Oxford vaccinegets - First India

Everyone’s dream of ‘Apna Ghar’ will be fulfilled: CM

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Chief Minis-ter Yogi Adityanath on Friday said taking in-spiration from PM Nar-endra Modi, his govern-ment was committed to providing houses to the urban poor and ex-

pressed confidence that the Light House Project (LHP) will prove to be a milestone in this direc-tion.

Speaking at the foun-dation laying ceremony of LHP, which was launched by PM Modi online in six states in-

cluding Uttar Pradesh, CM Yogi said that his government was con-

stantly striving to real-ise the dream of ‘Apna Ghar’ of needy families

in the state.The LHP In Lucknow

will come up under the

Awadh Vihar Yojana of the UP Housing and Ur-ban Turn to P6

Govt to aid religious travel for labourers

M Tariq Khan

Lucknow: Religious tourism is high on the agenda of the Yogi Adi-tyanath Government. And it is not merely about makeover of the cities that have a rich and historic past. The UP CM has stepped in to provide financial sup-port to workers and la-

bourers, who otherwise may not be able to af-ford the trip.

As a result, the state government has decided to provide Rs 12,000 each to a select number of la-bourers. Turn to P6

l New technology-based housing scheme started for the urban poor on the first day of the year l UP tops in Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana (Urban) Award-2019 l Mirzapur Country’s Best Performing Municipal Council

UP Guv Anandiben Patel virtually participated in the inauguration of Light House Project initiated by PM Modi. Also seen on the screen are CM Yogi, MP CM Shivraj Singh Chauhan, AP CM YS Jaganmohan Reddy, TN CM TEK Palaniswami, Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri among others.

...pay them `12K each to undertake the journey

A devotee takes holy dip in the sacred pond at the Golden Temple amid fog, in Amritsar on Friday.

Devotees maintain social distance as they offer prayers inside a Church in Ahmedabad on Friday.

Devotees burn incense sticks as they offer prayers on the first day of the New Year at Latashil Ganesh Mandir, in Guwahati on Friday. —PHOTOS BY PTI

MEHBOOBA DEMANDS AN “IMPARTIAL INVESTIGATION” INTO THE KILLING OF THREE IN ENCOUNTER AT LAWAPORA

RABRI DEVI CLAIMS NITISH’S WRIT NO LONGER RAN IN THE BIHAR GOVT

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LUCKNOW l SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. UPENG/2020/04393 l Vol 1 l Issue No.50

STARTING NEW YEAR WITH A PRAYER

New Delhi: An expert panel on COVID-19 of the Central Drugs Standard Control Or-ganisation (CDSCO) on Friday recommended grant of permission for restricted emergency use of Oxford COVID-19 vaccine Covishield in India, subject to certain regulatory provisions, official sources said.

As for Bharat Bio-tech, the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on COVID-19 of the CD-SCO asked the firm to expedite volunteer re-cruitment for the ongo-ing clinical trial and said it may conduct in-terim efficacy analysis for further considera-tion of restricted emer-gency use approval for its vaccine Covaxin, they stated.

The SEC, which ear-lier had sought addi-

tional safety, immuno-genicity and efficacy data from SII and Bharat Biotech, deliber-ated on their applica-tions seeking emergen-

cy use authorisation (EUA) for their shots on Wednesday, and met again on Friday to re-view the matter.

Turn to P6

Oxford vaccine gets panel nod on dry run eve

PRIORITY TO DOMESTIC MARKETThe Serum Institute and the government are yet to sign any purchase agreement of the vaccine, though the world’s largest manufacturer of vac-cines has said it will give priority to its domestic market. Exports will come later, mostly to South Asian and African nations.

The Serum Institute of India is making the vaccine Covishield developed by Oxford University and pharma major AstraZeneca

4 more cases of new corona strain foundNew Delhi: Four cases of the highly conta-gious mutant strain of the coronavirus were detected in the country on Friday, Union Health Ministry has informed. The total of those af-fected by the strain - first found in the United Kingdom - has reached 29, it added.

Out of the four cases, three were found in a Bengaluru lab, while one was detected in a lab in Hyderabad, sources said.

So far, 10 cases have been detected by labs in Delhi, 10 by a Bengalu-ru lab, one in West Ben-gal, three in Hyderabad

Turn to P6

New Delhi: The gross goods and services tax (GST) revenue collect-ed in the month of De-cember 2020 was Rs 1,15,174 crore of which CGST was Rs 21,365 crore, SGST was Rs 27,804 crore, IGST was Rs 57,426 crore (in-cluding Rs 27,050 crore collected on im-port of goods) and cess was Rs 8,579 crore (in-cluding Rs 971 crore

collected on goods im-ports). The total num-ber of GSTR-3B Re-

turns filed for Novem-ber up to December 31, 2020, was 87 lakhs.

The government set-tled Rs 23,276 crore to CGST and Rs 17,681 crore to SGST from IGST as regular settle-ment. The total revenue earned by the Union government and the state governments after regular settlement in the month of December 2020 was Rs 44,641 crore for CGST and Rs 45,485 crore for the SGST.

Turn to P6

GST collections hit record high of over `1.15 lakh crore in Dec 2020

2°C - 20°C OUR EDITIONS: JAIPUR, AHMEDABAD & LUCKNOW

P6P5

Modi lays foundation stone of Light House Projects in 6 states

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the Light House Pro-jects being executed with modern technol-ogies in six states will show a new direction to the housing con-struction sector in the country and further strengthen coopera-

tive federalism.Modi laid the foun-

dation stone of six LHPs under the Glob-al Housing Technolo-gy Challenge-India (GHTC-India) that, he said, has given a scope to innovate and incubate with new technology.

Turn to P6

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses during the foundation stone laying ceremony of Light House Projects under the Global Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) at six sites across six states, via video conferencing, in New Delhi.

UTTAR PRADESHLUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021

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UP government to introduce ordinance to control, regulate, religious places on private, public landThe ordinance is said to be under discussion and will incorporate inputs from Law, Parliamentary Affairs departments

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Mission Shakti of the Yogi Adi-tyanath government in Uttar Pradesh has now has added another “mission” in its kitty.

With the adjoining states rocked by farm-ers’ stir, UP Govern-ment is now all set to embark on an exercise, which it claims, will im-prove the life of agrari-an population in the state to shift the latter’s

focus away from the on-going agitation.

Yogi government is launching “Mission Kisan Kalyan” on January 6, which pur-ported to create awareness among the farmers lot about how to reduce the cost of agriculture by using fertilizer in a bal-anced manner.

The campaign will be covering 350 blocks of the rural areas of the state in three weeks, of-

ficials, on Friday said.The mission aims to

make agriculture profit-

able and the most effec-tive way is agricultural diversification. For this,

all the departments re-lated to agriculture have been included in the campaign.

The nodal depart-ment of the campaign is the agricultural depart-ment and other depart-ments including the

horticulture, fish and fisheries, silk, coopera-tives, irrigation, minor irrigation, power, NEDA, rural develop-ment, panchayati raj, etc have been included in the campaign.

The campaign will

focus on increasing farmers’ awareness by maintaining a direct dialogue with them. The departments en-gaged in the mission will be organising exhi-bitions, seminars and various interactions with the farmers. Mis-sion ‘Kisan Kalyan’ will also encourage farmers across the state of Uttar Pradesh to opt for crops as per the existing demands of the market.

Mission Shakti to uplift state’s agrarian population amid stirAIMING FOR BETTER

Mission Kisan Kalyan will incorporate

various programmes

and campaigns to increase awareness

among farmers

First India Bureau

Lucknow: UP govern-ment is likely to intro-duce an ordinance to regulate and control the religious places built on private and public land.

A presentation with regards to the same was reviewed by CM Yogi Adityanath recently, af-ter which, top circles of the ruling party and the bureaucratic set up were conveyed about the government’s inten-tion to introduce the ordinance.

A similar attempt was made by BJP gov-ernment in the state in

January 2000, when Ram Prakash Gupta was the CM. Named ‘UP Regulation of Public Religious Building and Places Bill 2000’, the bill was passed by the state assembly amid loud protests by Opposition.

As a part of the pro-cess, the then governor Suraj Bhan sent it to the President for his con-sent. But the Presiden-tial consent never ever came and the Bill failed to turn into an Act for its implementation

The government, therefore is considering promulgating an ordi-nance for immediate im-

plementation. The new law is likely to be called

‘Uttar Pradesh Regula-tion and Registration of

Religious Places! The new law would be moved

by Religious Affairs de-partment with inputs from Law and Parlia-mentary Affairs Depart-ments.

“In 2000, the bill was to regulate functioning of all religious places, irrespective of commu-nities. Certain minori-ty communities had then opposed the bill, this time too they are apprehensive of gov-ernment’s interven-tion in the religious places,” said a political analyst.

Estate department gives presentationUP CM Yogi Adityanath

was given a presenta-tion of a new online portal for the employ-ees of Estate Depart-ment. According to ad-ditional chief secretary SP Goyal, all personnel of the Estate can now apply for their leave on-line or through mobile app. Its disposal will

also be done online.

CM apprised of Panchnad BarragePresentation on Panchnad Barrage on Saryu River and anoth-er rubber dam on the downstream of Yamuna River in Agra, was giv-en to the CM.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh is now among the top five states of the country in exports re-gaining a position which it had lost to Har-yana last year. “This is a proof of how Yogi Adityanath-led government converted challenges into oppor-tunities in what has been one of the most testing years,” said an Additional Chief Secre-tary level officer.

According to a com-parative study, prod-ucts worth Rs 14,84,386.50 crore were exported from the coun-try in between the months April and No-vember 2019, of which

Rs 80058.44 crore worth products were exported from Uttar Pradesh.

During the Corona crisis, products worth Rs 12,99,354.87 crore were exported from the country in between April and November 2020, out of which, products worth Rs 72508.14 crore were from Uttar Pradesh.

Consequently, the state now ranks fifth in the country in terms of exports, leaving behind states like Maharashtra, Ta-mil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, Bihar, Delhi, Kerala, Megha-laya, Nagaland, Ma-nipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir.

When India’s exports fell sharply during the Corona crisis, exports of UP too decreased by about 30 percent.

But Ease of Doing Business drive helped provide better facilities to exporters and worked in favour of the state. Preparations to develop districts as export hubs also paid off and accel-erated the export busi-nesses that were im-pacted due to lockdown.

Exports of textiles, floor covering, meats, brass decorative prod-ucts, toys, sports parts and wood products too saw a boom.

Not only this, the 30 percent decline in ex-ports of UP now stands at down to 9.43 percent.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Giving away a new year gift, the Lucnknow admin-istration has launched a round the clock hel-pline for children and women in distress un-der the Mission Shakti plan of the state gov-ernment.

Complaints could be made at the dedicated phone number 0522-4523023, said the Dis-trict Magistrate of Lucknow, Abhishek Prakash, while launch-ing the helpline.

The counselling hel-pline would have panel of psychiatrists and other experts. They would counsel and help the old aged people, women victim of do-mestic violence, chil-

dren victim of sexual abuse and those who are being sexualy har-assed at the workplace.

Psychiatric help is largely seen as re-quired by the people having mental issues and general people were not in the need. With this mindset the people hesitate in shar-ing and seeking profes-

sional help even they have been through a lot, said the DM. The helpline would pro-vide assistance and counselling to such people 24x7 keeping in view the theme of Mission Shakti of providing security and support on men-tal health and psy-chological issues.

First India Bureau

Ayodhya: Chief Min-ister Yogi Adityanath’s ambitious project of putting Ayodhya on the world tourist map is gradually beginning to take shape.

