DA deZeTYZ_X R]]ZR_TVd e` eR\V `_ 3;A - Daily Pioneer

12
S hedding its Covid-period inertia, the Samajwadi Party is racing ahead with its plan to stitch up alliances with small- er parties to take on the BJP in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh. In an attempt to strength- en the caste alliance further, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav met senior Aam Adami Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha mem- ber Sanjay Singh and Apna Dal (Krishna Group) president Krishna Patel separately on Wednesday, fuelling specula- tion of further alliances. Krishna Patel later declared that her party will share stage with the Samajwadi Party in near future but did not elabo- rate on the seat arrangement. The meeting between Akhilesh and Singh took place at Janeshwar Mishra Trust building in Lucknow and last- ed for about an hour. This was the third meeting of the AAP leader and Akhilesh. “In an attempt to give respite to the people of UP from the BJP, we are trying to come together and talks regard- ing a possible alliance have been initiated,” Singh said. Recently Singh had visited the residence of SP patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav and greeted him on his birthday. Political pundits believe that if the SP and the AAP forge an alliance, it will boost their chances in the urban areas where the BJP has stronghold. Earlier in the day, Patel met Akhilesh. She claimed that her deal with the SP is final now and very soon leaders of both parties would share a common platform. Another faction of Apna Dal led by Union Minister Anupriya Patel has an alliance with the ruling BJP. Akhilesh has already forged alliance with Suheldeo Rajbhar Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) which has a strong base among Rajbhar commu- nity in east UP. Besides, the SP also has tied up with Mahan Dal, which has influence among the Maurya-Kachi and Kushwaha community in east and central UP. Last month, the SP had entered into an alliance with the Jan Kranti Party dom- inated by Lonia community. Earlier on Tuesday, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Jayant Choudhury had met with Akhilesh regarding alliance for the coming UP Assembly elections. T MC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss a range of issues, including demand for with- drawal of the order extending the BSF’s jurisdiction in the State. She also invited the PM to inaugurate the Global Business Meet scheduled in Kolkata for April 2022. Howerver, what caused more attention during the day was senior BJP leader Subramanian Swamy calling on the TMC chief a day after the regional party inducted several senior party members of the Congress and the JD(U). Swamy, however, oblique- ly scotched the possibility of him joining the Trinamool Congress. “I was already with her (Mamata). There is no need for me to join the party,” he told the media. Swamy who has often praised Mamata on social media met her at TMC gener- al secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s official residence in the nation- al Capital. After meeting the Trinamool Congress chief, Swamy said they discussed the political scenario in Bengal. T he Congress and the BSP received another setback in Uttar Pradesh before the cru- cial Assembly polls when rebel Congress MLA Aditi Singh from Rae Bareli’s Sadar seat joined the BJP; and rebel BSP MLA from Sagri seat of Azamgarh district Vandana Singh did the same. Vandana was suspended by the BSP for anti-party activities. She said the BSP never heard her side and suspended her without any reason. “Thereafter I met Yogi Adityanath and he asked me to join BJP,” she said. Leaders of various political parties took the membership of the BJP in the presence of BJP State president Swatantra Dev Singh in Lucknow. Welcoming both the lead- ers, Singh said joining of these sitting MLAs gives a clear pic- ture of what will happen in 2022 Assembly polls. Aditi has been criticising the Congress and hailing the policies of the BJP Government for a long time. Recently, Aditi had said she wanted to be a part of Yogi’s team and claimed Yogi is the most popular CM. Aditi had even criticised Priyanka Gandhi saying she is only doing drama. “If she had been aware of women’s pride, she would have first acted against her personal secretary Sandeep Singh, who has been booked for molesting a woman,” Aditi had said. T he State Government on Wednesday celebrated Jharkhand Day at the Jharkhand pavilion of the ongoing India International Trade Fair at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. The speakers at the fair threw light on the State's nature and rich tribal culture. The speakers said that the social environment, living style, and folk culture of the State are incomparable. Folk artists from the State also dis- played the folk culture of Jharkhand. On the occasion, Jharkhand's Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Mithilesh Kumar Thakur, Labour, Planning, Training and Skill Development Minister Satyanand Bhokta, Jharkhand Government's regional Commissioner Mast Ram Meena, Industries and Mines and Geology Department Secretary, Pooja Singhal, Secretary, Rural Development Department, Manish Ranjan, Secretary Information and Technology and E-Governance Kripanand Jha, Director SUDA Amit Kumar, Director Silk Divyanshu Jha, Managing Director Jharcraft Akanksha Ranjan, Managing Director Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation R Ronita, Managing Director JSLPS Nancy Sahay along with other senior officials were pre- sent. The programme started with speakers paying tributes to tribal freedom fighter Dharti Aaba Bhagwan Birsa Munda, followed by the guests visiting the state's pavilion at the trade fair. Appreciating the folk artists skill and work the Minister Mithilesh Thakur said that trade fair is a good platform to showcase the development taking place in the state. He said that Jharkhand state is the land of Lord Birsa Munda, Sidho-Kanhu and other brave sons, who played an important role in India's freedom struggle. The state of Jharkhand is full of culture, tourism, art, minerals in all respects. We have 40 per cent of the total mineral wealth of the country, in which iron, gold, mica, uranium etc. are in abundance. The minister also threw light on State’s religious places such as Baba Baidyanath Dham, Rajrappa Temple, Itkhori Temple, Maluti Temple etc among other pilgrimage sites. The minister also said that as part of tourism desti- nations, there is immense potential in Jharkhand, such as Betla National Park, Netarhat, Hazaribagh as centres of attraction for tourists. The new industrial policy of the Industries Department of the state is going to prove to be a milestone for micro, small and heavy industries. Jharkhand is also making a lot of progress in the field of sports, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Deepika Kumari, Nikki Pradhan and Salima Tete, who had shown their talent in the just held Olympics, are a source of inspiration for gen- erations. Secretary, Industries Department and Mines and Geology Department, Pooja Singhal said that Jharkhand is rich in religious places, tourism destinations and there is abundance of mines and minerals. The Industries Department of the state has formulated a new industrial policy to promote industries, which will encourage all industries. In this policy, our Chief Minister has specially made a Rural Industrial Policy for the development of the vil- lagers, so that the people liv- ing in rural areas would be provided incentives to set up industries. She further said that Jharkhand is a state of diversity. Its natural beauty is unique, which makes the state the best from the point of view of tourism. The tourism department is running eco- tourism, rural tourism, adven- ture tourism etc. to make it more meaningful. On Jharkhand State Day, Chhau dance by Prabhat Kumar Mahato of Jharkhand, Paika dance by Ashok Kachhap, Oron dance by Jhinga Bhagat Manoranjan Kala Sangam, Mundri dance by RR Mehta, Nagpuri dance by Jhinga Bhagat and Santhali dance by Babita Murmu was attraction for visitors. J harkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) chair- person Amitabh Chaudhary on Wednesday hinted that the commission may release the cut-off marks for the recently held preliminary exams on its official website by the end of Thursday. Governor Ramesh Bais summoned the JPSC chief on Wednesday over the recent protests against alleged anom- alies in the recently held JPSC 7,8 9 and 10 exams. After meet- ing Bais at Raj Bhawan, Chaudhary assured necessary actions to clear all doubts and concerns of aspirants. Talking to media persons outside Raj Bhawan on Wednesday, Chaudhary said that there was nothing to worry about and the JPSC will come out clean. “Everything is fine. Please check the official website of JPSC tomorrow (Thursday), and all your queries will be answered,” Chaudhary told media persons, dodging ques- tions asked by media persons. Several thousand JPSC aspi- rants have been demanding cancellation of the recently con- ducted preliminary tests for JPSC 7 to 10 citing favouritism and anomalies in the system. The students have alleged that the JPSC has not issued a cut- off for the recently held exams, and demanded reexamination. The protesting aspirants have alleged that several aspirants whose roll numbers fell in sequence cleared the tests, while no aspirant under the specially- abled category made it to the list of successful candidates. Besides, some aspirants did not clear the exam despite scoring more than other candidates who cleared the test, the pro- testors have said. This move- ment has also gained the sup- port of some political parties lately. On Tuesday, police per- sonnel had to lathi-charge protesting students and a few BJP leaders while they were on their way to meet the JPSC chief in Ranchi. The incident hogged the attention of higher author- ities and also led to the Governor summoning the JPSC chairperson. JPSC exams have been rid- dled with controversies since 2016. The prelims test for JPSC 6 was conducted way back on December 18, 2016 and its result was declared in February 2017. On June 7, 2021, The Jharkhand High Court can- celled the merit list of the 6th JPSC after years of protests by aspirants. The court also direct- ed the state government to identify the officials responsible for the mistake in the merit list and take action against them.

Transcript of DA deZeTYZ_X R]]ZR_TVd e` eR\V `_ 3;A - Daily Pioneer

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Shedding its Covid-periodinertia, the Samajwadi Party

is racing ahead with its plan tostitch up alliances with small-er parties to take on the BJP inthe forthcoming Assemblypolls in Uttar Pradesh.

In an attempt to strength-en the caste alliance further,Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav met seniorAam Adami Party (AAP)leader and Rajya Sabha mem-ber Sanjay Singh and Apna Dal(Krishna Group) presidentKrishna Patel separately onWednesday, fuelling specula-tion of further alliances.

Krishna Patel later declaredthat her party will share stagewith the Samajwadi Party innear future but did not elabo-rate on the seat arrangement.

The meeting betweenAkhilesh and Singh took placeat Janeshwar Mishra Trustbuilding in Lucknow and last-ed for about an hour. This wasthe third meeting of the AAPleader and Akhilesh.

“In an attempt to giverespite to the people of UPfrom the BJP, we are trying tocome together and talks regard-ing a possible alliance havebeen initiated,” Singh said.

Recently Singh had visitedthe residence of SP patriarchMulayam Singh Yadav andgreeted him on his birthday.

Political pundits believethat if the SP and the AAP forgean alliance, it will boost theirchances in the urban areaswhere the BJP has stronghold.

Earlier in the day, Patel metAkhilesh. She claimed that herdeal with the SP is final nowand very soon leaders of bothparties would share a commonplatform.

Another faction of ApnaDal led by Union MinisterAnupriya Patel has an alliancewith the ruling BJP.

Akhilesh has alreadyforged alliance with SuheldeoRajbhar Bhartiya Samaj Party(SBSP) which has a strongbase among Rajbhar commu-nity in east UP. Besides, the SPalso has tied up with MahanDal, which has influenceamong the Maurya-Kachi andKushwaha community in eastand central UP. Last month, the

SP had entered into an alliancewith the Jan Kranti Party dom-inated by Lonia community.

Earlier on Tuesday,Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) chiefJayant Choudhury had metwith Akhilesh regardingalliance for the coming UP

Assembly elections.

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TMC supremo and WestBengal Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee onWednesday called on PrimeMinister Narendra Modi todiscuss a range of issues,including demand for with-drawal of the order extendingthe BSF’s jurisdiction in theState. She also invited the PMto inaugurate the GlobalBusiness Meet scheduled inKolkata for April 2022.

Howerver, what causedmore attention during the daywas senior BJP leaderSubramanian Swamy callingon the TMC chief a day afterthe regional party inductedseveral senior party membersof the Congress and the JD(U).

Swamy, however, oblique-

ly scotched the possibility ofhim joining the TrinamoolCongress. “I was already withher (Mamata). There is noneed for me to join the party,”he told the media.

Swamy who has oftenpraised Mamata on socialmedia met her at TMC gener-al secretary Abhishek Banerjee’sofficial residence in the nation-al Capital. After meeting theTrinamool Congress chief,Swamy said they discussed thepolitical scenario in Bengal.

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The Congress and the BSPreceived another setback in

Uttar Pradesh before the cru-cial Assembly polls when rebelCongress MLA Aditi Singhfrom Rae Bareli’s Sadar seatjoined the BJP; and rebel BSPMLA from Sagri seat ofAzamgarh district VandanaSingh did the same.

Vandana was suspended bythe BSP for anti-party activities.She said the BSP never heardher side and suspended herwithout any reason. “ThereafterI met Yogi Adityanath and heasked me to join BJP,” she said.

Leaders of various politicalparties took the membership ofthe BJP in the presence of BJPState president Swatantra Dev

Singh in Lucknow.Welcoming both the lead-

ers, Singh said joining of thesesitting MLAs gives a clear pic-ture of what will happen in2022 Assembly polls.

Aditi has been criticisingthe Congress and hailing thepolicies of the BJP Governmentfor a long time. Recently, Aditihad said she wanted to be a partof Yogi’s team and claimedYogi is the most popular CM.

Aditi had even criticisedPriyanka Gandhi saying she isonly doing drama. “If she hadbeen aware of women’s pride,she would have first actedagainst her personal secretarySandeep Singh, who has beenbooked for molesting awoman,” Aditi had said.

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The State Government onWednesday celebrated

Jharkhand Day at theJharkhand pavilion of theongoing India InternationalTrade Fair at Pragati Maidanin New Delhi. The speakers atthe fair threw light on theState's nature and rich tribalculture. The speakers said thatthe social environment, livingstyle, and folk culture of theState are incomparable. Folkartists from the State also dis-played the folk culture ofJharkhand.

On the occasion,Jharkhand's Minister of

Drinking Water and SanitationMithilesh Kumar Thakur,Labour, Planning, Trainingand Skill DevelopmentMinister Satyanand Bhokta,Jharkhand Government'sregional Commissioner MastRam Meena, Industries andMines and GeologyDepartment Secretary, PoojaSinghal, Secretary, RuralDevelopment Department,Manish Ranjan, SecretaryInformation and Technologyand E-Governance KripanandJha, Director SUDA AmitKumar, Director SilkDivyanshu Jha, ManagingDirector Jharcraft AkankshaRanjan, Managing DirectorJharkhand TourismDevelopment Corporation RRonita, Managing DirectorJSLPS Nancy Sahay along withother senior officials were pre-sent.

The programme startedwith speakers paying tributesto tribal freedom fighterDharti Aaba Bhagwan Birsa

Munda, followed by the guestsvisiting the state's pavilion atthe trade fair. Appreciating thefolk artists skill and work theMinister Mithilesh Thakursaid that trade fair is a goodplatform to showcase thedevelopment taking place inthe state.

He said that Jharkhandstate is the land of Lord BirsaMunda, Sidho-Kanhu andother brave sons, who playedan important role in India'sfreedom struggle. The state ofJharkhand is full of culture,tourism, art, minerals in allrespects. We have 40 per centof the total mineral wealth ofthe country, in which iron,gold, mica, uranium etc. are inabundance.

The minister also threwlight on State’s religious placessuch as Baba BaidyanathDham, Rajrappa Temple,Itkhori Temple, Maluti Templeetc among other pilgrimagesites. The minister also saidthat as part of tourism desti-

nations, there is immensepotential in Jharkhand, such asBetla National Park, Netarhat,Hazaribagh as centres ofattraction for tourists.

The new industrial policyof the Industries Departmentof the state is going to prove tobe a milestone for micro, smalland heavy industries.Jharkhand is also making a lotof progress in the field ofsports, Mahendra SinghDhoni, Deepika Kumari, NikkiPradhan and Salima Tete, whohad shown their talent in thejust held Olympics, are asource of inspiration for gen-erations.

Secretary, IndustriesDepartment and Mines andGeology Department, PoojaSinghal said that Jharkhand isrich in religious places,tourism destinations and thereis abundance of mines andminerals. The IndustriesDepartment of the state hasformulated a new industrial

policy to promote industries,which will encourage allindustries. In this policy, ourChief Minister has speciallymade a Rural Industrial Policyfor the development of the vil-lagers, so that the people liv-ing in rural areas would beprovided incentives to set upindustries. She further saidthat Jharkhand is a state ofdiversity. Its natural beauty isunique, which makes the statethe best from the point of viewof tourism. The tourismdepartment is running eco-tourism, rural tourism, adven-ture tourism etc. to make itmore meaningful.

On Jharkhand State Day,Chhau dance by PrabhatKumar Mahato of Jharkhand,Paika dance by AshokKachhap, Oron dance byJhinga Bhagat ManoranjanKala Sangam, Mundri danceby RR Mehta, Nagpuri danceby Jhinga Bhagat and Santhalidance by Babita Murmu wasattraction for visitors.

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Jharkhand Public ServiceCommission (JPSC) chair-

person Amitabh Chaudhary onWednesday hinted that thecommission may release thecut-off marks for the recentlyheld preliminary exams on itsofficial website by the end ofThursday.

Governor Ramesh Baissummoned the JPSC chief onWednesday over the recentprotests against alleged anom-alies in the recently held JPSC7,8 9 and 10 exams. After meet-ing Bais at Raj Bhawan,Chaudhary assured necessaryactions to clear all doubts andconcerns of aspirants. Talking tomedia persons outside RajBhawan on Wednesday,Chaudhary said that there wasnothing to worry about and theJPSC will come out clean.

“Everything is fine. Pleasecheck the official website ofJPSC tomorrow (Thursday),and all your queries will beanswered,” Chaudhary told

media persons, dodging ques-tions asked by media persons.

Several thousand JPSC aspi-rants have been demandingcancellation of the recently con-ducted preliminary tests forJPSC 7 to 10 citing favouritismand anomalies in the system.The students have alleged thatthe JPSC has not issued a cut-off for the recently held exams,and demanded reexamination.The protesting aspirants havealleged that several aspirantswhose roll numbers fell insequence cleared the tests, whileno aspirant under the specially-

abled category made it to the listof successful candidates.Besides, some aspirants did notclear the exam despite scoringmore than other candidateswho cleared the test, the pro-testors have said. This move-ment has also gained the sup-port of some political partieslately. On Tuesday, police per-sonnel had to lathi-chargeprotesting students and a fewBJP leaders while they were ontheir way to meet the JPSC chiefin Ranchi. The incident hoggedthe attention of higher author-ities and also led to the

Governor summoning the JPSCchairperson.

JPSC exams have been rid-dled with controversies since2016. The prelims test for JPSC6 was conducted way back onDecember 18, 2016 and itsresult was declared in February2017. On June 7, 2021, TheJharkhand High Court can-celled the merit list of the 6thJPSC after years of protests byaspirants. The court also direct-ed the state government toidentify the officials responsiblefor the mistake in the merit listand take action against them. ������ �������-������������"��*���.#�������-��#������������*������+����/����������&������! ������� ����

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Security arrangements havebeen beefed up across

Kolhan in view of bandh callgiven by the CPI (Maoist )ultras. The 72-hourJharkhand,Chhattisgarh and Odishabandh has been called toprotest the arrest of the outfit’stop leader Prashant Bose.According to senior police offi-cials, additional personnel havebeen deployed in naxal-affect-ed and bordering areas of theState.

In view of the proposedbandh, the administration hastaken necessary measures toensure that the bandh is peace-ful and no untoward incidentmay take place at the naxal-infested areas of the twin dis-tricts of Singhbhum and also inadjoining Seraikela-Kharsawandistrict during the bandh.

