OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Around 11 crore people who have taken the first shot of COVID-19 vaccine have not got themselves jabbed with the second dose even after the expiry of the pre-scribed interval between two doses, according to government data.

The data showed that over 3.92 crore beneficiaries are more than six weeks overdue for their second dose, around 1.57 crore are up to four to six weeks late, and more than 1.50 crore are up to two to four weeks overdue for their second shot of either Covishield or Covaxin. Also, over 3.38 crore people are up

to two weeks overdue to becom-ing fully vaccinated. This issue was discussed in a meeting chaired by Union Health Minister Mansukh

Mandaviya with health ministers and representatives of all states and Union territories on Wednesday. They were asked to focus on such beneficiaries who are overdue for their second dose, official sources said. The gap between the first and second dose is 12 weeks for Cov-ishield and four weeks for Covaxin. Both doses are needed for adequate protection against severe COVID-19 infection and hospitalisation. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Bihar together account for around 49 per cent of such beneficiaries who are late for their second dose of vaccine. Continued on P4

RNI NO.: WBENG/2015/65962

VOL. 7, ISSUE 292 | Thursday, 28 October 2021 | Kolkata | Pages 12 | Rs 3.00PUBLISHED FROM DELHI | KOLKATA

MILLENNIUMPOST.IN

No Half Truths

TEA BREAKTaking a break from her busy schedule—packed with administrative works—Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee enjoys a light moment during her visit to North Bengal. She spent the day indulging in activities close-to-her heart and interacted with local residents PIC/MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regula-tory Commission (WBCERC) on Wednesday said that it has adopted a ‘zero-tolerance’ pol-icy against refusal of patients under Swasthya Sathi card by the private hospitals.

WBCERC Chairperson Justice (retired) Ashim Kumar Banerjee once again categori-cally said that no private hos-pitals will be allowed to refuse patients under Swasthya Sathi scheme. If any hospital has any issue relating to the packages and other such things then they can take up the matter with the Swasthya Sathi wing of the health department or the health commission but they cannot deny treatment.

“Our primary objective is to ensure that all private hos-pitals provide treatment to the patients under this scheme without a single refusal. We have received around 10 com-plaints related to Swasthya Sathi refusal in the last one and half months. Around 7 appli-cations have been selected and a hearing will be done in this regard on November 3,” Banerjee said.

He further stated that some private hospitals are pro-viding good treatment under Swasthya Sathi while some hospitals have raised some issues. Around 3-4 private hospitals have not yet started treatment under Swasthya Sathi. “We have spoken to all these 3-4 private hospitals and they have assured us that they would start treatment and fully cooperate with the

government.Some instances have sur-

faced where patients or their family members did not pro-duce Swasthya Sathi cards during admission as a result the hospitals treated them as cash patients. But the hospitals have to treat a patient under the Swasthya Sathi scheme the moment he/she produces the Swasthya Sathi card.

“Some patients do not pro-duce the card during admis-sion with an apprehension that they may be denied. If anyone produces the card two days after admission, the hospital will only have to charge for two days but for the remain-ing days of treatment, the patient would be considered as a Swasthya Sathi patient. No hospitals will be able to refuse Swasthya Sathi cards.

Continued on P4

‘Private hospitals can’t deny treatment under

Swasthya Sathi scheme’

‘If hospitals have issues, it can be taken up with health dept’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: In yet another blow to the saffron camp in the state, BJP MLA from Rai-gunj Krishna Kalyani joined Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday. Earlier four BJP MLAs had joined Trin-amool after the announce-ment of the result of the last state Assembly election. The BJP MLAs, who have joined TMC, include Mukul Roy (Krishnanagar north Assembly seat), Biswajit Das (Bagda), Tanmoy Ghosh (Bishnupur) and Saurabh Roy

(Kaliagunj). The total number of Trinamool MLAs has gone up to 218.

Partha Chatterjee, sec-

retary general of Trinamool Congress, and Vivek Gupta, MLA from Jorasanko handed over the party flag to Kaly-ani and welcomed him to the party.

Kalyani had resigned from BJP on October 1. He had been showcased by BJP for making allegations against Debashree Chowdhury, BJP MP. After joining Trinamool, Kalyani said the BJP did not acknowledge the genuine workers. “The party conspired against those who wanted to work and made their lives miserable. Continued on P4

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court will con-tinue hearing the bail plea of Aryan Khan, the son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan who has been arrested in a drugs case, on Thursday when the NCB will present its arguments.

Justice N W Sambre began hearing the bail application on Tuesday. On Wednesday Aryan Khan’s counsel Mukul Rohatgi, co-accused Arbaaz Merchant’s lawyer Amit Desai and advo-cate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh who appeared for Munmun Dhamecha completed their argu-ments. After the hearing which went on for over two hours, Justice Sambre said he would hear Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who is representing the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), on Thursday. Continued on P4

BJP MLA Krishna Kalyani joins TMC, says BJP ruined India’s economy

BJP leader in Basirhat Firoz Kamal Gazi quits party

Aryan Khan bail hearing to continue today

Govt reconstitutes Economic Advisory

Council to PM under Bibek Debroy

MPOST BUREAU

NEW DELHI: The govern-ment on Wednesday reconsti-tuted the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minis-ter (EAC-PM) under existing Chairman Bibek Debroy, for a period of two years.

While V Anantha Nageswaran has been dropped, Rakesh Mohan (former deputy gov-ernor of RBI), Poonam Gupta (director general of NCAER) and TT Ram Mohan (professor, IIM Ahmedabad) have been appointed as part-time members of the reconstituted EAC-PM.

The other part-time members of the Coun-cil include Sajid Chenoy, Neelkanth Mishra and Nilesh Shah.

“Prime Minister has approved the re-consti-tution of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM)...for a period of two years or until further orders,” the cabinet sec-retariat said in a notification dated October 27.

Continued on P4

Highlights » ‘If anyone produces the card two days after admission, the hospital will only have to charge for two days but for the remaining days of treat-ment, the patient would be considered as a Swasthya Sathi patient’ » ‘No private hospitals can refuse treatment under the health scheme even if the thumb impressions do not match...’ » ‘Pvt hosp will not be able to deny gynaecological treatment not pertaining to delivery...’

MPOST BUREAU

MUMBAI: Narcotic Control Bureau (NCB) Deputy Director General-northern region Gyanesh-war Singh said his team recorded the statement of Sameer Wankhede for more than four hours as part of a vigilance probe into allega-tions of extortion in the drugs case, while the controversy surround-ing the IRS officer took a new turn when the qazi who performed his first marriage in 2006 said he was a Muslim at that time, a claim denied by his family. Continued on P4

NCB team quizzes Sameer Wankhede for over 4 hours

Qazi claims Wankhede was Muslim at the time of his 1st marriage; officer says never changed religion

KOLKATA: Bengal has once again seen a rise in its daily Covid cases on Wednesday as the figure jumped to 976 from 806 on Tuesday. On Monday, the daily infection stood at 805 whereas on Sunday the number remained at 989. See P2

Bengal records 976 cases in past 24 hrs

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday reserved the judgment in connection to the plea moved by former Bengal chief secretary and chief adviser to Chief Minis-ter Mamata Banerjee, Alapan Bandyopadhyay, challeng-ing a decision to shift a case he had filed before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) bench in Kolkata to the prin-cipal bench of CAT in Delhi.

While hearing the mat-ter, Justice Sabyasachi Bhat-tacharyya asked the lawyer representing the Ministry of Personnel: ‘Don’t you think that the plaintiff has been deprived of justice by this move?’ ‘Alapan babu was quick and he approached the Central Administrative Tribunal dur-ing his leave. But why did you have to hurry?’ he observed. Continued on P4

‘Don’t you think the plaintiff has been deprived of justice...’: HC HC reserves verdict in connection to plea

moved by Alapan Bandyopadhyay

INDIA CRITICISES CHINA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday hit out at China for its “unilateral” decision to bring about a new land border law and said it is a matter of concern as the legislation can have implications on the exist-ing bilateral pacts on border management and on the overall boundary question.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India expects that China will avoid undertaking action under the pretext of the law that could unilaterally alter the situ-ation in the India-China bor-der areas.

He said such a “unilateral move” will have no bearing on the arrangements that both sides have already reached earlier — be it on the boundary question or for maintaining peace and tranquillity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Last week, China’s national legislature adopted the new law on the protection and exploita-tion of the land border areas, which could have bearing on Beijing’s border dispute with India.

“China’s unilateral decision to bring about a legislation which can have implication on our existing bilateral arrange-ments on border management

as well as on the boundary question is of concern to us,” Bagchi said.

He was replying to a media query on the matter.

“Such unilateral move will have no bearing on the arrange-ments that both sides have

already reached earlier, whether it is on the boundary question or for maintaining peace and tran-quillity along the LAC in India-China border areas,” he said.

Xinhua news agency reported last week that the law, which becomes operational from January 1 next year, stip-ulates that “the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the People’s Republic of China are sacred and inviolable”.

“We have noted that China has passed a new ‘Land Bound-ary Law’ on October 23. The law states among other things that China abides by treaties con-cluded with or jointly acceded to by foreign countries on land

boundary affairs,” Bagchi said.He said the legislation also

has provisions to carry out reor-ganisation of districts in the bor-der areas.

The MEA spokesperson noted that India and China have still not resolved the boundary question and that both sides have agreed to seek a fair, rea-sonable and mutually acceptable resolution to it through consul-tations on an equal footing.

He said both sides have also concluded several bilat-eral agreements, protocols and arrangements to maintain peace and tranquillity along the LAC in India-China border areas in the interim. Continued on P4

China’s unilateral move to bring new land border law matter of concern for us: India NEW DELHI: After a two-day

pause, petrol and diesel prices on Wednesday were again hiked by 35 paise per litre each, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers.

Petrol now costs Rs 107.94 a litre in Delhi and Rs 113.80 in Mumbai. Diesel is now priced at Rs 96.67 a litre in Delhi and Rs 104.75 in Mum-bai. While petrol has already hit the Rs 100-a-litre mark or more in all major cities of the country, diesel has touched that level in over one-and-a-half dozen states and UTs from Jammu & Kashmir to Tamil Nadu.

Petrol price has been hiked on 22 occasions since September 28, when a three-week-long hiatus in rate revi-sion ended. In all, prices have gone up by Rs 6.75 a litre.

Diesel rates have been increased by Rs 8.05 per litre in 24 hikes since September 24. MPOST

Petrol, diesel rates up again

BJP MLA from Raigunj Krishna Kalyani who joined TMC takes the party flag from Partha Chatterjee PIC/MPOST

EXTORTION CLAIMS

City: Pg 3CM asks DG of Police to raise ‘Winners’ squads across state

Film: Pg 12Dave opens up on ‘Netflix’ transgender dispute

MUMBAI: Maharashtra minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik on Wednes-day claimed that a member of an international drugs mafia was present on the same cruise, and asked how come he was moving scot-free, while some oth-ers were arrested, following

a raid on the ship earlier this month.

“There are some of vid-eos of the party in which the person, sporting a beard, can been seen. I am told he was in the Tihar Jail (Delhi) and in a Rajasthan jail in the past. Continued on P4

Member of drugs mafia was on cruise but not held: Nawab Malik

11 crore people yet to take second dose of Covid vaccine: Govt data

India logs 13,451 new infections, 585 fresh fatalities

‘Govt cannot get ‘free pass’ every time national security is raised’ OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday set up a 3-member independent expert panel to probe the alleged use of Israeli spyware Pegasus for targeted surveil-lance in India, observing the state cannot get a “free pass” every time the spectre of national security is raised and that its mere invocation cannot render the judiciary a “mute spectator” and be the bugbear it shies away from.

In a significant verdict over the issue of protecting citi-zens’ right to privacy that was welcomed by legal experts, a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana asserted that in a democratic country governed by the rule of law, indiscrim-inate spying on individuals cannot be allowed except with sufficient statutory safeguards by following the procedure established by law under the Constitution.

Stating that it was com-

pelled to take up the cause to determine the truth and get to the bottom of the spying allega-tions, the court said the entire citizenry is affected by these charges due to the “potential chilling effect”, lamenting that no clear stand was taken by the Centre regarding actions taken by it over the Pegasus row.

The court then went on to list the compelling cir-cumstances which prompted

it to order the probe, noting the petitioners in the Pegasus spyware case have placed on record certain material that prima facie merits consider-ation by this court and that there has been no specific denial of any of the facts by the Centre.

The top court also referred to the freedom of the press and speech and said the media is an important pillar of democ-

racy and that the task of the judiciary in the present mat-ter assumes great significance with regard to the importance of protection of journalistic sources and the potential chill-ing effect that snooping tech-niques may have.

Former apex court judge R V Raveendran, 75, will moni-tor the probe by the techni-cal panel whose members are experts in cyber security and

digital forensics.Justice(retd) Raveendran,

who has been part of benches which heard major cases such as the row over quota for OBCs in central universities, the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts and the Krishna-Goda-vari basin dispute over natural gas, would be assisted by for-mer IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Sundeep Oberoi. Continued on P4

SETS UP A 3-MEMBER INDEPENDENT EXPERT PANEL TO PROBE PEGASUS ROW

Highlights » Freedom of press is important pillar of de-mocracy, says SC » Former apex court judge R V Raveendran, 75, will monitor the probe » Justice(retd) Raveendran would be assisted by former IPS officer Alok Joshi and cyber security expert Sundeep Oberoi

We must recognize that while technology

is a useful tool for improving the lives of the people, at the

same time, it can also be used to breach that sacred private space

of an individual

Nation: Pg 4India test-fires Agni-5 missile having range of 5,000 km

SPARKLING TIMES

A buyer looks at lamps and string lights used for sprucing up homes during Diwali at a shop in the city PIC/MPOST

About 976 cases reported; 837 discharged in past 24 hours

Health regulatory body asks AMRI to refund over Rs 40K

SOUMITRA NANDI

KOLKATA: The Sankarpur Fishing Harbour in East Mid-napore witnessed two back-to-back bumper hauls of Black Spotted Croaker (pop-ularly known as Teliya Bhola) fish variety on Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

According to MPEDA (Marine Products Export Development Authority) NET-FISH (Network of Fish Qual-ity Management & Sustainable Fishing), the catch on Tuesday has been the costliest, this sea-son in monetary value on the coast of Bengal.

A trawler owned by Chanchal Pradhan landed at the Sankarpur Fishing Harbour on Tuesday with 760 Kgs.

About 33 pieces of fish were sold at Rs 12,600 per kg in the export market and fetched more than Rs 98 lakh.

A huge consignment of 730 kg of the same Teliya Bhola variety was again netted

on Wednesday at Sankarpur, fetching Rs 90 lakh after auc-tion. The rate was Rs 12,300 per kg. This particular fish vari-ety has extremely high value in export market. The swim bladder of the fish is taken out and then dried in the sun and then processed to pro-duce two products. Icing Glass is made out of it, which is then used in manufacturing differ-ent components of medicine. It can also be used for mak-ing Fish Maw which is used in different South East Asian

countries for making soups. Fish Maw is priced at Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 per kg. “The other body parts of this fish is also utilised for medicinal purpose. All these contribute to its extremely high sale value in the export mar-ket,” an MPEDA official said. NETFISH is a society formed under the aegis of MPEDA that stands for improving the qual-ity of fishery products exported from the country and the sus-tainability of fishery resources as well.

Bumper catch: Over 1.5K kg of fish fetch about Rs 1.88cr

‘Sankarpur sees season’s costliest catch’

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: West Bengal Clin-ical Establishment Regulatory Commission (WBCERC) has asked AMRI Hospital Muku-ndapur to refund Rs 40,110 to the family members of a patient, Uttam Bhora (89) who died in the hospital on May 8 this year after being admitted on April 27.

Bhora was a Covid positive patient.

After going through the case, the WBCERC found that the hospital did not abide by the rate chart fixed by the commission.

The hospital had charged a bill of over Rs 6 lakh out of which Rs 84,720 was taken as investigation charges.

The Commission has found that the patient was exorbi-tantly charged under this head.

The patient was charged Rs 13,000 per day as ICU cost in addition to that an amount was charged for various rou-tine procedures which ought to have been included in the ICU charge.

The same hospital has been directed to return Rs 4,000 to a patient, Subhabrata Basak (29) as the amount was charged in excess.

The patient was taken to the hospital with fever and he was kept at the emergency isolation for over 12 hours without being admitted.

A series of tests were con-ducted during his stay for which he was charged Rs 44,000.

The WBCERC has however expressed dissatisfaction and raised questions on the ratio-nality of carrying out so many tests other than Covid.

The Commission has asked to provide a discount to one

Bimalendu Pal whose wife, Shila Pal (74) died at the hos-pital on July 1 this year due to multi-organ failure following Covid.

The Commission found that the hospital had exorbi-tantly charged the patient’s family. The bill amount was Rs 15 lakh.

The WBCERC also urged the hospital to consider the cost of extracting a tooth after one Niladri Sekhar Majumdar raised a complaint that the hos-pital demanded Rs 6,240 for extracting a tooth.

Rupak Barua, Group CEO, AMRI Hospitals however said: “In some cases it seems the complaints are being accepted in an arbitrary manner and even the most insignificant grievances are being given undue importance. Today four of the seven cases have been dismissed, which could have been done even before these were set up for hearing. As for the fines imposed in other cases, we will look into the details and take action as necessary.”

KOLKATA: The Calcutta High Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing of antic-ipatory bail plea of BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya and two others in connection with sex-ual assault case till October 29.

The matter was listed in the Division Bench, comprising Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacha-ryya and Justice Rabindranath Samanta, on Wednesday.

“The matter will be heard at 2 pm on Friday,” said Imtiaz Ahmed, advocate of Cal-cutta High Court. On Mon-day, the Calcutta High Court extended the interim protec-tion granted to BJP leaders Kai-lash Vijayvargiya, Jisnu Basu and Pradeep Joshi on their petition for anticipatory bail in connection with a case of alleged assault on a woman and criminal intimidation.

A senior lawyer represent-ing the petitioners submitted before a vacation bench com-prising Justices Debangsu Basak and Rabindranath Samanta on Monday that a special leave petition (SLP) challenging an earlier order of the High Court in connection with the matter was likely to be heard on Monday. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal on Wednesday administered around 5,10,838 doses tak-ing the cumulative doses to 7,45,55,688 so far till Wednesday.

State has consistently administered around 10 lakh doses in the past couple of days.

Around 5.36 crore first doses were administered while around 2.04 crore people received second doses so far.

Kolkata Municipal Corpo-ration (KMC) on Wednesday held Covid RT-PCR tests at Muchibazar area in Ultadanga to identify the superspreaders who might have been infected with the virus.

KMC has identified spots and market places where Covid tests will be conducted.

State Health department has already asked all the dis-trict health officials to speed up

the vaccination drive in their respective areas.

They have been asked to give priority in the rural areas where vaccination rate has been lower compared to urban areas.

The number of vaccination slightly dropped during the puja days. State Health depart-ment has accelerated the pace of vaccination drive with nearly around 10 lakh people being vaccinated everyday.

Following Puja, the Health department has again increased the number of daily vacci-nation. State Health depart-ment has taken all the steps to increase daily vaccination thereby recovering the deficit. State Health department has set a target of completing dou-ble dose vaccination among at least 7 crore population within December this year. Around 1 crore doses were administered in the past 17 days.

RS 2.41CR ALLOCATED FOR REPAIR OF SCHOOLS IN SOUTH DINAJPURBALURGHAT: With aim to reopen state-run and state-aided secondary and higher secondary schools as per instruction of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from November 16, funds worth Rs 2.41crore was al-located by the state government for the renovation of educational institutions in South Dinajpur. District Mag-istrate Ayesha Rani said: “The state government has approved a fund of Rs 2.41 crore for school renova-tion of South Dinajpur. We have started the process of inviting work tender. After completing the preliminary works, the reform will be started as early as pos-sible so that the schools can resume from November 16.” According to her, the other necessary instructions regarding the COVID-19 protocols and sanitisation process will be delivered to the school authorities once the administration is received from the state. Ac-cording to an official source, of 156 high and higher secondary schools in South Dinajpur, 137 schools were sanctioned funds initially.

KMC COORDINATOR DIES IN ROAD MISHAPKOLKATA: BJP coordinator of ward 86 of Kolkata Municipal Corporation, Tishta Biswas (Das), died in an accident while returning from Digha on Wednesday. Her husband and child, who have sustained injuries, are hospitalised. They are undergoing treatment at the hospital.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Educa-tion have sent proposals to the state Education department stating that they plan to hold the secondary examination and higher secondary examination in offline mode in 2022.

However, it has been pro-posed that both the examina-tions will be held once and not in two semesters as decided by the CBSE board.

According to sources, it has been primarily decided that the Madhyamik examinations will be held in March while the Higher Secondary examina-tions will start from the first week of April.

The West Bengal Joint Entrance Examinations will be

held in the last week of April. The final decision regarding the schedule of the examinations will be taken and announced accordingly after due approval from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

No decision has yet been taken on holding the test exam-inations and under the present circumstances the respective schools can take a call on whether they should conduct such examinations or not.

The classes from Class IX till XII will commence from November 16. Sources in the Education department said the schedule of the examinations is likely to be announced before the Kali Puja.

This year, neither the Mad-hyamik nor the Higher Sec-ondary examinations could be held with schools remain-ing closed for students since March last year. Around 20 lakh students of both Mad-hyamik and Higher Second-ary were assessed this year on the basis of project and marks secured in previous examinations.

Proposals sent to Edu dept to conduct Madhyamik & HS exams offline in 2022

HC adjourns hearing on bail plea of Kailash Vijayvargiya, 2

others

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: State Labour minister Becharam Manna has sought the intervention of Chief Minister Mamata Baner-jee with the Central govern-ment planning to use synthetic bags for packaging of wheat. The Centre has alleged that Bengal is unable to supply jute bags as per the demand.

According to the minister, the decision if implemented

will be a major blow to the jute industry in the state. “The Cen-tre has not discussed anything

about this matter with the state and the minister apprehends that the Ministry of Food and

Public Distribution may take such decision in an arbitrary manner and place orders for synthetic bags,” a senior official of the Labour department said.

Principal secretary of the department Barun Kumar Ray has also written to state chief secretary HK Dwivedi regard-ing the matter.

Union food secretary and textile secretary have convened a meeting on the issue in Delhi on Thursday. Representatives

from Indian Jute Mills Asso-ciation (IJMA) will be present in the meeting.

“ We will portray the sup-ply position of jute at present. If there is demand for more bags for packaging purposes, synthetic bags can be used for plugging the supply demand gap. But, we will advocate that total dispensing of jute bags will be a blow to the industry,” Raghavendra Gupta, chairman of IJMA said.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Bengal has once again seen a rise in its daily Covid cases on Wednesday as the figure jumped to 976 from 806 on Tuesday. On Monday, the daily infection stood at 805 whereas on Sunday the number remained at 989.

State registered around 7,973 active Covid cases on Wednesay. As many as 837 Covid recovered patients have been released from different hospitals.

The Covid recovery rate was registered at 98.30 per-cent. Around 15 people died of Covid in the state on Wednesday.

The total number of infected people in the state so far has reached 15,89,042 so far. Out of this, around 15,61,973 people have so far recovered and released from the hospitals.

Around 19,096 people have so far died of Covid in the state.

