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Actor Samantha Ruth Prabhu has filed defamationcases against YouTube channels for streamingmalignant content about her

NO NEGATIVITY PLEASE!Rohit Sharma finds his groove as his 61-runknock helps India beat Australia in thesecond WT20 warm-up match

ROHIT FINDS FORM

SPORTS | P12LEISURE | P2

Bomb attack on an army bus in Damascus and shelling inanother Syrian town led to the death of 27 peopleWednesday INTERNATIONAL | P10

ATTACKS LEAVE 27 DEAD IN SYRIA

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12 PAGES | `5.00BHUBANESWAR | THURSDAY, OCTOBER 21 | 2021VOLUME 11, ISSUE 200 | www.orissapost.com

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, Oct 20: A special court hereWednesday refused to grant bail toAryan Khan, son of actor Shah RukhKhan, and two others in connectionwith the case of seizure of banneddrugs on board a cruise ship off theMumbai coast. Immediately afterthe bail plea of Aryan was rejectedhis lawyers moved the high court. Theappeal is likely to be mentionedThursday before a single bench ofJustice NW Sambre.

Special Judge VV Patil, desig-nated to hear cases related to theNarcotics Drugs and PsychotropicSubstances (NDPS) Act, rejected thebail pleas of Aryan, his friendArbaaz Merchant and fashionmodel Munmun Dhamecha.

When the matter was called outfor order Wednesday afternoon,special judge Patil said, “Rejected.”

The trio was arrested October 3by the Narcotics Control Bureau(NCB) for alleged conspiracy, pos-session, consumption, purchaseand trafficking of drugs.

Aryan and the others have beenbooked for offences under Sections8(c), 20(b), 27, 28, 29 and 35 of theNDPS Act. The three are presentlyin judicial custody. While Aryan andMerchant are lodged at the ArthurRoad prison here, Dhamecha islodged at the Byculla women’s jail.

Aryan in his bail plea had saidthe NCB’s contention that he wasinvolved in conspiracy and illicitdrug trafficking was absurd, andpointed out that there was no recovery of drugs made from him.

4 MILITANTS, 1 SOLDIER DIE IN J&K Srinagar: Four Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants werekilled Wednesday while one soldier died and two otherssuffered injuries in an encounter in Shopian district ofJammu and Kashmir, officials said. One of the slainultras was Adil Wani who was involved in the killing of acarpenter from Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur, three daysback, IGP, Kashmir zone, Vijay Kumar, said. Officials saidsecurity forces formed a cordon and launched searchoperations in Dragad locality leading to the encounter.The four deceased ultras belonged to The ResistanceFront (TRF), a shadow outfit of LeT, police said.

EX-ODISHA DY SPEAKER NO MOREBhubaneswar: Former Deputy Speaker of the OdishaAssembly, Prahalad Dora passed away Wednesdayafternoon while undergoing treatment. He was 74. Familysources said Dora was admitted to AIIMS for age-relatedailments few days back. While undergoing treatment, he gotinfected with Covid-19. He breathed his last at 4.55pm,family sources added. Dora was elected to the OdishaAssembly thrice from the Chitrakonda seat. He won theelections on a Janata Dal ticket in 1977 and 1990 and on aBJP ticket in 2004. He was elected Deputy Speaker in 1990and 2004. Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik condoled Dora’s death.

Aryan bail plearejected again

n CMA said that it had no optionbut to fine the social networkinggiant as it deliberately refused toshare important informationAGENCIES

London, Oct 20: Britain’s com-petition watchdog said Wednesdayit had fined social networking giantFacebook over £50 million for a‘deliberate’ failure to supply information linked to its takeoverof animated graphics startup com-pany ‘Giphy’.

The Competition and MarketsAuthority (CMA) said the fine to-talling £50.5 million ($69.5 million,60 million euros) was imposed for‘consciously refusing to report allthe required information’ con-cerning the purchase last year.

“We warned Facebook that its re-fusal to provide us with importantinformation was a breach of the

order but, even after losing its ap-peal in two separate courts,Facebook continued to disregardits legal obligations,” Joel Bamford,Senior Director of Mergers at theCMA, said in a statement. “Thisshould serve as a warning to anycompany that thinks it is abovethe law,” Bamford added.

The CMA said it was first timea company had been found to haveconsciously breached such an order.“Given the multiple warnings itgave Facebook, the CMA considersthat Facebook’s failure to complywas deliberate,” the CMA noted.

Facebook hit out at the fine in astatement. “We strongly disagreewith CMA’s unfair decision to pun-ish Facebook for a best effort com-pliance approach, which the CMAitself ultimately approved. We willreview the CMA’s decision andconsider our options,” it added.

It comes as Facebook faces a

storm of criticism since a whistle-blower leaked internal studiesshowing the company knew itssites could be harmful to youngpeople’s mental health.

Facebook announced in May

2020 its purchase of ‘Giphy’ fora reported $400 million. ‘Giphy isa platform and search engine for‘stickers’ and other productsusing the graphics interchangeformat or GIFs.

Facebook fined £50mn for ‘Giphy’ takeover

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: After two daysof lull, petrol and diesel priceswere Wednesday again hiked by35 paise per litre each. The newhikes pushed the rates to new highsacross India.

The price of petrol in the na-tional capital rose to its highest-everlevel of `106.19 a litre and `112.11per litre in Mumbai, according toa price notification of state-ownedfuel retailers. In Mumbai, diesel nowcomes for `102.89 a litre, while inDelhi, it costs `94.92.

With this rise, petrol is now at`100-a-litre mark or more in allstate capitals while diesel hastouched the level in over a dozenstates. Diesel crossed the `100-a-litre mark in Panaji and Ranchi

with the latest increase. Since ending of a three-week

long hiatus in rate revision in thelast week of September, this is the17th increase in petrol price and the20th time that diesel rates havegone up.

International benchmark Brentcrude was trading at USD 84.43 perbarrel Wednesday for the first timein seven years. A month back,Brent was trading at USD 73.92.

Being a net importer of oil, Indiaprices petrol and diesel at ratesequivalent to international prices.

Fuel prices hikedagain after 2 daysSince rate revision began inthe last week of September,petrol price have gone up 17times and diesel 20 times

PETROL `107.13 (+0.36)

DIESEL `103.55 (+0.38)

CITY PRICES

n 12 days after the disappearanceof school teacher MamitaMeher, police have been finallyable to crack the case withprime accused Sahu confessingto the murder

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bolangir, Oct 20: Police havecracked the murder mystery ofschool teacher Mamita Meher whowent missing October 10. It was apre-planned murder by prime ac-cused Gobind Sahu, the chairper-son of Sunshine English MediumSchool at Mahaling in Kalahandidistrict, DIG Deepak Kumar said ata press conference here Wednesday.He also confirmed that the exhumedhalf-bur nt body was that ofMamita’s.

Sahu was produced at theBangomunda JMFC Court and wasremanded to five-day police custody.Police are also questioning threeother suspects, one of whom hasbeen detained, Kumar informed.

Kumar said that Mamita hadcome to know about the extra-mar-ital affairs of Sahu and had threat-ened to expose him. Fearing thathis cover would be blown off, Sahudecided to eliminate Mamita.Accordingly he had plannedMamita’s murder.

Police informed Sahu has con-fessed that he used to nurture grudgeagainst Mamita. He had takenMamita in a car to Bhawanipatna.While returning from Bhawanipatnato K Gaon, he strangulated her inthe car, the DIG said. Sahu then

burnt her body and sprinkled saltover it for quick decomposition be-fore burying it at an under-con-struction stadium at Mahaling.

Kumar said that Sahu hadplanned the murder of Mamita inmeticulous fashion. It is for this rea-son he had asked the JCB operatorto dig up a pit inside the stadiumOctober 7. Following the killingOctober 8 and burying the body,he had asked the operator to fill upthe pit, the next day.

Sahu had earlier been detainedby the police after family mem-bers of Mamita lodged a com-plaint with the police blaminghim for the teacher’s disappear-ance. However, he escaped fromthe Titlagarh police barrackOctober 17 following which threepolicemen were suspended fordereliction of duty. Sahu was ar-rested Tuesday again from a sug-arcane field behind his youngersister’s house at Budhipadar vil-

lage under Bangomunda block. Meanwhile opposition BJP or-

ganised protests at various placesin Odisha including Kalahandiand Bolangir districts. They de-manded the immediate removalof Minister of State for Home,Dibya Shankar Mishra for his al-leged involvement in the gruesome

killing. The BJP has also allegedthat Mishra ran a sex-racket inthe school where Mamita workedand also stated that Sahu is a closeassociate of the minister.

Leader of Opposition PradiptaKumar Naik wrote to ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik in thisregard. He demanded CBI inves-tigation into the incident and res-ignation of the minister on moralgrounds. The minister himself isin the charge of Home Affairsand it will hamper the investiga-tion if he continues in office,stated Naik. MORE ON P3

Sahu admits to murder

DIG Deepak Kumar (R) talks to the media in Bolangir, Wednesday OP PHOTOS

Gobind Sahu

NCW seeks removalof Odisha ministers NEW DELHI: Seeking removal of twoOdisha ministers, the NationalCommission for Women (NCW) haswritten to Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik alleging that they used theirposition to exploit and sexuallyharass women, besides manipulat-ing police investigation in a caseinvolving a teacher who was rapedand killed. The NCW said Minister ofState for Home, Dibya ShankarMishra and Law Minister PratapJena frequently visited the schoolwhere the victim worked severaltimes, before her mysterious disap-pearance. The commission has alsodemanded the immediate removalof Mishra and Jena from position ofministers. The NCW has also writtento Odisha DGP Abhay to ensure afair investigation in the matter andto book all the accused under rele-vant provisions of the law.

n The apex court bench saidthe UP government has donenothing to extract informationfrom six of the 10 accused in theLakhimpur Kheri violence casein which eight people died

POST NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi, Oct 20: The SupremeCourt came down hard Wednesdayon the Uttar Pradesh governmentfor its ongoing probe into theLakhimpur Kheri case. The apexcourt said it thought police are‘dragging feet’ and they are re-quired to ‘dispel’ that impressionand ensure recording of statementsof witnesses before magistratesand their protection.

A three-judge bench of the apexcourt headed by Chief Justice NVRamana questioned the UP gov-ernment as to why statements ofwitnesses weren’t recorded undersection 164 of CrPC before a judi-cial magistrate. The court grantedfurther time to the UP governmentto record statements of witnessesunder section 164 CrPC and postedthe matter for hearing October 26.

“We think you are draggingyour feet. Please dispel that im-pression,” the bench observed. Itadded that the probe should notbe an ‘unending story’ and red-flagged the issue of non-record-ing of statements of nearly 40 pros-ecution witnesses, of the total 44.

“Please ask them to immedi-ately take steps to record section 164statements. That is the most im-portant thing... Protection to the vic-tims as well as the witnesses,” saidthe bench also comprising JusticesSurya Kant and Hima Kohli.

The apex court was hearing a

matter about the October 3 vio-lence in Lakhimpur Kheri. Eightpersons including four farmerswere killed in the violence. Ten peo-ple, including Union Minister ofState for Home Ajay Mishra’s sonAshish, have been arrested so far.Earlier October 7, the SupremeCourt had sought a status reportfrom the UP government on theFIR registered and arrests made inconnection with the incident.

The bench also lamented on theUP government for filing the statusreport Wednesday morning. “Wewaited till 1.00am last (Tuesday)night but we got nothing. We re-ceived the report in the morning. Sowhen will we have the time to readit,” the bench said. The SupremeCourt also objected to the UP gov-ernment presenting the report in asealed cover. “We never said anythingabout sealed cover,” the bench said.

During the hearing, the top courtasked the state counsel that howmany accused have been arrestedand how many of them are in po-lice custody. The bench noted thatin police custody more informa-tion can be extracted from the ac-cused. “You can’t get out anythingunless you have them in the po-lice custody,” the bench said.

SC rap for UP govt

FIGHTING ALL ODDS: People under umbrellas try to pull to safety a car which had overturned due to the sudden gush of floodwaters on the national highway in Malda district of West Bengal PTI PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: Biju JanataDal (BJD) leader Pramila Mallicksaid Wednesday that the state gov-ernment has taken the case ofMamita Meher’s murder very se-riously and those involved in it willbe punished.

“There are several instanceswhere BJP ministers have beenspotted in pictures with anti-socialpersons. The accused in the attackon Mohan Majhi’s vehicle has beenseen clicking pictures with centralministers,” Mallick pointed out.

“It is important to note that in so-cial and political spheres we attendmeetings and photos are clicked withus. Therefore, the political person

should always not be held responsi-ble if the other person in the framecommits a crime,” Mallick added.

The BJD leader said that an of-ficer who has previously workedwith the NIA has been handed thecharge of probing the case.

“Whoever is found guilty, whetherit may be the minister (DibyaShankar Mishra), strict action willbe taken against the culprit(s),”Mallick asserted. “Mamita’s familywill certainly get justice. Do notpoliticise the heinous crime. Werequest the opposition not to spreadcanards in the name of the educa-tional institution where Mamitawas employed. This slander willimpact the future of other childrenstudying there,” she added.

Guilty will be punished: BJD

Senators opposeFB’s ‘Novi’ planWashington: A group of US lawmakershave said Facebook cannot be trustedto manage cryptocurrency. They haveurged the social media platform to dis-continue immediately a small pilot ofits cryptocurrency wallet named ‘Novi’,which was launched Tuesday. USDemocratic senators Brian Schatz,Sherrod Brown, Richard Blumenthal,Elizabeth Warren and Tina Smithvoiced their opposition to Facebook’stwo-year-old effort to launch a cryp-tocurrency and digital wallet. Theyhave written to Facebook ChiefExecutive Mark Zuckerberg on thisissue. “Facebook cannot be trusted tomanage a payment system or digitalcurrency when its existing ability tomanage risks and keep consumerssafe has proven wholly insufficient,”the senators wrote.

Mumbai: Actor Adarsh Gouravwill be seen sharing screen space withHollywood personalities such asMeryl Streep, Sienna Miller, KitHarrington and Tahar Rahim in anupcoming antholog y titledExtrapolations.

It also features Matthew Rhys,Daveed Diggs, Gemma Chan andDavid Schwimmer.

The series explores the stories ofhow the changes to the planet willimpact love, family and work both

on a personal level and at a largehuman level. It’s an eight in-terconnected episodic seriesand will display the need forsurvival world over in the cur-

rent era.Adarsh, who gained global

spotlight with his performancein The White Tiger, said: “This is

beyond anything I can express tobe honest. But to be working withsuch an incredible team at such anearly juncture of my career is trulyrewarding. “I’m elated to be part ofthis project and grateful that I willbe working alongside some of thevery best in the business.”

Adarsh recently flew off to the US,where the show is currently expected to go into production. IANS

Mumbai: There’s a reasonKapil Dev is considered a leg-endary all-rounder, as this isnot just in reference to hiscricketing skills and swash-buckling playing style but alsoit’s about what he does off thefield.

The former Indian skippermade the nation proud 38 yearsback when he lifted the WorldCup trophy after beating themighty West Indies team atLord’s.

And now he has again sentshockwaves across the coun-try and has left everyone dazedand amazed with his new ad-vertisement. In a recent adfor a fintech company, KapilDev is seen doing antics whichcan be easily defined as bizarre,eccentric and wacky, some-thing whichaptly suitsactorRanveerSingh. Andthat’s pre-cisely whatthe ad is

about - Kapil Dev act-ing like Ranveer Singh.

In the 37-second adKapil goes out of hisway to act likeRanveer. He aces theenactment by wear-ing some outlandishclothes, his over-the-top actions and sim-ple dialogues thathammer the funnybone.

Looking at hisantics, it won't bewrong to say thatthe legendary crick-eter has not just im-itated Ranveer buthe has internalisedthe latter’s charac-ter to the point of ab-solute perfection. IANS

Mumbai: As the audienceprepares for the Rohit

Shetty directorialSooryavanshi, KatrinaKaif has been runningpillar to post with re-gards to the promo-tions of the film.However, the fanshave no complaintsas the string of pro-motions continues tobring us Katrina’s

most dazzlinglooks.

The actress recently took toInstagram to share a few pictures ofherself from the promotion streakwhere she attended Colors’ show TheBig Picture with her Sooryavanshidirector Rohit Shetty.

She captioned the image as, “vibesfor #bigpicture #sooryavanshi-intheatres.”

The Big Picture host Ranveer Singhwas quick to react with a commenton the actress’s post. He wrote, “Whata blast k! ?? ???? thank you for com-ing and making it such a specialepisode ! (sic)”.

Katrina embraced a SabyasachiMukherjee creation, a burnt orangecoloured saree with an embellishedblouse having a heavy sequin em-broidered torso and floral sleeves.Complementing her attire were theemerald and stone adorned drop ear-rings and, her open and tresses. Shekept the accessories to a bare min-imum in order to draw the atten-tion towards her clothing.

IANS

Katrina’s ethnic looka sight for sore eyes

P2 SYLVESTER STALLONE BOWS OUT OF EXPENDABLES FRANCHISE

leisureHollywood star Sylvester Stallone has confirmed that hehas filmed his last-ever scenes in the Expendablesfranchise, and he is now ‘passing the baton’ over to actorJason Statham and his ‘capable hands. He wrote:“EXPENDABLES finale for me Today is my last day offilming a Heading home. So they go.”

Actress Megan Fox says it is hardto be a woman and hasencouraged other women to wearwhatever makes them ‘feel good’and not to worry about theopinions of other people.

THURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

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AQUARIUSBe sure of your strengthsand decisions, and Ganeshaguarantees you success.You don't care what others think aboutyou, but don't be so indifferent that youignore their choices, preferences andcomforts completely. The smile of yousweetheart will work like a charm andyou will forget all your worries, feelsGanesha.

PISCESFor those in the creativefields of marketing or adver-tising, today is an extraordi-nary opportunity to tweak your market-ing mix into bringing in maximum profitswith bare minimum efforts. Your healthinterests will also take priority now, andyou will find yourself spending more timein the gym, says Ganesha.

SAGITTARIUSYou will find yourself rub-bing shoulders will LadyLuck today. Sharpen yourmulti-tasking skills as you will keep busyand have only occasional moments ofrespite. Good will and green print, youmight find them both with ease and inabundance, predicts Ganesha.

LIBRASometimes, you lend a help-ing hand and people end uptaking the entire arm. Well,that's kids for you! So beware, becauseyoung ones around you may try to takeundue advantage of your sympatheticnature today, hints Ganesha. Minor issuesand problems may dampen the high spirits that you are in today.

SCORPIOIt is more than likely thatyou will be in high spiritstoday, says Ganesha. Allyour energy and exuberance may notyield expected results. That is no reasonto lose heart though. Keep up the effortfrom your end and you will eventuallytaste success in the days to come.

LEOThe desire and passion forlearning is a life-long quest,says Ganesha. It may bethat you love to learn, but dissipating theknowledge you have acquired is equallyimportant. So on this day, it is throughteaching that you shall learn just how fas-cinating and frustrating children can be.

VIRGOExpenses will mount uncon-trollably today, and they willbe mostly wasteful innature. However, positive energies aregathering momentum, and Ganesha saysyou would do well in making full use ofthem, both in your personal and profes-sional spheres.

GEMINIYou will end up having anargument with peopleowing to your aggressivenature. These people could slander yourreputation on account of your enemity.However you will be able to defeat them.They will have to give up against yourintellectual superiority.

CANCERYou are known for your abil-ity to set the ball rolling.Once you set your mind todo something, it is generally considereddone by your peers. Today, you are eyeinga few accomplishments on the monetaryfront. Most part of your day will go indealing with financial transactions, andimporting and exporting goods.

