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12 PAGES | `4.00BHUBANESWAR | SATURDAY, MARCH 6 | 2021

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Actor Disha Patani is over the moon after doing her make-up for aprofessional shoot

DISHA DOES HER MAKE-UP Rishabh Pant’s century puts India incommand in the 4th Test againstEngland at Ahmedabad

PANT RESCUES INDIA

SPORTS | P12LEISURE | P2

NCB in its 11,700-page chargesheet says actor RheaChakraborty was instrumental in procuringand financing drugs NATIONAL | P8

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AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: The SupremeCourt Friday said the government’snew rules for OTT platforms have“no teeth, as there is no provisionfor prosecution of those who donot abide by these rules.”

A bench headed by Justice AshokBhushan said: “These rules areonly guidelines... no mechanismto control (the content on OTT plat-forms).” “Without legislation can-not control it.”

The observation was made bythe top court during the anticipa-tory bail plea hearing of AmazonPrime Video India head Aparna

Purohit against the Allahabad HighCourt order, which declined to en-tertain her anticipatory bail inconnection with the FIRs lodgedagainst her over web series ‘Tandav’.

The bench stressed that a lawshould be framed to put in place amechanism to control the contenton these online platforms.

The bench also granted protec-tion from arrest to Purohit, whomoved the top court apprehend-ing arrest. However, the top courtasked her to co-operate in the on-going investigation in the matter.

The court also asked the Centreto consider bringing in a law insteadof mere guidelines.

AGENCIES

Beijing, March 5: China Fridayhiked its defence budget for thefirst time to more than USD 200 bil-lion, over three times higher thanthat of India, maintaining a sin-gle-digit growth for the sixth con-secutive year with a 6.8 per centincrease in 2021.

The hike in defence spendingwas announced by Chinese PremierLi Keqiang on the opening day of theNational People’s Congress, China’sParliament, amidst a military stand-off with India in eastern Ladakh andgrowing political and military ten-sions with the United States.

This year’s planned defence spend-ing will be about 1.35 trillion yuan(about USD 209 billion), state-runXinhua news agency reported,adding that the annual defence

budget maintains a single-digitgrowth for a sixth consecutive year.

Friday’s increase is over threetimes higher than India's defencebudget of about USD 65.7 billion(including pensions).

Last year, China allocated 1.268trillion yuan (about USD 196.44 bil-lion), according to the state-runGlobal Times.

In his 35-page work report out-lining China’s achievements in2020 and tasks for 2021, premier Lidescribed last year as a “major suc-cess” for the armed forces with-out mentioning China moving over60,000 well-armed troops who weremobilised for annual exercises, tocontentious areas like PangongTso in eastern Ladakh, promptingIndia to match the PLA’s mobili-sation which led to an over eight-month long standoff.

After lengthy rounds of talks, thetwo sides simultaneously with-drew troops from Pangong Tsoarea while talks are on for the with-drawal of troops from the rest ofthe areas.

Last year, a key conclave of the

CPC had finalised plans to build afully modern military on par withthe United States by 2027, which isalso the centenary year of the PLA.

The PLA this year has also an-nounced a 40 per cent increase insalaries to attract more talent.

AGENCIES

Kolkata, March 5: After an-nouncing Trinamool Congress’ listof 291 candidates for the high octaneAssembly polls beginning thismonth, party supremo MamataBanerjee made her intention clearFriday that she will only contestfrom Nandigram in East Midnaporedistrict, considered a strongholdof newly-inducted BJP leader andonce close aid to the Chief Minister,Suvendu Adhikari.

“I will only contest fromNandigram,” Banerjee’s messagewas unambiguous and loud, hint-ing that the popular leader nevershies away from a challenge andloves a head-on confrontation.

When Banerjee took everyoneby surprise by declaring her in-tent to contest from Nandigramduring a rally there two monthsago, a battery of BJP leaders hadridiculed the proposed move.

Some said she would contestfrom both her traditional con-stituency of Bhowanipore andNandigram, just in case she losesthe conflict-scarred East Midnaporeseat. Others like former lieutenantturned BJP national vice-presidentMukul Roy had predicted that

Banerjee will ‘quietly slip back’ toher comfort zone in Bhowanipore.

Suvendu, once confidante turnedBJP leader, has challenged Banerjeeto fight from Nandigram ‘only ifshe was prepared to lose by a mar-gin of at least 50,000 votes’. Banerjeehas now accepted the challenge,proving Roy wrong by fielding an-other trusted lieutenant SovandebChatterjee from Bhowanipore.

Why did she take such a risk? “I

am not afraid of a fight, I neverrun away from the battlefield,” shesaid. Analysts dismissed sugges-tions that Banerjee's move is hasty,taken on the spur-of-the-moment.

“This is a calculated move. Hermargin in Bhowanipore has comedown as the large non-Bengali elec-torate has increasingly turned toBJP. By fighting from Nandigram,she wants to revive the memory ofthe epic land struggle and deny thatlegacy to the Adhikari clan. That mayswing East and West Midnapore to-wards TMC and limit the damagecaused by Adhikari’s defection,”said political commentatorSukhoranjan Dasgupta.

‘Antilia’ bomb scare:SUV owner found deadMUMBAI: Hiren Mansukh, owner ofthe vehicle with explosives whichhad been found parked nearindustrialist Mukesh Ambani’sresidence last week, was found deadin a creek in Thane Friday. Mansukh,around 45 years old, had gonemissing Thursday night. The bodywas found on the banks of the creekalong the Mumbra Reti Bunder road,a senior official of Thane Police said.Mansukh’s Scorpio with gelatinsticks inside was found near ‘Antilia’,Ambani’s multi-storey residence inSouth Mumbai, February 25. Policehad said it had been stolen fromAiroli-Mulund Bridge February 18.Mumbai Crime Branch had recordedMansukh’s statement in the case.

At $209bn, China’s defence budget 3 times that of India DRAGON’S DEFENCE

n The hike in defence spending wasannounced by Premier Li Keqiangamidst a military standoff withIndia in eastern Ladakh

n China has gone for massiveexpansion of military hardware,including building of more aircraftcarriers amidst increasingtensions with the US over Taiwanand the South China Sea besidesgrowing discord over Tibet,Xinjiang and Hong Kong

n China’s defence budget is about one quarter of the USfigure, which is USD 740.5 billionfor the 2021 fiscal year, while it isover three times higher thanIndia's defence budget of about USD 65.7 billion

POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, March 5: TheSupreme Court Friday transferredthe divorce case filed by BJD MPAnubhav Mohanty at Patiala Housecourt here to Cuttack family court.

A single-judge bench of JusticeSurya Kant heard the transfer pe-tition filed by Varsha Priyadarshiniand an application moved byMohanty pleading early disposalof the case. The court observed dur-ing the hearing that the divorcecase of Varsha and Anubhavshould be heard expeditiously.

On October 16, 2020, a bench ofJustice Hrishikesh Roy had askedthe couple to appear before theSC’s mediation centre here. Thebench had observed that the cou-ple are high profile personalitiesof Odia cinema and asked them toexplore possibilities of an ami-cable settlement. Despite severalrounds of talks, the mediation foran amicable settlement betweenAnubhav and Varsha remainedinconclusive.

Significantly, Anubhav hadmoved an application in the apexcourt praying that the divorce pe-tition be heard expeditiously as heand his parents are unwell. Hestated that his father is on dialy-sis and is subjected to extremestress. Mohanty also contendedthat his family members are sub-jected to undue media glare andalso alleged that “Varsha has beenintentionally tarnishing his rep-utation by washing dirty linenin public.”

Earlier, Varsha had filed a trans-fer petition in the apex court seek-ing transfer of the divorce peti-tion filed by Anubhav in PatialaHouse court to Cuttack familycourt. She cited in the transferplea that it is difficult for her totravel a long distance to attendhearing of the case.

Top court shiftsAnubhav-Varshacase to familycourt in Cuttack

Mamata to contest only from Nandigram, take BJP head on

NEW OTT RULES LACK TEETH: SC

Top court bench grants protection from arrest toAmazon Prime Video India head over ‘Tandav’

I AM NOT AFRAID OFA FIGHT, I NEVER RUNAWAY FROM THEBATTLEFIELD

MAMATA BANERJEE | WEST BENGAL CM

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 5: On the oc-casion of the 105th birth anniversaryof Biju Patnaik, also celebrated as thePanchayati Raj & Lok Seva Diwas,Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Fridayinaugurated the much-talked aboutWorld Skil l Centre (WSC) atMancheswar here.

Speaking on the occasion, the ChiefMinister described it as an importantmilestone adding a new chapter to theskill ecosystem of Odisha. The WSCwill be a premier institute to impartadvanced skills and create globallyemployable youths in the state.

The project has been developed inpartnership with the ITE EducationServices (ITEES) Singapore as knowl-edge par tner and the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB).

Built over an area of 450,000 squarefeet, it is the tallest building in thestate which will provide skills to 3000students in eight trades for now.

Stating that skill development hasbeen a priority for his government,Patnaik said, “Our aim is to meet theaspirations of the youths as well as cre-ate a pool of increased opportunitiesfor them. Lots of emphasis is being ac-corded by my government to shortterm, long term and advanced skilltraining through industry collabora-tions and certifications.”

The government is intensely in-vesting in the future of youths by cre-ating infrastructure and mechanismfor making them future ready, he said.

The Chief Minister said a gold

medal win at World Skill Competitionand innovations demonstrated by stateskill institutes during the pandemichave set standards worth emulating.

“Our ITIs are amongst the best inthe country. The WSC will furthersupport our endeavor by providingadvanced skill training to our youthsand prepare them for competing atthe global level,” Patnaik said.

Patnaik emphatically said the WSC

will take a lead in taking a giant leapof transformation from present to fu-ture for all polytechnics and ITIs inOdisha. He lauded the Odisha SkillDevelopment Authority (OSDA) and theSkill Development & TechnicalEducation (SD&TE) department formaking efforts to improve the skillecosystem of the state. He also thankedthe ADB and the ITEES Singapore forcollaborating with Odisha.

Remembering Biju Babu on hisbirth anniversary, Patnaik said “BijuBabu always dreamt of an Odishawhere youths acquire world classskills. On his 105th birth anniversary,I am happy to dedicate the World SkillCentre to the people of Odisha.”

He hoped that with support from allstakeholders, the WSC and Odishawill set new standards in technicaleducation and vocational training.

Boost to state’s skill ecosystem

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik visits a facility after inaugurating the World Skill Centre, Friday; (R) an aerial view of the WorldSkill Centre at Mancheswar in Bhubaneswar. OP PHOTOS

IMPORTANT MILESTONE The state-of-the-art centre isbeing set up with a budget of`1342 crore

It would provide advancedskills training to ITI andpolytechnic pass-outstudents

Under the project, 1,51,000youths will be trained/impacted

Built over an area of 450,000square feet, it’s now thetallest building in the state

NAVEEN OPENS 3,000‘MO SEBA KENDRAS’ BHUBANESWAR: As partof the 5T initiative, ChiefMinister Naveen PatnaikFriday inaugurated 3,000‘Mo Seba Kendras’ acrossthe state to provide onlineservices to the people.

On the occasion of the105th birth anniversary ofBiju Patnaik, the CM rolledout the ‘Odisha One’ unifiedcitizen portal to provideabout 400 public services.

Stating that service andrespect are the keys to hisgovernment, Patnaik saidpeople are the master in ademocracy. Empowering peo-ple and providing them serv-ices with dignity and chang-ing the system is the goal ofthe state government. Keepingthis in view, 5T initiative andMo Sarkar programme havebeen taken up, he said.

The state government isnow focusing on how peoplewill get access to public serv-ices in an easier way.

Highlighting Biju Babu’sthoughts on the use of tech-nology, the CM said BijuBabu wanted the benefitsof technology to reach everyvillage and people shouldget the benefits of science toimprove their quality of life.Mo Seba Kendra is a strongstep in this direction,Patnaik said.

With the inauguration ofthe service centres, he said,people can avail govern-ment services at theirdoorsteps and will not needto visit offices frequently.

The CM announced thatone Mo Seba Kendra wouldbe opened in every pan-chayat of the state. This willprovide employment op-portunities for 8,000 youths.The CM also took feedbackfrom the beneficiaries fromKonark, Hinjili, Attabira,Nabarangpur, Bhadrak andGajapati who availed serv-ice at Mo Seba Kendra.

POST NEWS NETWORK

BHUBANESWAR: PurbaRanga, a five-day NationalTheatre Festival concludedhere at Rabindra Mandap,Friday.

The event was organised bythe Department of Culture,Government of Odisha, in col-laboration with Odisha NatyaSangh, a confederation of hun-dreds of theatre troupes of thestate and Eastern Zonal CulturalCentre, Kolkata.

Unicorn Actors’ Studio, aDelhi-based theatre troupe,staged Hindi play Suraj KaSatwan Ghoda on the con-cluding day of the festival.

Dramatised, designed anddirected by Happy Ranjit, theplay was based on DharmveerBharati’s highly acclaimedshort novel of the same name.

Ranjit was born and brought upin Odisha and is now postedas a faculty at National Schoolof Drama, New Delhi.

The play was an amalga-mation of seven small storiesof different emotions andflavours. As the play progressed,

the characters and the situa-tions of these stories inter-sected and overlapped eachother. The border of all storiesmerged and finally became one.All humours and funny inci-dents of the play are a com-mentary on the prevailingmoral distortions in the Indiansociety. The plot is about ManikMullah and his three loversJamuna, Lilly and Satti. Theytell the truth about the socialevils in Indian society and itspeople.

The dignitaries who at-tended the closing ceremonyinclude eminent theatre di-rector Manoj Patnaik, OdishaSangeet Natak AkademiPresident Ramakrushna Sahooand Secretary Prabodh KumarRath. A short meeting wasconducted by ONS SecretaryLala Biren Roy.

Mumbai: Filmmaker Amit Sharma, who is currently shoot-ing for the upcoming Ajay Devgn-starrer Maidaan, has wontwo awards at the renowned Spikes Asia creative awards. TheNational Award-winning filmmaker of Badhaai Ho won foran ad-film titled Pooja Didi for Facebook’s More Togethercampaign. The advertisement showsthe power of social media andhow it helped people duringlockdown.

Sharma won Gold forDirection in the Film Craftcategory. The advertise-ment, written by creativesat Taproot Dentsu, wonBronze in the Best Scriptcategory.

Expressing that he was‘deeply humbled’, Sharmasaid: “The purpose of thisad-film was to give hopeand bring happiness to peo-ple’s hearts and I think itdid that. The virtue ofservice and uncon-ditional love withno expectation in re-turn is as old ashuman existence.When I was ap-proached byTaproot Dentsu, Iknew I had to bepart of this expe-rience. I am glad Iwas.” IANS

Mumbai: Bollywood actress and fitness en-thusiast Disha Patani did her make-

up for a professional shoot recently,and she is over the moon with theexperience.

Disha posted a clip on Instagramwhere she sits in front of a dressing

table, applying make-up in a whiterobe. “My first time doing my own Makeup at

a brand shoot,” she wrote as the caption,without mentioning what she was shooting for.

The actress currently awaits the releaseof the Salman Khan-starrer Radhe. Salmanand Disha have previously worked together

in the film Bharat.Radhe also has Randeep Hooda in the cast

and is directed by Prabhudheva.That apart, she is also looking forward to re-

uniting with filmmaker Mohit Suri in Ek Villain2. The actress collaborated with Suri in their

2020 film Malang.Disha will also be seen in KTina, produced

by Ekta Kapoor. The film also features AkshayOberoi and Sunny Singh.

IANS

P2 A QUIET PLACE PART IITO RELEASE MAY 31

leisure Actor-filmmaker John Krasinski took to Twitterto announce that the sequel to his 2018 hit, AQuiet Place, will release May 31. The film starsKrasinskis wife Emily Blunt, and also bringsback the actor-director in flashback sequences.

Singer Louise Redknapp has revealed in herrecently released book You’ve Got This thatshe felt unimportant during the last fewmonths of her marriage with formerEnglish football star Jamie Redknapp.

SATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSTeam work and coopera-tion bring out the best inyou, so you must makethe most of a chance towork in a group. It could be brainstorm-ing, or campaigning for an environmentalcause or even playing beach ball! A gameof cards in the evening, and consider yourday well spent, says Ganesha.

PISCESThe workaholic in yourbursts to the fore with avengeance, and todaywill see you tackle pend-ing projects with the zeal of a HolyTemplar crusader. Your energy levels willbe unflagging, and your enthusiasm towipe your slate clean admirable. Make themost of it, says Ganesha.

SAGITTARIUSThe day is bright and theseas are calm today. Fora change, you shallspend time with your lifepartner and help them in householdchores. Even routine jobs like cookingand cleaning will weave an intricatebond between you two.

LIBRAYou may not have beencrowned ‘Employee OfThe Month', but do notlet that distract youfrom the fact that today, you are thebrightest star in office. Be prepared toget some special treatment at work, asyour bosses shower praise on you.

SCORPIOGanesha warns you of along, dreary day today.Though not completely ata loss, you may feel lostand desire to spend some time alone withyourself. The empty nest syndrome is like-ly to invade and hold your mental peace atransom, says Ganesha.

LEOYour passionate andemotional nature con-tributes in a big way toyour sudden outburstsof emotions, says Ganesha. Today, youranger may erupt abruptly. This makes itvery likely for you to get carried awayirrespective of your surroundings and cir-cumstances, both at work and at home.

VIRGOStay clear of a coali-tion when it comes tobusiness ventures,warns Ganesha. Alone,you can manage an entire stampede. Byyour own you are, by far, the best admin-istrator of your department. Today, findyourself being the general and unitingpeople under your banner to achievegreater success, says Ganesha.

GEMINIToday, you are likely tofocus on self-improve-ment, predicts Ganesha.Self-employed peoplemay expect huge profits in their business-es. You may end up spending more time atwork and less time with family. You need tostrike a balance between work and family.

CANCERWhat good is life if itdoesn't involve greatfun and merrymaking.Keeping this in mind,you will set about planning your day.There may be no stopping you as you goabout your day having a blast at everypossible moment.

ARIESThe stars are sendingout a warning today, andit will prevent you fromgetting cheated. Eventhough you manage to remain a stepahead of people, you are likely to make afew enemies along the way. Ganeshasays today is not auspicious for buying ahouse or a vehicle.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSYou will find yourself atthe crossroads and eachturn and twist will comewith its share of pros andcons, says Ganesha. Your sentiments mayhave an ill-effect on your health. You mayspend quality time with family membersand friends, hoping to shed the burdenthrust upon your soul.

CAPRICORNYour exuberance andself-confidence willbecome the talk of theday for those around you.But it's not for nothingthat you will attract so much attention.You will derive pleasure in accomplishingherculean tasks today, and Ganesha saysyou will do justice to work too. At home,everything will go smooth and you willenjoy and share the peace in your lifewith your wife.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORDSUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

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ORD

SUD

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CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

post To solve the Sudoku puzzle, each row, column and box must contain the numbers 0 to 9 and the letters A to E.

LOUISE FELT ‘UNIMPORTANT’DURING MARRIAGE

does her make-upfor first time

DISHA Amit’s ad-film Pooja Didiwins at Spikes Asia

Mumbai: Actress FatimaSana Shaikh has been roped in

to star in the Hindi remakeof Tamil hit film Aruvi.The remake will be di-rected by E. Niwas, whohas called the shots onfilms like Shool, Dum,

and Love Ke Liye KuchBhi Karega in thepast.

The 2017 Tamilfilm starred ac-

tress AditiBalan in

the

lead role. Balan’s protagonistAruvi was deemed a progres-sive, post-modern symbol offeminism by most viewers.

“I look forward to dive deepinto the skin of the character. Iam really excited to embark onthis journey,” said Fatima.

Director Niwas added:“Aruvi is not just a story ofa hero. It’s a triumph overthe labyrinths of life. It’stotally euphoric, and a priv-ilege to explore one of themost beautiful cinematiccharacters I havecome across.”

IANS

Fatima to star in Hindi remake of Aruvi

NATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL CONCLUDES

Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda a commentaryon moral aberrations in Indian society

A scene from Hindi play Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda staged at RabindraMandap, Friday.

Newly-wed actors Sabyasachi Mishra and Archita Sahu are all smiles as they return toBhubaneswar, Friday after their marriage in a private ceremony at Jodhpur, Rajasthan.

