f]]RY 3RcRURc e` YVRU 2WXYR_ 8`ge - Daily Pioneer

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T aliban co-founder Mullah Baradar will lead the upcoming Government in Afghanistan where the group seized control last control fol- lowing months of offensives. Baradar, who heads the Taliban’s political office in Doha, will be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai, in senior positions in the government, Tolo News reported citing sources from the Islamic group. Earlier, the Taliban had announced that Haibatullah Akhunzada, may lead the forthcoming government in the country but the sources have informed that he will focus on religious matters and governance within the frame- work of Islam. But the new Government’s most immediate priority may be to avert the collapse of an economy grappling with drought and the ravages of a 20-year conflict that killed around 240,000 Afghans before US forces completed a tumul- tuous pullout on August 30. At stake is whether the Taliban can govern a country facing economic meltdown, a humanitarian disaster and threats to security and stabili- ty from rival jihadist groups, including a local offshoot of Islamic State. “All the top leaders have arrived in Kabul, where prepa- rations are in final stages to announce the new govern- ment,” a Taliban official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Taliban, which seized Kabul on Aug. 15 after sweep- ing across most of the country, have faced resistance in the Panjshir Valley, where there have been reports of heavy fighting and casualties. Several thousand fighters of regional militias and rem- nants of the government’s armed forces have massed in the rugged valley under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, the son of former Mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. T he Supreme Court on Friday stayed for a week Kerala Government’s decision to conduct offline exams for Class XI from September 6 amid rising cases of Covid. “There is an alarming” situa- tion in the State owing to Covid-19, observed the apex court, adding that “cases in Kerala are about 70 per cent cases of the country. Children of this age cannot be exposed to this risk.” “Prima facie, we find force in submission made by peti- tioner that the State Government has not seriously considered the prevailing situ- ation before having a physical exam proposed to be conduct- ed in September this year. As we couldn’t get a satisfactory response from counsel for the State in this regard, we grant interim relief staying the offline exam till next date of hearing,” said a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Hrishikesh Roy and CT Ravikumar. The apex court posted the matter for next hearing on September 13. The Kerala High Court had earlier observed that con- ducting examination was a matter of Government policy and no interference was war- ranted. The apex court bench passed the order on an appeal filed by advocate Rasoolshan A challenging a decision of the high court refusing to interfere with the decision to hold offline exams. Meanwhile, the night cur- few slapped on Kerala since last Sunday has failed to yield any result as the number of new patients diagnosed with Covid- 19 continue to remain high. On Friday, out of the 1.63 lakh samples sent for testing, 29,322 persons were found to be infected with Covid-19, said a release by Health Minister Veena George. The Test Positivity Rate remained high with 17.91 per cent while the pandemic claimed 131 lives taking the death toll in the State till date to 21,280. The State also saw 118 health workers falling prey to Covid-19. T he Supreme Court on Friday expressed displea- sure over delay in framing guidelines for issuance of death certificates to the families of those who died of Covid-19 and directed the Centre to do so and file compliance report by September 11. “We passed the order a long time back. We have already extended the time once. By the time you frame the guidelines, the third phase will also be over”, a bench com- prising Justices MR Shah and Aniruddha Bose observed. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, assured the apex court that everything is under con- sideration. Advocate Gaurav Kumar Bansal, who has filed the peti- tion, submitted that under the pretext of consideration things should not be delayed as the top court has already granted four-week extension to the Centre on August 16 to frame guidelines for ex-gratia com- pensation and now it is seeking more time. Advocate Sumeer Sodhi, who appeared for some of the applicants, said extend- ed time for the first direction passed on June 30 is getting over on September 8. The bench said it is for the Centre to take decision on compensation within that peri- od of time and today it was adjourning the matter only for the purpose of compliance with other directions. “Put up on September 13 as Solicitor General seeks time to enable Union of India to comply with earlier order and place on record compliance report of other directions issued by this court on June 30, 2021. Compliance report to be filed with the registry on or before September 11,” the bench said. The apex court had in its June 30 verdict directed the National Disaster Management Authority(NDMA) to recom- mend within six weeks appro- priate guidelines for ex-gratia assistance on account of loss of life to the family members of persons who died due to Covid-19. The Centre had moved an application seeking some more time to frame the guidelines on the ground that the exercise which was in active consider- ation of the NDMA was at an advanced stage and requires a little more in-depth examina- tion. A mid debate whether or not students should be sent to schools in view of impending third wave of the coronavirus pandemic in India, a study by University College London and Public Health England has found that even as children rarely become severely ill due to the infection, at least one in seven infected kids may have lingering symptoms. The study found that 11- to-17-year-olds who tested pos- itive for the virus were twice as likely to report three or more symptoms 15 weeks later than those who had tested negative. Researchers surveyed 3,065 kids in England who had pos- itive results in a PCR test between January and March, and a control group of 3,739 who tested negative over the same period. Among those who tested positive, 14 per cent reported three or more symptoms such as unusual tiredness or headaches 15 weeks later, com- pared with 7 per cent reporting symptoms by that time among the control group. The researchers said while the findings suggested as many as 32,000 teenagers might have had multiple symptoms linked to Covid-19 after 15 weeks, the prevalence of long Covid in the age group was lower than some had feared last year. The findings were a pre- print which had not been peer- reviewed. The authors said any decision to extend vaccination to 12-15-year-olds in Britain was unlikely to be based on this study as there was not enough data on whether vaccination protects against long Covid-19. Early this year, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control had said the majority of children don’t develop symptoms when infected with the coronavirus, or their symptoms are very mild. However, it is becoming increasingly apparent that a large number of children with symptomatic and asympto- matic Covid-19 are experienc- ing long-term effects, many months after the infection. So far, most long Covid research is based on adults. There is less information about under-18s, in part because it takes longer to get ethical approval to study children, said Natalie Lambert at Indiana University School of Medicine. Symptoms of long Covid were first thought to include fatigue, muscle and joint pain, headache, insomnia, respira- tory problems and heart pal- pitations. Now, support groups and researchers said there may be up to 100 other symptoms, including gastrointestinal prob- lems, nausea, dizziness, seizures, hallucinations and testicular pain. S hooter Avani Lekhara scripted history once again, teen high-jumper Praveen Kumar knocked off an Asian record for his Silver while Harvinder Singh became India’s first archer to finish on podium as the country’s Paralympians raised the bar higher with unparalleled per- formances in the ongoing Games here on Friday. India picked up three medals on the day and the overall tally rose to 13, includ- ing two Gold, six Silver and five Bronze. In a nutshell, the coun- try’s best ever Paralympics con- tinued to get better. It started with Praveen’s Silver in the morning. The 18-year-old, compet- ing in his debut Games, clinched the Silver medal in the men’s high jump T64 event, set- ting a new Asian record with a 2.07m jump to finish behind Great Britain’s Jonathan Broom-Edwards, who notched up his season’s best effort of 2.10m for the gold. This was a personal best performance for him and his first major medal since taking up the sport in 2019. D escribing China as its “most important partner”, the Taliban have said they look to Beijing to rebuild Afghanistan and exploit its rich copper deposits as the war- ravaged country faces wide- spread hunger and fears of an economic collapse. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the group supports China’s One Belt, One Road initiative that seeks to link China with Africa, Asia and Europe through an enormous network of ports, railways, roads and industrial parks. “China is our most impor- tant partner and represents a fundamental and extraordi- nary opportunity for us because it is ready to invest and rebuild our country,” Geo News quoted Mujahid as saying in an interview to an Italian news- paper on Thursday. There are “rich copper mines in the country, which, thanks to the Chinese, can be put back into operation and modernised. In addition, China is our pass to markets all over the world,” said Mujahid. China has been making some positive statements towards the Taliban and has expressed the hope that the insurgents will follow moder- ate and prudent domestic and foreign policies, combat all forms of terrorist forces, live in harmony with other countries, and live up to the aspiration of its own people and the inter- national community. Stating that China respects Afghanistan’s sovereignty and will not interfere and follow the friendship with “entire Afghan people”, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that, “facts show that in realising economic development we need an open inclusive politi- cal structure, implementation of moderate foreign and domestic policies and clean break from terrorist groups in all forms”. The Taliban also view Russia as an important partner in the region and will maintain good relations with Moscow, Mujahid said. A mid concerns in India that Afghan soil under the Taliban regime can be used for terrorist activities against it, the insurgent group has said it has the right to speak out in favour of Muslims anywhere, includ- ing in Kashmir, though it does not have a policy of conduct- ing “armed operations” against any country. Suhail Shaheen, Taliban spokesman for its political office in Doha, in an exclusive interview to BBC through video link on Thursday, said: “We will raise our voice and say that Muslims are your own people, your own citizens and they are entitled to equal rights under your law.” As Muslims, it was the group’s right to speak out for Muslims living in Kashmir and any other country, Shaheen said while speaking from Doha. While recalling the terms of the Doha agreement with the US, he said they had “no poli- cy of conducting armed oper- ations against any country”. P andemonium prevailed in the last minutes of Punjab Vidhan Sabha’s special one- day session on Friday when the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA Bikramjit Singh Majithia demanding voting on the Government’s resolu- tion to adjourn the House sine die, claiming that many Congress legislators too have been demanding longer ses- sion. Notably, the SAD and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have all along been demanding extension of the session, maintaining that there was an urgent need to discuss scores of issues, while accusing the ruling Congress party of run- ning away from the same. Moreover, there are several Congress MLAs who have also supported the demand for a longer session. The Government has con- vened the one-day special ses- sion to commemorate the 400th birth anniversary of Sikhs’ ninth master Guru Tegh Bahadur. Even as the Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh had already made it clear that the regular session would be held in few days, the opposition parties were press- ing for extending the session considering the severe infight- ing faced by the Congress party. In fact, the Opposition parties were also planning to move the no-confidence motion against Capt Amarinder, as several Congress MLAs, including four Cabinet Ministers, have raised a banner of revolt against their own Chief Minister demanding his replacement with elections just about few months away. There were speculations that AAP may move the no- confidence motion against the Chief Minister as it had, a day before, issued a whip to all its 16 MLAs to be present in the Friday’s Vidhan Sabha session. However, neither the SAD not the AAP submitted any such motion to the Speaker. In a 117-member House, Congress enjoys a comfortable majority of 80 MLAs in the 117-seat Assembly. Ahead the start of the session, Capt Amarinder held a meeting with his close MLAs. Sources maintained that the Chief Minister’s meet- ing was not attended by the Congress State chief Navjot Singh Sidhu and his support- ers. As the moption to adjourn the House sine die was to be moved, Majithia demanded that the Chief Minister should prove his majority in the House. Majithia Said that since there was a division in the Congress, the Chief Minister should face a no confidence motion. However, the request was not entertained by the Speaker Rana KP Singh and the House was adjourned sine die. DISSENTERS MAIN- TAIN A DISTANCE Fissures in the Congress’ top leadership were apparent even inside the Vidhan Sabha during the one-day special session as several legislators, owing allegiance to Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, were seen sitting on the back benches or maintaining distance from the Chief Minister. Even the four rebel Ministers — Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa, Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, Sukhbinder Singh Sarkaria, and Charanjit Singh Channi — were sitting at a distance from the Chief Minister, though in all the pre- vious sessions, their seats were near the Chief Minister’s. SIDHU CAMP MEETS AT PARGAT’S HOUSE Soon after the special ses- sion was adjourned, the lead- ers of the Sidhu camp met for a closed door meeting at Punjab Congress general sec- retary (organisation) and MLA Pargat Singh’s residence. Sidhu, along with three working presidents, besides other legislators held a meet- ing, the agenda of which was not known. However, the tim- ing and venue of the meeting has raised speculations over what actually transpired in the meeting. One of the four Punjab Congress’ working presidents Sukhwinder Singh Danny maintained that there was a need to ensure coordination between the party and the Government for which we have met here. “Rawat ji has told us, and efforts are on to ensure that...If things are not well in the party as of now, it will be in the coming days,” he added.

Transcript of f]]RY 3RcRURc e` YVRU 2WXYR_ 8`ge - Daily Pioneer

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Taliban co-founder MullahBaradar will lead the

upcoming Government inAfghanistan where the groupseized control last control fol-lowing months of offensives.

Baradar, who heads theTaliban’s political office inDoha, will be joined by MullahMohammad Yaqoob, the son of

late Taliban co-founder MullahOmar, and Sher MohammadAbbas Stanekzai, in seniorpositions in the government,

Tolo News reported citingsources from the Islamic group.

Earlier, the Taliban hadannounced that Haibatullah

Akhunzada, may lead theforthcoming government inthe country but the sourceshave informed that he willfocus on religious matters andgovernance within the frame-work of Islam.

But the new Government’smost immediate priority maybe to avert the collapse of aneconomy grappling withdrought and the ravages of a20-year conflict that killedaround 240,000 Afghans beforeUS forces completed a tumul-tuous pullout on August 30.

At stake is whether theTaliban can govern a countryfacing economic meltdown, ahumanitarian disaster andthreats to security and stabili-ty from rival jihadist groups,including a local offshoot ofIslamic State.

“All the top leaders havearrived in Kabul, where prepa-rations are in final stages toannounce the new govern-ment,” a Taliban official toldReuters, speaking on conditionof anonymity.

The Taliban, which seizedKabul on Aug. 15 after sweep-ing across most of the country,have faced resistance in thePanjshir Valley, where therehave been reports of heavyfighting and casualties.

Several thousand fightersof regional militias and rem-nants of the government’sarmed forces have massed inthe rugged valley under theleadership of Ahmad Massoud,the son of former Mujahideencommander Ahmad ShahMassoud.

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The Supreme Court onFriday stayed for a week

Kerala Government’s decisionto conduct offline exams forClass XI from September 6amid rising cases of Covid.“There is an alarming” situa-tion in the State owing toCovid-19, observed the apexcourt, adding that “cases inKerala are about 70 per centcases of the country. Childrenof this age cannot be exposedto this risk.”

“Prima facie, we find forcein submission made by peti-tioner that the StateGovernment has not seriouslyconsidered the prevailing situ-ation before having a physicalexam proposed to be conduct-ed in September this year. Aswe couldn’t get a satisfactoryresponse from counsel for theState in this regard, we grantinterim relief staying the offlineexam till next date of hearing,”said a bench of Justices AMKhanwilkar, Hrishikesh Royand CT Ravikumar. The apexcourt posted the matter for nexthearing on September 13.

The Kerala High Courthad earlier observed that con-ducting examination was amatter of Government policyand no interference was war-ranted. The apex court benchpassed the order on an appeal

filed by advocate Rasoolshan Achallenging a decision of thehigh court refusing to interferewith the decision to hold offlineexams.

Meanwhile, the night cur-few slapped on Kerala since lastSunday has failed to yield anyresult as the number of newpatients diagnosed with Covid-19 continue to remain high. OnFriday, out of the 1.63 lakhsamples sent for testing, 29,322persons were found to beinfected with Covid-19, said arelease by Health MinisterVeena George.

The Test Positivity Rateremained high with 17.91 percent while the pandemicclaimed 131 lives taking thedeath toll in the State till dateto 21,280. The State also saw118 health workers falling preyto Covid-19.

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The Supreme Court onFriday expressed displea-

sure over delay in framingguidelines for issuance of deathcertificates to the families ofthose who died of Covid-19and directed the Centre to doso and file compliance reportby September 11.

“We passed the order along time back. We havealready extended the time once.By the time you frame theguidelines, the third phase willalso be over”, a bench com-prising Justices MR Shah andAniruddha Bose observed.

Solicitor General TusharMehta, appearing for theCentre, assured the apex courtthat everything is under con-sideration.

Advocate Gaurav KumarBansal, who has filed the peti-tion, submitted that under thepretext of consideration thingsshould not be delayed as thetop court has already grantedfour-week extension to theCentre on August 16 to frameguidelines for ex-gratia com-pensation and now it is seekingmore time. Advocate SumeerSodhi, who appeared for someof the applicants, said extend-ed time for the first directionpassed on June 30 is gettingover on September 8.

The bench said it is for theCentre to take decision oncompensation within that peri-

od of time and today it wasadjourning the matter only forthe purpose of compliancewith other directions. “Put upon September 13 as SolicitorGeneral seeks time to enableUnion of India to comply withearlier order and place onrecord compliance report ofother directions issued by thiscourt on June 30, 2021.Compliance report to be filedwith the registry on or beforeSeptember 11,” the bench said.

The apex court had in itsJune 30 verdict directed theNational Disaster ManagementAuthority(NDMA) to recom-mend within six weeks appro-priate guidelines for ex-gratiaassistance on account of loss oflife to the family members ofpersons who died due toCovid-19.

The Centre had moved anapplication seeking some moretime to frame the guidelines onthe ground that the exercisewhich was in active consider-ation of the NDMA was at anadvanced stage and requires alittle more in-depth examina-tion.

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Amid debate whether or notstudents should be sent to

schools in view of impendingthird wave of the coronaviruspandemic in India, a study byUniversity College London andPublic Health England hasfound that even as childrenrarely become severely ill dueto the infection, at least one inseven infected kids may havelingering symptoms.

The study found that 11-to-17-year-olds who tested pos-itive for the virus were twice aslikely to report three or moresymptoms 15 weeks later thanthose who had tested negative.

Researchers surveyed 3,065kids in England who had pos-itive results in a PCR testbetween January and March,

and a control group of 3,739who tested negative over thesame period.

Among those who testedpositive, 14 per cent reportedthree or more symptoms suchas unusual tiredness orheadaches 15 weeks later, com-pared with 7 per cent reportingsymptoms by that time amongthe control group.

The researchers said whilethe findings suggested as manyas 32,000 teenagers might havehad multiple symptoms linked

to Covid-19 after 15 weeks, theprevalence of long Covid in theage group was lower than somehad feared last year.

The findings were a pre-print which had not been peer-reviewed. The authors said anydecision to extend vaccinationto 12-15-year-olds in Britainwas unlikely to be based on thisstudy as there was not enoughdata on whether vaccinationprotects against long Covid-19.