The percentage of occu-pancy of Covid beds in the State dropped to 3.05 percent on Wednesday. The positivity rate remained at 2.25 percent on Wednesday while the fatal-ity rate in Bengal registered at 1.20 percent.

Kolkata has so far regis-tered 3,21,447 infected cases so far out of which around

3,14,220 people were already discharged from the hospi-tals. Around 272 new cases were reported in Kolkata on Wednesday.

In the case of North 24-Parganas, 3,28,640 peo-ple have been infected so far till Wednesday while 3,22,530 have been released. North 24-Parganas has seen 159 new cases on Wednesday.

South 24-Parganas has

seen 79 new cases on Wednes-day, Hooghly 73 and Howrah 79, Darjeeling 32, Nadia 45. Bengal has so far carried out 1,90,39,301 Covid sample tests out of which around 43,322 tests were done on Wednesday.

Kolkata and Jalpaiguri have seen 4 deaths each on Wednes-day while North 24- Parga-nas has registered 3 deaths, South 24-Parganas and Nadia 2 deaths each. State has so far given telemedicine consulta-

tions to 9,34,889 people so far out of which 1,282 were given consultation in the past 24 hours.

Around 291 people have been given tele-psychologi-cal counselling in the past 24 hours taking the total number of counselling to 4,48,090 till Wednesday.

As many as 203 dedicated Covid hospitals have been func-tional in the state out of which 196 are government hospitals.

AT LEAST 15 DEAD IN A DAY

State min seeks CM’s intervention against Centre’s plan to replace jute packaging for wheat

News at a Glance

2 millenniumpostCitympTHURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

Although every possible care and caution has been taken to avoid errors or omissions, this publication is being sold on the condition and understanding that information given in this publication is merely for reference and must not be taken as having authority of or binding in any way on the writers, editors, publishers, and printers and sellers who do not owe any responsibility for any damage or loss to any person, a purchaser of this publication or not for the result of any action taken on the basis of this work. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent court and forums in Delhi/New Delhi only.

“MILLENNIUM POST”, Printed & Published by Jaiyendra Kumar Sharma on behalf of Front Row Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Saraswati Printfactory Pvt. Ltd., 789, West Choubhaga Kolkata - 7000105 and published from Tivoli Court 1A, Ballygunge Circular Road, Block–A, Flat–94, 1st Floor, Kolkata–700 019. Editor: Durbar Ganguly. Email: editor@millenniumpost.in, mpostcal@gmail.com. For marketing, contact: 9836292306, 9830532306. For editorial, call: 9836072100

Covid-19 Stats » Number of deaths in past 24 hours 15 » Total death toll so far 19,096 » Tested COVID positive in the past 24 hours 976 » Total COVID positive cases so far 15,89,042 » Total patients recovered from COVID so far 15,61,973 » Discharged from hospitals in a day 837 » Total sample tested so far 1,90,39,301

State cumulatively administers more

than 5L doses in a day

3 fountains in Sarobar will affect rowing activities: Association tells KMDA

KOLKATA: The West Ben-gal Rowing Association has written to Kolkata Metropol-itan Development Authority (KMDA) pointing out that the three fountains installed on Tuesday at the Dhakuria end of Rabindra Sarobar would adversely affect rowing activi-ties in the water body.

“The Rabindra Sarobar is the only water stretch in the entire state where rowing is being pursued since last cen-tury. Such installations would adversely affect the future of all athletes,” Aniruddha Mook-erjee, honorary secretary for West Bengal Rowing Associa-tion said.

A letter from the asso-ciation with the plea to hold a meeting on the issue was addressed to CEO KMDA Antara Acharya on Wedens-day. A senior official of KMDA said a meeting would be held on Thursday with representa-tives of West Bengal Rowing Association, from three well-known rowing clubs, viz. The Bengal Rowing Club, Calcutta

Rowing Club, Lake Club and other affiliates of West Bengal Rowing Association .

“We have no objection to installation of fountains, but it should be placed in a manner so that rowing is not affected. It is an Olympics sport and peo-ple have been practising it for 80 years here,” Chandan Roy Chowdhury , honorary secre-tary of Calcutta Rowing Club said.According to an official of KMDA, the fountains have been installed temporarily in the Dhakuria side to increase the dissolved oxygen-level in water after some fish deaths were reported in the last few days. “Being the custodian of Rabindra Sarobar, it is our prime responsibility to ensure that biodiversity of the water-body is restored in the best possible manner,” the official added. A KMDA official said a meeting has been convened on Thursday for maintaining a balance between preserva-tion of biodiversity and at the same time ensuring that rowing is not affected. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The state Public Health Engineering depart-ment will deploy Asha work-ers to collect water samples from every household where the department supplies drink-ing water.

The Asha workers will get Rs 100 per visit to the houses. The decision has been taken after many people living under Kamarhati municipality were found to be suffering from diarrhoea.

PHE department has 217 laboratories where water sam-ples are examined. But due to shortage of staff it becomes dif-ficult to collect the water sam-ples and there is delay in getting result.

Pulak Roy, state PHE minister said Asha workers will be given training. They will be given kits to conduct examination.

The Asha workers will visit every rural household and so it will be easier for them to carry out tests. “If water contamina-tion is detected in any house-hold or area action will be taken immediately,” Roy said.

Asha workers to be paid to collect water samples from households

According to sources, it has been primarily decided that the Madhyamik examinations will be held in March while the Higher Secondary examinations will start from the first week of April

After going through the case, the WBCERC found that the hospital did not abide by the rate chart fixed by the commission

‘The Centre has not discussed anything about this matter with the state and the minister apprehends that the Ministry of Food and Public Distribution may take such decision in an arbitrary manner and place orders for synthetic bags...’

Black Spotted Croaker caught in Sankarpur Fishing Harbour PIC/MPOST

Representative Image

Representative Image

3millenniumpost

PREVENTIVE MEASURES

Ahead of reopening of educational institutes, sanitisation underway at a school in city MPOST

City mpKOLKATA | THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021

CM asks DG of Police to raise ‘Winners’ squads across state

Mamata walks for 12kms in hill hamlet, reaches out to locals

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Amid spike in Covid cases in the state, police intensified its vigil to check the violations of complete safety restrictions, which have been imposed to contain the spread of the virus. As many as 1,074 persons were either arrested or prosecuted on Wednesday till 12 noon from Tuesday 8 pm for violation of complete safety restrictions. About 418 persons were prosecuted for not wear-ing face masks.

For the past few days, cops across the city had started tak-ing actions against those who were found not wearing face masks and flouting the Covid protocols. According to police, tendency of not wearing masks is increasing day-by-day.

Despite repeated attempts by the state government and police to make people aware of the consequences and pre-vention measures against the pandemic, a large number of people are still not following the Covid protocols.

When policemen asked people about why they were

not wearing masks, maximum number of people claimed that they had been fully-vaccinated and thus didn’t feel the need to use masks.

On Tuesday and Wednes-day, police were seen distrib-uting masks and prosecuting people in Gariahat, Esplanade, New Alipore and several other places. Police officers, who were

confronting people, said after the relaxations were granted for Durga Puja days, people had turned reluctant and were returning to the old practices of not following Covid norms.

“We are just reminding them as well as prosecuting then so that others who are not following Covid safety norms will understand that they can

also be prosecuted or arrested,” said a police officer.

Subhankar Sinha Sarkar, joint commissioner of Police, headquarters said: “Covid safety restrictions are still on. So, every person must follow it. Legal action will be taken against those who are not following the Covid safety restrictions.”

About 1,074 either held or prosecuted in a day for flouting Covid protocols in citySurge in cases: At least 418 persons were prosecuted for not wearing face masks

OUR CORRESPONDENT

DARJEELING: On the last day of her four-day tour of North Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee—who is known for her connect with the people at the grassroot-level—interacted with the local residents of Maha-nadi, a hill hamlet, around 6kms from Kurseong, on Thursday. Taking a break from her busy schedule—packed with admin-istrative works—Banerjee spent the day indulging in activities close-to-her heart. From tak-ing a long walk amid the pris-tine surrounding to listening to songs, Banerjee concluded the trip on a lighter note.

The chief minister had arrived in Kurseong on Tuesday. After chairing an administrative meet-ing of Darjeeling and Kalimpong districts, the Banerjee had retired for the night at the Kurseong Circuit House. Keeping with her usual routine of morning walks during her visit to the Hills, Mamata Banerjee descended from the Circuit House around 10:30am and headed straight for Mahanadi, accompanied by min-isters Aroop Biswas and Indranil Sen. She walked straight to the Mahanadi, where she bought a pair of slippers and kids’ shoes. “I am elated that the Chief Min-ister visited my shop and bought shoes,” stated Heera Pradhan, the shop owner.

Walking through the Maha-

nadi market, she spotted a shop selling woolens. The Chief Min-ister took the opportunity to advise the shopkeeper that light wool should be used so that the woolens from Darjeeling could be sold throughout the country even in places, where winters are not so severe.

Incidentally in the adminis-trative meeting in Kurseong on Tuesday, she had stressed on the need for an organised woolen garment manufacturing clus-ter involving Self Help Groups so that the famous Darjeeling woolens can be sold throughout the country, thereby generating revenue as well as employment.

On the way back, the Chief Minister stopped at a roadside eatery and ordered tea. Sitting on a plastic chair, the Chief Minis-

ter sipped her Darjeeling tea and enjoyed minister Indranil Sen’s crooning of her composition “Nil Aakasher Paaney,” sitting on the parapet. Minister Aroop Biswas provided impromptu rhythm by thumping his own laps. An attentive Banerjee even rectified the lyrics at a point.

She even called up former Left Front minister Asok Bhat-tacharya, who lost his ailing wife Ratna Bhattacharya on Tuesday night. Her funeral will be held in Siliguri on Thursday. The Chief Minister expressed her condo-lences. On arrival at the gates of the Circuit House, the Chief Minister waved at the media per-sons and stated: “I have walked 12 km. I will be staying tonight here and will leave for Goa on Thursday afternoon.”

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The campaign for the by-elections, on Octo-ber 30, in four Assembly seats came to an end at 6pm on Wednesday.

The Assembly seats where the bypolls will be held on October 30 are Khardah, Gos-aba, Dinhata and Shantipur.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidates Kajal Sinha and Jayanta Naskar died mak-ing by-election in Khardah and Gosaba necessary. Sinha had died of Covid before the result of the Assembly polls was announced on May 2.

In Dinhata and Shantipur, by-election became neces-sary after the BJP candidates Nisith Pramanik and Jagan-nath Sarkar did not take oath of office. Pramanik who defeated Udayan Guha by 57 votes has become the Union minister of state for Home Affairs.

About 9.67 lakh people will exercise their franchise in the by-elections in the four Assem-bly constituencies.

Trinamool candidates in the four seats are Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay in Khardah, Brajokishore Goswami in Shantipur, Subrata Mondol in Gosaba and Udayan Guha in Dinhata.

The BJP candidates for the four Assembly seats are Joy Saha in Khardah, Palash Raha in Gosaba, Niranjan Biswas in Shantipur and Ashok Mondol in Dinhata.

Trinamool Congress left no stone unturned to ensure vic-tory of its candidates.

Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of the party had campaigned in all the four constituencies.

Party veterans Saugata Roy, Partha Chatterjee, Firhad Hakim, Mohua Moitra took part in the campaign.

Sayani Ghosh, Trinamool Youth Congress president took

part in the campaign along with actor-turned politicians Dev, June Malliah, Soham Chakraborty and Sayantika Banerjee.

The fight is between Trin-amool Congress and BJP in all the four Assembly seats.

Except Shantipur, Trin-amool is well ahead of its rival BJP candidates in the three other seats.

Political analysts said it seemed that BJP had given up in three seats and their main target is Shantipur where party candidate Jagannath Sarkar had won by over 15,000 votes in the Assembly election. Here BJP may put up fight against TMC, they said.

However, in Shantipur, the political meeting of Suvendu Adhikari was a flop as the local party leaders toiled hard to fill up the first few rows. Taking a cue from the poll debacle in the Assembly election, BJP did not deploy leaders from Delhi and banked on the state leaders.

The counting of votes of the by-elections is slated to be held on November 2.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: With her eyes set on the state Assembly elections in Goa scheduled next year, Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee is set to begin her tour of the coastal state on Thursday.

This will be her maiden visit to the state after taking oath as chief minister of Bengal for the third time. Her visit comes at a time when her party has made substantial inroads into Goa’s political arena. Senior leaders from various other political parties have joined TMC in Goa over the past

six weeks.Expanding its political foot-

print quite confidently, TMC has decided to fight the state Assembly polls in Goa. Sources said the party had also decided to field candidates in all 40 seats in Goa. The state Assem-bly elections in Goa are sched-uled to be held in February 2022.

In a bid to boost the party’s organisational strength in Goa, senior TMC leaders, MPs and ministers from the state had been camping in the coastal state in phases since Septem-ber. Sources said the party has planned to expand across

various districts in Goa. Ahead of Banerjee’s visit, as per reports the streets of Goa were decked up with hoard-ings bearing her picture and the party’s slogan—“Goenchi Navi Sakal” (mark-ing TMC’s entry into the state as its new dawn). However, it is alleged that BJP has defaced hoardings with Banerjee’s picture.

The Goa administration had earlier stopped TMC from hold a meeting there. Banerjee had said that such terror tactics couldn’t stop the party from spreading its tentacles in the coastal state.

Mamata set to begin her tour of Goa today

Decomposed body of

elderly found in Sinthee

AMITAVA BANERJEE

DARJEELING: The Chief Minister has lauded the efforts of the Siliguri Metro-politan Police to curb crime against women by raising an all women squad.

The squad was earlier named “Tejasvini.” Directing all police commissionerates in the State to raise similar squads, the Chief Minister rechristened

the squad “Winners.”“The name is appropriate

but too long. Let us call the squad Winners. Women are always winners,” stated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in an administrative meeting in Kurseong on Tuesday.

Lauding the initiative, the chief minister directed Manoj Malvia, Director General of Police that such squads should be raised in all the police com-

missionerates of the State. “Give Gaurav Sharma, Com-missioner of Siliguri Metro-politan Police a special Diwali for taking such a commendable step and raising this squad,” mused Banerjee.

Siliguri being a strategically important town with a large floating population including tourists is surrounded by four international borders, hence is vulnerable to crime.

This all women squad looks after the safety and security of women and helps them in any kind of distress round the clock and specially during festivals like Durga Puja. Preventing and taking action in eve teas-ing, snatching cases falls within the duty of this squad.

This Siliguri women safety squad raised on October 12

consists of 20 lady constables and two officers. The force is specially trained in combat. They are equipped with mod-ern weapons, body cameras and ride on bikes and scooters.

The force had performed exemplarily during the recently concluded Durga Puja and won accolades from the local resi-dents also.

CM LAUDS ‘TEJASHVINI’ WOMEN’S SQUAD OF SILIGURI POLICE, RECHRISTENS IT ‘WINNERS’

Campaigning ends for Oct 30 by-elections

Diwali & Kali Puja: Bursting of only ‘green crackers’ allowed from 8 to 10 pm

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The West Ben-gal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) has allowed a two-hour window for bursting of only green crackers during Deepawali, Chatth Puja and 35 minutes during Christmas and New Years Eve.

In an order issued by WBPCB, a complete ban has been imposed on the sale and bursting of all kinds of crack-ers except green crackers in the state. The two-hour window during Deepawali will be from 8 to 10 pm and from 6 to 8 am during Chhath. For celebrations of Christmas and New Year, the 35 minutes’ window will be from 11.55 pm to 12.30 am.

In 2020, the Calcutta High Court as well as the National Green Tribunal had banned any sort of fire crackers and the apex court had upheld the judgement considering the fact that air pol-lution which is caused due to such cracker bursting may fur-ther aggravate the Covid situ-ation. The court’s orders have been reflected in the order issued by WBPCB this year.

“The bursting of fire crack-ers release harmful chemicals which has severe impact on the respiratory health of vulner-able groups and such pollut-

ants aggravate health conditions of Covid positive persons in home isolation,” an official of WBPCB said.

Moreover, the air quality index (AQI) in the city deteri-orates during November to Feb-ruary and last year with the ban on crackers, the AQI was better.

The District Magistrates/police commissioners/police superintendents was asked to ensure that the order is imple-mented and action taken report to be submitted to the panel.

The state PCB in Tuesday’s order also claimed as per the lat-est assessment, the air quality of the districts and Kolkata was at moderate/satisfactory level till the third week of October.

Welcoming the order of WBPCB, Babla Roy, Chair-man of Sara Bangla Atasbazi Unnayan Samity said that mak-ing of green firecrackers started from 2019. This year green crackers will be introduced in the market. 40 per cent of these will be from local market while 60 per cent will be brought in from Tamilnadu which has its expertise in green crackers,” he added.

The Bazi Bazar in Kolkata this year is scheduled to be held at Sinthi Circus Maidan in North Kolkata from Novem-ber 1.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: Tension spread at Sinthee area in North Kol-kata on Tuesday night after an elderly woman’s decomposed body was found inside her residence.

According to sources, Krishna Mali (60) lived alone at her house located on South Sinthee Road. Her family mem-bers live elsewhere. A domestic help used to visit her house reg-ularly but she was not coming for the past few days.

Local people experienced a foul smell in the area and on Tuesday evening tried to find the source.

When they found the smell coming from Mali’s house, they knocked on the door and as she did not respond police were informed. Cops from Sinthee police station went to the spot and found her decomposed body after breaking the main door.

It is suspected that Mali had passed away at least three days ago. The body has been sent for autopsy.

7 Bengal institutes selected for Centre’s knowledge exchange programme

KOLKATA: Seven higher edu-cational institutes from Bengal have been selected by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and the Union Ministry of Education as ‘mentor’ institutes under the Centre’s knowledge exchange and resource mobili-sation programme for 2021-22.

The Union government has selected a total of 50 Institution Innovation Council (IIC) insti-tutions from across the country

as Mentor Institution for Inno-vation and Entrepreneurship’ under the Mentor-Mentee pro-gramme 2021-22.

The seven facilities are Univer-sity of Engineering and Manage-ment, Netaji Subhash Engineering College, Guru Nanak Institute of Technology, Narula Insti-tute of Technology, JIS College of Engineering, Techno India University and Brainware Uni-versity, an official of one of the

private engineering institutes said Wednesday.

Altogether 11 institutes from the eastern region have been accorded the status, the official said quoting a communique from the Ministry of Education a few days back.

Knowledge exchange between the institutes as part of this ini-tiative will take place for a cer-tain period beginning from the third week of October.

Twinning will be made in the ratio of one mentor IIC insti-tution with five mentee IIC institutions.

Mentor institutions will receive financial support from the Centre to provide mentoring to mentee institutions by organising regular workshops for interacting with professionals and entrepreneurs in the industry, holding smart hackathons, and idea competi-tions. AGENCIES

About 9.67 lakh people will exercise their franchise in the by-elections in the four Assembly constituencies

A commuter being pulled-up for violating Covid norms PIC/MPOST Cops distribute masks to passengers PIC/MPOST

‘Every person must follow Covid norms. Legal action will be taken against those flouting protocols...’

Mamata Banerjee, Aroop Biswas and Indranil Sen, on Wednesday, enjoy a light moment during the CM’s visit to the Hills PICS/MPOST

(Left) Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during the administrative meet in North Bengal on Tuesday and (above) the women’s squad ‘Tejasvini’ that the CM rechristened as ‘Winners’ FILE PICS

Door-to-door vaccination in poor performing dists: Govt

India test-fires Agni-5 missile having range of 5,000 km

HAR GHAR DASTAK CAMPAIGN

4 millenniumpostNationmpTHURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 41 pregnant women have so far succumbed to COVID-19 in Kerala after the virus infection broke out in the southern state one and half years ago, state Health Minis-ter Veena George said here on Wednesday.

The number of the COVID positive persons, who had com-

mitted suicide in the state, stood at 149, she told the state Assem-bly during the question hour. The minister was replying to a question in this regard raised by Congress legislator T J Vinod.

"As per the figures reported from the districts, 41 pregnant women have succumbed to the disease in the state. Besides, 149 patients affected with the viral

infection have committed sui-cide," George said. Responding to another query by Mathew Kuzhalnadan (Congress), she said as per the reports, there seems to be no difference in the findings of the recent sero prevalence scientific study conducted by the state health department and the similar sur-veys by the ICMR. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In a major boost to its military might, India on Wednesday success-fully test-fired surface-to-sur-face strategic missile Agni-5 that can strike targets at ranges up to 5,000 km with a very high degree of accuracy, offi-cials said.

The test-firing of the nuclear-capable missile was carried out around 7:50 PM from APJ Abdul Kalam Island in Odisha, they said.

"The successful test of Agni-5 is in line with India's stated policy to have credi-ble minimum deterrence that underpins the commitment to 'No First Use'," the defence

ministry said in a brief state-ment. The work on the Agni 5 intercontinental ballistic mis-sile project was started over a decade ago.

People familiar with the development said it was the first user trial of the missile which can bring the northern-most part of China under its striking range.

The successful test-firing of the missile, built by the Defence Research Development Organ-isation's (DRDO), came in the midst of a lingering border standoff with China in east-ern Ladakh.

The first test of the missile was carried out in April 2012 while the previous one was reportedly conducted around

three years ago. "The missile, which uses a

three-stage solid fuelled engine, is capable of striking targets at ranges up to 5,000 kilometres," the ministry said.

The successful test firing of the missile paves way for its induction into the Strategic Forces Command that takes care of India's strategic assets, the people cited above said.

The Agni 1 to 4 missiles have ranges from 700 km to 3,500 km and they have already been deployed.

The Agni 5 project was aimed at enhancing India's nuclear deterrence against China which has missiles like Dongfeng-41 having ranges between 12,000-15,000 km.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Mansukh Manda-viya on Wednesday said Har Ghar Dastak' campaign will be launched over the next one month for door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination in poor performing districts to enthuse and motivate peo-ple towards full vaccination against the deadly infection.

No district should be with-out full vaccination, he said during a national review meet-ing with health ministers of various states and Union ter-ritories (UTs), according to a statement by the health ministry.

Har Ghar Dastak campaign to start soon in the poor per-forming districts to enthuse and motivate people towards full Covid vaccination. Let us aim to cover all eligible with the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine by end-November 2021," he said.

Mandaviya suggested states/UTs to initiate the cam-paign on November 2 on the occasion of Dhanwantri

Jayanti. Around 48 districts have

been identified where the first dose coverage among eligible beneficiaries is less than 50 per cent.

Highlighting the need to accelerate the pace and cover-age of vaccination, he stated that there are more than 10.34 crore people in the country who have not taken the sec-ond dose after the expiry of the prescribed interval.

The health minister also said that adequate vaccine doses are available in the coun-try, and more than 12 crore balance unulitised doses are available with the states/UTs for administering.

The state health ministers were requested to ensure con-tinuous oversight on progress of the national COVID-19 vac-cination programme.

Mandaviya urged the states/UTs to make regional and local level plans with all stakeholders to reduce num-ber of people with vaccina-tion overdue. He also urged for innovative strategies to encourage them to achieve

their targets to review the plan-ning and execution of district-wise plans for coverage of due beneficiaries of seciond dose as available on CoWIN portal, the statement stated.

Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar was also present during the meeting.