OP PHOTO

SABYARCHITA BACK

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SATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

RICH TRIBUTE Anand Bhawan Museum andLearning Centre in Cuttack alldecked up to mark the 105thbirth anniversary of former CM Biju Patnaik, Friday

INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 11,63,50,464 9,19,89,595 25,83,807

India 1,11,73,761 1,08,39,894 1,57,548

Odisha 3,37,620 3,34,902 1,917

COVID-19 TRACKER

Panda Enterprises, now ‘Panda Travel Mart’, running near the old bus stand since 1976, hasbeen able to create customers all over India. The outlet started by late Gatikrushna Panda has

now established itself as a well-known showroom in the city. The entity has seen manyups and downs over last 44 years. Yet, it has turned its dream of becoming a renowned

seller into reality through hard work and will-power.

n Howhas theenterprise faredover last 44 years? Who wouldyou give the credit for this?

n The outlet, which started as asmall shop, is doing businesstoday from a three-storied build-ing boasting 12,000 sq metres. Ithas also two more branches atmajor places in the city. Behindthis, there is hard work, trust andfaith of employees and love andrelationship of customers. Themost important thing is thatwe take customer service andcustomers’ trust and reliabil-ity as our mantra.

n H o w d o y o u s e e t h e b u s i n e s s i n t h e c u r re n t

financial year and howh a s C ov i d - 1 9 pa n d e m i c

impacted the business?

n The business in the current fi-nancial year has gone downcompared to last year. TheCovid-19 pandemic has affectedour business. From April toAugust this year, the sale waslow but business has graduallyrecovered since September.With gradual improvement inthe Covid situation, the markethad started stabilizing and thebusiness has also improvedfrom October. The business hasseen an upturn since the end ofDecember. The government hasopened the schools and collegesamid Covid restrictions.Tourism and foreign travel hasalso normalised gradually; yet,business in the current year

will see a big drop comparedto the business we hadat the same time lastyear.

n What are theplans for this financial year andwhat will thecustomers get?

n For the last sales ofthe year, there weremany offers and dis-counts by themart.

Also there are offers for thosewho pay through cards.

It has been plannedthat various specialdiscounts on travelbag packs, schoolbags and acces-sories and prod-ucts will be of-

fered to customers.

n How manybranches do you

run at present andhow many employ-

ees are en-

gaged? What has been the effect on them by the pandemic?

n The enterprise has threebranches in total. In these threebranches more than 110 em-ployees of all types have been en-gaged. Although the showroomwas running with hopes andapprehensions during the pan-demic, our employees have notfaced big problems or salarycuts. As they have been workingwith us for so many years, I con-tinued to provide all the con-venience to my employees likebefore. I was also in touch withthem during the pandemic. Thusthey have not been affected asmuch; just the business wasrunning through a slump.

BIZ HAS SEEN UPTURN SINCE DEC: SHIBA PRASAD

Shiba Prasad Panda is the MD of Panda Travel Mart, Ashok Nagar

STATE REMEMBERS BIJUPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 5: OdishaFriday paid rich tribute to legendaryleader Biju Patnaik as his five-timeChief Minister son Naveen Patnaikcalled upon people to keep alive theideologies of "service and self-es-teem" followed by the veteran politi-cian all through his life.

The Chief Minister said this whileaddressing a function marking thecelebration of the freedom fighter's105th birth anniversary. Biju Patnaikwas Chief Minister of Odisha twicein mid-60s and first half of 90s.

The state government also ob-served the day as "Panchayati RajDay" as Biju Patnaik was instru-

mental in decentralising power tothe grassroot level. As part of BijuPatnaik’s efforts towards womenempowerment, he for the first timein the country, reserved 33 per centseats for females in the three-tirepanchayat elections during histenure as the CM between 1990 and1995.

Naveen Patnaik, his younger son,subsequently enhanced the womenquota to 50 per cent in the pan-chayats and urban local bodiespolls. Going further, Naveen Patnaikis now advocating for implemen-tation of 33 per cent reservationfor women in the State Assembliesand Lok Sabha polls.

Stating that Biju Patnaik was epit-

ome of Odia pride, Naveen Patnaiksaid he all along dedicated his life tothe service of people while mari-nating Odia "Swabhiman" (self-es-teem). He said the state has madeprogress basing its policies on BijuPatnaik’s ideologies. Odisha gov-ernment’s department of sports andyouth services organised a minimarathon at Kalinga Stadium heremarking the Biju Patnaik's birthanniversary.

Sports minister TK Behera flaggedoff the marathon race in presenceof hockey legend Dilip Tirkey. Theruling BJD’s youth and studentswing also took out a mass cycle rallyfrom Biju Patnaik’s birth place ofCuttack to Bhubaneswar. The rally

starting from Anand Bhawan inC u t t a c k c u l m i n a t e d n e a rBhubaneswar Airport.

Meanwhile, tribute poured in fromacross India on the occasion. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, OdishaGovernor Gabneshi Lal and manyUnion ministers took to twitter to paytribute to Biju Patnaik. ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik tweeted,"Humble tributes to the visionaryleader, great statesman, freedomfighter and the architect of modern#Odisha, #BijuBabu on his birthanniversary.

"He always dreamt of an empow-ered and prosperous #Odisha andwill continue to be a guiding forcefor all of us,” he said.

Modi pays tribute to Biju babuBhubaneswar: Prime Minister NarendraModi Friday paid tribute to the legendaryleader and former Odisha Chief MinisterBiju Patnaik on his birth anniversary. Takingto Twitter Modi said, “Tributes to Biju Babuon his birth anniversary. His futuristicvision for India, emphasis on humanempowerment as well as social justiceinspires us all. The nation is proud of hisefforts for Odisha’s progress”, the PrimeMinister said. The birth anniversary of BijuBabu, a household name in Odisha, is beingorganized by the Odisha government as“Panchayat Raj divas and Lokseva divas”across the state. The state government hasbeen observing the day as an officialholiday as a mark of tribute to the greatleader. Biju Babu was a daredevil pilot whoplayed a key role during Indonesia’sfreedom struggle (1947) and also theKashmir War ferrying freedom fightersfrom one place to another place.

Let’s fight for state’s self-esteem: Naveen POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 5: On theoccasion of the 105th birth an-niversary of Biju Patnaik, BJDpresident and Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik Friday appealed tohis party workers to take a pledgeto continue fight for self-esteem ofOdisha.

Paying rich tribute to the freedomfighter and former Chief Ministerof Odisha, Naveen said the mainaim of Biju Babu's life was to bringback the glory of the past and bringOdisha to the pinnacle of devel-opment. Service for the people andself-esteem of the state were his

ideology and millions of BJD work-ers, brothers and sisters continueto work on this ideology, he said.

“Today, when the families whosaw their kutcha houses re-con-structed to pucca ones with pipedwater supply and her house is shin-ing in the light of electricity, she issmiling. This is the biggest awardfor all of us,” said Chief Minister.

He further said Odisha’s futurelooks bright when women in pan-chayats are leading the village de-velopment plans, and school pas-souts in the state are very elatedover the prospects of more med-ical/engineering institution inthe state.

THE FORMER CM’S BIRTHDAY IS ALSO OBSERVED AS ‘PANCHAYATI RAJ DAY’ AS THE TALL MANWAS INSTRUMENTAL IN DECENTRALISING POWER TO THE GRASSROOT LEVEL

BJD leaders and people from various walks of life participate in a cycle rally from Cuttack to Bhubaneswarorganised by the Biju Chhatra Janata Dal to mark the occasion

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik pays tribute to his father and former Chief Minister Biju Patnaik on the legendary leader’s 105th birth anniversary in Bhubaneswar, Friday

BJD General Secretary (organisation) Pranab Prakash Das and former MP Prasanna Patasani inaugurate a programme to observe formerChief Minister Biju Patnaik’s birth anniversary at BJD office in Bhubaneswar OP PHOTOS

Dignitaries including Science & Technology Minister Ashok Chandra Panda and Information & Public RelationsMinister Raghunandan Das inaugurating the state-level birth anniversary celebration of Biju Babu atSoochana Bhawan in Bhubaneswar

BJD workers participating in an event at the party office in Bhubaneswar

downtownSATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP4

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AFFIDAVITBy virtue of an affidavitsworn before the NotaryPublic, Chandikhole, IRatna Manjari Nayak,W/o. Srinibas Nayak,Village- Anaka, PO.Krushnapur Sasan, Dist. -Jajpur declare that myactual name is RatnaManjari Nayak, my son’sactual name is DebabrataNayak and my daughter’sactual name isSubhradeepa Nayak. Butin my husband’s servicerecord my name wronglymentioned as RatnaManjari, my son’s name asMr. Debabraja Nayak andmy daughter’s name asKumari Subhradwipa.That Ratna Manjari andRatna Manjari Nayak, Mr.Debabraja Nayak andDebabrata Nayak, KumariSubhradwipa andSubhradeepa Nayak allare one and only persons.

CLASSIFIEDAFFIDAVIT

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 5:Bibekananda Biswal alias Biban, theprime accused in 1999 Anjana Mishragangrape case, Friday narrated beforethe CBI sleuths how he along with hisassociates had committed the heinouscrime 22 years back.

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) officials Fridayproduced Biban in the court after endof his two-day remand. Biban waslater sent to judicial custody by thespecial CBI court Friday afternoon.

Biban was taken to the crime

spot near Barang early morning. Hewas seen showing the spot wherethey intercepted the car of Mishra,the victim. The CBI and Barangpolice officials took Biban to the

spot where they sexually abusedthe victim before her journalistfriend and driver.

Meanwhile, sources claimed thatduring interrogation by CBI Bibanrevealed about his hideout in Barangafter committing the crime January9, 1999. Later, he reportedly sneakedout the state to Madhya Pradeshby train. Following a short stay inMadhya Pradesh, he again movedto Maharashtra.

CBI legal advisor KalichandraMishra claimed that the centralagency has enough evidencesagainst all the accused in the case.

He also said that the CBI sleuths havealso elicited vital information dur-ing the remand of Biban.

Similarly, the victim Friday againurged the CBI to unravel the ‘con-spiracy angle’ before the heinouscrime was committed to her. She re-quested the sleuths to find out howBiban succeeded in fleeing the stateand who helped him in securingfake documents.

Notably, the CommissioneratePolice with the help of itsMaharashtra counterpart nabbedBiban from Aamby Valley in Lonavalaarea of Maharashtra last month.

AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, March 5: UnionPetroleum and Natural GasMinister Dharmendra PradhanFriday requested Puri GajapatiDibyasingha Deb to lead a mas-sive fund collection drive for the de-velopment of Puri.

In a letter to the Puri king, theUnion Minister said the driveshould be transformed into a massmovement.

Pradhan said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has been express-ing his respect and devotion toLord Jagannath. The PM is keen toprovide all sorts of legal, admin-istrative and other assistance forthe initiative.

The Union Minister said theGajapati, as the President of theShree Jagannath Temple ManagingCommittee, should act as a bridgeand coordinate between the stateand the Centre for the noble pur-pose.

Pradhan said all Hindus, par-ticularly of Odisha, irrespectiveof their caste should be given an op-portunity to donate their labourand money for the development of

the dham.The Union government, he said,

will provide all sorts of assistanceincluding income tax exemptionto the Shree Jagannath TempleManaging Committee for the pur-pose.

The initiative will help innu-merable devotees of Lord Jagannathacross the globe an opportunity toserve the Supreme solace.

BIKER DIES INROAD MISHAPPOST NEWS NETWORK

Khuntuni, March 5:A biker diedwhen a passenger bus hit him onNational Highway-55 nearKrushnashyamapur underKhuntuni police limits Friday.

The deceased has been identi-f ied as Pradee p Sahu ofIndranipatna village under Kuleilopanchayat, police said.

“We’ve seized the body and sentit for postmortem. The bus andthe motorcycle have also beenseized,” said a police officer.

According to locals, a Cuttack-bound passenger bus from Angulhit Sahu’s bike head on while he wastravelling to Mathurapur fromKhuntuni in the morning. Sahudied on the spot. A group of localsstaged a road blockade and ran-sacked the passenger bus. A few ofthem also tried to set the bus on fire.

Athagarh tehsildar TapanKhuntia, Choudwar SDPOPrashanta Malla and Khuntunipolice inspector in-charge reachedthe spot and tried to pacify theagitators. “The administration hasgranted Rs 10,000 from the RedCross Society fund to the victim’sfamily. This apart, the officials havepromised to secure an amount of Rs50,000 for the victim’s family fromthe owner of the bus,” said a local.

BHUBANESWARn Odisha Women’s League, Kalinga

Stadium and Capital Ground, 3.30pm

n 9th edition of Aarya Awards byParichay Foundation, hotel Crown,6pm

n Press meet by Kera Odia JagannathMandali, Hotel HindustanInternational, 4pm

n Book release, Rotary Bhawan, Unit-IX, 4.30pm

WASSUP TODAY

Programmes/announcements for wassup today may be sent todowntown@orissapost.com for

record, it must also carry thesender’s mobile number for our

verification, but not for publication.

ANJANAGANGRAPE Crime scene recreated at Barang

POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, March 5: Expressingexasperation over an order passedby the Orissa High Court in a case,Supreme Court judge Justice DYChandrachud quipped that thebiggest problem of ‘computer age’is cut and paste orders passed byhigh courts.

Justice Chandrachud’s remarkcame during the hearing of a pe-tition filed by Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC) challengingthe order of Orissa High Courtwherein the HC refused to interferewith the order passed by CAT,Cuttack directing UPSC to con-sider the promotion of an Odishacivil service officer to IAS cadre.

Justice Chandrachud observedthat one of the gravest problems ofcomputer age is ‘cut and paste

order’.“I hate seeing High Court orders

only doing cut and paste. If youare upholding something you haveto give reasons,” JusticeChandrachud said.

Significantly, in around 17-pagejudgement, the Orissa High Courthad recorded the judgement of thetribunal in the matter and refusedto interfere with it saying that it haselaborately dealt with the questionof law in the issue.

“We have heard learned coun-sel for the parties and perused thematerials including the impugnedorder. The learned tribunal haselaborately dealt with the con-tentions of learned counsel for theparties with reference to the ma-terials available on the record. Inour considered opinion, the tribu-nal has not committed any juris-dictional error. No interference iscalled for,” the High Court had saidin judgement.

Justice Chandrachud held thatcutting and pasting from tribunaljudgement may add to volume ofpages but does not address the coreissue of the appeal.

The SC bench also comprisingJustice MR Shah set aside the orderpassed by the Orissa High Court andobserved that the high court hadfailed to apply its mind independ-ently to the case.

“The High Court order is setaside accordingly. Letter patent ap-peal stands restored in High Court.Respondent has retired and decisionwill affect his pension. Hence thecase to proceed on that note," thebench said.

Justice Chandrachud frownson cut ‘n’ paste orders by HCs The Supreme Court sets aside the order passed bythe Orissa High Court and observes that the HC

failed to apply its mind independently

I hate seeing High Court ordersonly doing cut and paste. If youare upholding something youhave to give reasonsJUSTICE DY CHANDRACHUD

TRADE FAIR: Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra inaugurates the Odisha MSME TradeFair and Entrepreneurship Week at Idco Exhibition Ground in Bhubaneswar, Friday. Chief Secretary Suresh ChandraMahapatra and other dignitaries are also seen OP PHOTO

An excavator pulls down a structure near Srimandir to make way for the ambitious heritage corridor in Puri, Friday OP PHOTO

Maintenance work atGopalpur level crossingBhubaneswar: Traffic near Gopalpur-Balikuda in Cuttack-Barang RailwaySection will be partially affected duringnight between March 8 and 13 owing tomaintenance work at the level cross-ing. In view of the above circum-stances, Limited Height Subway maybe used for road traffic movement dur-ing the period instead of level crossing.Two-wheeler and 4-wheeler users arerequested to use the Limited HeightSubways. Heavy vehicles have beenadvised to use substitute nearby roads.

PILGRIM CITY DEVELOPMENT

Pradhan urges Puri king tolead fund collection drive

The PM is keen to provide all sorts of legal,administrative and otherassistance for the initiative, said Pradhan

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 5: TheNational Green Tribunal (NGT)has asked the State Pollution Control(SPCB) to look into the allegationsof illegal brick kiln units at Jaleswarin Balasore district.

Acting upon a petition filed be-fore the Eastern Bench on the issue,the tribunal also ordered consti-tution of a panel to oversee the al-legations and submit a report tothe tribunal within two months.

“Let the OSPCB look into thematter and take remedial actionfollowing due process of law. We alsodirect a joint Committee compris-ing State PCB, SEIAA, Odisha andDistrict Magistrate, Balasore to filea status report on the matter withintwo months by email,” the writtenorder of the NGT said.

The state PCB will be the nodalagency for compliance in the case.Earlier, petitioner Radhashyam

Sahoo had alleged that two brickkilns operating in theMahammadanagar Patna underJaleswar tehsil in Balasore hadbeen operating by blatantly flout-ing the environmental laws. Thenext hearing of the case is likely totake place in May this year.

It was alleged that the kilns weretoo closed to human habitations,Anganwadi centre, and farm lands.It was also said that the consent toestablish from the SPCBwas notachieved from the operators againstthe established norms. The appli-cant also furnished the state gov-ernment order of 2015 of the laying

down the norms which talked aboutthe location of brick kilns beyondprescribed distance from railwaylines, National and State Highways,High Tide Line, places of worship,educational institutions, hospitals,and health care centres, flood em-bankments, river bank and pe-riphery of a town.

The petitioner had sought NGT’sintervention to declare such unitsas illegal, direct the operators to re-store the land to its original condi-tion and fix accountability on the pub-lic authorities for their inaction.The petitioner had said that despiterepeated communications with thelocal authorities no action was takenagainst the erring parties. “Suchbrick kiln owners are earning hugeprofit and in turn the governmentis losing its revenue. The offendersare freely doing their business by vi-olating the statutory norms and no-tifications prescribed for the same,”the petition before the NGT read.

NGT asks SPCB to act againstillegal brick kilns in Jaleswar

It was alleged that thebrick kilns were operatingtoo closed to human habitations, Anganwadicentre, and farm lands

GIVING WAY

91 new Covid-19 casestake tally to 3,37,620

PNN/AGENCIES

Bhubaneswar, March 5: Odisha'sCovid-19 tally mounted to 3,37,620Friday as 91 more people tested pos-itive for the infection, a Healthand Family Welfare (H&FW) de-partment official said.

Of the fresh cases, 53 were re-ported from quarantine centresand 38 detected during contacttracing.

Sambalpur district recordedthe maximum number of newcases at 14, followed by Sundargarh(13) and Balasore (12).

The death toll remained at 1,917as no new fatality due to the in-fection has been reported in thestate since Wednesday.

Fifty-three other Covid-19 pa-tients have also died in the statedue to comorbidities. Odisha nowhas 812 active cases, while 3,34,838people have recovered so far.

The state has conducted over 84.27lakh sample tests for Covid-19, in-cluding 22,132 Thursday, and thepositivity rate stands at 4.01 per cent.

The government has planned tovaccinate prisoners above 60 yearsof age and jail inmates over 45years with comorbidities, the of-ficial added. Meanwhile, about140 retired railway employees havebeen vaccinated against Covid-19at the Railway Central Hospitalhere, Friday.

BMC’s holding tax addsburden on citizens: BJPPOST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, March 5 :Criticizing the BhubaneswarMunicipal Corporation’s (BMC)move of an unprecedented hike inholding tax rates in the state cap-ital, the BJP here termed the civicauthority’s action as unjust andoverburdening the common man.

Addressing a presser here, BJPleader Babu Singh alleged a hightax rate is a conspiracy by the BMCto force additional financial burdenon the residents. Targeting theBJD government’s 5T initiative,Singh remarked that technologyand transparency ‘seems missing’in 5T when it comes to a sudden risein holding tax rates in the capitalcity.

“We strongly condemn the taxsystem and demand its immedi-ate withdrawal. As per the newrates people are forced to pay 40times higher rates than earlier.The BMC is not even consideringpeople who have lost jobs in COVIDand are left almost nothing. A com-mittee should be formed and reval-uation should be done justifiably,”Singh said.

He also added that there remainsa lack of clarity of the reasons fornew rates with residents strug-gling to have access either with

the government websites or withthe BMC. Citing Odisha MunicipalAct, 2003, Singh said the residentsshould be assessed for new holdingtax rates taking into account the de-preciation value of the property.

Responding to the allegations,BMC Deputy Commissioner,Revenue, Srimanta Mishra saidthe BMC has initiated a month-long holding tax mela in all itsward offices where citizens canget clarity on the tax rates.

“The revaluation of the bench-mark value of lands is a naturalprocess which has not been donein past 20 years. The revaluation hasalso been done on basis of mouzaand plot rates. This varies as per dif-ferent areas. The new rates havebeen applied before COVID in 2019.Citizens are also allowed to payhalf the amount and rest in quar-terly or half-yearly installments,”Mishra stated.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, March 5: Markingthe 105th birth anniversary of leg-endary leader Biju Patnaik, stu-dents of ITI, Berhampur in Ganjamdistrict have made a 3D sculptureof the former Chief Minister.