While the Deepotsav has elevated Ayodhya on the global tourism map, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has planned renovation of all religious, sites that come under the 84 Kosi

Parikrama route.Officials on Friday

said that beautifica-tion works of of 84 and 14 Kosi Parikramas and all places of reli-gious importance fall-ing under Panchkosi Parikrama, will car-ried on along with construction of shel-ters for pilgrims. Ar-rangement of other basic facilities along with ‘kuccha’ routes for pilgrims on foot will also be planned by

the government. A separate action

plan too has also been prepared for develop-ment of major sites such as Makhauda.

It is believed that

King Dashrath, organ-ised the Putrakamesh-ti Yajna under Guru Vashishtha and Shrin-gi Rishi at Makhoda Dham in Harraiya Tehsil of Basti.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Acting Chief Secretary Alok Sinha asked the author-ities to maintain better maintenance and man-agement of Cow shel-ters in the state.

He said the Commis-sioner and the DM should see to that prop-er work is done in cow shelters in lieu of cold weather rocking the northern states.

The Chief Secretary was of the view that plans for funding be made for works to be

done for improving Cow shelters’ state. He said necessary instruc-tions need to be given to the shelters for the use of organic fertilizers.

Alok Sinha directed release of the remain-ing funds amounting to Rs 200 crore for develop-ment cow shelters by January.

Once 70% of the fund is released the officials will have to ensure that the fund has been used as per regulations and only then will the re-maining fund be re-leased, he added.

First India Bureau

Prayagraj: In a major crackdown, the Praya-graj district adminis-tration attached a 37 bigha land owned by former MP and jailed don Atiq Ahmed which was being illegally used for commercial con-struction in Nasirpur Silna area of Dhooman-ganj on Friday.

The whip was cracked after authori-ties over there seized and razed several ille-gal properties owned by Ahmed and his aides in the city.

It is to be noted that the Prayagraj police had erected a notice board which had a copy of the order of attach-ment of the property.

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Chief minis-ter Yogi Adityanath has directed authorities to maintain high degree of precaution to deal with the new strain of coronavirus.

Adityanath held a high-level meeting with the officials and asked to further strengthen the arrangements for treatment of Covid-19 patients in the state.

“Prepare the list of people who have trav-elled to places where new strain has been re-

ported, trace them at earliest and isolate them at their homes on the basis of symptoms”, the CM said.

Adityanath also said there was a need to up-grade laboratories and develop needed exper-tise to deal with the new strain of the virus. Sur-veillance needed to stepped up, he said.

Availability of medi-cines, medical equip-ment and oxygen should be ensured, said the CM, instructing the of-ficials not to lower the guard in testing.

Regulations will soon be in place for religious places built on private and public land. —FILE PHOTO

UP reclaims fifth position in international trade rankings

Lko admn launches 24/7 helpline for women, kids under distress

Yogi government plans to develop, beautify Ayodhya’s Parikrama routes

Acting CS emphasises on better cow shelters

Admn attaches 37 bigha land of Atiq Ahmed

CM tasks officials against ‘new strain’

UP exports soar high under CM Yogi Adityanath’s leadership.

CM Yogi aims for betterment of farmers.

CM TO DEDICATE SEVEN PROJECTS

CM UNVEILS RAGGIRI CALENDARUP CM Yogi Adityanath unveiled a cultural calen-dar “Raggiri Calendar 2021” here at his offi cial residence on Friday. The calendar is dedicated to famous musicians and portrays their pictures. The CM said the calendar would help in spread-ing awareness among the younger generation about the eminent artistes from the State.

YOGI CONDOLES JOURNO’S DEATH

UTTAR PRADESHLUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021


First India Bureau

Lucknow: While Chief Minister Yogi Adity-anath himself took cog-nisance of the recent First India report on poor and homeless peo-ple and asked officials to provide them utmost care, that doesn’t seem being complied by them in the state capital.

In spine chilling win-ter in UP where temper-atures are touching 0 (zero) Degree Celsius mark, hundreds of peo-ple are forced to sleep under open skies cover-ing themselves with whatever they have.

Speaking to First In-dia, most these under-

privileged people said the shelter homes were all full because of which they were being forced to sleep out in the open.

Meanwhile, dense fog and severe cold wave conditions pre-vailed across UP, with Lucknow airport re-cording the lowest tem-perature at 0.5 degree

Celsius on Friday.According to the MeT

department, day tem-peratures fell apprecia-bly in Kanpur and Luc-know divisions, and rose in Meerut division.

The night tempera-ture fell appreciably in Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Bareilly and Agra divi-sions, it said.

The night tempera-ture was markedly be-low normal in Lucknow division, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Kanpur, Ba-reilly, Moradabad, Agra and Meerut divisions; below normal in Vara-nasi division and nor-mal in the remaining divisions of the state, a MeT official said.

As the cold December night of 2020 passed into New Year’s dawn of hope and promise for millions, hundreds of poor and destitute spent the hopeless night braving the chilling cold out on the streets, without a cover over their head. With temperatures getting to record lows, these people are in real danger of facing the worst!

Taking cognizance of people spending the nights on the road sides, CM Yogi Aditaynath had instructed officials to take steps to end this, but on the ground the situation hasn’t changed much. (Below) Meanwhile, braving the cold, another section of Lucknow-ites makes a bee-line outside a temple to offer their prayers on the first day of 2021

No luck now for the poor in chilling coldDespite CM Yogi’s order, officials still apathetic

0.5 IN LUCKNOW

COLD WELCOME TO 2021

Vishal Srivastav

Lucknow: Giving a ma-jor push to Chief Minis-ter Yogi Adityanath’s Aatmanirbhar UP dream in terms of agri-culture-related research and technology, UK-based Brooke’s India leg Brooke India (BI) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Acharya Narendra Deva Univer-sity Of Agriculture and

Technology (ANDU-AT), Kumarganj, Ayod-hya, for knowledge partnership in re-search, support studies on equine health, pro-duction, training of staff and students, and other allied activities. The activities are ex-pected to benefit the equine and their own-ers and other relevant stakeholders in UP.

The MoU was signed by Dr RK Joshi, Dean,

Veterinary and Animal Sciences, ANDUAT and Brig JS Dharmadheer-an (Retd) Country Direc-tor (CD) and CEO, Brooke India.

Through this partner-ship, both organisations will leverage their in-herent strengths and collaborate to achieve better outcomes which

foster better equine wel-fare in the state.

BI will also support ANDUAT in the collec-tion of laboratory sam-ples and garnering rel-evant field data.

Besides, both institu-tions will also work to-gether to conduct joint knowledge exchange events/webinars, devel-op mutually beneficially developmental project, and create skill en-hancement opportuni-ties for undergraduate and postgraduate stu-dents and staff.

This MoU is the be-ginning of a long-term relationship between

the two premier institu-tions for developing new tools and techniques for addressing equine cen-tric issues in the state.

It is anticipated that this agreement will fur-ther lead to sustainable development of the eco-nomically weaker sec-tion, especially equine owning communities, who depend on their working equines to earn their livelihood. Despite the drastic decline in the equine population as per the latest livestock census, the state still has one of the largest equine populations in the country.

Brooke bonds with Ayodhya agri varsity for researchATMANIRBHAR UP

Dr RK Joshi, Dean, Veterinary and Animal Sciences, ANDUAT and Brig (Retd) JS Dharmadheeran, Country Director and CEO, Brooke India.

Deal inked for knowledge partnership in research, support studies on equine health, production and training of staff

First India Bureau

Lucknow: At least 12 people were killed and several others injured in separate road accidents due to dense fog on the New Year in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.

According to the police, four people were killed and three others were injured when a private bus collided with a con-tainer in Auras po-lice circle in Unnao district on the Luc-know-Agra Express-way. The bus was go-ing towards Delhi from Bihar.

All the deceased were from Bihar. They have been iden-

tified as Salaluddin (driver), Naseem Khan, Shakaut Raza, and Farooq.

In Agra, five peo-ple were killed in two accidents on Ya-muna Expressway early Friday, again due to fog.

In the first case, several vehicles col-lided in which two people were killed. In the other acci-dent, three people were killed in colli-sion between several vehicles.

A report from Mo-radabad said that three people, includ-ing an infant, were killed in another road accident on the same day.

First India Bureau

Kanpur: Kanpur Divi-sional Commissioner Raj Shekhar carried out an inspection and as-sessment drive at vari-ous Gau Ashray Sthals in Kanpur on the first day of the new decade.

Gau-Vansh Sanrak-shan (Cow conserva-tion) is one of priorities of the Government of Uttar Pradesh.

To asses the ground situation and also to plan for betterment of

the scheme, Raj Shek-har visited “Brihad Gau Ashray Sthal” of Nagar Nigam at Jaana

Village in Sarsaul Block. He was accompanied by Incharge Nagar Ayukt, CVO , Asst Nagar Ayukt

(Incharge for Gau Ashray Stahl) & other Nagar Nigam officers

As of now the total number of stray cows in Kanpur is around 13,000, of which 6,300 cows have been taken careof at various Gau Ashray stahls in the city.

There are seven sheds as of now. Each can house around 300 cows. So looking into this, the department needs 3 to 4 sheds at this place for proper care of the cattle.

First India Bureau

Kanpur: Kanpur IG range, Mohit Agarwal has ordered a probe af-ter it was found that the SHO of Kanpur’s Bithoor had been using a car, which was stolen two years ago, for per-sonal use. Confirming that using a seized vehi-cle was against the law, Agarwal assured that the entire case would be inquired into and who-

ever was found respon-sible would face serious departmental action.

The incident came to the fore when Kanpur’s Omendra Soni received a call from an auto ser-vice centre asking for his feedback about the service of his car. The service centre also in-formed him that the car was returned to Kaush-lendra Pratap Singh, a station officer at the Bithoor police station.

12 killed in separate fog-related road accidents in state

Probe on cop for using car stolen 2 years ago

Div commissioner inspects cow sheds

Dense fog and cold winds continue to batter the state.

Kanpur Divisional Commissioner Raj Shekhar during the inspection.

l Vol 1 l Issue No. 50 l RNI NO. UPENG/2020/04393. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Amar Ujala Ltd. B-5 Amausi Industrial Area Kanpur Road Lucknow.Published at 98, Friend’’s Colony, Raheem Nagar, Dudouli Road, Madiyaon, Lucknow (UP). Editor-In-Chief: Jagdeesh Chandra. Editor: Anita Hada Sangwan responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act

PERSPECTIVELUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021

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COVISHIELD GIVES 2021 A CHEERY CHEERY START

he New Year has started on a pos-itive note. The Serum Institute of India’s Covishield has become the first Covid-19 vaccine to get the subject expert committee’s ap-

proval for emergency use in India. Although the final decision rests with the Drugs Con-troller-General of India (DCGI), the vaccine, which has been developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, stands a better chance of being rolled out because it has al-ready been approved by the United King-dom’s drug regulator. Covishield has thus beaten four other vaccine candidates---Bharat Biotech’s Covaxine, Zydus Cadila’s ZyCov-D, and Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine being developed by Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Pfizer’s. On Friday, the Covaxine was also considered for emergency use rollout but Covishield won the race making it a land-mark event for India.