Prashant Bose (80), who isCPI-Maoist politburo memberand second top naxal leader inthe country was arrested alongwith five others including hiswife from Kandra police stationarea in the Seraikela-Kharsawan district onNovember 12.

Police teams have beendeployed at railway stations,bus stands and other crowdedplaces. Besides, vehicles are

being searched to avoid anyuntoward incident, they said.

Anti-landmine vehicleswill be patrolling through theNH 33 area along with deploy-ment of forces of CRPF andRAF.

He went on to add thatstrict vigil on the borderingareas of Odisha and Bengal isbeing kept. Security forces havebeen deployed in large num-bers at naxal-infested areas.Police patrolling on the Maoistinfested areas of the Ghatshilasub division have also beenincreased.

Since in the past Railwayshave been the target of theultras special focus is on toensure strict security arrange-ments for Railways establish-ments

Railway authorities havesounded alert in Railway sta-tions of CKP division. Specialsquads of RPF jawans and

gangmen would be pressedinto service to trace out land-mines along railway tracks inthe vulnerable division. Pilotengines would also lead thetrains running through naxalinfested areas.

S eraike la-K hars awanadministration has deployedparamilitary forces on theChandil-Chowka-Ichagarhstretch of NH-33.

“We are all set for meetingany eventuality from last mid-night. The rebels are impulsiveand they can resort to anystrategic measure to show theadministration in poor light,"the police officer said.

Security forces havelaunched intensive operationsagainst the ultras in the naxalinfested areas too. The railwayshave also been advised to runtrain in naxal affected areas atslow speed to avoid possiblesabotage of tracks and bridge.

����������� �3�*'3

Abusiness quiz competitionnamed “Prerna” was orga-

nized separately for the officersand personnel at the HumanResource Development Centerof BSL. On this occasion, ChiefGuest Executive Director(Personnel andAdministration) SameerSwarup, CGM (HRD) NiranjanKumar, GM (HRD) Neeta Baalong with contestants fromvarious departments partici-pating in the competition werepresent.

In the beginning of theprogramme, Neeta Ba wel-comed the chief guest and thecontestants and informedabout the various rules relatedto the competition. 14 teamsparticipated in the quiz com-petition organized for Officersgrade. In the award winningteam, Senior Manager (GU)S.W. Kispotta and SeniorManager (SIGS) Anand Raj gotfirst prize and Manager (ERS)Subham Verma and Manager(Hot Strip Mill) RR Panda gotsecond position. Manager(CRM-1,2) T.Jitesh Kumar andManager (CRM-3) Md Sajjadstood third. The quiz master of

this round of the competitionwere General Manager (HRD)Neeta Baa and Senior Manager(HRD) Amit Anand. The roleof scorer were played by AnitaKumari, Vinay Kumar, Shweta,and Atul Kumar Singh.

In the same series of Quizalso 18 teams took part in thecompetition organized for theworkers. The first prize winnersin this competition were OCT(CRM-1, 2) Mohan KumarPatel and OCT (CRM-1,2)Manoj Kumar Soren. Sr.Operator Tech (ELTC)Shuvendra Kumar and Sr.Operator Tech (ETL) PriyankRaj got second position whilePhysiotherapy (Medical andHealth Services) RuplokKumbhakar and Sr. Operative(Medical and Health Services)Prabhat Ranjan stood third.The Quiz Master of this roundof the competition were theSenior Manager (SIGS) AnandRaj and Manager (ERS)Subham Verma. The role ofscorer were played by RKGupta and RR Panda and coor-dinator Senior Manager (HRD)Amit Anand. At the end of thecompetition the team memberswere honored by the chiefguest.

�� ��6������5*1$3)�*)�

Take the jabwhere you are

and no matter whatyou are doing is themantra of the healthteam in Latehar.

A vegetablegrower busy water-ing his potato culti-vation in his field atHoorilong under theBarwadeeh block of Latehardistrict identified as ShyamDayal Singh had a few strangevisitors in his field today ask-ing him if he has taken hisCovid 19 vaccine or not.

Shyam Dayal Singh washonest enough to say none ofthe two doses he has taken sofar and wanted to be spared forthe day today as he said he iswatering his potato cultivation.

The team that visited him,comprising community healthofficer Abha Kumari ofHehegara, ANM Sunina Kujurand Rohit, asked him to takethe vaccine doing his work butShyam Dayal Singh quippedthat if he gets down with feverthen who would look after hiscultivation.

Rohit said he was assuredof no such onset of the fever butif he has had a bout of feverthen he was advised to take a

tablet of the PCM which isparacetamol.

Shyam was given twotablets of 500 mg PCM.

He got ready and took thevaccine right on the bund of hisupcoming vegetable field today.He kept the PCM tablets withhim too DC Latehar AbuImran said he has asked thecivil surgeon Haren ChandraMahto and his teams to locatesuch unvaccinated eligibles andwith their consent vaccinatethem in what condition theyare without asking them tocome to the health centre etc.

Ved Prakash, a health offi-cial in Latehar district saidour teams are vaccinating peo-ple across the railway lines, inthe auto rickshaws, paddyfields, jungles etc and theresponse is good.

"��&������� 5/*)�*5

Unidentified miscreantschopped off head of a lady

Pratibha Dey during road rob-bery on Tuesday late night.

Resident of Sushnileve vil-lage under Baliapur police sta-tion, she was returning with herhusband Uttam Dey and twoyear old son home on a two-wheeler after consulting a doc-tor in Dhanbad .

The incident took placenear Brea forest while miscre-ants attacked the couple withsharp edged weapons in anattempt of loot but unfortu-nately murdered the lady.Uttam too sustained injurieswhile attempted to save his wifeand son .

Sindri sub-divisional policeofficer Abhishek Kumar whoreached on spot after receivinginformation said , Baliapurpolice is conducting raids forarrest of miscreants. Policepatrolling in the area would beintensified, he added.

An Autopsy was conduct-ed on Wednesday morningand the body was handed overto the victim's family.

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Aapke Adhikar Aapki Sarkar- Aapke Dwar’ campaign

launched by Chief MinisterHemant Soren has startedyielding results already. Thisflagship campaign is intendedto cover every possible benefi-ciary under different govern-ment schemes. Under this cam-paign, every day multiplecamps are being organized indifferent panchayats across thestate. People deprived of thebenefits of governmentschemes are now being coveredwith the benefits at theirdoorstep.

Divyang Bhekhraj Kumariis glad that the government hascome to her doorstep to pro-vide her benefits under variousgovernment schemes.Previously, there was a hurdlethat was stopping her fromaccessing these benefits. Sincethe last 8 years, she was strug-gling to get her Aadhar card.After the launch of this cam-paign, she received her Aadhar

Card within a day.Bhekhraj Kumari is a res-

ident of Jharpo village inTatijharia block of Hazaribagh.Since she did not have anAadhar card, she was unable toget the benefits of governmentschemes. She sent her messageto the camp organized inTatijharia and informed offi-cials about the issues faced byher in getting the Aadhar card.Upon listening to her plight,the District Welfare Officerand Block DevelopmentOfficer came into action. Avehicle was arranged and shewas brought to the camp fromher residence. Here registrationfor the Aadhar card was doneon-site and the Aadhar cardwas issued to her.

On getting her Aadhar,she expressed her happinessand said, “now I have myAadhar card and I will be ableto reap benefits of differentgovernment schemes. Thanksto Chief Minister Shri HemantSoren, if this camp was notorganized it would have beenimpossible for me to getAadhar.”

Sajni Bala Mahto, a resi-dent of Palashdih village ofMadhavpur Panchayat locatedin Bodam block of EastSinghbhum would earn herlivelihood through sellingHadiya (Desi Liquor). She

wanted to do goat farmingand earn her livelihood. In acamp organized in MadhavpurPanchayat under AapkeAdhikar Aapki Sarkar AapkeDwar, Sajni Bala Mahto wasgiven Rs 10, 000 in the form ofan interest-free loan underPhoolo Jhano AshirwadAbhiyan. She always wanted toget rid of the compulsion to sellHadiya and the evils associat-ed to this work. With the loanprovided to her through JSLPS,she will be able to lead arespectful life while earninglivelihood for her family.

Shashi Devi; 79, a residentof Ranchi was struggling to gether Ration Card (PDS card)since the lockdown despitemultiple attempts made by her.

During the Aapke AdhikarAapki Sarkar Aapke Dwarcampaign, a Ration Card wasissued to her. Such examplesreflect the commitment of thegovernment to ensure the ben-efits of government runschemes to the people of theState. As per the figures ofNovember 23 late afternoon,more than 2.5 lakh applicationshave been received from allover the state and more thanone lakh cases have been suc-cessfully resolved. AapkeAdhikar Aapki Sarkar AapkeDwar programme started onState Foundation Day will con-tinue till the completion of twoyears of the formation of theincumbent government; on29th December.

"���� '*)0/�

Rural DevelopmentSecretary Dr Manish

Ranjan has written to allDeputy Commissioners andDeputy DevelopmentCommissioners of the State formonitoring of sanction, pay-ment and completion ofPMAY-Rural houses within100 days at block, district andState levels.

“Providing homes to thehomeless is the priority of thegovernment. Pradhan MantriAwas Yojna- Gramin andBabasaheb Bhimrao AmbedkarAwas Yojna, approval of hous-es against the target set, time-ly payment offirst/second/third installmentsto the beneficiaries andprogress of completion of hous-es is not satisfactory. The cur-rent procedures and compli-ance status were reviewed.Action needs to be taken afterreview to implement theseschemes more effectively,” hewrote to the DCs and DDCs.

“Keeping in view the highworkload of the DCs andDDCs, Director, NationalEmployment Programme orDirector, AccountsAdministration and Self-Employment has been nomi-nated as nodal officer for dayto day monitoring of PMAY-

Rural and Babasaheb BhimraoAmbedkar Awas Yojana. Inthe districts where both theseposts are vacant, the DeputyCommissioner will inform thedepartment by appointing asenior officer as the nodal offi-cer. In all the upcoming meet-ings, both these schemes will bereviewed along with thesenodal officers. The nodal offi-cer will also apprise the DC andDDC about the progress everyday,” he further stated.

“In Latehar, Hazaribagh,Palamu, Pakur, Bokaro, Godda,Giridih, Dumka, Dhanbad,Chatra, Gumla, EastSinghbhum, Lohardaga andGarhwa districts, PWL finali-

sation is still to be done, due towhich the balance is yet to bedone by the Ministry of RuralDevelopment, Government ofIndia. The houses have not yetbeen released at the Panchayatlevel. The DCs, DDCs andNodal Officers of these districtswill ensure to finalise it by theend of this month in any case,”he said. Financial progress willbe compulsorily reviewed in allsubsequent meetings. Underthis, the status of the paymentof the first installment after theapproval of the house, the pay-ment of the second installmentafter the release of the firstinstallment and the payment ofthe third installment on com-

pletion of the houses will bereviewed, he added.

“After the acceptance of thehouse, the time limit for com-pletion of the house is fixed in100 days. To ensure this, thereis a need to provide all the nec-essary support to the benefi-ciaries in timely availability ofinstallments and constructionof houses from the Panchayatlevel to the district level. Forthis, there is also a need tomonitor each and every houseon a day-to-day basis. In placeof those volunteers who are nottaking interest in this work,work can be taken fromemployment servants or SakhiMandals,” said the Secretary.

"���� '*)0/�

Mahatma Gandhi NationalRural Employment

Guarantee Act (MGNREGA),Commissioner Rajeshwari Breviewed the implementationof MNREGA scheme andRURBAN mission schemesthrough video conferencingwith all Deputy DevelopmentCommissioners (DDC) onWednesday. She directed toexpedite the work to provideemployment among ruralmasses of the State.

In the meeting, the worksbeing done under the MGN-REGA scheme were reviewedin detail by the MGNREGAcommissioner, district wise. Inthe course of review, the DDCof the districts making rela-tively less progress were direct-ed by the MGNREGACommissioner to expedite thework. The MGNREGACommissioner, clearly statedthat the purpose of MGNRE-GA work is to provide employ-ment to the villagers.

She said thatthere should be nomigration from thevillage, ensure it and ifit is not done, actionwill be taken by fixingthe accountability.MGNREGA commis-sioner directed tocomplete all pendingschemes within oneweek.

In the course ofreview, Rajeshwaridirected the BlockDevelopment Officers(BDO) to ensure timely pay-ment of wages to the workersworking under MGNREGAand directed to provideemployment to maximumworkers for one hundred days.

During the meeting, manyother directions were givenregarding employment gener-ation in the village fromMNREGA. All the BDO’s weredirected by MGNREGACommissioner Rajeshwari thatthere should be no negligencein MGNREGA work. She gave

many other directions includ-ing inspecting the site of theschemes being made underMGNREGA. Rejected trans-action, directed through PFMSto improve the rejected accountof MGNREGA workers with-out delay, geo-tagging of hun-dred per cent scheme and gen-erating man-days by operatingthe scheme in the village as perthe target. In the meeting, allthe BDO were instructed toensure 50 per cent participationof women in MGNREGA.

"���� '*)0/�

The three-tier Panchayatelections will be held next

year in the month ofFebruar y/March withannouncement of electiondates by December-end thisyear. As the elections will beheld in February/March, rul-ing party Jharkhand MuktiMorcha (JMM) has intensifiedpreparations for the panchay-at elections. The ruling partybefore the election has focusedon completion of governmentpending works especially inrural areas.

At the JMM workingcommittee meeting held atJMM chief Shibu Soren’s res-idence being attended byJMM executive president andChief Minister Hemant Sorenand other lawmakers it wasdecided that welfare workstarted by the state govern-ment will be spread.

At the JMM meet, ChiefMinister Hemant Soren saidthat welfare measures startedby the State government willbe intensified. Pending workswill be completed so that peo-ple can know about the vari-

ous welfare measures of theState Government. JMM gen-eral secretar y, SupriyoBhattacharaya said, “Thoughthe panchayat elections willnot be held on party lines, butwe want to highlight the workdone by state governmentalong with completion ofpending works so that largenumber of panchayat repre-sentatives who supports JMMideology wins the election.”

Even the BJP has startedpreparations for panchayatelections. Senior party leadershave directed party workersregarding the expansion of theorganisation. State BJP presi-dent Deepak Prakash hasdirected BJP cadres to organ-ise training classes amongparty functionaries.

BJP national general sec-retary cum state in-chargeDilip Saikia had stressed onstrengthening the party atbooth level. Saikia said thatthe BJP working committeemeeting said that BJP is avibrant organization, so thereis a need to make its lowestunit booth also alive. Hedirected party leaders toorganise booth level func-

tions to strengthen the party.He said that it should be

the responsibility of the work-ers to take the schemes of theCentre to the people. He saidthat the organization has towork with team spirit. Allworkers should have one goal,common aspiration. He askedthe BJP cadres to highlight thewelfare works of Centre.

The tenure of gram pan-chayats, panchayat samitisand zi l la parishads inJharkhand was completed inNovember-December 2020itself. Due to the unforeseencircumstances arising due tothe Covid-19 pandemic, thestate government has givenextension to Panchayati Rajsystem twice.

Earlier, it was plannedthat elections under the three-tier Panchayati Raj systemwas to be held in five phasesfrom the second week ofDecember to the first week ofJanuary and the Parliamentaryaffairs minister Alamgir Alamhad even talked about holdingpanchayat election by end onthis year, but now it appearsthat election will be held nextyear.

"���� '*)0/�

The former chief ministerand BJP leader, Babulal

Marandi has shot a letter tochief minister Hemant Soren tostop the recruitment of miningdevelopers cum operators(MDO) for the bandobast (set-tlement) and operation of sandmining in Jharkhand. Marandisaid that Jharkhand StateMineral DevelopmentCorporation Limited (JSMD-CL) has violated the order of

the Jharkhand High Court andthe guidelines of ForestEnvironment and ClimateChange by making appoint-ments of MDO.

"This matter has beenbrought to my notice by manycitizens and social outfits thatJSMDCL has appointed MDOfor the bandobast of sand ghatsand clusters by violating rulesand regulations including theNational Green Tribunal(NGT). Notably, NGT hasmade many new rules and

regulations for the miningsands which Jharkhand hasaccepted to implement,"Marandi has said. He addedthat under the existing rules thenotification of sand ghats,details of the topography of thearea, and environmental issueswill have to be seen. He saidthat the JSMDC without fur-nishing reports started theappointment process of MDO.

Marandi alleged that theway the government had

adopted the process duringthe bandobast of liquor shopsto help the liquor cartel thesame process is being adoptedin sand mining.

He alleged the HemantSoren government was makingarrangements to hand out all540 sand ghat of Jharkhand tooutsiders. Marandi said thatterms and conditions of tenderfor sand ghats have beenframed in such a way that it isnearly impossible for local peo-ple to compete with

outsiders. He wondered howCM allowed such an injusticewith residents of Jharkhand.

He expressed surprise overthe fact that the secretary of themining department was alsothe chief director of JSMDC.Hence in the case of anomaliesin the JSMDC any probe will beimpossible. He questioned whya permanent appointment ofdirector of JSMDC was notdone despite the High Court'sorder.

"���� '*)0/�

Street vendors of the StateCapital kept their shops

closed on Wednesday in protestagainst the encroachment driveof the Ranchi MunicipalCorporation (RMC). Around200 shops in the entireMorhabadi area were closedand the shopkeepers in the pro-cession reached nearMorhabadi Maidan GateNumber Three and the pro-cession turned into a meeting.

In the meeting, the shop-keepers decided that theyshould meet the MunicipalCommissioner and submit amemorandum so that they canget any solution of the day-to-day problem.

They said that in the nameof encroachment the municipalcorporation encroachmentteam of the often torture shop-keepers of the area, sometimesthey lift the shopkeepers' chair-table and their stall forcibly andsometimes they misbehavewith women.

"���� '*)0/�

Xavier Institute of SocialService (XISS), Ranchi, and

Partnering Hope Into Action(PHIA) Foundation, Ranchi,have signed an MoU(Memorandum ofUnderstanding) for a partner-ship of one year for cooperationin areas of gender equality andengaging students as ChangeMakers.

This partnership is in timeto amplify the involvement ofthe budding graduates passingout from XISS to becomeChanger Maker of this initia-tive, where they become indi-viduals who are willing todelve deeper and criticallyquestion beliefs and valueswhich perpetuates inequality.Students/ Change Makers willstart meaningful and engagingconversation to bring about achange in self and others.

Change Makers will alsoact as Campaign Ambassadorsin the educational Institutes ofthe state and will be felicitatedwith Change Maker certifica-tion. As a knowledge partner,PHIA Foundation will help ino r g a n i z i n g

workshops/thought-shops andawareness programs on genderissues for the students. Thepartnership also will help increating a safe space (online oroffline) like Gender Adda toencourage students to sharetheir experience, question,debate, interact and challengecurrent gender stereotypes insociety and particularly in theirsurroundings.