ARIESFlow with the tide today.This is Ganesha's tip per-taining to your relation-ships. You are assertive as a general rulebut you can save it for later. Today is theday to be generous and accede to thewishes of your beloved. You may evenpropose to him/her.

FORTUNE FORECAST

TAURUSThis day you will be com-pelled to be resigned toyour fate. Ganesha does notsee your own will power in operationtoday. Though you would be surrenderingyourself to the whims of destiny, do notexpect anything good to come out of it.

CAPRICORNPatience is tested when oneis in trouble; your patiencecould be tried today. Thetrick is in keeping your composure, saysGanesha. Avoid getting into an argumentor scuffle with those around you, as luckmay not be on your side.

BREVITY

CALVIN AND HOBBES

PEANUTS CROSSWORD

SUDOKU

SOLUTIONS

CRO

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CHECK FOR SOLUTIONS OF THE PUZZLES TOMORROW

post To solve the Sudoku puzzle, fill in the boxes in such amanner that every row, column and 3x3 box containsthe digits 1 to 9, without repeating any.

MEGAN FOX THINKS IT'S VERY DIFFICULT TO BE A WOMAN

Goldfinger songwriterLeslie Bricusse

passes away at 90Los Angeles: Oscar- and Grammy-win-ning songwriter Leslie Bricusse, whosesongs for Broadway and Hollywood includeWhat Kind of Fool Am I? and PureImagination, died Tuesday in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. He was 90.

Bricusse wrote the lyrics for the JamesBond theme songs Goldfinger and You OnlyLive Twice, as well as songs for movies in-cluding Willy Wonka and the ChocolateFactory, Scrooge, Hook, Doctor Dolittle andSuperman.

His close friend, Dame Joan Collins, an-nounced his death on Instagram this morn-ing, calling him “one ofthe giant songwrit-ers of our time.”

Bricusse’s sonAdam also an-nounced it onFacebook butdid not indicatea cause of death,reportsvariety.com. IANS

Hyderabad:S a m a n t h a Ru t hPrabhu, who recently

announced her sepa-ration from AkkineniNaga Chaitanya, stoodup for herself in these

tough situations. Shehas now f i leddefamation casesa g a i n s t s o m eYouTube chan-

nels for stream-ing malig-

nantcon-

tent about her.Suman TV, Telugu Popular TV, and a few

more YouTube channels will receive legal no-tices from Samantha, for defaming her image ontheir respective channels. Also, Samantha has ap-parently filed a legal notice against an advocatenamed Venkat Rao, who had allegedly spokenabout Samantha’s marital life and had allegedthat she had affairs.

In the wake of all the negativity, Samantha hadreleased a personal note asking others stayaway from her as she is not going to allow anykind of negativity to break her. Apparently, nei-ther her ex-husband Naga Chaitanya, nor hisfather Nagarjuna stood by her in these struggles.

On the work front, Samantha has a cou-ple of interesting subjects she would startshooting for soon, while she is also tak-ing her personal space to cope withthe recent tumult in her life. IANS

Samantha files defamation cases against

YouTube channels

Kapil floors viewerswith his Ranveer act

Adarsh Gaurav joins Meryl Streep, Sienna Miller for Extrapolations

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P3THURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

RITUAL IN PROGRESS

Goddess Annapurna ofDeewan Bazar in Cuttackadorned with KanchanGouri Besha, Wednesday

INFECTED RECOVERED DEAD

World 24,25,89,367 21,98,48,825 49,32,573

India 3,41,08,996 3,34,78,247 4,52,651

Odisha 10,36,532 10,23,849 8,296

COVID-19 TRACKER

downtown

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: Ahead ofthe Diwali festival, the Handlooms,Textiles and Handicrafts depart-ment has started a special exhibi-tion and sale of terracotta productsat the recently-renovated EkamraHaat here.

The exhibition will continue tillOctober 31. Over a hundred artisans

from 22 states are exhibiting dif-ferent terracotta items at the expo,sources said. The Ekamra Haatwill remain open for buyers from10am to 9pm every day.

“We are trying to facilitate thesale of handicraft and handloomproducts of local artisans amidthe Covid-19 pandemic,” said anofficial of the department.

Ekamra Haat, which remained

closed for over a year for renova-tion, was reopened October 2 withbetter facilities for both visitors

and artisans. The haat now has 83stalls and it has been divided intotwo zones - Ekamra Kutir andEkamra Bazaar.

Ekamra Kutir has 50 stalls in-cluding eight for live demonstration.The open space outside the haat hasbeen used to set up the EkamraBazaar with 33 stalls. Of the 83stalls, 56 have been reserved forsale of handicraft products andthe remaining for handloom prod-ucts, sources said.

The haat was earlier managed bythe Odisha Industrial InfrastructureDevelopment Corporation (Idco)and it was handed over to theHandlooms, Textiles and

Handicrafts department in Octoberlast year.

“Now, the visitors can not onlypurchase the handlooms and hand-icrafts products but also see livedemonstration of their makingprocess,” added the official.

Outlets of Boyanika, Amlan,Sambalpuri Bastralaya andUtkalika have been opened in thehaat. The food stalls at EkamraKutir are serving cuisines fromacross the country, including thosefrom Odisha, sources added.

This apart, several other ameni-ties, including a conference halland an open-air-theatre have beenhave been set up at the haat.

Terracotta expo at Ekamra Haat as Diwali nears

THE EXHIBITION WILL CONTINUETILL OCTOBER 31. OVER A

HUNDRED ARTISANS FROM 22STATES ARE EXHIBITING

DIFFERENT TERRACOTTA ITEMS AT THE EXPO

THE EKAMRA HAAT WILL REMAINOPEN FOR BUYERS FROM 10AM

TO 9PM EVERY DAY

THE HAAT NOW HAS 83 STALLSAND IT HAS BEEN DIVIDED INTO

TWO ZONES - EKAMRA KUTIR ANDEKAMRA BAZAAR

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: Alleginginvolvement of Minister of State(MoS) Home, Dibya ShankarMishra in the kidnap and mur-der of Kalahandi’s MahalingSunshine Public School teacherMamita Meher, Opposition BJPWednesday demanded a CBI probeinto the case.

The Opposition BJP andCongress alleged that Mishra wasshielding Gobind Sahu, the presi-dent of the school and the prime ac-cused in the missing of the schoolteacher.

BJP spokesperson AparajitaSarangi said, “Mamita Meher won’tget justice if the probe is launchedby the state government. The caseshould be handed over to the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI), ifthe government wants to ensure afair & impartial probe.”

“We know that in its reaction, thestate government will reply ‘lawwill follow its own course’. Thequestion is will the law be permit-ted to follow its course,” she asked.

As per reports, Gobind has con-fessed to his crime during the po-lice interrogation.

Gobind, who had escaped frompolice custody, was nabbed from asugar cane field where he was hid-ing Tuesday evening. The primeaccused was nabbed hours afterpolice declared Rs 1 lakh reward onhis head.

Meanwhile, a delegation of stateBJP led by president Samir MohantyWednesday met Governor GaneshiLal demanding expulsion of Mishraand probe by the central agencyinto the sensitive case.

Addressing a presser here,

Mohanty said a fair probe into thecrime is not possible if Mishra con-tinues to remain in the Council ofMinisters as he had intimacy withthe prime accused Gobind Sahu.

Members of BJP Mahila Morchaled by MP Sangeeta Kumari SinghDeo also staged dharna in front ofthe SP office in Bolangir de-manding removal and arrest ofMishra.

Earlier in the day, some BJPworkers allegedly hurled eggs on theresidence of Mishra atBhawanipatna and the party alsoobserved a 12-hour Kalahandi bandhdemanding a CBI probe and theouster of the Minister.

Leader of Opposition in the stateAssembly Pradipta Naik has writ-ten to Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik demanding a CBI investi-gation into the case.

Meanwhile, activists of YouthCongress also staged protests nearNaveen Niwas, the residence ofChief Minister Naveen Patnaik,in Bhubaneswar. Youth Congresspresident Smruti Ranjan Lenka

has been detained at Airport policestation.

“We tried to meet the CM toseek justice for the 24-year-old girlbut were picked up by police per-sonnel midway. On the other hand,the government is protecting theminister, who is directly involvedin the case,” said state youthCongress president Smruti RanjanLenka.

“Horrifying news coming outon Mamita Meher missing case. Iam visiting the girl’s family today.The perpetrators of the crimeshould not be spared no matterhow high or mighty they are,”tweeted senior Congress leaderNarasingha Mishra.

Demanding the expulsion of theMoS Home, the members of ShreeJagannath Sena have also stageda protest outside the SrimandirSinghadwar and burnt posters ofthe minister.

Chorus for CBI probe asstate boils over Mahaling

OSCW seeks report from Kalahandi SPBhubaneswar: Taking cognisanceof the murder of Mamita Meher, ateacher of Sunshine EnglishMedium School in Mahaling underSindhekela police limits ofKalahandi district, the OdishaState Commission for Women(OSCW) Wednesday sought adetailed report of the case fromthe Kalahandi Superintendent ofPolice (SP). Terming the murderas ‘shameful’, the women’s rightsbody has directed the office of theKalahandi SP to furnish a detailedreport within 15 days. OSCWchairperson Minati Behera said,“This is a heinous crime. We havealready sought a report from theSP two days back and they will befurnishing the same within 15days.” The Commission has alsoasked the SP to conduct a freeand detailed investigation so thatthe culprit/s can be brought tojustice, she added.

A BJP delegation led by party’s state president Samir Mohanty meets Governor Ganeshi Lal

demanding expulsion of MoS, Home DS Mishra

A Congress delegation after submitting a memo to Governor Ganeshi Lal in Bhubaneswar OP PHOTOS

Activists of BJP Mahila Morcha during a protest near the Chief Minister’s residence, Wednesday

POST NEWS NETWORK

Khurda, Oct 20: Asking for re-payment of borrowed moneyturned fatal for a 19-year-old youthhere as he was killed by his friendnear Jatni Bypass here late Tuesdaynight, an official said Wednesday.

Addressing the media here,Khurda superintendent of police(SP) Raj Kishore Dora said theyhave taken Maheswar Das aliasMuna of Jatni Bypass ChacheraSabar Sahi here into custody.Maheswar has been nabbed oncharge of killing his friendRashmiranjan Pattjoshi aliasChandan of MukundaprasadSpinning Mill Labour Colony hereby slitting his throat.

The Khurda SP said Pattjoshiand Das were friends for years be-fore working as drivers at a pri-vate firm in the industrial areahere. Das had borrowed somemoney from Pattjoshi a few daysago. Their relationship startedturning sour when Pattjoshi askedthe money back recently.

The SP said it was a pre-plannedmurder that took place around10:30pm Tuesday.

“In a bid to execute the murder,Das asked Pattjoshi to meet himnear Jatni Bypass Chachera SabarSahi Square at 10:30pm. The meet-

ing had just begun when Das tookout a knife and stabbed Pattjoshibefore slitting his throat. Onlookersinformed Pattjoshi’s parents whoreached the place, barely 500 me-tres from their house, within a fewminutes just to find a profuselybleeding Pattjoshi lying in a poolof blood and Das standing nearbywith a blood-stained knife,” theKhurda SP said.

When asked by the Pattjoshis, theaccused confessed to have killedtheir son as ‘he was being rough formoney’, Dora said, adding thatsoon after Das fled the spot.

Soon after, an unconsciousPattjoshi was rushed to a nearbyhospital where he was declared‘dead on arrival’, the SP pointed out.

On the other hand, victim’s fa-ther Santosh Pattjoshi approachedthe Town police that registered acase (419/21) under relevant sectionsof the IPC and launched a probe.

Later, two police teams raided pos-sible hideouts of Das in the area.“We were tipped off that Das washeading for his uncle’s place inJanla area. One of our teams in-tercepted him near Janla Squarearound 4am Wednesday,” the sen-ior police official said.

A forensic team has collectedvital evidence from the crime scene.The body has been handed over tothe Pattjoshis after an autopsy, theKhurda SP added.

Friend turns foe in Khurda: Youth killed over money

Maheswar Das had borrowedsome money from Rashmiranjan

Pattjoshi a few days ago

Theirrelationship

startedturning sour

when Pattjoshiasked the

money back recently

THE MEETING HAD JUST BEGUNWHEN DAS TOOK OUT A KNIFE

AND STABBED PATTJOSHI BEFORESLITTING HIS THROAT

Blaze in Cuttackhouse; none hurt

POST NEWS NETWORK

Cuttack, Oct 20: A fire broke outat the first floor of a multi-storeyedresidential complex at ManikghoshBazar here Wednesday afternoon,a Fire Services official said.

The official added that no ca-sualty was reported although prop-erty worth lakhs of rupees were re-duced to cinders in the infernothat possibly sparked out from anearthen lamp and engulfed tworooms of a residential complexbelonging to an elderly womanhere.

The fire broke out around 2pm.“Two fire tenders from Buxi BazarFire Station were pressed intoservice. Firemen managed to dousethe blaze after a two-hour-long op-eration. An elderly woman, theonly occupant of the house, was res-cued unhurt,” assistant Fire offi-cer Abani Kumar Swain said.

Khurda SP Raj Kishore Dora at a presser

ODIA TRADITION

Girls worship the Moon god on the occasion of Kumar Purnima at Bali Sahi in Puri, Wednesday OP PHOTO

The terracotta exhibition at Ekamra Haat OP PHOTOS

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: Infosys co-founder Narayana Mur thyWednesday said the only way tosolve poverty in the country is to cre-ate more and more jobs with betterincomes. He also said that being agood citizen is about treating the so-ciety as one's own.

He said this while addressingthe 10th annual convocation of theIIT Bhubaneswar in virtual mode.Murthy underlined that the only wayto solve poverty in the country wasto create more and more jobs withbetter incomes.

“I have tremendous confidencein the power of youth, values, as-pirations, energy, confidence, de-termination, discipline and en-thusiasm,” Murthy said in hisaddress.

“But then, that requires that youpeople do some hard thinking, someintrospection and are determined todo what the previous generationshave not done,” the 75-year-old said.

He stressed on the need to createa civilised society where every cit-izen has equal opportunity to bet-ter one's life, every child has food,shelter, healthcare and education,and a society that focused on per-formance rather than empty slogans,among others.

Murthy, who was the chief guestat the convocation, told the IIT grad-uates to "be good citizens first and

then be good people".“In India, most of us are kind,

courteous and generous to our fam-ily, and perhaps to our close friends.This is being good people,” Murthyelucidated.He said being a good cit-izen is about treating the society asyour own, putting the interests ofthe society ahead of yours and yourfamily's interest, treating strangerswith courtesy and taking care of thecommons.

“Somehow, we do not care aboutresponsibility towards people out-side the family and friends' orbit,”Murthy rued.

That's why, we see corruption,people cleaning their homes andthrowing the dirt on to public roadsand that's why you see completelack of civic sense, according tothe Infosys founder.

"Remember, that this countrybelongs to you!" he said.

Murthy underscored that edu-cation was extremely importantin creating a stabilised society.

“We must create jobs in the man-ufacturing and the services sector.We need more engineers, scien-tists, bureaucrats and politicians thathave a mindset to encourage en-trepreneurship,” Murthy said.

He highlighted that English isthe 'only window' in the modernworld for Indians to access knowl-edge and achieve progress in sci-ence, technology, arts, medicine andeconomy.

Creating more jobs only wayto eradicate poverty: Murthy

In a bid to executethe murder, Dasasked Pattjoshi to meet him nearJatni BypassChachera SabarSahi Square at10:30pm

downtownTHURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP4

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AT LORD’S ABODE

Lord Sudarshan of Srimandir being taken on a procession as part of a ritual on Kumar Purnima in Puri, Wednesday

REPOSING FAITH

Jajpur MLA and BJD Organisational Secretary Pranab Prakash Das greets ex-Congress MLA Kailash Chandra Kulesika as the latter joins Biju Janata Dalin presence of party’s General Secretary (Media Affairs) Manas Mangaraj and Kotpad MLA Padmini Dian in Bhubaneswar, Wednesday OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: The 12thedition of Odisha EnvironmentCongress (OEC) will be organisedfrom December 18 to 20, 2021 atFakir Mohan University inBalasore.

Organising secretary of OEC,Sudarshan Das said the theme of2021 OEC is ‘Environment andPandemic’.

“Along with industrial progresswe have achieved in general and thepharmaceutical industry in par-ticular, infectious diseases are ris-ing due to globalisation, increasedtravel and trade activities, urban-isation, changes in human behav-iour, improper use of antibioticsamong others,” Das said.

The outbreak of Covid-19 showsthat infectious diseases spread rap-idly due to open economies andthreatens economic stability apartfrom disturbing the social fabric,he said. “Diseases like Black Death,SARS, Influenza H1N1 and SwineFlu had earlier caused similar im-pacts worldwide,” he added.

OEC Chairperson DK Roy saidthe occurrence of novel coron-

avirus and its disastrous socio-economic impact in India as wellas Odisha are well known.“Therefore, the 12th edition ofOEC has chosen Environment &Pandemic, as its main theme. Likeprevious years, this year too OECwill bring out a conference pro-ceeding incorporating researchand evidence based articles/pa-pers which will be released duringthe inaugural session of the three-day long conference.

The sub-themes of the OEC 2021,on which papers will be presented

are: Pandemic, Endemic andEpidemic, Pandemic &Environmental Impact, Pandemic-Socioeconomic Impact onAgriculture & Allied Activities,Food Security, Industry includingStartup Business etc.

The 12th edition of OEC is beingorg anised by Centre forEnvironment and Development inassociation with Centre forDevelopment Action and Research,Regional Museum of NaturalHistory, Fakir Mohan Universityand Xavier University.

12th edition of OEC at FM Univ from Dec 18

SJTA in jittery over bidto grab Srimandir plots

POST NEWS NETWORK

Puri, Oct 20: The Shree JagannathTemple Administration (SJTA)will soon write to the districtCollectors to examine the statusof the landed properties ofSrimandir under their respectivejurisdictions.

This comes after reports thatsome people in Soro area ofBalasore tried to grab landed prop-erties of the 12th century shrinethrough forged documents.

According to sources, some peo-ple had applied before Soro tehsil-dar to record Srimandir land intheir names. They had furnishedcertain letters of the SJTA and aSupreme Court order on the tem-ple land to support their cause.

Suspecting some foul play, Sorotehsildar raised the issue with theSJTA October 16. Soon, it wasfound that the applicants had sub-mitted fake documents to pressfor their case.

The SJTA made it clear that theapplicants had forged the signa-ture of SJTA chief administratorfor preparing fake letters of the

temple administration. The shrineauthorities also claimed that the ap-plicants submitted some false doc-uments as Supreme Court order be-fore the Soro tehsildar.

The temple administration haslodged an FIR in this regard withSinghadwar police.

In addition to this, FIRs againsttwo former Amins of Srimandir of-fice were lodged at Soro police sta-tion in connection with the landg rab bid. The two Amins—Chittaranjan Panigrahi and RabiNarayan Das—were working forthe temple office in Balasore dis-trict in between 2018 and 2021.

Meanwhile, the locals andSrimandir servitors have soughta high-level probe into the entireepisode. They also urged the SJTAto examine the status of landedproperties of Srimandir in vari-ous districts.

“Some people have forged thesignature of SJTA chief adminis-trator to prepare fake letters andtried to occupy temple land. Thisis a serious issue. A high-levelprobe into the incident would un-earth the conspiracy behind the

land grab attempt,” said seniorDaitapati servitor BinayakDasmahapatra.

