SUNDAY 08 May 2022

Published from Srinagar | Volume : 13 | Issue No: 109 Pages: 12 | Price : Rs 01 /-

www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom

SHOWBIZ | 04 SPORTS | 12WORLD | 10

Global Covid caseload tops 516.6 mn 'KL Rahul's amazing

shots prove he is in best phase of his career'

Selena Gomezpokes fun at her dating age range: '31 to coffin'

Kash ir Digest

In 'better affidavit': Delhi police makes U-turn in ‘hate speech’

case in SC, lodges FIRNew Delhi, May 7: Days after the Supreme Court pulled up Delhi police on its affidavit in hate speech case at a Dharam Sansad, the police have made a U-turn and told the court it registered an FIR after examining the materials.

In a fresh affidavit, the police said that all links given in the complaint and other materials available in pub-lic domain were analysed, and a video was found on YouTube. "After further minute verification of the materials, FIR dated May 4,2022 has been regis-tered at police station Okhla Industrial Area for offences of Section 153A, 295A, 298, and 34 of the Indian Penal Codea," said the affidavit. The police said the investigation will be carried out in ac-cordance with law.

The Delhi Police, in its earlier affi-davit, said: "The findings of the inquiry after visual and audio examination of the evidence further disclose that the speech did not contain any hate words against a particular community, and persons who gathered there with a mo-

tive to save the ethics of their commu-nity". The police said there was no use of such words which mean or could be interpreted as open calls for genocide of Muslims in order to achieve ethnic cleansing or an open call for murder of an entire community' in the speech.

On April 22, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing the petitioners, said the Delhi Police said an inquiry was conducted into the matter, and justified that person gathered to save 'ethics of their community'.

Sibal said: "Your lordships may have to decide constitutionally, what ethics are?" A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar noted that the affida-vit was filed by the Deputy Commis-sioner of Police and queried Additional Solicitor General (ASG) K M Nataraj, "Do you accept this position....we want to understand.....Has any superior offi-cer verified this?"

The bench, also comprising Justice Abhay S. Oka, said: "We want to know that the senior officer has understood

the nuances of other aspects before fil-ing this affidavit. Has he merely repro-duced an inquiry report or applied his mind? Do you want to take a relook?"

Justice Khanwilkar further que-ried: "Is it your stand as well... the re-production of the inquiry report of the sub-inspector level officer?"

Nataraj, representing the Delhi Po-lice, said: "We have to take a re-look".

Justice Khanwilkar asked Nata-raj: "Do you want to have a relook at the whole matter?...Is this the stand of Commissioner of Police, Delhi?"

Nataraj submitted that a fresh affi-davit will be filed, after taking instruc-tions from the authorities concerned. The top court noted that the ASG sought more time to file a better affida-vit in the matter.

The Supreme Court was hearing a plea -- filed by journalist Qurban Ali and former Patna High Court judge and senior advocate Anjana Prakash -- seeking direction to ensure

See Delhi police...on Pg-08

SC issues notice to Centre on plea against limitation provisions

under NGT ActNew Delhi, May 7: The Supreme Court has issued no-tice to the Centre and the Ministry of Law and Justice on a plea challenging the vires of provisions of limita-tion prescribed under Sections 14, 15 and 16 of the Na-tional Green Tribunal Act, 2010.

A bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant said: "Issue notice, returnable on July 2022."

The petitioners were represented by senior advo-cate Sanjay Parekh, and the petition was filed through advocate Abhimanue Shrestha. The petitioners are agriculturists having their agricultural land in Talli village in Saurashtra region of Gujarat.

See SC issues...on Pg-08

Within 48 hours, Centre notifies appointment of two

judges to Supreme CourtNew Delhi, May 7: The Centre has notified the appointment of Gauhati High Court Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Gujarat High Court judge Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala as judges to the apex court, two days after the Supreme Court Collegium recommended their appointment. The collegium is headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana.

A notification from the Ministry of Law and Justice said the President is pleased to appoint Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court, to be judge of the Supreme Court with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office. In another notification, the ministry said: "the President is pleased to appoint Justice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala, judge of Gujarat High Court, to be judge of Supreme Court of India with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office".

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia hails from Madanpur, a remote village in Pauri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand. He is an alumni of Sainik School, Lucknow and did his graduation and law from the University of Allahabad.

A second generation legal professional, Justice Dhulia joined the Bar at the Allahabad High Court in 1986 and shifted to his home state Uttarakhand on its formation in 2000. He was the first chief standing counsel in the Uttarakhand High Court, and was later an Additional Advocate General for Ut-tarakhand. He was designated as a senior advocate in 2004. He was elevated as a judge of the Uttarakhand High Court in November 2008 and later became the Chief Justice of the High Court of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh

See Within 48 hours...on Pg-08

Road to J&K’s prosperity has to pass via villages: LG

Srinagar, May 07: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha today emphasized that the policies and development plans for districts and concerned departments must accord higher priority to rural development as road to prosperity of Union Territory of Jammu Kashmir has to pass through its villages.

Highlighting the role of ru-ral infrastructure, self-employ-ment, and agrarian society, the Lt Governor observed that the concerned department’s policies should be based on pragmatism in order to harness the tremen-dous potential of our villages.

“Around 70% of J&K’s population is dependent on agriculture and allied activi-ties. Today, the development in rural areas is not just about self-sufficiency in food produc-tion but also about increasing yields and income and making the people more empowered. It is also about making the villages self-sufficient because the road to J&K’s prosperity has to pass

through its villages,” Lt Gover-nor said.

The Lt Governor directed the concerned officers to adopt rural development policies which are based on pragmatism and strengthen the planning and implementation at Pan-chayat level.

“Each and every policy must improve the lives of people living in villages. Today, more than 56,000 self-help groups are

acting as facilitators of devel-opment. Our aim should be to enhance the capacity and scale of these groups with financial support, market linkage, special knowledge and skills that can be used to change the face of rural J&K,” Lt Governor observed.

The Lt Governor highlight-ed the mega projects related to rural development, which have been completed in the previous financial year. These projects are in agriculture, animal sheep husbandry, horticulture, skill development, cooperatives, road, Power development, and Jal Shakti sector.

While highlighting the achievements, the Lt Governor asked the officers to continu-ously focus on strengthening economic relationship between farm & market to benefit the farmers and rural population. He further said that making ben-efits of innovation, technologies available to rural population and agrarian society should

See Road to...on Pg-08

Delimitation exercise blind to universally accepted practices: FarooqSrinagar, May 7: National Conference Presi-dent and Member of Parliament Dr. Farooq Abdullah on Saturday reiterated the Party's stand on delimitation report, saying the exer-cise was “blind” to universally accepted prac-tices and principles.

Interacting with media persons on the side-lines of his visit to Boteng, Kulgam where he had gone to condole with the bereaved family of party's Vice District President Kulgam Mo-hammad Yousuf Dar, Dr Farooq said that the party's stand on the entire process of delimita-tion is clear as crystal.

He said the entire process was a smoke screen to draw a veil over the obscure agenda at work. “The entire exercise has been blind to the universally accepted practised criterions and principles with regards to electoral repre-sentation. However no amount of gerryman-dering will save the BJP, and its proxies from the wrath of people. People of J&K have made it a point to punish BJP and its proxies for all they have done to J&K. No matter how many false fronts they put up, people won't forgive those who have robbed the region of its unique status, its prized historical individuality and dignity. The writing is on the wall,” he said as per statement to GNS.

“There is groundswell of anger against BJP and its proxies across J&K, Ladakh. Every sector of our economy is bleeding. Our youth are at crossroads, our traders are facing un-

precedented situations. The plight of our tour-ism players, transporters and artisans is no different. Inflation, unemployment and devel-opment deficit has compounded the worries of our people immensely,” he added.

On the occasion he was accompanied by party Chief Spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq, MP Hasnain Masoodi, South Zone President Dr. Bashir Veeri, District President Abdul Majeed Bhat Larmi, Party leaders Riyaz Khan, Abdul Rahman Tantray and others.

Joined in by party functionaries, Dr Fa-rooq offered Fateha for the deceased on

See Farooq...on Pg-08

'Autonomy' of state police should stop at state borders: ChidambaramNew Delhi, May 7: Former Union Home Min-ister P. Chidambaram on Saturday attacked both the BJP and the Aam Aadmi Party for misusing the police force.

Chidambaram's comments came in the wake of the arrest and release of BJP leader Tejinder Bagga in which the police of three states were involved.

Chidambaram said, "This was bound to happen some day. The confrontation between Punjab, Delhi and Haryana police is an exam-ple of what lies in store in the future... the po-lice serving their respective political masters will lead to the ultimate breakdown of federal-ism that is already in peril."

"I had warned when the Assam police ar-rested Jignesh Mevani, Independent MLA from Gujarat, for a tweet posted in Gujarat! The 'autonomy' of each state police force must stop at the border of another state and the po-lice of the first state must take the consent of the other state. Otherwise, federalism will be dead and buried," he added.

Delhi Police on Friday took Bagga's cus-tody from its Punjab counterparts and later released him after legal process.

See 'Autonomy'...on Pg-08

Sourav will do well in politics: Dona Ganguly

Kolkata, May 7: A day after Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, dined at the residence of BCCI president and former India captain, Sourav Ganguly, a com-ment made by the latter's wife, Dona Ganguly, has kindled the possibility of her husband join-ing active politics.

On Saturday morning, Gan-guly and his wife Dona were present at the inauguration of a private hospital here, where the latter made the comment when asked about the possibility of the BCCI president joining active politics.

"Guessing is the task (job) of people. If anything of that sort happens, everyone will come to

know of that. All I can say is that Sourav will do well in politics and work for the welfare of peo-ple," said Dona.

She also mentioned that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was very close to her family. State transport minister and Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), Firhad Ha-kim, was also present during the inauguration and shared the dais with Sourav and Dona Ganguly.

Dona added that politics was not discussed during the dinner with Amit Shah on Friday eve-ning.

Shah, accompanied by the state BJP president and

See Sourav...on Pg-08

Cop In Civvies Shot Dead In SrinagarSrinagar May 07: A policeman in civvies was shot dead by militants near Aiwa Bridge along Dr Ali Jan road in central Kashmir’s Srinagar district on Saturday, officials said.

A top police officer told GNS that the cop, Ghulam Hassan Dar son of Ghulam Rasool Dar of Danwar Eidgah, was travelling in his bike, possibly on way to duty at PCR, when militants fired upon him this morning, leaving him critically injured.

The policeman, driver with 112 police vehicle, was shifted to nearby SKIMS hospital, the officer said.

Later in the evening, the policeman succumbed to his injuries, Dr G N Yatoo, a senior doctor at the tertiary care hospital confirmed to GNS.

Earlier soon after the attack, whole area was cor-doned off and searches launched to nab the attackers, the police officer had said. However when this report was filed, no arrest culminated. (GNS)

BSF ramps up patrolling at borders in Jammu after

detection of tunnel in Samba

New Delhi, May 7: Days after the Border Security Force (BSF) detected a cross-border tunnel in Jammu's Samba sector on May 4, the security force has ramped up patrolling on the border and keep eye on the fencing and nearby ar-eas.

According to the sources, the BSF has been tasked to initiate anti-tunnel drive every alternate day and to closely monitor the ground along the fencing, espe-cially during the night patrol.

Any "abnormality" at the fencing site must be reported, the

sources further said.On May 4 evening, the BSF

patrolling team found the open-ing of a cross-border tunnel in the area of Chak Faquira opposite the Samba sector.

The search operation was stopped due to bad light and when they started to investigate the spot on Thursday, the BSF personnel found 150-metre-long freshly dug tunnel originating from Pakistan in which the oxygen was supplied through the 265-foot-long pipes found in the tunnel.

See BSF ramps...on Pg-08

Raids underway at multiple locations in KashmirSrinagar, May 7: Jammu and Kashmir's State Inves-tigation Agency (SIA) were carrying out raids on Sat-urday at multiple locations focused on sellers of mobile phones and SIM cards, ac-cording to police sources.

The sources said SIA sleuths assisted by the local police and the CRPF raided shops and residences at Pul-wama district's Lassipora, Chandgam, Braw Bandina areas, as well as Chawalgam in Kulgam district.

"These raids are carried out on shops and

See Raids...on Pg-08

J&K reports 11 new covid-19 cases, no death Nadeem Nadu

Srinagar, May 7: Jammu and Kashmir report-ed 11 new cov-id-19 cases in the last 24 hours while there was no death due to the pathogen, officials said on Sat-urday.

They said that seven of the fresh cases were reported from Jammu di-vision and four from Kashmir Valley, taking the overall tally to 454099—166368 in Jammu and 287731 in

See J&K...on Pg-08

Former J&K minister Harsh Dev Singh joins AAP

Jammu, May 7: Three times legislator and for-mer Jammu and Kash-mir Education Minister Harsh Dev Singh joined Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday along with some other local leaders.

The was announced during a presser ad-dressed by AAP leader and Rajya Sabha mem-ber Sanjay Singh.

Reports here said Harsh Dev Singh had met AAP lead-ers in Delhi a month back to discuss the modalities and plans for joining the party.

He has won As-sembly elections from Ramnagar constituency of Jammu division thrice in the past.

Singh was the chairman of the J&K Panthers Party till Saturday.

He has joined AAP along with

other leaders of the Panthers Party, including Rajesh Pan-dgotra provincial president, Gagan Pratap Singh, Puru-shottam Parihar and Sudesh Dogra. (IANS)

Two years post-pandemic, 79,237 Indian Muslims will fly for Haj-2022

Mumbai, May 7: After a gap of two years of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, as many as 79,237 Indian Muslims will fly to Saudi Arabia to perform the Haj-2022 pilgrimage which will start from July onwards, officials said here on Satur-day.

They include around 50 per cent women with 22,636 going via Haj Group Organisers and the remaining 56,601 through the Haj Committee of India, from among 83,140 applications including 72,170 online, said Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

More than 1,800 Muslim women will go for Haj 2022 without "Mehram" (male companion),

See Haj-2022...on Pg-08

R U S S I A - U K R A I N E W A R

Kiev, May 7: Ukrainian President Volody-myr Zelensky said his country stands ready to resume talks on settling the conflict with Russia after Moscow's forces return to the positions they held before the invasion on February 24.

"They need to withdraw to those tem-porary contact lines or dividing lines, they must withdraw troops there. Then we can start the full-scale talks," Xinhua news agen-cy quoted Zelensky as saying while speaking to mediapersons.

"To stop the war between Russia and Ukraine the step should be regaining the sit-uation as of 23 February," he said, referring

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Ukraine urges Russia's troop pullback to resume talks

Ukraine evacuates 50 civilians from Mariupol's Azovstal

Kiev, May 7: Ukraine evacuated 50 civilians from the Azovstal plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

See Evacuates...on Pg-08

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 20222 www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom NEWS

DC Srinagar visits Yatra Transit Camp Panthachowk to

oversee progress of worksSpace provided

for putting up Stalls by NRLM Self

Help GroupsSRINAGAR, MAY 07:- The Deputy Commis-sioner (DC) Srinagar, Mohammad Aijaz Asad Saturday undertook a visit to Yatra Transit Camp at Panthachowk to oversee the pace of the works undertaken to augment the accom-modation and other facilities for halt of Yatris expected to participate in annual Shri Amar-nath Ji Yatra-2022.

On the occasion, the DC inspected the prog-ress of facilities being upgraded for the conve-nience of the stay of yatries during the forth-coming annual Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra-2022.

The DC was apprised by the officers of the concerned Departments that works are going in full swing to augment the stay capacity and other facilities for the Yatries including Prefab-ricated huts, Public Convenience Units.

The DC asked the R&B Department to take up the works for repairs and black topping of the approach road and premises of the Transit camp Panthachowk.

The DC also directed the other concerned officials to make all necessary arrangements including facilities of drinking water and elec-

tricity at Yatra transit Camp well in advance at the halt camp.

The authorities of Srinagar Municipal Cor-poration were directed to ensure proper sanita-tion and adequate arrangements for public con-venience facilities at the transit camp, besides deployment of sufficient staff at the camp for periodical cleanliness in and around the transit camp everyday.

The DC also provided space to NRLM SHGs

to set up some stalls for Handicraft and Hand-loom related items at the identified space in the transit camp.

Besides, Additional Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Faz lul Hasseb, the DC was accompa-nied by Joint Commissioner, SMC, Chief Plan-ning Officer, Srinagar, Executive Engineers of R&B, PDD, PHE, SDA, District Social Welfare Officer, Tehsildar Panthachowk and other se-nior officers of Police and Civil Administration.

Dir Agri inaugurates 3rd phase of vegetable seedling

distribution drive

SRINAGAR, MAY 07: The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mo-hammad Iqbal today inaugurated the 3rd phase of vegetable seedling distri-bution drive at Kitchen Garden Prem-ises Lalmandi, here.

Speaking on the occasion, the Di-rector appreciated the efforts of the concerned officers/officials of Kitchen Garden, Hi-tech Poly House Installa-tions and said that the Department is vigorously pursuing the ambitious target of providing 2.5 crore seedlings of different vegetable crops to the farming community of the region this year.

He said the Department has in-troduced many initiatives to ensure round the year availability of vegeta-ble seedlings to the farmers.

Amid prevailing agro economic scenario, the Director marked the importance of diverse vegetable cul-tivation for the region. He said the strengthening of vegetable cultivation in the region could play a vital role in achieving economic security for the farming community.

“Our climatic conditions are one of the most suitable in the country for the cultivation of vegetables (tradi-tional, exotic) and to channelize this potential a collaborative approach is needed wherein the both farming community and the Department has to come forward and work shoulder to shoulder”, Iqbal said.

The Director asked the concerned officers to organize farmers aware-ness/training programs with the focus on vegetable cultivation so that more and more farmers, uneducated youth could adopt this on commercial lines.

Joint Director Agriculture Farms, Deputy Director Planning, Seed Pro-duction Officer Kashmir, Divisional Seed Certification Officer and other officers were present on the occasion.

All Parties Sikh

Coordination

Committee,

BMSCL delegation

call on LGSRINAGAR, MAY 07: All Par-ties Sikh Coordination Commit-tee (APSCC) led by its Chairman, S. Jagmohan Singh Raina called on Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, at the Raj Bhavan here today.