The year couldn’t have begun on a better note for a country distressed by the novel coronavirus spread. It has catapulted India’s scientific capabilities to the forefront. Given India’s population and the fact that the coun-try is capable of meeting the vaccine, de-mand is in itself a major achievement. If the SII is ready to supply over 50 million doses right away, the others are waiting in the wings, so to say, to augment the effort. Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of Serum Insti-tute was reported to have said that the SII has some 50 million doses of Oxford-AstraZene-ca vaccine ready. By March, the company plans to roll out close to at least 100 million doses of the vaccine. The government in-tends to vaccinate 30 crore people in a period of six to eight months

The thought that a vaccine is now available to fight Covid-19 is immensely comforting. The clinical trials were carried out with com-plete professionalism and medical ethics. The related data was scrutinized with the utmost care before the vaccine was given per-mission for emergency use. As the DCGI VG Somani said the industry and research or-ganisations have stood the test of time.

A dry run of vaccination in all the states is scheduled for Saturday. The exercise will test the preparedness of states in terms of opera-tion, vaccine allocation, the deployment of vaccination teams, data upload, and effective monitoring of the actual drive. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan will monitor and analyse the mock drill from Delhi. The health minister said that the preparations were like the general elections. “Potential recipients of the vaccine will be informed via SMS. Front-line workers are the priority. After inocula-tion, digital certificates will also be provid-ed,” he said.

India had the second-highest number of Covid-cases in the world. With effective curbs on the movement of people and insistence on safety protocols, the government has been able to check the number of fresh cases. With the vaccine, the government is now well-armed to tackle the virus.

IN-DEPTH

T

With a drop of my energy I enter the earth and support all creatures. —Bhagavad Gita

SpiritualSPEAK

TopTWEET

Anand Sharma @AnandSharmaINCThinking of our farmers and their resolute fight for their rights and justice in bitter cold. we must stand in solidarity with them and urge the government to give up the arrogance and Raajhat. Kisan ko Naya sal do- Insaaf do.

Dharmendra Pradhan @dpradhanbjpAlso, flagged off the 1st batch of XP100, India’s 1st indigenously developed 100 Octane petrol from Digboi Refinery. The country’s oldest operating refinery has joined the elite group of Mathura and Barauni refineries, which will produce this advanced version of petrol.

hen the Prime Minister said, “One Nation, One Election” isn’t just an issue of delibera-tion but also a need of the coun-try”. It sounded like a dream come true to all Indians. Every day, we find the elections are on for either Lok Sabha or state assembly or panchayat. Why can’t we have one election eve-ry five years and focus on gov-ernance for the next five years? The quality of political ideolo-gy has taken a downward spi-ral in recent times and it ap-pears difficult to achieve this. Any idea, how so ever, good or bad is supported or opposed on the party lines. Unfortunately, the support is generally not is-sue-based.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEHistorically, elections during the first two decades after Inde-pendence were held simultane-ously, i.e., during 1951-52, 1957, 1962, and 1967. Dissolution of certain assemblies, followed by the dissolution of the Lok Sab-ha and general elections in 1971, along with indiscriminate use of Article 356 (President’s Rule) disrupted the schedule of si-multaneous elections, forever.

The first Annual Report of the Election Commission in 1983, supported holding simulta-neous elections to reduce ex-penditure. The proposal gained momentum with the manifesto of the BJP for the 2014 Lok Sab-ha election. Thereafter, NITI Aayog issued a Working Paper in 2017 titled, “Analysis of Si-multaneous Elections: The What, Why and How”. It broadly recommended a gradual move to one election every five years.

THE NEEDThe arguments in favour of holding simultaneous elections can be summarized as follows:-z Money and administrative expenses will be drastically cut. In recent 2019 elections, 610 political parties contested and the expense as per ADR is Rs 60,000 crores.z Government will have time

for some constructive work because the imposition of the model code of conduct ham-pers governance.z The ruling parties will be able to focus on legislation and devel-opment rather than having to be in campaign mode, forever.z The entire administrative and security machinery will only be busy with elections, once in five years, contrary to the current practice.z Large numbers of teachers are involved in the electoral process adversely affecting the education sector. This will be avoided.

WHY THE OPPOSITIONIn the lighter vein, if elections are held once in five years, the politicians will be unemployed for five years. However, the fol-lowing reasons merit consid-eration:-z Political Consensus: Amend-ments to constitutions is a difficult process by design so that only the utmost necessary amendments are made after due considerations. In today’s coalition times, a political consensus is essential, for the large scale amendments. Rati-fication of the amendments by more than half of the states will also be required. This would also need an agreement to curtail the terms of some state assemblies. It all appears to be a herculean task. However, there is need to rise above the petty politics, keeping the ‘Na-tion First’ ethos in mind.z Amendments to the Constitu-tion: Besides, a large number of amendments to laws, rules,

and regulations would need to be carried out, making the task very arduous, if not impos-sible, To conduct simultane-ous elections in India, many amendments to the constitu-tion of India are to be made.z Legal Scrutiny. All these large scale amendments to the Con-stitution will result in hundreds of cases landing up in courts as these will be considered against the basic constitutional fabric. In all probability, these will be turned down by the Supreme Court because the fundamental structure of the constitution cannot be altered.z Simultaneous elections threaten the federal character of our democracy.z Large national parties would reap the economies of scale and will be, to the disadvantage of regional parties.z In case of hung Lok Sabha, there is no provision for President’s rule like in case

of states. Given the coalition polity of the nation, we may be forced into national elections in quick successions.

ROAD MAP‘One India One Election’ would be a good change if it could be carried out. A focused group of constitutional experts, think tanks, Govt officials, and reps of political parties should be formed to work out appropriate implementation-related de-tails. The implementation could be carried out in three phases as under-z Phase 1- All elections due in a year, to be held together.z Phase 2- General elections are held once in 30 months, once with national elections and once for remaining states somewhere midway.z Phase 3- In the final phase, all elections are synchronized and scheduled to be held together.

CONCLUSIONMeeting of minds is the first step in the realization of the dream of “One Nation, One Election”. Harmonious coordi-nation between Legislature, Executive, and Judiciary will be key to unlock this solution. This brilliant idea appears to be a bit utopian at present. However, those who dare to dream big have the persever-ance to fulfill their dreams and pioneer the change. The well-meaning citizens of this coun-try look up to our dynamic PM, Narendra Modi to be the har-binger of change.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY

THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

A DREAM CALLED ‘ONE NATION, ONE ELECTION’

W

Historically, elections during the first two decades after Independence were held simultaneously, i.e., during 1951-52, 1957, 1962, and 1967. Dissolution of certain assemblies, followed by the dissolution of the Lok Sabha and general elections in 1971, along with indiscriminate use of Article 356 (President’s Rule) disrupted the schedule of simultaneous elections, forever

‘ONE INDIA ONE ELECTION’ WOULD BE A

GOOD CHANGE IF IT COULD BE CARRIED OUT.

A FOCUSED GROUP OF CONSTITUTIONAL

EXPERTS, THINK TANKS, GOVT OFFICIALS, AND

REPS OF POLITICAL PARTIES SHOULD BE

FORMED TO WORK OUT APPROPRIATE

IMPLEMENTATION-RELATED DETAILS

MAJ GEN CP SINGH, RETD

The writer is a scholar soldier accredited with MA, MSc, LLB, MBA, M Phil (Def Mgt) and M Phil (International Strategic Affairs)

appiness, as most of us think, isn’t just pleasure, or synthetic satis-

faction. “Many persons,” as Helen Keller put it, “have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a wor-thy purpose.”

Human happiness can-not exist in a vacuum, or in isolation, because the greatest delight of which each of us is capable, can-not emerge, or exist unless others around us are equal-ly happy to relish their share of happiness. This is

primarily because true happiness, in reality, goes far beyond the realm of a fixed definition. The more one aspires to ‘achieve’ happiness the worse is the resultant effect. True hap-piness simply depends on how one feels about it in real life. It comes from within. It is not dependent on outward circumstances. The best mode to make happiness ‘work’ is to ener-gise our sense of well-be-ing, amplify, and also broaden it, and make it more active and vibrant.

Happiness is a state of mind — or, our attitude to life. It, therefore, differs from person to person. This

could be, for one, nothing more than a life well-spent, a well-maintained home, a sweet-willed husband, or wife, and bright kids. For others, watching a new TV show on the first day of ‘re-lease’ on Netflix is happi-ness — a sense of triumph.

Happiness is doing a good job, executing, accom-plishing and fulfilling, rather than just winning for personal glory. As phi-losopher Arthur Schopen-hauer said, “We need re-sistance to raise us, as it raises the airplane or the

bird; we need obstacles against which to sharpen our strength and stimulate our growth.” Yet, which-ever way you look at it, happiness is a state of be-ing, as the poet Lizette Reese observed in A Little Song of Life: “Glad that I

live am I;/That the sky is blue;/Glad for the country lanes,/And the fall of dew.”

“Happiness,” according to Daniel Goleman, the re-nowned psychologist, “seems to be largely deter-mined by our genes, not by outside reality. However tragic, or comic, life’s up and downs, people appear to return inexorably to whatever happiness level is pre-set in their constitu-tion.” “The idea,” empha-sises Goleman, “is similar to the set-point concept in weight control, a theory that says the brain appears to be ‘wired’ to turn the body’s metabolism up, or down, to maintain a pre-set weight.”

The inference is simple. We have to take the rough with the smooth and the smooth with the rough. We should try to be ourselves, not someone else. This is our only way to happiness.

HAPPINESS IS WALKING ON TWO FEET

H

RAJGOPAL NIDAMBOOR

Wellness physician, independent researcher and author

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VISVA BHARATI STOPPED FROM MAKING WALL ALONG CRUCIAL ROADKolkata: The administra-tion in West Bengal’s Birbhum district on Friday issued an order, asking Visva Bharati authorities to immediately stop the construction of a wall along a road - which con-nects the twin towns of Santiniketan and Sriniket-an. District Magistrate Vi-jay Bharti, who inspected the area on Thursday, said

the wall, if built, could hinder people’s move-ment along the route. Local had long been using the route, and no restric-tion can be imposed all of a sudden, he said, adding that problems need to be solved amicably through discussions. Visva-Bhara-ti authorities, however, refused to comment on the matter.

RASHTRAPATI BHAVAN MUSEUM TO REOPEN FROM JANUARY 5New Delhi: The Rashtrapati Bhavan said that the Rashtrapati Bhavan museum complex, which was closed for public viewing due to Covid-19 since March 13, 2020, will re-open from January 5, 2021. It will be open on all days, except on Mon-day & govt holidays.“As a precautionary measure against the spread of Covid-19 Novel Coronavi-rus, the Rashtrapati Bhavan will remain closed for exploratory tour visits from today March 13, till further notice,” President Ram Nath Kovind’s Twitter account had notified in March last year.

SENSEX AND NIFTY SCALE NEW HIGHS ON NEW YEAR’S DAYMumbai: The BSE Sensex soared to record highs while the NSE Nifty closed above the 14,000-mark for the fi rst time on Friday as markets continued their record run in the new year amid robust buying in IT, auto and FMCG stocks. Extend-ing its record-setting streak for the fi fth day, the 30-share BSE Sensex

rose by 117.65 points or 0.25% to close at a fresh lifetime high of 47,868.98. This is the eighth consecutive day of gains for the barometer & has climbed by around 5% since Dec 22.The broader Nifty closed at an all-time high of 14,018.50, showing gains of 36.75 points or 0.26% over its previous close.

‘NOBODY CAN QUESTION MUMBAI POLICE’S EFFICIENCY’Mumbai: Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray on Friday praised Mumbai Police saying nobody can raise a question mark over their effi ciency, and added that he would never allow anyone to malign their image. He also said that the police force led from the front during the coronvirus pandemic in order to ensure safety of people. Thackeray was speaking during a programme held at Mumbai Police Commissioner’s offi ce here, in which people were returned their stolen belongings, recovered by the police.