Dr Joseph Marianus Kujur,Director, XISS, Ranchi;Johnson Topno, Regional Headof Programme, PHIAFoundation; Dr Raj ShreeVerma, Assistant Professor,XISS; Aayurshi Sahay, BrandOfficer, XISS; Ranjan, Manager,Partnerships and ShristiShankar, PHIA Foundationwere present during the sign-ing of the MoU.

Dr Kujur said, “XISS is elat-ed on this collaboration withPHIA Foundation with a visionto effectively increase studentparticipation in areas of genderequality as they will train tobecome Change Makers of thesociety. Starting a dialogue ongender equality and studentsharing their views, organisingdebate and interacting on such

important issue, I am sure willwiden their horizon as they areready to step into the profes-sional world. I am hopeful thatthis association will immense-ly benefit the student’s com-munity in enhancing theirpractical skills and knowledge.”

“The partnership between

XISS and PHIA aims at co-cre-ating a facilitative platformwhere young leaders of tomor-row can get an immersiveexperience to understand thenuances around the issue ofgender through the lens ofmasculinity and help create anew narrative around gender

justice. Under this partner-ship, PHIA will train XISS stu-dents to becomeChangeMakers where theyshall come out with creativecontent to reach out to massesand create awareness on theissue,” highlighted Ranjan,Manager, Partnerships, PHIA.

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Two days after PrimeMinister Imran Khan

announced that Indian human-itarian aid of 50,000 metric tonof wheat can be transported toAfghanistan through his coun-try, Islamabad on Wednesdayformally conveyed the decisionto New Delhi in this regard.

Pakistan also said it hasallowed transportation of life-saving medicines from India toAfghanistan via Attari-Wagahborder on an "exceptional basisfor humanitarian purposes."

The decision came weeksafter India urged Pakistan toallow the land route to ferryhumanitarian aid. So far,Pakistan allows onlyAfghanistan to ferry goods toIndia through road but exportsfrom Indian through land isnot permitted.

Meanwhile, India onWednesday reaffirmed theneed for an inclusive negotiat-ed political settlement to theAfghan crisis and said the ter-ritory of Afghanistan shouldnot be used to the detriment ofany other country.

Making this assertion here,Foreign Secretary HarshShringla said New Delhi is in

touch with all countries con-cerned over is in touch with allcountries concerned on theAfghan issue, noting that it willhave to see how best to protectits interests and "make thebest" of a difficult situation. Hemade these observations in avirtual interactive session at theIndian Chamber ofCommerce(ICC).

As regards permission toIndia to ferry aid, "The decisionof the government of Pakistanto this effect was formally con-veyed to the Charge d' Affairesof India at the Ministry ofForeign Affairs," the ForeignOffice (FO) said in a statementin Islamabad on Wednesday.

The FO said wheat andmedicines to Afghanistanwould be allowed to enterthrough “Wagah Border on anexceptional basis for human-itarian purposes”.

Last month, Indiaannounced 50,000 metrictonnes of wheat forAfghanistan as humanitarianassistance and requestedPakistan to ship the foodgrain via the Wagah border.

India has contributed tothe humanitarian require-ments of the Afghan people.This included providing morethan 1 million metric tonnes

of wheat to Afghanistan overthe past decade.

Last year too India assist-ed Afghanistan with 75,000metric tonnes of wheat,External Affairs Minister SJaishankar had said at theUnited Nations High-LevelMeeting on the Humanitariansituation in Afghanistan inSeptember.

Imran Khan on Mondayannounced the decision assoon as modalities are final-ized with the Indian side. Hesaid this while approving ahumanitarian assistance pack-age for Afghanistan.

He visited the newAfghanistan Inter-MinisterialCoordination Cell (AICC) inIslamabad and chaired thefirst apex committee meetingof the cell. The meeting wasalso attended by ForeignMinister Shah MahmoodQureshi, Pakistan Army chiefGeneral Qamar Javed Bajwaand National SecurityAdviser(NSA) Moeed Yousaf.

An official statement afterthe meeting also said“Pakistan will also facilitatethe return of Afghan patientswho had gone to India formedical treatment and arestuck there, the PrimeMinister announced.”

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Regular international flightoperations, which have

remained suspended owing tothe Covid-19 pandemic, isexpected to return to normalsoon. Civil Aviation MinistrySecretary Rajiv Bansal onWednesday said that interna-tional passenger flight servicesare expected to be normalisedsoon and possibly by the endof this year.

As per the DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA), the internationalflight operations have beensuspended till November 30.The government has beenallowing commercial inter-national flights on a case-to-case basis.

Scheduled internationalpassenger flights to and fromIndia were suspended inMarch 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic. However, therestrictions will not apply tointernational all-cargo opera-tions and flights specificallyapproved by DirectorateGeneral of Civil Aviation(DGCA), a circular added.

Currently, India hasformed air-bubble pacts with

around 28 countries, includ-ing the US, the UK, the UAE,Kenya, Bhutan and France.Under an air-bubble pactbetween two countries, specialinternational flights can beoperated by their airlinesbetween their territories withspecific restrictions.

After the first wave ofCOVID-19 subsided, a lot ofcountries opened their bor-ders for tourists from India,especially Dubai, Maldivesand Seychelles. However, wethe arrival of second-waveand increasing cases, almostevery country put India on ared list of internationalarrivals. Things, now, areagain going back to normaland with India managing toreduce infection rate drasti-cal ly, international travellers from India holdingtourist visas are being allowedby many countries. With thevaccination meted out andcountries allowing interna-tional travel, there is a greatrelief.

On the other hand,domestic air passenger traffichas seen an uptick, almostreaching pre-Covid levels. OnNovember 23, over 3.59 lakh

domestic air passengers trav-elled via 2743 flights acrossIndia. Last weekend, 3.94 lakhdomestic air passengers trav-elled, which is highest sincethe pandemic.

Last week, Civil AviationMinister Jyotiraditya Scindiasaid the government was eval-uating the process for nor-malising international opera-tions and asserted that itwants to return to normalcywhile keeping in mind thecoronavirus pandemic situa-tion in certain parts of theworld.

Speaking about its loss-making carrier Air India,Bansal said it is likely to behanded over to the Tata groupby the end of the year. “We aremaking efforts to handover alloperations of Air India by theend of December’. Air Indiahas been incurring a month-ly loss of more than �600crore, he noted. On October25, the Government signedthe share purchase agreementwith Tata Sons for the sale ofthe airline for �18,000 crore.The amount includes pay-ment of �2,700 crore in cashand take over �15,300 crore ofthe carrier's debt.

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At a time when Statesshould have been closely

monitoring prevalence ofsevere acute respiratory infec-tion [SARI] & influenza-likeillness [ILI])/ respiratory dis-tress symptoms for earlyhotspot identification as win-ter sets in and pollution levelincreases, many of them haveslowed the pace of conductingCovid-19 tests.

Fearing that this poorpace could undermine theactual infection spread with-in the community, the Centrehas taken exception to thisdisturbing and casualapproach, particularly in thebackdrop of multiple surges inthe Covid-19 caes in a major-ity of countries in recent timesand a few developed nationsreporting even fourth andfifth wave despite high levelsof Covid vaccination.

The Union HealthMinistry on Wednesday wroteto at least 13 states includingthe populated one likeMaharashtra, Kerala, Punjab,Rajasthan, West Bengal andthose in Northeast such asNagaland, Sikkim, Manipur,Meghalaya, Mizoram toincrease the pace of testing.The other three States areGoa, Jammu and Kashmir,Ladakh.

The Ministry said that inthe absence of sustained lev-els of sufficient testing, it isvery difficult to determinethe true level of infectionspread in a geography.

“Nagaland has reported342 average daily tests as of theweek ending 22nd November.This is in a stark contrast to ahigh of 1,250 average daily tests conductedin the week of August 23-29.It is also worrying to note thatthe state has recorded a pos-itivity of 1.5 per cent in the

week ending 22nd November,having stagnated over the past4 weeks, with an abysmallylow share of RT-PCR testsi.e.,8.2 per cent,” the Ministrycited the status to the States.

“Further, worrying trendswith regards to tests, testsper million, positivity rateand higher dependence onRapid Antigen tests have beenobserved in various districts ofthe State… The positivity indistricts such as Mokukchongand Peren has been above 2.5per cent, with RT-PCR sharefalling below a decent pro-portion of the total tests.”

The Ministry has direct-ed these states to maintain themomentum and build on theprogress made so far to bringthe pandemic situation undercontrol.

“While there has been asignificant decline in the newcases with 10,195, averagedaily cases reported in theweek ending 22nd November,it has been observed thatthere has also been a declinein weekly testing rates,” wroteUnion Health SecretaryRajesh Bhushan to these statesand territories.

The letter said in theabsence of sustained levels ofsufficient testing, it is very dif-ficult to determine the truelevel of infection spread.“With a majority of countriesseeing multiple surges inCovid cases in recent timesand a few developed countriesfacing even fourth and fifth waves despite high levelsof Covid vaccination, there isa need for continued vigilgiven the unpredictable andcontagious nature of the dis-ease…”

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Army Chief General M MNaravane on Wednesday

lauded the people ofBangladesh for standing upfor their right to liberty andindependence in 1971. He alsoappreciated Bangladesh’s effortsto deny space to terroristgroups who are trying to carryout subversive activities againstIndia.

In a message played outduring an event here onWednesday to mark 50 yearsof India-Bangladesh ties, healso asserted that “the historicLand Boundary Agreement”(LBA) between the two coun-tries has shown how an issuerelated to border can be“resolved with mutual nego-tiations and a constructiveoutlook”.

This, at a time when “cer-tain countries” have been trying

to “alter the status quo by force,and bypassing traditional rulesand protocols, with completedisregard to territorial integri-ty of others,” Naravane said,without naming any country.

The LBA epitomises the3Ms — “mutual respect, mutu-al trust and mutual commit-ment — to a rules-based order”,the Army chief said. He alsosaid the two countries share animportant strategic space inthe Indian subcontinent with aland boundary spanning over4,000 km.

Marking a new high inbilateral ties, India and

Bangladesh in 2015 had sealeda historic deal to settle the oldland boundary dispute throughexchange of territories, remov-ing a major irritant in bilateralties.

“We are conscious ofBangladesh’s efforts to denyspace to terror groups that arecarrying out subversive activi-ties against India,” the Armychief said. In turn, India “con-tinues to prevent any terror out-fit” from using Indian soil toundermine the interests ofBangladesh, he said.

The event was attended byBangladesh HighCommissioner MuhammadImran, former Army chief ofBangladesh and 1971 war vet-eran Lt General (retd) Harun-ar-Rashid, a few 1971 India-Pakistan war veterans fromIndian armed forces, and anumber of senior defence offi-cials, among others.

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The Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) has

enhanced the ex gratia pay-ment from �21.5 lakh to �35lakh for troops killed in com-bat action and from �16.5 lakhto �25 lakh for casualties dueto other causes like accident,suicide or illness while in ser-vice. The ex-gratia amount ispayable to the next of kin of thedeceased personnel.

The decision to enhancethe ex gratia payment wastaken during the annual gov-erning body meeting of theparamilitary force held inSeptember, a senior officialsaid on Wednesday.

These ex-gratia paymentswill be drawn from the volun-tary contribution made by thepersonnel of the force undertwo heads — risk fund andcentral welfare fund.

The officials said a similar

decision is being taken in otherCentral Armed Police Forces(CAPFs) or paramilitary forceson the directions of the UnionHome Ministry.

The CRPF has alsoenhanced the financial assis-tance given to the family mem-bers of its deceased personnelfor the wedding of the daugh-ter or the sister of the slaintrooper. The financial assis-tance has been enhanced from

�50,000 to �1 lakh, they said.The CRPF is the world’s

biggest paramilitary force withabout 3.25 lakh personnel in itsranks and is designated as thelead internal security force forcounter-terrorist and anti-Naxal operations. It is exten-sively deployed for counter-ter-rorist operations in Jammuand Kashmir and anti-insur-gency role Naxal-hit States andthe Northeast.

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Former Congress chief RahulGandhi on Wednesday

demanded that the governmentprovide credible data on Coviddeaths in the country and paya compensation of �4 lakh eachto families of those who losttheir lives due to coronavirus.Stepping up its campaignagainst the BJP in Gujarat,which goes to polls late nextyear, the Congress leader alsoattacked the "Gujarat model"which the BJP has projected asthe best in the country. RahulGandhi shared a video in whichfamilies, who lost their dearones due to Covid in Gujarat,alleged that they did not receivetimely help from the govern-ment. "The Congress party hastwo demands that credible dataon Covid deaths be disclosedand compensation of Rs fourlakh be given to the families ofthose who lost their kin due toCovid-19. The Governmentwill have to ease the pain of peo-ple and they should get com-

pensation," he said in a tweet inHindi, using the hashtag"#4LakhDenaHoga".

In the 4.31 minute video aspart of "Congress Nyay cam-paign", Rahul said the Gujaratmodel is much talked about butthe families whom they talkedto said that during Covid timesthey neither got a hospital bednor a ventilator.

"When you had to helpthem in the hospital, you werenot there and when they lost Rs10-15 lakh in hospital and alsotheir family members, you werestill not there to provide com-pensation. What type ofGovernment is this," he asked.

The former Congress chiefsaid while the Gujarat govern-ment claims that only 10,000people died due to Covid, thetruth is that three lakh peoplehave died due to Covid. Heclaimed that Congress workershave gone house to house toascertain this. "The official tallysays 10,000 people died due toCovid, but the truth is threelakh," he claimed.

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From a replacement-levelfertility rate, rise in women

operating bank accounts from53 per cent to 79 per cent at all-India level to disturbinganaemia prevalence as well asobesity and C-section deliver-

ies, the latest round of theNational Family Health Survey(NFHS 5) has presentedextreme picture of India’shealth status across the States.

In spite of the substantialincrease in the composition ofiron folic acid (IFA) tablets bypregnant women for 180 daysor more, anaemia among chil-

dren and women continues tobe a cause of concern. Morethan half of them, includingpregnant women, are anaemicnationwide, as per the survey.

In the key indicators of thesurvey, exclusive breastfeed-ing to children under age sixmonths has shown an improve-ment in all-India level from 55per cent in 2015-16 to 64 percent in 2019-21.

The child nutrition indi-cators have also shown a slightimprovement at the all-Indialevel as stunting has declinedfrom 38 per cent to 36 per centand underweight from 36 percent to 32 per cent at the all-India level. In all phase-IIStates/UTs, the situation hasimproved in respect of childnutrition, but the change is notsignificant as drastic changes inrespect of these indicators areunlikely in a short span period.

The survey has found thatthe institutional births haveincreased substantially from79 per cent to 89 per cent attheall-India Level. However, theinstitutional delivery is 100per cent in Puducherry andTamil Nadu and more than 90per cent in 7 States/UTs out of12 Phase II States/UTs.

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Asimple, easy to follow, cost-effective meditation rou-

tine, when practised daily forseveral months, can helpreverse grey matter loss inpatients with mild cognitiveimpairment (MCI) or thosewith mild Alzheimer’s disease-— a neurological progressivedegenerative condition—researchers have claimed.

Dr Amitabha Ghosh,Director and Head Departmentof Neurology, ApolloMultispeciality HospitalKolkata, together with Dr SBapi Raju {Cognitive Sciencelab at IIIT Hyderabad}, in col-laboration with otherresearchers had allocatedpatients with MCI or mildAlzheimer’s disease to medita-tion or control groups.

The meditation grouppracticed 30 minutes of silent,sitting meditation daily for 6months. They did MRI scans atbaseline and after 6 months allpatients also underwent neu-ropsychological assessment.The meditation group showedsignificantly increased grey

matter over the frontal brainregions that are responsiblefor control of attention andgoal-directed decision-makingand reduced grey matter pos-teriorly.

“The left hippocampus(memory) and the right thal-amus also showed an increasein grey matter volume. Theteam found a trend towardsimproved attention amongthe meditators,” said theresearchers. The study sup-ported under the SATYAMprogram by the Departmentof Science & Technology ispublished in journal‘Frontiers in HumanNeuroscience’.

However, the researcherssaid that the meditationresearch in MCI andAlzheimer’s disease is stillvery young.

“Much of our waking stateis spent on mind wandering.Excessive mind wandering,especially when loaded withpersistent negative thoughts,damages the brain, predis-posing one to early aging oreven Alzheimer’s disease.Meditation teaches non-judg-mental and non-reactiveawareness of appearingthoughts and improves one'sability to disengage and focuson intended goals,” Dr Ghoshexplained.

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Much to the relief of theMamata Banerjee

Government, a Division Benchof the Calcutta High Court onWednesday granted an interimstay on the CBI investigation —into the School ServiceCommission recruitment scam— ordered earlier by a singlebench of the same Court.

Granting an interim stay ofthree weeks the Division Benchdirected the SSC to submitbefore it all the documentsrelated to the matter in a sealedenvelope which would be keptwith the Registrar General ofthe Court.

Earlier in a damning orderthe single bench of JusticeAbhijit Banerjee had ordered aCBI investigation into thealleged irregularities in theappointment of the Group C

and D (non-teaching) staff inthe Government aided schoolsthat function under the WestBengal Board of SecondaryEducation.

The appointments weremade upon purported recom-mendations coming fromunspecific sources in the SSC.While the Commission latersaid that no such recommen-dation had been made afterMay 4, 2019 the WBSEE whichhad directed the schools to pro-vide appointment letters to therecruited persons said in anaffidavit that it had done so fol-lowing the stated recommen-dations vouching to producesuch letters before the Court ifasked to.

Subsequently the Courtdirected a CBI investigationinto the irregularities asking theinvestigating agency to probethe money trail too if that had

taken place. While the caserelated to the appointment of25 people, the subsequent rev-elations suggested that morethan 500 such people couldhave been appointed throughthe backdoor.

The SSC is already underthe court scanner regardinganother recruitment scandalrelated to the appointment ofteaching staff. Justice Banerjeein his order had earlier direct-ed the CBI to constitution acommittee headed by an offi-cer “not below the rank of aJoint Director with officers notbelow the rank of DIG to ini-tiate the enquiry,” adding it wasexpected that “no person willbe left out of the enquiry … theCBI should also enquire … asto whether there is any moneytrail in issuance of such rec-ommendation letters and sub-sequent issuance of appoint-

ment letters…”Meanwhile, a moribund

Left Front descended on thestreets of Kolkata after manymonths with hundreds of itscadres storming the SSC head-quarters seeking removal of thetop officials of the Commissionand sacking of the StateEducation Minister.

Following a two-hour skir-mish a dozen of Left support-ers were injured and at least 250members of CPI(M)’s studentsand youth arms StudentsFederation of India andDemocratic Youth Federationof India were arrested and thestreets they had blockadedcleared by the police. Presentlythe SFI and the DYFI cadreswere protesting in front of theBidhannagar and RajarhatPolice Stations seeking therelease of the arrested people.

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With Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee out in

Delhi State ministers andsenior officials on Wednesdaypreferred to maintain a studiedsilence on the Centre’s letterasking the State Government toaugment weekly corona tests inview of the increasing numberof cases in many parts of theworld.