The members of the delega-tion while meeting the Lt Gover-nor apprised him about various concerning issues of the Sikh community, particularly the pro-motion of Punjabi language in the UT, filling up of vacancies of Pun-jabi language teachers in colleges and schools, besides highlighting demand of the community for representation in the Legislative Assembly.

The Lt Governor gave a pa-tient hearing to the visiting del-egation and assured that all their genuine issues will be looked into meticulously. He further ob-served that the UT government is committed to continuously work-ing for safeguarding the interests of all sections of the society to en-sure equitable development of the people of all regions.

Later, a delegation led by Shri Umesh Pochappan, Ex Governing Body Member, National Fisheries Development Board also met the Lt Governor and discussed vari-ous matters related to Fisheries sector of Jammu Kashmir.

Shri Zahoor Ahmad Dar, Chairman of Bharthiya JKL Ma-chuwara Samudaay Cooperative Ltd and Shri Arif Ahmad Dar were also present in the meeting.

The delegation discussed the future plan and projects of the co-operative which was recently ap-proved by the Central government for the development of fisheries sector in Jammu Kashmir and for the upliftment of fishermen.

The Lt Governor congratulat-ed the members of the delegation for the upcoming inauguration of Bharthiya JKL Machuwara Samudaay Cooperative Ltd. He also assured all support for the development of this unique coop-erative set up.

Dheeraj Gupta launches “Save Hokersar-Save Srinagar” campaign at Hokersar

SRINAGAR, MAY 7: Principal Secre-tary Housing & Urban Development De-partment, Deeraj Gupta, today launched “Save Hokersar-Save Srinagar” cam-paign at Hokersar being organized un-der the banner “TAWAZUN” from 7th to 21st May 2022 by the Department of Wildlife Protection, Wetlands division, Kashmir, in collaboration with con-

cerned departments, locals, NGOs and educational institutions.

Principal Chief Conservator For-est (Wildlife), Suresh Kumar Gupta and Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole were present on the occasion.

The aim of the event is to launch a comprehensive cleanliness drive in

and around Hokersar Wetland Conser-vation Reserve to maintain ecological characteristics of this world famous wetland (RAMSAR site). The campaign is being launched following directions of Chief Secretary issued during his re-cent visit to Hokersar.

Principal Secretary administrated pledge to all the participants for their active involvement in the cleanliness drive of Hokersar Wetland Conserva-tion Reserve.

Suresh Kumar Gupta informed that this cleanliness campaign will be conducted on 30 identified spots in and around Hokersar Wetland for collection and disposal of solid waste from 7th of May up to 21st of May 2022 and will in-volve 2595 persons.

The event was also attended by Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, Shahbaz Mirza, Additional Deputy Commissioner, Budgam, officers of School Education Department, High-er Education Department, Srinagar Municipal Committee, Municipal Council Budgam, Municipal Council Narbal, Irrigation and Flood Control Department and Mechanical Division Baramulla, Chairman, National Soci-ety for Protection of Water Resources, Forest & Wetlands besides students and volunteers.

DC Gb'l reviews SAJY-2022 arrangements via Baltal route

GANDERBAL, MAY 07: The Dep-uty Commissioner (DC) Gander-bal, Shyambir today convened a meeting of all concerned district officers to review arrangements for the smooth conduct of Annual Shri Amarnath Ji Yatra (SAJY), 2022.

At the outset, threadbare dis-cussion was held regarding the preparations and arrangements by various departments including provisions of water and electric-ity, Medicare facilities, sanitation, drainage, registration of service providers, firewood, security and other related arrangements.

The officers from all concerned departments apprised the DC about preparations and progress of works going on en route to Holy Cave.

While reviewing the arrange-ments, the DC directed officials to ensure better planning and coordi-nation among the departments at all levels besides early execution of all development works for the smooth conduct of Yatra.

He exhorted for maintaining sanitation and cleanliness and suf-ficient public convenience/toilets at base camp Baltal and other halt-ing places of Yatries en route to the Holy Cave, efficient drainage sys-

tem with well laid paths besides en-suring adequate water supply and restoration of 24x7 power supplies along the route to Holy cave.

Additional Deputy Commis-sioner, Farooq Ahmad Baba, DySP HQ, SDM Kangan, ACD, CEO SDA, Chief Medical Officer, Executive Engineers of Jal Shakti, PDD and I&FC and other officers of line de-partments attended the meeting.

Extension of central laws after abrogation of Art.370 established equitable society across J&KSRINAGAR, MAY 07: With the extension of 890 Central laws applicable to Jammu and Kashmir, repeal of 205 state laws and modification of 129 laws after the abrogation of Article 370, a system of equitable justice has been established in J&K for all sections of people.

The rights of weaker sections like Scheduled Tribes, other traditional forest dwellers, Sched-uled Castes and Safai Karamcharis are now en-sured by the application of relevant Acts. Rights of children and senior citizens are now being ensured.

In order to create a just and equitable soci-ety, reservation rules have been amended to ex-tend benefits of reservation to left out categories like Pahari speaking people and economically weaker sections.

Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sithara-man while tabling 2021-22 budget for J&K said, “OBC reservation benefits have been increased from 2 per cent to 4 per cent and income ceiling has been raised from Rs 4.50 lakh to Rs 8 lakh”.

“Sections of society which have been dis-criminated since ages such as displaced persons of PoJK and Chhamb, West Pakistani refugees and residents of border areas have been ben-efited under various schemes,” she said. Special attention is being paid to Kashmiri migrants, she added.

For the first time the spouse of a J&K domi-cile shall also be deemed as a domicile. Earlier, spouses of Permanent Resident Card holders were considered at par but were not considered domiciles. Children of central government of-ficials posted for over ten years in Jammu and Kashmir will also continue to be considered do-miciles.

The implementation of several path break-ing central legislations after the revocation of Article 370, like the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of For-ests Rights) Act, 2007, the Scheduled Caste and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1954, among others, is bringing a new era of

progress and development in J&K. The Forest Rights Act 2006 was implement-

ed in J&K after 14 years of its existence in other states of India. On the special attention of the UT Government, Community claims’ and ‘individu-al claims’ are being settled by administration of respective districts.

Education for Tribals: “After a wait of more than 14 years, due rights have been conferred upon the tribal community by implementing the Forest Rights Act, 2006, keeping in mind the basic spirit of social equality and harmony as guided by the Constitution of our country and Parliament,” J&K Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha said.

The Lieutenant Governor, who is taking a personal interest in tribal development recently launched the ‘Smart Schools’ Project in Jammu

and Kashmir for tribal communities. Un-der this maiden project, modernization of 200 schools in Tribal areas will be completed in 2022.

He also said that the poor and weaker sec-tions of society were neglected for many years

in J&K but on the historic day of 5 August 2019, Article 370 and Article 31A were abolished and the citizens of Jammu & Kashmir were given all the Constitutional rights.

“In J&K we have charted a new develop-ment path after August 2019. For decades, infra-structure was in tatters despite huge amount of money sent by the centre. The non-development agenda of seven decades in J&K mired the UT in a low growth syndrome. Under the guidance of Prime Minister J&K is witnessing a new dawn. Tribals are getting land rights, 11,000 government jobs have been provided within record time with complete transparency and major steps have been taken to ensure the em-powerment of women, marginalized and weaker groups,” Lt Governor said.

Following rationalisation of the percentage of reservation of different categories in direct re-cruitment, the residents of backward areas will now have 10 per cent reservation, Pahari speak-ing people (4 per cent) and Economically weaker

sections (10 per cent).The Jammu and Kashmir government, in a

big relief to the socially and educationally back-ward classes, has also enhanced the income ceil-ing from Rs 4.50 lakh to Rs 8 lakh for them to avail of benefits of reservation as per provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation Act, 2004.

As per provisions of the Act, reservation in employment and admissions in professional insti-tutions, among others is provided to the persons belonging to Socially and Educationally Backward Classes categorised as Weak and Underprivileged Classes (Social Castes), Residents of Areas adjoin-ing Actual Line of Control and Residents of Back-ward Areas. However, there is an income bar/ceil-ing for availing this reservation.

The objective of prescribing the income ceiling in the Act is to prevent such persons, as have crossed or shall cross the threshold level of backwardness commonly known as ‘Creamy Layer’ from availing benefits of reservation under the categories of Social-ly and Educationally Backward Classes.

DG Horticulture visits Dara Harwan & Faqir Gojri areas of Srinagar

SRINAGAR, MAY 07: The Director General (DG) Horticulture Kashmir, Ajaz Ahmad Bhat today visited vari-ous areas of district Srinagar viz. Dara Harwan and Faqir Gojri which have witnessed heavy hailstorms causing damage to fruit crops.

Speaking on the occasion, the DG expressed his sympathies with the affected fruit growers. Referring to the extent of the damage he said that about 60-70% damage has oc-curred to the fruit crops in the area. He further said that special teams have been framed in the affected dis-tricts to assess the losses along with revenue officials.

Responding to various demands put forth by the farmers, the DG said the Department will help the affect-ed farmers in every possible way. He

assured the farmers that the damage will be recommended for declaring it a ‘Area Specific Natural Calam-ity’.

He further added that the mat-ter will be taken up with higher ups for moratorium on the repayment of KCC loan for a period of one year. He also assured that special focus will be paid in these areas and every possible help will be provided by the Department.

Bhat assured the farmers that their demand for MIS Scheme will also be taken up with the higher au-thorities.

Later, the DG distributed relief among the affected farmers through DDC member, Shaista.

The DG was accompanied by the concerned field functionaries of the

Department during the visit. Moreover, the orchardists of the

affected areas were advised to follow the recommendations hereunder:

For Apple/Pear: The hail af-fected orchards may be immediately

sprayed with the following fungi-cides (per 100 litre of water):

Zineb 68% + Hexaconazole 4% 72 WP (100 g) or Dodine 65 WP (60 g) or

Dodine 40 SC (90ml) or Fluxapy-roxad 250g/l + Pyraclostrobin 250g/l 500SC (20ml)

After a gap of 3 days, spray Urea @ 0.2% (200 g per 100 litre of water).

Remove the fallen fruitlets and leaves from the orchards immedi-ately.

For Cherry/Apricot/Plum/Peach: Carbendazim 50WP (50g) or Carbendazim 12% + Mancozeb 63% 75 WP (250g) or Thiophanate Methyl 70WP (50g)

Remove the fallen fruitlets and leaves from the orchards immedi-ately.

Anti encroachment drive held in Sheerabad area of Tral

PULWAMA, MAY 07: The Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Tral, Shabir Ahmad Raina today led a massive anti-en-croachment drive from Sheerabad to Ari-gam villages of Tral in Pulwama district.

The anti-encroachment squad removed the encroachment from the patch of land be-sides clearing encroachment on 1km.

It was given out that a pathway will be provided to the Zamindars of both the vil-lages for smooth agricultural activities.

Speaking about the preservation of Government land, the ADC Tral said anti-encroachment drives will continue in all the parts of the Sub district to retrieve en-tire State and Kahcharai lands encroached by the land grabbers. He said involvement in land encroachment will be dealt with sternly in accordance with the law.

The ADC sought cooperation of the gen-eral public in its action against encroach-ments and also warned of action under CrPC/LRA in matters of encroachment on State/Kahcharie lands.

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 2022 3www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcomNEWS

Power shutdownJAMMU, MAY 07: Chief Engineer (Distribution) JPDCL, Jammu has in-formed that the power supply to Patoli Brahmana, Domana, Barnai, Purkhoo, Mishriwala, Baba Talab, Shamachak, Gurha Singhu, Batera, Dabbin, Chor-pur, Manyal, Dhramkhu, TirthTalab, GREF, Gumpul, Sua No.1, Garkhal and adjoining areas shall remain affected on May 08 from 10 am to 2 pm.

Similarly, the power supply to Din-gamb, Katli, Ramkot, Gujroo Nagrota, Gurah Kalyal, Ghagwal, Jatwal, Tapyal, Nonath, Gandhi Nagar, Dudha Dhari Mandir, Div Com Office, Auqaf Mar-ket, Green Belt, Apsra Road RBI, Bahu Plaza, Vaishni Dham, Nanak Nagar, Gandhi Nagar Hospital, PHE Trikuta Nagar, Shastri Nagar, Jammu Universi-ty, Army Camp, Panama Chowk, MAM College, Women College Gandhi Nagar, Power Grid Office, Bahu Plaza, Keerian Local, CNC, Keerian Industry, Raghu-nath Bazar, Residency Road, Wazarat Road, Kanak Mandi, Rajinder Bazar, Greater Kailash, Birpur Complex, Jallo Chak, Suhagpur, Nandpur, Kotli Jabow-al, Part of Arnia, Allah, BSF, Nandpur and its adjoining areas shall remain af-fected on May 08 from 7 am to 11 am.

Likewise, the power supply to Pa-toli, Shiv Nagar, Subash Nagar Govt. Quarter Sarwal, Shanti Nagar, Rat-nuchak, Sainik Colony, Gho Manhasa, Marh, Gajansoo and adjoining areas shall remain affected on May 09 from 7 am to 11 am.

Similarly, the power supply to Jan-di, Hiranagar City, Dayalachak, Bani-hal, Ramsoo, Ukhral, Pogal, Paristhan, Khari, Neel and adjoining areas shall remain affected on May 08 from 12 noon to 2 pm.

Likewise, the power supply to Kul-lian, Badyal, Kadyal, Simbal, Medical College, Bakshi Nagar, Rajpura, Gurha, Rehari, Sarwal and adjoining areas shall remain affected on May 08 from 7 am to 12 noon.

Similarly, the power supply to Sale-har, MES (Malpur) and adjoining areas shall remain affected on May 08 from 9 am to 2 pm.

Meanwhile, Superintending Engi-neer (Distribution) JPDCL, O&M Circle, Kathua has informed that the power supply to Old Vijaypur, Supwal, Bad-heri, Nanak Chack, DC Office, Court etc shall remain affected on May 08 from 7 am to 12 noon.

Government restructures Agriculture Production Department for the welfare of

farmers and orchardistsJAMMU, MAY 7: With the aim of dou-bling farm income of farmers, orchard-ists and people dependent of animal, sheep husbandry and fisheries for their livelihood, the Government today or-dered comprehensive restructuring of the government departments dealing these sectors. These activities engage around 70% of population of the UT and creation of a fully-fledged Agriculture Production Department by merging the three existing line departments namely Agriculture Production and Farmers Welfare, Animal, Sheep Husbandry & Fisheries and Horticulture is likely to synergize efforts of government in achieving the target of doubling farm income, set by the Prime Minister.

The restructuring shall ensure that all schemes for welfare of the popula-tion engaged in these sectors are avail-able under one umbrella in a single department. The benefits of various schemes available in these sectors can be converged and made available to farmers, orchardists etc. as a compre-hensive package.

The Government decision shall also ensure that the inter-sectoral re-

quirements of agriculture and allied sector are met in a hassle free manner and will act as milestone in transpar-ent and timely transfer of funds to the farmers.

This shall also be a step forward

to achieve the objective of the Govern-ment to secure comprehensive trans-formation in the livelihood of farmers in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir by modernizing technological interventions and diversifying support

systems available in the agriculture and allied sectors. The decision is likely to promote agri-entrepreneurship as a means of high return and respectable employment in a big way.

DDC Doda reviews performance of PMGSY; applauds department

for excelling at national level

DODA, MAY 7: Deputy Commissioner Doda, Vikas Sharma, today reviewed the achievements of the PMGSY department during the last financial year and achieve-ments in the last month of the current fi-nancial year here at a meeting held in his office chamber.

The DDC enquired about the targets set by the department for Blacktopping, metalling, shingling, fair weather roads and coverage of targeted habitations. He also sought details with regard to the works being held up or having slow progress and other bottlenecks, if any.

The DDC applauded the efforts of the department for excelling at national level in terms of physical achievements.

It was informed that till ending April, the department blacktopped 622.37 KM and completed 731.442 KM upto fair weather level. It was also informed that 9 special bridges have been completed till ending April this year.

The meeting was further informed that

226 projects have been proposed in phase XII with a length of 920.80 KM to cover the left out eligible habitations in the district. Under the current phase, the department has set a target to blacktop 181.043 KM road till ending September this year.

The DDC directed the concerned to expedite the progress to complete the road connectivity projects at the earli-est. He also directed to monitor the work wise progress on a daily basis in each sub division and take strict action against the poor performing officials/ contractors. He further directed the SE to discuss the physical and financial status including the quality of work, project and Sub division wise in the next meeting to be held in the next week. Further, the DDC directed the department to ensure that no work is held up or delayed by any contractor.

The meeting was attended by CPO Doda, SE PMGSY, and Ex En PMGSY Doda/ Thathri.

Arrangements finalized for 3-day Historic Moungri mela

UDHAMPUR, MAY 07: The ar-rangements for the smooth conduct of 3 day historic Annual Shiv- Parvati Shrine (Moungri) mela commencing from May 14, 2022, at Sar Dabber in Tehsil Moungri of district Udhampur were today finalized here at a joint meeting of District Officers and rep-resentatives of the Shrine Manage-ment Committee. The meeting was chaired by Additional Deputy Com-missioner, Mohammad Syed Khan.

Threadbare discussions were held on the arrangements related to main-tenance of road, Security, Sanitation, Health care, Transport, Drinking water and power supply, checking of mar-ket rates, Ration supply, Cultural pro-gramme and holding of sports events etc.

Speaking at the meeting, the ADC directed the concerned officers to ensure all arrangements pertain-ing to their respective departments were made well in advance and in an effective manner leaving no scope of any complaint from any quarter.

President J&K Indian Style Wrestling Association, Shiv Kumar Sharma apprised the meeting that a wrestling competition will also be or-ganized on the first day (May 14, 2022) of the mela, which is one of the main attractions of the 3-day event.

During the mela days, differ-ent government departments would put up their stalls to showcase their schemes. It was also decided that the

Youth Services & Sports, in coordina-tion with the Education department, would organize cultural programmes and sports events at the venue.

The meeting was attended by Chief Education Officer, Arvin Ku-mar Koul; Executive Engineer, Jal Shakti, Taj Choudhary; Executive Engineers, PYMGSY, PDD & PWD, Tehsildar, Moungri, Executive Of-ficer, Municipal Council Udhampur, Chairman Lord Shiv-Parvati Caves Shrines Development Board, Swatan-ter Dev Kotwal, Sarpanch, Hans Raj who is also President of the Lord Shiva-Parvati Caves Shrine Develop-ment Board, prominent citizens and the officers of different department attended the meeting.