NAGAR KIRTAN, TURBAN LANGAR ORGANISED AT SINGHU BORDER

PREZ, RAJNATH EXCHANGE NEW YEAR GREETINGS

New Delhi: Nagar kirtan (religious procession) was organised in the New Year morning on Fri-day at Singhu border where farmers have been protesting against the Centre’s new farm laws for over a month now. Following the nagar kirtan, turban langar has been organised by Khalsa Youth Group. People were actively participat-ing in the turban tying ceremony. A volunteer of Khalsa Youth Group told ANI, “The objective of the ceremony is to make aware the youth about the spirits and principles of Sikhism. It is also a message of brotherhood and solidarity.” Mean-while, next meeting between Union government and farmer leaders is scheduled for January 4.

New Delhi: “Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of De-fence, called on President Kovind & exchanged new year greetings,” President’s Secretariat tweeted. They also held a brief discussion. “Happy New Year to you & your entire family. May the year 2021 bring hap-piness, prosperity and good health in everyone’s lives,” Rajnath wrote.

No question of withdrawing two demands; Farmers continue stir

New Delhi: Thousands of farmers continued their protest against three farm laws on the first day of 2021 outside several border points of Delhi in the biting cold as they remained firm in their demands amid a deadlock with the gov-ernment over two is-sues. Hundreds of po-lice personnel have been deployed at Sing-hu, Ghazipur and Tikri

border points, where the farmers have been camping since Novem-ber 26, even as the mini-mum temperature dipped to 1.1 degrees Celsius.

The Samkyukt Kisan Morcha, is likely to meet during the day to discuss its next course of action. Senior farm-ers’ leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni has said there is, however, no

question of withdraw-ing from the two issues which are a legal guar-antee for MSP & repeal-ing of farm laws.

“The government has addressed our demands to drop penal provi-sions against farmers in an ordinance relat-ing to stubble burning & to put on hold a pro-posed electricity amendment law,” Cha-duni said. —PTI

Farmers listen to a speaker at the Singhu border during their ongoing protest against farm laws, in New Delhi on Friday. —PHOTO BY PTI

Abhi toh Suraj Uga Hai: PM Modi pens ‘motivating’ poem welcoming 2021New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the new year on a poetic note. He wrote a “mes-merising and motivat-ing poem” on this occa-sion that was shared by MyGovIndia’s Twitter handle. The poem is ti-tled “Abhi toh Suraj Uga Hai (The Sun has just Risen)”.

“Let’s start our first day of the new year with a mesmerising and motivating poem ‘Abhi toh Suraj Uga hai’, writ-ten by our beloved PM @narendramodi,” read the caption. Listen to the poem here.

The video shared along with the poem pays tribute to frontline workers including doc-tors, soldiers and po-lice, and also to farm-ers. PM Modi’s poem alludes to the pandemic and people’s hardship amid the crisis.

Didi thanks ‘Maa-Mati-Manush,’ says will work for people

TMC FOUNDATION DAY

Kolkata: Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Ba-nerjee vowed to contin-ue her fight for the peo-ple on the occasion of her party’s 23rd Founda-tion Day on Friday. Ba-nerjee had formed the TMC on January 1, 1998, after breaking away from the Congress.

“As Trinamool turns 23 today, I look back at the journey we began on January 1st, 1998. Our years have been of immense struggle, but throughout this time, we have continued to achieve our objective of being committed to the cause of only the peo-ple.” Banerjee tweeted.

“On TMC Foundation Day, I extend my sincere gratitude to our Maa-Mati-Manush and all our workers who con-

tinue to fight with us in making Bengal better and stronger each day,” the TMC chief posted. “The Trinamool family will carry on with this resolve for times to come!” she added.

The TMC had issued instructions to its work-ers to conduct pro-grammes across the state to mark the occa-sion. Senior party lead-ers hoisted the party flag at its state headquarters and hailed workers for their tireless efforts in serving people. The par-ty seeks to retain power in the face of a dual challenge by the alli-ance finalised last week between Congress & Left parties for the up-coming assembly elec-tion in Bengal. Assem-bly elections are slated to be held in April-May this year. —PTI

Mehbooba writes to L-G on Srinagar encounterSrinagar: Former Chief Minister Me-hbooba Mufti on Friday demanded that Lt Gov-ernor Manoj Sinha or-der an “impartial inves-tigation” into the kill-ing of three persons in what security forces said was an encounter at Lawapora on Srina-gar’s outskirts.

The Peoples Demo-cratic Party President also demanded his in-tervention to ensure that the bodies of the deceased were handed over to their families for burial.”I am sure

you are aware of the un-fortunate incident at Parimpora on Decem-ber 30. Three boys, the youngest one all of 17 years, were killed in

what the families have alleged to be a staged gunfight. This incident has come close on the heels of an inquiry that held an Army Captain

guilty of a fake encoun-ter at Amshipora in Shopian,” her letter reads. “I urge you to in-tervene and ensure that these families get a chance to perform their last rites as per their wishes. Questions are looming over this en-counter as well and there are conflicting versions and reports from the police and the Army. Justice can be served only if it’s swift. Therefore, I request you to initiate an impartial probe into the matter immediately.”—ANI

Pakistan a graveyard for non-Muslims: VHP

‘Pak spies trying to gather info from jawans’

New Delhi: Reacting to the attack on a temple in Pakistan, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s (VHP) international joint general secretary, Surendra Jain said that Pakistan has be-come a grave-yard for non-Muslims.

The VHP leader said, “ P a k i s t a n has become a graveyard for non-Muslims since its inception. The murder of Hindus, forced con-version of Hindus, rape of non-muslims has be-come a routine affair in Pakistan.”

Jain slammed Paki-

stan for “destroying Hindu temples in Terri village in Khyber Pakh-tunkhwa’s (KP) Karak district on Wednesday after over 30 people, mostly members of a

radical Islamist par-ty, were arrested.”

“Had there been any change they could have stopped the ral-

ly which led to the destruction of the

temple. It was openly declared that the tem-ple would not be al-lowed to remain. If the rally had been stopped the temple would not have been demolished,” he said. —ANI

New Delhi: Pakistani spies are trying to call In-dian jawans to gather sen-sitive information, intel-ligence agencies have warned.According official, intel-ligence input says that Pakistan officers may randomly call control rooms, offices to gather information by introduc-ing them as senior offic-ers of the same force. In-telligence officials claimed that this is the new modus operandi that has been adopted to gath-

er sensitive information like movement of troops, VVIPs & information of vital installations. Based on this, an alert has been issued to all offices of se-curity forces so that no one gets trapped by Paki-stan Intelligence officers. Input also says that Paki-stan Intelligence officers are also sending friend requests on social media websites to contact force personnel, also collecting information from these sites, under concealed identity. —ANI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

NARENDRA MODI @NARENDRAMODIWishing you a happy 2021!, May this year

bring good health, joy and prosperity. May the spirit

of hope and wellness prevail.” Meanwhile, Vice President Naidu tweeted,

“I convey my warm greetings and best wishes

to all our citizens as we step into the New Year

2021.

PRAYING AMID SNOW...

A view of Matho Monastery in the back group of Snow covered mountain, in Leh on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI

INDIALUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021


Oxford vaccine...While granting emer-gency use approval for the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine, the panel im-posed certain regula-tory provisions, includ-ing that the shot is indi-cated for active immu-nisation in individuals of 18 years or more to prevent the disease and that it should be admin-istered intramuscular-ly in two doses at an interval of 4 to 6 weeks.

4 more...and five by the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

All 29 patients have

been kept in isolation at designated health facili-ties.

The new strain, said to be more contagious than the other strains of the coronavirus, has so far been detected in Denmark, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzer-land, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.

GST collections...In line with the recent trend of recovery in the GST revenues, the reve-nues for December 2020 was 12 per cent higher than the GST revenues

in the same month last year. During the month, revenues from import of goods was 27 per cent higher and the revenues from domestic transac-tion (including import of services) were 8 per cent higher that the rev-enues from these sourc-es during the same month last year.

Modi lays...The programme seeks to build over 1,000 hous-es each in six cities in 12 months.

“These six projects will show a new direc-tion to the housing con-struction in the coun-

try,” he said.

Govt to...The move comes as a New Year gift for ap-proximately 6.50 lakh workers employed in commercial establish-ments and 20,500 facto-ries and workshops in Uttar Pradesh.

And what better way to start the scheme than on January 24 which also happens to be UP’s foundation day.

The labour welfare board would start the process and invite appli-cations from labourers enrolled with the board, to avail the benefit un-

der Swami Vivekanan-da Etihasik Paryatan Yatra Yojana.

Everyone’s dream...Development Board. The Chief Minister said that so far the dream of ‘Apna Ghar’ of 17 lakh 58 thousand families has been realised in the state, out of which about 10.58 lakh houses are under construction, while the rest have been completed. This se-quence will continue. In days to come, he added.

UP gets first prize in PM Awaas Yojana

On the occasion of the foundation stone

program of the Light House Project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the PM Awas Yojana (Urban) Award 2019. Uttar Pradesh was awarded first prize for the best implementation of the scheme. Not only this, the Mirzapur munici-pality of Uttar Pradesh was also awarded the best municipality in the country.

New technology-based houses will be built in six states

Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi on Friday laid the foundation stone for light house

projects under the Glob-al Housing Technology Challenge-India (GHTC-India) in six states of the country. Uttar Pradesh has been select-ed as a model at the na-tional level for LHP. Un-der this, the Light House Project (LHP) is to be constructed in Awadh Bihar scheme of capital Lucknow. The ‘Stay in Place Form Work’ tech-nique has been used in the construction of these buildings. These buildings will be more durable, environment-friendly and disaster-resistant. Under the plan, buildings are pro-

posed to be constructed for about 1040 people in UP. The carpet area of each residence will be 34.5 square meters and will cost the member of EWS just Rs 4.76 lakh. This project will be completed within a year.

Apart from Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), LHP is being constructed in In-dore (Madhya Pradesh), Rajkot (Gujarat), Chen-nai (Tamil Nadu), Ranchi (Jharkhand) and Agartala (Tripura). It covers about 1,000 houses with associated infrastructure facilities at each location.

FROM PG 1

SHARMA TAKES OVER THE CHARGE Suneet Sharma has taken over the charge of the CEO and Chairman, Railway Board on Friday.

IPS OFFICERS RE-SHUFFLED IN BIHAR Senior IPS offi cers have been given new as-signment in Bihar. Accordingly, Suresh Prasad Choudhary has been appointed as IG, Purniya, while Manu Maharaj was made DIG, Chhapra and Ranjeet Mishra is DIG, Personnel. Similarly, Sanjay Bharti is made SP, Shivhar; Lipi Singh is SP, Saharsa; Dayashankar is SP, Purniya; Santosh Kumar is SP, Chhapra; Kartikeya Sharma is SP, Shekhpura; Sushant Kumar Saroj is SP, Bhagal-pur; Anand Kumar is SP, Gopalganj; Rajesh Kumar is SP, Kaimur; Ajit Kumar is SP, Gaya; Ashish Bharti is SP, Rohtas; Hariprasad S is SP, Nalanda; Dhurat Siyali is SP, Nawada; Natasha Gudiya is SSP, Bhagalpur and Shafi -ul-Haq was posted as DIG, Munger.