“A letter has come fromDelhi and a decision would betaken at an appropriate time,”a senior official of the StateHealth Department said addingthe State Government had beenfollowing guidelines given bythe Centre from time to time.

A Minister on the otherhand said Bengal was one ofthe pioneer states in maintain-ing steady vaccination recorddespite non-cooperation fromthe Centre adding New Delhihad “no right to lecture theStates without itself doing noth-ing on the issue.”

Earlier, the Centre wroteletters to thirteen states includ-ing Bengal expressing its con-cern over the decline in thenumber weekly testing forcorona virus.

A letter from the UnionHealth Secretary RajeshBhushan said that there shouldbe high testing rates consider-ing the fact that internationaltraveling had increased in therecent weeks.

“A decrease in testingwould undermine the actualinfection spread within thecommunity,” the letter said.

Pointing out to the fact thatmany other countries were“seeing multiple surges inCovid cases …” the letterreminded how a few developedcountries were facing evenfourth and fifth waves despitehigh levels of vaccination sug-gesting there was need for con-tinued vigil.

New Delhi: The consortiumfor EducationalCommunication (CEC) in col-laboration with EducationalMultimedia Research Centre(EMRC), University of Mysore,on Wednesday organized theaward ceremony-cum-filmscreening of two national, edu-cational video competitions.

Governor of Kerala, ArifMohamad Khan, was the chiefguest on the occasion. ThePrakriti InternationalDocumentary Film Festivalwill be held between November26 and 27 at the University ofMysore, Mysuru. Director,CEC, Prof. J.B. Nadda, and ViceChancellor of MysoreUniversity, Prof. G. HemanthaKumar, were the keynotespeakers.

CEC, one of the InterUniversity Centres set up by theUniversity GrantsCommission, organizes theEducational VideoCompetition and the PrakritiInternational Documentary

Film Festival to promote ICT-based environment buildingon various social themes, tohelp its learners develop holis-tically by finding symmetry inlearning and evolving theirunderstanding of subjects ofinterest.

During the EducationalVideo Competition, 12 filmswere screened, and in thePrakriti InternationalDocumentary Film Festival,17 documentaries are to bescreened for sensitizing thestudents and other stakehold-ers.

The results of theEducational Video competi-tion are: In the BestEducational Programme of theYear, Subha Das Mollick for herfilm “Calcutta Sonata” andBobbeeta Sharma for her film“A Light that Refuses to FadeOut” jointly share the firstprize, while “Living withAutism” by Vasim Ayub Pathanwill be specially screened andawarded the certificate. PNS

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Amid speculation about the chang-ing political equations in the

metropolis ahead of the crucialFebruary 2022 BrihanmumbaiMunicipal Corporation (BMC) elec-tions, Maharashtra’s former chiefminister and senior BJP leaderDevendra Fadnavis met MNS chiefRaj Thackeray at the latter’s new res-idence “Shiv Thirth” at Dadar innorth-central Mumbai on Wednesdayafternoon.

Fadnavis, who was accompaniedby his banker-wife Amruta, spentnearly two hours at “Shiv Thirth”interacting with the MNS chief and hiswife Sharmila over lunch.

As the speculation over the importof the luncheon meeting between Rajand senior BJP leader, MNSSpokesperson Sandeep Deshpandesaid that Thackerays had invited theFadnavis couple to their new house forlunch. Notwithstanding the clarifica-tion issued by Deshpande, the spec-ulation was rift that the BJP and MNSmay try to forge an alliance for the

crucial BMC polls scheduled to beheld in February 2022.

For many years since they formedan alliance in the late eighties, the ShivSena used to rule the BMC in alliancewith the BJP. However, after the ShivSena broke its alliance with the BJP atthe state and national levels andformed the government in alliancewith the NCP and Congress in thestate in the last week of November2019, the saffron alliance broke at theBMC. Currently, the Shiv Sena rulesthe BMC on its own.

It may be recalled that the BMCpolls held in 2017 had thrown up ahung house. The Shiv Sena hademerged as the single largest partywith 84 seats in the 227-memberBMC, followed by BJP- 82, Congress-31, NCP- 9, MNS- 7 and others-- 14.During the first two and a half yearsin power, the Shiv Sena increased itsstrength to 94, by inducting amongothers seven corporators from the RajThackeray-led NCP.

However, after it aligned with theNCP and Congress in the state inNovember 2019, the ruling Shiv Sena

has been enjoying the support of thetwo parties for the past two years

Given that all the three con-stituents of the ruling Maha VikasAghadi (MVA) nurse the ambition ofexpanding their base in Mumbai, it isnot clear as yet whether the Shiv Sena,NCP and Congress will contest the2022 BMC polls as an alliance.

Despite the fact that it had won asmany as 92 seats in the 227-membercivic body in the 2017 polls, the BJP– which is the principal Oppositionparty in the state – will have a toughtime in the 2022 BMC polls. No won-der, ahead of the 2022 civic polls, theBJP is cosying up to the MNS, whichhad won seven seats in the 2017 polls.

BJP leaders Ashish Shelar andPrasad Lad had earlier met the MNSchief at the latter’s residence.

On his part, the MNS spokesper-son reiterated that not much shouldbe read into the MNS chief 's meetingwith Fadnavis. He said that every leg-endary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar hadmet Raj Thackeray at the latter's res-idence a few days back.

Amaravati: Pegging the over-all damage caused by the recentheavy rains and floods at�6,054.29 crore, the AndhraPradesh Government onWednesday requested theCentre to immediately release�1,000 crore as interim relieftowards f lood relief andrestoration works.

Chief Minister Y S JaganMohan Reddy wrote an iden-tical letter to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and UnionHome Minister Amit Shah,detailing the havoc caused byheavy rains and floods betweenNovember 13 and 20, mainly inAnantapuramu, Kadapa,Chittoor and SPS Nellore dis-tricts.

"Despite arranging teamswell in advance and seriousefforts by the government tosave the lives of people, 40,including a State DisasterResponse Force constable, diedand 25 others were reportedmissing. As many as 324 relief

camps have been arranged,accommodating 69,616 per-sons in the affected districtsand they are still continuing,"the Chief Minister said.

He said several high-ways, irrigation tanks andcanals have breached inKadapa, Chittoor,Anantapuramu and SPSNellore districts.

"The worst affected werethe farmers as crops (likepaddy, Bengal gram, cotton,black gram, groundnut andsugarcane) ready for harvestingwere damaged," Jagan added.

Agricultural crops in 1.42lakh hectares suffered damage,with the estimated monetaryloss being �1,353.82 crore.Horticultural crops in 42,299hectares, worth �48.06 crore,were damaged.

Roads and irrigation sys-tems were the worst hit, withthe deluge causing a loss of�1,756.43 crore and � 556.96crore respectively, the Chief

Minister pointed out in the let-ter. Civic infrastructure likeroads, pipelines, drains, schoolbuildings and community cen-tres in municipalities suffereda loss of �1,252 crore.

Panchayat Raj roads to alength of 2,254.32 km were bat-tered, inflicting a loss of Rs381.65 crore.

Rural Water Supplyschemes worth Rs 453.33 crorewere also damaged, the ChiefMinister said. Hundreds ofelectricity feeders, substationsand distribution lines werealso damaged, causing a loss of�252 crore.

"Heavy rains caused inun-dation of low-lying areas anddisrupted normal life. Thegravity was such that 17 teamsof NDRF and SDRF and twohelicopters had to be deployedfor undertaking search andrescue operations. In all, 1,402villages in 196 mandals andfour towns were affected," theChief Minister said.

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Three terrorists, includingone of the commanders of

The Resistance Front (TRF),believed to be involved in thekilling of two minority schoolteachers, were gunned down bythe jawans of the Jammu andKashmir police in a briefencounter near Rambagh areaof Srinagar late Wednesdayevening.

According to the prelimi-nary reports the terrorists weretravelling in a private car whenthey were intercepted by thepolice teams in the middle ofthe road. In the brief exchangeof fire all three terrorists wereneutralised.

The vehicular movementalso remained suspended till

the time police authoritiescleared the area. Several localresidents stepped out of theirhomes and shouted pro-Azadislogans while the securityforces shifted the dead bodiesto the police control room foran identification parade.

Inspector General ofPolice, Kashmir range VijayKumar told a Delhi based newsagency, "one of the three ter-rorists killed in the encounterhas been identified as Mehran.The identities of two others wasyet to be established". Kumarsaid Mehran, a 'C' category ter-rorist, was involved in thekilling of a school principal anda teacher in the month ofOctober in Srinagar.

Highly placed sources inthe Jammu and Kashmir police

also revealed the name of TRFterrorist commander MehranYaseen Shalla had surfacedduring a high level securityreview meeting chaired by theUnion Home Minister. Whilebriefing the Union HomeMinister senior police officershad named Mehran as one ofthe TRF commanders behindthe targeted killings. Directionswere given to the securityforces to identify and neu-tralise perpetrators of terroristviolence involved in the tar-geted killings of minorities inthe Kashmir valley.

Till the time of filing thereport the police had notreleased any official statementas the identities of two otherslain terrorists were yet to beascertained.

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In an effort to end nearly amonth-long agitation by the

employees of the State runMaharashtra State RoadTransport Corporation(MSRTC), State TransportMinister Anil Parab onWednesday announced heftyhikes in the employees’ basicsalaries ranging from �2,500per month to �7,000 permonth, pending a decision oninclusion of the MSRTCemployees in its state govern-ment's payt rolls.

After holding day-long dis-cussions with the leaders of theagitating MSRTC employee,Parab made a formalannouncement about the hikesin the basic salaries of the agi-tating employees.

Talking to media personsafter holding talks with the rep-resentatives of agitatingMSRTC employees, Parab said:“The hikes announced in thebasic salaries of employees

works out to nearly 41 per centwhich is the highest-ever salaryincrease in the history of theMSRTC employees. The high-level committee is expected togive its reports within 12weeks”.

“As far as the inclusion ofthe MSRTC employees in thestate government’s employ-ment roll, we will accept what-ever the Bombay High Courtsuggests in the matter. If theHC-appointed three-memberhigh-level committee recom-mends the inclusion of theMSRTC employees in the rollsof state government, we will doso,” Parab said.

The Minister appealed tothe striking employees toresume work by 8 am onThursday.

As per the decision toeffect hikes in the basis salariesof the MSRTC employees, theemployees with one to 10 years’experience will get a monthlyhike of �5,000 hike in theirbasic salaries.

For instance, those whohave hither-to been getting abasic salary of �12,080 will nowget �17,395 per month.Similarly, those with a basicsalary of �17,070 will now geta basic salary of �24,584 permonth.

In the case of employeeswith an experience rangingfrom 10 to 20 years, there willbe �4,000 increase in the basicsalaries.

As a consequence, theirbasic salaries will go up from �23,040 to � 28,800 permonth.

The employees with anexperience of more than 20years will get an increase of Rs2,500 in basic salary everymonth.

As a result, the employeeswho are currently earning abasic of 26,000 per month andtotal salary of �37,440 willhenceforth get a total salary of�41,040. Similarly, those gettinga basic of �36,000 and totalsalary of 53,280 will now basic

salary of Rs 39,500 basic and atota salary of Rs 56,880 permonth.

Parab said that the MSRTChad suffered huge revenue loss-es during the Covid-19 periodand the State Government hadextended a financial assistanceof � 2,700 crore. “Owing tosome reasons, the disbursal ofsalaries to the MSRRC was get-ting delayed earlier. Henceforththe MSRTC will gert salarieswithin 10th of every month,”the Minister said.

It may be recalled that theMSRTC workers went on anindefinite strike from October28 to press for their variousdemands. The striking employ-ees intensified their agitationfrom November 9 when all theMSRTC depots were shutdown.

Before holding talks withthe striking MSRTC employees,Parab had met chief MinisterUddhav Thackeray, Ajit Pawarand NCP chief Sharad Pawar.

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The Supreme Court onWednesday asked the

Centre and the NCR States tocontinue with their measures tocurb air pollution and called foradvance preventive steps withthe help of IMD which has"sophisticated mechanism andtools" to deal with the situationbefore it becomes severe.

"Why should Delhiitessuffer this severe and verypoor air quality?" the apexcourt said. “This is the nation-al capital. Look at the signal weare sending to the world. Youcan stop these (pollution caus-ing) activities in anticipationitself...” Graded response todeal with the spike in air pol-lution should be taken beforethe situation becomes severe,the apex court said, adding thatit will not close the matter andcontinue to hear it even if pol-lution comes down by "virtue

of God's act" or restrictions.The special bench headed byChief Justice N V Ramana,which discussed the issue ofstubble burning and the prob-lems faced by farmers with thelawyers, once again came downon bureaucrats for their allegedinaction in dealing with thisaspect.

“Mr (Tushar) Mehta(Solicitor General) as aGovernment lawyer or lawyersand judges we are using ourcommon sense and discussingthis issue and what the bureau-cracy has been doing all theseyears and can't they go andmeet the farmers. I do notknow what they are doing.“Let the secretaries of theCentral and State Governmentsit for two days, discuss theissue.

They can go to the fieldand talk to the farmers anddecide,” said the bench whichalso comprised justices DYChandrachud and Surya Kant.“You did not have computers inthose days and now you havesuper computers and if youprepare the statistical model,

namely what is the data for thelast five years and based on thatyou can plan the expected levelof pollution for the next 15days. Why should Delhiitessuffer this severe and verypoor air quality,” the benchobserved.

The SC said the measuressuggested by the Commissionon Air Quality Management todeal with industrial pollution,thermal plants, vehicular emis-sions, dust control, diesel gen-erators as well as encouragingwork from home be continuedfor the time being and it willtake up the matter on Monday.

“Take the measures for thenext two-three days and we willhear this matter next Monday.In the meantime if pollutionbecomes 100 (AQI) etc thenyou can lift some ban,” said theBench. On the issue of con-struction workers, the benchsaid the States have huge fundson account of labour cess col-lected from real estate firmsand that can be used for pay-ing the workmen who havebeen deprived of their liveli-hood due to the ban

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Jammu: Indian border guards on Wednesdaylodged a strong protest with their Pakistanicounterparts during a commandant levelborder meeting held at the Octroi post alongthe International border in RS Pura sectorof Jammu frontier. According to a PublicRelations Officer of BSF, Jammu frontier, "Astrong protest was lodged by BSF regardingviolation of IB by Pakistan based drones andalso apprised the Pak commander to refrainfrom such activities".

The BSF delegation was led by AjaySuryavanshi, Commandant and the Pakistandelegation was led by Wing commander Lt.Col Aquil of 13 Wing Chenab Rangers.

"During the meeting commanders ofboth border guarding forces discussed var-ious issues including maintenance of borderpillars and latest infrastructure activities onthe border, Pakistan Drone operations andother activities", BSF PRO said in a writtenstatement.

During the meeting both the comman-ders also agreed to resolve all the operationalmatters and border issues with a mutualunderstanding. "The meeting was held in acordial & constructive atmosphere andboth commanders agreed to work for main-taining a peaceful atmosphere on the bor-der", spokesman added.

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New Delhi: The Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has approved theconstruction of 3.61 lakh hous-es in 17 States and UnionTerritories under the PradhanMantri Awas Yojana (Urban),taking the total number ofhouses sanctioned under thescheme to 1.14 crore. Thisincludes construction of 19,535units, for urban migrants/poor,involving TechnologyInnovation Grant of �39.11crore in Tamil Nadu andTelangana.

The approval was given bythe Central Sanctioning andMonitoring Committee(CSMC) chaired by UnionHousing and Urban AffairsSecretary Durga ShankerMishra on Tuesday. These hous-es would be constructed underAffordable Housing inPartnership (AHP), Beneficiary-Led Construction (BLC), In-Situ Slum Redevelopment(ISSR) verticals of PMAY-U.Inthe statement, the Ministry saidthat out of the 1.14 crore sanc-tioned houses, over 89 lakh havebeen grounded for constructionand 52.5 lakh completed anddelivered to the beneficiaries.Itstated that the secretary hasasked states and union territo-ries to resolve the issues with-out delay so that construction ofhouses can be expedited.

The total investment underthe Mission is � 7.52 lakh crore,with a central assistance of�1.85 lakh crore, the ministrysaid, adding that so far, �1.13lakh crore has already beenreleased.In the meeting, Mishraalso laid renewed emphasis toaccelerate housing construc-tion and completion across thecountry within stipulated timeunder PMAY-U so that thegoal of 'Housing for All' by 2022can be achieved, the statementstated. At the CSMC meeting,an e-Finance module was alsolaunched by the HUA secretary.

The e-Finance module hasbeen integrated with all mod-ules of the PMAY-U MIS systemand designed, developed with-in PMAY-U MIS System withthe objective to provide uniqueplatform to all stakeholders fordisbursement of funds throughdirect benefit transfer modeand to validate beneficiaries, italso stated.

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ically back. Imagine West Asiawithout petroleum! And imag-ine a business without bankingand lending without interest!

The Viceroy had called anall-India election in December1945 to January 1946. By thattime, Jinnah’s speech preced-ing the passing of the Pakistanresolution on, March 23, 1940,at the Lahore session of theMuslim League was hummingto virtually all Muslim ears inIndia. Incidentally, Jinnahdeliberately made FazlurRahman of Bengal sign theresolution. Rahman was apopular, prominent peasantleader of the eastern wing ofwhat eventually becamePakistan and now Bangladesh.His Two Nation Theory is verybriefly stated here: the Hindusand Muslims have differentreligious philosophies, socialcustoms and literatures. Theyneither intermarry nor inter-dine and, indeed, they belongto two different civilisationswhich are based mainly onconflicting ideas and concep-tions. Their views on life andof life are different. It is alsoquite clear that Hindus andMuslims derive their inspira-tion from different sources ofhistory. They have differentepics, different heroes in dif-ferent episodes. Very oftenthe hero of one is a foe of theother and likewise, their victo-ries and defeats overlap.

History has presented to usmany examples, such as theunion of Great Britain andIreland. We know that the his-tory of the last 1,200 years hasfailed to achieve unity and wehave witnessed, during theages, India was always divid-ed into Hindu India andMuslim India. The termina-tion of the British regime willbe a worse disaster. MuslimIndia cannot accept anyConstitution which must nec-essarily result in a Hindumajority Government. IfHindus and Muslims arebrought together under ademocratic system, it can onlymean Hindu Raj. Muslims arenot a minority; Muslims are anation according to any defi-nition and they must have theirhomelands, their territory andtheir State.

Indeed, Jinnah argued as ifone is prepared to ignore theother. As Dr Rafiq Zakaria hasput it: all throughout hisyounger years, Jinnah showedno interest in Muslims. He was,then, all for the Congress; itsnon-communal, nationalisticprinciple which enthused him.