Sensitisation Program on NTCP held at Krishi Bhawan Jammu

JAMMU, MAY 7: Directorate of Agri-culture Production & Farmers Welfare, Jammu in collaboration with Director-ate of Health Services, Jammu today organised a day long sensitization Pro-gramme on National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) for the officers/officials at Krishi Bhawan Talab Tillo.

Director Agriculture, Jammu, K. K. Sharma, in his keynote address, highlighted the ill effects of direct and indirect use of Tobacco in different forms and impressed upon the officers to take advantage of the programme to understand laws and acts for preven-tion of smoking and use of tobacco in offices and public places. He expressed concern over the emerging trend of to-bacco use in children/youth/women and stressed on the need of educating the society against the use of tobacco to secure the future of the Nation as well as society in particular. It was enjoined upon the officers to make their respec-tive offices the “smoking free zone” by

displaying the warning in this regard.Divisional Coordinator (NTCP)

Jammu, Shiveta Raina through power point presentation informed the partic-ipants about the status of tobacco use in India including J&K. She outlined that the main objective of organizing this training programme is capacity building of senior government officials to get a better understanding regarding enforcement of the provisions of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act -COTPA -2003 and implementa-tion of the National Tobacco control programme(NTCP). It was also in-formed that TOBACCO use is the single largest cause of preventable deaths and illness worldwide and it kills half of its users prematurely.

It was further informed that the NTCP programme focuses on reduction of demand/supply of Tobacco products and implementation of strategies for prevention and control of Tobacco. Light was also thrown on section 4, 5, 6 & 7 of

the COTPA which includes prohibition of smoking in public places, prohibi-tion of advertisement and promotion of Tobacco, Prohibition of sale of Tobacco product to minors, mandatory depiction of statutory warnings etc.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Joint Director Agriculture (Extension), Subash Chander Sharma gave a brief overview of the programme & objec-tive of the NTCP and highlighted the role and responsibilities of society on Tobacco Control.

Those who attended the pro-gramme include Joint Director (In-puts), A. S. Reen, Joint Director (Api-culture & Mushroom), R. K. Hitaishi, Joint Director (Marketing), Mahesh Verma, Deputy Director Central, Vivek Kohli, Agronomist (VIS), J. C. Raina, Agriculture Chemist, Aman Jyoti Shrama, CAO Jammu, Arvind Baru, Agriculture Economist, Yograj Slathia besides other senior officers of the de-partment of Agriculture.

Director Agriculture Kashmir undertakes assessmentof damage by hailstorm

SRINAGAR, MAY 07: The Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mo-hammad Iqbal has pressed into service its monitoring teams to make on spot assessment of damage caused to veg-etables, fodder crops, mustard crops by the recent hailstorm in specific packets of Baramulla, Srinagar, Pulwama and Shopian districts of the valley.

In this connection, the Director along with Deputy Director Agricul-ture Planning Mohammad Younis Chowdhary, Divisional Seed Certifica-tion Officer and other officers of the Department made an extensive visit to Fakir Gujree, Dhara, Syed Pora and some other areas where heavy damage was noticed to the agriculture crop in the farmers’ fields.

A number of deputations of farm-ers also met the Director and reported the damage to vegetables, mustard and other crops.

Talking to the farmers, the Direc-tor said the Department would take

all the necessary steps to mitigate the damage caused by the hailstorm to the agriculture crops. He asked the con-cerned officers to spare 20 thousand seedlings of different vegetable crops for the farmers of affected areas as an immediate mitigation step.

Instructions were issued by the Di-rector to field officers to immediately make a detailed assessment of the loss-es and the concerned chief Agriculture officers have been advised to furnish the crop wise and area wise damage reports within three days so that the issue is taken up with the concerned authorities of Government for consid-eration of affected areas as hit by the natural calamity.

Later, the Director Agriculture briefed the Divisional Administration regarding the mitigation steps taken by the Department for the hailstorm af-fected areas.

Office of the Block Medical Officer PattanRetender Notice

Due to poor response and on the behalf of the UT of Jammu And Kashmir, Sealed bids affixed with Rs 5/= revenue stamp along with CDR Rs 5000/= ( Five Thousand Only ) pledged to Block Medical Officer Pattan are invited for interested parties for supply of diet to IPD Patients ( Under NHM ) of SDH Pattan on annual rate con-tract basis for One year, subject to the following conditions:1. Bidding document should be sent through courier service or deliverd in

person.2. The bids should reach to the office of the undersigned within the period of

seven days from the date of publish.3. The tender document will be opened any subsequent days, as may be

convenient by the Block Medical Office Pattan.4. The diet should be according to the diet chart which will be available in the

BMO’s office any working day.5. The Block Medical Officer reserves the right to accept or reject any bid

without asking any reason thereof.6. Further necessary information and queries can be obtained from office of the

Block Medical Officer Pattan.

Sd/-Block Medical Officer

DIPK: 1638/22 Pattan

Samba admin designates 22 locations for Pilgrims’ stay during Shri Amarnath Yatra

SAMBA, MAY 07: Deputy Commissioner Anuradha Gupta on Saturday reviewed the arrangements for Amarnath Yatra 2022 during a daylong tour of the 22 plac-es identified and designated for accom-modation of the pilgrims.

The Deputy Commissioner visited all the locations identified for lodging and refreshment of Yatris in the dis-trict. She directed the district officers to

take adequate measures in advance for smooth conduct of the yatra and com-plete the ongoing works. The DC visited identified locations including Govern-ment Schools, College buildings, Nonath Ashram, Temple premises at Ghagwal, Vijaypur, Barian, besides other places and inspected the availability of basic amenities for the Yatris.

She directed for augmentation of infra-

structure to cater to the huge rush of yatris expected this year for the Yatra being held after two years due to Covid pandemic.

The Deputy Commissioner issued directions to the Nodal officers to take stock of the facilities including accom-modation, drinking water, electricity, and sanitation for the yatris and ensure that the tasks assigned to them are com-pleted within the stipulated time frame.

MSK Samba organises awareness program

SAMBA, MAY 07: District Hub for Empowerment of Women Mahila Sashakti-karan Kendra (MSK), Samba organized an awareness pro-gramme at Village Pakhri Panchayat of Keso Manhasa.

The programme was at-tended by Panchs Shardha Sharma, Gurmeet Singh and more than 40 local women.

The main aim of the programme was to sensitize the Rural Women regarding Women Centric and Govern-ment Welfare Scheme.

Dr. Ruchi Thakur, Wom-en Welfare Officer, welcomed the participants and gave a brief introduction about ob-jectives of MSK and discussed the schemes being imple-mented the Department of So-cial Welfare such as One Stop Centre (SAKHI), ICPS, Wom-en helpline 181, MSK helpline, Child Helpline. She informed them that MSK is an initia-tive of the government to provide 24 hour-immediate response to women affected by any kind of violence. She also sensitised the women about other schemes like Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, PMMVY and Sukanya Samridhi Yojna.

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 20224 www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom SHOWBIZ

Palak Tiwari on standing by mom Shweta Tiwari’s side through every turbulent phase

‘It was never a choice’P

alak Tiwari opened up about the unconditional love she has for her mother, Shweta Tiwari, and said that the actor prioritises her fam-ily above all else. She also men-

tioned that she trusts her mother blindly, and that’s why she has never thought twice about supporting her every decision. Palak Tiwari is Shweta’s daughter from her first marriage with Raja Chaudhary. The couple separated in 2007, and Shweta cited domestic abuse as the main reason. Later, Shweta married Ab-hinav Kohli, but they divorced as well.

In an interview to Bollywood Bubble, Pal-

ak said that her mother has always ‘shielded’ her. Asked about standing by her mother through thick and thin, she said, “For me, it was never a choice. There’s only one person I’ve admired holistically, it is my mother. For me, she could do no wrong then, and she could do no wrong now. For me, to stick to by someone that blindly, I might have apprehen-sions about it, but not about my mother. I am so lucky to know that my mother has always prioritised the well-being of our family.”

Speaking about nepotism, she agreed that outsiders are indeed marginalised, but she said that there are cons to being

star-kids too. “I know that what I do, people would always say that my mother is bet-ter. I will never refute it. She is better. For me to grow to where she is, will take time. There was so much sangharsh (struggle) in her life at a young age. All those parents who worked–like my mom who came from nothing–she worked her way up, would it be fair, if she didn’t give her daughter any-thing?” Referring to the constant criticism about star-kids having it easy, she said, “You think you’re shaming the child, but you’re shaming the parent.”

Asked what she would like to do for her

mother, Palak said, “My mother takes a lot of stress. My grandparents are old now. Medi-cal bills are so expensive, and I want to pro-vide for all of them. I want to take away all of my mother’s stress and take it on my own back, as she had shielded me from so much negativity. It is my goal to have that financial stability, so that she does not have to look at something and think that it’s too expensive.”

Palak Tiwari became an internet sensa-tion after she appeared in Harrdy Sandhu’s music video “Bijlee Bijlee”.

18 years Of 'Arya': Allu Arjun, Sukumar remain hit jodi to date

Hyderabad, May 7: 'Arya', which is one of the major hits of Allu Arjun's career has completed 18 years since its release in 2004. The blockbuster ro-mantic comedy that made Allu Arjun the star that he is today is still said to be one of the greatest miracles of his life.

Not only Allu Arjun, but Sukumar too benefited from the major break that 'Arya' gave to his career. Suku-mar, who is also a director of Allu Arjun's other big hit film 'Pushpa: The Rise' shares a very close bond with the Indian superstar. Working together, the Allu Arjun- Sukumar team hit the bullseye at the box office.

After working on 'Arya' in 2004, the hit jodi went on to make its sequel in 2009 starring Kajal Aggarwal and Shraddha Das along with Allu Arjun in the key roles. Adding more to their legacy, Sukumar and Allu went on to give 'Pushpa Part 1' in 2021 and are all set to take 'Pushpa 2' on floors in 2022.

'Pushpa' which rocked the box of-fice during the pandemic is considered to be India's biggest film in 2021.

Meanwhile, fans are waiting ea-gerly for the sequel to Pushpa which is slated to go on floors in 2022.

Selena Gomez pokes fun at her dating age range: '31 to coffin'

Los Angeles, May 7: Actress-singer Selena Gomez has given some insight into her qualifications for a romantic partner.

In the now since-deleted TikTok video, Gomez was seen lip-syncing to an audio of Anisha Ramakrishna from Bravo's 'Family Karma', which is about falling for older men, reports aceshowbiz.com.

In the clip, an off-camera voice on the audio asked: "What is your dat-ing range lately?" The 29-year-old lip-synced in response: "31 to coffin."

This wasn't the first time for the singer to poke fun at her love life on the platform.A

Just a few days ago, the former Disney darling shared a video featur-ing a super relatable take on being single.

The video saw Selena facing the camera while sitting on the couch.

She went on assuring viewers she is totally cool with the single life. "No, I'm fine," the singer began. "I'm totally fine being single. It's a real thing. It's fine."

She later panned the camera to two couples cuddling across from her before she turned the camera back to her. Judging from her look, it didn't seem like she was fine being single.

Sobhita Dhulipala reveals why she won't attend 'Major' trailer launch

Mumbai, May 7: Actress Sobhita Dhulipala won't attend the trailer launch of her upcoming film 'Major' as she is currently busy shooting for another film.

'Major' is based on the life of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the decorated NSG Commando who perished while saving dozens during the 26/11 Mum-bai attacks.

The unveiling of the trailer is scheduled for May 9.

Taking to social media, Sobhita said: "'Major' is a film we worked hard on and with immense passion! The trailer drops on the 9th and I can-not wait for everyone to watch it. So thrilled!

"It's a pity I won't be able to make it to the unveiling in Hyderabad because of prior shoot commitments. My heart is going to be split between two places that day!! Irrespective, big hearty hug to the media for showing such love to our trailer in private viewings this week."

Produced by Sony Pictures Inter-national Productions in association with Mahesh Babu's GMB Entertain-ment and A+S Movies, 'Major' is di-rected by Sashi Kiran Tikka, and stars Adivi Sesh, Sobhita Dhulipala, Saiee Manjrekar, Revathi, Prakash Raj, An-ish Kuruvilla and Murali Sharma.

Chennai, May 7: With her latest cinematic outing 'Saani Kaayidham', lead actor Keerthy Suresh yet again proved her mettle for han-dling challenging roles. Released on Prime Video on May 6, the Arun Matheswaran di-rectorial story narrates the heart-wrenching journey of Ponni, essayed by Keerthy Suresh.

The intense movie revolves around Pon-ni, a constable who lives with her five-year-old daughter Dhanna and husband Maari, who works as a coolie in a rice mill. In one unfor-tunate night, she loses everything. To avenge the injustice done to her, she takes support of

Sangaiah (Selvaraghavan), with whom she shares a bitter past.

Known for her bubbly roles in roman-tic stories, Keerthy Suresh first made waves when she played iconic yesteryears actress Savitri in 'Mahanati'. Widely applauded for her performance in 'Mahanati', Keerthy won the national film award for this role.

Speaking to IANS, Keerthy Suresh shared her experience of working in 'Saani Kaayid-ham', and more.

Excerpts from the interview:Q: How did this role come about? Was it writ-

ten with you in mind or is it the other way round?A: I actually don't know if Arun actually

had me in mind when he wrote the script. But I think in one of the interviews, he recently said he did. I'm not sure about that. But he came and narrated the script to me. When he narrated, I had no clue about how the film was going to be or what genre it is. So it was just a blank narration that I had. It was blind. It was only after I started listening that I understood where this was going. As soon as I finished listening, I loved it. But I also had my doubts about the film because it wasn't something in

my zone. That's something that I usually do. So it was a complete contrast to that. So my first question was, why me and to that, he said, he wanted me because this is something that I've not done before and he would like to see me in a role like that. So I think that's how he wrote the role. So that's how it started and I thought when the director himself is so con-fident about me doing it, so I thought I should definitely try my chance doing this.

Q: What were the doubts that crept into your mind when you were offered an intense and deglamorised role?

A: No, for me, de-glam is not the issue at all. Like I don't care about the de-glam at all. I love doing such roles because I think it con-nects a lot more with a wider range of audi-ences. In fact, so de-glam wasn't my issue. My doubts were about doing a very intense char-acter like this and it involves a lot of violence and all that. So, my doubts were mainly on the intensity of it, nothing to do with de-glam.

I love doing de-glam stuff. In fact, it takes like 20 minutes for me to get ready in the morning compared to the other films where I need like two, two and a half hours.

I want to do another film with 'Saani Kaayidham' team: Keerthy Suresh

5NEWS www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 2022

New Delhi, May 7: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the 1962 verdict of the top court in the Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar case, which upheld the validity of Section 124A of the IPC on sedition, is bind-ing on a three-judge bench, and it is good in law and needs no reconsid-eration.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said in his written submission: "The judgement in the Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar case is a constitu-tion bench judgment and is binding on a three-judge bench of this court. The said judgment is a good law and needs no reconsideration. It must be treated as a binding precedent re-quiring no reference."

Mehta added that individual in-stances of misuse of the provision cannot be a ground for reconsidera-tion.

Mehta said the Kedar Nath Singh judgement has stood the test of time and is applied till date in tune with modern constitutional principles.

"Only a bench of co-equal strength as of Kedar Nath Singh can pose any doubts on the judgment," he said.

The Kedar Nath Singh judgment was passed by a five-judge bench.

"The five-judge bench read down Section 124A only to bring it in con-formity with Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution. No reference, there-fore, would be necessary nor can the three-judge bench once again exam-ine the constitutional validity of the very same provision," added the sub-missions.

Mehta contended that the bench of three judges cannot reconsider the ratio of a judgment of a constitution bench without referring the matter to a larger bench.

"If none of the above referred ar-guments are acceptable, this court, in combination of three judges, may not examine the challenge to Sec-tion 124A and may refer it to a larger

bench for consideration whether Ke-dar Nath [supra] needs reconsidera-tion," he added.

Mehta said: "Instances of the abuse of provision would never be a justification to reconsider a binding judgment of the constitution bench. The remedy would lie in preventing such abuse on a case-to-case basis rather than doubting a long standing settled law declared by a constitution bench since about six decades."

He added that if none of the above referred arguments are acceptable, this court, in combination of three judges, may not examine the chal-lenge to Section 124A and may refer it to a larger bench for consideration whether Kedar Nath needs reconsid-eration.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana has scheduled the matter for hearing on

May 10. The bench will hear the argu-ments on whether the petitions chal-lenging the validity of sedition under Section 124A should be referred to a Constitution bench.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal said the sedition law is valid, in view of the Kedar Nath Singh case judge-ment (1962), which balanced freedom of speech and security of state.

Urging the top court to lay down the guidelines to prevent misuse of the law, he said, "Misuse (of the sedition law) is controlled...the question of ref-erence (of Kedar Nath Singh case to a larger bench) does not arise."

He defended the constitutional validity of Section 124A and the top court's judgment in the Kedar Nath Singh vs State of Bihar case.

In the last hearing, the three-judge bench had deliberated on whether the matter needs to be referred to a

larger bench, since the petitions have sought a direction to overrule the Ke-dar Nath Singh judgement.

"In every writ petition, there is a prayer to strike down the Kedar Nath judgement and strike down 124A... Can we proceed hearing this case without reference to Kedar Nath Singh to a larger bench," the bench had noted.

The Supreme Court in the Kedar Nath Singh case clarified that only those acts, which involved incite-ment to violence or violence, consti-tuted a seditious act under Section 124 A of the IPC.

The top court is hearing the pe-titions filed by Major General S.G. Vombatkere (retd) and the Editors Guild of India and others, which chal-lenged the constitutional validity of Section 124A that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Mother Teresa covered up worst excesses of church, new

documentary claimsNew Delhi, May 7: Mother Teresa covered up for the worst excesses of the Catholic church and seemed more attracted to poverty and pain than actually helping people escape them, Daily Mail reported.

That's the claim made in a com-pelling new three-part Sky docu-mentary series -- 'Mother Teresa: For the Love of God' -- which talks to some of her closest friends and bitterest critics and serves as a thorough reappraisal of one of the most famous women of the last cen-tury, Daily Mail reported.