This is the first time that a ChiefMinister’s 3D picture has beenmade with the help of softwaretechnology by the students.

RK Panigrahy, Principal, ITI,Berhampur said, “This 3D instal-lation shows a new era of skill de-velopment with computer graphics,welding, grinding, cutting andpainting skills all put together. Inthe coming days, such ‘3D graphicssculpture fabrication art’ will helppolitical parties to attract people tomeeting places and create em-ployment as well.”

ITI students createBiju’s 3D graphics

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POST NEWS NETWORK

Nuapada, March 5: Preparationsare in full swing for the inaugura-tion of the long awaited LowerIndra project in Nuapada district.The district administration hasbeen on its toes to complete allnecessary arrangements well be-fore March 10 when it will be com-missioned.

According to reports, many issuesof the people displaced and affectedby the project have not been re-solved till date. Meanwhile, the ad-ministration has started talks withdisplaced and affected people abouttheir problems. The administra-tion held talks with project-affectedpeople Thursday in the presence ofCollector Swadha Dev Singh.

The displaced and the project-affected people, however, made itclear to the district administrationand people’s representatives thattheir problems and demands shouldbe resolved before any step is takenfor the inauguration of the irriga-tion project.

Nuapada MLA RajendraDholakia, Kharial MLA AdhirajPanigrahy, chief engineer of theLower Indra Irrigation projectBibhuti Bhusan Das were at themeeting and heard their multipleissues related to compensation andrehabilitation.

At the meeting, the Collector ob-served, “The administration and thegovernment should be given ampletime to sort out all issues of theproject affected people. All shouldhave faith in the administrationand let the project be inaugurated.

All issues of the oustees and the af-fected people will be definitely re-solved.” It was learnt that 2937 fam-ilies have been displaced by theproject. “The government has an-nounced compensation of Rs 50,000for each family. Before inaugurat-ing the project, the governmentshould think of paying Rs 2 lakh ascompensation. The water resourcesdepartment should assess total landaffected by the project and pay com-pensation accordingly,” they added.

They also said that the normsor facilities being applied for thecomplete submergence-prone vil-lages should be applied for par-tially submergence-prone villages.

Besides, the government shouldput in place all basic facilities at therelocated villages well before the in-auguration of the project, theystated. “If the government hur-riedly goes in for inaugurating theproject, we will be bund to agitateagainst it,” oustees warned.

The project-affected people andoustees have been pressing for their

various demands under the bannerof Lower Indra Jana Sachetan Manchand Bistapita Sahayata Samiti.

The affected people were ac-companied by their leaders likeNilakanth Pradhan, Kishore ChndraKathar, Nityananda Pradhan,Jadumani Panigrahi and AmareshPatnaik

Notably, the Lower IndraIrrigation project assumes much im-portance for the people of Nuapada,a drought-prone district. As agri-culture is affected by lack of irri-gation, the district has been wit-nessing labour migrations.

To ward off frequent drought sit-uation, the government has con-structed Lower Indra dam.

This irrigation facility will pro-vide irrigation to 29,900 hectares inKhariar and Boden blocks ofNuapada district and Bangomunda,Muribahal and Titlagarh blocks ofBalangir district.

Its construction began in 1997and was completed in 2019 due toslowpace of work.

Resolve rehab, damages issues first, say oustees

LOWER INDRA IRRIGATION PROJECT

Admin prepares for project inauguration March 10

WOMEN EMPOWERMENT

Women of various SHGs selling handloom sarees and handicraft items at a local exhibition organised at TapaswiniHall in Sambalpur on the occasion of Panchayatiraj Divas OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Loisingha, March 5: Munu Rana, aresident of Kumbharpada slum underLoisingha block in Bolangir district,is a meritorious student.

He is presently pursuing his MAfrom Tata Institute of Social Sciences(TISS) at Deonar in Mumbai.

Munu is now working as a helperon a truck so that he can buy a lap-top and continue his education onlineseamlessly. He was Thursday spot-ted working as a helper by some peo-ple who were staging a dharna at theblock office.

After coming to know about him,an OrissaPOST correspondent methim and he narrated his story.

Munu has a younger brother. Itwas when he was in Class X in 2009,their father Chakradhar Rana died.The family’s burden fell on theirmother Banita. She had to work at a

local sattu farm to educate her two chil-dren. In order to help his mother fi-nancially, Munu would work as asweeper at a computer training in-

stitute. He would also find time towork at a water kiosk. Whatever hewould earn, he would help his mothermeet family expenses and fund his ed-

ucation cost. With much difficulty, he completed

his Plus III. He has done B.Ed fromMahatma Gandhi AntarrashtriyaHindi Vishwavidyalaya inMaharashtra. He enrolled for MA atTata Institute of Social Sciences in2019. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic,he had to return home in April lastyear. Now he is continuing his studyonline with the help of his mobile phone.

As he is facing problems to studythrough a mobile phone, he has re-quested the district administrationand the local MLA to provide him alaptop. Meanwhile several weekshave passed and his request has notbeen met by the district administra-tion and the MLA.

Eventually, he decided to work asa helper and buy a laptop from what-ever money he makes from the pro-fession.

Youth works as truck helper to buy laptop Munu Rana, a youth of Bolangir, is pursuing his MA from Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai

POST NEWS NETWORK

Telkoi, March 5: Amid reports offorest fires raging in some forestsof Champua range, most of thecases are induced by humans inKeonjhar. The forest departmenthas detected such a case in whichthree poachers were trying to setJharabeda reserve forest on fire inan attempt to hunt down animals.The three were arrested, Friday.

The accused have been identi-fied as Jugal Juang, Ranjan Juangand Gobardhan Juang of Namakanivillage under Telkoi police limitsof Keonjhar district.

They had set the forest on fireThursday evening and were wait-ing to hunt down animals withbows and arrows. At this time, a pa-trol party of Bimala forest beat

was there and found it.As forest officials tried to nab

the accused, the latter retaliated,leading to a confrontation betweenthe two sides. One forest guard wasinjured in the attack but the poach-ers were finally arrested. The threewere produced in a court.

Reports from Bhanjanagar inGanjam said that forest fires are rag-ing at 110 places under NorthGhumsar range for the last fivedays. Most of the forest fires are re-ported from Mujagarh, KendriyaBanachal, Galeri and Tarsingranges.

Forest fires have reduced thou-sands of valuable trees like sal,saguan in the reserve forests at ra-gada, Ambajhara, Chandragiri,Rambha, Durgaprasad, Jilundi,Tiliki, Budhakendu, Baibali, Kulad,Mujagarh, Dadaralunda. As firesspread, wild animals have beenfacing serious dangers.Forest offi-cials have been made all-out effortsto douse fires with help of VanaSurakhya Samitis working nearforests. DFO Abhay Kumar Daleiheld a meeting and disscused ef-fective steps to contain fires.

Poachers set forests afire OFFICIALS ARESTED THREE IN KEONJHAR, TWO IN GANJAM

Forest fire raging in Udala aresa of Mayurbhanj district OP PHOTO

Forest fires destroy palm oil plantation, houseUDALA/BUGUDA: While forestfires are yet to be fully controlledin various parts of Similipal sanc-tuary, fires are spreading fast atKutuli reserve forest under Udalablock of Mayurbhanj district. Forestfire has perished palm plantationand cashew nut trees over acres ofland near Kutuli forest. A houseburnt to ashes after the fire spreadfrom Kutling forest

Due to strong wind, fire is spread-

ing in Urmal, Kutuli, Godhimaraand Bahubandh areas. Two smallforests in the same area have van-ished. Forest officials and fire-fighters have been struggling tobring the blaze under control.Reports from Buguda in Ganjamsaid that two poachers had triedto hunt animals by setting fire to aforest in Buguda area Thursday.Forest officials arrested the twoand registered a case against them.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bolangir, March 5: Members of afamily in this district have createdan all time record by working forcomplete 300 days in the MGNREGSpoverty alleviation scheme beingimplemented under the MahatmaGandhi National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme Act (MGNREGA),a report said.

They were identified asBhubaneswar Chhura and his fam-ily of Ghantasagada village underAdabahal panchayat of Titilagarhblock in Bolangir district.

The family has shown others howmigrating to other states for livelihoodcould be avoided if work is avail-able near home. The whole family hasnow decided to work under MGN-REGS that fetched them more thanRs 90,000 in this fiscal.

The achievement has been wel-

comed by the state panchayatirajsecretary DK Singh, special projectdirector Arindam Dakua. The twohave praised Collector ChanchalRana, PD Maheswar Swain and histeam for achieving this feat.

Eareir, Chhura and four membersof his family used to migrate toAndhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu andMaharashtra in search of livelihood.

However, they failed to earn liveli-hood from the employers and wererather subjected to physical and

mental torture. Most of the time,they had to go hungry, after being heldhostage by the owners.

Meanwhile, MGNREGS openedup Bhubaneswar’s eyes. “We hadnever earned this much of sum in ourlife. We had earlier never heard ofMGNREGS. But, now we will neverthink of migrating elsewhere insearch of employment,” said Chhura.Reports said the district adminis-tration ensured 100-days works afterthe MGNREGS was first implemented

in the district in 2006. Significantly,Bolangir district in Odisha is infa-mous for migration of labourers.

Later, the state government de-cided to provide 200 days of workwith daily wage of Rs 208 for 20blocks of four migration prone dis-tricts of Bolangir, Bargarh, Kalahandiand Nuapada districts. However,the district administration has beenable to provide 300 days work withdaily wage of Rs 308 in six migrationprone blocks of Khaprakhol, Belpada,Turekela, Bangomunda, Muribahaland Titilagarh blocks.

When contacted, Maheswar Swain,PD, DRDA said over 33,237 familiesin the district have been able to getwork for 100 days. Moreover, the dis-trict administration has provided200 days of work to 2561 familieswhile 1.13 crore workdays have beencreated in the district under thescheme.

Bolangir family gets 300 days work STATE’S FIRST SUCH FEAT IN MGNREGS

POST NEWS NETWORK

Derabish, March 5: A minor boyin Kendrapara district orches-trated his own kidnapping to avoidhis parents’ ire as he had spent Rs78,000 from his father’s account.

Umakant Nayak, IIC of Derabishpolice station in Kendrapara dis-trict, received a call at about 8:30pm Wednesday. The caller informedhim that his minor son had beenkidnapped. Nayak along with ateam reached the caller’s house.They searched for him in nearbyareas but could not find him.

IIC Nayak then contacted SPMadkar Sandeep Sampad to decideon the future course of action.

Following the direction of theSP, the mobile phone the minor hadwith him was tracked. The policecame to know that the phone wasin Bhakud area underBalichandrapur police limits inJajpur district.

Five police officials led by IICNayak reached Bhakud. Thereafter seeing the police van, theminor started running but wascaught. He told the police that a mis-creant was forcibly taking him ina Bolero and he threw him out ofthe van at Bhakud square and fledtowards Chandikhole.

The police searched for theBolero but failed to trace it. Duringinteraction, the police suspectedthe boy. Later, the minor boy ad-mitted to have orchestrated thekidnap drama to save himselffrom his parents’ anger.

POST NEWS NETWORK

Sambalpur, March 5:A lawyer wasarrested by Jujumura police inSambalpur district and forwardedto court Friday in connection withthe use of a fake court order to re-lease a seized vehicle from a po-lice station. The arrested lawyer wasidentified as Braja Mohan Pradhan.

According to sources, a road ac-cident had taken place underJujumura police limits in the dis-trict February 19. The lawyer sub-mitted a forged court order for therelease of a truck which was seized

by the local police. The truck wasseized following a head-on colli-sion between the vehicle and anill-fated scooter on NH-53 in whichthe rider was killed, Jujumura po-lice station sources stated.

Pradhan allegedly submitted aforged order of the SDJM court. TheJujumura police suspected hismodus operandi and preferred toverify it from the cour t.Subsequently, it was ascertained thatthe release order of the truck hadbeen forged by the arrested lawyerunder Sections 466 and 420 of theIndian Penal Code (IPC).

After spending `78Kfrom dad’s A/C, minorfakes own kidnapping

POST NEWS NETWORK

Balasore, March 5: DefenceResearch and DevelopmentOrganisation (DRDO) success-fully carried out a flight demon-stration based on Solid Fuel DuctedRamjet (SFDR) technology fromIntegrated Test Range, Chandipuroff the coast in Balasore at around10.30 am Friday.

All the subsystems, including thebooster motor and nozzle-lessmotor, performed as expected.During the test, many new tech-nologies were proven, includingsolid fuel based ducted ramjettechnology. Successful demon-stration of solid fuel based ductedramjet technology has providedDRDO with a technological ad-vantage which will enable it todevelop long range air-to-air mis-siles.

During the test, air launch sce-nario was simulated using abooster motor. Subsequently, thenozzle-less booster accelerated itto the required mach number forramjet operation.

DRDO flight tests solidfuel ducted Ramjet

POST NEWS NETWORK

Sonepur, March 5: A newlywedbride died after suffering a heartattack during her 'bidaai' (farewell)ceremony Friday morning atJulunda village under Binikablock of Subarnapur district. Apall of gloom descended on the vil-lage following the incident.

According to sources, MuraliSahoo and Menaka's daughterGupteswari (Rosy) from Julundavillage in the district had tiedthe nuptial knot with groomBisikesan Pradhan from Tentuluvillage at the bride’s parentalhouse Thursday evening.

Family members of the bridewere bidding farewell to RosyFriday morning. All of a sudden,the girl fainted and collapsed onthe floor of the house after cryinginconsolably. The family mem-bers immediately rushed her toDunguripali community healthcentre (CHC). However, the doc-tors there declared Rosy ‘brought dead’.

“She fainted during the farewellceremony and the doctors de-clared her dead at the hospital.This is a very unfortunate inci-dent. May God give strength to thebereaved families of the couple tobear the massive tragedy,” a res-ident of Julunda village RameshSahu said.

Newlywed bride succumbs to heartattack during farewell

Lawyer submits forged court order at PS, held

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

A coalition alliance government creates its own special dynamics, whichaffects the bureaucracy uniquely. In Maharashtra, which has a three-party alliance, this was seen when the 1985-batch IAS officer Sitaram

Kunte was named the state’s new Chief Secretary. Sources say that Kuntewas ignored by the previous BJP government during whose tenure he wascommissioner of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

His fortunes changed for the better in the Shiv Sena-led government of ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackeray. However, while the Chief Minister and theCongress party were said to be keen on his appointment, the NationalCongress Party’s chief Sharad Pawar was reportedly less enthusiastic, ini-tially. However, Kunte managed to make it to the top post, although hesnuffed the chance of his batch mate Praveen Pradesh, who was widely ex-pected to be appointed to succeed Sanjay Kumar.

Pradesh had even returned from the UN in the hope of becoming the newchief secretary. Kunte’s elevation has led to the appointment of MK Srivastava,a 1986-batch IAS officer, in his previous office of Additional Chief Secretaryfor Home.

MIND THE ‘S’ WORDA communiqué issued by TM Yanthan, commissioner and secretary to

Nagaland Governor RN Ravi, to Chief Secretary J Alam, has directed thestate government to warn officials that they could face penal and discipli-nary action if they post “seditious or subversive content” on social media.Apparently, it had come to the notice of the Governor’s office that “some gov-ernment servants are indulging in seditious and subversive writings chal-lenging the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the country” on socialmedia platforms.

Sources say that a copy ofYanthan’s letter has been alsomarked to Union Home SecretaryAjay Kumar Bhalla. This suggests,they say, that the Governor has keptthe Centre in the loop and may evenhave been directed by Dilli to takeaction against government officials posting seditious content.

Apparently, this is the second letter from the Governor’s office to thestate Chief Secretary. Last year, he had directed the state government to pre-pare a database of state government employees’ family members and rela-tives who were in “underground organizations”.

However, ominous though it may sound, some observers feel that Ravi ismerely reiterating the conduct rules for government servants and people shouldnot read too much into this. Your thoughts?

TENURE ROWWho has the authority to take a call on the posting of officers of the

Director-General of Police rank in Haryana? This has become a point of con-tention between Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and hisHome Minister Anil Vij. The officer at the centre of it all is DGP Manoj Yadava,a 1988-batch IPS officer, reportedly handpicked by Khattar for the post.

It appears that Vij wants a change of DGP despite Yadava having over fouryears of service left. The minister recently directed Additional ChiefSecretary (Home) Rajeev Arora to send a panel of officers to the UPSC to beconsidered for the next DGP. According to sources, once the minimumtenure of two years ends, the state government has the option of decidingto continue with the current DGP or replace the officer. In the present case,the government has extended Yadava’s tenure beyond February until fur-ther orders.

Sources say that Khattar is unlikely to seek a replacement for Yadava, whohas done a long 15-year stint at the Intelligence Bureau (IB) before return-ing to his parent cadre. But Vij, say sources, is sticking to his stance.

Share a babu experience! Follow dilipthecherian@twitter.com.Let’s multiply the effect.

It has now been 20 years sincethe United Nations SecurityCouncil unanimously adopted

the Resolution on Women, Peace,and Security (Resolution 1325),challenging the international com-munity to improve the conditionsfor women and girls, particularlythose affected by armed conflict.Specifically, Resolution 1325 es-tablished four pillars for globalaction: conflict prevention, pro-tection of women and girls, women'sparticipation in peacemaking andpeace-building, and relief and re-covery.

How has the world done? Forstarters, Resolution 1325 broughtwomen into mainstream debatesabout peace and security that hadlong been dominated by men. Wenow understand much more aboutthe gendered aspects of these issuesand have developed a common lan-guage to discuss them.

Nonetheless, the progress madein actually improving the positionof women and girls has been dis-appointing. Women and girls are lit-tle safer today than they were in 2000.There are more wars being fought,with devastating implications forcivilians caught in the crossfire.

Although there has been con-siderable progress in combating the

use of sexual violence as a weaponand tactic of war, these atrocitiescontinue to happen. New data pub-lished last year found record lev-els of political violence targetingwomen. And while the number ofpeace agreements making specificreference to women or genderjumped in the years following theadoption of Resolution 1325, halfof such agreements still do notmention them. Resolution 1325'sthird pillar, participation, is ar-guably the most critical. Womenmust have a say in how peace isachieved and maintained, howpeople are protected, and how so-cieties are rebuilt after a conflict.

This is not a matter of genderequity for its own sake. Women andgirls have unique interests andperspectives that must be con-sidered, and they generally havevery different experiences of in-security and conflict comparedto men and boys. For example,forced marriages (often of chil-dren) are more likely to happenduring conflict and in its wake.Accordingly, female peacekeep-ers are more likely than theirmale counterparts to be trustedamong these cohorts of conflict-affected populations. Moreover,studies of peace processes in the

past 30 years suggest that whenwomen have a say in negotiations,there is a much better chance ofreaching a deal and of achievingan enduring settlement.

But progress overall has been un-derwhelming. Women lead onlyfive of the 19 UN peace operationsactive as of mid-2020, and none ofthe 17 missions and operationsunder the European Union’sCommon Security and DefensePolicy. Just 14% of all peace ne-gotiators in 2015-19 were women.

Even if we can improve theseheadline numbers, real progresswill be possible only if we can ad-dress underlying gender inequal-ities, too. These conditions giverise to violent struggles for re-sources, migration in search ofmore secure lives, and a wide-spread sense of desperation thatlocal armed groups can exploit.In these agricultural communi-ties, the structures of work andauthority generally imply thatwomen bear the responsibility ofidentifying and coping with re-source shortages.

All told, the 20-year report cardfor Resolution 1325 shows onlylimited achievements. How canwe ensure that the one for 2030 isbetter? To borrow a line from the

2030 Agenda for SustainableDevelopment, this must be thedecade of delivery. The first, eas-iest step is for governments, the UN,and the other international or-ganizations that deploy peace op-erations to set numerical targetsfor women's participation, andthen to ensure that they are met.

The second, bigger step is to make,or renew, action plans for imple-menting Resolution 1325. To date, only86 countries well under half of UNmember states have made nationalplans and some of these are over adecade old. UN Security CouncilResolution 1325 was the result ofwomen's activism for peace and jus-tice. Its ultimate aim is to break thecycles of conflict and insecurity de-cisively, so that prevention, protec-tion, relief, and recovery are nolonger necessary. This remains an in-spiring and urgent goal.

Margot Wallstrom is a for-mer UN special representativeon sexual violence in conflict,Swedish minister for ForeignAffairs and vice-president of

the European Commission.Dan Smith is Director of the

Stockholm International PeaceResearch Institute.

©PROJECT SYNDICATE

Protecting women with more than words

THE SECOND JACKSONIAN AGEM

any people have com-pared Donald Trump’spresidency to that ofAndrew Jackson in the

first half of the nineteenth century.Trump himself hung a portraitof Jackson in the Oval Office. Andthough Trump is hardly the mil-itary hero that Jackson was, theperiods in which their presiden-cies occurred have some strikingsimilarities.