Health ministers of states/UTs who participated in the meeting were Alo Libang (Arunachal Pradesh), Keshab Mahanta (Assam), Mangal

Pandey (Bihar), T S Singhdeo (Chhattisgarh), Satyen-dra Jain (Delhi), Rushikesh Patel (Gujarat), Dr Narrotam Mishra (Home Minister Mad-hya Pradesh), Dr Mani Kumar Sharma (Sikkim), M A Sub-ramanian (Tamil Nadu), Jai Pratap Singh (Uttar Pradesh), Dhan Singh Rawat (Utta-rakhand), Dr Subhash Garg (Rajasthan) and Banna Gupta (Jharkhand).

State officials along with mission directors (NHM)

from other states/UTs were also present.

Mandaviya highlighted the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi guiding the recently launched PM Ayush-man Bharat Health Infrastruc-ture Mission (PM-BHIM).

COVID-19 has given us the opportunity to analy-sis the gaps in our existing health infrastructure. We have also learned that in a federal democracy, the Centre and states working in a synchro-nised collaborative mode can achieve significant milestones, he said.

The Union health minis-ter also requested state health ministers to ensure that plans and implementation schedules for the ECRP-II are reviewed for timely completion of the proposed initiatives and schemes, the statement said.

Speaking about India's phi-losophy of Vasudhaiva Kutum-bakam', Mandaviya said the country's pharma sector is fulfilling this philosophy by catering to people with new cost-effective treatments and vaccines.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya and Secretary (HFW) Rajesh Bhushan during a national review meeting on COVID-19 vaccination, at Vigyan Bhawan, in New Delhi 41 pregnant women died of COVID in

Kerala, 149 patients ended life: Govt

‘Don’t you think... A Division Bench, comprising Justice Bhat-

tacharyya and Rabindranath Samanta, said: “The photocopies of the cited judgments filed today (Wednesday) be kept on record. Judgment is reserved in the matter.”

In response, a lawyer for the Ministry of Per-sonnel told the court, “The CAT chairman has the power to transfer cases to any bench. Delhi has all the documents of the conversation.”

Meanwhile, the judge wanted to know how the chairman of the principal bench of the Cen-tral Administrative Tribunal knew that all the documents of the allegations against Alapan Bandyopadhyay were in Delhi.

The Court further said that judgment will be given prior to November 2. On October 22, the matter was transferred to CAT’s principal Bench in New. The disciplinary proceedings against the former state chief secretary were initiated alleg-ing that he had skipped a cyclone review meet-ing chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kalaikunda on May 28. He was directed to report to the Centre on May 31, the day of his retirement.

While Bandyopadhyay chose not to take up the state government’s offer to extend his service period and retire, the Union Personnel Ministry started disciplinary proceedings against Bandyo-padhyay in June.

‘Govt cannot get... The three technical members of the com-

mittee are Naveen Kumar Chaudhary, Professor (Cyber Security and Digital Forensics) and Dean, National Forensic Sciences University, Gandhi-nagar, Gujarat; Prabaharan P, Professor (School of Engineering), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri, Kerala; and Ashwin Anil Gumaste, Institute Chair Associate Professor (Computer Science and Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Maharashtra.

The expert panel will have the power to enquire, investigate and determine whether the Pegasus spyware was used on phones or other devices of the citizens of India to access stored data, eavesdrop on conversations, intercept infor-mation and/or for any other purposes and the details of the victims and/or persons affected by such a spyware attack, the court said.

Legal experts described the verdict as the watershed moment and said it will go a long way in giving a warning signal to the government that they cannot spy on citizens in the garb of national security. While Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the “use” of Pegasus spyware was an attempt to crush Indian democracy and that the Supreme Court order is a “big step” that will help bring out the truth, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said it is in line with the government’s affi-davit on the spying row.

Gandhi said the Supreme Court’s opinion “basically supported” what the Opposition par-ties had been saying and they will again raise the issue in Parliament demanding a debate on it.

Rejecting the vehement submission of the central government to permit it to appoint an expert panel on its own, the top court said such a course would violate settled judicial principle against bias as “justice must not only be done, but also be seen to be done”.

Members of a civilized democratic society have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Pri-vacy is not the singular concern of journalists or social activists. Every citizen of India ought to be protected against violations of privacy. It is this expectation which enables us to exercise our choices...

We live in the era of information revolution, where the entire lives of individuals are stored in the cloud or in a digital dossier. We must rec-ognize that while technology is a useful tool for

improving the lives of the people, at the same time, it can also be used to breach that sacred private space of an individual.”

Writing the 46-page order for the bench, the CJI though acknowledged the issue of national security, the power of the authorities and limited scope of judicial review in such matters and said, however, this does not mean that the state gets a free pass every time the spectre of national secu-rity is raised.

National security cannot be the bugbear that the judiciary shies away from, by virtue of its mere mentioning. Although this Court should be circumspect in encroaching the domain of national security, no omnibus prohibition can be called for against judicial review, said the bench, which also comprised Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli.

The government must necessarily plead and prove the facts which indicate that the informa-tion sought must be kept secret as their divul-gence would affect national security concerns, it said. They must justify the stand that they take before a Court. The mere invocation of national security by the State does not render the Court a mute spectator.”

The court also said its effort is to uphold the Constitutional aspirations and rule of law with-out being consumed in the “political rhetoric” even as it observed that petitions seeking inde-pendent probe into alleged snooping row raise an Orwellian concern, about the alleged possibility of utilising modern technology to hear what you hear, see what you see and to know what you do.

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself,” it said quoting English novelist George Orwell,

“Orwellian” refers to a dystopian, totalitarian state which is destructive to the welfare of a free and open society.

The court also said it is undeniable that sur-veillance and the knowledge that one is under the threat of being spied on can affect the way an individual decides to exercise his or her rights.

Such a scenario might result in self-censor-ship. This is of particular concern when it relates to the freedom of the press, which is an impor-tant pillar of democracy. Such chilling effect on the freedom of speech is an assault on the vital public-watchdog role of the press, which may undermine the ability of the press to provide accurate and reliable information, it said,

It then posted the batch of pleas in the matter, including the ones filed by Editors Guild of India and veteran journalists N Ram and Sashi Kumar, for further hearing after eight weeks.

The bench said it gave ample opportunity to the Centre to clarify its stand on the allega-tions raised and the various actions taken by it over the past two years, since the first disclosed alleged Pegasus spyware attack.

Despite repeated assurances and multiple opportunities given, ultimately the Union of India has placed on record what they call a lim-ited affidavit, which does not shed any light on their stand or provide any clarity as to the facts of the matter at hand, it said.

BJP MLA Krishna... The economic measures taken up by the BJP

government have ruined the country. The con-dition of the middle class has turned from bad to worse. The sharp rise in the price of essential commodities affected people badly,” he said.

He said under the able leadership of Mamata Banerjee, Bengal had witnessed all round devel-opment. People across various economic strata have been benefited by her projects. He said he would be able to serve the people of his constitu-ency in a much better way.

Partha Chattopadhyay said Kalyani had been inducted in the party following clearance from party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee and TMC chairperson Mamata Banerjee.

Meanwhile, Firoz Kamal Gazi alias Babu Master, who had joined BJP resigned from the party on Wednesday. A school teacher by pro-fession in Basirhat, Babu Master said he had decided to quit the party after no person from

the minority community was made candidate in the 2021 Assembly election. A former CPI(M) worker, Babu had joined Trinamool Congress in 2021. He joined the BJP in 2020.

Babu has not clarified whether he was going to come back to TMC. Reacting sharply Sukanta Mazumdar, state BJP president said those who had left the party had some vested interests. “As they could not fulfill their interest, they resigned from the party. Quicker the unwanted elements leave the party, it is good for the state BJP,” he added.

China’s unilateral... The spokesperson said India expects that

China will avoid undertaking action under the pretext of this law. “Furthermore, the pas-sage of this new law does not in our view confer any legitimacy to the so-called China Pakistan ‘Boundary Agreement’ of 1963 which govern-ment of India has consistently maintained is an illegal and invalid agreement,” he said.

11 cr people...The Union Health Ministry has also written

to several states and UTs asking them to priori-tise administering the second dose to beneficia-ries who have not got themselves jabbed with the second shot even after the expiry of the pre-scribed interval between the two doses, sources said. More than 76 per cent of India’s adult population has received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with nine states and union territories administering the first dose to all eli-gible people.

The eleven states and UTs which completed second dose coverage to more than 50 per cent of eligible beneficiaries are Lakshadweep, Sikkim, Goa, Ladakh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Daman and Diu, Arunachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Over 32 per cent of the country’s around 94 crore adults have been administered both the doses, Health Ministry officials said, adding the cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 103.53 crore.

India logged 13,451 new Coronavirus infec-tions, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,42,15,653 out of which 3,35,97,339 people have recuperated from the disease, while the active cases declined to 1,62,661, the lowest in 242 days.

The death toll climbed to 4,55,653 with 585 fresh fatalities that include 482 from Kerala and 32 from Maharashtra, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent, according to the data updated at 8 am on Wednesday.

The daily rise in new Coronavirus infec-tions has been below 30,000 for 33 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 122 consecutive days.

The active cases comprise 0.48 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.19 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said. A decrease of 1,155 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.03 per cent. It has been less than 2 per cent for last 23 days. The weekly positivity rate was also recorded at 1.22 per cent. It has been below two per cent for the last 33 days, according to the ministry.

NCB team quizzes A five-member vigilance probe team, which

landed in Mumbai in the morning, has started its probe and collected some documents and recordings NCB office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai, DDG Gyaneshwar Singh, who is head-ing the departmental probe into the allegations of extortion, told media persons.

“The team today collected crucial documents of the case from NCB zonal office and as part of the investigation, we recorded the statement of Wankhede, “ Singh said.

“During the four-and-a-half-hour-long recording of the statement, Wankhede has put many things before the team and we will collect a few more documents from him in coming days and if required we will get more information from him,” he said.

Asked whether Wankhede will continue to supervise the investigation into the cruise drugs case, Singh said, “Let the investigation go ahead, if I have something concrete then only I will be able to give report to my DG.” “I am appealing to K P Gosavi and Prabhakar Sail (NCB witnesses in the drugs case) through the media to join the enquiry,” he said, adding, “If they have any com-plaint... any allegations, they should approach us and record their statements.”

Meanwhile, the qazi who had performed the first marriage of Wankhede claimed the offi-cer belonged to a Muslim family otherwise the ‘nikah’ would not have been solemnised as per Islam.

The qazi’s claim came against the backdrop of Nawab Malik’s allegations that Wankhede was born as a Muslim, but forged documents, includ-ing a caste certificate, to show he belonged to the Hindu SC category to get a job under quota after clearing the UPSC examination.

I had performed the ‘nikah’ of Sameer Wankhede and Shabana Qureshi (his first wife). Her father had approached me to perform the marriage in the Lokhandwala complex area of Mumbai. The groom’s name was Sameer Dawood Wankhede who married Shabana Qureshi, Mau-lana Mujammil Ahmed told a news channel.

When asked about Wankhede’s claim that he is a Hindu, the qazi said had Wankhede been a Hindu the ‘nikah’ would not have been performed.

The Maulana claimed all the witnesses had signed the ‘nikahnama’ as per Islamic customs.

As the controversy over his marriage and reli-gion refused to die down, Wankhede, who is in the eye of a political storm following allegations of extortion in the high-profile cruise drugs case said he had married (in 2006) as per Muslim cus-toms as per the wish of his late mother.

“Fulfilling the wish of one’s mother in a secu-lar country is not a crime. I am proud of secu-larism in our country. My mother was a Muslim and my father is a Hindu. I love both of them very much, “ Wankhede said.

Wankhede asserted that he never converted to Islam and he belonged to a Hindu caste.

He said his first marriage was registered under the Special Marriage Act within a month. “The process of divorce was also completed as per the Special Marriage Act. I was never con-verted to Islam and I belong to a Hindu caste of my family,” Wankhede claimed.

Kranti Redkar, whom Wankhede married after divorce from his first wife, also came out in support of her husband, saying he never changed his religion. Redkar, who is an actress, contested the claim made by the qazi.

Addressing a press conference, Redkar, who married Wankhede in 2017, slammed Malik for playing “low level” politics by making a string of allegations against her husband.

Meanwhile, Wankhede’s father Dnyandev Wankhede said he would approach the court against Malik.

“What do my religion or castes have to do with the drug cases? I am Hindu and Mahar (Scheduled Caste). The 2006 Nikahnama is cor-rect and my signature is also genuine. But I didn’t understand the content of the document since it was in Urdu,” he told reporters.

Member of drugs...The NCB’s Delhi team should check the

CCTV cameras of the cruise. How come a few people were arrested and the international level drugs mafia (member) is moving scot-free? the NCP spokesperson asked.

Speaking to reporters here, Malik also claimed the Cordelia cruise drugs party organ-

isers had taken permission directly from the “directorate of shipping” at the Centre and not the state police or the state home department.

Malik also said if the Narcotics Con-trol Bureau Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede’s birth certificate, which the minis-ter had posted online to claim the official forged documents to secure job, turns out false, then he will resign from his ministerial post and retire as a politician. “I wonder why BJP leaders are get-ting uncomfortable when I am trying to expose Sameer Wankhede,” he said. MPOST

Aryan Khan bail... “Tomorrow we will try to finish it,” the judge

said. Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appear-ing for Aryan Khan, argued that the arrest was a direct infringement of constitutional provisions as the arrest memo did not give the “true and correct grounds”.

Senior counsel Amit Desai, appearing for Merchant, pointed out that the special court for Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on Tuesday granted bail to two other accused in the case — Manish Rajgaria and Avin Sahu. “The allegations against them are also the same. In fact, there was recovery of 2.6 grams of ganja (cannabis) from one of the accused and the second had said that he had consumed,” Desai said.

“If not on (the ground of) parity but on lib-erty these boys (Aryan Khan and Merchant) should be granted bail...Release them on bail with strict conditions,” Desai argued.

He further told the court that the charge of conspiracy and abetment was invoked in the case by the NCB as an afterthought.

Instead of arresting them, the NCB should have first issued them a notice under section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (under which an accused is asked to appear and record a state-ment in minor offenses), the lawyer said.

“What was the need to arrest them at that time when conspiracy charge was not even applied,” Desai said, adding that the charge of possession of small quantity of drugs only attracts one year’s imprisonment, so it was a minor offense.

Govt reconstitutes According to the notification, the terms of

reference of the Council include to analyse any issue, economic or otherwise, referred to it by the Prime Minister and advising him hereon.

Besides, addressing issues of macroeconomic importance and presenting views thereon to the Prime Minister. “This could either suo-motu or on reference from the Prime Minister or anyone else,” the notification said.

The EAC-PM is an independent body con-stituted to advise the government, especially the prime minister, on economic and related issues.

It was set up in September 2017 with a term of two years, replacing the erstwhile PMEAC, which was headed by former RBI governor C Rangarajan during the terms of former prime minister Manmohan Singh.

‘Private hospital... The WBCERC also clarified that patients are

entitled to get gynaecological treatment at pri-vate hospitals under the Swasthya Sathi scheme. As delivery cases do not fall under the category, private hospitals, however, will not be able to deny gynaecological treatment not pertaining to delivery.

“Some hospitals are refusing treatment as their thumb impressions do not match during admission. We have already discussed the issue. No private hospitals can refuse treatment under the health scheme even if the thumb impressions do not match. Patients can contact the health commission office in such cases,” Justice (retired) Banerjee said.

From Page 1

5millenniumpost Nation mpKOLKATA | THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021

Campaigning for bypolls to 3 LS, 30 Assembly seats ends

Oppn’s stand vindicated: Rahul on SC Pegasus order

SPL SESSION OF PUNJAB ASSEMBLY TO DISCUSS BSF JURISDICTION ISSUE LUDHIANA: The Punjab Cabinet on Wednesday approved summoning of the special session of the state assembly on November 8 to oppose the Centre’s notification extending the jurisdiction of the BSF from 15 km to 50 km along the International Border. A de-mand will also be made during the session to repeal the three farm laws. The decision on the session has been taken after consensus on the issue at the All-Party Meeting held at Chandigarh on October 25, an official statement said here.

FOUR NEW MEMBERS TAKE OATH IN UP LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL LUCKNOW: Four new members of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council, including state minister Jitin Prasa-da, were administered oath at a function. Besides Prasada, Sanjay Nishad, who heads Nishad (Nirbal Indian Shosit Hamara Aam Dal) Party; Chaudhary Virendra Singh Gujjar and Gopal Anjan Bhurji were administered oath by Chairman of the Legislative Council, Manvendra Singh in Tandon hall of the As-sembly. The four members were nominated to the upper house of the legislature last month.

Nation Briefs

MPOST BUREAU

CHANDIGARH: Declaring that he would launch his new party as soon as the Election Commission clears the name and the symbol, former Punjab Chief Minister Captain Ama-rinder Singh on Wednesday hit out at the Congress, saying many people from the party were in touch with him and they will come out in the open when the time comes.

“We are waiting for the opportune moment. But I will not take their names. Already my supporters are being harassed,” said Captain Ama-rinder, addressing his first press conference after stepping down as chief minister. Asked how many MLAs were in touch with him, he quipped “if Rahul Gandhi needs to have back-to-back meetings with Punjab

Congress MLAs, what does it mean?”

As to why he had not resigned yet from the party, Captain Amarinder responded, “I have spent 50 years in the Congress, how does it manner of I stay for another 10 days?”

He rejected Congress claims of a majority of the MLAs opposing his continu-ation in office, and said “once they (party leadership) had made up their mind to replace me, all these excuses were made.” Pointing out that the so-called 18-point agenda of the Congress for his govern-ment was nothing but part of the Punjab 2017 manifesto, he said the Kharge commit-tee was clearly told that 92% of all the poll promises had been fulfilled.

Taking on his detractors, particularly Navjot Sidhu and

Sukhjinder Randhawa, Cap-tain Amarinder slammed them for indulging in petty issues. “We will fight and defeat Sidhu from wherever he contests the upcoming Assembly polls,” he vowed, adding that since the former had taken over the Pun-jab Congress reins, there had been a 25% drop in the party’s popularity, as per his surveys.

Trashing allegations against his Pakistani friend Aroosa Alam, Captain Amarinder termed as baseless the charges

of money being sent out by her. Even as he asked if Aroosa was the only issue left in Punjab, he questioned the intention of Randhawa in raising the issue now after never raking it up all these years. Aroosa had been visiting him for 16 years and he would definitely invite her again, he added.

Pointing out that he had never spoken of aligning with the BJP, Captain Amarinder said what he wanted to do was seat sharing. “In military par-lays it means concentration of forces,” he remarked, adding that he had, however, not yet talked to the BJP on this.

Dismissing as trash Sid-hu’s tweet accusing him of being loyal to BJP, he said the thought of seat sharing with the BJP came to his mind only after he was forced out of office. “States have to work with the

Centre to function effectively,” he pointed out.

He further made it clear that he had no intention of aligning with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) but only with breakaway Akali groups. Asked about reported refusal of Dhindsa to tie up with him, Captain Amarinder said “If Dhindsa has to put up a real fight, he will have to concen-trate his forces too.”

“To defeat the Congress, the SAD and AAP,” we will all have to work as a joint force,” he asserted.

Trashing allegations of not delivering during the 4.5 years of his rule, Captain Amarinder listed out various works com-pleted by his government and said the Charanjit Channi government was merely implementing what we had decided to do.

Will launch party once EC clears name, symbol: Captain Amarinder Singh

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national con-venor Arvind Kejriwal from Thursday will be on a two-day visit to poll-bound Punjab, during which he will meet farmers and busi-nessmen of the state.

The AAP, which is the main opposition party in Punjab, is keen on con-testing all 117 assembly seats in the elections in the state next year and hopes to emerge victorious and form its government.

On the first day of his visit, Kejriwal will meet farmers in Mansa and "have a dialogue" with them, co-in charge of the AAP's political affairs in Punjab Raghav Chadha said on Wednesday.

Kejriwal will visit Bhat-inda on Friday and meet with businessmen, he added.

This is Kejriwal's second visit to Punjab this month in the run-up to the state assembly polls due to be held early next year.

"Farmers and business-men in Punjab are having a hard time. The succes-sive governments have given them false hope. All political parties have only deceived them, Chadha said in a video message in Punjabi.

Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal is coming to Pun-jab tomorrow on a two-day visit, he said. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Hailing the Supreme Court’s order to form a committee to look into the Peg-asus spyware row, former Con-gress president Rahul Gandhi said that the opposition’s stand on the issue is “vindicated” since the judges have flagged the same concerns.

“We protested, but no reply. We stopped Parliament, but we still did not get a reply. Now our stand is vindicated. So, our ques-tions remain the same,” Gandhi said at a press conference organ-ised after the apex court's order in Pegasus snooping case.

The Congress leader termed the top court’s move to appoint a three-member panel of cyber experts to probe the alleged use of Israeli spyware Pegasus for surveillance of certain people as a “big step” and expressed confidence that truth would come out.

Gandhi also alleged that only the prime minister or the home minister could have ordered the use of Pegasus spy-ware. During the last Parlia-ment session, the Opposition had jointly taken up the issue and had stalled proceedings demanding a probe, he recalled.

“We were asking three basic questions -- who authorised Pegasus, which agency, which person authorised Pegasus as we all know Pegasus cannot be bought by a private individual, it has to be bought by a govern-ment; the second question was who was it used against; final thing was, did any other coun-try have access to information of our people," the former Con-gress chief said.

“We are quite happy that the Supreme Court has accepted to look into this. There is the insti-

tution of Parliament where we will raise this again and we will try to have a debate in Parlia-ment. I am sure the BJP will not like that debate so they will make sure that debate is stalled but we will try to hold that debate,” he said.

Hitting out at the govern-ment, he said, “If the PM of the nation colluded with another nation and attacked its own citizens -- which included the Chief Justice, former PMs and other Chief Ministers, leaders of opposition parties, then this is an attack on the nation.”

“Did the other nation have all this data? That is a very important question. Even if this data was on the Prime Minis-ters' desk, then that too is totally criminal, and we will contest it,” Gandhi said, adding that the prime minister is not above the nation.

Overruling virtually every argument made by the Centre, the top court said that privacy is not the singular concern of journalists or social activists but of every citizen. The three-judge bench led by Chief Jus-tice of India NV Ramana, said, “Surveillance can have a chill-ing effect on the freedom of speech.”

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Campaigning for bypolls to be held on Octo-ber 30 in three Lok Sabha and 30 assembly constituencies spread across 14 states ended on Wednesday evening.

In majority of the seats, the main fight will be between BJP and Congress candidates.

The EC had imposed sev-eral Covid-related restrictions for the bypolls like prohibition of pre- and post-nomination processions, 50 per cent capac-ity at outdoor venues for cam-paigning, a maximum of 20 star campaigners for national and state recognised parties and a silence period of 72 hours before the end of polling.

The seats where Lok Sabha bye-elections will be held are Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mandi in Himachal Pradesh and Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh. Of the 30 constitu-encies going to the bypolls, five are in Assam, four in West Bengal, three each in Madhya

Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, two each in Bihar, Karnataka and Rajasthan and one seat each is in Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharash-tra, Mizoram, Nagaland and Telangana.

The counting of votes will take place on November 2.

In all three Lok Sabha con-stituencies, the sitting mem-bers had died. The Mandi seat

fell vacant after the death of Ramswaroop Sharma (BJP) in March.

The bye-election to the Khandwa parliamentary con-stituency was necessitated following the death of BJP member Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan while Mohan Delkar, an Independent Lok Sabha member from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, was found dead

in a Mumbai hotel in February, necessitating the bypolls.

