D4 cRad FA W`c =R\YZ^afc Z_RTeZ`_ - Daily Pioneer

12
T he Supreme Court on Friday slammed the Uttar Pradesh Government over the “lenient” way its police and administration have acted against the persons accused in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and wondered if a com- mon man accused in a case of brutal murder would have received such treatment. Expressing displeasure on the steps taken by the Yogi Government, the court ques- tioned why the prime accused has not been arrested and directed the preservation of evidence. The SC also talked about transferring the probe to anoth- er agency, saying “proof of the pudding is in the eating”. The apex court also expressed unhappiness with the media for wrong reporting in the case and said “somebody is exceeding the limit of free- dom of speech.” Coming down heavily on the State Government, the bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana said, “The law must take its course against all accused and the Government has to take all remedial steps in this regard to inspire confi- dence” in the investigation of “brutal murder of eight per- sons”. Senior lawyer Harish Salve, appearing for the State, assured the bench that “between today and tomorrow whatever is the shortfall (in the probe) will be filled up because the message has gone”. In its order, the bench said, “The learned counsel explained various steps which have been taken by the State Government and the status report has also been filed to that effect. But we are not satisfied with the actions of the State .... The counsel assures us that he will take all necessary steps to satisfy this court on the next date of hearing and he will also consider alternatives of con- ducting the investigation by any other agency. In view of that we are not inclined to go into details of this aspect. List this matter immediately after the vacation. Meanwhile, the learned counsel assured us that he will communicate to the concerned highest police offi- cer in the State to take all nec- essary steps to protect the evi- dence and other materials relat- ed to the incident”. A round 200 troops of China’s People’s Liberation Army entered into Indian ter- ritory last week leading to a face-off with the Indian Army at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh, sources said. It happened during a rou- tine patrol close to the LAC near Yangtse in Tawang Sector. The Indian troops inter- cepted around 200 PLA sol- diers, who had crossed over into the Indian side from Tibet and attempted to damage unoccupied bunkers. This led to a face-off which was amicably resolved by the commanders at the local level. They met to disengage and de- escalate the situation. Top Government sources said the face-off between the two sides lasted for a few hours and was resolved as per the existing protocols. There was no damage caused to the Indian defences during the engagement. Sources also stated that the India-China border has not been formally demarcated and hence there is a difference in perception of the LAC between the two countries. “Peace and tranquillity in these areas of differing per- ceptions has been possible by adherence to existing agree- ments and protocols between the two countries,” the source said. Both sides undertake patrolling activities up to their line of perception. Whenever patrols of both sides physically meet, the situ- ation is managed according to established protocols and mechanisms agreed by both sides. “Physical engagement can last for a few hours prior to disengaging as per mutual understanding,” said the source, adding that in last week’s inci- dent there was no damage to defences. A blast went off on Friday at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 25 and wounding dozens in the latest security challenge to the Taliban as they transition from insur- gency to governance. The explosion tore through a mosque in the city of Kunduz during noon prayers, the high- light of the Muslim religious week. It blew out windows, charred the ceiling and scat- tered debris and twisted metal across the floor. Rescuers car- ried one body out on a stretch- er and another in a blanket. Blood stains covered the front steps. Area resident Hussaindad Rezayee said he rushed to the mosque when he heard the explosion, just as prayers start- ed. “I came to look for my rel- atives, the mosque was full.” There was no immediate claim of responsibility for what Kunduz police said may have been a suicide attack. But mil- itants from a local Islamic State affiliate have a long history of attacking Afghanistan’s ethnic and religious minorities. A fter a gap of 68 years, debt- laden national carrier Air India returned to its founder Tata Sons, ending a decades- long move for its divestment. The Centre on Friday announced that Tata Sons has emerged as the winner in the Air India bidding with an offer of 18,000 crore for acquiring 100 per cent shareholding. The Government has assured that there will be no sacking of the employees for a year. “A Special Purpose Vehicles of Tata Sons — the holding company of conglom- erate Talace Pvt Limited — has emerged as a successful bidder,” Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary to the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM), said. Minutes after the winning bid for Air India was announced, Tata Sons chair- man Emeritus Ratan Tata tweeted, “Welcome Back, Air India.” “The Tata Group winning the bid for Air India is great news. While admittedly it will take considerable effort to rebuild Air India, it will hope- fully provide a very strong market opportunity to the Tata Group in the aviation industry,” Ratan Tata said. Along with the assets, the new owner will also take on around 15,300 crore of debt. The remaining 2,700 crore will be paid to the Government in cash. This was higher than SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh-led consortia’s enterprise value (EV) bid at 15,100 crore with debt to be retained at 12,835 crore and a cash component of 2,265 crore. For Tata Group, Air India adds a third airline brand to its stable, considering the con- glomerate already holds a majority interest in AirAsia India and Vistara. Three air- lines are likely to be integrated first. The DIPAM Secretary said as on August 31, 2021, Air India has a total debt of 61,562 crore, out of that 15,300 will be taken over by the bidder. So, 46,262 crore will be trans- ferred to Air India Assets Holding Limited (AIAHL), he added. AIAHL is a SPV formed by the Government. The trans- action is expected to close by the end of December 2021, he said. On an emotional and nos- talgic note, Ratan Tata said Air India under the leadership of JRD Tata had at one time gained the reputation of being one of the most prestigious air- lines in the world. “Tatas will have the oppor- tunity of regaining the image and reputation enjoyed in ear- lier years. JRD Tata would have been overjoyed if he was in our midst today,” he said. Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (JRD) Tata founded the airline in 1932. It was called Tata Airlines then. In 1946, the avi- ation division of Tata Sons was listed as Air India and in 1948, Air India International was launched with flights to Europe. In 1953, Air India was nationalised. Tata also thanked the Central Government for its recent policy of opening up select industries to the private sector. A Delhi court on Friday con- victed real estate barons Sushil and Gopal Ansal for tampering with evidence in the 1997 case of the Uphaar Cinema fire which claimed 59 lives. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Pankaj Sharma also held a former court staff Dinesh Chand Sharma and two others — PP Batra and Anoop Singh — guilty in the case and said the misconcep- tion of all the accused persons that they will get away with their nefarious design from punishment has been exposed to the world at large. The judge held that the guilt of the Ansal brothers, Sharma, Batra, and Singh was “proved beyond any reasonable doubt” for the offence of crim- inal conspiracy, causing disap- pearance of evidence of offence and criminal breach of trust by the public servant. The court said that the convicts destructed critical documents which were capable of proving their complicity in the main case, “making this time the justice dispensation system as the vic- tim.” “They tampered/obliterat- ed/tom/defaced some hand- picked documents of the said case through a meticulous planning in order to escape punishment by scuttling trial process and as such fiddled with our judicial system with great impunity,” the judge said. T he Delhi Government on Friday announced that employees and teachers who have not received even the first dose of the Covid vaccine will not be allowed to attend their workplace. The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) in an order stated that effective from October 16 all unvaccinated Delhi Government employees will be treated as on leave till they get the jab. All employees working in departments/autonomous bod- ies/ PSUs/local bodies/educa- tional institutions under Government of NCT of Delhi, should get vaccinated by October 15. It includes front- line workers, healthcare work- ers as well as teachers and other staff working in schools/col- leges. “The aforesaid Government employees/ front- line workers/healthcare work- ers / teachers and other staff working in schools and col- leges, who do not get vacci- nated (at least first dose) by October 15 shall not be allowed to attend their respective offices/ health care institu- tions/ educational institutions with effect from October 16, till they have obtained the first dose vaccination,” the order read. The order, issued by Delhi Chief Secretary and DDMA executive committee chairper- son Vijay Dev, stated that the Central Government “may consider issuing similar direc- tions in respect of its employ- ees working in Delhi.” Also, the heads of departments con- cerned will verify vaccinated employees through Aarogya Setu app or vaccination cer- tificate, it stated. F ive days after they were arrested in the mid-sea drug bust case, a Mumbai Esplanade Court on Friday rejected the bail pleas of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s son Aryan Khan and two oth- ers on the grounds of main- tainability. Accepting the NCB’s con- tention that only a special court had jurisdiction to hear the matter and not the Magistrate, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) RM Nerlikar rejected the bail appli- cations of Aryan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha, who were among the eight persons arrested from the Goa-bound Cordelia Cruises’ Empress ship on October 3. Aryan and two others will have to apply for bail before the Special NDPS court on Monday. The rejection of bail appli- cations of Aryan and two oth- ers came a day after a Mumbai Magistrate’s court remanded him and seven others in the drug bust case to 14 days’ judi- cial custody. B rushing aside the demand for the arrest of Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son in Lakhimpur Kheri violence case and the Supreme court’s scathing remarks against the State Government for such apathy, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday said that without any evidence the police will not arrest anyone just on the basis of allegations. “You cannot make arrest on the sheer basis of allegations. You should have evidence. Until we get that, we are not going to arrest anyone,” Yogi said during his interview to a private news channel. The Chief Minister cate- gorically said that so far no evi- dence has come to the fore against Ashish in the Lakhimpur Kheri incident. The CM said that it is also the ruling of the Allahabad High Court that there should be sufficient evidence before arrests are made. “We will not arrest anyone on mere allega- tions. Previously, we have arrested high-profile leaders, including BJP MLA and Opposition leaders. D espite scathing comments against the police by the apex court for not arresting the accused persons in the Lakhimpur Kheri violence, the Kheri police on Friday pre- ferred to serve another notice on Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra asking him to appear before them on Saturday morning. Ashish did not turn up before the police on Friday and after two hours of wait by the police team, another notice was served on him. Ajay Mishra claimed that his son failed to appear on Friday as he was not well. Interestingly, while senior offi- cers on Thursday claimed to be searching for Ashish besides pasting a notice at his house, the Minister on Friday claimed that his son was not abscond- ing and is present at home. However, questions were raised that if the Minister is making true claims about his son, then why the police team preferred to return just by pasting a notice on Thursday. Interestingly, on Friday, some officers even sought to suggest that Ashish slipped to Nepal and that his last mobile location on Thursday evening was traced to be in Gaurifanta (Indo-Nepal) border. They said even the location of Ankit Das, nephew of for- mer BSP MP Akhilesh Das, was traced at some place and it seems both together slipped to Nepal. Both Ashish and Ankit were allegedly present in the Thar and SUV respectively when the vehicles went crushing the farmers on last Sunday. New Delhi: The Delhi Government has directed all private schools to ensure that their teaching and non-teach- ing staff are not allowed to attend school if they have not received the first dose of Covid- 19, and treat their absence as being ‘on leave’, according to officials. T hirty-one private sector specialists on Thursday were selected as joint secre- taries, directors and deputy secretaries in Central Government departments. Based on the examination conducted by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), those selected include three joint secretaries, 19 directors and nine deputy secretaries. Minister of State for Personnel Jitendra Singh said it is a major step to place the right talent for the right role. Three joint secretaries would be joining Finance Ministry, Commerce and Industry Ministry and Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ministry. RNI Regn. No. CHHENG/2012/42718, Postal Reg. No. - RYP DN/34/2013-2015

Transcript of D4 cRad FA W`c =R\YZ^afc Z_RTeZ`_ - Daily Pioneer

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The Supreme Court onFriday slammed the Uttar

Pradesh Government over the“lenient” way its police andadministration have actedagainst the persons accused inthe Lakhimpur Kheri violencecase and wondered if a com-mon man accused in a case ofbrutal murder would havereceived such treatment.

Expressing displeasure onthe steps taken by the YogiGovernment, the court ques-tioned why the prime accusedhas not been arrested anddirected the preservation ofevidence.

The SC also talked abouttransferring the probe to anoth-er agency, saying “proof of thepudding is in the eating”.

The apex court alsoexpressed unhappiness withthe media for wrong reportingin the case and said “somebodyis exceeding the limit of free-dom of speech.”

Coming down heavily onthe State Government, thebench headed by Chief JusticeNV Ramana said, “The lawmust take its course against allaccused and the Governmenthas to take all remedial steps inthis regard to inspire confi-

dence” in the investigation of“brutal murder of eight per-sons”.

Senior lawyer Harish Salve,appearing for the State, assuredthe bench that “between todayand tomorrow whatever is theshortfall (in the probe) will befilled up because the messagehas gone”.

In its order, the bench said,“The learned counsel explainedvarious steps which have beentaken by the State Governmentand the status report has alsobeen filed to that effect. But weare not satisfied with theactions of the State... .The counsel assures us that hewill take all necessary steps tosatisfy this court on the nextdate of hearing and he will alsoconsider alternatives of con-ducting the investigation by anyother agency. In view of that weare not inclined to go intodetails of this aspect. List thismatter immediately after the

vacation. Meanwhile, thelearned counsel assured us thathe will communicate to theconcerned highest police offi-cer in the State to take all nec-essary steps to protect the evi-dence and other materials relat-ed to the incident”.

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Around 200 troops ofChina’s People’s Liberation

Army entered into Indian ter-ritory last week leading to aface-off with the Indian Armyat the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in Arunachal Pradesh,sources said.

It happened during a rou-tine patrol close to the LACnear Yangtse in Tawang Sector.

The Indian troops inter-cepted around 200 PLA sol-diers, who had crossed overinto the Indian side from Tibetand attempted to damageunoccupied bunkers.

This led to a face-off whichwas amicably resolved by thecommanders at the local level.They met to disengage and de-escalate the situation.

Top Government sourcessaid the face-off between thetwo sides lasted for a few hoursand was resolved as per theexisting protocols. There wasno damage caused to theIndian defences during theengagement.

Sources also stated thatthe India-China border hasnot been formally demarcatedand hence there is a differencein perception of the LACbetween the two countries.

“Peace and tranquillity inthese areas of differing per-

ceptions has been possible byadherence to existing agree-ments and protocols betweenthe two countries,” the sourcesaid.

Both sides undertakepatrolling activities up to theirline of perception.

Whenever patrols of bothsides physically meet, the situ-ation is managed according toestablished protocols andmechanisms agreed by bothsides. “Physical engagementcan last for a few hours prior todisengaging as per mutualunderstanding,” said the source,adding that in last week’s inci-dent there was no damage todefences.

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Ablast went off on Friday ata mosque packed with

Shiite Muslim worshippers innorthern Afghanistan, killing atleast 25 and wounding dozensin the latest security challenge to the Taliban asthey transition from insur-gency to governance.

The explosion tore througha mosque in the city of Kunduzduring noon prayers, the high-light of the Muslim religiousweek. It blew out windows,charred the ceiling and scat-tered debris and twisted metalacross the floor. Rescuers car-ried one body out on a stretch-er and another in a blanket.Blood stains covered the frontsteps.

Area resident HussaindadRezayee said he rushed to the

mosque when he heard theexplosion, just as prayers start-ed. “I came to look for my rel-atives, the mosque was full.”

There was no immediateclaim of responsibility for what

Kunduz police said may havebeen a suicide attack. But mil-itants from a local Islamic Stateaffiliate have a long history ofattacking Afghanistan’s ethnicand religious minorities.

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After a gap of 68 years, debt-laden national carrier Air

India returned to its founderTata Sons, ending a decades-long move for its divestment.

The Centre on Fridayannounced that Tata Sons hasemerged as the winner in theAir India bidding with an offerof �18,000 crore for acquiring100 per cent shareholding.The Government has assuredthat there will be no sacking ofthe employees for a year.

“A Special PurposeVehicles of Tata Sons — theholding company of conglom-erate Talace Pvt Limited — hasemerged as a successful bidder,”Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretaryto the Department ofInvestment and Public AssetManagement (DIPAM), said.

Minutes after the winningbid for Air India wasannounced, Tata Sons chair-man Emeritus Ratan Tata

tweeted, “Welcome Back, AirIndia.”

“The Tata Group winningthe bid for Air India is greatnews. While admittedly it willtake considerable effort torebuild Air India, it will hope-fully provide a very strongmarket opportunity to the TataGroup in the aviation industry,”Ratan Tata said.

Along with the assets, thenew owner will also take onaround �15,300 crore of debt.The remaining �2,700 crorewill be paid to the Governmentin cash. This was higher than

SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh-ledconsortia’s enterprise value(EV) bid at �15,100 crore withdebt to be retained at �12,835crore and a cash component of�2,265 crore.

For Tata Group, Air Indiaadds a third airline brand to itsstable, considering the con-glomerate already holds amajority interest in AirAsiaIndia and Vistara. Three air-lines are likely to be integratedfirst.

The DIPAM Secretary saidas on August 31, 2021, AirIndia has a total debt of �61,562

crore, out of that �15,300 willbe taken over by the bidder. So,�46,262 crore will be trans-ferred to Air India AssetsHolding Limited (AIAHL), headded. AIAHL is a SPV formedby the Government. The trans-action is expected to close bythe end of December 2021, hesaid.

On an emotional and nos-talgic note, Ratan Tata said AirIndia under the leadership ofJRD Tata had at one timegained the reputation of beingone of the most prestigious air-lines in the world.

“Tatas will have the oppor-tunity of regaining the imageand reputation enjoyed in ear-lier years. JRD Tata wouldhave been overjoyed if he was in our midst today,” hesaid.

Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy(JRD) Tata founded the airlinein 1932. It was called TataAirlines then. In 1946, the avi-ation division of Tata Sonswas listed as Air India and in1948, Air India Internationalwas launched with flights toEurope. In 1953, Air India wasnationalised. Tata also thankedthe Central Government for itsrecent policy of opening upselect industries to the privatesector.

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ADelhi court on Friday con-victed real estate barons

Sushil and Gopal Ansal fortampering with evidence in the1997 case of the UphaarCinema fire which claimed 59lives.

Chief MetropolitanMagistrate Pankaj Sharma alsoheld a former court staffDinesh Chand Sharma andtwo others — PP Batra andAnoop Singh — guilty in thecase and said the misconcep-tion of all the accused personsthat they will get away withtheir nefarious design frompunishment has been exposedto the world at large.

The judge held that theguilt of the Ansal brothers,Sharma, Batra, and Singh was

“proved beyond any reasonabledoubt” for the offence of crim-inal conspiracy, causing disap-pearance of evidence of offenceand criminal breach of trust bythe public servant.

The court said that theconvicts destructed criticaldocuments which were capableof proving their complicity in the main case,“making this time the justicedispensation system as the vic-tim.”

“They tampered/obliterat-ed/tom/defaced some hand-picked documents of the saidcase through a meticulousplanning in order to escapepunishment by scuttling trialprocess and as such fiddledwith our judicial system with great impunity,” the judgesaid.