MANOJ KUMAR TAKES OVER AS CMD, WCL Manoj Kumar, Director Technical, WCL, has taken over the charge as new Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Western Coalfi elds Limited (WCL).

MATADEEN SHARMA IS MEMBER, RAJASTHAN CIVIL SERVICE APPELLATE TRIBUNAL Matadeen Sharma, retired IAS offi cer, has been appointed as Member of Rajasthan Civil Service Appellate Tribunal for a period of one year.

11 OFFICERS OF AGMUT CADRE PROMOTED AS DIGP As many as 11 offi cers of 2007 batch of AGMUT Cadre have been promoted to the DIGP Grade. The four offi cers presently posted in the cadre who have been promoted are: Romil Baaniya, Ms Geeta Rani Verma, Deepak Purohit and Kime Aya. Besides, seven offi cers presently posted on Central Deputation who have been promoted are: Vijay Kumar, Ms Meghna Yadav, Surender Kumar, Seju P Kuruvilla, Ms Nupur Prasad, Ms Aslam Khan and Dr Mahesh Chand Bhardwaj.

IAS OFFICER MASOOD AKHTAR SUCCUMBS TO COVID-19 IN MPMasood Akhtar presently Secretary Home has succumbed to Covid-19 in Madhya Pradesh. He is an IAS offi cer.

RAJENDRA GARAWAD APPOINTED DIGF, NTCA Rajendra G Garawad has been appointed as DIG (Forest), National Tiger Conservation Author-ity (NTCA), Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, New Delhi, on deputation under the Central Staffi ng Scheme of the MoEF&CC for a period up to April 21, 2022. He is a 2001 batch IFS offi cer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

BISWAJIT BASU JOINS AS DIRECTOR (P), NHPC Biswajit Basu has taken over the charge as Direc-tor (Projects), NHPC Limited.

TENURE OF MS AISHVARYA SINGH AS DEPUTY SECRETARY, PMO EXTENDEDThe tenure of Ms Aishvarya Singh as Deputy Secretary, Prime Minister’s Offi ce (PMO) has been extended for a period of one year beyond Febru-ary 5, 2021. She is a 2008 batch IAS offi cer of Sikkim cadre.

POST OF VIRENDRA MITTAL UPGRADED TO DIRECTOR LEVEL The post of Virendra Mittal as Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Food Processing Indus-tries has been upgraded to Director level. He is a 2007 batch IAS offi cer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

POWERGallery

By arrangement with: http://whispersinthecorridors.com

Govt allows import/export of COVID vaccine without any value limitationNew Delhi: The gov-ernment has allowed import and export of COVID-19 vaccines without any value lim-itation, in order to en-sure speedy clearance and distribution.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has amended the regula-tions to facilitate the import/export of COV-ID-19 vaccines through courier, at locations where the Express Car-go Clearance System (ECCS) is operational.

“Imports of and ex-ports of vaccines in relation to COVID-19 has been allowed with-out any value limita-tion,” said the amend-ed Courier Imports and Exports (Electron-ic Declaration and Pro-cessing) Amendment

Regulations, 2020.The CBIC said that

COVID-19 has posed unprecedented chal-lenges to Customs and other administrations the world over and ef-

ficient clearance and distribution of vac-cines would be a criti-cal requirement in the collective fight against the pandemic.

The regulation fur-

ther states that since the vaccines will be imported in durable containers equipped with the requisite tem-perature monitoring and tracking devices,

the export of the dura-ble container includ-ing accessories there-of, imported in rela-tion to COVID-19 vac-cines has also been permitted. —PTI

India, Pak swap list of prisoners as part of Bilateral AgreementIslamabad: Pakistan on Friday handed over a list of 319 Indian pris-oners including 49 civil and 270 fishermen lodged in the country’s jails to the High Com-mission of India as part of a bilateral agree-ment. The Foreign Of-fice (FO) said that the step is in consistent with the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement between the two countries signed on May 21, 2008.

“The Government of Pakistan, today, shared with the Indian High Commission in Islama-bad a list of 319 Indian prisoners in Pakistan,

including 49 civilians and 270 fishermen pris-oners,” it said.

Reciprocally, the In-dian government also simultaneously shared the list of 340 Pakistani prisoners in India, in-cluding 263 civilians and 77 fishermen with

the High Commission for Pakistan in New Delhi, the FO said.

The 2 countries un-der the agreement are required to exchange lists of prisoners in each other’s custody twice a year, on 1st Jan-uary and 1st July. —PTI

Exchange list of Nuclear InstallationsIndia and Pakistan on Friday exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a bilateral arrange-ment that prohibits the 2 countries from attacking each other’s atomic facilities. The 2 countries swap the list & facilities cov-ered under the Agree-ment on the Prohibi-tion of Attack against Nuclear Installations & Facilities between India and Pakistan, the MEA said.

SAFETY MEASURES

Head of Rs. 2.5 cr Delhi Cryptocurrency racket arrestedNew Delhi: A 60-year-old person has been ar-rested for allegedly heading a racket that had swindled at least � 2.5 crores from some 45 people under the garb of being a cryptocur-rency promoter.

The accused Umesh Verma was arrested from Indira Gandhi In-ternational Airport by Economic Offences Wing of Delhi Police on arrival from Dubai, af-ter he failed to give jus-tification about the c r y p t o c u r r e n c y launched by him. “Com-plainants alleged that the accused Umesh Ver-ma, along with his son Bharat Verma and oth-ers had induced them to invest in the scheme of cryptocurrency being operated by them under the name and style of ‘’Pluto Exchange’’. —ANI

Cong to decide on AICC session to elect party chiefNew Delhi: The Con-gress will soon decide on the dates to convene an AICC session to elect a new party President for the remaining term, party sources said.

Senior Con-gress leaders are likely to meet next week to dis-cuss issues related to the All India Con-gress Committee session. The Congress President’s post is lying vacant since July 2019 after Rahul Gandhi for-mally resigned from the post, owning moral re-sponsibility for the par-ty’s drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections.

Sonia Gandhi is act-ing as the interim party chief since August 2019 after the Congress Working Committee de-cided to appoint her to the top post till a new

incumbent took over. But since

then, the Con-gress has been unable to find a can-

didate for the post.

In between, rebel-lion in the Congress reared its head as 23 leaders wrote to her in August 2019 to demand sweeping reforms in the party, including or-ganisational elections from the grass-roots to the CWC levels.

After predator drone lease, Govt approves proposal to buy 10 shipborne dronesNew Delhi: After leas-ing two predator drones from the US, the Indian Navy is now going to ur-gently acquire 10 ship-borne drones for en-hancing its surveil-lance capabilities in the Indian Ocean Region, for which it has re-ceived the government approval recently.

“A proposal moved in fast track mode by the Indian Navy before the Defence Ministry, un-der which it will buy 10 Naval Shipborne Un-

manned Aerial Systems for around � 1,300 crores has been cleared by the government,” sources said. The Navy will ac-quire these drones

through an open bid un-der the Buy Global cat-egory and then soon deploy them on its large size warships for sur-veillance and recon-

naissance activities. The drones would be deployed on big size warships of the force and would help them in the detection of activi-ties of the Chinese as well as other adversar-ies in and around Indi-an territorial waters, they said.

The Navy is also get-ting its existing drones upgraded as part of an upgrade programme, which was recently tak-en up for discussion in the Defence Ministry.

Nitish’s writ no longer runs in Bihar: Rabri Devi Patna: Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi on Friday claimed that Nitish Kumar’’s writ no longer ran in the government he was heading, and it was the BJP, his numerically stronger ally, which was calling the shots.

The RJD national vice president, who pre-ceded Kumar in power, was replying to queries from journalists about the recent bureaucratic reshuffle in which some officers believed to be close to the chief minis-

ter have been divested of the plum posts they had been holding for long.

The BJP returned with a tally of 74 in the 243-strong assembly while the JD(U) could manage only 43. —PTI

Rabri Devi

NEWSLUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021

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First India Bureau

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh has been de-clared the best-per-forming state in India under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban.

The Government of India has awarded Mir-zapur Nagar Palika Parishad Uttar Pradesh the first place in the municipal body falling in the munici-pal category of the country.

In the Nagar Pan-chayat category, Mali-habad Nagar Panchay-at Uttar Pradesh got the first place while Hariharpur Nagar Panchayat Uttar Pradesh secured the third position.

Under this scheme, the Government of In-dia has decided to award 3 beneficiaries for excellent complete housing.

These three awards have been awarded to Chandravati of Luc-know, Sushil from Azamgarh and Rajen-dra of Hapur.

These awards will be given to the Urban De-velopment Agency Ut-tar Pradesh.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban Af-

fairs Ministry of India has decided to award the state of Uttar Pradesh first place in the category of best-performing state un-der the Pradhan Man-tri Awas Yojana Urban Award 2019.

Chandravati’s house in Lucknow

Chandravati Praja-pati, who lives in Da-wood Nagar of Faizul-laganj, was awarded on Friday. Durga Shankar Mishra, Secretary, Min-istry of Housing and Urban, awarded her through video confer-encing on building the best accommodation.

District Collector Abhishek Prakash hon-oured Chandravati.

Fourth class worker Ramu Prajapati at KGMU bought 1,000 sq ft land in Dawood Na-gar (plot number 2108/60/2) of Faizulla-ganj ward II in the name of wife Chandra-vati.

There was no money to build a house. An ac-quaintance suggested building a house under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

Ramu applied in the name of his wife. It was inspected nearly

27 times before the amount was sanc-tioned.

After approval, Rs 2.5 lakh were granted to them in three in-stallments.

Moreover, Alla-habad Bank also gave Chandravati a loan to build the house.

In about Rs 10 lakh, a beautiful house was prepared by their cou-ple’s thinking and the experience of the ma-son.

The beauty of the house is a point of dis-cussion in the whole region.

The couple of HapurHailing from Adarsh

Nagar in Hapur, the couple has been ranked first in the state and third in the country.

In the program, Ra-jendra Kumar and his wife Manju were called to the NIC in Collector-ate for the honour.

Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi acknowl-edged the work of the couple with a virtual shield and certificate. He also wished the couple a happy new year. The couple thanked the Prime Minister and were overjoyed by PM’s ad-dressing.

First India Bureau

Agra: A constable was arrested during the early morning for issuing threats to SO and 5 other policemen. The arrested constable was earlier suspended and dis-missed. Even at the time of arrest, he was live on Facebook, standing un-der the Badevan over a bridge near the Katra-Larvan police outpost. During the Facebook live session, he was speaking against SP. The accused is also known to harass his friends and family members regu-larly. He was arrested by Kotwal Rampal Yadav while he was trying to strike a conversation with a constable posted at an outpost.

The Ex-constable was suspended in the first week of December ow-ing to taking videos and uploading them to You-tube without his superi-ors’ permission which is punishable under the Police Act additionally he was also known to be undisciplined.

Even after getting Sus-pended, he went live on Facebook and issued threats against senior police officials. He was eventually dismissed by the SP on December 11.

Akhilesh: Next assembly polls last opportunity to defeat BJP in stateFirst India Bureau

Lucknow: The 2022 as-sembly election is the last opportunity to de-feat the BJP, said Sama-jwadi Party chief Akh-ilesh Yadav on Friday.

He told the workers that the farmers, poor and young people are all mobilizing against the BJP and their support lies with Samajwadi Party.

He accused the BJP of preaching lies and spreading hatred among people. He ad-vised the party workers to educate the public

about the truth and the achievements of the Sa-majwadi Party.

He was of the view that the farmers cannot be let at the mercy of the market.