In Assam, the BJP is fight-ing in three of the five seats and all its candidates are turncoats - two from the Congress and one from the AIUDF. The three had won the last assembly elec-tions and then resigned from their respective parties to join the BJP.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who led the BJP's campaign, was on Wednesday issued a warning for violating the model code of conduct dur-ing electioneering. On Monday, Sarma was given a notice by EC, seeking an explanation for alleged violation of the model code of conduct.

In Himachal Pradesh, Union minister Anurag Thakur, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhaghel and Congress leader Rajeev Shukla held rallies in favour of their party candidates on the last day of electioneering.

Madhya Pradesh saw a high-octane campaign with

Union ministers Prahlad Patel, Narendra Singh Tomar, Jyotira-ditya Scindia and former union minister Uma Bharti canvass-ing for the BJP nominees. At the state level, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and the state BJP chief VD Sharma led the campaign trail.

In Haryana, where bypoll will be held for the Ellenabad assembly seat, the three central agriculture laws dominated all other issues.

On September 4, the EC had announced bypolls to the Bhabanipur assembly seat in West Bengal and polling for three "deferred adjourned" elections in two assembly seats of West Bengal and one seat of Odisha.

The EC had then said that based on inputs received from states where bypolls are due, it has decided not to hold by-elections in other assembly constituencies and three par-liamentary constituencies in view of the pandemic situation, floods and festival season.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MAU: The Samajwadi Party and the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party on Wednesday announced their alliance for the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls and gave the slogan 'Khadeda Hobe', a call to "drive out" the BJP from the state.

The slogan is on the lines of 'Khela

Hobe' (game on), which was coined by the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress for the West Bengal assembly polls that saw the party defeat the BJP and storm back to power for a third con-secutive term.

"Slogan 'Khela Hobe' was given in West Bengal and 'didi' drove out the BJP from the state. Similarly, in Uttar

Pradesh it will be 'Khadeda Hobe' (drive out) and the BJP government will be removed by the people of the state," Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) president Om Prakash Rajbhar said here.

He was addressing a 'Vanchit, Pich-hda, Dalit and Minority Bhagidari Mahapanchyat', during which Sama-

jwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav announced the alliance between the two parties for the assembly polls.

"When BJP leaders come to your vil-lage, you should ask them about price rise and then ask them to leave," Rajb-har said.

Yadav said Rajbhar has rightly said that in Uttar Pradesh 'Khadeda Hobe'.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav along with son and party leader Tejashwi Yadav address a by-election campaign rally at Tarapur constituency in Munger district

In majority of seats, the main fight will be between BJP and Congress candidates

Mandi bypoll: CS, CEO take stock of preparations Early snowfall in Lahaul-Spiti, Pangi to pose challenge on polling day

‘If the PM of the nation colluded with another nation and attacked its own citizens, then this is an attack on the nation’

RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh is all set to hold a five-day ‘National Tribal Dance Festival’ and ‘Rajyotsava 2021’ (statehood celebrations) in the capital Raipur from Thursday, offi-cials said.

As many as 59 tribal dance troupes from 27 states and six Union Territories of the coun-try, and seven from foreign countries, including Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Uganda and Nige-ria, will take part in the dance festival to be held during the first three days of the five-day event, they said.

An exhibition and other programmes focusing on for-mer prime minister Indira Gandhi and former deputy PM Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel will be held on October 31.

The event will conclude with the statehood celebration on November 1, they said.

Chhattisgarh came into existence on November 1, 2000 after the bifurcation of Madhya Pradesh.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will be the chief

guest in the inaugural ceremony of the event to be held at 11 am on Thursday at the Science Col-lege ground here, a state public relations officer said.

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel will preside over the function and senior Congress leaders, including Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chow-dhury, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal, PL Punia and BK Hariprasad, will also be pres-ent as special guests, he said.

Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi will attend the October 29 function as chief guest, the official said.

On October 31, which is the death anniversary Indira Gan-dhi and the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, Baghel will inau-gurate an exhibition focusing on the two leaders, he said.

A seminar based on the thoughts and vision of Indira Gandhi will also be held at the Science College ground where Rajya Sabha member Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Singh Surjewala will be guest speak-ers, the official said. MPOST

Chhattisgarh: Tribal dance fest, statehood

celebration from today

Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls: SP, SBSP join hands

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission let off Assam Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Hemanta Biswa Sarma with a warning on Wednesday for violating the model code during electioneering for the October 30 assembly bypolls.

The EC, in an order, said it is of the "considered view" that Sarma, star campaigner for the BJP, has "acted in contravention to the spirit of the advisory/instruction issued by the com-mission" regarding the model code of conduct. "Now, there-fore, the commission issues warning to him and cautions him to be more careful and exercise restraint in future and strictly follow the provisions of model code of conduct, while making public utterances," the order read. AGENCIES

Poll code violation: EC lets off Assam CM

with warning ‘Many people from the party in touch, they will come out in open when the time comes’

Kejriwal to be on 2-day Punjab visit from today OUR CORRESPONDENT

SHIMLA: As the campaign for four by-elections came to an end on Wednesday evening, Chief Secretary Ram Subhag Singh, state’s Chief Electoral Officer C Paulrasu and Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu flew to tribal belt of Kinnaur, Lahual-Spiti and Pangi to take stock of the preparation for October 30 bypoll in Mandi Parliamentary constituency.

Mandi Parliamentary con-stituency has 17 Assembly segments spread through dis-tricts of Mandi, Kullu, Kinn-aur, Lahaul-Spiti, Chamba and Shimla. High reaches of Kin-naur and the entire district of Lahaul-Spiti are experienc-ing snowfall resulting in dis-ruption of several roads, apart from resulting in considerable drop of temperature.

The Chief Secretary held a meeting with senior officers of the Kinnaur district at Reck-ongpeo making it clear that the directions of the Election Com-mission (ECI) for free and fair elections must be implemented strictly.

Maximum participation of the voters should also be ensured.

Kinnaur has the distinction

of having Independent India’s first voter Shyam Saran Negi, a 104-year-old native of Kalpa village. He has already con-veyed his desire to go to the polling booth to cast his vote.

Chief Secretary asked Dep-uty Commissioner Kinnaur Apoorv Devgan to facilitate Negi’s visit to the booth and accord him full honour.

He also instructed Kinn-aur DC to enhance the patrol-ling during the night time and keeping close vigil on the vehi-cles especially coming from out of the state.

Singh expressed satisfac-tion over the preparations

made by the district admin-istration and assured that the state government would also arrange state and army helicop-ters if required due to inclem-ent weather.

Chief Secretary admitted that Mandi parliamentary con-stituency had tough topogra-phy as it consists of remote and tribal areas and moreover there were chances of fresh snowfall in the higher reaches.

Keeping this in view, he asked the administra-tion to deploy adequate man and machinery for ensuring smooth polling besides main-taining proper law and order

situation. He also directed to ensure that the polling material and parties should reach well in time to the remotest poll-ing stations.

DGP Sanjay Kundu inquired about the security arrangements made for the elections and instructed for thorough checking during the nakas and also asked to keep a close watch on anti-social elements.

Kinnaur Deputy Com-missioner Apoorv Devgan informed that 129 polling sta-tions had been set up in the district and the polling parties would leave for their destina-tions on October 28.

In Kullu, the Chief Sec-retary held a detailed discus-sion with the officers regarding implementation of model code of conduct, arrangements made for the polling parties, polling booths and the strong room.

District Electoral Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Ashutosh Garg informed the Chief Secretary that proper arrangements had been made for polling at all the four Assembly constituencies- Manali, Kullu, Banjar and Ani. In all, 604 polling centres had been set up in the Kullu dis-trict including six critical and

55 sensitive centres. Earlier, the Chief Secretary,

DGP and Chief Electoral Offi-cer also visited Killar, the head-quarters of the Pangi valley in Chamba district.

Singh directed the admin-istration to make proper lodg-ing and boarding arrangements for the staff deployed on the polling duty as the valley had already experienced fresh snowfall.

Earlier, the State Chief Elec-toral Officer has banned pub-lication and broadcast of all types of opinion pre-poll sur-veys and exit-polls in Him-achal Pradesh relating to four bypolls, which also include the highly prestigious Mandi Par-liamentary constituency.

The elections to Mandi Lok Sabha seat, which has fallen vacant after demise of two-time MP Ram Swaroop Sharma in 2020, and three assembly con-stituencies of Arki (Solan) Fatehpur (Kangra) and Jubbal-Kotkhai (Shimla) are slated for October 30.

C Paulrasu told Millen-nium Poast that “there shall be a complete ban on the display of results of any opinion pre poll or exit polls by any media organisation till polling day on October 30.”

Kinnaur Deputy Commissioner Apoorv Devgan briefing Chief Secretary and others on poll arrangements at Reckong Peo

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren will be the chief guest

WOMAN DELIVERS BABY ON BOARD BHUBANESWAR-BOUND TRAIN JAMSHEDPUR: A 27-year-old woman gave birth to a baby on board a train in Jamshedpur in Jharkhand in the early hours of Wednesday, railway officials said. The Bhubaneswar-bound train arrived from Anand Vihar in Delhi at Tatanagar station around 3.55 am and as the train left the platform at 4.10 am, the woman went into labour, they said. The woman, identi-fied as Ranu Das, gave birth to the baby while the train was on the move but did not leave the platform completely, they added. Railway doctors were imme-diately informed and the train was moved back to the platform, officials said. After a preliminary check-up, the woman and her baby along with other family members were deboarded, and she was sent to the Sadar Hospital.

11 PEOPLE IN UP VILLAGE INJURED IN CLASH OVER FACEBOOK POST BALLIA: Eleven persons were injured when two groups of Bind community clashed over a comment on social media in Narayanpur village of the district, police said on Wednesday. A case has been registered against 36 persons and 11 of them have been ar-rested, they said. A scuffle broke out between two men over a comment under a Facebook post in Na-rayanpur village on Tuesday evening, Bansdih Circle officer Priti Tripathi said. It escalated into a full blown clash between two groups in which 11 persons were injured, she said.

Nation Briefs

6 millenniumpostNationmpTHURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The rise of seri-ous threats such as terrorism, drug trafficking, piracy and cli-mate change have thrown new challenges for the Indo-Pacific at a time when the competition over its resources has intensified, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday.

In an address at a confer-ence on the Indo-Pacific, Singh said the nature of the challenges in the region has considerable trans-national implications that require a cooperative response.

The defence minister also asserted that India is fully deter-mined to protect its legitimate rights and interests in its ter-ritorial waters and exclusive economic zone while support-ing the maintenance of rules-based maritime systems. "While competition over resources

has intensified, the rise of seri-ous threats such as terrorism, piracy, drug trafficking and cli-mate change have thrown new challenges for our Indo-Pacific region," he said. "The nature of these challenges in the region has considerable trans-national

implications which require a cooperative response. There is, therefore, a need to find conver-gence of interests and common-ality of purpose on maritime issues," Singh said.

The defence minister said efficient, cooperative and col-

laborative harnessing of the region's maritime potential, remained essential for sustain-ing a steady path to prosperity.

"India is committed to respecting the rights of all nations as laid down in the UN Convention on the Law of Seas (UNCLOS), 1982," he said.

"We are fully determined to protect the legitimate rights and interests of our country in rela-tion to our territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone while supporting the maintenance of rules-based maritime systems as mandated under UNCLOS," he added. His comments came in the backdrop of growing global concern over China's increas-ing expansionist behaviour in the Indo-Pacific that has forced many countries to come out with strategies to deal with the challenge.

In his remarks, Singh elabo-

rated on how the oceans have shaped human history from time immemorial, influencing the evolution of life as well as culture. "From an Indian per-spective, looking West, archae-ological explorations have revealed ancient maritime con-nections with other civilisations like Mesopotamia -- modern-day Iraq, Dilmun -- modern-day Bahrain, and Magan -- modern-day Oman," he said.

The defence minister said that maritime linkages enabling the exchange of goods, culture and goodwill were foundational for mutual prosperity in the past, and continue to remain as such even today. "Looking East, maritime linkages also played a vital role in taking Bud-dhism across the region, from Sri Lanka, South East Asian countries and all the way till Korea," he said.

PATNA: A special NIA court on Wednesday convicted 10 persons in connection with the serial blasts that took place in 2013 at the venue here of a political rally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was then the chief minister of Gujarat.

Special NIA judge Gurvin-derMehrotra, who passed the order, also acquitted one of the accused for want of evidence.

The NIA had submitted charge-sheets against 11 peo-ple in the course of investiga-

tion. Of these, one was a minor and his case was referred to the juvenile justice board. The remaining were put on trial.

Today, all but one were con-victed. The quantum of sen-tence will be pronounced on November 1, Special Pub-lic Prosecutor Lalan Prasad Singh, who appeared for the probe agency, told PTI-Bhasha.

Those who were pro-nounced guilty are Imtiaz Ansari, Mujibullah, Haider Ali, Firoz Aslam, Omar Ansari,

Iftekhar, Ahmed Husain, Umair Siddiqui and Azha-ruddin. The court acquitted Fakhruddin, he added.

The blasts had taken place at the Gandhi Maidan on Octo-ber 27, 2013 when the BJP's Hunkar Rally' addressed by Modi, who had been declared the party's prime ministerial candidate, was underway.

The explosions and the ensuing stampede had claimed six lives, while scores were injured. MPOST

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court Wednesday issued sum-mons to Ramdev on a lawsuit by several doctors' associations for allegedly spreading misinfor-mation against allopathy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, say-ing that the plea was not frivo-lous and a case for its institution was definitely made out. Jus-tice C Hari Shankar granted four weeks to Ramdev to file his response to the suit.

The judge clarified that he was not expressing any opin-ion on the merits of the alle-gations in the plaint against the Yoga Guru and the issue of grant of any relief, interim or otherwise, shall be looked into subsequently.

I have seen the video clips (of Ramdev). From the perusal of the video clips, your client is scorning the allopathic treat-ment protocol. He has literally gone to scorn at the prescription

of steroids, people going to hos-pitals. From the perusal of the clips, there is definitely a case for the institution of the suit.

They (plaintiffs) may have nothing for an injunction but the case is not frivolous, the judge told senior counsel Rajiv Nayar, appearing for Ramdev.

The senior lawyer said that while he had no objections to the issuance of summons in the matter, he opposed the allega-tions made in the case.

"There are three parts to the suit-- Coronil, defamation, and hesitancy against vaccination. The court may restrict notice to only defamation," Nayar urged the court.

"I am not passing any order. You file your written statement. Say there is no case," the judge responded.

Permission to institute the suit is allowed. Let the plaint be registered as a suit. Let sum-mons be issued in the suit, the court ordered and posted the next hearing in January.

Apart from Ramdev, the summons was also issued and a response ought from Acha-rya Balkrishna and Patan-jali Ayurveda on the suit. The court also issued notice to social media platforms Google, Face-book, and Twitter.

Three Resident Doctors' Association of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Rishikesh, Patna and Bhu-baneshwar as well as Associa-

tion of Resident Doctors, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandi-garh; Union of Resident Doctors of Punjab (URDP); Resident Doctors' Association, LalaLajpat Rai Memorial Medical College, Meerut, and Telangana Junior Doctors' Association, Hyder-abad had moved the high court earlier this year.

They alleged that Ramdev was misleading and misrep-resenting to the public at large that allopathy was responsible for the deaths of several people infected by COVID-19, and insinuating that allopathic doc-tors were causing the deaths of the patients.

Senior counsel AkhilSi-bal, representing the associa-tions, had argued that amid a pandemic, the YogGugu made unsubstantiated claims on Coro-nil being a cure for COVID-19, contrary to the licence granted to the drug for merely being an Immuno-booster.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Cen-tre Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that it has filed a plea before the Supreme Court seeking the transfer of PDP leader Mehbooba's Muf-ti's petition which challenges the Constitutional validity of a provision of the Preven-tion of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The counsel representing the Centre told a bench of Chief Jus-tice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh that the transfer petition is likely to come up for hearing before the apex court within a week -- on October 29.

The high court listed the matter for further hearing on December 23. The Centre had earlier told the court that several petitions concerning various provisions and scheme of PMLA are pending in the Supreme Court and the matter has been assigned to a special bench and parties have exchanged certain queries, one of which is directly in question here.

The Centre had said it

intended to move a transfer petition so that the matters can be done together. It had said that the questions before the Supreme Court included issues concerning the commencement of investigation under PMLA. Former J&K Chief Minister Mufti, in her plea filed in March, has sought to declare Section 50 of the PMLA as void and inop-erative, being unfairly discrimi-natory, bereft of safeguards, and violative of Article 20(3) of the Constitution.

Section 50 of the Act empowers the authority, that is, officers of ED, to summon any person to give evidence or produce records. All persons summoned are bound to answer the questions put to them and to produce the documents as required by the ED officers, fail-

ing which they can be penalized under the Act.

She has also challenged issu-ance of summons to her by the ED in a money laundering case and sought a stay which was refused by the court earlier.

The 61-year-old leader, who was released last year after more than a year in detention follow-ing the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, was served notice to appear at the ED headquarters in the national capital.

Initially, the ED had sum-moned Mufti for March 15 but it did not insist for her personal appearance at that time. There-after, she was summoned for March 22. Mufti, in her petition, said she has received summons from the ED under the provi-sions of the PMLA, purporting to call for 'evidence' on pain of punishment, whereas she is, to all intents and purposes, a sub-ject of investigation.

"She has not been informed if she is being summoned as an accused or as a witness. She has also not been informed of what she is being summoned in con-

nection with and the scheduled offence under the PMLA which gave rise to the proceedings in respect of which impugned summons has been issued to her. The petitioner is not the subject of investigation, nor is she an accused, in any of the scheduled offences to the best of her knowledge, the plea said.

It claimed that ever since Mufti was released from the pre-ventive detention following the formal abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, there have been a series of hostile acts by the State, against her, acquain-tances and old family friends, who have all been summoned by the ED and a roving inquiry about her personal, political and financial affairs was made, in the course of which their personal devices have been seized.

Earlier, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and advocate Amit Mahajan, representing the ED, had said there was no need to issue a formal notice to them as they are already appear-ing before the court and said they will file a short note on the issue of question of law.

Determined to protect legitimate rights in territorial waters: Rajnath NEW DELHI: The Indian Navy

is working on "tailor-made" solutions to help friendly coun-tries confront pressing chal-lenges in the maritime domain with a broader aim to emerge as a preferred security partner and make a real contribution for an open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, Navy Chief Admiral Karambir Singh said on Wednesday.

Without naming China, he also talked about some states applying "land-centric" territo-rial mindsets in the basic idea of global commerce in the Indi-Pacific with an attempt to seek greater domination and control that has created challenges to global rules.

In an address at a seminar, Admiral Singh said there has been a "day-to-day" competition for influence in the Indo-Pacific that brings with it attendant and evolving challenges, noting that the rules of game are "constantly changing".

He said the Indian Navy has prioritised certain elements in its efforts to play a more con-structive and stabilising role in the Indo-Pacific that including

working towards developing collective maritime competence in the region.

"Our Navy's endeavour is to help harness competencies collectively to tackle the com-mon challenges being faced. In this, creation of a participative inclusive ecosystem rather than a prohibitive elitist one has been our priority," he said.

He said the second element is to look outward and be ambi-tious in its engagement while the third one is to engage with part-ner nations to develop interop-erability and trust with an aim to come together in a "plug and play" fashion when needed.

Admiral Singh said the final element is to focus on the real problems being faced by regional nations on a day-to-day basis and help them with tailor-made solutions.

"For example, the island nations in the Indian Ocean Region, their economy is tour-ism-oriented. Their problems are of drug smuggling, human smuggling," he said.

"Therefore, as the Indian Navy, we are working to

develop tailor-made solutions to these problems. Only when we address the challenges that the nations in the region face, we can hope to emerge as a pre-ferred security partner in the region and make a real con-tribution towards a free, more open and increasingly inclusive region," Singh said.

The top Navy commander cautioned that any contest in the region will impact all other countries and not just the contenders as he called for a comprehensive approach by like-minded countries to deal with the emerging challenges.

"There is a danger of global commons turning into con-tested seas. Competition in the Indo-Pacific is becoming more diverse, involving levers of diplomacy, commerce, ideolo-gies, values, science and tech-nology apart from the military," he said. "If we are to ensure the security and safety of global commons, like-minded navies must come together to manage and maintain the global com-mons for prosperity," the Navy chief added. MPOST

‘Indo-Pacific witnessing day-to-day competition for influence’

HC issues summons to Ramdev in suit by docs over misinformation against allopathy

NIA court convicts 10, acquits one in 2013 Patna serial blasts

Filed plea in SC to transfer Mufti's petition in PMLA case, Centre tells HC

The high court listed the matter for further hearing on December 23

‘The nature of these challenges in the region has considerable trans-national implications which require a cooperative response’

‘There are three parts to the suit-- Coronil, defamation, and hesitancy against vaccination. The court may restrict notice to only defamation’

BULANDSHAHR (UP): After the medical report of a 13-year-old girl confirmed sexual assault, the charge of rape was added in the FIR by police here, an official said on Wednesday.

The minor was raped alleg-edly by her neighbour, who inflicted several injuries on her and tried to strangulate her.

Currently, the girl is under-going treatment at a hospital in Delhi.

The incident took place on October 15, when the rape survivor's parents had gone to work in the field and the girl was playing outside her home.

Around 12 noon, their neighbour, a 45-year-old man, took the girl inside the house and raped her.

On the basis of a statement from the minor's family, a case was registered in the matter at Ahmadgarh police station and the accused was arrested.

Senior Superintendent of Police Santosh Kumar Singh said the charge of rape was added in the FIR on Tuesday after the medical report con-firmed sexual assault.

A proposal was also pre-pared for giving financial assistance to the rape survi-vor's family under the Laksh-mibai scheme.

Delhi Commission For Women Chief Swati Maliwal on Tuesday had written to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, asking him to direct police to add sections of rape in the case. AGENCIES

UP: Medical report of

minor girl confirms

sexual assault OUR CORRESPONDENT

PANAJI: After several hoard-ings carrying pictures of Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee was defaced in Goa ahead of her visit to the coastal state, the party on Wednesday con-demned the act and claimed that it reflects BJP's culture of "intolerance".

Banerjee is scheduled to visit Goa on Thursday, ahead of the state Assembly polls due next year. Trinamool has already announced its decision to contest the state Assembly elections.

Speaking to media persons here on Wednesday, TMC's Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien said: "The only woman chief minister (in the country at present) has been insulted.

We all know this is not the cul-ture of Goa."

He claimed the BJP was damaging local businesses, as contractors will have to pay from their own pocket for all the vandalised hoardings.

The TMC leader said if the BJP wants to fight against his party, then it should do it polit-ically. Why don't you respond to the charge sheet placed before the public, he said refer-ring to the 10-point charge sheet released by the TMC ear-lier this week against the pres-ent BJP government in Goa as well as earlier dispensations.

TMC's Goa unit leader Yatish Naik claimed the act (of vandalising hoardings) reflects the BJP's "intoler-ant behaviour". "They have no track record of good gov-ernance," the BJP-appointed governor, Satya Pal Malik, also

said the party government in Goa indulged in corruption in everything," he added.