Early this year, theEuropean Centre for Disease

Prevention and Control hadsaid the majority of childrendon’t develop symptoms wheninfected with the coronavirus,or their symptoms are verymild.

However, it is becomingincreasingly apparent that alarge number of children withsymptomatic and asympto-matic Covid-19 are experienc-ing long-term effects, manymonths after the infection.

So far, most long Covidresearch is based on adults.There is less information aboutunder-18s, in part because ittakes longer to get ethicalapproval to study children,said Natalie Lambert at IndianaUniversity School of Medicine.

Symptoms of long Covidwere first thought to includefatigue, muscle and joint pain,headache, insomnia, respira-tory problems and heart pal-pitations. Now, support groupsand researchers said there maybe up to 100 other symptoms,including gastrointestinal prob-lems, nausea, dizziness,seizures, hallucinations andtesticular pain.

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Shooter Avani Lekharascripted history once again,

teen high-jumper PraveenKumar knocked off an Asianrecord for his Silver whileHarvinder Singh becameIndia’s first archer to finish onpodium as the country’sParalympians raised the barhigher with unparalleled per-formances in the ongoingGames here on Friday.

India picked up threemedals on the day and theoverall tally rose to 13, includ-ing two Gold, six Silver and fiveBronze. In a nutshell, the coun-

try’s best ever Paralympics con-tinued to get better.

It started with Praveen’sSilver in the morning.

The 18-year-old, compet-ing in his debut Games,clinched the Silver medal in themen’s high jump T64 event, set-ting a new Asian record with a

2.07m jump to finish behindGreat Britain’s JonathanBroom-Edwards, who notchedup his season’s best effort of2.10m for the gold.

This was a personal bestperformance for him and hisfirst major medal since takingup the sport in 2019.

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Describing China as its“most important partner”,

the Taliban have said they lookto Beijing to rebuildAfghanistan and exploit itsrich copper deposits as the war-ravaged country faces wide-spread hunger and fears of aneconomic collapse.

Taliban spokespersonZabihullah Mujahid said thegroup supports China’s OneBelt, One Road initiative thatseeks to link China with Africa,Asia and Europe through anenormous network of ports,railways, roads and industrialparks.

“China is our most impor-tant partner and represents afundamental and extraordi-nary opportunity for usbecause it is ready to invest andrebuild our country,” Geo Newsquoted Mujahid as saying in aninterview to an Italian news-paper on Thursday.

There are “rich coppermines in the country, which,thanks to the Chinese, can beput back into operation andmodernised.

In addition, China is our

pass to markets all over theworld,” said Mujahid.

China has been makingsome positive statementstowards the Taliban and hasexpressed the hope that theinsurgents will follow moder-ate and prudent domestic andforeign policies, combat allforms of terrorist forces, live inharmony with other countries,and live up to the aspiration ofits own people and the inter-national community.

Stating that China respectsAfghanistan’s sovereignty andwill not interfere and follow thefriendship with “entire Afghanpeople”, Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman WangWenbin said on Tuesday that,“facts show that in realisingeconomic development weneed an open inclusive politi-cal structure, implementationof moderate foreign anddomestic policies and cleanbreak from terrorist groups inall forms”.

The Taliban also viewRussia as an important partnerin the region and will maintaingood relations with Moscow,Mujahid said.

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Amid concerns in India thatAfghan soil under the

Taliban regime can be used forterrorist activities against it, theinsurgent group has said it hasthe right to speak out in favourof Muslims anywhere, includ-ing in Kashmir, though it doesnot have a policy of conduct-ing “armed operations” againstany country.

Suhail Shaheen, Talibanspokesman for its politicaloffice in Doha, in an exclusive

interview to BBC throughvideo link on Thursday, said:

“We will raise our voice and saythat Muslims are your ownpeople, your own citizens andthey are entitled to equal rightsunder your law.”

As Muslims, it was thegroup’s right to speak out forMuslims living in Kashmir andany other country, Shaheensaid while speaking from Doha.

While recalling the termsof the Doha agreement with theUS, he said they had “no poli-cy of conducting armed oper-ations against any country”.

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Pandemonium prevailed inthe last minutes of Punjab

Vidhan Sabha’s special one-day session on Friday whenthe Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) MLA Bikramjit SinghMajithia demanding votingon the Government’s resolu-tion to adjourn the House sinedie, claiming that manyCongress legislators too havebeen demanding longer ses-sion.

Notably, the SAD andAam Aadmi Party (AAP) haveall along been demandingextension of the session,maintaining that there was anurgent need to discuss scoresof issues, while accusing theruling Congress party of run-ning away from the same.Moreover, there are severalCongress MLAs who havealso supported the demand fora longer session.

The Government has con-vened the one-day special ses-

sion to commemorate the400th birth anniversary ofSikhs’ ninth master Guru TeghBahadur. Even as the ChiefMinister Capt AmarinderSingh had already made itclear that the regular sessionwould be held in few days, theopposition parties were press-ing for extending the sessionconsidering the severe infight-ing faced by the Congressparty.

In fact, the Oppositionparties were also planning tomove the no-confidencemotion against CaptAmarinder, as severalCongress MLAs, includingfour Cabinet Ministers, haveraised a banner of revoltagainst their own ChiefMinister demanding hisreplacement with electionsjust about few months away.

There were speculationsthat AAP may move the no-confidence motion againstthe Chief Minister as it had, aday before, issued a whip to all

its 16 MLAs to be present inthe Friday’s Vidhan Sabhasession. However, neither theSAD not the AAP submittedany such motion to theSpeaker.

In a 117-member House,Congress enjoys a comfortablemajority of 80 MLAs in the117-seat Assembly.

Ahead the start of thesession, Capt Amarinder helda meeting with his closeMLAs. Sources maintainedthat the Chief Minister’s meet-ing was not attended by theCongress State chief NavjotSingh Sidhu and his support-ers.

As the moption to adjournthe House sine die was to bemoved, Majithia demandedthat the Chief Minister shouldprove his majority in theHouse. Majithia Said thatsince there was a division inthe Congress, the ChiefMinister should face a noconfidence motion.

However, the request was

not entertained by the SpeakerRana KP Singh and the Housewas adjourned sine die.

DISSENTERS MAIN-TAIN A DISTANCE

Fissures in the Congress’top leadership were apparenteven inside the Vidhan Sabhaduring the one-day specialsession as several legislators,owing allegiance to PunjabCongress chief Navjot SinghSidhu, were seen sitting on theback benches or maintainingdistance from the ChiefMinister.

Even the four rebelMinisters — Tript RajinderSingh Bajwa, SukhjinderSingh Randhawa, SukhbinderSingh Sarkaria, and CharanjitSingh Channi — were sittingat a distance from the ChiefMinister, though in all the pre-vious sessions, their seats werenear the Chief Minister’s.

SIDHU CAMP MEETSAT PARGAT’S HOUSE

Soon after the special ses-sion was adjourned, the lead-ers of the Sidhu camp met fora closed door meeting atPunjab Congress general sec-retary (organisation) andMLA Pargat Singh’s residence.

Sidhu, along with threeworking presidents, besidesother legislators held a meet-ing, the agenda of which wasnot known. However, the tim-ing and venue of the meetinghas raised speculations overwhat actually transpired in themeeting.

One of the four PunjabCongress’ working presidentsSukhwinder Singh Dannymaintained that there was aneed to ensure coordinationbetween the party and theGovernment for which wehave met here. “Rawat ji hastold us, and efforts are on toensure that...If things are notwell in the party as of now, itwill be in the coming days,” headded.

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Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday inau-gurated and laid the foundation stone of development pro-

jects worth Rs 315 crore in Pachhad assembly constituencyin Sirmaur district.

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Punjab Vidhan Sabha onFriday held a special one-

day session to commemoratethe 400th prakash purb (birthanniversary) of Guru TeghBahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru,which was attended by almostall the MLAs. Punjab Governorand UT Administrator BanwariLal Purohit and former ChiefJustice of India Justice JSKhehar presided over the event.

Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh, during hisaddress, called for sarbat dabhala (welfare of humanity)and lauded the Sikh commu-nity’s effort to reach out in cri-sis. Besides, he stressed onhaving more religious free-dom in the coutry.

“Whenever there is a crisis,Sikhs come forward to help.Our gurus were willing to laydown their lives for humanity.Serving humanity should bethe prime objective in spite ofdiverse political thoughts,” hesaid.

Sharing his perception onIndia continuing to be a plu-ralistic country which has theunique distinction of beinghome to almost every faith inthe world, the Chief Ministersaid that this concept is whatgives India its richness and cul-tural diversity.

“The slogan that we oftenhear and talk about Unity inDiversity is not a hollow orempty slogan. It carries a deepmeaning which must be under-stood and internalised by all ofus”, asserted the Chief Minister,adding that the greatest tributeto Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji

would be to imbibe Guru Ji’suniversal message of love andreligious freedom amongstmankind.

Capt Amarinder alsounderlined the need to propa-gate the ideology of the Sikhsninth master Guru TeghBahadur around the world topromote the values of peace,harmony, secularism and co-existence, which Guru Sahibupheld through his supremesacrifice.

He said that the Sikh faithis distinguished by the traditionof martyrdom to uphold prin-ciples and righteousness givento us by our great Gurus. “Thelife and message of Guru TeghBahadur ji constitutes theessence of what we have cometo regard as Punjabiyat. It com-prises our saanjhi tehzeeb, ourma-boli Punjabi, our close tiesof amity and fraternity cuttingacross people, faiths, castesand communities,” he said.

He added, “When we talkof Punjab and Punjabis,Punjabiyat must follow. ThisPunjabiyat embodied in the lifeand teachings of the GreatGuru need to be understood,appreciated and nurtured care-fully.”

The Chief Minister addedthat the spirit of Punjabiyat hasbeen taken by our people to allcorners of the globe wherethey have made a special placefor themselves through dint ofhard work, enterprise and sac-rifice. “Punjabiyat often is test-ed by forces that represent anarrow and short-sighted per-spective as against the broadall-embracing vision given byour Gurus, therefore, it is our

bounden duty as representa-tives of the people to guardagainst such inimical forcesvery consciously and not toallow our competing politicalinterests to ever undermine thestrong foundations of thisPunjabiyat,” he said.

Pointing out further, theChief Minister said that the his-tory remembers Guru TeghBahadur Ji with great pride as‘Hind Di Chadar’ for makingthe supreme sacrifice foropposing forced conversionand for protection of religiousfreedom.

Dwelling on the relevanceof Guru Ji’s sacrifice, the ChiefMinister said that it was farmore relevant and importanteven today as three-and-a-halfcenturies ago. “India has itsunique cultural tradition whatwe call Indianness, which isIdea of our country,” he said.

Meanwhile, GovernorPurohit, who visited the assem-bly for the first time after tak-ing charge recently, said thatthe teachings and sacrifices ofall Sikh gurus were a lesson forhumanity. “The saga of GuruTeg Bahadur ji offers the sym-bolism of the highest sacrificeand the finest expression ofspiritual faith,” Purohit said.

Purohit described the GuruTegh Bahadur’s martyrdom asone of the most importantturning points in the spiritual,religious, and political historyof India. “Guru Ji shines amongthe galaxy of great spiritualGurus whose message contin-ues to guide the humanity andremains universally relevantat all the times,” he said.

“No one can forget the

contributions ofthe Sikh Gurus andtheir selfless sacri-fices to strengthenthe unity amongdifferent commu-nities. Therefore,Sikh Gurus arerespected not onlyby Sikhs, but alsoby people of allfaiths across theworld,” he said.

Pointing outfurther, theGovernor said thatone of the key ele-ments in the teach-ings of Guru Sahibhas been the spiritof Sewa or selflessservice. This isconsidered as oneof the foremostpious duties thatthe mankind canperform enriching us with self-lessness, humility and gratitudetowards God, he added.

Vidhan Sabha SpeakerRana KP Singh said that theunprecedented sacrifice of SriGuru Tegh Bahadur Ji wouldever inspire the mankind toimbibe the message of love,harmony and tolerance there-by rising above the parochialconsideration of caste, colour,creed and religion.

The Speaker further saidthat Guru Sahib’s sacrifice wasnot only for the sake ofKashmiri Pandits or for theprotection of Hindu Religionrather it was made for theentire humanity, religious free-dom and equality.

In his keynote address, theformer Chief Justice of India

Justice JS Khehar emphasizedthe importance of ‘ardas’ in theSikh way of life across theglobe and said that we all areblessed today to celebrate 400thprakash purb of Sri Guru TeghBahadur Ji to remember andcontemplate on Guru Sahib.

Justice Khehar cited themartyrdom of the Fifth SikhGuru Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji asthe event that changed thecourse of the Sikh history andstarted the process of milita-rization of the Sikhs who untilthen were a peaceful commu-nity. “This background must beunderstood to understand theevents that shaped the cir-cumstances in Guru TeghBahadur Ji's life,” he said whilealso recounting the life andevents of Guru Sahib Ji who

didn't bow before the injusticeof the then Mughal Emperorand instead chose martyrdomto ensure protection of religiousrights of all as being central tothe Sikh identity.

The encyclopediaBritannica also recognizes SriGuru Tegh Bahadur Ji's sacri-fice for the religious freedom ofanother religion, added JusticeKhehar.

Thanking all the digni-taries, Leader of the OppositionHarpal Singh Cheema exhort-ed one and all to follow thepath shown by Sri Guru TeghBahadur Ji. He also emphasizedrelevance of the teachings ofGuru Sahib in today's troubledtimes when the society is stillfraught with the dangers of reli-gious fanaticism and conflictsacross the world.

Assembly Speaker RanaKP Singh read out the greetingssent by Tibetan spiritual leaderDalai Lama and Vice-PresidentVenkaiah Naidu. In his messageto the House, the Dalai Lamasaid that the life, writings andprinciples of the Guru willalways be source of inspiration.

HOUSE PAYS TRIBUTETO FARMERS WHO LOSTTHEIR LIVES DURINGONGOING FARMERS’ AGI-TATION

Punjab Vidhan Sabha onFriday paid tribute to the farm-ers who lost their lives duringongoing farmers’ agitation,besides other eminent person-alities including Flying SikhMilkha Singh, globallyrenowned athlete Mann Kauramong others.

The names of the farmers

were included in the obituarylist after the AAP MLA andDeputy Leader of OppositionSarvjit Kaur Manuke and SADMLA Sharanjit Singh Dhillondemanded that the farmersand farm labourers, who havedied in the ongoing farmersstruggle against the Centre’sfarm laws, be included in thelist.

Earlier, the House paidtribute to the eminent person-alities, freedom fighters, sportsicons, political personalitiesbesides senior officers of civiland police administration, whohad passed away since the lastsession of the Assembly.

On the onset of one dayspecial session of the 15thVidhan Sabha to commemo-rate the 400th prakash purb ofGuru Tegh Bahadur, the Housepaid respects to former UnionMinister of State RL Bhatia, for-mer Ministers Gurnam SinghAbul Khurana, Gulzar Singh,Surjit Kaur Kalkat, ChaudhriRadha Krishan and InderjitSingh Zira, ex-ChiefParliamentary SecretaryJagdish Sawhney besides for-mer MLAs Sukhdarshan SinghMarar and Jagraj Singh Gill.

The House also paid trib-ute to the martyr SepoyPrabhjit Singh. Likewise,homage was also paid to thefreedom fighters Kala Singh,Gurdev Singh, Ranjit Singhand Sulakhan Singh.

The House also remem-bered the former State ChiefSecretary YS Ratra and formerDGP Mohd Izhaar Alam.

Ricj tributes were also paidto the founder of Centre forResearch on Rural and

Industrial Development(CRRID) Rashpal Malhotra.The House also paid homage toMahinder Kaur (Cabinet Rank)and former SGPC MemberKuldeep Singh Dhoss.

Meanwhile, Sports andYouth Affairs Minister RanaGurmit Singh Sodhi proposedthe names of Crickter YashpalSharma and Indian VolleyballTeam’s former captain NirmalMilkha Singh, the wife of lateMilkha Singh, for obituary ref-erences.

Likewise, Nabha MLARandeep Singh also proposedthe name of martyr GurjantSingh, Raikot MLA JagtarSingh proposed name of mar-tyr Sub-Inspector GurmukhSingh, and Adampur MLAPawan Kumar Tinnu also pro-posed the name of Baba BhagSingh University ChancellorSant Baba Dilawar Singh to beincluded in the obituary list.

On their request, theSpeaker Rana Kanwar PalSingh consented to includethese names to obituary refer-ences.

A two-minute silence wasobserved in the memory ofdeparted souls as a mark ofrespect during the obituaryreferences.

Meanwhile, the Speakerproposed that homage be paidto all those members who hadpassed away since the previoussession. After the obituary ref-erences to the departed souls,he passed a resolution for con-veying the condolences of theHouse to their respective fam-ilies. The resolution was passedby voice vote.

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Punjab State SafaiKaramchari Commission

on Friday declared that all thesewer-men should be providedwith safety kits and it would beensured that they do not cleansewer without safety gears.

Commission chairmanGeja Ram Valmiki, in a letterto all the DeputyCommissioners, MunicipalCommissioners and ExecutiveOfficers, said that it has cometo the Commission’s noticethat negligence in sewer clean-ing is still continuing at someplaces and wherever the offi-cials found negligent, an actionis being initiated by theCommission.

Valmiki said that althoughmost of the sewer cleaning isbeing done with modernmachines. “Where machinescannot reach, the cleaningwork should be executed by thesewer men with fully equippedsafety gears,” he added.

“Municipal Corporations,Municipal Councils and NagarPanchayats, utilizing the ser-vices of the sewer men withoutsafety kits, would not be toler-ated and an appropriate actionwould be initiated against theconcerned official,” said thechairman, adding that safetymeasures at workplace shouldbe ensured by the concernedofficers or employees and theconcerned officer should bepresent on the spot duringmanual sewer cleaning.

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The children of poor fami-lies, who have been verified

under the Parivar PehchanPatra, will now be impartededucation free of cost at theModel Sanskriti SeniorSecondary Schools in Haryana.