The series shows there were is-sues from the start when British doctor Jack Preger worked with her charity, and was shocked by what he saw. "The nuns weren't de-livering proper care," he says.

"Needles were used over and over unsterilised. One woman with burns was refused painkillers -- I smuggled some in for her. They had the money to run a decent hospital for poor people, but they never did. They said, 'we will pray for the al-leviation of pain without providing

treatment'. Pain was not just a by-product of her work, but an integral part of it. Nuns were instructed to whip themselves and wear wire chains with spikes on," Preger says, Daily Mail reported.

By the 1980s, her profile had never been higher. She demanded a ceasefire in Beirut in 1982 to save some orphans, and amazingly it happened.

Three years later, she had pris-oners dying of AIDS in a New York prison released. By now, around 100 million pounds a year was com-ing into her organisation, but most of it was being paid into the Vati-can bank.

The last decade of Mother Te-resa's life was perhaps the most difficult.

She was struggling with old age, but the church was calling on her to help save it from the growing scan-dals of child abuse by priests.

"They would send her to towns where scandals were being un-earthed. She could change the sto-ry," says Mary Johnson.

New Delhi, May 7: India on Saturday reported 3,805 new Covid cases, a con-siderable rise against the 3,545 infec-tions registered the previous day, the Union Health Ministry said.

In the same period, there were 22 additional Covid fatalities, taking the nationwide death toll to 5,24,024.

The active caseload also increased to 20,303 cases, accounting for 0.05 per cent of the country's total positive cases.

The recovery of 3,168 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally

to 4,25,54,416. Consequently, India's re-covery rate stands at 98.74 per cent.

Meanwhile, India's daily positiv-ity rate stood at 0.78 per cent and the weekly positivity rate at 0.79 per cent.

Also in the same 24-hour period, a total of 4,87,544 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the overall to 84.03 crore.

As of Saturday morning, India's Co-vid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 190 crore, achieved via 2,35,96,683 ses-sions.

******

Bhubaneswar, May 7: The Odisha government will put the best resources available towards training the winners of India Skills Competition for the World Skills Competition, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said here on Saturday.

Odisha students have got as many as 59 medals at India Skills Competition 2021 which was held in New Delhi in Janu-ary 2022. These winners will go through the gruelling prepara-tions for the World Skills Com-petition scheduled to be held in Shanghai, China in October, 2022.

"Winning is a habit; so is ex-cellence. I believe our children have now formed the habit to

excel, to compete with the best in the world and win." Patnaik said while felicitating the win-ners of India Skills Competi-

tion.The Chief Minister has an-

nounced enhancement of cash incentives for Biju Patnaik Da-

khyata Award for the winners of World Skills Competition (WSC).

He announced that from this edition onwards, the gold medal winner in the World Skill Competitions will get an award of Rs 1 crore, while the silver medallist will get Rs 50 lakh and the bronze medallist will get Rs 25 lakh.

The institution which nur-tures the gold medal winner will get Rs 5 crore for setting up the Biju Patnaik Centre of Excellence, said Patnaik.

He further said: "We have kept the goal of 2-3-4, bringing 2 golds, 3 silvers and 4 bronzes for the country from the youth of Odisha at WSC, Shanghai."

Last mile citizen should be priority for delivery of health services: MandaviyaNew Delhi, May 7: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday that the citizen in the last mile should be the priority for delivery of health services.

"Let's resolve and take a pledge to ensure best implementation of health policies for well-being of our citizens to fulfill aim of Antyo-daya. The citizen in the last mile should be our priority for delivery of health services," Mandaviya said while addressing the concluding session of 'Swasthya Chintan Shi-vir' at Kevadia, Gujarat.

Addressing the session, Man-daviya said that 'Siddhi' (accom-plishment) is the driving force behind any 'Sankalp' (resolution). Appreciating the participation of around 25 Health and Medical Ed-ucation Ministers in the Swasthya Chintan Shivir, he said, "We have been enriched by deep insight of knowledge due to presentation of best practices by states. This provided us knowledge regarding effective implementation of gov-ernment schemes in the health sector."

"All States have shared one best practice, so now we have more than 25 best practices to learn from and implement across the country. Goals of Centre and States are com-plementary. It is the goal of state which would define policy making at the central level. States' goals provide us national goals," he said.

New Delhi, May 7: The Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, said on Saturday that the government must step in in a big way to tackle breast cancer, which is be-coming a leading cause of concern in the society.

He also said the government should develop a roadmap to tackle this issue.

Speaking at the release of a book titled 'Atlas of Breast Elastography and Ultra-sound Guided Fine Needle Cytology', the CJI said breast cancer is becoming one of the leading causes of concern in the so-ciety and considering the socio-economic considerations, this disease can be a curse for the entire family.

He added that from diagnosis to treat-ment, at every stage, the patient has to shell out substantial amounts which very few can afford.

Emphasising that the need of the hour is to generate awareness, Ramana said, "It is essential to design breast cancer awareness campaigns on the scale of cer-vical cancer, anti-tobacco and pulse polio campaigns. Celebrities and famous per-sonalities should be involved. The mass media plays a significant role in dissemi-nating information."

He said that primary healthcare cen-tres lack even basic infrastructure and there is also lack of affordable treatment options.

"Often, women belonging to margin-alised sections lack access to informa-tion, diagnosis and treatment of the disease. We need interventions and strategies addressing inequities of can-cer screening and treatment in India. If this disease is to be tackled effectively, the government has to step in in a big way. The government must give a boost to medical infrastructure and research," the CJI said.

He added, "Ultimately, a roadmap is necessary to tackle up this issue. The Health Ministry, the government of India must involve doctors, leading NGOs and industrialists to prepare the same."

Ramana pointed out that every four

minutes, one woman is diagnosed with breast cancer, which is the most common cancer in women.

"As many as 27.7 per cent of all new cancers detected in women in 2018 were breast cancer cases. Every eight minutes, one woman dies of breast cancer. A total of 87,090 women died of breast cancer in 2018, which was the second highest num-ber in the world for that year. Around 32 per cent of new cases belong to the age group of 25 to 49," he said.

The CJI further pointed out that the role of doctors is also of great signifi-cance and the responsibility of gynaeco-logists cannot be under-stated.

"It is because of their active efforts that cases of cervical cancer has come down. They must play a similar role in the war against breast cancer," he added.

Ramana said that women form 50 per cent of the population in the country, and they are the backbone of the family and society.

"Therefore, their health must find equal attention and reflection in our society and policies. But several socio-cultural factors prevent women from get-ting the best possible attention on health. Women often end up taking care of oth-ers. However, when it comes to their own health, it is often suppressed and ig-nored. It is high time that we change the attitude surrounding women's health," he said.

The CJI also that he is extremely sad-dened to witness rising violence against doctors and several false cases are being lodged against upright and hardworking medical practitioners.

Lucknow, May 7: The Sama-jwadi Party (SP) has thrown a spanner in the Presidential elec-tions by announcing that it will neither support a BJP candidate, nor a Congress nominee in the upcoming polls.

SP's national spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said, "Our party president and quite a few senior leaders feel that SP should maintain equal distance from the BJP and the Congress in the Presidential elections."

In political circles, SP's deci-sion is being seen as a clear mes-sage to the Congress to not to mess with its internal matters.

Sources said that Akhilesh Ya-dav had taken a strong exception to Acharya Pramod Krishnam's re-cent meeting with senior SP MLA Mohammad Azam Khan in jail.

While the BJP seems to be in a comfortable position to see its

nominee through in the polls, for the Congress, the Presidential elections will be a major opportu-nity to position itself as the main challenger to the saffron brigade in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sab-ha elections.

For this, the Congress would need the support of all the BJP ri-vals, and SP's latest stance could leave the Congress strategists eyeing SP votes a bit concerned.

As the electoral college which elects the President comprises all members of both Houses of the Parliament and MLAs from all the states, SP will be a noticeable player. Presently, SP and its al-lies have 125 MLAs, 16 MLCs and 8 MPs (both Houses).

Interestingly, none of the SP allies have so far made any com-ment on SP's decision on Presi-dential elections.

The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD),

according to sources, is uncom-fortable' with SP's posture.

"You need to take a stand in politics and cannot always queer the pitch. We do not understand what SP wants but we will take a decision at the appropriate time," said a senior RLD leader.

The RLD has eight MLAs in the UP Assembly.

The Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party (SBSP) is also a Samajwadi ally with six legislators and its President Om Prakash Rajbhar is also maintaining a studied si-lence on the issue.

Meanwhile, according to sourc-es, a section of senior legislators in the SP is also against the decision announced by Akhilesh Yadav.

These legislators are appar-ently waiting for Shivpal Singh Yadav to decide his stand on the issue and may eventually go with him.

Kolkata, May 7: As elections for the new President of India is scheduled sometime in July this year, it is certain that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will take a lead role in uniting the regional parties so that a strong and unanimously accepted opposition candidate can be fielded against the nomi-nee of the BJP-led National Dem-ocratic Alliance (NDA).

On Thursday, after a section of the media asked Banerjee about the Presidential polls, she refused to divulge the details of her plans but made it clear that she is determined to take a lead role in uniting the opposition ahead of the Presidential polls.

"There is time to go for the polls. I cannot divulge my plans right now. I will share the details at an appropriate time. All I can say is that the opposition will put up a strong contest," the Chief Minister said.

IANS contacted a senior Tri-namool MP, who on conditions of anonymity said that Banerjee has started talking to the CMs of non-BJP states on this count.

"During her recent visit to New Delhi, she had a meeting with Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The issue of fielding a unanimous opposition candidate came up in the meeting. I heard that soon she is also likely to hold a meeting with TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K.

Chandrasekhar Rao on this mat-ter. The rest is up to the Chief Minister to decide," the Trin-amool MP said.

That Trinamool will go all out to play an important role in forging opposition unity over the Presidential polls was made clear by Banerjee on March 16, when she said that despite BJP's vic-tory in Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, it will not be a cake-walk for the BJP since they do not have even 50 per cent of the total number of legislators in the country.

"You should not forget that without our support, BJP will not be able to sail through," the Chief Minister had said then.

The question that automati-cally arises is whether the Chief Minister's dream of taking a lead role in uniting the opposition on this issue will be fulfilled if she

keeps the Congress out of her plans.

According to All Indian Con-gress Committee member Su-vankar Sarkar, Banerjee has to decide whether she is really seri-ous about uniting the opposition on the issue of Presidential polls.

"In March, she had said that without Trinamool's help the BJP will not be able to sail through. Do I consider this statement as a subtle message to the BJP? The initiative has to come from her side on whether she wants the support of the Congress on this issue," he said.

Political analyst and the former registrar of Calcutta University, Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborty, said that any attempt from the Chief Minister to field an unanimously accepted opposition candidate will not be fruitful without the support of the Congress.

Trinamool prepares to play key role in uniting Oppn,

avoiding vote split

India logs 3,805 new Covid cases, 22 deaths

CJI says govt must step in to tackle breast cancer, calls for roadmap

Will put best resources to train youths for World Skills Competition: Odisha CM

Centre defends sedition law in SC, says individual cases no ground for repeal

Samajwadi Party throws a spanner even as its allies stay undecided

6 www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom EDITSrinagar | Sunday

08 May 2022

Don’t fall into the communal trap

India is sinking deeper by the day in the quicksand of communal hate and violence. The prime minister has not uttered a word

so far on these developments nor appealed for peace amongst the warring groups, which raises questions about his party and the gov-ernment. Moreover, the economic situation is grim, especially on the employment front, and what better way can there be to divert the at-tention of the unemployed and frustrated youth than to get them involved in religious strife?

Let me explain. According to a report pub-lished by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), in a five-year period from 2017 to 2022 the labour participation rate has dropped from 46 per cent to 40 per cent. What does this mean? It means that more than 450 million people have disappeared from the workforce. In other words, they are not even looking for a job now out of sheer frustration. The government has naturally challenged the report. But while the CMIE report is based on

research, the government’s denial is based on surmises. According to economist Mahesh Vyas, the real GDP growth at constant prices in 2021-22 was no more than 1.7 per cent compared to the period before Covid. But employment in 2021-22 was actually nearly 2 per cent lower than the pre-pandemic year of 2019-20. It means that India will not only not reap the advantage of demographic dividend but the absence of em-ployment opportunities will drive the youth to frustration and lawlessness.

The rising inflation is only making matters worse. Imagine the plight of a young person who has spent many years looking for a job and has found none. He has now given up com-pletely and sits at home. His parents and other elders in the family curse him for being useless and resent his being a financial burden on the family. Then this young man goes out, hangs around with others like himself and they all suddenly discover an opportunity. There is a “shobha” or some other “yatra” being planned

by people in his area. All that he has to do is to join it, carry a saffron flag or a stick or a sword, and shout slogans if passing in front of a place of worship of the other community. He will either get paid for it or at least have alcoholic drinks to his heart’s content. He will also get a peculiar sense of power as part of the mob. The young man in the other community is briefed by his elders at the same time and incited to “defend the faith” by assembling in the place of worship and facing the other community’s mob when it approaches. The situation thus created is ready to explode and, in fact, on several oc-casions, it has exploded. In many cases, the ad-ministration is either inept or even complicit under instructions from the powers-that-be and would actually allow violence to take place.

Many people get hurt or even lose their life when communal riots take place. Property is destroyed, livelihoods are lost and the bitter-ness created lasts for years. In many cases, a transfer of population also takes place when

people shift from one “mohalla” to another for safety. The damage to people’s psyche is incalculable. The reasons for the current atmo-sphere of hate and violence that we are witness-ing are directly ascribable to the prevailing economic situation.

My advice to the people of my country, therefore, is that whatever the provocation, they should keep their cool. Even if some mem-bers of one community provoke the other com-munity, they should try to restrain themselves and not fall in the trap. Soon this strategy of pitching one community against the other will begin to come apart. I am saying all this on the basis of personal experience. My former Lok Sabha constituency (Hazaribag) in Jharkhand is a communally sensitive district. The long years that I spent in Parliament representing this place were marked by a continuous effort to maintain peace between the two communi-ties. Hazaribag’s Ram Navami is unique. It extends for at least two days after Navami, to Dashami and Ekadashi as more than a hundred trucks carrying “jhankis” (depiction of gods) traverse a route which includes a mosque on the way. The situation is readymade for a com-munal clash and one did indeed take place in 1988, and reportedly propelled a BJP candidate to the Lok Sabha seat in 1989. It was the first victory for the party from that seat.

When I became an MP from there in 1998, it became my full-time job to prevent communal riots from taking place, especially in view of the fact that some elements in the BJP, includ-ing the former MP, were ever ready and keen to ignite the communal fire. On one occasion when I learnt that the mobs of the two commu-nities were confronting each other in a certain part of the town, I rushed there with my wife. Brickbats were flying all around and the mobs of the two communities were facing each other with whatever weapons they could lay their hands on. We stood between the two sides, rea-soned with them and persuaded them to dis-perse before the police arrived, late as usual.

The moral of the story is that communal peace will remain a distant dream until all hands are on the deck and the administration is determined to put down communal violence firmly and yet fairly. The state has no religion. The local administration, too, has none. A fair, even-handed and just approach is needed to stem the present tide. The politician will not do it unless it pays him electoral dividends. Will the civil and police administration fill the gap, stand up and be counted?

CAA -Citizenship Amendment Bill —- Echoes Again

Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is yet again in the news after Home Minister Amit Shah while counter-ing the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, said that

the CAA would be implemented once the pandemic situation is over. However, this is not the first time the Home Minister has promised so, but even during the campaigning for the as-sembly elections in West Bengal last year, the same promise was made. But so far, no headway has been achieved in this regard even as the Government has also failed in framing the rules for the CAA and has so far sought at least 5 extensions to do so.

It was the CAA, the legislation which sparked protests across the country and also caught the global eye while sev-eral countries expressed their concerns over the Act. Back home too, a sense of insecurity developed particularly among the people belonging to the Muslim community who partici-pated in the protests and expressed their sense of fear after it was stated that they will have to prove their nationality.

There is another side to the story as to why the Home Minister chose West Bengal to talk about the implementation of the CAA: there is a community known as Matuas who basi-cally belong to East Pakistan and have got a strong presence in 24 Parganas and Nadia districts while as they were prom-ised citizenship by BJP and the early implementation of CAA, however, while the CAA has already instilled a sense of fear among Muslims, the implementation of the same continues to hang in balance, making the Matuas more insecure.

It is to be noted here that the CAA was notified in Janu-ary 2020 and it seeks to ease citizenship for members of six minority communities: Hindu, Jain, Sikh, Parsi, Christian and Buddhist, from Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. As the country erupted in protests after the CAA was passed by the Parliament, the Muslims alleged that the Government wanted to strip them of their citizenship, but the Government vehemently tried to make it clear that the law had got nothing to do with stripping anyone of their citi-zenship rather, the same was put in place to ensure that those who are fleeing Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan due to religious persecution get a home.

The Government has also been stating that the CAA has nothing to do with any Indian citizen and that the Indian citi-zens enjoy fundamental rights as guaranteed by the Constitu-tion of India even as it said that no statute, including the CAA can take these rights away. But, those opposing the law are far from being satisfied and only see malice in it. However after a brief lull, now that the issue has once again been raked up, the same has given rise to suspicion among Muslims as well as the people belonging to the Matua community. Howvever the question remains: is the CAA move really for the greater good of people as well as the country, or is it just being used for vote bank politics?

B Y S H A Y K H M U K H T A R

Yashwant Sinha

The rising inflation is only making matters worse. Imagine the

plight of a young person who has spent many

years looking for a job and has found none. He has now given up completely and sits

at home. His parents and other elders in the

family curse him for being useless and resent

his being a financial burden on the family. Then this young man

goes out, hangs around with others like himself

and they all suddenly discover an opportunity.

DISCLAIMER: The content, information, research or whatsoever the matter in the articles that appear on the editorial pages of Kashmir Digest and are uploaded on its online edition, is strictly authors’ own work. Kashmir Tone does not take any responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, suitability, originality, and not plagiarised, or validity of any information on these articles. The information, facts or opinions appearing in these articles in no way reflect the views of Kashmir Digest , and Kashmir Digest does not assume any responsibility or

liability for the same. The responsibility of the content, in whatever manner, is solely, and totally, of authors’.