Former Goa governor Malik recently accused the state government of corrup-tion during the COVID-19 pandemic. There was corrup-tion in everything the Goa government did (during the COVID-19 pandemic). I was removed for my allegation of corruption against the Goa government, Malik, now the governor of Meghalaya, had alleged in a TV interview.

The BJP on Sunday claimed the Goa unit of the Trinamool Congress posted a cartoon on Twitter that showed party supremo Mamata Banerjee trying to crush Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi, Union Home minister Amit Shah and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant under her foot.

Posters with Mamata’s pics defaced ahead of her Goa visit

JAMMU: The army on Wednesday held wreath laying ceremonies at different forma-tions across the Jammu region, including the northern com-mand headquarters at Udham-pur, while observing the 75th Infantry day, a defence spokes-man said. The Infantry Day is observed as a remembrance of the first military operations carried out by independent India when the Indian army repelled the first attack on its soil on October 27, 1947 in the Kashmir valley.

The army organised a tradi-

tional wreath laying ceremony at the Dhruva War Memorial in Udhampur, where chief of staff, headquarters northern command Lieutenant General S Harimohan Iyer participated on behalf of Army commander, northern command, Lt Gen Yogesh Kumar Joshi.

Lt Gen Iyer appreciated all ranks and veterans of Infantry for their devotion to duty and indomitable spirit while work-ing under trying and challeng-ing conditions. He saluted their contributions and sacrifices to protect the territorial integrity

of the nation and fighting ter-rorism with unstinting resolve.

On this solemn day, the supreme sacrifices made by the Indian Army in defending the honour and integrity of the nation were remembered by all, the spokesman said.

At a separate function, the spokesman said Jammu-based Tiger Division observed he Infantry Day with tradi-tional solemnity. Major Gen-eral Neeraj Gosain, General Officer Commanding 'Tiger Division', laid a wreath at the 'War Memorial' in Satwari Can-

tonment here, the spokesman said, adding serving officers and all ranks of 'Tiger Division' attended the ceremony.

Similar events were also organised at respective Brigade Headquarters, the spokesman said.

To honour the supreme sac-rifice of the infantry in fight-ing the Pakistani raiders in 1947, Rising Star Corps also observed the day by organis-ing a wreath laying ceremony at 'War Memorial' in Yol can-tonment in Himachal Pradesh, the spokesman said. AGENCIES

Army observes infantry day in Jammu

TMC condemns act, blames BJP

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh PIC/PTI

PDP leader Mehbooba's Mufti

OUR CORRESPONDENT

PANAJI: Ahead of the visit of Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee to Goa, former vice-president of Congress in Goa Kishore Narve-kar along with a host of other Congress leaders joined TMC on Wednesday. Earlier, Luiz-inho Falerio, two-time Congress Chief Minister had joined TMC. He has been made the national vice-president of the TMC.

Banerjee, who is currently touring north Bengal, will leave for Goa on Thursday to take a stock of the situation there. Trinamool has decided to fight the state Assembly election in Goa scheduled in February 2022. Goa administration did not allow Trinamool Congress to hold a meeting on Monday without citing any cause.

About the joining of Narve-kar, veteran Trinamool leader and Lok Sabha MP Saugata Ro, who had been recently to Goa, said leaders and work-ers from different political par-ties had shown keen interest to join Trinamool. “Trinamool has not forced anyone to come to its fold, these leaders have shown interest to join TMC so the question of getting benefited

due to the joining of the leaders from other political parties does not arise,” he added.

Mohua Moitra, TMC Lok Sabha MP said no development had taken place in Goa for the past 20 years. “There is mount-ing unemployment and the con-dition of the local residents has become so bad that they are unable to buy even their own house. Rich people from other parts of the country are buying houses in Goa while the local people do not have the purchase power. The law and order situa-tion has also deteriorated under the BJP rule,” she remarked.

Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee is likely to go to Tripura in October to address a rally. The steering committee of Tripura Trinamool Congress held a meeting on Wednesday to prepare a roadmap that will be followed during the civic poll scheduled to be held in November.

Trinamool has decided to take part in the municipal elec-tion. Political experts doubted whether Biplab Deb admin-istration will allow Abhishek Banerjee to address a meeting. BJP continues to scare TMC supporters all over the state.

Goa: Ahead of Mamata’s visit, ex-Cong V-P joins TMC

When we talk about individu-als who shaped the history of

nineteenth-century Bengal, or India in the larger sense, many of us tend to forget one name – Sister Nivedita. Though hers is a renowned name, at least in Bengal, yet she is identified as a disciple of Swami Vive-kananda, who came to India and carried out some social activities. It is indeed unfortu-nate that someone like Nived-ita, who has influenced her contemporary Indian social, cultural and political life and also the minds and thoughts of leading Indian luminaries like Rabindranath Tagore, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh, has not been acknowledged in the way she deserved. Nived-ita came to India in 1898 and breathed her last in India in 1911. This 13-year stint of Nivedita’s Indian life made her love this country like her native land. She loved India and her people in the way as many natives would never do.

Margaret Elizabeth Noble’s transformation to Sister Nivedita was not just the Indi-anisation of an Anglo name; it was metamorphosis of spirit and mind of a personality who, in keeping with the meaning of her name ‘Nivedita’, dedi-cated her life and actions in contributing towards multi-farious aspects of Indian life. In her creation of ‘idea of India’ she dealt with subjects ranging from cultural history to civic nationalism; religious debates to women empowerment and education. Nivedita’s arrival to India almost coincided with the outbreak of plague in various parts of the coun-try. Nivedita not only actively participated in addressing the cause of the sufferers but also involved Rabindranath Tagore and Jagadish Chan-dra Bose. In so many words, Tagore applauded Nivedita for her catholicity towards the ail-ing population. The human-ism that she learnt from her master, Swami Vivekananda, glowed in her commitment

of benevolence towards the common lot. Nivedita’s Irish pedigree and the Irish strug-gle for independence had bred a sense of nationalism in her. This manifested in her dis-dain towards British imperial-ism. The exploitation that the British rule generated in India drew out a strong reaction from Nivedita. She made nota-ble value addition to the fields of action that figured in the early nationalist movement in India. Be it national education, be it the Swadeshi art and the industrial movement or be it providing succour to the revo-lutionary nationalists, Nivedita was part of everything. It is not within the knowledge of many people that she designed the first prototype of the National Flag, using two colours yel-low and red, with the ‘Vajra’ at the centre. It was hoisted in 1906 in Calcutta. She her-self embodied that thunder-like presence in the domain

of nationalist movement dur-ing her time. ‘The Statesman’ was a newspaper with an incli-nation towards British rule. However, from 1902 to 1906 during the editorship of Rat-cliff, The Statesman sang more in Indian tune, and this hap-pened largely due to Nivedita’s personal influence on Ratcliff. Nivedita undertook personal initiative in trying to save Aurobindo from the clutches of British Law. She remained actively involved in the polit-ical events of her time and engaged herself in fostering a sense of patriotism through her words and actions.

Sister Nivedita displayed commendable intellectual qualities. No wonder Rabi-ndranath Tagore, Dinesh Chandra Sen, Jagadish Chan-dra Bose were her personal friends. All these cult figures of Indian history found ade-quate cerebral reciprocation from Nivedita. It is known that

Tagore even wanted his chil-dren to be tutored by Nivedita. The teacher in Nivedita was always present. She used to teach in a school in Wimble-don and Swami Vivekananda had discovered her teaching prowess. Eventually, Nivedita opened a school in the Bag-bazar area in Calcutta. This school was to impart learning to girls from common families. She also emphasised the old Greek theory — ‘Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body’, thereby promoting physical exercise for the girl students along with self-defense skills. She introduced Vande Mataram to her school as a prayer. The school in its inauguration was blessed with the presence of Maa Sarada and Swami Vive-kananda. Through the pro-motion of female education, Nivedita attempted socio-eco-nomic upliftment of women. Nivedita was a multi-tasker. She heard Jagadish Chandra Bose at the Paris Science Con-gress in 1900. There, being impressed by Bose’s scientific acumen, Nivedita endeav-oured to promote Jagadish Chandra Bose’s international exposure and his pursuit in the field of scientific research. She used her personal influence in mobilising funds for Bose so that his research could not be impeded. Nivedita’s interest was not confined to science; she had a strong literary apti-tude with which she translated Tagore’s popular short story ‘Kabuliwala’ into English. It is indeed a great specimen of translation work which was sent to Rothenstein by Aban-indranath Tagore. It was an eye opener to the Western world as they felt the merit of Tagore. Nivedita was highly interested in Indian art. She urged the famous painter Nan-dalal Bose to visit the site of Ajanta and Ellora to cherish the glory of Indian art. Along with Abanindranath Tagore, Ananda Coomaraswamy and EB Havell, she was a part of the Bengal School of Art — formed to encourage Indian artists to rediscover the roots of their own artistic traditions.

Sister Nivedita made India her life’s mission and became an Indian nation builder. In this regard, one may aptly rec-ollect the words of President Ram Nath Kovind – “Sister Nivedita was part of this tra-dition, and came to India and to Swamiji for enlightenment. And yet she was different. She did not come and learn a little and leave. She learnt a lot and stayed on.’’

Swami Vivekananda could decipher in Margaret Eliza-beth Noble the spirit which could ameliorate the con-dition of women in India. After Swamiji’s death in 1902, Nivedita thought of translat-ing her ideals for nation-build-ing. She began channeling her efforts into introducing a conception of ‘nationality’ to India, instilling it in the hearts of people. She wrote profusely on Indian nationhood. She argued that India was a syn-thesis, and that the story of its analysed fragments — racial, lingual or political — could never be the story of India. In a lecture delivered in December 1902 in Madras (now Chen-nai), she said: “If India had no unity herself, no unity could be given to her’’. People who came in contact with Nived-ita had high opinions about her. To meet her, in Gokhale’s words, was like coming in con-tact with some great force of nature. The Tamil nationalist poet Subramaniam Bharati who met Nivedita once, con-sidered her as his guru for she showed him the form of Bharat Mata. In one of his last inter-views given to Rani Chanda in February 1941, Tagore spoke highly of Nivedita. He opined that Nivedita embraced the spirit of India. The ulti-mate eulogy came from the great poet when he referred to Nivedita as ‘Lokmata’. It is pertinent that historical evalu-ation be made about this great lady who, as a combination of a writer, social activist, nation-alist and humanist, gave her all to India.

The writer is an educator from Kolkata. Views

expressed are personal

Importance of water con-servation is gradually get-ting recognised by one and all. There is a reali-

sation that this aspect cannot be postponed anymore. Rec-ognising the gravity of the sit-uation, Government of India (GoI) launched ‘Catch the Rain’ campaign to prioritise and speed up water conserva-tion works.

When Mayur Dixit, a young IAS officer, got posted as Chief Development Officer in Almora district in Uttara-khand, he could discern the need for working towards reju-venation of river Kosi flowing in Kumaon region of the state. This river has been the lifeline of Almora town and many other adjoining towns and vil-lages. Rejuvenation of the river had also been the priority of the state government but was perhaps not taken up at the local level in the right earnest.

Even at this young age, Mayur realised that the plan will have to be a people’s cam-paign rather than a govern-ment programme. Hence, village representatives, SHG groups, schools, NGOs, armed forces and mahila- and yuvak mangal dals were involved right from the beginning. GIS technology was used to ensure efficiency and proper monitor-ing. Funds were arranged using convergence from schemes like MGNREGA and CAMPA. The adopted methodology entailed extensive plantation of broad-leaf trees and cre-ation of mechanical structures like infiltration trenches and holes, small ponds in the catch-ment area of river Kosi and its tributaries. It was evident that the river, not being glacier-fed, could be recharged only by

raising the groundwater level in the catchment area, thereby rejuvenating the streams and tributaries of the river. Millions of plants have been planted, along with creating trenches and other structures in this process which commenced in January 2018. The process is still on. This effort of the dis-trict administration has been recognised by the Government of India. The district received the National Water Award. It has also registered its name in Limca Book of Records for planting a maximum num-ber of trees in one hour across 110 villages. The results of the water conservation efforts have started to show up and the river has now recorded an increase in water flow. GB Pant Institute of Environmental Studies, located near Almora, has been tasked by the GoI to monitor and provide scientific support to the district admin-

istration. Future challenges are likely to continue. There will be challenges in sustaining the momentum and getting peo-ple’s support in maintaining water conservation-related activities. However, in view of the visible benefits accruing to all, there is a likelihood of con-tinued priority being accorded to water conservation-related schemes at the village level. For the same reason, it is also felt that the concerned depart-ments will remain motivated towards the task.

After getting transferred to Udham Singh Nagar District as Chief Development Officer, Mayur discovered that rejuve-nating water bodies appeared to be even more critical in this district. Udham Singh Nagar lies in the terai region and is also known as the wheat & rice bowl of Uttarakhand. Agricul-tural practices are water inten-sive in this area as most of the

irrigation is done through tube wells. This has led to a steep depletion of the groundwater table in recent years. So, the district administration decided to recharge the groundwater table by identifying and reju-venating village ponds across the district. More than 550 traditional ponds were iden-tified using revenue records, and joint teams of revenue, block, Panchayati raj and other departments were made to remove encroachments from these water bodies. Alongside, development plans were made for using MGNREGA and NRLM schemes. Ponds were cleaned, dug up before mon-soons and then were handed over to SHG groups for fish-eries, horticulture and other livelihood activities. Rainwa-ter now filled ponds which were once encroached. This has acted as a motivating factor for the team. Several challenges were faced during this cam-paign, including convincing farmers and villagers to give up encroached land for pond creation, excessive pollution and garbage dumping in village ponds, inadequate MNREGS labour rate and excessive supply of groundwater (due to numerous tube wells). The locals could not initially visualise the consequences of depletion of groundwater level. These were indeed major challenges. Regular monitor-ing and coordination from dis-trict administration, creating employment opportunities for local SHGs and use of technol-ogy in demarcation & map-ping helped overcoming these challenges.

Learning from his previous two experiences, when Mayur got posted as District Magis-

trate in Uttarkashi, he adopted a similar approach here as well. Two major rivers of India, Ganga and Yamuna, have their origins in the district. There are several high-altitude wet-lands and lakes in the dis-trict that store rainwater and recharge groundwater tables. However, on account of erratic rainfall, urbanisation and soil erosion, many of the streams which used to originate natu-rally in these mountains were either completely lost or their discharge had decreased sub-stantially. Mayur initiated Mis-sion Indravati in the district to rejuvenate the Indravati river. This river is a major tributary of river Bhagirathi (Ganga) but has seen reduced discharge in recent years. Work has begun in 10 villages and higher-reach forest areas from where the river originates. Construction of check dams, trenches, plan-tation and ponds is planned using GIS methodology. Meet-ings have been conducted in all villages and an implementation plan has been developed with Gram Panchayats themselves.

Mayur has demonstrated that a civil servant with vision, passion and meticulous plan-ning can deliver. Another remarkable feature of his style of functioning is taking all the stakeholders into confidence right from the planning stage itself. This makes them part-ners in the decision-making process, and makes execution of his ideas seamless. He is also making use of his learnings wherever he has got posted so far. What Mayur has achieved so early in his career is truly exemplary and inspiring. He presents a great example of Nexus of Good.

Views expressed are personal

7millenniumpost Editorial mpKOLKATA | THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021

SANDIP BANERJEE

Log on to write letters to the editor or send them to letter2editor.mp@gmail.com. You can also send your comments to The Editor,

Millennium Post, Pratap Bhawan, 5 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi 110 002

DearEditorThe entire Aryan Khan case drama being played out resembles a Bollywood film with the tagline ‘Don’t reveal the end.’ There are so many twists and turns in the story that one just doesn’t know how it is going to end. The electronic media and the investigating agencies have lost all their credibility through blatant disregard for the ethics of their respective professions. The public is left in the dark and will usually believe what they want to believe. It is no secret that drugs are consumed at many parties. What was it that made the NCB raid at this particular party on the luxury liner so prominent? The answer to this would reveal much. Allegations have been made against the Officer who was responsible for the raid. How much of it is true and how much will come into the public domain, only God knows!

The exposed benefits will prioritise water conservation at the village level

— ANTHONY HENRIQUES, MUMBAI via email

Sister Nivedita was a social activist, humanist, nationalist and a writer

EDITORIALStains that don’t wash away

It would seem that Facebook is looking for a rebrand-ing and transition away from being a social media com-pany to a metaverse. So, what is a metaverse? Well, to oversimplify, a metaverse is the supposed future of the

internet, a platform that acts as a digital realm of sorts, a place where digital and real spaces blend using technolo-gies like augmented reality. Different companies have dif-ferent ways to define it but it is essentially a way to connect with your tech and the internet in ways that were not even imaginable before. While all this is very exciting and mer-its its own discussion, the topic at hand is actually Facebook and its attempts to rebrand. So, what about it? Well, there is an innocent way of looking at this rebranding attempt. Face-book is essentially doing what many other tech companies have done before it. Google, for instance, reorganised itself under a holding company by the name of Alphabet to sig-nal that it was moving away from being just a search engine. With its host of internet services and products, Facebook could, presumably, be looking to do the very same as it takes a step away from being identified as just a social media plat-form. But take away those rose-tinted glasses and you realise that while the social media giant has been laying the ground-work for this transition for some time, it is also true that news of this metaverse comes at a time when Facebook could really use the rebranding. For some time now, Facebook has been caught up in a storm of its own making. Social media plat-forms, in general, are having a moment of reckoning world-wide as leaders realise the terrifying potential of the parallel universe these platforms create for their users. But Facebook, somehow or the other has always managed to lead the pack in controversies and whistleblower complaints. First, it was Cambridge Analytica, these days it is the Facebook papers. All in all, Facebook has been stuck with a reputation of being an organisation that feels too big to effectively oversee, one that prioritises its profits to the detriment of democracy and even the mental health of its users. From spreading misinfor-mation to body dysmorphia, Facebook does it all. It is not like the world at large didn’t know about all the things Facebook could be doing or could be responsible for before whistle-blower Frances Haugen. All she did was provide confirmation of sorts and context to understand just how bad the situation really is. Among other things, we recently learnt that Face-book trained its algorithms to give extra value to emoji reac-tions for posts as opposed to likes. The idea was that posts with plenty of emoji reactions are likely to keep viewers more engaged. Of course, it was realised that these emojis were fre-quently the sign of a post heavy in controversy, clickbait and misinformation. Essentially toxic posts elicit more clicks and Facebook was keenly aware of this. This means that not only was Facebook creating echo chambers of opinion like other social media groups, it was also creating an environment where the worst of these opinions would float to the top and perpetuated a cycle where people would almost self-radicalise by being constantly bombarded with similar content. Here’s a rather grim example of how this works. It has recently come to light that Facebook carried out an account test in India in 2019 to determine how its algorithms would affect people in the country. Within just three weeks, the account turned into a firestorm of beheadings, doctored images of Indian strikes on Pakistan and other jingoistic scenes of violence. For con-text, the test account used the profile of a 21-year-old woman living in Jaipur and hailing from Hyderabad. This test user only followed pages or groups recommended by Facebook or encountered through these recommendations. The rea-son why this happened beyond Facebook’s own algorithms at least partially lies in how lacking the company’s modera-tion attempts are worldwide. Another bit of information that made its way out to the media recently is that while the US comprises less than 10 per cent of Facebook’s user base, 84 per cent of the company’s moderation efforts in terms of global remit/language coverage was concentrated in America. The rest of the world has to make do with just a measly 16 per cent. To state the obvious, this clearly is not enough for a plat-form that has most of its user base spread across the world and has the sort of reach and influence that very few world governments could claim to match. For all its supposed noble intentions of bringing the world together, in practice, Face-book has contributed to the deeply polarising world we live in. In this post-truth era where we cannot even agree on the basic ground facts, Facebook has reaped a profit from every side. But hey, maybe this time will finally be the time when the governments of the world have had enough and they decide to start curbing the near-unlimited power of social media giants. Maybe this will be that moment but really, maybe it won’t and things will just continue as they always have. One thing is for certain, however. Try as he might, Mr Zuckerberg should know that there are some stains that you just can’t wash away with a simple rebranding.

Tweet of the day

MAHUA MOITRA@MahuaMoitra

“In the task of upholding of fundamental rights, the State cannot be an adversary.“

Thank you to SC for pointing this out & taking 1st step towards justice in Pegasus issue

Convincing farmers and villagers to give up encroached land for pond creation had been one of the many challenges faced by the officer

It is no wonder that Rabindranath Tagore, Dinesh Chandra Sen and Jagadish Chandra Bose were her personal friends. All these cult figures found adequate cerebral reciprocation from Niveditamillenniumpost.in

ANIL SWARUP

BOLLYWOOD SCRIPT

Nexus of GoodFruitful endeavour

A young IAS officer made water conservation a people’s campaign in districts of Uttarakhand, showcasing its benefits

Unsung protagonistSister Nivedita, who dedicated her all to positively influence Indian society and

the thoughts of India’s greatest sons, is still not identified independently

THE SHALIMAR WORKS(1980) LIMITED (WHOLLY OWNED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL)

Office: HRBC office compound, Munshi Premchand Sarani.,Kolkata-700021

e-mail:mdshalimarworks@gmail.com website:www.shalimarworks1980ltd.comNOTICE INVITING e-TENDER (ABRIGED)

NleT no. PUR/21-22/SB/029 dt.26.10.2021 Online e-Tender is invited by GM from eligible bidders for “Supply of Prime quality M.S. Plates and Angles”. Bid closing date (Online) is 02.11.2021 at 1PM. NieT details be obtained from https://wbtenders.gov.in millenniumpost

NO H ALF TR U THS

millenniumpost.in

CHANGE OF NAME

I, Shraddha Mangar, w/o Bikash Mangar, residing at Lower Bong-Busty, P.0. Kalimpong, Dist. Darjeeling. I declare that Sharaddha Mangar and Shraddha Mangar is the same and one identical person vide affidavit sworn before LD. Executive Magistrate, Siliguri, Dist Darjeeling.

8 millenniumpostWorldmpTHURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

US, China, Russia join Asia summit amid regional disputes

KUALA LUMPUR: President Joe Biden and China’s Premier Li Keqiang joined an annual summit of 18 Asia-Pacific nations by video Wednesday, as some regional leaders voiced concern about the sharpen-ing of competition between major powers over trade, Tai-wan, democracy and Beijing’s increasingly assertive actions in disputed territories.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also speak at the East Asia Summit, a wide-ranging forum on political, security and economic issues organized by the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The World Health Organi-zation is expected to brief the leaders on the pandemic, which has set back the economies of the 18 countries representing more than half of the world’s population and accounting for over 60% of global GDP.

A White House statement Wednesday said Biden will

reaffirm U.S. support for the ASEAN-led regional architec-ture and discuss his vision for working together with allies and partners to address issues facing the Indo-Pacific region. It was the first time since 2017 that a U.S. president is attend-

ing the summit, part of three-day high-level meetings hosted by Brunei, ASEAN’s chair this year.

During a separate meeting with ASEAN leaders Tuesday, Biden announced a $100 mil-lion initiative to beef up U.S.

engagement with the region in the face of China’s growth as a national security and eco-nomic adversary. Biden called the U.S. relationship with the bloc “essential.”

The funding will cover health spending, a new cli-

mate initiative, education and programs to bolster economic recovery.

“I want you all to hear directly from me the impor-tance the United States places on its relationship with ASEAN,” Biden said. “You can expect to see me showing up and reaching out to you.”