The decision was taken ina meeting to review theprogress of Model SanskritiSchools held under the chair-manship of the Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar here.

To ensure consistentprogress of these schools, theChief Minister directed thesenior officers to conduct fieldvisits at these schools and tocarry out monthly review ofthese schools. He suggestedthat the senior officers of thedistricts like SDM, DDPO,Tehsildar should adopt ModelSanskriti Schools and sincereefforts should also be made in

this regard. He also expressedsatisfaction over the work doneby the Education Departmentin setting up these schools.

The Chief Minister saidthere is a demand to increasethe number of such schools dueto the consistent progress ofthese schools. Thus, the offi-cials should work towardsenhancing the number ofschools while considering itsviability, he said.

Khattar further said that itis mentioned in the NationalEducation Policy 2020 that theschools should lay emphasis onnational and local languages, sostudents should be given theoption of taking education inEnglish medium as well asHindi medium in these schools.He said that the schools shouldgive prominence to the qualityof education and work onenhancing it consistently.

It was informed that during

the budget speech of ChiefMinister, an announcement wasmade to open GovernmentModel Sanskriti SeniorSecondary School andGovernment Model SanskritiPrimary School in each block ofthe state, so as to render quali-ty education to the students onpar with private schools. At pre-sent, there are 137 GovernmentModel Sanskriti SeniorSecondary Schools and 1,418Model Sanskriti PrimarySchools functional in the state.

The Chief Minister saidthat the number of children hasincreased by 27.90 per cent inModel Sanskriti SeniorSecondary Schools and 16.73per cent in Model SanskritiPrimary Schools.

It was further informedthat a standardized test wouldbe taken to recruit teachers forModel Sanskriti SeniorSecondary Schools.

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Haryana State Industrial andI n f r a s t r u c t u r e

Development Corporation(HSIIDC) has approved 'onetime settlement scheme' forpayment of outstanding duesfor the cost of plot, enhancedcost, maintenance charges andextension charges, which willdirectly benefit about 300industrialists of the state.

HSIIDC, managing direc-tor, Anurag Agarwal said thatkeeping in view the interests ofthe existing allottees of indus-trial, residential, group housing,institutional and commercial

housing plots of HSIIDC, it hasbeen decided that the allotteeshall pay the outstanding costof his plot, enhanced cost andmaintenance charges. If theallottee he has not been able topay till June 30, 2021 and he iswilling to settle the entire out-standing amount in lump sum,then he can avail the benefit till30 September, 2021, he said.

Agarwal said that suchwilling allottees would get 25percent rebate in outstandinginterest and 100 percent rebatein penal interest. The decisionof HSIIDC in all mattersregarding this scheme would befinal and would not be ques-

tioned by any allottee at anystage.

He said that if the amountpaid as per the scheme is notcomplete, it will not be refund-ed but will be adjusted againstthe default amount.

Under the 'one time settle-ment scheme' it has also beendecided that this scheme will beapplicable to allottees of HSI-IDC, Haryana UrbanDevelopment Authority(HSVP) and allottees ofIndustrial Estate transferredfrom Industries Department.According to the scheme, thecut-off date for charging inter-est/delayed interest would beJuly 30, 2021, he added.

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The burden on HaryanaChief Minister Grievance

Redressal and MonitoringSystem (CM Window) is set toreduce as it will work in coor-dination with the Right toService Commission from nowonwards.

The Chief Commissionerof the Commission, TC Guptasaid that out of the complaintsreceived at the CM Window,numerous complaints are relat-ed to the Commission. Thus,the workload on the CMWindow is bound to reduce toa great extent in a few monthsas the Commission will nowdispose of the complaints com-ing to the CM window withinthe stipulated time frame, hesaid.

He said that at present, 546

service related to 38 organiza-tions of 31 Departments comeunder the purview of Right toService Commission. Out ofthese, 277 services are availableonline through AntyodayaSaral Portal while 269 servicesare being provided offline.

Chief Minister ManoharLal Khattar has directed theheads of various departmentsto ensure digitization of theremaining services at the ear-liest, he said.

Gupta expressed hope thatwithin the next three monthsall the departments will maketheir respective notified ser-vices online.

Notably, more than ninelakh complaints have beenreceived so far on CM window.

The Chief Commissionerof the Commission informedthat the Chief Minister has

launched the Auto Appeal soft-ware 'AAS' for the servicescoming under the Right toService Act on September 1.With the introduction of thissystem, if the work is not doneon time, the appeal will moveto appellate AuthorityAutomatically.

He said that most of thepeople hesitate to appeal toeven after the stipulated timeperiod has elapsed. Thus,instead of appealing, they waitfor their work to be done.However, with the introductionof 'AAS', the applicant will beable to choose the option ofauto appeal at the time ofapplying for any service.Besides this, if the applicationis rejected due to some reason,he/she can also appeal laterthrough the helpline, he added.

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Haryana Home MinisterAnil Vij and Agriculture

Minister JP Dalal on Fridayslammed the Congress leadersover police lathi-charge on agroup of farmers in Moga inthe party-ruled Punjab, andalleged that the party is onlyusing the farmers to fulfil itspolitical ambition.

Attacking Congress, Vijsaid that the party is responsi-ble for thrashing farmers inMoga district of Punjab.

He said that Congress MPRahul Gandhi had tweetedregarding the incident inKarnal. Presently, there isCongress government inPunjab and even after such afierce lathi-charge on farmers,no one said anything, said Vij

while talking to the mediaper-sons. Agriculture Minister JPDalal alleged that the Congressis not bothered about the wel-fare of farmers and has onlybeen using them to serve itsown interest. Why are Congressleaders silent on lathi-charge onfarmers in Punjab?, he ques-tioned.

The Punjab Police had onThursday used batons and awater cannon to disperse agroup of farmers who alleged-ly tried to force their wayinside the venue of an event ofthe Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)in Punjab's Moga, which wasbeing addressed by its chiefSukhbir Singh Badal.

Police had claimed some ofthe protesters scuffled withthem, broke barricades andhurled stones in a bid to force

their way inside the venue.

CONGRESS DEFENDSPOLICE ACTION ONFARMERS IN MOGA

Defending the PunjabGovernment on Moga incident,Congress’ national spokesper-son Supriya Shrinate on Fridaysaid that there is a huge differ-ence between what happenedin Punjab and what happenedin Haryana.

“Congress always standsin support of the farmers,” sheclaimed when asked why theCongress has a different standon the Karnal incident in BJPruled Haryana and Moga inci-dent in Congress ruled Punjab.

“The DistrictAdministration takes steps tocontrol crowds and if lath-icharge took place (referring to

Moga incident), I condemnthat. I condemn action againstfarmers, wherever it has takenplace, irrespective of whetherwe are in government or not,”she said.

“Haryana Chief Minister,BJP leaders never condemnedthe Karnal incident, they triedto hush up things. This is thedifference, you must under-stand…," she added.

Notably, the Congress hasslammed the BJP-JJPGovernment in Haryana overSaturday's lathicharge on farm-ers in Karnal and demanded ajudicial inquiry into the inci-dent. The State Governmenthad on Wednesday transferredKarnal SDM Ayush Sinha whowas caught on camera tellingpolicemen dealing with a farm-ers' protest to "break their

heads". At least 15 farmerswere injured after HaryanaPolice had lathi-charged themat Bastara toll plaza.

Referring to the farmersprotesting against the Centre’sfarm laws and sitting at Delhi’sborders for over nine months,the Congress spokespersonsaid the BJP led CentralGovernment has not botheredto invite them for talks afterJanuary.

“Six hundred farmers havedied during this agitation, haveyou heard a word of sympathyfrom this government forthem?” she said.

The Congress spokesper-son also criticized the CentralGovernment over its NationalMonetisation Pipeline (NMP)and asked it to stop playingwith national assets.

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The retirement age of doc-tors has been reduced from

65 years to 58 years in Haryana.A notification in this

regard has been issued by theState Government stating, “Thesuperannuation age of all theHaryana Civil Medical Service(HCMS) doctors of HealthDepartment shall now be 58years with effect fromSeptember 30, 2021.”

The State Government hadin 2016 increased the retire-ment age of the doctors from58 years to 65 years for per-forming only clinical duties.

In its new policy issued forretirement and re-employmentof doctors, the HaryanaGovernment has re-fixed the

superannuation age from 65years to 58 years of HCMS doc-tors with the opportunity of re-employment to the doctors ofboth the cadres of medicaland dental of HealthDepartment, on yearly basisupto 65 years of age subject tocertain criteria.

According to the new pol-icy notified by the govern-ment, “All the doctors whohave already attained the age of58 years or more but have beenworking as consultants orsenior consultants on extend-ed superannuation, shall standretired from service fromSeptember 30, 2021. The ser-vice of all doctors who havebeen re-employed as consul-tants or senior consultants afterretirement shall also stand dis-continued from September 30

in the state.”However, the doc-

tors of HCMS and HCDScadre who have notattained the age of 64years as on September30, 2021 will be allowedto submit their willing-ness for re-employmentto Director GeneralHealth Services underthe new policy.

The re-employmentorders of doctors willnow be generatedthrough HumanResource ManagementSystem (HRMS) portal toavoid any duplicacy.

The government’s notifi-cation stated that the new pol-icy is aimed at ensuring ratio-nal deployment of doctors invarious health institutions of

the state for providing betterhealthcare services to the pub-lic at large along with timelydisbursement of pensionarybenefits at an appropriate age

of 58 years.Under the State

Government’s previous policydated November 21, 2016, theretirement age of the doctors

who were still in servicewas increased from 58years to 65 years for per-forming only clinicalduties after attaining theage of 58 years. Keeping inview the COVID-19 pan-demic last year, the StateGovernment had also re-employed the retired gov-ernment doctors belowthe age of 69 years on con-tractual basis for one yearagainst vacant posts.

As per the new poli-cy, the eligibility criteriafor re-employment, afterretirement on superan-

nuation, upto 65 years of agewould be the same as for reten-tion in service beyond the ageof 55 years i.e. ACRs of the last10 years should be 70 percent

of good or very good category.There should be no doubt ofintegrity during the minimumlast ten years of service. Overallservice record, number ofpenalties awarded and initia-tion or pendency of discipli-nary proceedings during ser-vice career shall be taken intoaccount.

“The re-employment shallbe against vacant sanctionedpost of medical officers ordental surgeons on yearly basisand the doctors so re-employedwill not be transferred duringthe period of re-employment.The re-employed doctors shallperform all the clinical or otherduties, as being done by regu-lar doctors except medico-legal, post-mortem and sittingcasualty, as assigned by thehead of institution,” the police

stated.The doctors, who retire on

superannuation from the rankof civil surgeon/senior dentalsurgeon or below, shall be re-employed as “consultants” andwho retire on superannuationfrom the rank above of civilsurgeon/senior dental surgeon,shall be re-employed as “seniorconsultants”, it added

Apart from this, a onetime offer will be given to allthose dental doctors, who havealready superannuated fromState Government prior tocoming into force of the noti-fication but have not attainedthe age of 64 years as onSeptember 30, 2021, they cansubmit their willingness for re-employment under this newpolicy upto October 15 to theconcerned authority.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has pro-

visionally attached assets in theform of fixed deposit receipts(FDR) worth Rs13.34 crorebelonging to Rajya Sabha MPfrom RJD Amarendra DhariSingh, under the Prevention ofMoney-laundering Act in theongoing investigations againstIFFCO MD US Awasthi andothers.

The ED had initiatedmoney laundering investiga-tion on the basis of an FIRdated May 17 registered by CBIunder the provisions of theIndian Penal Code (IPC) andPrevention of Corruption Actagainst US Awasthi, MD ofIFFCO and others, for criminalconspiracy, cheating and crim-inal misconduct.

“Money laundering inves-tigation conducted by ED hasrevealed that there had beensiphoning of funds amountingto Rs 27.79 crore related tocriminal activities. Such pro-ceeds of crime were launderedby way of projecting the sameas consultancy income, first inthe hands of entities under thecontrol of Dubai-based

Chartered Accountant RajivSaxena (an accused inAgustawestland case) and sub-sequently in the hands of enti-ties controlled by India basedChartered Accountant AlokKumar Agarwal and thereafterin the form of cash toAmarendra Dhari Singh,” theagency said in a statement.

Based on the investigationconducted so far by the ED,proceeds of crime have beenquantified to the tune of Rs27.79 crore, which had beenused by Amarendra DhariSingh on his own, it said.

ED had also filed aProsecution Complaint(chargesheet) before SpecialCourt on July 30 against sixaccused including AmarendraDhari Singh and Alok KumarAgarwal. In its order on August7, the court has held that therewas sufficient evidence on recordto take cognizance of the offenceunder PMLA. The Court furtherheld that all accused personsknowingly assisted/were know-ingly involved in acquisition ofproceeds of crime and hencewere liable to be summoned forthe said offence and proceededto issue summons to the accusedpersons.

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In a step to further strength-en defence and strategic ties,

India and the United State ofAmerica(USA) have inked apact for co-operation in thedevelopment of Air-LaunchedUnmanned Aerial Vehicle(ALUAV).

The ProjectAgreement(PA) for ALUAVwas signed on July 30 under theoverall framework of theDefence Technology and TradeInitiative (DTTI) between thetwo countries, the DefenceMinistry said here on Friday.

Describing the pact as amajor step towards deepeningdefence technology coopera-tion between India and the US,officials said here, the agree-ment falls under the ambit ofthe Research, Development,Testing and Evaluation(RDT&E) agreement betweenthe two sides that was firstsigned in 2006 and renewed inJanuary 2015.

"The PA outlines the col-laboration between Air ForceResearch Laboratory, IndianAir Force, and DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation(DRDO) towardsdesign, development, demon-stration, testing and evaluationof systems to co-develop anALUAV Prototype," the min-istry said.

It said the main aim ofDTTI is to bring sustained

leadership focus to promotecollaborative technologyexchange and create opportu-nities for co-production andco-development of future tech-nologies for Indian and US mil-itary forces.

Under DTTI, JointWorking Groups on land,naval, air, and aircraft carriertechnologies have been estab-lished to focus on mutuallyagreed projects in respective

domains.The PA for co-develop-

ment of ALUAV has been over-seen by the Joint WorkingGroup on Air Systems and is amajor accomplishment forDTTI, officials said.

The latest agreementcomes in the backdrop of theUS terming India in 2016 as a"Major Defence Partner." Inthe past few years the twocountries key pacts like theLogistics ExchangeMemorandum of Agreement(LEMOA) in 2016. It allowstheir armed forces to use eachother's bases for repair andreplenishment of supplies.

The two sides have alsosigned CommunicationsCompatibility and SecurityAgreement(COMCASA) in2018 that provides for interop-erability between the two mili-taries and the sale of high-endtechnology from the US to India.

In October last year, Indiaand the US sealed the BasicExchange and Cooperation

Agreement(BECA) agreementto further boost bilateraldefence ties. The pact pro-vides for sharing of high-endmilitary technology, logisticsand geospatial maps betweenthe two countries.

The Indian army, a coupleof days ago, signed a pact forover 100 ‘Explosive-LadenDrones’, which will be manu-factured by Bengaluru-basedfirm Alpha Design-led jointventure along with Israel’s ElbitSecurity Systems (ELSEC). Thedrones are called ‘SkyStrikers.’

The contract is estimatedto be around Rs 100 crore andwas signed as per the emer-gency powers given to thearmed forces for procurement.

The ‘SkyStriker’ drones willhave a range of about 100km.These drones will address theArmy’s requirement for “loi-tering munition” – a type ofUnmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) built to engage beyondthe line-of-sight ground targetswith an explosive warhead.

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Retail edible oil prices in thecountry are not coming

down anytime soon. And evenif they do, the Centre on Fridaymade it clear, there "would notbe any dramatic decline".

Retail prices of edible oilsin India, which imports 60 percent of its requirement, haveshot up to 64 per cent in thepast just one year, in line withthe global developments.

Union Food SecretarySudhanshu Pandey on Fridaysaid, "However, looking at thedeclining trend shown in pricesof edible oils for Decembermonth in the futures market, itlooks like retail prices willstart declining. But, there won'tbe any dramatic decline asthere is still global pressure".The arrival of new crops and alikely drop in global pricesshould help in softening of edi-ble oils' retail prices in thecountry, he said.

Citing reasons for thesharp rise in domestic edibleoils prices, the secretary saidone major reason is that priceshave gone up in the interna-tional markets as many coun-tries are aggressively pursuingthe biofuel policy using theirown resources.

For instance, Malaysia andIndonesia, which are majorsuppliers of palm oil to India,are using palm oil for their bio-fuel policy. Likewise, the US isdiverting soyabean for biofuelmaking, he said. Moreover,palm oil and soyabean oil arethe top-two oils in terms ofshare in the Indian market.Palm oil is about 30-31 per cent,soyabean oil is 22 per cent.

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The Supreme Court on Fridayrefused to entertain West

Bengal Government's plea seek-ing to appoint Director Generalof Police (DGP) without con-sulting the Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC), saying itwould be "abuse of law".Expressing displeasure at onepoint, the apex court told theState not to file applications likethese.

"We have seen your appli-cation. The points you areraising are exactly the samewhich you have raised earlierthat UPSC should not have arole. When the main matter istaken you can argue this mat-ter. We cannot permit this.This is abuse of process. Wewill dismiss your application.We cannot have petitions likethis. Why are we wasting somuch time on these applica-tions," the bench comprisingJustices Nageswara Rao, B RGavai and B V Nagarathnaobserved.

However, the Bench

allowed the State's implead-ment application in the mainmatter on police reforms andsaid it will start hearing mat-ter which "hasn't seen thelight of day for many years".

Advocate PrashantBhushan, appearing for PrakashSingh (main petitioner),requested the bench for anearly hearing of the main peti-tion on police reforms saying"unfortunately in most statesimplementation of directions ofthe top court remains unim-plemented." The court has nowposted the matter for hearing inOctober and said, "We will starthearing the matter. It hasn't seenthe light of day for many years."