The fifth Delimitation Com-mission, chaired by Justice Ranjana Desai, has many dis-

tinctions, albeit dubious ones, to its credit.

First, it was constituted during a statutory freeze on the increase or de-crease of the parliamentary and leg-islative assembly seats – this freeze will be applicable till the population Census of 2026. Second, this is the only Delimitation Commission that has not redrawn the constituencies in accordance with the Delimitation Act of 2002, under which it was set up. Instead of invoking clause 8(b) of the Act to decide the total number of seats and their distribution based on the Census, it has followed Section 63 of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019, which decided the number of elec-tors by stipulating the use of the 2011 Census, as well as the increase in the number of seats from 83 to 90. Ironi-cally, by doing so, J&K continues to be the exception to the norm even af-ter its constitutional and legislative homogenisation in 2019.

Third, while the Commission started off with the mandate for five states, the five northeastern states were withdrawn from its purview on March 21, 2020, effectively making it the only Commission confined to delimiting just one Union Territory. This has made the uniformity in the principles of delimitation across states a casualty. Finally, it will be the first delimitation award in the country’s legislative history that will not be placed before the legislative assembly of the UT that has been de-limited.

The recommendation of delimita-tion commissions — they are in the nature of a fiat — cannot be modi-fied or changed by Parliament or the concerned legislative assembly, but tabling the award gives it democratic sanction. But in the case of J&K, the elected legislators of J&K will not have the opportunity to approve the rules for their representation.

With these infirmities in its con-stitution, and a truncated mandate, the Commission award has been open to criticism ab initio. The devil, so to say, in this case, lies not only in the details of seat allocation, but also in the design of its award.

Despite claiming to have treated

the Union Territory of J&K as one entity (the stated rationale for the ab-surd clubbing of Poonch and Rajouri in Jammu division with Anantnag in the Kashmir division), in its press release, the Delimitation Commis-sion announced that it has allocated 47 seats to Kashmir and 43 seats to Jammu. In doing so, the Commission has ensured that the political binary of Jammu vis a vis Kashmir now be-comes a divisive bipolarity.

Kashmir division, which has a

56 per cent share of the population, will now have only a 52 per cent seat share in the legislative assembly. Jammu, on the other hand, with a 44 per cent share in the population gets a 48 per cent share in the legislative representation. As a consequence, while in Jammu 1.25 lakh people will elect an MLA, in the Valley 1.46 lakh people will do so. What this effective-ly means is that for the same popu-lation, for every six constituencies, Jammu has got an additional seat. In the process, the cardinal principle of “one man, one vote” has been bid adieu in J&K.

In order to contextualise what

the Commission has done, it is use-ful to recap the distribution of seats that existed in the state prior to the award. In the last legislative assem-bly of J&K (including Ladakh), Kash-mir Valley with a 55 per cent share of the population, had 53 per cent of the seats. Jammu with a share of 43 per cent of the population, elected 42.5 per cent of the seats in the legisla-tive assembly. More importantly, on the cardinal “one person one vote” principle, Kashmir had 1,49,749 vot-

ers per constituency while there were 1,45,366 people per constituency in Jammu. Far from redressing a non-existent bias and perceived dis-crimination, this Commission has introduced an obvious bias in favour of Jammu.

While the two administrative divi-sions of the UT, Jammu and Kashmir, may be relevant for developmental policy planning, these are not so for democratic representation purposes. A more meaningful disaggregation for assessing the implications of the award is to look at how the “commu-nities of interest” — common physi-cal features, ethnicity, religion, and

language, as reiterated in Section 60(2) (b) of the J&K Reorganisation Act 2019 — have fared.

On these principles, the J&K of to-day comprises four distinct regions: The Jhelum Valley (which includes South Kashmir, Central Kashmir and North Kashmir), Chenab Valley (comprising Kisthwar, Doda, Ram-ban and Reasi), Pir Panjal (Rajouri and Poonch), and the Tawi basin or the plains (of Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur).

The seats allocated across these sub-regions are unacceptably distor-tionary — 1.12 lakh people will elect their legislators in Chenab, while 1.40 lakh do so in the Pir Panjal belt. Similarly, while 1.25 lakh people in the Tawi basin elect a representative, it will take 1.5 lakh people to do so in Central Kashmir; both urban agglom-erations. A vote cast in central Kash-mir, in terms of its electoral value, is 0.8 of the vote in the Jammu plains.

Even the one good thing that the Commission has done – making con-stituencies coterminous with the dis-trict boundaries — has been marred by the illogical principle of ensur-ing 18 assembly constituencies for every parliamentary constituency. By applying an arithmetic formula of dividing the number of assembly seats by the number of parliamen-tary seats, the Commission has dis-torted the entire system of demo-cratic representation across areas. Right across the country, the number of assembly seats for their respec-tive parliamentary constituencies ranges from as low as four in Andhra Pradesh to as high as 30 in Arunachal Pradesh. Should the “principle of 18” be applied in other states, the elec-toral structure of the country will be in chaos.

By juxtaposing the Delimitation Commission’s award on the fragile and fragmented polity in J&K, it is obvious that it has, wittingly or un-wittingly, designed a framework of legislative representation that will prevent the formation of a stable elected government in J&K in the near future. As and when elections are held, they will at best result in a frac-tious patchwork coalition and at worst a perpetually hung assembly. Be-tween the two, it is not only the Val-ley that will lose. Jammu will fare no better. And the country at large could bear the consequences should the award become a precedent for other Commissions across other states.

Postscript: The Commission seems to have played a cruel joke on the Kashmiri Pandit community by recommending “at least” two seats on a nomination basis for them. This recommendation is not a part of the gazette notification and hence is not binding on the government.

Delimitation Commission fails people of J&K, hurts democracy

Haseeb A Drabu

The recommendation of delimitation commissions — they are in the nature of a fiat — cannot be modified or changed by Parliament or the concerned legislative assembly, but tabling the award gives it democratic sanction. But in the case of J&K, the elected legislators of J&K will

not have the opportunity to approve the rules for their representation.

7www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcomNEWSSrinagar | Sunday

08 May 2022

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Bengaluru, May 07: Global warming is inevitably going to change biogeography, causing shifts in habitats. Species will come in contact with other species with whom they had no prior contact what-soever. Mammals and viruses will be no exceptions, and the number of pathogens jumping from one mammal species to an-other related species (most viruses are transferred only between related species) will only increase, according to a new study in Nature by a team of climate sci-entists and biologists.

In this study, Carlson et al. (2022) ask a pertinent question: will climate change increase the risk of viral transmission in the future? Global warming will drive species intolerant to high temperatures to cooler climes. In particular, this re-fers to the high-altitude regions of the tropics, for the tropics have the highest biodiversity. This will bring together spe-cies of wildlife that have, thus far, been geographically isolated. By even the most conservative estimates, ‘many species’ geographic ranges are projected to shift a hundred kilometres or more in the next century.’ Further, the study says that even if the cap on increasing tempera-

tures by no more than 2 °C is observed, the instances of species running into each other for the first time is likely to double.

Given that these host-animals will introduce their pathogens to newer en-vironments, what implications might it have for first-time viral transmissions to other species, including humans?

The exercise entailed developing mod-els that simulated changing habitats and virus jump-overs over a five-year period. The model pertaining to changing bio-geography tries to find out where most mammal species would move in the event of global warming. The focus on mammals is explained by their direct relevance for human health, besides the fact that they have the most complete biodiversity data available. This is supplemented by the parallel model on viral transmission that builds up on a previous study. Given the information about species coming into contact with each other for the first time, the viral transmission model tries to mea-sure the instances of cross-species viral spill overs.

These first-time-contacts will be the highest in the tropics i.e. Asia or Africa. There are two reasons for this. One, the

tropics have the highest biodiversity and the highest population density, increas-ing the risk of transmission. Two, when species migrate latitudinally, they tend to carry the same species that already ex-isted in their community earlier. On the other hand, migrations along altitudes at the same latitude tends to bring more pre-viously geographically isolated species in contact and give rise to newer commu-nity compositions.

Bats will have a significant role to play in such a scenario, because (a) they har-bour a diverse range of viruses, (b) are airborne mammals, and their ‘dispersal capacity’ likely to be hindered by chang-ing biogeography, and (c) constitute near-ly twenty percent of the mammalian fau-na. Factors like the inability to fly, body size, nutritional requirements do place their own constraints on an individual or species. The study argues that these con-straints are going to reduce the number of first encounters by 61% and associated vi-ral sharing events by 70%. However, un-like other flightless mammals, where the inability to fly renders them incapable of colonising newer areas to their fullest po-tential, bats are rather unbridled.

London, May 7: Being overweight or having obesity amplifies the harmful effects of alcohol on the risk of developing alcohol-related cancer, particularly in people with a high body fat percentage, finds a new study.

The findings, presented at the Eu-ropean Congress on Obesity (ECO), also identified a dose-response re-lationship between higher obesity levels and the risk of developing obesity-related cancers, irrespective of alcohol consumption.

"Our results suggest that people with obesity, especially those with excess body fat, need to be more aware of the risks around alcohol consumption," said researcher Elif Inan-Eroglu from The University of Sydney.

"With around 650 million adults living with obesity worldwide, this is a hugely important issue. When it comes to the lifestyle factors and hab-its that people can change to reduce their risk of cancer, obesity and al-cohol are top of the list," Inan-Eroglu added. For this study, the team com-bined data from 399,575 participants, from the UK Biobank prospective cohort, who were cancer-free when the study began and followed for an

average of 12 years. Cancers were identified from hospital admissions and cancer registry data.

Participants were divided into three groups according to their body fat percentage, waist circumference, and BMI) and classified according to their self-reported alcohol consump-tion to examine the joint association of alcohol consumption and obesity with the risk of 21 different types of cancer. Over an average follow-up of 12 years, 17,617 participants were di-

agnosed with alcohol-related cancer and 20,214 developed obesity-related cancer. The researchers found that across all obesity markers, people with higher body fat percentage lev-els who drank more than the recom-mended guidelines were at greater risk of cancer.

Regardless of alcohol intake, the analysis identified a dose-response relationship between larger waist circumference and risk of developing obesity-related cancer.

London, May 7: Taking a break from social media sites, including Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, for at least a week may lead to sig-nificant improvements in wellbeing, depression and anxiety, finds a new study.

The study, published in the jour-nal 'Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking', suggest that just one week off social media im-proved individuals' overall level of well-being, as well as reduced symp-toms of depression and anxiety.

"We know that social media usage is huge and that there are increasing concerns about its mental health ef-fects, so with this study, we wanted to see whether simply asking people to take a week's break could yield mental health benefits," said lead re-searcher Jeff Lambert from the Uni-versity of Bath. "Many of our partici-pants reported positive effects from being off social media with improved mood and less anxiety overall. This suggests that even just a small break can have an impact," Lambert added.

For the study, the researchers al-located 154 individuals aged 18 to 72 who used social media every day into either an intervention group, where they were asked to stop using all so-cial media for one-week or a control group, where they could continue scrolling as normal.

At the beginning of the study, baseline scores for anxiety, depres-sion and wellbeing were taken.

Participants reported spending an average of 8 hours per week on social media at the start of the study.

A research team led by scientists at the Uni-versity of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) tracked the rise and fall of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that caused COVID-19) in the saliva and nasal cavities of people newly infected with the virus. The study was the first to follow acute COVID-19 infections over time through repeated sampling and to compare results from different testing methodologies.

The findings were reported in the journal Na-ture Microbiology.

“We capture the most complete, high-reso-lution, quantitative picture of how SARS-CoV-2 replicates and sheds in people during natural in-fection. There are no other data like this,” said U. of I. microbiology professor Christopher B. Brooke, who led the research with microbiology and statistics professor Pamela P. Martinez and pathobiology professor Rebecca L. Smith. “The study sheds light on several aspects of infection that were poorly understood, that are important for both public health purposes as well as just fundamental biology.”

The study grew out of the SHIELD: Target, Test, Tell initiative, the U. of I.’s COVID-19 re-sponse program, which began testing staff, stu-dents and faculty members twice per week in fall 2020. Illinois researchers realized that the test-ing data could be a treasure trove of information about the course of infection: for example, how fast different SARS-CoV-2 variants replicated, and how individuals differed in their ability to clear the infection. The team received Institutional Review Board approval to pursue such a study.

The National Institutes of Health stepped in to fund the effort to compare PCR tests, which

amplify and detect viral RNA, with rapid anti-gen tests, which look for proteins associated with the virus. This funding made other aspects of the study possible. Starting within 24 hours of an initial positive test, the team took daily nasal and saliva samples from adults who tested posi-tive for COVID-19 infection. The 60 participants in the study ranged from 19 to 73 years old. The study followed each person up to 14 days.

Determining how long infected individuals may be shedding viable virus – in their saliva or nasal passages, for example – is key to under-standing how the virus spreads and persists in a population, Brooke said. To do this, the team also used viral culture assays to measure the shedding of infectious virus in their samples.

“Just because you see a signal of virus by PCR or antigen tests doesn’t mean that there’s actually live virus there that could replicate and shed and transmit to someone else,” Brooke said. Ruian Ke, a collaborator at Los Alamos National Laboratory and first author of the paper, used a variety of mathematical models to help the team understand how the data may reflect underlying infection processes and identify factors influenc-ing the course of infection.

San Francisco, May 7: Meta has announced to integrate Horizon Venues -- an app ded-icated to attending live events in virtual reality -- with its main social VR platform Ho-rizon Worlds.

People over 18 in the US and Canada who have access to Horizon Worlds on Quest 2 will be able to access Venues programming in the Horizon Worlds app on June 6.

"If you're not in the US or Canada, are 1317 years of age, and/or are on Quest 1, you'll lose access to Venues pro-gramming when the stand-alone Venues app goes away on June 6, though you'll still be able to catch highlights and replays of Venues events in Oculus TV," Meta said in a statement.

Horizon Worlds is a social VR experience where you

can discover new places with friends, build unique worlds of your own, and form teams to compete in action-packed games.

From June 6, people will be able to catch their favou-rite marquee shows -- from live sporting events to con-certs from today's hit artists and beyond -- from within Ho-rizon Worlds.

"We plan to expand access to Horizon Worlds in more countries this summer, so even more people will be able to build their own worlds, make new friends in VR, and enjoy our slate of Venues in Horizon Worlds program-ming," said the company.

The Horizon Worlds so-cial metaverse platform is currently available only on the company's Quest VR headsets.

Google Assistant can now auto-update breached passwordsSan Francisco, May 7 (IANS) Tech giant Google's virtual as-sistant software application As-sistant can now warn users when they need to change their pass-word, and can even help them change it.

According to Android Police, last year, Google had announced that it would be introducing a feature in Chrome for Android that would allow Assistant to help users change stolen pass-words in a few taps.

The company had said the new experience would roll out gradually, but it is only about now that more than a handful of users have started to get it on their devices.

******

Digging Deep: Climate

change could mean increased

pathogen transmission

Looming economic slowdown set to stall telecom services sector growthNew Delhi, May 7: Multiple factors like in-flation, raising of benchmark interest rates, China lockdowns and the Russia-Ukraine war are set to hamper the growth of telecom and Pay TV services globally in the first half of the year, according to an IDC report.

The telecom services industry has re-mained very stable throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, allowing people to communicate, entertain and do their jobs while being con-fined to their homes.

"The economic recovery in 2021 has boost-ed the growth of the market and resulted in higher-than-expected growth rates, but the same forces that pulled the market up can also push it down," said Kresimir Alic, research director, Worldwide Telecom Ser-vices at IDC.

Much like other markets, this market is not immune to changes in economic trends and "forces such as inflation and recession might quickly change the shape of the curve".

"The inflation is already happening, and the economies have started to slow down - for that reason our view of the market remains cautiously optimistic," Alic added.

In 2021, the worldwide spending on tele-com services and Pay TV services reached $1.56 billion, an increase of 1.6 per cent year over year.

IDC expects worldwide spending on tele-com and pay TV services to increase by 1.4 per cent in 2022 and reach a total of $1.58 bil-lion, although with a caveat.

"Because of new circumstances that in-clude accelerated inflation and the raising of benchmark interest rates by the central banks that will consequently lead to a slower economic growth in the years to come, the forecast has been changed," the report men-tioned. The new forecast is still optimistic, but the growth rates in its first half will be lower than what was recorded last year, it noted. The impact of inflation in the telco ser-vices market will be stretched over the next several years.

"This is because a high proportion of us-ers have two-year contracts with operators that guarantee stable fees until their con-tracts expire.

Staying away from Twitter, FB for a week may improve wellbeing, anxiety

San Francisco, May 7: Apple Air-Tags that let users keep track of personal items are reportedly send-ing false alarms or 'phantom' alerts to iPhone users in the middle of the night, leaving them flummoxed.

According to The Wall Street Journal, some iPhone users have begun receiving alerts, often in the middle of the night, for Air-Tags that might not be in their path at all. "The pop-up alerts have sparked confusion and concern, and have led recipients on wild goose chases," the report said late on Friday.

In normal cases, when a person receives an unknown AirTag alert, they're supposed to see an accom-panying map that shows where and how long the AirTag was detected on their person.

However, the false alarms are accompanied by maps depicting several straight lines radiating from a person's location.

"The maps on phantom Air-Tag alerts share a similar pattern: straight red lines radiating out from the user's location. If an Air-Tag were in motion (perhaps fly-ing?) along these paths, it would be crossing in the middle of city streets, passing through construc-tion zones, even penetrating walls," the report explained.

Several iPhone users have even reported receiving such false alarms on Twitter, Reddit and Facebook.

"It was scary. I checked my purse, looked all around to make sure no one put an AirTag on me," 24-year-old Natalia Garcia was quoted as saying.

When she tried to make the sup-posed tracker emit its alarm sound, the Find My app said "AirTag Not Reachable".

An Apple spokesperson was quoted as saying that such alerts could have resulted from an iPhone receiving Wi-Fi signals that tem-porarily confused its location ser-vices. In more densely populated areas, "AirTags owned by others nearby could inadvertently trig-ger unwanted alerts", the company spokesperson said.

With an aim to curb unwanted tracking, Apple in February an-nounced to make key updates to AirTags that lets users keep track of personal items like their keys, wallet, purse, backpack, luggage and more through the Find My app.

Apple also said it's been actively working with law enforcement on all AirTag-related requests it re-ceives, and noted it's able to pro-vide the account details in response to valid law enforcement requests.