BJP leader Jayanta Kumar Dashsought a CBI or Crime Branchprobe into the incident. “The tem-ple administration should comeforward for a proper probe intothe incident and take action againstthe guilty. It cannot run away fromits responsibilities by saying thattwo former Amins of Srimandir of-fice were behind the land grab at-tempt,” Dash said.

SJTA administrator (develop-ment) Ajay Kumar Jena said thetemple administration will soonwrite to district Collectors to checkthe status of Srimandir lands com-ing under their jurisdictions.

“We will write to the Collectorsto keep tab on Srimandir lands,” headded.

Some people had applied beforeSoro tehsildar to record Srimandir

land in their names

They had also furnished certainletters of the SJTA and a SupremeCourt order on the temple land to

support their cause

Suspecting some foul play, Sorotehsildar raised the issue with the

SJTA October 16. Soon, it was found that the applicants had

submitted fake documents to pressfor their case

FIRs against two former Amins ofSrimandir office were lodged at

Soro police station in connectionwith the land grab bid

EX-TEMPLE AMINS IN DOCK

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: The state,for the second consecutive day,logged above 550 new Covid-19cases taking the tally to 10,36,532Wednesday while two fresh fa-talities pushed the death toll to8,296, a Health department offi-cial said.

While the state Wednesday re-ported 559 new cases, the figure was556 on the previous day and 340Monday.

Wednesday’s new cases included71 children and adolescents. Therate of infection among the pop-ulation in the age group of 0 to 18years stands at 12.70 per cent.

Of the 559 fresh cases detectedin 23 of the state's 30 districts, 321came from quarantine centreswhile 238 were local contacts.Khurda district of which

Bhubaneswar is a part, reportedthe highest 279 fresh infectionsfollowed by Cuttack (54), the offi-cial said.

One Covid-19 patient each died

in Jagatsinghpur and Nayagarh dis-tricts, taking the state's death tollto 8,296.

The state’s daily test positivityrate (TPR) stands at 0.79 per centas 559 people were detected with thedisease out of 70,586 samples testedTuesday. The TPR was 0.97 percent the previous day.

The state currently has 4,785active cases while 10,23,398 pa-tients including 618 on Tuesdayrecovered from coronavirus.

The state has thus far conductedover 2.12 crore sample tests.

As many as 1.02 crore peoplehave been fully inoculated withdouble doses of Covid-19 vaccinestill Tuesday, the official said.

550+ new cases for 2nd consecutive dayOF THE 559 FRESH CASES

DETECTED IN 23DISTRICTS, 321 CAME FROMQUARANTINE CENTRESWHILE 238 WERE LOCALCONTACTS

THE RATE OF INFECTIONAMONG THE

POPULATION IN THE AGEGROUP OF 0 TO 18 YEARSSTANDS AT 12.70 PER CENT

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: SAIInternational School studentGoutam Das scored 282 out of 360in JEE Advanced 2021 and securedthe all-India rank (AIR) 115. He isalso the state topper.

Goutam, a meritorious and hardworking student, qualified IIT-JEEin the first attempt and now de-sires to study in IIT-Mumbai. He wasalso the state topper in NEST 2021wherein his all-India rank was 6.Earlier, he secured 98.6% in ClassXII CBSE Board Examination 2021.

Goutam comes from a simplebackground. His father RavindraDas is a businessman in Balasore,while his mother Madhumita Dasis a housewife. He believes thatpractice and only practice hashelped him secured such a per-centile. He has taken no less than180 practice tests for JEE. He startedwith preparing from the basicNCERT books and subsequentlygraduated to others. Goutam con-fessed that he did not aspire to be-come an engineer but it was his lovefor mathematics that made himtake the IIT-JEE examinations.

Goutam suggested that anyonewho wants to appear for the JEEexams should first be thorough inhis/her basic concepts and then getinto other high-level course content.

The pandemic and the lockdownsdid not dampen his spirit to studyhard. In fact, Goutam was happythat the lockdown gave him a lot of

time to focus on his studies. He at-tended his online classes and be-cause of the lockdown his schoolteachers were always available toclear his doubts over phone calls.About his school, Goutam said thathis school helped him a lot in hispreparation for Board examina-tions as well as JEE. Regarding hisfuture plans, he said he wants tograduate in Computer Science andlater become an IAS officer andserve the nation.

Silpi Sahoo, Chairperson of SAIInternational Education Group,said, “Goutam Das’ hard work, per-severance and dedication have helpedhim reap fruits of success. He hasnot only made the school proud butalso the entire state is proud of hisaccomplishment. I wish him all thebest on his future endeavours.”

Goutam Das cracked JEE Advanced in 1st attempt

A hard working Goutamwants to graduate inComputer Science and later become an IAS officerand serve the nation

Cuttack: A youth died after jumpingoff the Kathajodi river bridgebetween Press Chhak and Gopalpurhere Wednesday. The ODRAF team,which was pressed to action afterthe youth jumped from the bridge,found his body after hours of searchoperation. The deceased wasidentified as Sapan Kumar Behera ofKharavel Nagar area inBhubaneswar and worked as acourier delivery boy. The exactcause leading to his jumping off thebridge is yet to be ascertained.Earlier in the month, a man workingas a laboratory assistant at a collegein Bhubaneswar went missing afterjumping into Mahanadi River fromthe bridge near Jagatpur in CuttackTown September 26.

Man dies after jumpingoff Kathajodi bridge

Notorious criminalBiju hurt in PuriencounterAGENCIES

Puri, Oct 20: The prime accusedin the firing and extortion bid in-cident which left a woman injuredin the pilgrim town of Puri Tuesdaywas caught after a police encounterWednesday.

The main accused identified asa notorious criminal Biju Behera,a resident of Gokhasahi in Puri, hadgone into hiding shortly after thefiring incident.

Acting on a tip-off about hispresence in Chandanpur, a specialteam of police conducted raid in thearea. As per sources, Biju waswarned to surrender, however, thecriminal first opened fire at thecops leading the police to resortto retaliatory firing.

Later, after a brief exchange offire, Biju was overpowered by thepolice personnel.

He has reportedly received gun-shot wounds on his left leg andhas been admitted to Puri districtheadquarters hospital.

A pistol and three rounds of liveammunition have been seized fromBiju.

TODAYWASSUP

BHUBANESWARn Police Commemoration Day,

Reserve Police Line, 7:45am

n ‘Impact Talk’, Centre for theSustainable Use of Natural andSocial Resources, online, 5:00pm

Programmes/announcements forwassup today may be sent to

opwassup@gmail.com for record, it must also carry the sender’s

mobile number for our verification,but not for publication.

Cuttack: Chauliaganj policeWednesday claimed to havearrested four persons in connectionwith illegal firearms trade in thecity. The accused were identified asSoumendra Sahu of Thatara Sahi inthe Silver City, Sk Sajid Ali of Tirtol,Sudarshan Mallick and Badal KumarJena of Biridi in Jagatsinghpur, saidPolice Commissioner SaumendraPriyadarshi at a presser here. Ateam of Chauliaganj police caughtthe accused at GatirautapatnaTuesday night and seized five gunsand 12 bullets from them. Two bikesand five mobile phones were alsoseized from the accused,Priyadarshi said. The accusedwere selling guns to criminals ofCuttack city and its nearby areas,police said.

4 held for arms trade

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stateTHURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP5

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

People of Kantasaru village in Kudumuluguma panchayat in Malkangiri district repair a stretch of road which has been in bad shape for a long time. Villagershad drawn attention of the block administration and people’s representatives towards the bad condition of the road, but nothing was done OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bargarh/Ambabhona, Oct 20:Hundreds of people inAmbabhobna block of Bargarhdistrict have to face displacementagain. This time around, the dis-placement is going to bring moremiseries for them, a report said.

According to reports, due toHirakud reservoir, people offourvillage like Rengali, Kurumkel,Bhuthili and Balijori had been dis-placed. These villages are locatednear the reservoir. However, thesevillages were identified as part ofan eco-sensitive zone December10, 2015.

In 1985, an area of 353 squarekm of Chaladhara and Debrigarhforests in Bargarh district was de-clared as a sanctuary. The areawas later considered a wildlife conservation project.

In 2017, as many as 46 families inDebrigarh and Jhagadabehera villageswere displaced in the first phase.

The above-said four villages havebeen identified as a buffer zone ofthe sanctuary. Meanwhile, the for-est department has started relo-cating people after organising a pallisabha in the area. It has declareda compensation package for thepeople. The administration has as-

sured people that they would berehabilitated at Chakramal.

Villagers are worried that theyhave no way but to leave their homeand hearth in a few days.

Worried over displacement,Megharam Thekua of Kurumkel,said, “Displacement is more hor-rible than natural disasters likefloods and cyclones. What will hap-pen in future is haunting us everyday. What will happen to our liveli-hood? We have lost our sleep. Wewere displaced earlier. Again we willbe displaced.”

Expressing concern over thedisplacement, Ganapati Dharua,another resident of Kurumkel,said they were displaced by Hirakudreservoir in 1948. “Many of us havenot yet received compensation asdeclared then. After the displace-ment, we had to walk miles inforests and finally settled here.Again, we will be displaced. It isvery painful,” he noted.

Social activist Amitabh Patrasaid before the displacement, thegovernment had declared to provide10 decimals of land for houses in1948. Land has not been providedtill date, he added. Patra also de-manded that people facing dis-placement be provided with 20 dec-imals of land. Under the OdishaLivelihood Mission, all displacedpeople should be ensured scope oflivelihood, he observed.

Villagers haunted by fearof second displacement

SUMAN MOHANTY, OP

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: India hasproduced many bravehearts whohave made supreme sacrifice for themotherland. Odisha is not far be-hind when it comes to producingsuch brave sons.

Captain Eric James Tucker wasa young and handsome Army of-ficer and the first Ashok Chakraawardee in Odisha. His saga ofvalour and supreme sacrifice isunparalleled as he died for themotherland fighting the Naga in-surgents. However, his is a for-gotten lore as the state and thecountry have done litt le to honour the legend.

Born in Cuttack, October 21,1927, Captain Tucker studied inStewart School before shifting toKoraput with his father who wasin Odisha Police. The school, whichhas produced many stalwarts in-cluding Netaji Subhash ChandraBose, has a rich history of educa-tion. The 138-year old institution wasinstrumental in shaping the form-ative years of Tucker.

PV Narsayyah , an ex-Stewartonian, said Captain Tuckerwas awarded the Ashok Chakra, thehighest gallantry award posthu-

mously by the President of IndiaJanuary 26, 1958. As an ex-studentof the school, he said, he is sadthat people have forgotten thesupreme sacrifice of Tucker.

Captain Tucker served in the2nd Battalion of the Maratha LightInfantry. When the unit was con-tacted, the details of late Captain’sson Yashwant Tucker were traced.

Yashwant, a former Air Indiaemployee leading a retired life inMumbai, was contacted and a newstory unfolded that Captain Tuckerhad his roots in Odisha. Yashwantsaid he was only 11 months oldwhen his father attained martyr-dom. This he had heard from his

mother and grandmother.He mentioned that the Indian

Army and the 2nd Maratha LightInfantry have always kept in touchwith him. However he has not heardanything from his father’s schoolor the state of Odisha till date. Nowafter Narasayya remembered hissenior, Stewart School, Cuttack is con-ducting a special assembly to hon-our the braveheart on his birthdayOctober 21, 2021. Captain Eric Tuckerwas assigned the task of openingthe lines of communication fromChakabama to Phek during theNagaland uprising in 1957 and destroythe hostile concentrations en routeto establish a post at Meluri. This taskwas achieved October 9, 1956.

Employing feats of skill in clear-ing varied obstacles on the road,showing great leadership in cross-ing turbulent Tizu river, neutral-ising hostile resistance opposing theadvance with courage and deter-mination, infusing great confi-dence on the troops under his com-mand, Captain Tucker achievedthis task in nine days.

Captain Tucker was to movefrom Khusami to Kirikhu, August2, 1957. Hostile elements, who hadobtained prior information of hismove, laid an ambush from the

thick undergrowth. Captain Tucker was hit in his face

and leg. But, he stood his groundand engaged the enemies with hisstengun and firing from the hipuntil his magazine was empty. Hecharged towards the enemies witha grenade. However, a further burstof automatic fire hit him in hischest and he collapsed and attainedmartyrdom.

Captain Eric James Tucker a forgotten legend THE FIRST ASHOK CHAKRA RECIPIENT OF ODISHA IS REMEMBERED ON HIS 94TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY TODAY

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Nuapada, Oct 20: In mid-September this year, a group ofwomen from Dharambandha village- situated in the Sadar block ofNuapada district - went for a bathin the village canal. Nearby, a shopwas selling liquor to some men.Soon, under the influence of alco-hol, these men proceeded to molestthe women. When the womenprotested, the drunkards startedabusing them.

Although no official complaintwas registered with the police, thevillage's youth decided to eradi-cate this problem from its roots.They started an alcohol de-addic-tion campaign in Dharambandha.

“I was present during the inci-dent that took place near the canal.I had been protesting against thesale of liquor there. However, no oneagreed. But after the incident, ameeting was held in which all thewomen of the village participated,and the decision to ban liquor wastaken,” said villager PadmaDewangan.

Confronting this reality, theyouth of Dharambandha villagedecided to take matters into theirown hands. They initiated an al-

cohol de-addiction campaign withthe cooperation of the villageSarpanch.

As a result, the sarpanch calledthe gram sabha meeting September21, where the decision to prohibitliquor in the village was passedwith mutual consensus.Plan for the ban

Located 20 km from district head-quarters, Dharambandha has apopulation of about 6,000. Here,selling, buying and making anykind of liquor is now prohibited.No one can open a liquor shop ora furnace to brew liquor. If some-one is caught selling liquor, they willbe fined ̀ 51,000 and forced to paradearound the village wearing a gar-land of shoes and slippers. Theperson caught buying alcohol willbe fined `5,100.

An action committee consistingof 25 men and 25 women fromDharambandha has been formedto enforce the prohibition. Fivesenior members supervise them.The committee's job is to conductraids on places selling liquor basedon the information received. A dayafter the prohibition, the actioncommittee had raided a place afterreceiving information about con-tinuing liquor sales. However, no

alcohol was found.An active member

of the alcohol de-ad-diction campaign,Ankit Jain told101Reporters that vil-lagers also wrote a letter toDharambandha police station,the SP Office and the ExciseDepartment informing them aboutthe campaign. “We got assuranceof cooperation from them,” Jainadded.No more ‘bad water’

The ban on alcohol inDharambandha was not just wel-come but also seemed necessary.According to Ramesh Sahu of thevillage, people's health deterio-rated due to excessive liquor con-sumption. Most of the deaths in thevillage were due to sharab. (Sharabis an Arabic word derived fromthe combination of Shar meaning'bad' and Aab meaning 'water')

Liquor was being sold in thestreets, and the villagers hadstarted depleting their savings to

buy it. Some vil-lagers said thatcases of atroci-ties on women

and domestic vio-lence had also in-

creased. Even the vil-lage children started

drinking alcohol with the moneythey got for chocolates or icecream.

Sadanand Majhi, the presidentof the de-addiction campaign,claimed that crime has reduced inthe village after the ban. Earlier,there used to be eight to ten inci-dents of abuse and assault in thevillage. However, no such caseshave come to light recently.

Now, the focus is on develop-ment and cleanliness of the vil-lage. Children and youth are concentrating on studies and sports,he told 101Reporters.

For mer Sar panch ofDharambandha, Kusum Sahu res-onated with Majhi's statement. Shesaid, “Earlier, it was difficult for

women to leave the house. But eversince the ban, the women have beenfeeling safe. Not onlyDharmabandha, but the entire coun-try should also be alcohol-free.”

The slogan of prohibition getsits strength from women. Today,all the women of Dharambandhaare unitedly involved in the drugde-addiction campaign. However,while women of the village arehappy, liquor traders and winelovers are disappointed withthis decision.

Harinder Singh, manager of oneof the liquor shops in the village,had opposed the ban, but this hadno effect. He said, “With the mutualconsent of the villagers, the sale ofliquor is prohibited in the village.At present, liquor is not being sold,and everyone is following the rules.Let's see what happens next.”

“Post the ban, there has beenno case of selling liquor inDharmabandha. The campaign isgoing well so far. However, if wedon't get continued cooperation,then we are prepared to go directlyto the Excise SP and the Collector,”said Omprakash Kalar, the villagesarpanch. This has also createdfear among the liquor traders of thesurrounding areas.

Dharambandha has set suchan example from which the wholecountry can take a lesson.Nuapada MLA Rajendra Dholakiatold 101Reporters, “The peopleof Dharambandha have taken ahistoric decision. This step iswelcome. I hope their campaignis successful.”

Village bans liquor after molestation caseLocated 20 km from Nuapada district headquarters,

Dharambandha has a population of about 6,000.Here, selling, buying and making any kind of liquorhas been prohibited. No one can open a liquor shop

or a furnace to brew liquor

TOTAL PROHIBITION

POST NEWS NETWORK

Mahakalpara, Oct 20: Illegal fish-ing has been rampant in prohibitedarea along the coast underMahakalpara block in Kendrapara.Hundreds of trawlers are now seenfishing inside Gahirmatha sanc-tuary in the evening time.

By morning, these trawlers re-portedly net huge quantities offish. Fish is transported in hun-dreds of vans and trucks to Kolkata,Raipur, Balasore and AndhraPradesh.

When illegal fishing has beenrampant in the prohibited zonemarked for the marine turtles, thesilence maintained by the forestdepartment, the fisheries depart-ment, the marine police stationand the Coast Guard has come intoquestion.

It was alleged that most of thetrawlers engaged in fishing in pro-hibited area belong to people ofDigha (West Bengal), Balasore,Bhadrak, Kasaphala, Dhamra andBalaramgadi.

Such fishing activities in pro-hibited areas have posed seriousdanger to Olive Ridleys.Environmentalists have expressedconcern over such development.

“The ganj nets used by thesetrawlers for fishing are a majordanger to the marine turtles,” saidSamarendra Mahalik, an envi-ronmentalist.

Mahalik was shocked to see howtrawlers have been allowed to fishinside the prohibited area.

Conscious citizens likeLaxmikant Swain, Subash Swainand Nirakar Swain have cast theirdoubts on the role of forest de-partment, the fisheries department,the marine police station and theCoast Guard as illegal fishing goeson in the prohibited zone for the ma-rine turtles.

They have alleged that valuablefish varieties are caught in pro-hibited area and trawler ownersearn big bucks, but the adminis-tration is taking no action againstthe trawlers. These trawlers shouldbe seized, they added.

One can see hundreds of trawlersfishing every day in Mahandi nearBahakud village.

When contacted, IIC of Jambumarine police station Paresh KumarMohanty said information was re-ceived about entry of trawlers inthe prohibited area. “Action will betaken against the trawlers soon,”he assured.

Trawlers in prohibitedarea on a fishing spreeOlive Ridley turtles face threat in Gahirmatha sanctuary

Born in Cuttack, Oct 21,1927, Tucker studied inStewart School. His fatherwas in Odisha police

LIVELIHOOD

A woman artisan drying mud-covered terracotta items in the sun before theyare taken to furnace at a village in Angul OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Sambalpur, Oct 20: Following areport published in Orissa POSTabout suspected killing of a tuskerby poachers in Mundei-Dumberchua reserve forest underSambalpur forest division, the for-est department has intensified itsprobe to know its veracity.

Notably, locals talked about pos-sibility of an elephant having beenkilled and buried in the forest as foulsmell had spread in the area Tuesday.On being informed about it, theDFO had ordered an investigation

into the matter Tuesday. ACFMadanlal Sharma visited the for-est where the tusker was suspectedto have been buried.