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The Delhi Government onFriday announced that

employees and teachers whohave not received even thefirst dose of the Covid vaccinewill not be allowed to attendtheir workplace.

The Delhi DisasterManagement Authority(DDMA) in an order statedthat effective from October 16all unvaccinated DelhiGovernment employees willbe treated as on leave till theyget the jab.

All employees working indepartments/autonomous bod-ies/ PSUs/local bodies/educa-tional institutions underGovernment of NCT of Delhi,should get vaccinated byOctober 15. It includes front-line workers, healthcare work-

ers as well as teachers and otherstaff working in schools/col-leges.

“The aforesaidGovernment employees/ front-line workers/healthcare work-ers / teachers and other staff

working in schools and col-leges, who do not get vacci-nated (at least first dose) byOctober 15 shall not be allowedto attend their respectiveoffices/ health care institu-tions/ educational institutionswith effect from October 16, tillthey have obtained the firstdose vaccination,” the orderread.

The order, issued by DelhiChief Secretary and DDMAexecutive committee chairper-son Vijay Dev, stated that theCentral Government “mayconsider issuing similar direc-tions in respect of its employ-ees working in Delhi.” Also, theheads of departments con-cerned will verify vaccinatedemployees through AarogyaSetu app or vaccination cer-tificate, it stated.

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Five days after they werearrested in the mid-sea drug

bust case, a Mumbai EsplanadeCourt on Friday rejected thebail pleas of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’sson Aryan Khan and two oth-ers on the grounds of main-tainability.

Accepting the NCB’s con-tention that only a specialcourt had jurisdiction to hearthe matter and not theMagistrate, Chief MetropolitanMagistrate (CMM) RMNerlikar rejected the bail appli-cations of Aryan, ArbaazMerchant and MunmunDhamecha, who were amongthe eight persons arrested fromthe Goa-bound CordeliaCruises’ Empress ship onOctober 3.

Aryan and two others will

have to apply for bail before theSpecial NDPS court onMonday.

The rejection of bail appli-cations of Aryan and two oth-ers came a day after a MumbaiMagistrate’s court remandedhim and seven others in thedrug bust case to 14 days’ judi-cial custody.

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Brushing aside the demandfor the arrest of Union

Minister Ajay Mishra’s son inLakhimpur Kheri violence caseand the Supreme court’sscathing remarks against theState Government for suchapathy, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath on Friday said thatwithout any evidence the police

will not arrest anyone just onthe basis of allegations.

“You cannot make arreston the sheer basis of allegations.You should have evidence.Until we get that, we are notgoing to arrest anyone,” Yogi

said during his interview to aprivate news channel.

The Chief Minister cate-gorically said that so far no evi-dence has come to the foreagainst Ashish in theLakhimpur Kheri incident.

The CM said that it is alsothe ruling of the AllahabadHigh Court that there shouldbe sufficient evidence beforearrests are made. “We will notarrest anyone on mere allega-tions. Previously, we havearrested high-profile leaders,including BJP MLA andOpposition leaders.

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Despite scathing commentsagainst the police by the

apex court for not arresting theaccused persons in theLakhimpur Kheri violence, theKheri police on Friday pre-ferred to serve another noticeon Union Minister AjayMishra’s son Ashish Mishraasking him to appear beforethem on Saturday morning.

Ashish did not turn upbefore the police on Friday andafter two hours of wait by thepolice team, another noticewas served on him.

Ajay Mishra claimed thathis son failed to appear onFriday as he was not well.Interestingly, while senior offi-cers on Thursday claimed to besearching for Ashish besidespasting a notice at his house,the Minister on Friday claimed

that his son was not abscond-ing and is present at home.

However, questions wereraised that if the Minister ismaking true claims about hisson, then why the police teampreferred to return just bypasting a notice on Thursday.

Interestingly, on Friday,some officers even sought tosuggest that Ashish slipped toNepal and that his last mobilelocation on Thursday evening

was traced to be in Gaurifanta(Indo-Nepal) border.

They said even the locationof Ankit Das, nephew of for-mer BSP MP Akhilesh Das,was traced at some place and itseems both together slipped toNepal. Both Ashish and Ankitwere allegedly present in theThar and SUV respectivelywhen the vehicles went crushing the farmers on lastSunday.

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New Delhi: The DelhiGovernment has directed allprivate schools to ensure thattheir teaching and non-teach-ing staff are not allowed to

attend school if they have notreceived the first dose of Covid-19, and treat their absence asbeing ‘on leave’, according toofficials.

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Thirty-one private sectorspecialists on Thursday

were selected as joint secre-taries, directors and deputysecretaries in CentralGovernment departments.

Based on the examinationconducted by Union PublicService Commission (UPSC),those selected include threejoint secretaries, 19 directorsand nine deputy secretaries.

Minister of State forPersonnel Jitendra Singh said itis a major step to place the righttalent for the right role.

Three joint secretarieswould be joining FinanceMinistry, Commerce andIndustry Ministry andAgriculture and FarmersWelfare Ministry.

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��� *57$)�-7�5 After facing criticism fromall quarters over his “tit for

tat” remarks during a recentaddress to the workers of StateBJP Kisan Morcha, HaryanaChief Minister Manohar LalKhattar on Friday said he iswithdrawing his statement inthe interest of State’s peace.

“The remark had beenmade in the context of self-defence and not out of ill-intention towards anyone,” theChief Minister said while talk-ing to the mediapersons afterpaying obeisance at MataMansa Devi temple inPanchkula on the second day ofthe Navratri festival. “I want totell my farmer brothers who are

hurt that I am taking back mystatement. I do not want anybreach of peace or law andorder problem in the State.Everyone has a right to protestin a peaceful manner but theonly thing is that no one shouldcross the limit. No one shouldbe harmed, vehicles should notbe damaged,” he said.

Khattar had on Sundayasked the party’s Kisan Morchaworkers to raise groups offarmer volunteers in the state’snorthern and north-westerndistricts.

In a portion of his addressthat went viral on social media,the Chief Minister had said,“Form groups of 500-700-1,000

farmers and make them vol-unteers. And then at everyplace, ‘sathe sathyamsamacharet’. What does it mean— it means tit for tat (jaisa ko taisa).” The CM alsoasked the gathering to supportand promote “some new farm-ers bodies coming up in theState”. Khattar told the gather-ing that after taking up “dande”(bamboo sticks) they should notcare for “zamanat” (bail) asserving time in jail for a fewmonths “will make them bigleaders”.

While withdrawing hisremark on Friday, the ChiefMinister said that it was publi-cised that he suggested “picking

up sticks”. The remark had beenmade in the context of self-defence, he clarified.

After the video of the eventsurfaced, the farmers’ bodieshad alleged that the ChiefMinister was telling party sup-porters to “pickup sticks”against farmers protesting thecentral agriculture laws. TheCongress and Indian NationalLok Dal had also criticizedKhattar accusing him of pub-licly advocating strong-armtactics.

The farmers’ unions hadalso held protests in variousparts of the state against theChief Minister over hisremarks.

��� *57$)�-7�5

Haryana Chief Minister ManoharLal Khattar on Friday offered

prayers at Shri Mata Mansa Devi tem-ple on the second day of AshwinNavratri and prayed for happiness andprosperity of the State.

The CM also participated in theHavan organised in the Yagyashala andinaugurated the newly constructeddevelopment works at a cost of aboutRs 4.40 crore. Haryana Vidhan SabhaSpeaker Gian Chand Gupta was alsopresent on the occasion.

Later, while interacting with themediapersons, the Chief Ministersaid ever since 1991, Mata Mansa Devitemple, Panchkula and Kali MataMandir, Kalka have been acquired,since then development works arebeing done continuously.

Today, the main corridor con-necting Mata Mansa Devi temple toPatiala temple built at a cost of Rs 2.8crore has been inaugurated, he said.

Khattar also inaugurated ShreeVatika Parking constructed at a cost ofRs 2.4 crore. The CM also dedicated theShakti Stambh of Kali Mata Temple atPinjore and Kalka. Rs. 22.65 lakh havebeen spent on their construction.

He said the new projects are beingsanctioned for the development of tem-ples under the Shri Mata Mansa Devi

Shrine Board so that devotees get max-imum facilities during the fair.

Every year lakhs of devoteescome for the darshan of Mata dur-ing the Navratri fair held twice a year.Haryana Government and Shri MataMansa Devi Shrine Board are com-mitted for their convenience, headded. Responding to a questionrelated to girdawari of crops, the ChiefMinister said that crops have beendamaged due to rains. In such a sit-uation, considering the problems ofthe farmers, the government hasordered for special girdawari. Aftergirdawari, the farmers will be givenproper compensation for the damagedcrops, he said.

Khattar said due to rains, pro-curement of crops has also been affect-ed in some places. The Governmenthas also given orders to streamline theprocurement process, he said. The CMalso said Mukhyamantri AntyodayaParivar Utthan Yojana is very benefi-cial. With this scheme, Governmentwill directly reach out to the doorstepsof the very poor family and will ensuretheir economic upliftment by ensuringthem the benefit of every welfarescheme. He said small farmers andlabourers will get direct benefit fromthis scheme and the Government’sdream of development of Antyodayawould be fulfilled.

��� *57$)�-7�5

Congress leader Navjot SinghSidhu has landed himself in

yet another controversy — thistime for allegedly running downPunjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and projectinghimself as the “ideal” choice forthe top job.

When Sidhu organised aprotest march towardsLakhimpur Kheri from Mohalito protest the “brutal” killing offarmers in Uttar Pradesh’s dis-trict, the intention was also toproject a united front. BothSidhu and Channi were to sharea common platform but formercricketer’s alleged remarks, thatwent viral on the social media onlate Thursday evening, have notonly brought to fore the still exis-tent rift between the party’s topbrass but also his desire to cata-

pult himself to the coveted post.Sidhu, who had resigned as

the Punjab Pradesh CongressCommittee (PPCC) president onSeptember 28 over the keyappointments in the Channi-ledGovernment, is yet to formallywithdraw his resignation. It hasbeen learnt that the party highcommand has given him a week’stime to take back his resignation,which he announced via socialmedia.

In viral video clips ahead ofthe start of the protest march,Sidhu looked upset because hehad to wait for Chief MinisterChanni’s arrival, and was caught

on camera criticising his party.The video in question shows

Sidhu’s close aide and CabinetMinister Pargat Singh trying topacify him by saying Channiwould join them soon. PunjabCongress’ one of four workingpresidents Sukhwinder SinghDanny then tells Sidhu that themarch would be successful.

“Where is the success? IfBhagwant Sidhu’s son (a refer-ence to his father) was allowedto lead, then you would haveseen the success... Congress is ina dying stage...” replied Sidhu resentfully, while using aswear word.

“This man (Channi) willsink the Congress in 2022(Assembly election),” Sidhu isheard saying in the video.

CONG’s SC CM CARDSTAND EXPOSED: SAD

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)on Friday said that the ScheduledCaste card played by theCongress to divert attentionfrom its failures in Punjab hadboomeranged on the party withthe State Congress presidentNavjot Singh Sidhu asserting thata SC Chief Minister could notdeliver the goods for the party.

��� *57$)�-7�5

Punjab Chief MinisterCharanjit Singh Channi

on Friday expressed deepanguish over the unfortunateincident of gruesome killingsof principal and a teacherbelonging to minorities by theterrorists in the Governmentschool at Sr inagar onThursday.

The Chief Minister, in acondolence message, urgedthe Centre to take effectivemeasures to ensure protectionand security of people acrossthe State living under theatmosphere of uncertaintydue to constant threat andfear from the various terror-

ist outfits in the strife tornstate.

He also emphasised theneed to immediately repose asense of security amongstsuch people and the BJP-ledGovernment at Centre shouldintensify the law and ordermachinery so as to book theguilty forthwith, who hadperpetrated this heinouscrime against humanity todestroy the ethos of peace,harmony and brotherhood.

Pointing out further, the

Chief Minister said severest ofthe severe punishment shouldbe given to those guilty

according to law as a deter-rent for others not dare torepeat such ghastly acts,which should be condemnedin the strongest possiblewords by one and all.

The Chief Minister alsorequested Jammu & KashmirLt Governor Manoj Sinha todirect the Administration toextend all possible help to thegrieved families in these difficult times.

Sharing his heartfelt sym-pathies with the bereaved families, Channiprayed to the Almighty togrant courage to bear thisirreparable loss in this hour ofgrief and eternal peace to thedeparted souls.

��� *57$)�-7�5

Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet RamRahim Singh, who is already

serving jail sentence in a rape case was onFriday convicted of murder of his disciple,Ranjit Singh, in 2002.

The special CBI Court of Panchkulaheld Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh and fourothers guilty under Sections 302 (murder)and 120 b (criminal conspiracy) of theIndian Penal Code. The quantum of thesentence will be pronounced on October 12.

Ranjit Singh, a former follower of

Ram Rahim, was shot dead by fourassailants on July 10, 2002, at his nativeKhanpur Kolian village in Kurukshetra.According to the CBI chargesheet, he wasmurdered as Ram Rahim suspected that hewas behind the circulation of an anonymousletter highlighting the sexual exploitationof female disciples on the Dera premises.

Recently, the Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court had dismissed a petition seek-ing the transfer of the Ranjit Singh murdercase from the special CBI court inPanchkula to any other special CBI courtin Punjab, Haryana or Chandigarh.

Notably, the self-styled godman RamRahim was sentenced in August 2017 for20 years in jail for raping two women. Hisconviction on August 25, 2017, had led toviolence in Panchkula and Sirsa, leavingover 40 people dead and more than 260injured in Panchkula.

Later, a special CBI court in Panchkulain January 2019 had also sentenced RamRahim and three others to life imprison-ment for the murder of journalist RamChander Chhatrapati.

The Dera chief is currently lodged at thehigh-security Sunaria jail in Rohtak.

��� <5�(47

The Congress has namedparty leader Navjot Singh

Sidhu among its star cam-paigners for the October 30bypolls in Himachal Pradeshamid the ongoing crisis in thePunjab party unit.

In a letter sent to theElection Commission of Indiaon Friday, Congress GeneralSecretary KC Venugopal hassubmitted a list of 20 star cam-paigners — which also includesnew inductee Kanhaiya Kumar— for the by-elections toMandi Lok Sabha and Arki,Fatehpur and Jubbal-Kotkhaiassembly seats of HimachalPradesh.

Navjot Singh Sidhu had lastmonth submitted his resigna-tion as the Punjab Congresschief, saying he could not com-promise on his state’s future

and its welfare.Apart from him, Punjab

Chief Minister Charanjit SinghChaani, actor-turned-politi-cian Raj Babbar, Shimla (Rural)MLA Vikramaditya Singh, for-mer Haryana CM BhupinderSingh Hooda and Punjab min-ister Gurkirat Singh Kotli havealso been included in the list ofstar campaigners for the by-polls. Chhattishgarh CMBhupesh Baghel, seniorCongress leaders AnandSharma, Rajeev Shukla, AshaKumari, Dhaniram Shandil,Sachin Pilot, Sanjay Dutt,Thakur Kaul Singh,Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu havealso been named among thestar campaigners.

The Congress general sec-retary KC Venugopal has alsosent the copy of its star cam-paigners to Himachal chiefelectoral officer.

��� *57$)�-7�5

Project Director, ChiefMinister’s Good Governance

Associate Programme andAdditional Principal Secretary toChief Minister, Dr Amit Agrawalon Friday directed all the DeputyCommissioners to re-focus onthe “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao”campaign and take strict actionagainst anti-social elementsinvolved in gender determina-tion.

In a review meeting of var-ious schemes including BetiBachao Beti Padhao, e-Office,Saral, Parivar Pehchan Patra,Saksham Haryana SamarthHaryana, Meri Fasal Mera Byorawith Deputy Commissionersand CMGGA held throughvideo conference, Agarwal saidthat Haryana had taken forwardthe Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

campaign launched by PrimeMinister, Narendra Modi fromPanipat in the year 2015 andyielded positive results, directingthe officers to once again con-tinuously monitor this cam-paign. Appreciating the use of ITin various schemes being run bythe Haryana Government,Agrawal said for this Haryanahas become a role model formany such schemes, which havebeen followed by the CentralGovernment and other States.

Emphasising moving filesthrough e-office, he said that byDecember 25, at least 10 filesshould be moved online in eachdepartment of the district. Ifthere is a shortage of necessaryequipment like computers etc. inany office, then the DeputyCommissioner should ensureavailability of the same on stip-ulated time, he directed.

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RAIPUR | SATURDAY | OCTOBER 09, 2021chhattisgarh 03

e-Procurement Tender Notice eProcurement Portal: https://eproc.cgstate.gov.in

(SECOND-CALL)SYSTEM TENDER NO. 84769 / NOTICE INVITING TENDER

NO. 07 /SAC/2021-22 Dated: 06.10.2021Online Tenders are invited for the following yorks up to 15-11-2021(17.30 hours IST).

The details can be viewed & downloaded online directely from the Govt. ofChhattisgarh Integrated e-Procurement portal (https://eproc.cgstate.gov.in)from dated 13-10-2021 at 17.31 hours (IST) onwards. Note: All eligible/interested contractors /bidders are mandated to get enrolled onthe integrated e-Procurement portal (https://eproc.cgstate.gov.in) and getapproval on specific vendor class from PWD under centralized contractor/supplier registration in order to download tho tender document and participatein the subsequent bidding process

GOVERNMENT OF CHHATTISGARH, WATER RESOURCES DEPARTMENTOFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEER,

KHARUNG WATER RESOURCES DIVISION, BILASPURDIST-BILASPUR (C.G.)

Nameof

Work

Construction of Pressurized,pipe system to supply water for Solarmicro irrigation to deliver at farmers field up to 1 ha with a duty of 0.84lit/sec/ha and maintained up to 4 ha chak, keeping the discharge ofminimum 3 times the duty at one hectare and at least 20 Meter ResidualHead at 1 Ha for Micro Pressurized Irrigation (Drip/Sprinkler) byrotation in Distt. Bilaspur in 45 Ha. in kharif and 45 Ha. In Rabi (leftside of Rahtator Anicut) as indicated in Index Map), out of total grosscommand area 50 hectare full covering the entire compact, contiguouspossible arable area beyond 500m from submergence line (FTL line) ofRahtator Anicut as indicated in the index map for Micro IrrigationSystern without exceeding total power requirement for Solar pumpswith solar panel of 150 KW. It includes all activities starting fromsurvey, investigation, designing, estimating costing, procurement,construction, laying, installing, energizing, etc. of pumping system,rising and gravity mains, main line, branch lines distribution network,controlling and regulation system etc. for supply of filtered water forirrigation under pressure. The work also includes formation of FPO asper company act/rule, Managemet, Operation and Maintenance(MOM) and defect liability (DL) for the period of 10 years after completionand MOM and DL period run simultaneously and work also includingfoundation stone, laying ceremony and inauguration ceremony and asdirected by Engineer- in -Charge as per details given in scope of work.MOU between agency and FPO to operate scheme after 10 years ofMOM and DL period and to arrange linkage facility to the FPO.