When he was a youngman, Jinnah worked forHindu-Muslim unity andmade every attempt to see thatthe Congress and the Leaguepresented a united front. Heassured the British that theyneed not be unduly perturbed

as its terms of the LucknowPact if implemented wouldhelp them as well. He wel-comed the declaration madeby the British Government onAugust 20, 1917, whichassured Indians that “the pol-icy of His Majesty’sGovernment, with which theGovernment of India are incomplete accord, is that of theincreasing association of self-governing institutions with aview to the progressive reali-sation of responsibleGovernment in India as anintegral part of the BritishEmpire.” To give effect to it, thenew Secretary of State EdwardMontague visited India in thewinter of that year. He alongwith Viceroy Lord Chelmsfordconferred with the leaders ofdifferent schools of politicalthought to try and find a con-sensus on the future constitu-tional advance. Of all thepoliticians whom Montaguemet, he was most impressed byJinnah. He recorded this in hisdiary: “Young, perfectly man-nered, impressive looking,armed to the teeth with dialec-tics, and insistent upon thewhole of his scheme....”

(This is part of an ongoingseries on Indian Partition.

The writer is a well-knowncolumnist, an author and a for-mer member of the RajyaSabha. The views expressedare personal.)

����������� ���������� ������������Sir — I strongly believe that every indi-vidual has the right to healthy living.Healthy living is not a privilege, but aright. Sadly, however, in our country,healthy living is more like a right in thepocket of people who are able and will-ing to pay for it. Therefore, a chain ofhealth clubs needs to be opened andmade accessible — to make fitness a partof every Indian’s lifestyle. To provide easyaccess to superior quality and affordablefitness regimens that will be an integralpart of every Indian.

Unlike the US, we do not have spe-cial cycling lanes; our offices are notequipped with lockers and shower-rooms that we can freshen up after walk-ing or cycling our way to work. Also, theIndian weather does not permit exerciseall year around — the summers are bad,the rainy season has its own woes and thewinter is practically nonexistent. Suchscenarios don’t leave much scope for exer-cise. We haven’t given due importance tofitness and working out and it’s high timethat we realised the benefit of a brisk walkor a jog in the morning so that we wakeup fresh and sleep well.

MR Jayanthy Subramaniam | Mumbai

����� � ���������������������Sir —Even though Mumbai’s lauded asa business hub, the 26/11 terror attacktells a different story. No commercialCapital of a country would be so illequipped as to not be able to detect andprevent such attacks on time. While somemay argue that Manhattan was a victimof 9/11, too, I point out that Mumbai hasbeen a soft target since times immemo-rial. Terror has sneaked up on us not oncebut thrice — the 1992 riots, 2006 blastsand 2008 attacks; all caught Mumbaiunawares. In short, for Mumbai to trulybecome India’s commercial hub, thequality of life, quality of infrastructure,quality of security and attitude — all needimprovement.

The 26/11 attacks saw the world ina state of disbelief at one of the most auda-cious acts of terrorism ever committed.Although we have lived with terrorism

for decades, the attacks were frighteningas we learned what that these terror out-fits were capable of. However, over the lastfew years, India has significantlyimproved its intelligence network andanti-terror measures. It’s the need of thehour to save the youth from being influ-enced and brain-washed by these outfits.Every Indian can contribute to nationalsecurity just by staying vigilant.

CK Ramani | Pune

���������� ������� ������������Sir — The repeal of the three farm lawshas inclined many people into thinkingthat the repeal of the CitizenshipAmendment Act (CAA) is not beyondthe realms of possibility. The anti-CAAmovement could not (and did not haveto) go ahead despite gathering momen-tum each day in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Government’s preoccu-pation with the fight against the pandem-ic including national lockdowns and itslukewarm approach to its implementa-

tion due to the unprecedented publichealth crisis and opposition to the legis-lation from unanticipated quarters. Eventhough no rules have been framed toimplement the law, the CAA is ominous-ly still there on the statute book.

The Government cannot be unawareof what the implementation of the CAAwill signal to the outside world —India’s retreat from secularism. Noamount of rationalisation can justifyCAA’s enactment or validate its discrim-inatory provisions. The CAA is whollyunacceptable and it has to go for the sim-ple reason that it does not jibe with sec-ularism and the equality of religionsguaranteed in the Constitution. The lega-cy of the freedom movement and theConstitution do not discriminatebetween the religions that ‘originated’ inIndia and that did not.

G David Milton | Maruthancode

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There were two sides tothe coin of Partition.One was that the Muslimcommunity was well

behind the Hindus as well as theother minorities. They wereabout a third in population orone-third in numbers comparedto the Hindus. Therefore, ifIndependent India adopted auniversal adult franchise, theywould be out-membered bylengths. Secondly, the Muslimswere less educated. As a matter oflong-term strategy, Islam hadplayed down education from itsearly days of the seventh centu-ry. For the last thousand years,Hejaz as well as Caliphs had pro-hibited ijtihad (reinterpretation orchange) and enforced taqlid(orthodoxy). The less educated aperson, the fewer the questionshe/she is likely to think up andask. Thus, ensuring the perpetu-ity of the religion. Incidentally,women’s education was restrict-ed to reading the Quran, especial-ly the prayers.

When the British came toIndia, instead of using English,the clergy exhorted their follow-ers to avoid the study of Englishand Western science. Sir WilliamHunter has made a lucid analy-sis of how and where the Muslimstudents fell back in the 19th cen-tury and even earlier. Then camethe decision of Lt Governor of UPto make English the court lan-guage, Hindi and Persian wasabolished. Such measures,although rational, put theMuslims back. Their fear was ofdiluting their identity which wasdearer to them than their devel-opment.

The other difficulty was thatvery few Muslims took to busi-ness and industry, the only excep-tions were the Khojas, theMemons and the Bohras, allbased in Bombay. The Muslimelites of the rest of India were landbased, whether agricultural,farming vegetables or cultivatingorchards but had very few facto-ries. In short, cultivating theHindus had the economic lead.Timur Kuran, Professor at theUniversity of Duke, has explainedat length the financial disadvan-tage of Islamic communities. Hehas focused on West Asia andhow Islamic ordainments havekept the common folk econom-

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For some time, a round of negotia-tions has been going on in theWTO, in which an agreement isexpected to be made aiming to end-

ing subsidies to curb alleged illegal, unre-ported and unregulated fishing. These talksare said to be the part of the UN’sSustainable Development Goals (SDGs),which seek to end subsidies for illegal,unreported and unregulated fishing whileensuring special and differential treatmentfor developing and least developed coun-tries. But if this agreement is reached, itmay adversely affect the livelihood of smallfishermen in India and other developingand underdeveloped countries.

It is true that the world is facing theproblem of overfishing and depletingmarine resources. If this situation contin-ues, this can impact catch by small fish-ermen and their livelihood. The idea ofthe United Nations that overfishing willaffect sustainable development is alwaysjustified. But the big question is, who isresponsible for overfishing in the ocean?At least the small fishermen of India orother developing countries having verylow fishing capacity are nowhere toblame for this.

Fishing is done in two ways. One, bysmall fishermen who catch fish in theirboats; and second by trawlers and largeships of large companies. Over the pastfew decades, the evidence of fishing bylarge ships and trawlers in a mechanizedmanner by large companies has increasedsignificantly.

Small fishermen in India do not catchfish in the ocean during the rainy season.Know why? Because it is the breeding sea-son for fish. But the big trawlers do notmind fishing during the same period.However, since the big trawlers comeunder the organized sector, the small fish-ermen will be considered as illegal, unre-ported and unregulated; and the subsidygiven to them by the governments willend but the big trawlers and ships willcontinue to be entitled to catch fish fromthe sea by mechanical processes and alsothe government subsidies. In such a sit-uation, the livelihood of small fishermenof India and other developing countrieswill be adversely affected while big com-panies will benefit at their cost.

Unfortunately, under pressure fromdeveloped countries and big corporates,in the WTO, the exercise is going on topush the agreement on this subject.Director General of the World TradeOrganization, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala,says that completing these negotiations onfisheries subsidy is the top priority ofWTO, not only for fisheries but also forthe WTO system. And this is being doneunder the guise of the United NationsSustainable Development Goals.

It is noteworthy that after the grantof fishing licenses to large trawlers inIndia in the early 1990s, due to excessivefishing by them, the availability of fishfrom the sea was getting depleted. As a

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result, the livelihood of smallfishermen was getting adverselyaffected. At that time there weremajor agitations to highlight thisproblem of fishermen, includingthose led by Swadeshi JagranManch and Fr Thomas Kochery,due to which the then governmenthad to stop the renewal of licens-es to large trawlers.

After some time, the trawlersagain started getting permission.Once again, the demand for re-ban-ning of trawlers by environmental-ists is gaining momentum. A com-mittee of the Government of Indiais working towards regulating thesetrawlers. Environmentalists saythat banning these trawlers is theappropriate solution to the problemof overfishing. Although thesetrawlers have not been outrightlybanned, many states includingKerala and Orissa have been ban-ning trawlers in monsoon (rainyseason) on the demand of tradition-al fishermen so that the breeding offish is not affected.

It is being argued that theagreement on fishing subsidywill ensure the availability offish and the protection of marineresources for the future genera-tions. In this regard, if at all anyinternational organization canban subsidies for fishing, it is theWorld Trade Organization. Theexercise to make rules in thisregard has been going on sincethe year 2001, with the start ofDoha Rounds of Negotiations.However, the interesting thing isthat though all the remainingprovisions of the Doha develop-ment Round, under have alreadybeen rejected outright by thedeveloped countries, surprising-

ly, exercise is going on to end thefishing subsidy.

It is true that today 34 percentoverfishing is taking place, where-as in 1974 it was only 10 percent.Due to overfishing, the availabili-ty of fish is gradually reducing, dueto which the livelihood of the peo-ple living in the coastal areas is get-ting adversely affected and theirpoverty is increasing. Today, about40 million people in the worlddepend on the fishing, so thesecurity of their lives is linked withthe protection of marine resources.

Although the current negotia-tions are focused on eliminatingsubsidies for illegal, unreported andunregulated fishing, these effortsare being strongly opposed bydeveloping countries. Developingcountries, including India, believethat ending subsidies on fishing willadversely affect the livelihood andrights of their small fishermen.Although it has been said in theresolution that special and differ-ential treatment for developingand less developed countries is partof the proposals, but it seems thatthe small fishermen of developingcountries will suffer the most fromthis agreement.

Surprisingly, while everythingwas stand still during, these talkscontinued unabated. Therefore,due to restrictions on movements,views of small countries whosemissions are not in Geneva couldnot be appropriately incorporatedin this document. For this reason,also, there is anger in this contextamongst developing countries.Recently, when the DirectorGeneral of the World TradeOrganization came to India, Indiahad clearly stated that although

due to the irrational subsidiesgiven by various countries forfishing, India’s small fishermenhave been suffering the most, dueto overfishing by developed coun-tries. Therefore, it is necessary toeliminate the subsidy being givento big vessels in these developedcountries. Therefore, India hasclearly stated in this context, thatthe draft text is not balanced. Inthis regard, special treatment willbe required for developing coun-tries and this agreement can bebalanced only by incorporatingIndia’s suggestions.

India’s demand is that devel-oped countries stop subsidizingfisheries that go beyond their nat-ural geographical boundaries.Industrial fishing countries arenot ready to concede this. Indiawants that the provision of subsi-dies should continue to protect theinterests of its poor and small fish-ermen. There is no illegal, unre-ported and unregulated fishing inIndia. India maintains that sincethe creation of the WTO, devel-oped countries received specialconcessions, and their agricultur-al subsidies continued unabated,while the rights of developingcountries were restricted. Thatmistake should not be repeated inthis agreement on fisheries subsi-dies.

Today, the need of the hour isthat India and other developingand least developed countriesshould face this bigotry of richcountries and there should be nounbalanced and irrational agree-ment in respect of fisheries subsi-dies, so that we can protect theinterests of our small and poorfishermen.

(The writer is Professor,PGDAV College,

University of Delhi. The views expressed

are personal.)

During the protractedfarmers agitationagainst the three farm

laws, a view was advancedespecially by those in supportof the impugned legislationthat it is not easy to suspendoperation of a parliamentaryenactment or that it is notconstitutionally permissibleto repeal a law by issuing anordinance. Such an argu-ment, besides ex facie spe-cious, stands completely anni-hilated with the announce-ment of the Prime Minister torepeal them.

Article 73 of theConstitution says that theexecutive power of the Unionis co-extensive with the legisla-tive powers of parliament.The Government, in exerciseof its executive power, can sus-pend, amend or repeal an Act

of parliament as long as it com-mands parliamentary majori-ty. Any subsequent statutemay repeal any Act in wholeor in part, either expressly orimpliedly by enacting a newlegislation. Clause 6 of theGeneral clauses Act, 1897 pro-vides that any Act orRegulation can be repealed bythe legislature. Unless a differ-ent intention appears, therepealing Act cannot reviveanything not in force or exist-ing at the time at which therepeal takes effect; or affect theprevious operation of anyenactment so repealed or any-thing duly done or sufferedthereunder, etc.

The executive power of theUnion extends (a) to the mat-ters with respect to whichParliament has power to makelaws; and (b) to the exercise of

such rights, authority andjurisdiction as are exercisableby the Government of India byvirtue of any treaty or agree-ment. So, on matters whichparliament can legislate, it isthe prerogative of the executiveto pilot legislative proposalsand get them enacted, includ-ing an enactment of repeal,with parliamentary support.Laws may also be repealed ifthey are found detrimental in

course of time or in case thereis a ground swell of publicopinion against them.

The three farm laws wereoriginally promulgated as ordi-nances by the governmentand later replaced by the dulypassed Acts of parliament.Since the winter session of par-liament will convene in aweek, it is not an edifying par-liamentary practice to promul-gate an Ordinance for therepeal. The Government willbring a Bill to repeal the threelaws during the ensuing ses-sion. There will be a fiercedebate and the oppositionwould leave no stone unturnedto show that they were right intheir opposition to the origi-nal Bills and the governmentpalpably wrong. The govern-ment, in turn, would say thatthey were unable to convince

the misguided agitating farm-ers. Once passed by both theHouses of parliament, andassented to by the President,the three laws would standrepealed.

The burning question,however, remains: why werethese legislations enacted inthe first place if they were tobe repealed without imple-mentation? It needs to beborne in mind that in a robustdemocracy, public opinion,likened to a rope of multiplefibers capable of taming evenan elephant, matters. It is forthe government to discernwhether the opposition isorchestrated by vested interestor it is genuine, broad-basedand the real voice of all thefarmers of the country.

The Union Governmentcould not have remained

impervious to the farmers'agitation for long especiallywhen elections are round thecorner in the largely affectedStates. But it is also a fact thatagro-economists continue tobe divided over the proposedrepeal. Many nonpartisanexperts consider it a setback toagrarian reforms.Incontestably, the fear of los-ing the impending election isa great deterrent to reforms,regardless of the general per-ception of bold, visionary andtransformative leadership.

It is in this context that thepractice of referring the con-tentious legislation to the com-mittees holds good as thecommittees crystallise differ-ent shades of opinions andhelp build consensus and unityout of plurality. The NationalCommission Bill and the

National Commission forAllied and HealthcareProfessionals Bill were referredto the Standing Committee,and based on the recommen-dations of the Committee,new Bills were introduced andpassed by Parliament. So weremany other legislations. Thegreat hurry in which the farmlaws were passed during theCovid-19 time without refer-ring the Bills to the standingcommittee only added fuel tothe fire. The lesson is clear andunmistakable that in a parlia-mentary democratic set up itis not possible to impose lawson an utterly hostile commu-nity despite the best of inten-sion and the promise of long-term national gains, withoutdue consultation, consensusand credible parliamentaryscrutiny.

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

* �� "��������� �����%�#����� ��� ����������

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(The writer is former Additional Secretary, Lok Sabha

and a member of Delhi BarCouncil. The views expressed

are personal.)

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Beijing: Furious over the Biden admin-istration's invitation to Taiwan to takepart in the “Summit for Democracy”,China on Wednesday warned the USthat it will get “hurt” by giving Taipei theworld stage as Beijing slammed the sum-mit itself saying the event was aimed atpursuing Washington's “geopoliticalgames”.

Taiwan, a self-ruling island as itsown territory to be annexed by force ifnecessary, is among 110 invitees to theWashington-led Summit for Democracyto be held December 9-10, the US StateDepartment announced on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden is to host thesummit bringing together leaders fromgovernments and civil society and Chinawas omitted from the list of invitees, theHong Kong-based South ChinaMorning Post reported.

Invitees from the Asia-Pacific regionalso include India, Japan, South Korea,Australia, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Most European countries are alsoinvited, including Serbia, but not Bosniaand Herzegovina or Hungary. C h i n afor some time has been attacking thedemocracy summit, saying that the UScannot hold a patent for it and the eventis aimed at dividing the world.

But Beijing appears to have beensurprised by the invitation to Taiwan totake part in the democracy meeting asit came in the backdrop of the recent vir-tual summit between Chinese PresidentXi Jinping and his US counterpartBiden.

Sharply criticising the US move,Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesmanZhao Lijian told a media briefing herethat China “firmly opposes the invita-

tion to Taiwan by the US authorities forTaiwan to take part in the Summit forDemocracy.”

“There is only one China inthe world and the government of thePeople's Republic of China (PRC) is thesole legal government representingChina,” he said.

Taiwan is an inalienable partof China and the One China principleis a widely-recognised norm of inter-national relations, Zhao emphasised.

“Taiwan has no other internationalstatus in the international law than beingpart of China,” he said.

“We solemnly urge the US to abideby the One China principle, stop pro-viding a platform for Taiwan indepen-dence forces, and stop emboldeningthem. Giving them the stage only makesthe US hurt and puts it in a difficult sit-uation. Playing with fire the pro-inde-pendence forces (of Taiwan) only gettingthemselves burnt,” he said.

He also attacked the Democracysummit, saying that the aim of the USin holding the meeting is to divide theworld.

“Democracy is a common value ofhumanity and not a patent of a few coun-tries. What the US did was that the so-called democracy is just an excuse for theUS to pursue its geopolitical goals, sup-press other countries, divide the worldand serve its own selfish interests ofmaintaining its hegemony in the world,”Zhao said.

“In the name of democracy, the USis creating bloc politics and stoking con-frontation. This is a revisit to the ColdWar mentality. It is questioned andopposed by people holding fair views inthe world,” he said. PTI

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The three parties negotiating toform Germany's next

Government will finalise and pre-sent their coalition agreement onWednesday, two of the prospectivepartners said. The deal paves theway for center-left leader OlafScholz to replace longtimeChancellor Angela Merkel in thecoming weeks.

The center-left SocialDemocrats have been negotiatingwith the environmentalist Greenparty and the pro-business FreeDemocrats since narrowly win-ning a national election on Sept.26. The latter two parties said theagreement will be presented onWednesday afternoon.

If party members sign off onit, the three-way alliance — whichhas never yet been tried in anational government — willreplace the current “grand coali-tion” of the country's traditionalbig parties. The Social Democratshave served as the junior partnerto Merkel's center-right Christian

Democrats. Merkel, who didn't run for a

fifth term, is expected to be suc-ceeded by Scholz, 63, who hasbeen her finance minister and vicechancellor since 2018.