The Jacksonian era, like ourown, was a time of extreme de-mocratisation and rampant anti-elitism. The Jacksonians insistedthat anyone (by which they meantany white adult male) could servein any political office. No longerwould education, social status,and respectability matter. Suchegalitarian claims alarmed theHarvard- and Yale-educated elitesof the 1820s and 1830s, just as theydo today.

Moreover, we, too, are living inan era when weakened traditionalauthorities are being challenged.Following the 2020 presidentialelection, one Democratic pollsterconcluded that Trump supporters“don’t trust the news media. Theydon’t trust elites. They don’t trustscientists. They don't trust aca-demics. They don't trust experts.”In antebellum America, Jackson’ssupporters were likewise suspi-cious and mistrustful of authority.

While the Jacksonians regardedthe common man as the ultimatesource of all authority, they could onlyhave dreamed of the role that socialmedia has enabled ordinary peopleto play. The penny press of the 1830scouldn’t hold a candle to Twitter,Facebook, and other platforms thatenable everyone to participate inthe creation of popular opinion.

Nonetheless, the Jacksonian eraoffers lessons that can help us com-prehend our own age. The earlynineteenth century is whenAmericans started increasingly de-scribing their society in non-pejo-rative terms as a “mass” of “almostinnumerable wills.” Individualswere weak and blind, the historianGeorge Bancroft observed, but themass was strong and wise.

From this insight followed anew appreciation of statistics (or“statisticks,” as it was spelt in1803, when it first appeared in

American dictionaries). Takenalone, a fact might not mean much;but once it has been collected to-gether with others, it could reveala whole world. “In composing awork like the present,” wrote thephysician James Mease in ThePicture of Philadelphia (1811),“the author is of opinion that thechief object ought to be the mul-tiplication of facts and the re-flections arising out of them shouldbe left to the reader.”

Witnessing this push towardmass culture, Charles Nisbet, theScottish clergyman who becamepresident of Dickinson Collegein Pennsylvania, feared as early as1789 that Americans were carry-ing their reliance on individualjudgment to ridiculous extremes.Accordingly, he fully expected tosee the publication of books withtitles like Every Man his ownLawyer, Every Man his ownPhysician, and Every Man hisown Clergyman and Confessor.

At any rate, the assaults on eliteopinion by those championing or-dinary judgment resulted in a dis-persion of authority and, ulti-mately, of truth itself. Witheveryone being told that theirideas about medicine, art, and

government were as valid as thoseof the so-called “connoisseurs”and college-educated “speculativemen,” truth and knowledge be-came elusive and difficult to pindown. Ordinary Americans, con-fident of their ability to deter-mine the truth for themselves, be-came deeply mistrustful ofanything beyond what the writerGeorge Tucker called “the nar-row limits of their own observa-tion.” This made them easy preyto hucksters, confidence men, andtricksters, who soon popped upeverywhere. Edgar Allen Poe calledhis time the “epoch of the hoax,”a description that echoes clearlyin our own age of fake news andalternative facts.

Poe delighted in creating hoaxesand cons – some of them quiteelaborate and convincing – in thenewspapers. Similarly, PT Barnumcapitalised on people’s confidencein their own judgment by placingads questioning whether thewoman in his museum was reallya mermaid, suggesting that theyshould come see for themselves.Like the sailors of the Pequod inHerman Melville’s Moby-Dick,“nothing but their own eyes couldpersuade such ignorance as theirs.”

Like today’s elites and main-stream media, the nineteenth-cen-tury college-educated and tradi-tionally-minded gentry protestedin vain against this democratisa-tion of truth. Having come to be-lieve that “the unalienable right ofprivate judgment involves the lib-erty of thinking as we please onevery subject,” most ordinary peo-ple in Jacksonian America wereno longer willing to defer to theknowledge and judgments of thosewho had once been their superiors.

Although plain people perhapslacked the education, travel, andmanners of their aristocraticneighbors, their spokesmen werequick to point out that they had eyesand ears, and thus knew their owntruth better than some “com-manding genius” or “learned sage.”Why should they trust what suchgentlemen told them?

As we are discovering again,democracy and elite expertise donot always go well together. Now,too, the democratisation of knowl-edge and truth can produce anodd mixture of credulity and skep-ticism among many ordinaryAmericans. Where everything isbelievable, everything is doubtable.And when all claims to expertknowledge become suspect, peoplewill tend to mistrust anything thatthey have not seen, felt, heard,tasted, or smelled.

The problem, of course, is thatwhen people pride themselves onbecoming shrewd empiricists,things that they perceive but do notcomprehend can easily impressthem. A few strange words spo-ken by a preacher or an anony-mous Internet personality cancarry great credibility, as can hi-eroglyphics displayed on a docu-ment, or anything written in high-falutin or cryptic language. JosephSmith, the recipient of the tabletsthat became the Book of Mormon,knew this all too well.

Such was the popular culture ofJackson’s America, a distant dem-ocratic world that eerily resem-bles our own.

Gordon S Wood is ProfessorEmeritus of History at

Brown University.

©PROJECT SYNDICATE, 2021.

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

The Jacksonian era, like our own, was a time ofextreme democratisation and rampant anti-elitism. The Jacksonians insisted that anyone (by which they meant any white adultmale) could serve in any political office. Nolonger would education, social status, and respectability matter

A twist in the tale

DISCUSSING N-POWER

Astranger was seated next to LittleJohnny on the plane when the

stranger turned to the Little Johnnyand said, "Let's talk. I've heard thatflights will go quicker if you strike upa conversation with your fellowpassenger."Little Johnny, who had just opened hisbook, closed it slowly, and said to thestranger, "What would you like todiscuss?""Oh, I don't know," said the stranger."How about nuclear power?""OK," said Little Johnny.

"That could be aninteresting topic.But let

me ask you a question first.""A horse, a cow, and a deer all eatgrass.The same stuff.Yet a deer excretes little pellets, whilea cow turns out a flat patty, and ahorse produces clumps of dried grass.Why do you suppose that is?""Jeez," said the stranger."I have no idea.""Well, then," said Little Johnny, "Howis it that you feel qualified to discussnuclear power when you don't knowshit?"

SATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

If you want peace upon earth firstestablish peace in your heart. If youwant union in the world, first unify thedifferent parts of your own being.Change yourself and the circumstanceswill change.

THE MOTHER

WOMEN’S PROTECTION

MANY PEOPLEHAVE

COMPAREDDONALDTRUMP’S

PRESIDENCY TO THAT OF

ANDREWJACKSON IN THE

FIRST HALF OF THE

NINETEENTHCENTURY.

TRUMP HIMSELFHUNG A

PORTRAIT OFJACKSON IN THE

OVAL OFFICE

Gordon S. Wood

WISDOM CORNERVery often, a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.

A.C. BENSON

Leaders can let you fail and yet not let you be a failure.STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL

It’s not the load that breaks you down, it’s the way you carry it.LOU HOLTZ

AMERICAN SOCIETY

Readers of Orissa POSTare most welcome to contribute letters(200 words), articles andcolumns (between 750-1250words). Contributors arerequested to send theircontact numbers and fullpostal address/email ID. They may alsosend in their valuable comments, opinionand suggestions, preferably by email, to: edit@orissapost.com

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

RESOLUTION 1325BROUGHT WOMEN

INTO MAINSTREAMDEBATES ABOUT

PEACE AND SECURITY THATHAD LONG BEEN

DOMINATED BY MEN

Margot Wallstrom &Dan Smith

Directives for social media

Sir, The invisible battle of the stars on Facebook, Instagramand Twitter is no less than the Mahabharata war. As they in-fluence a large part of the country their words must be im-portant. Whether it's the issue of citizenship, Ram temple oragriculture laws, the stars have been commenting on all.There are other celebrities who just say something, lookingat who said what to complete the formalities. They don'tcare whether their messages have positive or negative impacton people. The government has issued guidelines for socialmedia to curb these. Complaints will be lodged by all serv-ice providers, received within 24 hours and have to be resolvedwithin 15 days. If a post is offensive it will be removed within24 hours, journalism and creative freedom will be main-tained, and new guidelines will be implemented within threemonths. The next turn will be of the print media. The gov-ernment will also decide how to print and what to print inthe newspaper. The rules are welcome, but the question is,will these directives really apply to the culprits?

Asit Mohanty , JAJPUR

Healthy hearing

Sir, World hearing day was on March 3 and sadly the day just went past silentlyjust like the way the problems of hearing go unheeded! According to WHO,one in four people will suffer from hearing problems by 2050. The world bodyhas struck the alarm bell stating that currently one in five people have hear-ing problems but most often it is just ignored and uncared for. The same amountof care and attention that we give for various other ailments is sadly not givenfor matters related to hearing except when we have severe pain in the earor some other problem. The WHO has called for global action and has askedthe nations to take immediate measures to check this ‘silent danger’ whichcan put thousands into a state of ‘complete silence’ if issues related to thishealth menace is not properly addressed. As our life style has changed, ourignorance to such matters has also risen. WHO says hearing loss may re-sult from genetic causes, complications at birth, certain infectious diseases,chronic ear infections, exposure to loud sounds, use of ototoxic medicinesand ageing. Modern medicine with modern technology and implementationof certain safety norms can put an end to such difficulties provided that thegovernments, health organisations, NGOs and other agencies come for-ward to mitigate the problem.

M Pradyu, KANNUR

cmyk

cmyk

Dilip Cherian

BABUDOMBYTES

Bun fight

P G Wodehouse has been responsible for several things, mostnotably the best comic writing in English, but we’re fairly sure he

didn’t invent this one. Who did is lost in the anonymity of slang history,but it seems to have first appeared in the late nineteenth century, a bitearly for Wodehouse. If it sounds to you like a Victorian children’snursery at teatime, that surely must be the original allusion behind it.Imagine children having tea, inevitably squabbling over the buns,teacakes, muffins and — this being a British expression — crumpets.Two similar expressions are known from the middle of the nineteenthcentury: crumpet-scramble and muffin-worry; these haven’t survived.Interestingly, some of the early uses of bun-fight (these days, alsooften bunfight) borrowed the idea of afternoon tea in the nursery butleft out the fighting: it could refer to the most decorous ofengagements, such as those one was invited to by elderly aunts of theWodehousian persuasion, at which squabbling over food wasinconceivable. Then, as now, a bun-fight could more generally be anyoccasion at which food was served, it often being a sarcastic termdescribing rather formal ones for which guests had to dress up. In1994, a newspaper report told of a British MP who turned up improperlydressed (in a lounge suit) at an engagement that was described as the“annual bunfight of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, at whichblack tie and decorations are de rigueur”.

LOL

cmyk

cmyk

RAJASTHAN

SATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP7

WEST BENGAL

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, March 5: In the poll-bound state of West Bengal, whenUttar Pradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath lays out the tenets of hisparty’s “cultural nationalism”, histhoughts connect with centuriesold ‘Nath’ sect which has its rootsin Kamrup (Assam) and Bengal.The 48-year-old Yogi Adityanath,who is also the head priest of sacredGorakhnath math seat of the Nathsect, has lakhs of followers spreadacross different parts of Bengaland Assam.

The Nath sect or rather Nath tra-dition of Hinduism was founded

by Yogi Matsenydranath, one ofthe greatest yogis and gurus ofGorakhnath, who perfected Yogain Kamrup. “There are several ref-erences in history which connectGorakhpur with Bengal andKamrup. There is a Gorakhnathtemple in Kolkata too, andother places in Bengal. In away Yogiji (Adityanath)represents centuries-oldculture and spirit of aHindu tradition...a rea-son why people ofBengal, especially in therural areas connect withhim,” says SwamiMithilesh Nandini

Sharan Maharaj of LakshmanKila Temple in Ayodhya. OnTuesday, when Yogi Adityanathlaunched his campaign in Bengal

from Malda, a large crowd,including his followersflocked to the rallyg round to get aglimpse of the saf-

fron cladleader.Yogi wasquick toremindthe audi-ence thatMaldawas a

‘pavitro bhoomi’ and a land of‘sanatan sanskriti’ (eternal cul-ture). Top sources at BJP head-quarters in Delhi said that Yogi'sMalda rally was a huge success andthe firebrand Chief Minister wouldbe addressing over a dozen ralliesin the eight-phase Assembly pollsin Bengal. Obviously Yogi's con-nection in Bengal makes him a su-perstar campaigner.

The Gorakhnath math headedby Yogi Adityanath has its follow-ing across the nation. “But Assamand Bengal have been a traditionalhub as sect’s founderMatsenydranath emerged from thispart of the country,” said Professor

Sadanand Shahi of Banaras HinduUniversity, a scholar known for hiswritings on Nath tradition. “TheNath sect had such a great impacton Indian medieval culture thatGorakhnath was seen as the great-est spiritual leader after Buddhaand Shankaracharya,” ProfessorShahi told IANS while clarifyingthat he would not speak on the po-litical aspects or influence ofGorakhnath math.

Elaborating on Gorakhnathmath's Bengal connection, SwamiMithlesh Nandani Sharan men-tions the name of Akshay KumarBanerji who was a revered discipleof Yogi Gambhirnath.

What makes Adityanath a superstar campaigner in BengalWhen Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath lays out the tenets of his party’s “cultural nationalism”,

his thoughts connect with centuries old ‘Nath’ sect which has its roots in Kamrup (Assam) and Bengal

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, March 5:Oscar Wilde oncesaid, “Always forgive your enemies;nothing annoys them so much.”

This quote seemed to be thor-oughly followed by BJP state pres-ident Satish Poonia during the re-cent visit of BJP national presidentJP Nadda as he left no stone un-turned to show a large heart to-wards former Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje, highlighting thefact that he holds no grudges againstRaje who, in fact, had announceda silent war against him.

Raje, since the appointment ofPoonia as state BJP president, hasmaintained a distance from theparty office and party meetingsand has plans to organise a ‘religiousyatra’ covering Krishna templesin the state from March 8, her birth-day, to show her strength.

Eventually, it was very much outin the open that the BJP inRajasthan is being headed by twogroups – one by former CM Raje’scamp and the second by BJP statepresident Satish Poonia. While Rajehas been a mass leader who hasserved the state as CM twice, Pooniacomes as a choice of the Sangh andis a trusted soldier of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and Union HomeMinister Amit Shah.

Nadda came to Rajasthan in be-tween his hectic schedule due to theBengal and other state elections, toshow a united face of the saffronparty to the people as by-polls forfour seats are to be held soon.

Before the arrival of Nadda,there were two groups seen stand-ing at the airport – “one led by Rajeand the other by Poonia.

As Raje was sitting inside theairport with her supporters, Poonia

went to her and said that “Naddawill be coming out from the otherside so you all should join us.”

Eventually, as Nadda came, Rajewas very much in place among ahuge queue of senior leaders, withPoonia being in front and Raje insecond position.

Soon after reaching the venue,when Nadda was going up in anelevator with Arun Singh and a se-curity man, he invited Poonia butPoonia requested Raje to go up inthe lift and preferred to use thestairs.Next, even during his ad-dress, he had words of praise forRaje and said how her policieshelped in developing Rajasthanwhen she was the CM.

During lunch, when all the lead-ers were taking their seats andwere about to start eating, Pooniaagain took the lead and startedserving food to them.

He also went to Raje and servedher Ras Malai and asked if sheneeded anything else which didraise the eyebrows of many lead-ers. While BJP leaders are admir-ing the deft moves of Poonia, thereare whispers about Nadda’s ad-

dress also who openly asked lead-ers to do self-analysis about theircontribution to the organisationand asked them to work and takeeveryone along.

Addressing a state executivecommittee meeting here, Naddasaid that leaders in the party en-joying a long tenure tend to stopdoing self-analysis.

“Knowingly or unknowingly, weall assume that we know every-thing. However, this is the beginningof stagnation... the truth is that ourproductivity decreases...,” he said.“I request everyone here to do self-analysis. What is your commit-ment, your relevance? Politics is aplace where you have to be rele-vant.” “Relevance means how muchare you contributing to the party...how much are you acceptable. As aleader, you will have to develop thequality of taking along everyonewhich will increase your accept-ance,” he said in a candid address.

Now, there is speculation aboutwhom Nadda’s message was di-rected at - Raje or Poonia - and whowill emerge as the dark horse in thelong run.

How Poonia outplayed Rajein Raj during Nadda’s visit

Nadda came to Rajasthan in between his hectic schedule due to the Bengaland other state elections, to show a united face of the saffron party to the

people as by-polls for four seats are to be held soon

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, March 5: With Assemblypolls just three weeks away, theBJP, amid an all-out effort to oustMamata Banerjee from power inBengal, is also struggling to keepits house in order, as old-timersand new entrants engage in feudover multiple issues, includingticket distribution.

The saffron party, which had wit-nessed unprecedentedgrowth in terms ofvote share and massbase over the last fewyears, left its doorswide open for leadersfrom other parties, aspart of its poll strategy,but that did not godown well with manysenior leaders, whohad once locked hornswith the newbies fromrival camps, sourcesin the BJP said.

According to a sen-ior BJP leader, thestrategy had initiallyreaped dividends forthe saffron camp,which labelled theTMC as a “sinkingship”, but it eventu-ally led to infighting within the or-ganisation and diluted the party's“fight against corruption”, as sev-eral new entrants were found to havegraft charges against them.

The party recently did a course cor-rection, and stopped the mass in-duction, but the damage by then wasdone, with the leadership now hav-

ing to face the “herculean task” ofidentifying suitable candidates from8,000 aspirants for the state's 294 con-stituencies, the senior leader said.

“We never thought that inductionof leaders from other parties couldlead to such a situation. Every daywe hear reports of infighting be-tween the old-timers and new-comers. We apprehend that postannouncement of names (of con-tenders), discontentment within

the camp will growfurther,” the BJPleader noted.

State BJP chiefDilip Ghosh, however,insisted that ex-panding the party'sbase was necessaryat this juncture.

“The BJP is a bigfamily. When yourfamily grows, suchincidents do takeplace. If we don't takepeople from other out-fits, how will weg row? That said,everyone has to abideby the rules and reg-ulations of the party.No one is above theparty,” Ghosh said.

According to thesaffron camp sources, many stateleaders and the RSS – the BJP’sideological parent - have aired theirdispleasure over induction of cer-tain leaders from other parties.Thousands of activists from rivalparties joined the saffron camp inthe last few months during the ‘jog-dan mela” (joining programme).

Bengal BJP concernedover internecine strifes With Assembly polls just three weeks away, the

BJP, amid an all-out effort to oust MamataBanerjee from power in Bengal, is also strug-

gling to keep its house in order

The strategy toinduct TMC leaders had

initially reaped dividends forthe saffron camp, which

labelled the TMC as a “sinking ship”, but it

eventually led to infightingwithin the organisation and

diluted the party's “fightagainst corruption”

The party recently did acourse correction, and

stopped the mass induction,but the damage by then was

done, with the leadershipnow having to face the

“herculean task” of identifying suitable

candidates from 8,000 aspirants for 294 constituencies

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, Mar 5: West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee Fridayconfirmed her candidature fromNandigram seat as she releasedthe list of Trinamool Congress can-didates for the upcoming Assemblypolls for 291 seats with emphasis onyouths, minority, women and back-ward communities.

Three candidates of the BimalGurung faction of Gorkha JanmuktiMorcha (GJM), an ally of the TMC,will be contesting from the re-maining three seats in Darjeeling.

Affirming her candidature fromthe high profile Nandigram seat,Banerjee will vacate her traditionalBhowanipore seat in Kolkata, asshe threw a challenge to her protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari,who crossed over to the BJP inDecember.

“I will contest from Nandigramas I stick to my words. FromBhowanipore constituency,Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay will becontesting in the upcomingAssembly elections,” Banerjee saidwhile releasing TMC candidate listfor the state polls.

“On March 9 we will release ourmanifesto. On March 10 I will filemy nomination for Nandigramseat,” she told reporters.

In January this year, Banerjee hadannounced that she would contestelections from the Nandigram seatin Purba Medinipur district.

When asked about Adhikari likelyto be pitted against her from theNandigram, she declined to com-ment on it. This will be for the firsttime that Banerjee will be in the pollfray from Nandigram constituencyrepresented by Suvendu Adhikariin 2016 and another TMC candi-date in 2011.

Though Suvendu Adhikari hastime and again expressed his desireto take on his former boss directlyin Nandigram, the saffron partyleadership is yet to a take a decisionon it. Banerjee and Adhikari werethe prominent figures of the anti-land acquisition movement in

Nandigram in 2007 that ultimatelycatapulted the firebrand TrinamoolCongress supremo to power in WestBengal in 2011 ending 34-year-oldrule of the Left Front.

"This time we have stressed onmore youths and women candi-dates. Around 23-24 sitting MLAShave been dropped and there arenames of about 50 women, 42 mus-lims, 79 SC and 17 ST candidates inthe list," Banerjee said.