PROBABLE AMOUNT OF CONTRACT Rs. 304.31 Lakhs

EXECUTIVE ENGINEER KHARUNG W.R. DIVISION

BILASPUR (C.G.)For, Chief Engineer

Hasdeo Basin Water Resources Deptt. Bilaspur (C.G.)

G- 64312/6 Ryp/Dtd 07.10.21

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STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel

on Friday said the innova-tions of the Indira GandhiAgricultural University(IGAU) in developing tech-nology to process agricultur-al products will be used inthe Rural Industrial Parkbeing set up in villages.

Addressing a function atIGAU to dedicate variousinfrastructure developmentworks in the university, hesaid the institution was play-ing an important role in thedevelopment of the newtechnologies in agriculture.

The Chief Minister said

the Chhattisgarh govern-ment had taken several effec-tive steps to give a new direc-

tion to develop agricultureand to further strengthen thesector.

"We are working towardsmaking the villages self-dependent as per Mahatma

Gandhi's vision of 'GramSwaraj'," he said.

Innovations by IGKUwill assist in the processing ofagricultural and minor forestproduce products, saidBaghel.

He also inaugurated aKrishi Vigyan KendraBhawan, an Akti BiodiversityMuseum and a KnowledgeCenter building in the IGAUcampus.

Baghel launched seeds ofimproved varieties of eightcrops including paddy, soy-bean, maize and raspberry.He inaugurated a technologyto isolate protein and glucosefrom rice developed by theuniversity.

IGAU innovations to be usedin Rural Industrial Park: CM STAFF REPORTER n

RAIPUR

Forest MinisterMohammad Akbar on

Friday said Chhattisgarh is aforest and wildlife rich stateand said they were animportant asset for every-one.

Keeping their impor-tance in mind, the protec-tion of forests and wildlife inthe state has been given pri-ority, he said.

He said that to balancenature, co-existence of forestand wildlife along withhumans is necessary.

He was addressing theconcluding ceremony of awildlife conservation weekhere, an official communica-tion said.

At present, conservation

and promotion works forwildlife are done throughthree national parks, 11sanctuaries, three tigerreserves, an elephant reserveand a biosphere reserve,Akbar added.

The process of setting upthe Lemru Elephant Reserveis in progress whereas theCentre has approved theproposal to establish anoth-er tiger reserve in the state,the Minister said.

C’garh values forests,wildlife: Minister

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Hitting out at the BJP overthe three controversial

farm laws, senior Congressleader Shakti Singh Gohil onFriday accused the Modi gov-ernment of trying to rob thelivelihood of farmers with anti-farmer steps.

Addressing the media here,Gohil, on a tour ofChhattisgarh, said the BJP gov-

ernment waived loans worth Rs10 lakh crores of big corporatesbut refused to extend the samecourtesy to farmers.

Citing the Lakhimpur-

Kheri incident in Uttar Pradeshwhere four farmers were killed,Gohil said the famers wereprotesting against the farm lawswhich will doom their future.

The “son of a BJP leaderand Union Minister moweddown the four farmers and noaction has been taken againsthim”, Gohil said.

He praised ChhattisgarhChief Minister Bhupesh Baghel,who was present at the presser,for going to Uttar Pradesh andsharing the pain of the dis-traught families of the deadfarmers.

During his election cam-paign, Prime Minister NarendraModi promised to provide 2crore jobs each year but it wasunfortunate that 14 crores hadbecome jobless in the past fewyears, Gohil said.

BJP trying to rob livelihoodof farmers: Shakti Gohil

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

Chhattisgarh observed an‘Alcohol Prohibition Week’

from October 2 to 8 to markthe birth anniversary ofMahatma Gandhi.

Social Welfare MinisterAnila Bhedia initiated the pro-grammes for the week by flag-ging off a ‘Rath’ that coveredrural areas to create awarenessagainst liquor addiction.

A number of programmeswere also held to generate

awareness among people to dis-suade them from consuming

liquor, an official release saidon Friday.

Chhattisgarh observes‘Alcohol Prohibition Week’

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

As part of Centre's ‘SafeRoad for All’ policy,

Chhattisgarh is implement-ing the Integrated RoadAccident Database (iRAD)project.

The Ministry of RoadTransport and Highways isimplementing the projectwith a view to improve roadsafety across the country, anofficial communication saidon Friday.

Training includes filingof data related to registration

of the accident victim afterhe is brought to hospital, sta-tus of his condition, medicalprocedure adopted, report oftreatment, certificates andother relevant details.

The database collectedacross the country will beanalyzed to understand rea-sons for road accidents, bringpolicy changes and adoptstrategies in road design.

C’garh implementingroad accident project

STAFF REPORTER nJASHPUR

Chhattisgarh Police onFriday arrested 32

gamblers in Jashpur dis-trict.

A raid netted Rs 5.35lakhs in cash, four cars, amotorcycle, 23 mobilephones and playing cards,Jashpur Superintendent ofPolice Vijay Agrawal toldThe Pioneer.

They were gambling onThursday night on theroadside in Bagaijharia vil-lage.

32 gamblersheld in Jashpur

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

The Mother and Child CareHospital, Raipur, denied media

reports of any negligence in treatinga woman who delivered triplets onFriday.

The hospital told the media thatLalita Jharia’s first child was deliv-ered before reaching the hospital. Asshe had three fetuses, the weight ofthe first child was 1.4 kg. The newborn was shifted to neonatal inten-

sive care unit (NICU).On reaching the hospital, she

was assisted in delivering two chil-dren. The second child weighed 1.1kg, deemed critically underweight,and was also shifted to NICU.

The third child, who died in thewomb (intrauterine death), weighedaround 1.3 kg. All the deliverieswere normal.

The hospital said as both thenewborns are underweight, theyhave been kept in NICU for specialcare.

STAFF REPORTER nKONDAGAON

PCC chief MohanMarkam on Friday

accused the BJP of playingdivisive politics and fan-ning communal hatred inChhattisgarh.

Markam said this toreporters at the start of hisBastar march after a visit tothe Ma Shitla temple atKondagaon.

He said the BJPhatched a conspiracy andenacted the Kawardha inci-dent and was trying to dis-rupt peace in a place wherevarious communities were

living in harmony.People of Kawardha

had elected MohammadAkbar with record votesand he is now the ForestMinister. This testifies the

place doesn’t have anyscope for communal vio-lence, Markam said.

The BJP was trying tocreate communal tensionin the area, he said.Actually, the BJP sent peo-ple from outside the districtto create unrest there, hesaid. He demanded sternactions against people dis-rupting communal harmo-ny.

BJP playing divisive politics: MarkamSTAFF REPORTER nNARAYANPUR

An Indo-Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) trooper was

injured on Friday whenNaxalites fired at him inChhattisgarh’s Narayanpur dis-trict, police said.

The incident took placewhen Constable SandeepKumar of the 53rd Battalionwas at a mobile check post in

his camp in Kohkameta village,Narayanpur AdditionalSuperintendent of Police NeerajChandrakar said.

A small team of Maoistsfired at him, sparking anexchange of fire. The Naxalitesescaped.

The constable sustained abullet injury near his left shoul-der and was treated at the dis-trict hospital. He is out of dan-ger, the officer added.

ITBP trooper injured

Hospital rules outnegligence in delivery

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The CBI on Friday said it hasarrested two persons,

including a minor, in a caserelating to murder of a manduring post-poll violence inWest Bengal.

The agency nabbedRajendra Sharma and theminor in connection with thekilling of Palash Mondalreported on June 14 in Nadiadistrict.

The agency had booked 10accused and unidentified peo-ple for allegedly breaking intothe house of Mondal withfirearms, dagger, tube wellpipes and iron rod.

The CBI had registeredthe case on August 25 on theorders of Calcutta High Courtand took over the investigationof the case, earlier registered atPolice Station Kotwali, DistrictNadia.

“They allegedly ransackedthe house of the complainantand dragged out her husband.One of the accused allegedly

fired at the head of the com-plainant’s husband followingwhich he collapsed. The victimwas taken to ShaktinagarDistrict Hospital where he wasdeclared dead,” the CBI said ina statement.

A chargesheet in the casewas filed by the CBI onSeptember 10 against 15accused including the saidarrested accused.

The arrested persons wereproduced before theCompetent Court. The courtremanded Sharma to four dayspolice custody and other(minor) was sent to remandhome. Further investigation iscontinuing in the case.

The agency also filed achargesheet against threeaccused persons in a separatecase related to violence. SkMijanur, Sk Fatenur alias Fateand Sk Emdadul Islam werecharge-sheeted by the CBI in aseparate case of murder.

This case was registered onAugust 30 and the CBI tookover the investigation of the

case, earlier registered at PoliceStation Nandigram, in PurbaMidnapore.

In its chargesheet filedbefore a Haldia court, the CBIalleged that the accused per-sons had attacked the com-plainant’s uncle and seriouslywounded him.

“The victim was initiallyadmitted at NandigramHospital and later shifted to PG Hospital in Kolkata wherethe victim died,” the agencysaid.

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During Covid-19 infectionensure adequate oral

health hygiene, researchershave advised reasoning that theoral cavity is a potential reser-voir for respiratory pathogens.Those with cardiovascular dis-eases should be more cautious,they said in a study after exam-ining Egyptian cardiac patients.

The study will be present-ed at ACC Middle East 2021, ahybrid meeting held in part-nership by the AmericanCollege of Cardiology, EgyptianSociety of Cardiology and theACC Egypt Chapter on Oct.14-15, 2021.

The oral cavity is a poten-tial reservoir for respiratorypathogens. Previous trials have

linked poor oral hygiene withincreased inflammation andcardiovascular disease.According to the researchers,Covid-19 severity has also beenlinked to an inflammatoryresponse.

“Oral tissues could act as areservoir for SARS-CoV-2,developing a high viral load inthe oral cavity. Therefore, werecommended maintenance oforal health and improving oralhygiene measures, especiallyduring Covid-19 infection,”said Ahmed Mustafa Basuoni,MD, cardiology consultant atCairo University and leadauthor of the study.

“Simple measures likepracticing proper oral hygiene,raising awareness of oral healthimportance either in relation to

Covid-19 infection or systemicdiseases by using media andcommunity medicine, regulardental visits, especially inpatients with CVD, and using[antimicrobial] mouthwashes[could help in] preventing ordecreasing the severity ofCovid-19 disease.”

The study included 86Egyptian heart disease patientswith a confirmed Covid-19PCR test. Using a question-

naire, researchers from CairoUniversity assessed oral healthand Covid-19 severity. An oralhealth score was used to deter-mine the effect of oral health onCovid-19. Data on CRP levelsand Covid-19 PCR tests werecollected via the questionnaireand confirmed via medicalrecords. CRP levels are used todetermine when there isinflammation in the body.

According to the

researchers, the correlationbetween oral health and Covid-19 severity showed a significantinverse relationship, as did thecorrelation between oral healthwith recovery period and CRPvalues. Poor oral health wascorrelated to increased valuesof CRP and delayed recovery,especially in patients with car-diac diseases.

“Oral health should be apart of routine history takingand examination in cardiacpatients,” Basuoni said.“Lifestyle measures should beinstructed to all cardiac patientsregarding good oral hygienewith regular dental visits. Weneed to give more space inresearch for these risk factorswhich can be easily modified,”he added.

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Amid reports of increasingfertilisers’ prices, the

Government has directed allmanufacturers not to increaseretail prices of DAP and otherphosphatic fertilisers duringthe ongoing Rabi season. TheGovernment, which increasedsubsidies on DAP and someother non-urea fertilisers, isunlikely to hike subsidies onnon-urea fertilisers.

According to sources,Union Fertiliser MinisterMansukh Mandaviya has saidthe Government will not allowany increase in retail prices of

DAP and also not tolerateprice “cartelisation”. In June,the Union Cabinet had raisedthe subsidies for DAP andsome other non-urea fertilisersby Rs 14,775 crore to keep theprice of crop nutrients forfarmers low despite the risingcosts. The move was aimed atproviding relief to the farmersamid the pandemic.

After urea, Di-AmmoniumPhosphate (DAP) fertiliser isthe most widely used one in thecountry.The government hadincreased subsidies by 140 percent on DAP because of thesurge in global prices. Thesubsidy for DAP fertiliser has

been increased to Rs 1,200 perbag from Rs 500 per bag.Farmers will continue to getDAP at the old rate of Rs1,200 per bag, the governmenthad said. One bag has 50 kilo-grams of fertiliser.

The government has allo-cated nearly Rs 79,600 crore forfertiliser subsidies in the 2021-22 Budget. At present, the sub-sidy rates for N (Nitrogen) is Rs18.789, P (Phosphorus) Rs45.323, K (potash) Rs 10.116and S (sulphur) Rs 2.374. Thesubsidy is for each kilogram ofthe fertiliser. The NBS rate onP stood at Rs 18.78 per kg lastyear.

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Those who have been natu-rally infected due to Covid-

19 should get vaccinated asinfection alone can offer very lit-tle long-term protection againstsubsequent infections, a team ofscientists led by faculty at YaleSchool of Public Health and theUniversity of North Carolina atCharlotte has said.

“Reinfection can reason-ably happen in three months orless,” said Jeffrey Townsend, theElihu Professor of Biostatisticsat the Yale School of PublicHealth and the study’s lead

author. “Therefore, those whohave been naturally infectedshould get vaccinated. Previousinfection alone can offer verylittle long-term protectionagainst subsequent infections.”

The study, published inthe journal The LancetMicrobe, is the first to deter-mine the likelihood of reinfec-tion following natural infectionand without vaccination.

Townsend and his teamanalyzed known reinfectionand immunological data fromthe close viral relatives ofSARS-CoV-2 that cause “com-mon colds,” along with

immunological data fromSARS-CoV-1 and Middle EastRespiratory Syndrome.Leveraging evolutionary prin-ciples, the team was able tomodel the risk of Covid-19reinfection over time.

Reinfections can, and have,happened even shortly afterrecovery, the researchers said.And they will become increas-ingly common as immunitywanes and new SARS-CoV-2variants arise.

“We tend to think aboutimmunity as being immune ornot immune. Our study cau-tions that we instead should be

more focused on the risk ofreinfection through time,” saidAlex Dornburg, assistant pro-fessor of bioinformatics andgenomics at the University ofNorth Carolina at Charlotte,who co-led the study. “As newvariants arise, previousimmune responses become lesseffective at combating the virus.Those who were naturallyinfected early in the pandem-ic are increasingly likely tobecome reinfected in the nearfuture.”

The team’s data-drivenmodel reveals striking similar-ities to the reinfection risks over

time between SARS-CoV-2and endemic coronaviruses.

“Just like common colds,from one year to the next youmay get reinfected with thesame virus,” Townsend said.“The difference is that, duringits emergence in this pandem-ic, Covid-19 has proven to bemuch more deadly.”

“However, our findingsunderscore its important role ininforming decision-making,and provide a crucial step-pingstone toward robustknowledge of our prospects ofresistance to SARS-CoV-2 rein-fection,” he said.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has pro-

visionally attached bank bal-ances to the tune of �1.74crore under Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act in itsongoing investigations regard-ing siphoning of funds fromBhushan Power & Steel Limitedand others in a case involvingbank fraud.

Earlier, a prosecution com-plaint had also been filed by theED in the case against 25accused and assets worth�4420.16 crore have alreadybeen attached, taking thethetotal attached proceeds ofcrime in the case to �4421.90crores.

The ED had initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion on the basis of FIR datedApril 5, 2019 filed by CBIunder various sections of theIndian Penal Code and relevantprovisions of Prevention ofCorruption Act against BPSLand others for a criminal con-spiracy amongst themselves

and with unknown public ser-vants of banks and others tocheat Banks/ FinancialInstitutions/ Govt. exchequer.

“Investigation by EDrevealed that Mahender KumarKhandelwal (erstwhileResolution Professional ofBhushan Power & Steel Ltd.) inassociation and connivancewith others by way of criminalactivity related to scheduledoffences had acquired pro-ceeds of crime amounting to Rs1,73,63,488 by way of com-mission from a coal supplier ofBPSL,” the ED said in a state-ment.

The said modus operandiresulted in illegal siphoning offunds out of loans advanced toBPSL by various banks by rout-ing the same through differentbank accounts belonging totheir family members/closerelatives. The said proceeds ofcrime were projected as trad-ing commission in the hands offamily members/close relatives,who have denied having pro-vided any goods or services tothe said coal supplier, he said.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday said theAadhaar card would be one ofthe documents to be takeninto account by the Faridabadmunicipal corporation formaking provisional allotmentunder the rehabilitationscheme to eligible applicants ofKhori village where unautho-rised structures, which cameunder the Aravali forest area,were removed.

As an interim arrange-ment, the apex court directedthe civic body to process theapplications if it is accompa-nied by an Aadhaar card tomake provisional allotmentsubject to verification of the

applicant.A bench of Justices A M

Khanwilkar and DineshMaheshwari made clear thatprovisional allotment of EWS(Economically Weaker Section)flats would not create any rightin favour of the person until heestablishes his eligibility asmandated under the rehabili-tation scheme.

“For the time being, as aninterim arrangement, we directthe corporation to process theapplications, if accompanied byan Aadhaar card, for the pur-pose of making provisionalallotment, subject to verifica-tion of the applicant and aboutthe unauthorised structure

demolished during the demo-lition action,” the bench said.

The bench said theremarks after hearing the advo-cates, appearing for the civicbody and some petitionerswho have raised the issue ofrehabilitation, on the questionof the nature of proof to be sub-mitted along with the applica-tion under the rehabilitationscheme. The top court said theAadhaar card would be inaddition to other documentswhich are prescribed under thescheme. “Aadhaar can also beone of the documents to betaken into account for provi-sional allotment,” the benchsaid. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday refused toentertain a plea seeking direc-tion to the Centre and RBI thatthose running play schools begranted “interest free morato-rium period for term loans”and that their EMI be deferredtill the corona situation sub-sides.