The apex court was hear-ing an application filed byWest Bengal stating that UPSCdoes not have expertise to con-sider and appoint DGP of astate as also that it is not in linewith the federal System of gov-ernance. The StateGovernment, in its plea,requested the top court tomodify its 2018 order in thePrakash Singh case on policereforms which made it manda-tory for the state governmentsto appoint the DGP from apanel of three most seniorpolice officers.

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Citing huge delays in prose-cution of high profile cor-

ruption cases, BJP leaderSubramanian Swamy on Fridayurged Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to form aninter-departmental monitor-ing mechanism in the prose-cution proceedings.

In a detailed letter to Modi,Swamy said all agency headsand prosecutors must sittogether regularly to speed upthe big corruption cases.Swamy blamed the prosecutionfor lethargy in handling the 2Gscam appeal, Aircel-Maxis andINX-Media bribery case andNational Herald cases.

“There is, without doubt,an inordinate and inexplicabledelay in prosecution of manycorruption cases by theGovernment, which had hap-pened during the UPA tenureat the Centre. Be it 2G Scamappeal pending in Delhi HighCourt, prosecution in the pend-ing trial of those out on bail viz.,Chidambaram involving hisand his son’s bribery in Aircel-Maxis and INX Media briberycases, or cases against SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi inthe National Herald IncomeTax evasion of Rs. 450 crores,and cases of eviction and seiz-ing of Herald House by YoungIndian Pvt Ltd company ownedby these two accused held up inSupreme Court.

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New Delhi: Stressing the‘Special and Privileged StrategicPartnership’ between India andRussia, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Fridayrecalled that the friendshipbetween the two countries hasstood the test of time andnoted the 'robust' cooperationduring the Covid-19 pandem-ic, including in the vaccinationprogramme and affirmed thatmutual partnership can helpbring stability to the globalenergy market

Addressing the plenary ses-sion of the Eastern EconomicForum (EEF), Modi said thepandemic has highlighted theimportance of the health andpharma sectors in our bilater-al cooperation.

The Prime Minister wasdelivering a video-addressduring the plenary session ofEEF forum held inVladivostok, Russia. Modiwas the Chief Guest for the 5th

EEF in 2019, the first by anIndian Prime Minister.Recalling the visit of ChiefMinisters of Indian States toEEF-2019, Prime Ministerextended an invitation toGovernors of the 11 regions ofRussian Far East to visit India.

Energy, he said, is anothermajor pillar of our strategicpartnership. India – Russiaenergy partnership can helpbring stability to the globalenergy market, said Modi.

The Prime Minister saidMinister of Petroleum andNatural Gas Hardeep Puri is inVladivostok to represent India atthis forum and that Indianworkers are participating inmajor gas projects in the Amurregion, from Yamal toVladivostok and onward toChennai. “We envisage an ener-gy and trade bridge. I am happythat the Chennai – VladivostokMaritime Corridor is makingheadway. This connectivity pro-

ject along with the InternationalNorth- South Corridor willbring India and Russia physicallycloser to each other”, he said.

Noting that India has a tal-ented and dedicated workforcewhile the Far East is rich inresources, the prime ministersaid there is tremendous scopefor Indian talent to contributeto the development of theRussian Far East.

Modi recalled his 2019visit to the Russian city ofVladivostok to attend theforum and the thenannouncement of India's com-mitment to an "Act Far Eastpolicy".The policy is an impor-tant part of India's "special andprivileged strategic partner-ship" with Russia, Modi said.

An online meeting betweenChief Minister of Gujarat VijayRupani and Governor of Sakha-Yakutia province of Russia washeld on 2 September on the side-lines of EEF. PNS

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The Centre on Fridayannounced that the Central

Universities will work on mis-sion-mode to fill-up the 6,000vacant posts by end of nextmonth.

Addressing a conference ofCentral Universities ViceChancellors, Union EducationMinister Dharmendra Pradhanencouraged the CentralUniversities to work on mis-sion-mode to fill-up the 6,000vacant posts by October, 2021.

There have been more than10,000 posts lying vacant inteaching and non teaching cat-egory at the 40 CentralUniversities.

Pradhan expressed his hap-piness to learn about the bestpractices of Central Universitiesand on several matters ofimportance, including filling upof general and reserved vacan-cies, education during Covid19,online learning and status ofNEP implementation. He alsourged them to create a frame-work for alumni endowment.

Pradhan held the meetingwith Vice Chancellors ofCentral Universities throughvideo conferencing. Minister ofState for Education SubhashSarkar, Secretary, Higher

Education, AmitKhare,Chairman UGC, Prof D PSingh and senior officials of theMinistry and UGC attendedthe meeting.

The VCs were also request-ed to encourage Sports in theirUniversities, thereby promotinga sporting culture in the country.The VCs were encouraged tomake their students Job Creatorsby promoting innovation andresearch in their campuses.

Addressing the participants,Pradhan said that our universi-ties are cradles of creativity,innovation and opportunities.The New Education Policy-2020 will play a crucial role inplacing India at the top of theemerging new world order and,as custodians of India’s destiny,

our universities should fulfiltheir responsibilities outlined inthe NEP. He stressed on mak-ing education a lot more vibrant& holistic and establishing Indiaas a knowledge superpowerthrough NEP.

The Minister said that ourhigher education institutionsare key catalysts for promotingsocio-economic developmentand for realising aspirationsand national goals. The Ministerappealed that universitiesshould popularise and promotelearning in Indian languages,&cultural heritage of India.

The Minister exhorted theUniversities to come with thestrategies for making Indiafully literate, as well as to con-tribute helping the country tomeet its Nutrition Challengeduring ‘Poshan Month’ as amark ofAzadiKaAmrutMahotsav.

The Minister thanked theVCs for their insights and valu-able suggestions. He urged thatas thought leaders, our centraluniversities should assume pio-neering roles in building capac-ities, initiating frameworks forimplementation of AcademicBank of Credit, Multiple Entry& Exit, virtual universities andseveral other facets of the NEPfrom this academic year itself.

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Amajor infiltration bid bythe heavily armed group of

terrorists was foiled by thealert Indian troops along theline of control in Poonch sec-tor early Friday morning.

This is the second majorincident of cross LoC infiltra-tion bid in the Poonch sectorin the last one week.

Two foreign terrorists wereneutralised by the troops alongthe LoC in Poonch on August30.

According to DefencePRO, Lt- Col Devender Anand," On the intervening night of2nd and 3rd September 2021,a group of heavily armedPakistani terrorists attemptedto infiltrate in Poonch sector(J&K).

The infiltration attempt ofPakistani terrorists was detect-

ed by alert troops of the IndianArmy. The infiltrators werechallenged and heavy firingensued".

Defence PRO said, "Owingto undulating terrain and heavyundergrowth, the terroristsmanaged to break contact andescaped back towards PakistanOccupied Jammu & Kashmir

under the cover of darkness"."A thorough search of the

encounter site was carried outand a huge quantity of admin-istrative stores left behind bythe terrorists were recovered toinclude clothing, packagedfood items and medicines withPakistani markings", he added.

Aligarh: Viral Fever anddengue have started wreakinghavoc in the district. It spreadas an epidemic in the cities likeMathura, Firozabad, Aligarhand Hathras. More than 60 per-son have lost their lives due tothis. About 2000 people areadmitted in hospitals of thesedistrict and 150 new patientsarrived in the OPD of MalkhanSingh District Hospital ofAligarh for treatment. Morethan ten percent are sufferingfrom viral fever. Two denguepatients are admitted in thehospital, who are undergoingtreatment. So far five cases ofdengue have been found in theAligarh district.

Chief MedicalSuperintendent Dr. Ramkishansaid that out of the totalpatients, more than 10 percent

patients are coming with fever.Fewer cases of dengue andmalaria have been reported sofar. At present, two denguepatients are admitted in thehospital, who are undergoingtreatment. Fever patients arealso reaching the Pt. DeendayalUpadhyay Joint Hospital. CMODr. Anand Upadhyay informedthat medicines have been madeavailable at all CHCs and PHCsof the district. Spraying ofchemicals has been ordered. Sofar five cases of dengue havebeen found in the district. TheHealth Department team iskeeping an eye.

Epidemiologist Dr. Rohithad gone to Konh village ofMathura. All major hospitalshave been directed to makewards for dengue and feverpatients. PNS

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The night curfew slapped onKerala since last Sunday has

failed to yield any result as thenumber of new patients diag-nosed with Covid-19 continueto remain high. On Friday, outof the 1.63 lakh samples sentfor testing, 29,322 persons werefound to be infected withCovid-19, said a release byhealth minister Veena George.

The Test Positivity Rateremained high with 17.91 percent while the pandemicclaimed 131 lives taking thedeath toll in the State till dateto 21,280. The State also saw118 health workers falling preyto Covid-19.

Thrissur diagnosed 3530persons on Friday andremained at the top of the tableof districts with high patients.Ernakulam (3435), Kozhikode(3344), Kollam (2957) were thedistricts with highest numberof Covid -19 patients.

Across the State, 2.46 lakhpatients are undergoing treat-

ment for Covid-19. TheGovernment’s move to reopenschools in the State and con-duct examinations for Class XIsuffered a set back as theSupreme Court on Fridaystayed the move of the LDFGovernment in this regard inthe backdrop of the increasingnumber of Covid patients inthe State.

The apex court took noteof the unabated increase in thenumber of Covid-19 cases inthe State and asked the admin-istration whether theGovernment of Kerala hastaken into account the 30,000cases being recorded per day.

“As we could not get satis-factory response from counselfor the State in this regard wegrant interim relief stayingoffline exam till next date ofhearing,” said the Bench con-sistinhg of Judges A MKhanwilkar, Hrishikesh Royand C T Ravikumar while con-sidering a petition moved onbehalf of Plus One students inthe State.

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Acting fast after taking charge the CBI, inves-tigating the graver offences post Assembly

elections on Friday submitted a secondchargesheet, this time in a North 24 Parganasmurder case where a BJP supporter JP Yadav wasbombed to death on June 6 by alleged TrinamoolCongress miscreants.

This is the second chargesheet filed in twoconsecutive days with the first one being filed bythe Central Agency in a Rampurhat murder casein Birbhum district.

“Four persons have been named in thechargesheet,” a CBI source said adding moreinvestigations were being conducted againstother persons who had been named by the com-plainants.

The CBI is acting upon the orders of theCalcutta High Court which earlier directed a two-pronged probe deputing the central agency toinvestigate the graver offences whereas asking aSpecial Investigating Team of the State police toinquire into other offences.

In a related development former CalcuttaHigh Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur hadagreed to supervise the SIT investigation into the“other” post poll “offences.” According to sourcesunavailability of a retired Supreme Court Judge,

for supervising the SIT probe — as was direct-ed by the High Court — Justice Chellur wasappointed for the task.

More than a hundred cases of murder, loot,rape and arson was reported post Assembly elec-tions that saw Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeeand Trinamool Congress roaring back to powerfor the third time in a row.

In the post poll violence an allegation ofwhich was summarily rejected by the ChiefMinister hundreds of BJP, Left, Congress andTrinamool Congress workers were attacked andtheir properties looted leading the Opposition BJPand the Left to raise demands for impartial probeaccusing the State police of active connivance withthe ruling party assailants.

Meanwhile, the TMC leadership which hadalready filed a petition in the Supreme Courtagainst the High Court order continued to reactstrongly wondering why only the SIT and not theCBI was being monitored by the judiciary.

“Everyone knows how all the institutions havebeen saffronised by the BJP— from CBI to ECto NHRC and others —in that case where is theguarantee that the CBI will not conduct biasedinvestigation … CBI’s bias is a well-known factso why only the SIT and not the CBI will be mon-itored by the Court,” Sukhendu Shekhar RoyTMC Rajya Sabha MP said.

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Kolkata: Congress Leader ofOpposition in Lok Sabha Adhir RanjanChowdhury was allegedly gheraoed andharassed on Friday by allegedTrinamool Congress supporters even ashe went to Raninagar in Murshidabaddistrict to inquire into the reports ofalleged violence on Congress men.

Chowdhury’s vehicle was blockedand he was shown black flags, brooms,sandals and stick by a large crowd thatgathered at the entry point ofRaninagar, the MP said adding his per-sonal security officers managed toescort him out of the crowd.

“I have written to the ChiefMinister, Chief Secretary, the DM andSP about the continuous violence beingperpetrated on the Congress workers …I have told the Chief Minister to con-tain political violence in the Statereminding if her party needed to resort

to violence even after coming to powerfor three consecutive terms then thereis no more shame that it … She shouldnow consider that the acts of her partymen is putting Bengal to disrepute …how will outsiders come here … howwill investors come here,” Chowdhurysaid.

According to the Congress threehouses of Congress men were ransackedand their owners beaten up by allegedTMC men on Thursday night. WhenChowdhury went to find out the alle-gations for himself he too was block-aded away by alleged Trinamool menand women.

Reacting to the reports BengalMinister Firhad Hakim said he had noinformation of such attack saying “theTrinamool does not believe in violence… I am sure no TMC worker would beinvolved in the incident.”

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New Delhi: At least 70 per cent of 100 mostclimate change vulnerable districts in thecountry are in the five States of eastern India- Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradeshand Odisha. Outlining this, scientists onFriday called for the urgent need to put inplace a multi-hazard warning system,implement local action along with bettercoordination at inter-agency, inter-minis-terial and Centre-State levels to combat theglobal warming-induced threat.

“Overall, eight States in the country viz.,Jharkhand, Mizoram, Odisha, Chhattisgarh,Assam, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh, andWest Bengal, all in the Eastern India arefound to have higher vulnerability. However,out of country’s 100 most vulnerable dis-tricts, 70 per cent are in Assam, Bihar,Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Orissa,” saidDr Akhilesh Gupta, Senior Adviser andHead, Policy Coordination & ProgrammeManagement Division, and a climate changeexpert at the Department of Science andTechnology (DST).

He was speaking at the inaugural ses-sion of the two-day policy dialogue on‘Localizing Climate Resilience Agenda:Vision 2050 and 2100’ under CAP-RESDST-GOI Project on Friday here.

“As projected by the recent Workinggroup-I report of IPCC, the global tem-perature which has already increased to 1.1degree C above the pre-industrial era level

is likely to further increase to 1.5-deg. C innext 2 decades. India too is expected to expe-rience greater impact of global warming inthe time to come, There may be an increasein frequency, severity and duration of heatwave.

“Monsoon may become more erratic.There may be more frequent droughts andfloods. The Indian seas may witness themore sea-level rise. There has already beenincrease in sea level in last two decades..With the increase of carbon dioxide contentin the oceans, the sea water may becomemore acidic, and so on” Dr Gupta pointedout at the programme organized by NationalInstitute of Disaster Management (NIDM),Ministry of Home Affairs and DST in col-laboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft furInternationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)GmbH.

“Next two decades are going to be verycrucial. IPCC‘s working group report givesthe starkest of warnings for global climateimpacts. The two-degree rise in global tem-peratures may come earlier than expected.It may have a huge impact on India, espe-cially on agriculture, health and watersecurity. India is confronted with a challengeof addressing such impacts,” he added.

“Science and technology is a major toolto fight the menace of climate change. Oflate, hazards are not happening in isolation

but in combination with two or more. Thereis urgent need to put in place a multi-haz-ard warning system, along with bettercoordination at inter-agency, inter-minis-terial and Centre-State levels. India madesome excellent progress in climate actionboth in adaptation and mitigation areas,” hepointed out.

Maj. Gen. MK Bindal, ExecutiveDirector, NIDM, MHA, warned that thedanger mark has been reached, rapid accessto information is needed to protect lives andlivelihood and the use of STI is key to fightclimate change problems.

“The sixth IPCC report has pushed thebutton to act now, and it is time to act local-ly. Good policies need to be translated intoaction. We are working with state govern-ments for localising action plan,” saidChristiane Hieronymus, Head of EconomicCooperation & Development, Embassy ofthe Federal Republic of Germany while ProfV K Sharma, Vice Chairman, SikkimSDMA said that, “We will have to do some-thing at local level, at the municipal levelwith regional and local approach and alsoat the panchayat level.”

Kamal Kishore, Member, NDMA, urgedfor action with much greater vision, diver-sifying risks and continuous policy revisionswhile Prof Anil K Gupta, Head, ECDRMDivision, NIDM, discussed ways of trans-lating the concerns to local action. PNS

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The National Investigation Agency (NIA) onFriday filed a charge-sheet against 10

accused, including police officers a a convict-ed constables, in the sensational case involvingthe recovery of an explosive-laden SUV the res-idence of industrialist Mukesh Ambani in southMumbai and the subsequent suspected murderof the vehicle owner Mansukh Hiran.

In a voluminous charge-sheet filed in aSpecial NIA Special Court here, the NIAcharged the ten accused – including dismissedAssistant Sub-Inspectors Sachin Waze,Riyazuddin Kazi, yesteryear encounter-spe-cialist Pradeep Sharma, convicted constableVinayak Shinde – with various offences undervarious sections of Indian Penal Code for mur-der, cheating, conspiracy and also various sec-tions of the Arms Act, Explosive Substance Actand the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Apart from Waze, Kazi, Sharma and Shinde,the others who have been named in the charge-sheet are: Naresh R. Gor, Sunil D. Mane, SantoshA. Shelar, Manish V. Soni, Anand P. Jadhav andSatish T. Mothkuri.

The NIA has based its charge-sheet on threeFIRs it registered in connection with the twinincidents. While the first FIR registered at the

Gamdevi police station relates to the recoveryof a Mahindra Scorpio Vehicle on CarmichaelRoad, Mumbai during the intervening night ofFebruary 24 and 25, 2021 with 20 Gelatine SticksExplosive and a threat note addressed toMukesh Ambani.

The second FIR registered with at theVikhroli Police Stationn relates to theft of theseized Mahindra Scorpio vehicle, while the thirdFIR registered at Mumbra police station relatesto the recovery of Mansukh Hiran’s body fromthe nearby creek on March 5, 2021.