Australia announced a $93 million package to support security, climate and health efforts in Southeast Asia, while Morrison defended the new pact with the U.S. and UK., say-ing it does not change Austra-lia’s commitment to ASEAN or the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific — “indeed it rein-forces it.”

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said his coun-try shared serious concern with ASEAN about challenges to the free and open maritime order in the East and South China seas, according to Japan’s For-eign ministry. AGENCIES

WHO is expected to brief the leaders on the pandemic, which has set back the economies of 18 nations representing more than half of world's population

US and China sparring over Taiwan heats up anew

WASHINGTON DC: The United States and China are stepping up their war of words over Taiwan in a long-simmer-ing dispute that has significant implications for the power dynamic in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

Amid a surge in Chinese military activity near the island that China regards as a rene-gade province and has vowed to reclaim by force if necessary, Washington and Beijing have launched new campaigns for global support for their respec-tive positions, each using the stern and lofty language of sovereignty and international precedent. And neither is back-ing down.

While the disagreement over Taiwan isn't new and has long vexed relations between the countries, recent devel-opments suggest the two are coming closer to confrontation. Last week, President Joe Biden set off alarm bells in Beijing by saying the U.S. has a firm com-mitment to help Taiwan defend itself in the event of a Chinese attack.

China protested and the Biden administration sought to play down the comments. White House, State Depart-

ment and Pentagon officials all said the president did not mean to imply any changes in the U.S. one-China policy, which recog-nizes Beijing but allows infor-mal relations and defense ties with Taipei.

The officials took pains to say that America's com-mitment to Taiwan remains steadfast but continues to be guided by a policy of strate-gic ambiguity over military-related specifics that falls short of a treaty-enshrined mutual defense pact. Since then, how-ever, the administration has upped the ante on the diplo-matic front.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday publicly urged other members of the United Nations to reject Chi-na's assertion of absolute sov-ereignty over Taiwan and join the U.S. in supporting Taipei's independent participation in international organizations related to transportation,

health, climate change, culture and education.

As the international com-munity faces an unprecedented number of complex and global issues, it is critical for all stake-holders to help address these problems, Blinken said in a statement. This includes the 24 million people who live in Taiwan. Taiwan's meaningful participation in the UN sys-tem is not a political issue, but a pragmatic one.

He noted that Taiwan has been prevented from par-ticipating in meetings of the International Civil Aviation Organization despite being a major transit hub and the World Health Organization despite having fielded an effec-tive response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Taiwan's exclusion under-mines the important work of the UN and its related bodies, all of which stand to benefit greatly from its contributions, Blinken said.

That is why we encour-age all UN Member States to join us in supporting Taiwan's robust, meaningful participa-tion throughout the UN sys-tem and in the international community. AGENCIES

Nepal's Supreme Court Chief Justice Rana refuses to step downKATHMANDU: Nepal Supreme Court Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana has refused to resign from his post amidst allegations that he helped his brother-in-law secure a berth in the Sher Bahadur Deuba-led Cabinet, triggering an unusual judi-cial crisis.

A section of the Supreme Court justices has demanded Chief Justice Rana's resigna-tion while some lawyers have decided to boycott the apex court.

During a meeting with 15 apex court justices on Tues-day, Rana said that he is not going to step down just because voices were raised in the streets and in the media for him to quit the top post.

"Rana told the justices that he would rather face the constitutional procedure but won't quit the post," Supreme Court spokesperson Baburam Dahal told PTI.

"I will not step down under

any pressure but follow legal procedure if needed," Rana was quoted as saying by Dahal.

A section of lawyers has decided to boycott the Supreme Court while jus-tices are busy holding meet-ings, affecting hearings, just as there are thousands of cases pending.

The Nepal Bar Associa-tion has also warned to stage nationwide protests if Rana did not resign voluntarily.

Supreme Court Spokes-person Dahal, however, said

that some justices have started returning to their normal work from Wednesday.

According to the consti-tutional provision, 25 per cent of the lawmakers in the House of Representatives can file an impeachment motion against the Chief Justice and it requires a two-third majority vote to endorse the impeach-ment motion leading to the removal of the Chief Justice.

Rana faces accusation of entering an implied quid pro quo deal with the executive by seeking to induct his brother-in-law in the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba as a reward for inval-idating the move of former prime minister K P Sharma Oli's government to dissolve Parliament twice.

However, Rana has rejected the charges labelled against him by the Nepal Bar Association and some of the Supreme Court justices. AGENCIES

Human trafficking: UN, US sanction Libyan official

CAIRO: The United Nations Security Council and the United States have imposed sanctions on a Libyan official over the alleged abuse and torture of migrants in a detention center.

The Security Council and the U.S. said in separate state-ments late Tuesday that Osama al-Kuni is the de facto head of a detention center in the North African nation's west. Migrants there are said to have been sub-jected to torture, sexual and gen-der-based violence and human trafficking.

Libya emerged as a major conduit for African migrants hoping to reach Europe after a NATO-backed uprising top-

pled and killed the country's longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The country subsequently slid into chaos, with rival governments and parliaments based in its west-ern and eastern regions, each backed by different militias and tribes. The al-Nasr Mar-tyrs detention center is located in the western town of Zawiya, home of two of the country's most wanted human traffickers, Abdel-Rahman Milad, and mili-tia leader Mohammed Kachlaf.

Both Milad and Kachlaf were sanctioned by the Secu-rity Council in 2018 over alle-gations of human trafficking and abuse of migrants. AGENCIES

Democrats unveil billionaires’ tax as

Biden plan takes shape WASHINGTON DC: Push-ing past skeptics, Senate Dem-ocrats on Wednesday unveiled a new billionaires' tax proposal, an entirely new entry in the tax code designed to help pay for President Joe Biden's sweep-ing domestic policy package and edge his party closer to an overall agreement.

The proposed tax would hit the gains of those with more than 1 billion in assets or incomes of more than 100 mil-lion a year, and it could begin to shore up the big social ser-vices and climate change plan Biden is racing to finish before departing this week for global summits.

The new billionaires' pro-posal, coupled with a new 15% corporate minimum tax, would provide alternative rev-enue sources that Biden needs to win over one key Democrat, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Ari-zona, who had rejected the par-ty's earlier idea of reversing the Trump-era tax breaks on cor-porations and the wealthy to raise revenue.

Biden met late Tuesday eve-ning with Sinema and another Democratic holdout, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, at the White House.

No senator wants to stand up and say, Gee, I think it's just fine for billionaires to pay little or no taxes for years on end,' said Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, helming the new effort.

Biden and his party are zeroing in on at least 1.75 tril-lion in health care, child care and climate change programs, scaling back what had been a 3.5 trillion plan, as they try to wrap up negotiations this week.

Taken together, the new tax on billionaires and the 15% corporate minimum tax are designed to fulfill Biden's desire for the wealthy and big business to pay their fair share. They also fit his promise that

no new taxes hit those earn-ing less than 400,000 a year, or 450,000 for couples. Biden insists all the new spending will be fully paid for and not piled onto the national debt.

While the new tax pro-posals have appeared agree-able to Manchin and could win over Sinema, whose support is needed in the 50-50 split Sen-ate where Biden has no votes to spare, the idea of the billion-aires' tax has run into criticism from other Democrats as cum-bersome or worse.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he told Wyden the billionaires' tax may be more difficult to implement that the route his panel took in simply raising rates on corpo-rations and the wealthy.

Under Wyden's emerging plan, the billionaires' tax would hit the wealthiest of Americans, fewer than 800 people, starting in the 2022 tax year, according to a person familiar with the plan who insisted on anonym-ity to discuss it.

It would require those with assets of more than 1 billion, or three consecutive years of income of 100 million, to pay taxes on the gains of stocks and other tradeable assets, rather than waiting until holdings are sold.

A similar billionaires' tax would be applied to non-tradeable assets, including real estate, but it would be deferred with the tax not assessed until the asset was sold, though interest would have to be paid. AGENCIES

Sudan arrests 3 activist as international pressure

mounts on militaryCAIRO: Sudanese security forces detained three promi-nent pro-democracy figures, family members and activists said Wednesday, as interna-tional pressure mounted on the country's military to walk back the coup it staged earlier this week.

The overnight arrests in the capital Khartoum came a few hours after the military allowed deposed Prime Min-ister Abdalla Hamdok and his wife to return home.

Hamdok, a former U.N. economist, was detained along with many government offi-cials and political figures when the military seized power on Monday. The military takeover threatens to halt Sudan's fitful

transition to democracy which got under way after the 2019 ouster of long-time ruler Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist gov-ernment in a popular uprising.

The new strongman, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, has pledged to hold elections, as planned, in July 2023, and to appoint a technocrat govern-ment in the meantime. But crit-ics doubt the military is serious about eventually ceding control to civilian rule.

The coup came just weeks before Burhan was supposed to hand over the leadership of the top ruling body, the Sovereign Council, to a civilian.

The council is made up of civilians and members of the military. AGENCIES

Italy hosts a climate-focused G20AS GEOPOLITICS SHIFT

ROME: The leaders of Rus-sia and China aren't coming. Turkey nearly set off a diplo-matic incident on the eve of the meeting. And the United States, Australia and France will be at the same table for the first time since Washing-ton pulled the rug out from under Paris' 66 billion subma-rine deal Down Under.

A Group of 20 summit scheduled for this weekend in Rome - the first in-person gathering of leaders of the world's biggest economies since the COVID-19 pan-demic started - is not business as usual. That's especially true since as soon as the event ends, a bigger United Nations sum-

mit devoted to climate change begins in Glasgow, Scotland.

In many ways, the two-day G-20 meeting is serving as a Roman holiday preamble to the 12-day Glasgow summit,

with the climate dossier taking center stage at the new Nuvola (Cloud) convention center in the Italian capital's Fascist-era EUR neighborhood.

Some of the participating

presidents and prime minis-ters met at a COVID-focused Group of Seven summit in July, and some passed one another in the U.N. hallways during the General Assembly in New York last month. But this is the first time the leaders of countries that account for 75% of global trade and 60% of the world's population will be meeting as a group after nearly two years of virus-induced lockdowns.

While economic recov-ery is a top agenda item, host Italy hopes the leaders will set a shared, mid-century deadline to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and explore a commitment to reduce meth-ane emissions as well. AGENCIES

Nepal Supreme Court Chief Justice Cholendra Shumsher Rana

Joe Biden PTI

EU court fines Poland

€ 1 mn per day over judicial

reformsWARSAW: Poland must pay 1 million euros a day for main-taining a disciplinary cham-ber for judges, the European Union's top court said on Wednesday, in the latest epi-sode of a clash over the rule of law with implications for War-saw's future ties with the bloc.

The long-running conflict over Poland's judicial reforms that the bloc says undermine the independence of the courts deepened this year, raising ques-tions over the future place of the EU's largest eastern member in the union, Reuters reported.

"In the ruling issued today, the Vice-President of the Tri-bunal obliged Poland to pay...a penalty payment of EUR 1 mil-lion per day, counting from the date on which this ruling was delivered to Poland," the state-ment from CJEU read. AGENCIES

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALANNEXURE

NOTICE INVITING e-TENDER BDO, Baghmundi invites e-tender for one work. For more details visit wbtenders.gov.in Reference Tender Id: 2021_DM_348182_1

Sd/- Memo no 1546/ICA/PURU Block Development Officer Dt-27/10/2021 Baghmundi Development Block

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALDistrict Information & Cultural Officer, Murshidabad, Invites 2 (Two) separate online e-tender (2nd call) from bonafide, resourceful agencies for organizing various types of publicity works as follows..

Sl.No

NIT No Subject Tender ID

01 No. 483/INF/MSD Dt 26.10.2021

Publicity through temporary hoarding

2021_ICAD_348308_1

01 No. 484/INF/MSD Dt 26.10.2021

Publicity through mik-ing by e-Rickshaw

2021_ICAD_348302_1

Details of which can he downloaded from http://wbtenders.gov.in from27.10.2021 at6:00pm.Bidsubmissionenddate:09.11.2021 at5.00pm. Corrigendum if any would be published in website only

Sd/- District Information & Cultural Officer MurshidabadICA- T13228(4)/2021

ICA- T13234(2)/2021

ICA- T13243(3)/2021

ICA- T13254(3)/2021

ICA- T13257(2)/2021

ICA- T13260(3)/2021

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWEST BENGAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE N.I.T No.71 of AGM(Engg)-IV of 2021-2022

Sealed tenders are invited from bonafied, resourceful, experienced outsiders having experience in execution of similar nature of works from any Organization for the work- “i)Emergent work of repairing of MAR using interlocking concrete block at Chinar Park in New Town, Kolkata. (ii)Emergent work of repairing of MAR using interlocking con-crete block from Brand Factory to Noapara in New Town, Kolkata. (iii)Emergent work of Repairing of MAR using interlocking concrete block from Nawabpur More to Pechar More in New Town, Kolkata. (iv) Emergent work of Repairing of Service Road of MAR using interlocking concrete block infront of Spencer in New Town, Kolkata. (v)Emergent work of repairing of MAR using interlocking concrete block from Noapara More to Shopper Stop in New Town, Kolkata.” Last date of receiving application 02.11.2021 upto 12.00 P.M in the office of Additional General Manager (Engg)-IV, WB HIDCO.

Additional General Manager (Engg)-IVWB HIDCO Ltd.

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALWEST BENGAL HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE N.I.T No.72 of AGM(Engg)-IV of 2021-2022

Sealed tenders are invited from bonafied, resourceful, experienced outsiders having experience in execution of similar nature of works from any Organization for the work- “i)Emergent work of repairing of Service Road of MAR using interlocking concrete block Spencer to Brand Factory in New Town, Kolkata. (ii)Emergent work of repairing of MAR using interlocking concrete block at Sub CBD-II in New Town, Kolkata. (iii)Emergent work of Repairing of MAR using interlocking concrete block at Nawabpur More in New Town, Kolkata. (Part-A) (iv)Emergent work of Repairing of MAR using interlocking concrete block from Club Town to NPG Hotel in New Town, Kolkata. (v)Emergent work of repairing of MAR using interlocking concrete block from Chinar Park to Haldiram in New Town, Kolkata..” Last date of receiving application 03.11.2021 upto 12.00 P.M in the office of Additional General Manager (Engg)-IV, WB HIDCO.

Additional General Manager (Engg)-IVWB HIDCO Ltd.

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGALAbujhati-II Gram Panchayat

Kulingram Jamalpur Purba bardhamanNOTICE INVITING e-TENDER

The Prodhan Abujhati-II Gram Panchayat has invited e-Tender against Memon NO: 209 AGP-II/2021-22 Date : 26.10.2021 Tender Reference No:-AGP-II e- Tender.-04/2021-22 Date -26.10.2021 form the 15 AFC, untied Fund and IBRD Fund under this Gram Panchayat. Bid submission start date and time 27.10.2021 at 6.00 P.M Bid submission end date and time - 04.11.2021 upto 11.00 A.M.Bid Opening Date (Technical) - 08.11.2021 at 11.00 A.M. Details of Tender Notice May be seen at www.wbtenders.go.in

Sd/- Prodhan Abujhati-II Gram Panchayat

GOVERNMENT OF WEST BENGAL SILIGURI MAHAKUMA PARISHAD

Haren Mukherjee Road, Hakim Para Siliguri 734001

NIQ No.06-DE/SMP/2021-22( 2nd Call)

Tender Notice Quotation Vend-ing Machine & Incinator Machine under Siliguri Mahkuma Parishad.Bid Submission start date (Online): 29.10.2021 & Bid Submission end Date (online) : 05.11.2021. Details may be seen on office Notice Board and SMP Website www.smp.org.in.

Sd/- DE SMP

9millenniumpost Business mpKOLKATA | THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021

JHARIA MASTER PLAN

CORPORATE KALEIDOSCOPE

Melinda Pavek, Consul General of the United States of America in Kolkata with Sanjay Budhia , Past President Indian Chamber of Commerce & MD, Patton International Ltd and Rudra Chatterjee, Past President Indian Chamber of Commerce & MD , Luxmi Tea Company Pvt. Ltd at the Interactive Session organised by ICC.

Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) celebrated its 32 nd Raising Day in virtual mode on 23 October, 2021 at all its establishments. The Chief Guest on this occasion was Union Minister of Power R K Singh and Guest of Honour was Secretary (Power) Government of India, Alok Kumar. During the programme, R K Singh bestowed awards to employees under the Pratiphal scheme of POWERGRID for Best Regions, Sub-stations, Innovative Ideas etc.

NEW DELHI: ITC Ltd on Wednesday reported an increase of 10.09 per cent in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3,763.73 crore for the second quarter ended in September 2021 helped by a broad-based recovery across all operating segments after witnessing severe disruptions in the last quarter.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 3,418.69 crore during the July-September quar-ter of the previous fiscal, ITC said in a regulatory filing.

Its revenue from opera-tions was up 12.14 per cent to Rs 14,662.59 crore during the quarter under review, as against Rs 13,075.14 crore in the cor-responding period of the pre-

vious fiscal.“The quarter witnessed

broad-based recovery in sales across markets and channels. Reduction in the intensity of the pandemic along with a pick-up in the pace of vaccination led to improvement in the demand environment and consumer sen-timent during the quarter,” said ITC in a post earning statement.

However, unprecedented inflation in key input costs cou-pled with significant disrup-tions in global supply chains and logistics weighed on the oper-ating environment, it added.

Total expenses were at Rs 10,258.26 crore, up 11.93 per cent in Q2/FY 2021-22, as against Rs 9,164.68 core of the

corresponding period.In the July-September

quarter, ITC’s revenue from total FMCG business was Rs 10,263.67 crore, up 7.38 per cent, as against Rs 9,558.30 crore in the year-ago period.

The FMCG Businesses deliv-ered resilient performance growing on a high base quar-ter which witnessed an excep-tional surge in sales, said ITC.

The cigarettes business in Q2/FY2021-22 was up 10.52 per cent to Rs 6,219.84 crore as against Rs 5,627.67 crore in the year-ago period.

After significant disrup-tions in Q1, Cigarette volumes witnessed smart recovery with exit volumes at near pre-Covid

levels, said ITC adding it has a faster recovery in volumes ver-sus the first wave of the pan-demic. Exit volumes in the segment are near pre-Covid levels, the company said.

FMCG Others - segment revenue stood at Rs 4,043.83 crore, up 2.88 per cent, as against Rs 3,930.63 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal, it added.

Snacks, Confectionery, Beverages performed well as Discretionary/’Out-of-Home’ categories recorded strong growth while staples and con-venience foods witnessed mod-eration on a high base of Q2 FY21 while well-above pre-Covid period. PTI

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday said it plans to allow retail sale of small LPG cylinders as well as offer finan-cial services through fair price shops as part of its measures to enhance the financial viability of these outlets.

These issues were discussed in a virtual meeting with state governments chaired by Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey.

Representatives from the ministries of electronics and IT; finance; and petroleum and natural gas also attended the meeting.

Officials from Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) as well as CSC e-Gov-ernance Services India Limited (CSC) were also present.

After the meeting, the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry said in a statement: “Proactive measures to be taken to enhance financial viability of FPS. ...Plan of retail selling of small LPG cyl-inders through FPS in the anvil.”

Representatives from oil marketing companies (OMCs) appreciated the proposal for retail selling of small LPG cyl-inders through fair price shops (FPS), also called ration shops.

OMCs said the necessary support would be provided for

the same in coordination with interested state/UT govern-ments, it added.

In the meeting, the food sec-retary stressed on the need for taking proactive measures for enhancing the financial viabil-ity of FPSs.

The state governments said the collaboration with com-mon service centres (CSC) will increase the viability of FPS.

They also mentioned that they would coordinate with CSC to review feasibility according to local requirements.

On the proposal to offer financial services via FPS, repre-sentatives from the Department of Financial Services (DFS) informed that the necessary support would be provided for the same in coordination with interested states.

The government is planning to extend MUDRA loans to FPS dealers for capital augmenta-

tion, the statement added.The food secretary asked

states to take up these initia-tives and tailor them to suit their requirements.

He advised CSC to conduct separate workshops / webinars with different groups of states and union territories to provide sensitisation on potential ben-efits, capacity building of FPS and assist them in implemen-tation of these initiatives.

Further, the secretary advised the states to conduct continuous awareness and out-reach campaigns simultaneously to sensitise FPS dealers on the benefits of these initiatives.

In a series of tweets, Food and Consumer Affairs Minis-ter Piyush Goyal said, “Plan for retail selling of LPG cylinders through FPS on anvil. States/UTs to sensitise the FPS deal-ers on the same.”

Goyal said his ministry calls

for taking proactive measures to enhance the financial viabil-ity of FPS.

There are around 5.26 lakh fair price shops in the

country through which sub-sidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act are being distributed to the poor beneficiaries.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The government on Wednesday asked ministries and departments to clear dues of debt-laden Air India imme-diately and henceforth purchase tickets only in cash.

The government earlier this month decided to sell Air India to Talace Pvt Ltd, a unit of the holding company of salt-to-software conglomerate Tata group, for Rs 18,000 crore.

The Department of Expen-diture, under the Finance Min-istry, in a 2009 order, had said that in cases of air travel (both domestic and international), including LTC where the Gov-ernment of India bears the cost of air passage, the officials may travel only by Air India.

The Expenditure Depart-ment said the process of disin-vestment of Air India and Air India Express is ongoing, and the airline has stopped extend-ing credit facilities on account of air tickets.

“Therefore, all Ministries/Departments are directed to clear Air India dues imme-diately. Air tickets from Air India may be purchased in cash till further instructions,” the

department said in an office memorandum.

It also directed the minis-tries/departments to alert its subordinate offices/institutes under its administrative con-trol for compliance to this office order.

On October 25, the gov-ernment signed the share pur-chase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of national carrier Air India. Tatas will now seek various regulatory clearances before the handover of the air-line by December end.

The deal involves a 2,700 crore cash payment and take-over of the airline’s Rs 15,300 crore debt.

The government is divesting

its 100 per cent ownership of Air India and Air India Express along with its 50 per cent stake in ground-handling company AISATS.

Tatas beat the Rs 15,100-crore offer by a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh and the reserve price of Rs 12,906 crore set by the gov-ernment for the sale of its 100 per cent stake in the loss-mak-ing carrier.

As of August 31, Air India had a total debt of Rs 61,562 crore. And 75 per cent of this debt or Rs 46,262 crore will be transferred to a special purpose vehicle AIAHL before handing over the loss-making airline to the Tata Group.

NEW DELHI: Cooking gas LPG prices may be hiked next week after under-recovery on the fuel widened to over Rs 100 per cylinder, sources said insisting that the rate hike, including the quantum of increase, is dependent on government permission.

If allowed, this will be the fifth increase in cooking gas rates across all categories households using subsidised gas for cooking and heating purposes, non-subsidised fuel and industrial-sized gas.

LPG rates were last hiked by Rs 15 per cylinder on October 6, taking the total increase in rates since July to Rs 90 per 14.2-kg cylinder.

Sources with direct knowledge of the matter said state-owned oil marketing companies have not been allowed to align retail selling price with the cost, and no government subsidy has so far been approved to bridge

the gap. The under-recovery or

losses on LPG sales have mounted to over Rs 100 per cylinder after international energy prices soared to multi-year high, they said.

While Saudi LPG rates have jumped by 60 per cent to $800 per tonne this month, international benchmark Brent crude oil is trading at $85.42 per barrel.