A bench comprisingJustices L Nageswara Rao andB R Gavai, however, granted

liberty to the petitioner toapproach the RBI with his rep-resentation

“How can the court grantthe relief you are asking for inthis petition. You make a rep-resentation they will decide butdon’’t file petitions like this. It’’snot within the realm of thiscourt to provide what you areasking for and the relaxationsyou are seeking,” the benchsaid.

At this juncture, advocateRohit Pandey, appearing for thepetitioner, sought liberty toapproach the Reserve Bank ofIndia (RBI) with his represen-tation.

The top court then grant-ed liberty to the petitionerthat he may approach the RBI.

PTI

New Delhi: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Fridayspoke with Japan’s newly elect-ed Prime Minister FumioKishida and discussed therobust cooperation betweenIndia and Japan in the Indo-Pacific region. Japan’s parlia-ment had elected Kishidaprime minister on Monday.

In a tweet Modi said,“Spoke with HE Fumio Kishidato congratulate him for assum-ing charge as the PrimeMinister of Japan. I look for-ward to working with him tofurther strengthen India-JapanSpecial Strategic and GlobalPartnership and to enhancecooperation in the Indo-Pacificregion.”

The prime minister con-veyed his congratulations andbest wishes to Kishida forassuming charge as the premierof Japan, the Prime Minister’s

Office (PMO) said in a state-ment.

Both leaders expressed sat-isfaction at the rapid progressin the Special Strategic andGlobal Partnership betweenIndia and Japan, and agreed onthe potential to further enhancecooperation in a variety ofareas, including in high-tech-nology and futuristic sectors, itsaid.

Prime Minister Modi invit-ed Japanese companies to ben-efit from India’s economicreforms through greater invest-

ment, the PMO said.The leaders also discussed

the increasing alignment ofperspectives, and robust coop-eration, between India andJapan in the Indo-Pacificregion, it said.

They reviewed the progressof cooperation under the Quadframework in this regard, thestatement said.

Prime Minister Modi alsoinvited Kishida to visit India athis earliest convenience for abilateral summit meeting.

PTI

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The hybrid mode of hearingcases is not working, the

Supreme Court observed onFriday and said that normal-cy has to return and courtshave to function physically asvirtual hearing of cases can’tbecome a norm. “Sitting herein the court and looking at thescreens is not giving us hap-

piness,” said a bench com-prising Justices L NageswaraRao and B R Gavai. Thebench said it wants the courtsto open for the public and jus-tice accessible for all the citi-zens.

“We have tried hybridmode, it’s not working. Peopleare not coming to the courts.Normalcy has to return andthe courts have to function

physically,” it said. The topcourt, which issued notice inthe matter, was hearing a pleafiled by NGO NationalFederation of Societies forFast Justice and eminent citi-zens like Julio Ribeiro,Shailesh R Gandhi, seeking todeclare virtual court hearingas a fundamental right for thelitigants.

The bench asked the peti-

tioners to submit the sugges-tions and said it would con-sider on the next date afterfour weeks as to how this canbe taken up.

At the outset, senioradvocate Monoj Swarup,appearing for the petitioners,submitted that hybrid modebe kept open as a part foraccess to justice for all citizens.The bench said, “Have you

seen the standard operatingprocedure (SOP) issued by us(SC) last night? We have to setaside the SOP then.”Swarup said this petition is onbehalf of citizens who arecoming to the court.

The bench said that thesedistinguished citizens shouldbe told about fundamentalprinciples of open court andopen justice.

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Rashtriya Lok Dal NationalPresident Jayant

Choudhary said that the killingof farmers in Lakhimpur Kheriis nothing less than a terroristincident. “This incident is verypainful. It is not less than a ter-rorist attack” he said.

He arrived in Aligarh toseek blessings from 36 frater-nity in the Ashirwad Path rallyorganized at Gaumat cross-roads of Khair in Aligarh. Inthe rally, people of 36 fraterni-ty collectively tied a turban toJayant Chaudhary.

He said that the culprits inthe farmer murder case shouldbe immediately arrested, actionshould be taken against thoseguilty under the same law whichis for the terrorist. Jayant ques-tioned Chief Minister YogiAdityanath for repeatedly say-ing that bulldozers will be run

on the immovable property ofcriminals, he asked when hisown party ministers are guilty,will the Yogi government run abulldozer at their house as well?

In the Lakhimpur Kheriincident, the Union Minister ofState for Home should be sackedand his son should be arrestedimmediately. Jayant said thattime has come to change thefalse government, which raisesinflation daily and rules like theBritish. He questioned that howthis government will under-stand the plight of farmers,when they are engaged in teaand breakfast with film actressKangana Ranaut.

On this occasion, formerUnion Minister Sompal Shastri,Braj region president JagpalSingh, former state generalsecretary Abdullah Sherwani,former district president RamBahadur Singh etc were pre-sent.

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With disagreement brewingbetween the ruling allies

months ahead of the electionsto the 60-seat ManipurAssembly, hectic political andadministrative activities havebegun in the BJP-ruled Statewith both political parties andElection Commission readyingthemselves for the electoralbattle.

Manipur is one of the fourBJP-ruled States in the north-eastern region comprising eightstates. The others are Assam,Tripura and ArunachalPradesh, while the allies of thesaffron party are ruling in theremaining northeastern states.

BJP President J.P. Naddawill visit Manipur on Saturdayand Sunday and hold a seriesof meetings with the partyleaders and BJP allies -- theNational People's Party (NPP)and the Naga People's Front(NPF).

On October 2, Nadda hadheld a meeting with ManipurChief Minister N. Biren Singh,state minister Biswajit Singh,and state party chief A. ShardaDevi in Delhi.

Home Minister Amit Shah,BJP national General Secretary

(organisation) B.L. Santhosh,Union Minister BhupenderYadav and party spokespersonSambit Patra were also presentin the meeting.

According to BJP sourcesin Imphal, Singh and otherstate leaders have apprised thecentral leaders about the cur-rent political situation in thestate.

The sources told IANS thatthe central leaders also askedthe Chief Minister and otherparty leaders to prepare aroadmap for winning theupcoming Assembly polls,which are expected to be heldalong with the elections inUttar Pradesh, Punjab,Uttarakhand and Goa earlynext year.

In a setback for the rulingalliance, the NPP led byMeghalaya Chief MinisterConrad K. Sangma recentlyannounced that it would goalone in the polls, which isexpected to be held inFebruary-March before the endof the Manipur Assembly termson March 19.

Sangma had said that theManipur Assembly electionsare crucial for the NPP toemerge as a stronger politicalforce and to expand the organ-isational base in the state.

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Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant isback in the news after a brief hiatus

for wrong reasons. The ruling DMKGovernment in Tamil Nadu hasexpressed its apprehension and fear overthe move of the Nuclear PowerCorporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), theapex body controlling the nuclear powerreactor in the country, to set up storagefacility for Spent Nuclear Fuel from theNuclear Power Plants at Kudankulam inthe project site itself. Spent NuclearFuel is dangerous, radio active and withpotential to cause long term damage tovast regions and the population in theeventuality of a mishap.

In a letter addressed to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, the DMK’sparliamentary party leader T R Balu hassaid that the move to set up storage facil-ity for spent fuel from Units 1 to 4 of theKudankulam Nuclear Power Plant wasagainst the Supreme Court guidelines andorder in this regard and wanted the UnionGovernment to find out a site far awayfrom the reactor site or from populatedareas.

He quoted the Supreme Court rulingin a case which stated that storing of spentnuclear fuel at nuclear power plant siteswill in the long run pose a dangerous longterm health and environmental risk.“NPCIL and the Union of India are boundto look at the possibilities of potentiallyharmful events and the consequences infuture. The NPCIL does not seem to havea long term plan other than stating andhoping that in the near future it wouldestablish a Deep Geological Repository.

The Atomic Energy Act envisages presentand future safety of our NPPs and the livesand environment around,” the apex courthad said in its verdict in the GSunderrajan v Union of India in the 2013case.

The DMK leader wants theGovernment of India to send back theSpent Nuclear Fuel from Kudankulam toRussia to keep the same in their storagefacility. He further demanded that theGovernment of India set up DeepGeological Repository (DGR) whereSNFs from nuclear reactors in Tamil Naducould be safely stored.

The KNPP shot into fame because ofthe agitation staged by the anti-nuclearenergy bodies like Peoples’ MovementAgainst Nuclear Energy demanding thescrapping of the nuclear power reactorsat Kudankulam.

R S Sundar, leading nuclear reactorengineer, who headed the KNPP andguided the commissioning of the twoplants each of 1000 MW told The Pioneerthat there was nothing to worry about thesafety and safeguards being followed inpreserving the spent fuel. “We are fol-lowing the guidelines issued by theInternational Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) and Atomic Energy RegulatoryBoard (AERB) in the preservation ofspent fuel which has the contents ofPlutonium and Uranium in them. Thequantity of spent fuel is miniscule and issafely stored in pond-in-pond facilitiesstrictly observing the safety norms. Ourtrack record itself will prove that we haveexpertise in storing spent fuel generatedin the nuclear reactors from the early1970s,” said Sundar..

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RS Sundar, former chief, Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant, said“Away From Reactor doesn't mean kilometres away. All Light

Water Reactors store spent fuel assembly inside the ReactorBuilding in Fuel Pond. The spent fuel assembly is moved underwater to get good shielding from radiation. I have personallymoved 1000 plus Fuel Assemblies standing just above the fuel han-dling machine at Tarapur facility. It's stored in Stainless Steel Racks.

After a cooling period of 6 to 7 years, it is shifted by mov-ing to a Special Container called Spent Fuel Cask. The Cask islifted using cranes and shifted to a truck and moved to anoth-er adjacent fuel pond or pool which is inside a well designed build-ing. The fuel assembly is transferred from cask to spent fuel racksmade of Stainless Steel. The Spent Fuel Pool is a concrete struc-ture with Stainless Steel metallic sheet of 6 mm thick. It's basi-cally designed like a swimming pool inside another swimmingpool. Only the first swimming pool will be dry. The one whichis inside the bigger swimming pool is filled with water.

AFR is already available in India at Tarapur, Rajasthan (Kota)at least for the last 20 years. At the proposed Kudankulam AFRfacility only spent fuel Assembly from KKNPP UNIT 1&2 willbe stored.

No reprocessing facility will be built at Kudankulam Site.First time Russian fuel assembly will be stored in AFR after

mandatory Approval from Regulatory body AERB. Absolutelyit will not cause any problems. KKNPP is located around 25 feetabove Mean Sea Level. In the 2004 Tsunami KKNPP was underconstruction and not affected. Only our neighborhood villagesgot affected and KKNPP was the first agency to Rush aid likefood, blankets etc.”

As told to The Pioneer.

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Delhi’ still may be somedistance away for Bengal

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee-- who is being pro-jected by her party TrinamoolCongress as a strong contenderfor the Prime Minister’s postopposite Narendra Modi--buther admirers have already start-ed projecting her as a Goddessso to say.

The organizers of a NorthKolkata Puja committee haveinstalled the idol of the ChiefMinister as Mother GoddessDurga. Considering the “ser-vice” rendered by her to thepeople of Bengal, Banerjee willbe worshipped by the com-mittee members of BaguiatiNazrul Park Unnayan Samiti.

Here the Chief Minister hasten hands a la the MotherGoddess with each hand repre-senting a popular scheme welfarescheme that her Government hasundertaken in the past morethan a decade of her rule.

“If you ask me about themeaning the 10 hands of theidol (of the Chief Minister) Iwould say they represent herschemes that have benefitedcrores of people of the State andhave even earned internation-al accolades … such schemesare Kanyashree, Rupashree,Sabuj Saathi (an eco friendlyscheme entailing distribution offree cycles to school goers),Laxmir Bhandar (that providesa monthlyallowance Rs 500 to

all the women of the State) andso on,” said IK Bagui a seniormember of the Committee.

The idol is made of fibreglass.

“We are too small a fry topay Didi back for what she doesfor us … the whole State … Sheworks day and night for thepeople of Bengal … So this timewe thought ‘why not pay a smalltribute to her greatness!” saidanother senior member.

Cut to South Kolkata. Likethe previous years Banerjee ---who has written a song and lentmusic to it in adoration of theMother Goddess --- continued

to inaugurate various DurgaPuja pandals around Kolkata.

While inaugurating pan-dals at Shiv Mandir andTridhara Sanmilani in SouthKolkata the Chief Minister said“I do not personally go out dur-ing the Pujas as there is hugerush and it would be very dif-ficult for the police to maintainsecurity protocols and ensureorder for the common people… So I inaugurate the Pujaswell in advance and then retireinto my home from where Icarry out my routine work.”

Meanwhile, the policeadministration of Kolkata and

other parts of the State wasalerted by intelligence agenciesto maintain utmost vigil dur-ing the Pujas when lakhs ofpeople would be on the roadshopping pandals.

Though the Calcutta HighCourt has issued orders ban-ning the general public fromentering pandals the people arelikely to watch pandalsfromoutside the pandals.

“Security has been beefedup following intelligence inputs… the Puja organizers have alsobeen alerted and they havebeen told keep vigil,” a seniorpolice officer said.

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Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav demanded

resignation of Union Minister ofState for Home, Ajay MishraTeni, for his alleged involvementin violence in Lakhimpur Kheriwhere nine people, includingfour farmers, were killed.

He also expressed appre-hension that the Minister’s sonAshish Mishra, who is namedas accused in murder case,could have fled to Nepal.

“We would not compro-mise on anything less than theresignation of the UnionMinister," Akhilesh Yadav toldmedia persons in Bahraich,where he went to meet the fam-ily members of a farmer killedin Lakhimpur Kheri violence.On the Minister’s son AshishMishra, who is the named asaccused, the SP leader said,"The Union Minister has an oldrelationship with Nepal and hisson could be hiding there."

In Bahraich, AkhileshYadav met the family of DaljitSingh in Mahurania village whowas killed in Kheri on October3. He said the sole demand ofthe farmer’s family was securi-

ty and it was the duty of the gov-ernment to ensure the safetyand security of the family mem-bers of the deceased farmer.

“After information hascome that Ashish fled to Nepal,now the Indian governmentwill have to intervene. Now wehope that the Indian govern-ment will also intervene andbring the accused minister'sson from Nepal," he said.

“The working style of theBharatiya Janata Party govern-ment is different. If someonefrom the BJP commits a crime,the government will save him.The criminal who is in BJP willbe respected and they will bepresented bouquets. A sum-

mon is just an excuse. Policewill welcome him by giving abouquet," he alleged.

“Have we not seen in UttarPradesh the policemen, whowere accused of murder of abusinessman in Gorakhpurhotel, are absconding? Thereare many such examples. Don'tknow how many were shot onthe knee by the police. In thesecases, the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment can be questioned".

Akhilesh Yadav said theSamajwadi Party would con-tinue to fight for the justice offarmers and hoped that theSupreme Court would takecognisance so that families ofthe victims got justice.

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Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath once again

hit out at Samajwadi Partychief Akhilesh Yadav. Speakingat an event organised by anews channel in Gorakhpur onFriday, Yogi took a jibe at theestranged relationship betweenAkhilesh Yadav and his uncleShivpal Singh Yadav.

“The way in which Shivpalwas humiliated and thrown out(of SP) is very painful. At least heshould have been respected as anuncle,” Yogi Adityanath said.

Taking another swipe atAkhilesh, Yogi said, “Akhilesh,who wakes up at 12 O’clock,will first sit with friends andthen go for cycling, after whichhe is not left with much timefor politics. He is a big boy ofa big father. He (Akhilesh)must have bought islands inAustralia, he should go andhave fun there, I will be happythat a person from UP hasbecome a non-resident Indian.”

Earlier this week,Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party(Lohia) chief Shivpal SinghYadav had said that he was notwilling to wait for an indefinite

period over the decision byAkhilesh Yadav on alliancewith his party. He had saidthere had been no reply fromthe Samajwadi Party presidenton an alliance between them,even as the two leaders hadtalked about mending ties ondifferent occasions.

Losing hope of an alliancewith SP for 2022 UP polls,Shivpal Yadav is now workingon a separate ‘SamajikParivartan Yatra’, beginningOctober 15 from Vrindavanarea of Mathura.

Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav is also embark-ing on a ‘Samajwadi VijayYatra’ from October 12.

Attacking the oppositionparties, the chief minister saidthat those “who were support-ing Taliban were doing thework of inciting riots in UP”.

On All India Majlis-e-It t e h a d - u l - Mu s l i m e e n’sAsaduddin Owaisi speakingon UP, Yogi Adityanath said,“Owaisi saheb should also saysomething about Kashmir.These are the same peoplewho support the Taliban on thekillings in Kabul and remainsilent on Kashmir.”

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To make a symbolic protestagainst the statement of

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, Congress generalsecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra made a surprise visit toa Dalit hamlet in Lucknow onFriday and took up broom toclean the locality.

"Sweeping with brooms isa symbol of self-respect andsimplicity and crores of womenand sweepers sweep withbrooms every day,” comment-ed Priyanka while indirectlyreacting to the chief minister’sstatement.

She suddenly reachedLavkush Nagar, a Dalit settle-ment in Indira Nagar, at around4 pm on Friday and sweepedValmiki Ashram there.

Earlier, after pictures ofCongress leader PriyankaGandhi Vadra sweeping thefloor at Sitapur Guest Housewent viral, Chief Minister YogiAdityanath took a jibe at theCongress leader.

"Janata unko isi layakbanana chahti hai (peoplewant to make her capable ofdoing such tasks),” Yogi saidduring an exclusive conversa-tion with a news channel inGorakhpur.

A Congress spokespersonalleged that Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath hadmade fun of Priyanka for sweep-ing the floor with a broom andthis showed the Bharatiya Janataparty’s anti-Dalit mindset. Hesaid that it seemed that BJP wasscared of the 'Durga Avatar' ofPriyanka Gandhi Vadra andnow she would sweep away theBJP from the state.

UP Congress presidentAjay Kumar Lallu said thatMahatma Gandhi also took abroom and gave a satyagrahaand responded to the British,which was history. “Not onlyUP, women and Dalits of thewhole country make this sac-

rifice every day,” he said.Attacking Yogi Adityanath,

he said that the chief minister’santi-women, anti-Dalit facehad come in front of the peo-ple of UP.

Sources said that annoyedwith the development, aninquiry had been ordered onhow Priyanka was allowed toclean the guest house and evena video of it went viral.

Meanwhile, the Congresshas shifted its focus on the‘Pratigya Rally’ in Varanasi,which is to be addressed byPriyanka Gandhi Vadra onSunday.