Jhankarpalli foresterSuryanarayan Khillari,Bhimkhoj foresterKulamani Panigrahi andother forest officials visitedthe area, but failed to find the car-cass. Surprisingly, they found marksof tyres of bike and vehicles criss-crossing the area. This pointed topossible presence of poachers in theforest. A team of officials was stillcarrying out a search for the car-

cass in the forest. A local resident claimed that a de-

composed carcass of a tusker waslying near a pond in theforest some days ago. Thecarcass had no tusks, buthad injury marks. It wassuspected that the animalhad died five days ago as a

foul smell had spread in the area.But there was no trace of the

carcass anywhere. Locals suspectedthat poachers might have burntthe carcass with petrol and fire-wood. The burnt remains of the car-cass might have been buried some-

where to destroy the evidence. Elephants have been causing

mayhem in the area for a week.Locals claimed that the tuskermight be part of the herd. For thelast few days, Tharli, Bhabanipalli,Mundei and Sitelpalli are wit-nessing elephant menace. A herdof 26 elephants damaged paddyand other crops in the region.

Notably, an elephant had beenkilled earlier in Padiabahal range.Its carcass had been burnt andburied. However, it was then alleged that the forest depart-ment had suppressed the matter.

Forest dept intensifies probe, but clueless

The villages are in thebuffer zone of sanctuary.The forest dept hasstarted relocating peopleafter organising a pallisabha and declaring acompensation packagefor the affected

SUSPECTED POACHING OF TUSKER IN SAMBALPUR

WORDSWORTH

power post P6

When the election gods handed Joe Biden the presidency in 2020, theyset a trap that he walked right into. The question – one that coulddefine his presidency and affect the 2024 presidential election – is

whether he can escape the trap formed by the narrow margins the DemocraticParty has in both chambers of Congress. Along with the presidency, Bidenwas handed a 50-50 vote in the Senate, with the deciding vote to be cast byVice President Kamala Harris, and an eight-vote margin in the House ofRepresentatives. Thus, one Democratic Senator or four DemocraticRepresentatives can block any Biden initiative.

Notwithstanding this, Biden proposed the expansion or initiation of nu-merous domestic programmes, with improvements to the “social safetynet” and environmental efforts. Most of these programmes are popular.Combating climate change has more Democratic than Republican support,and the White House wants it badly because Biden will attend the UN cli-mate-change summit (COP26) in Glasgow October 31. This may have beenwhat led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to set the October 31 deadline forCongress to pass the “human infrastructure/climate” Bill.

The $3.5 trillion cost of programmes on the scale Biden envisaged appearedto be high. Spread over ten years, it amounted to $350 billion annually, a lessalarming amount (though the White Housefailed to communicate this effectively). Earlierestimated costs of the package had placed itat between $6 and $10 trillion, largely becauseSenator Bernie Sanders, the most Left-lean-ing senator, is chairman of the Senate BudgetCommittee. Still, $3.5 trillion had the ap-pearance of being a negotiable number.

But in settling on such an apparently highoverall number, did Biden and his aides over-look the fact that, of the 50 Democratic sen-ators, at least two couldn’t be counted uponto go along with such a sum? Joe Manchin, theDemocratic senator from West Virginia, whichhas been turning Republican, is believed tobe the only Democrat who can carry the state.He won it in 2018 by 3.3 percentage points. Bycontrast, Donald Trump won West Virginiain the 2016 presidential election by 42 points.Though Manchin is the most conservativeSenate Democrat, his party has a strong in-terest in him winning re-election in 2024 if itis to maintain control of the Senate.

The other unreliable vote is that of KyrstenSinema, a Democrat from Arizona and a mys-tery to her Senate colleagues. Once a radicalLeftist, she’s now right of center. So far as isknown, Sinema has resisted telling almostanyone how she wants the human infra-structure/climate provisions changed – though she says she’s told thePresident, who has met with Manchin and Sinema several times. Furthervexing the Democrats’ leaders, the two rebels are understood to want differentthings. White House impatience with Sinema is growing.

Though Biden served as President Barack Obama’s Vice President, he ap-parently failed to learn the lesson of Obama’s healthcare initiative. Obamaand his aides did a poor job of explaining what was in their proposal, whichgave the Republicans an opportunity to speak of “socialised medicine” and“death panels.” Similarly, most of what the public now understands ofBiden’s package is that it was to cost $3.5 trillion. The President maintainsthat the package can be paid for by raising taxes on the super-wealthy andbusinesses, but not everyone is convinced.

The social welfare-climate programme is being considered as “reconcil-iation” Bill because it would be passed under a Senate procedure that requiresa majority vote rather than the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster. Thiswas necessary because there are not ten Republican votes to add to the 50Democratic votes (or 49 plus Harris). So, if Manchin or Sinema opposes theproposed Bill, it would fail – a crushing blow to Biden. Manchin, who rep-resents a coal-mining state and has grown rich from holdings in coal mines,has reportedly vetoed the clean-air provisions, which will likely force arewrite of the bill.

Almost simultaneously, another proposed Bill, composed of “hard” in-frastructure programmes – building or repairing roads, bridges, tunnels, ports,levees and waterways, as well as the delivery of clean drinking water – wasmoving forward. The hard infrastructure program, costing a little over $1trillion, has bipartisan support: nineteen Senate Republicans voted for it.Few politicians want to turn down such a boon to their constituents.

The coexistence of these two programmes deepened divisions withinboth parties. Though moderate Republicans are nearly extinct, the Democratsare deeply divided, particularly in the House. Almost no right-wing Democratsremain nowadays, as members who held such views became Republicans.The Democratic caucus in each chamber is dominated by liberals – whichled them to display little interest in negotiating with the moderates. But whenBiden indicated that he would go for a smaller number out of necessity, theybecame more open to compromise. The liberal Democrats don’t trust the party’smoderates to keep their word about supposed agreements, such as whetherthey’d support the “human infrastructure/climate” programme in certaincircumstances.

One reason for the divide is that these two groups have different constituencies.Those on the left have little reason to worry about re-election as opposed tomembers from “swing” districts. The disagreements have prevented progresson the “human infrastructure/climate” Bill as well as on the timing of con-gressional consideration of both Bills. This stalemate has also contributedto an impression of a hapless President. Biden’s team is aware that hispresidency may be at stake. So, too, is the Democrats’ tenuous control of Congress.

But something even more important is at risk. Though there were otherfactors, the sense – particularly among the middle class – that the govern-ment is incapable of acting in their interest is widely understood to have fu-eled Donald Trump’s 2016 victory. With Trump now hovering on the brinkof another presidential race (unless his legal problems prove insurmount-able), and likely obtaining almost unhindered power if he wins, somethingfar more than two federal programmes is riding on the legislative outcome.America's democracy is also endangered.

The writer is a Washington-based journalist and the author.©PROJECT SYNDICATE

M izoram has made news --not necessarily for thewrong reasons. North-

Eastern India generally makesnews due to insurgency-relatedincidents or instances of violenceand killings. This time a mother of15 children and a widow has beenhonoured and rewarded with acash prize of ̀ 1 lakh by Mizoram’sSports Minister Robert RomawiaRoyte.

The reason is that the nativeMizo population is dwindling andhence women like her are beingawarded and honoured. The un-precedented show had the back-ing of the influential Young MizoAssociation (YMA) and aPresbyterian Church leader RevPM Manikama. The state SportsMinister, Robert Romawia Royte,also loves to be called ‘Triple R’, infact has distributed ̀ 2.5 lakh to 17women who delivered ‘more chil-dren’ at a function held within hisAizawl East-II constituency.

The dwindling population and‘fertility’ issues are of general con-cern in the North-East. There arealso other issues. The local Christiantribals do not believe in the gov-ernment’s policy of family planning.The Nagas generally use the re-frain – a mother’s womb is not agraveyard. The population issue

remains a vexed problem in theNorth-Eastern region, which hasmore than 200 linguistic and eth-nic groups across the seven statesof Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya,Manipur, Assam, Tripura andArunachal Pradesh.

Of these, three Christian-ma-jority states are Mizoram, Nagalandand Meghalaya.

Meghalaya, the hub of Khasis,Garos and Jaintia tribals practisesmatriarchy. Nagaland has so farnot elected any woman legislatorand Mizoram has elected only twoin the past and more so as an ex-ception. Royte belongs to the re-gional outfit Mizo National Front,the party led by Chief MinisterZoramthanga. Royte said that theincentives to mothers were givenin accordance with 'more childrendrive' launched by different churchbodies and denominations and theYoung Mizo Association (YMA).Such a gesture is not new toMizoram. In 2018, a Baptist churchin remote Lunglei district townhad announced incentives to en-courage couples to have more ba-bies in an effort to check theirdwindling numbers.

Of course, this disregards the na-tional policy for control population.The church in remote Lungleitown had said it would pay fami-

lies a one-time cash assistance of`4,000 for a fourth child and anadditional `1,000 for each newchild. These are very sensitivematters. The issue of dwindlingnumbers in the region should beunderstood in a socio-politicalcontext. Ethnic minority groupsfear being swamped by ‘outsiders’from mainland India and othertribal groups. Nagas witnessedviolent days in the mid-1990s intheir confrontation and clasheswith Kukis. The menace hit bothNagaland and parts of Manipur.In Mizoram, the native Lushaisare not happy to entertain Brus,especially when it comes to casting votes.

Mizo youth leaders would read-ily tell one that the locals are “notagainst professionals coming andworking in our state”. The fearand objections are of a regular in-flux. Here too certain complexi-ties work. Mizoram has for monthsnow accommodated and helped‘refugees’ from Chin province ofMyanmar who have taking shel-ter after facing persecution fol-lowing the harsh military actionsthere since the February coup.

Yes, ‘sharing’ ethnic bond is a cru-cial factor in the entire debate.Moving out of the North-East, weknow the population debate is of

general concern. India currently isthe world’s second most populousnation after China. There is a ‘na-tional policy’ to check populationgrowth even as it is not illegal tohave more children.

According to the UN figures, in2019, India had an estimated pop-ulation of 1.37 billion and China 1.43billion. Now experts say by 2027, itis possible that India will surpassChina’s population. It is estimatedthat India could add nearly 273 mil-lion people to its population be-tween 2021 and 2050.

The answers to some queriestriggered by these debates are notknown to us as of now. Nor do I wantto hazard a guess. If an answerhas to be decided by a democraticprocess, it is difficult to conceive ofa more satisfactory method or sys-tem than that is embodied in the ex-isting structures. Family is a pri-vate business and the state shouldhave no business. But is it so?

Society and policy makers hencecome back to the same questionposed on a number of occasions per-taining to different pressing prob-lems. The question is - What is theright way for us to get forward?

The writer is a New Delhi-based journalist.

IANS

The population explosion debate

COMPETITION AND COEXISTENCET

hese are demandingtimes. Geopolitical ten-sions are rising, prima-rily – but not exclusively

– between China and the UnitedStates. Yet, at the same time, thereis a deep need for inclusive globalcooperation to fight the pandemicand meet the threat of climatechange. How the leading powersmanage these competing demandswill set the course of global de-velopment in the years anddecades ahead.

Over the past few weeks, theUS and China have attempted toestablish some guardrails to pre-vent rising tensions from spiral-ing out of control. Following a re-cent meeting in Switzerland withhis Chinese counterpart, YangJiechi, US National SecurityAdviser Jake Sullivan spoke aboutthe need for “responsible compe-tition” between the two countries– a choice of words we haven’theard before.

But as welcome as this rhetoricis, the reality is that the US andChina are still locked in a deep-ening rivalry. The US decision tosupply Australia with nuclear sub-marines – the delivery of which willnot come for many years – wasintentionally framed to seem likea major strategic move to counterChinese maritime expansion.Similarly, at a two-day meeting inPittsburgh last month, EU and USofficials outlined an agenda fornew talks over trade and tech-nology, placing special emphasison the need for defensive meas-ures against China. In Washington,DC, speculation about a potentialChinese invasion of Taiwan isrunning rampant and driving nu-merous decisions.

An increasingly authoritarianand assertive China is not theonly geopolitical concern. Russia,too, poses a revisionist threat,with President Vladimir Putinissuing pronouncements thatopenly challenge Ukrainian sov-ereignty and cast doubt on theutility of diplomacy in handlingthe war in Ukraine’s Donbas re-gion or issues stemming fromRussia’s annexation of Crimea.Just as many in the US see a drift

toward war with China overTaiwan, many in Europe worryabout a similar escalation withRussia over Ukraine.

But the need for cooperationto meet even larger challengesshould be obvious. When worldleaders gather in Rome later thismonth for the G20 summit, theywill have to confront the fact thatwe have made it only halfway (atbest) in our fight against theCOVID-19 pandemic.

At a recent summit hosted byUS President Joe Biden, repre-sentatives from more than 100governments, international in-stitutions, business, and civil so-ciety committed to vaccinating“70% of the population in everycountry and income category”by next September. That targetis still a long way off. At the mo-ment, approximately 37% of theglobal population has been fullyvaccinated, and there is a glaringand dangerous inequity betweenhigh- and low-income countries.Indeed, high-income countrieshave administered 32 times asmany doses per inhabitant as low-income countries.

The truism that no one is safeuntil everyone is safe is as relevantas ever. There is no guaranteethat the Delta variant will be thelast mutation to trigger new epi-

demic waves. It is humanity ver-sus the virus. We urgently needto mobilise additional resourcesto distribute not only vaccinesbut also tests and treatments. Inthis context, China’s potentialcontributions cannot be ignored.It produces more vaccines thanany other country, and it will playa key role in any new global struc-tures that are created to preventor fight future outbreaks (anyone of which could be far moredangerous than COVID-19).

Likewise, when global leadersmeet for the UN climate-changesummit (COP26) in Glasgow nextmonth, they will have to make upfor lost time. A recent report fromthe International Energy Agencypaints an alarming picture of howmuch work there is to be done todecarbonise the economy. Thisyear, we will see the second-high-est increase in carbon-dioxideemissions in history, indicatingno progress toward a 2050 net-zeroemissions target. Worse, govern-ments’ current pledges cover lessthan 20% of the reductions neededby 2030 to keep global warmingwithin 1.5° Celsius of the averagepre-industrial temperature.

Everyone must do more, butfew single actors are as impor-tant as China. If it doesn’t reduceits enormous dependence on coal,

global targets will remain out ofreach. China’s recent announce-ment that it will end its overseasfinancing of coal projects is po-tentially very significant: thatalone could reduce emissions byas much as the European Unionreaching net-zero by 2050. But eventhen, China and everyone else willhave more to do.

As with the pandemic, climatechange puts all of humanity on thesame side against a threat thatcould all too easily spiral out of con-trol. To be sure, today’s geopolit-ical tensions are real, and issueslike Taiwan and Ukraine mustnot be neglected. Democracieshave every reason to stand to-gether against revisionist ag-gression. But the pandemic and cli-mate change are problems thatcan be addressed effectively onlyif everyone is committed to work-ing together. Achieving that out-come will require true global states-manship, and progress toward itmust be the standard against whichdiplomacy is judged.

The writer was Sweden’sForeign Minister from 2006 to

2014 and Prime Ministerfrom 1991 to 1994, when he

negotiated Sweden’s EU accession. ©PROJECT SYNDICATE

FOCUS

SPECTRUM

Just when the world needs to come together to tackle the pandemic andmobilise a response to climate change, geopolitical tensions are rising, threatening the prospects of cooperation. The situation demandsa level of global statesmanship that has yet to materialize

Biden’s Trap

THURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

But few are those who tread thesunlit path; only the pure in soulcan walk in light.

SRI AUROBINDO

MIZORAM

AN INCREASINGLYAUTHORITARIANAND ASSERTIVE

CHINA IS NOT THE ONLY

GEOPOLITICALCONCERN.

RUSSIA, TOO,POSES A

REVISIONISTTHREAT

Carl Bildt

GEOPOLITICS

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

B-15, Rasulgarh Industrial Estate,Bhubaneswar-751010

LettersTO THE EDITOR

THE DWINDLINGPOPULATION AND

‘FERTILITY’ ISSUESARE OF GENERALCONCERN IN THE

NORTH-EAST. THELOCAL CHRISTIAN

TRIBALS DO NOTBELIEVE IN THE

GOVERNMENT’SPOLICY OF FAMILY

PLANNING

Nirendra Dev

No peace yet

Sir, Two years have passed since the abrogation ofArticle 370 but Kashmir valley has not achieved peace.Thirty-three civilians have been killed this year andthe recent attacks on migrant labourers tell a lot of thingsabout the failure of the authorities in tackling terrorism.The killings of minorities have led to a fear psychosisakin to what was witnessed in 1990 when the KashmiriPandits left their homeland en masse. If this trend con-tinues, everyone including, Kashmiri Pandits, non-locallabourers and non-Muslim workers, will be forced toleave Kashmir again and history will repeat itself. Thegovernment needs to immediately provide security tothe minorities and keep a watch on their business in-terests. The government needs to also ensure a peace-ful atmosphere in the Valley for the safety of all. Mostimportantly all the shareholders of Kashmir valleyshould immediately act against growing terrorism andtry to cut their inks with Pakistan at the earliest.

Deba Prasad Nayak, CUTTACK

Devastating deluges

Sir, Heavy rains in Kerala during the past few days have caused severe flash floodsand horrifying landslides, making life miserable once again. The disaster has al-ready claimed many lives and hundreds have been evacuated to safe zones and re-lief camps. Though the authorities rose in action to the occasion, questions do riseon lack of foresightedness and failure to implement long-time strategies. Haven’tlessons been learnt from the previous years’ devastating deluges? Already thestate has been witnessing unprecedented deluges for the past three years and wasthere not sufficient time to take necessary measures and precautions to at least lessenor avert the disasters caused by rain fury. But it seems nothing was done. Lack ofproper mechanism and plans have yet again pushed the state to inexplicable mis-ery. After continuous deluges in the state some proposals and plans were laid inthe papers but nothing materialised and it seems as if the government has lost trackand concentrated on ‘issues’ other than those concerned with day-to-day life of thecommon man. Man is just a pawn in front of nature’s fury but then some foresight,caution, plan and timely execution can truly mitigate woes at times of natural calami-ties. Encroachment of flood plains, building resorts and allowing human settlementson hills and river banks, exploitation of ecologically fragile areas are still goingon, thanks to the “unlimited money and political power”.

M Pradyu, KANNUR

cmyk

cmyk

Elizabeth Drew

Though Bidenserved as President

Barack Obama’sVice President, he

apparently failed tolearn the lesson of

Obama’s healthcareinitiative

Chill Can

An otherwise normal-looking drinks can is provided with a false bottomthat contains a refrigerant, usually an HFC (hydrofluorocarbon). By

pressing a button on the bottom, the can and contents are quickly cooled.The device is an American invention (the term Chill Can is a trademark of theJoseph Company Inc of California), designed to produce cool drinks in placeswhere refrigerators are not readily available. Though it seems a useful littledevice, it has been widely criticised because of the environmentalconsequences of releasing HFCs into the atmosphere. Unlike CFCs(chlorofluorocarbons), which are now banned in most developed countries,the HFCs don’t have much impact on the ozone layer, but they are even moreeffective greenhouse gases, and so contribute to global warming. Severalmajor suppliers of HFCs, including ICI in Britain, have now publicly refused tosupply them to drinks manufacturers for this purpose, and the Britishgovernment is pressing the European Union to ban them altogether, so theChill Can may struggle to be accepted, unless its manufacturers can findsome less environmentally sensitive working fluid.

stateTHURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWARP7

cmyk

cmyk

Following heavy rains, schoolkids wading through a waterlogged street in Baliapal area of Balasore OP PHOTO

POST NEWS NETWORK

Nayagarh, Oct 20: Deep lift irri-gation projects meant to provide ir-rigation facilities to farmlands areincreasing every year in Nayagarhdistrict. This has failed to bringcheers to the farming communityas many of the projects have becomedefunct and are yet to become func-tional. As a result, they have beensuffering like in the past in irri-gating their farmlands.