He said the BJP gov-ernment is with the cor-

porate and has created the Anti-farming laws for their benefits only.

Akhilesh was ad-dressing the group of leaders and workers who had come to the party headquarters to greet him on the occa-

sion of New Year’s Eve on Friday. Former De-fense Minister Mulay-am Singh Yadav was also present and asked everyone to unite to form SP government by securing majority in the upcoming Assem-bly elections.

Pandit Hariprasad Mishra of the Interna-tional Center for Astrol-ogy and Architectural Research, Rajpurohit too blessed Akhilesh.

There was an atmos-phere of joy at the SP headquarters on Friday with some singing pa-triotic songs.

UP excels with inspiring ground stories in Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban

Constable arrested for threatening SO, 5 others

WISHING NEW YEAR!

ACS to Governor Mahesh Kumar Gupta greeting UP Governor Anandiben Patel on New Year at Raj Bhawan on Friday morning.

BABU LAND UP IN HOSPITAL AFTER MEET WITH MLA

S ecretary-level IAS officer hospitalised

after backlash from an MLA at a meeting of the Estimates Committee of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. As per report, in a meeting conducted by the Estimates Committee 3-4 days ago the IAS officer of Secretary-level posted in the water department was assaulted in front of his juniors as well as his seniors. The MLA who

was livid at the officer used derogatory remarks and was so aggressive that it was difficult to contain him, disqualified the officer and reportedly told him that he cannot continue to hold the post he was currently holding. The injured officer was immediately taken to the hospital where he is currently being treated for serious injuries. The incident has become the butt of jokes among the officer circles that the officer in question will get leave without having to demand for it. —AHTESHAM SIDDIQUI

NO TAKERS FOR THIS ‘NETA’ IN THE BJP WHO IS ‘READY-TO-DEFEND’ GOVT

A former student leader and a one-

time close associate of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who calls himself “a sympathiser and well-wisher of

the ruling regime”, has been sending out mails to mediapersons, requesting to be invited for his views during political discussions. The former student leader belongs to Lucknow University and claims to be “good in public speaking”. He says that he “deeply” believes in the philosophy

and policies of the Yogi Adityanath Government and considers “Maharaj” (nickname for the UP CM) to be his political guru. The young man is determined to defend the BJP on any platform. The problem, however, is that only a few leaders in the BJP are allowed to interact with the media or on

social media platforms. When asked about this zealous young man, a senior BJP MLA remarked, “I wonder how well he knows the party and its culture if he is not aware of the fact that only those authorised are allowed to represent the BJP in the media.” Another MLA, meanwhile, saw the proverbial

silver lining and said, “Nevertheless, it is good to know that even in these troubled times,

there are people who ‘believe’ in the party and are ready to help. —M TARIQ KHAN

First India Bureau

Lucknow: The crime rates have dropped by 37% in robbery, 19% reduction in rapes, these stats were shared by ADG Prashant Ku-mar as he highlighted the achievements of the Police department and also outlining the target set for the year 2021.

He even stated that the recent Coronavi-

rus had been hard on Police department as close to 12,000 have come down to the in-fection and 37 have succumbed to the deadly virus.

The ADG further stated on board stating the year 2020 saw 20% less dacoity,15% reduc-tion in ransom-kidnap-ping and also 19% re-duction in heinous cases such as rapes.

He also highlighted

that no communal or ethnic incidents were averted and all reli-gious programs were successfully conducted

by following the COV-ID-19 protocols.

The ADG added that with the support of STF in 15 criminals

were killed in encoun-ters and 74 were ar-rested. 1772 gangs were identified and move-able and im-moveable

properties worth Rs 686 Cr were confiscat-ed under the Gangster Act.

At the same time 199 criminals were charged with National Security Act.

ADG Prashant Ku-mar further added that this year the focus will be on Women safety. With the launch of Mission Shakti by the UP police, he said that within a period of 21/2 months time prompt action will be taken based on any com-plaint.

He said that in 1535 police station were woman help desk were setup and under the Safe City project in the capital Lucknow, 100 pink booths were setup

all-around the city and 100 2-wheeler pink po-lice patrol vehicle as well as 10 4-wheeler ve-hicles have been as-signed.

ADG Prashant Ku-mar said that to strengthen the police force in the coming year, 5200, 823 posts of constables and sub-in-spector counterparts will be filled.

In order to boost the morale of the police-men, 92 inspectors will be promoted to deputy SP, 18 PPS officers to IPS posts, along with promoting 32861 differ-ent non-gazetted posts.

In addition, 3026 po-licemen and officers will also be honored with various posts.

He stated the police department in 2021 will take stern actions against crimes against woman and children as well as against organ-ized crimes and crimi-nals.

Once Covid-19 vac-cine is approved, stor-age, transportation and distribution will be a challenge.

Keeping in mind the upcoming assembly election in 2022, the aim is to have better police behavior and preparedness for the elections.

He concluded by say-ing that in 2021, Uttar Pradesh Police will serve the people of the state with youthful vigor and youthful thinking.

CRIME RATES HAVE DROPPED IN UP IN 2020 AMIDST CORONA, SAYS ADG PRASHANT KUMARAs per the ADG, the year 2020 saw 20% less dacoity,15% reduction in ransom-kidnapping and also 19% reduction in heinous cases such as rapes

ADG Prashant Kumar

Akhilesh Yadav

A day to think and strengthen the resolutions which will make us better

humans and Earth a better place.—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India

LUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia082NDFRONT

Ahtesham Siddiqui

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh government on Friday promoted IAS officers of 2005-batch to the rank of secretary. Now the Jhansi and Meerut di-vision may get new commissioners soon.

The existing commissioners, were last week promoted to the rank of principal

secretary.The 2005-batch has

total 16 officers but the government has promoted 11. Of the 16 officers, two Na-gendra Prasad Singh and Santosh Rai have retired this year.

The promotion of IAS officer Digvijay Singh has been put on hold due to ongoing in-quiry against him.

Gurala Srinivasulu

being from Andhra Pradesh and on loan to Uttar Pradesh hasn’t been promoted.

Another officer Dr Lokesh M has been on deputation in his home state Karnataka. His

order has separately been issued.

The officers promot-ed as secretaries are

Surendra Singh who is special secretary to the chief minister, vice chairperson Ghaziabad Development Authori-ty Kanchan Varma, di-rector of industries Govind Raju, special secretary PWD Jiten-dra Bahadur Singh, di-rector silk develop-ment Narendra Singh Patel, vice chairman Kanpur development authority Rakesh Sin-gh, DM Jaunpur Dinesh Singh, additional divi-sional commissioner Aligarh Shamim Ah-

mad Khan, director citizen registration Narendra Shankar Pandey, DM Ghaziabad Ajay Shankar Pandey, special secretary, elec-tion Yogeshwar Ram Mishra.

Some of these offic-ers could be sent as commissioners in divi-sions in the transfers of IAS officers expect-ed during the month. The appointment de-partment also released their promotion letters including them in the super time pay scale.

11 IAS officers of 2005-batch promoted to secretary rank TRANSFER SPREE

Yogeshwar Ram Mishra Spl Secretary Election deptt. & ACEO UP

Shamim Ahmad Khan Addl Div Commissioners Aligarh

Jhansi and Meerut division may get new commissioners soon

Jitendra Bahadur Singh Spl.Secretary to PWD

Surender Singh Spl Secretary to Chief Minister

COVID-19 UPDATE

UTTAR PRADESH8,352

DEATHS5,84,966

CONFIRMED CASES

GUJARAT 4,309 DEATHS 2,45,772 CASES

DELHI 10,557 DEATHS 6,25,954 CASES

WORLD18,28,936

DEATHS8,39,84,091

CONFIRMED CASES

INDIA1,02,98,069

CONFIRMED CASES1,49,179

DEATHS

MAHARASHTRA49,580 DEATHS 19,35,636 CASES

RAJASTHAN2,700 DEATHS 3,08,852 CASES

KARNATAKA12,096 DEATHS 9,20,373 CASES

First India Bureau

Lucknow: In order to test preparedness for Covid-19 vaccination, the Uttar Pradesh gov-ernment would con-duct a dry run of vac-cination at six places in the state capital on Saturday.

Additional Chief Sec-retary, Health, Amit Mo-han Prasad said the dry run would be carried out at Sahara Hospital, RML Hospital, King George Medical University, San-jay Gandhi Post Gradu-ate Institute (SGPGI) and two other places.

The government is making all preparations for administering vac-cines, he added. Union health ministry has cho-sen Lucknow for this dry run. Similar exer-cise has so far been done in four other states such

as Punjab, Assam, Guja-rat and Andhra Pradesh. Each vaccination centre would have three rooms.

The first would be waiting room where people would wait for their turn, vaccine would be given in the second room and the people would be held

back for 30 minutes for observation in the third room, he said.

The active cases in the state stood at 13,831 with 5,924 people recu-perating at home and 1,291 in private hospi-tals, Prasad said.The number of those cured has gone up to

5,64,541 with the recov-ery rate cocking 96.21 per cent now in the state, he added.

Over 1.44 lakh people were tested for infection on Thursday, taking the number of total tests in the state so far to over 2.40 crore. The state health service person-

nel has begun testing all people coming from the UK after December 9, said Prasad, adding that there is no need to panic.

He also appealed to the people not to pay heed to various ru-mours related to Covid or registration for vac-cination against it.

ADG,law and order, Prashant Kumar in-formed that 52, 823 posi-tions of constables and sub inspectors would be filled this year.

Explaining the tar-get for 2021 for UP po-lice he listed women and child security, tough action against mafia and organised crime, regular moni-toring on criminals, transportation, storage and distribution of Covid-19 vaccines while maintaining communal harmony.

A mock drill of Covid-19 vaccination being carried out in Lucknow.

Jab of life: UP to have Covid vax dry run at 6 places todaySahara Hospital, RML Hospital, KGMU and SGPGI among those where it will be held

First India Bureau

Lucknow: Shivpal Ya-dav, the younger brother of Mulayam Singh Ya-dav who had warmed up to the BJP after his oust-er from the Samajwadi Party, has said many “secular parties” have resolved this New Year to forge an alliance to defeat the BJP in the UP elections in 2022.

Shivpal, the president of the Pragatisheel Sa-majwadi Party (Lohia) said, “The secular par-ties, which believe in the same ideology of social harmony, have already started coming together. The talk and the process is on to build a big alli-ance so that the BJP can be thrown out of power in 2022 elections.”

Asaduddin Owaisi, chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Mus-limeen (AIMIM), had met Shivpal and Om Prakash Rajbhar, the chief of the Suheldeo Bharatiya Samaj Party,

in Lucknow recently.Later, Rajbhar, whose

SBSP was a part of the Yogi Adityanath govern-ment till May 2019, had also met Shivpal and said: “The idea is to bring on one platform the smaller parties.”

The SBSP has four MLAs in UP and Shivpal is the only MLA from his party. Owaisi’s party has yet to win a seat in the state.

Mohammed Ayub, president of the Peace Party, has also expressed his wish to be a part of the proposed alliance.

Shivpal said he was

not averse to bringing outfits like the Sama-jwadi Party onto the proposed platform but added that all the small-er parties would remain independent entities.“Some bigger non-BJP parties including the SP want smaller parties to merge with them. The idea floated by some SP leaders of the Pragat-isheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia)’s merger with their party is impracti-cal. I have formed my party to sustain it and will continue to main-tain its independent identity,” Shivpal said.