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The last rites of Supinder Kour and Deepak Chand-the slain school Principal and a Government

teacher, killed by 'unidentified' terrorists inside theschool premises in Eidgah area of Srinagar, were per-formed in Srinagar and Jammu amidst protestdemonstrations against the perpetrators of terrorist vio-lence on Friday.

Meanwhile, a massive crackdown has beenlaunched by the Jammu and Kashmir police on groundzero to track down the perpetrators of terrorist vio-lence. Large number of overground workers and sus-pects were picked up for questioning by the police.

In another related development, a forum ofKashmiri Pandit employees have written a letter to thechief secretary of J&K, requesting him to exemptemployees of the minority community from duties tillthe situation returns to normalcy.

In Jammu a teachers welfare body demanded mar-tyrs status for both the slain teachers and adequatesecurity cover for all the employees serving in differ-ent parts of Kashmir valley under PM's package.

Before the cremation ceremonies were performedpeaceful demonstrations were held seeking severe pun-ishment for those behind the ghastly terror attack.

Large gatherings of people from different walksof life were witnessed at both these places.

In Jammu, emotionally charged relatives and closedoor neighbours shouted slogans against Pakistanwhile a separate protest demonstration was organisedby the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Forum against themerciless killings of these teachers.

In Srinagar, hundreds of members of the com-munity assembled at the residence of Kour in AloochiBagh area and took out a protest march from there,carrying her mortal remains on a stretcher.

In Jammu, the mortal remains of Deepak Chandarrived past midnight after completing the legal for-malities.

Large number of close relatives along withChand’s mother Kanta Devi and wife Anuradha wereinconsolable.

In Srinagar,National Conference Vice PresidentOmar Abdullah visited the residence of SupinderKour. Later interacting with the media persons Omarsaid the recent attacks on civilians in Jammu andKashmir were aimed at creating a wedge betweencommunities and it is the responsibility of themajority community to give a sense of security to ourbrothers.Omar also made an earnest appeal to mem-bers of the minority communities in Kashmir to notallow a repeat of what happened in the 1990s by leav-ing their homes.

Speaking to reporters after visiting the residenceof slain school principal Supinder Kour at AloochiBagh here, Abdullah also criticised the administrationfor failing to apprehend the attacks.

“The attacks are taking place back-to-back and noone feels secure here today. The Muslims here havealso been targeted, Kashmiri Pandits and Sikhbrethren also. They do not feel safe,” he said.

“This is no time for politics, and I have not comehere for politics, but it is the responsibility of the rulersto make people understand where the failure lies,”Abdullah added.

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Hindu Bengalis referred totheir Muslim brethren asbecharas to be pitied and notdisapproved of them even forvoting for Partition almost 100per cent. Their leader, verypopular with the peasantry,Fazulul Haque, had proposedthe Pakistan Resolution atLahore on March 23, 1940, atthe Muslim League session. Itis true many Hindus discrim-inated against Muslims. Afrequent complaint was thatthough they invited Muslimsto wedding dinners, the latterwere made to sit separatelyand had to wash their emptyplates at the end of the meal.

One complaint I have per-sonally heard from a memberof the Bramachari family. Thesituation was that their villagehad become impossible tolive in and the entire familyhad to flee to, say, Calcuttaovernight. How to deal withhis six-month-old sister (whomay cry at night) was thequestion. After discussion,the family decided to strangleher. Thankfully, an elderlyaunt got an idea, “let’s give hera little afeem so that she sleepsthrough the night”.

There was no spare farm-land for the incoming peasants.So they were sent to Danda-Karanya in Madhya Pradesh,

which had been cleared forthem. The refugees had beenused to a lot more fertile landand, therefore, most of themcould not adjust to the part-stony forest land and theyreturned to West Bengal’srefugee camps. The result ofovercrowding in Calcutta wasunwelcome. Several streets, likePark Street which reminded oneof London, became unkemptand ordinary. Yet Bidhan Roy,the medical physician-cum-Chief Minister, battled on todevelop West Bengal. He builttwo small cities, Kalyani andDurgapur, to create space fornew industries. His only faultwas to be subservient to Nehru,but then he was not a grassrootspolitician. The number onephysician in India, his privatepatient fee then was �64,unheard of in Bombay andMadras of those days.

Roy was followed byCongressman Prafulla Sen,who was clean and honest. Helasted three years when in1967, the general electionswere called. The Congresswas replaced by a UnitedFront Government headed byAjoy Mukharjee, a formerCongressman often referred toas the Gandhi of Bengal.Once, fed up with the recalci-trance of Deputy CM Jyoti

Basu and their CommunistMinisters, Ajoy babu sat on adharna. Asked by a journalistas to how he can protestagainst his own Ministry, hisreply in Bengali was: “I am notmukho (chief) montri, normurkho (foolish) montri but athutto (broken arms)Jagannath.” The reply soundsvery effective in Bengali. Withthe Communists dictatingterms, West Bengal washurtling down. Naxals addedpoison to the bitterness.

West Bengal, for 33 yearsor more, had to suffer theCommunist policy of keepingpeople on the frontiers ofpoverty so that they do notrebel but, at the same time, donot get strong enough fororganising a revolution. Theonly unusual step they tookwas to make peace with share-croppers, who were partnerswith land owners. West Bengalshifted to three crops a year;the yields went up and thetillers were happier. WestBengal has become a farming-cum-trading State rather thanjust number one industrialState in 1947.

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

������������������Sir — Mental health is a critical topic inthe modern era. The World MentalHealth Day encourages us to be more con-scious of not only the physical but also ourown mental health as well. Good healthdoes not refer to merely the absence of anydisease but it centres around completephysical, social and mental well-being.Most people know that exercise is goodfor your body but did you know how goodit is for your mental health as well? Regularexercise can really help you deal with anx-iety and depression. Mental wellbeingplays a vital role in an individual’s life aswell as the society’s as whole.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ourlives have changed considerably. Ourmovements have been restricted, social lifehas been halted and we have started livingin a digital workspace which has increasedour stress and depression levels. People havelost their loved ones and their jobs whilemany are still struggling with the side-effects of the infection or post-illness trau-ma. As the Mental Illness AwarenessWeek is underway, we must take a step toput our mental and emotional health on thepedestal for not just a few days, but for aslong as we want to live happily.

Somya Agrawal | Ujjain

��� ��������� � ���������Sir — Selfless acts of those who save livesof road accident victims will now berewarded with a cash prize for theirhumane attitude amidst the ever-growinginstances of accidents. The Ministry ofRoad Transport and Highways must belauded for this initiative of rewarding thesamaritans. This can augur well to reduceIndia’s staggering road mishap toll. India hasa bad distinction of having the highest num-ber of road accidents, ranking third among20 nations. The fatalities ratio is much high-er as compared to the US and Japan.

The National Crime Records Bureaudata reveal that of the 1,33,715 lives lost in2020, 1,20,716 cases were due to negligence.These numbers are alarming since mobil-ity was disrupted during the pandemic. Inspite of an amendment to the Motor Vehicle

Act to sensitise police forces and hospitals,altruism is affected on account of harass-ment and legal complications. Reductionin mortality demand concerted action onseveral fronts like scientific road designs,standards, zero tolerance enforcement,safety awareness etc. The Samaritan plancan work well only if district committeesreadily recognise their contribution aidedby the police, hospitals and the otherauthorities concerned.

Vijay Singh Adhikari | Nainital

���������������� ��Sir — Both the States and the courts havetheir own responsibilities and limitations.It is unfortunate some progressive-think-ing court orders are ridiculed for being“anti--sentimental”. Similarly, people ofDelhi and Rajasthan are sore with theirGovernments for banning firecrackers fora specific period. The Delhi Governmenthas banned the storage, sale and use of fire-crackers. Bursting of crackers, the ensuingemission of pollutants into the air and the

enormous damage they can do to the res-piratory system is known only too well.

An interesting explanation offered bythe Rajasthan Government is the “effect onimmunity” by the smoke of firecrackers. Asis known, immunity plays a large role in theprevention of COVID-19, as well as recov-ery. The Supreme Court’s prohibition onsale of firecrackers through the famous 2018judgment has still not been imbibed by thecommon people. The court had, instead,allowed green crackers. People of Delhi andthe rest of NCR will vouch for the terrible“gas chambers” their cities turn into aroundDiwali. This year’s Delhi Governmentorder has cleared the air — no storage, nosale, no use of firecrackers. It is always pos-sible that clandestine black marketing offirecrackers may happen; but the intentionof the courts and the Governments cannotbe sidetracked.

Ganapathi Bhat | Nagpur

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Nearly a century ago,Gopal KrishnaGokhale said: “WhatBengal thinks today,

India thinks tomorrow.” What aflattering compliment to a Statewhere I grew up and spent 38years. Even after Partition, WestBengal maintained its positionamong Indian provinces. Thenbegan a pour-in of haplessrefugees from East Bengal,Pakistan’s eastern wing. ChiefMinister Bidhan Roy was a capa-ble, honest and visionary leaderbut Jawaharlal Nehru did notallow him to handle the inflowof refugees.

Nehru wrote him letter afterletter. To quote from them: “Ihave your letter of August 4about the influx from EastBengal. I realise your difficultiesand naturally we should do whatwe can to help you. But as I toldyou long ago, there is no reason-able solution to the problem ifthere is a large influx from EastBengal. That is why I think thatit was a very wrong thing forsome of the Hindu leaders of EastBengal to come to West Bengal.

“I have been quite certainright from the beginning thateverything should be done toprevent Hindus in East Bengalfrom migrating to West Bengal.If that happened on a mass scale,it would be a disaster of the firstmagnitude. Running away isnever a solution to a problem. If,as you suggest, things have gonetoo far already, then naturally weshall all do what we can, but Ishudder at the prospect and themagnitude of the human miserythat will come in its train. To thelast, I shall try to check migrationeven if there is war.”

These are samples of doublestandards of the Nehru dynasty.Because when it came to Punjab,many more were coming in,many dead, in bleeding trains. Atthe time, rumours were afloatthat Master Tara Singh, a Sikhleader, had threatened Nehruthat if he came in the way ofPunjabi refugees, the PM may bekilled. Otherwise, why have onepolicy for Punjabis and anotherfor Bengalis? Bengali Muslimswere not leaving in significantnumbers; here it was largely aone-way traffic.

That was the time when

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As India’s air pollution levelshave expanded geographicallyover time and increased somuch in Maharashtra and

Madhya Pradesh that an average personis now losing an additional 2.5 to 2.9years of life expectancy, a data of min-istry of agriculture showed that 95,278incidents of stubble burning have beenreported so far since this January. Thecases have declined during the monsoonperiod.

The data showed that 10,765 inci-dents reported in January; 10,111 inFebruary; 10,646 in March; 39,254 inApril; 21,970 in May; 2,036 in June; 273in July; 68 in August and 155 inSeptember. Maharashtra has reported2,516 incidents in January, 2,308 inFebruary, 1,713 in March, 915 in Apriland 519 in May. Madhya Pradesh hasreported 416 incidents in January, 226 inFebruary, 5,183 in March, 20,690 in Apriland 2,367 in May. Chhattisgarh hasreported 2,230 incidents in January,1,710 in February, 526 in March, 230 inApril, 214 in May and 783 in June.

Bihar reported 2,618 incidents inApril and 378 in June. Haryana report-ed 132 incidents in January, 234 inFebruary, 1,934 in April, 1752 in May.Uttar Pradesh reported 828 incidents inJanuary, 1,269 in February, 447 in March,7,227 in April and 2,369 in May. Punjabreported 1,183 in April, 9,940 in May and328 in June.

As per the data, Punjab witnessed anincrease of 44.5 per cent incidents of stub-ble burning in 2020 despite getting 46 percent of the total funds from the centralgovernment for checking crop burningresidue. Punjab saw 76,590 incidents offire in 2020 as compared to 52,991instances in 2019 which indicates anincrease of 44.5 per cent as compared tothe earlier year. Haryana in the year 2020,the total active fire events reported was5,000 while in 2019, it was 6,652 whichindicates a decrease of 25 per cent.

The stubble burning in Delhi and itsneighbouring states-Haryana, Punjaband Western Uttar Pradesh has notstarted yet. Stubble burning is essential-ly a common practice followed by farm-ers in order to get their fields ready forsowing wheat. This usually happensahead of the winter season. After thepaddy is harvested, there is very little timefor farmers to sow wheat, which makesit an urgent task for farmers. While somealleviating measures have been taken bygovernments, these are never enough asevery year Delhi witnesses unusual lev-els of smog during the months of Octoberand November. This makes it importantfor the government to diagnose andaddress the fundamental issues whicharm twist the farmers to burn paddystraw every year.

Paddy stubble burning in Punjab,Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh isa fact, but farmers have no choice. They

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It’s been the biggest shockin archaeology for a longtime. British and

American archaeologists havefound solid evidence thathuman beings — we couldcall them ‘the forerunners’ —were in the Americas around6,000 years before the earliestpreviously accepted date.

What the archaeologistsfound, at White Sands inNew Mexico, was thousandsof actual footprints, whichdefinitely beats some chippedstones that might or might notbe ancient spear points.Moreover, the lead author ofthe report in the journal‘Science’, Prof. MatthewBennett of BournemouthUniversity in England, thinksmost of the footprints werejust kids.

“These were America’s

first teenagers,” he told ‘TheObserver’, “and they werehanging out together as theydo today. The only thingmissing then was a smart-phone.” What the forerunnershave given us, is a couple ofchallenging mysteries. Thesmaller one is how they gotthere.

They presumably startedby crossing the now-sub-merged land bridge betweenSiberia and Alaska. That wasthe easy bit. But a solid wallof glaciers more than a kilo-metre high blocked the landroute south through Canadafrom Alaska 22,000 years ago.How did they get aroundthat? Maybe they had dugoutcanoes (though big trees wererare in the Ice-Age Arctic), butit would have been a very longway down a rocky, ice-clad

coast (2,500 km.) with noth-ing to eat but the fish you cancatch. By comparison the‘Clovis’ people, who we usedto think were the first humansin the Americas, had it easy.

By the time they showedup about 13,000 years ago, anorth-south corridor hadopened up through the ice-fields in what is now Alberta.You could walk the whole dis-tance to Clovis, New Mexico,

and find food along the way.From the arrival of the

Clovis people onwards, evi-dence of human presence inthe Americas is widespreadand continuous. Furtherresearch has found that somesimilar people may have beenin the two continents as longas 16,000 years ago.

But the bigger mystery isthis: if there were alreadyhuman beings in New Mexico22,000 years ago, where didthey go for the next 6,000years? How could there not beother evidence of their pres-ence in other places?

You can’t carbon-datefootprints in the mud, but youcan date the ditch grass seedsthat are trapped in the mud(now turned into rock) in thelayers just above and belowthose footprints. The archae-

ologists tested the date everyway they knew, and everytime the answer came out thesame: the footprints arebetween 23,000 and 21,000years old.

Okay, then. Time to askthe question we’d all ratheravoid. Could the forerunnersbe one or more groups thatdid an end-run around theglaciers 22,000 years ago,thrived for a little while in theAmericas, and then for somereason died out? No evidencefor a human presence over thenext 6,000 years strongly sug-gests that the forerunners justweren’t there any more. Nomass extinction of Americanmegafauna (large prey ani-mals) until the Clovis huntersarrive sixty centuries latermakes it almost certain.

When human hunter-

gatherers first settled a conti-nent or ocean island wherethe big prey animals had notco-evolved with humanbeings and did not fear them,there was always a massextinction: Australia 46,000years ago, the Americasaround 10-12,000 years ago,New Zealand only 700 yearsago. If it didn’t happen anyearlier than that in theAmericas, then the forerun-ners were probably long gone.

Or maybe, they were stillhanging on somewhere insmall numbers until theClovis people arrived, proba-bly with better weapons, andswept them aside. That’s whatDr Andrea Manica, a geneti-cist at Cambridge University,thinks. He told the BBC thatthe genetics “clearly shows asplit of Native Americans

from Asians approximately15-16,000 years ago.”

The forerunners are notrepresented in that genetic lin-eage, and Manica suggeststhat “the initial colonists of theAmericas were replaced whenthe ice corridor formed andanother wave of colonistscame in. We have no idea howthat happened.” Yes, we do.We just don’t like to thinkabout it.

The world’s prehistory isfilled with examples of morepowerful groups driving outor wiping out less powerfulgroups. Often the men andthe boy children would bekilled while the women wouldbe kept, but the forerunners (ifthey were still around to meetthe new bosses) weren’t eventhat lucky. Sixty centuries,and nothing to show for it.

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are compelled to burn paddy stub-ble in the short time they have.These farmers work on a paddy-wheat cycle. Since wheat is a rabicrop, farmers are compelled to har-vest paddy and sell it as well asmake sure the field is ready for thenext round of sowing. This processtakes around 15 days. The strawwas once removed manually dur-ing the harvest and used as cattlefeed or to make cardboard, butnow most farmers rent a combineharvester which leaves up to 80per cent of the residue in the field.Farmers say they donot have thetime or money to store the strawor plough the stubble back intothe ground. For these farmers,burning the paddy straw is an easyway out.

This act of farmers is not defi-ance. Instead, the burning processis a low-cost straw-disposalmethod that also reduces the turn-around time for them. However,the resultant smoke travels all theway to the national capital due tothe winds. This smoke adds to thealready existing suspended partic-ulate matter (SPM) and otherthings that clogs lungs.

Every year, pollution in Delhiand the National Capital Region isinvariably blamed on crop stubbleburning by farmers from neigh-bouring states-Haryana, Punjaband West Uttar Pradesh. Althoughtheir stubble is only one of manysources of Delhi’s air pollution.Others include dust, industrialand vehicular emissions, andincineration. Weather plays a roletoo. Farmers burn stubble twice ayear - in summer and at the onsetof winter. The first time they do it,

the warm breeze disperses it quick-ly. But the second time, in Octoberand November, plummeting tem-peratures and low wind speedspread the smoke far and wide.

According to the governmentdata, stubble burning is a poten-tial source of Green House Gases(GHGs) and other chemically andradioactive important trace gasesand aerosols such as CH4, CO,N2O, NOX and other hydrocar-bons. It is estimated that uponburning, Carbon (C) present inrice straw is emitted as CO2(70 percent of Carbon present), CO(seven per cent) and CH4(0.66 percent) while 2.09 per cent ofNitrogen (N) in straw is emitted asN2O. Besides, burning of cropresidue also emits large amountsof particulates that are composedof a wide variety of organic andinorganic species. Many of the pol-lutants found in large quantities inbiomass smoke are known or sus-pected carcinogens and could leadto various air borne/lung diseases.Besides, it is estimated that burn-ing of one tonne of paddy strawaccounts for loss of 5.5 kgNitrogen, 2.3 kg phosphorus, 25 kgpotassium and 1.2 kg sulphurbesides, organic carbon.