A close scrutiny of governmentrecords shows that the adminis-tration has done so much in pro-viding irrigation facilities to thefarmlands. The government recordsays that 418 out of 1,228 lift irriga-tion projects have become defunct.However, a private estimate hasfixed the number of defunct projectstwice the government estimate.

Among them, 1,203 electric pow-ered projects were meant to irrigate6,015 hectare and 25 solar poweredprojects meant for irrigation of125 hectare. The government recordsays 418 electric powered projectsare lying defunct for which 2,090hectares are lying non-irrigated.

At present, 4,050 hectares arebeing irrigated by 810 projects.Uddhab Pradhan, a farmer fromGania, said farmers have no knowl-edge on the number of projectslying defunct in the district. Theproject from which he used to drawwater for irrigating his farmlandis lying defunct now but is shownas working.

All these are being shown inpen and papers without actuallybenefitting the farmers. He said

farmers are spending from theirown pocket in drawing water toirrigate their farmlands.

However, none in governmentand administration are trying to un-derstand the pain a farmer un-dergoes to irrigate his farmland.Sources said the state governmenthas directed establishment of 400deep borewells in Nayagarh dis-trict in 2021-22 financial year forwhich 395 farmers have been se-lected for installation of deep

borewells on their farmlands. As per the order, 238 deep bore

wells were dug up in the district outof which 15 are from Bhapur block,3 from Gania block, 21 fromKhandapara block, 81 fromNuagaon block, 11 from Nayagarhblock, 59 from Odagaon block and48 from Ranpur block.

However, 97 of the projects areyet to become operational out ofwhich 11 are in Bhapur block, 3 inGania block, 21 in Khandaparablock, 37 in Nuagaon block, 8 inNayagarh block, 7 in Oadagaonblock and 10 in Ranpur block. Therest of the 141 projects have be-come functional. However, how farthese projects will be of any ben-

efit to the farmers is still in doubt. On the other hand, the applica-

tions of four farmers in Daspallablock have been accepted but theadministration is yet to dig upborewells on their farmlands.

Rama Chandra Dalabehera, afarmer of Nayagarh, said diggingof deep borewells on farmlandshas met with very little successand is becoming defunct after run-ning for one to one and half month.He alleged over 700 projects in-cluding electric and solar poweredare lying defunct in the district.

The government provides fi-nancial assistance for renovationof these defunct projects but farm-ers are unaware about it. He al-leged that he has repeatedly drawnthe attention of the authoritiesabout his project lying defunct buthis pleas are yet to be addressed.

When contacted, Niranjan Das,executive engineer, lift irrigationdivision, Nayagarh said his de-partment is taking steps for thebenefit of farmers. He said over 418deep borewell projects are lyingdefunct in the district whose ren-ovation is being done in phases.

Many irrigation projects in Nayagarh defunct Official record says 418out of 1,228 lift irrigationprojects have becomedefunct. But, unofficialestimate has put thenumber of defunct unitstwice the official figure

POST NEWS NETWORK

Gopalpur, Oct 20: The 18-kilo-metre stretch of road on NationalHighway-16 from Haldiapadar toGirisola in Ganjam district hasturned into a death zone with fre-quent road mishaps occurring onthe highway, a report said.

This has happened as the con-sultancy agency has failed to keepthe highway in proper shape owingto poor maintenance work.

The bad shape of the highwayhas led to frequent mishaps. Reportssaid that over 76 persons have diedduring last three years due to theroad mishaps. During this period,51 persons sustained critical in-juries and 60 persons sustainedminor injuries. Travelling on thehighway has become a night-marish experience for the com-muters with large craters com-ing up on the highway.

Frequent rains fill up thesecraters to the brim following whichit becomes difficult for motoriststo negotiate the road and results inaccidents. Moreover, absence oftraffic control measures at vari-ous intersections and lack of pro-tective barricades have also con-tributed to the mishaps. Peoplealleged that the consultancy agencyhas endangered the lives of peopleafter reaping huge profits from the

construction of the highway. Sources said the stretch of

road from Haldiapadar to Kanishiis always fraught with risk aslarge craters have been formedon the road due to frequent andincessant rainfall in this rainyseason. The agency is filling upthe pits and craters with metalsand cement-concrete mixturewhich comes out after few daysand results in road accidents.

The agency is constructing anover-bridge on the highway near

the Haldiapadar bus-stand.However, the work has been mov-ing at a snail’s pace even afterpassage of two years. As a result,vehicular movement often getsdisrupted on the highway. Vehiclesproviding emergency service likeambulance and fire service wereoften seen getting stuck on the high-way. Moreover, traffic personnelengaged by the agency often re-main absent on duty for which ac-cidents are frequently occurringon the highway. There is provisionfor putting up protective barricadeson the highway but the agency hasneglected in doing it and carryingon the over-bridge works.

Residents have warned theagency to finish the over-bridgeworks on war time footing failingwhich, it will remain responsi-ble for any mishaps occurringon the highway.

NH-16 death zone in Ganjam 76 DEATHS REPORTED IN THREE YEARS

Bad shape of the NH hasled to frequent mishaps.The stretch of road fromHaldiapadar to Kanishi isalways fraught with riskdue to large craters

POST NEWS NETWORK

Berhampur, Oct 20: Fruits, flow-ers and vegetable farmers ofGanjam have suffered a lot asthey were unable to sell their pro-duce during the pandemic due tolockdowns and shutdowns, a report said.

This has shaken them to hiltas the district horticulture de-partment has stepped up effortsto provide them help throughalternative cultivation methods.The department is laying stresson mushroom cultivation andproviding them subsidies toraise their crops.

Over 800 farmers have been pro-vided with 15 mushroom beds and`1,000 financial assistance each.Even women self-help groups adopt-ing green house cultivation methodhave been provided with 150 mush-room beds and `10,000 assistanceeach. Moreover, `6 lakh has beenset aside for mushroom cultiva-tion. This has helped the womenSHG members get involved in theschemes and earn a livelihood fortheir families.

This has given them a bit of re-lief when they were struggling toearn their livelihood during the

pandemic. According to availabledetails from the district horticul-ture department, cultivation offruit plants like mango, banana,guava, cashew, groundnuts, co-conuts and papayas have beentaken up on 3,185 acres with the en-gagement of 2,775 farmers. Thesefarmers have been provided with75 per cent subsidy by the horti-culture department, deputy di-rector Sarat Chandra Behera said.

Similarly, cultivation of flowerslike rose, gladioli, jasmine andmarigold have been taken up on 127acres with the engagement of 243farmers. The small and marginalfarmers have been given incen-tives of `60,000 per hectare. Thebig farmers have received `37,500per hectare, he said. Farmers con-ducting flower cultivation in greenhouse were given 70 per cent sub-sidy while 50 per cent subsidy is forfarmers conducting cultivation ingreen shadow house.

Moreover, cultivation of high-yielding crops has been taken upon 2,250 acres with the involve-ment of 2,198 farmers. These farm-ers were given `20,000 subsidywhich is being transferred to theirbank accounts through DirectBenefit Transfer (DBT) scheme.

Horticulture dept steps upefforts to bail out farmers

COVID LOSS

4 held in petrol pump worker thrashing case

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhawanipatna, Oct 20:Hundredsof BJP workers Wednesday observed a 12-hour bandh inKalahandi district and stageddemonstrations demanding thescalp of Dibya Shankar Mishra,Minister of State for Home Affairs,for his alleged link with key ac-cused Govind Sahu, the master-mind in school teacher MamitaMeher’s pre-planned murder.

Angry BJP workers demandedimmediate resignation of Mishrafor his alleged link with GovindSahu, the key conspirator in themysterious murder of lady teacherMamita Meher. The party also de-manded a CBI probe into the case.

Ties between prime accusedSahu and Mishra might deterthe probing officials to func-tion independently, a local BJPleader alleged.

The bandh in entire Kalahandidistrict that started from 6 am will continue up to 6 pm.Demonstrations carried out at sev-eral important locations in the dis-trict brought civic life to a stand-still. Bhawanipatna town witnessedsevere disruption of vehicularmovement following the bandh,the local BJP leader stated.

“The BJD government has

done nothing for the safety ofwomen in the state. As far as thecase of missing lady teacher isconcerned, we demand resigna-tion of Minister Dibya ShankarMishra to facilitate a fair probe,”an agitator at College Square inBhawanipatna said.

“It is a peaceful protest and weappeal to residents of the districtto show solidarity with the mur-dered lady teacher Mamita’s fam-ily. The government and privateoffices along with commercial es-tablishments remained closed. Novehicle was allowed to ply on theroad during the 12-hour longbandh,” president of Kalahandidistrict unit of the BJP expressed.

Meanwhile, the family of Mamitahas identified the articles, as thoseof the teacher, found Tuesday nearbody which was exhumed from anunder-construction mini stadiumnear the Sunshine EM School.

BJP observes Kalahandi bandh,demands minister’s resignation

MAMITA MURDER

POST NEWS NETWORK

Keonjhar, Oct 20: A transgen-der person was bludgeoned todeath at Pandi hutting underDaitari police limits in this districtTuesday evening.

The deceased was identified asSarani Kinnar (30). SadashivSamal, who had been living withthe deceased, allegedly killedthe deceased by hitting the headwith the handle of a spade anda grinding stone.

Sadashiv works in the mines asa loading labourer. Both of them hadbeen living together as a couple

for years. Sadashiv asked the de-ceased to have food Tuesday eveningand was declined. Subsequently afight broke out between them.Angered by this, Sadashiv attackedthe deceased under the influenceof alcohol, it was alleged.

Informed, Daitari police reachedthe spot and recovered the deadbody and sent it to AnandapurSub-divisional hospital for postmortem Wednesday. A homicidecase has been registered and aprobe initiated in this regard. Thetruth will come out after furtherinvestigation, said Daitari PS IICTulsi Manjari Bhuyan.

Transgender bludgeoned to death

POST NEWS NETWORK

Pattamundai, Oct 20: Fourpersons -- two sarpanchs, onepanchayat samiti member andthe proprietor of the petrol pumpat Sahupada under Badapadapanchayat in this block -- havebeen arrested in connection withthe brutal thrashing of a petrolpump worker and his father ata kangaroo court.

The video clip of the incidentwent viral on social mediaTuesday. Hundreds of locals staged a road blockade at the

Sahupada Indian Oil filling sta-tion demanding arrest of thepetrol pump’s owner.

“A 17-year-old boy working inthis petrol pump was falsely im-plicated for theft and subsequentlybeaten brutally in the presenceof two sarpanchs and a panchayatsamiti member. The stolen moneywas found in the pump owner’s

house. We want justice. All ofthem including the owner shouldbe ar rested,” said SasmitaMallick, an agitator.

Pattamundai police arrested allthe accused after tension went upin the locality.

“A viral video came to our no-tice yesterday. We have registeredan FIR in this connection. Strictaction will be taken against theculprits. We have already arrestedfour persons till now,” said a police officer.

More arrests are likely sincesome of the accused are on the run.

The video clip ofthe incident hadgone viral on socialmedia Tuesday

LIVELIHOOD SCOPE

Members of an SHG run a retail shop selling their products at Thakurmunda in Mayurbhanj district as part of government efforts to boost women empowerment OP PHOTO

RAIN MISERIES

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THURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

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WESTBENGAL

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kolkata, Oct 20: The TrinamoolCongress Wednesday mocked theCongress over its decision to field40 per cent women candidates in theupcoming Uttar Pradesh Assemblyelections, and hoped that the moveto “emulate” the ruling party inWest Bengal is not mere “tokenism”.

Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra hadTuesday announced that the partywill give 40 per cent tickets towomen, who constitute roughlyhalf of the electorate, for the UPAssembly polls.

"Under the visionary leadershipof @MamataOfficial, AITC hasshown the way to ensure increasedparticipation of women in poli-tics in this country. We're the firstparty to give 40 per cent seats towomen in LS elections!" the TMCsaid in a tweet.

"Amid such dire times,@INCIndia is understandably try-ing to emulate, and one can onlyhope that this is genuine and nottokenism. If they are to be takenseriously, they must give 40 percent seats to women in states otherthan UP as well," it added in a se-ries of tweets.

The dig from the MamataBanerjee led-party comes at a time

when both the Congress and theTMC are striving to lead the op-position front against the BJP.

Reacting to the remarks, seniorCong ress leader PradipBhattacharya said the grand oldparty does not need lessons fromthe TMC on political empower-ment of women. "It is the TrinamoolCongress that is trying to emulatethe Congress and poach on ourleaders," he asserted.

Earlier this month, the rela-tionship between the two parties hit

a new low after the TMC took ajibe at Rahul Gandhi's defeat fromAmethi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,

wondering whether the Congresswould look at erasing the lossthrough a Twitter trend.

The TMC has been up in armsagainst the party over its allegedfailure to put up a fight againstthe BJP. TMC mouthpiece ‘JagoBangla' had also recently claimedthat its supremo and West BengalChief Minister Mamata Banerjee,and not Congress leader RahulGandhi, has emerged as the face ofthe opposition against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi.

Cong trying to emulate us: TMC THE DIG FROM THE MAMATA BANERJEE LED-PARTY COMES AT A TIME WHEN BOTH THE CONGRESS

AND THE TMC ARE STRIVING TO LEAD THE OPPOSITION FRONT AGAINST THE BJP

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, Oct 20: It may sound un-believable but there is a railway sta-tion in Rajasthan where only halfof a standing train is in the state.

This station is Bhawani Mandiwhere the train's engine stands inone state and the guard coachstands in another state. This uniquerailway station in Rajasthan'sJhalawar district is situated onthe Delhi-Mumbai railway line,and sees the train engine stand-ing in Rajasthan while the guard'scoach is still in neighbouringMadhya Pradesh.

Bhawani Mandi station, in fact,has other peculiarities due to its lo-cation on the Rajasthan-MadhyaPradesh border. While there is a

board displaying the name ofRajasthan at one point, the boardon other end showcases MadhyaPradesh.

The railway station also remainsunique as most of the people com-ing here to get their tickets bookedintroduced themselves as MadhyaPradesh residents but the ticketingoffice is in Rajasthan.

Not only the railway station, thearea has many houses, whose frontdoors open into Madhya Pradesh'sBhaisodamandi town while theback door opens into BhawaniMandi. As per officials, the drug ped-dlers have been cashing in on the geographical situation of this town as they vanish from onestate to the other giving a slip to pursuing police.

A railway station where trains stand in two states

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, Oct 20: Amid the ongo-ing feud between the Ashok Gehlotand Sachin Pilot camps inRajasthan, Pilot supporters nowwant to compromise on nothingless than the leadership change asthe long-awaited cabinet reshuf-fle and expansion along with the de-layed political appointments haveleft them frustrated.

In December, the Congress gov-ernment will complete three yearsof its working and the workerswill get only two years to work,out of which the last year of the 5-year term will go in making prepa-rations for the Assembly elections.

"We have no grassroots pres-ence, our money has been exhaustedand so we are just not prepared tocontest polls in the present state,"said one of the Pilot loyalists. "Wehave conveyed the message to theCongress high command and hopefor the best," they added.

In fact, Gehlot has had a meet-ing with Rajasthan in-charge AjayMaken along with Rahul Gandhiand Priyanka Gandhi Vadra onSaturday where the state issue wasdiscussed at length.

Meanwhile, the Congress work-ers in Rajasthan were seen dis-cussing why Sonia Gandhi was

not present in the meeting. "Is shealso anguished over the delays incabinet expansion," asked aCongress worker. Sources said thatGehlot had also expressed his an-

noyance in the meeting over theissue of Rahul Gandhi not takinghis calls.

The frequent missing of dead-lines (given by Maken) for cabinetexpansion and reshuffle, the delayin political appointments and theway the Pilot issue is being han-dled has left the Gandhi family ag-grieved too, said sources, andhence Pilot loyalists are now eye-ing a larger slice of the cake,which is nothing less than a lead-ership change in state, said aCongress worker.

"Had it been a simple matter ofaccommodating ministers fromthe Pilot camp in the government,it would not have got so late. Theissue now is different and we areworking to resolve it," he added.

Pilot loyalists want nothingless than leadership change

“We have no grassrootspresence, our money

has been exhausted and so weare just not prepared to contestpolls in the present state," saidone of the Pilot loyalists

In December, the Congressgovernment will complete

three years of its working andthe workers will get only twoyears to work, out of which thelast year of the 5-year term willgo in making preparations forthe Assembly elections

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Kolkata, Oct 20: Considering thecrucial Municipal Corporationelections likely at the end of thisyear, the BJP in West Bengal mightgo through a major organisationalreshuffle just after the festive sea-son. Preference is likely to be givento youth and pro-RSS leaders.

There are strong indicationsthat the party which is strugglingto hold back its own members par-ticularly in South Bengal is likelyto give more importance to theleadership from North Bengalwhere the saffron brigade has per-formed better.

Sources in the party indicatedthat the high command is not at allhappy with the present performanceof the party and so they are will-ing to bring in young leaders whichmight give a different look to theparty and so leaders who are closeto RSS like Debojit Sarkar, DrIndranil Khan, LoknathChattopadhyay and DebtanuBhattacharya might get importantpositions in the state committee.

Speculations are also rife that allthe four state secretaries exceptJyotirmoy Singh Mahato, who isfrom North Bengal, might be re-placed. Highly placed sources in theparty indicated that leaders likeTushar Ghosh, DebasreeChowdhury who have long asso-ciation with RSS might come tothe state committee.

The new state president of theBJP, Sukanta Majumdar will startextensive visits across districts

after October 20, 2021. In the firstround, he will conduct organisa-tional meetings in 20 districts.Sources said that more than 50 percent of district presidents will bechanged.

Not only at the state level but theparty is likely to make major changesin the district level too. There are39 organisational districts whichare headed by district presidents.Sources said that after the posts ofthe general secretaries, the postsof branch organisations of theparty youth wing, peasants' wing,women's wing and minority wings,are extremely crucial. Sources saidthat the defunct district presidentwill surely be replaced. And newfaces from the young generationwill be roped in there.

"All the changes will be as per theconstitutional provisions. The newcommittee will be formed accord-ing to the advice of our centralleadership. The final decision ofthe changes will be taken by the cen-tral leadership of the party only,"a senior party leader said.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, Oct 20: The Rajasthangovernment will provide uniformsfree-of-cost to students of classes 1to 8 studying in government schoolsin the state.

The money for the uniform willbe directly transferred to the bankaccounts of the students or theirparents. The Rajasthan SchoolEducation Council has issued acircular in this regard and issuedorders to all District ChiefEducation Officers to collect andsend the information about thebank accounts.

The order said the process ofmaking the uniforms available isbeing worked out. Information isbeing collected and the hard and softcopies are being sought about de-tails of bank accounts of eligiblestudents or their parents and theirJan-Aadhaar card is being updatedwith their bank accounts. The de-tails of bank accounts of all gov-

ernment schools or school man-agement committees etc. is alsobeing collected to work on the di-rect benefit transfer scheme.

Money can be deposited in theaccount of parents or students orit can be transferred to the bank ac-counts of schools or managementcommittees of schools, the orderadded.