Apple AirTags sending false alarms to iPhone users in midnight

Overweight, obesity may up cancer risk among boozers

Researchers Track COVID-19 Infection Dynamics in the Saliva

and Nasal Cavities

Meta brings Venues app to main social VR platform Horizon Worlds

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 20228 NEWSwww.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom

Delhi Police...investigation and action against those who allegedly

made hate speeches during events held in Haridwar and Del-hi, last year. The top court is scheduled to take up the matter for further hearing on May 9. (IANS)

SC issues...The plea contended that the top court took cognisance of

deterioration of the environment and passed various direc-tions for remediation and restoration of the environment.

The plea submitted that it is in this background that the provisions of limitation prescribed under the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, are required to be considered.

The plea urged the top court to either strike down or read down the impugned provisions. It argued that the limitation clauses also allow arbitrariness and unjustness in connection with environmental issues and, therefore, violate Article 14 of the Constitution.

"The limitation clauses in Sections 14, 15 and 16 of the Act cause unconstitutional hindrance in realisation of Article 21 of the Constitution in relation to nature and environment to its full extent. The gap in the remedies available under Ar-ticles 32 and 226 of the Constitution, as against what is avail-able in the NGT Act, creates a situation which becomes un-explainable in the context of environment matters," read the plea.

The plea said that in cases where fraud is played by the project proponent, the plea is not entertained by the tribunal/court because of the law of limitation, in spite of the well-es-tablished principle that fraud vitiates all the actions and the principles of limitation, delay and laches do not apply.

It added, "In certain other statutes, discretion has been given to the court/tribunal to decide the question of limita-tion even after the initial period within which the complaint/petition should have been instituted, had expired, like in the Consumer Protection Act. But as far as the infringement of the fundamental rights are concerned, no such impediment of limitation can be prescribed." (IANS)

Within 48 hours... on 10 January, 2021.Justice Pardiwala was born on 12 August, 1965 in Mum-

bai. He did his schooling in St. Joseph Convent School in his home town Valsad (South Gujarat). He graduated from the J P Arts College, Valsad and went on to obtain a degree in law from the K.M. Mulji Law College, Valsad in 1988.

Justice Pardiwala started practising law in the Gujarat High Court in 1990. He was elected as a member of the Bar Council of Gujarat in 1994. He was appointed as the Standing Counsel for the High Court of Gujarat in the year 2002 and held the office till the date of his elevation to the bench on 17 February, 2011. Justice Pardiwala has around 1012 reportable judgements on varied subjects. (IANS)

Road to...be highest priority.The Lt Governor observed that the steps taken by the gov-

ernment will integrate our rural areas into modern economic units and increased business opportunities in agro and rural industry can transform the rural economy.

“There is a scope for rural reforms at various levels. Products of rural areas must be commercialized for sustain-ing growth. Adequate attention should be paid to public-pri-vate partnership to increase the income of rural population and both farm and non-farm economy should be incentiv-ized to create well-equipped and self-sufficient villages. Con-cerned officers and institutions must ensure access to afford-able credit and huge investment being made in rural areas

must translate into enhanced productivity,” the Lt Governor further added. (GNS)

Farooq...the occasion and prayed for eternal repose to the depart-

ed soul in the highest echelons of the Jannat. Later Dr Farooq visited Sahali, Balpura Pahalgam, where he was received by District President Altaf Ahmad Wani and later interacted with the party's local unit functionaries. (GNS)

'Autonomy'...Earlier, Delhi Police had lodged two cases against Punjab

Police in connection with Bagga's arrest.The Punjab Police, while taking Bagga to Mohali from

Delhi, was stopped midway by the Haryana Police after Delhi Police registered a kidnapping case on the complaint of Bag-ga's father.

Haryana Police took Bagga to a police station near Ku-rukshetra where a team of Delhi Police arrived. (IANS)

Sourav... party MP, Sukanta Majumdar, and the leader of the op-

position in West Bengal assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, had dined at Ganguly's residence at Behala in South Kolkata.

Sourav later rubbished talks about him joining politics, claiming that there was no truth in the rumours. However, Dona's remark on Saturday morning has re-ignited those ru-mours.

Ganguly has always been a favourite of political leaders cutting across political lines. He was also close to former West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and former state municipal affairs and urban development minister in the Left Front regime, Ashok Bhattacharya.

Before the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, there were rumours that Ganguly might be BJP's chief ministerial face. But that did not happen. (IANS)

BSF ramps...This was the first such structure unearthed by the BSF

beneath the International Border (IB) in the past 16 months, taking the overall number to 11 in the past decade. Last year the force had detected two tunnels in Hiranagar sector of Kathua district.

The officials in the security grid said that the patrolling has been intensified to prevent the infiltration and there has been a possible "threat" on the Amarnath Yatra this year.

The annual Amarnath pilgrimage will be commencing from June 30 and the terror outfits like Hijbul Mujahidin, Al Badr and The Resistance Front (TRF) have planned to desta-bilise the pilgrimage.

The security forces have been asked to intensify patrol-ling along the IB and line of control in Jammu and Kashmir to prevent the infiltration.

The sources said that tunnel might have used by the two terrorists who attacked on the CISF bus in Jammu on April 22 in which one Assistant Sub-Inspector was killed and several security personnel were injured.

Later the two terrorists were also neutralised by the se-curity forces. (IANS)

Raids...residences of the mobile phone and SIM card sellers," the

sources said.The SIA was carved out of the local CID to deal with ter-

ror and other anti-national activities. (IANS)

J&K... Kashmir, they said.Giving district wise details, they said, seven were re-

ported from Jammu district, two from Srinagar and one each from Budgam and Shopian.

There was also no death due to the pathogen reported in the last 24 hours, they said. So far 4751 persons have suc-cumbed to the virus—2328 in Jammu and 2423 in Kashmir.

Besides, they said, four Covid-19 patients recovered dur-ing the last 24 hours, one from Jammu and three from the Valley, during the time. So far 449272 people have recovered, leaving the active case tally at 68— 37 in Jammu and 311 in Kashmir.

The officials told GNS there was no new confirmed case of mucormycosis (black fungus) reported today. So far 51 black fungus cases have been confirmed in J&K, the officials said. They also informed that 19198 doses of covid-19 vaccine were administered during the time in J&K. (GNS)

Haj-2022...

and without the lottery system, he added.Naqvi was inaugurating a two-day training camp for 400

aKhadim-ul-Hujjaj' including 12 women, who will assist the Indian Haj pilgrims in Makkah-Madina with processes relat-ed to Haj, accommodation, transport, health and safety.

They will be trained by officials from HCI, BrihanMum-bai Municipal Corporation, Disaster Management agencies, doctors, airlines, customs and immigration professionals.

The Minister said that Haj is taking place with signifi-cant reforms giving utmost priority to health and well-being of the Haj pilgrims and all processes have been chalked out jointly by the governments of India and Saudi Arabia based on criteria like age, health, etc.

"We are making all out efforts to ensure there is no addi-tional financial burden on the pilgrims as they will perform the Haj without any subsidy. Process is going on to take ac-commodation, transportation and other necessary facilities in Saudi Arabia at affordable prices," Naqvi said.

The selection process of Haj pilgrims was in accordance with the COVID vaccination protocols and other norms de-cided by the two governments, he said.

Uttar Pradesh leads with a total of 8,701 pilgrims, fol-lowed by West Bengal (5,911), Jammu & Kashmir (5,281), Kerala (5,274), Maharashtra (4,874), Assam (3,544), Karnataka (2,764), Gujarat (2,533), Bihar (2,210), Rajasthan (2,072), Telan-gana (1,822), Madhya Pradesh (1,780), Jharkhand (1,559), Tam-il Nadu (1,498), Andhra Pradesh (1,201).

Besides, there will be Haj pilgrims from Delhi (835), Hary-ana (617), Uttarakhand (485), Odisha (466), Chhattisgarh (431), Manipur (335), Punjab (218), Ladakh (216), Lakshadweep Isles (159), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (114), Tripura (108), Goa (67), Puducherry (52), Himachal Pradesh (38), Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu (34), and Chandigarh 25.

Naqvi said the government has arranged 10 flight em-barkation points for Haj 2022 pilgrims going through HCI - Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyder-abad, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai and Srinagar.

Ahmedabad will cover entire Gujarat, Bengaluru (Karna-taka and Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh), Cochin (Ker-ala, Lakshadweep, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and Andaman & Nicobar Isles), Delhi (Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, western dis-tricts of Uttar Pradesh), and Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh except western parts).

Guwahati embarkation point will cover (Assam, Megha-laya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nagaland), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana), Kolkata (West Bengal, Odisha, Tripura, Jharkhand and Bihar), Mumbai (Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Daman

& Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli), and Srinagar (Jammu-Kashmir, Leh-Ladakh-Kargil).

The entire Haj 2022 process was digital/online and has been extremely beneficial to ensure health and well-being of the people besides transparent, accessible, affordable and convenient Haj pilgrimage, Naqvi pointed out.

All Haj pilgrims shall get a Digital Health Card, "E-MA-SIHA" health facility and "E-luggage pre-tagging", providing all information regarding accommodation/transportation in Makkah-Madinah.

Ukraine...to the day before the war began."I was elected by the people of Ukraine as president of

Ukraine, not as President of a mini Ukraine of some kind. This is a very important point."

The reference to the situation as of February 23 suggests Ukraine may not insist on retaking Crimea before making peace with Russia, reports the BBC.

The peninsula was annexed by Russia eight years ago.Calling for the resumption of diplomatic dialogue be-

tween Russia and Ukraine, the President said: "Despite the fact that they destroyed all our bridges, I think not all the bridges are yet destroyed, figuratively speaking."

The Ukrainian and Russian delegations held their latest round of in-person peace negotiations in Istanbul, Turkey in late March. (IANS)

Evacuates..."The evacuation was extremely slow. However, today

we managed to free 50 women, children and the elderly from Azovstal," Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook on Friday.

The evacuation will continue on Saturday morning, Vereshchuk was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine's Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak said that Ukraine had evacuated about 500 civilians from Mariupol.

Mariupol, a key Azov Sea port city in eastern Ukraine, saw one of the worst bouts of violence in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Ukraine evacuates 50 civilians from Mariupol's Azovstal

Kiev, May 7 (IANS) Ukraine evacuated 50 civilians from the Azovstal plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

"The evacuation was extremely slow. However, today we managed to free 50 women, children and the elderly from Azovstal," Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook on Friday.

The evacuation will continue on Saturday morning, Vereshchuk was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine's Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak said that Ukraine had evacuated about 500 civilians from Mariupol.

Mariupol, a key Azov Sea port city in eastern Ukraine, saw one of the worst bouts of violence in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Ukraine evacuates 50 civilians from Mariupol's Azovstal

, May 7 (IANS) Ukraine evacuated 50 civilians from the Azovstal plant in the besieged city of Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has said.

"The evacuation was extremely slow. However, today we managed to free 50 women, children and the elderly from Azovstal," Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook on Friday.

The evacuation will continue on Saturday morning, Vereshchuk was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

Earlier in the day, Ukraine's Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak said that Ukraine had evacuated about 500 civilians from Mariupol.

Mariupol, a key Azov Sea port city in eastern Ukraine, saw one of the worst bouts of violence in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.(IANS)

From the Front Page...

Supreme Court gets 2 new judges, set to regain full strength of 34

New Delhi: The Union government Saturday notified the appointment of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, the chief justice of Gauhati High Court, and Jus-tice Jamshed Burjor Pardiwala, a judge of the Gujarat High Court, as judges of the Supreme Court.

The Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana had recom-mended their names for appointment on May 5. The other members of the Collegium are Justices UU Lalit, AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao.

At present, the Supreme Court has a strength of 32 judges as against a sanc-tioned strength of 34 judges.

The fresh appointments will help regain the 34-judge strength, but two other vacancies will arise soon with Justice Vineet Saran set to retire on May 10 and Justice Nageswara Rao on June 7.

Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia hails from Madanpur, a remote village lo-cated in Pauri Garhwal district of Ut-tarakhand. He had his early education in Dehradun and Allahabad and is an alumni of Sainik School, Lucknow. He did his graduation and law from the University of Allahabad.

A second-generation legal profes-sional, Justice Dhulia joined the Bar at Allahabad High Court in 1986 and shifted to Uttarakhand upon its forma-

tion in 2000. He was the first chief stand-ing counsel in the High Court of Ut-tarakhand and was later an additional advocate general for the state of Uttara-khand. Designated as a senior advocate in 2004, he was elevated as a judge of the High Court of Uttarakhand in No-vember 2008 and went on to become the chief justice of the High Court of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh in January 2021.

Justice Pardiwala was born in Mumbai and did his schooling in St Jo-seph Convent School in his home town Valsad (south Gujarat). He graduated from the JP Arts College, Valsad, and se-cured the law degree from the KM Mulji Law College, Valsad in 1988.

Justice Pardiwala is a fourth-

generation legal professional. His father, Late Burjor Cawasji Pardi-wala, practised law in the districts of Valsad and Navsari and was also Speaker of the seventh Gujarat Leg-islative Assembly from December 1989 to March 1990. Justice Pardi-wala’s grandfather and great grand-father were also lawyers.

Justice Pardiwala started practic-ing law in the High Court of Gujarat in 1990. He was elected as a member of the Bar Council of Gujarat in the year 1994 and was standing counsel for the High Court of Gujarat from 2002 till he was elevated to the Bench on February 17, 2011. He was confirmed as a permanent judge of the high court on January 28, 2013.

Italian foreign minister, Jaishankar call for cessation of hostilities during meet

New Delhi: India and Italy on Friday expressed their concern on the ongoing humanitarian crisis and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

After visiting, Italian Foreign Min-ister Luigi Di Maio met his Indian coun-terpart S Jaishankar, the Ministry of External Affairs said, “On Ukraine, the two ministers expressed their concern on the ongoing humanitarian crisis and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities. They also underlined the im-portance to safeguard the international order based on the UN Charter, with special regard to the respect of sover-eignty and territorial integrity.”

This is the Italian Foreign Minis-ter’s first visit to India.

The two Foreign Ministers re-viewed the full spectrum of bilateral relations, including the progress in implementation of the 2020-24 Action Plan adopted at the virtual summit in November 2020.

“They welcomed the growing bilat-eral trade and investment linkages and agreed to expand them in new areas of common interest,” the MEA said.

“They also discussed the imple-mentation of the India-Italy Strategic Partnership on Energy Transition an-nounced last year during the Prime Minister’s visit to Italy and agreed to explore partnerships in areas such as gas transportation, green hydrogen,

bio-fuels and energy storage. In addi-tion, they agreed to jointly organise an India-Italy Tech Summit on Energy Transition and Circular Economy, to be held in Delhi on November 17, 2022,” the ministry said.

The two leaders noted the potential for a closer industrial collaboration, including in the field of defence. They reiterated their commitment to closely work in countering common challenges related to terrorism, violent extremism and cyber crime, it said.

“In the context of recent geopoliti-cal developments, they also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interests, including Ukraine, Afghanistan and Indo-Pacific and coop-eration in multilateral forum, including G20,” the MEA said.

During the visit, Di Maio also had a meeting with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and co-chaired a business roundtable that saw participa-tion of top business leaders particularly in the energy, defence, sustainable mo-bility, and infrastructure sectors.

Earlier during his visit, Di Maio vis-ited Bengaluru on May 5, where he met Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and inaugurated the premises of the new Consulate General of the Ital-ian Republic. He also visited the Indian Space Research Organisation and the Indian Institute of Science, along with officials from their Italian counterparts, the Italian Space Agency and Elettra Sinctrotrone Trieste, with which scien-tific partnerships and joint projects are being developed.

‘Factually incorrect’: India rejects reports that water cannon vehicle was supplied to Sri Lanka under USD 1 billion credit line

Colombo: India on Saturday dismissed as “factually incorrect” media reports claiming that New Delhi had supplied a water cannon vehicle to Sri Lanka under its USD 1 billion credit line, and reiterat-ed that such campaigns don’t make any “constructive contribution” to the coop-eration and efforts to address the ongo-ing challenges faced by Sri Lankans.

The High Commission reiterated that the credit line of USD 1 billion to Sri Lanka is intended to help its citizens with food, medicines and other essen-tials during the time of crisis.

“These reports are factually incor-rect. No water cannon vehicles have been supplied by India under any of the credit lines extended by India,” the

Indian High Commission here said in a tweet.

“Such incorrect reports don’t make any constructive contribution to the cooperation and efforts undertaken to address the ongoing challenges faced by the people of Sri Lanka,” it said in an-other tweet.

The High Commission also issued a statement detailing the items India has supplied to Sri Lanka under the USD 1 billion concessional loan.

“In order to strengthen Sri Lanka’s food, health and energy security, the Government of India extended a conces-sional loan of USD 1 billion to the Gov-ernment of Sri Lanka, through the State Bank of India, on March 17,” it said.

“The facility is operational and food items like rice, red chillies have

already been supplied under it. Several other Contracts for supply of sugar, milk

powder, wheat, medicines, fuel and in-dustrial raw materials, based on the pri-orities of the Government and people of Sri Lanka, have been included under the facility,” the statement added.

Sri Lanka is currently in the throes of unprecedented economic turmoil since its independence from Britain in 1948.

Thousands of demonstrators have hit the streets across Sri Lanka since April 9, as the government ran out of money for vital imports; prices of essen-tial commodities have skyrocketed and there are acute shortages in fuel, medi-cines and electricity supply.

Despite mounting pressure, Presi-dent Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder

brother and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have refused to quit office.

In a special Cabinet meeting on Friday, President Rajapaksa declared a state of emergency with effect from Fri-day midnight. This is the second emer-gency declared in just over a month.

Rajapaksa had declared an emer-gency on April 1 also after a mass protest opposite his private residence. He had revoked it on April 5.

announcement came amidst weeks of protests demanding the resignation of the President and the government, blam-ing the powerful Rajapaksa clan for mis-handling the island nation’s economy, already hit by the pandem

9www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcomBUSINESSSrinagar | Sunday

08 May 2022

Mumbai, May 07: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 16,203 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 (Q4 FY22), up 22.5 per cent over the year-ago period’s Rs 13,227 crore but slightly short of expectations.

A poll of analysts by Bloomberg had pegged net profit at Rs 16,819 crore for Q4.