In Delhi, the PM10(Particulate Matter-10 describesparticles that can be inhaled, withdiameters that are generally 10micrometres and smaller) andPM25 levels are 4-5 times higherthan the national average, accord-ing to a detailed study carried outby IIT-Kanpur, and submitted tothe Delhi Pollution ControlCommittee and Department ofEnvironment way back in 2016.

Industries alone further add toalmost 90 percent of SulphurDioxide to Delhi’s pollution. AndCarbon Monoxide is contributedat the rate of almost 83 percent justby the vehicles.

According to the University ofChicago’s Air Quality Life Index(AQLI) report, in India, home to22 of the world’s 30 most pollut-ed cities, toxic air kills more thanone million people each year.According to the report, morethan 480 million people or about40 per cent of its population liv-ing in the Indo-Gangetic plains inthe north where pollution levelsregularly exceed those found any-where else in the world by anorder of magnitude. Residents ofnorthern India are on track to losemore than nine years of lifeexpectancy if pollution levels ofthat of 2019 persist as the regionexperiences the most extremelevels of air pollution in the world,it said. In 2019, India’s average par-ticulate matter concentration was70.3 microgram per cubic metre(?g/m3), the highest in the worldand seven times the World HealthOrganisation’s (WHO’s) guide-line of 10 ?g/m3, the report said.

The smoggy air cloakingIndia’s cities often contains dan-gerously high levels of fine partic-ulate matter, known as PM2.5.These pollutants have been linkedto lung and heart disease and areknown to impair cognitive func-tions and the immune system.PM2.5 air pollution causedaround 54,000 premature deathsin New Delhi in 2020, accordingto an analysis by GreenpeaceSoutheast Asia.

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International Criminal Courtjudges decided on Friday to

ask the United NationsSecretary-General for infor-mation on who representsAfghanistan at internationalbodies following the Taliban’ssweep to power in August.

The request is intended toclarify the status ofAfghanistan’s new leadership asjudges prepare to rule on arequest by the global court’snew prosecutor last month forpermission to resume an inves-tigation into alleged war crimesand crimes against humanitylinked to Afghanistan’s conflictsince 2002.

In a written ruling, judgessaid that “for several reasonsincluding the fast pace of rele-vant developments, and theshort time elapsed since they

materialized, there is still a largemargin of uncertainty as to thelegal implications of thoseevents, including for the pur-poses of international law andinternational relations.”

The judges also asked thecourt’s Assembly of StatesParties for the same clarifica-tion. Afghanistan is a member,or state party, of the court.

In a statement, the courtsaid that the judges alsoreminded Prosecutor KarimKhan that he can requestauthorisation to “pursue nec-essary investigative steps for thepurpose of preserving evidencewhere there is a unique oppor-tunity to obtain important evi-dence or there is a significantrisk that such evidence may notbe subsequently available.”

Judges authorised an inves-tigation in March last yearcovering offenses allegedly

committed by AfghanGovernment forces, theTaliban, American troops andUS foreign intelligence opera-tives dating back to 2002. Theprobe was put on the backburner when Afghanistan’sgovernment asked to take overthe case. The ICC is a court oflast resort, set up in 2002 toprosecute alleged atrocities incountries that cannot or willnot bring perpetrators to jus-

tice — known as the principleof complementarity.

Khan said last month thathe plans to focus on crimescommitted by the Taliban andthe Afghan affiliate of theIslamic State group, addingthat he will “deprioritize” otheraspects of the investigation —including alleged crimes byAmericans. That led to angry reactions from rights groups.

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Islamabad: Pakistan and theUS on Friday discussed region-al security issues, includingthe situation in Afghanistan,and bilateral economic coop-eration as America’s DeputySecretary of State WendySherman held talks with thecountry’s Foreign MinisterShah Mahmood Qureshi.

In a tweet, Sherman saidthat she met Qureshi “to dis-cuss Afghanistan’s future andthe important and long-stand-ing US-Pakistan relationship”.

“We look forward to con-tinuing to address pressingregional and global challenges,”she said. PTI

Moscow: Russia’s daily coron-avirus death toll hit a newrecord on Friday amid the coun-try’s sluggish vaccination rateand the Government’s reluctanceto tighten restrictions.

Russia’s state coronavirustask force reported 936 newdeaths on Friday, the highestdaily number since the start ofthe pandemic. It was a thirdstraight day when daily Covid-19 deaths topped 900.

Russia already has Europe’shighest death toll in the pan-demic — more than 2,14,000 —and the authorities’ conserva-tive way of recording Covid-19fatalities suggests the actualnumber could be even higher.

On Friday, the

Government’s task force report-ed 27,246 new confirmed cases,just slightly less than Thursday’snumber of 27,550, which wasthe highest so far this year.

A steep rise in infectionsand deaths began in lateSeptember, with authoritiesblaming it on the low vaccina-tion rate. As of Tuesday, almost33% of Russia’s 146 millionpeople had received at least oneshot of a coronavirus vaccine,and 29% were fully vaccinated.

But the Kremlin hasshrugged off the idea of impos-ing a new nationwide lock-down, delegating the power totighten restrictions to region-al authorities. AP

Manila: Journalists MariaRessa of the Philippines andDmitry Muratov of Russia wonthe 2021 Nobel Peace Prize onFriday for their fight for free-dom of expression in countrieswhere reporters have facedpersistent attacks, harassmentand even murder.

“Free, independent andfact-based journalism servesto protect against abuse ofpower, lies and war propagan-da,” said Berit Reiss-Andersen,chair of the Norwegian NobelCommittee, explaining why the

prize went to two journalists.“Without freedom of

expression and freedom of thepress, it will be difficult to suc-cessfully promote fraternitybetween nations, disarmamentand a better world order to suc-ceed in our time,” she said.

The Nobel committeenoted that Ressa in 2012 co-founded Rappler, a news web-site that has focused criticalattention on President RodrigoDuterte’s “controversial, mur-derous anti-drug campaign”in the Philippines. AP

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Nepal Prime Minister SherBahadur Deuba on Friday

expanded his Cabinet byinducting 17 Ministers andtwo Ministers of State from thefive-party ruling alliance, threemonths after he assumed office.

With this, theGovernment’s strength has nowreached 25, including 22Ministers and three Ministersof State.

New York: A former Talibancommander, who had kid-napped an American journal-ist and kept him captive inPakistan for several monthsbefore he managed to escapeover a decade ago, has beencharged in a supersedingindictment with killing UStroops in 2008.

Haji Najibullah, 45, whoalso went by the name ofNajibullah Naim, was previ-ously charged with crimesrelated to the 2008 kidnappingof an American journalist andtwo Afghan nationals. PTI

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Earlier, there were only sixmembers in the Cabinet,including the Prime Ministerand one State Minister. Nepal’sConstitution allows only 25Cabinet Ministers.

Prime Minister Deuba wasunable to expand his Cabinetdue to prolonged power shar-ing negotiations among thefive-party ruling alliance.

The newly appointedMinisters took oath of officeand secrecy at the President’soffice shortly after they wereappointed at the recommenda-tion of Prime Minister Deuba.

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Air India’s sale to the TataGroup marks a new dawn

for the airline, Civil AviationMinister Jyotiraditya Scindiasaid on Friday as he hoped thatthe carrier would continue tobring people closer throughsuccessful operations.Earlierin the day, the governmentannounced that Talace PrivateLimited, a wholly-owned sub-sidiary of Tata Sons, has beat-en a consortium led by SpiceJetpromoter Ajay Singh by offer-ing �18,000 crore to win the bidto acquire debt-laden AirIndia.”Air India’s return to theTata group marks a new dawnfor the airline! My best wishesto the new management, andcongratulations to DIPAMSecretary and the Civil AviationMinistry for successfully con-cluding the difficult task ofpaving a new runway for theairline to take off!” Scindiawrote on Twitter.

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The Sensex soared past the60,000-level while the Nifty

finished at an all-time high onFriday after the Reserve Bankkept the key interest ratesunchanged but maintained itsaccommodative stance to bol-ster economic recovery.

Market heavyweightReliance Industries led thegains, while IT stocks too sawheavy buying ahead of TCS’results.

The 30-share BSE Sensexjumped 381.23 points or 0.64per cent to close at 60,059.06,just shy of its lifetime high.

The NSE Nifty rose 104.85points or 0.59 per cent to itsfresh closing peak of 17,895.20.

Reliance Industries wasthe top gainer in the Sensexpack, rallying 3.84 per cent, fol-lowed by Infosys, TechMahindra, HCL Tech, TCS,Tata Steel and L&T.

In contrast, HUL, NTPC,Kotak Bank, Maruti Suzuki, DrReddy’s and Titan were amongthe laggards, shedding up to1.16 per cent.

Rate-sensitive bankingand realty indices ended in thered, but auto closed with gains.

On a weekly basis, theSensex rallied 1,293.48 pointsor 2.20 per cent, and the Niftysoared 363.15 points or 2.07per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) expectedly kept interestrates unchanged at a record lowbut signalled the start of taper-ing pandemic-era stimulusmeasures on economic recov-ery taking root.

The six-member MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC) keptthe key lending rate or the reporate unchanged at 4 per centwhile the reverse repo rate orthe borrowing rate was main-tained at 3.35 per cent.

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The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) on Friday projected

substantial softening in retailinflation in the near term onthe back of easing food pricesand favourable base effect.

The Consumer PriceIndex (CPI)-based inflation isnow projected to be at 5.3 percent for 2021-22 with risksevenly balanced.

In its August policy, thecentral bank had estimatedinflation to be at 5.7 per centdue to supply side constraints,high crude oil and raw mate-rials cost.

“The CPI headlinemomentum is moderating withthe easing of food prices which,combined with favourable baseeffects, could bring about asubstantial softening in infla-tion in the near-term,” RBIGovernor Shaktikanta Das saidwhile unveiling the bi-month-ly monetary policy.

On a quarterly basis, the

CPI for Q2 has been projectedat 5.1 per cent: Q3 at 4.5 percent and Q4 at 5.8 per cent. CPIinflation for Q1:2022-23 isprojected at 5.2 per cent.

Headline inflation con-tinues to be significantly influ-enced by very high inflation inselect items such as edible oils,petrol and diesel, LPG andmedicines, he said.

“Efforts to contain cost-push pressures through a cali-brated reversal of the indirecttaxes on fuel could contributeto a more sustained lowering ofinflation and an anchoring ofinflation expectations,” Dasnoted.

On the other hand, a verylow seasonal build-up in veg-etable prices, declining cerealprices, a sharp deflation ingold prices and muted housinginflation have helped to containinflationary pressures.

Going forward, he said,several evolving factors providecomfort on the food pricefront.

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The Reserve Bank of Indiaexpectedly kept interest

rates unchanged at a record lowon Friday but signalled the startof tapering pandemic-era stim-ulus measures on economicrecovery taking roots.

The six-member MonetaryPolicy Committee (MPC) keptthe key lending rate or the reporate unchanged at 4 per centwhile the reverse repo rate orthe borrowing rate was main-tained at 3.35 per cent. It voted5-1 to retain the accommoda-tive stance, RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das said in anonline broadcast.

He indicated the centralbank’s willingness to make“gradual” adjustments to theexcess liquidity in the monetarysystem which currently standsat over � 9 lakh crore.

Importantly, the GSAPprogramme to purchase gov-ernment securities from themarket has been stopped fornow to ensure that there is no

further infusion of liquidity, hesaid and stressed that the stepis not a reversal of its accom-modative policy stance. RBIwill be ready to resume bondpurchases if needed, he added.

RBI had bought �2.2 lakhcrore worth bonds throughGovernment SecuritiesAcquisition Programme orGSAP in the previous twoquarters.

While it maintained GDPgrowth projection at 9.5 percent for the current fiscal end-ing March 2022, the centralbank cut the forecast for theheadline inflation to 5.3 percent from 5.7 per cent based onthe current moderation in theliquidity trajectory.

“Aggregate demand isimproving but slack stillremains,” Das said. “Output isstill below pre-pandemic leveland the recovery remainsuneven and dependent uponcontinued policy support.”

The existing 14-day VRRRauction will be stepped upwith the auction amount set toincrease by � 1-2 lakh croreover the next 2 months, reach-ing up to �6 lakh crore byDecember. Further, RBI mayconsider the introduction of a28-day VRRR, if necessary, tofurther calibrate the liquiditylevels.

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The RBI’s decision to keepinterest rates unchanged

while continuing its accom-modative stance is a prudentstep in view of the uneven pathof recovery momentum, IndiaInc said on Friday.

The central bank expect-edly kept interest ratesunchanged at a record low onFriday but signalled the start oftapering pandemic-era stimu-lus measures on economicrecovery taking roots.

Chandrajit Banerjee,Director General, CII said evenas encouraging signs ofimprovement have been notedacross several pockets ofgrowth lately, “we are in con-sonance with RBI’s readingthat the current growth recov-ery process would need con-tinued policy support even asthe inflation trajectory hasturned out to be morefavourable than expected”.

PHDCCI said accom-

modative policy stance by RBIwill enhance consumption andstrengthen economic recov-ery.

“The status quo for the keypolicy rates by RBI wouldstrengthen the economic recov-ery with enhanced consump-tion and production possibili-ties,” said Pradeep Multani,President, PHD Chamber ofCommerce and Industry.

He said the accommoda-tive policy stance at this junc-ture would further boost thesentiments of businesses andpave the way for a double-digitGDP growth in the currentyear 2021-22.Assocham toosaid RBI has wisely respondedto India-specific needs for con-tinuation of supportive interestrates for an economy which isnear the shore and not quite onit. “RBI’s assessment is largelyon course and the GDP growthfor the FY22 might even reachthe double-digit, given theunfolding of pent-up demand,as is being witnessed,” it said.

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Contrary to theGovernment’s claim that

prices of edible oils exceptmustard oil, pulses and veg-etables have declined, the retailprices of these items are stillhigh in the markets during thefestive season across India.

The edible oils are beingsold between �180 and �210 akg in the retail markets.Similarly, prices of vegetablesare still high in the retail mar-kets . Even fruits like apple,papaya, pear ( babugosha),sweet lime are cheaper thanvegetables in some metros.Asper the ministry of consumeraffairs’ price monitoring divi-sion which collects data ofretail and wholesale prices ofcommodities on Friday.

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After starting a successful dig-ital marketing enterprise thatwas acquired by goStops

(India's second largest chain of back-packer hostels), environmental entre-preneur Sachin Sengar decided thathe wanted to focus on more press-ing concerns. Extremely pressingconcerns which can be likened to aticking time bomb, such as climatechange.

After Sengar helped goStopsscale up by 500 per cent in two years,he left the organiation in late 2019to start another company that helpedcommercial property owners toreduce their electricity bills by over40 per cent. And this is what kindleda strong desire to build something totackle climate change directly. Out ofthis thought process emergedLowsoot, a startup that aims toreverse climate change.

To date, Lowsoot has eliminat-ed over 5,000 tonnes of carbon foot-prints by helping to raise funds forsustainable toilets, mangrove refor-estation and helping lay down EVinfrastructure in various parts ofIndia.

Read on for excerpts of theinterview.

What made you switch paths tostart a company that helped prop-erty owners reduce electricity bills?

After working with goStops Irealised that one of the largest oper-ating expenses of any commercialproperty in India is electricity how-ever an upto 50 per cent of that elec-tricity gets wasted due to human neg-ligence and faulty payments. So webuilt a platform to eliminate electric-ity wastage in commercial propertiesusing data and automation, which inits own way mitigated their carbonfootprint to some extent.

What led you to conceptualiseLowsoot?

Due to my interest in energy effi-ciency in commercial properties, Igot introduced to climate change in-depth, the estimated impact of cli-mate change. Which eventually ledme to start Lowsoot.

What does Lowsoot do andhow does it work?

Lowsoot helps individuals andcompanies to calculate and erasetheir footprint by funding greenprojects. Like providing smokelesscookstoves to the tribal of EastGodavari, like planting mangroves inSundarbans.

How much time do we havebefore we reach a point of no-return?

As per most scientific studies, wewill hit a climate catastrophe if we failto avoid a 1.5o increase in global tem-perature by 2050. To stay below 1.5o

increases in global temperature by2050, we need to slash our carbonfootprint by 50 per cent by 2030.Reducing carbon emissions by 50 percent by 2030 is an extremely impor-tant milestone for achieving netneutrality by 2050.

Those of us who are living inan urban settlements in the 21st cen-tury, are bound to leave a carbonfootprint, to some extent or theother. How can every individualerase their carbon footprint?

It becomes the responsibility ofevery citizen living in urban areas ofIndia to reduce their footprint bymaking more climate-consciouschoices. Firstly, we need to calculateour footprint. Individuals and com-panies can calculate their carbonfootprint by visiting our websitelowsoot.com. You cannot improvewhat you cannot measure. Secondly,we need to reduce our carbon foot-print by making planet-friendlychoices in daily life for example then

you are going to buy your next vehi-cle make sure that it is an EV, or tryto buy a brushless pan rather than aregular or nature that you are buy-ing a 5-star AC whenever you planto replace your existing one. Once wehave successfully reduced our carbonfootprint then the remaining foot-print can be erased by funding greenprojects that can suck carbon diox-ide back out of the atmosphere.

We heard that Lowsoot isdesigning an app to be used by ser-vices provided by Ola, Uber,Swiggy, etc. Please tell us moreabout it?

So that is an app that calculatesyour carbon footprint on the go andis designed for urban Indians. Thisapp calculates your carbon footprinton the go. It will be integrated withall the day-to-day apps that arebeing used in India such as Swiggy,Zomato, Ola and Uber.

Any concluding remarks?I believe that people are not

grasping the enormity of the situa-tion. To avoid catastrophic conse-quences of climate change and makesure that our species continue to existeach and every individual needs tobecome carbon-neutral.

Amajor Hollywood strikecould be on the horizon

for some 60,000 behind-the-scenes workers in the enter-tainment industry. Over theweekend, members of theInternational Alliance ofTheatrical Stage Employees(IASTE) overwhelminglyvoted in favor of authorising anationwide strike for the firsttime in its history.