The three would-be governingparties have said they hope par-liament will elect Scholz as chan-cellor in the week beginning Dec.6. Before that can happen, thecoalition deal requires approvalfrom a ballot of the Greens' rough-ly 125,000-strong membershipand from conventions of the othertwo parties.

News of the deal came asMerkel led what was likely to beher last Cabinet meeting. Scholzpresented the 67-year-old, who hasled Germany since 2005, with abouquet of flowers.

The negotiations over thethree-way alliance were relative-ly harmonious and speedy com-pared to previous coalition talks.But the political transition, withMerkel as a lame-duck caretaker,has hampered Germany's responseto the latest rise in coronavirus

cases.Few details have emerged

from the closed-doors talks,including how the parties willdivide up the ministerial portfo-lios. The alliance is a potentiallyuneasy mixture because it bringstogether two traditionally left-leaning parties with one, the FreeDemocrats, that has tended to allywith the center-right.

A preliminary agreement lastmonth indicated that Germanywould bring forward its deadlinefor ending the use of coal-fueledpower from 2038 to 2030, whileexpanding the rollout of renewableenergy generation. At the FreeDemocrats' insistence, theprospective partners said theywon't raise taxes or loosen curbson running up debt, makingfinancing a central issue.

Merkel's Christian Democratsare currently preoccupied with aleadership contest over who willbecome their next leader andrevive the party's fortunes after itsuffered its worst-ever electionresult.

London: Several British politiciansdemanded a change in parliamentary ruleson Wednesday after a lawmaker was toldshe couldn't bring her 3-month-old babyinto the House of Commons.

Labour Party legislator Stella Creasysaid she had received a letter fromCommons authorities after she took herson Pip to a debate.

She said she had previously taken bothPip and her older daughter to Parliamentwithout problems, but had been told therules had changed in September.

Members of Parliament are nowadvised that they “should not take yourseat in the chamber when accompanied byyour child.” Creasy said the ruleundermined efforts to make politics morefamily-friendly.

“There are barriers to getting mumsinvolved in politics, and I think that dam-ages our political debate,” she told the BBC.

Deputy Prime Minister DominicRaab, a Conservative, said he has “a lot ofsympathy” for Creasy, but said the deci-sion is for the House authorities to make.

“I think we do need to make sure ourprofession is brought into the modernworld, the 21st century, and can allow par-ents to juggle the jobs they do with thefamily time that they need.” Raab said.

Green Party lawmaker Caroline Lucassaid the baby ban was “absurd.” She saidbabies were “far less disruptive thanmany braying backbenchers.”

House of Commons Speaker LindsayHoyle said he had asked Parliament's pro-cedure committee to review the rules, andnoted that there were “differing views onthis matter.”

“The advice givenyesterday … correctlyreflects the current rules.However, rules have to beseen in context and theychange with the times,”he said.

“It is extremelyimportant that parentsof babies and young chil-dren are able to partici-pate fully in the work ofthis House.” AP

Nairobi: Ethiopia's NobelPeace Prize-winning PrimeMinister has gone to the bat-tlefront to take charge in a year-long war as rival fightersapproach the capital, hisGovernment announcedWednesday.

State media showed noimages of Abiy Ahmed, a 45-year-old former soldier, and hisspokeswoman Billene Seyoumdismissed a request for detailson his location as “incredible.”

He arrived at the frontTuesday, according to a gov-ernment spokesman.

Tens of thousands of peo-ple have died in the warbetween Ethiopian federal andallied troops and fighters fromthe country's Tigray region.The prospect of the ancientnation breaking apart hasalarmed both Ethiopians andobservers who fear what wouldhappen to the often turbulentHorn of Africa at large.

Countries includingFrance, Germany and Turkeyhave told their citizens to leaveimmediately.

Abiy's trajectory from win-ning the Nobel just two yearsago to now potentially headinginto battle has shockedmany. AP

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Lahore: A thick cloud of smogthat enveloped Pakistan's cul-tural capital on Wednesday hasearned it the ignominious titleof the world's most pollutedcity, according to a Swiss airquality monitoring company.

Platform IQAir said thatLahore now stands at the top ofits polluted cities ranking —with an air quality index of 203on the US AQI scale, versusrunner-up Dehli, India, with183. That standing was at 0949GMT; the two cities had trad-ed places at least once over thecourse of the morning.

Increasing smog and parti-cle-laden air has sickened thou-sands of people with respirato-ry and other illnesses, forcing

many to stay at home on par-ticularly dirty days likeWednesday.

Dhaka, Bangladesh came inthird, with an index of 169, andKolkata, India at fourth, with areading of 168. Lahore stood atthird place a day earlier.

Lahore was once known asthe city of gardens, which wereubiquitous during the Mughalera of the 16th to 19th cen-turies. Intense urbanisation andsurging population growth haveleft little room for greeneryacross the city, Pakistan's sec-ond largest after the capitalKarachi.

Doctors are advising peopleto wear face masks to avoid res-piratory related diseases. AP

Beijing: Fewer people are gettingmarried in China in addition tothe falling birth rates, hasteningthe demographic crisis in theworld's most populous country,according to official data.

The number of marriage reg-istrations in China has fallen forseven consecutive years and hit a17-year low last year, figures fromthe recently released ChinaStatistical Yearbook 2021 showed.

A total of 5.87 million couplesgot married in China in the firstthree quarters of 2021, downslightly from the same period oflast year, according to the datareleased by the Ministry of CivilAffairs.

It is expected that the numberof marriage registrations in Chinawill continue to decline in 2021,state-run China Daily reported onWednesday.

This is in addition to thefalling birth rates. The birth-ratein China last year was 0.852 per-cent, falling below one percent forthe first time since 1978, figuresfrom the China StatisticalYearbook 2021 book revealed.

As the demographic crisisdeepened, China has permitted allcouples to have two children in2016, scrapping the draconiandecades-old one-child policy andrevised it this year permittingthree children, which howeverdrew a poor response.

The decision to permit thethird child came after the latestonce-in-a-decade census showedthat China's population grew atthe slowest pace to 1.412 billionamid official projections that thedecline may begin as early as nextyear. Outlining the reasons for thefalling marriage registrations, HeYafu, a demographic expert iden-tified decline in the number ofyoung people in China as one ofthe reasons.

The population of the post-80s, post-90s and post-2000s inChina has been on the decline, he

said, citing the National Bureau ofStatistics.

Also, the desire of young peo-ple to get married has generallyfallen due to reasons such as highwork pressure and great improve-ment in women's education leveland economic independence, hetold the China Daily.

Another major reason is theunbalanced ratio of male andfemale population. In China, menoutnumber women by 34.9 mil-lion as per the seventh NationalCensus.

Among them, there are 17.52million more men in their 20sthan women of marriageableage.

In addition, the high cost ofliving, including soaring housingprices, is also a big obstacle toyoung people wanting to get mar-ried and have children, he said.

In China, marriage and child-birth are closely linked, and theproportion of children born out ofwedlock is low, He said.

So the decline in marriageregistration is bound to have anegative impact on the birth rate,he said.

Thus, remedial measuresshould be stepped up, He said.Local Governments' reduction ofhousing costs for the young is oneexample. To encourage youngpeople to get married and havechildren, marriage and materni-ty leave should also be extended,He said.

The falling fertility rate, rela-tively early retirement age and thethree-child policy have become amajor concern for China as thecountry is greying faster thanearlier predictions.

The number of people aged 60or above has already touched 264million, accounting for 18.7 per-cent of the total population.

The average annual elderlypopulation growth has been about6.3 million for 21 years, accordingto the latest census. PTI

Moscow: Russian PresidentVladimir Putin said on Wednesdayhe has taken an experimental nasalvaccine against the coronavirus,three days after he received hisbooster shot, as Russia faces itsworst surge of infections and deathssince the pandemic began.

Putin was vaccinated withSputnik V, Russia's domesticallydeveloped Covid-19 vaccine, inthe spring. On Sunday, he said hereceived a booster short of SputnikLight, the one-dose version of thejab, and said he wanted to take partin testing the nasal version ofSputnik V.

Denis Logunov, deputy direc-tor of Russia's state-fundedGamaleya Center that developedSputnik V, told Putin on Sunday thenasal vaccine is yet to be tested onmembers of the public and is cur-rently being studied “off-label most-ly, as usual, we're testing it on staffmembers, monitoring.”

In accordance with establishedscientific protocols, the vaccine

will need to go through several trialphases, including those involvingthousands of people, to establishthat it is safe and effective to use.

Putin told a Government meet-ing Wednesday that “exactly sixmonths after vaccination my titersof protective (antibodies) havedropped, and specialists recom-mended the procedure of revacci-nation, which I did.”

He said he didn't experienceany unpleasant effects after takingthe nasal vaccine. In recent weeks,Russia has been swept by its high-est ever Covid-19 surge, with offi-cials regularly registering record-high numbers of new infections anddeaths.

The surge came amid low vac-cination rates and lax public attitudestoward taking precautions. Fewerthan 40 per cent of Russia's nearly146 million people have been fullyvaccinated, even though the coun-try approved a domestically devel-oped Covid-19 vaccine monthsbefore most of the world. AP

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Union Bank of India hasentered into a co-lending

partnership with Capri GlobalCapital, under which they willdisburse loans to MSMEs.

Capri Global Capital Ltd(CGCL) is a non bankingfinancial company focused onlending to MSMEs and theaffordable housing finance seg-ment. The co-lending agree-ment aims to enhance last-milefinance and MSMEs by offer-ing secured loans between Rs10 lakh to Rs 1 crore, the pub-lic sector lender said in a state-ment. Through this collabora-tion, Union Bank of India andCGCL aim to disburse MSMEloans initially across 100 plustouch points across India, itsaid.

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The Reserve Bank hasimposed penalties on Tata

Communications PaymentSolutions Limited (TCPSL)and Appnit TechnologiesPrivate Limited (ATPL) fordeficiencies in regulatory com-pliance. A penalty of �2 crorehas been imposed on TCPSLand �54.93 lakh on ATPL, thecentral bank said in a statementon Wednesday.

“It was observed thatTCPSL was non-compliantwith the directions issued byRBI on White Label ATMdeployment targets and net-worth requirement. ATPL wasnon-compliant with the direc-tions issued by RBI on main-

tenance of escrow account bal-ance and net-worth require-ment,” it said. The RBI hadissued notice to these twoauthorised Payment SystemOperators (PSOs).After review-ing their written responses andoral submissions made duringthe personal hearing, the RBIconcluded that the charges ofnon-compliance with certaindirections were substantiatedand warranted the impositionof monetary penalty. The cen-tral bank, however, added thatthe penalties are based on“deficiencies in regulatory com-pliance” and are not intendedto pronounce upon the validi-ty of any transaction or agree-ment entered into by the enti-ties with their customers.

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The Indian rupee recoveredits initial losses and settled

2 paise up at 74.40 against thegreenback on Wednesday asexporters’ dollar sales helpedoffset elevated crude oil prices.

Investors also awaited theminutes of the latest FederalReserve meeting, forex traderssaid. At the interbank forexmarket, the local unit openedon a weak note at 74.53 againstthe US dollar and witnessed anintra-day high of 74.31 and alow of 74.54. Snapping itsthree-day losing run, thedomestic currency finallyended at 74.40, registering again of just 2 paise over its pre-viousclose of 74.42.

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Equity benchmarks resumedtheir decline on Wednesday

after a day’s gap, succumbing toa last-hour sell-off triggered bylosses mainly in market heavy-weights Reliance, Infosys andHDFC.

After trading in the greenfor most part of the session, the30-share BSE Sensex settled323.34 points or 0.55 per centlower at 58,340.99 -- markingits fifth decline in the last sixdays.

Likewise, the NSE Niftyfell 88.30 points or 0.5 per centto end at 17,415.05.

On the Sensex chart,Maruti, Infosys, TechMahindra, ITC, RelianceIndustries, L&T, UltraTechCement and HDFC were themajor losers, dropping as muchas 2.62 per cent. On the otherhand, Kotak Bank, NTPC,ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance,PowerGrid and HCL Tech wereamong the gainers, climbing up

to 1.45 per cent. Of the Sensex constituents,

22 shares ended in the red. “Unable to hold onto its

gains, domestic indices edgedlower in today’s tumultuoussession amid mixed sentimentsacross global peers. Despitesurging inflation, the Euro-zone business activity jumpedto 55.8 in November from 54.2in October, instilling hope ininvestors.

“On the domestic front,gains in banking and financialstocks were offset by losses inoil & gas and auto sectors. Thebanking sector was in the radartoday as the government pro-posed to privatise two banksalong with making bankingamendments for the wintersession to facilitate PSB pri-vatisation” said Vinod Nair,Head of Research at GeojitFinancial Services.

Sectorally, BSE IT indexfell 1.24 per cent, followed byauto, capital goods, FMCGand energy.

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Official data print on theGDP will show a 7.8 per

cent expansion on a year-on-year basis for the September2021 quarter, according to areport.

Real GDP will grow 9.4per cent in FY22 and deceler-ate to 7.5 per cent for FY23 asthe base effects result in thehigher growth in the ongoingfiscal wear-off, according to thereport by economists at HDFCBank released on Wednesday.

In FY21, the GDP hadcontracted 7.3 per cent due tothe pandemic. For FY22, theRBI expects GDP to clock agrowth of 9.5 per cent, whichwill slow to 7.8 per cent inFY23. The GDP had expandedby over 20 per cent for the first

quarter on the lower base. Theofficial data for the secondquarter is set to be released onNovember 30.

The report byHDFC Bank said some part ofthe expected 7.8 per cent GDPgrowth in the second quarterwill be due to a low base froma year when the economy con-tracted by 7.4 per cent but thereis likely to be a sequentialimprovement in GDP growthin Q2FY22.

On a sequential basis, GDPis expected to grow 9.75 percent in Q2 from a contractionof 16.9 per cent in the secondwave-hit previous quarter,reflecting a revival in econom-ic activity.

“With support from pent-up demand and easing ofmobility restrictions in the

country, economic activity (ascaptured by a number of highfrequency indicators) movedabove pre-second wave levels inearly

August and has remainedrobust since then,” the reportsaid.

Agriculture, forestry andfishing growth will come atfour per cent in Q2FY22,industry will be at 6.3 per centand services at 8.6 per cent, itadded.

When looked at from agross value added (GVA) basis,the September 2021 quartergrowth will come at 7.3 percent, the bank estimated,explaining that the gap betweenGDP and GVA is likely to bedriven by higher tax revenuecollection and lower subsidypay-outs in this quarter.

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Government think-tank NitiAayog on Wednesday pro-

posed setting up of full-stack‘digital banks’, which wouldprincipally rely on the internetand other proximate channelsto offer their services and notphysical branches, to mitigatethe financial deepening chal-lenges being faced in the coun-try. The Aayog, in a discus-sion paper titled ‘Digital Banks:A Proposal for Licensing &Regulatory Regime for India’,makes a case and offers a tem-plate and roadmap for a digi-tal bank licensing and regula-tory regime for the country.

Digital banks or DBs arebanks as defined in the

Banking Regulation Act, 1949(B R Act), the paper said.

“In other words, theseentities will issue deposits,make loans and offer the fullsuite of services that the B RAct empowers them to. As thename suggests however, DBswill principally rely on theinternet and other proximatechannels to offer their ser-vices and not physical branch-es,” it said. The paper noted thatIndia’s public digital infra-structure, especially UPI, hassuccessfully demonstrated howto challenge establishedincumbents. UPI transactionsmeasured have surpassed � 4lakh crore in value. Aadhaarauthentications have passed55 lakh crore.

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In view of some scary inci-dents in the country’s e-

commerce business in therecent past, the US giantAmazon has facilitated the saleof - marijuana illegally throughits portal and banned chemicalsin making bombs. And nowthe incident of selling poisonthrough the e-commerce por-tal of Amazon has shocked theCountry. Making a strongprotest against such activities ofthe Amazon, theConfederation of All IndiaTraders (CAIT) Wednesdayheld protests in more than1,200 cities in over 500 districtsof different states of the coun-try.

The protesters demon-strated the anger and resent-

ment of the trading communi-ty by holding dharna anddemonstration and warnedAmazon that either they shouldmake their business modelaccording to the law and rules,otherwise prepare to tie theirsack bed from India.

Now the violation of lawsand rules in e-commerce busi-ness will not be tolerated, CAITsaid, adding that if no concreteaction is taken immediately inthis matter, then the traders ofthe country will organise --‘Bharat Vyapar Bandh’ to raisetheir voice.

The CAIT also said thatAmazon’s love & affectiontowards the sale of marijuanais evident from the fact that ithas asked the US governmentto legalise the sale of marijuana.

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Shares of Paytm’s parent com-pany One97

Communications continued torally for the second consecutiveday on Wednesday and furtherjumped over 17 per cent.

Paytm, India’s leading dig-ital payments and financialservices platform is making acomeback in the stock marketas it crossed the �1,700 markon Wednesday morning trade.The stock zoomed 17.27 percent to close at �1,753.15 on theBSE. During the day, the stockjumped 19.73 per cent to �s1,790. On the NSE, it gained17.28 per cent to close at �1,753. With the rally in thestock price, the company’smarket valuation also wentpast � 1 lakh crore mark on theBSE.

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New Delhi: Online real estateportal Housing.com hasannounced the launch of itslegal assistance services forhomebuyers. REA India-owned Housing.com has part-nered with leading online legalassistance startups LegalKart,Lawrato, Vidhikarya and VakilSearch to assist homebuyers orinvestors in their property buy-ing journey. Consumer surveys have shownthat this is a major pain pointfor consumers and this offeringwill go a long way in address-ing that need.

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National Health AuthorityCEO and senior member

of founding team of Aadhaar RS Sharma on Wednesday crit-icised some of the restrictionsimposed by the UniqueIdentification Authority ofIndia (UIDAI) over use of theunique ID due to apprehen-sions around privacy. Sharma,who was the first DirectorGeneral of the UIDAI, said thatthe concept of data vault is fal-lacious which is adverselyimpacting the purpose ofAadhaar.“Aadhaar Act saysAadhaar information should besafely kept. Aadhaar number isnot an identity. It (data vault)is like putting all the numberson the currency notes intosome safe vault saying thatthese numbers will not be dis-closed. This is a fallacious way.Once you start with a fallaciousfoundation then everything

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Born in 1986 in Mumbai, India,Archana Phadke is a is an alum-

ni of the Berlinale Talent campusand a National award winner. Hershort film as a Director, Uski Baarish(2013) was screened at variousinternational film festivals includ-ing Clermont-Ferrand InternationalFilm Festival, Aspen Shorts Fest,Toronto International Film Festival(KIDS), Seattle International FilmFestival and 34 others. She has pro-duced and edited, feature-lengthdocumentary Placebo. Placebo wasan Indo-Finnish co-production thatpremiered at the InternationalDocumentary Film Festival ofAmsterdam (IDFA), 2014, where itwon the jury nomination for BestFilm in First Appearance Category.She has co-edited the film RaghuRai, An Unframed Portrait — win-ner of IDFA Europe fund and win-ner of Best International Pitch atAsian Side of the Doc and pre-miered at IDFA 2017 (mid-lengthcompetition).