Shivpal Yadav and Om Prakash Rajbhar

Shivpal hopeful of secular alliance in ‘22 to beat BJP

Ahtesham Siddiqui

LUCKNOW: The state government approved promotions to seven officers of the Indian Police Service (IPS) on Friday. Home de-partment said that the names of the sev-en officers of IG rank to be promoted to ad-ditional director gen-eral was approved by the departmental pro-motion committee of

the ministry of home affairs on December 23.

Those promoted in-clude A Satish Ganesh, IG Agra range, to the post of additional direc-tor general of police, Navneit Sekera IG PHQ, Vijay Prakash IG fire department, Jyoti Narayan, IG law and or-der, and three others. All officers are of 1996 batch.

The state government

had on Thursday also promoted 23 IPS officers on the posts of inspector general, deputy inspec-tor general and superin-tendents of police.

The list included six deputy inspector gener-als (DIGs) being promot-ed to the post of inspec-tor general (IG), eight senior superintendents of police to the post of DIG, and nine other sen-ior superintendents to selection grade.

Seven 1996-batch IPS officers promoted to ADG post in state

BLESSED BEGINNING

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav seeking blessings from his father Mulayam Singh Yadav on New Year on Friday.

A Satish Ganesh, IG Agra range Jyoti Narayan, IG law and order Vijay Prakash IG fire dept

First India Bureau

Varanasi: The design of the foundation of Sri Ram temple will be ready by Makar Sankranti and the construction of the temple will begin by the end of January.

Champat Rai, general secretary of Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, said that it will be completed within the next three years. Technical experts from all over the coun-try are working with dedication to prepare the foundation design of the temple.

In a press conference on Friday at the office of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) Champat Rai said that strong founda-tion of Ram temple will be laid before Makar Sankranti.

The Ram temple will now be 360 feet long and 235 feet wide, while the height of the summit will be 160 feet.

A total of 4 lakh stones will be used in the construction of a three-storey temple to be built in Ayodhya.

Rai said that workers will go to 50 lakh fami-lies of 16000 villages un-der Kashi province and a team of three workers will be formed for this campaign.

Ram Temple blueprint to be ready by Sankranti

Champat Rai

First India Bureau

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh government on Friday transferred 21695 government teachers.

The UP Basic Shiksha Parishad released the list of the teachers. The national informatics centre (NIC) uploaded the list on website late on Thursday night.

However, the requests were not entertained for places of choice where the number of teachers was already enough or the number of applicants was on the higher side.

The government had given the consent on the Parishad’s proposal to transfer 54120 teachers to fill 43916 vacancies. The process of inter dis-trict transfer began in December 2019. Some 1.04 lakh teachers had registered and 70,738 of them formally applied.However, following the orders of the court the Parishad had sought ap-plications from women teachers who wanted fresh positing in view of their marriages. It brought in 3000 more applications for the transfers.

As per the rules 15 per cent teachers of the to-tal sanctioned strength would be transferred in a district. Districts like Siddharth Nagar, Shravasti, Bahraich, Sonbhadra, Chandauli, Fatehpur, Chitrakoot were exempted from the rule.

21695 govt teachers transferred on New Year

LUCKNOW, SATURDAYJANUARY 2, 2021

www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia 09

The winners of Miss Ocean World 2020 were announced virtually on Friday, where Aranzaku Dimter Monasterio was declared as the

winner, Giuliana Obando Rabanal, Anindita Chandra, Laura Louise Hudson and Tatiana Garcia Martinez were declared as the first,

second, third and fourth runner-ups respectively!

NEHAL [email protected]

he results of the month-long beauty pageant, Miss Ocean World 2020 were de-clared on Friday virtu-ally. Aranzaku Dimter Monasterio from Chile

was declared as the winner, Gi-uliana Obando Rabanal from Peru, Anindita Chandra from India, Lau-

ra Louise Hudson from the United Kingdom and Tatiana Garcia Martinez from Spain

were declared as the first, second, third and fourth

runner-ups respectively.The organizer of the event

was Yogesh Mishra, while the jury panel to declare the fi-nalists were Pietro Nocita, Franchisco Bon, Alessio Boschi, Samir Kasliwal, Simran Sharma, Giulia Ros-itani, Marcela Acuna, Nare-

shant Sharma, Prince Kaus-tubh Sahi.

There were participants from more than 20 countries, who competed hard to bag the title of Miss Ocean World 2020.

Yogesh Mishra stated, “This year, the theme of the pageant was ‘Clean Ocean’. Since there are hardly any activities dedicated to the oceans in the pageants, a great buzz was created

across the globe once the people found out about

the theme.”

T

CHILE CROWNED ASWINNER

10ETC

LUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia

FACE

OF TH

E DAY

RITIKA LALWANI, Model

LEO JULY 24 - AUGUST 23

Financial front appears to be stable as money arrives from the most unexpected source. Neglect on the

health front can be costly, so give priority to it. A chance to show off your skills is likely to establish you firmly at work. You can find spouse or a family member quiet.

LIBRA SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22

You will manage to convince someone to take on your workload on the professional front. You

may need to increase your earning to repay a loan without default. You may not see eye-to-eye with a family member. Those undertaking a long journey need to be prepared.

ARIESMAR 21 - APR 20

Those freelancing are likely to earn well today. Shift workers will find the timings to their liking.

Excitement on the domestic front prevails as a family member returns home after a long period. Those travelling should not throw caution to the winds.

SAGITTARIUS NOV 23 - DEC 22

Some of you will be able to save enough to buy what you had always wanted. Effort put into a job is likely

to get recognised and earn you praise. Peace prevails on the domestic front and will help you relax and enjoy the day. A tiring business meeting is foreseen for some.

GEMINI MAY 21 - JUNE 21

Money is not a problem and you will be able to buy all the comforts you need. Some of you may decide to

join a health club or fitness regimen. Opinion of others will matter in a workplace situation, so don’t seal yourself off. Family may not initially support your ideas.

AQUARIUS JAN 21 - FEB 19

A decision on the professional front may prove favourable to you. A relaxing environment on the home

front is indicated and will help you unwind. Don’t go overboard financially as stars don’t look favourable. Getting aware of the importance of shaking a leg may prompt you to join a gym.

TAURUSAPR 21 - MAY 20

Chances look bright for those seeking a raise or increment. Health remains satisfactory through your

own efforts. A complicated case can come your way at work. Home front will remain peaceful. A change of scene will be most rejuvenating and refreshing.

CAPRICORNDEC 23 - JAN 20

Good profits are foreseen for middlemen and retailers. You may have to be at your professional

best to make a career move. Arrival of guests at home will make the day most fulfilling. You will need to remain extra careful on the road, especially if behind the wheel.

VIRGO AUG 24 - SEP 23

Health remains satisfactory with own efforts. Repayment of a loan should become your top

priority now. Your professional side does not look too bright today. Tranquillity on the home front will bestow a relaxed atmosphere. An outing with the family is on cards.

CANCER JUNE 22 - JULY 23

Someone known is likely to give you correct guidance in a financial matter. Professional matters will

be dealt in an efficient manner. Give time for a workout routine to produce positive results. Keep your options open on the travel front. Deal in property only with dealers.

PISCES FEB20 - MARCH 20

This is not the best time to spend money on something expensive. Those undergoing

treatment are likely to find steady improvement. Gains are indicated for those playing the stocks. A youngster can throw a tantrum, but you will be able to pacify him or her.

SCORPIO OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22

Loaned money will be returned sooner than expected. Your hard work and dedication to task will

be hard to ignore. You are likely to smoke the peace pipe with a rival in a family dispute. Those looking for a suitable accommodation are likely to get lucky.

YOUR DAY

Horoscope by Saurabbh Sachdeva

his book is a per-fect example of what it teaches. It is simple. A superb book. The prose is relaxed. It has the universal appeal

for a long and happy life. The language is as simplis-tic and beautiful as it’s cov-er and the content. Its most cosy. And yet, in its own way it arouses you to the passion of living your life to its highest potential.

‘IKIGAI- the Japanese Se-cret to a Long and Happy Life’ is co-authored by Hec-

tor Garcia and Francesc Mi-ralles. It has been an inter-national bestseller. We all have an Ikigai. It’s the Japa-nese word for ‘a reason to live’. A reason to jump out of bed every morning. It gently unlocks simple secrets we can all use to live long, mean-ingful, happy lives.

The Japanese island of Okinawa, where ‘Ikigai’ has its origins, is said to be home to the largest popula-tion of centenarians in the world. “Your Ikigai is at the intersection of what you

are good at and what you love doing”. The place where your passion, mis-sion, vocation and profes-sion intersect - is the point of your coming alive. Aging is simply an opportunity to keep working, keep smiling, keep active and keep being social. Want to live longer? Keep super busy. If ‘hygge’ is the art of doing nothing, ‘ikigai’ is the art of doing something - and doing it with supreme focus and joy.

The book guides you to find your ‘ikigai’- by laying

down 10 simple rules to fol-low:-n Stay active and don’t re-

tire. The insatiable drive to learn, invent, explore and study deserves to have the same status as every other drive in our lives.

n Leave urgency behind. Adopt a relaxed, simpler pace of life.

n Eat less. Take smaller portions. Enjoy variety. Do not eat beyond 80% of your capacity.

n Get out. Socialize. Sur-

round yourself with good friends.

n Exercise does not mean going to the gym. Do what you enjoy. Garden-ing, playing, walking, swimming, dancing... Just do not sit.

n Smile. Radiate warmth. Sharing emotions with others makes your own life worthwhile. Acknowl-edge people around you.

n Reconnect with nature. Take long walks. Admire the marvels of creation. Devote time outdoors.

Soak in the life giving sunlight. Do what brings out the best in you.

n Be grateful. Give thanks to everything that bright-ens your day and makes you feel alive.

n Focus on the present mo-ment. Do not indulge in multi-tasking. Enjoy the one thing that you are do-ing.

n Keep the joy, passion of life alive. Follow your ‘ikigai’. Break the mo-notony of the routine life. Challenge your brain

with new ideas, thoughts and events. Seek mean-ing and fulfillment in your daily activities. Try to comprehend a little more each day.The authors talk of ‘Wabi-

Sabi’ the joy of finding beau-ty in imperfection. It’s the simplest way to live life to the fullest. The acceptance of ‘AS IS’. “Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder”. The object need not be flawless.

Victor Frankl introduced ‘Logotherapy’. He inter-views his patients bluntly with the question- “Why will you not commit suicide”? It jolts them. He makes them aware that life can have a meaning even in the most miserable of circumstances. He opens avenues of grati-tude and blissfulness. The “Joy of Being Alive” is awakened.

What is the one simple thing you could DO or BE today that would be an ex-pression of your ‘ikigai’? Find it. Pursue it with all you have. Anything less is not worth your limited time on planet earth.

[email protected]

IKIGAI: THE JAPANESE SECRET TO A LONG AND HAPPY LIFE

By Hector Garcia & Francesc Miralles

Perceive it with all you have. Anything

less is not worth your limited time on planet earth!

T

DEEPAK’S CORNER

Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles

Bollywood superstar Deepi-ka Padukone shocked fans and followers by deleting all posts from her social

media platforms. The actress de-leted all her tweets and Instagram pictures on 31 December, and now has zero posts and tweets.

Initially, netizens wondered if Deepika’s social media platforms

had been hacked. However, it sub-sequently came to notice that it was the actress who changed her display images.

It is not clear why Deepika took the step of wiping out her so-cial media platforms. Cur-rently, Deepika has 27.7 million followers on Twitter and on Instagram she has a fan fol-lowing of 52.5 million.