Providing free school uniformsis expected to help in increasing theenrolment percentage of childrenin government schools and reducethe drop-out rate.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Kolkata, Oct 20: The West Bengalgovernment has earned revenue ofaround `550 crore following therecord sale of liquor worth `720crore during Durga Puja, an offi-cial said. Alcohol worth`720 crorewas lifted from warehouses of thestate's sole liquor distributor, the WestBengal State Beverages Corporation,from October 1-12.

"It was sold mostly during DurgaPuja, which was from October 11-15 this year. Liquor worth `1,306.86crore was lifted in August," he said.Sushmita Mukherjee, secretary ofthe West Bengal Foreign Liquor, ON,OFF Shops, Country Spirits andHotel Owners Association, saidthat liquor sales during the fourdays of Durga Puja increased by 1.5times over the last year. "Liquorstocks in many stores had gonedry on Dasami," she added.

INDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Kolkata, Oct 20: West Bengal'sState Election Commission is look-ing for the state government's per-mission to conduct pending elec-tions to 112 urban civic bodies,including two MunicipalCorporations of Kolkata andHowrah, in December and oncethey get the green signal, a notifi-cation might be issued after theOctober 30 Assembly bypolls.

"The civic body elections arepending for more than 18 months be-cause of the pandemic situationand the subsequent lockdown. Wewant to complete the polls as soonas possible. We need the financialsanction from the FinanceDepartment. Once the state gov-ernment gives us the clearance, wewill be in a position to announce thedates," a senior SEC official said.

A senior Finance Departmentofficial said: "The Commissionhas asked for `185 crore to completethe polls in 112 municipalities.That is almost double the cost ofthe previous poll five years ago. Weare working on it. It will be sentto the Chief Minister for clear-ance soon."

Sources in the SEC indicated

that the poll body is likely to conductthe elections in three phases wherethe election in Kolkata and HowrahMunicipal Corporations will beheld in the first phase, for munici-palities in south Bengal in the sec-ond phase and the rest of the mu-nicipalities in north Bengal in thethird phase. Sources also indicatedthat though the dates of the electionsare yet to be finalised, the poll bodyis likely to conduct the election inthe two corporations on or afterthe third week of December.

Apart from the financial sanction,the poll body will also have to lookinto the police arrangements andmaintain the Covid protocol be-fore the announcement of the polls."We will have to conduct electionsin almost 22,000 booths in 112 mu-nicipalities and because of Covid,we need more election personneland police arrangements. We havealready spoken to the state gov-ernment regarding this. We arefully prepared to conduct the polls,"an election official said. Before theDurga Puja holiday, Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee herself hadhinted that the pending electionof the civic bodies will be com-pleted after the completion of thefour Assembly bypolls in the state.

Major reshuffle in Bengal BJP soon

Sources in the party indicatedthat the high command is

not at all happy with thepresent performance of theparty and so they are willing tobring in young leaders whichmight give a different look tothe party

Not only at the state level butthe party is likely to make

major changes in the districtlevel too

Bengal may holdcivic polls in Dec

Raj to give free school uniforms Liquor worth `720 crsold during Durga Puja

Priyanka Gandhi Vadrahad Tuesday announcedthat the party will give40% tickets to women,who constitute roughlyhalf of the electorate, forthe UP Assembly polls

Vehicles wade through a flooded Suri-Katwa road at Laghata in Birbhum district, Wednesday. The water level is risingafter the release of water from the Massanjore dam as rain continues in the upper area of West Bengal PTI PHOTO

RAIN WOES Jal Jeevan Mission teamto review progress in RajINDO-ASIAN NEWS SERVICE

Jaipur, Oct 20: A multi-discipli-nary 10-member team from JalShakti Ministry is visitingRajasthan from October 18 to 21 toreview the progress of National JalJeevan Mission (NJJM) in five dis-tricts of Baran, Dausa, Jodhpur,Bhilwara, and Jaipur, an officialstatement said.

The NJJM team will daily visit3-5 villages in each district, anddiscuss various aspects of pro-gramme implementation andprogress made under the missionby the state to understand theground situation and assess thestate's preparedness to meet thesaturation deadline for ensuring 100per cent tap water supply to allrural households.

"During the visit, the team will in-teract with district officials, local vil-lage community, members of Gram

Panchayat and Pani Samitis.Thereafter, the team will debriefand share their observations withthe district officials as well as sen-ior officers of the state government,"the Jal Shakti Ministry release said.

Rajasthan plans 100 per cent tapwater connections to all ruralhouseholds by 2024. However, outof its 1.01 crore rural households,only 11.74 lakh (11.59 per cent) hadtap water supply as on August 15,2019, when the Jal Jeevan Missionwas announced.

Despite lockdown and disrup-tions due to Covid-19 pandemic, inlast two years, 9.48 lakh households(9.36 per cent) have been providedtap water connections. Today, 21.22lakh rural homes (20.95 per cent) inthe state have tap water supply.

Rajasthan faces extreme waterscarcity in many parts of the stateas the desert and desert-prone areasreceive scanty rainfall.

Under the BJPgovernment, UttarPradesh has made itto the number oneposition in ease ofcommitting crimeAKHILESH YADAV | SP PRESIDENT

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nationalTHURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR India's premier border guarding force

Border Security Force (BSF) will becommemorating the supreme sacrificemade by its valiant bravehearts in theline of duty by organising a day longgrand ceremony at the National PoliceMemorial in New Delhi, October 23

BSF TO HONOUR BRAVEHEARTS

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The Oppositionbeing “unableto digest the

popularity” of thisgovernment, is tryingto vitiate thepeaceful atmospherein the state

YS JAGAN MOHAN REDDY | ANDHRA CM

of theday uote

Providesecurity andgive confidence

to migrant workers.Some will die

MANISH TEWARI |CONGRESS LEADER

Farmers ofDelhi need notget distressed

over damaged cropsas their son standswith them. Ever sinceAAP came into powerin Delhi, we have made sure that thefarmers do not feel helpless

ARVIND KEJRIWAL | DELHI CM

Four terror associates heldNew Delhi: The NIA Wednesdayconducted searches at multiplelocations in four districts ofJammu and Kashmir andarrested four alleged terrorassociates in connection with aterrorism conspiracy case, anofficial said. The searches werecarried out at 11 locations inSrinagar, Pulwama, Kulgamand Baramulla districts ofJammu and Kashmir. SuhailAhmad Thokar of Kulgam;Kamran Ashraf Reshi, RayidBashir and Hanan Gulzar Darfrom Srinagar, have beenarrested by the premierinvestigation agency, the NIAofficial said.

No relief forNarayan Sai New Delhi: The grant offurlough must be balancedagainst the public interest andcan be refused to certaincategories of prisoners, theSupreme Court Wednesdaysaid as it set aside the GujaratHigh Court order granting 14-day furlough to rape convictNarayan Sai, son of self-styledgodman Asaram Bapu. The topcourt said that Sai and hisfather have a mass followingof persons who owe loyalty tothem and there is a reasonableapprehension of disruption ofpublic peace and tranquility.

Ex-Goa Deputy CM joins AAP Panaji: Former Speaker of theGoa legislative assembly anddeputy Chief MinisterDayanand Narvekar joined theAam Aadmi Party in GoaTuesday. "The AAP has astructure in place in Goa andthey have done exemplarywork in the national capital,"Narvekar said after his formalinduction in the party.

Arms seized Chandigarh: In an intelligence-led operation, Punjab Policeon Wednesday recovered hugearms and ammunition,besides heroin at a searchoperation close to the Indo-Pak border in Tarn Tarandistrict of Punjab. Theoperation was jointlyconducted by the BSF and theCounter Intelligence Amritsarin the Khemkaran sector.

Punjab sets up SITChandigarh: Punjab's DirectorGeneral of Police Iqbal PreetSingh Sahota, on the directionof Deputy Chief MinisterSukhjinder Randhawa,Wednesday set up a SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) toprobe the allegations of sisterof Lakhbir Singh, who wasmurdered by Nihang Sikhs onthe Singhu border. The SIT hasbeen constituted under thechairmanship of ADGP-cum-Director of Bureau ofInvestigation, Varinder Kumar. DIG Ferozepur RangeInderbir Singh and SSP TarnTaran Harvinder Singh Virk are its members.

SHORT TAKES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Kushinagar (UP), Oct 20: Givinga push to the government's Buddhisttourism circuit initiative, PrimeMinister Narendra ModiWednesday inaugurated theKushinagar international airportin Uttar Pradesh and said a slew ofmeasures are being taken to boostthe country's aviation sector.

At around 9 am, a Sri LankanAirlines flight carrying scores ofBuddhist monks and dignitariesfrom the island nation toucheddown at the airport, built at an es-timated cost of Rs 260 crore. Themonks also brought relics of LordBuddha and were welcomed byvarious Union ministers and UttarPradesh Chief Minister YogiAdityanath.

"Development of Kushinagar isone of the key priorities of the UPand central governments,” Modisaid, as he formally inaugurated theairport at Kushinagar, a key

Buddhist pilgrimage site that iswidely known as the final restingplace of Lord Buddha where he issaid to have attained'Mahaparinirvana' after death.

The eastern Uttar Pradesh townis nearly 50 kilometres fromGorakhpur and about 225 kilome-tres from Varanasi. It has got manyBuddhist temples, making it a pop-ular tourist destination forBuddhists pilgrims from all overthe world.

The Prime Minister said the air-port will boost connectivity andtourism, while also helping de-velop an entire economic ecosys-tem in the region and create newjob opportunities. He said the gov-ernment's special attention to thedevelopment of places associatedwith Lord Buddha and developingKushinagar are among the top pri-ority areas for the UP and centralgovernments.

Referring to the recent decisionto privatise Air India, Modi said the

country has taken a big step re-lated to Air India so that its avia-

tion sector should run profes-sionally, and convenience and safety

should be given priority."This step will give new energy

to the aviation sector of India,"the prime minister said and also re-ferred to the reforms related to theopening of defence airspace forcivil use. On the newly launched 'PMGatishakti- National Master Plan',Modi said this will not only im-prove the governance, but it will alsobe ensured that whether it is road,rail, or plane, they support eachother and increase each other's ca-pacity.

About the UDAN scheme, hesaid more than 900 new routes havebeen approved in the last few years,out of which air service has startedon more than 350. Besides, morethan 50 new airports or those whichwere not in service earlier havebeen made operational, he added.In Uttar Pradesh, 8 airports arealready functional.

The prime minister said thatwork is on Jewar internationalairport after Lucknow, Varanasi

and Kushinagar."Apart from that,airport projects are going on inAyodhya, Aligarh, Azamgarh,Chitrakoot, Moradabad andShravasti," he added.

The new airport is part of thegovernment's endeavour to con-nect Buddhist pilgrimage sitesaround the world. Modi said thattourism in all its forms needs mod-ern infrastructure complete withrail, road, airways, waterways, ho-tels, hospitals, internet connec-tivity, hygiene, sewage treatmentand renewable energy, ensuring aclean environment.

"All these are interconnected,and it is important to work on allthese simultaneously. Today's 21stcentury India is moving aheadwith this approach only,” he said.According to him, the recentlylaunched drone policy is going tobring life-changing transforma-tion in the fields ranging from agri-culture to health to disaster man-agement to defence.

TOURISM PUSH

PM inaugurates Kushinagar airport to boost Buddhist pilgrimage

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: The BJPWednesday reciprocated warmlyto former Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh's suggestionfor an alliance with the party inthe upcoming state Assemblypolls, lauding him as a patriotand asserting that it is open tojoining hands with those whoput national interest first.

BJP general secretary and partyin-charge of Punjab af fairsDushyant Gautam said Singh, whohas announced that he will quitthe Congress and launch a party,is moving away from the dynastyand towards nationalism.

Gautam's comments came a dayafter Amarinder Singh said he willsoon launch his political party andis hopeful of a seat arrangementwith the BJP if the farmers' issueis resolved in their interest. Onhis condition of resolving farm-ers' issue, the BJP leader said Singhdid not talk about ending the farm-ers' agitation.

"He talked about farmers' issues.We are committed to it and areworking for the welfare of farmers.

When the time comes, both willsit together and discuss farmers' is-sues," Gautam said. As far as theagitation is concerned, it is polit-ically motivated, he alleged.

"Our main agenda is nationalismand keeping the nation first. Allthose parties who want to form al-liances with us on this agenda arewelcome," he said. AmarinderSingh was once a soldier and hisstand on the issues of national se-curity should be praised, the BJPleader said.

"....He (Amarinder Singh) was a

soldier. He knows about the threatsto the country and how to secureit is. "He is patriotic. And wheneverit was a matter of national securityand security at the borders, wehave appreciated his stand,"Gautam said, adding that nation-alists are not "untouchables" tothe BJP.

Amarinder Singh will not hug thePakistan army chief to be a "hero"in the Pakistani media, the BJPleader said in a swipe at PunjabCongress president Navjot SinghSidhu, who was seen instrumentalin Amarinder's ouster as PunjabChief Minister and fallout withthe Congress.

Gautam, however, indicatedthat nothing has been finalised yetas "Amarinder Singh still needsto form his party and put for-ward his views". Singh resignedas the Chief Minister of Punjablast month after a bitter feudwith Sidhu and infighting in thestate unit. The party replacedhim with Charanjit Singh Channi.After resigning, Singh had metUnion Home Minister Amit Shahand National Security AdviserAjit Doval.

PUNJAB POLLS

Ready for alliance: BJP

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: Six more bod-ies were recovered Wednesday inrain-battered Uttarakhand, takingthe death toll to 52 in the Himalayanstate, while Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim,and areas of north Bengal werealso pounded by torrential rain-fall that caused landslides and ledto closure of National Highway10, the main road linking Gangtokwith the rest of the country.

Three people were killed andhundreds marooned as heavy rainslashed Uttar Pradesh's Bareillyand Pilibhit districts over the lasttwo days. In Uttarakhand, 17 peo-ple were injured and five wentmissing in rain-related incidents.The official count of missing peo-ple does not include a trekkingteam of 11, who left Uttarkashi butdid not reach their destinationChitkul in Himachal Pradesh, andthree porters who went missingwhile accompanying an ITBP pa-trol near the India-China border.

The Kumaon region of the state,which has been worst affected bythe rainfall, also reported cases of46 houses being damaged. With28 deaths, Nainital alone has ac-counted for the highest number offatalities.

Chief Minister Pushkar SinghDhami extended his tour of theaffected areas of Udham SinghNagar and Champawat districtsin Kumaon to take stock of the sit-uation. He travelled by road as hishelicopter could not take off fromHaldwani due to technical reasons.

Accompanied by Union Ministerof State for Defence and NainitalMP Ajay Bhatt and State DisasterManagement Minister Dhan Singh

Rawat, Dhami, on board a trac-tor, crossed vast stretches of ma-rooned fields in Udham SinghNagar district and assessed thedamage to crops. He also trudgedthrough the streets of Champawatto get a first-hand assessment of thedamage inflicted by nearly threedays of incessant rains.

The weather cleared acrossUttarakhand Wednesday, givingmomentum to rescue operationsand leading to the partial re-sumption of the Chardham Yatra,with pilgrims allowed to proceedto Kedarnath, Yamunotri, andGangotri. However, the yatra toBadrinath could not be resumed asthe national highway leading tothe temple was blocked by land-slide at several points.

Water has receded completelyfrom the streets of Nainital, whichwas cut off from the rest of thestate on Monday, with the Nainilake flooding the roads and land-slides choking them at variouspoints.

Life returned to normal inNainital on Wednesday morning astourists were found shopping andtaxis plying through the town.

Electricity and telephone con-nectivity which had been badlyhit in Nainital by incessant rainshas been restored.

Villages on the outskirts of thetown are still going without elec-tricity and telephone connectiv-ity. Haldwani and Kaladhungi roadshave been opened partially to traf-fic restoring connectivity toNainital.

The National Disaster ResponseForce (NDRF) said it has rescuedover 1,300 people from flood-af-fected areas of Uttarakhand.

Uttarakhand rainmayhem claims 52

FEAR RETURNS

Women security personnel frisk a female at a temporary check point in Srinagar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses at the inauguration and foundationstone laying ceremony of various development projects, in Kushinagar,Wednesday. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is also seen PTI PHOTO

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: Travellersfully vaccinated and coming froma country with which India hasreciprocal arrangements for mutualacceptance of WHO approvedCOVID-19 vaccines shall be allowedto leave the airport and need not un-dergo home quarantine and testingfrom October 25, according to therevised guidelines for internationalarrivals released Wednesday.

They will, however, have to pro-duce a negative COVID-19 RT-PCRreport.

If partially or not vaccinated,the travellers need to undertakemeasures which include submis-sion of sample for post-arrivalCOVID-19 test at the point of ar-rival after which they will be al-lowed to leave the airport, homequarantine for seven days, re-test onthe eighth day of arrival in India andif negative, further self monitortheir health for next seven days.

These guidelines for interna-tional arrivals supersede of allguidelines issued on the subjecton and after February 17, 2021, theUnion health ministry said.

"The global trajectory of COVID-19 pandemic continues to declinewith certain regional variations,"the ministry said.

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: Actor JacquelineFernandez appeared before theEnforcement Directorate (ED)Wednesday for questioning in con-nection with an over `200 croremoney laundering case being probedagainst alleged conman SukeshChandrashekar, officials said.

The actor deposed before thefederal agency around 3:30 pm afterskipping its summons at least threetimes earlier. Her statement wasrecorded under the provisions of thePrevention of Money LaunderingAct (PMLA), they said.

Fernandez, 36, has once appearedbefore the federal agency in this casein August and had recorded herstatement. It is understood that theagency wants to confront her withsome new evidence and questionher along with the main accusedin the case Chandrashekhar and his

actor wife Leena Maria Paul. Sources said some funds were al-

le gedly transfer red byChandrashekhar from accountslinked to him to those related to thefamily members of Fernandez. Inthis connection, some bank ac-counts in India and in Dubai areunder the scanner of the agency.

The agency, the officials said,wants to understand some trailof funds and transactions thatare allegedly linked to Fernandezin this case.

Jacqueline Fernandez appears before ED

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Lucknow/Agra Oct 20: A man ac-cused of stealing `25 lakh from apolice station in Agra died in po-lice custody after his health dete-riorated during interrogation, of-ficials said Wednesday.

Senior Superintendent of Police(SSP), Agra, Muniraj G said aninspector, a sub-inspector and threeconstables, who were on duty atJagdishpura police station whenthe accused died, were suspendedafter an uproar in the city overthe incident.

The accused, Arun, a sanitationworker, suddenly fell sick Tuesday

night while a raid was being car-ried out at his house to recoverthe stolen money, the SSP said. He

was taken to a hospital where doc-tors declared him dead, he said.

An FIR has been registered overthe death without identifying any-one, officials said, adding a teamhas been formed to investigate thecase. People from the Valmikicommunity gathered at Arun'shouse and demanded a fair probeinto his death.

District Magistrate, Agra,Prabhu N Singh said that a com-pensation of `10 lakh has been an-nounced to Arun's family and agover nment job as a SafaiKarmchari in Nagar Nigam to hiskin. Meanwhile, Congress nationalgeneral secretary Priyanka Gandhi

Vadra, who raised questions abouthis death in a tweet, left by roadfrom the state capital to Agra tomeet the Arun's family but wasstopped from proceeding by theLucknow Police at the Lucknow-Agra Expressway and taken to thepolice lines, citing the Agra DM'srequest to not allow any politicalperson to reach there.

"Do I need somebody's permis-sion whenever I move out ofLucknow? Is there a problem whyI am not being allowed to go toAgra, is there a law and orderissue," she asked policemen whostopped her cavalcade.