Her debut as a director of thefeature-length documentary, AboutLove, premiered at the Sheffield Docfest in June 2019, where it won theNew Talent Award. The film alsowon the Best film Asian Perspectiveaward at DMZ Docs 2019, and Bestfilm at the Hainan IslandInternational Film Festival.

About Love is in the news sinceit is up for viewing on MUBI, theglobally curated film streamingplatform. The film is a story whichunderlines the place of a woman inIndian society. You can say that thefilm is super feminist, but in a non-preachy way. But it reflects the real-ity that exists in society today.

For the film, Phadke trains thecamera on her household, makingwhat’s extremely personal at times,public. The film revolves around thedaily happening, and conversationsof three couples living alongside thedirector. Keep reading for excerptsof the interview with Phadke.

�Dealing with your own familymembers for About Love, start tofinish, was it easy or difficult?

It's always a very difficult deci-sion. I was filming there for aroundtwo and a half years and everydayI was wondering whether I wasdoing the right thing. Exposing myfamily to the world was a very dif-ficult decision to take because I wasable to capture not just the comfort-able but the uncomfortablemoments also of family life. It wasquite a difficult process for me.

�Would your family membersplay nice in front of the camera?

Like every documentary, this isone of the first processes that onegoes through — that you have tobreak that act in front of the cam-era. Sometimes it takes days, some-times it take months, sometimes ittakes years for that to happen. Buti was very fortunate that this neverhappened to me and this is proba-bly because I was the one shootingthem. When this was going on, theydid not know this was going to bea film. But when this kept going onfor an year or two, they were won-dering, "Oh, she is still shooting usmaybe she is just collecting randomfootage." Fortunately they neverever put up an act in front of thecamera. They were always them-selves in both comfortable as well asuncomfortable situations. I actual-ly shot my grandfather's death oncamera which was quite difficult forme to show. But both my family andI were honest, with respect toeverything shown in the film.

�How long did filming take?I started shooting the film in

June 2015 but the film premiered inthe 2019 edition of the Sheffield DocFest. Initially my lens was trained onmy grandparents, but my brotheractually decided to get marriedhalfway through shooting and that'swhen I decided to make that a partof my story as well. But then Iexpanded the scope of my story andI started shooting my parents aswell. It became an interesting land-scape — three generations of cou-ples and how love changes overtime. And, oh, just for context, mybhabhi and my brother had a love

marriage. They met in IIMLucknow. He was just following theexample set by his ancestors; mygrandparents and my parents alsohad a love marriage.

�While you were behind the cam-era, you were also an integralpart of the household. You can’thelp unknowingly influence whathappens in front of the camera, weget it. But did you ever knowing-ly influence the course of thefilm?

I made certain rules. When Iwould start filming, I would antic-ipate the flavour of what it was goingto be. So, I would make certain rulesas a filmmaker which were sacredand unbreakable since that wouldnot be good for the film. I wantedcomplete honesty in the film whereI would not drive the narrative. Ialso knew that for a film like this theessence is important, which is whyI was shooting for three and a halfyears, whereas I could have easilywrapped up shooting in threemonths since it was my family andI had easy access to them. But Iknew that to get into the depth ofthe characters, I would have tospend a lot of time. So, I took mytime to do it, but I did not makeanything happen at all.

�While everyone is aware of the

process, ie. What happens aheadof a wedding in India, you trainedthe camera on your own familymembers. What led you to do so?

This is my first feature docu-mentary as a director, I have pro-duced a film before this, Placebo,and a filmmaker's first film isalways about a subject that they holddear. For me, I have always beenobsessed with my family. We arevery close, we tell each other every-thing. This film is sort of a love let-ter to them. I wanted to understandthe workings of love in my familyand that is exactly what I wanted tomake a film on. It's a tragi-comedythat looks at the dysfunctionality offamilies and I tried to capture thisin a sensitive and dignified manner.

With every film I make, I hopeI learn something about myself. Partof the reason why I did this film isbecause I don’t want to get married,I don’t believe in the constitution ofmarriage. There have been numer-ous love marriages in my family, buthow come I don’t believe in mar-riage, that was my enquiry. So Iwanted to observe my own familymembers to get to the bottom of it.My grandparents, for that matter,regularly pass snide comments ateach other, but are very much inlove, this is evident from what Icould capture for the film. Butback then, in the initial stages of the

shooting, I wasn’t sure this wouldturn out to be a film.

�What is it about love that fasci-nates you?

You can call me a total roman-tic. I have grown up on all theseYash Chopra films, and I absolute-ly adore them. I don’t think thosetype of films are made anywhere,where the romance is evidentlythere. I am talking about films likeChandni and Dil Toh Paagal Hai.That is the essence I am trying tocapture, not through a Bollywoodfilm but through life itself. It is sodifficult to understand love, throughmy film I have come to makes senseof so many things about love. As anartist, it is natural to try and tryagain to understand the mysteriesof life; love being one of them. I amtrying to understand past notions Ihad of love while growing up.

�We are sure you had somesolid ideas about this film whenyou started shooting. Did thefinal product match what you hadin mind?

Well I did have some ideas inmind but documentary films are allabout observing.

There is a very cool sayingwhich one can read as you enterSRFTI (Satyajit Ray Film &Television Institute), “In fictionfilms, the director is God and indocumentaries, God is the director.”

At certain points during thefilm, you have to be ready to receive,instead of trying to implementyour notions. That is the magic ofdocumentary cinema, it springs asurprise every now and then. Youcannot be in control all the time, attimes you have to let go of controland watch the magic unfold.

�Do you have any other projects,or thoughts about any projects inthe pipeline?

Yes, of course! I am writing fortwo projects, one is a feature-fictionthat revolves around farmer sui-cides. I hope I am able to make theproject a reality within the nextyear.

With the recent release of the filmCash, my mind was transportedto the time of demonetisation in

2016, and how we had toiled in long linesin front of ATMS under scorching heat.The memory might be a bitter-sweetexperience etched in our brains forever, butCash definitely held my attention with itsrelatable and humorous take on it.

Cash, starring Amol Parashar, SmritiKalra, Swanand Kirkire, Kevin Dave, andGulshan Grover, started streaming onDisney+Hotstar. The light-hearted dram-edy that centers around the period ofdemonetisation and entrepreneurship inIndia, is directed by Rishab Seth and pro-duced by Vishesh Bhatt.

Read on for excerpts from a heart-to-heart with Vishesh and Rishab.

�Demonetisation was a very seriousevent, something that has been lodgedin the recent history of India. What isyour vision of the film? What do youwish to convey?

Rishab: Demonetisation was, obvious-ly, a very important event in our recent his-tory that we’ve all dealt with — I think weall have memories of that period — whichwe, sort of, wanted to laugh at to createsome kind of catharsis or nostalgia. Manymight say it was a terrible time, many peo-ple feel that it was a very petulant moveby the government. Ah, so, we never real-ly wanted to pass judgement on it and ourstance on it, even today, remains very neu-tral. But, we thought that there is an oppor-tunity here to take people back to that timeand remind them that we all got past thistogether and these are the things thatunfolded around us. And when you goback in time — even if you thought thatit was dark time then — you can always,in retrospect, laugh it off. So, I think the

idea here was to use collective conscious-ness and evoke laughter instead of pain.

Vishesh: Like Rishab added, it was animportant event and every importantevent always has certain serious takeaways,but the subject itself, or any serious event,for that matter, can have a humorous take-away, too. Personally, we have to takethings in a stride. Humour is an importantpart of life and I feel more than demon-etisation, this is a journey of a seriousentrepreneur and how strong the resilienceof the medium and small enterprises inIndia, even today, during the pandemic is.They are extremely agile, take up chal-lenges and manage to survive. We want-ed to give that kind of a message that Indiais able to withstand the obstacles that cometheir way. It is, in a manner, inspirational,and also relevant to the time of the pan-demic. So, we mixed the themes up. Wewanted to highlight the new digital econ-omy. Thus, this is a positive, upwards-look-ing, kind-of a narrative.

�Was there a personal incident/tragedyrelated to it that you know of? That youhave built the story on?

Rishab: I know that there were neigh-bours giving money to their house helpsto deposit it to their banks and so, a lot ofwhat is happening in the film has beenderived from real life incidents but thething is, it had turned into a bit of a cir-cus, hadn’t it? (everyone chuckles)

So even if you don’t know someonepersonally, someone knew someone whohad to do something sketchy at the timeto find some kind of solution to save theirblack money. And you will see reflectionsof that in the film, too.

�Because there are so many innov-ative ways of money laundering shownin the film that one wonders what the

inspiration behind the same was.Vishesh: So this term, ‘money launder-

ing’ which came in — I think whatdemonetisation did is — it made people,who had just general petty expenses ascash, try to figure out what black or whiteeven mean. For most of the country, it wasa term that political figures or quintessen-tial villains would have and when demon-etisation came about, people were like,‘okay, cash by itself is a problem’. After that,there were debates over what really wouldfall under black or white cash. We have adigital economy now, it was completelynew, then. So this ‘cash’ was termed astoxic.

Rishab: Even people who did not haveillegal money with them at that time, thatis, unaccounted for money, some had cashwithdrawal systems sitting at home, youknow? And even they had to go stand inthe line and they thought, ‘what does this

ultimately entail?’ ‘Does this cash have anyreal value or not?’

Vishesh: Exactly. People got scared.Their savings would become zero.

Rishab: However, I must add, Visheshand I were trying to make a film aboutentrepreneurship even before the demon-etisation happened. A film about entrepre-neurship, ambitions and dreams, specifi-cally because Vishesh’s company stands foryouth-oriented content. It so happenedthat we got this idea and we married entre-preneurship with demonetisation. It is notjust about scams that we all have heard of,it’s actually about a guy who uses adver-sity and turns it into opportunity — that’sthe core of the film.

�The shift to home viewing throughOTT, has it given an impetus to storiesbased on real events? Whether it’s entre-preneurship or demonetisation.

Vishesh: What OTT has done is thatit has opened a billion screens. It is anoth-er huge outlet where story-tellers canexpress themselves. The limitations havenow been removed. You can make thescreenplay that is correct for the story andtalk to various audiences. The quality ismore and more focussed onto who youare talking to.

Rishab: In a nutshell, I think, OTThas created a level-playing field and I don’tthink that is only true for films and showsbased on reality but it also has openingsfor all types and all genres. For a theatri-cal film, you’re beholding a larger audi-ence, you’re trying to find a greater com-monality through taste and that comeswith big compulsions. Whereas, in OTT,you can choose or target a more specif-ic audience. Theatre is costly, for both theparties — the viewers and the film-mak-ers.

�I had a word with Amol, Smriti andKavin and they showered nothing butpraises on both of you.

I think bringing new faces to thescreen is something OTT platforms havesupported a ton. Care to weigh in?

Vishesh: Very kind of them (hehe).And, yes, OTT has definitely givenVishesh Films, and even the new bannerI’m coming up with, more strength to takenarratives with upcoming super-talentedpeople, actors, musicians and technicians.The music that we’ve done in this film islargely by newcomers. In theatre, thesethings could turn risky but in OTT, thereis a larger openness which allows us tobring newer talents to the forefront.Now, it is not a mandate to tell the nar-rative from the point of view of senioractors or try to retro-fit them into a story.Now, we have the space to bring in ayounger story and cast a correct fit/face.They no longer have to carry big bannersor names to get cast, but just the skill. Ihope this golden phase and trend contin-ues.

Rishab: I think star power is unde-niable. There are stars in this country whohave this magic around them, they’ve cre-ated that image. You know, I do want towatch an Aamir Khan film or a RanbirKapoor starrer. But we’re dealing withabout 20 odd people, I mean we’re talk-ing about those who wield that kind ofpower. But luckily, I’ve seen a shift in thepast 10 years where the audience is justvery happy consuming good contentand they can look beyond the externalfaces. If the content is good, they take

home as good an experience.So, opportunities are more now.

Where we can make films with fresher tal-ent without having to rely entirely on bigstars to carry your film. There are morestories than there are stars. So, we haveto find a way to tell these stories and we’renow getting more opportunities to do so.

�The actors completely adored thescript, they said it was a perfectly writ-ten one. Can you give a background onthat? What were some challenges youfaced?

Rishab: Actually, we had a lot of fun,you know. There was a ton of anecdotalstuff available in newspapers and newsarticles, and stories from friends. Thechallenge was basically that we wanted topresent everything in a comic light. Thequestion we kept asking ourselves was‘how do we make this funny and enter-taining?’ It was a great and fun process.

Vishesh: There was an ocean ofinformation and experiences that we alldiscussed. There was a wealth of data andwe knew what was our take was our takeon it. So, according to me, the challengewas to filter out. To streamline it, put itin an entertaining manner, have fun withit and communicate it without getting tooindulgent or boring was the task athand. Humour weaved in somethingthat is engaging and fast-paced was themain challenge.

�Very excited for the film. What is onething audience should look for when itreleases?

Rishab: Um, this is two hours of purefun. I would suggest you to watch it withyour friends, enjoy it, revel in the nos-talgia and just come out feeling good.

Vishesh: Agreed, comedy is commu-nity experience. Watch it with company,while having popcorn and perhaps,chilled beer. Everyone has a differentinterpretation of humour, so peoplemight have different experiences.

Rishab: But I would like to mention,that this is not the comedy, hopefully,where we would advice people to leavetheir brains at home. So, keep yourbrains intact, watch it and enjoy theexperience.

Vishesh: Adding to it, I’d like torequest the audience to watch and sup-port films with fresh talent and new nar-ratives. If you want quality, you want newand fresh content, you have to supportit yourself to see the change you’re ask-ing for.

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Lieutenant GeneralPradeep Chandran Nair,

Yudh Seva Medal (YSM),the 21st Director General ofthe Assam Rifles receivedthe prestigious Ati VishishtSeva Medal (AVSM) fromthe President of India ShriRam Nath Kovind at aninvestiture ceremony held atNew Delhi on N ovember22. He has been bestowedwith this prestigious awardfor his successful commandas the Inspector General ofAssam Rifles (North) inNagaland. He has also beendecorated with the YudhSeva Medal during hisCommand of a Brigade inManipur and has also been

commended with the Chiefof Army StaffCommendation Card onthree occasions.

Lieutenant GeneralNair, AVSM, YSM holdsvast combat experiencein the North East. HeCommanded his battalion(18 SIKH) in Assam, hasbeen a brigade comman-der in Manipur. His vastexperience in the NorthEast especially as theInspector General ofAssam Rifles (North) hasbrought in peace andtranquillity in the regionas well as controlled theinsurgency. In his presentappointment as theDirector General ofAssam Rif les , theNortheast region is tobenefit tremendously.

Ashutosh Gangal, the general man-ager of Northern Railway held a

meeting with ministers and MPs ofconstituencies that come under thejurisdiction of Delhi division in NewDelhi. This is in accordance with thedirectives given by the Minister ofRailways, Ashwini Vaishnav, advisingGMs of Zonal Railways to increasepublic outreach to get feedback for pro-viding better service to the nation.Railway related issues in each con-stituency falling under NorthernRailway were discussed with the pub-lic representatives to find solutions forthe benefit of the passengers.

Dimpy Garg, the divisionalRailway Manager, Delhi Division pre-sented a report regarding the complet-ed, ongoing & planned works relatingto passenger amenities, infrastructureand services at stations and trains over22 constituencies in the states of UP,Haryana, Punjab and Delhi NCR, ser-viced by Delhi Division.

Gen VK Singh (retd), the UnionMinister of State, Ministry of RoadTransport & Highways and CivilAviation, MPs from Lok Sabha — DrHarsh Vardhan, Dr Satya Pal Singh,Rajendra Agarwal, Ramesh Bidhuri,Ramesh Chander Kaushik, SunitaDuggal, Sanjay Bhatia, Brijendra Singh,Pradeep Kumar Choudhary and MPs

from Rajya Sabha — Sardar BalvinderSingh Bhunder, Ram Chander Jangraand Narayan Das Gupta put forwardtheir views in the meeting.

The MPs highly appreciated thegood work done by Northern Railwayin their constituencies. They collective-ly thanked the Railways for helping thenation overcome the adversaries of thecorona pandemic in the last two years.They also put forward variousdemands, requirements and aspirationsof the rail users of their respective areas.They also volunteered to help wherev-er there was any co-ordination requiredwith the state administration for time-ly completion of the projects.

Gangal, assured the MPs thatNorthern Railway would resolve thepublic grievances and issues put for-ward by them as early as possible. Hefurther said that Northern Railwaywould always remain committed to thepassengers and rail users.

Inaugurated by Odisha CM onNovember 18, Keonjhar

Handball Ground, located inKendujhargarh Municipality, isfirst of its kind with provision ofoutdoor synthetic court in Odisha.The synthetic handball court hasbeen built as per internationalstandards (as per IHF –International HandballFederation). Additionally, the hand-ball ground campus, with an areaof around 1.6 acres, has beendeveloped with best-in-class land-scaping and provision of play areas.

Dual handball courts (with asynthetic pro-cushion surface),covering an area of 0.5 acres, werebuilt with a seating capacity ofaround 200. The material used forpreparation of the synthetic courthas been certified under ‘category4-medium-fast’ by the International

Tennis Federation (ITF). The ground is armed with the

ability to ensure play at night, withthe installation of sports standard‘high mast lights’. In addition to theworld-class handball courts, thecampus has been developed formulti-disciplinary public use withthe provision of walking path-ways, acupressure track, children’splay area, open-air gym, gymnasi-um, yoga platform, toilet block,seating arena and drinking water.

Shikha Gangal, the pres-i d e nt of Nor t h e r n

Railway Women's WelfareOrganiaation (NRWWO)i n au g u r ate d ab e v e r a g e / r e f r e s h m e n tcounter run by NRWWOat Central Hospital, NewDelhi on November 18.

On this occasion thev i c e - pre s i d e nt ofNRWWO, Anjali Gulati,t he t re asu re r, Anj anaKumar, and other membersof t he committee andMe d i c a l D i re c tor ofNorthern Railway, CentralHospital, New Delhi, DrAmita Jain, doctors andrailway personnel werealso present.

The NRWWO is a vol-

untary organisation, whichruns various welfare activ-ities for the benefit of rail-way workers and their fam-ilies.

With the inaugurationof the beverage/refresh-ment counter operated byNRWWO there has been afurther increase in thefacility of beverages/cater-ing facilities to the patientsand their relatives/rela-tives visiting this hospital.

Department of Education, Lady IrwinCollege, a constituent college of University

of Delhi, is organising the National Conferenceon Learning (NCL 2021) through virtual modeon November 26, 2021. The theme of the con-ference is gender and education.