“During the investigations, incriminatingevidences came to fore against the ten arrest-ed accused involved in various stages of con-spiracy of placing explosive laden MahindraScorpio vehicle, its theft and commission of mur-der of Mansukh Hiran,” the CBI said in a state-ment.

The IPC sections invoked against theaccused in the case relate to criminal conspir-acy, destroying evidences to escape the conse-quences, negligence with explosives, abductionwith intent to kill, extortion with threats of deathor physical harm, grabbing property, criminalbreach of trust by public servant, forgery andforging documents of electronic evidence to passthem off as genuine, possession of a fake seal tocommit forgery, common intentions, etc.

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Slamming the BJP-ledGovernment over its

National Monetisation Pipeline(NMP) decision, formerFinance Minister and seniorCongressman P Chidambaramon Friday demanded an assur-ance from the Narendra ModiGovernment that the entireamount of �6 lakh crore, whenrealized, “will not be used forpartly financing the fiscaldeficit of �5.5 lakh crore in2021-22 or for retiring olddebts”

Posing as many as 20 ques-tions to the BJP-led NDAGovernment over the NMP,Chidambaram also sought anassurance from the Modi dis-pensation that the expectedsum of �6 lakh crore would notbe merged with general rev-enues and will not be used forgeneral expenditure.

In a series of other ques-tions on NMP, the formerFinance Minister wanted toknow if the Government float-ed a consultation paper onNMP “Did Government con-sult the workers or the tradeunions or other stakeholdersbefore announcing the NMP?When and where did these

consultations take place? Willthe government make publicthe outcome or the minutes ofthese consultations?,” he asked,while speaking to media per-sons here.

Chidambaram alsodemanded to know as to whydid not the government discussthe NMP in Parliament andasked if the Government pro-posed to consult theOpposition parties or discussthe NMP Parliament.

Charging that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s oft-repeated claim of “nothing wasdone in 70 years” stoodexposed, Chidambaram said:“The NMP will wash awaywhat has been done in the last70 years”.

“The NMP was notannounced in the Parliament.It was announced after thesession ended. There was noconsultation paper. There wereno meetings with trade unions.Nor were there consultationswith political parties,” he said.

Chidambaram ridiculedModi by saying that “he is theonly Chief Executive in theworld who has never interact-ed with the press”.

“The Prime Minister has inthe last 7 years never interact-

ed with the press and in thenext three years he would notdo so. The Finance Minister(Nirmala Sitharaman) neverresponds to questions in pressconference….for farm bills theyhave not allowed a debate, onPegasus no debate tookplace…and I am sure that theywill not allow a debate onNMP also,” the former financeminister said.

“What are the objectives ofthe NMP? Is the sole objectiveof NMP the raising of revenueover a four year period?...Certain assets have been iden-tified by the NMP for moneti-zation. What are the criteriaapplied for the choice of assets?,he asked.

Chidambaram said thatunder the UPA, certain criteriawere adopted upfront for iden-tifying the PSU that would bedisinvested or privatized.

“In the case of roads/high-ways, there is currently a PPPpolicy. What is the difference,if any, between the model thatis in force for such PPPs andthe model that will be adopt-ed under the NMP for mone-tization?,” he wondered.

“If an asset is 'monetized'for, say, 30 or 50 of years, whatis the value of the piece of paper

that declares the Governmentto be the 'owner' of the asset?What kind of asset does thegovernment expect will bereturned at the end of theperiod? Will it not be a fullydepreciated asset worth prac-tically nothing?,”Chidambaram wanted toknow.

“Since the NMP is silent onthe subject, will theGovernment stipulate in thecontract that the amount ofdepreciation should be put ina Depreciation ReserveAccount which was used onlyto maintain, upgrade or add tothe asset so that at the end ofthe lease period a valuableasset is returned to the gov-ernment?,” he asked.

Chidambaram wanted toknow if there would be a pro-vision in the contract to preventasset-stripping by the lessee?“What provisions will beincluded in the Invitation toBid (ITB) to ensure that the'monetization' process doesnot create monopolies or duop-olies in that sector? In partic-ular, what provisions will beincluded to prevent monopo-lies/duopolies emerging in theports, airports, telecom andpower sectors?,” he asked.

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����� ������������7������������*.(����� ��������'�����������Bengaluru: Karnataka's Leader ofOpposition Siddaramaiah on Fridayurged the state government to with-draw its decision to implement thenew National Education Policy, whilerefusing to take part in the discussionon the subject.

"A letter has been written fromthe office of the Minister of HigherEducation informing the implemen-tation of new National EducationPolicy and requesting the appoint-ment of Leader of Opposition to dis-cuss regarding the same. It is to benoted that the government hasalready decided and inaugurated toimplementation the said policy fromthe current academic year, withoutany discussion with the students,teachers, education experts or oppo-sition. It is not correct to call for dis-cussion now after inaugurating theimplementation," he said.

"Policy change in matters likeeducation and health are not smallissues. Detailed deliberations shouldhave been initiated democraticallybefore drafting such issues whichhave wide implications. Governmentsof many developed countries take thecomplete responsibility of health andeducation but here in India the gov-ernment is trying to wash away theresponsibility, the former ChiefMinister said.

Siddaramaiah further noted thatIndia has a high student to teacherratio which should come down forthe benefit of students. Also, the gov-ernment allocation for education asa percentage of GDP is very low.Noting that NEP also recommendsthe allocation to education to be at 6per cent of GDP, he said that thenKarnataka should allocate about Rs1.08 lakh crore.

"There are many objections andconcerns about NEP. It violates fed-eral arrangements and infringes uponthe autonomy of states over educationand universities. It promotes privati-sation leading to inequality andsocial injustice. The intention is toindoctrinate students with the idea ofcommunalism through education.NEP is unscientific and will pushlakhs of students to darkness," theCongress leader contended.

"Government should have dis-cussed and debated these issuesbefore the implementation. NEPdecides the future of many studentsshaping the next 70-80 years.Education is a tool for social eleva-tion for many marginalised sections.Has BJP implemented NEP to pre-vent this elevation of social statusamong marginalised sections?" heasked. IANS

the Gangster Act and over 500under the National SecurityAct. The Yogi administrationhas also hit criminals hard bytargeting their finances; in theState Government’s driveagainst the mafia, their illicitproperty worth more than�1,500 crore has either beenattached or demolished. Alongwith action against the mafia,the Yogi administration hasalso provided protection towitnesses.

And a vastly improved lawand order has begun to pay offin the realm of development.Here too, figures speak forthemselves. The State’s develop-ment data reveals that over theyears, UP has received invest-ment proposals worth �66,000crore from both foreign andlocal investors. The administra-tion has acted promptly onthese proposals. More to thepoint, companies from Japan,Canada, Germany, Hong Kong,the UK, the US, Taiwan andSouth Korea are lining up toinvest in UP; one company hasleft from China to set up oper-ations in Agra. It is also signif-icant that the Government isensuring that the flow of invest-ment is not confined to theState’s bigger cities, but is alsobeing channeled to smallertowns like Etah, Amroha,Mirzapur, and so on.

Apart from the fresh pro-posals for investment, MoUsworth �4.68 lakh crore havebeen signed at investors’ sum-mits, of which 371 proposalsworth close to �3 lakh crore arealready functional, generatingemployment for up to 5 lakhpeople. Here, one must makemention of the work beingdone by this Government onthe defence industrial manu-facturing corridor, which hasalready drawn up to 14 MoUs.The aim is to transform UttarPradesh into a hub of capital-intensive manufacturing,which the defence industryinvariably entails.

Farmers have much to behappy about in YogiAdityanath’s rule.Development schemes andprogrammes, for their long-term success, also need thehealth of the rural economy tobe robust. The Adityanathpolicy of transparent pur-chase of wheat and paddy, asalso his continuous supervi-sion of purchase centres, hasbeen successful. The exampleof paddy should suffice; theState Government has pur-chased a record 60 lakh met-ric tonne of the grain againsta slated target of 55 lakhmetric tonne. Payments madeto the State’s farmers havebeen touching new records as

well. The Government hasstepped up its efforts to dou-ble the income of the State’sfarmers. Nearly �33,000 crorehave been transferred to theaccounts of the nearly threecrore farmers under thePradhan Mantri KisanSamman Nidhi Yojana, plusseparate transfers under cropinsurance schemes. The mod-ernisation of 20 sugar mills inthe State, along with thereopening of the Pipraich,Munderwa and Ramala sugarmills, is a particularly signif-icant milestone in the Yogiadministration’s agriculturepolicy.

Uttar Pradesh under YogiAdityanath is clearly not the“Bimaru” State it was oncederided as, but a State on arapid march upwards. This isimportant for the State, whichis one-fifth of India. Beingbackward is bad enough, butif one-fifth of the frame is sick,the rest of the body cannot inany way be healthy. Moreover,the Narasimha Rao-initiated1991 reforms did not benefitUP. This makes UP’s marchunder Adityanath all the moreremarkable.

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

��������������� ���Sir — I remember during my school in thelate 80s, when I first came across the name‘Chandan Mitra’ in an article published inThe Statesman on an issue of that time.Later, in January 1994, after the suddendemise of music director Rahul DevBurman, a memoir titled Agar Tum NaHote written by him was published in TheHindustan Times and it made me his fan.However, there was another reason for myadmiration for him because in those daysI had the impression that a man who worksat such an important position of arenowned publication would not engagehimself in writing on the least importantsubject like cinema and music.

That culture still prevails in most of thepopular publications. The senior journal-ists/ writers, who write on various burgeon-ing issues of the country and abroad sel-dom write on these topics. The editorial pol-icy of promoting cinema, music and cul-ture continued to grow in The Pioneerunder his able leadership. At a time whensome of the esteemed English newspapershave stopped publishing the letters of thereaders, The Pioneer continued to bring outthe column honouring the sentiments ofthe letter writers.

Abhijit Roy | Jamshedpur

��������� �����������������Sir — LIC of India celebrates 1st Septemberas LIC-day in commemoration of the for-mation of the Life Insurance Corporationof India in 1956 by nationalising and merg-ing 245 private insurance companies.Nearing branches of LIC of India shouldbe merged to reduce unnecessary over-heads. But gradually life insurance businessis being captured by later constituted pri-vate insurance companies, many of whichare promoted by private banks. These pri-vate banks and their promoted insurancecompanies always work in alliance to pro-mote their insurance business in additionto their banking business.

Several public sector banks collaboratewith private insurance companies ratherthan promoting the LIC of India. Bankingand insurance divisions of the Department

of Financial Services should jointly plan asystem whereby every branch of each pub-lic sector bank may be attached to somenearing unit of LIC of India. All insuranceformalities must go through attached unitsof LIC of India and General Insurance.Healthy competition can be developed bygiving appreciation points to branch man-agers bringing more insurance business intothe public sector. This will promote the pub-lic-sector, save people from gimmicks andbefooling insurance plans of private-sectorcompanies, and provide a single-windowfacility for all banking and insurance needs.

Madhu Agrawal | Delhi

���������� ��������������Sir — Chief Justice of India NV Ramanarightly pointed out that certain sections ofthe media ‘communalise everything’. Allright-thinking people share the concernvoiced by him over the distinct propensi-ty shown by the media for ‘showing every-thing with a communal angle’. Switching oncertain TV channels, you find them spew-

ing communal venom day in, day out, bear-ing out the veracity of what the CJI had said.Evidently, TV anchors in some newschannels are predisposed or conditioned topresent a slanted view of events.

Journalists are supposed to be political-ly neutral and speak the truth, but theseanchors openly take the side of the rulingdispensation. They peddle the line of the rul-ing party and package propaganda asnews, leaving us to wonder if they are inde-pendent journalists or party spokespersons.They are complicit in the attempt made byHindu Right to tap the political potential ofHindu identity. Some channels try to keepa fine balance between communalism andsecularism to maximise viewership. Asobserved by the CJI, communal contentaired by media outlets brings a bad nameto the country. Still, ironically enough, theydo it assuming an air of patriotism.

G David Milton | Tamil Nadu

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India’s largest State UttarPradesh, also its most politi-cally vibrant, has also movedin the field of development

the fastest. Be it in the layout ofhighways, appointments toGovernment services, providingemployment to the people,increasing investments, improvinglaw and order, encouragingtourism and pilgrimage, as well asexpanding the small and mediumenterprises sector, Uttar Pradeshis making waves.

Since Independence, onenever heard that this State hadmoved in the area of development.It is surprising that New Delhi didnot bother, perhaps ignoring thefact that UP is one-fifth of India.If, therefore, UP leaps in progress,the country races ahead in termsof development. Evidently, forthe powers-that-be in India’s rajdhani, UP was treated as a bankof 84 Lok Sabha seats (80 now)and a sure-shot ticket to parlia-mentary majority at the Centre,but nothing more. In fact, a chiefformer ruling dynasty was report-ed to have voiced an opinion infavour of keeping Uttar Pradeshbackward and fragmented.

The State today in 2021 is avastly changed place. From thebackwaters of most economicindices, it today has moved tobecoming India’s second-richest interms of Gross State DomesticProduct (GSDP), which stands at$268 billion, behind onlyMaharashtra now. This, underYogi Adityanath has been anachievement despite the ravages ofthe COVID-19 pandemic. In theease of doing business, a crucialglobal benchmark, UP, whichlanguished at 16th position in thecountry in 2016, has moved up tothe second rank among India’sStates.

Law and order, the mostimportant prerequisite for anydevelopment activity to flower,was never a strong suit in UttarPradesh before Adityanath tookover. Any economic or capitalinvestment in the State remaineda dream. The scenario after Yogi’scoming to office in March 2017 isa sharp contrast. Over the pastfour-and-a-half years, 137 crimi-nals have been liquidated in policeaction, while close to 3,000 crim-inals were injured; nearly 37,000accused have been booked under

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Mohammed bin Salman isdescribed as a Machiavellianreformer, visionary, revolu-tionary and reactionary. Itis

fair to say that because of these eye-catch-ing traits ofhis political activities that MBS,as he is popularly known as, is being keen-ly noticed in Saudi Arabia and beyond.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia hadlong been known for two things: oil andIslam — and lately for its Crown Prince.The oil-rich Kingdom has witnessedwide-ranging changes, and the man dri-ving them is the visionary son of KingMohammed bin Salman. His admirersdescribe him as a hard-working, business-minded leader with no stomach for cor-ruption and a burning desire to modern-ize the country while avoiding the trap-pings of royalty. On the other hand, his crit-ics view him as power-hungry, ‘immature’,and someone unaware of the dangers ofreforming too much too fast. Such viewsare hardly surprising given the rush forreform across the Kingdom since MBS wasappointed as the crown prince.

MBS is already his country’s de factoruler, and perhaps the most powerful per-son in the Middle East region. It was onlyafter his father was appointed as the CrownPrince in 2012 that he began to accumu-late power. The following year, MBSbecame the head of the Crown PrinceCourt and soon was made the Minister ofDefense. Muhammad Bin Salman was alsoappointed as the Deputy Crown Prince andtook over the Council of Economic andDevelopment Affairs. There was no stop-ping the ambitious prince. Now in chargeof the war in Yemen and Saudi Arabia’seconomy, his importance as a policymak-er became clear the following year whenhe unveiled an ambitious and wide-rang-ing plan to bring economic and socialchange to the Kingdom and end its“addiction” to oil. The destination goal forSalman was to be the most powerful manin Saudi Arabia and that meant assumingthe title of Crown Prince.

After his anointment as Crown Prince,he started making moves that wouldshock not only the conservative SaudiWahabbi clerics but also the world as awhole. In an interview, when he was askedwhat was his concept of moderation, thePrince replied: “Of course, this is a broadterm. All Muslim jurists and scholars havebeen talking about the concept of moder-ation for over a thousand years. So, I donot think I am in a position to clarify thisconcept, as much as I can ... abide by theSaudi constitution, which is the Quran, theSunnah, and our basic governance systemand to implement it fully in a broad sensethat is inclusive of everybody. This leadsme to another question, namely the spaceSharia occupies in the State. Meaning, onthe level of the constitution, the judicia-ry, the public space, and the level of free-doms of individuals. As I said earlier, ourconstitution is the Quran, has been, stillis, and will continue to be so forever.”

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If you’re worried about your‘carbon footprint’ - a con-cept foisted on the world in

2004 by British Petroleum topersuade people that theirown behaviour, and not giantoil companies like BP, is caus-ing the climate problem - thenyou definitely should not signup for a sub-orbital spaceflight. Besides, you probablycan’t afford it ($250,000 pp).

Millions of people canafford it, however, and sincethe Branson/Bezos ‘space race’last month tickets for sub-orbital flights are selling fast.These are commercial ven-tures, after all.

There are only three moreflights scheduled for JeffBezos’s ‘Blue Origin’ rocketbefore the end of the year, andtwo more for RichardBranson’s ‘VSS Unity’, but both

men clearly intend to ramp upto more frequent flights.(Branson predicts 400 flightsa year.) The era of mass spacetourism is just around thecorner.

Well, what did you expect?The travel and tourism indus-try accounted for 10.7 per centof world GDP in the last nor-mal year (2019), so nowhere issafe, including the stratos-phere. And like every othertourist destination, the stratos-phere suffers some environ-mental damage from all thetourists passing through. Thekey question, so far unan-swered, is: how much?

Hardly any at the moment.The typical rocket launchdumps the same amount ofCO2 into the atmosphere asone airliner does in the courseof a trans-Atlantic crossing.

Since there are only three orfour passengers aboard each ofthose sub-orbital flights, theirindividual carbon footprintsare huge - but more than1,700 commercial jets cross theAtlantic on the average day.

Most rockets, includingElon Musk’s ‘Falcon Heavies’and most of the big Chineseand Russian vehicles, burn amixture of kerosene and liquidoxygen and produce anexhaust plume little differentfrom that of jet aircraft: most-ly carbon dioxide and water.

But the total fuel used annu-ally by all the world’s rocketsis less than one percent of thatburned by commercial aircraft.