The police said the Congress

general secretary was stopped at theLucknow-Agra expressway as theAgra district magistrate had re-quested not to allow any politicalpersonality to go there following theman's death.“She has neither beentaken into custody nor arrested.Because of the massive crowds,the movement of traffic was beinghampered and she was first askedto either go to the party office or herresidence but when she did notagree, she was sent to the policelines,” Lucknow police commis-sioner D K Thakur said.

Congress workers reached thespot in large numbers and raisedanti-government slogans.

Man accused of stealing `25L from police dies in custodySSP, Agra, Muniraj G saidan inspector, a sub-inspector and threeconstables, who were onduty at Jagdishpurapolice station when theaccused died, were suspended after anuproar in the city

Negative Covid testmust for travellers

PTI PHOTO

CBSE allows studentsto change exam cityPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: Class 10 and12 students who are not in the samecity where they had taken admis-sion will be allowed to request achange in the city of examinationcentre for first term board examsbeginning next month, the CentralBoard of Secondary Education(CBSE) announced Wednesday.

"It has come to the notice of theboard that some students are stillnot in the city of their school wherethey had taken admission and areresiding somewhere else. In viewof the above, at an appropriatetime CBSE will inform the stu-dents to make a request to their re-spective schools to change the cityof examination centre. Schoolswill follow instructions given by theCBSE to forward the request tothe board in an online system,"said CBSE Examination ControllerSanyam Bhardwaj.

A jawan rescues a child stranded in flood water in Tanakpur, Uttarakhand

PTI PHOTO

P10THURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

Wonderful to see ColinPowell, who made big

mistakes on Iraq and famously,so-called weapons of massdestruction, be treated in deathso beautifully by the Fake NewsMedia. Hope that happens tome somedayDONALD TRUMP | FORMER US PRESIDENT

IMF’s Chief Economist GitaGopinath will leave her job inJanuary next year and return to theprestigious Harvard University’sEconomics Department, accordingto the global financial institution

IMF CHIEF ECONOMIST GITAGOPINATH TO QUIT JOB

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NED PRICE |US STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON

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The view of thevast majority ofAmericans is

that former presidentTrump abused theoffice of thepresidency andattempted to subvert a peacefultransfer of power

JEN PSAKI | WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY

The transitionto clean energyis not only vital

for our planet. It isalso crucial for oureconomy and for theresilience to energyprice shocks

URSULA VON DER LEYEN |EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT

Donald Blome newUS envoy to PakWashington: US President JoeBiden intends to nominatecareer diplomat Donald ArminBlome as his next envoy toPakistan, the White House hasannounced. Blome, who iscurrently the US Ambassadorto Tunisia, is fluent in Arabic,it said Tuesday. Previously, hehad been posted as Chargéd’Affaires a.I. At the LibyaExternal Office in Tunis,Consul General at USConsulate in Jerusalem, andDirector, Office of ArabianPeninsula Affairs at the USDepartment of State. He hasalso served as PoliticalCounselor, Embassy in Kabul,Afghanistan and Minister-Counselor for Economic.

Putin to skip climate summitMoscow: Russian PresidentVladimir Putin will not attendnext month's landmark UNclimate summit, the Kremlinsaid on Wednesday butstressed that addressingclimate change was one ofRussia’s top priorities.“Unfortunately, Putin will notfly to Glasgow,” Kremlinspokesman Dmitry Peskovtold reporters, addinghowever that climate changewas “one of our foreignpolicy’s most importantpriorities.” World leadersgather in the Scottish city nextmonth for a historic summitbilled as humanity's "last bestchance" to get devastatingclimate change under control.

Ship capsizeswith 9 crewmen Seoul: A ship with ninecrewmen capsized in watersoff South Korea's easternmostislets of Dokdo (calledTakeshima by Japan), Yonhapnews agency reportedWednesday citing the SouthKorean coast guard. The coastguard was informed byJapanese authorities that the72-tonne ship tipped over atabout 2.24 p.m. local time ininternational waters some 168km northeast of the Dokdoislets. Crewmen aboard thevessel included four Chinese,two Indonesians and threeSouth Koreans.

Volcano erupts insouthwest Japan Tokyo: An eruption wasobserved on Wednesday atMt Aso in Kyushu area,southwestern Japan, theJapan Meteorological Agency(JMA) said. Chief CabinetSecretary Hirokazu Matsunotold reporters in Tokyo thatno injuries have beenreported so far and that localauthorities are working todetermine whether there areany climbers still on themountain.

SHORT TAKES

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Damascus, Oct 20: A rare bomb-ing against an ar my bus inDamascus and shelling momentslater of a town in rebel-held north-western Syria killed at least 27people Wednesday in the deadliestflare-up in months.

Two bombs planted on an armybus in central Damascus were det-onated early in the morning, killing14 people in the worst such attackin the capital in four years, thestate news agency SANA reported.

There was no immediate claimfor the bombing but moments latershelling by government forces killed13 people in Idlib province, an areacontrolled by groups that haveclaimed such attacks in the past.

“A terrorist bombing using twoexplosive devices targeted a pass-ing bus” at a key bridge in the cap-ital, the news agency said, report-ing that at least three people hadalso been wounded. Images re-leased by SANA showed first re-sponders searching the charredcarcass of the bus and what thenews agency said was a bomb squaddefusing a third device planted inthe same area.

A military source quoted by thenews agency said the bombs weredetonated as the bus passed nearthe Hafez al-Assad bridge, close tothe national museum in the heartof the capital.

“We hadn’t seen violence of thattype in a long time,” a fruit vendor

who gave his name as Salman toldAFP at the scene.

“We thought we were done withsuch attacks. I hope this will bethe last bombing,” he said.

Damascus had been largelyspared such violence in recentyears, especially since troops andallied militia retook the last sig-nificant rebel bastion near the cap-ital in 2018. The attack is the dead-liest in the capital since a bombingclaimed by the ISIS terrorist grouptargeted the Justice Palace in March2017, killing at least 30 people.

Around an hour after theDamascus attack, shelling by theSyrian army struck the rebel-heldtown of Ariha, in the northwesternregion of Idlib.

The Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights said the rocketsstruck a busy area at the timechildren were heading to school.Three children were among thosekilled, the Britain-based war mon-itor said. An AFP reporter sawat least five dead bodies as first re-sponders treated the woundedand scenes of chaos filled thestreets of Ariha.

Back-to-back attacksclaim 27 lives in SyriaThe Damascus bombing will challenge the government’s

assertion that the decade-old war is over

Two bombs planted on anarmy bus in central

Damascus were detonated earlyin the morning, killing 14 peoplein the worst such attack in thecapital in four years

Moments later shelling bygovernment forces killed

13 people in Idlib province, anarea controlled by groups thathave claimed such attacks inthe past

REUTERS

Brussels, Oct 20: Nigerian cli-mate activist Goodness Dicksonthought being invited to take partin the UN climate summit inScotland meant he would have notrouble attending.

But the high cost of hotels,COVID-19 travel curbs and quar-antine rules have left Dickson andother activists from developingcountries concerned that theirvoices will not be heard at theCOP26 conference in Glasgow fromOctober 31-November 12.

Dickson is still aiming to get toCOP26, where he hopes to tell del-egates in person about trying tolearn at school when temperaturesreached 43°C. He believes devel-oped countries need to hear thepersonal experiences of those mostvulnerable to climate change.

“I’m still looking out for funding,”said the 28-year-old, who repre-sents Nigeria’s Eco Clean ActiveNGO and estimates his trip wouldcost over $4,000 including accom-modation and quarantine.

“I am worried that the COP willlack representation from theAfrican continent.”

The summit’s British hosts haveoffered some funding assistanceand vaccines for delegates whocould not otherwise access them.

“We are working tirelessly withall our partners, including the

Scottish government and the UN,to ensure an inclusive, accessibleand safe summit in Glasgow witha comprehensive set of COVID mit-igation measures,” a COP26spokesperson said, adding that

gover nment-approved hotelprovider MCI had offered dele-gates a range of fairly-priced ac-commodation.

The United Kingdom this monthscrapped quarantine requirementsfor 47 countries including SouthAfrica and India, sparing delegatesthe 2,285 pounds ($3,150) cost of a10-day hotel quarantine.

Last month, it said it would coverquarantine costs for delegates fromcountries still on the UK's COVID-19 travel “red list” - currently sevenstates including Colombia andVenezuela.

But some would-be delegatessay they’ve been unable to accessthe help, or that it doesn’t go farenough. Others say their own gov-ernments should be doing moreto ensure they can attend.

“Visas and quarantines havebeen a nightmare,” said Philippines-based activist Mitzi Jonelle Tan

with youth movement Fridays forFuture. The youth movement issending around 55 delegates fromregions vulnerable to climatechange to COP26, but Tan said oth-ers dropped out before the UK re-vised its quarantine rules.

Meanwhile, the UK governmentis expecting around 25,000 peopleto attend COP26, but has yet to re-lease a list of delegates.

As of Tuesday, prices for the fewhotel rooms still available for thefull 12-day conference onBooking.com began at 291 poundsper night, a total of 3,486 pounds.

The cost was enough to deterUgandan climate justice advocateNyombi Morris, 23, who had beenhoping to highlight campaigners’concerns about the impact of EUbiomass energy policies on forests.He turned down the UK’s accred-itation offer because it came with-out financial support.

Activists battle high costs, travel curbs to attend climate talksSOME ACTIVISTS

IN COUNTRIESINCLUDING B’DESH,

PAK AND UGANDAHAD SECURED

FUNDING, VISASAND VACCINES TO

ATTEND THE SUMMIT BUT

OTHERS GAVE UPPeople take part in a Climate March ahead of the COP26 climate summit, inBrussels, Belgium REUTERS FILE PHOTO

AGENCIES

Kabul, Oct 20: Taliban militantsallegedly beheaded a member of theAfghan junior women’s national vol-leyball team, a coach told thePersian Independent.

In an interview, coach SurayaAfzali (name changed) said awoman player named MahjabinHakimi was killed by the Talibanearlier in October, but nobodylearnt about the gruesome mur-der as the insurgents had threatenedher family not to talk about it.

Mahjabin played for the KabulMunicipality Volleyball Club beforethe collapse of the Ashraf Ghanigovernment, and was one of theclub's star players. Then, a fewdays ago, pictures of what seemedto be her severed head and blood-ied neck turned up on social media.

The coach of the Afghan women’snational volleyball team said thatonly two of the team's players wereable to escape from the country

before the Taliban wrested com-plete control in August. MahjabinHakimi was among the many otherunfortunate women sportspersonswho were left behind.

Since their takeover, the Talibanhave tried to identify and hunt

down women athletes; the mili-tants have been even more keenlyon the look-out for members of theAfghan women’s volleyball team,who competed in foreign and do-mestic competitions and appearedin media programs in the past,

claimed Afzali.“All the players of the volley-

ball team and the rest of the womenathletes are in a bad situation andin despair and fear,” Afzali toldthe Persian Independent. “Everyonehas been forced to flee and live un-derground.”

The Afghan national women’svolleyball team was established in1978 and has long been a beacon ofhope and empowerment for younggirls in the country. However,Mahjabin’s death has fuelled fearsof being targeted by the Taliban.Efforts by members of the teamto gain the support of foreign or-ganisations and countries to leaveAfghanistan have so far been un-successful.

Last week, FIFA and the Qatargovernment successfully evacu-ated as many as 100 women foot-ballers, including members ofthe national football team, andtheir family members fromAfghanistan.

Taliban behead junior volleyball player: ReportALL THE PLAYERS OF THE VOLLEYBALL TEAM ARE IN A BAD SITUATION AND IN DESPAIR AND FEAR

Mahjabin Hakimi, a player in the Afghan junior women’s national volleyballteam, was beheaded by the Taliban PHOTO: TWITTER/PERSIAN INDEPENDENT

A protester holds a Tibetan flag during the Olympic flame lighting ceremony for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics inOlympia, Greece REUTERS PHOTO

SILENT PROTEST

REUTERS

Washington, Oct 20: Social mediagiant Facebook Inc is planning torebrand itself with a new namenext week, the Verge reportedTuesday, citing a source with directknowledge of the matter.

Facebook Chief Executive OfficerMark Zuckerberg plans to talkabout the name change at the com-pany's annual Connect conferenceOctober 28, but it could be unveiledsooner, the Verge reported.

In response, Facebook said itdoes not comment on “rumour orspeculation.”

The news comes at a time whenthe company is facing increasingUS government scrutiny over itsbusiness practices. Lawmakersfrom both parties have excoriatedthe company, illustrating the risinganger in Congress with Facebook.

The rebranding would positionFacebook’s social media app asone of many products under a par-ent company, which will also over-see g roups like Instag ram,WhatsApp, Oculus and more, theVerge report added.

Google established Alphabet Incas a holding company in 2015 toexpand beyond its search and ad-vertising businesses, to overseevarious other ventures rangingfrom its autonomous vehicle unitand health technology to providinginternet services in remote areas.

The move to rebrand will also re-flect Facebook’s focus on buildingthe so-called metaverse, an onlineworld where people can use dif-ferent devices to move and com-municate in a virtual environment,according to the report.

Facebook plansto change itsname: Report

REUTERS

Beijing, Oct 20: China lit itsOlympic flame in BeijingWednesday after the ceremonialtorch arrived from Athens, aheadof the Chinese capital’s hosting ofthe 2022 Winter Games in February.

The Winter Games will be heldfrom February 4 to February 20,when Beijing will become the firstcity to host both the summer andwinter Olympics, amid a COVID-19 pandemic that means overseasspectators will be excluded.

At a welcome ceremony heldnear the National Stadium, shapedlike a bird's nest and built for the2008 Summer Games, BeijingCommunist Party chief Cai Qi lita cauldron to symbolise the ar-rival of the Olympic flame in China.

The flame had left Athens

October 19 and travelled to Beijingin a red lantern designed in thelikeness of a Han Dynasty tombartefact, carried by torchbearersdecked in white.

China will display the Olympicflame at Beijing's Olympic Parkfrom Wednesday. In early Februarynext year, 1,200 torchbearers willcarry the flame through the citiesof Beijing and Zhangjiakou andthe district of Yanqing, which arethe competition venues.

The torch relay route has been

"appropriately reduced" due to theneed to guard against the spread ofCOVID-19, said Beijing Vice MayorZhang Jiandong at the ceremony.

The ceremony went off withouta hitch on Wednesday in Beijing,where, like elsewhere in China,security is usually tight.

At a ceremony in Athens October18 to hand over the flame to China,three protesters unfurled a ban-ner reading "No Genocide Games"and waved a Tibetan flag.

Rights groups have called for aboycott of the Beijing games toprotest against what they termedas human rights atrocities in Tibet,Xinjiang and Hong Kong. Chinahas rejected those claims.

Greece's Olympic Committee(HOC) said it was disappointed theAthens ceremony had been used forpolitical purposes.

Beijing to be first city to hostsummer and winter Games ASSOCIATED PRESS

Port-Au-Prince (Haiti), Oct 20:A gang that kidnapped 17 mem-bers of a US-based missionarygroup is demanding $1 million ran-som per person, although author-ities are not clear whether that in-cludes the five children being held,a top Haitian official told TheAssociated Press.

The official, who wasn't au-thorized to speak to the press, saidsomeone from the 400 Mawozo gangcalled a ministry leader shortlyafter kidnapping the missionar-ies Saturday and demanded theransom. A person in contact withthe organisation, Christian AidMinistries, also confirmed the $1million per person demand, whichwas first reported by The WallStreet Journal. That source spokeon condition of anonymity due tothe sensitivity of the situation.

The ages of the adults beingheld captive range from 18 to 48,while the children are 8 months, 3years, 6 years, 13 years and 15 years.Sixteen of the abductees areAmericans and one Canadian.

“This group of workers has beencommitted to minister through-out poverty-stricken Haiti,” theOhio-based ministry said, addingthat the missionaries were most re-cently working on a rebuildingproject to help those who lost theirhomes in the magnitude 7.2 earth-quake that struck August. 14.

The group was returning from vis-iting an orphanage when they wereabducted, the organisation said.

A recent wave of kidnappingsprompted a protest strike that shut-tered businesses, schools and pub-lic transportation starting Mondayin a new blow to Haiti’s anemiceconomy. Unions and other groupsvowed to continue the shutdown .

Haiti gang seeks $1mn eachfor abducted US missionaries

P11

businessTHURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

It is really terrific to see Indialeading the ISA (InternationalSolar Alliance). India is a

close partner and the United Statesstrongly supports India’s goal ofreaching 450 GW of renewable energyby 2030. We believe that it’s absolutelydoable and will be doneJOHN KERRY | SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL ENVOY FORCLIMATE, US

Vodafone Idea Limited Wednesday said its boardhas approved availing the four-year spectrumpayment moratorium being offered by thegovernment as part of its relief package for thetelecom sector. The other options offered in theTelecom Department’s notification will beconsidered by the board of directors within thestipulated timeframe, it said in a regulatory filing

VIL OPTS FOR 4-YEAR PAYMENT MORATORIUM

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Pak rupee dips to all-time lowNew Delhi: The Pakistanirupee’s slide continuedagainst the US dollar in theinterbank currency market,ARY News reported. ThePakistani rupee Wednesdaytumbled to a fresh all-time lowat `173.50 against thegreenback. The greenbackgained 37 paise at the start ofthe trading day. Monday, therupee closed at `172.72against the US dollar. Risingdemand for the US dollar isdriving up its value despite anumber of measuresintroduced by the State Bankto ease the pressure on theexchange rate.

Soch opens firststore in BerhampurBhubaneswar: Indian women’sethnic wear brand Sochlaunched its first store inZennana Hospital Road inBerhampur. The store is spreadacross a massive 1650 sq ft andwill showcase the brand’s latestfestive collection 2021. Thecollection houses ensembles inrich and beautiful fabrics likesilk, silk blend, muslins,chanderi and georgette. VinayChatlani, Executive Director &CEO, Soch Apparels said, “Weare very excited for the launchof our 4th store in Odisha. Theresponse to our brand has beenvery encouraging, so, wedecided to expand our presencewith a new store inBerhampur.”

LIC Mutual Fundto launch BAF Bhubaneswar: LIC Mutual Fundto launch of LIC MF BalancedAdvantage Fund (BAF), anopen-ended dynamic assetallocation fund, which wouldinvest across equity and debt& money market instrumentsusing several parameters likevaluation and earning drivers.The investment strategy forLIC MF Balanced AdvantageFund, essentially a hybridscheme, would be uniquelydriven by ‘fundamental drivenmathematical model’. LIC MFBAF model would precisely usethis relationship to determineoptimum asset allocation levelfor the scheme.

Amazon targetsdigital divideNew Delhi: Amazon India istargeting to bridge theprevailing digital divide in thecountry, increase accessibilityof digital devices for studentsfrom underprivilegedcommunities. In this mater,the company announced thelaunch of ‘Delivering Smiles’initiative. The program willenable customers toexperience the joy of givingand participate in thecompany’s objective to reducethe digital gap.

SHORT TAKES

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: Tech giantMicrosoft Wednesday launched anew programme Microsoft AIInnovate for nurturing and scalingstartups that are leveragingArtificial Intelligence (AI).

The 10-week initiative will sup-port startups in India leveraging AItechnologies, helping them scale op-erations, drive innovation, andbuild industry expertise.

Both B2B and B2C startups fromvarious industries, including fi-nancial services, healthcare, edu-cation, agriculture, space, manu-facturing and logistics, retail, ande-commerce can participate in thequarterly cohorts of this programme.

AI is increasingly transitioningfrom artificial intelligence intoaugmented intelligence that en-sures efficient, faster, more tar-geted experiences for everybody.