Exuding confidence of returningto power for the third consecutivetime, Banerjee termed it as the "eas-iest" election the TMC has ever faced. "This would be a smileyelection for us. We would win it," shesaid when asked whether this willbe the toughest election ever theparty had faced since TrinamoolCongress inception in 1998.

"After we come to power we willcreate Vidhan Parishad (LegislativeCouncil) to accomodate senior andexperienced leaders. We could notaccommodate everybody especiallythose above the age of 80 years," shesaid. Listing out names of candi-dates, Banerjee sought the bless-ings of the people of the state and

urged them to have faith in her."I seek the blessings of people. I

appeal to Maa Maati Manush foryour faith. Have faith in me, will pro-tect the state and take it to newheights," she said, turning to the slo-gan that first brought her to powerin 2011.

State Finance Minister AmitMitra won't be contesting electionsdue to poor health, the TMCsupremo said. Purnendu Bose isanother elderly minister missingfrom the TMC list of candidatesand so is veteran legislator JatuLahiri from Sibpur.

"We will support GJM in the hillsand they will support us in theplains," she said .

Banerjee also challenged PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and UnionHome Minister Amit Shah to deployas much central force as they want,but the TMC will still emerge vic-torious.

She also thanked Hemant Sorenof Jharkhand Mukti Morcha andSharad Pawar of NCP for extend-ing their support to TMC. "AfterRJD, SP and Shiv Sena, TMC has re-ceived support from JMM and NCP

for Bengal assembly polls. We wouldlike to thank all of them," she said.

Though electorally not much rel-evant in Bengal, the prominent op-position parties- RJD, SP, Shiv Sena,JMM and NCP of Sharad Pawarhave prefered TMC to Congress-Left parties and announced theirsupport to Banerjee in the battleroyale for Bengal.

Actress Sayantika Banerjee,Koushani Mukherjee, film direc-tor Raj Chakraborty along withseveral other actors and actresshave been given nominations.Cricketer Manoj Tiwari will contestfrom Shibpur constituency inHowrah district.

Prominent ministers ParthaChatterjee, Firhad Hakim andSubrata Mukherjee have been re-tained from their traditional seats.

Banerjee released her party can-didate list from the same luckyroom in her Kalighat residencefrom where she had done so in 2011and 2016 Assembly elections.

In the 2019 general election shehad announced candidates namesfrom a different place within her res-idential premises.

Mamata releases Trinamool candidate list

West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee interacts with media during announcement of herparty candidate list for upcoming state Assembly elections at Kalighat in Kolkata, Friday PTI PHOTO

POLL GRAFFITI

A TMC supporter paints a wall to campaign for the party ahead of Assembly polls in Howrah, Friday PTI PHOTO

Raje’s ‘power yatra’ now becomes religious yatraINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, March 5:The much-talkedabout ‘power yatra’ to be taken outby former Chief Minister VasundharaRaje from March 8, which falls on herbirthday, has now been limited to areligious yatra only.

As per the latest schedule, Rajeshall leave for Bharatpur fromJaipur March 7 in the morningfrom where she will go to Jatipura

Giriraj Mandir via road and thento Aadi Badri Mandir. She shallstay in the same temple and offerprayers here March 8 on her birth-day. She will visit other templestoo and then will leave to Dholpurvia Helicopter from Bharatpur.

A staunch Raje loyalist, PratapSingh Singhvi, on his social mediapost said: “A religious programme isbeing organised on the occasion of69th birthday of Raje to pray for her

health and long life. In this process,Raje will tour the temples of the saidregion and offer her prayers. Herfollowers shall extend greetings to herduring this programme.”

BJP sources have confirmed thatthe much-proposed political yatraof Raje has been limited to reli-gious yatra owing to the recentvisit of BJP National president JPNadda who openly asked leaders todo self-analysis.

62-yr-old BJP MLA pursuesBA on daughters’ demandINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, March 5:Pushed by hisdaughters to pursue education,Bharatiya Janata Party MLAPhool Singh Meena, now 62,will finally accomplish hisdream to be a BA pass MLA.

Initially, a school dropout,he had to take up farming afterhis father's death. Officially, hewas seventh pass but he some-how managed all his day to daychores in personal and profes-sional life.

However, his life changedwhen his five daughters madehim realise the worth of edu-cation and inspired him to con-tinue, explaining to him thefact that education has no age limit. Abiding by their call,Meena Tuesday took his firstexam of BA final in political sci-ence stream in Udaipurfrom the VardhmanMahaveer OpenUniversity. Speakingto this news agency,he said, "I had todrop out from schoolafter Class VII as myfather passed awayand there were manychallenges in thefamily. I gotinto farm-

ing to earn livelihood for myfamily. "When I saw, it was notearning me significant returns;I went to Udaipur and startedworking in supplying labourto private factories. Then I en-tered politics and there was nolooking back," he says. "Onefine day, my daughters, five innumber, gheraoed me and askedme about my qualification.

"I asked them what was thereason for this question andthey said they wanted to hearthe right answer from mymouth. As I said I am seventhclass pass, they said, 'Aren'tyou ashamed of it? How do youcarry yourself amongst peo-ple, students and senior leaders?

"Their words were a real in-spiration for me. Soon theybrought me an application formand insisted me to fill it to crack

the Class 10 exam. The formwas submitted and I ap-peared for the exam in2013. It was election timeand I got the ticket so Icould not clear two examswhich I re-appeared and

cleared in 2015. They gaveme points so that I can

lear n from mychapters

well," he added.

West Bengal Chief Minister MamataBanerjee Friday the list of Trinamool

Congress candidates for the upcomingAssembly polls for 291 seats with

emphasis on youths, minority, womenand backward communities

Three candidates of the Bimal Gurung faction of Gorkha JanmuktiMorcha (GJM), an ally of the TMC, will be contesting from the remainingthree seats in Darjeeling

Exuding confidence of returning to power for the third consecutive time,Banerjee termed it as the "easiest" election the TMC has ever faced

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Senior MLAswon’t beallowed to ask

counter-questionseither during thisperiod. It will raisethe self-confidenceof the new MLAs and, in theprocess, they will also learn aboutHouse proceedings

GIRISH GAUTAM | SPEAKER, MP ASSEMBLY

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Vaccination isnecessary toprotect

ourselves fromcoronaviruspandemic. I urgeMLAs above the ageof 60 to get themselvesvaccinated. You can contact NitinPatel or his department in caseyou need any assistance

VIJAY RUPANI | CM, GUJARAT

AAP has neverbeen trulyconcerned

about protecting thefarmers or theirinterests, and itsleadership againproved itself to be an agentof the BJP

AMARINDER SINGH | CM, PUNJAB

BJP’s first list for Assam outNew Delhi: The BJP Fridayannounced the first list of 70candidates for the Assemblyelections in Assam. The 126-member Assam Assemblywill go to the polls in threephases March 27, April 1 andApril 6. The results will bedeclared May 2. The listincludes the names of ChiefMinister SarbanandaSonowal, senior ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma andthe party’s state unit chiefRanjeet Kumar Dass.

101-yr-old takesCovax shot New Delhi: Boosting themorale of those who are stillsceptical about getting thevaccine shot against Covid-19, a 101-year-old womanFriday received her firstvaccine dose at a municipalhospital here, officials toldIANS. The woman, SumitraDhandia, received the Covidjab at New Delhi MunicipalCouncil's (NDMC) CharakPalika Hospital in theMotibagh area.

Priyanka’s LS entryChennai: Karti Chidambaram,a Lok Sabha Congressmember of Parliament fromSivaganga, has requested theTN Congress Committee tofield Congress General SecyPriyanka Gandhi Vadra fromthe Kanyakumari LS seat,which would be going to thepolls along with the stateAssembly elections April 6.Karti said Priyanka will be agood choice for theKanyakumari constituency.

SHORT TAKES

A jawan of the Indo Tibetan BorderPolice (ITBP) was killed in a blastof a pressure improvised explosivedevice (IED), planted by Naxals, inNarayanpur district ofChhattisgarh Friday, police said

ITBP JAWAN KILLED IN IED BLAST IN CH’GARHIt should be studied why people

living in rural areas of the countrylargely remain unaffected bycoronavirus. I believe that the hardwork they do and open places theylive in has a lot to do with itM VENKAIAH NAIDU | VICE PRESIDENT

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: Indian se-curity forces stepped up patrols onthe border with Myanmar Fridayto stop refugees entering after somepolice officers crossed over to escapetaking orders from the militaryjunta there, officials said.

“As of now, we are not lettinganybody enter,” Maria Zuali, sen-

ior government official in Mizoramstate’s Champhai district, toldReuters by telephone.

The move follows the defectionover the border of some low-rank-ing Myanmar police officers whowere unwilling to obey orders to sup-press demonstrations against the junta.

Myanmar’s military overthrewa democratically elected govern-ment on Feb. 1, setting off nation-wide protests that have left morethan 50 people dead. A spokesmanfor the military has not commentedon the police defectors.

Indian soldiers and police werepatrolling the frontier on Friday,Zauli said.

In neighbouring Serchhip dis-trict, senior of ficial KumarAbhishek said eight people, in-cluding a woman and a child, hadcrossed the border and were beingtaken care of.

“We are anticipating that somemore may come,” he said.

Authorities were making prepa-rations to house between 30 and40 people, he said.

Asked about the crossing over ofMyanmar police, Anurag Srivastava,spokesman for India’s foreign min-istry, told reporters at a briefingin New Delhi that it was ascer-taining the facts.

In all, about 30 Myanmar policeand their family members hadcrossed over into India in recentdays, a senior police official inMizoram said, including some who

had come overnight.The official, who requested

anonymity, said people were slippingin despite intensive patrolling byIndian soldiers along a border thathugs the Tiau river flowing be-tween forested hills.

“People are coming from differ-ent routes,” the official said, “Theborder is porous, you can’ t prevent it.”

A federal Indian security offi-cial said that police crossing overhad said they did not wish to carry

out orders from the military toquell the protests.

“They alleged that there arehuman rights violations and theywere asked to shoot at civilians,” theofficial said, also requestinganonymity.

The influx of such refuge-seek-ers, particularly police, puts Indiain a quandary because of NewDelhi’s close ties with the Myanmarmilitary, known as the Tatmadaw.

Over the last two years theTatmadaw has mounted operationsat India’s request to flush out in-surgents along the northeasternborder. India, on its part, giftedMyanmar its first submarine last year.

“It’s a little difficult situationfor India because diplomatic balanceis crucial,” the official said.

The India–Myanmar barrier isa border barrier that India is con-structing to seal its 1,624-kilometre(1,009 mi) - long border withMyanmar. India hopes to curtail

cross-border crime, including goods,arms and counterfeit currencysmuggling, drug trafficking, andinsurgency. The United NationsDrug Control Programme (UNDCP)and International Narcotics ControlBoard (INCB) also warned that theregion could become a significanttransit point for illicit drugs be-cause of the poor state of bordersecurity facilities. Indian secu-rity forces blamed the porous bor-der for the deaths of 200 securitypersonnel and civilians in mili-tancy-related violence in the regionin 2001–2003. Four Northeast Indianstates share the border withMyanmar: Arunachal Pradesh,Nagaland, Mizoram, and Manipur.Both national governments agreedto conduct a joint survey beforeerecting the fence. The IndianHome Ministry and its Myanmarcounterpart completed the studywithin six months and, in March2003 began erecting a fence alongthe border.

India steps up border patrols along Myanmar

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5:As the farmeragitation against the Centre’s threefarm laws entered its hundredthday Saturday, union leaders as-serted that their movement is farfrom over and they are ‘going strong’.

The marathon movement hassent out a message of unity, made‘farmers visible once again’ andbrought them back on the politi-cal landscape of the country, theysaid Friday.

For over three months, the threeDelhi border points at Singhu, Tikriand Ghazipur have transformedinto townships occupied by thou-sands of farmers from differentparts of the country, mainly Punjab,Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

To mark the completion of hun-dred days, March 6 will be observedas 'Black Day' as part of which theKundli–Manesar–Palwal (KMP) ex-pressway will be blocked for fivehours, according to a statementfrom the Samyukt Kisan Morcha,a coalition of protesting farmer unions.

Rakesh Tikait of the BharatiyaKisan Union (BKU) said they are pre-pared to continue the protest aslong as it is required.

Despite several rounds of talksbetween the government and thefarmer unions, the two sides have

failed to reach an agreement, andthe farmers have refused to budgeuntil the three laws are repealed.

Enacted in September, the threefarm laws have been projected bythe Centre as major reforms in theagriculture sector that will removethe middlemen and allow farmersto sell their produce anywhere in the country.

The protesting farmers, on the

other hand, have expressedapprehension that the new lawswould pave the way for eliminatingthe safety cushion of the MinimumSupport Price (MSP) and do awaywith the "mandi" (wholesale mar-ket) system, leaving them at themercy of big corporates.

While a resolution was reachedon two of the four demands -- roll-back of rise in power tariff and

penalties for stubble burning -- inJanuary, a decision on repeal ofthe three farm laws and a legalguarantee for MSP continues to bestuck in limbo.

However, according to the farmerleaders, the movement has achievedmuch beyond the immediate scopeof the protest. It has evoked na-tionwide unity among farmers aswell as recognised the contribu-tion of women in farming.

Yogendra Yadav of Swaraj Indiasaid, "The movement has broughtthe farmers back on the politicallandscape of this country. It hasmade farmers visible once again.It has taught every politician a les-son — not to take ‘panga' with thefarmers."

The fight against the laws was onecause that seemed to have resonatedwith a large number of farmersthroughout the nation, cuttingacross religious and caste barri-ers. "It has united farmers likenever before. Haryana and Punjabfarmers are united. Despite deep at-tempts at communal mobilisationin UP, Hindu and Muslim farmersare united in this protest. Gujjarsand Meenas are united inRajasthan,” Yadav said. KavithaKuruganti of the All India KisanSangharsh Coordination Committeesaid the movement had proven very“constructive” socially as well.

We are going ‘strong’: Farmer leaders To mark the completion of hundred days, March 6 will be observed as ‘Black Day’ as part of which

the Kundli–Manesar–Palwal expressway will be blocked for five hours

Farmers raise slogans as they prepare to march towards the Delhi border tojoin the sit-in protest against the new agriculture laws, in Amritsar, Friday

We are completelyprepared. Unless and

until the government listens tous and meets our demands,we will not move from hereRAKESH TIKAIT | BHARATIYA KISAN UNION

People used to take farmersfor granted but this movementhas shown that getting into aconfrontation with farmers iscostly businessYOGENDRA YADAV| LEADER, SWARAJ INDIA

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: Going for-ward with the modernisationprocess of the armed forces, DefenceMinister Rajnath Singh Friday dis-cussed the creation of integratedtheatre commands and infusion ofmodern technology at the CombinedCommanders Conference in Gujarat.

The three-day CombinedCommanders Conference 2021started Thursday at Kevadia. It isa key brain-storming event of theMilitary Commanders from allthree services -- ar my, navy, and air force.

The conference have the com-bined apex-level military leader-ship of the country reviewing thesecurity situation and defence pre-paredness, and deliberating perti-nent organisational issues for evolv-ing a joint military vision for thefuture. The Defence Minister tookoff some time to visit the Statue ofUnity to pay his homage to IronMan of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai

Patel, after he arrived Friday.Delivering the inaugural address,

Singh dwelled on a wide spectrumof issues affecting the defence andsecurity of the nation. He spokeat length on the emerging nature ofmilitary threats, the critical role ofthe Armed Forces in meeting thesethreats and the anticipated changesin the nature of warfare in future.

He expressed his heartfelt ap-preciation and respect to the self-less courage displayed by the soldiersduring the Eastern Ladakh stand-off with People's Liberation Army

Secretaries of Department ofDefence, Defence Production,Department of Research andDevelopment and Financial AdvisorDefence Services also shared theirthoughts on various relevant as-pects with the CombinedCommanders.

There were two 'VivechanaSessions' held over the day in thepresence of the Defence Minister,some part of them were held behindclosed doors.

These deliberations addressedthe ongoing modernisation ofArmed Forces especially focussingon creation of integrated theatrecommands and infusion of mod-ern technology.

Issues like morale and motivationand promotion of spirit of inno-vation in the Armed Forces wit-nessed enthusiastic participationwith useful feedback and sugges-tions from the soldiers and youngerofficers of the three Services.

In a major change from the past,the scope of the conference thisyear has been expanded to make ita multi-layered, interactive, infor-mal and informed event with theadded participation of about 30 of-ficers and soldiers of various ranksfrom the three Services.

The conference in 2014 was heldat Delhi. Since then it has beenmoved out to different venues acrossthe country. The conference washeld on board INS Vikramaditya in2015 and in 2017 at the IndianMilitary Academy at Dehradun.

The last edition of CCC was heldin 2018 over a period of two days atAir Force Station, Jodhpur. Therehave been several major develop-ments in the Higher DefenceOrganisation since, including ap-pointment of first ever Chief ofDefence Staff and setting up of theDepartment of Military Affairs(DMA), and several important &multifarious issues affecting mod-ernisation & transformation ofthe Armed Forces are currentlyunder active consideration/ im-plementation, according to theIndian Army.

Rajnath discusses creation ofintegrated theatre commands

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: Amid strifein the Congress, Ghulam NabiAzad, an important leader of theG-23 group of dissenting leaders,said Friday that he'll campaignfor the party wherever he is calledsince the assembly elections areimportant for the party.

Azad, whose Rajya Sabha termended recently, said,"We will cam-paign wherever the party or in-dividual will call for it becausethe victory of the party is most im-portant for us."

The Congress is yet to releasethe list of its star campaignersfor the assembly polls in whichRahul Gandhi and his sisterPriyanka Gandhi Vadra are likelyto be included.

Now all eyes are on the namesof the leaders led by Azad. If lead-ers such as Manish Tewari, AnandSharma, Kapil Sibal, BhupinderSingh Hooda make it to the list ofthe Congress's star campaigners,it would imply that the party hastried to make peace with the groupof dissenters.

The Congress has asked the dis-senting leaders to join hands withthe party to combat the BJP.Abhishek Manu Singhvi, seniorspokesperson of the party, hadsaid on March 2: "I think the wholeidea of this front is to fight thevitiating politics of BJP. ThereforeI would say each one of our sen-ior and respected colleagues shouldjoin wholeheartedly and uncon-ditionally in that fight to combatthis false propaganda of the BJP."

Elections to the 140-memberKerala Assembly, the 30-memberPuducherry Assembly and the234-member Tamil Nadu Assemblywill be held in a single phase onApril 6, while polling for the 126-member Assam Assembly will beheld on March 27, April 1 andApril 6.

AGENCIES

Mumbai, March 5:The first chargesheet filed in the drugs case probeinto the death of actor SushantSingh Rajput has mentioned brieflyabout the role of his girlfriendRhea Chakraborty for being in-strumental in procuring and fi-nancing the drugs.

A senior NCB official related tothe probe wishing anonymity toldIANS: “There have been instancesin which the role of Rhea has beenmentioned briefly in the chargesheet filed by the NCB in a courthere.” The NCB filed a 11,700-pagecharge sheet in the court here ear-lier in the day. The official said:“Rhea was instrumental in procur-ing and financing drugs.”

He said that Rhea's financialtransactions have been corrobo-rated in the case.

The official pointed out that thecash transactions of Rhea and thendigital transfers have been men-tioned in the charge sheet corrob-orating the use of the money forprocuring and financing drugs.

The official also said that Rhea'sbrother, Showik Chakraborty hasalso been named in the chargesheet and his relations with drug

peddlers Basit Parihar and Zayedalong with the drug delivering in-cidents have been collaboratedwith Whatsapp chats and finan-cial transactions. To a question ifthe drug-law enforcement agencyhas named Bollywood biggies likeDeepika Padukone, Sara Ali Kha,Shradhha Kapoor and Rakul PreetSingh, the official said that they havenot been named in the charge sheet.

Citing the reason for not men-tioning their names in the chargesheet, the official explained thatas their statement was "disclosurebased". Besides Rhea and Showik,the NCB has named 31 more peo-ple in its first charge sheet that itfiled in the court. The official saidthat the late actor's ex-managerSamuel Miranda, his house helpDipesh Sawant, drug peddler AnujKeshwani, from whom commer-cial quantity of drugs (LSD sheetsand marijuana) were first recovered,figure in the charge sheet.

Rhea ‘instrumental’ inprocuring, financing drugs: NCB in SSR caseThe NCB filed a 11,700-page charge sheet in the court

NCC cadets perform physical exercises during an annual training camp, at Nagrota on outskirts of Jammu, Friday

READY TO FIGHT

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: TheSupreme Court Collegium has ap-proved the proposal for eleva-tion of judicial of ficer ABadharudeen as Judge of theKerala High Court.

