewDelhi.The importance that Delhi at-

tached to this visit was evident bythe fact that of all foreign dignitariesvisiting India, only Lavrov was ableto meet the Prime Minister Modi.On his part Lavrov clearly put for-

ward his message that he activelywants to develop the Russia-India-China trilateral mechanism to sta-bilise international relations andensure “equity in international af-fairs”. He also described this rela-tionship as our ‘troika’ - RIC(Russia, India, China).Lavrov arrived in India from

China. The takeaway from his Chi-nese visit could be summed up as theone, which seeks out establishingand accelerating multipolar trends.The US’ unipolar hegemony is beingquestioned by other nations every-day and it has opened up many newproposals to reshape the world order.The close China-Russia cooperationcan be described as the basis of thisnew multipolar world order.China on 1April lashed out at the

United States for allegedly instigat-ing the Russia-Ukraine conflict andblamed it for the expansion ofNATO, the number of NATO mem-bers increased from 16 to 30 to pro-tect itself from the aggression of anynation, according to Chinese foreignministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian.Zhao further said that China dis-

approves of solving problemsthrough sanctions, and is even moreopposed to unilateral sanctions andlong-arm jurisdiction that have nobasis in international law.On its part, IndianExternal Affairs

Minister S Jaishankar after his meet-

ing with his Russian counterpartSergei Lavrov in New Delhi on 1April said that Indiahas always beenin favour of resolving disputesthrough diplomacy, in an obviousreference to both its border disputewith China and also in regard to theRussian-Ukraine war. Jaishankarfurther stated that the contemporaryglobal order was built on the UnitedNations Charter, international lawand respect for sovereignty and ter-ritorial integrity of states.On his part Lavrov appreciated

India’s principled stand and he evensuggested India acting as a mediatorbetween Russia and Ukraine to re-solve the on going crisis.

India’s changed standConjoining the two, i.e. the refer-

ences by Lavrov in China about anew multipolar world taking shapeand India reiterating its stand on in-ternational comity, one can say thatindeed the global map is due to beredrawn, and very soon we could bea witness to shaping-up of not aunipolar or a bipolar world, but amultipolar world. When that takesshape the manner in which global is-sues are resolved or heightened willchange completely and dramatically.Added to this will be the lesseningof the American control over globalpolitical play.Further, India’s balanced and prin-

cipled stand has shown the worldmaturity of its foreign policy, besidesthe role which it could play in the in-ternational diplomatic arena, all as aresult of the foreign policy team ledby S Jaishankar under the steward-ship of PM Modi. It has also underlined the fact that

India is not ready to be cowed downby the US bullying and will chart itsown path, as per its policies and needof the hour. This also points out tothe “correctional change”, which theIndian polity has been able to makein its foreign policy. (The author isa political commentator based inNew Delhi. He was also associatedwith BBC Urdu Service andKhaleej Times of Dubai. He can bereached at www.asad-mirza.blogspot.com)

The last one-monthhas shown thetenacity and

astuteness of the Indian foreignpolicy, and the“correctional

change” which thecurrent polity is trying to achieve

through it

By: Dr Arun Mitra

Suicide by Dr Archna Sharma,a senior Gynaecologist ofDausa in Rajasthan has

shaken the medical fraternity. Apatient is reported to have diedduring a procedure after which theattendants reportedly under the pa-tronage of a BJP leader createdruckus. The police instead of con-trolling the mob registered a caseof murder against the doctor U/s302 IPC. Perturbed over this, thedoctor committed suicide. Policerole in this case is highly con-demnable and demands of register-ing case of abetment to suicideagainst the concerned police offi-cials. A doctor is more than ahealer. She/He is not just adding tothe economic development butalso addressing the emotional partof the patient and the family.Her/his loss cannot be counted interms of money. With the death ofa doctor thousands of patients getdevoid of sympathy and empathythey were getting from a trustedperson. Loss of Dr. Archna Sharmahas to be viewed in this context.This is not for the first time that

violence has taken place againstthe doctors. Maximum of such in-cidents have occurred in Maha-rashtra. The violent incident inBengal two years back got somuch highlighted because the po-litical atmosphere was highly sur-charged. Doctors can be bookedfor negligence U/S 304A only aftera thorough enquiry into the inci-dent. Registering murder charge ona doctor without enquiry is equiv-alent to a criminal offence on thepart of the law enforcing agency.How can one work in the atmos-phere of uncertainty, particularlyso when it comes to treating a per-son which requires lot of concen-tration, care and empathy.We need to ponder over the rea-

sons for such repeated acts of vio-lence, immediate measuresrequired to prevent such acts andthe long term solutions to amelio-rate the situation?When death of a near and dear

occurs emotional outburst is un-derstandable. This does not in anyway mean that they should resortto violence. There are several waysto redress the grievances. Many atimes the young doctors in the hos-pitals have to work continuouslyfor up to 36 hours or more. Thisputs them under lot of stress andstrain. At the beginning of their career

they are learning to develop com-munication skills to satisfy the pa-tient’s attendants. Whatever thereason, the society has to under-stand that those giving treatmentare trained to heal, not to kill. Asmedical students they are taught to

be modest and sympathetic. Bar-ring a few black sheep negligenceis not a rule but an exception. Asnegligence cannot be condoned, sois the violence never justifiable.A national level law against vi-

olence on doctors can be a strongdeterrent. But many a times thoseperpetrating violence are ignorantof laws. Unfortunately, it has beenfound that the law enforcing agen-cies too lack such information. Our health care facilities in state

sector lack required infrastructure.With a meagre 1.1% of the GDPspending on health in the publicsector, the patients have to lookforward to the private sector forsecondary and tertiary care whichcosts them exorbitant amount. Thisbecomes another point of discord. It is time the doctors take inter-

est in the public concerns on thehealth issues. This will integratethem with the society. Not manymedical bodies reacted to deaths inMuzaffarpur, nor in Gorakhpur.The medical bodies failed in sup-porting Dr. Kafeel who had to lan-guish in the lock up because heraised the faults in the healthcareinfrastructure at Gorakhpur. Medicos should be in the front

rows to help the needy in the eventof natural calamities or other situ-ations of public health crisis. Suchgestures help to remove negativefeelings about medical profession-als in the society.Culture of violence is being

made a norm in our country. Call-ing ourselves followers of Buddha,Guru Nanak and Gandhi we haveseen violence to the extreme in1984, 2002 in which even the doc-tors were not speared. Now we arewitnessing it in the form of vigi-lantes and mob lynching. Some ofthe law makers have been issuingvery irresponsible statements, evenrewarding those involved in moblynching. Those at the helms of af-fairs should show more responsi-ble behaviour. If violence iseulogized then it becomes a normand part of psyche which does notspare anyone, even the perpetra-tors. Violence prevention has to bea public health issue. The doctorshave to stand against all sorts of vi-olence. Unfortunately we reactonly when it happens to us. Thecommunal frenzy being raised willfurther deteriorate the situation.Medical professionals have to bein the fore front to lead movementsfor social harmony. History is wit-ness to how a section of doctorshelped Nazis in eliminating the op-ponents. Pledge by the doctors toraise collective voice against anykind of violence and efforts tochange the culture of violencebeing promoted by the vested in-terests will be the real tribute to Dr.Archna Sharma. (IPA Service)

Death of a doctor: Harassmenthaunts medical profession

By: Narvijay Yadav

New singers who try to be-come stars overnight, donot last long. Artists, who

want to get everything quickly ina short span without striving hardand learning the tricks of thetrade from a master, are not ableto succeed. Sustainable successdemands hard work, patience,experience and abilities. Thiswas expressed by famous Bolly-wood singer, musician and per-former, Mika Singh. He says,“My first remuneration was Rs75 and I learned the nuances ofthe music industry from estab-lished performers like DalerMehndi among others. When myfirst song was released, I got Rs1000 only as payment. Afterstriving hard and working like anassistant to elder brother Daler,gradually I gained the status of astar.” When an immature singer’ssong becomes a hit, he considershimself successful, whereas juston the basis of a hit, one cannotperform on the stage for threehours. Today he boasts of scoresof hit songs of his own, that iswhy he happily performs non-stop on the stage for three hours.Many of his songs have beencontinuous hits over the lastdecade and people enjoy most ofhis songs.There is no doubt that perma-

nent success does not comeovernight. Because of socialmedia, a person can get instantfame, but he cannot reach thatpoint overnight where people canremember him for years. For thatstatus one has to pass through thetests of talent, hard work and ex-perience. Because of these spe-cialties, Mika Singh is todaycalled the King of Bollywoodmusic. He is a terrific performer.Mika Singh’s upcoming reality

show – ‘Swayamvar, Mika DiVohti’ is going to start on StarBharat channel in May, in whichMika will choose a suitable lifepartner for himself. It will be amusical show, in which around30 girls will compete to attracthis attention. Talking about the show, the

singer said, “I am doing every-thing to prepare myself for mar-riage because I want to lookgood. I have reduced my diet. Iam thrilled about this new chap-ter of my life. I am looking for alife partner who can understandme, make my family happy andtake everyone along.”The singer said that his family

only wants him to settle now. “Ineed a partner who can under-stand the nature of my work be-cause I travel a lot in connectionwith my music shows.” Congrat-ulating Punjab Chief MinisterBhagwant Mann, Mika appreci-ated the ban on songs promotingdrugs and crime by saying thatthe Punjab government’s deci-sion was justified. He said that hehas done many shows withBhagwant Mann in the past, whois a good hearted person. In thelast two years at the time of lock-downs, Mika through his NGO –Divine Touch, arranged free lan-gars for a thousand needy peopleevery day. His NGO is doing var-ious social works in many cities.The singer is going to sing a songwith legendary musician ARRahman and for actor TigerShroff’s upcoming movie also.He has recently sung a song forAbhishek Bachchan’s movie‘Dasvi’. ‘Sawan me lag gai aag’is Mika’s superhit song, whichwas recently recreated by him asa remix too. The remix got over1 lakh reels from his Instagramfans. (The writer is a seniorjournalist & columnist.)

Those who want stardomovernight can’t survive

Talking Points

Page 4 April 05_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 9:27 PM Page 1

TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 THE HILLS TIMES 5

By: Ram Ganesh Kamatham

On September 10, 1780, the forces of theKingdom of Mysore led by Hyder Ali andTipu Sultan decimated the East India

Company (EIC) soldiers under Colonel WilliamBaillie in the Battle of Pollilur. It was fought onthe scrubby Deccan terrain punctuated by tower-ing monoliths, about 15 km north of the modern-day Kanchipuram.A spectacular panoramic artwork depicting this

historic moment was sold in London on March30, 2022, for £630,000 as part of a Sotheby’s auc-tion of Arts from the Islamic World and India.The Battle of PollilurThe Battle of Pollilur was one of the key en-

gagements in the second Anglo-Mysore warfought between 1780 and 1784. The colonial nar-ratives of the period and those of the next centuryoften emphasised the defeat of local rulers and theconquest of their states to promote the myth ofEuropean military superiority in arms and strat-egy. For this reason, the moments from the thirdand fourth Anglo-Mysore Wars find greater rep-resentation in artistic works.The nationalist historians from the early 20th

century emphasised these humiliations and be-trayals to forge cross-community unity againstBritish domination. The divisions and short-sight-edness of regional rulers that allowed the sub-continent to come under imperial rule wasattributed to the policy of Divide et Imperia – di-vide and rule. It is therefore unsurprising that apainting depicting the victory of an Indian kingdoes not find an easy place within either of theseperspectives.Contemporary scholarship has taken a more

circumspect view of this period, and insights haveemerged from a body of literature concerned withthe various contingent factors that led to a sharpdisparity in development between Asia and therest of the world during the late 18th century. Thisdebate about a great divergence between Europeand Asia, sometimes privileges economic factorsover sociocultural ones. However, there is also arecognition of subtle forms of violence that ac-companied colonial expansionism, and in India,systematic deindustrialisation. Certain kinds of

stories and knowledge systems were erased. Thehistory of the painting, and the mural in DariaDaulat Bagh that it is based upon, serves as ametaphor for this kind of violence. When it wascommissioned sometime after 1784, the mural com-memorated the victory and the transition of powerthat had taken place from Hyder to Tipu in 1782. Itwas subsequently whitewashed and re-painted dur-ing the period of British occupation after 1799.The copy, which is going on sale, is believed tohave been created sometime around 1820.According to Otto Money, the current owner of

this copy, “The painting is made on thin paper (at-tached to thicker paper beneath), a bit like tracingpaper, on which the artist or artists made an un-derdrawing sketched in charcoal before applyingcolour.” The bright colours of this painting arequite unlike the mural, and other copies that areknown to exist. According to colonial records, ex-perimental use of colours available at the time,for example, sky blue horses also featured atsome point, but they seem to have disappearedfrom extant versions.An exhaustive study of the mural has been

made by Dr. Veena Shekar, in her book HistoricalPaintings of Srirangapatna: A Stylistic Study,published posthumously in 2010 after her un-timely death. According to Otto, the book “is oneof the most interesting on the whole subject.”As Dr. Shekar suggests, a good referent for the

style of the artwork is found in the inspiration forthe Daria Daulat Bagh complex – the Chehel So-toun in Isfahan, in modern day Iran. The minia-ture style adopted for the frescos in this complex,such as the portrayal of the Battle of Chaldiran in1514, reveals rich texture, and the substance ofthe battle plays out in a manner quite differentfrom a moment frozen in time – a distinct featureof English propaganda art of the period.In the miniature style, the narrative unfolds in

a conflation of time and space. The visual centreof the painting is occupied by the thunderingmass of Mysore cavalry. According to historicalrecords, the Tipu force numbered some 6,000horsemen, with 12 light and six heavy guns, alongwith supporting infantry. Hyder Ali commandedanother detachment, with both of these smallerformations peeling off from the main body of the

Mysore army which was besieging Arcot. At thestart of the hostiles in July 1780, the Mysore cav-alry alone numbered almost 40,000.The East India Company forces, suffering de-

sertions and uncoordinated leadership, formed adefensive square on a patch of high ground, withthe Scotsman William Baillie leading a finalstand. His story, documented in a piece of revi-sionist history by a descendant, Alan Tritton, isdetailed in the book When the Tiger Fought theThistle: The Tragedy of Colonel William Baillieof the Madras Army.Mysore light cavalry had multiple advantages

in this battle – knowledge of the terrain, manoeu-vrability and speed. The bullock depicted insidethe English square reveals an interesting detail.The East India Company forces were underpaid,under-resourced and short of accurate maps of thearea. The East India Company artillery pieceswere often hitched or limbered to bullocks, andthe creatures were in short supply.When the East India Company infantry was cut

off from the safety of Kanchipuram and thestronghold of Fort St. George in Madras where alarger English force remained encamped (and un-willing to rally with Scottish troops!), they werecaught in a double envelopment movement byMysore cavalry, encircled and routed.There is nothing particularly European about

this tactic, and it can be dated back to use byAlexander the Great and Hannibal.The re-emergence of rocketryIn this battle, the quick manoeuvres, the deft

placement of guns using embankments and fea-tures, and the novel use of horse and rocketry toharass the enemy are all noteworthy.The statement that Tipu defeated the British

with European tactics is therefore “ungenerous”.At best it belies a poor awareness of the conflu-ence of military cultures of the region, and atworst it reproduces a racist colonial myth of su-periority. In this engagement we can see the sig-nature disruptions linked to main thrusts, redolentof Pindari raiders, the mobile artillery of Ahmed-nagar and innovative tactics of the iron-casedrocketry of Mysore at play. The least palatable as-pect of the battle is the total destruction of theenemy unit, which was denied the possibility of

any retreat.The most interesting feature of this battle, from

the perspective of strategic history, is the re-emer-gence of rocketry. Rockets had declined in signif-icance as a tool for bombardment withimprovements in mortar fire. At Pollilur theymade an emphatic reappearance, restricting theEast India Company’s vanguard movement,skimming along the surface, lacerating troops,and in one specific instance, shattering an En-sign’s leg.Professor Roddam Narasimha, who has de-

tailed their use in the third Anglo-Mysore war,also suggests that a stray rocket might have beena contributory cause to the East India Company’sdefeat at Pollilur – marked by the accidental det-onation of the East India Company’s ammunitiontumbrils. The ammunition on fire is depicted inthe painting. According to historical records, a fire did break

out on the night of September 9, prior to the finalcharge that broke the East India Company square.