The government last year eliminated subsidies on LPG by bringing retail prices at par with the cost through peri-odic hikes. But, unlike petrol and diesel, whose pricing has been decontrolled, the gov-ernment has not officially announced deregulation of LPG rates.

“So far, there is no indica-tion that the compensation or subsidy will be restored as the gap between cost and retail price has widened,” the source said. MPOST

Govt plans to allow small LPG cylinder sale at ration shops

Centre is also planning to offer financial services through fair price shops as part of its measures to enhance their financial viability

Cooking gas LPG prices may be hiked next week

Clear Air India dues, govt asks ministries, depts

Government has also asked the ministries and depart-ments to purchase tickets only in cash from now onwards

NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries Ltd firm Reli-ance New Energy Solar has offered Rs 375 per share to acquire 4.91 crore shares of Sterling and Wilson Solar Ltd (SWSL) for over Rs 1,840 crore.

The 4.91 crore shares con-stitute 25.9 per cent equity stake or the entire public holding in Sterling and Wil-son Solar Ltd, Sterling and Wilson Solar said in a regula-tory filing.

Apart from Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), the other Reliance Group firms which would be per-

sons acting in concert (PAC) are Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and Reliance Ventures Ltd, according to the draft let-ter of open offer.

As per the filing, Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd has issued a “draft letter of offer for open offer for acquisition of up to 4,91,37,420 fully paid-up equity shares of face value of Rupee one each represent-ing the entire public share-holding constituting 25.90 per cent of the emerging Voting Capital of Sterling and Wilson Solar Ltd...”

The shares will be acquired from the public sharehold-

ers by Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd together with Reli-ance Industries Ltd (PAC 1) and Reliance Ventures Ltd (PAC 2), the regulatory filing added.

On October 10, the company had announced that RNESL had executed definitive agreements with Shapoorji Pallonji and Com-pany Private Ltd (SPCPL), Khurshed Daruvala and Ster-ling and SWSL to acquire 40 per cent stake post-money in SWSL through a series of transactions.

RNESL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RIL. PTI

Reliance Group firm offers ̀ 375/share to acquire 4.91 crore shares of SWSL

NEW DELHI: The government has received a final dividend of Rs 6,665 crore from privatisa-tion-bound Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) for the 2020-21 fiscal, DIPAM Sec-retary Tuhin Kanta Pandey said on Wednesday.

“Govt received final divi-dend of Rs 6,665 crore from BPCL for the FY 2020-21. This includes special dividend on account of gains especially on sale of BPCL’s stake in Numa-ligarh Refinery in March 2021,” DIPAM Secretary tweeted.

In March, BPCL had sold its entire 61.5 per cent stake in Numaligarh Refinery in Assam to a consortium of Oil India Ltd and Engineers India and the Assam government for Rs 9,876 crore. Vedanta Group and pri-vate equity firms Apollo Global and I Squared Capital’s India unit Think Gas have put in an expression of interest for buying the government’s entire 52.98 per cent stake in BPCL. PTI

Govt gets `6,665 crore

dividend from BPCL for FY21

ITC profit rises 10% to `3,763.73 cr in 2nd qtr

NEW DELHI: Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi on Wednesday chaired a meeting of the min-istry’s Parliamentary Consulta-tive Committee to discuss the way ahead for the Jharia Mas-ter Plan.

Members of Parliament participated in the consulta-tive committee meeting.

During the presentation, it was informed that due to unscientific mining in the pre-nationalisation period, mining areas in the Jharia coalfield in Jharkhand have faced prob-

lems of fire and subsidence. Now, these areas fall in the leasehold regions of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), a Coal India arm.

“As an outcome of WP(C) No. 381/97 filed by late Harad-han Roy, Ex-MP in 1997 in the...Supreme Court of India, a master plan for dealing with fire, subsidence and rehabili-tation in Jharia was approved on August 12, 2009, by the Government of India with the implementation period of 10 years and the pre-implementa-

tion period of two years.“The implementation

period ended in August 2021,” the coal ministry said in a statement.

As a result of fire control measures taken by BCCL, the fire area is continuously decreasing. Currently, as per the National Remote Sens-ing Centre (NRSC) surveys in 2021, fire sites have been reduced to 18 sites covering 1.8 sq km from the initial 70 sites covering an area of 17.32 sq km. PTI

Coal Minister chairs Parl panel’s meet to discuss way ahead

‘The implementation period ended in August 2021,’ the Coal Ministry said in a statement

10 millenniumpostBusinessmpTHURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

NEW DELHI: The country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki India on Wednesday reported a 66 per cent decline in consoli-dated net profit at Rs 487 crore in the second quarter ended September 30, 2021, impacted by the ongoing semiconductor shortage and increase in com-modity prices.

The company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 1,420 crore in the second quar-ter of last fiscal, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.

Consolidated revenue from operations stood at Rs 20,551 crore in the second quarter, as compared to Rs 18,756 crore in the year-ago period, it added.

Total vehicle sales were down 3 per cent at 3,79,541 units in the second quarter, as against 3,93,130 units in the corresponding period last fis-cal, it said. Domestic sales were at 3,20,133 units in the second quarter, as against 3,70,619 units in the year-ago period.

Exports were, however, the highest ever at any quarter in the company’s history at 59,408

units in the second quarter, as compared to 22,511 units in the same period last fiscal.

An estimated 1.16 lakh vehicles could not be produced owing to the electronics com-ponent shortage mostly cor-responding to the domestic models, the company said.

Maruti Suzuki India further said it had more than 2 lakh pending customer orders at the end of the quarter for which it is making all efforts to expedite deliveries. “This quarter was also marked by an unprecedented increase in the prices of com-modities like steel, aluminium and precious metals within a span of one year.

“The company made max-imum efforts to absorb input cost increases offsetting them through cost reduction and passed on minimum impact to customers by way of car price increase,” it said adding as a result there was a drop in its net profit. In the first half of the fiscal year ended September 30, the company sold a total of 7,33,155 units with domestic sales at 6,28,228 units. Exports in this half year were at 1,04,927 units as compared to 32,083 units in the same period last fiscal, the company said, adding overseas shipments in the first half this year exceeded the full year sales of last year. PTI

MUMBAI: The country’s for-eign exchange reserves surged by $58.38 billion in April-Sep-tember 2021 to $635.36 billion, says an RBI report released on Wednesday.

The forex reserves were at $576.98 billion at end-March 2021.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) publishes half-yearly reports on management of for-eign exchange reserves. These reports are prepared half yearly with reference to the position as at end-March and end-Sep-tember each year.

The report released on Wednesday is 37th in the series and is with reference to the foreign exchange reserve position as of end-September

2021. “During the half-year period under review, reserves increased from $576.98 bil-lion as at end-March 2021 to $635.36 billion as at end-Sep-tember 2021, the report said.

Movements in the FCA occur mainly on account of purchase and sale of foreign exchange by the RBI, income arising out of the deploy-ment of the foreign exchange reserves, external aid receipts

of the Central government and changes on account of revalu-ation of the assets, the report said.

As of end-September 2021, out of the total FCA of $573.60 billion, $383.74 bil-lion was invested in securities, $147.86 billion was deposited with other central banks and the BIS and the balance $42.00 billion comprised deposits with commercial banks overseas, it said.

At the end of June 2021, the foreign exchange reserves cover of imports decreased to 15.8 months from 17.4 months at end-March 2021.

The ratio of short-term debt (original maturity) to reserves, which was 17.5

per cent at end-March 2021, declined to 16.8 per cent at end-June 2021.

The ratio of volatile capi-tal flows (including cumulative foreign portfolio inflows and outstanding short-term debt) to reserves declined from 69 per cent at end-March 2021 to 65.5 per cent at end-June 2021, the report said.

As at end-September 2021, RBI held 743.84 metric tonnes of gold.

“While 451.54 metric tonnes of gold is held over-seas in safe custody with the Bank of England and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), 292.30 tonnes of gold is held domestically,” the report said. PTI

BEIJING: US regulators are expelling a unit of China Tele-com Ltd., one of the coun-try’s three major state-owned carriers, from the American market as a national security threat amid rising tension with Beijing.

China Telecom (Ameri-cas) Corp. is required to stop providing domestic interstate and international service in the United States within 60 days, under an order approved Tues-day by the Federal Commu-nications Commission. The FCC cited the danger that Bei-jing might use the company to

eavesdrop or disrupt US com-munications and “engage in espionage and other harmful activities against the United States.

The Biden administration has extended efforts begun under then-President Donald Trump to limit access to US technology and markets for state-owned Chinese compa-nies due to concern they were security risks or helping with military development.

China Telecom is among companies that were expelled from US stock exchanges under an order by Trump barring

Americans from investing in them.

The FCC said in 2019 that due to security concerns it planned to revoke licenses

granted nearly two decades ago to China Telecom and another state-owned carrier, China Unicom Ltd. It rejected a license application by the third carrier, China Mobile Ltd.

“China Telecom Americas’ ownership and control by the Chinese government raise sig-nificant national security and law enforcement risks,” said an FCC announcement.

The company’s conduct and communications to US govern-ment agencies “demonstrate a lack of candor, trustworthiness and reliability,” the FCC said, without giving details.

The Chinese government has said it would take steps to protect its companies but has yet to announce any retalia-tion over their status in the US market.

The telecom companies are on a US government blacklist of entities deemed by the Pen-tagon to be involved in military development.

Others include state-owned oil companies, suppliers of pro-cessor chips and video tech-nology and construction, aerospace, rocketry, shipbuild-ing and nuclear power equip-ment companies. AGENCIES

OUR CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The income tax department has expanded the list of high-value financial trans-actions which would be avail-able to taxpayers in their form 26AS by including details of mutual fund (MF) purchases, foreign remittances, as well as information in ITRs of other taxpayers. Form 26AS is an annual consolidated tax state-ment that can be accessed from the income-tax website by tax-payers using their Permanent Account Number (PAN).

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on October 26 issued an order under Section 285BB of the I-T Act expand-ing the scope of information reported in new Form 26AS.

Additional information prescribed includes foreign remittance made by any per-son through an authorised dealer, breakup of the salary with deductions claimed by the employee, information in ITR of other taxpayers, interest on Income Tax Refund, informa-tion published in Statement of Financial Transactions.

Also, off market transac-tions reported by depository/ registrar and transfer agent, information about dividend of mutual fund reported by RTA, and information about purchase of mutual fund reported by RTA

too would be included in Form 26AS.

The CBDT authorized “Director General of Income-tax (Systems) to upload infor-mation...in her/his possession, in the Annual Information Statement in Form 26AS in the electronic filing account reg-istered by the assessee in des-ignated portal, within three months from the end of the month in which the informa-tion is received by her/him.”

The Budget 2020-21 had introduced a new Section 285BB in the I-T Act, to revamp Form 26AS to an ‘Annual Informa-tion Statement’ which apart from TDS/ TCS details, would contain comprehensive infor-mation of specified financial transactions, payment of taxes, demand/ refund and pending/completed proceedings under-

taken by a taxpayer in a par-ticular financial year that has to be mentioned in income tax returns.

Following that, in May last year, the Income Tax Depart-ment had notified the revised Form 26AS, including infor-mation on high-value financial transactions undertaken during a financial year, a move which also facilitated voluntary com-pliance and ease of e-filing of I-T returns.

With this October 26 order, the list of details to be avail-able in Form 26AS has been expanded further. AMRG & Associates (Director Direct & International Tax) Om Rajpuro-hit said the additional informa-tion to be loaded on the Annual Information Statement in Form 26AS would promote ease of faceless digital assessments.

“Even though additional tax contributions from taxpayer’s would be insignificant, cumu-lative effect would be notewor-thy. This change will push all the taxpayers towards a precise and accurate self-declaration of income earned,” Rajpuro-hit added. Nangia & Co LLP Partner Shailesh Kumar said the new Form 26AS will now have details about foreign remit-tances made by taxpayer, as

reported by Authorized Dealer in Form 15CC, more compre-hensive details about allow-ances, deductions claimed by taxpayers in respect of their sal-ary income as reported to the employer. “This new reporting in Form 26AS will help both tax-payers as well as tax authorities in assessing a taxpayer’s profile and bring better flow of infor-mation between taxpayer and the tax authorities.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Market benchmarks closed in the red for the first time this week on Wednesday amid a bearish trend overseas and volatility ahead of expiry of monthly derivatives contracts.

A depreciating rupee and mixed corporate results also took a toll on sentiment, trad-ers said.

Snapping its two-session ris-ing streak, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed 206.93 points or 0.34 per cent lower at 61,143.33.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slipped 57.45 points or 0.31 per cent to 18,210.95.

Axis Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, tanking 6.52 per cent, despite reporting an over 86 per cent jump in stand-alone net profit at Rs 3,133.32 crore for the September quarter.

Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, HUL, Tata Steel and NTPC were among the other laggards.

On the other hand, Asian Paints, Sun Pharma, Infosys, SBI, UltraTech Cement, Bharti Airtel and HCL Tech were among the gainers, climbing up to 4.42 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki closed mar-ginally higher after posting a 66 per cent decline in consoli-dated net profit at Rs 487 crore for the second quarter, impacted by the ongoing semiconductor shortage and increase in com-modity prices.

“Echoing weak global senti-ments, domestic indices slipped into negative terrain in today’s choppy trade. Bleeding finan-cial stocks dragged the market

despite improvements in asset quality and favourable results.

“Stagflation worries and flare-up in US-China ten-sions forced global investors to trade cautiously ahead of the announcement of another batch of Q2 corporate earnings,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Ajit Mishra, VP - Research, Religare Broking, said, “Markets are closely watching earnings for cues and we’ll see the reac-tion to the numbers of select index majors in early trade on Thursday. Besides, volatility is expected to remain high due to the scheduled monthly deriva-tives expiry.”

Sectorally, BSE metal, bankex, energy, oil and gas and finance indices lost as much as 1.82 per cent, while IT, teck, healthcare and telecom closed higher.

Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices advanced up

to 0.30 per cent.The global equity rally

stalled amid ratcheting up of US-China tensions and con-cerns over the Chinese property market, even as tech giants like Alphabet and Microsoft contin-ued to post stellar results.

In Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul ended with losses.

Stock exchanges in Europe were also trading on a negative note in the afternoon session.

Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slumped 1.09 per cent to $84.72 per barrel.

The rupee weakened by 7 paise to end at 75.03 against the US currency on Wednesday amid a strong greenback in the overseas market.

Foreign institutional inves-tors remained in selling mode, offloading shares worth Rs 2,368.66 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

NEW DELHI: Refunds of over Rs 1,02,952 crore have been issued to the taxpay-ers during the current finan-cial year, the CBDT said on Wednesday.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) frames policy for the Income Tax Department.

This figure includes income tax refunds of Rs 27,965 crore in 76,21,956 cases and corporate tax refunds of Rs 74,987 crore in 1,70,424 cases, according to an official Twitter post.

“CBDT issues refunds of over Rs 1,02,952 crore to more than 77.92 lakh taxpayers from 1st April, 2021 to 25th October, 2021.” PTI

CBDT expands Form 26AS to include foreign payments, MF

Form 26AS is an annual consolidated tax statement that can be accessed from the income-tax website by taxpayers using their PAN

NEW DELHI: The income tax Department has enabled the tax audit utility form on its portal for financial year 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Under the I-T Act, tax-payers are required to get their accounts audited if the sales, turnover or gross receipts of business exceed Rs 10 crore, while in case of professionals, the limit was over Rs 50 lakh in 2020-21 (AY 2021-22).

The last date for filing the tax audit report for the 2020-21 fiscal is January 15, 2022.

For fiscal 2019-20 i.e. AY 2020-21, limit was Rs 5 crore for businesses and Rs 50 lakh

for professionals and due date for original tax audit report was January 15, 2021.

However, companies can still file the revised tax audit report for that year to rectify errors.

Nangia & Co LLP Direc-tor, Audit & Assurance, Shalu Kedia said the corpo-rate assessees did not want to wait until due date which is falling in January for tax audit filing for AY 2021-22 can now proceed with their tax audit filings followed by corporate tax returns for Assessment Year (AY) 2021-22 (pertaining to fiscal 2020-21). MPOST

I-T dept enables tax audit utility form for FY20, FY21

Markets bleed as indices end in red for first time this week

Rupee falls 7 paise to end at 75.03 against US dollar

NEW DELHI: GST officers have arrested three persons for running fake firms and evad-ing GST of over Rs 48 crore, the Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.

The Gurugram Zonal Unit of the Directorate General of GST Intelligence has arrested three persons under the provi-sions of the GST Act on charges of running multiple fake firms on the strength of fake docu-ments in two different cases.

Two persons were arrested from Delhi on October 5 and 9, on charges of orchestrating a fake billing racket involving more than 20 fake firms where more than Rs 22 crore of fraudu-lent input tax credit was taken. Both persons were arrested and produced before CMM, Delhi, and were subsequently sent to 14 days Judicial Custody.

In another case of fake bill-ing, a Haryana resident was arrested. He was found to be in possession of a huge cache of incriminating documents like fake stamps of Government Departments, cheque books and ATMs of multiple fake firms, toll receipt book, fictitious trans-porters booklets etc. The same were being used to show evi-dence of fake supply of goods on which fake input tax credit was generated and passed on through these slew of fake firms.

Based on the evidence, the person was arrested on October 23, 2021 under the provisions of the GST Act on charges for defrauding the govt of more than Rs 26 crore of GST. PTI

NEW DELHI: Aviation regu-lator DGCA will conduct on-demand online exams to grant licenses to pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers from the next month onwards, the regulator said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Online On-Demand Exam (OLODE) will be in addition to the existing regu-lar online exams that are taken four times a year by the Direc-torate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). “The first session of the monthly OLODE is initially planned at Delhi which will be extended to the metro cities subsequently,” the DGCA said in the statement. During the

first OLODE session, 720 seats for aircraft maintenance engi-neers and 1200 seats for pilots were being made available to the candidates on first-come-first-serve basis, it said.

The candidates while apply-ing for the OLODE could select date and time among the avail-able slots of the examinations

days to appear as per his or her choice, it said. The DGCA expressed hope that the intro-duction of OLODE will increase the frequency of the required licensing examinations and will provide more opportunities to the aspiring candidates.

“This will also facilitate those candidates who were affected due to the Covid-19 pandemic during the last 2 years.

“Further, this OLODE is a step forward towards the government’s commitment to promote the growth of FTOs (Flying Training Organisa-tions) in the country and ease of doing business,” the regulator added. PTI

MSI Q2 net dips 66% to `487 cr as chip shortage, rising commodity prices weigh on production

DGCA to conduct on-demand license exams for pilots, engineers

GST officers arrest 3 people

for running fake firms, evading `48 crore GST

US orders Chinese phone carrier out of market‘China Telecom Americas’ ownership and control by the Chinese government raise

significant national security and law enforcement risks,’ said an FCC announcement NEW DELHI: Markets regula-tor Sebi has relaxed the frame-work governing the issue of shares with superior voting rights (SR shares), a move that will help new-age technology companies.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said pro-moters who have a net worth of over Rs 1,000 crore can have superior voting rights in their companies, raising it from the current Rs 500 crore.

“The net worth of the SR shareholder, as determined by a registered valuer, shall not be more than Rs 1,000 crore,” Sebi said in a notification on Tuesday.

Explaining further, the reg-ulator said while determining

the individual net worth of the SR shareholder, his invest-ment/ shareholding in other listed companies shall be con-sidered, but not that of his share-holding in the issuer company.

In addition, the minimum gap between issuance of SR shares and filing of Red Herring Prospectus has been reduced to three months from the existing requirement of six months.

Market participants are of the view that certain aspects of the current framework on SR shares are onerous, which delays such issuer companies from raising funds from capital mar-kets. The regulator had intro-duced a superior voting rights framework in 2019 specifically

for issuer companies intensive in the use of technology.

The framework allows the issuance of SR shares to pro-moters/ founders holding an executive position in the com-pany desirous of listing on the mainboard.

It also has checks and bal-ances such as coattail provi-sions i.e. matters in which SR shares will have the same rights as that of ordinary shares and sunset clause i.e. time period until which such an SR share-holder will enjoy superior vot-ing rights.

To give effect to this, Sebi has amended ICDR (Issue of Capital and Disclosure Require-ments) rules. PTI

FCC said in 2019 that due to security concerns it planned to revoke licenses granted nearly 20 years ago to China Telecom and China Unicom Ltd

Sebi eases eligibility criteria related to superior voting rights shares

‘I-T refunds of over ̀ 1 lakh cr issued during FY22 so far’MUMBAI: State-owned Indian

Overseas Bank (IOB) reported over two-fold jump in its stand-alone profit after tax to Rs 376 crore for the September quarter as asset quality improved.

The lender had reported a standalone profit of Rs 148 crore in the year-ago period. Last month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had taken the Chen-nai-based bank out of its Prompt Corrective Action framework.

There has been an increase in all the relevant financial parameters during the quar-ter. We have seen a reduction in gross and net non-perform-ing loans (NPAs), its Manag-ing Director and CEO Partha Pratim Sengupta told reporters.

Net interest margin (NIM)

declined to 2.43 per cent from 2.57 per cent. Interest income stood at Rs 4,254 crore for the quarter against Rs 4,363 crore in the same period of the pre-vious fiscal.

During the quarter, GNPA was reduced by Rs 286 crore. GNPA ratio improved to 10.66 per cent from 13.04 per cent. Net NPA has stood at 2.77 per cent against 4.30 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Fresh slippages during the quarter stood at Rs 1,400 crore. Of this, close to 70 per cent came from three companies, includ-ing two from Srei Group firms. It has an exposure of Rs 650 crore to the two Srei Group companies and has declared them as NPAs. PTI

IOB’s Q2 net jumps over 2-fold to `376 cr

Forex reserves rise by $58.38 billion in March-Sept 2021 period to $635.36 billion: RBI report

11millenniumpost Sport mpKOLKATA | THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021

England crush Bangladesh by 8 wickets, make two in two

ABU DHABI: England dished out a thoroughly clinical dis-play with both the bat and the ball to steamroll Bangladesh by eight wickets in a Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.

Explosive opener Jason Roy anchored the paltry 125-run chase, with a 38-ball 61 (5x4, 3x6) to make his 50th T20I appearance memorable as Eng-land cantered home in just 14.1 overs to give their net run rate a huge boost.

Dawid Malan remained unbeaten on 28, while Jonny Bairstow (8 not out) finished off the chase, pulling Shoriful Islam for a boundary.

With two wins in a row, England now lead Group 1 table with four points.

Defending a below-par total, Bangladesh never showed any aggressive intent and their bowlers lacked discipline.

On a two-paced pitch, their pacers, led by Mustafizur Rah-man, were guilty of bowling short as the England opening duo of Roy and Jos Buttler (18) never had any trouble, cruising to 37 for no loss in four overs.

Left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed gave the much needed breakthrough by dismissing Buttler but Roy kept up the rampage as England cruised to 90/1 at the halfway mark -- needing just 35 off 60 balls.

Roy was in full control of the innings and reached to his fifty -- his second in T20 World Cup -- off just 33 balls, hammering Nasum Ahmed

over the rope.Shoriful dismissed Roy in

the 13th over but by that time the explosive opener had made the equation completely in favour of his side as England needed 11 runs from 43 balls.