Microsoft India President AnantMaheshwari said at a virtual eventsaid, “As creators, users and ad-vocates of technology, it is impor-tant for us to make careful choicesso that technology ultimately trans-lates into benefits and opportuni-ties for all.”

“AI has a tremendous potentialto empower people and institu-tions to do better, understand cus-tomers more deeply, share infor-mation more quickly and enablescientific breakthroughs,”Maheshwari added.

Trust is non-negotiable andeveryone is accountable for creat-ing a responsible, trusted and eth-ical tech ecosystem, he noted.

Through its latest initiative,Microsoft will focus on providingtech and business opportunitiesto startups for improving their so-lutions, transforming organisa-

tions and building responsibly tomake AI accessible to everyone,Maheshwari said. The programmewill also enable startups to reachout to newer customers and geog-raphies with Microsoft’s sales andpartner networks.

The selected startups in each ofthe cohorts will have access to in-

dustry deep-dive sessions and AImasterclasses by industry experts,mentoring by unicorn founders,skilling and certification oppor-tunities, among other benefits.

Catering to technical and busi-

ness audiences, the programmewill bring together leading-edgetech know-how, global GTM (go tomarket) partnerships as well asengineering and research expertsfrom Microsoft.

Qualified seed to series B start-ups will be provided with techni-cal enablement benefits, includ-ing Azure benefits (in addition tofree cloud credits) and product en-gineering support among otherbenefits. They will also receivesupport with business and salesacceleration needs such as mar-ketplace on boarding. Startupswith enterprise-ready solutionswill be provided opportunities tobuild their solutions alongside a ded-icated team of professionals.

Microsoft launches new scheme to boost AI startupsSUPPORTED BY TiE MUMBAI, THE LAUNCH COHORT WILL KICKSTART IN NOVEMBER 2021. THE FIRST COHORT WILL FOCUS ON

MANUFACTURING AND LOGISTICS AND THE SECOND ONE WILL FOCUS ON FINTECHIndia has the third-

largest AI startupecosystem in the

world. AI adoption can addmore than $90 billion to theIndian economy by 2035. Tomaximise AI’s potential andmitigate its risks, we need todevelop AI in a way that isresponsible and fosters trustANANT MAHESHWARI | PRESIDENT,MICROSOFT INDIA

ASSOCIATED PRESS

New York, Oct 20: Bitcoin jumpedto a record Wednesday, topping$66,000 for the first time, as it ridesa wave of excitement about get-ting further accepted by the fi-nancial establishment.

Bitcoin was trading at $66,901.30,up 7.6%. It is roared back aftersinking below $30,000 during thesummer to top its prior record setin April. That previous all-timehigh was nearly $64,889, accord-ing to CoinDesk.

A day earlier, the first exchange-

traded fund linked to Bitcoin at-tracted huge interest from investors,giving another boost to the surgingfield of cryptocurrencies. Sharesof the ProShares BitCoin StrategyETF changed hands 24.1 milliontimes in a resounding debut. It wasoff to another strong start Wednesday,with volume topping 9 million withinthe first hour of trading.

The ETF does not invest directlyin Bitcoin. It instead invests in thefutures market tied to Bitcoin, butthe industry sees the ETF bringingin a new class of investors to Bitcoin.Someone with an old-school bro-

kerage account can buy the ETF, forexample, without having to learnwhat a hot or cold wallet is.

Investors are getting more in-terested in crypto because theyare always looking for assets whose

prices moves independently ofeverything else in their portfolios.One school of thought says Bitcoinin particular can offer investorsprotection from high inflation, andsome fans see it as akin to “digitalgold,” though it does not have along track record to back that up.

More high-minded fans say dig-ital assets are simply the future offinance, allowing transactions tosidestep middlemen and fees witha currency that is not beholden toany government. Crypto still hasnot won over everyone, though.Critics say they are still not widely

used as forms of payment. They alsocriticize how much energy is usedby the crypto system, which addsto climate-changing emissions.

China last month declared Bitcointransactions illegal. US regulatorshave not gone that far, but the chairof the US Securities and ExchangeCommission has said the world ofcrypto does not have enough pro-tections for investors.

Cryptocurrencies are also no-torious for their sharp swings inprice. The last time Bitcoin set arecord high, the price dropped byhalf in roughly three months.

CRYPTO BOOM

Bitcoin crosses $66K after ETF debut

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 20: India is form-ing a group that brings togetherstate-run and private refiners toseek better crude import deals, oilsecretary Tarun Kapoor saidTuesday, as the country grappleswith soaring oil prices.

The world’s third largest oil im-porter and consumer, India de-pends on imports for about 85%of its crude and buys most of it fromMiddle East producers. Initiallythe group of refiners will meetonce in a fortnight and exchangeideas on crude purchases.

“The companies can form jointstrategies and they can even gofor joint negotiations whereverpossible, Kapoor, the top bureaucratin the petroleum ministry,” toldagencies. Indian state refiners al-ready jointly negotiate some crudeoil purchases.

Kapoor said the Organization ofthe Petroleum Exporting Countriesand its allies, together known asOPEC+, should raise productionto bring down global oil prices.

“OPEC+ should realise that thisis not the right approach, theymust step up production. If thedemand is going up and you are notincreasing production, you are try-ing to create a gap,” he said.

“Due to this, prices are goingup and that’s not fair.”

OPEC+ producers recently agreedto stick to a plan to increase Novemberoutput by 400,000 barrels per day(bpd) as it looks to phase out outputcurbs of 5.8 million bpd over time.

Kapoor said rising oil priceswould prompt oil consumers to“seriously start thinking of shift-ing to other forms or curtail theirdemand for OPEC oil somehow.”

“These kind of prices are notsustainable.” High oil prices arespurring investment in upstreamactivities, that could lead to higherproduction from regions other thanthe Gulf, Kapoor noted.

CUT IMPORT BILL

Refiners take strongstand against OPEC+INDIA’S TRADE DEFICIT IN SEPTEMBER SURGED TO A RECORD $22.6 BILLION,

ITS HIGHEST IN AT LEAST 14 YEARS, DRIVEN BY EXPENSIVE IMPORTS

PM invites CEOsto explore oil, gasNEW DELHI: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi Wednesday rolledout the red carpet for global oiland gas giants and invited themto come and explore for oil andnatural gas in India. In his annualinteraction with CEOs andexperts of global oil and gassector, he said the aim is tomake India ‘aatmanirbhar’ orself-reliant in the oil and gassector. Talking about the rapidlygrowing natural gas demand inthe country, he outlined thecurrent and potential gasinfrastructure development,including pipelines, city gasdistribution and LNGregasification terminals.

AGENCIES

New Delhi, Oct 20: In a bid toavert power crisis being triggeredin the country due to fuel shortagesin the months following monsoonrains, the government proposesrevise the coal stocking norms forthermal power plants, based onregular shift stock limits, dependingon the actual fuel requirement dur-ing a particular period.

As per a draft that is being dis-cussed, against the uniform re-quirement of 20-22 day coal stocksto be maintained by power plants,lower coal stock of 10 days may bemandated for pit-head power plantswhile 20 days stock may be neededfor power plants farther from coal-producing areas. But in the peaksummer months (April-June), non-pit head plants would still requireto stock 22 days of coal while pithead plants around 12 days. Thenorms of stocking may changeslightly in winter months.

The thinking within the gov-ernment is that the revised coalstocking norms will prevent a sit-uation like the one that faced thecountry recently when post mon-soons, several of the 135 coal-basedpower plants in the country werefound to be sitting with criticalcoal stock levels sufficient to meetjust three to four days of supply.

In fact, the shortages late lastmonth and early this month pushedseveral state utilities to schedulepower cuts to maintain a balancebetween demand and supply.Threats of complete power failurealso lingered for some time. Even

now, over 60 power plants havecritical coal stocks levels.

Relaxed coal stocking normsshould also better distribution ofthe fuel amongst generating sta-tions. This would prevent short-ages and ensure uninterruptedpower supply irrespective of the de-mand situation in the country, saidan official source privy to the de-velopment.

Apart from lower stock holdingnorms, the changes in regulationswould also require power plants tostock fuel only to meet generationrequirement for 75 per cent of ca-pacity and not 85 per cent or more.This would also lower the fuel re-quirement for each power plantand enable better distributionamongst all stations.

Govt looks to revise coal stocking norms for thermal plants

Sources said that theCentral ElectricityAuthority will come upwith revised coal stockingguidelines that will have higher stockingrequirement for non-pithead power plants

India is already reducing theshare of OPEC oil in its crude

mix as refiners, that haveinvested billions of dollars inrefinery upgrades, are tappingcheaper oil

With local gasoline andgasoil prices rising to a

record high amid India’s worstpower crisis in years, the nationwants to redouble its efforts tobuy wisely

POST NEWS NETWORK

Bhubaneswar, Oct 20: AlokTandon, Union Mines Secretary,inaugurated Nalco’s Lean Slurryproject at Angul, Wednesday, mark-ing a significant milestone in theNavratna Company’s journey forbusiness excellence and adoptingoutstanding practices in environ-mental management.

The Lean Slurry project will en-sure 100% utilization of ash gen-erated at the company’s captivepower plant (CPP) and marks abig step forward in its commit-

ment towards environment-friendly& sustainable operations.

Alok Tandon also visited thesmelter and captive power plants

at Angul and appreciated Nalco’sefforts in achieving the targets andscaling new heights of successamidst challenging business en-vironment. The Union MinesSecretary also interacted with of-ficials and employees, and moti-vated them to maintain the tempoof production and productivity.

During 41st Foundation Day ofNalco, Union Minister for Coal &Mines, Pralhad Joshi had said thatNALCO will invest around `30,000crore rupees by the financial year2027-28 on the company’s expan-sion and diversification plans.

Mines Secy unveils Nalco’s Lean Slurry project

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

New Delhi, Oct 20: State-ownedBSNL has received licence to offerInmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) mo-bile broadband services in Indiathat would enable high-speed pas-senger inflight connectivity andmaritime connectivity for carriersand vessels using Inmarsat terminalsand infrastructure, the British satel-lite company announced Wednesday.

SpiceJet Ltd and ShippingCorporation of India have alreadysigned up for the new GX services,which would open-up capacitiesas high as 50Mbps, Inmarsat IndiaManaging Director, GautamSharma told PTI.

Once deployed, the GX servicescan enable Indian domestic airlinesas well as international airlines fly-ing over India to provide the high-speed inflight connectivity, allowingpassengers to surf the internet,check social media, send emailsand even make voice call over apps,during flights, according to Sharma.

Under BSNL’s Inflight and MaritimeConnectivity (IFMC) licence fromTelecom Department, GX will beavailable to Indian customers acrossgovernment, aviation and maritime,an Inmarsat statement said.

BSNL to operateInmarsat’s GXsatcomm services

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Mumbai, Oct 20: The ReserveBank has imposed a penalty of Rs1 crore on Paytm Payments BankLimited (PPBL) and Rs 27.78 lakhon Western Union FinancialServices for non-compliance withcertain directions.

In a release Wednesday, the RBIsaid on examination of PPBL’s ap-plication for issue of final Certificateof Authorisation (CoA), it was ob-served that it had submitted in-formation which did not reflectthe factual position.

“As this was an offence of the na-ture referred to in Section 26 (2) ofthe Payment and SettlementSystems Act, 2007, a notice was is-sued to PPBL. “After reviewing thewritten responses and oral sub-missions made during the personalhearing, the RBI determined thatthe aforementioned charge wassubstantiated and warranted theimposition of a monetary penalty,”it said.

The RBI, however, added thepenalties are based on deficien-cies in regulatory compliance andare not intended to pronounceupon the validity of any transac-tion or agreement entered into bythe entities with their customers.

RBI fines Paytm,Western Union

BIZ BUZZRevolt Motors eyes 100% localisation by JanNEW DELHI: Electric bike maker Revolt MotorsWednesday said it aims to fully localise its productrange by January next year. The company, whichwill re-open bookings of its electric motorcycle –RV400 across 70 cities from tomorrow, currentlyhas been able to achieve localisation of around 70per cent. “The company is working on 100 per centlocalisation and by January we would be able toachieve it,” Revolt Motors Founder Rahul Sharmatold PTI. Revolt currently rolls out its electric bike from a manufacturingfacility in Manesar, Haryana. The plant currently has an installedproduction capacity to roll out one lakh units per annum. “We are looking toincrease the capacity and there would also be new products by next year,”Sharma noted but declined to share details. The revolt also plans to expandits retail presence by entering 64 new cities, including Bangalore, Kolkata,Jaipur, Surat, Chandigarh, Lucknow & NCR by early 2022, from presence injust six cities to cater to the consumer demand.

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

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P12THURSDAY | OCTOBER 21 | 2021 | BHUBANESWAR

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Paris, Oct 20: Lionel Messi scoredtwice in quick succession, includ-ing an exquisite Panenka-stylepenalty, to rescue PSG as they ral-lied to beat Leipzig 3-2 in theChampions League after beingdominated for long spells.

Messi equalised in the 67th minute

Tuesday, poking home from closerange after goalkeeper Peter Gulacsitipped his first shot onto the post.He then sent Gulacsi diving to theleft before dinking the ball softlydown the middle for his third goalsince joining PSG from Barcelona.

They have all come in theChampions League, with KylianMbappe setting up the first two and

winning the penalty for Messi’s win-ner against Leipzig in the 74th minute.Mbappe pointed straight at Messi totell him he could take the spot-kick.

It was the 34th time that Messiscored at least two goals in a CLgame, bringing the Argentina cap-tain’s total to 123 goals in the tour-nament. He remains second to long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo on 137.

Mbappe then took a penalty inthe fourth minute of stoppage time,awarded following a video reviewfor a foul on right back AchrafHakimi, but he blazed it well over.PSG is atop Group A with sevenpoints, one more than ManchesterCity. Leipzig is last with no points.

Mbappe opened the scoring witha ninth-minute goal. But after that,the visitors took control by press-ing high up the field and forcing pan-icky PSG into numerous errors.

Striker Andre Silva equalisedin the 28th and midfielder NordiMukiele volleyed in powerfully inthe 57th, with left back Angelino set-ting up both with his deft left foot.

Messi rescues PSG

Salah helps Liverpool down 10-man Atletico ASSOCIATED PRESS

Madrid, Oct 20: After a frustrat-ing end to Antoine Griezmann’snight with Atletico Madrid,Mohamed Salah came through forLiverpool in a Champions Leaguethriller.

Salah scored twice Tuesday asLiverpool took advantage ofGriezmann’s red card to beatAtletico 3-2 and stay perfect afterthree matches in the Europeancompetition.

Griezmann had already scoredtwice to help Atletico recover froma poor start, but then he was sentoff with a straight red card earlyin the second half for hittingRoberto Firmino’s head with hisfoot while trying to reach for the ball.

Liverpool capitalised on the ad-vantage with Salah scoring thewinner from a penalty kick in the78th minute. Naby Keita also scored

for Liverpool in the first half asLiverpool took a 2-0 lead as early asthe 13th minute at the WandaMetropolitano Stadium.

Mo Salah celebrates a goal; (inset) Antoine Griezmann’s kick hits RobertoFirmino’s head which led to the Atletico scorer’s sending off, Tuesday

Shakhtar 0 - 5 Real MadridInter 3 - 1 FC SheriffFC Porto 1 - 0 AC MilanMan City 5 - 1 Club BruggeAjax 4 - 0 Dortmund

OTHER RESULTS

LIONEL MESSIKYLIANMBAPPE

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Dubai, Oct 20: India fine-tunedtheir T20 World Cup preparationswith a convincing nine-wicket winover Australia in their final warm-up game here on Wednesday but thesixth bowler’s slot remained aworry as even Virat Kohli rolled hisarm over going into the tourna-ment proper.

Captaining the side with Kohlionly taking the field to bowl, RohitSharma (60 retired, 41b, 5x4, 3x6)showed sublime touch alongsideopening partner KL Rahul (39, 31b,2x4, 3x6) as India chased downAustralia’s 152/5 in 17.5 overs.

Suryakumar Yadav (38 n o, 27b,5x4, 1x6) came at number three inKohli’s absence and got valuabletime in the middle which shouldboost his confidence going ahead.Hardik Pandya (14 n o) came at fourto finish the game and he did it witha clean hit over the bowler’s head.

Another plus for India was sea-soned pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar(1/27) finding rhythm after a poorouting against England.

The batting department looksmore or less settled and the fivespecialist bowlers also inspire con-

fidence but the same can’t be saidabout the extra bowling option withHardik not bringing his all-roundskills to the table at the moment.

India conceded 58 runs off thelast five overs and that is some-thing they would like to improveon. After losing the toss, India putup a decent bowling effort.

India had Australia on the mat at11/3 after Aaron Finch opted to batfirst. Ravichandran Ashwin (2/8)struck twice in the second over.Ravindra Jadeja (1/35) had Finchtrapped LBW with a slider off hisvery first ball, leaving Australiawith a lot of work to do.

Steve Smith (57) and in-formGlenn Maxwell (37) tried to breakthe shackles with a 61-run part-nership. After Maxwell fell to aconventional sweep, Smith andMarcus Stoinis (41 n o) got togetherand provided a much needed finalflourish to the innings.

Brief scores: Australia 152/5(Steve Smith 57, Marcus Stoinis41 n o, Glenn Maxwell 37;Ravichandran Ashwin 2/8, RahulChahar 1/17) lost to India 153/2(Rohit Sharma 60 retd, KL Rahul39, Suryakumar Yadav 38 n o) by 8wickets.

Rohit strikes form, India win

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Odense, Oct 20: Young Lakshya Senthumped compatriot SourabhVerma in straight games to enterthe second round but it was curtainsfor Saina Nehwal at the DenmarkOpen Super 1000 tournament hereWednesday.

Lakshya, who had finished run-ners-up at Dutch Open last Sunday,dished out a superb performanceto outclass national championSourabh 21-9, 21-7 in 26 minutes.

The 20-year-old from Almora,who had failed to make the cut forthe Sudirman Cup and ThomasCup Final after losing his onlymatch in the trials, is likely to clashwith second seed and Olympicchampion Viktor Axelsen ofDenmark next.

London Games bronze medal-list Saina, who had retired mid-

way through her first match atUber Cup Final due to a groin in-jury, couldn’t match Japan’s WorldNo.20 Aya Ohori and lost 16-21, 14-21 in the opening round.

While Satwiksairaj Rankireddyand Ashwini Ponnappa’s gallantbattle ended with a 17-21, 21-14, 11-21 loss to China’s Feng Yan Zhe and

Du Yue in mixed doubles, MeghanaJakkampudi and Poorvisha S Ramlost 8-21, 7-21 to Indonesian combi-nation of Nita Violina Marwah andPutri Syaikah in women’s doubles.

Ashwini and N Sikki Reddy alsowent down 17-21, 13-21 to secondseeded Korean pair of Lee Soheeand Shin Seungchan.

LAKSHYA SAILS ON, SAINA SINKS

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

Abu Dhabi, Oct 20: In a sensationaldisplay of power-hitting, DavidWiese conjured up a 66-run knockto fashion Namibia’s six-wicketwin over the Netherlands in a cru-cial first round Group A game ofthe T20 World Cup here Wednesday.

Wiese’s maiden internationalhalf century changed the pace of thegame in matter of minutes as headded 93 runs with skipper GerhardErasmus (32) for the fourth wicket.

Chasing 165 to stay alive in thecompetition, debutants Namibiawere stuttering at 52/3 after nineovers. The victory has kept Namibiain hunt for the Super 12 stage andnow need to beat Ireland in theirfinal game in the first round.

Wiese knock keepsNamibia in hunt forWorld T20 Super 12