However, the actual cause of the detonation isclouded by the fog of war.The rockets are a footnote in the battle charac-

terised by cavalry manoeuvres; they are entirelyabsent in the mural and painting. The tacticalusage of rockets and their deployments is an areafor further research, allied to the recent break-through discoveries in their material culture.When read against older ballistics-informed as-sessments of the range and performance of iron-cased rockets, a fascinating story emerges of adeveloping technology that has been overshad-owed by colonial myth-making.An equitable reading of the painting and its his-

tory seems a path out of erasure and obfuscation.As the painting goes on sale, one marvels at theshared heritage that exists between India andEngland – not all of which is comfortable. Sev-enty-five years into India’s democratic journeyseems as good a moment as any, to negotiate thegrounds for increasing areas of convergence.(Courtesy: The Wire)

The battle of Pollilur: Revisiting the footnotes of historyMISCELLANEOUS

An interview with Padmashreeawardee Dhaneswar Engti

The Staff Reporter of The Hills Times, Au-gustine Teron got the chance to interview thePadmashree awardee Dhaneswar Engti at hisresidence at Inglongcherop, Diphu. The UnionMinistry of Home Affairs has shortlisted hisname for the Padmashree Award, 2022 for hiscontribution in the field of Literature and Edu-cation and was one among the many to receivethe award.His short stories, articles and poems have

been published in various journals and news-papers including The Hills Times, The ArlengDaily, Solangdo, The Sentinel, The AssamTribune, Dainik Protibedon, Dainik Janamb-humi, etc. Engti was the founder editor–in-chief of a popular Karbi literary magazine‘Monjir’ in 1976 and founder editor of anotherKarbi literary magazine ‘Samphri’ in 1984.Apart from writing books he also writes lyricsfor Karbi modern songs.On 28th March, Engti was conferred with

the prestigious award from the President ofIndia Ram Nath Kovind at New Delhi. He isthe second recipient after Padmashree Rong-bong Terang in 1989 from among the Karbitribe in the hill district of Karbi Anglong.Despite being so busy with his literary works

and attending too many calls from the writingfraternity and well-wishers, he has spared histime to share his thoughts and feelings abouthis writing journey and the award. Here is anexcerpt of the interview. The Hills Times (THT): Sir, heartiest con-

gratulations on being awarded with the Pad-mashree. What are your feelings?Dhaneswar Engti (DS Engti): I feel proud

and well deserved to receive the award as it isthe recognition of my work by the Governmentof India in the field of Literature and Educa-tion. I am honoured to receive the prestigiousaward from the President of India and thisaward is not given to me, but is given to thepeople of Karbi Anglong and Assam as itwould not have been possible without theirblessings. THT: Tell us something about your child-

hood memories.DS Engti: I was born on 1st November,

1955 at Bithilangso Palam Engti village inKarbi Anglong district. I am the eldest of threebrothers in our family. Actually, I did not wantto go to the school and therefore engaged my-self in cultivation by helping my aunt. My fa-ther late Mohori Engti and mother late BasaKropi were illiterates. And my father was aSarkari Gaon Burah, but as he was illiterate hehad problems with reading and writing. Aftersurpassing all the oddities of life, my father was

determined to send me to school. This is how Iwas enrolled in Panjuri Palam Engti Govt. LPSchool set up in the year 1961. THT: Share with us about you education life

and your journey of being an ACS officer. DS Engti: After Panjuri Palam Engti Govt.

LP School I joined Merok ME School Dengaonin the year 1965 and passed my HSLC fromDengaon government aided high school in theyear 1972. After that, I joined Diphu Govt. Col-lege and completed my B.A. degree in 1978. Ialso did my M.A. in English from Gauhati Uni-versity in 1981.I also appeared for the Assam Public Service

Commission (APSC) in 1986 and was selectedas an ACS officer. I was first appointed as ex-ecutive magistrate and posted at Hamren SDO(Civil) office, now West Karbi Anglong dis-trict. But the CEM and EMs asked me to stayback at Karbi Anglong District Council(KADC) now Karbi Anglong AutonomousCouncil (KAAC), where I served till my retire-ment in 2017. THT: What inspires you to write?DS Engti: I am a lover of my own mother

tongue and during my high school days myteacher Kutububdin Ahmed has inspired me tostart writing. At the primary level, I studied inKarbi medium, high school in Assamese mediumand at the college level in English. So I have agood grip in all the three languages which hastruly inspired the hidden writer in me. THT: Do you remember when did you start

writing and what was your first book all about?DS Engti: I started writing when I was in

ME school by writing small Karbi poems. InHigh school and college also I wrote several ar-ticles, short stories and poems. My first pub-lished book was ‘Ne lunjir’ in Karbi, which isa book of poetry. THT: How do you describe your journey

as a writer?DS Engti: I write because I love writing and

I write poems because I love reading poetry. Ihave great respect for writers and I have greatfond of reading their books. THT: Do you have a particular book of

yours which you have special feeling for?DS Engti: I have a special affection for the

book ‘Ne Lunjir.’ Though it is a small book, acollection of short poems, it has expressions onpatriotism, love for literature and feelings ofhumanity. It is my first published book. Bal-imahi in Assamese and Candle in The Night, apoetry book in English are also very close tomy heart.

THT: Can you describe the environmentfor writers/intellectuals in the hill districts?

DS Engti: It depends on the person con-cerned. Supposing if you blame others, you canblame anything. But we have to realise whatwe can do for society. It depends on your think-ing. You should not write books in order to getrecognition and awards but rather as a contri-bution to the society. THT: Do you have any young promising

writer/s in mind among the Karbis?DS Engti: Yes there are many promising

writers among the Karbis. Say like Arun Teron,Joysing Tokbi, a very romantic poet On Teronand Kamsing Engti. I hope that their work willget recognition and in the near future, they willbe awarded with the Padmashree award too.

THT: Any advice for the upcoming writers?DS Engti: Writers must be fearless. He or

she should be able to speak out about what iswrong and what is right. Writers should not bea puppet of others. THT: As you have been conferred the

Padmashree Award in the field of Literatureand Education, what do you feel about thepresent educational scenario in the hill dis-tricts of Assam (Karbi Anglong, West KarbiAnglong and Dima Hasao)?DS Engti:You see education policy is being

prepared on the need of the people. The Gov-ernment of Assam has already given impor-tance to the development of one’s mothertongue at all level of education. Karbi LammetAmei is also doing tirelessly for the promotionand development of Karbi language. As theKarbi language is not included in the 8thSchedule of the Constitution of India for recog-nition of languages and we are not receivingthe Sahitya Akademi award. My request to theGovernment of India and Assam is to includethe Karbi language in the 8th Schedule. THT: Is there anything else that you

would like to say?DS Engti: I want to thank the Government

of India for bestowing me with the prestigiouscivilian award. I thank the President of IndiaRam Nath Kovind, The Home Ministry Gov-ernment of India, chief minister Dr. HimantaBiswa Sarma and our chief executive memberof KAAC Tuliram Ronghang. The complementby Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying,“Kaise ho? Lage raho, laghe raho” meaningcontinue doing it, has inspired me so much. Iwill continue to write as the work of a writernever ends. Kardom.

By: Trudy Meehan & Jolanta Burke

Have you found yourself irrita-ble, sad or close to tears whenwatching the news lately? If

so, you are not alone. Experiencingempathy has its benefits, but there arealso many downsides to it, which iswhy we must learn to practise healthyempathy. Empathy is an ability to syncemotionally and cognitively with an-other person. It is a capacity to per-ceive a world from their perspective orshare their emotional experiences. It isessential for building and maintainingrelationships, as it helps us connectwith others at a deeper level. It is alsoassociated with higher self-esteem andlife purpose.There are broadly two types of em-

pathy: cognitive empathy and emo-tional empathy. Emotional empathy isabout sharing feelings with others tothe extent that you may experiencepain when watching someone in pain,or experience distress when watchingsomeone in distress. This is what hap-pens to many people when they watchupsetting news on TV, especially whenthey relate to specific people and theirlives.But emotional empathy is not just

about experiencing negative emotions.Empathetic people may experience anabundance of positivity when watch-ing other people’s joy, happiness, ex-citement, or serenity and can get moreout of music and other daily pleasures.While this emotional contagion is

suitable for positive states, having toomuch empathy when watching peoplesuffer can be very upsetting and evenlead to mental health problems. Toomuch empathy towards others, espe-cially when we prioritise other peo-ple’s emotions over our own, mayresult in experiences of anxiety and de-pression, which explains why so manyof us feel bad when watching the newsabout the war in Ukraine.The other type of empathy – cogni-

tive empathy – refers to seeing theworld through other people’s eyes,seeing it from their perspective, put-ting ourselves into their shoes withoutnecessarily experiencing the associ-ated emotions and, for example,watching the news and understandingat a cognitive level why people feel de-spair, distress or anger. This processmay lead to emotional empathy oreven somatic empathy, where empathyhas a physiological effect (somatic

being from the ancient Greek word“soma” meaning body). The effect ofempathy on the body has been welldocumented. For example, parents ex-periencing high levels of empathy to-wards their children tend to havechronic low-grade inflammation, lead-ing to lower immunity. Also, our heart-beats to the same rhythm when weempathise with others. So the impactof empathy when watching the newsis both psychological and physiologi-cal. In some circumstances, it may re-sult in what some refer to as“compassion fatigue”.MisnomerThe burnout experienced by exces-

sive empathy has traditionally beentermed compassion fatigue. But morerecently, using MRI studies, neurosci-entists have argued that this is a mis-nomer, and that compassion does notcause fatigue. The distinction is impor-tant because it turns out that compassionis the antidote to the distress we feelwhen we empathise with people who aresuffering. We need less empathy andmore compassion.Empathy and compassion are dis-

tinct events in the brain. Empathy foranother person’s pain activates areas inthe brain associated with negativeemotions. Because we feel the otherperson’s pain, the boundary betweenthe self and others can become blurredif we do not have good boundaries orself-regulation skills and we experi-ence “emotional contagion”. We getentangled in the distress and find ithard to soothe our emotions. We wantto depersonalise, become numb, andlook away. In contrast, compassion isassociated with activity in areas of thebrain associated with positive emo-tions and action. Compassion can bedefined simply as empathy plus actionto alleviate another person’s pain. Theaction part of compassion helps us de-couple our emotional system from oth-ers and see that we are separateindividuals. We do not have to feeltheir pain when we witness it. Instead,we have the feeling of wanting to help.And we have a rewarding, positiveemotional experience when we feelcompassion towards another.Here are four ways to practise com-

passion while watching the news.1. Loving-kindness meditationWhen you are overwhelmed by the

news, practise loving-kindness medi-ation, where you focus on sending loveto yourself, people you know and

those you do not know who are suffer-ing.If we can create a buffer of positive

emotions with compassion, we canthink about how to practically help andact in overwhelming situations. Train-ing your “compassion muscles” pro-vides a buffer against the negativeemotions so that you can be better mo-tivated to help and not get over-whelmed by the distressing emotions.Loving-kindness meditation does notreduce negative emotions. Instead, itincreases activation in areas of thebrain associated with positive emo-tions like love, hope, connection andreward.2. Practise self-compassionAre you beating yourself up for not

being able to help? Or feeling guiltyabout your life while other people suf-fer? Try being kind to yourself. Re-member that while our suffering isalways specific to us, it is not uncom-mon. We share a common humanity ofall experiencing some kind of suffer-ing. While being mindful of your suf-fering, also try to not over-identifywith it. These acts of self-compassionhelp reduce the distress experienced inempathic burnout and improves feel-ings of wellbeing3. Take actionEmpathic distress evokes negative

feelings, such as stress, and prompts usto withdraw and be unsociable. In con-trast, compassion produces positivefeelings of love for another. It promptsus to take action. Most specificallycompassion helps motivate sociability.One way to [counter empathic dis-tress] is to get involved: donate, vol-unteer, organise.4. Stop doomscrollingUnderstandably, we look for infor-

mation in times of crisis. It helps us beprepared. However, doomscrolling –continually scrolling through and read-ing depressing or worrying content ona social media or news site, especiallyon a phone – is not helpful.Research on social media engage-

ment during the pandemic showed thatwe need to be mindful of our newsconsumption to avoid increases instress and negative emotions. To avoidthe news altogether is unrealistic, butlimiting our consumption is helpful.Another suggestion is to balance ourmedia consumption by seeking outstories of acts of kindness (kind-scrolling?), which can lift our mood.(Courtesy: Scroll.in)

Four ways to practise compassionwhile watching the news

Page 5 April 05_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 9:33 PM Page 1

HONG KONG, April 4 (AP):Hong Kong leader Car-rie Lam said Monday she wouldn't seek a second termafter a rocky five years marked by huge protests callingfor her resignation, a security crackdown that hasquashed dissent and most recently a COVID-19 wavethat overwhelmed the health system.Her successor will be picked in May, with the city's

hard-line security chief during the 2019 protests seen asa likely choice. “I will complete my five-year term aschief executive on the 30th of June this year, and I willalso call an end to my 42 years of public service,” Lamsaid at a news conference. The 64-year-old career civilservant said she plans to spend more time with her fam-ily, which is her “sole consideration.” Speculation hadswirled for months about whether she would seek an-other term, and she repeatedly declined to comment onthe possibility. But on Monday, she said her decision hadbeen conveyed to the central government in Beijing lastyear and was met with “respect and understanding.” Her time in office will likely be remembered as a

turning point during which Beijing firmly establishedcontrol over the former British colony, which was re-turned to China in 1997. For years, the city rocked backand forth between calls for more freedom and growingsigns of China extending its reach, chipping away at apromise by the mainland government to give HongKong the power to govern itself semi-autonomously for50 years. Lam's popularity sharply declined over her

five-year term, particularly over legislation that wouldhave allowed criminal suspects to be extradited to main-land China for trial and her leadership during the proteststhat ensued in 2019. The mass demonstrations weremarked at times by violent clashes between police andprotesters. Authorities in Hong Kong and Beijing insisted that

overseas forces were fuelling the movement, rather thanlocal activism, while protesters denounced the policecrackdown as excessive and said that claims of seditionwere attempts to undermine the pro-democracy cause.Lam said she came under great pressure because of

the extradition bill, "interference from foreign forces"and the pandemic.

THE HILLS TIMES WORLD TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 20226

Ukraine accuses Russia of massacre, city strewn with bodiesBUCHA, April 4 (AP): Bodieswith bound hands, close-range gun-shot wounds and signs of torture layscattered in a city on the outskirts ofKyiv after Russian soldiers with-drew from the area.Ukrainian authorities accused the

departing forces on Sunday of com-mitting war crimes and leaving be-hind a “scene from a horror movie.”As images of the bodies emerged

from Bucha, European leaders con-demned the atrocities and called fortougher sanctions against Moscow.In a sign of how the horrific reportsshook many leaders, Germany's de-fense minister even suggested thatthe European Union consider ban-ning Russian gas imports.Ukrainian officials said the bodies

of 410 civilians were found in Kyiv-area towns that were recently re-taken from Russian forces.Associated Press journalists saw

the bodies of at least 21 people invarious spots around Bucha, north-west of the capital. One group of

nine, all in civilian clothes, werescattered around a site that residentssaid Russian troops used as a base.They appeared to have been

killed at close range. At least twohad their hands tied behind theirbacks, one was shot in the head, andanother's legs were bound. Ukrainian officials laid the blame

for the killings squarely at the feetof Russian troops, with the presidentcalling them evidence of genocide.But Russia's Defense Ministry re-jected the accusations as “provoca-tion.” The discoveries followed theRussian retreat from the area afterMoscow said it was focusing its of-fensive on the country's east. Russ-ian troops had rolled into Bucha inthe early days of the invasion andstayed up until March 30. One resident, who refused to give

his name out of fear for his safety,said that Russian troops went build-ing to building and took people outof the basements where they werehiding, checking their phones for

any evidence of anti-Russian activ-ity before taking them away orshooting them.Hanna Herega, another resident,

said Russian troops started shootingat a neighbor who had gone out togather wood for heating.“They hit him a bit above the

heel, crushing the bone, and he felldown,” Herega said.“Then they shot off his left leg

completely, with the boot. Then theyshot him all over.”The AP also saw two bodies, that

of a man and a woman, wrapped inplastic that residents said they hadcovered and placed in a shaft until aproper funeral could be arranged.“He put his hands up, and they

shot him,” said the resident who re-fused to be identified.Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Ze-lenskyy, described bodies lying insuburban streets as a “scene from ahorror movie.” He claimed some ofthe women had been raped beforebeing killed and the Russians thenburned the bodies.In a video address, Zelenskyy

said Russian soldiers who killed andtortured civilians were responsiblefor “concentrated evil."“It is time to do everything possi-

ble to make the war crimes of theRussian military the last manifesta-tion of such evil on earth,” he saidin remarks translated by his office.He directed some of his remarks

at the mothers of Russian soldiersinvolved. “Even if you raised loot-ers, how did they also becomebutchers?” he said. “You couldn'toverlook that they are deprived ofeverything human. No soul. Noheart. They killed deliberately andwith pleasure.”Zelenskyy said his government

would take steps to create a special

justice mechanism to investigateevery crime committed by the Russ-ian forces in Ukraine.Zelenskyy also appeared in a

video message at Sunday's GrammyAwards, contrasting the lives ofthose attending the award ceremonyin Las Vegas with the lives of musi-cians in his battered homeland. “Our musicians wear body armor

instead of tuxedos. They sing to thewounded in hospitals, even to thosewho can't hear them,” he said. “Butthe music will break through any-way.” Russia's Defense Ministrysaid in a statement that photos andvideos of dead bodies “have beenstage managed by the Kyiv regimefor the Western media.”The ministry said “not a single

civilian" in Bucha had faced any vi-olent military action and the mayordid not mention any abuses a dayafter Russian troops left.Russia asked for a meeting Mon-

day of the U.N. Security Council todiscuss events in the city.

WASHINGTON, April 4 (PTI):Children younger than five yearswho are infected with Omicronhave less risk of severe health out-comes than those infected with theDelta variant of coronavirus, ac-cording to a study.The research, published in the

journal JAMA Pediatrics, is thefirst large-scale study to comparethe health outcomes of coronavirusinfection from Omicron and Deltain the age group which is not yetvaccinated.The finding led by researchers at

the Case Western Reserve Univer-sity in the US show that the Omi-cron variant is 6-8 times moreinfectious than the Delta variant.The severe clinical outcomes

ranged from a 16 per cent lowerrisk for emergency room visits to85 per cent less risk for mechanicalventilation, the researchers said.About 1.8 per cent of children

infected with Omicron were hospi-talised, compared to 3.3 per centwith Delta, they said.