Here we look at who isinvolved, what they’re askingfor and what’s at stake.

WHAT IS IATSE?The International Alliance

of Theatrical Stage Employees(or IATSE for short, pro-nounced eye-AHT’-see) is a128-year-old union represent-ing over 1,50,000 artists, crafts-people and technicians in theentertainment industry in theUnited States and Canada.Comprised of cinematogra-phers, costumers, set design-ers, script supervisors, hair andmakeup artists, animators,stagehands and many, manymore, the IATSE representsessentially everyone whoworks in any form of entertain-ment (including movies, tele-vision, theatre, concerts, tradeshows and broadcasting) andisn’t an actor, director, produc-er or screenwriter.

WHY ARE THEY IN THENEWS?

The three-year contractsthat cover about 60,000 of theunion’s members — one thatprimarily covers film and TVproduction in Los Angelesand Hollywood and anotherthat covers other productionhubs including New Mexicoand Georgia — expired in July.For the past four months theunion has been negotiatingnew terms with the Alliance ofMotion Picture and TelevisionProducers (AMPTP). Those

discussions fell apart onSeptember 20. The IATSE saysthat the AMPTP have failed toaddress their biggest workplaceproblems, and membershipvoted overwhelmingly to givethe organization’s president,Matthew D. Loeb, the ability toauthorize a strike.

WHAT ARE THE WORK-PLACE PROBLEMS?

The IATSE says its mem-bers are subjected to excessiveworking hours, unlivablewages for the lowest paid craftsand failure to provide reason-able rest, including meal breaksand time off betweenmarathon working days andweekend work. Further, theysay that workers on some“new media” streaming pro-

jects get paid even less.

WAIT, WHAT’S THEAMPTP?

The Alliance of MotionPicture and TelevisionProducers is a group thatrepresents hundreds of enter-tainment companies, includ-ing the major Hollywoodstudios, streaming servicesand production companies,and negotiates essentially allindustry-wide guild andunion contracts.

WHY ARE THE STREAM-ERS PAYING WORKERSLESS THAN TRADITION-AL STUDIOS?

In 2009, the IATSE andstudios mutually agreed thatnew media productions

required greater “flexibili-ty” because the medium wasnot yet economically viable.That has changed in a bigway, but the expectation offlexibility from crews hasnot. They feel they are beingtaken advantage of whilestreaming budgets and prof-its have reached blockbusterlevels.

WHO ELSE SUPPORTSTHE IATSE DEMANDS?

Social media support hasbeen significant and manyprominent people in the filmindustry have spoken out insupport of the crews, likeOctavia Spencer, MindyKaling, Jane Fonda andKatherine Heigl. OnMonday, the Directors Guild

of America issued a state-ment of solidarity too, signedby the l ikes of StevenSpielberg, ChristopherNolan, Barry Jenkins, RonHoward, Ava DuVernay andLesli Linka Glatter.Congressman Adam Schiff(D-Calif.), Senator AlexPadilla (D-Calif.), and 118senators and members ofthe House have also sent aletter to the AMPTP urginggood faith negotiations.

IS A STRIKE INEVITABLE?No, and leadership on

both sides have said theywould like to avoid it if pos-sible. On Tuesday, the IATSEand the AMPTP resumednegotiations.

WHAT HAPPENS IFTHEY DO GO ON STRIKE?

With 60,000 workers cov-ered under the expired agree-ments, most productionswould have to shut down inthe U.S., including networkshows and Netflix produc-tions. But not all are affected:The IATSE contracts for “paytv,” including HBO, Showtime,Starz, Cinemax and BET, don’texpire until December 31,2022 so those will keep going.Same goes for commercialsand low budget productions,which also have differentagreements.

As far as long-term conse-quences, it all depends onhow long the strike goes on.The 100-day 2007-2008Writers Guild of Americastrike, which also came aboutwhen contracts failed toaddress “new media” realitiesand loopholes, resulted inscuttled projects, shortenedseasons of popular televisionshows and an influx of realityshows to fill the schedule gaps.Most networks and streamershave content reserves to fill thegaps for a bit.

WHAT NOW?We wait.

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With the advent of the new normal, there have been numerouschanges to the world as we know it. And the fashion industry

was not to be left behind. Trell, a social commerce platform, is theOfficial Lifestyle Partner of FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week.

With the first-of-its-kind association, Trell gave its creators a chanceto walk the ramp for noted designer, Samant Chauhan’s, and holds theright to stream his fashion film on the app and users have access toall the live shows. Chauhan will showcase his collection, which wasinspired by the twentieth-century British Socialist textile designerWilliam Morris, tomorrow, today, the fourth day of the Fashion Week,at 7 pm.

Pulkit Agrawal, CEO and co-founder of Trell, says, “We are ecsta-tic to have Samant Chauhan's show exclusively on Trell. This associ-ation unlocks many opportunities for our community and it is a delightto be part of this premier experience. Chauhan has done an incredi-ble job of promoting Indian artisans and displaying their work to mil-lions of people. Trell's belief in bringing Indian entrepreneurs to theforefront is very well aligned with this showcase.”

Speaking ahead of the show, Chauhan shares, “We are excited toshowcase at FDCI X Lakmé Fashion Week as it is the first time thata platform meant for fashion and lifestyle lovers will stream the showexclusively. It will be thrilling to see new reactions and a novel audi-ence. Trell will help the brand increase its reach and engage new cus-tomers from the current tech-savvy generation. I have been lookingforward to having a more interactive format for my show, and that isprecisely whatTrell providesprecisely thisopportunity.”

The elementsborrowed fromMorris’ work,‘ S t r a w b e r r yThief ’, include theg e o m e t r i c a la b s t r a c t i o n s ,symmetry, andembroider ies .Much like Morris,the designer hastried to restorethe prestige ofhandmade crafts,weaning awayfrom factory-made textiles.M o r e o v e r ,Chauhan has alsoattempted to usetextiles hand-crafted by arti-sans — the cottonand silk weaveused by thedesigner is asource of liveli-hood for manyartisans inBhagalpur.

On its part,Trell extended thebenefits of the col-laboration with itsusers by conduct-ing an onlinevideo audition.Two creators,Karishma Rawatand Tarini Shah,were shortlistedand were awardedwith an opportu-nity to walk theramp for Chauhanat Lakmé FashionWeek.

Karishma, abeauty and fashioncreator on Trell,says that she is rar-ing to go andd e l i g h t f u l l yexpresses, “Fromwriting on blog-post, to the days ofcurating aestheticOOTDs, to creating videos online and now walking the ramp forChauhan at Lakmé Fashion Week, my journey as a content creatorhas certainly been thrilling! Since we are done with filming the show,I have to say that it felt great to walk the ramp for one of the finestdesigners around. I am so glad to be part of the Trell family where Ihave been nurtured with a great online ecosystem for my growth!”

To view Samant's one-of-a-kind collection, download and sign-up on the Trell app. The show will be streamed on the app'sTrell.live page.

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While listeners were yet toget over the Shershaahplaylist, the music of

which touched our souls, Spotifyreleased yet another version of oneof the absolute favourites from thealbum — Raatan Lambiyan. The lo-fi version of the song named asRaataan Chill Mix is Spotify’s sec-ond single from India, and featuresJubin Nautiyal and Hanita Bhambri.It is written and produced byTanishk Bagchi.

The music album of Shershaahhas been roaring on the charts ofSpotify for months now, with theOST being streamed more than 100million times. While RaatanLambiyan has been hailing on thetop spot on Spotify’s India Top 200charts for about four weeks now,garnering over 43 million streaks,Ranjha is not much behind withmore than 38 million streaks. Thefilm’s yet another famous hit, MannBharryaa 2.0, hfas collected some 19million streaks, too.

The newly launched RaatanChill Mix, a fresh recreation of thesong, has been winning hearts, asexpected. The music renders ahighly relaxing vibe, and soothes thesoftest spots. The words, of course,hit the right strings of the heart,while it keeps longing for morewhen the song ends.

Read on for certain excerptsfrom the interview with singersJubin and Hanita:

Raatan Lambiyan is highlyadored by listeners. It was the sec-ond Indian song, ever, to hit theSpotify Global 100 list. Tell us a lit-tle bit about the experience ofrecreating such a popular song.

Jubin: Raatan Lambiyan got itssuccess in many ways. It was a songwe made in 2018 and had notexpected the impact to be so mas-sive. I guess the timing was right forthe song. It has created so many rip-

ples in the music industry.Recreating the song in the lo-fi ver-sion is very special because lo-fi, asa genre, is highly appreciated by themillennials and the current gener-ations. I feel like the song hassomething in it that creates a mag-ical effect. I’m blessed to have con-nected with such good people, tomake something so special.

Hanita: It’s definitely a littlenerve-wracking to recreate a songthat’s this popular, because there arebound to be comparisons amongother things. So, frankly, I had shutall of it out and focussed on per-forming it the way I connected withthe song. Tanishk and Jubin wereboth extremely encouraging andtold me to sing it the way I wantedto, try out whatever variations Idesired to, which lifted a lot of pres-sure off me and I could performmore freely.

Lo-fi music has been recentlytrending among the modern audi-ences, perhaps, due to its relaxingbeats. What, according to you, isthe reason behind this?

Jubin: Lo-fi music has beentrending because of, I think, the fast-paced life and running around. Ithappens to be the peace and calm

in this whole situation of panic.Music is supposed to transport youto another world, one of quiet andpeace. Lo-fi music, I believe, isreminding people of that. It has a zenmode around it, which makes itrather meditative. My voice hasbeen very beautifully used by themakers. Something that gives peaceto you in this fast-paced world is

always well recognised and valued. Hanita: For a lot of millennials

and genZ, music is more than justrecreation — it’s a way we seek con-nection and locate our place in theworld. A lot of my friends listen tolo-fi music because it helps them fallasleep, as it’s so calming and vibe-y.

What is the future of this typ-

ical genre? Will it thrive?Jubin: All genres of music have

a place to thrive when you live in acountry of 1.3 billion people. I feel,for every genre — for any piece ofart, for that matter — there is anaudience today. We need to under-stand the audience and their tasteand when the audience receivessomething that touches them, that

sound becomes a sensation. Lo-fiwill be that sensation pretty soon.

Hanita: I think it has definite-ly found its audience and there area huge number of takers for it. It’snot seeped as deeply into the popmusic space yet so I feel it’s onlygoing to grow from here.

Anybody who has watchedShershaah has a different kind ofattachment to the song, due to itsemotional significance.

Jubin, you lived the experienceof creating the original version.How was it? Did you feel the attach-ment and the resultant catharsis?

The experience was amazing.See, I have sung the original version,and now everytime I sing the song, itwill just be a different version of thesame song and that’s what helps memake it reach a wider audience. I knowwe have made a great song, I know thesong has penetrated hearts. It is beingloved by the nation, why not make itbigger, why not make it touch morelives, why not connect it with morepeople? And that’s why we’ve come upwith a lo-fi version. It will just help oursong reach out more. Whenever anartist builds something and express-es something, it is our responsibilityto give it the widest market and oncethe creation is done, what really mat-ters is how it is being perceived. Agreatly perceived song, I think, is a veryuser- friendly song.

Hanita, you've performed withZaeden before but this is the firsttime you're collaborating with acommercial artist under SpotifySingles. How is this different?

I just genuinely feel so honouredto have been chosen for the secondSpotify singles and for a song as mas-sive as Raataan Lambiyan. It was def-initely an amazing experience. Thingsmove a lot faster in the commercialspace than the Indie space, for sure.Like, my flight was finalised literallya few hours before the shoot and allof it went by in a blur. I think we hadthe master in the next 24 hours. That’scrazy for me. And collaborating withTanishk and Jubin was great. Tanishk,especially, was extremely friendly,kind and encouraging. I felt okay,maybe I’d been selling myself short andI could nail the Punjabi lyrics and singin a way that’s authentic to me.

How is Spotify supporting Indieartists through their Radar project?

Hanita: Spotify has actually builta Radar family of indie artists. Itextends beyond just that one monthof being on a playlist cover. We havean active WhatsApp group, whereeveryone shares their new releases, andwe support each other. And there aremultiple opportunities where Radar

artists are contacted first. It’s amazingto see the dedication with whichSpotify supports and invests in indieartists.

What is the significance of thesong to you, specifically?

Jubin: For me, this song signifiesa period where the lockdown is overand the film music is on, this song isthe first massive hit from theBollywood segment. This song signi-fies the beginning of a new age andtime after pandemic where we aregoing to make great films, greatmusic and for the longest time, I’vebeen doing independent music but,at heart, I am still a playback singerand I love both sides of it. I enjoy bothsides of it so, now, I think it’s time forme to enjoy the playback side of myvoice, with different flavours andcolours.

Hanita: The song reminds of ayoung innocent love, the kind we allwant to experience in a world wheremeet-cutes don’t even happen any-more because it’s all just about swip-ing right. The song captures that old-school romance.

What is your favorite part aboutthis line of work (being in themusic industry)? Your least favorite?Why?

Jubin: The one thing that I hateabout this line of work is absolutelynothing, I love everything about it.It is beautiful and it makes me whoI am. I work very hard to be where Iam, I am always working towardsmaking myself a better human being,a better person, it helps me just bemyself and that is the reason why Iam doing music. That’s the reasonwhy I am so deeply involved in thisline of work. I started doing musicwhen I was very little and more thananything else, music has become likea way of life for me more than a pro-fession. I’m a very a non-expressiveperson in my personal life and musichelps me express. I think expressingfeelings is very important and musichas become the only mediumthrough which I am able to do that.

Hanita: My favourite part of it ismeeting and connecting with somany people. I’ve grown up super shyand now I’m connected to this wholecommunity (I call them hanibees),who are celebrating my success liketheir own, checking up on me whenI’m down and rooting for me endless-ly through it all. My least favouritepart of it is how despite it all, it’s stillvery financially unstable. Especiallyafter Covid, there were very fewsources of income that artists coulddepend on. And in the long term, it’sreally important to think how wecould make this a career more finan-cially fulfilling, too.

We have frequently observedhomeless and underprivi-

leged children, women, and elder-ly on the streets, yet we do a lit-tle to help them and, unconscious-ly, dismiss their plight. The direc-tor-animator and son of acclaimedanimator Bhimsain Khurana,Kireet Khurana, chose an unusu-al way to represent the journey ofthe underprivileged and homelesspeople in India who have becomevictims of unconstitutional Indianlaws. His latest documentaryfilm, The Invisible Visible, expos-es the vulnerability of the home-less and aims to support thenation-wide campaign to repealthe sordid Beggary PreventionAct, 1959, through the narrativeof Tarique Mohammed, thefounder of NGO Koshish; thedocumentary will release onOctober 10.

In an exclusive interview,Khurana observed that people liv-ing on the streets are discarded bysociety and shares his experienceon fund shortages in documen-tary filmmaking.

Here are some excerpts fromthe interview:

�You did BA in Economics andshifted to filmmaking. How wasyour journey so far?

Essentially, my father was afilmmaker and one of the pio-neers of animation in India, sofilmmaking is something I grewup with. After doing my BA, I dida filmmaking course in Canadathat specialises in animation film-making, and storytelling was asubstantial part of the curricu-lum. I believe that films must notonly be limited to entertainment,but also should focus on convey-ing a certain message to changeor uplift the society.

�Initially, what were your chal-lenges while producing a docu-mentary film?

The lack of funding for doc-umentary film production con-tinues to be a challenge. You canapply to a lot of branches inter-nationally, but the question is howto make a film that costs ahumungous amount of money. Inmy case, I do a lot of advertise-ments on the side, so we receivemoney, and we have sufficientinfrastructure so, I utilise thatmoney and infrastructure to pre-sent stories about relevant issues.

�How can documentary filmscreate a difference in society?

If a film about a certain sub-ject has inspired you, then it isimpactful. If a viewer watches afilm and becomes aware of theissues, the film has succeeded inmaking a point. The InvisibleVisible is an impactful film thatcompels a call to action. Throughthis film, we are talking aboutthree points — the governmentshould act on the implementationof laws to protect the destitute,build shelter homes across all dis-tricts, and monitor those shelterhouses. Here, I feel that all thestakeholders must come togetherto raise their voice against the gov-ernment and address these threeissues.

�Why did you choose to portraythe film in a documentary stylerather than via mainstream cin-ema?

I don’t think one can tellauthentic stories through fiction;in the documentary, we have realstories that were shot on thestreets. Since I have highlighted

the major issues with authentici-ty and there are no real actors, wewent to the beggar’s home wherewe saw a woman who couldn’trecognise her son, and the storywas unfolding right in front of oureyes.

�Although we have a law thatstates children being used forbegging is a punishable offence,we see a large number of chil-dren begging on the streets;what is your opinion on it?

The Invisible Visible hasdescribed the circumstances;reflecting that the laws must beconstitutional not only for chil-dren but also for everyone whohas been purportedly abused forlivelihood. The majority of thosearrested by the police are dailywage labourers. Furthermore,remand homes have worse condi-tions than jails; hence, the lawsmust be strict enough to assist theunderprivileged.

�Although many NGOs haveaddressed the issues, we haveseen the rising number of shel-

ter houses and beggars. As a film-maker, where do you feel is themain problem?

The issue has emerged as aresult of the persistent rise in socialinequalities. Certain laws incarcer-ate and criminalise the homeless,and the situation will remain stag-nant until strict laws are enforced.As a result, the government andstakeholders should work togeth-er to ensure the appropriatechanges. Our film suggests thatchange will only occur if lawmak-ers, including the government,judiciary, police, and the generalpublic, take collective responsibil-ity for supporting them, includingattempting to make them part ofthe workforce and providing basicsecurity so that they do not haveto live on the streets.

�Why are most of your filmsbased on social causes?

A film is a great tool for dis-cussing real-world concerns andhas the power to either corrupt oruplift a society, so it is crucial toconvey the appropriate message.The majority of Bollywood story-lines are fictional and are solelyintended to entertain, but we asfilmmakers must also show someserious subjects. I have chosen toexplore issues that are genuine; ifpeople in rural areas were not inhardship, they would never trav-el to the cities for livelihood. It isall about surviving, and that iswhat the film is depicting.

�What is the future of Indiancinema, specifically in the con-text of documentary filmmak-ing?

I believe that the future isbright as documentary cinemasare getting more popular. Most ofthe OTT platforms now showmeaningful and real content,now that there is a platformdedicated to documentary cine-ma, it seems an excellent oppor-tunity.