The Collegium also reiteratedits earlier recommendations forelevation of five advocates asJudges in different High Courts.

The advocates whose nameshave been recommended are —Viju Abraham Mohammed NiasCP and Paul KK for Kerala HighCourt, Nagendra RamachandraNaik for Karnataka High Courtand Satyen Vaidya for Himachal

Pradesh High Court.The Collegium headed by Chief

Justice SA Bobde in a meetingheld March 2, on reconsidera-tion, resolved to reiterate its ear-lier recommendations.

In another decision, theCollegium also approved the pro-posal for elevation of five advo-cates as Judges in different HighCourts. The advocates whosenames have been recommendedare— Vivek Sharan, NidhiPatankar, Pranay Verma forMadhya Pradesh High Court,Vikas Bahl for Punjab andHaryana High Court and RahulBharti for Jammu and KashmirHigh Court.

SC Collegium nod to elevation of judicial officer as Kerala HC judge

The move follows thedefection over the

border of some low-ranking Myanmar

police officers whowere unwilling to obey

orders to suppressdemonstrationsagainst the junta

Azad to campaignfor Cong party inpoll-bound states

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What I said yesterdaywas the people of

Kerala and the BJPworkers want a leader like ESreedharan to lead them. Thereis no doubt in it. Kerala and itspeople want the leadership ofSreedharanK SURENDRAN | KERALA BJP CHIEF

Kerala recorded 2,776 freshCOVID-19 cases, including 10health workers and 16 relateddeaths Friday, taking thecaseload to 10,72,785 and thetoll to 4,271

KERALA LOGS 2.7K FRESHINFECTIONS, 16 DEATHS

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Centre’sdecision toallow private

healthcare centresto charge Rs 250 foradministering thevaccine willadversely impact the efforts toensure immunity to everyone andcontain the spread

SIDDARAMAIAH | LOP, KARNATAKA ASSEMBLY

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SC denies bail toSivasankarNew Delhi: The SupremeCourt Friday sought responsefrom M. Sivasankar,suspended principalsecretary to Kerala ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan, onan appeal filed by theEnforcement Directoratechallenging a High Courtorder granting the IAS officerbail in the gold smugglingcase. January 25, the KeralaHigh Court granted bail toSivasankar, who wasarrested by ED October 28.

No Question Hourin Budget SessionNew Delhi: The Delhi AssemblyBudget session for 2021-22scheduled to commence fromMonday, will not have its usualQuestion Hour due to theCovid-19 pandemic, sourcestold IANS. The Budget sessionof the 7th Legislative Assemblyof the National CapitalTerritory (NCT) of Delhi willbegin with LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal's addressat 11 a.m. March 8. The sessionwill end March 16.

HC dismisses plea New Delhi: The Delhi HighCourt Friday dismissed apetition challenging theappointment of Najma Akhtaras the Vice-Chancellor ofJamia Millia Islamia. Justice V.Kameswar Rao junked the pleafiled by Jamia alumnus M.Ehtesham-ul-Haque againstthe appointment of Akhtar.

SHORT TAKES

It is alsosignificantthat these

path-breaking R&Dactivities are takingplace when thecountry hassuccessfully rolled out one ofhistory’s largest vaccine outreach

HARSH VARDHAN | UNION HEALTH MINISTER

Sugarcanegrowers havecontributed

immensely to thedevelopment of thestate and theirproblems should besolved on priority

QAZI NIZAMUDDIN | CONGRESS MLA, U’KHAND

AGENCIES

Srinagar, March 5: NationalConference president FarooqAbdullah’s plea against an ED orderattaching his properties in a caseof alleged money laundering cameup before the Jammu and KashmirHigh Court Friday but was postedfor hearing on March 8 after thejudge recused himself.

The former Jammu and Kashmirchief minister had challenged theEnforcement Directorate’sDecember 2020 order before thehigh court Wednesday. The casewill now be heard Monday beforea new judge.

Justice Ali Mohammed Magreyrecused himself saying that he hasdeclined hearing similar matters inthe past.

The ED has alleged that Abdullah"misused" his position as presidentof the Jammu and Kashmir CricketAssociation (JKCA) from 2001-2011and made appointments in thesports body so Board of Controlfor Cricket in India (BCCI) sponsoredfunds could be laundered.

Abdullah said the list of prop-erties -- worth almost Rs 12 crore -- attached by the ED in Kashmirand in Jammu were unrelated to thealleged criminal activity mentionedin the Final Report/FIR and termedit a "continuing violation of hisfundamental rights".

According to party MP HasnainMasoodi, the properties were eitherancestral or acquired before the al-

leged offence took place and weretherefore not involved in any money-laundering or related criminal ac-tivity.

Abdullah has raised the valid-ity of the ED in the case. He said inhis petition that on the date of there gistration of the ECIR(Enforcement CommissionInformation Report) and the initi-ation of investigation, the state ofJammu and Kashmir was governedby the Constitution of Jammu andKashmir, 1956, and had special sta-tus under Article 370 of theConstitution of India.

He said the ED registered thecase on December 28, 2018, under theRanbir Penal Code (the Indian Penal

Code's substitute in the erstwhilestate) without ascertaining whetherit had any jurisdiction to do so.

December 19, 2020 the ED issueda provisional order attaching theproperties under the Preventionof Money Laundering Act (PMLA).An appeal could be filed before theadjudicating authority of the PMLA

within a six-month period.According to an ED statement, the

attached properties include three res-idential houses -- at Gupkar Roadin Srinagar, Katipora Tehsil inTanmarg and Bhatindi in Sunjwanvillage of Jammu. "A commercialbuilding at posh Residency Roadin Srinagar has also been attachedbesides lands at four different placesin JK," the agency had said.

While the book value of the at-tached properties is Rs 11.86 crore,their market value is estimated tobe about Rs 60-70 crore, officialssaid. The 84-year-old NC patron hasbeen questioned by the ED in thecase several times, the last in October2020 at Srinagar.

Judge recuses selffrom Farooq’s caseThe former CM has challenged the attachment of his properties by the ED in connection

with a money laundering case in which officials of the JKCA were implicated

n The case came up for hearingbefore Justice Ali MohammedMagrey who recused himselfsaying that he has declinedhearing identical matters inthe past

n The case was posted for March8 for being put up before anew judge

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: SeniorCongress leader Veerappa Moily hasrejected any group called G-23, say-ing the party is united under SoniaGandhi’s leadership.

"The Congress is one," he saidwhen asked about the G-23, a groupof dissenters in the party who hadsought a complete revamp ofCongress in a letter to interimparty president Sonia Gandhi inAugust last year. Incidentally, for-mer Karnataka Chief MinisterMoily was one of the signatories ofthe letter written to Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking to reporters, Moilysaid, "There is no such thing calledG-23. The Congress is united underSonia Gandhi who always listensto people's grievances."

The Congress is facing a difficulttime as the party seems to be dividedafter some prominent leaders wrotea letter to Sonia Gandhi demand-ing sweeping reforms in the party.

Another Congress leader,Sandeep Dikshit, said, "There isno group in the party and I am notin touch with the leaders who hadassembled in Jammu recently."

Many Congress leaders have saidthat their only motive is to strengthenthe party in the country. The Congress,

which is gearing up to face electionsin five states/UT, have advised theseleaders to join hands to defeat theBJP and now all eyes are on the soonto be announced list of star cam-paigners of the party.

Many of the Congress leaderswho had signed the letter in Augustlast year have either been adjustedin the party or have been assignedsome important task, such asPritviraj Chavan getting appointedas screening committee chairmanfor Assam or Moily getting ap-pointed as election managementin-charge for Tamil Nadu.

CONG LEADERSDOWNPLAY G-23

There is no such thingcalled G-23. The Congress isunited under Sonia Gandhi

who always listens topeople’s grievances

VEERAPPA MOILY | CONG LEADER

There is no group in theparty and I am not in touchwith the leaders who had

assembled in Jammurecently

SANDEEP DIKSHIT | CONG LEADER

Security personnel prepare to fire tear gas after clashes erupted between police and protestors, during a demon-stration against house arrest of chief clerk and Chairman of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, at NowhattaChowk in Srinagar, Friday PTI PHOTO

DISSENT CRUSHED Illicit liquor warehouse inBihar made police stationAGENCIES

Patna, March 5: The LiquorProhibition Department of theBihar police has shifted the Bypasspolice station here to a ware-house, which was once used forstorage of illicit liquor, in viola-tion of the prohibition laws.

The LPD seized a huge cacheof liquor worth Rs 2 crore fromthe warehouse situated on thePatna bypass road, a fortnightago. Since then, it has been con-fiscated and is in the department'spossession.

The Bihar government onFebruary 5, decided to confiscateand auction properties, whichwere being used for liquor stor-age in the state.

Sanjay Kumar Agarwal,

Divisional Commissioner ofPatna, had directed all the DistrictMagistrates , SeniorSuperintendent of Police,Superintendent of Police andDeputy Superintendent of Policeto take action against the liquormafias and seal those propertiesused for illicit liquor trade, whichwill go under the hammer soon.

"We have taken the decisionto shift the Bypass police stationto this warehouse following anorder. For a common man, pos-session of properties could be adifficult task, despite cancella-tions and registry followed byauction of properties. Keepingthis in mind, we have moved thepolice station to this warehouseto give a strong message to themafias," Agarwal said.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: The AndhraPradesh government Friday toldthe Supreme Court that it is agree-able for court monitored CBI probeinto alleged irregularities in landtransactions during shifting ofthe state capital to Amaravati.

It urged the court to lift the staygranted by Andhra Pradesh HighCourt on the probe by the SpecialInvestigating Team (SIT) into thealleged scam and allow the in-vestigation to go on in the case.

The YS Jagan Mohan Reddygovernment had earlier consti-tuted the 10-member SIT, headedby a Deputy Inspector General ofPolice- rank IPS officer, to con-duct a comprehensive investigationinto various alleged irregulari-ties, particularly the land dealsin the Amaravati Capital Region,during the previous ChandrababuNaidu regime.

A bench of Justices AshokBhushan and R S Reddy was toldby senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan,appearing for Andhra Pradeshgovernment, that they are agree-able to some of the prayers soughtby state's former advocate gen-eral Dammalapati Srinivas beforethe High Court.

“We are agreeable to some of theprayers sought by petitioner beforethe High Court (DammalapatiSrinivas). First, we are agreeablethat no coercive action will betaken against him. Secondly we areagreeable that court monitoredprobe should be there but it shouldbe by the CBI, as we have earlierrequested for the CBI probe but itdidn't happen”, Dhavan said inthe brief hearing.

He said that the State onlyurge the court that investiga-tion by the SIT should be al-lowed to continue till the timeprobe is given to the CBI.

AGENCIES

Lucknow, March 5: The YogiAdityanath government in UttarPradesh is all set to create employ-ment opportunities through the foodprocessing units in the villages.

This is a part of its commitmentto empower the farmers and youthresiding in the rural areas.

The state government has al-ready presented its strategy to makethe farmers and the youth in the vil-lages self-reliant by linking them tothe 62,122 food processing units be-fore the NITI Aayog.

According to the governmentspokesman, Uttar Pradesh's foodecosystem offers huge opportunitiesfor investments with stimulatinggrowth in the food retail sector.

"The government's multi-di-mensional rural centric approachwill not only provide employmentbenefits to the rural populace by con-necting them directly to the food pro-cessing units, but will also drivethe rural economy by installingnew units in addition to the exist-ing ones," the spokesman said.

The diverse basket of agricul-tural raw material base and agro-climatic attributes of Uttar Pradesh

provide the requisite platform forthe state to develop a vibrant foodprocessing industry.

Acknowledging the food pro-cessing potential in Uttar Pradesh,the government has planned a strat-egy to directly link the farmers tofood processing units in order to en-hance the agricultural trade.

The state government also madea budgetary provision of Rs 40 crorefor the implementation of the UttarPradesh Food Processing IndustryPolicy, 2017.

The policy provides capital in-vestment subsidy and interest sub-

vention at present. Moreover, the gov-ernment will also take adequatemeasures to equip the food pro-cessing sector with the best facili-ties in order to create more em-ployment possibilities.

The government is aiming atproviding jobs to over three lakh peo-ple by bringing in investment ofmore than Rs 20,000 crore in thecoming months in this sector.

To create better and more em-ployment opportunities in therural areas, on the Chief Minister'sdirections, the government willidentify vacant and unused land

of huge 'mandis' to set up foodprocessing units at a cost of Rs fivecrore in the state. The units willnot only give employment to theyouth in rural regions but willalso successfully strengthen theagricultural sector by makingthe farmers self-sufficient.

In order to encourage these units,the government also exempted themandi duty for a span of five years.

In order to increase employmentand self-employment in the remoteregions, the units will be set up inaccordance with the area-wise agri-cultural production. In the westernand central Uttar Pradesh, the gov-ernment is focusing on setting upmaize based food processing units.

UP to link farmers with food processing unitsTHE STATE GOVT HAS ALREADY PRESENTED ITS STRATEGY TO MAKE THE FARMERS AND THE YOUTH IN THE

VILLAGES SELF-RELIANT BY LINKING THEM TO THE 62,122 FOOD PROCESSING UNITS BEFORE THE NITI AAYOG

n The state govt also made abudgetary provision of Rs 40crore for theimplementation of the UttarPradesh Food ProcessingIndustry Policy, 2017

n The govt is aiming atproviding jobs to over threelakh people by bringing ininvestment of more than Rs20,000 crore in the comingmonths in this sector

AMARAVATI LAND SCAM

Let there be courtmonitored CBIprobe, AP tells SC

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: A temporaryU.S. ban on exports of critical rawmaterials could limit the produc-tion of coronavirus vaccines bycompanies such as the SerumInstitute of India (SII), its chiefexecutive said in a World Bankpanel discussion here Thursday.

SII, the world’s biggest vaccinemaker, has l icensed theAstraZeneca/Oxford Universityproduct and will soon start bulk-manufacturing the Novavax shot.

“There are a lot of bags, filtersand critical items that manufac-turers need,” Adar Poonawallasaid. “The Novavax vaccine, whichwe are a major manufacturer of,needs these items from the U.S.”

He said the recent invocation ofthe U.S. Defence Production Act

to preserve vaccine raw materialsfor its own companies went againstthe global goal of sharing vaccinesequitably. The White House saidthis week it had used the act tohelp drugmaker Merck & Co pro-duce Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine.

“This really needs to be lookedat because if they are talking aboutbuilding capacity all over the world,the sharing of these critical raw ma-terials, which just can’t be replacedin a matter of six months or a year,is going to become a critical limitingfactor,” Poonawalla said.

India’s Biological E has tiedup with J&J to potentially contractmanufacture up to 600 milliondoses of its vaccine per year.They have signed an initial dealbut production volumes have notbeen agreed upon.

SII ‘warns’ of supply hit fromUS raw materials export ban

P10SATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

internationalTo be able to call touchdownsafely, to see those first

images come back from Mars, to seethe place where we have never beenable to go to on Mars before and gothere - reach there for the expresspurpose of seeking out new life justmade it feel like I was living in a dream SWATI MOHAN | AEROSPACE ENGINEER, NASA

Crowds waving Iraqi and Vaticanflags gathered along Baghdad’sairport road to greet the pontiffon the first-ever papal visit to thecountry. Francis’ trip comes 22years after Pope John Paul IIcancelled a visit in 1999

POPE’S 1ST-EVER IRAQ VISIT

cmyk

cmyk

We condemnterrorists whoseek to

infiltrate across theLine of Control.When it comes tohow we will supportthat, we continue to support directdialogue between India andPakistan on Kashmir and otherareas of concern

NED PRICE |US STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON

of theday uote

I will doeverything wecan to prevent

a rebound of theinfections andanother state ofemergency

YOSHIHIDE SUGA | PRIME MINISTER OF JAPAN

I will never,even if 50million people

can march everyday for the next 10years, for me toretract or apologisefor what I say, I will not do it

MOGOENG MOGOENG |CHIEF JUSTICE, SOUTH AFRICA

Earthquake hits IndonesiaJakarta: A 5.8 magnitudequake jolted Indonesia’sWest Sumatra provinceFriday, the meteorology andgeophysics agency said. Thequake struck at 2.32 pm withthe epicentre at 54 kmnorthwest Mentawai islands,reports Xinhua news agency.The intensity of the quakewas felt at III to IV MMI(Modified Mercalli Intensity)in the provincial capital ofPadang, Painan town andPariaman district, II to IIIMMI in Agam district, BukitTinggi city and PadangPanjang city. The quake didnot trigger a potentialtsunami.

14 dead in avalancheKabul: At least 14 peoplewere killed following a majoravalanche in Afghanistan’sBadakhshan province,officials said Friday. Theavalanche took place inZarandab village, Raghistandistrict, Thursday, reportsTOLO News. A provincialspokesperson said that fivemore people were wounded.He said that although thearea is under Taliban control,efforts were underway tohelp those trapped. A seriesof avalanches that struckvillages on theAfghanistan–Pakistan borderbetween February 4 and 6,2017, killed more than 100people.

Pak approvesSinopharm vaxIslamabad: Pakistan Fridayapproved the emergency useof the Sinopharm Covid-19vaccine for people over 60years of age, a statement bythe National Command andOperation Center (NCOC)said. The Drug RegulatoryAuthority of Pakistan allowedall registered healthcareworkers with the nationalinstitute of medical scienceswho are above 60 years old toget themselves vaccinatedfrom designated vaccinecentres, an NCOC statementread. It is phase two of thevaccination process inPakistan, Xinhua newsagency reported.

Iran airplanehijacking foiledTehran: Iran’s paramilitaryRevolutionary Guard Fridaysaid authorities disrupted theattempted hijacking of apassenger plane in flight thenight before, though itoffered few details on whathappened. The purportedhijacking targeted an Iran AirFokker 100 regionalcommercial jet heading fromthe southwestern city ofAhvaz to the northwesterncity of Mashhad.

SHORT TAKES

A Sahrawi woman soldier, with henna dyed patterns on her hands, carries a weapon during a parade at the Awserdrefugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria REUTERS

WOMEN’S WEAPONS

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

United Nations, March 5: An es-timated 931 million tonnes of foodwere wasted globally in 2019; enoughto circle the Earth seven times, ac-cording to a UN report which saidthat household food waste in Indiais about 68.7 million tonnes a year.

The Food Waste Index Report2021, from the United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP)and partner organisation WRAP,said that around 931 million tonnesof food waste was generated in 2019,sixty-one per cent of which camefrom households, 26 per cent fromfood service and 13 per cent from re-tail. “This suggests that 17 per centof total global food production maybe wasted,” it said.

“The weight roughly equals thatof 23 million fully loaded 40-tonne

trucks — bumper-to-bumper, enoughto circle the Earth seven times,”the UN agency said.

In India, the household food wasteestimate is 50 kg per capita per year,or 68,760,163 tonnes a year.

The household food waste esti-mate in the US is 59 kg per capitaper year, or 19,359,951 tonnes a year,while for China these estimates are64 kg per capita per year or 91,646,213tonnes a year.

The report looks at food waste thatoccurs in retail outlets, restaurantsand homes – counting both foodand inedible parts like bones andshells and presents the most com-prehensive food waste data collec-tion, analysis and modeling to date.

It finds that in nearly every coun-try that has measured food waste,it was substantial, regardless of in-come level. It shows that most of this

waste comes from households, whichdiscard 11 per cent of the total foodavailable at the consumption stageof the supply chain.

Food services and retail outletswaste 5 per cent and 2 per cent re-spectively. On a global per capita-

level, 121 kgs of consumer levelfood is wasted each year, with 74 kgsof this happening in households, theUNEP said in a statement.

“If we want to get serious abouttackling climate change, natureand biodiversity loss, and pollution

and waste, businesses, govern-ments and citizens around theworld have to do their part to re-duce food waste,” ExecutiveDirector of the UNEP IngerAndersen said.

The report said that food wastehas substantial environmental, so-cial and economic impacts. At atime when climate action is stilllagging, 8-10 per cent of globalgreenhouse gas emissions are as-sociated with food that is not con-sumed, when losses before con-sumer level are taken into account.

“Reducing food waste would cutgreenhouse gas emissions, slowthe destruction of nature throughland conversion and pollution, en-hance the availability of food andthus reduce hunger and save moneyat a time of global recession,”Andersen said.

‘India wastes 68 mn tonnes of food a year’THE FOOD WASTE INDEX REPORT 2021, FROM THE UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME (UNEP) AND PARTNER

ORGANISATION WRAP, SAID THAT AROUND 931 MILLION TONNES OF FOOD WASTE WAS GENERATED IN 2019

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Beijing, March 5: As the ice-cov-ered parts of the Arctic Oceanmelt due to climate change, Chinahas flagged its interest to takepart in building Polar Silk Road,raising prospects for the emer-gence of a new sea route.