“The major conclusion to our re-search was that many more chil-dren were infected with Omicronwhen compared to Delta, but thechildren who are infected are notimpacted as severely as were chil-dren infected with the Delta vari-ant,” said Pamela Davis, a researchprofessor at the Case Western Re-serve School of Medicine.

“However, because there are somany more children infected, ourhospitals were affected over thewinter months by an influx ofyoung children,” Davis said.The team analysed the electronic

health records of more than651,640 children in the US, includ-ing over 22,772 children infectedwith the Omicron variant and more

than 66,000 children infected withDelta. The study also compared therecords of more than 10,000 chil-dren immediately before the detec-tion of Omicron in the US, butwhen Delta was still predominant.The researchers noted that chil-

dren younger than five years arenot yet eligible for COVID-19 vac-cines and have a low rate of previ-ous SARS-CoV-2 infections,which also limits their pre-existingimmunity.They examined clinical health

outcomes for pediatric patientsduring a 14-day window followingSARS-CoV-2 infection.Among the factors they re-

viewed were: emergency room vis-its, hospitalisations, ICUadmissions and mechanical venti-lation use.Analysing the demographic

data, the researchers found thatchildren infected with Omicronwere on average younger -- 1.5years of age versus 1.7 years -- andhad fewer comorbidities.

Omicron variant less severe than Delta forchildren younger than 5 years: Study

Ukrainian officials said the bodies of 410 civilians were found in Kyiv-area towns that were recently retaken from Russian forces

About 1.8 pc of children infected with Omicron were hospitalised, compared to 3.3 pc with Delta

BUDAPEST, April 4 (AP): Hun-gary's nationalist Prime MinisterViktor Orban declared victory inSunday's national elections, claim-ing a mandate for a fourth term as astill incomplete vote count showeda strong lead for his right-wingparty.In a 10-minute speech to Fidesz

party officials and supporters at anelection night event in Budapest,Orban addressed a crowd cheering“Viktor!” and declared it was a“huge victory” for his party.“We won a victory so big that you

can see it from the moon, and youcan certainly see it from Brussels,”said Orban, who has often been con-demned by the European Union foroverseeing democratic backslidingand alleged corruption.While votes were still being tal-

lied, it appeared clear that the ques-tion was not whether Orban's Fideszparty would take the election, but byhow much. With around 91% of votes tallied,

Orban's Fidesz-led coalition hadwon 53%, while a pro-European op-

position coalition, United for Hun-gary, had just over 34%, accordingto the National Election Office.It appeared possible that Fidesz

would win another constitutionalmajority, allowing it to continuemaking deep unilateral changes tothe Central European nation.“The whole world has seen

tonight in Budapest that Christiandemocratic politics, conservativecivic politics and patriotic politicshave won. We are telling Europethat this is not the past, this is the fu-ture,” Orban said.As Fidesz party officials gathered

at an election night event on theDanube river in Budapest, state sec-retary Zoltan Kovacs pointed to theparticipation of so many parties inthe election as a testament to thestrength of Hungary's democracy.“We have heard a lot of nonsense

recently about whether there isdemocracy in Hungary,” Kovacssaid. “Hungarian democracy in the last

12 years has not weakened, but beenstrengthened.”

China sends in militaryto help with Shanghai

Covid outbreakBEIJING, April 4 (AP): Chinahas sent more than 10,000 healthworkers from across the country toShanghai, including 2,000 militarymedical staff, as it struggles tostamp out a rapidly spreadingCovid-19 outbreak in China'slargest city.The city was conducting a mass

testing of its 25 million residentsMonday as what was supposed tobe a two-phase lockdown enteredits second week. While many fac-tories and financial firms havebeen able to keep operating by iso-lating their employees, concernwas growing about the potentialeconomic impact of an extendedlockdown in China's financial cap-ital and a major shipping and man-ufacturing centre.The highly contagious omicron

BA.2 form of the virus is testingChina's ability to maintain its zero-Covid approach, which aims tostop outbreaks from spreading byisolating everyone who tests posi-tive, whether they have symptomsor not. Shanghai has converted anexhibition hall and other facilitiesinto massive isolation centres wherepeople with mild or no symptomsare housed in a sea of beds separatedby temporary partitions. China on Monday reported more

than 13,000 new cases nationwidein the previous 24 hours, of whichnearly 12,000 were asymptomatic.About 9,000 of the cases were inShanghai. The other large outbreakis in northeastern China's Jilinprovince, where new cases topped3,500. The English-languageChina Daily newspaper said thatnearly 15,000 medical workersfrom neighbouring Jiangsu andZhejiang provinces left for Shang-hai early Monday from their hos-pitals by bus. More than 2,000 personnel from

the army, navy and joint logisticssupport force arrived on Sunday, aChinese military newspaper said. At least four other provinces

have also dispatched doctors,nurses and other medical workersto Shanghai, the state-ownedChina Daily said.While most shops and other

businesses in Shanghai are shutdown, major manufacturers in-cluding automakers General Mo-tors Co. and Volkswagen AG saytheir factories still are operating.

California police search for shooters who killed 6, hurt 12SACRAMENTO, April 4 (AP): The usualcrowds filled the streets as bars and nightclubswere closing in California’s capital city ofSacramento when the sound of rapid-fire gun-shots sent people running in terror. In a matterof seconds, the latest U.S. mass shooting hadleft six people dead and 12 wounded.Sacramento police said they were searching

for at least two people who opened fire around2 a.m. Sunday on the outskirts of the city’sdowntown entertainment district, anchored bythe Golden One Arena that hosts concerts andthe NBA’s Sacramento Kings. The team’s homegame against the Golden State Warriors went onas scheduled Sunday night and began with amoment of silence for the victims.Police Chief Kathy Lester revealed few de-

tails from the investigation and pleaded with thepublic to share videos and other evidence thatcould lead to the killers.“The scale of violence that just happened in

our city is unprecedented during my 27 yearshere,” Lester told reporters during a news con-ference at police headquarters. “We are shockedand heartbroken by this tragedy. But we are alsoresolved as an agency to find those responsibleand to secure justice for the victims and thefamilies.” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinbergand other city officials decried escalating vio-

lence in the city while also urging people tokeep coming downtown for events like NBAgames and performances of the Broadway mu-sical “Wicked.” “We can never accept it as nor-mal and we never will,” Steinberg said of theshooting. “But we also have to live our lives.”The gunfire erupted just after a fight broke

out on a street lined with an upscale hotel,nightclubs and bars, but police said they did notknow if the altercation was connected to theshooting. Video from witnesses posted on socialmedia showed rapid gunfire for at least 45 sec-onds as people screamed and ran for cover.

The gunfire startled sleeping guests at theCitizen Hotel, which included a wedding partyand fans of the rapper Tyler the Creator, whoperformed at a concert hours earlier.From her window on the fourth floor of the

hotel, 18-year-old Kelsey Schar said she saw aman running while firing a gun. She could seeflashes from the weapon in the darkness as peo-ple ran for cover.Schar’s friend, Madalyn Woodward, said she

saw a girl who appeared to have been shot inthe arm lying on the ground. Security guardsfrom a nearby nightclub rushed to help the girlwith what looked like napkins to try to stanchthe bleeding. Police found a stolen handgun, butthey did not know if it had been used in theshooting. The dead included three men andthree women. Authorities were still working tonotify family members, and had publicly iden-tified only one victim as of late Sunday, 38-year-old Sergio Harris, without providing acause of death. Of the 12 wounded, at least fourhad critical injuries, according to the Sacra-mento Fire Department.Sunday’s violence was the third time in the

U.S. this year that at least six people have beenkilled in a mass shooting, according to a data-base compiled by The Associated Press, USAToday and Northeastern University.

Hungary’s pro-Putin PM Orbanclaims victory in national vote

Ex-finance minister wins runoffto be Costa Rica’s president

SAN JOSE, April 4 (AP): A for-mer finance minister who surprisedmany by making it into CostaRica's presidential runoff vote haseasily won that ballot and is to be-come the Central American coun-try's new leader next month, whilestill fending off accusations of sex-ual harassment when he worked atthe World Bank.With nearly all polling stations

reporting late Sunday, conservativeeconomist Rodrigo Chaves had 53per cent of the vote, compared to47 per cent for former PresidentJosé Figueres Ferrer, the SupremeElectoral Tribunal said.More than 42 per cent of eligible

voters did not participate in Sun-day's election, however, reflectingthe lack of enthusiasm Costa Ri-cans had for the candidates.In his victory speech, Chaves

said he received the result with hu-mility and called for unity to ad-dress problems like unemploymentand a soaring budget deficit.“For me this is not a medal nor

a trophy, but rather an enormousresponsibility, heaped with chal-lenges and difficulties that we willall resolve,” he said.

“Costa Rica, the best is tocome!” Chaves said before cele-brating supporters. His inaugura-tion is scheduled for May 8.Figueres conceded defeat less

than an hour after results began tocome in. He had led the first roundof voting Feb. 6, with Chaves insecond that day. Neither had comeclose to the 40 per cent of the voteneeded to avoid a runoff.“Costa Rica has voted and the

people have spoken,” Figueressaid. “As the democrats we are wewill always be respectful of thatdecision.”

Early tally confirmswin for Serbia’spopulist leader

BELGRADE, April 4 (AP): Anearly official count of Serbia's na-tional election on Monday confirmedthe landslide victory of PresidentAleksandar Vucic and his populistparty — important allies of Russia inthe volatile Balkans and in Europe.Vucic scored an outright victory in

Sunday's presidential vote with thebacking of nearly 60 per cent of thevoters, while his Serbian ProgressiveParty gained 43 per cent of ballots,according to a near-complete tally ofthe state election authorities. The re-sults mean that no runoff vote isneeded in the presidential election andthat Vucic's party will be able to formthe next Serbian government in acoalition with junior partners in the250-member assembly.The main opposition group, United

for Serbia's Victory, trailed the pop-ulists in the parliamentary electionwith some 13 per cent of the votes.The group's presidential candidateZdravko Ponos gained 17 per cent,the official results showed.Despite being so far behind nation-

ally, the opposition groups appearedto be in a tight race with the populistsin the capital, Belgrade, where ballotsare still being counted.Both the opposition groups and in-

dependent observers have listed a se-ries of irregularities and incidents,including violent ones. The rulingparty has denied vote manipulation orpressuring voters.Since the party came to power in

2012, Vucic has gradually clampeddown on mainstream media and insti-tutions, assuming complete controlover the years. A former ultranation-alist, Vucic has served as defenceminister, prime minister and presi-dent. Russian President VladimirPutin on Monday congratulatedVucic, saying that the outcome con-firmed a “broad public support” forhis independent foreign policies.The Russian leader voiced hope

that Vucic's activities will help furtherstrengthen the “strategic partnership”between Russia and Serbia.Portraying himself as a guarantor

of peace and stability amid the war inUkraine, Vucic has refused to joinWestern sanctions against Russia de-spite formally seeking membership inthe European Union for Serbia.After declaring victory on Sunday

evening, he said the new governmentwill face tough decisions but will seekto maintain friendly relations withhistorically close Slavic ally Russia.Most of the parties running in the elec-tion were right-leaning, reflecting thepredominantly conservative sentimentsamong Serbia's 6.5 million voters.

Pak’s apex court adjourns hearing bya day on rejection of no-trust vote

ISLAMABAD, April 4 (PTI): Pakistan's SupremeCourt on Monday adjourned the hearing by a day in thehigh-profile case about the rejection of a no-confidencemotion by the deputy speaker of the National Assemblyand the subsequent dissolution of Parliament.A larger bench of the apex court - comprising Chief

Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, JusticeMazhar Alam Khan Miankhel, Justice Munib Akhtarand Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail - took up the matterafter Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri rejected the move todislodge the prime minister by declaring the no-trustmotion unmaintainable due to its link with a so-calledforeign conspiracy.President Arif Alvi, the Supreme Court Bar Associa-

tion and all political parties have been made respondentsin the case. Lawyers from the government and opposi-tion presented their argument regarding the ruling by thedeputy speaker. During the arguments, the chief justicerejected the opposition's plea for a full bench."The court will hear all representatives of the parties

before concluding the hearing," the chief justice saidduring the hearing. Later, the court adjourned the caseuntil 12pm on Tuesday. Chief Justice Bandial had earlierin the day said the court would issue a "reasonableorder" today on the issue. During the proceedings, Jus-tice Ahsan noted that there were violations in the pro-ceedings of the no-trust resolution, Dawn reported.Justice Bandial observed that a debate before voting

on the no-confidence motion had been clearly men-tioned in the law but didn't take place.Meanwhile, Justice Akhtar expressed dubiousness

over the deputy speaker's constitutional authority to passsuch a ruling, the paper said. In my opinion, he said, onlythe speaker had the right to pass the ruling. "The deputyspeaker chairs the session on the non-availability of thespeaker." Justice Bandial also observed that the deputy

speaker's ruling mentioned the meeting of the parlia-mentary committee for security. "The opposition delib-erately didn't attend the meeting," he said. Farooq HNaek, who was representing the joint opposition,pleaded the court to issue a verdict on the matter today.

Hong Kong leader Lam won’tseek new term after rocky 5 years

Page 6 April 05_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 8:28 PM Page 1

TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 NORTHEAST THE HILLS TIMES 7

AIZAWL, April 4 (PTI): Mizoram re-ported 34 fresh Covid-19 cases on

Monday, the lowest single-day spikethis year, taking the state's tally to2,24,788, a health department officialsaid.The Covid-19 death toll remained at

687 as no fresh fatality was reported inthe last 24 hours, he said.The single-day positivity rate dipped

to 7.51 per cent from 21.31 per centthe previous day, as the northeasternstate had reported 120 fresh Covid-19cases on Sunday, he said.Mizoram now has 978 Covid-19 ac-

tive cases, while 2,23,123 people have

recovered from the infection so far, in-cluding 53 people on Sunday. TheCovid-19 recovery rate now is 99.25per cent while the death rate is 0.30 percent.The state has so far tested more than

19 lakh samples for Covid-19, includ-ing 453 samples on Sunday.According to state immunisation of-

ficer Dr Lalmuanawma Jongte, over8.29 lakh people have been inoculatedtill Saturday and 6.70 lakh of themhave received both doses of the vac-cine.

Mizoram reports 34 fresh Covid-19 cases

United Naga Council wants AFSPA lifted from Manipur hillsSENAPATI, April 4 (NNN): United NagaCouncil (UNC) has questioned the govern-ment as to why the latter was selective in lift-ing Disturbed Areas Act (DAA). UNC hasexpressed concern that the government choseonly the ‘valley areas’ in Manipur for liftingthe Act. In this regard, UNC questioned the ra-tionale of not lifting AFSPA-1958 in the ‘HillAreas’ in Manipur when ceasefire agreementbetween Government of India and NSCN is inplace since 1997 and Suspension of Operation(SoO) with the "Kuki Chin Group" also is ef-fectively being implemented. "Any justifica-tion in this regard will defy any logic andhence will not stand the test of time. Hence, itis the best time to seriously engage in dialogueand sincerely address all issues for a lastingpolitical solution in the region," UNC said.According to UNC, in the context of Ma-

nipur State, the "usual discriminatory attitude"of the State Government has again laid bare

for the whole world to see. "Though NewDelhi alone has the power to make decision toaffect any changes on the matter, the input(s)from the State Government of the day is cru-cial and hence lifting of Disturbed Areas Actselectively only in the valley areas in Manipur

points to the fact that 'Hill Areas' will continueto be under AFSPA and endure the pain andagony of chauvinistic onslaught of the securityforces," UNC added.UNC then said that New Delhi had with-

drawn the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act

1958 in parts of the three North Eastern statesof Assam, Nagaland and Manipur on March31, 2022. It also said that the chief ministersof the three states have expressed appreciationto the BJP led government at the Centre by"profusely praising" the Prime Minister ofIndia, Narendra Modi for the perceived goodgesture. "United Naga Council knows it is adeceptive move to show that it is doing some-thing good, though no substantial change inmilitary mobilization can be seen from such amove in the area and that has no relevance tothe affected people," the Naga body added.The UNC then urged the Government of

India to desist from indulging in "usual dis-criminatory action and repeal this out-dated draconian law" wherever it is beingpromulgated. It added that such an "archaiclaw" that has its roots from the colonial pe-riod has no place and it is not needed inmodern democracy.

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS): Even asmany places across India are witnessingsevere to very severe heat waves, twoplaces in Meghalaya have been receivingexcessive rainfall of over 300 mm withina span of 24 hours, for the last 3-4 days.But the extremely heavy rainfall in

both Sohra (Cherrapunji) and Mawsyn-ram is normal during this pre-monsoonperiod and there have been some excep-tional days in the past when, in somecases, rainfall exceeded 400 mm in 24hours.The India Meteorology Department

(IMD) records showed Sohra, also knownas Cherrapunji, received 190 mm rainfallin 24 hours till 8.30 am on April 1, 360mm on April 2, barely 2.6 mm on April 3and again, 150 mm till 8.30 am on April4.Similarly, a nearby station Cherrapunji

RKM recorded 140 mm rainfall on April1; 370 mm rains on April 2; barely 4.3mm on April 3 while the data for Mondaywas not yet available.Mawsynram recorded 330 mm on April

1, 390 mm on April 2, barely 2.4 mm onApril 3 while Monday's data was notavailable.The IMD terms rainfall between 64.5

to 115.5 mm as 'heavy rain'; between'115.6 to 204.4 mm' as 'very heavy rain',and anything above 204.4 mm as 'ex-tremely heavy rain'.