But for the exceptional income of Rs 2,836 crore in the December 2021 quar-ter, net profit would have been its high-est quarterly profit ever. Revenues and Ebitda for the quarter were its highest ever. Likewise, revenues, Ebitda and net profit for FY22 were RIL’s highest annual figures for all time.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate’s con-solidated revenue from operations surged 38.6 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2.07 trillion for the reported quarter, which met street estimates, according to Bloom-berg.

The company’s board also recommend-ed a Rs 8 per share dividend for the finan-cial year ended March 31, 2022 (FY22).

For FY22, the company reported net revenue (excluding goods and services tax and excise duty) of Rs 6,99,962 crore (Rs 7 trillion) or $91 billion (at 76.915 to a USD). Consolidated net profit (attribut-able to owners of the company) was Rs 60,705 crore for FY22.

“Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic and heightened geo-political uncertainties, Reliance has delivered a robust performance in FY22,” RIL Chair-man and Managing Director Mukesh Am-bani said.

On Friday, ahead of the results, the RIL scrip closed 0.74 per cent down on the BSE, at Rs 2,621.15 a share.

The index heavyweight stock has risen nearly 36 per cent in the past one year, and recently saw its market cap cross Rs 19 trillion. It is also the first Indian com-pany to cross $250 billion in market cap.

The strong top line growth of RIL in Q4

was driven by the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, which reported 44.2 per cent YoY growth to Rs 1.46 trillion, followed by the retail business, whose revenues jumped 23.1 per cent to Rs 50,834 crore in the period under review.

The strong top line performance re-flected in the company’s overall operating showing as well as consolidated operating profit, which jumped 27.7 per cent YoY to Rs 33,968 crore in Q4.

O2C business growth was driven by refining operations where surging global gross refining margins (GRMs) during the quarter aided the company’s perfor-mance. O2C includes refining, petrochem-icals and fuel retail operations. It remains

a key vertical of RIL, contributing over 60 per cent to revenue and 43 per cent of op-erating profit.

Overall surge in global crude oil prices drove much of the 44 per cent sales growth in the segment during the quarter, said analysts, which was supported by volume growth of 4.2 per cent on steady recovery in demand.

The operating profit of the O2C seg-ment increased nearly 25 per cent in Q4 versus last year to Rs 14,241 crore, led by high transportation fuel cracks or prod-ucts (such as diesel, petrol and aviation turbine fuel), which was partially offset by lower polymer and intermediates mar-gins and higher energy cost.

Operating margin for the quarter in the O2C segment declined by 150 basis points YoY to 9.8 per cent. “This was pri-marily due to base effect driven by higher feedstock and product prices,” the com-pany said.

Jio PlatformsThe digital services arm of RIL con-

tinued its strong showing led by the tele-com business, which reported 21.8 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue and 22.9 per cent yearly rise in net prof-it. Profit before interest, depreciation and taxes of the digital segment grew 27.4 per cent YoY to Rs 10,918 crore and contributed a third of the quarter’s con-solidated operating profit.

New Delhi, May 7: Vineeta Agarwala, the wife of Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, is now making headlines amid Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover deal.

Her role as general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) -- a top US VC firm which has agreed to pay $400 million as part of Musk's new $7.1 bil-lion financing commitments -- is set to create a conflict of interest.

As a general partner at An-dreessen Horowitz, she leads investments for the firm's bio and health fund across thera-peutics, life sciences tools/di-agnostics, and digital health, with a focus on companies leveraging unique datasets to improve drug development and patient care delivery.

Andreessen Horowitz is also one of the biggest backers of Facebook (now Meta).

Prior to joining a16z, Vineeta held many different roles in the healthcare space.

She was a physician taking care of patients, an operator at healthtech startups and as a venture investor on the Google Ventures life sciences team.

She was an early data sci-entist at Kyruus, a manage-ment consultant for biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical device clients at McKinsey & Co; and a director of prod-uct management at Flatiron Health.

She has collaborated with academic researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore Nation-al Laboratory, and the Broad Institute, where she did grad-uate work in computational

biology and human genetics.Vineeta holds a Bachelor

of Science in biophysics from Stanford University, and MD and PhD degrees from Har-vard Medical School/MIT.

She continues to see pa-tients at Stanford as an ad-junct clinical professor in the Division of Primary Care and Population Health.

Vineeta serves on a num-ber of portfolio company boards, including BigHat Bio-sciences, GC Therapeutics, Memora Health, Thyme Care, Pearl Health, and Waymark.

Parag studied BTech in Computer Science and Engi-neering at IIT Bombay and completed his PhD from Stan-ford University.

They have a son named Ansh and the couple is based in San Francisco, California.

Meanwhile, there are doubts over Parag's future once Musk takes over, as the Tesla CEO himself can become a temporary CEO of the platform. According to reports, Musk may have also lined up a new Twitter CEO.

Parag is likely to receive nearly $39 million due to a clause in his contract once he leaves Twitter. His total com-pensation for 2021 was $30.4 million, largely in stocks.

FPI selling extends to 8th straight month, pulls out over Rs 6k-cr in MayNew Delhi, May 07: Continuing its sell-ing spree for the seventh consecutive month, foreign portfolio investors have pulled out Rs 17,144 crore from the Indian equity market in April. In May too, the trend remained the same.

The recent pullout was triggered due to an aggressive rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, which is a negative for Indian investors.

Analysts say foreign flows are likely to remain volatile in the near term amid the high prospect of aggressive rate hikes globally and the headwinds in terms of higher crude prices, and rising Inflation.

FPIs remained net sellers for seven months to March 2022, withdrawing a massive net amount of Rs 1.65 lakh crore from equities.

Burning a bigger hole in common man's pocket, the price of 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinder on Saturday was hiked by Rs 50.

With the new revision, the LPG cylin-der will now retail at Rs 999.50 in Delhi.

Earlier in the month, the price of a 19-kg commercial LPG cylinder was in-creased by Rs 102.50, whereas the 5-kg LPG cylinder is now priced at Rs 655.

Previously, on April 1, the price of 19-kg commercial LPG was hiked by Rs 250 per cylinder. With this, the 19-kg commer-cial cooking gas will now cost Rs 2,253.

The commercial LPG price was previous-ly increased by Rs 105 on March 1.

On May 1, the oil marketing compa-nies organised over 5,000 LPG panchayats on the occasion of Ujjwala Diwas, where apart from experience sharing, aimed at safe and sustained usage of LPG, all out efforts were made to maximise customer enrolment.

Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) is a step toward social inclu-sion by providing Free LPG connection to every BPL household. The scheme was launched by Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi on May 1, 2016 at Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.

The prices of petrol, diesel, and LPG are being increased continuously fol-lowing the assembly elections held in five states. On March 22, the subsi-dised domestic LPG cylinder increased by Rs 50.

The prices of domestic cooking gas vary from one state to another and the fuel retailers revise the prices of LPG cyl-inders at the beginning of each month.

******

New Delhi, May 7: Coal Min-ister Pralhad Joshi on Friday said that with the target to mi-nimise the import of thermal coal, Coal India Ltd is going to offer its 20 closed/discontinued underground mines to private players on a revenue sharing model.

"Extractable reserve in the closed/discontinued coal mines is around 380 million tonnes... 30-40 million tonnes of coal can be easily extracted from the mines," he said at an Investors meet in Mumbai, an official statement said.

Continuation of mining ac-tivities will help in increasing coal supply to thermal power plans while creating employ-ment opportunities for local people, he added.

The Ministry has allowed concession of 50 per cent in revenue share for coal gasifica-

tion.Joshi also said the country

is witnessing a revolution in the energy sector. "Govern-ment's efforts for electrification in remote areas, changing fuel choices in transport, modern lifestyle have led to increased demand for electricity," he said.

Minister of State for Coal, Mines, and Railways Raosaheb Patil Danve said India has the 5th largest reserve of coal in the world and the government's aim is to increase domestic coal production to 1.2 billion metric

tonnes by FY 23-24."As a fuel, coal is the biggest

contributor in the energy mix," he said.

Danve also said athe ini-tiative will pave the way for deployment of latest mining technology, robust systems and processes.

The Ministry launched "Technology Roadmap for Coal Sector", prepared by it, and in-tended to lead to adoption and implementation of new tech-nologies and enhance work en-vironment, mining operations, including safety and productiv-ity, environmental protection, increase productivity, improve coal recovery and reduce costs.

This will be taken as bench-mark document for coal compa-nies to adopt new technologies and build digital infrastructure to support current and future ramp-up for the mines.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands gets clearance for gas-based power plantNew Delhi, May 7: Decks have been cleared for a gas-based power plant at Hope Town in Andaman & Nicobar Is-lands to provide clean energy, a development that has need-ed tweaks in two of the related regulations by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).

The plant will come up in South Andaman district's Fer-rargunj tehsil.

The Ministry giving a green signal to changes under Is-land Protection Zone (IZP) and Island Coastal Regulation Zone (ICRZ) for the plant that is to be located at "about two acres of undulated barren land having irregular topogra-phy with elevation of 2 m above MSL exists along the sea-shore".

"The need to provide an enabling provision in the IPZ/ICRZ notification to meet the energy requirement of the is-landers while reducing the dependency on highly polluting sources such as conventional diesel generators (DG sets) was given prime consideration," the Ministry said about the clearance accorded on Thursday.

The plant is expected to work on "dual fuel technology i.e., through Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) or High-Speed Diesel (HSD) or single fuel (LNG)".

The MoEF&CC had issued the notification regarding Is-land Protection Zone (IPZ) in January 2011 whereby certain coastal stretches were declared as Coastal Regulation Zone and restrictions were imposed on setting up and expansion of industries, operations, and processes in that area.

Similar were the restrictions under the March 2019 no-tification vis-a-vis Island Coastal Regulation Zone (ICRZ), especially for places such as the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Ministry records show that when the Centre received a proposal from the Andaman and Nicobar Coastal Zone Management Authority (ANCZMA) regarding inclusion of Gas-based power plant within the ICRZ area under the pro-visions of the IPZ Notification 2011, the National Coastal Zone Management Authority (NCZMA) on August 16, 2021 advocated the need for providing cleaner fuel instead of the highly polluting sources such as conventional diesel gener-ators (DG sets) used by the Islanders in absence of assured power supply.

Mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) on Satur-day raised interest rate on home loans by 30 basis points, effective May 9, following the monetary policy committee’s decision to hike benchmark repo rate by 40 basis points earlier this week. The new rates will start from 7 per cent as against 6.7 per cent earlier.

HDFC joins a list of lenders, including ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda, RBL Bank, who have raised interest rates consequent to the rate hike by MPC in an off-cycle meeting.

“HDFC increases its Retail Prime Lend-ing Rate (RPLR) on housing loans, on which its adjustable rate home loans (ARHL) are benchmarked by 30 basis points with ef-fect from May 9, 2022”, the lender said in a statement. The mortgage lender had raised interest rates on home loans last week as well, but only for its existing borrowers, by 5 basis points. So, for existing customers, the interest rate on home loans will go up by 35 basis points.

“HDFC follows a 3-month cycle for re-prising its loans to existing customers. So the loans will be reprised based on the date of the first disbursement of each custom-er”, the lender said.

For new customers, on loans upto Rs 30 lakh, interest rate charged will be 7.10 per cent. And, for loans ranging between Rs 30 – 75 lakhs, the interest rate charged will be 7.35 per cent, while for loans above Rs 75 lakh, interest rate will be 7.45 per cent.

Earlier this week, ICICI Bank raised its external benchmark lending rate by 40 basis points to 8.10 per cent while Bank of Baroda has raised its repo linked lending rate to 6.90 per cent. The public sector lend-er has also withdrawn the interest rebates available for home and car loans which were introduced to push retail credit. RBL Bank’s repo linked lending rate is now 9.50 per cent, effective May 4,2022.

A bunch of lenders, including Bandhan Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Jana Small Finance Bank, Bank of Baroda, ICICI Bank, and Punjab National Bank also an-nounced deposit rate hikes across multiple tenor baskets for retail customers.

The MPC raised the benchmark repo rate to 4.40 per cent in an off-cycle meeting, due to upside risks to inflation, signaling the rate cycle has turned and days of ultra-low interest rates are over. This was the first rate hike in 45 months, since August 2018.

Analysts are of the opinion that the in-crease in benchmark repo rate will augur well for the banks as they will benefit from higher yields on the lending portfolio that are linked to external benchmarks but the CRR hike will have an adverse impact on the margins of lenders and may offset the benefit from the increase in repo rates.

As of December 2021, a little over 39 per cent of banking system loans are linked to the external benchmark, shows Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, with 58.2 per cent of the home loans linked to external benchmarks.

Zomato's Goyal to donate Rs 700cr ESOP proceeds

to Zomato Future FoundationSrinagar, May 07: Deepinder Goyal, the co-founder and CEO of food technology company Zomato, rekindled the welfare spirit of old-world corporate India on Friday when he announced his decision to donate all his stock options vesting this year, worth about Rs 700 crore, towards educating the children of his company’s delivery partners. The twist is that Goyal is deploying what would have become his per-sonal wealth, whereas old corpo-rate India used company resources for welfare.

In an internal note, which is be-ing widely circulated, Goyal said he would donate all his ESOPs proceeds this year, net of taxes, to Zomato Future Foundation to cover the education of up to two children of all Zomato delivery partners who have been on its fleet for more than five years. To begin with, it will cover expenses up to Rs 50,000 per child per annum on actuals, which could rise to Rs 100,000 if the delivery partner com-pletes 10 years with Zomato. The tenure thresholds will be lower for women.

“I believe that education is the one and only thing that can give them (the children of delivery part-ners) a chance to build a life much better than their previous genera-tions,” said Goyal.

According to the company's statement last August, Zomato had 310,000 active delivery partners in July of 2021, the highest-ever num-ber in the platform’s lifetime.

The e-commerce and gig econ-omy, in which Zomato has a large role, grew 8 per cent in 2020 and 30 per cent in 2021. However, with this growth have come concerns about the safety, wellbeing, and welfare of gig workers.

The condition of the delivery people became a much-debated top-ic when Zomato announced 10-min-ute deliveries and also when one of its delivery persons died in a road accident.

The India Philanthropy report 2022 by Bain & Company and Das-ra, a non-profit, says a new breed of technology entrepreneurs who have joined the ultra-high-net-worth individual category – those with net worth exceeding Rs. 1,000 crore – have begun to dominate philanthropy. They accounted for only 8 percent of the UHNI wealth in India but made 35 percent of philanthropic donations.

Goyal was granted ESOPS by Zomato’s investors and board based on his performance right be-fore the company went public last year. Some of these ESOPs vested last month because the law stipu-lates a minimum one-year vesting. To reap the most benefit for the foundation and protect the interest of Zomato’s shareholders, Goyal will not liquidate all these shares immediately “but over the next few years”. For the first year, he will liquidate less than 10 percent of these ESOPs towards Zomato Future Foundation.

******

Domestic LPG cylinder price hiked by Rs 50 from today; to cost Rs 999.50

Coal India to offer its 20 closed underground mines to private players

RIL Q4 consolidated net profit up 22.5%; FY22 revenue at Rs 7 trillion

Parag Agrawal's wife Vineeta linked with Musk's $44

bn Twitter takeover

HDFC raises home loan interests by 30 bps after

RBI's repo rate hike

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 202210 www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom WORLD

Seoul, May 7: North Korea fired an apparent submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) off its east coast on Saturday, South Korea's military said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it de-tected the launch in waters off the North's east-ern coastal city of Sinpo at 2.07 p.m. and that the missile flew some 600 km at a top altitude of about 60 km, reports Yonhap News Agency.

The latest launch marks the North's 15th show of force this year. It came just three days after the reclusive regime test-fired what was

thought to be an intercontinental ballistic mis-sile (ICBM) and also ahead of the inauguration of South Korea's new President Yoon Suk-yeol.

"The North's recent series of missile launches are acts of serious threat that under-mine peace and stability on the Korean Penin-sula and in the international community, and a clear violation of UN Security Council reso-lutions," the JCS said in a statement, urging Pyongyang to immediately stop them.

During a military parade last month, the North showcased a set of SLBMs, including a

"mini-SLBM" that it claimed to have success-fully test-fired from a submarine in October last year.

The SLBM is a bedrock asset for nuclear retaliation as a submarine carrying it can oper-ate undetected, launch counterstrikes and thus allow a country to survive an enemy's preemp-tive attack.

At the parade, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un hinted his country could use nuclear arms in case of encroachment on its "funda-mental rights," raising speculation he is shift-ing to a more aggressive doctrine for nuclear use.

Concerns have persisted that the North could continue to engage in provocations, such as another ICBM launch or a nuclear test, par-ticularly around Yoon's inauguration slated for Tuesday or his summit with US President Joe Biden scheduled for May 21.

N.Korea fires ballistic missile off east coast

Two missing, 18 injured in Madrid explosion

Madrid, May 7: Two people were reportedly missing after an explosion in the centre of Madrid, local emer-gency services said, adding that 18 persons also sustained injuries in the

incident.The explosion occurred at

around 1.30 p.m. on Friday at number 35 Calle Ayala, in the exclusive Sala-manca neighbourhood in the heart of

the Spanish capital, reports Xinhua news agency.

Early indications are that the explosion was caused by a gas leak, although this is still under investiga-

tion.On Friday evening, Madrid May-

or Jose Luis Almeida told mediaper-sons that "fatalities cannot be ruled out".

Meanwhile, the head of the Ma-drid Fire Department, Rafael Ferran-diz, explained that the missing people were two workers, who are thought to have been on the third floor of a build-ing when the explosion occurred.

The workers could have fallen down to the ground floor patio, which had been covered by two metres of solid rubble, said Ferrandiz.

Firemen are working with dogs and drones to try to locate the work-ers.

The explosion has left the build-ing in a "very unstable", condition, and there is a "a risk of collapse", Fer-randiz added.

Therefore, urgent work is being carried out to stabilise the building.

The three seriously injured peo-ple are an 84-year-old man who was taken directly to intensive care in a "very serious" condition, a 77-year-old woman with multiple head inju-ries, and a 44-year-old woman with leg injuries.

Meetings with Kim should be for tangible results: S.Korean Prez-electSeoul, May 7: South Korean President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said he is willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but any talks should be made only when they would produce tangible results on the North's denu-clearization or cross-border exchanges.