Moreover, some of thenewer rockets, like Bezos’s‘New Shepard’, most Europeanlaunch vehicles, and the laststage of the new Long Marchrockets, use Liquid Hydrogenand Liquid Oxygen, whichleaves only water and a fewtraces of other chemicals. Sofar, so relatively harmless -except that all the other rock-ets leave black carbon ('soot')in the upper stratosphere,where airliners don’t fly.

The commercial aircraftdo leave soot in the lowest partof the stratosphere, where itseffects are reasonably wellunderstood. It warms thelower stratosphere. It presum-ably does that in the upper

parts of the stratosphere too.The annual orbital rocket

traffic is surprisingly low: arecord 1,283 satellites wereput into orbit last year, but only104 rocket launches were usedto put them there. (Anotherten launches were failures, butfailures tend to happen beforerockets reach the stratosphere.)This means the prospective‘tourist’ launches represent afour- or five-fold jump in thestratospheric traffic.

Bezos’s launches get apass because he’s not burningkerosene and leaving sootbehind. Branson’s rocket,however, is powered by a‘hybrid engine’ that burnshydroxyl-terminated polybu-tadiene (synthetic rubber),with nitrous oxide as an oxi-diser. You can think of it as asoot generator with stratos-

pheric capability. And 400flights a year.

So, the Branson rocketshould be closely monitoredfor its impact on the stratos-phere, and how that mightaffect the climate. The impactcould be insignificant, but itwill be a much bigger con-tributor to stratospheric pol-lution than its size suggests.And what of space flight ingeneral?

There will certainly bemore orbital flights as timegoes on, but most satellites arenow very small packages thatcan be packed together on asingle launch. Moreover, thereis a clear move towards usingliquid hydrogen rather thankerosene as a fuel, despitehydrogen’s current high price,and a longer-term aspiration touse high-energy biofuels that

are carbon-neutral.Aviation as a whole

remains a significant part ofthe warming problem, produc-ing more than 3 per cent ofglobal CO2 emissions, and thesolutions are expensive ortechnically difficult. Biofuelscan eventually address thecarbon dioxide emissions, butat least half the aviation-linkedwarming is not CO2. Its heatreflected back to the ground bycontrails.

The remedy for that is tofly in the lower atmosphere,where contrails rarely form -but that puts planes back downin the turbulence, which pas-sengers do not like. Planescould be designed that wouldcounter that turbulence (duct-ed flow and computer-driveninstant response), but there’sno sign of it yet.

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Crown Prince is clear about the sen-sitive matter: “We are simply revert-ing to what we followed — a mod-erate Islam open to the world andall religions. 70 per cent of theSaudis are younger than 30, honest-ly, we won’t waste 30 years of ourlife combating extremist thoughts,we will destroy them now andimmediately.”

In 2016, to prepare for thekingdom’s economic future, CrownPrince Mohammed bin Salmanlaid out a road map for the coun-try, known as Vision 2030. Theplan was to transform Saudi Arabiaby liberalising social norms andimproving Government services. Inhis words, “We seek to be proud ofour country, and allow the latter tocontribute to the development ofthe world, whether on the econom-ic, environmental, civilisational,or intellectual levels.” Such ambi-tious transformation projects comewith very high realisation costs.The country has plans to transformthe capital Riyadh into an econom-ic, social, and cultural hub by2030 at the cost of $800bn alongwith the planning of a new cityNEOM at an estimated cost of$500bn. Several other multi-bil-lion-dollar projects are planned tobe completed by 2035.

Under MBS, Saudi Arabia’stech scene has seen a dramatictransformation. The SaudiGovernment is pushing hugeamounts of capital into the indus-try and attracting foreign investorsin a bid to become the new eco-

nomic hub of the Middle East.Crown Prince is aiming to spendover $7 billion dollars within thenext 10 years across the public andprivate sectors to diversify its econ-omy away from oil. And his planseems to be working: in the lastyear, Google signed a $10 billionagreement with oil giant Aramco;Amazon has committed huge busi-ness in the country, and Huawei isset to open its largest flagship out-side of China in Riyadh. The grow-ing social cachet attached to thetech industry is a trend that can beattributed, in part, to CrownPrince’s own fascination withSilicon Valley. To raise funds foreconomic diversification, SaudiArabia has issued debt, drawndown its fiscal reserves and VAT -a form of sales tax. The kingdomcan also continue to draw from itsreserves, which stood at $130bn atthe end of the second quarter of2021. Nevertheless, privatisationsare likely to gain new momentumover the coming years.

When asked about SaudiArabia and the US, after the newadministration had arrived in theWhite House, was there any discordbetween these two allies? MBSstated that they were working onmaintaining relations with strategicpartners in the region, starting withthe Gulf countries, Arab countries,and Middle Eastern countries.They were also working onstrengthening their alliances withpartners throughout the world;the US, the UK, France, Europe,

and other countries, as well as seek-ing to create new partnershipswith everyone else, such as Russia,India, China, Latin America,African countries, and others. Thisis all to serve the interests of SaudiArabia without undermining anyother country.

Under Crown Prince and long-serving KSA Ambassador to India,Saud Al Sati, the relationshipbetween India and Saudi Arabiawas elevated to that of a strategicpartnership. The momentum forthis relationship began during thevisit of Prime Minister NarendraModi to the Kingdom in April2016, during which he was present-ed with the Sash of King AbdulAziz, the highest civilian decorationawarded by King Salman. Themomentum increased with thecrown Prince’s visit to India, dur-ing which he and Modi discussedprospects for bilateral cooperationin all fields, along with other issuesof mutual interest. And the confir-mation of India as one of theKingdom’s strategic partner coun-tries under Vision 2030, completewith a proposal to set up a high-level partnership council.

Finally on the lighter note,when asked why he is in a tearinghurry, Crown price replied smil-ing: “I fear that the day I die, I amgoing to die without accomplish-ing what I have in my mind, lifeis short, and a lot of things canhappen, and I am really keen tosee it with my own eyes - and thatis why I am in a hurry.”

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Anear-full house turned outto watch Afghanistan’s top

cricketers play in a trial matchon Friday, with Taliban andAfghan flags waving side byside in what sports officialscalled a show of national unity.

It was the first match sincethe Taliban swept to power onAugust 15, leaving organisers ofsports and cultural events won-dering what is now acceptableunder the hardline Islamists’rule.

The two sides — calledPeace Defenders and PeaceHeroes — featured many mem-bers of the Afghan nationalteam, currently preparing forthe Twenty20 World Cup to beplayed in UAE and Oman fromOctober 17.

“It is great to be here andwatch cricket,” Taliban’s Hamzatold AFP at the stadium inKabul, an American M-16 rifleslung over his shoulder.

He was in charge of a con-tingent of Taliban keepingguard among the crowd —some watching the game moreintently than the spectators.

“I am a player myself,” said

Hamza. “An all-rounder.”The return of the Taliban

has sparked widespread fear inAfghanistan and in the inter-national community, revivingmemories of their first stint inpower from 1996 to 2001,when they imposed a harshversion of Islamic law.

That regime banned mostforms of entertainment —including many sports — andstadiums doubled as publicexecution venues.

Sports the Taliban didallow were strictly controlled,

and were only for men to playor watch.

Certainly there were nowomen among the crowd ofaround 4,000 on Friday, butthere was plenty of enthusiasmas the teams played a Twenty20match — the shortest versionof the game — scheduled tofinish in time for Fridayprayers, the most important ofthe week.

Cricket was barely knownin Afghanistan until the early2000s, and its explosive rise inpopularity is linked with con-

flict — the sport was picked upin Pakistan by Afghan refugeeswho then seeded it in theirhome country.

The national team hasenjoyed a meteoric rise on theinternational scene since then,gaining coveted Test status in2017 and now ranking amongthe top 10 sides in the world inthe one-day and Twenty20 for-mats.

In the last 20 years, it hasemerged as a powerful symbolof national unity in a countryriven by civil war and ethnicconflict.

On Friday, fans wavedAfghan and Taliban flags sideby side, while “Baba cricket” —an elderly superfan dressedhead to toe in national colours— was ushered to a prime spotin the stand.

Entry was free for specta-tors on Friday, although every-one was patted down byTaliban guards as they enteredthe stadium near ChamanUzuri — a Kabul neighbour-hood dominated by Pashtuns,who make up a majority ofTaliban fighters.

Although many Kabul res-idents say security has

improved in the weeks sincethe government fell, the Talibanare still on alert following theIslamic State suicide bombattacks at the airport last weekthat killed more than 100 peo-ple — including 13 Americantroops as they wrapped up achaotic withdrawal.

A beaming HamidShinwari, CEO of the AfghanCricket Board, told AFP thedisplay of flags at the match —which Peace Defenders won by62 runs — was a positive signfor the country.

“It is unity,” he said, addingthat talks with Taliban officialssignalled a bright future for thesport.

He would not be drawn,however, on the fate of thewomen’s team, with variousmedia reports saying manymembers had already fled thecountry or were in hiding —fearful for their future underthe new regime.

“We have a group onWhatsApp and every night weare talking about our problemsand sharing plans about whatwe should do,” one member ofthe team told the BBC thisweek.

Kabul: The Taliban sayWestern Union will resume itsoperations in Afghanistan,opening a rare conduit for for-eign funds to flow into thecash-strapped country.

The group’s cultural com-mission spokesman,Ahmadullah Muttaqi,announced the move onFriday. The American financialservices giant had halted oper-ations in Afghanistan when theTaliban took power in the cap-ital on August 15.

The opening will be espe-cially welcomed by Afghanswith foreign relatives abroad.Hundreds of people have beenlining up daily outside Afghanbanks to withdraw cash. AP

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Brdo Castle (Slovenia):European Union officials onFriday listed a set of conditionsfor defining the EU’s level ofengagement with the Taliban asthe new rulers of Afghanistan,including respect for humanrights and the rule of law.

Following the Afghan

Government’s collapse lastmonth, the 27-nation bloc andits member countries have evac-uated their diplomats fromAfghanistan. But EU officialshave said they are willing tocooperate with the Taliban nowthat they have returned to power.

The EU is focusing on deliv-

ering humanitarian aid, guar-anteeing the safe passage out ofthe country of Afghan collabo-rators and employees who wereleft behind during the airliftsfrom Kabul, and trying to pre-vent a mass exodus of refugeesthat could prompt anothermigration crisis in Europe. AP

Kabul: A few dozen protestershave gathered outside the pres-idential palace in Kabul, urgingthe country’s new Taliban lead-ership to uphold women’srights achieved under Westernpatronage and include womenin the upcoming Government.

At one gate on Friday,around a dozen women held upsmall printed pages urging for “Aheroic Cabinet with the presence

of women.” The protesters chant-ed slogans asserting humanrights and saying they did notwant to return to the past.

A document circulated byprotesters demanded thatAfghan women are grantedfull rights to education, socialand political contributions inthe country’s future, and gen-eral freedoms including that offree speech. AP

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UK Foreign SecretaryDominic Raab on Friday

said it is important to engagewith the Taliban Governmentin Afghanistan for a range ofreasons, including the safe pas-sage of British citizens, but dis-missed talks of recognising itofficially as “premature”.

Addressing a joint pressconference in Islamabad along-side Pakistani Foreign MinisterShah Mahmood Qureshi, Raab,who is Secretary of State forForeign, Commonwealth andDevelopment Affairs, said itwould not have been possible toevacuate some 15,000 peoplefrom Kabul without some degreeof cooperation from the Taliban.

Peshawar: The formation of anew Afghan Government bythe Taliban, which was to beannounced on Friday, has nowbeen delayed by a day, accord-ing to the spokesman of theinsurgents Zabiullah Mujahid.

Mujahid said theannouncement about the for-mation of the new Governmentwill now be made on Saturday.

Sources said thatChairman of Taliban’s PoliticalOffice, Doha, Qatar MullaAbdul Ghani Baradar is likelyto be the head of the Taliban.

More than two weeks afterthe Taliban took overAfghanistan, the hardlineIslamists are all set to announcethe formation of a Governmentin Kabul on the lines of theIranian leadership, with thegroup’s top religious leaderMullah Hebatullah Akhundzadaas Afghanistan’s supremeauthority, a senior member ofthe group has said. PTI

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New Zealand authoritieswere so worried about an

extremist inspired by theIslamic State (ISIS) group theywere following him around-the-clock and were able toshoot and kill him within 60seconds of him unleashing afrenzied knife attack thatwounded six people on Fridayat an Auckland supermarket.

Three of the shoppers weretaken to Auckland hospitals incritical condition, police said.Another was in serious condi-tion, while two more were inmoderate condition.

Prime Minister JacindaArdern said the incident was aterror attack. She said the manwas a Sri Lankan national whowas inspired by the

Islamic State group andwas well known to the nation’ssecurity agencies.

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The center-right Union bloc’scandidate to succeed Angela

Merkel as chancellor in thismonth’s German electionannounced the naming of eightexperts on Friday to advise himon how to tackle issues such asclimate change and education, ashe struggles to reverse a sustaineddownward trend in the polls.

A survey released by pub-lic broadcaster ARD showedthe Union bloc receiving 20 percent of the vote compared to 25per cent support for the center-left Social Democrats.

The poll of 1,337 eligiblevoters conducted August 30-September 1 had a margin oferror of 2-3 percentage points.

The Union bloc’s candidatefor the chancellorship, Armin

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Laschet, has received particu-larly unfavourable reviews aftera series of slips on the cam-paign trail in recent months.

Speaking at the Berlinheadquarters of his ChristianDemocratic Union party,Laschet said he wants his newteam to reflect the Christian-social, liberal and conservativewings of the party.

Several of the experts arefamiliar faces, including formerrival Friedrich Merz, who wastapped to advise Laschet onfinance and business matters.

Others, like extremismresearcher Peter R. Neumann,have not previously figuredprominently in the party.

Warsaw: Polish Prime MinisterMateusz Morawiecki said onFriday that nobody has theright to lecture his country ondemocracy, after the EuropeanUnion said talks were still ongo-ing over the payment of billionsof euros to bloc member Poland.

“Nobody will teach us whatdemocracy and rule of law arebecause Poland has a very longand noble history of fightingagainst all kinds of totalitari-anism and despots,”Morawiecki said on Facebook.

“We fought for the rule oflaw and democracy during theterrible years of communism,but we have a much longerlonger tradition of democracyand we do not want to beinstructed by anyone inWestern Europe about whatdemocracy is, what the rule oflaw is,” the PM added. AP

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“Economy is booming in thecountry after the second

Covid wave”, said the SupremeCourt on Friday as it refused toentertain a batch of pleas seek-ing contempt action againstGovernor of Reserve Bank ofIndia and senior officials ofother banks for declaring theloan accounts as Non-Performing Assets (NPA).

The top court said thatcontempt is between court andcontemnor and it is notinclined to initiate contemptaction against senior officials ofbanks.

“In our considered view, weare not inclined to exercise ourcontempt jurisdiction, since itis not in the interest of justice,”said a bench of Justices DYChandrachud, Vikram Nathand Hima Kohli.The benchsaid that petitioners are at lib-erty to seek remedy under thee Securitisation andReconstruction of FinancialAssets and Enforcement ofSecurity Interest Act (SAR-FAESI Act), 2002.

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Digital infrastructure indus-try body Dipa, erstwhile

Taipa, on Friday expressed dis-appointment over non-imple-mentation of Trai’s recom-mendations since 2015 toenhance the scope of infra-structure providers.TelecomRegulatory Authority of India(Trai) has again recommendedto Department of Telecom onAugust 31 that its recommen-dations dated March 13, 2020to enhance the scope of infra-structure providers should bedecided by the departmentand the matter should befinalised within three months.

“We thank the Authority(Trai) for once again underlin-ing the need for ‘Enhancementof Scope of IP-1’ and this timeprescribing timelines also for itsimplementation i.E within 3months as the same is pendingdespite numerous follow-upswith DoT,” Dipa DirectorGeneral TR Dua said in astatement.

Infrastructure Providers

(IP-1) provide infrastructureassets such as dark fibre, rightof way, duct space and tower onlease, rent-out or sale basis totelecom operators on mutual-ly agreed terms and conditions.

Trai has recommendedthat the registered IP-1 com-panies be allowed to own,establish, maintain, and workall such infrastructure items,equipment, and systems whichare required for establishingWireline Access Network,Radio Access Network, andTransmission Links.

The regulator also sug-gested that the scope of IP-1registration should include,but not limited to, right of way,duct space, optical fiber, tower,feeder cable, antenna, base sta-tion, in-building solution (IBS),distributed antenna system(DAS) etc within any part ofIndia.Dua said that once therecommendations are imple-mented, it will go a long way innot only addressing the capexand opex requirements butalso improving the financialhealth of the sector.

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Four more States — MadhyaPradesh, Jharkhand,

Uttarakhand and Kerala —have decided to supply fortifiedrice through Integrated ChildDevelopment Services andMid-Day Meal scheme on apilot basis, Food SecretarySudhanshu Pandey said onFriday.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, in his speech on thecountry’s 75th IndependenceDay on August 15, hadannounced that the fortifiedrice will be made availableunder every government pro-gramme by the year 2024.

Currently, out of the 15states identified for the ‘Centralscheme on fortified rice and its

distribution via public distrib-ution system (PDS)’, seven areimplementing it in one districteach on a pilot basis.

“From this month, fourmore states have joined forpilot implementation.

They will implement inone district each,” Pandey toldreporters.

At present, about 7.59 lakhtonnes of fortified rice pro-cured by the state-run FoodCorporation of India (FCI) isavailable for distributionthrough Integrated ChildDevelopment Services andMid-Day Meal scheme, he said.

Efforts are being made toboost the capacity of fortifiedrice kernels (FRK) of ricemillers from present 60,000tonnes.

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The country’s foreignexchange reserves soared

by USD 16.663 billion to toucha lifetime high of USD 633.558billion in the week endedAugust 27, mainly due to anincrease in Special DrawingRights (SDR) holdings, RBIdata showed.

On Wednesday, RBI hadsaid the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) made anallocation of SDR 12.57 billion(equivalent to around USD17.86 billion at the latestexchange rate) to India onAugust 23, 2021.