Incidentally, most other areas inMeghalaya too have been receiving heavyrainfall but it is only these two places thathave been receiving bountiful rains. Rain-fall recorded till 8.30 am on Monday forother places in Meghalaya includes: An-larem - 410 mm, Mawjyrwat - 240 mm,Jowai - 200 mm, Mawphlang - 190 mm."These places - Mawsynram and Sohra

- have a very typical shape of catchmentarea and presence of orographic features.The catchment is funnel shaped and open-ing towards south - facing Bay of Bengal- so whenever moisture-laden southerlywinds are coming in lower level, they hitthese places almost at 90 degrees and dueto orographic lifting, these areas get en-hanced rainfall," explained Sunit Dasfrom IMD Guwahati.The IMD records have shown that

Cherrapunji has received as much as644.2 mm rainfall in the pre-monsoonseason on April 16, 1990. In recent times,it was 420 mm on April 24, 2016 and 330mm on April 27, 2017.Under the influence of strong south-

westerly winds from the Bay of Bengal tothe north-eastern states at lower tropos-pheric levels, fairly widespread to wide-spread rainfall is very likely overArunachal Pradesh, Assam-Meghalayaduring the next five days and isolated toscattered rainfall over Nagaland, Ma-nipur, Mizoram and Tripura during thenext two days and reduction thereafter.Isolated heavy rainfall is also likely

over Arunachal Pradesh on Tuesday andover Assam-Meghalaya on April 5, 7 and8 and over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal-Sikkim during April 5-7.

Extremely heavy rainfall in Mawsynram, Sohra in Meghalaya

IMPHAL, April 4 (IANS):Meiningsin-liu Pamei - a 10-year-old girl in Manipur,goes to school while babysitting her sisterin lap. A photograph and a video of Pamei- a student of Class 4, attending classeswhile babysitting her sister went viral on

the social media, drawing the attention ofManipur Power, Forest and Environmentminister Th. Biswajit Singh.Promising to support the girl, the min-

ister tweeted: “Her dedication for educa-tion is what left me amazed! This

10-year-old girl named MeiningsinliuPamei from Tamenglong, Manipur at-tends school babysitting her sister, as herparents were out for farming and studieswhile keeping her younger sister in herlap.”In a bid to extend support to Pamei, he

contacted the girl's relatives and askedthem to bring her to Imphal for a meetingwith him.“As soon as I noticed this news on so-

cial media, we traced her family andasked them to bring her to Imphal. Spoketo her family that I will personally takecare of her education till she graduates.Proud of her dedication!” Singh, who alsoholds the Agriculture, Science and Tech-nology department, said in another tweet.Pamei's family resides in Tamenglongdistrict in northern Manipur.According to the officials of Tameng-

long district, since the girl's parents wereout of their home in the daytime for farm-ing, the girl attended her classes whilebabysitting her sister, aged around 2years, in her lap.Pamei studies at Dailong Primary

School in Tamenglong district of Ma-nipur.

Manipur: 10-yr-old girl attends classes with sister in lap

AIZAWL, April 4 (PTI): The Mizoramgovernment banned the import of pigs andpork products after new cases of AfricanSwine Fever (ASF) were detected in thestate, as per an official notification. Therewill be a complete ban on the import of livepigs, fresh pork and all other pork products,including frozen pork, from other states andother countries until further orders, said thenotification issued on Saturday. The AnimalHusbandry and Veterinary Department will en-sure mandatory disinfection of pig-rearingpremises and enforce strict hygiene measuresand isolation of suspected pigs, it said. The de-partment will also ensure the safe disposal ofpig carcass in accordance with the National Ac-tion Plan for Control, Containment and Eradi-cation of African Swine Fever, it added.The government also issued helpline num-

bers -- 0389-2336441, 9436142908,9436151203 and 8794206212 -- for immedi-ate reporting of any unusual mortality ofpigs. Mizoram had on February 1 lifted the

ban on the import of pigs and pork products,17 months after it was imposed in August2020, as the outbreak of ASF was containedwith no cases reported since December lastyear. In the latest wave, 384 pig deaths havebeen reported. The latest deaths were re-ported from across five districts, as per offi-cials. ASF had claimed the lives of 33,417pigs between March and November last year,causing losses of ` 60.82 crore. A total of10,910 pigs were culled last year to preventthe spread of the disease.

Mizoram bans import of pigs, pork productsamid fresh African Swine Fever outbreak

AGARTALA, April 4 (PTI):Three suspected insurgents of Na-tional Liberation Front of Tripura(NLFT), facing trial in an abduc-tion and murder case, have over-powered jail guards and escapedpolice custody in North Tripuradistrict, a senior officer said onSunday. Lalthang Reang (38),Jiban Reang (29) and SangamaniReang (31) were arrested in con-nection with a case of kidnappingand murder of Litan Debnath, atrader in Unakoti district. Three jailguards along with nine undertrialprisoners had just returned fromthe district and sessions court,Dharmanagar, to Kanchanpur subjail in a prison van on Saturday

when the incident happened. "Sixout of nine undertrial prisoners hadalighted from the prison van andentered the jail premises. Threeprisoners, suspected to be activemembers of NLFT, however, at-tacked the guards after getting outof the van and fled the spot,” su-perintendent of police (in-charge),North, Jermia Darlong, told PTI onSunday. One jail guard, RanajoyChakraborty, was injured in the at-tack, he said.A manhunt has been launched in

the district, and along the state'sborder with Assam and Mizoram,the SP stated, adding the incidenthas led to panic among local resi-dents.

3 undertrial prisoners escapepolice custody in Tripura

Janasanyog/D/160/22

AIZAWL, April 4 (PTI):At leastthree persons, including a woman,were arrested after heroin worth Rs5.95 lakh was seized from theirpossession in south Mizoram'sLunglei district, an official of thestate Excise and Narcotics depart-ment said on Monday.Acting on a tip-off, officials of

the Excise and Narcotics depart-ment and volunteers of YoungMizo Association (YMA) jointlyraided an area between Pukpui andZotlang villages in Lunglei districton Sunday, he said.A total of 234.940 grams of

heroin worth Rs 5.95 lakh in thelocal market were recovered dur-ing the raid, he said.A vehicle used for transporting

the consignment was also seizedduring the operation, he said.

Heroin worth `5.95 lakh seized,three arrested

Page 7 April 5_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 7:57 PM Page 1

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI):Rajya Sabha proceedings were awashout on Monday as a unitedOpposition protested pressing for adiscussion on rising prices of fueland essential commodities.Opposition members also staged

a walkout in the Lok Sabha withseveral of them raising the issueduring Zero Hour.In the Upper House of Parlia-

ment, chairman M Venkaiah Naidudid not allow adjournment noticesmoved by Opposition members onthe issue of price rise, promptingmembers of the Congress, TMC,left parties, DMK, AAP, NCP, RJDand Shiv Sena to create an uproar.The Rajya Sabha was adjourned

twice during the pre-lunch periodand was adjourned soon after itmet after lunch.Soon after the laying of papers,

Naidu said he had received noticesfrom several members under Rule267 to discuss issues of price rise,including prices of petrol, diesel,and LPG, and said the issue has al-ready been discussed during thedebate on the Finance Bill and theAppropriation Bill.The chairman also informed that

Deepender S Hooda (Congress)

too had given a notice to discussthe resolution passed by the PunjabAssembly regarding transfer of theUnion Territory of Chandigarh.This notice too was not admittedby the chair."...Rule 267 is not the appropri-

ate rule (for such discussions), sothere is no question of accepting(the notices)," he said.As he disallowed the notices,

opposition members startedprotesting and were on their feetdemanding a discussion, forcingthe chairman to adjourn the Housetill 12 noon.

Members who had given noticefor suspension of the businessunder Rule 267 were Tiruchi Siva(DMK), Binoy Viswam (CPI),Abir Ranjan Biswas (TMC), and KC Venugopal (Congress).When the House met again at 12

noon, Opposition members wereon their feet and trooped into thewell raising slogans.Sasmit Patra, who was in the

chair, pleaded with the protestingmembers to return to their seatsand allow the Question Hour tofunction, but Opposition memberswere unrelenting and the chair was

forced to adjourn the House till 2PM. When the house met afterlunch at 2 PM, Opposition mem-bers again began protesting andtrooped into the well.While TMC leader Derek

O'Brien wanted the House to takeup the issue of reservation forwomen in the House, the Chairtried to bring order in the Houseand called Labour minister Bhu-pender Yadav to reply to a discus-sion of the working of the Ministryof Labour and Employment.However, as the Opposition

members continued with theirprotests and raised their demandfor a discussion on price rise, headjourned the House for the day.Opposition members, including

those from the Congress, TMC andShiv Sena, on Monday walked outof the Lok Sabha protesting againstfuel price hike.As soon as the Zero Hour began,

DMK members trooped into theWell shouting slogans. Later,members from other oppositionparties too stormed the Well raisingthe issue of fuel price rise.As Rajendra Agrawal, who was

in the chair continued to run theZero Hour, Congress, DMK, TMC,

Left parties, Shiv Sena and NCPstaged a walk out.Opposition members have been

demanding a discussion on risingprices of petrol, diesel and LPG fora few days and have been givingadjournment notices in bothhouses.Petrol prices were hiked for the

12th time in the last 14 days asglobal crude oil prices rose. In all,petrol prices have gone up by Rs8.40 per litre in the past two weeks.Congress chief whip in Rajya

Sabha Jairam Ramesh later said,"Today the combined oppositionforced an adjournment of the RajyaSabha for the entire day on theissue of continuing hike in petrol,diesel, cooking gas, and also in-crease in prices of other essentialcommodities, especially edible oiland fertilisers."Addressing the press outside

Parliament, BJP leader and Unionminister Bhupender Yadav saidOpposition members creatingruckus in Rajya Sabha reflectedtheir insensitivity to issues oflabourers and even towards seniorleaders in their ranks as they didnot let former Prime Minister H DDeve Gowda speak in the House.

Rajya Sabha proceedings washed out,Oppn walkout in LS over price rise

No impact of WHO action on Covaxin, havenot supplied to any UN agency: Bharat BiotechHYDERABAD, April 4(PTI): With the WHO an-nouncing the suspension ofCovaxin supply through UNprocurement agencies, BharatBiotech sources on Mondaysaid the pharma company hasnot supplied the Covid-19 vac-cine to any UN agency and noimpact of the suspensionwould be felt.So far, sources said, the firm

has supplied vaccines to theIndian government and aroundnine countries under the Cen-tre's Vaccine Maitri pro-gramme, and has made directcommercial supply underemergency use authorisation.Covaxin has received emer-

gency use approvals from over25 countries. “After we got anemergency licence in India, weapplied for EUL with theWHO and we also got that.The intent for EUL was to sup-ply vaccines to UN agencieslike UNICEF, PAHO andGAVI Covax facility.“But we have not received

any orders till date from any ofthe UN agencies. So we havenot made any supplies so far.We have only supplied vac-cines to government of Indiaand to quite a few other coun-tries but all these supplies werebased on EUA received fromthose countries," a companysource said.Gavi Covax, the interna-

tional vaccine alliance, hasalso not placed any orders forCovaxin, the source reiterated."Our vaccine certificates re-

main valid and there will be nointerruption in supplies inIndia,” a source said, stressingthat the “WHO itself has al-ready said that there is no im-pact on quality and safety".Citing good manufacturing

practices (GMP) deficiencies,the World Health Organization(WHO) on April 2 confirmedthe suspension of supply ofCovaxin through UN procure-ment agencies and recom-mended countries thatreceived the vaccine to takeactions as appropriate.In a statement, WHO had

said this suspension is in re-sponse to the outcome ofWHO post Emergency UseListing (EUL) inspection andthe need to conduct processand facility upgrade to addressrecently identified GMP defi-ciencies.On facility upgrade, com-

pany sources said on Mondaythat a lot of these facilitieswhere Covaxin is being madewere not designed specifically

for manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine.These are repurposed facili-

ties that were already existingfor manufacturing other vac-cines. "The facility designs arenot 100 per cent perfect formanufacturing Covid vac-cines. “We have given a com-mitment to WHO thatwhichever are those facilitieswhere we will manufactureCovaxin in future will be per-fectly designed for manufac-turing Covaxin. These arefacility upgrades that we arecoming up," the source said. Insome places it will be facilityupgradation while in someplaces it will be procurementof equipments. “Our vaccinecertificates remain valid andthere will be no interruption insupplies in India. They (WHO)have given just a global advi-sory, countries get to decidewhat they need to do,” thesource pointed out.The WHO officials carried

out an inspection of the BB fa-

cility during March 14-22.It was not a surprise visit,

the sources said, adding therewas no inspection before theEUL was granted and theWHO audit focused on Cov-axin.In response to a question,

the source said once all facilityupgrades are done "we willapply to WHO for full licen-sure for Covaxin" in duecourse of time. Responding toa question, sources said that inthe pharma world or in thevaccine space, any kind of reg-ulatory audits and approvalsare part of the process.“We have got some feed-

back. We will do the facilitymodifications and the mainte-nance and upgrades that are re-quired and move forward.These are small issues and wedon't see them as a final orpenal issue," the source said."Also the feedback or obser-

vations that we have receivedis not anything that is detri-mental to future products.WHO itself has already saidthat there is no impact on qual-ity and safety," the source saidAsked about possible cost

escalation, the source said itwill be in tens of crores of ru-pees. On Bharat Biotech issu-ing a statement on April 1announcing temporary slow-ing down of production of Co-vaxin across its manufacturingfacilities, the source said thefacilities did not have a breakfor 15 months due to produc-tion pressure.

KOLKATA, April 4 (PTI): Withfuel prices touching a new highevery day, private bus and cab op-erators are contemplating takingtheir vehicles off the roads if thestate and central governments didnot provide some succour in theform of an allowance or make wayfor fare hikes to support the ailingtransport sector.Petrol and diesel prices were

hiked by 40 paise a litre each, tak-ing the total increase in rates in thelast two weeks to ` 8.40 per litre.This is the 12th hike in oil pricessince March 22.On Monday, petrol price in

Kolkata stood at ` 113.45 per litre,and diesel price at ` 98.22 per litre.The operators said the minimum

bus fare should be hiked to ` 15from ` 10, while for yellow taxis,the starting meter rate should be Rs50 from ` 30. General secretary of West Ben-

gal Online Cab Operators Guild,Indranil Banerjee, said they wantedcab aggregators to raise the fare by` 25 per km for AC rides and by `20 per km for standard trips.Tapan Banerjee, the general sec-

retary of Joint Council of Bus Syn-dicate, said only 30 per cent of the42,000 private buses are plying thecity roads at present, and the num-ber would dwindle further if oilprices continue to surge.“Private operators are already

bleeding under the dual effect of in-creasing operation costs and penal-ties charged by the traffic police.Hike in fuel prices have added totheir woes. The operators unable topay insurance fees," Banerjee toldPTI. The state government, in Jan-uary, effected a 10-fold increase intraffic violation fines.As buses and minibuses stayed

off the roads for the major part of2020 and 2021 due to pandemic-re-lated restrictions, maintenance costof vehicles went up during the pe-riod. Ninety per cent of the vehicleowners have failed to repay bankloans under such circumstances."We sent several letters to the

Prime Minister and chief minister,but neither the Centre nor the stategovernment responded. From highinsurance premium to EMIs, thebus owners have to shell out everypenny from their pockets while notmaking any profit from their dailytrips," he said.A bus incurs an average expense

of ̀ 4,500-5,000 per day, while fuelcost goes up to ` 11,000 for long-distance trips to places like Dighaand Siliguri."As the last revision was effected

in 2018, employees of many buseshave upped fares at different stagesunofficially, but the extra earningsare usually pocketed by them. Wedemand that a regulatory commit-tee be formed to examine all as-pects and fix fares accordingly. Ifthe minimum fare of Rs 7 is not re-vised immediately, all buses willstop hitting the roads," Banerjeestated.As fuel does not come under

GST, central excise and VAT getlevied on petrol and diesel.Currently, the state imposes 25

per cent VAT on petrol and 17 percent on diesel.The Centre levies ` 27.90 excise

on every litre of petrol and ` 21.80on diesel.The bus association also de-

manded that the deadline to payfees and taxes applicable on the ve-hicles which did not hit the roads in2020-21 be extended till March2023. It also sought a package fromthe Centre and the state to boost theailing sector.The secretary of West Bengal

Bus and Minibus Owners Associa-tion, Pradip Narayan Basu, said,"Not more than 2,000 buses andminibuses plied the roads on Mon-day. “We will be holding talks withtransport minister Firhad Hakim tosort out problems and save the in-dustry," he said, adding that manyvehicles took to the roads only onthose days when the passenger vol-ume was expected to be higher thanusual. Nawal Kishore Srivastava ofWest Bengal Taxi Operators' Co-ordination Committee, affiliatedwith the All India Trade UnionCongress (AITUC), said around13,000-14,000 taxis are currentlyoperating in the city instead of thesanctioned 22,000. “Most yellowtaxis have gone off the roads due tohigh fuel prices. If the fares are notrevised, it will be tough to bringout the vehicles. We will meet thetransport minister soon o seek asolution,” he said.App cab operator Uber has re-

cently increased its fares by 12 percent in Kolkata. “After listening tofeedbacks from drivers, we haveunderstood that the current rise infuel prices is causing concern.