She did share a new video with fans on her account where we could hear her voice, de-scribing how the year 2020 was and what to expect in 2021. —ANI

Vidya Balan is one of the most dazzling and dependable per-formers in Hindi Cinema today. From searing celluloid characters

to faltering film choices, she has conquered all. She’s fearless and absolutely fantastic when it comes to essaying complex parts. As she celebrates her birthday on the first day of the new year, here’s revisiting her best performances. 1. Parineeta (2005) 2. Paa (2009) 3. Ishqiya (2010) 4. The Dirty Pic-ture (2011) 5. Kahaani (2012). —Agency

ETCwww.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia LUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021

11

Mad Men star Alison Brie recently opened up about a super em-barrassing “peeing

incident” while on the set of Mad Men. The actress who es-sayed the role of Trudy Vogel in the show spoke to Justin Long on his Life Is Short pod-cast and revealed embarrass-ing details from the memory. She revealed that the episode happened while she was wear-

ing a restrictive undergar-ment, which she described as “biker shorts that go all the way up to your ribs (that also have a) small hole in them.”

In her defence, she revealed that she did not know if she was supposed to wear under-wear under the girdle like pants. So she was left peeing and not h e a r -

ing it hit the bowl and then she jokes and said that she “just felt the warmth.” “It was full pee,” she laughed later on.

—Agency

The ‘peeing incident’

Dua Lipa recently slammed the millen-nial trend of cancel culture online. The

levitating singer got can-did about the toll of social media on her mental health. She stated that there is an excess of mean-ness and judgement from social media users nowa-days. She told that in her opinion, “cancel culture”

is extremely toxic and even dangerous. Being funny is the greatest weapon ac-cording to trolls even if it at the expense of another person’s mental health and well being, she said that on Friday. Dua also opened up about the bullying she ex-perienced when she started in the entertainment in-dustry.

—Agency

Dua Lipa opens up

Madonna’s homecoming trip T

he 62-year-old pop icon’s son David Banda, 15, and daughter Mercy James, 14, as well as her eight-

year-old twin girls Stella and Es-tere, were all born in Malawi. She also has two biological chil-dren -- Lourdes, 24, with her for-mer personal trainer Carlos Leon, and Rocco, 20, with her ex-

husband Guy Ritchie. Madonna took to Instagram to share vide-os and photos from her trip. One of her kids could be seen looking out of the window during their flight in the video shared by Ma-donna. On arrival, Madonna posted a clip of Mercy swinging where she looked super happy.

—Agency

Anushka Sharma and Virat Kohli are all set to embrace parenthood in January 2021. The

couple shared the news of them expecting a baby in Au-gust. Anushka has been sharing adorable pictures of herself showing off her baby bump on her social media handle. Now, ahead

of the baby’s arrival, the ac-tress opened up on how she plans to handle the new role of a mother.

The Band Baja Baraat ac-tress revealed about the perks of being pregnant dur-ing the lockdown. In an in-terview, Anushka said, “I was on a zoom call while promoting Bulbbul when I started feeling incredibly nauseous. I quickly turned off my video and messaged my brother, who was also on the call, to stall them for ten minutes. If I had been on set or in a studio, every-one would have known. The pandemic has been a weird blessing in a way. Virat was around and I could keep it a secret. We only left to go to the doc-tor’s clinic. No one was on the streets so we couldn’t be spotted.” —Agency

Bhushan Kumar, Sandeep Reddy Vanga and Murad Khetani announce their next film with Ranbir Kapoor titled Animal. The film also features Anil

Kapoor, Bobby Deol and Parineeti Chopra. The director of Kabir Singh and Arjun

Reddy; Sandeep Reddy Vanga will collaborate with Ranbir Kapoor after 2 back to back blockbusters. The film marks Sandeep and Ranbir’s first association together. The actor who has impressed the fans with his versatile acting through movies like Rockstar, Barfi, Tamasha, Wake Up Sid, Sanju, and many more is all set to star in Animal.

Starting 2021 with a bang for the makers of this ‘Crime Drama’ film as they unveiled the title of the film with a superb BGM by Har-shavardhan Rameshwar just as the world celebrated the onset of a new year. The title announcement video with Ranbir’s voice gives a glimpse of what to expect from the film. —Agency

Kajol today released a sneak peek and an-nounced the release date of its upcoming

film, Tribhanga: Tedhi Me-dhi Crazy. Directed by Renu-ka Sahane, Tribhanga is an Odissi dance pose that is asymmetrical, yet mesmer-ising, much like the lives of the three female char-acters of the film - Nay-antara Apte, Anuradha Apte and Masha played by Tanvi Azmi, Kajol and Mithila Palkar, respectively.

Director and Writ-er Renuka Shahane took to social media to announce the same: “Dear Kajol, Tanvi, Mithila. Or should I say, dear Anu, Nayan, Masha? These characters which were only mine for 6 years during which I mothered, nurtured, shaped, sometimes disciplined, sometimes pampered them, then became yours. You made them your own. Gave them your flesh & blood, vulnerability, and strength, tears, and laughter, making them much more than I had imagined. Tribhanga, Tedhi, Me-dhi, Crazy, the story of Anu, Nayan Masha, will be seen from the 15th of January 2021 on Netflix. Here’s a sneak peek. 2021 has truly begun well. A big thank you to you Kajol, Tanvi Azmi and Mithila Palkar, the heart, core, and soul of Tribhanga.” —Agency

British music icon Sir Elton John recent-ly spoke to a popular royal couple and opened up about staying sober amidst quarantine and the pandemic. During

a chat with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry during the debut episode of their first joint Spotify podcast, the 73-year-old veteran opened up about attending AA meetings virtually. He stated that he has been attending his Alcoholics Anonymous meetings via Zoom from his home during the quarantine period. He stated that since he is a recovering alcoholic, he has to attend a meeting every Sunday. Elton continued: “If it hadn’t been for Zoom, I don’t know what we would’ve done, I really don’t, without Zoom. It’s been a lifesav-er.” —Agency

STARRING IN ANIMAL

TEASER OUT

LIFE SAVER HABIT

Handling Parenting

SHOCKING STEP

Birthday Special

Alison Brie

Ranbir Kapoor

Kajol

Dua Lipa Madonna

Deepika Padukone

Elton JohnVirat Kohli and Anushka SharmaVidya Balan

12CITY BUZZ

LUCKNOW | SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 2021www.fi rstindia.co.in I www.fi rstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefi rstindia I facebook.com/thefi rstindia I instagram.com/thefi rstindia

ou can live in the fanciest place, eat at the poshest restaurant but the feeling of returning to

your hometown will always be unsur-passed.

One such celebu-tante is Asma Hussain, who in the early ‘90s decided to trace back her steps to her moth-erland, Lucknow. And

ever since, she’s estab-lished so much in the arena of fashion, busi-ness and philanthropy.

Today, in conversa-tion with Asma Hus-sain, CityFirst will shed light upon her ap-plaudable work.

“I came back to Luc-know in 1992 and start-ed working thereafter. Now, we have ‘Asma Hussain Fashion House’, dedicated to handwoven and hand-crafted attires. And ‘Asma Hussain Appar-els’, a homegrown manufacturing unit to provide authentic en-sembles.” said Fash-ion-meister Asma Hus-sain.

On being asked about the philanthrop-ic work she does through Youth Uplift-ment and Welfare As-sociation (YUWA) Hus-sain says, “ YUWA works towards the up-liftment of underprivi-leged artisans who

have the art but not the resources. It also ele-vates young girls and boys by training them to work and earn a healthy living.

YUWA also works to-wards promotion of Awadh and its im-

mensely talented handicrafts & hand looms.”

Asma Hussain is not just a fashion de-signer, she’s also an academician and the forerunner of the ‘Asma Hussain Insti-tute of Fashion Tech-nology’ (AIFT) which is a government affili-ated autonomous body that imparts knowl-edge and diploma in Fashion, textile, inte-rior and craft design-ing.

“All my work pays homage to Awadh and pro-motes the arts and craftwork of Uttar Pradesh. Arti-sanship like Chi-kankari, Zardozi, Reshwork, Mukaish, Bead and Sequence can be seen in my de-signs, all of which is authentically hand-crafted by UP artisans to keep alive the ingen-ious arts and art-

work.” said Asma Hus-sain, one of the found-ing and executive members of FICCI FLO.

She’s now started an artist oriented brand ‘Khwaabgah’ in which all the proceedings go

back to artists. Being a business-

woman, a philanthro-pist, an academician and a Fashion designer is truly a work of art and a work of passion and Asma Hussain is an epitome of it.

CITY FIRST

World Influ-encer & B l o g g e r A w a r d s

(WIBA), the internation-al contest that is organ-ized for the most distin-guished bloggers all over the world, has now made an entrance in In-dia.

It makes its maiden entry in India with Nusr-Et, Gi-anluca Vac-chi, Food-god, Victo-ria Bonya, Victoria Silvst-edt as the headlin-ers.

The global event that took place in Cannes Film Festival 2019 saw over had a digital reach of 117 million+ views for its live stream not count-ing the several me-dia mentions and networking oppor-tunities it presented the finalists.

Commenting on the same, Paris based Jo Broner, WIBA Spokes-person said, “This will be the largest congrega-tion of bloggers and in-fluencers in the coun-try. Last year we saw over 2 K applicants from India at our global awards. Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chanchlani and Gaurav Chaudary made a smashing debut creat-ing quite an impression on the global commu-nity.”

WIBA India will also give the winners to qualify for the interna-tional award competi-tion to be held at Cannes Film Festival 2021. WIBA was first planned in 2019 with Maria-Grazhina Chaplin at the helm.

[email protected]

The Oscars for Influencers & Bloggers

NEW YEAR CELEBRATIONS!

Y

Bhuvan Bam, Ashish Chanchlani and Gaurav Chaudary made a smashing debut creating quite an impression on the global community.

“All my work pays homage to Awadh and promotes the arts and craftwork of Uttar Pradesh.”-Asma Hussain

MONICA PRABHAKAR

[email protected]

TWEETED... RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR…

Commissioner of Police DK Thakur, Joint Commissioner of Police Naveen Arora, along with the police team cut the cake to welcome the new year at midnight, at Hazratganj in Lucknow on Friday. On the occasion of new year, huge crowd of locals was seen at Mrine Drive, River Front in Lucknow on Friday.

People opt for the camel-back ride as they arrive to celebrate the New Year near Imambara in the old city of Lucknow on Friday.

People enjoying the boat ride during the celebration of New Year at Gautam Buddha Park in the old city of Lucknow on Friday.

On the occasion of New Year, a huge crowd of locals was spotted at the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological Garden for the celebration in Lucknow on Friday.

Jagdeesh Chandra with Senior Editor Syed Umar and the First India family during his visit to the channel office in Jaipur to celebrate the new year with the team by cutting a cake and sharing sweets on Friday afternoon. —PHOTO BY SANTOSH SHARMA

Deputy Director Print Hemant Singh, along with Information Offi cers conveyed their best wishes for the New Year to IAS Shishir on Friday, 1 January.

APPOINTED!

Naresh Salecha, IRAS, Additional Member (Revenue) has been appointed as Member Railway Board and Ex-Offi cio Secretary to the Government of India. We wish him all the best!

—PH

OTOS

BY

SUM

IT K

UMAR

GREETINGS!

Asma Hussain’s Bridal Couture

AN ODE TO AWADH

Asma Hussain

Soha Ali khan, Asma Hussain and Pankhuri Gidwani

Jo Broner

Oxford vaccinegets - First India

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