SDR holdings are part ofthe foreign exchange reservesof a country. IMF makes thegeneral SDR allocation to itsmembers in proportion to theirexisting quotas in the Fund.

In the reporting weekended August 27, 2021, thecountry’s SDR holdings rose byUSD 17.866 billion to USD19.407 billion, as per weekly

data released by the ReserveBank of India (RBI) on Friday.

India’s forex kitty haddeclined by USD 2.47 billion toUSD 616.895 billion in the pre-vious week ended August 20,2021.

Foreign currency assets(FCAs), a major component ofthe overall reserves, dipped byUSD 1.409 billion to USD571.6 billion in the reportingweek, the data showed.

Expressed in dollar terms,

the foreign currency assetsinclude the effect of apprecia-tion or depreciation of non-USunits like the euro, pound andyen held in the foreignexchange reserves.

Gold reserves were up byUSD 192 million to USD37.441 billion.

The country’s reserve posi-tion with the IMF rose byUSD 14 million to USD 5.11billion in the reporting week,the data showed.

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Economists at the country’slargest lender SBI believe

that labour market activity willimprove in FY22, saying com-panies are continuing withtheir hiring plans as the pan-demic wanes.

They pointed to payrolldata from Employees ProvidentFund Organisation and NewPension Scheme, showing anuptick in new additions tosupport their optimistic view.

“We expect labour marketactivity to remain better in thecurrent fiscal as companieswill continue with their hiringplans to get ahead of the pan-demic,” its chief economistSoumya Kanti Ghosh said in anote.

The expectation comes ata time when concerns are beingraised about joblessness and thedip in labour participation inthe economy coming back tonormalcy after the second waveof the pandemic. As per an esti-mate by the Centre forMonitoring Indian Economy,15 lakh Indians, including 13lakh in rural areas alone, losttheir jobs in August alone.

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The Indian rupee settledwith a marginal gain of 4

paise at 73.02 against the USdollar on Friday, even as thedomestic equities continuedtheir record-setting spree.

At the interbank forex mar-ket, the local unit opened at73.05 against the greenbackand witnessed an intra-dayhigh of 73.01 and a low of73.15. It finally ended at 73.02against the American curren-cy, registering a gain of just 4paise over its previous close.Ona weekly basis, the local cur-rency has appreciated by 67paise against the US dollar.According to HDFC Securities’Dilip Parmar, spot USD/INRfacing resistance around 73.15and holding support at 72.90.“Expectations of dollar inflowsfrom many corporates’ fundraising also weighed on thepair. In near term, spot USD-INR is expected to consolidatebefore heading towards 72.

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The BSE Sensex scaled the58,000-mark for the first

time on Friday, buoyed by arally in market heavyweightReliance Industries as investorsremained in risk-on modeamid positive macroeconomicdata and sustained foreignfund inflows.

Rising for the secondstraight day, the 30-sharebenchmark climbed 277.41points or 0.48 per cent to itslifetime closing high of58,129.95.

It touched an intra-dayrecord of 58,194.79.

The Sensex has taken just3 sessions to go from the57,000-level to 58,000. Theindex closed at fresh all-timehighs in five of the previous sixsessions.

Similarly, Nifty advanced89.45 points or 0.52 per cent toits all-time closing peak of17,323.60. During the session,it touched a record of

17,340.10. It was a scintillating week

for the benchmarks, with theSensex rallying 2,005.23 pointsor 3.57 per cent, while the Niftysurged 618.40 points or 3.70per cent.

Reliance Industries wasthe top gainer in the Sensexpack on Friday, darting up4.12 per cent after its chair-man Mukesh Ambani out-lined an ambitious green ener-gy roadmap, including a ‘1-1-1 vision’ to bring down thecost of hydrogen to underUSD 1 per 1 kg in 1 decade.

Titan, Tata Steel, BajajAuto, Maruti, Dr Reddy’s andAsian Paints were the otherprominent winners, spurtingup to 2.59 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki closed 1.06per cent higher even as thecountry’s largest carmakerannounced a recall of 1,81,754units of various models toreplace faulty motor generatorunits.

New Delhi:Internet majorGoogle on Friday said it firm-ly sees itself as a partner to theexisting financial ecosystem inIndia and that instances ofpartnerships being described asGoogle Pay’s offerings fuelmisinterpretation.

While the company didnot elaborate of any specificinstances, the latest assertioncomes against the backdrop ofreports that suggested GooglePay has launched fixed depositofferings in partnership with abank. The company empha-sised that in every geographywhere Google Pay is present, itsstance is consistently one ofpartnering with the existingfinancial services and bankingsystems to help scale andenable frictionless delivery offinancial products and ser-vices and contribute to thegoal of financial inclusion.In ablogpost, Google India saidthere have been a few instanceswhere these offerings havebeen reported as ‘Google Pay’sofferings’ which “fuels misin-terpretation”. PTI

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Nearly 80 per cent ofprospective home buyers

prefer to purchase propertiesthat are ready-to-move-in ornearing completion, while onlyaround 20 per cent of cus-tomers want to buy newlylaunched flats, according to asurvey conducted by CII andAnarock.

After pricing, the surveysuggests that developer credi-bility, project design and loca-tion are the most importantattributes while selecting ahome.

Industry body CII andproperty consultant Anarockconducted an online surveyduring January-June this yearwith a sample size of 4,965 par-ticipants.

As per the survey findings,ready-to-move-in (completed)property continues to be themost preferred among theprospective buyers with 32 percent in favour.

Around 24 per cent ofrespondents are willing to buyproperties that will be readywithin six months, while 23 percent will not mind buyingproperties to be ready within ayear.

Only 21 per cent are now

willing to purchase a newlylaunched property.

CII and Anarock said theCovid pandemic has alteredhomebuyers preferences sig-nificantly, with the secondwave being a significant changecatalyst.

“For the first time, afford-able housing is the lowest pri-ority, with more than 34 percent respondent home seekersfocused on properties pricedbetween �90 lakh to �2.5crore,” Anarock said in a state-ment.

The survey shows that 35per cent of respondentsfavoured properties pricedbetween � 45-90 lakh, just 27per cent of respondents votedfor affordable housing (pricedbelow � 45 lakh).

In the previous H2 2020survey, about 36 per cent ofrespondent property seekerseyed budget housing.

While attractive pricingcontinues to rule the roost ofmust-haves, established devel-oper credibility is the second-highest priority for 77 per centof the surveyed buyers.

Mumbai:Indiabulls HousingFinance on Friday said it is tar-geting to raise up to �1,000crore through public non-con-vertible debenture (NCD) issuenext week, the first such offer-ing in three years.The city-headquartered company, whichhad a difficult time followingthe IL&FS crisis in the non-banking financial company(NBFC) sector, is planning toraise money from both secureand unsecured debt, and thebase issue size is �200 crorewith an option to retain anoth-er �800 crore of subscrip-tions.The public issue is ofsecured/and or unsecured,redeemable, non-convertibledebentures of face value of�1,000 each, IndiabullsHousing said in a statement.

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Anurag Basu, director, screen-writer, actor and producer,began his career in direction

with the television serial Tara in1996, followed by a line of popu-lar shows like Saturday Suspense,Koshish.. Ek Aasha, Miit, and so on.He also directed Stories byRabindranath Tagore which recent-ly hit Netflix. Soon, he glided tofeature films and the showbizindustry saw some of the greatestcinema, encompassing Kucch TohHai, Murder, Gangster, Life In A...Metro, Kites, and the criticallyacclaimed Barfi!.

However, what we wanted toknow more about was his recentsuccess story - Ludo, a dark com-edy anthology that features inter-twined stories of brilliant actors likeAbhishek Bachchan, Aditya RoyKapur, Rajkummar Rao, SanyaMalhotra, Rohit Saraf, Fatima SanaShaikh, among others. The film-maker garnered the award for thebest director for the same, atIndian Film Festival of Melbourne(IFFM), 2021. Talking about IFFM,Basu expressed, “It was a great fes-tival. All my friends were presentand it was a great get-together.Melbourne had given a platform tonot just Hindi cinema but allIndian cinema, from Assam toBengal. They’ve been doing anamazing job since 2012.”

� Firstly, many congratulationson winning the best director forLudo!

I would like to know yourconjectures about using O Beta Jiin the film. Does it ironicallyreflect the life of Bhagwan Dada?

The song, I believe, is also aperfect summation of the year2020. What are your thoughts onthat?

Thank you. And that’s an inter-esting perception. I’m glad it fits inwell with the current situation.When we initially thought of thesong, I never realised it would takeoff like it did. It came as a surpriseto us as to how much the audienceappreciated the irony. You havecertain thoughts stored in thehard-drive of your brain, andsometimes it randomly strikesyou. I was lucky that O Beta Jicame to me then. As a child, Iwould listen to the cassette ofAlbela repeatedly and sometimes,things don’t come to you at theright time. I’m glad it did. But yes,I had never anticipated it wouldbecome so iconic.

� From passionate movies likeLife in a... Metro, Murder and

Gangster to sweet comedies likeBarfi! to a crime film like Ludo...You’ve experimented with vastgenres. How has the journeybeen?

A) It has been great, yaar. I’mhappy I have made these kinds offilms incorporating different gen-res, different kinds and styles. Ihope I keep doing that as long asI can. Although, in hindsight I feelI don’t have my own voice and stylewhich is why I keep changingstyles. I’m still looking for myvoice, I think.

� So, do you feel this change isdue to your personal life changes

projecting onto what you arecreating?

Of course, the personal life youlead also reflects onto whatthoughts are being created fromthe mind. But I also think I makea very conscious effort to notrepeat styles. I constantly have thequestion ‘what next?’ hoveringover me. It’s the first thing I wantto answer when I’m writing ascript. I should enjoy doing amovie, the uniqueness of the sub-ject is what allows that. Perhaps,that is the second reason.

�Do you think dark comedies, somuch appreciated by the current

generation, reflect the existentialcrisis, and perhaps, our privilegeddiscomforts?

A) That is dark and funny. Yes,I do not know how, otherwise,things would transpire. It is whatwe are feeling universally. Covidhappened and we suffered theconsequences together.

� You like a twist in the tale,beginning with Tara. That’s some-thing we find in Ludo, too. Is it aformat you enjoy?

Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s afashion in OTT shows, too. Everyepisode ends on a cliffhanger. Wedon’t need cliffhangers as much in

films because you know the audi-ence will not leave in between. InOTTs, they want to watch the nextepisode. So, this can be seen morein television that films.

� Talk to us about the end of thestar system, and rise of actors likePankaj Tripathi, and rise of pop-ularity of OTT platforms.

OTT has given rise to newactors, too, who otherwise wouldhave taken four-five years to findthe right platform and get knownbut these platforms have giventhem the opportunity.

However, I do not think thestar system is going to fade. This isvery temporary. People are stillwaiting for theatres to open andclap in the cinema halls on seeingtheir favourite actors. I believe boththings will co-exist. It’s the new 70sera. I’m making this comparisonbecause then HrishikeshMukherjee, and Basu Chatterjeewere making cinema, Amol Palekarwas acting and Amitabh Bachanwas also a star. Shyam Benegal wasalso making Manthan. All differentcinemas were blooming together. Ithink that that golden era is backagain.

�What will be the future of OTTplatforms once the covid situationeases up? is OTT here to stay?

It is going to grow, yes. It ishere to stay, too. But since OTT isalso ruled by data, like television,it might not remain so pure. Whenthe creators have free hands toproduce something, they keepcreating content. But I believe,when theatres will open, theatreswill strive, too. So, this debate oftheatres v/s OTT is redundant.With OTTs, diversification hastaken place. The audience isbecoming more cinema-literate.There are viewers for all kind ofstories right now, which has givena lot of freedom to us filmmakers,too, on trying our hands at vari-ous subjects.

� What is something you expectfrom the actors who work withyou? And subsequently the audi-ence that receives your films?

I expect only one thing frommy actors and that is trust.Perhaps, friendship will be anadded bonus. From my audience,I only expect them to pick andchoose right. They shouldn’t besurprised on finding a lot of songsin a film that belongs to the cate-gory of musicals. They shouldwatch the movie of genres theyenjoy.

Even as the pandemic continuesto cast its shadow of stress, Zee

TV is attempting to lighten up thecountry's collective mood by offer-ing its viewers an escape from allthe stress via the route of rib-tick-ling comedy through its realityshow, Zee Comedy Show. Whilethe show has helped every Indianfamily unwind on their couch withsome of India's top comediansmaking them LOL their stressaway, this weekend, we will see thepopular Bollywood actressBhagyashree entertain us withher interesting revelations as theactress appears as a special guestduring this Sunday’s episode. Hercharming personality and herbeautiful aura is set to mesmerisethe audience while all the tencomedians come together as teamHasaayenge and make each one ofus laugh out loud.

While the hilarious acts put upby all the comedians coupledwith the witty reactions of FarahKhan surely left everyone in splits,it was Khan’s candid confessionthat caught everyone’s attention.After Sugandha Mishra Bhosle, DrSanket Bhosale and SiddharthSagar’s hilarious Maine PyaarKiya act, Farah revealed how shehad tried to help Salman Khanduring the audition of MainePyaar Kya. However, after seeinghow it was going, she bailed outmid-way and went on to believethat Salman would never get thepart in the film. But, fate had itsown plan!

As Farah revealed, “Salmanand I are childhood friends, sowhen he had to audition forMaine Pyaar Kiya, he took me tohelp him learn some dance movesbefore his screen test. In fact, he

took me to Sooraj Barjatya’s officeand I tried teaching him for fourhours, but I ran away midwaythrough it because he was danc-ing so badly. I thought he willnever get the movie, and everyonewill doubt my ability after seeinghim. But a week or two later, Icame to know that he got the filmand I laughed back then, but themovie went on to be such a block-buster. They (Salman andBhagyashree) were so good in thefilm, and I must say that the direc-tor always makes the correct deci-sion. Sometimes, you need to seethings from the eyes of a directorand while both Salman andBhagyashree were great, we mustgive credit to Sooraj Barjatya too.”

Apart from Farah, Bhagyashreewill also be seen making someinteresting revelations about MainePyaar Kiya, Salman and muchmore. The comic acts by all theartistes during this weekend’sepisode is all set to make your week-end a happy one.

(To have a hearty laugh anddrive away your stress, tune in

to Zee Comedy Show thisSaturday and Sunday at 10 PM

on Zee TV.)

Spotify’s brand new original pod-cast, Virus 2062, voiced by

Bollywood actors and couple, RichaChadha and Ali Fazal is now avail-able to stream and download for freeon the platform. The audio thriller,a 10-episode, single season affair, iscentred around ‘Patient 63’, voiced byFazal, who tells Dr Gayatri Rajput,voiced by Chadha, at a psychiatricfacility, that he’s time traveled fromthe past to prevent a pandemic.

The podcast is an adaptation ofCaso 63, a Spotify Original fromChile. After transfixing listenerswith its science fiction and thrillerstorytelling in Chile and Brazil, thetime traveling show has gone thegeographical distance with its releasein India. It has been produced local-ly by MnM Talkies, the audio wingof the production house,MantraMugdh Productions, whichproduced podcasts such as BhaskarBose, I Hear You and Darr Ka Raazwith Dr Phobia. Virus 2062 is the firstpodcast on Spotify India which willbe led by voices from Bollywood,bringing together Chadha and Fazalas protagonists.

Actor/RJ Mantra, owner ofMantraMugdh Productions,expressed gleefully, “Virus 2062 ishands down the strongest piece ofcontent that has come my way. I canguarantee that people will be suckedinto this because there is a voyeuris-tic pleasure that one may derive fromlistening to their conversations. I canattest to this because I had mixed the

show, however, I am sure the listen-ers will agree.”

According to UnniNambudripad, the executive produc-er of podcasts at Spotify India,“Spotify is where audio story-telling is. The podcastwill keep listeners onthe edge of their seat.We are releasing allepisodes together sothat it’s a complete audiothriller experience thatcan be binge-listened to.It’s also been such a privi-lege to work with Chadhaand Fazal for this podcastgiven their background intheatre and the creative processthey brought while recordingthe podcast.”

He further shared that the rea-son they chose Fazal and Chadhawas because of their chemistry,and the quality they individuallyendorse. Mantra pitched in, “Wehave seen how on the mic theirchemistry helped the development ofthe characters and after witnessing

some improvisedmoments, we knew we

had made the right choice inroping in the couple.”

One may think that since a pod-cast is a new medium, film or tele-vision actors may take their time ingetting used to the proceedings,however, Chadha doesn’t reallyagree. She feels that there is a lotmore to this than what meets theeye.

“When we train for theatre,we are taught to express our-selves with our voices andbodies. I was glad I was pay-ing attention back thenbecause it came handy forVirus 2062. Recording apodcast is very differentfrom dubbing forshows. It requires theright voice modula-tion and practice tokeep listeners

engaged throughout,because even your expressions are

reflected in the narration. SinceVirus 2062 is a fictional thriller, I hadthe opportunity to explore a newform of storytelling and it was aninsightful experience for me to workwith Spotify and Mantra. I have

always tried to do unconventionalroles in theatre, film, and now onaudio, and hope my fans like thisnew experiment I’ve done”, sharedChadha.

Speaking about his experienceand creative process while record-ing for the show, Fazal said, “Makinga shift from onscreen to audio hasdefinitely been a fun ride. It was avery intimate experience, playingwith just our voices. The beauty isthat we are banking on people’simaginations. As an actor, I amalways looking for ways to expandmy creative abilities. While I recallworking on a radio play for BBC along time back, Virus 2062 hasbroadened my horizons and I amsure that listeners will be hookedright from the word go.”

The original story of Caso 63was written by Julio Rojas, and is setin the year 2022, when psychiatristElisa Aldunate begins a series oftherapy sessions with ‘patient 63.’ Asthe sessions progress, time, space,and reality begin to blur, playingwith listeners’ minds. Drama buildsover the course of 10 episodes,delivering thought-provoking mys-tery for listeners.