Fuel price hike: Buses,taxis in Bengal may go offroads if fares not revised

CHANDIGARH, April 4 (PTI): Ahead of a specialsession of the Haryana assembly, Congress leaderNavjot Singh Sidhu on Monday asserted that Chandi-garh always belonged to Punjab while his party col-league Sunil Jakhar said the “lost cause” will onlycreate acrimony between the two states.The Haryana government has summoned a special

session of the assembly here on Tuesday, days after thePunjab assembly passed a resolution seeking immedi-ate transfer of Chandigarh to the AAP-ruled state.Haryana leaders have been demanding the comple-

tion of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal for getting thestate's river water share from Punjab. They have alsosought the transfer of 400 Hindi-speaking villages toHaryana.Asserting that Chandigarh belongs to Punjab and

will always remain so, former Punjab Congress chiefSidhu also predicted that its next big battle withHaryana will be over river waters.Referring to the Haryana assembly's special session,

Sidhu's predecessor Sunil Jakhar, in a separate tweet,said the brotherhood between the people of Punjab andHaryana will be the “first casualty” of the “rising tem-pers” over the “lost cause” of Chandigarh.The Union Territory of Chandigarh is the common

capital of Punjab and Haryana.Earlier in a tweet in Hindu, Sidhu said that built on

27 villages of Punjab, Chandigarh belonged to Punjaband will remain so."Kahin pe nigahein, kahin pe nishana," Sidhu

tweeted, suggesting that the real target for Haryana wasnot Chandigarh, but the river waters.“Chandigarh is just an excuse, the target is Punjab's

river waters. Beware the next big battle is for the riverwaters of Punjab,” he said.Sidhu, who lost during the recent Punjab assembly

elections from Amritsar East, also tagged AAP nationalconvener Arvind Kejriwal, state Chief Minister Bhag-want Mann and Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattarwith his tweet. The SYL canal issue has been a boneof contention between Punjab and Haryana for several

decades. In the past, Punjab had been demanding a re-assessment of its share of the Ravi-Beas river waterswhile Haryana had been seeking completion of theSYL canal to get its share of 3.5 million acre-feet(MAF) of water. The Punjab government's move to bring a resolution

in the state assembly came in the wake of the Centre'sannouncement that the Central Service Rules willapply to the employees of the Union Territory ofChandigarh. Dubbing Chandigarh as a “lost cause”, Jakhar in a

tweet apprehended that the brotherhood between thepeople of two neighbouring state will be the “first ca-sualty” of the “rising tempers” over it. He also posted a picture of a short story of two fight-

ing cats and a monkey, seeking to give a message ofsomeone else's gain during a quarrel between the two.“The camaraderie, the brotherhood between people

of Pb/Hry, reinforced at Singhu/Tikri borders, will bethe 1st casualty of rising tempers & acrimony over the'lost cause' of Chandigarh as Haryana too convenes aspecial session, to give a 'befitting reply' to Punjab.And winner is… ,” said Jakhar in a tweet.Notably, farmers from Punjab and Haryana had

camped at Singhu and Tikri borders near Delhi formore than a year to protest against the Centre's now-repealed three farm laws.

Chandigarh belongs to Punjab, says Sidhu;Jakhar warns against acrimony over ‘lost cause’

THE HILLS TIMES NATION TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 20228

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI): LokSabha on Monday passed the Crim-inal Procedure (Identification) Billthat seeks to take measurements ofconvicts and other persons for pur-poses of identification and investi-gation in criminal matters.The bill was passed by a voice

vote after Home minister AmitShah allayed concerns raised by theOpposition which claimed that thedraft law was draconian.

The bill replaces the Identifica-tion of Prisoners Act, 1920.Shah said the bill has been

brought in to ensure that police andinvestigators remain two stepsahead of criminals."There should be no apprehen-

sion," he added."Next-generation crimes cannot

be tackled with old techniques. Wehave to try to take criminal justicesystem to the next era," Shah said.

Lok Sabha passes CriminalProcedure (Identification) Bill

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI): India's envoy to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatrawas on Monday appointed as the new Foreign Secretary, succeeding HarshVardhan Shringla who will retire at the end of this month, a personnel min-istry order said. Announcing the appointment of Kwatra, a 1988-batch IFSofficer, the ministry said he will take charge as the foreign secretary onApril 30. Kwatra's appointment was approved by the Appointments Com-mittee of the Cabinet. Before his diplomatic posting to Nepal in 2020, heserved as the Ambassador of India to France from August 2017 to February2020. A career diplomat with over 32 years of experience, Kwatra has alsoheld the position of a joint secretary in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO)for two years between Oct 2015 to August 2017. Kwatra headed the policyplanning & research division of the Ministry of External Affairs betweenJuly 2013 and Oct 2015 and later served as the head of the Americas Divi-sion in the Foreign Ministry where he dealt with India's relations with theUnited States and Canada. He served as minister (Commerce) in the Em-bassy of India, Washington from May 2010 till July 2013. Between 2003and 2006, he served as a Counsellor and later as the deputy chief of Missionin the Embassy of India, Beijing, China. After joining the service, he servedas Third Secretary and then Second Secretary in the Permanent Mission ofIndia in Geneva until 1993, where apart from learning the French language, hehandled work relating to the UN specialized agencies, as also the Human RightsCommission. During this period, he also obtained a diploma in InternationalRelations from the Graduate School of International Studies in Geneva.

Govt appoints Vinay Mohan Kwatraas India’s next Foreign Secretary

Page 8 April 05_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 9:13 PM Page 1

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI): Ina boost to the efforts of construc-tion of stalled projects of Amra-pali, the Supreme Court was onMonday told that a consortium ofseven banks have granted final ap-proval to infuse ` 1500 crore outof which ` 150 has been directlypaid to National Buildings Con-struction Corporation (NBCC). A bench of Justices UU Lalit

and Bela M Trivedi was told bycourt receiver R Venkataramanithat the rest of the amount couldnot be released as banks said thatfor the purposes of disbursal offunds they would require equitablemortgage by deposit of title deedsas a pre-condition. The top court was told that one

of the reasons pertains to some ofthe observations made by thiscourt in its judgement dated July23, 2019, in one of the paragraphsof the judgement and some clarifi-cation was sought. Venkataramani in his note

pointed out that the top court hadin its judgement said that all leasesin favour of Amrapali Group ofcompanies stand cancelled whichin effect would mean that therewould be no title document thatcould be deposited in the banks. The court receiver and counsel

appearing for the consortium ofbanks said that the situation couldbe salvaged if the name of the Am-rapali Group of companies couldbe substituted by the court re-ceiver.The bench said that it was pre-

cisely for which reasons the ex-

pression used in the judgement is“vest in court receiver” or “right ofthe lessee shall rest in court re-ceiver”. The bench noted the agreement

of advocate Ravindra Kumar, ap-pearing for NOIDA and GreaterNoida authority, and directed theauthorities to withdraw the leasedeeds of Amrapali Projects withrespect to NOIDA and GreaterNOIDA and make available thesedeeds to the court receiver, so thatequitable mortgage could be cre-ated in favour of the consortium. “Let the needful be done within

seven days from today”, the benchsaid. It also dealt with one otherobjection of the banks which per-tained to statutory approvals whichaccording to the banks are requiredfor the disbursal of further funds. “The statutory approvals could

be those which are required at theinitial stage of inception before thestage of construction or those

which are required before issuanceof final completion certificate isaccorded”, the bench said. It said that since the projects are

still in the stage of construction…, “Thus all the statutory approvalswhich are required before the con-struction can be taken or startedshall be obtained as early as possi-ble and the same may be providedto the receiver for further action inthis regard”.The top court also asked the

court receiver that where construc-tion is completed he shall executeappropriate documents in favour ofthe association of buyers. “You must also get out of the

scenario. The receiver is not sup-posed to be there for eternity. Restis for the association of owners todo”, the bench said. Venkataramani said he has some

plans for the issue and would beplaced before the court after a cou-ple of weeks.

TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 NATION THE HILLS TIMES 9

GORAKHPUR/LUCKNOW,April 4 (PTI): An IIT graduate at-tacked two policemen with asharp-edged weapon at a gate ofthe famed Gorakhnath temple andtried to barge into premises beforebeing overpowered, Uttar Pradeshofficials said Monday terming it a"terror incident".The attack occurred on Sunday

evening at the temple which isunder high security as it is fre-quently visited by chief ministerYogi Adityanath, who is the headseer.The accused, identified as Mur-

taza Abbasi, was arrested and hasbeen sent to judicial remand fortwo weeks, police said and allegedthat he tried to forcibly enter thetemple, which was teeming withdevotees during the Navratri festi-val, after raising the religious slo-gan of "Allahu Akbar".Videos shared on social media

showed the man brandishing alarge sickle and roaming around onthe premises, as some took coverwhile others threw stones at him.Soon a group a devotees alongwith security personnel surroundedhim and pinned him to the ground.Murtaza was earlier taken to

hospital and produced in a localcourt on Monday. His father MunirAbbasi said Murtaza belonged tothe 2015 batch of IIT-Mumbai andwas a chemical engineer.Speaking to a TV channel, he

claimed that his son was mentallyunstable and that this should be

taken into account.In a statement, the UP Home

Department said, "The attack onpolice jawans at Gorakhnath tem-ple in Gorakhpur is a part of deepconspiracy, and based on the avail-able facts, it can be said that it wasa terror incident."ADG, Gorakhpur zone, Akhil

Kumar said Provincial ArmedConstabulary (PAC) constablesGopal Gaur and Anil Paswan wereinjured as they tried to stop the ac-cused who went to a PAC post neargate no 1 and attacked the securitypersonnel.Chief minister Adityanath vis-

ited the injured constables at theBRD Medical College hospital. Hehas announced a cash reward of Rs

5 lakh for the two jawans and con-stable Anurag Rajput for foilingthe attack.Additional director general

(Law and Order) Prashant Kumarsaid the documents recovered fromAbbasi “are quite sensational”.He said that if the accused had

managed to enter the temple, thedevotees would have been harmedand the situation could have goneout of control.Additional chief secretary

(Home) Awanish Awasthi said inLucknow that the incident will beinvestigated by the Uttar PradeshAnti-Terrorism Squad (ATS).“Directions have been given to

UP ATS and UP STF to workjointly to probe the incident,” he

said. SSP Gorakhpur Vipin Tadasaid that a case under various seri-ous sections including section 307IPC (attempt to murder) and sec-tion 7 Criminal Law AmendmentAct have been registered againstthe attacker.Details emerging in the interro-

gation of the accused during ques-tioning will be investigated by fiveteams, he said.Police teams are being sent to

other districts to verify informationprovided by the attacker till now,the SSP said, adding that things re-covered from his possession, hisfamily, relatives and backgroundand the nearby CCTV cameras arebeing checked.Action will be taken on the basis

of the investigation report, he said.The attacker had tried to enter

the temple premises with bad in-tention, which was neutralised bythe brave jawans of the PAC andpolice, the state Home Departmentsaid.Reacting to the incident, Union

minister Giriraj Singh said thecountry does not face a threat fromthe rising Muslim population butfrom the "extremist mindset" thatwas behind the attack on securitypersonnel at Gorakhnath temple,and hit out at the opposition overits "silence".The Gorakhnath temple is the

highest Peeth of the Nath sect andUttar Pradesh chief ministerAdityanath is the Mahant of thisPeeth.

IIT graduate attacks two constablesat Gorakhnath temple; ATS to probe

Contd. from Page 1...

Bank Consortium gives final approval of ` 1500 Crfor Amrapali projects, ` 150 Cr disbursed: SC

KOLKATA, April 4 (PTI): TheCalcutta High Court on Mondayordered a CBI investigation intothe murder of Congress councillorTapan Kandu of Jhalda municipal-ity in West Bengal's Purulia dis-trict. Justice Rajasekhar Mantha di-

rected the central agency to submita report on its investigation in thecase in 45 days.Ordering the transfer of the in-

vestigation from the West Bengalpolice to the CBI, the court di-rected the state police to hand overall documents related to the case tothe central agency.Kandu was shot dead by as-

sailants on March 13 while he wason an evening walk at Jhalda nearhis residence. The councillor's widow Purnima

Kandu had moved the high courtseeking a CBI investigation in themurder of her husband, allegingcomplicity of local police in thecase.The counsel for Purnima sub-

mitted before the court that the su-perintendent of police of Puruliadistrict in a press conference onSunday gave a clean chit to the in-spector in charge of Jhalda policestation even before the probe bythe state police was completed.A report submitted by the SP be-

fore the court on Friday had statedthat two persons were arrested inconnection with the murder ofKandu. The SP had told the media that

the murder was a result of a familyfeud and the two arrested were rel-atives of the deceased.

Cal HC orders CBIprobe into murder ofCongress councillor

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI):Global emissions can be halved by2030 with major transitions in theenergy sector, including a substan-tial reduction in fossil fuel use, saidan IPCC report released on Monday,highlighting that mitigation actionneeds to be taken now to limitglobal warming to 1.5 degrees Cel-sius. The Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC) WorkingGroup III report 'Climate Change2022: Mitigation of ClimateChange', which was released world-wide, said that in 2010-2019, the av-erage annual global greenhouse gasemissions were at their highest lev-els in human history."Limiting global warming will re-

quire major transitions in the energysector. This will involve a substan-tial reduction in fossil fuel use,widespread electrification, im-proved energy efficiency, and use ofalternative fuels (such as hydro-gen)," the report said.Without immediate deep emis-

sions reduction across all sectors,limiting global warming to 1.5 de-grees Celsius is beyond reach. How-ever, there is increasing evidence ofclimate action, said scientists in thelatest report."We are at crossroads. The deci-

sions we make now can secure aliveable future. We have the toolsand knowhow required to limitwarming," said IPCC Chair Hoe-sung Lee. "I am encouraged by cli-

mate action being taken in manycountries. There are policies, regu-lations and market instruments thatare proving effective. If these arescaled up and applied more widelyand equitably, they can support deepemissions reductions and stimulateinnovation," Lee said.Joyashree Roy, one of the coordi-

nating authors of the report, said animportant takeaway from the reportis that the next few years will becritical when countries will decidemitigating actions."Unless mitigation action is

taken, 1.5 degrees limit cannot bereached. We need to ramp up actionwithout delay. The report says thereare ways to improve our chances ofsuccess to limit global warming to1.5 degrees Celsius," Roy said in apress briefing.Another co-author of the report,

Navroz K Dubash said that focusshould be on doing as much as pos-sible in the short run."What can be done in this decade

is very important. We have to lookat the next 10 years first and not justat targets for 2050," he said. The re-port was approved by 195 membergovernments of the IPCC through avirtual approval session that startedon March 21. It is the third instal-ment of the IPCC's sixth assessmentreport (AR6), which will be com-pleted this year."Having the right policies, infra-

structure and technology in place toenable changes to our lifestyles andbehaviour can result in a 40-70 percent reduction in greenhouse gasemissions by 2050. This offers sig-nificant untapped potential," saidIPCC Working Group III Co-ChairPriyadarshi Shukla.

"The evidence also shows thatthese lifestyle changes can improveour health and well-being," Shuklasaid. According to the report, reduc-ing emissions in industry will in-volve using materials moreefficiently, reusing and recyclingproducts and minimising waste. Forbasic materials, including steel,building materials and chemicals,low-to zero-green house gas pro-duction processes are at their pilotto near-commercial stage, it said."This sector accounts for about a

quarter of global emissions. Achiev-ing net zero will be challenging andwill require new productionprocesses, low and zero emissionselectricity, hydrogen, and, wherenecessary, carbon capture and stor-age. "Agriculture, forestry, and otherland use can provide large-scaleemissions reductions and also re-move and store carbon dioxide atscale. However, land cannot com-pensate for delayed emissions re-ductions in other sectors. Responseoptions can benefit biodiversity,help us adapt to climate change, andsecure livelihoods, food and water,and wood supplies," it said.The report cautioned that limiting

warming to around 1.5 degrees Cel-sius requires global greenhouse gasemissions to peak before 2025 at thelatest, and be reduced by 43 per centby 2030, and at the same time,methane would also need to be re-duced by about a third.