Actors Richa Chadha andAli Fazal, who are well-

versed with internationalcinema and the significanceof new-age content evolu-tion, announced their debutproduction, Girls Will BeGirls. They intend to bringstories that are global andclutter-breaking at the sametime.

Talking about their pro-ject, Chadha said, "Authenticstories go a long way, and itis our endeavour to makefilms that exhibit the same.We aim to bring stories thatare universal and unique.Through our projects, wewant to discover the unheardvoices and present clutter-breaking content."

To this, Fazal added,"Artists do not only want to

work on interesting projectsbut aim to make ground-breaking and thought-pro-voking cinema. We want tobring real stories to the audi-ence, and in turn, resonateswith them. We sincerelyhope that people will enjoythe films that we are makingunder our banner."

Fazal is known for work-ing on several internationalprojects that include British-American films like Victoria& Abdul, Furious 7, andmany others.

On the other hand,Chadha has travelled to the

Cannes Film Festival, VeniceInternational Film Festival,London Indian Film Festivalwith films like Masaan, LoveSonia, and the web seriescalled Inside Edge forAmazon Prime video.

It is a truth universallyacknowledged that the Indianfilm industry is one of thelargest cinema hubs in theworld and there is no dearthof possibilities and opportu-nities within this fraternity.

It is this line of thoughtthat has motivated Chadhaand Fazal to bring to cellu-loid characters in their maid-en project Girls Will Be Girls,directed by Shuchi Talati, andproduced through their ban-ner Pushing Button Studios,Crawling Angel Films, andDolce Vita Films France.

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With the finale of SonyEntertainment Television’s

dance reality show Super DancerChapter 4 all set to air on October 9,the nation will get this season’s win-ner. Competing for the mahotsav, thecontestants are putting in all theirefforts and aiming for the coveted title.Contestant Esha Mishra, from Delhi,rose to popularity with her uniquedance moves and expressions, but onething that sets her apart is her love forfood. From super judge, Shilpa ShettyKundra, getting home-cooked foodfor her, to filmmaker, Farah Khanbringing aloo tikki and samosas, toveteran actor Neetu Kapoor treatingher to Kapoor khaandaan's specialtieson the show, the proof is in the pud-ding. With such a colourful journey,Esha is leaving no stone unturned andcontinues to win the hearts of her fansand viewers. Here is Esha Mishra tak-ing about her journey on the show sofar:

�Being in the top five is an achieve-ment in itself. How would youdescribe your feelings now that youare this close to winning the grandtrophy?

My excitement knows no boundsas I never imagined being one of thetop five finalists in the show. It is def-

initely a feat that wouldn't have beenachievable without the help of my par-ents and my super guru, Sonali didi.I owe a debt of gratitude to Geeta ma,Shilpa ma'am, and Anurag da for help-ing me in my growth as a dancer andproviding me with delectable food onthe set time and again.

�What do you want to say to theother four contestants before thegrand finale?

I congratulate them for making itthis far in the competition and tellthem that for the finale, let's give it our

all and have as much fun as we canbecause my mother tells me thatthese days will never come again.

�Tell us how your family and friendsreacted to you getting into the topfive?

They're all happy for me. Theyhaven't missed a single episode of mineand are eagerly awaiting my returnwith the trophy. I'm looking forwardto meeting them after the finale andspending quality time with them.

�If it isn't you, who do you want tosee as a winner in Super DancerChapter 4?

Everyone is exceptional, which iswhy they are in the top five. However,if I do not win, I believe it will beSanchit or Florina.

�What do you want to say to yoursuper guru?

I'd want to express my gratitude toSonali didi for being such a dedicat-ed guru. She has backed me up andassisted me in improving my perfor-mance. She is like my elder sister, whohas supported me throughout my jour-ney on Super Dancer Chapter 4. Sonalididi will get the majority of the cred-it if I win. Thanks a lot for everything,Sonali didi!

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PAK INCLUDE SARFARAZ IN T20 WORLD CUPKarachi: Pakistan on Friday made three changes totheir squad for the T20 World Cup, bringing informer captain Sarafraz Ahmed, Fakhar Zamanand Haider Ali at the expense of Azam Khan,Mohammad Hasnain and Khushdil Shah. Formerspinner Saqlain Mushtaq has been named interimhead coach following the resignation of Misbah-ul-Haq. As announced earlier, former Australiabatter Matthew Hayden and former South Africapacer Vernon Philander will be the team’s battingand bowling consultants for the mega event. Thecut-off for making squad changes is October10.Many former Pakistan cricketers, includingRashid Latif and Shoaib Akhtar, wanted wholesalechanges in the squad announced on September 4.

AMANDEEP DRALL TIED FIFTH AFTER FIRST DAYTourrettes (France): Indian golfer AmandeepDrall enjoyed another fine start as she carded 1-under 71 and was tied 5th at the end of the first dayat the Terre Blanche Ladies Open on the LadiesEuropean Access Series Tour. Another Indian inthe field, Vani Kapoor (77), was tied 52nd.Amandeep, a multiple winner on the domesticHero Women’s Pro Golf Tour, had four birdiesagainst three bogeys. Her four birdies came in astretch between sixth and 11th. Sweden’s LinnGrant who was ranked fourth in the WorldAmateur Golf Ranking before turning professionalin August, held a two-shot lead at the end of dayone after she fired an opening round of 68.

ISL REALLOCATES PRIZE MONEYNew Delhi: Indian Super League organisers onFriday announced an increase in the prize moneyof ‘Shield Winners’ by Rs 3 crore starting from theupcoming season, while reducing the amounthanded to the ISL champions.The League WinnersShield, introduced in 2019-20 season conferred totable toppers, were presented with Rs 50 lakh inthe last two seasons. As part of the ISL prizemoney reallocation, Football Sports Development(FSDL) has now allocated Rs 3.5 crore to theLeague Winners. The ISL champions -- winner ofthe final -- will now get Rs 6 crore (previously Rs 8crore), while the runners-up will get Rs 3 crore(previously Rs 4 crore).

POONAM YADAV JOINS WBBLMelbourne: Spinner Poonam Yadav on Fridaybecame the eighth Indian cricketer to sign for theWomen’s Big Bash League after Brisbane Heatroped her in for the upcoming season. The 30-year-old diminutive India wrist spinner joined theBrisbane side to fill the spot left by the withdrawalof New Zealand star Amelia Kerr. Yadav is in theIndian squad for the ongoing multi-format tour ofAustralia. She played in two of the three ODIsagainst Australia but did not find a place in theplaying eleven in the subsequent lone Pink-ballTest. Yadav has made a habit of wreaking havocagainst Australian batters, including her 4 for 19 inlast year’s T20 World Cup opener, and Brisbanewill hope she can do the same in the WBBL.

QUEEN ELIZABETH LAUNCHES BATON RELAYLondon: Queen Elizabeth II held her first majorengagement at Buckingham Palace since the onsetof the coronavirus pandemic a year and a half ago,as she presided Thursday over the launch of thebaton relay for next year’s Commonwealth Gamesin the central England city of Birmingham. The 95-year-old monarch handed the baton for what areoften referred to as the “friendly games” to four-time Paralympic gold medallist Kadeena Cox, whois fresh from winning two events in Tokyo. Cox, 30,took the baton on a brief journey around the nearbyQueen Victoria Memorial in central London beforehanding it to another competitor. “It’s really special,”she said. “I fall into this category where I’m verydiverse - I’m a female, disabled, Black athlete. Forme I think that’s what the Commonwealthrepresents and especially being in Birminghamwhich is such a diverse place.” AGENCIES

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The Indian women’s hockey teamcaptain Rani Rampal on Friday

hoped that the experience gainedfrom playing against the best teamsin the FIH Hockey Pro League willhelp her team in the same way as itdid the mens team. The Indianwomens team was on Friday includ-ed in the Pro League for the upcom-ing Season 3 along with Spain as areplacement for Australia and NewZealand who had pulled out becauseof the Covid-19 restrictions imposedby their respective governments.

The other players too expressedtheir excitement over playing the topleague which kicks off on October13 with the first match betweenOlympic and World Champions, theNetherlands and Belgium.

Rani said, “This is great news forus. We have seen how much theexposure at the FIH Hockey ProLeague helped our male counter-

parts from the Indian team. They gotto play the best teams in the world,and I believe that helped them taketheir game to the next level.Likewise, the Indian women’s teamis also looking forward to makingthe most of this opportunity. Theentire team is excited.”

Goalkeeper Savita, on the otherhand, stated that this exposure willhelp increase the talent pool in theIndian team. “We have some verytalented junior players coming intothe core group. Playing regular

matches against top teams in theFIH Hockey Pro League will helpthe team try a different combinationof players ahead of important tour-naments like the Asian Games in2022 and the FIH Women’s WorldCup in July 2022. We believe thisexperience in the Pro League willhelp us improve our game further,”said Savita, who recently won theFIH Woman Goalkeeper of theYear award.

Two-time Olympian Monikatoo joined her teammates inreflecting their enthusiasm toplay the FIH Hockey Pro Leaguethis season. “We never got to playtop teams like the Netherlands asoften as we would have liked to.Before our first match at theTokyo Olympics against theWorld No.1 team, we had playedthem just once more than three orfour years ago. But being part ofthe Pro League this season willgive us the perfect opportunity to

test our abilities against top teams.We are looking are all very happyto be included for this season andhope to make the opportunitycount.” she was quoted as sayingin a release by Hockey India.

Youngster Sharmila Devi,who won the FIH Rising Star ofthe Year, also stated that this willbe a great opportunity for youngplayers like her in the team.

“Playing top teams of theworld will provide youngstersl ike me great exposure.Something we wanted to work onbefore the Asian Games was toperform under pressure. The FIHHockey Pro League will be agreat experience in that aspectand we are very excited about it,”she said. The’Indian women’steam will open its FIH Pro Leaguecampaign with a double-headeragainst the Netherlands onFebruary 19 and 20, 2022 in anaway fixture.

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Local collegian, AlwinSundar (AS Motorsports),

grabbed the pole position inthe Novice (Stock 165cc) cat-egory as the third round ofthe MMSC fmsci IndianNational Motorcycle RacingChampionship 2021 com-menced at the MMRT, hereon Friday in fair weatherconditions.

Alwin, only 19, and whoheads the championship inthe Novice category followinga double in the first round inAugust, overcame a shakystart in the qualifying sessionwhen he went off the track onthe out-lap, but gatheredhimself to post the fastest lap

of two minutes, 08.098secsafter deftly negotiating traffic.

Mumbai’s Kayan ZubinPatel (Sparks Racing) postedthe second-best lap of02:08.545 while team-mateAllwin Xavier (Thrissur)completed the front rowclocking 02:08.772. In all, 38

riders out of 43 qualified tostart Saturday’s race.

Meanwhile, TVS Racing’sDeepak Ravikumar(01:52.567) and Jagan Kumar(01:52.627) were among thequickest riders in the freepractice session in the pre-mier Pro stock 301-400cc

category with championshipleader Rajini Krishnan(RACR Castrol PowerRacing) just behind the leadpair, clocking 01:52.647.

Later, Idemitsu HondaSK6’ Racing’s Rajiv Sethu setthe pace in the Pro-stock165cc category during thefree practice session by top-ping the timesheets with a hotlap of 01:56.344, ahead ofTVS Racing pair of defendingchampion Jagan Kumar(01:56.405) and KY Ahamed(01:57.070). The close com-petition between Honda andTVS riders has producedseveral nail-biting finishesand this’weekend’s double-header promises more of the same.

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Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma card-ed a solid 4-under 67, laced with five

birdies, in the opening round to be tied21st at the ACCIONA Open de Espanahere.

Sharma, who has time and againshown glimpses of fine form but also

given away some advantage after that,was looking good once again, stumbledto just one late bogey on the sixth, whichwas his 15th hole.

India’s other star, Gaganjeet Bhullar,who became a father recently, openedwith 4-over 75 and needs a good secondround to make the cut.

Ross McGowan produced a courserecord 61 and led the way after round onebut world number one Jon Rahm was justtwo shots back on home soil.

Englishman McGowan claimed hisfirst European Tour win in the Spanishcapital 12 years ago at the MadridMasters but had to wait 11 years to seala second at last season’s Italian Open.

Home favourite Sebastian GarciaRodriguez was his nearest challenger butall eyes were on Rahm, who was at eightunder as he seeks a third consecutive vic-tory at his home open.

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FIFA plans to postponethe Club World Cup

until early next year due tohosting challenges linked tothe pandemic, people famil-iar with the planning said.Coronavirus restrictions ledto Japan withdrawing fromstaging the seven-teamtournament this December,and South Africa then aban-doned a bid due to theneed to get more of thecountry vaccinated.

FIFA is now exploringstaging the event in Januaryor February, the people toldThe Associated Press. Theyspoke on condition ofanonymity because theywere not authorized to dis-cuss ongoing talks.

Qatar is an option —like in February whenBayern Munich won thedelayed 2020 edition inDoha — to help the Gulfnation test venues for themen’s national teams’ WorldCup that starts in November2022.

FIFA is already due tostage the Arab Cup compe-tition in December in Qataras part of World Cup prepa-rations. The Club WorldCup could attract a moreglobal fanbase, with Chelseaqualified as ChampionsLeague winners.

It will disrupt a PremierLeague weekend for thewest London club, as wouldhave been the case if thetournament was contestedas planned in December.

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French University Ecole Superieure Robert deSorbon has conferred former India spinner

Harbhajan Singh with a honorary PhD inSports during a convocation ceremony here.

Harbhajan couldn’t attend the ceremony inperson as he is currently in a bio-secure envi-ronment as part of Kolkata Knight Riders’ cam-paign in the IPL.

The university awards honorary doctoratedegree to eminent personalities in variouswalks of life, which also includes achievementsin the sporting arena.

“If any institution accords respect, youaccept that with utmost humility. If I have beenconferred with honorary sports doctorate by theuniversity, it is because I played cricket and peo-ple have showered their love and affection forthat. I am honoured to be conferred with thedegree,” the 41-year-old Harbhajan said.

Harbhajan’s name was recommended to theFrench University by noted industrialist DrHarcharan Singh Ranauta, vice-president ofIndian Federation of United NationsAssociations (IFUNA).

Harbhajan also thanked the jury whichselected him.

“I would like to thank Dr John ThomasParade, president Sorbon, Dr Vivek Choudhury,chairman, Sorbon International ConvocationCommittee (Celebrity), Dr Mukesh Tyagi,Sorbon International Convocation Committee,for finding me worthy enough.”

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Ishan Kishan and SuryakumarYadav struck whirlwind fifties as

defending champions MumbaiIndians posted a mammoth 235 fornine against Sunrisers Hyderabadin their must-win IPL match hereon Friday.

MI not only need to win thematch, they have to beat SRH by171 runs or more to leapfrogKolkata Knight Riders in the racefor the fourth and last play-off spot.

MI needed a miracle and thescript unfolded in their favour, atleast in the first innings, when theyopted to bat and posted a mam-moth total.

From the word go, Kishanfound the fence at will and scoredhis 84 runs off just 32 balls.

Yadav’s 82-run knock came off40 balls during which he hit 13fours and three sixes.

MI openers -- Kishan andskipper Rohit Sharma (18 off 13)meant business and showed theintent from the onset.

Kishan, especially, was in bel-ligerent mood as he went hammerand tongs and didn’t spare a sin-gle SRH bowler to bring up his fiftyin just 16 balls, the fastest half cen-tury this season.

It was raining boundaries andsixes for Kishan in every over as MIraced to 78 runs in the first five

overs.The menacing partnership

between the openers was finallybroken in the sixth over by RashidKhan when he induced a top-edgefrom Rohit which was brilliantlycaught by Mohammad Nabi run-ning backwards.

But Kishan was in a relentlessmood as he continued to use hislong handle to great effect and putimmense pressure on SRH attack.

It looked like child’s play forKishan as he clobbered Rashid overthe deep midwicket to bring up theteam’s 100 in 7.1 overs.

Kishan finally departed in the10th over when he top edged anUmran Malik delivery toWriddhiman Saha behind thestumps.

After Kishan’s dismissal, SRHpulled things back, courtesy somesmart captaincy from ManishPandey, who replaced Kane Williamson out with anelbow niggle.

A courageous Pandey broughtyoung left-arm spinner AbhishekSharma into the attck in the 13thover and the bowler reposed hiscaptain’s faith by removing KieronPollard (12) and Jimmy Neeshamin final two balls of the over tostand in chance for a hat-trick.

Yadav, who had not been at hisbest in the second leg so far, roseto the occasion when it matterdand took the onus of guiding MIinnings after Kishan’s dismissal.

He kept the scoreboard tickingwith trademark cricketing shots,the most notable among them wasa lofted hit over pacer SidhharthKaul’s head to bring up his fifty in24 balls.

The last five overs yielded 58runs for MI during which Yadavwas at his attacking best.

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Royal Challengers Bangalorerallied to stop Delhi Capitalsat 164 for five in their IndianPremier League match here

on Friday. The table-toppers frittered

away a strong 88-run opening part-nership provided by Shikhar Dhawan(43) and Prithvi Shaw (48) with theother batsmen unable to build on it.

Shimron Hetmyer (29) hit twobig sixes to go with two boundariesand ensured the Capitals go past the

150-mark after the batters appearedto struggle in the middle overs.

For RCB, Mohammed Sirajbowled well to finish with 2 for 25from his four overs while HarshalPatel, Yuzvendra Chahal and DanChristian picked up a wicket each.

Dhawan and Shaw got theCapitals off to a good start, adding55 runs in the first six overs, with-out taking too many risks. While theleft-handed Dhawan, who has beenin good form, continued to play flu-ently, his opening partner came upwith some fine shots too.

RCB skipper Virat Kohli choseto open the bowling with the off-spinof Glenn Maxwell, who started witha wide. Dhawan showed his intentwith a superb drive on the off-sideto get DC moving.

The left-right combination ofDhawan and Shaw scored 88 runs inthe first 10 overs, hitting some splen-did shots on the way before the for-mer fell to Harshal Patel when hegave a catch to Dan Christian.

Shaw, who was beginning tolook dangerous and slog sweptChahal powerfully for a six over mid-wicket, fell to a catch by Garton inthe deep, two short of a well-deservedfifty.

Christian struck a huge blow forthe Bangalore team by getting the DCcaptain Rishabh Pant (10) to edgeone to the ‘keeper K S Bharat, leav-ing them at 108 for three in the 13thover. Earlier, Kohli won the toss andchose to bowl. Both the teams wentin with unchanged playing XIs.

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