The team remarked that whileVirus 2062 is based on Caso 63, itcontains many elements which havebeen incorporated specifically tocater to the Hindi audience. Whatare you waiting for, go ahead andstream/download the episodes rightaway on Spotify!

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World No 1 Novak Djokovicmoved five matches from

completing the first men’s singlescalendar-year Grand Slam in 52years while Tokyo Olympicchampion Alexander Zverevand top-ranked AshleighBarty also rolled into thethird round of the USOpen on Friday.

The 34-year-oldSerbian cruised past 121st-ranked Dutchman TallonGriekspoor 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 atArthur Ashe Stadium tobook a third-round datewith 2014 US Open run-ner-up Kei Nishikori.

The Japanese madehimself an obstacle inDjokovic’s path to historyby outlasting AmericanMackenzie McDonald 7-6 (7/3),6-3, 6-7 (5/7), 2-6, 6-3, avenginga loss in last month’s Washingtonsemi-finals.

Djokovic has a 17-2 careerrecord against Nishikori, wholast beat the Serbian star in the2014 US Open semi-finals. Since

then, Djokovic has won 16 in arow, most recently in the TokyoOlympic quarter-finals.

Remnants of Hurricane Idakilled at least eight people andtriggered a rare state of emer-gency for the city, flooding sub-

ways and turningroads into rivers.With abandonedcars scattered acrossstreets near theNational TennisCenter and manyhighways shut down,only a smattering ofspectators watchedin a cavernous

Arthur Ashe Stadiumas Barty dispatchedDanish 18-year-oldClara Tauson 6-1, 7-5.

Barty send a back-hand long to surrender

a break in the 10th gameof the second set while serv-ing for the match but held

her nerve, broke back andheld again to win in 90minutes.

Reigning Wimbledonchampion Barty, seeking her

third Grand Slam title, next playsAmerican Shelby Rogers as shechases a sixth trophy of the yearand first US Open quarter-finals spot.

German fourth seed Zverevdowned 33rd-ranked Spanishleft-hander Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-0, 6-3. Zverev, lastyear’s US Open runner-up anda champion two weeks ago atCincinnati, took only 74 minutesto advance.

German Oscar Otte, ranked144th, became the fifth men’squalifier to reach the thirdround by defeating 92nd-rankedAmerican Denis Kudla 6-4, 6-4,6-2. There haven’t been so manyqualifiers so deep at any Slamsince six at the 2011 FrenchOpen and not at the US Opensince five made it in 1984.

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Sweden beat Spain 2-1 inStockholm on Thursday to

take control of their group inWorld Cup qualifying, whileItaly were held by Bulgaria intheir first match since winningEuro 2020.

Viktor Claesson’s second-half strike, after excellent workfrom Juventus winger DejanKulusevski, put Sweden twopoints clear of Spain at the topof Group B with a game in hand.

Carlos Soler had given Spaina fifth-minute lead, butAlexander Isak levelled for thehosts just a minute later.

Only the group winnersqualify automatically for the2022 tournament in Qatar, withthe runners-up facing a play-off.

Italy extended their nation-al record unbeaten streak to 35matches, but it was not the cel-ebration in Florence RobertoMancini’s men were hoping foras they returned to action fol-lowing their penalty shoot-outtriumph over England in theEuro 2020 final in July.

Federico Chiesa gave theAzzurri the perfect start with the

opening goal in the 16th minute,but Atanas Iliev’s equaliser fiveminutes before half-time gaveBulgaria a 1-1 draw.

British media reported thatRaheem Sterling and JudeBellingham were targeted withmonkey chants as Englandbounced back from their agonis-ing Euro final defeat by seeingoff Hungary 4-0 in Budapest.

Sterling answered the hos-tile Puskas Arena crowd in thebest possible way with a 55th-minute opening goal, beforeKane and Harry Maguire bothscored headers.

Declan Rice’s late strike

capped an excellent night on thepitch for England as they main-tained their 100 percent recordwith a fourth straight victory inGroup I.

Poland now sit second in thetable, five points behind Englandwho they meet in Warsaw nextweek, after Robert Lewandowskinetted in a 4-1 win over Albania.

Germany struggled for longperiods against Liechtensteinin St Gallen but eventually won2-0 for a crucial three points.

Romelu Lukaku scored adouble as Belgium cruised to a5-2 success over Estonia inTallinn.

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The Indian hockey teamsare unlikely to participate

in next year’s CommonwealthGames in Birmingham toensure that they hit peak formduring the Asian Games,which is a qualifier for the2024 Paris Olympics, IndianOlympic AssociationPresident Narinder Batra saidon Friday.

Batra said he has con-veyed this to Sports Authorityof India (SAI) DirectorGeneral Sandip Pradhan dur-ing a formal meeting onFriday.

Batra, who is the chief ofthe International HockeyFederation (FIH) and was aformer Hockey India presi-dent, said the Indian hockeyteams’ priority is to achievetheir peak at the Asian Games,which starts just 35 days afterthe CWG.

The Birmingham CWG isscheduled to be held from July28 to August 8, while the

Asian Games will be hosted byHangzhou, China fromSeptember 10 to 25.

“Based on my prelimi-nary discussions with HockeyIndia, it seems doubtful as ofnow whether Indian men andwomen hockey team’s willparticipate in CommonwealthGames 2022,” Batra, who stillholds considerable influencein Hockey India, said in astatement.

“Hockey India will notlike its hockey athletes topeak 35 days before the AsianGames 2022 and would likethe athletes to peak at the righttime i.e. during the AsianGames 2022.

“The CommonwealthGames in 2022 are just 35 daysbefore the Asian Games inChina and in hockey the win-ners of Asian Games directlyqualify for 2024 ParisOlympics. Hence, winningGold medal in the AsianGames is a must for both men& women’s hockey teams,” headded.

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Santiago: Brazil continued theirperfect start to qualifying witha seventh win out of seven asEverton Ribeiro scored the onlygoal in a 1-0 away victory overChile while Argentina main-tained their unbeaten start totheir World Cup qualifyingcampaign, cruising to a 3-1 vic-tory at 10-man Venezuela onThursday night.

Lautaro Martinez openedthe scoring in first half injurytime after Venezuela had beenreduced to 10 men and then inthe final quarter substitutesJoaquin Correa and AngelCorrea broke through.

Venezuela did not go homeempty handed, though, asYeferson Soteldo scored acheeky ‘panenka’ penalty deepinto injury time at the end of thegame.

While depleted Brazil weresecond best for much of theirtrip to Santiago having seen 11players prevented from joiningthe squad by their clubs due tocoronavirus quarantine restric-tions but crucially Neymar wasavailable. And it was his shot on64 minutes that Chile goalkeep-er Claudio Bravo spilled into thepath of Everton Ribeiro to nickthe only goal of the game. AFP

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Tokyo: India’s Pramod Bhagatand his partner Palak Kohliqualified for the mixed doublessemifinals, while three singlesplayers also made the last-fourstage to continue a rampagingrun at the Paralympics bad-minton competition on Friday.

Bhagat, who had qualifiedfor the men’s singles SL3 eventon Thursday, and Kohli beatThailand’s Siripong teamar-rom and Nipada Saensupa 21-15, 21-19 in a 29-minute clashto finish second in group B.

The Indian duo will clashwith Indonesian pair of HarySusanto and Leani Ratri in thesemifinals on Saturday.

In men’s singles, Suhas LY,Tarun Dhillon and ManojSarkar also made it to thesemifinals on a fruitful day forIndia.

In SL4 class, Suhas, a worldnumber 3, took 19 minutes toget rid of Indonesia’s HarySusanto 21-6, 21-12 in group A,while Tarun, seeded second,recovered from a mid-gameslump to outwit Korea’s ShinKyung Hwan 21-18, 15-21, 21-17 in a group B match.

However, Suhas suffered a15-21, 17-21 loss againstFrance’s top seed Lucas Mazurand Tarun went down 19-21, 9-21 to Indonesia’s FredySetiawan in their final groupmatches later in the day.

In the semifinals, Suhas hasbeen pitted against Setiawan,while Tarun will lock hornswith Mazur, a two-time worldchampion.

In SL3 class, Manoj secureda 21-16, 21-9 victory overUkraine’s Oleksandr Chyrkovto make it to the knockoutstage after finishing at the sec-ond spot in group A behindworld No 1 Bhagat.

In the semifinals, Manojwill face Great Britain’s DanielBethell, while Bhagat will takeon Japan’s Daisuke Fujihara onSaturday.

In SH6 class, KrishnaNagar, seeded second, pre-vailed 21-17, 21-14 over Brazil’sVitor Goncalves Tavares in 27minutes for his second win inas many matches to top groupB.

Krishna, who qualified forthe semifinals, will meet GreatBritain’s Krysten Coombs inthe knockout stage.

Young Kohli, however,signed off her women’s singlesSU5 campaign with a 11-21,15-21 loss against Japan’s KaedeKameyama in the quarterfinals.

Earlier, Kohli, 19, and ParulParmar, 48, suffered their sec-ond successive loss in women’sdoubles SL3-SU5 group A,going down 12-21, 20-22 to theFrench pair of Lenaig Morinand Faustine Noel.

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Ollie Pope helped Englandtake the first innings

lead against India with a sub-lime half-century, taking thehosts to 227 for seven at teaon day two of the fourth Testhere at the Oval on Friday.

The Indian pacers wereunable to sustain the pressureon a pitch that seems to begetting better for batting witheach passing session.

England led India by 36runs at the break with Pope(74 batting off 143) and ChrisWoakes (4 batting off 7) inthe middle.

The first wicket in thesession came throughMohammad Siraj, whotrapped Jonny Bairstow (37)with his stock ball — the nipbacker — in the fifth overafter lunch. That also broughtan end to an entertaining 89-run stand between Bairstowand Pope.

Pope then got togetherwith Moeen Ali (35) to giveEngland the upperhand. Thetwo shared a 71-run stand

and before aw e l l - s e tMoeen playeda poor shot offRavindra Jadejato throw hiswicket away. Theattempted slogsweep went straightinto the hands of thecover fielder.

Jasprit Bumrahcould have had Moeenleg before wicket earlierbut India did not review on-field umpire’s decision.

Pope played someexquisite shots en route tohis sixth half-century.The drive on the up, theflick and pull shots werea treat to the eye.

In the morningsession, UmeshYadav struck twicein the first hour ofplay before acounter-attackingstand betweenBairstow andPope tookEngland to139 for five

at lunch. Englandscored 86 runs in

the 25-over ses-sion.

Umesh, peren-nially in and out

of the playingeleven andfeaturing inhis first Testin ninemonths, was

impressive inhis openingspell after tak-ing the prizedwicket of JoeRoot onThursday.

He got his150th Test wick-et in his first overof the day afternightwatchman

Craig Overtonslashed onehard only toedge it to Virat

Kohli at firstslip.

D a w i dMalan (31 off67) once again

batted fluently until Umesh,coming from around thewicket, got one to slightlystraighten to take the outsideedge and Rohit Sharma tooka brilliant diving catch atsecond slip, leaving Englandat 62 for five.

With Bumrah also apply-ing pressure from the otherend, England managed toscore only 25 runs in the firsthour in which 12 overs werebowled.

However, the momentumshifted drastically inEngland’s favour after thedrinks break as ShardulThakur conceded fourboundaries in his over withthree of them coming fromPope’s bat.

One was a delightfulstraight drive and was fol-lowed by a flick between themid-on and mid-wicket arc.With the pitch not offeringmuch help to the pacers,

Thakur paid the price forbowling a bit too full.

The next over, Bairstowcollected three boundariesoff Siraj, who too wasn’t at hisbest.

Pope, playing his firstgame of the series, too battedwith supreme confidence andstruck a gorgeous cover driveoff Bumrah towards the endof the session.

Jadeja was guilty of bowl-ing two no-balls in his threeovers before lunch.

YouTuber Daniel Jarvis,who has gained notoriety forbreaching security at willduring the ongoing India ver-sus England series, on Fridayentered the Oval arena dur-ing the post lunch session.

Jarvis, who goes by thename Jarvo69 has been con-stantly impersonating asIndia cricketer and Fridaywas the third time in threegames that he has takenadvantage of the poor securi-ty arrangement by the ECBwhich has not taken trans-gressions seriously.

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Not quite satisf ieddespite becoming thefirst Indian woman to

win two Paralympic medals,shooter Avani Lekhara onFriday said she had it in her toperform better at the ongoingGames but was done in by thenerves.

The 19-year-old, who hadwon the 10m air rifle standingSH1 Gold, added a 50m rifle3 position SH1 Bronze to herhaul, making her the firstIndian woman with twoParalympic medals and sec-ond overall from the countryto claim multiple medals inthe same edition of the

Games.“I was not satisfied with

the Gold only (laughs), whenI won the Gold, I wanted tofire that last shot better...Sothis Bronze is definitely notsatisfying," Lekhara said in avirtual press conference facil-itated by broadcastersEurosport and the ParalympicCommittee of India.

“...That’s what finals do toyou, you become nervous.

“I am keeping all the cel-ebrations aside and focusingon the next match, so that ismy goal, to give my 100 percent in the next event also,”she said referring to the mixed50m rifle prone event onSunday.

Lekhara reiterated heradmiration for Olympic Gold-medallist Abhinav Bindra andthat she always wanted tobecome like him. On Friday,she in fact went one better onhim with her second medal.

“I always wanted tobecome like him (Bindra) andalways wanted to make mycountry proud, so that is whatinspired me a lot,” she said.

“I am very happy that Iwas able to get another medalfor the country and it is just Istill can’t believe it.

Athletes in SH1 Rifle havean impairment in their legs,for example amputations orparaplegia. Some athletescompete in a seated position,while others compete in astanding position.

The Jaipur-based shootersustained spinal cord injuriesin a car accident in 2012 ren-dering her immobile.

“I had never won a medalin sitting, this is my firstinternational (medal), so Iwas more nervous. But I justhad my focus on my shots. So(in the) last match I wasfocusing on one shot at a timeand it just happened,” she

said.

‘ROLE MODEL’Paralympic Committee of

India (PCI) President DeepaMalik on Friday lauded shoot-er Avani Lekhara, who creat-ed history by becoming thefirst Indian woman to win twoParalympic medals, saying thetrailblazing athlete hasemerged as a “role model” forthe country’s youngsters.

“She has risen above allthe challenges. The way she(Lekhara) showed maturityto handle the pressure duringcompetition, she has emergedas a role model and we are soproud of her,” Mailk said at avirtual press conference, facil-itated by official broadcastersEurosport, after the 19-year-old scripted history.

“A Gold and a Bronzefrom the same Paralympics,people will have to work veryhard to kind of reach thatmark, she has set the bench-mark so high and inspired somany with her performance,absolutely proud of her,” saidMalik who herself won a shotput Si lver in the 2016Paralympics.

Kolkata: Harvinder Singh, whoon Friday became the firstIndian to win a Paralympicsmedal in archery, is a man ofmany parts.

Pursuing PhD In econom-ics, the 31-year-old, whose legsstopped functioning properlydue to adverse effect from aninjection during his childhood,loves history, is a painter anddreams of cracking the UPSCexamination some day, accord-ing to his coach GauravSharma.

Having taken up archery inthe compound section after get-ting inspired from watching the2012 London Paralympics,Singh almost quit the sport afterhe did not make it to the 2014Incheon Asian Para GamesIndian team.

“He was completely

demoralised and was tellingarchery was not his domain,”his childhood coach Sharmasaid.

Sharma, however, did notwant to let his effort go in vainand “wanted to take a risk”.

In the Bronze playoff, Singh

was leading 5-3 before KimMin Su clinched the fifth set,shooting a perfect 10 to force ashoot-off where the Indianresponded in style with a per-fect 10 against the Korean’s 8 fora 6-5 (26-24, 27-29, 28-25, 25-25, 26-27) (10-8) win.

“He had the hunger toexcel and we took a risk and puthim into the tougher recurveevent which requires preciseskills,” Sharma said.

“There was 100 per centdedication from him, he wouldturn up at 6.30am and practicetill 8.30 and again come forpractice in the afternoon.”

He went on to top theselection trials for the 2017Beijing World Championshipsand has not looked back sincethen. He went on to win a Goldin the 2018 Asian Para Games.

Singh was offered a govern-ment job in the stateGovernment after his AsianGames feat. “He has not takenit since then. He wants to dosomething on his own, and hisdream is to crack the UPSC,”Sharma said. PTI

Not satisfied, could’ve done better: Avani

Tokyo: Praveen Kumarnever imagined being aParalympic Silver-medallistat 18 but being a driven ath-lete, the high-jumper leftno stone unturned to get tothis moment either even if itmeant creating a makeshiftpractice area for himselfwhen Covid-19 lockdownscaused closure of stadiums.

Praveen, son of a poorfarmer at a village near Jewarin Gautam Buddha Nagardistrict, clinched the Silvermedal in the men’s highjump T64/T44 event of theParalympics by setting anew Asian record of 2.07mon Friday morning.

The youngster had bat-tled Covid-19 and also itseffect on his training lastyear. Desperate to train forthe Games, Praveen had dugup a small pit near his houseand filled it with soft mud toensure he could carry onpractising despite not havingaccess to a landing mat-tress.

He created the space toensure that his knees did nottake too much of a beating.

“My school life wasmostly about sports. But at

that time I did not know Iwill reach at this level oneday. I was playing volleyballinitially in school, but thenslowly came to know of paraathletics and took up highjump,” Praveen said duringa virtual press conferenceorganised by Eurosport andParalympic Committee ofIndia.

“I came to know aboutParalympics and how to takepart in it after searching ongoogle," added the highjumper, whose congenitalimpairment affects the bonesthat connect his hip to hisleft leg.

Explaining how he cameto rise to this level, Praveensaid, “I took part in a districtlevel competition where Imet Ashok Saini sir whogave me phone number ofSatyapal sir (his currentcoach).

“I contacted (Satyapal)sir and then he found out inwhich classification I willcompete. He identified meand said he will take me in.This was 2018,” said Praveenwho is a BA second year stu-dent in the Motilal NehruCollege in Delhi. PTI

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