"There is no reason to shun meetings (with Kim). But if such meetings are only for show and fail to make practical results on the denuclearization and our economic assistance to the North, they will not be helpful for denu-clearizing the North and advancing the inter-Korean relationship," Yonhap News Agency reported on Saturday citing Yoon as saying in an interview with the Voice of America (VOA).

Asked about any preconditions for a pos-sible summit with Kim, Yoon said they would be set via working-level consultations with Pyongyang.

He, however, pointed to the need to boost inter-Korean exchanges in the cultural and sports fields "as Korean people".

"It is crucial to send consistent signals and messages to the North (with regards to its nuclear programmes)... We will review and prepare for programs designed to significantly improve North Korea's economic situation, which will be implemented when North Korea takes irreversible denuclearization steps."

Outgoing President Moon Jae-in and Kim held three rounds of summits in 2018, but inter-Korean relations have thawed and the peace process has stalled since the no-deal end of the 2019 Hanoi summit between Pyongyang's lead-er and former US President Donald Trump.

Yoon, the conservative former top pros-ecutor, is set to be sworn in Tuesday amid heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea has carried out a serious of ballistic missile tests and there have been signs of Pyongyang's preparations for another nuclear test.

22 killed in Havana hotel blast Havana, May 7: A powerful explosion at a luxury hotel in central Havana has killed at least 22 people, with 64 people injured, the Cu-ban Presidential Office said in an update on Saturday.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who visited the site of the blast and a local hospital, said: "The explosion was not a bomb nor an attack, but a regrettable accident," reports Xinhua news agency

A gas leak is thought to be the cause of the massive explosion at Hotel Saratoga, accord-ing to the Presidential Office.

Located opposite the island's National Capitol building, the five-star hotel was pre-paring to reopen on May 10 as part of reviving the island nation's tourism industry which was badly hit in the wake of of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At present, rescue operations are still un-derway as traffic has been diverted from the surroundings of the hotel.

"Patients are currently treated in eight health facilities in Havana, including two pae-diatric hospitals," said Julio Guerra, head of the Health Ministry's hospital services.

Havana Governor Reinaldo Garcia stressed the importance of solidarity of the population after the tragic event.

The blast also caused damage to buildings near the hotel, he said, adding that "thousands of people continue volunteering to donate blood".

An investigation into the explosion is un-derway, local media reported.

US judge dismisses Trump's Twitter ban lawsuit

San Francisco, May 7: A judge has re-portedly dismissed a lawsuit by former US President Donald Trump seeking to lift his ban from Twitter.

But, San Francisco federal district court Judge James Donato left the door open for Trump and other plaintiffs to file an amended complaint against Twitter that is consistent with his written decision to toss the lawsuit in its entirety, reports CNBC.

The micro-blogging platform had banned Trump on January 8, 2021, citing the risk of the incitement of further vio-lence on the heels of the Capitol riot by a mob of supporters of the then-President two days earlier.

Trump, the American Conservative Union and five individuals had sued Twit-ter and its co-founder Jack Dorsey last year on behalf of themselves and a class of other platform users who had been booted from the app.

The ruling comes nearly two weeks after Trump told CNBC he had no interest in returning to Twitter even if his ban were to be lifted by Elon Musk, the Tesla CEO whose $44 billion offer to buy the site has

been accepted by the company's board.Before the ban, Trump was an avid

Twitter user, tweeting an average of more than 30 posts per day toward the end of his presidency, the CNBC report said.

At the time of the ban, Trump had near-ly 90 million followers on Twitter.

Global Covid Global Covid caseload tops caseload tops

516516..66 mn mnWashington, May 7: The global coronavirus caseload has topped 516.6 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6.24 million and vaccinations to over 11.33 billion, according to the Johns Hop-kins University.

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Cen-ter for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 516,648,904 and 6,249,309, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses ad-ministered increased to 11,331,206,252.

The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 81,831,854 and 997,318, respec-tively, according to the CSSE.

India accounts for the second highest caseload at 43,094,938.The other countries with over 10 million cases are Brazil

(30,543,908), France (29,081,169), Germany (25,215,210), the UK (22,292,077), Russia (17,951,065), South Korea (17,504,334), Italy (16,726,990), Turkey (15,040,238), Spain (11,953,481) and Vietnam (10,670,570).

The nations with a death toll of over 100,000 are Brazil (664,326), India (524,002), Russia (369,106), Mexico (324,334), Peru (212,906), the UK (176,860), Italy (164,304), Indonesia (156,357), France (147,645), Iran (141,157), Colombia (139,801), Germany (136,339), Argentina (128,653), Poland (116,124), Spain (104,668) and South Africa (100,505).

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 2022 11www.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom

'Symptom burden' survey could become new tool to

assess long COVIDLong COVID is associated with various symptoms that continue to baffle scientists.

Together with people experiencing long COVID, researchers developed a questionnaire to more clearly define the condition.

The questionnaire will be combined with other data to provide physicians with a more actionable understanding of long COVID.

While “long COVID” is a familiar term and a con-cerning phenomenon, it is still unclear what the condition is. Also called

post-COVID-19 syndrome, long COVID en-compasses lingering symptoms of COVID-19, as well as symptoms that appear after COV-ID-19’s acute or active infection stage. It may involve any number of organs.

Now, researchers from the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Patient-Reported Outcomes Research in the U.K. have devel-oped and validated a comprehensive ques-tionnaire designed to help pin down a defini-tion of long COVID.

Dr. Jai G. Marathe, infectious disease ex-pert at Boston Medical Center in Massachu-setts, described the problem to Medical News Today:

“Long COVID is a condition that the clini-cians are learning along with patients, and in a lot of cases, we are learning from patients. Post-COVID conditions may look different for different people, as over 50 symptoms have been described, and often it is difficult to rec-ognize by both the patients and the medical community.”

“Now,” said Dr. Marathe, “add to this the fact that an estimated 30% of COVID sur-vivors may experience long COVID, and the sheer number of presentations that different patients may exhibit becomes staggering. In addition, the intensity of symptoms may range from very mild with minimal impact on day-to-day life to severe, resulting in dis-

ability.”“Think of [long COVID] as boarding a

running train where the departure and desti-nation stations are unknown and the answer to the ever-dreaded question, ‘Are we there yet?’ is a big mystery.”

Dr. Jai G. MaratheA study describing the creation of the

Symptom Burden Questionnaire for long COVID, or SBQ-LC, is published by the bm-jTrusted Source.

Revealing long COVID’s impactlead author of the study and question-

naire is Dr. Sarah Hughes, a research fellow at the University of Birmingham. She shared her team’s motivation with MNT:

“We know that long COVID covers a wide range of, often fluctuating, symptoms that can appear at any time following the initial COVID-19 infection. This makes it difficult to know what long COVID actually is and there-fore what should be measured.”

“What was clear was that individuals living with long COVID told us that existing measures did not fully capture their lived ex-perience.”

— Dr. Sarah HughesTo gain a more useful understanding, the

researchers designed a “patient-reported out-come measure,” or PROM. People who have had COVID-19 can complete it themselves or in an interview.

From these interviews and literature reviews, the researchers identified a set of long COVID symptoms. They presented the results to 10 clinicians who validated and

identified the symptoms of clinical concern. They then field-tested the draft questionnaire on 274 adults with long COVID.

Dr. Hughes further explained:“When deciding ‘what to measure’ in long

COVID, our decisions were based on current understanding of long COVID from the pub-lished literature, identification of symptoms of clinical concern from a health practitioner and researcher perspective, but most impor-tantly, first-hand accounts of symptoms as experienced by people with long COVID.”

The researchers “worked extensively with individuals with lived experience at each phase of the SBQ-LC’s development to ensure the items (questions) represented all the symptoms of long COVID considered im-portant to individuals living with the condi-tion,” she said.

How the survey will be usedIt is impossible to know at this juncture if

long COVID is a single illness or if it includes multiple conditions joined only by their ori-gin with COVID-19.

“There is definitely value in exploring long COVID as a single condition. In the clini-cal setting, lumping together symptoms that can temporally be associated with COVID-19 will allow for easier identification and diag-nosis of patients who will benefit from clini-cal evaluation and management as needed,” said Dr. Marathe.

“I would consider the investigation of long COVID a starting point for subsequent, more granular research,” she added.

An immediate consequence of the SBQ-

LC will be its delivery of data to another study, the Therapies for Long COVID (TLC) in non-hospitalized individuals funded by the U.K.’s NIHR and UKRI. SBQ-LC data will be combined with that from other “PROMs (de-livered through a digital platform developed by Aparito Ltd.), wearable data, and blood and other biological tests to characterize and immunologically phenotype long COVID syn-dromes,” according to Dr. Hughes.

“We hope,” noted Dr. Hughes, “[the SBQ-LC] will be widely adopted as part of a core outcome set for long COVID to enable com-parative global data.”

Still many unknownsGiven that experts do not yet know how

long after acute infection it might be before long COVID symptoms stop appearing, it raises the question of how experts can be sure that they have captured enough data to fully encompass all aspects of the condition.

“I think this is a very difficult question to answer, precisely because we do not know who is likely to develop long COVID. Will new emerging variants impact the development of long COVID, and how long it will take for the post-COVID condition to resolve for each pa-tient?” said Dr. Marathe.

She pointed out that this kind of uncer-tainty has been experienced before, citing the long-term Framingham Heart Study:

“As our understanding of heart disease grew, the research results were no longer re-ferred to as preliminary, and I think the same will happen with long COVID data.”

Srinagar | Sunday 08 May 202212 NEWSwww.kashmirdigest.comeditor@kashmirdigest@gmailcom

4th Khelo India Youth Games launched in PanchkulaChandigarh, May 7: The count-down for the 4th Khelo India Youth Games began on a high note, with the unveiling of its logo, mascot, jersey and anthem at a spectacular launch ceremony in Panchkula on Saturday.

Attended by a power-packed audience, led by Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal and Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur, the capti-vating show set the stage for the biggest and grandest Games ever.

"We are proud and honoured to host this edition of the Khelo Games. We can't wait to welcome the country's youngest sporting talent to our beloved state," Mano-har Lal said.

The chief minister pointed out Haryana's proud tradition of sending the maximum number of athletes to represent India in international competitions. "More importantly, we have won one-third of the medals won by India

in the Olympics and other major world events," he added.

The KIYG will begin on June 4. Over 8,000 students from across the country will compete in 25 dis-ciplines, including five traditional games -- Gatka, Kalaripayattu, Thang-Ta, Mallakhamba and Yo-gasana -- that will feature as dem-onstration sports.

Tau Devi Lal Stadium in pic-turesque Panchkula will be the hub of all action while Chandi-

garh, Ambala, Shahbad and Delhi will host some of the competitions.

"In the recent past, our ath-letes have been doing very well on the world stage. It's heartening that several youngsters who rep-resent the country internation-ally are emerging from the Khelo Youth and University Games," Anurag Thakur said. "PM Modi ji's vision of Young India will sure-ly see India finishing in the Top 10 of the Olympic Games in the not

too distant future," he added.Among the several dignitar-

ies present at the Launch Cer-emony were Haryana Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gianchand Gupta, Deputy Chief Minister Dushyant Chautala and Minister of State for Sports and Youth Affairs Sandeep Singh, a hockey legend himself.

The KIYG logo sports the now popular line-drawing of a run-ning athlete in saffron and green colours. It also has a few other elements that signify the essence and glory of the state of Haryana. It includes two iconic images from the Mahabharata, the bow wielded by Arjuna and the chariot commandeered by Lord Krisha, and five sports that Haryana has dominated over the years.

The mascot, named Dhaakad, is the bull that is not only revered in these parts of the country but is also believed to be the secret behind the superhuman strength of Haryana's sons and daughters.

Top seed Swiatek, Raducanu headline field for Italian Open

Rome, May 7: Defending champion, Poland's Iga Swiatek, will be keen to maintain her undefeated record at the Italian Open when the event com-mences here on May 9, with 19 of the top-20 players set to compete in the WTA 1000 tournament.

The draw, which was released late on Friday, had world No.1 Swi-atek headlining the field. Among the potential Round-of-16 clashes in the tournament, Swiatek could meet 16th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, while 10th seed Emma Raducanu of Great Britain could clash with fifth seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia.

Another Belarusian, No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka could face 13th seed Jes-sica Pegula of the US, while 12th seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland could take on No. 7 Danielle Collins of the US if things go according to script.

The other key potential Round-of-16 clashes include, eighth seed Garbine Muguruza against Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, while American Coco Gauff could come up against fourth seed Maria Sakkari of Greece. No.2 seed Paula Badosa of Spain could face Anastasia Pavlyuchen-kova of Russia.

Defending champion Swiatek, like all top-8 seeds, has an opening-round bye. In the second round, she will face the winner of an all-Amer-ican match between Shelby Rogers and Alison Riske. Swiatek could face 2013 Rome runner-up Victoria Aza-renka in the Round of 16.

Swiatek did not play the first WTA 1000 clay-court event of the sea-son, withdrawing from this week's Madrid Open with a shoulder injury. But the Polish star is still undefeated at WTA 1000 events in 2022, winning titles in Doha, Indian Wells and Mi-ami during her ascent to No.1, ac-cording to wtatennis.com.

The bottom portion of the first quarter has two US Open champions squaring off in the first round, as reigning US Open titlist Emma Ra-ducanu will face 2019 US Open cham-pion Bianca Andreescu in their first meeting.

Whoever prevails will take on the winner of the match between Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain and another former US Open champion, Naomi Osaka. That opener is a re-match from Madrid, where Sorribes Tormo defeated Osaka en route to the quarterfinals.

The player who comes out of this section could meet No.5 seed Anett Kontaveit in the Round of 16.

No.3 seed Aryna Sabalenka is scheduled to face Madrid finalist Jes-sica Pegula of the US in the Round of 16, if seedings hold. Pegula will face big-hitting Liudmila Samsonova in the first round.

2020 Rome champion Simona Halep, who has won nine singles titles on clay, will face Alize Cornet of France in the first round in a 2022 Australian Open rematch. Cornet knocked out Halep in Melbourne this year to make her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Hitting 117m six was obviously fun; different from the one at Leeds, says Livingstone

Mumbai, May 7: Punjab Kings all-rounder Liam Livingstone said for him, hitting a 117m six off Mohammed Shami in his side's win over Gujarat Titans in IPL 2022 was fun. At the same time, Livingstone pointed out that it was different from the 122m six hit by him off Haris Rauf in Eng-land's T20I match against Paki-stan last year.

In the 16th over, with Punjab needing 27 runs to win, Living-stone slammed Shami for a mon-strous 117m six over deep square leg, which led to commentators on-air say with delight, "It's out the stadium! Have never seen a six as big as that one." Living-stone would then hit two more sixes and as many fours to com-plete the chase of 144 with four overs to spare.

"The one at Leeds (122m) and

this (117m) was different, but it feels great to hit it as big as you can as we are in the entertain-ment business and it is great for the fans. Unfortunately, it gives us only six and not more," said Livingstone in a pre-match chat with broadcasters Star Sports.

Asked about why he went af-ter Shami in that match, Living-stone explained, "I took on Shami because I thought I can hit to the short boundary, not the NRR. Also, Rashid (Khan) and Lockie (Ferguson) had overs at the other end. But sometimes, when you get going you cannot stop. I have been trying to increase consis-tency on the sixes and it is getting better. Hopefully, I can do more of the same today (against Rajas-than Royals on Saturday)."

Livingstone revealed that hit-ting sixes is an ability which is

purely dependent on confidence. "I don't have a solid defence, I can't say that, being able to power sixes is a confident thing, it puts the pressure back on the bowl-ers. If its in my half, I do try to hit sixes and transfer the pressure back onto the bowling unit. I have worked hard on my consistency, it has got better now, have also been working on hitting sixes in a consistent manner."

Livingstone, 28, signed off by saying that pitch will play an important factor in an afternoon match against Rajasthan to be in contention for playoffs. "It does depend on the pitch, this is a mas-sive game and we'll need to win most of our games, so I think it's a good situation to be in. See what the pitch is, see how it is playing and if it's in your zone, go for your shots."

'KL Rahul's amazing shots prove he is in best phase of

his career'Pune, May 7: Former India crick-eter and Chennai Super Kings legend Suresh Raina reckons that amazing stroke play coming from the bat of Lucknow Super Giants captain KL Rahul proves that he is in the best phase of his career. Rahul has been in a consistent run of form in IPL 2022, making 451 runs in 10 matches at an average of 56.38 and strike-rate of 145.01.

He also has two centuries against Mumbai Indians and as many half-centuries. With Luc-know facing Kolkata Knight Rid-ers at the MCA Stadium in Pune on Saturday, Rahul now needs just 49 more runs to reach the 500-run mark for the fifth consecutive season of IPL, making him one of the most consistent batters of the tournament in recent times.

"KL (Rahul) is in the best mindset right now, he's batting with a very positive mindset. He is playing some amazing shots which proves that he is in the best phase of his career. He is try-ing a few new things as well this season (in his batting). He plays with the mind of the bowlers and traps them. He forces the bowlers to bowl in the areas which are his strong zones and constructs his in-nings accordingly. It is really com-mendable to see him bat like this," said Raina on Cricket Live show on Star Sports.

Adding into Raina's views, for-mer India cricketer Mohammed

Kaif pointed out that although Rahul is capable of playing aggres-sive shots from the start of his in-nings, he's curbing his instincts at the same time to ensure he plays long and impactful knocks for Lucknow in IPL 2022.

"KL Rahul is trying to play captaincy innings this year. He can be aggressive from the word go and he's capable of starting his innings with a six but he is curb-ing his instincts in order to play long and impactful knocks."

"He has all the shots in his ar-senal, he can play sweep shots, he can pull shots, and he plays those cut shots brilliantly but the reason why he's taking his time into the middle is to prolong his innings. He can take risks as there are many good batsmen in his team but he's looking to bat with the re-sponsibility and lead his side from the front."

Ex-India all-rounder Irfan Pathan claimed Rahul is one of the most valuable batsmen in the country as he has the ability to play at various positions and in different modes, domestically as well as internationally.

"KL is a street-smart batsman. He is capable of batting at any po-sition, he has done that in India colours and one can do that with such ease only if he's talented. He is one of the most valuable Indian batters because he has the ability to play in different modes."