Global emissions can be halved by 2030 withmajor transitions in energy sector: IPCC report

Pramod presents ` 113.65Assembly and salary of BTC Legislative Assembly. Giving assurance for maintaining financial stability of the

council, he said that efforts had been taken to carry forward all round development of the council, along with com-pression of non-essential expenditure, close monitoring of various departments' schemes with strict enforcementof financial discipline, transparency and accountability. He also mentioned about Bodoland Territorial Council Vi-sion-2030, a road map on how sustainable development goals could be contextualised in Bodoland Territorial Re-gion (BTR) for establishment of stronger and integrated governance system.During his speech, BTC chief executive member Boro conveyed his gratitude to Prime Minister of India Naren-

dra Modi and Home minister Amit Shah for the special financial assistance of ̀ 1500 crore as per BTR agreementalong with Assam chief minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma for announcing an ex-gratia payment of `5 lakh eachto 500 martyr families of Bodoland movement by allocating ` 25 crore in the current state budget.He also informed that his government would provide school uniforms and bicycles to poor students, motor-

bikes with ice boxes to fish vendors, house building materials to poor rural households, tricycles to differently-abled persons, tricycles to municipalities to carry waste materials, including for establishment of digital officemanagement system with a view to establish accountability, transparency and responsive system in BTC. As per the budget estimates of BTC for the financial year 2022-23, he has earmarked for all 41 departments of

BTC as ` 93.80 crore for the Public Works Department under SOPD for construction and conversion of 100 Kmroads and 10 Km bridges respectively, ` 52.34 crore for Panchayat and Rural Development to ensure effectiverural development, ` 127.1606 crore for Education department for residential coaching to 50 meritorious studentsunder Bodoland Super-50 Mission and construction and renovation of schools, boundary walls, additional classrooms, smart class rooms, etc, ` 48.50 crore for Environment and Forest, ` 1314.7034 crore for WPT and BC, `5 crore for Land Revenue and Disaster Management, ` 72.92 crore for Health and Family Welfare department, `5.90 crore for Public Health Engineering, `11.75 crore for Urban Development, ` 27 crore for Crop Husbandryand Agriculture Engineering department, ` 124.8934 crore for Irrigation department, `19.50 crore for Water Re-sources department, ̀ 10 crore, for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department, ̀ 7 crore for Soil Conservation,` 2.90 crore for Dairy Development department, ` 7 crore for Fishery department, ` 4 crore for Co-operation de-partment, ` 6 crore for Industry department, ` 15.2136 crore for Handloom and Textile, ` 7.40 crore for Sportsand Youth Welfare department, ` 8.66 crore for Social Welfare department, ` 37.48 crore for Public Works byGAD of BTC, ` 5.50 crore for Sericulture, ` 4.90 crore for Transport services, ` 8.66 crore for Tourism, ` 61 lakhfor Economic and Statistics, ̀ 55 lakh for Food, Civil Supply and Consumer Affairs, ̀ 35 lakh for Legal Metrologydepartment, ̀ 4.90 crore, ̀ 4.20 crore for Library services, ̀ 1.30 crore for Museum and Archeology, ̀ 3.90 crorefor Information and Public Relations department, ̀ 2 crore for Printing and Stationery, ̀ 12.15 crore for Skill Em-ployment and Entrepreneurship, ` 50 lakh for Labour and Employment, ` 15 lakh for Excise department, `3.70crore for Market and Fairs, ` 3.15 crore for Cinema/Theater department and ` 4.15 crore for Transformation andDevelopment department. On the first day, as per the business schedule, speaker announced the report of the Busi-ness Advisory Committee under Rule 230 of the Council Legislative Assembly. He also announced the names ofthe members of the panel of chairmen under 9(1) of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in BodolandTerritorial Council Legislative Assembly. During the session, question hour and obituary references were alsoheld. Meanwhile, Opposition BPF party members walked out of the house objecting the Government businessschedule from the BTC Budget session of Bodoland Territorial Council Legislative Assembly which was startedfrom Monday at BTCLA House in Kokrajhar. Opposition members have strongly objected over the deferred ofsession calendar i.e. question hour to the next item and subsequently walked out from the session in the initialstage. The Opposition leader Derhasat Basumatary strongly opposed the speaker's agenda deferred in the initialstage of the session. Later, Opposition members participated in the question hour which was carried out in thenext item just after Budget presentation. The Opposition have expressed their dissatisfaction over the Budget tabledby BTC CEM Pramod Boro in the BTC Budget session.

CEM pats Garos for maintaining The MP is a former insurgent leader. He said the Garos deserved a seat from the proposed 44 seats when

MoS is implemented in Karbi Anglong and West Karbi Anglong. Earlier, the ad-hoc committee of KAGU wasmade full-fledged for a five-year term. The Union also submitted a memorandum to CEM of KAAC, TuliramRonghang urging him to convert Garo and Karbi villages into Revenue Village, appointment of qualified lan-guage teachers, Union Office building, protection of scattered Garo pocket villages of Karbi Anglong, etc. TheReception Committee reported having registered 356 delegates from all over Karbi Anglong. Join director ofTura Civil Hospital Meghalaya, Dr Brijitrani Marak, a classmate of the CEM of KAAC, Ronghang, MLA Rups-ing Teron, deputy chairman of KAAC, Ritesh Enghee, executive members of KAAC and supporters were pres-ent at the conference.

KA Cong protests against price Member of Autonomous Council (MAC) election to Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) from the

chief executive member (CEM) of KAAC, Tuliram Ronghang. The KADCC president said, “Tuliram Ronghanghas misappropriated all the funds meant for development purposes. Now the KAAC election is coming and if Tuli-ram Ronghang gives you money you should take it as it is your money, but don’t vote for him.”Addressing media persons chairman of Media Cell, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), Monjit Ma-

hanta said, “Why is BJP government fooling the people. If chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma can’t rule thestate then he should better resign. There are many efficient and capable leaders who can rule the state.” Mahantasaid the price of all commodities including petrol, diesel and LPG has been increasing since April 1. The price ofdomestic LPG gas has increased to more than ̀ 1000. At today’s price per litre petrol is Rs.104. diesel has increasedand likewise, the price per litre of mustard oil has shot up. The Assembly elections in various states are over andnow the government has again started to increase the prices of commodities to harass the people. Mahanta alsosaid that the government has not spared medicines as well. Prices of various life-saving drugs have increased con-siderably. The price of insulin has increased which is causing inconvenience to diabetic patients. The BJP partysaid ‘ache din aye’, but is this ‘ache din aye’ for the common people? he questioned. Mahanta also said that whenCongress was ruling the country the BJP protested that petrol and diesel prices have increased so much. But nowthe BJP government has increased the prices so much that the common man is finding it difficult to live. The gov-ernment is killing the people and the Congress wants a reduction in the prices of commodities. When asked aboutthe visit of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and Assam chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma to Karbi Anglongthe chairman of Congress Media Cell said as KAAC election is coming they are coming here bringing with themfull bags of lies. The protest was attended by vice president, APCC, Raju Sahu and general secretary, i/c, KarbiAnglong district Gulap Saikia and vice presidents and general secretaries of KADCC.

PM to lay base of major projects constituted a core committee and sub-committee for smooth functioning of the event, stated DIPRO. In this

regard, the different departments were given duties and responsibilities. The core committees will be chairedby the CEM with secretaries of KAAC and will supervise the sub-committee of all departments. 4 lakh peopleare likely to gather for the visits.Moreover, during the three-day visit of Assam chief minister at Diphu a public meeting will be held and he

will distribute cheques to surrendered militants and also hand over appointment letters to TET qualified teachers,stated DIPRO.

Three car lifters arrestedstolen one. The apprehended persons have been identified as Sangita Yadav and Ravinder Yadav, husband and

wife, residents of flat No. 14 ground floor South Extension, Garh road under Medical police station, Meerut district,Uttar Pradesh and Aashish Choudhary, son of Harinder Singh of Iklota Modipuram village under Medical policestation, Meerut district, Uttar Pradesh.

Illegal bench mill busted "We will continue our raids against illegal functioning of bench mills," said a forest official. Meanwhile, the

Forest department has started a massive operation against the illegal functioning of timber mills in Dibrugarh."Many illegal bench mills are operating in Rohmoria and Barbaruah. In the Rohmoria area, most of the people

have makeshift bench mills, which are used for cutting timbers. After knowing everything, the Forest departmentbecomes a mute spectator," said a source. He said, "The illegal bench mills owners in Dibrugarh have an unholynexus with some officials of the Forest department. The mushrooming growth of the illegal bench mills has becomea threat for the biodiversity of the region."

Tribal literary and cultural Council, Tuliram Ronghang. Writers’ meet will also be organised, where writers and poets can present their

short stories, articles and poems. Two awards will be awarded, i.e. Joysing Hanse Memorial Award and DhormesorPutuki Child Literary Award.Asam Sahitya Sabha president Kuladhar Saikia and vice president Mrinalini Devi shall also grace the meet.

Sri Lanka’s Oppn rejects President’s All 26 Cabinet ministers handed in their resignations after thousands of people defied a countrywide state of

emergency and curfew and joined street protests denouncing the government. Following the Cabinet's resignationRajapaksa made an open invitation for all parties to join the unity Cabinet to tackle the current economic crisis.Despite the declaration of the state of emergency and a weekend curfew, people joined the protests calling for

the resignation of Rajapaksa. It appeared that Rajapaksa's unity Cabinet plea had no resonance with the public asthey were out in larger numbers, calling for the resignation of the entire Rajapaksa family from politics.Basil, who had negotiated the Indian economic relief package to help Sri Lanka tackle the current foreign ex-

change crisis, was at the centre of anger within the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) coalition. He hasbeen replaced by Ali Sabry, who was until Sunday night the Minister of Justice. Basil was scheduled to leave forthe US to meet with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a possible bailout package to get over the un-precedented economic crisis. After the resignation of the Cabinet Ministers on Sunday, at least three other newministers were sworn in. G L Peiris has been sworn in as the Foreign Minister while Dinesh Gunawardena is thenew Education Minister. Johnston Fernando has been made the new Minister of Highways. There have been masspublic agitations against the ruling Rajapaksa family for its mishandling of the economic situation triggered bythe foreign exchange crisis and the balance of payment issues. The public thronged the streets asking the presidentto resign. The protests triggered the imposition of curfew after a state of emergency was declared by the President.When the protests intensified, the government clamped a social media ban for 15 hours on Sunday. The peopledefied the curfew to protest against long queues for fuel and gas and long hours without electricity. Governor ofthe Central Bank Ajith Nivard Cabraal has also announced his resignation. “In the context of all Cabinet ministersresigning, I have today submitted my resignation as Governor,” he said. Cabraal was blamed for his rigid stanceon Sri Lanka seeking an economic bailout through an IMF structural adjustment facility. Despite his opposition,the government in the last fortnight approached the international lender for support. During his governorship, theCentral Bank was accused of printing large volumes of money, triggering inflation.

Page 9 April 5_Normal Pages 4/4/2022 10:44 PM Page 1

10 THE HILLS TIMES ENTERTAINMENT TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022

LOS ANGELES, April 4 (IANS): A week after the Oscars, the 64thAnnual Grammy Awards also omitted legendary Indian playback singerLata Mangeshkar in the 'In Memoriam' section during the ceremonyheld at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

The Grammys' 2022 In Memoriam section paid their heartfelt tributeto songs by the late Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, performedby Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Ben Platt and Rachel Zegler. TaylorHawkins and Tom Parker were also honoured.

Lata Mangeshkar, lovingly known as the 'Nightingale of India',passed away on January 6 due to multiple organ failure aged 92.

The fans took to Twitter to criticise the Recording Academy, the in-stitution that conducts Hollywood's biggest musical awards night.

This did not go down well with fans.A user wrote: "A little unrelated, but when they were paying tributes

to artists who passed away this year and there was no mention of LataMangeshkar- India's most loved singer, it all felt so futile and insignifi-cant. These shows have no regard for 'global' music- only American."

"Grammy's s*** for not including Lata Mangeshkar for the memo-riam section. she's one of the most iconic voices to ever grace thisearth. just proves once again how isolated the grammy's are and howthey fail to include legendary voices known by billions. yes, billions,"said another. A fan said he feels sad that "Lata Mangeshkar wasn't men-tioned once"

Silk Sonic’s ‘Leavethe Door Open’ bagsRecord of The Year

LOS ANGELES, April 4(IANS): Musician Jon Batiste, whowas nominated for 11 Grammys,was the big winner of the night,picking up five trophies, includingalbum of the year for 'We Are'.

Silk Sonic, a group featuring thecollective talents of Bruno Marsand Anderson Paak, picked up fourawards, including record of theyear, while Olivia Rodrigo and FooFighters each collected threeGrammy Awards, reports 'Variety'.

"The creative arts are objective.It will find the person when theyneed it the most. Be you!," amoved Batiste said in his accept-ance speech.

After a two-month delay, the64th Annual Grammy Awards tookplace on Sunday night, live fromthe MGM Grand Garden Arena inLas Vegas, without a slap in sightand "keeping people's names out ofour mouths", joked host TrevorNoah early in the night.

Being back in person after a vir-tual setting revived the Grammyswith in-person performances by Lil

Nas X, BTS, Silk Sonic, LadyGaga (with a virtual introductionby Tony Bennett), Rodrigo,Batiste, Justin Bieber with Giveonand Daniel Caesar, Billie Eilishand Finneas, and more.

In an emotional moment,Ukrainian President VolodymyrZelenskyy addressed the audiencewith a taped message introducing aperformance by John Legend, ac-companied by Ukrainian artistMika Newton and poet LyubaYkimichiuk performing "Free".

"Our musicians wear body ar-mour instead of tuxedos," he said."We are fighting Russia whichbrings horrible silence with itsbombs. The dead silence. Fill thesilence with your music."

The Grammys were initiallyscheduled to take place on Janu-ary 31, at the Crypto.com Arenain Los Angeles. However, due tothe Omicron surge in late 2021,the event was postponed untilspring and moved to the MGMArena, which has housed theLatin Grammy Awards for six

years.The evening also took an oppor-

tunity to shine a light on womenworking behind the scenes, withEilish's production manager NicoleMassey doing the honours intro-ducing her performance of 'Hap-pier Than Ever'; Chris Stapleton'stour manager Katie Wilkinsonbringing him on stage; JeanineMcLean-Williams, H.E.R.'s tourmanager, welcoming her artist,Lenny Kravitz, Jimmy Jam andTerry Lewis with Travis Barker ondrums for a hot jam of "Are YouGonna Go My Way?"; andwardrobe supervisor Joan Leedoing the honours for Carrie Un-

derwood.

SANJAY DUTT

LOS ANGELES, April 4(IANS): After winning Song ofthe Year, Best R&B Perform-ance, and Best R&B Song at the64th annual Grammy Awards,'Leave the Door Open' by theAR&B collaborative, 'SilkSonic', won Record of The Year.

They comfortably beat ABBA,Olivia Rodrigo, Justin Bieber,Doja Cat and SZA, and JonBatiste. Billie Eilish, Tony Ben-nett and Lady Gaga, BrandiCarlile, and Lil Nas X were alsoamong the nominees. In his ac-ceptance speech, Anderson .Paakof 'Silk Sonic' joked about tryingto stay humble while "sweeping"their categories while his cre-

ative partner Mars casuallysmoked a cigarette.

The duo two shared its loveand admiration for all the othernomineeswhile onstage andlater an-nouncedthat

"drinks are on them". 'SilkSonic' made its live debut at the2021 Grammys in March, it laterreleased its first album 'AnEvening with Silk Sonic' in No-

vember.

‘FOO FIGHTERS’CLINCH ALL AWARDSIN ROCK CATEGORIES

‘In Memorium’ section ignores Lata Mangeshkar,fans upset

Jon Batiste, Silk Sonic,Olivia Rodrigo takehome big honours

JAZMINE SULLIVAN WINS BEST R&BALBUM, BEST R&B PERFORMANCE

LOS ANGELES, April 4 (IANS):Jazmine Sullivan took home two goldengramophones at the 2022 Grammys. Shewon the Best R&B Album for the 14-trackalbum, 'Heaux Tales' and Best R&B Per-formance for 'Pick Up Your Feelings'.'Heaux Tales' won over releases from LeonBridges, H.E.R., Jon Batiste and Snoh

Aalegra. 'Pick Up Your Feelings' tied withSilk Sonic's 'Leave the Door Open' in theBest R&B Performance category, bringingthe first ever Grammy Award to Sullivan.Three of Sullivan's 15 career Grammy nom-inations are for 'Heaux Tales'.

Jazmine said in her acceptance speech: "Idon't know what I heard. I almost didn't be-

lieve it but I'm so grateful to be up here."She also made a comment on H.E.R. in jestsaying, "Shout-out to H.E.R. for wearingthese glasses in the dark, girl. I fell like 15times tonight."

She further told the crowd that she wroteHeaux Tales to deal with her own shameand unforgiveness around some of the sins

that she committed in her 20s. She contin-ued: "But, what it ended up being was asafe space for Black women to tell theirstories, for us to learn from each other,laugh with each other and not be exploitedat the same time. And that's what I'm mostgrateful for. " Sullivan released HeauxTales, her fourth album, in January 2021.

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS):After battling cancer at the age of 62,Sanjay Dutt is back in action as thestrong and tough villain Adheera in'K.G.F: Chapter 2'.

And Sanju does not lag behind inproving himself as an actor par excel-lence. To match up with his role, heused to wear armour that weighed 25kilos and shoot every day. After fac-ing so many challenges in life, whatinspires him to keep going withoutany fears and apprehensions?

He replies firmly: "It's my fightingspirit and blessing of Lord Shiva thatkeeps me going. Of course my wife islike a pillar and she always supportsand motivates me to fight all the bat-tles."

Sanjay Dutt is among those Bolly-wood actors who never felt hesitantto play strong negative characters on-screen and in fact love to projectthemselves in a diversified way. With'K.G.F: Chapter 2' he is making hisdebut in Kannada cinema. Sanjuwanted to give his best and he dideverything to perform well.

He adds: "The role was challengingby itself, actually a very challengingrole to play. But Prashanth Neel, thedirector and producers and everybodymade me so comfortable. Yes, it wasdifficult to play because of my healthproblems. I think all the prayers andlove from the fans always helps me ingiving my best." "In fact", he contin-ues, "they wanted to make the scenes

easy for me keeping my health condi-tion in mind but I said 'No' and I wantto say this to all cancer patients. Faceand fight the battle of cancer."

He says his character in 'K.G.F:Chapter 2' reminds him of his moviessuch as 'Khalnayak'.

"I love my character Adheera," hesays, adding: "It's a very interestingcharacter, a very unpredictable manwho wants to take his kingdom back.And I really enjoyed doing the fightsequences with Yash."