China will participate in thepragmatic cooperation on theArctic and the building of a PolarSilk Road, the state-run Xinhuanews agency quoted the draftoutline of the 14th Five-YearPlan (2021-2025) for national eco-nomic and social developmentand the long-range objectives tothe year 2035.

Both the plans were submittedto China’s National People’sCongress (NPC), the country’sParliament which began its annualsession here Friday.

Connecting the Atlantic andPacific oceans, the TranspolarSea Route (TSR) will cut across thecentre of the Arctic Ocean, pass-ing close to the North Pole.

While it could significantly re-duce distances for global trade, itremains frozen over for most of theyear, making it much harder totraverse than the two Arctic ship-ping routes currently available –the Northern Sea Route and theNorthwest Passage, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post

quoted a research paper earlier.“To the best of our knowledge,

China is the only country to haveled official expeditions of all threeArctic shipping passages, includingthe TSR,” the research team, ledby Dr Mia Bennett from theUniversity of Hong Kong, wrotein the paper.

China has made clear its in-tention to expand in the Arcticregion and published a whitepaper on this early 2018 callingfor its transformation into a ‘PolarSilk Road’ and highlighting itsplans to integrate with its multi-billion-dollar Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI).

China unveiled the BRI in 2013with an aim to link SoutheastAsia, Central Asia, the Gulf region,Africa and Europe with a net-work of land and sea routes.

India has been severely criticalof the BRI, the pet project ofChinese President Xi Jinping, asthe USD 60 billion China PakistanEconomic Corridor (CPEC), whichis part of the BRI, passes throughPakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

China reveals its Arctic ambition ‘Polar Silk Road’Connecting the Atlanticand Pacific oceans, theTranspolar Sea Route(TSR) will cut across

the centre of the ArcticOcean, passing close to

the North Pole

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Islamabad, March 5: After wit-nessing the shocking defeat of a rul-ing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)candidate in this week’s Senatepolls, Prime Minister Imran Khanhas sought a vote of confidencefrom Parliament Saturday, whichis being seen a symbolic move to en-sure his standing as the country’spremier.

Addressing the nation Thursday,Khan announced the decision aftersome of his party members in theSenate voted for Yousaf Raza Gilani,the joint opposition’s nominee forIslamabad, over the PTI’s AbdulHafeez Sheikh in a secret balloting.

Gilani’s victory came as a shockto Khan, who was quick to joinheads to assess and absorb the blow.Opposition parties have said that thePTI candidate’s defeat has sym-bolically proven that the PrimeMinister doesn’t command confi-dence of the Upper House anymore.

In his address, the Prime Ministeroffered to go into opposition if PTIMPs thought he was incompetent.

The opposition had a plan to usemoney in the Gilani-Sheikh contest.

They spared no effort to breakaway our lawmakers and offeredthem money. Their plan was to de-feat Hafeez Sheikh to prove thatImran Khan has lost majority inParliament, he said.

I will take a vote of confidencefrom the National AssemblySaturday and am ready to sit on theopposition benches than givingamnesty to the opposition, he added.

Khan slammed the ElectionCommission of Pakistan (ECP) forfailing to hold fair and transparentSenate elections, accusing themfor allegedly protecting those whomade money by holding Senateelections through secret ballot.

ECP’s failure to hold fair andtransparent elections had dam-aged the country’s morality anddemocracy, he said.

Imran seeks vote of confidence

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kathmandu, March 5:An Indiannational has been killed by NepalPolice in an exchange of fire witha group of four Indians, allegedlyinvolved in smuggling drugs andcounterfeit currency along theIndo-Nepal border, an official state-ment said here Friday.

The deceased has been identi-fied as Govinda Singh, 20, a resi-dent of Pilibhit district in UttarPradesh, the Nepal Police said ina statement.

A five-member police team wasdeployed at the Nepal-India borderarea after receiving a specific tipoffthat a fake currency printing ma-chine and drugs were being smug-gled into Nepal.

“The smugglers fired at the pa-trol team immediately upon see-ing them,” Deputy Superintendentof Police (DSP) Amar BahadurThapa said.

As soon as the police startedinspecting their bags, the gangsuddenly opened fire at them inBelauri Municipality-8 inKanchanpur district of WesternNepal Thursday night.

Singh received bullet injuryafter Nepal Police Constable BirBahadur Saud opened counterfire with his pistol, the statementsaid.

Singh, who sustained severe in-juries on the chest, died while un-dergoing treatment at IshanMemorial Hospital, Belauri.

“His body will be handed overto his relatives after postmortem,”DSP Thapa said.

Meanwhile, a senior police of-ficial in Pilibhit said the Indian na-tional along with two others hadgone to attend a fair in Nepal’sKanchanpur.

NEPAL POLICE KILLINDIAN ALONG INDO-NEPAL BORDER

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Beijing, March 5: China’s No 2leader set a healthy economicgrowth target Friday and vowedto make the nation self-reliantin technology amid tension withthe US and Europe over tradeand human rights. Another offi-cial announced plans to tightencontrol over Hong Kong by re-ducing the public’s role in gov-ernment.

The ruling Communist Partyaims for growth of “over 6%” as theworld’s second-largest economyrebounds from the coronavirus,Premier Li Keqiang said in a speechto the National People’s Congress,China’s ceremonial legislature.About 3,000 delegates gathered forits annual meeting, the year’s high-est-profile political event, underintense security and anti-viruscontrols. It has been shortenedfrom two weeks to one because ofthe pandemic.

The party is shifting back to itslonger-term goal of becoming aglobal competitor in telecoms, elec-tric cars and other profitable tech-nology. That is inflaming trade ten-sion with Washington and Europe,

which complain Beijing’s tactics vi-olate its market-opening commit-ments and hurt foreign competitors.

Li promised progress in rein-ing in climate-changing carbonemissions, a step toward keepingPresident Xi Jinping’s pledge lastyear to become carbon-neutral by2060. But he avoided aggressivetargets that might weigh on eco-nomic growth.

The NPC meeting focuses on do-mestic issues but is overshadowedby geopolitics as Xi’s governmentpursues more assertive trade andstrategic policies and faces criticismover its treatment of Hong Kong andethnic minorities. The ruling partyhas doubled down on crushing dis-sent as Xi tries to cement his imageas a history-making leader re-claiming China’s rightful place asa global power.

An NPC deputy chairman, WangChen, said a Hong Kong ElectionCommittee dominated by busi-nesspeople and other pro-Beijing fig-ures will be given a bigger role inchoosing the territory’s legisla-ture. Wang said the ElectionCommittee would choose a “rela-tively large” share of the now 70-member Legislative Council.

China sets growthtarget ‘over 6%’

China became the only major economy to grow lastyear, eking out a multi-decade-low 2.3% expansion after

shutting down industries to fight the virus

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Yangon, March 5: YouTube re-moved five channels run byMyanmar’s military for violatingits guidelines, it announced Friday,as demonstrators defied growing vi-olence by security forces and stagedmore anti-coup protests ahead of aspecial UN Security Council meet-ing on the country’s political crisis.

YouTube said it is watching forany further content that might vi-olate its rules. It earlier pulleddozens of channels as part of an in-vestigation into content uploadedin a coordinated influence cam-paign. The decision by YouTubefollowed Facebook’s earlier an-nouncement that it has removedall Myanmar military-linked pagesfrom its site and from Instagram,which it also owns.

The escalation of violence by se-curity forces has put pressure on theworld community to act to restrainthe junta, which seized powerFebruary 1 by ousting the electedgovernment of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Large protests against militaryrule have occurred daily in manycities and towns. Security forcesescalated their crackdown this weekwith greater use of lethal force andmass arrests. At least 18 protesterswere shot dead on Sunday and 38 onWednesday, according to the UNHuman Rights Office. More than1,000 people have been arrested, theindependent Assistance Associationfor Political Prisoners said.

Protests continued in the coun-try’s biggest cities, Yangon andMandalay, and elsewhere Friday,and were again met by force frompolice. Many cases of targeted bru-

tality have been captured in photosand videos that have circulatedwidely on social media. Videos haveshowed security forces shootingpeople at point-blank range andchasing down and savagely beatingdemonstrators.

The United States called the im-ages appalling, the UN humanrights chief said it was time to “endthe military’s stranglehold overdemocracy in Myanmar,” and theworld body's independent experton human rights in the country,Tom Andrews, urged SecurityCouncil members to watch thevideos before their closed-door con-sultations Friday.

While many abuses are com-mitted by police, there is evengreater concern about militaryforces being deployed in citiesacross the country.

YouTube removes junta’s channels;UNSC to meet on Myanmar crisis

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New York, March 5: Indian-Americans are taking over theUS, President Joe Biden said whilecongratulating Swati Mohan, theNASA engineer, who guided theMars rover Perseverance to a softlanding on the Red Planet.

“It's amazing. Indian Americansare taking over this country; you,my Vice President, my speech-writer Vinay. But I tell you what,thanks. You guys are incredible,”he said during a virtual meetingto congratulate Mohan and otherson the NASA Jet PropulsionLaboratory (JPL) team that landedthe Perseverance on Mars.

One of the reasons why we'resuch an incredible country is we’resuch a diverse country. We bringthe best out of every single solitaryculture in the world here in the USof America. And we give people anopportunity, Biden said of the im-migrants.

Mohan, who proudly displaysher Indian identity with a bindi onher forehead, said “Being able towork with this incredibly diversetalented team that has becomelike a family, spending years cre-ating our own technological mar-vel has been a privilege.”

The NASA engineer said thatshe had been inspired as a childto get into space exploration bywatching the Star Trek TV se-ries where a fantastical, really,really close knit team was work-ing together for sole purpose ofexploring space and under-standing new things and seek-ing new life.

Biden’s Vice President is KamalaHarris and his director of speechwriting is Vinay Reddy, who isone of more than 20 Indian-Americans named to senior po-sitions in his administration.

Two Indian women astronautshave gone to space, KalpanaChawla, who was killed on hersecond mission aboard the SpaceShuttle Challenger that broke upin 2003, and Sunita Williams, whohas been a commander of theInternational Space Station.

Astronaut Raja Chari belongsto the Artemis team from whichthe next members of future ex-peditions will be selected. He is tocommand the SpaceX Crew-3 mis-sion set for September.

‘Indian-Americansare taking over US’

P11

businessSATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

The economycould slow by

mid-2021 as householdsthat lost incomes duringthe pandemic to the tune of`13 lakh crore could dragconsumption with a lagTANVEE GUPTA JAIN | ECONOMIST, UBS SECURITIES INDIA

Automobile manufacturer MG Motor Indiahas launched a mentorship programme'Womentorship' to scale up social venturesstarted by women. Accordingly, theautomaker adopted a mentorship approachto create an ecosystem wherein womentrain, uplift, and support each other

MG MOTORS LAUNCH ‘WOMENTORSHIP’

cmyk

cmyk

With thepandemicnecessitating

remote working andmore technology-based businessoperations,organisations have had to ramp uptheir tech hiring to support thistransition

SASHI KUMAR | MD, INDEED

of theday uote

As per ourearliercommitment,

Reliance will bearfull cost ofvaccination for ouremployees and theirfamilies, and vaccine eligible agedchildren. Mukesh (Ambani) and Itruly believe that cherishing thehealth and happiness of our lovedones is what it means to be part ofa family-Reliance family

NITA AMBANI | FOUNDER & CHAIRPERSON,RELIANCE FOUNDATION

All too oftenhistoricallybudgets have

been associatedwith tinkering in thetax rates. One of themessages in thisbudget is the message that taxrates will have stability

BIBEK DEBROY | CHAIRMAN, EAC-PM

Gulati appointedas addl directorMumbai: Private sectorlender Kotak Mahindra BankFriday appointed agriculturaleconomist Ashok Gulati asadditional independentdirector on its board. Theterm of Gulati, a keen backerof the recent farm laws whohas also been appointed bythe Supreme Court to a four-member panel, is for fiveyears starting from Saturday,an official statement fromthe bank said.

Etihad slumps to $1.7bn lossDubai: Abu Dhabi's nationalcarrier Etihad Thursdayreported core operatinglosses of $1.7 billion in 2020,reflecting the severe toll ofthe coronavirus pandemic onthe long-troubled airline thathas lost billions in recentyears. Etihad reportedrevenues of $2.7 billion in2020 compared to $5.6 billionthe year before, a precipitousdecline it attributed to“drastically fewer peopletravelling” as the surgingpandemic crippled air travel.

Gold plunges `522, silver falls `1,822New Delhi: Gold prices Fridaytumbled by `522 to `43,887per 10 grams in the nationalcapital, due to muted trend inthe international markets,according to HDFC Securities.The precious metal hadclosed at `44,409 per 10grams in the previous trade.Silver crashed by `1,822 to `64,805 per kilogram ascompared with the close of`66,627 per kg Thursday. Inthe international market,gold was trading lower at$1,696 per ounce and silverwas down at $25.20 an ounce.

‘ECGLS helpspush growth’Mumbai: The emergencycredit line guaranteescheme (ECGLS) has helpedin the credit growth forsmall businesses, aiding anindex of growth in loans forthe crucial sector ending anotch higher at the end ofthe September quarter.However, because of thespecial asset qualityrecognition dispensationslike the moratoriums,recast and then theSupreme Court decidedstandstill, the 'strengthindex' for the MSMEs willget clearer in the next fewmonths, Transunion CIBILand Sidbi, who prepare theindex, said.

SHORT TAKES

AGENCIES

Mumbai, March 5: With many re-ports confirming women and othersocially-disadvantaged sectionshave suffered the most during thepandemic, economists at BofASecurities have tabulated the costof lack of gender diversity and in-clusion, saying it will take 257 yearsto close the gap at the current rate,and not doing this has cost the worlda whopping USD 70 trillion since1990.

The report also notes that fullgender equality globally can in-crease the world GDP by up to USD28 trillion by 2025 and the loss of

human capital wealth due to genderinequality alone is estimated atUSD 160.2 trillion.

“Not closing the gender inequalitygap and a lack of diversity and in-clusion has an economic price tag.Not doing the right thing on thiscount has cost us USD 70 trillionsince 1990…It will take us 257 yearsto close the gender economic gap attoday's rate,” says the report, addingthe pandemic alone, when womensuffered the most, has cost womenUSD 1 trillion in income.

Noting that gender and racial bi-ases lead to persistent labour mar-ket disparities and limit the econ-omy, it says closing the gender and

race gaps in education and em-ployment would have generatedUSD 2.6 trillion more in economic

output in 2019 and the cumulativegains from 1990 would have beenUSD 70 trillion at the 2019 dollarrate. Closing racial earnings gapresulting from disparities in health,education, incarceration and em-ployment opportunities would boosttrend growth by 0.5% per yearthrough 2050, says the report.

Reeling out numbers, the reportsays in 2020, there were no Black sen-ior executives in any of the FTSE100 companies.

For the first time in six years in2020 there were no black chairs,chief executives or finance chiefsin the FTSE 100 companies and justone company in the S&P 500 is run

by a Black female CEO today, andonly eight companies have at least50% female management teams.

As much as 75% of Nasdaq com-panies do not have at least onewoman and one under-representedminority or LGBT+ member on theboard, it says, adding continuedracial inequality could cost the USeconomy USD1-1.5 trillion in lost con-sumption and investment over thenext decade.

The LGBTQ+ community isequivalent to the fourth largesteconomy in the world at USD 3.9 tril-lion. All in all, S&P 500 companieswith above-median gender diver-sity on their boards see 15% higher

return on equity, and for compa-nies with ethnic and racially di-versified workforce this is 8% higher.

And the pandemic has onlydeepened the gender inequalitycrisis. As much as 96 millionpeople will slide into extremepoverty in 2021, of which 47 mil-lion are women. Women's jobswere 19% more at risk and womentook up an even greater share ofchildcare and unpaid labour dur-ing the pandemic.

Even before the pandemic, thegender gap was worsening and atthe current rate of inclusion, it willtake 257 years to reach economicequality, warns the report.

‘Gender inequality has cost world $70tn since 1990’THE REPORT NOTES THAT FULL GENDER EQUALITY GLOBALLY CAN INCREASE THE WORLD GDP BY UP TO $28 TRILLION BY 2025

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, March 5: India’s forexreserves increased for the secondconsecutive week, touching$584.554 billion as of February 26,up by $689 million, the ReserveBank said Friday.

The overall reserves had in-creased by $169 million to $583.865billion in the previous reportingweek. The reserves, which havebeen steadily increasing over thelast few months, had touched anall-time high at $590.185 billionfor the week ended January 29this year.

For the week ended February 26,the core currency assets – thelargest component of the overallreserves - rose by $509 million to$542.615 billion, the RBI said.

Expressed in dollar terms, theforeign currency assets includethe effect of appreciation or de-preciation of non-US units likethe euro, pound and yen held in theforeign exchange reserves.

Gold reserves increased by $172million to $35.421 billion during thereporting week, the apex bankdata showed. The special draw-ing rights (SDRs) with the IMFrose by $9 million to $1.517 billionin the reporting week, it said.

The country's reserve positionwith the IMF declined margin-ally to $5.001 billion in the re-porting week, the data showed.

Forex reservesincrease by $689mnto $584.55bn

IT sector sales up 5.2 pc in Q3: RBI data

AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: FinanceMinister Nirmala SitharamanFriday indicated the government'sintent to appeal against an arbi-tration panel asking India to re-turn USD 1.4 billion to UK's CairnEnergy Plc, saying it is her "duty"to appeal in cases where the na-tion's sovereign authority to tax isquestioned.

Last year, the government lost twohigh-profile arbitrations over thelevy of taxes on British firms, usinglegislation that gave it the power tolevy taxes with retrospective ef-fect.

While the government has al-ready challenged in a Singaporecourt an international arbitrationtribunal verdict that overturnedits demand for ̀ 22,100 crore in backtaxes from Vodafone Group Plc, ithasn't yet done so against aDecember 21 award asking India toreturn the value of shares seizedand sold, dividend confiscated andtax refund stopped to adjust a `10,247 crore tax demand on Cairn.

"We have made our position clearon retrospective taxation. We have

repeated it in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017,2019, 2020, till now. I don't see anylack of clarity," she said, referringto the Modi government's stand ofnot raising any new tax demandusing the 2012 legislation.

"Where I find arbitration awardquestioning India's sovereign au-thority to tax... If there is a ques-tion about the sovereign right to tax,I will appeal, it's my duty to ap-peal," she said. "An arbitrationaward, which questions the au-thority of government to tax, I willappeal on that." She did not makeany direct reference to appealingagainst the Cairn award.

The statement comes days afterher ministry officials held threerounds of talks with Cairn execu-tives, including CEO SimonThomson to find a solution ac-ceptable to both sides.

The tax department had inJanuary 2014 raised the issue ofalleged capital gains Cairn made on

reorganising its India businessprior to an IPO in 2006-07.

In March 2015, it slapped a ̀ 10,247crore tax demand, levying short-term capital gains tax on the valuethe firm gained from developingIndia business that included dis-covering the nation's biggest on-land oilfield in Rajasthan.

Cairn at that time stated that itsinternal reorganisation was in com-pliance with the law and had beenapproved by various regulatorybodies, including Sebi. It deniedevading any taxes prevalent at thattime and challenged the tax de-mand through international arbi-tration.

An international tribunal hadin December unanimously ruledthat India violated its obligationsunder the UK-India BilateralInvestment Treaty in 2014 throughthe levy of taxes retrospectively. Itasked the government to desistfrom pressing the tax demand.

It’s my duty to appealagainst Cairn award: FM

Where I find arbitrationaward questioning India's

sovereign authority to tax...If there is a question aboutthe sovereign right to tax,

I will appeal, it’s my duty to appeal

NIRMALA SITHARAMAN I FINANCE MINISTER

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

New Delhi, March 5: The gov-ernment may surprise consumerswith a sharp cut in excise duty onpetrol and diesel to tame risingprices of auto fuels that have alreadyreached historic high levels. Sourcesprivy to the development said theduty cut may be as high as `8 perlitre on the two fuels so that con-sumers are provided immediaterelief.

Petrol and diesel prices reachedall time high levels last month andsince then have been touching newhighs every day. In the month ofFebruary itself, the pump prices ofthe two auto fuels have increased14 times taking up petrol prices by`4.22 per litre to `91.17 a litre anddiesel by `4.34 a litre to `81.47 alitre in Delhi.

"The revenue projection fromthe oil sector for FY22 gives thegovernment room to cut exciseduty on petrol and diesel sharplyto provide immediate relief to con-sumers. This is being examinedand a call may be taken soon," saida government official privy to thedevelopment.

According to a report preparedby ICICI Securities, excise duty onauto fuels is estimated at ̀ 4.35 lakhcrore in FY22, if there is no cut inexcise duty on the two products asagainst the budget estimate of ̀ 3.2lakh crore.