Earlier, England bowlers capitalised on a fine start given by off-spinner Moeen Ali to restrict Bangladesh to a paltry

124 for 9.Opting to bat, Bangladesh

were sloppy and failed to apply themselves as they lost wickets at regular intervals.

Moeen took two wickets in two balls inside the powerplay en route to another fine out-ing (2/18 from 3 overs) with the ball.

Pacer Chris Woakes was

also on the job inside the pow-erplay as he dismissed star all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, reducing Bangladesh to 27/3 in first six overs.

On a day leg-spinner Adil Rashid -- fresh from his match winning figures of 4/2 against the West Indies -- returned wicketless and was their most expensive bowler, utility spin-ner Liam Livingstone did the job in the middle middle overs by taking 2/15.

Pacer Tymal Mills later wreaked havoc at the death with figures of 3/27 as Bangla-desh could never recover.

Livingstone, who is capable of bowling both leg and off-spin, grabbed the crucial wick-ets of Bangladesh top-scorer Mushfiqur Rahim (29) and skipper Mahmudullah (19).

Livingstone trapped Rahim with a successful use of DRS.

It particularly hurt Ban-gladesh in the middle overs as Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah were looking to rebuild their innings with a 37-run partner-ship from 32 balls.

But Livingstone had Rahim plumb in front of wicket with his leg spin to break the partnership.

Afif Hossain departed after a comical run out for the addi-tion of 10 runs to leave Bangla-desh tottering at 83/6 with five overs to go. Earlier, Liton Das, who looked ultra aggressive by smashing Moeen for two boundaries, took a top edge in the England off-spinner's sec-ond over. AGENCIES

Explosive opener Jason Roy anchored the paltry 125-run chase, with a 38-ball 61 to make his 50th T20I appearance memorable

Khel Ratna: Neeraj Chopra, Ravi Dahiya, Lovlina Borgohain among 11 recommendedNEW DELHI: India's inspir-ing show at the Tokyo Olym-pics and Paralympics reflected in an unprecedented 11 rec-ommendations for the Khel Ratna award, including that of champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, as the selec-tion committee also named 35 athletes for the Arjuna honour here on Wednesday.

Apart from 23-year-old Chopra, who became only the second Indian to win an individ-ual Olympic gold, silver medal-winning wrestler Ravi Dahiya, woman boxer Lovlina Borgo-hain, who won a bronze, were recommended for the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award, country's highest sport-ing honour.

Seasoned hockey goalkeeper PR Sreejesh and women's cricket team Test and ODI captain Mithali Raj were selected along with iconic Sunil Chhetri, who is set to become country's first footballer to receive the honour.

All five gold medallists from the Tokyo Paralympics -- Avani Lekhara (shooting), Man-

ish Narwal (shooting), Sumit Antil (athletics), Pramod Bha-gat (badminton) and Krishna Nagar (badminton) -- were also rewarded for their performance as they also made the cut in the list which will now be sent to the Sports Ministry for approval.

Boxer Lovlina dedicated the recommendation for the coun-try's highest sporting honur to her parents.

"It's one of the proudest day for me as an athlete to have been recommended for the Khel Ratna award. I would like to thank Honourable Prime Min-ister Shri Narendra Modi sir, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur sir, SAI, BFI, coaches and every-one who is part of my journey.

"I would like to dedicate this award to my parents. I will con-tinue to work hard and my aim is to bring more laurels for my nation," she said.

India sent its biggest con-tingent to the Tokyo Olympics with as many as 121 athletes presenting their challenge and the country achieved its best ever show by winning seven

medals, including one gold, two silver and four bronze.

Three of those medallists, wrestler Bajrang Punia, shut-tler PV Sindhu and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu have already won the Khel Ratna award.

At the Paralympics, India returned with 19 medals, including five gold, eight silver and six bronze medals.

Last year, five athletes were picked for the Khel Ratna while four were selected after the 2016 Rio Games, but India's phenom-enal performances in the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics has resulted in unprecedented num-bers of recommendations.

The announcement of the national sports awards was

delayed in order to consider the performances of para-athletes in the Tokyo Paralympics, held from August 24 to September 5.

The committee also rec-ommended 35 athletes for the Arjuna award, eight more than last year's picks.

Cricketer Shikhar Dha-wan, para table tennis player Bhavina Patel, para shuttler Suhas Yathiraj and high jumper Nishad Kumar are among those selected for the Arjuna award, which is given to outstanding performers.

All members of the historic Tokyo Olympics bronze medal winning men's hockey team, who have previously not won the award, have also been rec-ommended for the Arjuna rec-ognition. Women's hockey team members Vandana Katariya and Monika, Bhavani Devi, boxer Simranjit Kaur, wrestler Deepak Punia, pistol shooter Abhishek Verma, boxer Simranjit Kaur, kabaddi player Sandeep Narwal, women's tennis player Ankita Raina are among others to get recommendation. AGENCIES

French Open: Sindhu, Lakshya win, Saina retires midway

PARIS: P V Sindhu and Lak-shya Sen sailed into the sec-ond round but it was curtains for Saina Nehwal and Kid-ambi Srikanth on a mixed day for Indian shuttlers at the French Open Super 750 bad-minton tournament here on Wednesday.

Sindhu, a double Olympic medallist, beat Denmark's Julie Dawall Jakobsen 21-15, 21-18 in women's singles, while Lon-don Olympics bronze medal-list Saina, who had suffered a groin injury at Uber Cup final, retired after lagging 11-21, 2-9 against Sayaka Takahashi of Japan.

Sindhu, seeded third, will clash with another Dane Line Christophersen next.

Lakshya had a good day in office as he defeated Ireland's Nhat Nguyen 21-10, 21-16 to set up a clash against Singa-pore's Loh Kean Yew next in men's singles.

Sourabh Verma also made a positive start, outwitting Bra-zil's Ygor Coelho 22-20, 21-19 in 43 minutes. He will meet Japan's Kenta Nishimoto in the second round.

His younger brother Sameer, who played his open-ing round on Tuesday, will face Indonesia's Shesar Hiren Rhustavito.

However, it was curtains for Kidambi Srikanth, Parupalli

Kashyap and HS Prannoy in men's singles.

Srikanth, the Rio Olympic quarterfinalist, played his heart out to match top seed Kento Momota and also held two-point lead towards the end of the decider but ended up los-ing the men's singles second round tie 18-21, 22-20, 21-19 in 79 minutes.

Kashyap went down fight-ing 17-21, 21-17, 11-21 to Brice Leverdez of France, while Pran-noy lost 11-21, 14-21 to Chi-nese Taipei's fourth seed Chou Tien Chen.

Men's doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila, how-ever, gave some cheers to the Indian camp, beating Ireland duo of Joshua Magee and Paul

Reynolds 21-13, 21-7 to reach the next round.

Srikanth, who had lost to Momota last week also at Denmark Open, produced a much better display here and came agonisingly close to out-witting the two-time world champion, only to fall short in the end.

Mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa, the world number 24 pair, beat Den-mark's Mathias Thyrri and Mai Surrow 21-19, 21-15 in 37 minutes.

They will face second seeded Indonesian pair of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti next.

Top seeded Korean pair of Lee Sohee and Shin Seungchan beat Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy 21-16, 21-17 in a wom-en's doubles match.

Earlier, Srikanth put up a brave effort but it wasn't enough to outwit the former world no 1 Momota.

Srikanth raced to a 4-0 lead but Momota clawed back to level the scores. He again moved to a 8-5 advantage only to see the Japanese eke out a slender 11-10 lead at the break.

After the break, Momota kept his nose ahead despite Srikanth snapping at his heels and drawing parity at 18-18 at one stage. AGENCIES

Four Mumbai players in

Mushtaq Ali Trophy team test positive

MUMBAI: Four players of Mumbai's Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy squad have tested pos-itive for COVID-9 and their replacements have been picked.

Four players from the senior team have tested positive, they are Shams Mulani, Sairaj Patil, Prashant Solanki and Sarfaraz Khan, a well-placed source said on condition of anonymity.

It is also learnt that Mum-bai Cricket Association has made replacements for the four Covid infected players and their names will be announced soon. We are conducting Rapid RT-PCR (of the players named as replacements) and their reports will come soon, the source said. AGENCIES

Kohli slips one slot to 5th, KL Rahul loses two spots to 8th in ICC T20 batter rankingsDUBAI: India captain Virat Kohli dropped one place to fifth despite his half century against Pakistan for a lost cause in the ongoing T20 World Cup while team-mate KL Rahul slipped two slots to eighth in the ICC men's T20I Player Rankings issued on Wednesday.

Kohli (725 rating points) had hit 57 off 49 balls, while Rahul (684) scored 3 runs in India's total of 151 for 7 which Pakistan chased down with 13 balls to spare for a 10-wicket win in the block-buster Super 12 match here on Sunday.

Pakistan opener Moham-mad Rizwan is three places up to fourth -- his career best ranking -- following his match-winning 79 not out against India and 33 in their second win against New Zealand on Tuesday.

South Africa batter Aiden

Markram, who struck 40 and 51 not out against Australia and the West Indies respectively, also attained his career-best ranking.

He gained eight slots to reach third position, only behind Dawid Malan (831) of England and Paksitan captain Babar Azam (820).

Markram's previous best

was ninth place last month and he now averages nearly 40 with a strike rate of 147.29 in his career.

Afghanistan's Rahmanul-lah Gurbaz rose nine places to a career-best 12th position after notching up 46 against Scot-land, while Bangladesh opener Mohammad Naim has moved up 11 places to a career-best

13th position after his 52-ball 62 against Sri Lanka.

Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus is up to joint-37th position after helping his side into the Super 12s.

The top nine names in the bowlers' list are all slow bowl-ers with Bangladesh spinner Mahedi Hasan's consistent eco-nomical bowling lifting him nine places to a career-best 12th position.

Pakistan fast bowler Sha-heen Afridi, who starred in their memorable 10-wicket win over India with a haul of three for 31, is up 11 places to 12th posi-tion, just two off his career best ranking.

Harris Rauf, whose four for 22 against New Zealand helped them register a second consecutive win, has gained 34 slots to reach a career-best 17th position. AGENCIES

Hardik fit for N Zealand game, bowls in nets for

first time in monthsDUBAI: Hardik Pandya on Wednesday bowled in the nets for the first time in months, rais-ing the possibility of him return-ing to the side for the crucial T20 World Cup game against New Zealand as an all-rounder and giving India a much needed sixth bowling option.

India find themselves in a must win situation after the 10-wicket hammering they got from Pakistan.

Hardik's inability to bowl has disturbed the balance of the side.

Hardik, who last rolled his arms over in the Sri Lanka series in July, did not bowl a single over in the UAE leg of the IPL for Mumbai Indians.

Hardik had also hurt his shoulder while batting against Pakistan and did not take the

field after India's innings as he had to go for scans.

On Wednesday Hardik went through fitness drills, which included short sprints, under the watchful eyes of strength and conditioning coach Sohum Desai and physio Nitin Patel.

After that he bowled close to 20 minutes to Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Shardul Thakur in one of the nets.

India chief coach Ravi Shas-tri and mentor Mahendra Singh Dhoni closely monitored Har-dik's progress.

Following his brief bowl-ing stint, Hardik took throw-downs from batting coach Vikram Rathour. Hardik played purely as batter against Paki-stan but failed to live up to the expectations, scoring just 11 off eight balls. AGENCIES

Rodrigues, Mandhana slam fifties in WBBL

LAUNCESTON: Jemimah Rodrigues stole the thunder from her Indian teammate Smriti Mandhana as Melbourne Renegades defeated Sydney Thunder by nine runs in the Women's Big Bash league here on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old Rodrigues, a top-order batter for the Indian women's team, slammed nine fours during her 56-ball 75 to power Melbourne to 142 for five.

Chasing the total, Mand-hana, who opens the innings for India, smashed a 44-ball 64, studded with four hits to the fence and one maximum but it went in vain as Sydney were limited to 133 for 8 in their 20 overs. The match also featured two more Indians in T20 skipper Harmanpreet Kaur and spin all-rounder Deepti Sharma. They snapped one wicket each but couldn't contribute much with the bat.

Harmanpreet, who had dished out an all-round per-formance in Melbourne Ren-egades' seven-wicket win over Sydney Sixers in their previ-ous match, managed just three before being trapped by Kate Peterson.

Deepti scored 23 off 10 balls but that was not enough to take the Sydney Thunder across the line in the end.

The 24-year-old Deepti had scored a 48-ball 44 and also took one for 28 in their previ-ous match against Melbourne Stars but it wasn't enough as Sydney lost by 12 runs. AGENCIESRaducanu

beats Hercog in Romania

CLUJ-NAPOCA: Emma Raducanu rallied to beat Polona Hercog of Slovenia 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 at the Transyl-vania Open for her first win since her stunning run to the U.S. Open title more than six weeks ago.

It was also the teenager's first victory on the WTA Tour.

"Super happy to get my first ever WTA win today, the 18-year-old Raducanu wrote on Twitter.

Raducanu, whose father is Romanian, became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament. AGENCIES

Penalties for Chelsea, smoother for Arsenal to win in League Cup

LONDON: Chelsea advanced in the League Cup thanks to its third penalty shootout suc-cess of the season. Arsenal had a smother path into the quarterfinals.

Reece James netted the penalty that sealed Chelsea's 4-3 victory against Southamp-ton in the shootout at Stam-ford Bridge.

The game was tied 1-1 through 90 minutes on Tues-day after Kai Havertz's header for Chelsea just before half-time was canceled out by Che Adams' tap-in two minutes into the second half.

But Southampton saw Theo Walcott's penalty saved by goalkeeper Kepa Arriza-balaga and Will Smallbone shoot over, while visiting goalkeeper Fraser Forster denied only Mason Mount.

Thomas Tuchel's Premier League leaders had reached the fourth round by beating Aston Villa on penalties, hav-ing also started the season by winning the UEFA Super Cup in a shootout against Villar-real in August.

There was another all-Premier League encounter in London at Emirates Sta-

dium where Arsenal beat Leeds 2-0.

Calum Chambers put Arsenal in front with his first touch after replacing the injured Benjamin White, heading in a knock back from Nicolas P p in the 55th min-ute. It was the defender's first goal since 2019.

Eddie Nketiah, who pre-viously spent time on loan at Leeds, doubled Arsenal's advantage.

He latched onto a weak defensive header from Liam Cooper, rounded goalkeeper Illan Meslier and came close to missing a tap-in before being able to celebrate.

Arsenal has now won six

of its last eight games in all competitions and is unbeaten since August but is 10th in the Premier League.

There will be a third-divi-sion team in the last eight after Sunderland beat second-tier Queens Park Rangers 3-1 on penalties after the game at Loftus Road in west London ended 0-0 after 90 minutes.

The quarterfinal lineup will be completed Wednes-day when Manchester City continues its bid for a fifth straight League Cup against West Ham, Burnley hosts Tottenham, Leicester plays Brighton, Liverpool faces second-tier club Preston, and Brentford visits Stoke. AGENCIES

Reece James netted the penalty that sealed Chelsea's 4-3 victory against Southampton in the shootout

VIENNA: Stefanos Tsitsipas saved three set points before beating Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (6), 6-4 to join Olympic cham-pion Alexander Zverev in the second round of the Erste Bank Open.

Zverev also advanced in straight sets but had to rally from 5-2 down in the second to overcome Filip Krajinovic 6-2, 7-5.

The top-seeded Tsitsipas, who lost to Dimitrov in the second round last year, was 6-3 down in the tiebreaker before reeling off five straight points to claim the opening set.

Tsitsipas converted his first match point with Dimi-trov serving at 5-4 when the 22nd-ranked-Bulgarian hit a forehand wide.

The third-ranked Greek,

who is striving for his third title of the season, next plays Frances Tiafoe, who defeated Dusan Lajovic 6-4, 6-4.

Tiafoe beat Tsitsipas in straight sets at Wimbledon this year, but Tsitsipas leads the American 2-1 in career meetings. Zverev avoided break points against Kraji-novic until he was serving for the opening set. AGENCIES

England's Jason Roy bats during the Cricket Twenty20 World Cup match between England and Bangladesh in Abu Dhabi, UAE, Wednesday PTI

Virat Kohli PTI

Boxer Lovlina dedicated the recommendation for the country’s highest sporting honur to her parents

Top-seed Tsitsipas, Zverev advance with straight-set wins

12 millenniumpostLeisure

Entertainmentmp

THURSDAY, 28 OCTOBER, 2021 | KOLKATA

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Sajid Nadiadwala’s ‘Tadap’, presented and co-pro-duced by ‘Fox Star Stu-

dios’, has been a subject of heated discussion ever since the film was announced. Apart from marking the big Bolly-wood debut of Ahan Shetty, the love saga is also the official Hindi remake of the Telugu blockbuster ‘RX 100’ and will be the first big canvas roman-tic drama to release in theatres.

Raw, intense, passionate and musically uplifting, the trailer of the film gives audi-ences a glimpse of the intrigu-ing ride in store. Directed by Milan Luthria, the roman-tic action drama, starring Ahan Shetty and Tara Sutaria, oozes with electric chemis-try between the young Gen Z stars.

Going by trailer, ‘Tadap’, written by Rajat Arora, is char-acter-driven with a plot that

will leave you at the edge of your seats.

While Ahan takes on a challenging role in his very first film, Tara steps into the shoes of an unconventional character that shows us a dif-ferent side of her. More strik-ingly is Pritam’s signature music, making this offering truly one to watch out for!

Talking about the film, director Milan Luthria said, “ ‘Tadap’ is a dark love story and an extremely unusual debut film. Ahan Shetty and Tara Sutaria have author-backed roles. Their chemistry shines through in a story that has intense romance, action

and soulful music. ‘Tadap’ is an eye-opener and reflects the changing tastes of our audi-ences. Get ready for a thrill-ing ride.”

“It took a great deal of patience and determination to bring this gem of a film to audiences in the middle of a pandemic. Everything from the story, the performances, the chemistry between the lead pair and the music makes ‘Tadap’ a film that you do not want to miss,” added producer Sajid Nadiadwala.

OUR CORRESPONDENT

The essence of Khadi’s sim-plicity, purity and sustain-ability was reflected through

the Khadi fashion show organized by Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) at Hotel Ashok in New Delhi on Tuesday. The fashion show, curated by the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) led by ace designer and KVIC Advisor Shri Sunil Sethi, showcased 60 designs by 10 bud-ding fashion designers, who were selected through an All-India Khadi Designers Compe-

tition organized by KVIC. Top 3 designers were also awarded on this occasion.

Designer Swatti Kapoor received the 1st prize with a cash reward of Rs 10 lakh for her cre-ation depicting Khadi as the most ethical and sustainable clothing. The collection was inspired by the 19th Century poem titled “Kubla Khan” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. She used fine Khadi Muslin fabric in plain and self check with block

printing, hand crochet and hand embroidery and other kinds of fab-ric manipulation.

Designer Dhruv Singh was declared the 2nd runner up with a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh. His collec-tion named ‘Anaarbagh’ is inspired by a painting of Krishna dancing in a full moon night with his devo-tees/lovers, in the month of Kartik. The idea was to give Khadi a bit of a festive look by creating ensembles which gives the feel of couture with

comfort and ease to the body. He used plain Khadi cotton fabric and all the ensembles are completely hand embroidered by our karigars from Bengal and Gujarat, using 6 strings of hand twisted pure zari.

Two designers namely, Kaushal Singh and Gaurav Singh bagged the 3rd prize of Rs 2 lakh each. Kaushal used plain weave Khadi and Blue Khadi Denim. The print artwork was created by fine artists, translated into a screen and fur-ther printed on the fabric. Designer Gaurav also used Khadi cotton fab-ric using zero waste design tech-nique and contrast stitch line details.

The All-India Khadi Design-ers Competition was organized to introduce new design interventions and add a trendy twist to Khadi. The KVIC received 393 nomina-tions from young fashion designers from across the country. A screen-ing committee comprising Fash-

ion Designers, experts from design institutes and top functionaries of KVIC was constituted to shortlist 10 best designers. The top 3 design-ers were selected during the show by the jury.

Chairman KVIC, Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena said the creations of these contestants will soon be made available at Khadi India out-lets as designer wear.

“Khadi has been an instrument of social change in the pre-inde-pendence era and has transformed into a tool of resilience, resurgence and self-reliance in modern times. And from being a humble attire of the great freedom fighters, Khadi has evolved into a symbol of fash-ion and ultimate luxury. This is for the first time KVIC organized a pan-India designer contest and the overwhelming participation was in itself a manifestation of Khadi’s popularity among the youth,” Sax-ena said.

BTS’ has submitted their song ‘Butter’ to be considered for a nomination at the ‘Grammy

Awards 2022’. The summer single had raged through ‘Billboard Top 100’ and had occupied the top spot for over eight weeks.

According to a ‘Billboard’ report, the track was submitted under the best group performance category. If the septet’s submission is approved, this will be their second ‘Grammy’ nomination after having a chance at the award last year with their single ‘Dynamite’, which lost to Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande’s ‘Rain on Me’.

BTS’s ‘Butter’ will compete against Doja Cat and SZA’s ‘Kiss Me More’, The Kid LAROI and Miley Cyrus’ ‘Without You’ and Lizzo and Cardi B’s ‘Rumors’. The first round of voting will continue until November 5. The

announcement of ‘Grammy’ nomina-tions will be on November 23.

The band held their first online concert on October 24 in over a year, which was the septet’s performance on a scale that is equivalent to a proper concert. ‘BTS’ have had a golden year of successes, as their songs ‘But-ter’, ‘Permission to Dance’ and ‘My Universe’, which was a collaboration with the popular British band ‘Cold-play’. AGENCIES

Khadi to get trendier with 60 new designsIt was sent under best group performance category

Directed by Milan Luthria, the romantic action drama stars Ahan Shetty and Tara Sutaria

Comedian Dave Chappelle recently addressed the

transgender controversy at ‘Netflix’ in full for the first time on a video on his ‘Instagram’ account, five days after about 100

people protested near the streaming company’s

headquarters.The employee back-

lash began after ‘Netflix Inc’ decided to release Chappelle’s new comedy special, ‘The Closer’, which critics say ridi-cules transgender people.

“It has been said in the press that I was invited to speak to

transgender employees at ‘Netf-lix’ and I refused,” Chappelle said

in the video.He added, “That is not true. If

they had invited me, I would have accepted it. Although I am confused about what we are speaking about. You said you want a safe working environment at ‘Netflix’. Well, it

seems like I’m the only one that can-not go to the office anymore.”

“I want everyone in this audience to know that even though the media frames this as me versus that com-munity, it is not what it is,” Chap-pelle said.

He further stated, “Do not blame the LBGTQ community for any of this mess. This has nothing to do with them. It is about corporate interest and what I can say and what I can-not say.”

‘Netflix’ Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos stoked further unrest with an October 11 staff memo in which he acknowledged Dave Chappelle’s provocative lan-guage in ‘The Closer’ but said it did not cross the line into inciting vio-lence. AGENCIES

‘Netflix Inc’ decided to release Chappelle’s new comedy special, ‘The Closer’, which critics say ridicules transgender people, despite employees’ backlash

Dave opens up on ‘Netflix’ transgender dispute

Dave denied the claims that he was invited to speak to transgender employees and he refused

BTS sends ‘Butter’ for Grammys 2022 nomination

‘Tadap’ trailer promises intense passion and romance

KVIC organ-ised an event to award budding fashion design-ers in Khadi fashion show