Sanjay recalls working on the setwith Yash and the way he was treatedby the entire cast. "Working withYash was such a wonderful experi-ence. There was so much respectgiven to me by these people. It was a

beautiful atmosphere. I mean,whosoever was on the set it seems asif 'K.G.F.' is their film only. Therewas great team work. Actually, I haveseen this kind of atmosphere andwhile we used to work on the sets of'Saajan', 'Naam' or 'Vaastav: The Re-ality', a similar kind of team work anddedication used to be there. And I be-lieve it should always continue," heshares. On how Bollywood actorslike himself being part of the southmovies and how it is making an im-pact, he says: "Well it is wrong toclassify this movie as a Kannada orsouth movie. It's not even a pan-Indiafilm but a 'Hindustani' film andPrashanth as a director has done atremendous job.

‘K.G.F: Chapter 2’ is not pan-India but a ‘Hindustani' film

GRAMMY 2022

LOS ANGELES, April 4(IANS): 'Foo Fighters' swept therock categories at the 64th AnnualGrammy Awards taking home allthree awards it was nominated for.

Their win came just over a weekafter the death of the band's long-time drummer Taylor Hawkins.They won Best RockPerformance for'Making A Fire',Best Rock Songfor 'Waiting On AWar' and BestRock Albumfor 'Med-icineAtMid-

night'.The band won the Best Rock

Album award over 'Power Up' byAC/DC , 'Capitol Cuts' (Live FromStudio A) by Black Pumas, ChrisCornell's 'No One Sings Like YouAnymore Vol. 1' and McCartney's'McCartney III'.

In the Best RockPerformance cat-egory, it beat

'Shot In

The Dark' by AC/DC , 'NothingCompares 2 U' by Chris Cornell,and 'OHMS' by Deftones. And forBest Rock Song, Foo Fighters wonover Paul McCartney's 'Find MyWay', 'The Bandit' by Kings OfLeon, Mammoth WVH's 'Distance'and Weezer's 'All My FavoriteSongs'.

'Foo Fighters' also recently re-leased their first film 'Studio 666', a

comedy featuring guestappearances

by themost fa-mous mu-sicians inthe world.

Page 10 April 5_Normal Pages 04-04-2022 18:01 Page 1

BARCELONA, April 4 (IANS): FCBarcelona moved into second place inLa Liga thanks to a 1-0 win at home toSevilla. Pedri's spectacular goal in the72nd minute decided the result on Sun-day night and it was a goal worthy ofwinning any match, as he controlledthe ball, beat two defenders and sent adiagonal shot into the corner.Both sides had chances, with Gerard

Pique's header against the bar the bestof all, but Barcelona did just enough todeserve the win that leaves them 12points behind Real Madrid with agame in hand, Xinhua reports.On Saturday, Real Madrid won con-

troversially away to Celta Vigo in agame that saw referee GonzalezFuentes award Madrid three penaltiesand rule out a Celta goal for offside.Karim Benzema put Madrid ahead

in the 19th minute from the penaltyspot after Nolito clipped Eder Militao'sheel as he was preparing to shoot.Fuentes then ruled out an equaliser

for Celta, deciding that the offside IagoAspas had interfered with play whenThiago Galhardo's header ended in theback of the net.Celta equalised in the 52nd minute

when Nolito scored from close range,but although Benzema saw a penaltysaved in the 63rd minute after Rodrygohad gone down, the Frenchman scoredthe third penalty of the afternoon afterFerland Mendy was judged to havebeen fouled on the edge of the Celtaarea. Joao Felix and Luis Suarez bothscored twice as Atletico Madrid won 4-1 at home to Alaves.

Joao put Atletico ahead after 11minutes, although Alaves dug in anddeserved Gonzalo Escalante's 63rdminute equalizer.Atletico had enough to come back

to win the game, with Suarez scoring a75th-minute penalty before Joao Felixscored a third with eight minutes left

to play, and Suarez added a fourth inthe last minute.Atletico move third after Sevilla's

defeat, while Real Betis remain fifth,four points behind their neighbors,after two first-half goals from Juanmiput them on the way to a 4-1 win athome to Osasuna.

Ante Budimir pulled a goal back forthe visitors in the 65th minute, but amoment of magic from William Car-valho made it 3-1 and Alex Morenoadded fourth with two minutes left toplay. Athletic Bilbao moved to withina point of the top seven with a 2-1 winat home to Elche with a spectacular

volley from Alex Berenguer and AsierVillalibre's first goal of the campaign.Athletic controlled the game for 90

minutes, but had to survive a few nerv-ous moments at the end after Jose An-tonio scored Elche's only chance of thegame in injury-time.Cadiz edged a point further away

from the bottom three with a 0-0 drawaway to Valencia in a game of very fewchances, while Granada saved a pointwith another controversial penalty in a2-2 draw at home to Rayo Vallecano.Mario Suarez headed a 94th-minute

cross clear, but VAR gave Granada apenalty from a handball which LuisMilla scored to complete a comebackfrom 2-0 down.Alejandro Catena and Sergi Guardi-

ola had put Rayo 2-0 up in the first 17minutes, but after Santi Comesaniawas harshly sent off, Jorge Molinapulled the first goal back for the homeside. Borja Mayoral's 81st minute goalgave Getafe a 1-0 win at home to Mal-lorca, who improved in JavierAguirre's debut as first-team coach andwere unlucky to be reduced to 10 menwhen Franco Russo was shown a sec-ond yellow card for handball, whichalso saw Getafe given a penalty.Mallorca keeper Sergio Rico saved

the penalty and the follow up, but washelpless as Mayoral slid the ball acrosshim.Two moments of second-half

magic from captain Jose LuisMorales gave Levante a 2-0 winagainst Villarreal to lift them off thebottom of the table.

TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022 SPORTS THE HILLS TIMES 11

MUMBAI, April 4 (IANS):Kolkata Knight Riders headcoach Brendon McCullum be-lieves the Australian Test captainPat Cummins would add an ele-ment of leadership for captainShreyas Iyer to feed off."Pretty delighted to get Pat

back. He's going to add anotherlayer of leadership in and aroundour skipper Shreyas, who hasbeen impressive as well. We havegot a few selection headaches ac-tually. We have more guys to pickfrom than not, which is a goodproblem to have and hopefullywe get them right," McCullumtold Kolkata Knight Riders' offi-cial website."He's one of those guys who

blends so well in this environ-ment and is a wonderful human

being. Huss (David Hussey,mentor) was adamant hewanted some Australians, I was,obviously, a bit hesitant abouttoo many Australians (laughs)but Pat's an absolute beauty, awonderful cricketer and astrong leader as well," headded.Cummins, who arrived last

week, is available for selectionfor their next game against theMumbai Indians and adds to afew selection headaches. Cum-mins' inclusion would bolster anin-form pace bowling that has ledthe Knight Riders to two wins outof three games.The Knight Riders prepare to

take on Mumbai Indians onWednesday (April 6) and eventhough the Rohit Sharma-led

team is coming off two losses inas many games, McCullum is notdiscounting the five-time IPLchampions."Mumbai are Mumbai!

(Laughs) They know what theyare doing. We are very respectfulof the Mumbai Indians manage-ment, the coaching staff and theleadership. So we know that evenwith a couple of losses early inthis tournament, they would stillremain poised under pressure.We are expecting them to playwell. We expect every team thatwe come up against to play welland we expect us to play well aswell. Hopefully, if we can bepresent and calm in pressuretimes, then hopefully it means wecome out on top," McCullumsaid.

IPL 2022: Cummins can help Shreyas Iyer inleadership role, says KKR’s coach McCullum

BArCelOnA MOve seCOnd WITh sOlITAry-GOAl WIn Over sevIllA

Alcaraz claims MiamiOpen title

Iga Swiatek officially worldNo.1 in WTAranking

DURBAN, April 4 (IANS):Spinners Keshav Maharaj andSimon Harmer spun a ruthlessweb around Bangladesh as thevisitors were bowled out for just53 within the first hour of dayfive's play, handing South Africaa 220-run win and a 1-0 lead inthe two-match series atKingsmead Stadium on Monday.The main architect of

Bangladesh's demolition was left-arm spinner Maharaj, who fin-ished with figures of 7/32 in 10overs, his career-best figures. Re-suming from 11/3, Bangladeshwobbled spectacularly for 53 injust 19 overs, their second-lowesttotal in Test cricket and also thelowest innings score at thisvenue. Najmul Hossain Shanto(26) and Taskin Ahmed (14) werethe only two batters who reacheddouble digits for Bangladesh intheir second innings.Giving him valuable support

was off-spinner Harmer, whotook 3/21 in nine overs and com-pleted his comeback to Testcricket with seven wickets over-all. Senior wicketkeeper-batterMushfiqur Rahim was back in thepavilion in the very first over ofthe day after being trapped lbw by

for a duck. Maharaj followed itup by dismissing Liton Das for 2,reducing Bangladesh to 16/5.Shanto and Yasir Ali tried play-

ing some aggressive shots to stopthe slide. But Maharaj struckonce again, bringing up his five-for by knocking off Ali's off

stump with an absolute beauty ofa delivery. After getting smashedfor a six down the ground byShanto, Harmer bounced backwith the scalp of Mehidy Hasanfor a duck.Shanto's resistance finally

ended when he was dismissed offa smart stumping by wicket-keeper Kyle Verreynne as Harmerfoxed him with flight, dip andturn.Maharaj picked up a wicket

each in his final two overs andcompleted his seven-for asBangladesh folded meekly for 53.The two teams will next clash inGqeberha (previously Port Eliza-beth) in the second and final Test,starting April 7.Brief scores: South Africa 367

& 204 beat Bangladesh 298 & 53all out in 19 overs (Najmul Hos-sain Shanto 26, Keshav Maharaj7/32, Simon Harmer 3/21) by 220runs.

Maharaj, Harmer help SA take 1-0 leadwith 220-run thrashing of Bangladesh

MIAMI, April 4 (IANS):Poland's tennis star Iga Swiatekofficially became the worldNo.1 women's tennis playerwhen the rankings for the weekwere announced on Monday.In a history-making achieve-

ment, the 20-year-old Swiatek -- who defeated Japan's NaomiOsaka in the Miami Open (WTA1000 event) final on Sunday(IST) -- became the first playerfrom Poland to reach No. 1 ineither ATP or WTA rankingshistory.The previous highest-ranked

player from Poland was Ag-nieszka Radwanska, who wasNo. 2 on the WTA rankings in2012 and 2016, according totennis.com.Swiatek is also the first player

born in the 2000s to reach No. 1in either ATP or WTA rankingshistory.Swiatek has become world

No. 1 on the back of a superblast six weeks, where she haswon 17 matches in a row to cap-ture back-to-back WTA 1000 ti-tles at Doha, Indian Wells andMiami.At 20, she is the youngest

woman ever to do a 'SunshineDouble' -- Indian Wells andMiami Open titles in the sameyear. She is also the fourth

woman overall after Germany'sSteffi Graf (1994 and 1996),Belgium's Kim Clijsters (2005)and Belarusian VictoriaAzarenka (2016) to do a 'Sun-shine Double'.Swiatek's coronation as world

No. 1 got fast-tracked whenAustralia's Ash Barty an-nounced her retirement lastmonth. The latest rankings sawBarty's name being removedfrom the WTA ranking."Even if Barty hadn't retired

and her name removed from theWTA rankings, Swiatek wouldhave been on the verge of No. 1anyway -- Barty would havehad 6,980 ranking points thisweek, and Swiatek now has6,771 ranking points," accord-ing to tennis.com.Meanwhile, Paula Badosa of

Spain and Danielle Collins ofthe US rose to new highs of No.3 and No. 8, respectively, aftermaking the quarterfinals inMiami. American teenagerCoco Gauff, who reached thefourth round before losing toSwiatek, rose from No. 17 toNo. 15 for her top-15 debut.Four-time Grand Slam cham-

pion and former No. 1 Osaka re-bounded from No. 77 to No. 35after reaching her maiden finalsince the 2021 Australian Open.

MIAMI, April 4 (IANS):Teenage Spanish tennis playerCarlos Alcaraz clinched thebiggest ATP Tour title of his ca-reer, defeating sixth seed CasperRuud of Norway, 7-5, 6-4 to liftthe Miami Open trophy at HardRock Stadium on Monday (IST).This is 18-year-old Alcaraz's

maiden ATP Masters 1000 titleand his third tour-level crown andit made him the youngest Miamimen's champion in the tourna-ment's 37-year history. Alcarazalso became the third-youngestATP Masters 1000 championoverall, spanning 283 events from1990, according to atptour.com.Alcaraz, who is the first Span-

ish champion at the event, willrise to a career-high of No. 11 inthe latest ATP Rankings whenthey are released later on Mon-day. "I have no words to describehow I feel right now," Alcarazsaid after the one hour, 52-minutecontest. "It's so special to win myfirst Masters 1000 here in Miami.I have an unbelievable team withme and family... I'm so happywith the win and my team."

Only American Michael Chang(Toronto 1990) and Spain'sRafael Nadal (2005 Monte Carlo)were younger that Alcaraz's 18years and 333 days when theywon their first ATP Masters 1000titles. Alcaraz replaced Serbia'sNovak Djokovic as the youngestMiami champion, with the worldNo. 1 taking the 2007 title at theage of 19, when Alcaraz wasthree years old."I knew that Casper is playing

unbelievable. He has a big fore-hand. I tried to play to his back-hand first and attack all the time,"Alcaraz said of his strategy. "Itried not to let him dominate thematch. Forehand down the line,backhand down the line was apretty good key for me."Ruud, who was competing in

his 10th ATP Tour final, was seek-ing the second hard-court trophyof his career. In addition to be-coming the youngest winner intournament history, Alcaraz be-comes the first Spanish maleplayer to claim the title followingeight previous final appearances,including five by Nadal.

LA LIGA

IMOLA (ITALY), April 4(IANS): India's Arjun Maini ledthe Haupt Racing Team to a suc-cessful start to the new GT WorldChallenge Europe season thisweekend. At Autodromo Enzo eDino Ferrari in Imola, the No.5Mercedes-AMG GT3 of nu con-cept showed a strong race and se-cured third place in the newlycreated Gold Cup.Comprising Maini, Florian

Scholze and Hubert Haupt, theteam drove a strong race and se-cured third place in the 3-hour En-durance race that had severalinterventions of full course yellowas well as safety cars The No.5.HRT steadily made its way for-ward to finish on the podium.The Gold Class Consists of one

Professional driver (Arjun Maini),one silver driver and one bronzedriver, Maini's team informed in arelease on Monday."I think overall it was a good

weekend for us, strong points,qualifying we had a bit traffic sowe could not optimize it, So I amglad we made it up in the race,"Maini said."So, I think we can definitely be

championship contenders and on-wards to Paul Ricard and well Ithink we can fight for the win aswe progress. We are looking for-ward to it and a great start for aseason," the 24-year-old fromBangalore said."Was great to be on the podium

in the very first race of the seasonand really would like to thankteam HRT and Hubert Haupt formaking this possible. I hadn'tdriven in Imola with a GT 3 carbefore and kept improving everytime I got into the car. Really sat-isfied with the start and we lookforward for many more as the sea-son progresses," he added.

Arun Maini takesMercedes-AMG GT3to podium in Imola

NEW DELHI, April 4 (IANS):Indian boxer Monika handed ashock defeat to the two-timeworld championships medallistJosie Gabuco of Philippines toenter the women's 48kg semifinalsat the 2022 Thailand Open Inter-national Boxing tournament inPhuket on Monday.The 26-year-old boxer Monika,

who hails from Rohtak, Haryana,pulled off an impressive 4-1 vic-tory over experienced campaignerGubuco, who won gold andbronze medal at the World Cham-pionships in 2012 and 2008 re-

spectively.Monika will now face Viet-

nam's Tran Thi Diem Kieu, whoreceived bye in the last round, inthe semi-final.Ashish Kumar and Manisha

were the other two Indianpugilists who also made their wayinto the semi-finals with contrast-ing wins against their respectiveThai opponents.While returning to the ring for

the first time after 2020 TokyoOlympics campaign, Ashish dom-inated Aphisit Khankhokkhrueaduring his comfortable win by

unanimous decision men's 81kgquarter-final, Manisha, who re-cently qualified for the upcomingWorld Championships as well asAsian Games, registered a hard-fought 3-2 win over the two-timeyouth Asian champion PorntipBuapa.Meanwhile, Renu (54kg) and

Monika (63kg) ended their cam-paigns following defeats in thequarter-finals. Renu went down fighting 2-3

in a close contest against the U-22 European champion Italy'sSirine Charaabi. On the other

hand, Monika conceded a defeatby RSC verdict against localfavourite Panpatchara Somnuekin the women's light welter con-test.On the third day of the compe-

tition on Tuesday, Sumit and Gau-rav Chauhan will play theirquarter-finals against respectiveopponents from Kazakhstan.Sumit (75kg), who received byein the last opening round, willtake on Timur Nurseitov whileGaurav (91kg) will fight against2018 Youth Olympics championAibek Oralbay.

Thailand Open: Boxer Monika stuns two-timeWorld Championships medallist, enters semis

Set to rise to No. 11 in the world

Page 11 April 5_Normal Pages 04-04-2022 18:40 Page 1

12THE HILLS TIMES SPORTS TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022

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HAMILTON, April 4 (AP): RossTaylor made 14 for New Zealandagainst the Netherlands in the thirdone-day cricket international onMonday, coming to the crease andleaving it to a standing ovation.