"Thus, even if excise duty is cutby ̀ 8.5 per litre on or before April1, the FY22 budget estimate can bemet. We are optimistic of excise dutycut given demand recovery, im-

pending privatisation and infla-tion concerns but expect it to bemore modest than ̀ 8.5 per litre," thebrokerage firm said in its report.

Government officials agreedthat there is room to cut duty butits quantum may be decided laterthis month ahead of the start ofnew financial year.

In view of the economic dis-ruption caused by the pandemic andneed to raise resources to meetadditional expenditure needs forrelief measures, the Centre hadraised excise duty on petrol anddiesel by `13 and `16 per litre re-spectively March 2020 and May2020. This measure itself wouldhave mobilised an additional`2,25,000 crore revenue for theCentre in FY21.

With a pickup in demand in var-ious industrial sectors includingconsumption of fuels, the expec-tation is that revenue would balanceout even if there is a duty cut.

RELIEF TO CONSUMERS

Govt may cut exciseduty on fuels by `8/L

Petrol and dieselprices reached alltime high levels lastmonth and since thenhave been touchingnew highs every day

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, March 5: PrimeMinister Narendra Modi Fridaysaid production linked incentive(PLI) scheme, which is aimed atboosting domestic manufacturingand exports, is expected to increasethe country's production by $520billion in the next five years.

Addressing a webinar on PLIscheme, organised by Departmentof Industry and International Trade(DPIIT) and NITI Aayog, throughvideo conference, Modi said thegovernment is continuously car-rying out reforms to boost domes-tic manufacturing.

In this year's Budget, about `2lakh crore was earmarked for thePLI scheme for the next five yearsand "there is an expectation that thescheme would result in increasingthe production by about USD 520 bil-lion in the next five years", he said.

He added that there is also anexpectation that the current work-force in the sectors, which will availthe benefits of the PLI scheme, willbe doubled and job creation willalso increase.

The Prime Minister said the gov-ernment is working to reduce com-pliance burden, further improve

ease of doing business and cutdown logistics costs for the indus-try.

"An average of 5 per cent of pro-duction is given as incentive. Thismeans that PLI schemes will leadto production worth USD 520 billionin India in the next five years," hesaid.

Modi said that over the past 6-7years, several successful efforts havebeen made to encourage ''Make inIndia'' at different levels. He stressedon the need to take a big leap, as wellas increase the speed and scale toboost manufacturing as it would in-crease employment generation in the country.

Modi said the government isworking at every level to promotethe industry through measures likeease of doing business, reducing thecompliance burden, creating multi-modal infrastructure to reduce lo-gistics costs, and constructing dis-trict-level export hubs.

"Our effort is to reduce over 6,000compliance burden (for industry),"he said. The government, he said,believes that its interference ineverything creates more problemsthan solutions and "therefore, self-regulation, self-attesting, self-cer-tification are being emphasised".

‘PLI scheme likely to boost mfg output by $520bn’AGENCIES

New Delhi, March 5: Driven bystrong response to Watch Series 6and SE, Apple maintained its topposition in the global smartwatchmarket in 2020 with shipping 33.9million units, a new report saidFriday. Chinese brand Huawei with11.1 million smartwatch shipmentswas second while Samsung with 9.1million units came third, accord-ing to Counterpoint Research's'Global Smartphone ShipmentsTracker'.

Overall, Apple saw a 19% growthwhile Huawei registered 26 percent growth (despite US sanctions)in the global smartwatch segmentlast year.

In a year where annual smart-watch growth inched forward atonly 1.5%, Apple maintained itsnumber one position and increasedits market share by 6% from 2019,

helping shift the overall marketcloser to the premium segment.

The Apple Watch Series 6 and SEdid exceptionally well, shipping12.9 million units and accountingfor 40% market share in the fes-tive quarter (Q4) alone.

"Price band dynamics duringQ4 2020 indicate ASPs (averageselling prices) are on the rise. The2019's biggest segment ($101-$200)shrank by 7%, while the more pre-mium $300-plus segments grew by8%, helped tremendously by Apple,which enjoyed a dominant mar-ket share of over 70% in this cate-gory," informed senior analystSujeong Lim.

APPLE FIRMS UP LEAD INGLOBAL SMARTWATCH MKT

The smartwatch market is being driven by 3 premiumbrands: Apple, Samsung and Huawei

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, March 5: Informationtechnology (IT) sector remained inthe positive terrain throughout theCovid-19 pandemic period and itssales increased by 5.2 per cent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020-21, according to the RBI data onperformance of private sector cor-porate released Friday.

The data is drawn from abridgedquarterly financial results of 2,692listed non-government non-finan-cial (NGNF) companies.

With gradual easing of restric-tions related to the Covid-19 pan-demic and rebound in demand con-ditions, sales of 1,685 manufacturingcompanies expanded by 7.4 per cent(Y-o-Y) in October-December quar-ter of 2020-21 after recording con-

traction during the preceding sixquarters. The recovery was led byiron and steel, automobiles, ce-ment, chemicals and pharmaceu-ticals companies. "Informationtechnology (IT) sector remainedin positive terrain throughout theCovid-19 pandemic period and theirsales increased by 5.2 per cent (Y-o-Y) in Q3:2020-21," the RBI saidwhile releasing the data.

Sales of 165 IT companies stoodat ̀ 1,05,724 crore in the third quar-ter, up 5.2 per cent from ̀ 1,01,001 crorein the year-ago period.

AGENCIES

Ahmedabad, March 5: Rishabh Pant(101, 118b, 13x4, 2x6) changed his game-plan and in turn India’s fortunes witha magnificent century here Friday.Pant’s third Test ton helped India gaincontrol in the fourth Test againstEngland being played here. At stumps

on day two, India were 294 for sevenwickets and they have already

grabbed a vital 89-run lead on apitch that is tending to keep

low and low as the game progresses.

England dominated the firsttwo sessions and India looked

in all sorts of trouble be-fore Pant suddenly decided

to catch the oppositionby the scruff of their

necks. He effortlesslychanged gears in

company ofWashington

Sundar (60,117b, 8x4).

The twoput on

113runs

for the seventh wicket to take the gameaway from the visitors. At stumps,Washington was still at the crease withAxar Patel (11 batting).

For someone, who has always beencriticised for his lack of game aware-ness, Pant’s innings was revelation.

His first 50 came off 82 balls and thenext off only 33 with Sundar

being the ideal foil.In Virender Sehwag

style, Pant depositedDom Bess into the

‘cow corner’ of thestandsagainst the

tur n, to

complete his third Test hundred andfirst at home. When he finally got out,Root’s frustrated expression was adead giveaway that the match wasnow out of hand for England, hav-ing conceded as many as 141 runs ina single session.

Ben Stokes (2/73) troubled the

Indians with reared up deliveries, oneof those got skipper Virat Kohli (0),but there was no trouble for Pant, whowould gleefully pull the England all-rounder. The audacity with which hecame down the track against JamesAnderson (3/40) took one’s breath away.

It was a fascinating day of Testcricket where flamboyant players likeRohit Sharma (49, 144b, 7x4) and Panttraded their natural attacking instinctsfor a more conservative approach.

Earlier, in the first session,Cheteshwar Pujara (17) and Kohli’sdismissals brought England back in thegame. Ajinkya Rahane (27) hit a flurry

of boundaries to get the scoreboardmoving but Anderson had him caughtat second slip with a beautiful deliverythat held its line at the stroke of lunch.

The approach taken by Rohit andPujara during their 40-run stand of24 overs in the morning session, was-n’t a bad one. They saw off Anderson’smorning spell with Stokes bendinghis back at the other end. However,then wickets started falling in a heapand India went to tea at 153 for six…definitely in a whole lot of trouble.

But, then ‘Hurricane’ Pant hit theMotera and England were left highand dry.

Printed and published by Tathagata Satpathy on behalf of Navajat Printers and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Navajat Printers, B-15 Industrial Estate, Rasulgarh, Bhubaneswar -751010, Odisha;Phone:7894447142(Marketing). Editor: Tathagata Satpathy, RNI No. ORIENG/2011/37159

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sportsSATURDAY | MARCH 6 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP12

PANT POWER PROPS INDIA Wicketkeeper-batsman and Sundar rescue hosts with 113-run stand

PRIZED SCALP: England players huddle around Ben Stokes after the all-rounder dismissed India skipper Virat Kohli at Ahmedabad, Friday PTI PHOTO

AHMEDABAD: Rishabh Pant saidFriday he has got the license to go forhis shots on most occasions but con-sidering the game’s situation Friday,he had to bide time before going forthe most outlandish of strokes dur-ing his sensational innings. The reverse sweep off the great JamesAnderson was easily the most out-rageous shot he played on the day.

Pant was asked about that partic-ular stroke after stumps. “You haveto premeditate reverse-flicks, but ifluck is going your way you can takethe odd chance. I get the license mostof the time, but I have to assess thesituation and take the game head on.I like to help the team win and if thecrowd is entertained by that, I’mhappy,” added the wicketkeeper-batsman.

Pant came in when India’s bats-men had been choked for runs on a

difficult track. The 23-year-old dis-played tremendous game sense dur-ing his innings. The southpaw saidhe needed to be cautious consideringthe match situation.

“If the bowlers are bowling well respect it and take the singles, and thatwas on my mind. I like to play the situation and I just see the ball andreact – that’s the USP (unique sellingpoint) of my game,” he said. The 23-year-old anchored India’s innings.He first had 41 runs partnership withRohit Sharma, and then forged a 113-run partnership with WashingtonSundar for the seventh wicket.

“The plan was just to build a partner-ship when I joined Rohit. I was thinkingI would assess the pitch and then playmy shots,” Pant said. “The team plan wasto get to 206, past the England total, andthen get as many runs as possible after thatas a batting unit,” he signed off.

AUDACIOUS SHOT-MAKING TON

Rishabh talks about his USP

MY PLAN WAS TOWAIT AND WATCH,

ASSESS THESITUATION AND THENGO FOR THE SHOTS.

I WANTED TOCONTRIBUTE TO THE

TEAM CAUSERISHABH PANT

SCORECARDENGLAND 1ST INNINGS: 205

INDIA 1ST INNINGS: (OVERNIGHT 24/1)Rohit Sharma lbw Stokes 49, CheteshwarPujara lbw b Leach 17, Virat Kohli c Foakesb Stokes 0, Ajinkya Rahane c Stokes bAnderson 27, Rishabh Pant c Root bAnderson 101, Ravi Ashwin c Pope b Leach13, Washington Sundar batting 60, AxarPatel batting 11, EXTRAS: (B-8, LB-5, NB-3)16, TOTAL: (for 7 wickets in 94 overs) 294.

FALL: 1-0, 2-40, 3-41, 4-80, 5-121, 6-146, 7-259.

BOWLING: James Anderson 20-11-40-3, BenStokes 22-6-73-2, Jack Leach 23-5-66-2,Dominic Bess 15-1-56-0 , Joe Root 14-1-46-0.

Bronze for Mary New Delhi: Six-time WorldChampion MC Mary Kom(51kg) settled for a bronzemedal in the 35th BoxamInternational Boxingtournament in Castellon,Spain after going down toAmerican Virginia Fuchs in anintensely-contested semifinalbout Friday. The 37-year-oldOlympic-bound star lost in asplit decision after anexhausting contest. Earlier,Olympic-bound male boxersSatish Kumar (+91kg) andAshish Kumar (75kg) enteredthe semifinals along withSumit Sangwan (81kg).Satish defeated Denmark’sGivskov Nielsen 5-0 in his lasteight bout late Thursday.Ashish got the better ofItaly’s Remo Salvatti in a split4-1 verdict to make the medalrounds. Sumit, on the otherhand, triumphed 4-1 overMohor El Ziad of Belgium.

Olympic dreams New Delhi: Sports MinisterKiren Rijiju pitched Friday forhosting the SummerOlympics in the future. Hesaid the Olympic movementis not complete till Indiahosts an edition of thequadrennial sportingextravaganza. He made hiscomment during a virtualconference organised by theCII, titled the ‘6th CIIScorecard’. He said toestablish itself as a sportingpowerhouse, India has to hostthe Olympics in future. “Indiahasn’t claimed its rightfulplace in sports. The Olympicsis the biggest event in sports.The Olympic movement is notcomplete till India hosts anOlympic Games. We aretaking this very seriously,”the minister said during hiskeynote address.

Bedi better New Delhi: Former Indiacaptain Bishan Singh Bedi,who underwent a surgery toremove a blood clot in hisbrain a few days ago, hasbeen shifted to a privateroom from the Intensive CareUnit (ICU) and is doing well,a source close to thelegendary spinner said. The74-year-old is admitted at ahospital here. “He (Bedi) hasbeen shifted to a privateroom yesterday (Thursday),He is fine now. They(doctors) will monitor him fora few more days, beforereleasing him for homerecuperation,” the sourceinformed. Bedi is one of themost successful Indianspinners. He played 67 Testsand 10 ODIs between 1967 and1979, taking 266 and sevenwickets respectively. AGENCIES

SHORT TAKES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Patiala, March 5: Olympic-boundstar javelin thrower Neeraj Choprasmashed his own national recordFriday with a throw of 88.07m,which is also the best of the yearso far. Chopra’s record-breakingthrow came during the third IndianGrand Prix (IGP) meet here Friday.

Competing for the first time inmore than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the wholeof 2020 calendar, Chopra hurled thespear to a distance of 88.07cm inhis fifth attempt to obliterate hisearlier national record of 88.06m.The earlier throw came during agold-winning show at the 2018

Asian Games.The 24-year-old Chopra opened

the competition with an effort of83.03m before having two foulthrows. After a fourth throw of83.36m, Chopra sent the javelinto a record distance amid loudcheers from a sizeable audience atthe NIS Patiala complex here. Hisfinal throw was 82.24m.

“I was prepared and today itwas windy. I used my favouritejavelin which helped me. Pandemicdid affect training and preparationbut we managed to hold on,” saidChopra who is also the 2018Commonwealth Games gold medal-list. “At the world level I wouldneed to perform even better ascurrent standards are quite high,”the athlete added.

Chopra qualified for the up-coming Tokyo Olympics inJanuary last year in an event inSouth Africa during his trainingstint in that country. That wasalso the last competition he hadtaken part before Friday.

Another Olympic-bound javelinthrower, Shivpal Singh of UttarPradesh, was second with a bestthrow of 81.63m while Sahil Silwal,representing Haryana, was thirdwith a best effort of 80.65m.

Chopra breakshis own record

5th successive homedefeat for Liverpool

REDS SUFFERHISTORIC LOSSAGENCIES

London, March 5: Chelsea movedinto the Premier League’s top fouras Mason Mount’s superb firsthalf goal earned the side a 1-0 winat champion Liverpool who suf-fered a club-record fifth straighthome league defeat Thursday.Never in their 128 years old historyhad Liverpool lost five successiveleague games at the Anfield.

Mount cut in to curl a low shotpast Liverpool keeper Alisson inthe 42nd minute, after Timo Wernerhad earlier had a goal disallowed,to give Chelsea a deserved halftime lead. Thomas Tuchel’s sidethen showed great defensive dis-cipline to stand firm in the secondperiod as Liverpool improved.

Liverpool, who substituted adisgruntled Mohamed Salah inthe second half, struggled to carveout clear chances though, andmanaged only one effort on target.

Chelsea, unbeaten since Tuchelreplaced Frank Lampard inJanuary, has 47 points from 27games, one more than Evertonwho had briefly gone fourth bybeating West Bromwich Albion.

“It’s very tight around the topfour and these big games we needto win,” Mount said. “Tonight(Thursday) maybe we could havehad a couple more goals. We hadto be brave and win the ball backhigh and that’s where the goalcame from,” he added.

Elsewhere Tottenham Hotspursstarted the attacking quartet ofHarry Kane, Son Heung-min,Gareth Bale and Dele Alli togetherfor the first time this season butrelied on an own-goal to secure a1-0 win at Fulham.

A flicked effort from Alli de-flected into the net off the leg ofFulham defender Tosin Adarabioyoin the 19th minute to give three cru-cial points to Spurs.

French Ambassador Emmanuel Lenain visited Friday the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and traded a few shotswith trainees of the High Performance Hockey Centre to inspire the youngsters OP PHOTO

INSPIRING HOCKEY TALENTS

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Margao, March 5: FC Goa andMumbai City FC (MCFC) playedout a thrilling 2-2 draw in the firstleg of the first semifinal of the ISLhere Friday. The two teams willagain meet March 8 and if the stale-mate continues, they will have tobank on penalties to seal a spot inthe summit clash round. FC Goa

thus maintained their unbeatenstreak in the tournament takingit to 14 successive matches.

It was exciting battle all the waywith both sides depending on quickcounter-attacks. Goa took the leadtwice in the game only to see theiropponents comeback with renewedzeal as the match progressed.

Igor Angulo (20th) and SaviourGama (59th) scored for the Gaurs,

only to see their goals neutralisedby Hugo Boumous (38th) andMouratda Fall (61st).

It was an end-to-end action withboth sides creating a number of op-portunities. However, MCFC shouldhave won had Boumous not wasteda sitter in added on time.

However, the draw was a fair re-sult opined both the coaches afterthe game.

Mumbai, Goa tie ends in stalemate

TEST CENTURIES

114 England Oval

159* Australia Sydney

101 England Ahmedabad

Runs

101Balls

118Fours

13Sixes

2

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Patiala, March 5: India’s middleand long distance coach NikolaiSnesarev of Belarus was Fridayfound dead in his hostel room at theNational Institute of Sports (NIS)here, the Athletics Federation ofIndia (AFI) said. The dead body ofthe 72-year-old Snesarev, who re-turned to India after a gap of twoyears to be at the helm till the endof September, has been sent to a gov-ernment hospital for post-mortem.

“Snesarev had come to NIS herefor the Indian Grand Prix. He how-ever, did not turn up for the meet.The coaches checked for him inthe evening and his room was foundlocked from inside,” AFI presidentAdille Sumariwalla told this agency.

“When the door was broken,Snesarev was found lying on his bed.

The Sports Authority of India (SAI)doctor at the NIS declared him deadand the ED (team) of SAI has re-ferred the body to the governmenthospital for post-mortem. We don’tknow the cause of death. We willknow it after the post-mortem report comes,” Sumariwalla added.

Snesarev was at the NIS run-ning track in the morning with hiswards but did not turn up for themeet which started at 2.00pm.“Snesarev died with his boots on,having overseen his wards’ train-ing this morning,” the AFI said in

its tribute in a release issued later.Snesarev was coaching 3,000m

steeplechaser Avinash Sable, whohas qualified for the Olympics, andother middle and long-distancerunners in their bid to qualify forthe Tokyo Games.

“I’m deeply saddened to learnabout the sad demise of middle andlong-distance running coach NikolaiSnesarev. He has been a great coachand helped many medal-winners dur-ing his association with India since2005. My condolences to his family andthe entire athletics fraternity,” SportsMinister Kiren Rijiju tweeted.

Snesarev had quit from the po-sition in February 2019 after Sableopted to leave him and train underArmy coach Amrish Kumar. Hiscontract then was till the end ofthe Olympics, postponed by a yeardue to the COVID-19 pandemic.

ATHLETICS COACH SNESAREV FOUND DEAD IN HOSTEL ROOM

We can only know thereason behind his deathafter the post-mortem

reports comes in. He wasfound dead with his runningboots onADILLE SUMARIWALLA | AFI PRESIDENT

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Basel, March 5: Olympic silvermedallist PV Sindhu advanced tothe semifinals of the Swiss OpenSuper 300 badminton tournamentwith a straight-game win over ThaiBusanan Ongbamrungphan but itturned out to be a dismal day forother Indian shuttlers here Friday.

World Champion Sindhu tooka minute less than an hour to seeoff a fighting Busanan, seeded fifth,21-16, 23-21 to set up a clash withfourth seed Denmark’s fourth seedMia Blichfeldt.

However, it was a bad day in of-fice for other Indians in fray asnone of them could reach the lastfour stage.

B Sai Praneeth, who reachedthe final in the last edition, lost 14-21, 17-21 to Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia in45 minutes. Ajay Jayaram’s cam-paign ended after a demoralising9-21, 6-21 loss to eighth-seeded ThaiKunlavut Vitidsarn in another last

eight men’s singles match.Earlier, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy

and Ashwini Ponnappa fought hardbefore going down 17-21, 21-16, 8-21to fifth seeds Tan Kian Meng andLai Pei Jing of Malaysia in thequarterfinals of the mixed dou-bles event

World No. 10 pair of Rankireddyand Chirag Shetty, seeded second,will take on Ong Yew Sin and TeoEe Yi of Malaysia later in the day.

Sindhu wins, others lose

MASON MOUNT