Education plays a crucial role in spread-ing awareness and providing advocacy to allsections of society. This conference on 'Gender& Education' explores gender related issues andconsiders a broader vision of how investing ineducation can promote gender equality, gen-der equity as well as sensitivity and empathy.

The conference will start with the inau-gural session at 9:30 am. The welcomeaddress will be delivered by the Director of theCollege, Dr Anupa Siddhu. The chief guest ofthe conference is Prof Dr Asha Shukla, Vice-Chancellor of Dr B R Ambedkar SocialScience University, Indore, who will reflect on'Gender & Education'. The guest of honour,is Dr Poonam Aggarwal, NCERT. The guestspeaker, Anuradha Krishnan, gender resourceperson, will also give valuable input on thetheme. After that, tribute will be paid to MsKamla Bhasin (Indian feminist).

Educationists, researchers, teacher educa-tors from various universities and colleges willparticipate and give their presentations on thesubthemes.

POWERGRID, a Maharatna PSU underMinistry of Power, Government of India

under its CSR initiative in Northern Region-I has provided a financial assistance amount-ing to �3.5 crores under a joint CSR supportby Power Sector CPSE’s towards rehabilitationand restoration of Uttarakhand.

Heavy rainfall in Uttarakhand on October17 and 18 led to heavy floods causing chaosand disaster across the hilly state, with flood-ed roads and buildings, destroyed bridges leav-ing locals and tourists stranded — some inremote and dangerous locations. The floodshave resulted in loss of lives and agriculturalland and severely damaged critical infrastruc-ture and public utilities.

The CSR work involves disaster manage-ment, including relief, rehabilitation andreconstruction activities across eight districtsof Uttarakhand majorly covering 58 govern-ment schools and 28 health centers. The

restoration work shall be looked after by theUttarakhand State Disaster ManagementAuthority.

Minister of Power and New andRenewable Energy, RK Singh handed over ajoint cheque amounting to �22.31 crores to

Dhan Singh Rawat, Minister of State forDisaster Management, Uttarakhand on behalfof Power Sector CPSE’s in the presence of theUttarakhand’s CM,Pushkar Singh Dhami,Minister of State for Power, Krishan Pal andother senior dignitaries from the Ministry ofPower. The event was attended virtually by KSreekant, CMD, POWERGRID and othersenior officials of POWERGRID.

As a responsible Corporate Citizen, POW-ERGRID through its never ending efforts, notonly ensures reliable transmission of Power butis also committed in ensuring unfading smilesfor people.

One of the most interestingaspects of tribal life is thearray of authentic dishes,

unique to the different tribes.Authentic tribal cuisine is a majorattraction of the ongoing TribesIndia Aadi Mahotsav at Dilli Haatin New Delhi. The National TribalFestival, an annual affair, showcas-es interesting dishes from acrossthe country. Crowds visiting DilliHaat have been thronging to theAadi Vyanjan section, where foodstalls from across the country,from states such as Sikkim,Uttarakhand, Telangana, TamilNadu, Nagaland and Chhattisgarhhave been put up.

Tribal communities have aclose connection with nature; theirsimplicity and reverence towardsnature is carried over to the food.The same reverence is reflected intheir cuisine; the tribals considertheir food to be sacred. Tribal cui-sine is not only interesting, but alsonutritious and balanced. Be it thedaal baati churma from Rajasthanor the litti chokha or Thapdi rotifrom Jharkhand, or the kadhi fromUttarakhand, tribal food is simple,nutritious and edible. There seemsto be a preference of differenttypes of millets among the tribals,hence dishes made out of majorand minor millets are availablesuch as ragi pakodas and madwarotis from Jharkhand, ragi idlis anddosas from Tamil Nadu.

Over the past few days it hasbeen observed that some dishesattracted more attention than theothers. Chapda chutney or red antchutney had many takers. Chapda

chutney, made from red ants, is saidto be not only tasty but also helpskeep diseases at bay. Mahua dish-es also garnered much interest.Mahua trees are commonly avail-able all over the forests of centraland western India.

One can also enjoy other exot-ic, tasty foods such as dhuska(deep fried snack made of pow-dered rice), banjara biryani, thap-di roti, herbal teas and arakku cof-fee from different parts of thecountry.

GI products came to a specialfocus in the ongoing Tribes IndiaAadi Mahotsav, when BhaskarKhulbe, Advisor to the PrimeMinister of India visited the AadiMahotsav.

GI products occupy a promi-nent place in this edition of theAadi Mahotsav, and more than 50

such identified products are dis-played in stalls across the venue bythe tribals. Many visitors havebeen visiting these stalls with muchinterest. Apart from this sevennew GI-tagged products fromUttarakhand consisting of Aipancraft, Tamta product, Ringal craft,Thulma, Bhutiya Daan Carpet,Chyura oil and Munshiyari rajma,was launched at Aadi Mahotsavtaking the tally of TRIFED promot-ed tribal GI products to 66.

Speaking on the occasion,Khulbe remarked, “I am pleased to

note that TRIFED has activelytaken up the cause to promote GITagged products and transforminto a brand, thus empowering trib-al artisans. This Aadi Mahotsav isan excellent way to bring all trib-al artisans from across the countryin a single place. I urge all Delhi-ites to visit this unique fair.”

The GI products featured at theTribes India Aadi Mahotsav includerenowned, exquisite items such asRajasthan’s blue pottery, the KotaDariya fabric, Madhya Pradesh’sChanderi and Maheshwari silk,Bagh print, Odisha’s Pattachitra,Karnataka’s Bidriware, Banarasisilk from Uttar Pradesh, Darjeelingtea from West Bengal, Kala jeerafrom Himachal Pradesh, theextremely spicy Naga chilli, and thelarge cardamom from the North-east.

Geographical indication tag-ging has acquired a greater signif-icance ever since the focus hasshifted towards Vocal for Local andbuilding an Aatmanirbhar Bharat.TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairshas been facilitating the promotionof GI Tagged products along withtribal products and transform theminto a brand, symbolising empow-erment of tribal artisans. These ini-tiatives are aimed help recogniseand promote age-old tribal tradi-tions and methods that in dangerof being lost due to urbanizationand industrialization.

The Geographical Indicationtechnology, which has been recog-nized by the World TradeOrganization, is used to denote thegeographical territory from where

a product, be it an agricultural pro-duce, natural product or manufac-tured, and also conveys assuranceof qualities or attributes that areunique to that specific geograph-ic region. India became a signato-ry to this convention, when, as amember of the WTO, it enacted theGeographical Indications(Registration and Protection Act),1999, which came into effect fromSeptember 15, 2003.

The Aadi Mahotsav festival isTRIFED’s attempt to familiarise thepeople with the rich and diversecraft, culture and cuisine of tribalcommunities across the country inone place.

Besides these GI products, onecan also find other ethnic tribalhandicrafts and products andorganic items — from the naturaland immunity-boosting tribal pro-duce such as virgin coconut oil,organic haldi, dry amla, wild honey,black pepper, ragi, triphala, andlentil mixes such as moong dal,urad dal, white beans, and dalia toartefacts such as paintings be it inthe Warli style or Patachitras; fromjewellery handcrafted in the Dokrastyle to bead necklaces from theWancho and Konyak tribes of theNorth-East.

The Aadi Mahotsav- ACelebration of the Spirit of TribalCrafts, Culture and Commerce ison at Dilli Haat, INA, New Delhitill the 30th November, 2021 from11 am to 9 pm.

Visit Aadi Mahotsav and sup-port the “Vocal for Local” move-ment and help in building a self-reliant India!

Two iron ore mines of SteelAuthority of India Limited

(SAIL), Kiriburu Iron Ore Minesand Meghahatuburu Iron OreMines, received five-star ratedawards for sustainable miningpractices and all round perfor-mance in the Iron Ore category atthe 5th National Conclave onMines & Minerals held in New

Delhi on November 23. The UnionMinister of Coal, Mines andParliamentary Affairs Shri PralhadJoshi presented the awards to Soma

Mondal, Chairman, SAIL in a glit-tering award ceremony. She wasaccompanied by Kamlesh Rai,Chief General Manager, KiriburuIron Ore Mines and Shri RPSelvam, Chief General Manager,Meghahatuburu Iron Ore Mineswhile receiving the awards.

SAIL’s Kiriburu Iron OreMines was awarded for the year

2017-18 and 2018-19 whileMeghahatuburu Iron ore Mineswas awarded for the year 2018-19and 2019-20. Both these SAILmines are under the JharkhandGroup of Mines of SAIL, BokaroSteel Plant.

SAIL fulfils its entire require-ment of iron ore from its captiveiron mines.

Jabra has announced the launchof Evolve2 75 - the latest in its

Evolve range of professional head-sets, specifically engineered tomake flexible working simplerand more productive for everyone,everywhere.

The Evolve2 75 is the first ofJabra’s Evolve headsets to includefully adjustable Jabra AdvancedActive Noise CancellationTM(ANC), so you can pick and choosehow much (or how little) of yoursurroundings you hear.

Delhi DevelopmentAuthority held its meeting

on November 24 through videoconferencing under the chair-manship of Anil Baijal, LtGovernor of Delhi and thechairman of DDA attended byManish Kumar Gupta, IAS,Vice Chairman, DDA, andother members of the Authorityincluding Vijender GuptaMLA, Somnath Bharti MLA, OP Sharma MLA, Adesh KumarGupta Municipal Councillor,North Delhi MunicipalCorporation and KailashSankla, Municipal Councillor,South Delhi MunicipalCorporation.

Following major decisionswere taken:

Launching of HousingScheme: The Authority hasapproved launching of OnlineSpecial Housing Scheme forapproximately 15,000 flats ofdifferent categories at variouslocations such as Dwarka,Narela, Rohini, Jasola etc. DDAwill soon share the furtherdetails of the scheme on its web-site and leading Newspapers /Social media. The scheme hasthe following main features:-

The flats offered underthis scheme are those whichremain unsold in previousHousing schemes of DDA.

The flats are being offeredat the old rates/cost in relaxationof the costing policy of DDAwhich is updated every finan-

cial year based on the appreci-ation/depreciation of landcost/building as the case maybe.

The flats at Narela sub-cityare being offered after takingseveral remedial measures interms of improvement of infra-structure, security and connec-tivity on the basis of sugges-tions/feedback of the allottees/residents of the area.

The allottees will be eligi-ble for subsidy under PMAYscheme of the central govt. ifthey avail home loan from thebank/financial institution.

The entire process fromapplication to allotment andpossession is being donethrough online mode.

PHDCCI-Rajasthan chapter organiseda Webinar on “Freight Incentives by

Railways for Industries with North WesternRailways” on November 24.

In his welcome address Shri DigvijayDhabriya, Chair, PHDCCI-RajasthanChapter informed that PHD Chamber hasbeen taking numerous initiative and pol-

icy advocacy measures for improvingEase of Doing Business, Reduction in costof Doing Business and providing a levelplaying field for the industry so that IndianEconomy can grow and achieve the targetof USD 5 trillion given by our Hon’blePrime Minister. He observed that logisticcost in India is over 14 per cent as com-

pare to 3-4 per cent in China adverselyaffecting the industry and exports fromIndia. There is a need to reduce to logis-tic cost and transportation through Railwaynetwork can help reducing the freight costwith the proactive approach and incentiveschemes offered by Railways.

Speaking as Chief Guest Narendra,

Divisional Railway Manager, NorthWestern Railway outlined the variousmeasures being taken by Railways forincreasing its freight basket with focus onservice and providing competitive freightsolutions to trade and industry with theultimate objective of facilitating growth ofIndian economy.

Water Supply and GroundWater Minister Dr Mahesh Joshi hassaid that the department's full focuswill be on uninterrupted, regularand adequate supply of clean drink-ing water to the public in the state.Along with this, vigorous efforts willbe made at every level with the helpof common people to preventwastage of water.

Dr Joshi was interacting withthe media persons after takingcharge as the new Water Supply andGround Water Minister of the Stateat the Government Secretariat onWednesday. Appealing to the com-mon people to save water, he saidthat water is priceless, people shouldunderstand its value and makemaximum use of it their habit.

Work will be done accordingto the needs of the people

The Minister said that the timeis changing rapidly and with this thepriorities of the people have alsochanged, in such a situation, depart-mental projects and programs willbe speeded up according to theneeds of the people in daily life. Hesaid that in the last three years, his-torical works of public interest havebeen done in all the departmentsincluding the water supply depart-ment in the state. During this,despite the circumstances arisingdue to Corona, the works of otherdrinking water projects including JalJeevan Mission (JJM) have beentaken forward in the state. Work inJJM has progressed very rapidly inthe recent past. Under the depart-ment, the work of all the projectsincluding JJM will be speeded upwith the thought that the moneybeing spent on them should be fully

benefited by the common man.

Stop wastage of drinking waterDr Joshi said that at many

places water gets wasted due to leak-age in the pipeline. For this, wher-ever the pipelines have becomeobsolete in the state, they will bereplaced and work will be done witha concrete strategy to preventwastage of drinking water. He saidthat the entire team of the depart-ment would leave no stone unturnedin the service of the public with theco-ordination of administrative offi-cers, engineers and technical andsubordinate personnel.

Dr Joshi was welcomed bysenior officers under the leadershipof Additional Chief Secretary, WaterSupply and Ground WaterDepartment, Sudhansh Pant bypresenting a bunch of flowers.Dignitaries including Dr. Joshi'sson Mr. Rohit Joshi and other wellwishers, fans and supporters werealso present on this occasion.

Dr Joshi's Joint Secretary ofGovernment of Water SupplyDepartment — First Pratap Singh,Joint Secretary, then Pushpa Satyani,Chief Engineer (Urban and NRW)CM Chouhan, Chief Engineer(Administration), Rakesh Luhadia,Chief Engineer (JJM), Dinesh Goyal,Chief Engineer (Special Projects)Dalip Kumar Gaur, Chief Engineer(Technical), Sandeep Sharma,Additional Chief Engineer (Rural)Devraj Solanki, Additional ChiefEngineer (Urban), AmitabhSharma, WSSO Director,Hukamchand Verma, AdditionalChief Engineer (Jaipur-II), ManishBeniwal and Additional ChiefEngineer (Jaipur-I) Arun Srivastava.

Tokens are going to be re-introduced in North –South

and East-West Metro fromtoday. For that, elaborate

arrangements have already beenmade to restore the old tokensystem in the Metro. For the safe-ty of Metro commuters, 40 token

sanitiser machines have alreadybeen installed at all stations.

Collected tokens will besanitised in these machines with

the help of ultra-violet ray forabout four minutes at eachNorth-South and East-WestMetro station. After U-V saniti-zation, these tokens will again beissued.

In each of the big stationstwo token sanitiser machines willbe kept for use. In each of thesmall stations one token sanitis-er machine will be kept.

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Shreyas Iyer is set for Testdebut and would like to reaffirm‘Bombay (not Mumbai) Schoolof Batsmanship’ whose philos-ophy transcends beyond thewhite-ball riches of IndianPremier League.

“Shreyas Iyer will be makinghis debut but I can’t reveal any-thing about combination,” skip-per Rahane confirmed ahead ofthe match.

It is indeed a rarity to findan Indian Test team that iswithout its hit opening pair ofRohit Sharma and KL Rahul.Also missing from line-up isskipper Virat Kohli and a gen-uine match-winning keeper-batter Rishabh Pant.

But this also gives headcoach Rahul Dravid a chance tocheck out what his back-upbench strength is before theaway tour of South Africa whichstarts in less than a month’s time.

In the batting line-up for thefirst Test, only Rahane,

Cheteshwar Pujara and MayankAgarwal have played more than10 Tests.

If Agarwal does well, thatwill keep KL Rahul on his toesand a good show from ShubmanGill will keep the team manage-ment interested in slotting himin the middle-order when thetwo regular openers come back.

In any sport, leader of theside is considered to have asecured slot in the side but inthis Indian team, the skipper willbe batting to save his career afteran average of 19 in 11 Testmatches in the current season.

Two more failures in twohome games could effectivelymean end of the road forRahane. Even Dravid will alsofind it difficult to justify theMumbaikar’s inclusion in the

Johannesburg-bound flight nextmonth.

A look at Rahane’s net ses-sion doesn’t inspire much con-fidence. He tried an ugly hoickoff Jayant Yadav’s off break andwas clean bowled. PrasidhKrishna induced an outsideedge which would have beenregulation catch.

But it was scary to see netbowler Shivam Mavi bowling aperfect bouncer and hitting himon the chest.

It is never easy to lead a sidewhen your own batting form hasdeserted you. How Rahanestrikes a balance in this Testbetween being a ruthless captainand also the batter his teamexpects him to be will decide inwhich direction his career goesfrom here.

If he plays the game of sur-vival against a Tim Southee orbumper-happy Neil Wagner, itmight bring about downfall butas Pujara said, “being a bit fear-

less” will relieve him a bit fromthe gigantic pressure that’s on hisshoulders to save his career.

Similarly, for Ishant, thesenior-most player in the currentset-up with 100 plus games and300 plus wickets, the situation isgetting bleak by the day.

He didn’t look in goodrhythm during the net sessionand if Siraj is dropped from theeleven, the lanky pacer willonce again need to prove thatteam management’s decisionisn’t a travesty.

Umesh Yadav howeverremains the first-choice new ballbowler. Shreyas, who has a hada decent red ball record but hasnot played a long format gamesince 2019, will have his task cut-out.

Dravid made him negotiateshort ball throw-downs fromleft-arm specialist Nuwan inorder to simulate Neil Wagner’sround the wicket tactic. A soliddebut with an aggressive mind-set might give them a shot atpermanent middle-order place

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Acaptain battling existen-tial crisis, a veteran pacerabout to be phased out

and a white-ball maverick try-ing to earn his red-ball stripesmakes for a heady combinationas Ajinkya Rahane’s second-string India aim to size up a grit-ty New Zealand in first Teststarting Thursday.

Rahane, with his career online, gets to lead India may beone last time while 100-Test vet-eran Ishant Sharma will bepraying that young turkMohammed Siraj doesn’t nudgehim out.

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If one goes by cues fromnets, the sequence of battersappears to be Gill and Mayank,followed by Pujara and Rahane.Next in line was Shreyas, whichconfirmed that Surya will haveto wait for his Test debut.

While it’s not known if AxarPatel’s workload is being man-aged but Jayant Yadav had anextended run in the nets underwatchful eyes of Dravid.

A middle-order with threedefensive players like Pujara,Rahane and supposedlyHanuma Vihari, won’t be a greatproposition when India playsaway from home in comingdays.

But one man, itching to goout there and reaffirm his sta-tus as world’s number onespinner will be RavichandranAshwin, who had been lickinghis wounds for the past few

months after a royal snub byregular captain Kohli duringthe last series.

The third spinner is like-ly to be Axar Patel, who had abrilliant debut home seriesagainst England (27 wickets)when he last donned thewhites even though Jayant

looked in good rhythm.For Black Caps, Tim

Southee and Neil Wagner willbe the two pacers with left-arm spin duo of Ajaz Patel andMitchell Santner along withoff-spinner WilliamSomerville likely to completethe attack.