The match was Taylor's 450thand last for New Zealand beforehe retires at the end of a 16-yearinternational career. The 38-year-old batsman played his last testagainst South Africa this year butdecided to make this match on hishome ground at Seddon Park hisfinal bow. His children, MacKen-zie, Jonty and Adelaide, stood be-side him during the nationalanthems and he went through anhonor guard formed by Nether-lands players.

Taylor played his first one-dayinternational for New Zealand in2006 and his first test the follow-ing year. He went on to play 112tests, scoring 7,683 runs, including19 centuries, and 236 one-day in-

ternationals in which he made8,593 runs. He also scored 1,909runs in 102 Twenty20 internation-als.

Taylor had a long wait for hislast innings Monday. New Zealandbatted first after winning the tossand a 203-run partnership for thesecond wicket between MartinGuptill and Will Young delayedhis appearance until the 39th over.

Guptill made 106 and Youngwent on to 120 as New Zealandmade 333-8. Matt Henry then took4-36 as New Zealand bowled outthe Netherlands for 218 to win thematch by 115 runs and sweep thethree-match series.

As soon as he appeared thecrowd rose to its feet. Taylor hit asix among his 14 runs before mist-iming a ball from Logan van Beekand offering the bowler a simplereturn catch.

He turned toward the changingroom for the last time with a faint

smile on his face. The opposingplayers formed up on either side ashe walked slowly from the field,acknowledging the long ovation ofthe crowd.

Taylor has long been a fan fa-vorite for his steadiness, reliabilityand his ready smile.

“For me it was just being aplayer that tries fight in as many

situations as possible, gave it myall, played with a smile on my faceand hopefully represented mycountry proudly and with a lot ofrespect,” Taylor told Radio NewZealand. “That's always what Iwanted to do — play for my coun-try. And hopefully that's some-thing it'll be cool to beremembered for.”

Ross Taylor plays last innings for New Zealand cricket team

With momentum on their side,Rajasthan face RCB in battle of RoyalsMUMBAI, April 4 (PTI): Rajasthan Roy-als would aim to build on their promisingstart to the season when they take on RoyalChallengers Bangalore, a side that is yet tounlock its potential, in the Indian PremierLeague here on Tuesday.

Rajasthan come into the game followingtheir 23-run win over Mumbai Indians.

Bangalore, led by Faf Du Plessis, headinto the match after a narrow three-wicketwin over Kolkata Knight Riders and wouldbe looking to be more convincing.

The Wankhede track has been aiding thepacers initially and both the teams can takeadvantage of it.

For Rajasthan, opener Buttler is in sub-lime form and can pummel any attack tosubmission, like he did on Saturday en routeto a memorable hundred.

He would however, need support from fel-low opening batter Yashasvi Jaiswal andone-down Devdutt Padikkal, who would beitching to get among the runs.

After his half-century in the first game,RR skipper Sanju Samson was unable toconvert the start against Mumbai Indians.Knowing his ability to hit sixes at will, Sam-son would be more than keen to find consis-tency and lead from the front.

Another important cog in their wheel isWest Indies batter Shimron Hetmyer, whohas played useful cameos in the first two

games. The top five, if they get going, canmake things hard for the RCB bowlers.

On the bowling front, RR are unlikely totinker with their combination. Trent Boult,Prasidh Krishna and Navdeep Saini heldtheir nerve against Kieron Pollard and wereright on the money.

Eight overs of Ashwin and Chahal canturn the game on its head and their contribu-

tion could prove decisive. For Bangalore, their bowlers led by Sri

Lankan leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga per-formed their task with perfection againstKKR.

While Hasaranga will be key in stoppingSamson and Co, pacers David Willey, AkashDeep and Mohammed Siraj, who combinedto take four wickets against KKR, would

need to come good again.Also death overs specialist Harshal Patel

will have to be at his best if RCB aim to con-tain a powerful RR batting unit. More thanthe bowling, batting has been a concern forRCB. While opener Anuj Rawat needs toshow consistency, Du Plessis also will haveto lead from the front and get a big score. Itis still not clear whether Australian all-rounder Glenn Maxwell will be available forthe team's third game of the season.

Teams (from): Royal Challengers Banga-lore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Mo-hammed Siraj, Faf du Plessis, Harshal Patel,Wanindu Hasaranga, Dinesh Karthik, JoshHazlewood, Shahbaz Ahmed, Anuj Rawat,Akash Deep, Mahipal Lomror, Finn Allen,Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Behrendorff,Suyash Prabhudesai, Chama Milind,Aneeshwar Gautam, Karn Sharma, DavidWilley, Rajat Patidar, Siddharth Kaul.

Rajasthan Royals: Yashasvi Jaiswal,Riyan Parag, Shubham Garwal, Dhruv Jurel,Kuldip Yadav, Kuldeep Sen, Tejas Baroka,Anunay Singh, KC Kariappa, Sanju Sam-son, Jos Buttler, Rassie Van der Dussen,Nathan Coulter Nile, Jimmy Neesham,Daryl Mitchell, Karun Nair, Obed McCoy,Navdeep Saini, Ravichandran Ashwin, TrentBoult, Shimron Hetmyer, Devdutt Padikkal,Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal.Match starts at 7.30 pm.

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI):Boxer Monika (48kg) upstagedtwo-time World Championshipmedallist Josie Gabuco of thePhilippines to enter the semifi-nals along with two other Indi-ans at the Thailand Open here onMonday.

Ashish Kumar (81kg) andManisha (57kg) are the twoother Indian pugilists who alsomade their way into the last fourwith contrasting wins againsttheir respective Thai opponents.

The 26-year-old Monika, whohails from Rohtak, prevailed 4-1over experienced campaignerGubuco, who won gold andbronze medals at the WorldChampionships in 2012 and2008 respectively.

She will now face Vietnam'sTrinh Thi Diem Kieu, who re-ceived bye in the last round.

Competing in his first interna-tional tournament since theTokyo Olympics, last edition'sgold medallist Ashish notched a5-0 win against local boxerAphisit Khankhokkhruea in the81kg quarterfinals. The Indianwill now clash win Indonesia'sMaikhel Roberrd Muskita in thesemifinals.

It was a good day in the ringfor Manisha, who recently quali-fied for the upcoming WorldChampionships as well as AsianGames, as she defeated two-time

Youth Asian champion Thai-land's Porntip Buapa 3-2 in the57kg quarterfinals.

However, Renu (54kg) andMonika (63kg) lost their open-ing round clashes.

While Renu gave a tough fightto Italy's European U-22 cham-pion Sirine Charaabi, it wasn'tenough as the Indian lost 2-3 inthe quarterfinal clash. Monika,on the other hand, went down inthe quarterfinals, losing to YouthOlympic champion local boxerPanpatchara Somnuek by RSCverdict (Refree Stops Contest) inthe third round.

On the third day of the com-petition on Tuesday, Sumit andGaurav Chauhan will play theirquarter-finals against respectiveopponents from Kazakhstan.Sumit (75kg), who received byein the last opening round, willtake on Timur Nurseitov whileGaurav (91kg) will fight against2018 Youth Olympics championAibek Oralbay.

The tournament features 130boxers -- 74 male and 56 fe-males. Gold medal winners willearn USD 2000, while silver andbronze winners will pocket USD1000 and USD 500 respectively.

The Indian contingent hadwon eight medals, including onegold, four silver and threebronze, in the last edition of thetournament, held in 2019.

Boxing: Monika stuns two-timeWorld Championship medallist,

3 Indians enter semis

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI): Former cap-tain Anjum Chopra believes India werenever among the title contenders at the justconcluded Women's World Cup and goingforward, she wants the team to "emergefrom a legacy of poor decision-making" toturn the corner. India's underwhelming showat the ICC showpiece in New Zealand endedwith a heartbreaking loss to South Africa inthe group stage.

"It is time women's cricket emerges fromlegacy of poor decision making and be hon-est about what they want to do and how theywant to do going forward. Otherwise wewill remain a near about team, we will neverget there," Chopra told PTI in an exclusiveinterview. Expectations were high after therunners-up finish in the previous World Cupfive years ago but Chopra, who watched theaction from the sidelines as a commentator,feels that the Mithali Raj-led squad neverlooked winning the trophy in the lead up tothe mega event.

India were the only team to get a bilateralseries against hosts New Zealand ahead ofthe World Cup but they could still not getfully used to the conditions and zero in on asettled combination.

"I won't say India played poorly. Theyplayed a few ordinary matches where theycould have performed better. "I would saythe kind of preparation and kind of skill the

players showed prior to the World cup(against NZ) to getting into the World Cup,it was surprising to see the approach againstPakistan, the way they batted (though theywon). "It was surprising decision making(opting to bowl) against New Zealand .Coming to a particular country well in ad-vance, paying six games and if you are stillunaware of the conditions, it would be un-fair to say that India played poorly, I wouldsay they were not in the contest," Choprasaid.

India failed to beat any of the SENAteams including England, South Africa,Australia and New Zealand, ending withwins only against Pakistan, West Indies and

debutants Bangladesh. Seeing India's cam-paign unfold they way it did, Chopra wasleft dispirited after the team failed to evenreach the semifinals. "It is not just playerswho need to take responsibility, it is every-one including support staff who should takethe responsibility. It is not about crucifyingone person. You will always have bad daysbut India were simply not consistentenough.

"As a player and broadcaster, from 1997to 2022, I have seen every final and everysemifinal. I never thought they could winthe Cup but expected them to make thesemis," said the left-handed batter.

"It is quite an imbalanced situation withthe men's team performing consistentlyacross formats but the women are not evenable to reach the last four," she said.

Chopra feels India will remain a "nearabout" side if it doesn't focus on basics likefielding and running between the wickets.She feels that the players are not "unfit" butthey are not "fit enough" compared to Aus-tralia and England. "This (running betweenwickets) has been an issue for a long time.Either things have moved or they have notmoved fast enough. If the bar has beenraised, progression has to happen. "It is agood sign that team has started scoring 270regularly, it has progressed there in the last15 months with no cricket the year before.

If it can progress this much on that front, itcan certainly improve in other areas."

So what is the way forward for this team?"Once we realise the present we can de-

cide on the way forward. When you have ashaky present you can't have a bright future.

"Cricket overall has improved. 300 hasbecome the average score. Women's gamehas progressed and we need to improve withtime." 'Harmanpreet should captain acrossformats' Though Mithali has not announcedretirement yet, it is certain that she won't bearound when the next World Cup happens.Vice-captain Harmanpreet Kaur is the front-runner for the job with star opener SmritiMandhana being the other contender. Smritiis also eight years younger than Harman-preet who is 33.

The change of guard needs to happen nowand Chopra says no better than T20 skipperHarmanpreet Kaur to lead India across for-mats. "Harman has been an identified leaderfor a long time. She has been leading theT20 side for a long time. How can you brushaside an identified leader and get an ab-solute new person for the job?

"Who was the best player of the tourna-ment for India? It was Harman. You can't as-sign captaincy on hope. You did not makeVirat Kohli captain on hope, you did notgive Rohit captaincy on hope," she had hercounter ready.

Indian team needs to emerge from legacy of poordecision making going forward: Anjum Chopra

KOZHIKODE, April 4 (PTI):For the second straight day, windassistance beyond legal limit de-nied an athlete a national record asAndhra Pradesh's 100m hurdlerJyothi Yarraji grabbed the Goldmedal but her time did not enterthe record books.

Jyothi, who trains inBhubaneshwar, dominated thewomen's 100m hurdles final, win-ning with a wind-aided time of13.08 seconds, faster than the ex-isting national record of 13.38 inthe name of Anuradha Biswalsince 2002.

Jyothi's time will not be consid-ered as national record since therewas a tail-wind of 2.1m/s, slightlyabove the permitted limit of 2m/s.

It was the second time Jyothihad run better than Biswal's 20-year-old national record.

She was also credited with atime of 13.03 seconds in the inter-university championships in Janu-ary 2020, but AFI did not ratify itas a national record as she was nottested for doping.

On Sunday, Tamil Nadu longjumper Jeswin Aldrin's wind-aidedeffort of 8.37m was not consideredas national record though he wonthe gold medal.

There was a tail wind of 4.1m/sduring his jump. Tokyo OlympianS Sreeshankar of Kerala won thesilver with his 8.36m effort, whichwas also credited as nationalrecord.

The 22-year-old Jyothi glidedover the hurdles with ease to se-cure herself a second 100m hurdlestitle at the national level, her

maiden victory having come dur-ing the Inter-State Championshipsin Lucknow in August 2019.

In the heats on Sunday, Jyothihad bettered the meet record witha time of 13.43 seconds.

In the women's long jump,Nayana James won a keen battlewith Ancy Sojan on a day when thepodium finishers, including SandraBabu, accounted for as many as 11jumps past the 6m mark.

Despite beginning with a no-mark, Nayana James was the mostconsistent jumper, topping two6.41m efforts with a 6.47m try onher fifth attempt. Ancy Sojanopened with 6.33m but did not findthe rhythm to go better.

Competing for the first timesince the Tokyo Olympics lastyear, javelin thrower Annu Rani(Uttar Pradesh) went past the qual-ifying standards for both Com-monwealth Games and AsianGames, set by AFI with twothrows past the 60m mark.

Each of her six efforts was goodfor gold on Monday, with 61.15moff the fifth attempt being the bestof the lot.

Tajinderpal Singh Toor (Punjab)won the men's shot put gold with abest effort of 19.12m. Sarvesh AnilKushare (Maharashtra) won themen's high jump gold by clearing2.25m to match AFI's AsianGames qualification standard.

Another Maharashtra athlete,Komal Chandrakant Jagdale at-tained the qualifying mark for theAsian Games in the women's3000m Steeplechase with a per-sonal best time of 9:47.86.

Jyothi wins 100m hurdles Gold butmisses NR due to wind-aided effort

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI): Thegovernment has sanctioned assis-tance to the tune of Rs 3.65 crore forinternational exposure trips of In-dian athletics and yatching teamsthis month. Indian track and fieldathletes are set for international ex-posure tours ahead of a packedschedule this year that constitutesthe World Athletics Championship,the Commonwealth Games and theAsian Games 2022. The Indian ath-letics' middle and long-distanceteams comprising 12 athletes, twocoaches and one support staff willundergo training-cum-competitionin Colorado Spring, USA from April15 to June 6. The team includesAvinash Sable, who competed at theTokyo Olympics in 3000m steeple-chase. A total of Rs 1.19 crore hasbeen sanctioned by the governmentfor the exposure trip.

Government sanctions ` 3.65 crore for international exposure trips of athletics,

yatching teams

HT CorrespondentJORHAT, April 4: ASEB entered the semifinals of the 57th ATPA ShieldFootball Tournament on Monday. ASEB beat Victoria Club of Jorhat intie-breaker in the second quarter final match played at the ground ofJorhat Stadium. The match ended by 1-1 goals in stipulated time.

ASEB enter semis

MUMBAI, April 4 (PTI): Ravindra Jadeja isfeeling the heat at the start of his captaincy stintat CSK but he is glad to have the cool head of MS Dhoni to rely upon in high pressure situations,even allowing himself to field outside the circle.The defending champions have lost all three oftheir matches this season.

Less than a week before the IPL opener onMarch 26, Dhoni had handed over the captaincyto Jadeja. However, it appears Dhoni continuesto be part of on-field decision-making from be-hind the stumps, allowing Jadeja, who is one ofthe best fielders in the world, to stand in the deep.In the match against Lucknow Super Giants, itseemed Dhoni was calling the shots towards theend when he handed the ball to Shivam Dube inthe 19th over.

"No, the last match (against LSG) was a highscoring game so there are chances of catches atdeep mid wicket and our thinking was that itwould be better a good fielder had to be there.

"So, I was not able to communicate with thebowlers much," Jadeja said at he post-match pressconference after his side's 54-run loss to PunjabKings on Sunday. "But Mahi bhai gives inputs,that is good, he is so experienced so we don'thave to look anywhere else for advice. He's a leg-end, and has been captaining for so many years,that experience is there in our dressing room onlyso we are lucky to have his advice." Despite a dis-

appointing start to his captaincy stint, Jadeja in-sisted that he felt ready to lead the side when hewas informed about his new role.

"I have been preparing for captaincy since Iwas told me a few months ago. Mentally I wasready to lead, I didn't have any pressure on me,backed my instincts, just thinking and whateverthoughts come in my mind I go for it."

CSK slumped to their third defeat of the sea-son, but Jadeja is confident that a win couldchange things for the four-time champions. "InT20 cricket only one match is required to gainmomentum and then the winning streak begins.We are searching for that one win. "Once thatcomes, everyone is experienced in the team andknow their roles. We are just working hard to getin the rhythm and waiting for our plans to click."CSK are without their premier fast bowlerDeepak Chahar, who is nursing an injury. In hisabsence, the team is backing rookie MukeshChoudhary to come good.

Under pressure after three losses,Jadeja lucky to have Dhoni by his side

NEW DELHI, April 4 (PTI):India will be able to field its 'A'team at both Davis Cup and theAsian Games with the ITF prepon-ing the team tournament and ATFpushing back the tennis events atthe regional multi-sport showpieceby eight days to avoid a clash indates. The Indian Davis Cup teamwas recently drawn to meet Nor-way in an away contest, which wasto be held either on September 16-17 or 17-18. The tennis events atthe Asian Games were scheduledto be held from September 10-14,which meant that India could playonly one event with its 'A' teamsince reaching Hangzhou in Chinafrom Davis Cup venue Norwaywas not practically possible.

ITF has preponed DavisCup tie in Septemberto avoid clash withAsian Games: AITA

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